"The Triangle"

I don't know if I've ever mentioned how confusing driving is in Durham.  I'm used to it now but I was reminded as I looked at a map today just how wonky the streets are!  There is a "triangle" between Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill and the streets all go between them making their own triangle(s).

Not to mention it's hard to find upcoming streets when the road you're driving on looks like this:

Yes, that is an old picture from our move.  Speaking of which, we hit our year mark in NC a few weeks ago. One down, one to go!

Heat Index, Anyone?

I'm leaving this:

For This:

Lower temperature and higher heat index can only mean one thing. MORE HUMIDITY.

Charleston, SC... here we come!!

Thank goodness we'll be getting some beach time.

And I just had to share this picture that Heather posted on her Facebook.  

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Fall is here?

If anyone has walked into a retail store in the past month or so I'm sure you noticed that summer is OVER! It is no different at A.C. Moore.  They've already brought out Back-To-School, Fall, and even Christmas (Christmas in July isn't even here yet!!).

 I haven't worked at A.C. Moore for over a month now but our florist and my beloved friend was in a car accident and has been out of work for the past few weeks.  With the new fall floral items they need to be put to good use so they called me up to make arrangements this week. I love it, I really do.  I never ever had any interest in floral but it's creative so of course I enjoy it.

I don't know the names of the flowers or anything technical but it's so much fun to combine the different colors and textures into something beautiful!  With fall's three-color palette it gets tricky to make things look unique but that's part of the challenge right?

I'm hoping now that I'm not a manager I'll get to do enjoyable things like this more often.

We are so blessed!

I've realized that I either put pictures on facebook or I put them on the blog.
So Boston, New York, and Chicago are on facebook.

We were able to go to an observation deck in each city so here is one photo from each!

Boston

New York

Chicago

We also went to Washington DC but we didn't get any pictures of the city.  

Actually, we were just in a suburb where we purchased this beauty:

I don't say any of this to brag about our life.  Ryan and I are so incredibly blessed and we know it.  We realize that most couples at our age and in our situation do not have many of the things or opportunities we have.  Believe me, we know this.  And we are so grateful for what we have.  But, unfortunately there had to be a sacrifice for all this to happen.  The sacrifice was the life is Ryan's birth mother when he was six-months-old.  I don't want this to be a sad post, I just want you all to understand how we have the things we have.  

But our happiness isn't about things or money.  It's about the people we love, which is each of you! 

For Ryan's big 30th birthday I (with the help of 40+ of Ryan's closest friends and family) reminded him just how much he is loved.  I got the idea from our friends Josh and Emily to put together a book of letters of admiration, inside jokes, stories, etc to Ryan from his family and friends.  

It was a total surprise and definitely the best gift ever.

So a big thank you to all of you who helped! He loves you right back. :)

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. :)