Appleton Snowfall

The other night at work, I was able to watch a beautiful snowfall! In the morning, I headed out to see some sights, and was so thankful I had my camera with me! It turns out that one blessing of Appleton is that it generally has a more mild winter than Fergus Falls. I'm sure there will be years that's not the case, but I found out the average temperature is higher and the snowfall lower (and that makes for a better winter for me!).

I loved the way that the snow was glistening in the sun, but that feature disappeared by the time I was done with my shift. Check out what I did see, though!







I love this one:




I feel like they look like black and white pictures, but the flag in this picture shows they weren't!


There are lots of great tree-lined streets in Appleton, which is a huge plus for me.

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!

On Saturday, January 24th, my dad turned 60! It's hard to believe he's that OLD, since he still seems so young! :)

Brent and I went back to MN to help my mom throw a little party for him. They had quite a few of their friends from church over, and it was fun to see my dad enjoy himself so much!

Here's a picture of the yummy cake, with delicious frosting. We decided not to burn down the house with 60 candles, and stuck to just one big one instead!

I think he liked it!

Enjoying his grandson. By the way, it was fun to see the way David jumped into my Dad's arms when he and his parents arrived at the house. He sure loves his grandpa!

Part of the group of good friends from my parent's church.

Most everyone else.

Brent and I gave my dad a good laugh that night! We decided that since I was now officially a Wisconsinite, we should help him feel a little more at home when he comes to visit. So, we got him a Packers t-shirt! (don't worry, I haven't turned my loyalties yet, I don't own any Packers gear yet...)

My dad really laughed, and he knew instantly who it was from! He got a lot of advice about wearing it, such as inside out while he's working in the garage, under a sweatshirt when he's shoveling, etc...

David helped him open some of the cards, and loved the one with the blinking lights, and the other one with music playing!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!! We're so glad we could spend the day with you, enjoy the company of friends, and have a few good laughs!

New Job!

I'm a working woman again -well, I will be in the morning!

I was offered the job I wanted here in Appleton! I had interviewed at all three hospitals, and knew that I could work at any of the three, but preferred one in particular. It had the right "feel" about the place. I'll be working on the pediatric/gyn unit which is also on the same floor as Labor and Delivery, Post-partum, and NICU. It looks like I'll have the chance to float to NICU and post-partum which is something I'll enjoy.

Tomorrow I start the hospital orientation and then I'll be working every day for the next two weeks, either classroom or on the unit. It'll be good to get back to work! After orientation, I'll be working three night shifts a week, and get this.... NO WEEKENDS! Well, to clarify, I guess I'll work every other Friday night, so I'll need to sleep some on those Saturdays, but that's it! Then, I'll have every 8th weekend on call. That's UNHEARD of in hospital nursing! It's hard to get much better than that! I'll be on 8-hour shifts, so working 11pm-7:30am which means that Brent and I will still have our evenings together, and then on nights I have to work, I'll go to work when he goes home.

I'm really glad that I won't be working full-time, and I'll be able to pick up shifts when I want/need. I always figure that work is there to support the rest of my life, not the other way around! So, it's been good to have saved up so much this last year and a half to make this work.

I guess this means that I'm officially done with travel nursing. If you spend any time in the hospital, ask around to see if they have travelers! You'll be able to say you knew one and that she absolutely loved it. I really did. I learned so much about myself, about people, about nursing, about being flexible, and of course I was able to see so many wonderful things all over the country!

Now, however, I'm really excited to have a home base, a stable life, and to make new friends in a new community.

If you ever know of someone who is thinking about becoming a travel nurse, send them my way! I'd love to tell them all about it and answer any questions they have.

Thanks for praying with me about this next job. I'll be excited to tell you how it's going!

Hello from Appleton!

Yes, that's right, I moved last weekend and I'm now a Wisconsinite! Don't worry, though, I don't think I'm ready to become a Cheesehead just yet...

I actually have quite a few posts in my head of all sorts of stuff I'd like to tell you about, but I'm really writing today to let you know that I FOUND MY WEDDING DRESS!! I went shopping this past weekend, and was able to purchase a dress!

I'm so excited about it, because it's a completely stunning dress, but also because I was surprised by the whole experience! I had gone in with the mindset that I'd just discover what sort of style I like so that I could continue looking in all the magazines. I had always hoped that I might someday find a dress that looked mostly okay on me. Then, after I've lost all this weight, I knew that I could probably find something that looked nice. Well, the interesting thing about the entire shopping experience is that I didn't have the problem of not finding enough options for me, but instead found that there were quite a few things that I really liked!

So, I went to a few shops in the Twin Cities over the weekend with my mom and my best friend, Aimee. I had planned that they would help me determine the best neckline, waist, skirt, etc for me and then after I found the dress that combined all three, I'd go shopping again with the rest of the girls. Well, we found lots of good options, narrowed it down to the best style for me, and then I found it! In person!! I went back to one store feeling like I really liked a particular dress and wanted to try it on again. I walked in the door and was reminded about a different dress I had wanted to see, but didn't take time for earlier. Well, I stepped into it and knew it was the one! I tried on the original one again and thought "This would be okay. Good, in fact. But, not the dream."

The one I got is The Dream! I didn't go into the weekend knowing what the dream was, but I realized what it was when I had the thought "this is how I always hoped I'd feel on my wedding day but didn't know could be possible!" I felt exactly how I'd wanted to feel walking down the aisle to Brent to become his wife.

So, that's all you get to know for now! There's a certain groom who looks at my blog and I'd like to keep the surprise for him. And for you!

By the way, what do you all think of the groom either knowing or not knowing what the dress looks like before he sees the bride in it? Just curious! Share away!

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In other news, I love my new apartment and once I get a little more settled I'll take some pictures. It's a different experience for me because I didn't have any furniture provided for me this time around, and I was able to bring lots more stuff than I had for the last year and a half. There are actually boxes to unpack! So, I'll keep working on that and let you know how it's going.

Lastly, I had a couple of interviews last week, that covered all three hospitals here in the Appleton area. I am supposed to find out some news in the next few days so please pray with me that just the right situation works out. I'd love to be in a job that I enjoy, with a schedule that's conducive to a marriage. That's not too much to ask, right? :)

I better get to unpacking a little more. Pictures of our Christmases, my apartment, etc. to come later. Thanks for your patience! Signing off....

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It seems like 2009 is going to turn out to be a pretty good year -I'm really excited for it! :)

You know how people always say that every year seems to fly by faster than the one before? Well, check out how quick 2008 flew by!

The Story.... for real!

I know I promised The Story of our engagement, so I want to honor that promise! It's been a busy couple of weeks with initial wedding planning, planning a move to Appleton, finding an apartment, job hunting, Christmas with two families, and my favorite thing of all... spending time with Brent! I've been driving back and forth every couple of days, so I've literally been living out of my suitcase these last few weeks, and am excited to finally get to Appleton and figure out a more normal routine! It was fun to log onto Facebook today and have a couple of friends chat with me immediately saying they've missed me! Thanks for your patience with me, and please know that I've missed you too!

Back to the original story of our engagement... it's pretty sweet! With my work schedule in Mankato, I end up with one week a month where I have almost a week off. So, Brent had come over to Minneapolis for the weekend so that we could go to the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert together with my parents, but after that we headed back to Appleton since I was off for the week.

He took Tuesday off of work since I was going to be in town, so I started suspecting our engagement might happen on that day. But, I was really trying to work hard at not thinking about is so that it could be a surprise! In fact, when Brent once asked if I had ever thought about how I might be proposed to, I said that I had no specific thoughts about it, but that I hoped it would be a surprise!

So, that Monday I had spent the day doing some shopping with Brent's mom while he was at school. When he got home, I had gotten a little something for him since it was our dating anniversary. It turns out he had done the same for me, and when he said "don't come in here just yet, I'm getting something ready for you", I wondered if it might be an engagement ring! It turns out it wasn't, and I immediately thought "well that's okay, because it'll probably happen tomorrow, and if that's not the case, Christmas is just a short time away!"

I was really working hard at not expecting it, yet I was thinking about it often! I even started feeling a little bad for Brent, thinking "how is he ever going to surprise me if I'm thinking about it all the time?"

So, after we exchanged gifts, he said that he was going to make a cup of tea and asked if I wanted one as well. Since we're both big tea drinkers, it was a pretty normal question. He went to the kitchen to get things ready, and I followed him after a few minutes.

I walked over to the mug and picked up the tea bag string to swish it around and make sure the tea was steeped long enough. I looked down and was completely surprised to see a beautiful engagement ring strung on the tea bag!! I guess I even had the look of complete surprise!

Brent then got down on one knee, said some wonderful things, and asked me to marry him. I said "of course I will!" and he put the ring on my finger!

We were able to call my parents (who already knew it was coming since he had asked for their blessing) and my sister, and then went out for a celebration dinner at The Melting Pot, a new favorite restaurant. Seriously. If you haven't ever been there, check it out!!

It was so fun to be able to spend Tuesday, his day off, doing a bunch of random things around town with him, and also make a few key calls. It turned out to be a snow day in the area, so it was pretty fun trekking through huge snow piles in my 4-wheel drive!

So, that's the fun engagement story! It was so special to hear Brent describe to someone "well she always plays with the string of the tea bag so I knew that would work" and so special to be completely surprised by something I was completely expecting. He couldn't have pulled it off any better!

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Now for the other updates.... I head back for my last two shifts of work in Mankato tomorrow and Thursday nights, and then I'll get all packed up on Friday. Brent will meet me there and we'll head to my parents so that I can get stuff from Burnsville, and then on Saturday morning Brent and I, along with my parents and their truck, will move me to Appleton! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited to finally live here!! We've been so fortunate to get to spend so many weekends together, but the drive is getting pretty old!

I have an apartment all lined up and then the good news is that I have two job interviews for Tuesday! There are three hospitals in the area, so I have an interview with two of them, run by the same organization, on Tuesday morning, and the other one in the afternoon! Please pray for me that I'll make the right decision for which specific job I should take -unit, salary, shifts, etc... all come into play with that decision. I'm so thankful that there are some options.

I really plan on spending a little more time online once I have internet access at my new place, so I'm hoping to do a better job of updating soon! I have great pictures from that concert, Christmas, etc, so I'll share soon!

The Story...

[Side note: This is going to be an abbreviated version of the final post. I am struggling with not having enough time to finish all of what I want to accomplish -I know, we all struggle with that! So, because of all the requests for pictures, I'm going to just publish the post I've been working on, and then I promise to come back in and add in all the fun details! Thanks for your patience! :) ]

Thanks for all the fun well-wishes so far! Someone asked if my feet have touched the ground yet, and the truth is -NO! :) I feel like I'm flying high and I'm not sure when I'll land! I've been OVERWHELMED at all the amazing words of encouragement and congratulations here, on Facebook, and by phone. I got tears in my eyes realizing how loved and cared for I am by all of you. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Here are some fun pictures Brent and I have taken in the last couple of days. The first picture we took after our engagement is a little too dark without a flash, and a huge disappointment for me is that I didn't even think of taking a picture during the incredible celebration dinner we had at The Melting Pot that evening. So, here's a picture from Tuesday using Brent's tripod and my camera timer...


A picture so you can see what the ring looks like...


How it looks on my hand... (yup, it's that sparkly!)


And me being a big ol' dork in Brent's office at school on Wednesday, using the timer to see what everyone else sees when they look at me now! :)


[okay, more details and stories to come later! I've been trying to get a few small things pulled together for our wedding, but I also have to head back to Mankato today to work 6 out of the next 7 days in 12-hour shifts, and need to work on job hunting in Appleton. PLEASE PRAY for me with this! I'd love a travel job since my apartment and paperwork is all taken care of by someone else, but if that doesn't happen in the next 1-2 weeks, I'll look for a permanent job. Please pray that just the right thing will work out!]

Goin' to the Chapel....

And we're gonna get married!

YES! You read that right! I am so thrilled to announce that on Monday night Brent asked me to marry him, and of course, I SAID YES!

I'm in Appleton with him right now, and today am hanging out at school with him (the principal invited me!) so I promise to post pictures later, but wanted to at least let you know about this super fun news!

He had taken the day off from work yesterday, so we were able to finish up our Christmas shopping and also made a bunch of phone calls. We'll obviously have a lot of other details to work on, but can at least let you know that the wedding will be July 11th at Bethel in Fergus. Save the date!

I am so excited to marry this amazing man, and am really looking forward to becoming his wife. God has absolutely brought the two of us together and fashioned us for one another. What an amazing blessing!!

More to come later... :)

New Look

I know, I know.... I usually wait until I move to a new location to change the look of my blog. But, it's gotten REALLY cold here in Mankato, there's snow all around, and I have to scrape my windows each morning. So, I realized that winter hit and it was time to get rid of fall colors and move on to the cool ones. I mean "cold" ones.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving! I trust you were able to enjoy a great Thanksgiving weekend and contemplate the wonderful things in life to be thankful for. I was especially thinking about God's amazing love for us, and also the blessings of friendships and having a wonderful family.

I had to work both Wednesday and Thursday nights, so my Thanksgiving weekend started on Friday morning when I drove to Burnsville right after work. Brent met me there and we had a great weekend full of food, family, and fun!

On Friday night we were excited to welcome my 2nd cousin, Sara, for dinner. We had the full Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, and as you can see, there were lots of delicious dishes!



Since there was so much food, we repeated the meal on Saturday night when my cousin, Tim, was with us! :)



Before Saturday's meal, though, my boyfriend and my cousin helped my dad put up Christmas lights. What great guys! And it meant that my mom had lights on her house before December 23rd! If you've ever spent time with me at the house I owned in Fergus, you might remember that I'm a big fan of Christmas lights. I mean, who doesn't like Christmas lights up year round? They're so pretty!

As you can see, we had a lot of fun in the process!







The end result on the house was beautiful!



I'm so thankful Brent was able to come from Appleton, and you can see we had a great weekend laughing together!