Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah or whatever)

Today is Christmas Eve, except my family has to be different and celebrate Christmas Eve yesterday and Christmas today so that we can fly to CA in the AM.

For those of you who know me very well, you know that I am not overjoyed at spending a week in a place where the majority of my memories are sitting in my room crying, but my attitude about the trip has improved the past week. I feel bad because my mom just thought that I didn't want to hang out with my family for a week. Good grief, I love my fam, I am just not crazy CA. Think about having very few good friends who you could really talk to for over 2 years. That basically sums up my experience there.

The real point of this post is to say that I probably will not be posting for the next week. See you in 2006!

ONE Month

ONE month from M-day! (Married day!) One more month and I will be casting off the free and easy life of singleness and taking up the mantel of married life responsibility. Don't worry, I don't really feel that way.

But all joking aside, marriage is a serious thing. In fact the seriousness of it used to be stressed in marriage ceremonies. It is a great undertaking. I have some friends going through some troubles and it impresses upon me again the importance of what my fiance and I are undertaking.

So I am rambling at this point, I suppose my conclusion is that marriage is something to be entered into carefully, thoughtfully, lovingly, and joyfully. But don't mistake this for a happy formula, it's not. It is simply a prayer that God keeps us both close to Him.

Caffeine

Usually I am not really into the numerous quizzes about nothing in particular, but I took a fancy to this one.

Death by Caffeine
How much of your favorite caffeinated drink would it take to kill you? Take this quick test and find out:

You could drink 259.35 cups of Starbucks Tall Caffe Latte before croaking.

I assume that it is in a short period of time and not left in my lifetime. (I hope not anyway, I would have about 1 year left). To find out how to do yourself in:

http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine/

10 Degrees

I really didn't know what else to title this post. I have been walking around downtown Kalispell while waiting for my fiance to finish up some busness and it is 10 degrees F outside. I was wondering why I was surrounded by a huge fog cloud until I held my breath for a few seconds and it went away. My breathing appears to be disrupting the atmosphere in this small (but very cute) downtown. I might add that a capachino goes a long way in warming a body up, but it doesn't help that my curls in my hair are frozen into shape.

I did meet a very nice man in a paint store who has a friend whose wife is a nurse at the hospital here in town. So he gets on the phone and gives them my phone number and she is supposed to call me next week. (Can't call me today because her mother is having heart surgery, hey, I'm not demanding.) I also made friends with Lindy, his very nice dog who wanted to go home with me. I love that paint store! Now right down the street at the library, I get free internet for 20 min. What can I say, except for the 10 degree temp outside, I am really enjoing my morning excursion.

Ah neth sum wather (I need some water)

The other day, I finished mailing my invitations. I have licked 120 envelopes. All I could think about the whole time was that episode on Seinfield when George's fiance licks all those cheap envelopes and dies that night from glue poisoning. Not being as bright as some of my friends who after the task was completed suggested using a damp cotton ball or sponge, my mouth was extremely dry.

My grandmother was all freaked out that now I am sending my DNA to all these people. I don't even really know how to respond to that. Ummmm, well yeah, but if they really wanted a sample I am sure they could get their hands on one. Besides I have nothing to hide. My DNA is flawed like everyone else's. And I am not wanted for any violent crimes as far as I know. So I am more concerned about the state of my hydration and not the state of my dried DNA.

But if anyone does get a DNA sample and runs it, could you let me know the results? I want to know what I am going to die from someday!

(Some) Things I am Thankful for:

• My wonderful fiance (I could go on and on, but you guys know the drill).
• Lonnie has a job that he likes.
• My grandfather is out of the hospital.
• My brother Calvin is being discharged and coming home in a few weeks.
• I get to work part time.
• I only hate my job part of the time.
• Wonderful friends (insert your name here).
• My parents are so nice to me.
• My girls Bible study group.
• My shiny ring (as I look at it as I type).
• That I was born in Texas.
• My college years (all 6 of them).
• That the new move of P&P did not totally butcher the book.
• My brother Paul is doing so well in Austin.
• Free wireless internet.
• Morning walks with my Mom.
• The media mail option at the post office (shipped 5 heavy boxes of books yesterday, total cost= $39.00.)
• My fun red truck (still feels like it's new, but it has 107,000 miles on it)
• Betsy is back in the Big D!
• Seeing prayers answered.
• Prayer, even though I have no idea how it works.
• God saving me for Himself and from myself.
• The starry nights in West Texas.
• The rush of skiing down a mountain.
• Bluebonnets in the springtime.
• Newborn calves.

Pictures of my future home!

Here the view from my future living room window.

Here is another view out my future living room window.

Here is a deer at Glacier National Park, about 30 miles from my future home.
This is close to the place where I got my ring! Isn't he cute?

Here is our guest room, just waiting for people like you to come fill it up! (Don't worry, we are getting a bed for it!)

The most wonderful man ever...

Just so the rest of you are duly informed, I am marrying the most wonderful man ever. Yes, I know, some of you are convinced that you are married to the most wonderful man ever, and you are welcome to hold that thought. Just hold it, knowing that you are wrong.

Let's give some background to all this wonderfulness. Several months ago when my fiance and I decided to get married, he was just out of grad school and needed a new car (his old one had 216,000 miles on it, yes that many zeros!) So I told his that he should get a new car and not worry about getting me a ring. So he did, and I was very glad since he has already hit at least one large deer since moving there, and I am sure that there will be more. I would rather he be in a SUV then his old car.

Now he has been sleeping on an air mattress for 2 months in Montana, and I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't buy a bed. I mean money is tight, but sheesh. Well, when I went up there this past weekend, we went to Glacier National Park and in the middle of a stream on a big rock, I was given a beautiful ring. (I am trying to figure out how to put pictures up so I can show you). My future husband has been sleeping on an air mattress for TWO months so I could have a piece of jewelry. Actually, come to think of it, he is still sleeping on the air mattress.

His patience with me and all of my fears, and obsessing, and he just comes back and tells me he loves me and can't wait to spend the rest of his life with me. The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night and I wanted to cry when I think of how blessed I am.

Off to the wild blue yonder

Tomorrow I leave to go visit Montana for the first time! Weeee! I am so excited, I haven't seen my fiance in over 6 weeks and that is way to long. I will finally see the place where I will be living in a few months, eeeek. Don't worry I will take plenty of pictures so that the rest of you can enjoy the natural beauty without the freezing temperatures. Today it was so warm here in Dallas that my mom and I thought about turning on the AC this afternoon. Not motivating weather to pack for Montana. I just hope that I pack enough layers. The ski coat will just stay in Montana, no need for it to come back to Dallas. Just think in less then 24 hours, I will be snuggled up next to my fiance drinking the Kona coffee he got me for my birthday. Wow, I am so lucky.

Now for some random side notes:

Riots erupt across France, people are killed and at last count I know of at least 1800 cars had been torched. Now mind you, this goes on for several days. Like this is a BIG FREAKING deal. So how long do you think it took the Dallas Morning News to put this major news story on the front page? 2 days? Let's be generous and say a week to get their act together and journalize? Oh no, no, our illustrious rag took 11 days! That's right can we count the days? Mind you, during this 11 day period when no one in Dallas knew that there were riots in France because it was 2 paragraphs on page 28, there was another cover story for 3 days. Yes for 3 of those days we learned about the 100 or so protesters in South America who don't like Bush. Now whatever your feelings may be about Bush, there is no way that these stories are remotely comparable. Which story could change the face of Europe/France? As of now the Dallas Morning News has lost what last few particles of credibility it had left in my mind. Come on people.

Second random point: I don't know if I should be ashamed or not, but if were going to be living in Texas next year, I would vote for Kinky Friedman for governor. http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

Yes, he may be crazy, and have his own reality show on CMT, but I have come to believe in him. Hey like he says "How hard can it be?" I really think he is on to something. And it's not like he could jack it up more then the other guys already are. So save yourself for Kinky!

Road to Recovery

Well, instead of going out and dressing up this Halloween or Reformation Day or what ever you want to call it (yes, I was raised by a man with a theology degree), I worked. Yuppers, I worked the 3-11 evening shift at the hospital.

I have to admit, I was a bit anxious. Last year when I worked, there were 3 nurses for all 25 cardiac patients on the floor. You do the math. Just us vs. The force of cardiac disease and poop explosions. I still have nightmares about the night. It was a very scary Halloween. But a year later, a lot of things have changed on the floor, and I am so thankful. A new nurse manager/I am now PRN, so life is a lot better. This one year anniversary was kind of a nice point of reference to help me get over some anxieties about work.

This should be interesting starting a new job again in 2006. It will be the third hospital I will work since I became a nurse in 2002. I just keep moving around too much!

I have my cake, and ate some too!

One of the upsides of getting married.... cake testing (or should I say tasting?) Sit in a room and look at lots of pictures of wedding cakes and then you get to taste some cake. How fun. The really big decision is rather to have a grooms cake or not. For those of you not from the South, down here both the bride and groom get a cake. The brides cake is usually the big white one. Mine is going to be with cake with a raspberry filling and a cream frosting. Then there is a smaller chocolate one that usually has something like a college logo or something on it. His cake is going to be chocolate cake with a chocolate moose filling with chocolate frosting topped with ganage(sp?). Some sort of chocolate dripping all over the cake.

Well, up until my good friend Jessica's wedding in August, my fiance had never heard of such a thing. So I did get one and I ordered a surprise for the top of it, but I can't say what it is because my fiance might read this.

Just a random fun note for all peoples interested in wedding things. Can you believe the price of this butter dish? http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13612200 . Who knew that you could spend so much to entertain? Don't worry, I have no intention of registering for it. I have felt enough angst and guilt over the extravagance of my $9 butter dish that I almost didn't register for, because after all, how often will I use a dish for butter?

But not everything is cake and ice cream. My grandfather is in the hospital recovering from open chest surgery, and I just found out that some friends of mine aren't doing very well. It is so hard to see the people you love suffer. Sometimes, because of my nursing job, I feel like the ignorance that surrounds youth was taken away from me. I know what waits for me when I get old. And old age will come and sometimes sooner then you think. So enjoy your youth and don't be foolish and mispend it without ever thinking about the future, or mispending it by not ever thinking about the now, but always the focus on the future. It will come soon enough.

3 Months...

and counting! That's right in 3 months to the day, I will be Mrs. M. MISSUS! Strange to think that I will have totally different name then the one I have had for the last 26 years, but I am confident it will be worth it. His last name is two letters shorter then my present last name, meaning that my signature at work will take less time, and that is no small event considering that I have to sign my name at work about 60 times a day. 60 x 2 =120. 120 fewer letters to write each time I work. That is about a 2 min savings in my workday. Perhaps corporations that do things like check out pencils to their employees should only hire people with last names that are 4 letters or less. Think of the wasted time these companies are paying for people to write their names!

I had a horrible nightmare last night that I was marring someone else, and I just kept saying "but he isn't who I am supposed to marry!" But of course no one ever listens to you in your dreams and you are stuck in an eternal merry-go-round of about to do things you don't want to do (like marry people you don't know). So you wake up in a panic and then when you realize that you are marring the wonderful man you want to and get a delightful birthday card from him in the afternoon. Well, life is so nice.

Carhartt- found out from my fiance tonight that this is a brand of outdoor clothing predominately sold in hardware stores. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. I thought it was a car heater or something until he explained it to me. He is threatening to get me a carhart jacket as a wedding present. But I think that if he is going to buy me such things, he should at least make sure that it is flame resistant!
http://www.carhartt.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10051&catalogId=10601&langId=-1&categoryId=12401&top=Y

Joint Property

That's right folks! My fiance and I are now the proud owners of JOINT PROPERTY! Thanks to grandmother (don't ever call her grandma, she thinks that is talking like a hick and will not acknowledge your existence) we now own all our flatware that we [I] registered for.

Of course, my fiance was not near as excited about this joint venture as I was, but flatware just isn't his thing. If you are really board, you can take a look at the aforementioned flatware at Bed, Bath & Beyoooooond. I feel like that title should open a space odyssey or something.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=105343&RN=504

Fortunately the flatware was not near as difficult to pick out as the towels are turning out to be. With flatware you just look at pretty pictures and pick out one you think you could look at for the rest of your life without wanting to vomit every time you set the table. Much easier. But the towels are really starting to get to me.

Oh, and I just realized that it is now October 19. Happy birthday to my wonderful, spectacular, caring, and just all around great fiance!

Drowning in towelege

I am beginning to understand why some people's brains turn to oatmeal mush when they get engaged. It's not the gooey feelings (though those are nice too.) Nope. It is all the stupid little decisions that you never thought you would care about in your whole life.

I have spent more time then I care to admit today looking at towels online. Can I just say that I never thought picking out towels was a big deal. Find a shower curtain, find some towels to match, out the door is less then 20 min max. But now that this is all registered, people are talking about my choice of towels and I am trying to pick them on the internet, since the shower curtain I like is on the internet.

Just so you know, apparently all towels are made of Egyptian cotton. They are all made of 100% cotton. So why does one cost $30 and another one $7? So I look at all the towels and think well there must be a difference in quality. Surly I can pick out one that is better then $7. But $30? I don't know that my body is nice enough to be using a $30 towel. Next come the mid-price options and now it sounds more like a car rental sedan choice then a towel.

Yes, I am a trained professional who can go almost anywhere in the world and get a job. I have several degrees. People trust me with their lives and loved ones. I can write some fairly good critical papers if I like the topic. And I am living with my parents, picking out towels off the internet at 2 AM. By the way, did you know peridot is a color?

Vents anybody?

When talking to my fiance the other day, he was telling me about the apartment we will live in that I have yet to see. Apparently the kitchen has vents in it, out of which blows heated air. Now being from Texas, I think that it is strange that the vents are on the ground, but otherwise don't have a problem with this. My fiance then informs me that most of the time heat comes from radiator type things that run along baseboards. He has me convinced that I am the most unobservant person ever, because I have no idea what he is talking about, until I talk to my friend who moved to Texas last year from Pennsylvania. That's when she exclaims that she had not even noticed that these types of heaters are not down here. Reassured that I am not totally off my rocker, I proceed to inquire about these heaters.

How easy is it to burn oneself?
Can I allow small children to crawl around them?
Are they large like the ones in the movies?

I have received conflicting information about the burning potential of these things (whatever they are.) My fiance says that you can't burn yourself unless you try, but my friend states that house fires are often caused by blankets touching these things. At least I know to put the bed on the other wall!

Dance to the beat of your heart

Every once in a while a song comes on the radio that sends a thrill through you and makes me want to get out of my car and dance. As that is usually not an option in Dallas traffic, I settle to drive on the tollway at illegal speeds and sometimes roll my window down. I don't usually know why the song makes me want to embarrass myself. Something about the music and lyrics together make a magical moment. I can just picture a guy going outside a party or reception to take breather and running into a girl he hasn't seen in a few months. They didn't part on great terms, but not bad ones either. He takes her hand and they start to dance in the rain.


Take it while it comes cause it don't last long.
Hesitate and the moments' gone.
Run in the rain and howl at the moon.
Fall in love way to soon.
Take my hand as the music starts,
and we'll dance to the beat of your heart.

Cory Morrow really has a great song there. He is one of my favorite country artists up there with Pat Green and Cross Canadian Ragweed. If you want to find out more about Cory Morrow here is his website:http://www.corymorrow.com/home.html. I am sure there is great music in Montana, but I still think I will be having my dad ship me my Texas music. It is just a little bit different from anything else out there.

First day of cool weather

Today is the first day of fall here in Texas. What makes it fall? The fact that I could not wear strappy sandals or flip-flops when going out tonight. In Dallas, that is all women wear in warm weather.

Here is an extreme example. My college roommate (also from Dallas) was going camping for the first time with a group of people she knew. Mind you, it is warm outside and she will be, theoretically, trekking through the wilderness. She sets out on her adventure wearing black pants and flip-flops.

So today, it is just a bit to cold to wear my arch supporting flip-flops. And now I have to match my purse and shoes, yet another problem with cold weather gear. Since I have extended my college education as much as possible, I now miss my student days when I just dragged my backpack everywhere. So now I have to match my closed toed shoes with my purses. I can't wait to get out of Dallas.

But in preparation for moving to Montana, my grandmother ordered my birthday present of several cold weather item from LLBean. I have never taken the temp rating into consideration when ordering a coat before.

Short order cook

For those of you who are fortunate enough not to work in a hospital, let me expand your horizons. As a nurse, my job is to plan patient care, administer medications that are the right dose, the right way to the right person, coordinate all the tests and labs, make sure they are completed, ensure vital signs stay stable, document everything I do, remind doctors of various things they forgot to order, and try to get people taken care and out of the hospital.

Nowhere in the above description did I say anything about a short order cook!!! I don't cook your food, I don't order your food, I don't season your food, nor do I really care about your food. In fact, I don't know where the kitchen is in the hospital! You would not believe the number of people who get mad because I won't cook them a hot meal at midnight. If you want a hot meal, go to Denny's, not the hospital. We are trying to get most people to lose weight anyway.

Today I got a sandwich tray for my patient because that is all that we have after the kitchen closes for the night. After explaining this to her, she proceeds to ask for a list of foods that are not sandwiches. When I finally convinced her that we don't have them, then she proceeds to tell me how she wants her sandwich (which is premade, I don't put it together).

After getting off work, I called my fiance at the number he left on my phone. He is currently driving to Montana. Except like any decent person, he is asleep at 12:30 a.m. and not very verbal. Poor guy, I wouldn't have called him except he left a message that he wanted me to call him when I got off. He already had a flat tire today. I just hope he gets to Montana alive!

Finally decided on a photographer today. Here is their website: http://www.brookswhittington.com/index2.html

Photographer angst

Who would have thought that I may go to law school to understand all these contracts I have to sign for a wedding? I hate committing to things. If you ask me to go to dinner with you, I will delay setting the time until that afternoon. Having specific times and places to be can be so constraining. I used to think I was strange, but my roommate is worse then me about it, so I can't be that extreme.

So having to say that I will be somewhere at a certain time in 3 months and give you huge amounts of money to do it, is a bit stressful for me.

My latest decision is reading over photographer contracts. Because this is where it gets sticky. See A might cost more then B, but A has two photographers, a website and gives you credit toward an album. And I like their questions slightly better. But do I like them $900 more? Decisions, decisions.

Beginnings

OK, so I haven't moved to Montana yet, but I will in Jan of 2006. Why you might ask? Why would someone leave the glories of Texas, the satisfaction of only using her ice scraper about 4 times in the last 7 years, and the comfort of friends and family to move to a place she has never been?

I blame it on love. Yes, in Jan, I will be married to the man I love, and moving to Montana with him. I have never been to Montana. The closest I have been to Montana is watching "Legends of the Fall". My fiance says that I will only be allowed to complain about the cold 3 times a week, so I need a new outlet.

In the meantime, I can write about all the odd things that come from throwing a wedding together in 3 months.

So here is a question for you, what constitutes an engagement? I am planning a wedding, I have a date of Jan 21, my fiance and I have picked out tuxes and made various other arrangement such as putting a down payment on the church. Yet some people do not consider me engaged because I do not have a ring and a big story. Plenty of people have been married in this world without an engagement ring. After all, I am marrying the man, not the ring. And I would rather he drive a car that won't die on him and then he will freeze to death, just so I can wear a piece of a rock. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking rings. I just think we need to keep it all in perspective.