I fell in love today

Love at first sight? Does it exist? Is it the real thing?
Well, I have been there and felt that. Yes, it is real. I walked into this store today and instantly fell in love.
Anthropologie~! I have read about it. Some of my favorite blogs freqently mention it, but I have never been in there. I haven't been shopping anywhere in forever, let alone a store like that.

I walked around and ooohed and ahhhhhed over every single thing I saw. I told my sister to send Chris the link and to let him know for future reference and for special occasions I would love ANYTHING in there. Especially the home decor.

I love

pretty things, 

and pretty things

love me. 

So many

lovely things

to see!

 I didn't buy anything, but it was nice to browse (and drool) and imagine what it will be like when I am working and will be able to buy pretty (expensive) things everything once in a while!

Anthropologie, I love you!

*All images from www.anthropologie.com

P-4 presentation

http://www.playfish.com/

Yes, I am flying out to C-bus today.

Yes, I finished my last day of Internal Med on Friday (YAYYY and more about all that in a later post), but NOW I need to look ahead to next Friday, Sept 3rd!

I have my (dreaded) P4 presentation.

Which is basically a requirement for last year Pharmacy students. We are randomly assigned a topic that we must research and present in front of 3-4 faculty members and ~30 P3 students=AN AUDIENCE!

www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre

*Gulp* I just got nervous.

OK, ok, yes that picture is a slight exageration!

But I am still prone to hysterics when I think about it!

What is my topic? I know you are dying to know!

Drumroll please.....

Topic: What is the evidence/benefits/risks of treating HIV patients with CD4 counts between 350-500 and > 500 with HAART? (Say what?)

WHERE: @ School WHEN: Friday, September 3rd, at 1:00pm; I will be the FIRST of 4 presenters. (Can't decide if that is good or bad?!) WHY: Strictly to torture last year students to see how badly they want their Doctorate degree in May.

*GULP* Prayers are appreciated!

Going with the flow

Chris has been wonderful about sending me random pics of the kids the past week since he knows I am missing them!

Here they are walking into school the first day. I love this pic. This just epitomizes their personalities to me. Karsen just walks in without looking back (with all the confidence in the world), and Dylan turns around to wave one last time (because he is so sweet).

Tall Dylan

Sweet Karsen

I miss my kiddos, but it turns out I will be seeing them tomorrow! YAY! Some things came up with Chris' job and his schedule is going to be a bit crazy for a while, so I will be flying out tomorrow to C-bus to hold down the fort until late Thursday. Hey, life happens, and I am learning to go with the flow!

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"

~Robert Burns

First Day of School 2010-2011

Karsen, 3rd grade & Dylan, 6th grade

@ first day of school in OH!

The kids had their first day of school today. Karsen made some new friends, one girl said she liked Karsen's "accent". LOL Dylan made friends with another boy that he "sure had alot in comnon with". Which means he probably likes Stars Wars, HALO games, and anything gross. LOL They traded cell phone numbers; (NO, I can't believe how tall he is!!) and I can't believe he is in the 6th grade!

Chris was wonderful and took great pics for me! (Thanks, Bay!) You knew this meant alot to me!

It hit me last night that I was not there with them on their first day for the first time ever. Yes, I cried. Like borderline hysterical. I miss them already, but I know they are in good hands.

I asked them to rate their first day on a scale of 1-10.

Dylan gave it an 8/10.

Karsen gave it a 10/10.

Dylan is a tough critic,

and Karsen loves school no matter what!

So all in all

It was a great first day!

A compass, not a COMPASS!

So, things have been interesting around here, but we (slowly but surely) are finding our way to being back together! Chris is in full-time Daddy mode in OH, while I am still here in NC for a couple more weeks. He is so happy to have the kids there, and they are happy to be there with their Daddy finally. Chris has done his best to get the house settled into, take the kids to be registered for school, shop for school supplies, and feed and bathe the kids at regular intervals...etc.. LOL! I know it is a ton of work, but  he is just thrilled to have 3/4 of his family there with him (Dylan, Karsen and Miley). And, he is doing a great job!

My sister and I went to OH for a super quick trip this past weekend to take Miley (our german shepherd) and to help Chris unpack the house (WHICH I LOVE LOVE LOVE by the way~more about that later!). It was an exhausting but wonderful weekend. Before we left on Sunday, Chris asked me to look at the kids' school supply list and let him know if there was anything on there that might be difficult to find. So, I looked and told him the supply list looked pretty standard me.

I gave everyone hugs and kisses and we were on our way back to NC! A few hours later Chris calls and was very proud of himself because the school supplies had been successfully bought and he only spent $85 doing it! Awesome! However, there was only one thing he could not find....a compass. Our conversation went as follows:

Chris: "I could not find a compass anywhere in Target!"
Me: "Really, we were just there yesterday and I saw a ton of them in the back corner with all the other schools supplies?"
Chris: "Well, I looked in the camping section and didn't see any".
Me: Silence....(????)
Chris: "Why in the world would 6th graders need a compass anyway?"
Me: LOL LOL LOL LOL
Chris: "What, Heather?"
Me: "Baby, Dylan needs a compass, not a COMPASS!"
Chris: Silence......
Me: LOL LOL LOL

At the end of the conversation he realized Dylan actually needed a compass, not a COMPASS. A few minutes later I sent him a pic of my sister with my cell phone to clarify with the following message.

THIS is a compass! Love, your smart-alleck wife. <3

Chris eventually figured it out, and now Dylan has a brand new compass to start the new school year. I am still chuckling about this two days later.

New Kids on the block

Dylan and Karsen went to check out the neighborhood with Daddy tonight. I love this pic even though it is blurry! Chris was running behind them with his cell phone. The kids were very excited, and they are so happy to there with their Daddy!

Meanwhile, I am here working my heart out and missing my family, but it won't be long now and I will be there too!

p.s. Yes, I called Chris to ask them where their helmets were?!

My favorite faces

Dylan=snake

Karsen=fairy

*taken with cell phone

Amazing Grace

This really touched my heart. <3

My sweet Grandma Mable

She suffered a terrible accident at her home 3 weeks ago. She was cooking and evidently fell onto the open oven lid and the stove fell over on her along with the hot food she was cooking. She suffered severe 2nd and 3rd degree burns over he chest, abdomen, arms and thighs. After two weeks in the hospital they allowed her to go home. She is back in the hospital now; she has an infection on her abdominal burns and they believe her kidneys are starting to shut down. Please say a little prayer for her. She is the toughest woman I know, the true matriarch of our family. I don't want her to suffer or be in any pain.

Things Change

I miss my blog. I miss having down-time to just aimlessly write and document the happenings of our lives.

Things have been crazy and constantly changing. I am sure that is the biggest understatement of my life. I will spare you all the details, but I do want to share some good news. We are NOT taking the government buyout on our house and taking a major $$ loss on this house like we had been preparing/dreading to do for several months. Instead, a sweet family that we know from the community is going to be renting our home for a couple of years. It seems like a no-brianer option now, but originally we had not even considered renting.

We hired a guy from church to do some repairs and last week he asked me if we would consider renting to him. After some praying and long conversations with Chris, we saw this for what it was....the last minute miracle we had been praying for!

 Now, we don't have to come up with a large sum of money in the next 10 days. We have peace of mind because we know our renters. My Dad lives close by and can keep an eye on things. They are paying just enough to cover our mortgage. YAY!

It is funny because a week ago, we still did not know how things were going to all work out, and then things change.

A year ago, I was preparing to tell Chris bye for a little while. Tomorrow is a year from the day he started working out of state. Today he is getting the new keys for our rental home in OH, and the kids are meeting him there. HE IS SO EXCITED! He has been waiting for this day for so long. Dylan really has missed him the most I believe.

Dylan and Daddy

(I could not crop Karsen out of the picture, it cracked me up that she just had to strike a pose because the camera was pointed in her general direction! lol~)

The kids are due to arrive there in a couple of hours. Here they are yesterday before they left....

They are starting school on the 25th, so they are going to have a little while together with their Daddy, time to get settled into the new house, and get familiar with the area before the new school year. It is what we have prayed for and wanted all along... for them to be able to start the new school year there! A couple weeks ago we did not know how this would work out, but things changed! They were both excited about going to be with their Daddy. It's been a tough year for all of us, but I am so proud of Dylan and Karsen and how well they have handled all the changes along the way.

Alot of tears, alot of hardships, alot of changes have happened over the last year. I am so happy that I can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've already told Chris that I don't ever want to be away from him like that ever again. We will all be back together again by Labor Day weekend!

Frazzled

Sorry that I have been MIA. I am in the midst of a challenging rotation and working way too many hours than humanly possible. On top of that we are moving next week, yes NEXT week. Well the kids are moving and they are coming to pack and move our stuff=chaos=stress=frazzled.....Oh my! I have way to many things on my TO DO list, and unfortunately, that means the blog has been suffering. I miss reading my fave blogs, but I will be back! Keep an eye out because soon and very soon, I will be checking in from the Midwest!