kimmie's wedding...

this weekend was a weekend my friends and i had been looking forward to for a long time...kimberly and grant's wedding! it was in martin so april and i went up on  friday and spent the night with kristie. kimberly had her lingerie shower after her rehearsal dinner on friday so we went to that and it was really fun. kimberly looked great!

when we walked in we each got name tags with names like "hot mama", "sugar lips", "baby doll" etc. for the rest of the night if we called each other by our real names instead of these names we had to wear a pair of huge navy granny panties...until someone else messed up...which usually wasn't very long : )

kimberly got so many cute little outfits. i'm so glad i was able to spend this time with her and with other friends.

the next day we went to the wedding and it was perfect. kimberly looked absolutely gorgeous and grant looked so happy!

this weekend was so much fun being able to hang out with all of the girls! now kimberly and grant are on their way to alaska...maybe they'll see gammy from the proposal : )



craft night...

katie and julie were in a women's Bible study at bellevue last year called secrets. the group got together tonight for a girl's night to make crafts and katie invited me. we had a great time hanging out! we started out by going to dinner at olive garden...always yummy...then we headed to the church. we made 2 crafts. one was a bracelet...it involved sewing...it did not turn out well. the second went better. it was a picture frame that we painted. next we sanded them and glued some pre-printed sayings on them. finally we hot-glued bows on them. here's how mine turned out...

here's katie's

i'm so thankful for my sisters and that we can always have fun girls nights!!



sprucin' up the kitchen...

i love my little house. one of the things i don't love though is the lack of electrical outlets...and when they are in a room they are in such odd places...in the middle of the wall, 4 feet off the floor! in my kitchen someone had put in a long strip of outlets, which is nice, but i had to bunch everything up on that one little corner of cabinet space.

i do have one other outlet in the kitchen and it's in the middle of one of my walls. i have a small table there which has never really served much of a purpose.

i had the idea the other day to move my keurig coffee maker over to this table and set it up as my "coffee station". this would finally put my table to use and also free up some space on my other cabinet! i was excited about my idea. 



i liked this a lot better but then i decided i really needed to spruce up this table. i decided i wanted to paint it green. i've never painted a piece of furniture before so i was kind of nervous...i picked out the color that i wanted to use and then last night when i got off work i pulled the table out to my backyard. i sanded it down first...don't know if i really needed to or not, but i figured it wouldn't hurt. then i sprayed the first coat on. my wrists were killing me after the first coat! i think it was too much...pulling it out by myself and then spraying it too. i took some ibuprofen last night and then they were still hurting this morning when i woke up so i took some more. they finally quit hurting so i went out to spray my second coat. mom came over and helped me get it back it in, and i'm so happy with the way it turned out!!! and i know dad is happy that he didn't have to do this project for me : )





hold your tongue...

i blogged yesterday about my new favorite thing...pinterest! as i was just browsing through last night i saw this....

it immediately reminded me of a Bible verse that i've held tight to for many years. it's found in Exodus 14:14 and it says

             "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace."

when i first found this verse someone was saying untrue things about me, and of course human nature is to tell everyone the truth...tell them your side of the story...the bad things the other person did to you. then one night i was reading my Bible and it was like this verse just jumped off the page at me and God said "I'll take care of it for you". and He always does. gheri, melissa and i were having lunch today and as we were talking this came up. both girls said this is something they've learned throughout life too. i told them i'd find this verse and email it to them...it's our "thought of the day" : )

my new obsession...

this week i discovered....pinterest. and since discovering it i've basically wasted lots of time in front of my computer! on pinterest you set up boards for different topics and then you can link pics to these boards from other people's boards who are also on the site. i know it sounds stupid...it's just fun to play with and to see pics that make you smile or inspire you in some way. for example, some of my boards are...home sweet home, this one has different looks that i like as far as home decorating; my style, this one just has clothes and accessories that i like; yumminess, pics of food that i wanted to eat; quotable quotes, sayings that made me laugh or that i liked for some reason or another. it's a fun site where you can keep ideas for projects you want to work on later but can't neccessarily do right now. this way you won't forget all those ideas you have floating around in your head by the time you actually get around to doing that projec! i've had fun playing on it. i'm going to try to put a link on this page to go to my page on pinterest, but i haven't got it up yet.

life at the jude

i recently had my 90 day eval for my new job as a research nurse on the total 16 protocol. i can't believe i've been in my new position for 3 months already...well 4 months now! i am so blessed to have a career that i absolutely love and to have the opportunity to grow as a nurse and change jobs when i feel like the time has come. it was funny when i went out with my friends from nursing school the other night because 3 of them have been at lebonheur icu and the other one has been at st jude bone marrow transplant for the whole 11 years since we graduated. now i on the other hand...i started out at lebonheur orthopedics/hematology, then on to the ut cancer institute to their medicine room where i learned all about chemo (for adults), then out to fresno, ca to a pediatric oncology floor...and i loved ped onc so much i decided to try my hand at st jude when i moved back to memphis! when i first came to the jude i worked on the inpatient bone marrow transplant floor, then went to the outpatient radiation oncology clinic, then up to the leukemia floor...did a travel assignment in new york and worked on a peds gastro floor (yuck!)...back to the leukemia floor at the jude...and now i'm in the leukemia research department! wow...typing all that makes me tired...BUT i've gotten such great experience at each place and learned so much. i think my work history really makes me a well-rounded pediatric oncology nurse : )
i am loving my new job...it's a great mix between patient care and office work. i don't have to do any of the hands-on stuff, but i still see patients in the clinic every day and then have office time every afternoon as well to work on projects and stuff. and they just keep piling on the projects! today in our weekly meeting we were told about 2 new projects we are expected to begin...problem is they both will need to be maintained on excel spreadsheets which i know nothing about...guess i'll be learning how to work with those this week! i never really knew what a research nurse did until i took this position, but i have learned so much already in the short time i've been there from the 3 doctors i work with. they are all amazing and it's an honor to work closely with them. i have between 50-55 patients that i care for and have to make sure that everything is exactly the way the protocol says it is supposed to be or else we (st jude) will get in trouble. it's overwhelming but very interesting and i love it : )

things that make me smile...



slumber party with the murphy girls

drew is out of town this week so stacy, kylie, kenzie, and kolbie all came to spend the night at my house on monday night. we met after i got off work at chick-fil-a and stace and i got to talk while the girls played it up on the playground. when we left there we went back to my house and we all hung out on the back porch for awhile. kylie and kenzie were trying to hula-hoop but they weren't having much success....they don't have mad skills like their aunt amy : ) we finally got the girls in bed and stacy and i started watching "letters to juliet". i love that movie! it's just so sweet! well, i say we got the girls to bed....stacy forgot to bring kolbie's pack-and-play so she decided that she was going to put her to bed in one of my drawers! poor kolbie is way too big for that! i pulled out one of my dresser drawers and we put a big blanket in it and put kolbie in it. stacy was like "oh, she doesn't realize she can crawl out"...really???

poor kid wasn't happy about having to sleep in a drawer. she ended up watching the rest of the movie with us! the next morning as i was getting my lunch ready, kenzie saw me putting two pieces of bread in a baggie. "oh can i have some?" she asked. i told her she didn't want just plain bread for breakfast. she came back with a typical kenz comment. "when i'm grown up and i'm a swan, will you feed me bread?" what do you say to that??? what else..."sure, i'll feed you bread when you're a swan...now i've got to go to work!" haha

kenzie thinks she's a swan

toilet paper brides...

yesterday was kimberly and grant's couple shower and it was so much fun! i can't believe kimberly will be married in 19 days...wow!! it's so exciting : ) the shower was given by a kind of random group of people...me, lindsey, april, and ashley. of course, april and i are cousins and i've met ashley a few times before because she and kimberly used to be roomates. i think ashley and april know each other from college. and then neither april or i knew lindsey. i believe lindsey and kimberly know each other from bellevue. kind of random...but it was fun!

ashley, april, kimberly, me, and lindsey

we were color coordinated : )

i was so glad that april and scott still got to come after all that april has been through these past couple of weeks. she was her normal fun self though and you would never know she just had two surgeries! i just wish they would have brought baby reed with them : (

we played one of the usual wedding shower games where you make a wedding dress out of toilet paper and of course each team made their guy be the bride!

kimberly adjusting grant's wedding dress

our groom was very chic!

everyone had a great time and we can't wait for the big wedding day!!

rich in friendship....

this past week has been so much fun! i had the chance to spend time with lots of friends and i never take that for granted. on tuesday night kimberly and i got together after work to celebrate her birthday. we ate at 5 guys...i had never been there and it was really good! i'm not a huge burger girl but it was great! the countdown is on for kimberly and grant's wedding and i'm so excited for them.
the very next night i had dinner with 4 girls i haven't seen in a VERY long time. i had dinner with melissa, ashley, mandy, and lisa all from nursing school. it blows my mind that i haven't seen a couple of these girls since we graduated 11 years ago!! aghhh!!!! i'm getting old!!! we had dinner at flight which i keep on hearing about but had not been to. it was pricey but let me tell you....it was amazing! they serve little "flights" of food and you can mix and match pretty much anything on their menu. they have recommendations or you can make your own. i made my own and got a little piece of breaded chicken, a small fillet of beef, and a small portion of lobster. it was all good but the lobster was to die for! mandy and i also split the crawfish dip before our entree and it was so delish. to end the night i mixed and matched my dessert and got the creme brulee, oreo cheesecake, and a smore! i know, i know....it was toooo much....but it was a special occasion! i'm putting pics below so you can see the little samples. poor lisa reacted to something on her pork and we thought we were going to have to rush her to the er! we were all a little nervous for a few minutes...but then she told us to quit staring at her...so i went back to eating my lobster! : )

me and lisa

mandy, melissa, and ashley

the whole group

my dinner entree

dessert : )

i ended out my fun week by having a day with mom today. we went out to the collierville mall today and did some shopping. unfortunately, the day started with me dropping my car off at the mini dealership...my low tire sensor was on. we didn't think it was any big deal but they found a nail in one of my tires. they said no one will patch or plug the type of tires i have on my car so i had to buy a new tire! so, i didn't shop quite as much as i might have if i hadn' t just purchased a $150 tire. mom and i had planned to eat at cheeburger cheeburger and get a milkshake, but it was closed for renovations. we ate at the crepe maker instead and it was so yummy!!

i just realized that this entire post has been about food. more importantly it's about friends and spending time with people who are important to me. melissa and i both said on wednesday night, the important thing in a friendship isn't necessarily how often you see each other but if you can pick up and still be friends after time spent apart. i believe that's the mark of a true friendship. my life is definitely rich in friendship!

letters to God

***this post was previously posted under the page reflections but i've changed the design of my page so i brought it up here : )***

i've just recently joined netflix, so i've been enjoying watching lots of movies lately. i watched the movie "letters to God" this week and it was amazing. i think i especially loved it since i work with pediatric oncology patients everyday and i could understand what this child and family were going through. i loved how the movie showed how many people that one little boy touched with his life because i see that with my patients. i learn so much from life and become a stronger and better person just from having the privilege to spend time with them and take care of them. it makes me step back and realize all the good things i have in my life that i take for granted. i loved this movie and have thought about it a lot since watching it. i also loved the song that was played at the end of the movie...i downloaded it onto my ipod and have been listening to it. it's called "dear mr. God".

4th of july fun...

this year was the first time in a really long time that i've had the 4th of july off and i had forgotten what a fun holiday it is! on monday we all went over to stacy and drew's house (drew was out of town).

we spent the day swimming, riding 4-wheelers, and even pulled out the slip n' slide. the girls all loved the snowcone maker that gee bought for them! the night was complete with an awesome firework show that jeremy and dad put on for us.

summer days are so much fun

                                          

and the food is so good!

but tay-tay was NOT happy about falling in the mud

                                          

we had so much fun hanging out and spending time with each other. thanks for having us over stacy!!

                                                                              

first blog....

yes, i finally gave in and started a blog. i am over the whole facebook thing but i wanted a way to still be able to stay in contact with people and share ideas with everyone. and i have to admit i've become addicted to some really cool blogs which have inspired me over the past couple of weeks! i'm going to list some of them in the area about sites i follow. remember that i've only been following these for a few weeks so i don't really know that much about them...but i was drawn to them because of their unique ideas and great photography. i hope everyone has a great 4th of july tomorrow! i'll be chilling out at stacy's house with the fam. we will miss julie, daniel, jenna, and drew but everyone else should be there. light some fireworks and thank God that we live in a free country!