My Idol

All it took was a day and I'm completely obsessed with this girl. 

I want to be her. 

Seriously. 

 She has great hair, great skin, great eyes, a great body, a great voice, great rapping skills and a GREAT personality!  

I downloaded her CD and I love listening to her music, but she is just so much fun to watch! Ryan and I spent an hour last night laying on our tummies like children staring at our laptops completely entranced with her.

And she's from Nebraska.  

And she went to Berklee school of music in Boston.  

And these two are engaged which makes it even more adorable.

BIG NEWS!

We're moving to California!!! 

Well, in two years hopefully.  

We've been praying and trying to figure out where to go when Ryan graduates and we finally got our answer.  We were playing around with the ideas of Colorado, California, Las Vegas, Nebraska, and even Hawaii or Australia.  While Ryan is a dreamer and loves talking about these things, I wanted decisions.  So we prayed and an answer came! (And quickly, thankfully.  I'm impatient).  Ryan has always wanted to move there so you can imagine his excitement. I'm still trying to get past the sticker shock on the cost of living out there.  We still don't know where in the state we want to live, and we're just hoping Ryan can get a job.  We may not end up with a very big place to live, but our door will be open to visitors!

Speaking of visitors, our door is open now!  Come visit us in North Carolina, friends!!!! 

You only have one more year left before we start leaving for clinicals so book those flights and escape the cold, Nebraska winter. :)

Our Honeymoon!

No, I'm not finally blogging about the honeymoon.  Ryan just can't ever remember the word "anniversary" so he calls our recent trip our honeymoon.  I think he plans on calling it that every year from now on.  He's definitely not ready to give up the term "newlyweds."  We're still considered newlyweds until we have little ones, right?

But yes, as of June 12, 2011 we have been married for 1 year and have been together for exactly 2 years! I can't believe how time flies.  I'm a very lucky wife, because being married to Ryan is easy.  I never knew anyone could love someone as much as Ryan loves me!  I'm not going to get all sappy here, but I will say that Heavenly Father definitely knew what he was doing when he put Ryan in my life.  Thinking back to a few years ago, my life is not at all what I had in mind, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  A husband is way better than a real job anyway, right? :)

Back in.. oh I don't know.. January maybe? Ryan decided that he wanted to run a full marathon before he turned 31 (July 3, 2012).  And then he got this grand idea that we do it together. ON OUR ANNIVERSARY.  So I agreed.  I'm not a runner.  Ask any Luke.  We don't run but I try to fake it.  I knew I could never complete a full marathon but I didn't want to burst poor Ryan's little bubble.  So we found the Lake Placid Marathon ON June 12 and paid our money and registered.  But it was cold outside and I didn't want to run.  Then it was spring and my training was really improving! Next thing I know it's summer and it is 90+ and HUMID.  And this was back in April.  Needless to say we were NOT ready for 26.2 miles.  So we backed down to 13.1 wondering if we could even do that.  We were battling shin splints, a pinched sciatic nerve, horrible lung capacity and a plain old lack of training.  Before we knew it we were on a plane to Boston to meet up with my good friends Megan and Conner.  They were planning on joining us for the race, unfortunately Conner was sick in bed when we arrived and ended up having to go to a work training and couldn't come to the race.  Now, Megan is a runner.  A determined, talented, hard-working but natural runner.  But we informed her of our struggles and we all agreed that we were just going to enjoy the race - walk when needed and just enjoy our time together and that we did.  It was so laid back that she was even able to bring her camera with her for the race!

 I think I was able to jog for about 6-7 miles before the walking really began.  

I'm okay with that considering my longest training runs had only been 4 miles!

 I miss this girl.  At least we live closer than if she (or I) were still in Nebraska!

 

I'm not ashamed to admit that our final time was 2:41:11 which means we paced out at 12:18 miles.  Hey, we beat my last half marathon by a whole 4 minutes!  My body is just not fit for this.  My hips were KILLING me, but I battled through.  And I think I'm going to suffer again for Ryan's sake in Omaha in September.  He is again registered for a full marathon.  Say a little prayer that he can actually train for this one, or I will keep having to run races to support him.

Hopefully soon I'll get around to posting the rest of our trip - Boston and NYC!  But if I don't, we went back to Boston and then to NYC after the race. :)

Memorial Day

Does anyone else every try to come up with really creative post titles and come up short? Yep, that's one of these times.  So I'll just say it how it is.  For Memorial Day weekend Ryan had 4 days off but unfortunately I had to work 3 of those days.  We were a little hesitant to go to the beach ON Memorial Day thinking it would be crazy, but it was not!  We went to Topsail Beach because it is one of the only ones we found that allowed puppies and we of course wanted our friends Ali, Daniel and Bauer to come with us! (Ryan has lovingly nicknamed him Bowzer - you know, from Mario - because he can't remember his name). 

Bauer was definitely in tune with his natural instinct to dig.

This was Bauer's first time in the ocean and he wasn't so sure what to make of it at first.

Then he felt a little wave and wanted NOTHING to do with it!

Doesn't Ryan look like he belongs on the beach?  

For not knowing how to swim, he loves to get out there and try to boogie board.

Bauer got awfully wiped out from the days events and decided to curl up on Ali's chair.  

And no, she's NOT constipated.  That's her "I-want-to-sit-in-my-chair-but-my-puppy-took-it" look.

And now, the aftermath of it all...  Ali took a slashing from Bauer after carrying him out of the water.  

Ryan, Ali, and Daniel somehow all got FRIED and I did not. 

Sunburns are seriously one of the WORST THINGS IN THE WORLD.

How could I not add a picture of these two cuties curled up in the backseat?

 

 

 

 

On my mind...

1. I'm not ready for the full on NC summer.  Heat. Humidity. Sweat.  I just got back from an attempted run at 10:00 a.m. and about died of heat exhaustion. No, gracias.

2. This is the first year I've followed American Idol and whatdoyaknow the winner lives about 45 minutes from us.  I don't think Scotty had the best voice by any means but he sure is adorable.  (Also, I'm not sure how I feel about this but the radio station renamed themselves (temporarily I'm assuming) "Scotty 94.7").

3. I just bought today's "Living Social" deal which is pretty much identical to groupon if you don't know what it is.  I think we've bought 3 in the past week or so which will make for a fun summer.  Today was 6 movies for $10 at the discount theater (normally $4 each), then we also have cheap Mexican food, a 2.5 hour photography class for my new camera and 5 buckets of balls at a driving range.  I'm sure there will be more to come.

4.  Ryan got his list of clinical sites for our 9 months of homelessness.  His top choices?  Anchorage, Alaska.  Carmel, California.  Honolulu, Hawaii.

5.  A new couple moved in next door to us last night.  We spotted Idaho license plates and guessed they were Mormon.  We stopped on by, gave them some glasses of ice water and some pizza and yep - we were right.  They're Mormon.  We're taking over this apartment complex!

6.  Today is my day off and then I have to work Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday of Memorial weekend.  They decided to screw me over on my last week as a manager at A.C. Moore.  Yep, this is my last week as a manager!  I think I failed to mention I found a new part time job working at the Gift and Donation Department at UNC with a girl from church.  It pays much better, it's NOT retail, and the girl is pretty much awesome.  I think I'm going to be really happy there for the next year.

7.  I should get up off the floor now (where I've been since getting home from my run) and do some more spring cleaning.  Yep, it's about that time.  Adios, friends.

Sweet Summertime

Ryan LOVES summer.

And I'm not talking about how most people love summer.  As the weather gets warmer Ryan is truly himself and happier than any other time of year.  He's always talked about wanting to move to California and now I'm truly seeing that he would be happiest in a warm climate than anywhere else.  I guess I should have believed him when he said he doesn't do cold. :)

Well, the weather is warm here and it's not going away.  We're finally in the 80s and 90s where I know we'll stay for the rest of summer.  PITY.  I loved the 65-75 degrees we've been having.  Maybe I should move to California where it's that 75ish year round...

Moving on.  Friday was a day off for both Ryan and I and probably the best day we've had together in a long long time!  It truly felt like a little one-day vacation.  We started the day by strawberry picking with Necia and her girls. Waller Family Farms is a quaint little place just a few miles from us.  Necia's family were experts at picking the best strawberries and showed us the ropes.  I've never tasted such delicious strawberries; it was so difficult not to eat them before they were weighed!

It also gave me a great opportunity to play with my camera.  Like I said, aren't the photos just fantastic?

After strawberry picking we went and sold my car as mentioned, shopped for a new car, 

one of these in particular:

Siiiigh.  It's so pretty and fun to drive!

Then we went stuffed ourselves with some boneless wings and practiced my frisbee golf skills which are lacking to say the least. Finally the night ended with a BBQ at a friend's house followed by "the train game" a.k.a Ticket to Ride.

Picture perfect day, huh?

Well, now that I've finally caught up on my blogging, I have another day off of work and it's time to clean the house which I have neglected for probably about a month.  I'm in a spring cleaning mood which is a little dangerous.  The house will prove to become a larger disaster before any signs of improvement are seen.  Such is my life!

The Sweeney family welcomes....

A NEW CAMERA!!!!

 Boy, this thing is a piece of beauty!  I still only use it on Auto but oh it takes amazing pictures.  Want to know my favorite part?  When I push the button, it actually takes a picture!! Not a big deal, right? WRONG.  I was so tired of my point-and-shoot camera that had a mind of its own.  Sometimes it would just refuse to take the picture, or have a flash when unnecessary or no flash or make it blurry, etc.  I hated taking pictures because they never turned out how I wanted.  Alas, no more.  Practically perfection in every shot.  Probably the best [early] anniversary present EVER.

To every thing there is an opposite, right? Well as we welcomed the one baby, we said goodbye to another.  

Say hello/goodbye to the Lawnmower. 

(Affectionately named by my brother, Jeremy)

I bought this car the day before I turned 17 and it has been surprisingly good to me these past 7 years!  There have definitely been a lot of memories in it and I don't think it's completely hit me that it's gone.  For good!  

It has a very happy ending, however.  I sold the car to my friend, Michael, from work at a time when he desperately needed it.  His car completely died last week and he had no idea what he was going to do because he could not afford a new car.  Fortunately with it being summer, Ryan can take his motorcycle and I drive the Jag.  So, we did a good deed and helped a friend who was so incredibly grateful for our generosity.  Seriously, when I told him I would sell it to him his face was priceless.  That's a picture I wish I had.  I think this is the biggest act of kindness I've ever been able to provide and I'm so grateful that the Lord has provided Ryan with I with enough means to do this for him!