Happy Valentines Day

Wow, I can't believe this day has come so fast. I actually had to remind John that today is his 1 year anniversary since starting DDMP. How exciting! We have both come a long way since that dream of his came true.
I was also looking through old cards that John and I exchanged and this will be our 4th Valentines! I can hardly believe it! Tonight, I was scheduled to work but was called off due to the weather. John and I had already agreed that we were going to do Valentine's Day on Saturday with dinner and then ice skating. So, instead of doing something romantic tonight, we shoveled! YEH! Take a look at our accomplishment after 1 1/2 hours!...


Obviously school was cancelled for me both yesterday and today. I have been sitting around the house cleaning, studying, scrapbooking, etc.. It has been so quiet, I feel like I need to get out and do something! Thankfully though, I have had time to finished scrapbooking all of '06, so I feel that I am least caught up to where I should be.
And for the record, my grandparents in AZ called yesterday and said it was 85 oF.... I'm just a little jealous.

New York

Well, we ventured up to New York this past weekend for yet another weekend of skiing. I, unfortunately, did not ski. The weather was just way too cold for me. I stayed in the condos and watched movies, did a little baking and such. I had a very relaxing weekend to be honest. Saturday night, we celebrated Justine's 32nd birthday. She was quite surprised. We also drank cosmos, played games, and had a great time. Here are a few pictures from this weekend.


This was the view from our condos. It was beautiful!
The queens and their cosmos; Carol, Carol, and Gail
John, Connor, and Maura

Black Diamond

Well, I did it... I have accomplished the black diamonds! This past Sunday, we went skiing with the Smokers and John's other friends, Bryan and his fiance, Amanda. We had so much fun. Saturday night was a little sleepover for us at the Smokers and Sudan was a packed day of skiing. I was so proud of myself for overcoming 3 different black diamonds. (for those of you who do not know, the slopes are labeled from easiest to hardest. A green circle, blue square, then the black diamond) We had so much fun! Afterwards, Bob and Amy made a great meal for us at their home and we stayed there to watch the Superbowl.

Next weekend we are going to ski up in New York at Greek Peak.
Tonight, I am meeting a couple people who I went to school with out for dinner. I am so excited because most of them I haven't seen since December.

Denton Hill

Well, we have arrived back home again safe and sound. This weekend, we traveled up to Galeton for the annual ski trip with John's family and friends. We try to make the best out of every situation, so I will say, "we had fun." First off, there is absolutely nothing to do in Galeton. The nearest grocery store is 45 minutes away. (that should be a hint that there is no mall even in sight!) Our room at the good old Ok Yoke had no heat and no hot water. It was a little miserable. So, we sat at the bar Friday and Saturday night, shooting the breeze with John's friends.

This was my 3rd time going here with John but I had yet to ski Denton. I learned here for the very first time though. I decided to purchase a lift ticket and go down 1 of the 5 slopes that happened to be open. (there are many more slopes, but the conditions never seem to be right for everything to open) I did a green dot with ease. Fell once, but quickly recovered. I decided to venture out to a blue square slope. (green is the easiest slope, followed by blue, then a black diamond, then double black) I became so frustrated with myself because I could not get down this hill without falling. The first time, I feel about 30 feet TWICE, and on my back. I did the hill over 3 more times and continued to do the same thing! I couldn't do it and was getting so frustrated with myself.
Anyway, back in the lift line, John's friends, Bob and Joe, broke the ski lift. They were messing around and both fell right before getting on, so the operator stopped the lift so the could get back up. Well, after that, the lift didn't come back on. The ski patrol had ropes and everything ready to get the people down who were already on the lift. It was a fairly pretty funny sight. For that, Joe won the squirrel award of the weekend.(in back): Bob and Amy Smoker, Linda and myself. (in front): Joe Madigan and John....

Just another night at the bar.....

Home Sweet Home: 1/1-1/8

I am actually feeling glad to be home. Our vacation was amazing. John and I had so much fun together. I think all we did was lay by the pool and eat. Our hotel was so big, but it was neat because our room was right next to the ocean, pool, 2 restaurants, and a bar! There were a lot of good times on our trip, but John got a pretty sick on Saturday, so we kind of laid low for the end of the week. Flights went smoothly, or so I thought. (John will tend to differ with that though).
Here are just a few pictures of our travels.....

Early one morning, we took horses out for about 1 hour. We rode through forests, and right along the water. (ok, my horse splashed in the ocean, but I still loved it anyway)

I knew there were some hidden cowboys out in Baron Country.

John and I had such a great time together. It was nice just to get away with only us....

A walk on the beach....

There were about 5 restaurants in which we had the choice to eat. Here we are at Dreams, one of the nicest. We had a fabulous dinner with an ocean view right next to us. There is honestly nothing better than that....

This picture was taken the last day as we were leaving.
It was such an awesome site to see....

Ahh, I start school tomorrow too! I am so excited to be back in the swing of things. Alright, I've got to get back to doing laundry.... there is quite a lot of it....

Too Funny

Check this link out..... My mom sent it to me and it is the funniest thing....

.http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=65147a6c7ad82893ae3b565G06122716

Christmas Eve @ the Simpson's with Connor, Jacquie (John's sister) and Maura.

John and I after graduation .

This is me reciting the Nurse's Prayer.

Christmas

Wow, everything has finally come together at last.

1. Graduation was awesome and everything went off without a hitch. Thursday afternoon at the luncheon, I was extremely nervous, but as the night progressed, I calmed down a lot.
2. The days leading up to Christmas have been a very stressful time. I just felt that I needed to catch up on everything that I have missed this past year. I've cleaned the house, cooked, cooked, and cooked some more. Then with the holidays, my stress level has just escalated.

*Melis, I will be posting pictures of graduation and the holidays real soon.

Ahhh, and on a side note, my second cousin just delivered twin boys on 12/20/06. The pictures of them are adorable! They were 3.7 lbs and 3.9 lbs. Too cute...

The Final Count Down....

Wow, tomorrow is finally the big day! It has been an emotional rollercoaster for me throughout the whole year and the days leading up to graduation. Today at practice, I bawled over who knows what... People made me laugh and then I didn't quite know if I was laughing or crying. I'm very nervous for tomorrow because I feel that things will not run smoothly. We're disorganized and I just feel out of control. I have to speak the nurse's prayer at graduation and my stomach is just in a high knot over that alone! (After tomorrow, I will post pictures if I can remember how to do it)

Other than that, things are going quite well. John just got home from a short business trip to NYC and all went well up there for him. I'm super excited for Christmas and even more excited for our trip to the Dominican! Can't wait!

Bears

Tonight, DDMP is treating clients to a Hershey Bears game. The guys got a box and everything. This in turn means that I must entertain the wifes of the clients. I am a little sceptical about doing this being that they are probably much older than myself. All in all, I am excited to go and just get out of the house.

I did almost burn the kitchen down the other day. I was melting chocolate on the stove and ran upstairs to throw in a load of wash. There was an awful smell coming from the kitchen so I raced downstairs to find the kitchen filled with smoke. I quickly took the pan into the garage and opened all the doors and windows. Eventhough I lit tons of candles to take the smell away, it was still obvious what had happened. I felt like such an idiot. Although it wouldn't have been the first time the fire trucks came to my house ....

1 Week!

Wow, I can't believe that I graduate in 1 week! This year seemed to fly by....

I had a really rough day at clinical today, to the point where I said I didn't want to be a nurse anymore. I felt ashamed saying it, but just the way that places are run is very frustrating to me. I feel that in a long term care facility, no one truely cares for the patients. The healthcare workers do the bare minimum to get by and leave for the day. My favorite patient went to the hospital for sepsis and mersa. My heart just goes out to him. I can't even begin to image what it would be like to live in a long term care facility having only a few outfits, barely any family visits, little contact with the outside world, and having to depend on someone 24/7 to do anything, include using the restroom. In one way I am discussted and in another, I feel that I am making a difference; even if it is for 1 person.

Today after clinical, I went to John's new office. It is extremely nice and very roomy. This is only his second day there and he is loving it. I'm not sure how long it will take him to miss the other half of DDMP, but I'm sure those guys are chatting up a storm everyday on the phone.

You made my day....

"Also, I wanted to tell you know how happy we are for you that you're almost finished with your LPN degree. I really admire people like you who work and go to school at the same time, that's got to be rough! Hang in there for the last few weeks and good luck on your finals!"

This was part of an email from John's sister. After the day that I had today at clinical, it totally made my day!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Wow, what an awesome 2 days! Yesterday, I woke up really early and began to put the final touches on Thanksgiving dinner for my parents. Everything turned out great, except for these gross potatoes that my mom told me to make... (we ended up sending them to the cabin with my dad, uncle, and cousins) We ate tons of great food for brunch around 12ish, then headed to my aunts to play games. FUN FUN FUN!
Afterwards, we went to John's family for another meal around 6ish. It was also very good. Being that everyone was drinking and not paying attention to the food, the sweet potatoes caught fire in the oven. It was quite a sight to see... I wish I had my camera..... We stayed there a long time until I finally drug John out about 1130pm. I was not about to have him interupt my day of shopping.
I made a pot of coffee and Michelle and I headed out for 'Black Friday' about 1AM. We had a blast. We hit the outlets, the mall, Toys R Us, Old Navy; you name it and we were there. The best part was just watching people. It is seriously like a stamped! Route 30 was backed up for miles, bumper to bumper.
We had an awesome time and I will totally do it again next year. I am so proud of Michelle; she is becoming quite the pro. (thanks to some training.... haha)

TSO

So Sunday was DDMP's first ever Christmas party. It turned out to be a lot of fun. We started out going to dinner in Hershey to a place called What If.... It was really nice and they had excellent food! We then had tickets to see the Transiberian Orchestra's Christmas Show. It turned out to be about 3 hours long, but it was totally worth it. They put on an amazing show. John was happy because they had colored fire in which they timed perfectly to music. My favorite part was the 5 minute drum solo where the drummer just totally rocked it out! Everything was great and everyone had fun!

*Only about 13 days left till graduation!

Is that legal?

Yesterday, I stopped at Turkey Hill quickly to fill up on gas and to purchase 1 stamp. The store only sold a pack of 2 stamps, which was fine. The thing is, they were going to charge me $1.89 for both of them! I totally went spastic! How can they do that? That is a government run thing, right?!

My birthday went well. I campaigned for Mrs. Phillips at the poles and so John and I both got home pretty late. He brought me a beautiful arrangement of flowers and card he wrote by himself. It was very nice. Other than that, we just hung out here... nothing special.

Ahh, and tonight, I made chicken corn noodle for the first time ever. It was awesome! I am so proud of myself.

I did it!

I did it. YEAH!!! My next accomplishment will have to be to get a back drop behind it or to set it up as a scrapbook page. Melissa, I might need your help with that one....

This past Monday, friend's of ours had their second baby girl; Ava Grace. Friday night, I skipped John's game and made a scrapbook for Ava that walks through her first year. It was so cute. Every month had it's own page with stickers and decorations. I was so excited to give it to Kristen. We went over to their place Saturday and held Ava. They loved the book! I was thrilled!

After visiting, we went out to eat and then to the Hershey Bears Ice Hockey Game. Wow, there was tons of fighting, which I guess I should have expected, but still.... We had a lot of fun. It was nice to just go out with John for a change and not with all our friends. It kind of felt like we were dating all over again.... I liked it.

Our arts and crafts project of the evening.
These were made with paint and baby food jars.
Igor's Brew......
Abigail
Gabrielle

Pumpkin Carving

Zac

Here we go...

Alright, here are some of the pictures carving pumpkins. Hopefully this worked, but bare with me... it was my first time....

1 1/2 hours later...

Ok, so yesterday there was a huge accident on 283W. I left for work at 4, but was not scheduled until 445, so I figured I had plenty of time. Well, a 15 minute drive took me an hour and a half! It was horrible.

Anyway, I got to work and here, a sophomore from E-Town College jumped off a bridge onto 283 committing suicide. I have been trying to watch the news all I can, but nothing is being said about it. Apparently, a mack-truck hit her. I just can't image finally being at the point in my life where I decide to end it. I will keep you updated if I hear anything else.