going away party...."that's what SHE said"

on wednesday, october 28th my work friends threw me a going away party at dave & buster's in dallas. there was a great turnout and i had the opportunity to say goodbye to my work friends before spending the next 4 days moving across 5 states and 1100+ miles. we enjoyed dinner and drinks and i was dressed in a pink boa, tiara and wand...princess for a night! i also recieved a very special gift from my coworkers, a scrapbook of funny phrases, inside jokes, encouragement and praise with each page from a different person. it was a perfect gift, and it was so touching that i refused to read it at the table....so i wouldn't cry! after the dave & buster's party a few of us headed to pete's piano bar, and then to ihop :)



thanks to everyone who made the party possible, and for everyone who came!
thanks to everyone who helped us move all of our heavy furniture *before* the party!
thanks brandy & natalie, for making me laugh, and cry, during my last night out in dallas!
everyone has been so wonderful, that i could make an entire post just listing names and then what i am grateful that person did, but i won't, because i'm afraid i'll leave someone out...so i'll just say a big thank you to everyone!

going away party

adios, medical city!

my last clock-out at MCD


my badge...finally with a decent pic!

my last 36 hours at medical city dallas were sad, but about as fun as they could be as i watched the clock tick down on my time as an employee there. i worked saturday, monday and tuesday nights before matt flew in to dallas on wednesday to help me finish the packing and start moving our stuff. i was able to see my work friends, enjoy several inside jokes and reminisce about all the ups and downs over the last 28 months of my employment there. tuesday night we had a mini-party in the ER with *tons* of really, really tasty food. everyone was so wonderful and supportive and said so many nice things to me about my work at medical city. it was so sweet, but it made it harder than ever before to think about having to leave behind this awesome group of coworkers.
tuesday night i met ryan & carrie for dinner at the corner bakery before heading to work to make assignments for the last time. on wednesday morning, i said goodbye to my night shift friends and to the day shift that knew me first. i clocked out for the last time at 0717 and cleaned out my locker (and gave it to robin...it was a nice locker!). then, a small group of us night-shifters headed to our favorite bar, o'reiley's, for a last round of after-shift drinks. it was, most definitely, the best last shift and goodbye i could have hoped for. thanks, guys!

my favorite sign posted in the dept. after i announced my 2 weeks

adios, medical city!

last sunday funday in texas

october 25, 2009...my last texas sunday funday with my family for a while :(
fortunately, the day was so full of fun times and smiles that i hardly had a chance to think about the bitterswee-tness of it all. i worked my last saturday night shift at MCD before heading home for a quick nap. i woke up around 1100 to meet my family at our church and head to the arboretum for the fall festivities. i got to spend time with my family, see all the pretty flowers and pumpkins, the tree house exhibit and my cute-as-can-be nieces and nephew dressed in their winnie-the-pooh themed costumes! after the arboretum we headed to mom & dad's house for the dallas cowboys game (go cowboys!!!) and some dinner and going-away cake :)
i had a great time, but was sad on my way home for obvious reasons. thanks, wonderful family, for an awesome sunday!

sunday funday

jonah turns TWO!

jonah's 2nd birthday

on sunday we celebrated jonah's second birthday. sarah & ray hosted a wonderful party at their house with a bug theme for the little birthday boy. we had themed foods (see pics) and enjoyed the gift opening and, the sarah special, a slideshow all about jonah! after the party mom, dad (aka: grandma sharon & papa john) and i took liv & jonah out on lake lavon on the boat. it was a little cool, but lots of fun and the kids had a great time. as the sun went down, we headed ashore, packed up the boat and headed home for a fire in the fireplace and hot chocolate. yum!

we celebrated again on jonah's actual birthday, the 21st, with the whole family at mom & dad's house. we enjoyed dinner, cake, and another singing of happy birthday (much to jonah's enjoyment!). we were actually supposed to get to watch the plano east homecoming parade (that runs up mom & dad's street), but it was cancelled because of the all-day, non-stop rain. bummer :( jonah didn't seem to mind, though.


happy birthday, jonah!

chaos at cake-time


blowing out that candle


me & baby maddie


birthday boy


watching a movie


upside-down tickle time


snuggle time with papa john


bedtime for maddie

after you turn in your two weeks notice...

...you hang out with friends! after my busy day i spent the evening with some of my favorite people. i met jay & melissa for dinner at chili's before i headed to sarah & ray's house for a movie night. it was lots of low-key fun (my favorite), but i was sad at the end of the night because i knew that i only have two more weeks in texas to spend time with all my favorite people here. yes, i know i will be able (and will) come back and visit. but it's just not the same.
i'm really blessed with friends and family.

ray & sarah....i really can't explain ;)

goodbye, MCD!

today i tried to get several things done: errands, yardwork, housework....and turn in my two week notice at medical city. at the end of october, matt and i will be moving to columbus, ohio for his work. the closing date to sell our house is october 30th and we already have an apartment in columbus. we signed the lease when i went to visit him at the end of september. most of you already knew this, but for those who didn't...sorry! i didn't feel like it was a good idea to tell everyone at work until i knew, for sure, when we would be moving. i selfishly didn't want to endure the comments, scrutiny, and stress of having everyone know that our house was on the market and that i would have to be leaving soon. of course, the last 2 months have been stressful anyway. if you wondered why i was so tired or seemed so busy, or why i was re-grouting the shower and cleaning out closets...now you know! there were many days that i would work all night, come home and clean the house, fall into bed and be awakened a short while later by the showing service saying that someone wanted to see the house. this would completely ruin any chance of real sleep before i went back to work that night. the whole ordeal has been completely stressful and i'm sorry to anyone i might have inadvertantly taken this out on! thank you to everyone for being supportive, even if you didn't know about this undertaking. fortunately, i am blessed with good friends, a wonderful family and an amazing husband, who worked with me through the paperwork, frustrations and complications of attempting to sell a house and rent an apartment while living 1100+ miles away from each other (and in different time zones!).
yes, it will be hard to move away from everything here, especially the amazing people i know. and yes, it will be colder there. but i am very, very excited about not having a long-distance relationship with my husband anymore and starting a new chapter of our life together.

medical city...i probably won't miss you.....

to the PEOPLE at medical city, you will ALWAYS hold a very special place in my big, texas heart. thank you for being supportive of me through the very first part of my nursing career. the time i have spent there and the people i have known have all taught me very important things about this crazy profession and life in general.

baby kendall!

my friend natalie is now a mommy (see her baby shower pics)! on october 8th at 0148 she delivered her 7 lbs 19 3/4 inches long baby girl kendall brianne lyons. natalie had called me around noon on wednesday to let me know that she was headed to baylor dallas (bumc) for an induction per her doctors instructions. her amniotic fluid level had dropped, so natalie was started on pitocin early in the afternoon. natalie did a great job and came through the delivery with the two things she wanted: a healthy baby and no c-section! yay! mom & baby stayed at the hospital until saturday and both are home now...healthy and happy!
if anyone is wondering why my schedule has been so odd this week, it's because i worked tuesday night, then went to some meetings, then met up with natalie at the hospital wednesday and went home after kendall was born thursday...a 36 hour stretch of awake-ness! sorry to everyone, but i'm so glad i could be there for natalie & kendall!

congratulations, natalie & welcome to the world baby kendall!!!

baby kendall

sundays...

when your husband and your parents are out of town, what do you do? spend time with the rest of your family...duh! i spent last sunday hanging out with my sister sarah and her family after watching a very disappointing cowboys loss. i got to watch the fun as ray & sarah got 3 kiddos ready for bed and even got to hang out with my younger brother jared for a little bit before he had to head back to SMU for RA duties. as always, it was fun. here are a few pics, just because...

quality time with my littlest niece, maddie claire!


jonah upset because he wasnt to *take* a pic, not be in one


me & jonah


jonah talking to his uncle matt in ohio...

later he insisted that "matt, matt, matt" put him to bed that night, sorry!

liv's turn to talk to unlce matt


toothbrushing time!




story time!

tim & erin's wedding

during my trip to ohio, i got the pleasure of attending tim & erin's wedding. for those who don't know, tim & matt went to college together and played on the ohio dominican college soccer team. tim was also one of the groomsmen in our wedding nearly 2 years ago (!).
the wedding was beautiful....all 12 minutes of it! and, yes, it was a catholic wedding! it was about as basic as it could be, per the request of the bride & groom (wanting "the bare bones of a catholic wedding"). after the ceremony, everyone headed down the street to a pub where we watched (what else?) the ohio state buckeyes beat illinios. after that, we headed to another location where we enjoyed a reception of good food, dancing, limbo and great company. then we wished the happy couple well as they headed to hawaii for their honeymoon, and matt & i headed to their house to house-sit.

congrats tim & erin!
may God bless your marriage and your new life together!

tim & erin's wedding 09/26/09

O - H - I - O

some things don't change, even when you're 1100 miles away ;)


for the first time in nearly two months, 46 days to be exact, i got to see my husband! i left on september 23rd after working all night to fly to ohio for a week-long visit. and quite honestly, i never thought i'd be so happy to be in ohio for a week! i usually have a great time when i go visit, but this time was, of course, better than ever. we spent the week catching up, running around the columbus area for various errands, getting matt's car fixed and for tim & erin's wedding (see next post). matt was even sweet enough to rent us a hotel room for the first night i was there so we didn't have to drive all the way to urbana (an hour away). the detailed version is as follows:

the week started off well enough with the hotel and free breakfast thursday morning, but matt's car wouldn't start when we we ready to leave. we called AAA, but i was able to get the car running before they got there and we drove it to a mechanic in springfield. we were worried the transmission was going out, but found out on friday that it was just the timing belt and a few other things. we ended up having to drop quite a bit of money on it, but it's still way cheaper than a new car! friday we had dinner in urbana with matt's family and got to play with our niece, maddie sue.
the next morning we headed into columbus for tim & erin's wedding. it rained all day, but it didn't matter because the buckeyes won their game, and that's really all that matters in ohio ;)
the wedding was in the morning, then everyone met at a pub to watch the game before heading to the reception. the whole day was great and i got to hang out with some of matt's friends.
sunday was a lazy day, house sitting for tim & erin and watching their two pets: elroy the cat and emma the dog, and having dinner with eddie & his girlfriend, sister, at schmidt's in the german village in columbus. monday we met eddie & sis for breakfast before taking them to the dayton airport. then, we headed to springfield to pick up matt's now-working car! we had dinner with matt's mom & miah (our nephew) before heading back to tim & erin's to watch the cowboys win their game. go cowboys!
tuesday matt had to teach so i took the GPS and went to the grocery store and drove all the way to the mall (aka- easton) all on my own! whoo hoo for not getting lost in cities you've never driven in before! then wednesday, we met matt's family for dinner before i had to catch my flight back to texas.
of course, the trip was all too short and i'm already back in texas now and scheduled to work 5 of the next 6 days :P no bueno!
also, i have to say a big thank you to ryan & carrie for agreeing to watch lexi (in addition to their own two labs) for the entire week. you guys are life savers! thanks a billion!
i've included some pics from the trip (i didn't take as many as i usually do...sorry!).

headed to ryan & carrie's house before work to drop off lex


couldn't resist this photo op...


walking around easton with our starbucks
(i'd been awake for like 30 hours)


"i'm makin' waffles!" at the hotel


giving heather the blanket i made for her


back at easton, *had* to get an ohio state sweatshirt


david & maddie sue


maddie sue


visiting with eddie & his girlfriend, sister


...we went to schmidt's, a sausage house in columbus





wii bowling at tim & erin's house


sister playing with tim & erin's dog, emma


the newlyweds' pets we were watching:
emma


elroy