California House

I am so far behind on blogging, but I know that everyone is curious about our new place.

It took a while, but Matt and I found a great house in Highland, CA to lease for 16 months.

After two and a half days of driving Mom, Matt and I arrived on Sunday evening. It was late, but we met our leasing agent, then just unloaded our mattresses and spent our first night in our new house. On Monday we hired a couple of guys from eMove to move all of our belongings in. They were great help --highly recommended!

We are slowly getting settled in. Mom was here for a week and really helped us get unpacked. We are enjoying the cool mornings and have had some time to explore around town. My primary clinical site is less than 10 miles away!






As you can see, there is plenty of room!
Seriously, who wants to come visit?

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

Matt and I have moved to sunny Southern California but we couldn't get away without spending some time with some of our dearest friends!

On Thursday, August 6th, I met with my best girl friends at Cantina Laredo in Fort Worth for some great margaritas and yummy Tex-Mex!

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

On July 31st, Eva, Wayne, Matt and I met at Houlihan's in Arlington to celebrate our completion of Phase I of Nurse Anesthesia School!!

We talked about how much we had been through the past year, how far we had come and how proud we are to have made it through!

And of course, no celebration would be complete without a Martini
(or in our house it's called a Part-ini!)
After our flight of martinis, we each got one our favorite.

We were almost out of the parking lot when we got a call from Eva...her car wouldn't start!
Matt to the RESCUE!

After a quick jump of her car battery, Matt had her back on the road.

This doesn't even begin to repay her for all the times she recued me in the past six weeks since my knee surgery! She has been my taxi (non-emergency medical transport) to and from school, my nurse and my wheelchair transporter around campus.

Thank you Eva!!

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

Lunch dates continued on August 10th when I met Miranda at Old Rips in Fort Worth for some more Tex-Mex! I'm so glad we decided on Mexican because I needed to get my Tex-Mex fix before we moved!


I feel so blessed to have met and become friends with so many wonderful people in my class. This program would be almost impossible without their support and encouragement!

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

Yep, another Tex-Mex dinner date!

I couldn't leave without spending some time with Rob. We met in 2003 when I was a brand new nurse and he was an intern. Our friendship quickly developed and we have kept in touch through all of my travels. I was honored when Rob wrote my physician's letter of reference for anesthesia school. In the past six years we have both grown so much; we love to share in each other's victories.

Rob and I met at Chuy's, one of the newest restaurants in the Arlington Highlands shopping center.

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

I even had the chance to stop by Zale Lipshy and see some of my former colleagues!

BARB!!!

Goodbye, Farewell, So long...

Jill & Isaac met me for my last lunch date at McAlisters's before we left for Cali.
It had been months since I have seen little Isaac. I can't believe he turns 1 this month!

It was so nice to catch up!

Matt's NIP Graduation!

On Friday, Mom and I joined Matt for Parkland's Celebration of a Commitment to Excellence ceremony honoring those who successfully completed the 34th Crititcal Care & Trauma Nurse Internship program.

Matt was honored along with 15 of his colleagues who began this program at Parkland on August 6, 2007. This signifies the completion of the program and their committed time to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Stephanie Campbell did a wonderful job with her address "Reflections of a Nurse Intern".

Graduates included:

Gretchen Brabec, Stephanie Campbell, Julie Hawkins, Tara Heard, Porsche Jones, Stephanie Kern, Katie Larson, Megan Lemley, Matthew Miller, Laura Payne, Crystal Sheffield, Elizabeth Stervinou, Carl Sullivan, David Tate, Crystal Vicars, Lisa Welch, Camilla Willett-Rabin, Kayla Burnett

Getting Ready For Baby Harville!

A couple of weeks ago Mom, Matt and I headed over to our friends Sarah & Brad's house to help paint the baby room!

The guys had an outdoor landscaping project to work on and the girls stayed in the air conditioning with our love VOC paint.

We had the perfect system worked out, I am still on crutches, so I sat down painted low. Mom taped and painted the top of the wall next to the ceiling and Sarah, with her cute baby belly, painted in between!

We had a lot of fun and got the first coat of pain on the walls.

Since then, Sarah and Brad have finished painting and are now working on installing wood floors! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!



Last weekend was Sarah's Baby Shower. Sarah & Brad stayed with us at Mom's house the night before the shower. We enjoyed eating yummy Big D's BBQ then played Rock Band until Joe shut our gig down!

The shower was cute with lots of precious little boy stuff, fun games and good snacks. Unfortunately, it rained right when everyone was showing up (excuse my bad hair!)

Funny story. Since I am STILL on crutches and it was raining, Brad decided that he would carry me in because my crutches would sink in the walkway. It was lightly raining when he came out to our car and said, "I'm going to carry you in. Like a baby or sac of potatoes?" What, I thought?! Then the skies opened up and the rain came down. "Sac of potatoes," I exclaimed and he swept me up and ran for cover! He (and I) was not sure why I chose that, but at the spur of the moment that's what came out. Not a very lady like entrance but he was quite the gentlemen and even held down my skirt!