another chapter.

How cliché, right? Well, regardless...that is where we are. I have finally come to the end of a ridiculous 8 month long job search. This will be my new home until further notice:

Maryvale hospital, about 7 miles from the house, has offered me a job as part of the Abrazo Health Care new graduate program in the Intensive Care Unit.  I'll train for 12 weeks until I begin taking on some patients of my own and will be precepted until I feel comfortable! Anywhere from an extra month or two to six months. I love this cushion of comfort they're giving us...such a necessity when you're a new grad! Some of you may be realizing that ICU is not quite the direction I hoped to go with my nursing career, but I am so thankful for the learning opportunity I've been presented with and cannot WAIT to master the ICU! What better foundation to build a diverse nursing career on? Then someday, I'll be here and it will be perfect. It's only a matter of time. :)

Of course I have to say thank you to everyone who has been so incredibly supportive of both me and Christian the past 8 months. From graduation, Christian's master's defense, engagement, moving to a new city, planning a wedding, and having said wedding, I know I personally have been an emotional wreck and probably not the best friend/sister/daughter/fianceé/wife that I could or should have been. But through all of this, you all never stopped supporting us or picking me up after every rejection and set back. Your confidence in me is relentless and humbling and I am so grateful to have you in my life.

But above all people and all things, I have to say (while trying not to make you all puke) how my partner made it possible for me to stay sane during all of this; how he was there for me at every step and every turn, encouraging me, cursing the new grad climate with me, laughing with me, crying with me, and ultimately pushing me to not give up despite the OBVIOUS obstacles and their obvious affinity for beating me down! I learned to delete rejection emails instead of holding onto them, cry and kick and scream when I was upset and then move on, and most of all I learned to count my blessings every day and realize that no matter how sorry I felt for myself, there was someone out there dealing with something harder. Counting your blessings helps every time. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I can't wait to be the MASTER OF NURSING (which ICU will inevitably prepare me to be). 

Love from Phoenix (and doggy kisses. and doctor kisses.)

Ash

I know I need to post our honeymoon blogs.....

.....but I haven't had a chance. Maybe today after work? :)

However, I leave you with our newest addition, Viesa. I think she's getting comfortable with us, don't you?

Love and doggy kisses from Phoenix,
Ash

WE'RE MARRIED!!!!

On December 18th, we had an AMAZING wedding that we will never forget. We can't wait to share all the photos and details with you very very soon.

We just got back from our honeymoon about 4 hours ago and, believe it or not, it feels so good to be home!  Again, photos galore and.....just for you wonderful folks.....we blogged the entire honeymoon for you! We wanted you guys to share the fantastic-ness with us, as many of your wonderful gifts allowed some of the best parts of our trip to become a reality! Once I get the photos organized (just a day or two, I promise) I'll have it up. All 13 days of it!

Here's a sneak peek of what our photographer has done so far! Incredible! And Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

need an update up in here.

So sorry I've been so delinquent in updating lately (not that anyone reads this besides my mother). I've been busy busy busy. Still no job (don't get too excited), but working away on that there little wedding of ours and it's putting right along. Let's see...where did we leave off? Nov. 5th? Okay.

We got our engagements done (can be seen on facebook or our wedding website) and they turned out amazing. Our photographers are so nice/funny/laid back/reasonably priced!! I love them more every time I look at their work. They're so excited to come down for the wedding (they're based in Gilbert) and we're equally excited to have them.

our spooky porch

Christian has been taking test after test after test. He had a string of like three weeks where he had a test every single Friday. It sucked. Poor guy got pretty dang stressed out. But he's doing well on the exams and pulling through. A lot of fellow classmates and people on his student-doctor forum online say that this first year is the hardest, mostly due to getting used to the schedule and taking some of the tougher classes. If this is as bad as it will get (as far as material goes), I think we might be able to handle this med school thing! I'm super proud of him. He has an exam tomorrow (yes, on Saturday...he can test Fri-Sun) and then his schedule looks like this: Thanksgiving week he's off on Wednesday (so am I!) and goes back on Monday. Then that next week he has has an anatomy exam, the week after is one last neurology exam and he made it though his first semester!!!! His last day of the semester is December 10th. Then he has jury duty December 12th (what the heck) for which he will kindly explain that he can't be chosen for a jury because...he's getting MARRIED the next week!!!! That is how close we are...29 days. It's really nuts!

my horse friend

Christian's mom, Ethan, and Savannah came up to Phoenix last Friday for some hang out time. It was so nice having siblings and a mom to hang out with. We went out to dinner and saw Megamind (sooo funny). I love it when our family comes to visit. December 11th is when Lindsay and Reese get here and I'm SOOO excited to see them. Chris stayed in Phoenix with his family, while on Saturday I took the car down to Tucson to go to my friend Denise's baby shower. Denise and I have been friends since the 6th grade, so it was really fun celebrating this new adventure with her. She looks so beautiful and she and her husband are going to make amazing parents. Can't wait to meet you, Baby Terrance. :) The rest of the weekend was spent in wedding overdrive. Ordering, making decisions (that seems to be the hardest) and trying to tie up some loose ends. Then, on Sunday night, I was having sooo much fun hanging out with my dear mom that I insisted she came up to Phoenix with me for a few days. We had so much fun (and got a few things done, I guess)! We took care of bridesmaid's gifts, ordered sparklers for our 'getaway' and bought a few accessories for my dress. We also took some time to go to the Phoenix zoo (it was my first time!) and it was fantastic. It's really spread out but they have a lot of neat exhibits. And a petting zoo! With a pretty white horse that I befriended. She was so nice to come up and keep me company/help me with wedding stuff. And she showed me how to scrub out my bathtub the right way (I couldn't seem to get it clean for the life of me). What a nice lady. :)

me and mama at the zoo

Coming up next for us: a weekend in Phoenix for once, thank goodness. We went to Harry Potter at 12:01 AM (yes, it was amazing!!!) and spent much of today catching up on sleep. For the evening, I've been cleaning up while Chris studies for his test. Frankly, we spend a lot of Thursday/Friday nights this way...kind of embarrassing...we are incapable of acting our age. BUT: my house smells like lemon furniture polish and the Pandora Christmas station is ROCKIN'! And you can't ask for much more than that. For those of you that don't know the joys of Pandora, get with the program! Pandora.com will take you to Pandora radio where you can pick a station based on genre, a particular artist, or song and it will play song after song like that. And their Christmas station is bomb. Just sayin'.

Well, I think that begins to scratch the surface of what's been up with us. The next few weeks will be so insanely crazy. I think I'll try to do my best to blog so that I can keep it all straight (and have a record of our last few weeks as not-married people!!!!!!). Wow. Kind of reminds me when we bought our wedding bands, the lady told me to she wanted to fill it out with my married name so the protection plans are in our correct names. SOOOOOO WEEIIRRRDDDD! Good weird, but weird just the same. :)

Love you all. Thank you for your help/support/patience while I try (and my mom tries) to keep from going nuts.
MWAH. XO.
Ash

more to post later!

....but for now, you can click HERE to see a sample of our engagement photos!!!!! We LOVE them!!!!!!!!

xo,
Ash

november is taking over.

I CANNOT believe it is already November. It seems like the busier we are the more quickly time flies, and this has truly been one of the busiest years of our lives! While planning the wedding, I kept feeling like I had sooo much time to do certain things. "December is soooo far away..." Now that it's practically a month and a half away, I'm eating my words and wishing I had taken care of some things earlier in the summer!

Speaking of weddings, we had the absolute joy and pleasure of attending our the wedding of two of our closest friends, Clinton and Courtney. Christian and Clinton have been best friends since the third grade and Christian was his best man. We had a wonderful time and for the first time ever, Chris told me he's excited to have a wedding! He's always said he's happy to be marrying me, but I think the fact that we're having an actual wedding just kind of sunk in by going to theirs. They looked amazing, everything was wonderful, and we are so incredibly happy for them. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Williams!

My job at the YMCA is going okay. I'm learning their system and (I don't know if this is the right word) enjoying (?) my first job in one on one customer service. I'm getting to know my regulars, as well as the nasty meanies that call our phone to ask questions (or yell at me). It's not bad, but I can't wait to get into a hospital. 

In other news, I hope we get trick-or-treaters! Come here! We have candy!!!

I'll try to post pictures of our decorations tomorrow. I've been meaning to.

Happy Halloween, everyone. We love you.

busy...yet, not?

So the last few weeks have been strange. It's bizarre how UN-busy you are when you are unemployed, especially following 5 years of full-time school, two of those working part-time. At the same time, adding a wedding to the mix, medical school, a new house, and the rapidly approaching holidays, Chris and I have been surprisingly busy.

We've spent a weekend up here in Phoenix and another back in Tucson. Our Phoenix weekends are relaxing, but our Tucson weekends are tons of fun. We've been enjoying seeing our families, going to U of A football games, seeing friends, and taking a break from Phoenix.

Ethan at Kenpo Karate!

Chris and Honor at the Cal game.

Chris has officially passed his first block in med school (with flying colors, might I add) and has moved onto his second block: neurology. This block is supposed to be significantly harder, plus he's doing anatomy simultaneously. He has been spending every spare moment at the medical examiner's office, with "George" who so generously volunteered to teach medical students with his donation. His next big exam is this Friday, so he's been pretty overwhelmed by studying.

I, on the other hand, have mastered laundry, dishes, and all things house related. It's lame. And boring. But it's something to do. However, as the wedding [too] rapidly approaches, I'm finding myself needing to devote 100% of time/attention to the biggest party of our lives. My mom and Megan are being super helpful, I think I just need to get WAY more organized. In an attempt to thwart poverty and fill the days a little more productively, I got a job at the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA. It's about five minutes away from the house, good hours, and should allow me plenty of time to continue to pursue a nursing job here in Phoenix.

Halloween party with our new neighbors and their buds.

In the meantime, we've met some cool neighbors across the street that just moved in a month or so ago. We're continuing to adjust to living together for the first time, which has been both fun and challenging. We're doing our best to enjoy fall in Phoenix (it's supposed to be 85 degrees this weekend!) and continue to work hard towards our goals. It's exciting getting closer to THE wedding day. I think it's nice to have something fun to look forward to.

I truly CONTINUE to thank you all for support, support, support. We love you guys and couldn't do it without you.

xo,
Ash