January Happenings

What an insane month! After a great trip to AK for the holidays we returned home to a crazy month. We packed up the house we were renting, closed on our new house, and moved in! Then last weekend we returned to AK to see Rachel (Lucas' sister) married off! That was an insanely quick trip of only 4 days and approximately 40 hours in transit! Ugh. But it was a beautiful wedding and so great to see everyone. We also got to meet both of our new nieces this week, little Lane and Gabby.... so adorable! This week it is back to reality with one final this week and 3 next week... then module 9 comes to an end! I can't believe how quickly December 2010 is approaching! Here are some pictures!

North to Alaska

Home for the Holidays!
We flew up on Saturday, amazingly smooth... no missed or delayed flights! And got in late Saturday night. Then we spent Sunday and Monday with Lucas' family relaxing, eating, playing pool, and planning Rachel's wedding. LOTS of fun! Then on Tuesday we headed down to Kenai to spend the next couple of days with my family. Before we left Anchorage we stopped by the Alaska Wild berry Company to pick up a few belated Christmas gifts and had a little fun with the bears.... (see pictures below) So far in here Kenai there has been lots of good food, Catan, and good company. There is something so comforting about being in the house I grew up in with all of my immediate family close. Here are a couple of pictures....

Christmas Festivities

This last weekend we went to our friends, the Morgans', Christmas party. There was lots of good food, wine, and company! There was a white elephant gift exchange... guess what I got? A SNUGGIE!!! Oh my gosh I just about died laughing!

Then on Saturday night I went out with the hockey ladies! We had Italian... yum! This week I have 2 quizzes, an extra credit assignment, a test, and two article reviews to do. Ugh. 3 more days and then I get a 2 week break! And on Saturday we head home for the holidays!

In other exciting news, as of last Sunday I am officially a 3rd year, and I graduate in 363 days!!! Woo-hoo!

Thanksgiving Fest 2009

In true holiday fashion we headed down to Charlotte to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. It was really great getting to see my dad and Joyce, all my aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins and extended family. We got to show everyone pictures of our new house and then we stuffed ourselves to the gills!
Then on Saturday we hosted our own Thanksgiving dinner with some of our good friends. Our friend Chris Via single handedly ate half of the 24lb turkey I cooked; I've never seen anyone eat so much turkey! We had lots of yummy food including turkey and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pineapple stuffing, asparagus, corn, cheesy broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls.. yum! The green bean casserole was kind of a disappointment to me...last year I found out that I am lactose intolerant and realized at Thanksgiving last year that that includes the cream of mushroom soup in classic green bean casserole (which is my favorite dish at Thanksgiving) So this year, I decided a couple of months ago to make my own cream of mushroom soup with lactose free milk and do a test run with my soup. Well, it turned out great, so I froze some of the soup to use for our Thanksgiving... well, it was thawing on the counter, fell into the sink, and Lucas thought it was old food and bye-bye went all my hard work. *sigh* I ended up buying some organic cream of mushroom soup and using that instead, but it just didn't taste right. Oh well, there's always next year. Hope your holiday was just as merry!

A Time of Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches I find myself full of gratitude; I have a wonderful husband, a loving family, great friends, Lucas has a job, we have a roof over our heads and food in our tummies. God is truly faithful. I feel like recently God has been trying to tell me something; that everything is perfect in His timing. Today, after searching for the past two years, we found a church body to belong to. On our way out today I said to Lucas "maybe God didn't let us find a church all this time because He knew that eventually we would buy a house in Winston" and then low and behold, we loved this church! It was almost like God was speaking through me to me and I didn't even know it! There are other things that I want and am having a hard time waiting for; but even though my emotions may not always be on the same page, at least my head knows that God is in control and has a perfect plan for us. There is so much peace in knowing that.

I also remember 2 years ago when we were first moving into our rental, crying that we knew no one to ask to borrow a truck; I remember for the first time feeling so alone, so far away from all of our friends and family. Several times in the last couple of weeks God has blessed me by showing me how He has provided us with friends and a place to belong; we have had more people than I can count offer to help us move into our new house. What a difference 2 years can make, and how faithful that God has made a home for us here. So today I am thankful... overwhelmed with gratitude for the mighty God that we serve and how He loves us and provides for us, small and insignificant though we may be.

We bought a house!

So last Sunday we went to an open house and ended up falling in love with this house... so we put in an offer! They ended up counter-offering with us back and forth a couple times but in the end, we bought a house! We won't be closing until January 5th because they are waiting on their new home to be finished, and we will be out of town for half of December anyways, so it all works out well. I am so excited!!!

Back to School

Well, clinical #3 came to an end, I had a week off, and today was my first day back in class. It was kind of weird to be back in class after being in the clinic for so long, but at the same time, it felt like I'd never left. (Lucas says to tell you all that he's awesome) The only really new and exciting news with us is that we have decided to stay put in North Carolina for the next 3-5 years. Since Lucas is going to be hired full time with Volvo and will be able to take graduate classes paid for by Volvo, it doesn't make sense for us to leave in a year when I graduate. Also, it seems to make sense to stay put until everyone else in our families has a better idea of where they will be settling. So all this means that we have been looking at houses... and we are pretty sure that we will be putting in an offer on one sometime this week! I will keep you all posted with pictures and what not once things are more definite... or if they fall through and we need to keep looking!