Pool day in February

On the weekends we try and spice up our lives a bit because it's nice to take a break from the routines. The weather was so unbelievably perfect this past weekend that we decided to spend the afternoons sunning. Obvi I had to wear my diva floppy hat, which only helped me feel more like I was in a tropical paradise.

Can I just say I am so thankful for our home. I love every foot in our 989 sq. ft. and the fact that our neighbors work full time so we get the pool and gym all to ourselves :)

I'm embarrassed to say, but our door has been bare for the past month, so a while ago I made this fancy little thang. Not fancy at all really. I recycled some leftover linen fabric to make the rosettes and a wood cutout F. The F has already fallen off but since I have so much fabric still leftover I think I am just going to cover half the wreath with a garden of linen rosettes. I wanted to post this photo because linen rosettes are my new favorite. You can put them on a pillow, a frame, a wreath, whatevs! They are a no brainer to make, too.

5 weeks in!

Days feel like they are zooming by over here and there isn't much time to stop and take a breath, but when I finally get a chance to my heart feels like it could burst with excitement. In essence: I LOVE what I do. I love learning, I love practicing, I love getting another test behind me and I love the future! I feel so fortunate to be working towards a career that each day will bring something new and exciting. Even now as a student I walk away from every clinical experience with ten new stories about my patient, their diagnoses, a new skill/procedure I got to do, etc. Im totally a sponge, with legs of course, because I am constantly on my feet racing/walking around. Oh and deep pockets, to fill with meds, syringes, alcohol pads, IV bags, gloves, SBARs, worksheets, cliff bar, you name it.

Because a blog without photos is lameskies, here is a photo of me checking off on my IV skills!

Today was my first day hanging an IV bag and piggy back at the hospital, too! No posing was involved.

Andrew is running for Vice President of the Student Nurse Association and we vote this week (!!!), has taken his first exam and doesn't get the results until Thursday (!!!), and begins hospital rotations the next Thursday (!!!).

(breath) Sometimes we only have 5 minutes to download our day to each other before we're off to the next thing so our conversations during the week look almost exactly like the above sentence.

One thing I love about Andrew is that when he decides to do something, he goes all out. For example: deciding he wanted to run for VP his 1st semester (my heart hits the floor at the sheer idea of speaking in front of large groups!!). And then there is that one time when his very female study group planned to celebrate after their 1st exam and he wanted to join in on the group unity. I seriously love my husband even more after seeing this photo. He's so adorbs!!

Knew this adventure together would be fun!!

Nursing School Update!

Today is the end of week 2 and I have come to the conclusion that Nursing 1 is way more demanding of one's schedule than Nursing 2. Andrew kind of lives at school these days so I only get to see him during the evenings. However in the evenings all we do is bury our heads in theory books and practice our skills. I have to confess though, Tuesday night I sat on the couch for 3 solid hours and caught up on The Bachelor, Real Housewives of OC, and Teen Mom 2. Of course I make Andrew watch these things with me so I was happy to enjoy quality time during the week with him. In my defense, my break from studying that night mainly had to do with how incredibly sore I am from clinical. Clinical is Monday and Tuesday and by Tuesday afternoon I feel like I've just done 9,786 squats. No joke. Even though I now have two patients I feel like I have less responsibility. All I do is walk in circles through the halls until something comes up that I can do. I keep telling myself its just going to make my legs toner but I have yet to see that improvement. I wish I had more pictures to post but I don't, so these uploads from Instagram will have to do.

The most important part of my get ready routine on days that I have clinical is the amount of coffee I consume.

I finally got around to making my first green smoothie. Loving it!

I love how easy it is to just grab one and let it defrost at the hospital so I have a healthy snack while on my break. However I do not love the expression on everyones face when they see me drinking it.

I can't wait until Andrew gets home so we can snuggle.

28

My sweet husband turned 28 saturday! I planned the whole day and by noon we were exhausted, lucky for Andrew he had a massage scheduled right at 12. After he was done being pampered we took the day much slower (showered, studied, changed our restaurant for dinner a couple times...). We had a lot of fun and Andrew felt super loved by everyone who wished him a great birthday.

Bright and early, seeing his birthday banners for the first time!

I love him!

On our way out the door all bundled up for dinner! I am aware that I look a little over-bundled

Does anyone else forget to buy candles when buying a birthday cake?

You are the best husband and friend I could imagine. I love you Andrew Paul Fulkerson!

First day!

Today we had our first day of clinicals. In keeping with tradition, I share with you this little gem.

What the final days of winter break look like over here...

Tabbed all of mine and Andrew's reading material for the first week of school. I'm green, he's blue and red. He had to be two colors because he has so much reading that I ran out of blue (poor guy).

Look at him getting a jump start on his reading. So proud.

Chose the fabric for my next project: a duvet cover. We agree blue is the best.

Did I ever show you Chance's doggy gate? It's SO cute, right? And very noteworthy.

Also noteworthy, I recycled my rice jar to a cookie jar. I'm so innovative.

Whitened my teeth with my Glo! I love it! They should pay me for my enthusiasm!

This may sound silly but I love this little blog of ours. The other day I updated our "about us" column to include the fact Andrew is in the RN program now and it reminded me how far we have come over the year. That column has changed from "we're working on getting into the RN program" to "Holly is in the RN program" to now "we're both in the RN program". I mean, its amazing right?! and now we have a blog to remind us of all that amazingness. Sometimes I can't help but feel that God is strengthening our marriage to be the ultimate team. I mean, not everyone gets to marry their soulmate and share the same career. That's a lot of time together. I used to not understand why other couples didn't love spending every single moment with their spouse, but I think I do now. Not everyone is made for that. I love our marriage because we enjoy spending 24/7 together, but I don't think that enjoyment was given to us so that we'd be an island unto ourselves. Every marriage is a team already but what about those radical marriages who give up everything and move to a third world country? They must have this same enjoyment to be on the same page with that radical idea. So is that what our marriage is strengthening up for? I know we already share the same desire for medical missions in Africa, but is it really going to happen? I know thats what we say now, but really? As in, really do we get to? This desire started as a dream, when we had no tools to get us there. But if I reflect on all those little column updates I can't help but see them as tools to be added to our tool box. Cant do medical missions if were not in the medical field ;). Our dream is no longer a dream but a promise. If this is Gods promise then it means he promises to provide us what we need this month, next month, every month until we get there. It's a beautiful thing to rely on, and by that I mean He is a beautiful thing to rely on :). I can't believe I got all of that out of an update... ha!

| The Brunners

It's no secret how much I love these 3. If we lived closer the pages of my blog would be filled with photos of them, for sure! Scarlett is 8 months old already and still the most precious thing ever. I love how she is today, but I can't wait until the day she remembers me (thats not bad to say right?). She lets me hold her for a while, but I think she likes me better when I dance and sing to Taylor Swift. I would probably do anything to see that sweet smile of hers. Okay enough about how I feel, I know you just want to see pictures!

It was hard to not get a good photo of them, they are so natural. Plus my sister is a total babe! The wind and sunlight are totally her friend.

We had the best time at "Scarlett's Playhouse", can't wait to do it again!

HB

This weekend we drove out to Huntington Beach to spend time with family. I knew my mom was already here when I saw the long line of luggage. She is very proud of her preparedness :).

Then we saw another friendly face...


...and another!


Happy feet!

Every visit she is learning something new! So proud of my baby niece!

I am probably turning into an even more annoying camera person, but I just LOVE taking pictures. Emphasis on LOVE. So I was pretty excited to have all new models over the weekend. They even obliged when I asked to take their photos non candidly. We planned to go to the beach but the weather wasn't agreeing with us so we made the most of the park and the patio. Here are my parents. They still have that young-love look don't they?

Stay tuned for another post with photos from Scott, Carolyn, and Scarlett's session! I am kind of obsessed with how cute they are.

Guy Time

You can always count on my brother for having the coolest toys in his garage. His latest toy is this motorcycle. I'd be lying if I told you I was 100% confident thats what its even called. Is it a motorcycle? A bike? A street bike? I have no clue. I do know that my husband now wants one. It was pretty cute to see him all excited over this hunk of junk (no offense brother!). In case these photos were too rugged and manly for you, please scroll down.

Linen Placemats

There was quite a lot of linen fabric leftover from our bed project that I have been saving and yesterday I finally put it to some good use. I made placemats! Originally I had plans to make pillows (of which we don't even need), but literally every time we sit down at the table I place kitchen towels under our plates. Until yesterday, nothing has been successfully produced from my sewing machine. To say I am sewing-challenged is an understatement. The following photos may be pretty, but I promise this was a war zone.

The standard sized placemat does not work with my 4 chair round table because the corners touch, so I wanted to make a fabric charger type placemat instead. First I made a rough cut against my plate to help me with the dimensions, which was 14x14.

Then I pinned both squares together, inside out.

I sewed around the edges leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance...

...making sure to leave a 2 inch gap for when I pull the square right side out. Tip: Clipping the corners helps!

After my fabric was right side out I placed a pin over the gap to help the fabric stay folded in while I ironed over everything.

Voila. I am still deciding if I want to make an outside hem for decoration, but that would mean tackling the sewing machine again..hmm

Tip: Having your hubby come home with 'just because' flowers is really encouraging :)

Frames

This past weekend I had a new project: picture frames. They are 20x20 with a 7x7 photo cut out. I love a good project but honestly, that was plan C. I first searched nearly every store and when that wasn't fruitful I priced out custom frames. When that was through the roof expensive, I then decided it was project time. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but I really love the end result.

Like new

Let me start by saying the real title of this entry should be "Magic". Last night we celebrated Christmas with my parents and one thing we received was this:

We have a dozen pieces of All-Clad stainless steel cookware that I absolutely love, but had no idea what food and oil would do to them. After seeing the before and after photos below, I don't know why I didn't buy this a year ago.

Magic. This is a great gift idea, thanks Mom!

Treasure

For the past year my sweet mom in law has been making Andrew and I this quilt and I am so happy to finally showcase it. I just love handmade items so this is a real treasure to me. Every square is so intricately sewn and perfectly lined. It's basically a masterpiece. OK, I'm obsessed. And so grateful for all her hard work and talent put into something not for herself. Thanks Momma J!

Thank you 2011

January

Found something new we both love and love to do together

February

Celebrated Drew's birthday with family

March

Purchased our first vehicle together

April


Celebrated my birthday at the beach

May

Became an Auntie and Uncle to sweet baby girl, Scarlett

June

Given acceptance to the RN program

July

Spent a lot of Saturday's in Newport Beach

August

Celebrated our 1 year anniversary the best way: sunning and couples massages

September

Took my craftiness to a new level when I recruited Andrew to help me build and upholster a bed

October

Found a new love for yarn wreaths and spent Halloween at home watching spooky movies

November

A few ups and downs but with the support of so many people we managed to stay in school, find amazing doctor's, and overturn previous diagnoses (insert PTL here!)

December

Ended the year with passing my first semester of Nursing school, Andrew being given acceptance to the RN program, becoming a new Auntie and Uncle to baby Elliott, and spending Christmas with my lovely in-laws in New Mexico with a couple snowy days on top.

It was a very good year :)