Sunday

We started the day with our monthly visit to Sam's, followed by buying socks, grocery shopping, studying, and playing with my birthday present. 

It was a good day.

Its my birthday (week)

I've been begging Andrew to let me open my birthday present since the beginning of April. Its fun to ask things like that regardless of whether or not he has already picked me out a gift just to see if he will say yes. Well, yesterday he said yes. 

I love that he remembers things I say I really really want even if it was months ago.

What a guy. I love him.

Spring Break

As I was uploading these photos I started to think this post is much longer than Spring Break was. Tevs.

We clearly did not waste any time switching gears to spring break mode. As soon as hubby got off work we celebrated with some of our favorite grown up drinks. 

For the weekend we drove out to HB to spend time with the sibs, baby S, and the parents. 

Me and Carolyn have a lot of fun at Charming Charlies. I am pretty disappointed at myself for not buying this hat. Its even more fabulous in person. And by fabulous I obviously mean larger. 

Andrew likes to push the stroller/hold the diaper bag whenever he can, I am really glad too because he's kind of adorable when he does it. 

Is there anything sweeter?!??!? 

We are the luckiest auntie and uncle. 

For dinner we went to Slaters 50/50 -amazing! I have been craving vampire dip ever since. We had a little bit of a wait so we decided to take camera pictures. Its the cutest how she is so enthralled with her reflection. 

Love x3!

Breakfast spot thanks to Carolyn. So yum! 

Beach Sun. Love it. Miss it. 

Back home I made sure to tune in to all Giada's newest episodes. 

...and study.

Finally took the leap to bleach my hair...! 

Super in love with the final product! My hairstylist is amazeballs. 

Two new home additions: owly from target garden center and candle from bed bath and body works. In my down time I ponder the idea of bringing color into our home. Its incredibly difficult. Every time I buy something its in some shade of white. Hmph.

Except flowers. Success. 

Final day of spring break :(

Every pool day needs a grown up drink. 

...aaaand we're back. Spent my first day back in the pediatric unit! It was great! We actually spent 2 days in a row, super lucky since last time it was only 1 day. My dream job is a nurse anesthetist but in choosing a fall back I have contemplated pedes. This was before I even went to the pediatric unit and probably motivated by my sweet little niece. But after spending a day there a couple weeks ago I was pretty nervous if it was a good suit for me. Lets just say its a little disheartening when the cutest little boy ever looks at you like your a serial killer when you try to take his temperature. However, yesterday after my second pedes visit, my instructor gave me my mid term evaluation and said I have received a ton of compliments by the staff and after watching me she thinks I found my spot(!). To really appreciate this you would have to meet my instructor. She definitely doesn't say things like that, or smile or laugh really, unless its at her own joke. It was just a small  gesture by her but it always feels great to get a little confirmation on your own inclination. With that said, Andrew says he wants to pursue being a nurse anesthetist too! This coming from the boy he wanted to be nurse practitioner for pediatric oncology. Funny how we are switching positions. I for one think he would be great at either one :). Oh, he gets to spend this week in the OR! Maybe that will give him more insight into the anesthesia role. Super excited for him. for us. for LIFE! :) 

Hope you all had a great spring break/easter!! 

Update via Instagram

This semester has been the busiest by far. My creativity tank is pretty low which totally turns my world upside down. However, Instagram instantly cures this. So today I thought I would give you a mini update via iPhone.

There are several things I find therapeutic. This is one of them: Cleaning.

And another: Moving furniture.

Just incase you were curious as to why I am in need of therapeutic activities, please scroll down.

Have I mentioned this semester has been the hardest yet??

In an effort to do my body some good amidst all this stress, I broke out my old pilates DVD and began my green smoothie addiction.

Coincidentally the same week I started pilates I also developed a pain in my knee and had to purchase a knee brace.

Some cartoons & reading material.

Pedes! This semester has a large focus on pediatric nursing skills. We rotate each week in clinical from Acute Care/Telemetry to Pedes. Going back after spring break!

So this one time I bedazzled my badge...

I feel like a little sparkle makes me a little less plain in my maroooon scrubs.

We got rain! And this was the beginning of events leading up to my dramatic photo at the top.

Sometimes I cram notes in my pockets at the hospital so I can study during down time.

The worst 24 hours! I think I had 4 meltdowns. I bet Andrew feels like he has a 3 year old sometimes.

Now that "hell week" is over all I can think about are my lovely in-laws and our week long visit this summer!! Including our 3 day disney adventure!! With baby nephew Elliott that we get to meet!!

Last weekend Andrew, the expert on all things plants, helped me arrange my succulent "garden". I am obsessedddddd. This idea was first inspired by the sweet Brittany Toll! Read her Spring Fever post for other ways to brighten your life :)

Love our one-on-one time! :)

Another therapeutic activity: window shopping. I like to send Andrew pictures of things I like so he can tell me if we need them or not. For $4 we definitely needed that planting pot.

So the week is nearing its end and we are planning how we'll spend our spring break. So excited to see the sibs this weekend and the precious baby love!

If you have instagram follow me @ hollydrew !

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!