Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music.....

Though I'm not doing any big dancing...I am celebrating!! I successfully finished my nursing degree and graduated with my ADN on May 21st. All 400 graduates were sitting on the hot stage in our large, heavy, choir looking robes facing the audience. Now this probably looked very nice to our family and friends able to look at all their graduates, unfortunately for us....we couldn't hear a thing said. It sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher...."whaaa, waaa, waaa, waa" Which led to many of us nursing students in the final row....just having our own conversations :) The ceremony was nice, I recieved my fake diploma, and my nursing pin. I was joined in celebration by Dan, my mom, and Dan's family.

I then was informed the next day that I have a job! I was accepted full time in the ER as St. Alexius Medical Center. So that worry is gone. It looks like I will be working pm's and nights again. It will be nice to be back with my night shift buddies!!!!!!!!!!

Hermitsville

I think I have traded my formerly social life for the life of a hermit crab. It seems I never so anything fun anymore. I never seem to leave the house except for work and school. If I'm not working or in class, I'm trying to catch up on sleep or have my head stuck in the books trying to learn everything for school. Well....that chapter in my life is ending!!! YEAH!!!!!!

I took my last critical care test today. I have my last clinical tomorrow, my exit exam is Friday. Then my final exam is Thursday May 14th...just in time to celebrate Girls night out. I have an interview for a nursing job on May 19th, very hopeful that will pan out for me :)

Not much new going on here....times are tight as Dan's job is constantly cutting hours and days. Same boat as so much of the economy. The ER is busy as ever, we are seeing record numbers with the Swine Flu pandemic. Luckily for all of us the swine flu is not nearly as dangerous as the regular flu!! And I have learned how truly ignorant so much of the american public is. You cannot get the swine flu by shaking the hand of a man from Mexico, by eating mexican food, or by working with two people who came back from Mexico over a month ago!!!

Now I count down the days. I can only imagine what it will be like to have time to myself again. Woo Hoo!!!!

fever free

It's been a long week. I was sick all week long. Now granted I didn't get sick for my wedding, and I wasn't sick for the holidays, so I guess it's time. Everyone at work has been sick. I had been avoiding it, but I guess I didn't avoid it well enough. I came down with bronchitis earlier this week and I've been plagued with a fever ranging between 100.6 and 102.2 since Tuesday. I called off sick on Tuesday and only worked a half a day today. I've spent the majority of the last 4 days in bed. Finally this afternoon, I am feeling a little better. I don't feel on fire or have those awful chills anymore. That is much better.

I did venture out Wednesday night to see Dan sing at his contest. I sat in the bar with my water glass and my diet coke with my coat on shivering most of the night. I should have listened to Dan and stayed home, but I wanted to be there for him to see him sing and support him. As always he was great. Below are some pictures of Dan on stage.

Rain Rain Go Away.....

It's Sunday. My weekend was ruined as I have weekend clinicals every other weekend. No fun. This was the end of our first week. Only two more weekends. In all actuality, only 8 more weeks of class total!!!! 68 days until my final!! Woo Hoo

I am currently in a gimp boot. I did a very gracious Bambi on ice demonstration one very cold morning at the end of January. I stepped out of the apartment and boom down I went on my left side. Now imagine every time you attemp to get up....you slide.. I was a mess!!! Well, what I thought was simply a tweaked muscle causing me pain in my foot while taking dance lessons prior to the wedding, actually ended up being tendon damage from my silly ice acrobatics!! So, now a month later we have figured that out and I will be in the gimp boot until end of March!

Dan is singing in a kareoke competition at the Fox & Hound in Schaumburg, every Wednesday night around 9-930 pm. It's been fun. Some people are totally horrible, some are decent. Of course Dan is awesome! There are 6 weeks left and the winner gets $1000 and to sing the National Anthem at a Schaumburg Flyers Game. We all hope he wins!!

Thats all for now!

We did it

January blew in and out didn't it. I can honestly say, it was awesome.

The wedding we had anticipated and planned for 16 months came in with a heat wave, up from 18 below to a balmy 25 degrees with snow showers! I made it to the church looking like an oompa loompa, as I had climbed into a garbage bag to keep my dress clean, and my steps were very very awkward.

What a day. I can honestly say it was AWESOME!!! I would do it all over again. I was totally calm all morning, even when one of my bridesmaids was a little late getting to the house. Mom and Dawn were the stress cases...not me. I got a little worked up as I came out of my "holding room" in the back of the church and met my dad. I was standing there, he told me how beautiful I looked and I started to cry. The music hadn't even changed yet!! Then it changed, here it is....my time to walk down the aisle. Oh man, I'm crying I can't take a deep breath, I'm not nervous, just so very very happy. As I walk down the aisle, therer were so many people...but I could only focus on Dan. There he was, watching me with this grin on his face. My love. He held my hand for dear life during the entire ceremony, which if I say so myself, was rather quick! Before I knew it we were man and wife, and off to the reception in our Limo Bus with our wedding party, complete with stripper pole! What a day.

The reception was so very much fun. I don't think I ever left the dance floor, except for Dan's dance with his mom and grandma. Dan wrote me a beautiful song and sang to me at the reception. My mom put together a lovely slide show. The dj was awesome.

Sunday, Dan and I headed downtown for our minimoon. We enjoyed a matinee of Jersey Boys and Dan thought "it was awesome!" We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Signature Room, followed by a couple cocktails. WE then spent the night on the 40 th floor of the Marriott over looking Michigan Avenue. As we packed up the next morning to head home, we got on the elevator and I looked at my husband, and said..."it's so sad, it's all over already." But, life carries on and it carries you right along with it ready or not!

We look forward to our planned honeymoon either October/November in either Aruba or St. Lucia....minor details to be figured out!

Final Countdown

Somebody told me we were officially at 72 hours until the big day. Holy Cow!! Is that true?? ONly 72 hours until I'm officially Mrs. Eckberg. Hmmm....something to think about. I want to say I have two of the most talented siblings anyone could ask for. My sister, as we all know works wonders day in and day out with her hair stying skills. I can't wait to see how it looks this Saturday. And, my brother, Marty, is an incredible artist. I asked him to do a sketch of Dan and I for me, He did fabulous. Brought me to tears and rendered Dan speechless. This wonderful work of art will be there for all to see Saturday night. If you feel the same way about the talent of my siblings, please let them know. I always knew they were good, I just never quite realized to what extent. Thanks so much Dawn and Marty!!!

Tonight, I sit and watch American Idol with Dan and it's the Kansas City tryouts....it's amazing to me to see the place where I was standing, I haven't seen us yet, but we were there. WE are also seeing some of the freaky people we saw while we visited Kansas City. I laugh as I see some of the people that I have photographed in Dan's American Idol book. Proof that we were actually there.

WEll....I guess thats all my thoughts for now. Back to cleaning my house so I don't come home Monday to a horrible mess!!!!

See y'all on Saturday!!!

Long Week

Surgery went very well. All procedures successful. I went home with my mom Wednesday after the surgery and re-c0uped there. Dan stayed with me Wednesday night, then had to return to work Thursday. I got sent home with some antibiotics and Darvocet for pain. I don't like to take pain meds, so I push as long as I can without then I regret!

I did well Thursday and Friday, feeling a bit better every day. Then Saturday morning I went to breakfast club and visited with Nana and Margie and the gang before Christmas. Saturday was a rough day...I was more sore than I had been in a couple days, I guess the healing process is more painful. Then we headed home, I was exhausted!! I took a little nap, then the emotions took over. I finally had my breakdown. Now, I thought I had prepared myself well for the emotions, had already had several mini meltdowns. But nothing compared to Saturday afternoon. I curled up in fetal position and cried and cried and cried. I don't even know how to explain how I felt. Part of me felt empty, broken, less of a woman. I had gut wrenching sobs that hurt. It was so hard to look at Dan and know the decisions we had made, although they were for the better. I cried until I was empty and had nothing left. Dan is such a wonderful man, he held me the whole time while I cried, he informed me that nothing had changed, even though I felt "different" Thank god I have been blessed with such a wonderful man. I don't know where I would be if I didn't have him by my side. Eventually I went to sleep exhausted and in pain. I woke up this morning not feeling much better, but less depressed :)

Today I headed back to work and I thought it would be easy. Not so much!! First, my car had been parked since Tuesday, so....it was encased in ice! Thank God Dan got up with me and went to help me "brush" the car off this am. I was on time, barely, but I made it 8 of 12 hours on light duty in the god awful cold today. I think I tried to go back to soon. It was tougher than I thought and I was in more pain then I realized, I think more because I had to be more mobile then I had been and only had the comfort of Tylenol!

But in the positive aspect....27 days til the wedding!!!!!

Finito!!

I took my final this morning, so I have effectively finished my third semester of nursing school! YEAH!!! Only one semseter left, I can totally do this!

I have my surgery is all set up for Wednesday afternoon. This is an up and down decision for me. I know that it's the best thing for me, but the thought that I am having surgery done to render myself sterile, is still tough somedays. Oh well....it'll all be done Wednesday and I won't have to think about it anymore :)

Recap

Holy Cow am I behind!!!! Lets see...I'm not going to give any excuses other than pure laziness, and ...I've become a facebook addict. Lets give a quick recap here....

October:

Flew by...school is good, we had a bridal shower with Dan's family at the end of the month. Everything was wonderful and I am truly grateful! Halloween, Dan and I went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. It was pretty cool, for the half I stayed awake for, then I took a nap :)

November:

November 9th was my Ryan/Karner Bridal Shower hosted by Aunt Margie. Showers of Happiness, that was the theme. What a beautiful shower, I definitely can't complain. Aunt Margie pulled no punches and hosted a lovely day. Good food, perfectly themed decorations, clever favors. Molly and Mary helped their mom by setting everything up so nicely. It was beautiful!! Thanks to all for all their hard work and dedication for the perfect day for me.

November pretty much went by without any problems, school is school and can't end soon enough. We worked on getting all the invitations out which proved to be more stressful than I expected. We ordered 225 invitations, I decided that I loved the way they looked with printed envelopes. After about 10 invitations, I realized that maybe I didn't like that idea anymore, because I had to type each name and invite and load each envelope! Oh well....95% got typed and mailed with minimal errors....few wrong zip codes, couple upside down envelopes, some weird highlighting on one of them....but anyways. They all were mailed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we're already getting many back which is so very exciting! Every afternoon I run to the mailbox wondering "how many will come today? Are they coming? Will they make it?" It's totally fun now!!!!

Thanksgiving was different for me. Due to my work schedule, I have to work holidays, and so with having Turkey day off, we headed south to Dan's parents house for the weekend. It was quite different. Imagine, only 5 people total, instead of 60-70!!! Food was wonderful, company even better. It was a wonderful weekend, and I absoulutely cannot complain.

8th annual pub crawl was fun as always! Mainly the same faces a couple new ones. Lots of fun had by all....

December:

December rolled in with snow and bitter cold. School is wrapping up for the semester...Thank God! Final is 12/15 and cannot get here soon enough. This past Wednesday the girls from work hosted yet another bridal shower for me and it was lovely. Lots of laughs, lots of fun, Thanks Mere for giving up your house and cooking all that wonderful food!!!

Sad Face

Ugh....Monday morning I took my I pod off the alarm clock, then toted it to the car, plugged it in and the screen was frozen. So....I did a manual reset and boom....I got a sad face....:( looked just like that. I was so sad. SO I came home later that day and attempted to figure out a way to reset it....no such luck, it says I have a hardware problem. So I take my sad little ipod to the apple store to get it looked at, was told that the ipod was done, fried, useless, and....my warranty was done...shocking! The salesman informed me that it would cost me $139 to get it repaired. I said no thanks! I can buy a new one for the same cost. And I started to walk away. The very nice gentleman then stated he would see what he could do about it. NExt thing I know he told me that he was going to honor the warranty even though it was over, and give me a refurbished ipod. So, he opened the box and handed me a shiny new ipod....or at least it looks new, no scratches. And, it works!

So...I left the Apple store with my newer ipod and a happy face! :)

Bridal Expo

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many people, so many boothes, so little space!!! Why did I go you ask? Of course I already have most of my vendors...but, I was honestly trying to win something...flowers, cash, limo...whatever!!!

Our names didn't get picked in any of the big raffles, perhaps I'll win a vacation...I entered just about every drawing possible. So...we'll see.

Dan was a trooper...he walked with me and even carried all the brochures, what a guy!!!! And, I got 4 comments on how cute my shoes were....from men! That was nice

Decisions, decisions, decisions

you know, I thought all this wedding planning stuff was going pretty smoothly.....

NOw it just seems as there is always a decision that needs to be made. Readings, dance music (actually this one is pretty much done), ceremony music, introduction music, programs, flowers, wrist corsages or pin on corsages, hair styles, coat wear one or not....robe, wrap, whatever? Tuxes vest color and shirt color, ushers...tux or suit?

Maybe we should have eloped.

oh well.....3 months away.

School is well, busy as always.

Dan is wonderful....except his opinion always seems to be..."whatever you like best honey." Which I think is his way of saying....I don't want to irritate you so I'll pick which one you like best!

Engaged Encounter

Rockford, IL ....Bishop Lane Retreat Center

730 pm we check in, get room assignments and head to our rooms to unpack. A very tiny room with two beds, but I figure I'm first so I get to chose the bed first. I put all my stuff down, collect Dan and off to the retreat. It was not a bad weekend, just long. We had a series of lectures then "discussion questions" followed by "dialogue" Friday night didn't end until midnight, I had been up since 5 and I was exhausted. Off to bed we went.

I got to my room and realized I had forgotten my toothbrush....ewww gross....so I finger brushed my teeth in order to at least get them somewhat clean, and swished vigorously with mouthwash. My roommate decided she wanted to text her fiance all night long, no biggie, except her phone beeped with each depression of a key! Ugh!!!! Up early at 7am the next morning, I showered, pulled the same routine with my teeth, then added gum chewing to the mix. So, I felt totally gross, but then my roomie didnt' shower, and when she came out of the bathroom, she didn't wash her hands!!! I'll take dirty teeth over poopy hands any day of the week!

WE got a surprise visit when at the end of Saturday night the brought in some "extra priests" and we had surprise confession!!! Wow! It had been an awfully long time since I'd been to confession.....thank goodness we had a "review" I, like so many others were a bit lost.

All in all, it was a decent weekend, long, my butt was numb after the end of Saturday, but the last dialogue we did where we wrote a love letter to each other, really brought the whole thing home for us. We got home about 1030 last night and then I had to work this am....It's been a long weekend, but we're getting there.

100 days

We are down to 100 days!!! Or a little over 3 months! HOly cow....

I have 9 weeks left of the semester, 31 weeks total until I graduate!!!

I started day shift at work, and that is nice. It's so hard to get up at 5 am every day though. So very hard. I hate mornings, just not a morning person at all....

I'm back in mother baby for clinicals, back at ABMC, which is much closer than Childrens. I got to be in the nursery the other day and I had a great nurse who let me do all the assessments and play with the babies, that was great. I just love those little people when they are that tiny. I think I could handle working in a nursery/L and D situation. I thought that last year, but I really believe it now. So if ER doesn't work out for me, there is always L and D!

Dan and I have our Engaged Encounter weekend retreat this weekend Friday night, Dan is going to pick me up after work and we'll head out to Rockford.

We got ourselves all registered and honestly I don't even know what I registered for! It got to the point where we were just adding things...do we need this? I don't know put it on the list....

Well...off to the homework. Hope all is well, will attempt to blog more often.

Busy, busy, busy

It seems as though everyday there is something.....

School is going well, I don't hate pediatrics nearly as much as originally thought. However, I do hate commuting to Children's Memorial hospital. Traffic totally stinks at 3pm coming home.

Work update....I'm moving to dayshift!! I start October 5th, so thats a good thing. What this means is that I work 7am-7pm now. STill 3 days per week, just not the same days as school. It should work out quite well....

Thats it for us....we are under 4 months!! HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did the time go??/

Summer's over

WEll, now that it's officially Labor Day, summer is officially over! Yuck yuck yuck.

I guess i knew that summer ended last week when I started school again. School started with a bang, 5 days for the first week! UGH!!!!!!!! But, then again....1 week down 15 left of the semester....36 left til I graduate!!! I know I'm a dork!

Wedding plans are in full swing, We're slightly over 4 months...how did this happen? Now my next question is....do I hire a second photographer to cover the portrait backdrop? Or do I let the one photographer I have handle it? I don't want to miss lots of dance shots, but I also want people to be able to have a nice portrait taken if that what they want to....hmmmm, decisions decisions. Any help would be appreciated. But other than that, things are moving well. We actually have another bridesmaid! We were short due to an unfortuanate circumstances, but Dan asked his very good friend Becca if she'd like to stand up for us and she agreed!

I put in for a days position at work, yeah...days 7am-7pm and I'm actually anxiously hopeing for it. My health has not been well and I'm trying to get into a very strong routine, which involves getting up at the same time every day! I'm up early in the morning for school, would make just as much sense to get up at the same time on the days I have to work rather than several hours later!

WEll, I'm off to the books I've got management, legal, and economic issuses to deal with! OH yeah!

Hang on...it may be a long one

Lets do a quick recap....

July....went by like a speeding train. Microbiology is over! Ended with a B, can't complain about that.

August started out with a bang. August 2nd was Ray and Annie's wedding, as always a good time had by all. And for Dan and I a big sigh of relief....our weddings for 2008 are over!!! Unfortunately we were unable to party with the Ryans post wedding because I had to be at work at 11am Sunday morning. Although I wasn't drinking all night, I felt like crap at work!

Tuesday August 5, Dan and I loaded the car and headed west, southwest, a little of both? Who konws.....anyway...we drove to Kansas City, MO so that Dan could audition for American Idol. We arrived at Kemper arena at 4:15 am on Wednesday. What a zoo!!! We waited in line for 4.5 hours to register, we were handed a wristband and a ticket and informed to return at 5 am on Friday...but also told the sooner you got there the better your seats.

Thursday was my 30th birthday. We headed over to Worlds of Fun, which is a theme park similar to Great America, rode the coasters, except their biggest one, which was down...damn! Then we drove to Weston, MO for dinner. We found a little brewery out there that had awesome food.

3:30 am Friday August 8th we are in line for the American Idol auditions. 8 am they open the doors and let us in to our seats. Holy cow were there a lot of people!!! The audition process was long and tedious, and they don't inform you that you won't even see Randy, Paula and Simon for a while. It turns out there are 4 rounds of auditions. Those three are the 4th round. If you get the coveted golden ticket....you come back for round 2 another day, then so on and so forth....you don't even know if you're going to Hollywood for months! Personally I thought the whole audition process was unorganized and I felt they didnt' give us the whole truth ever! But....thats Hollywood. Dan sang Broadway by the Goo Goo Dolls, he was informed that he was a very good singer but not quite what the show was looking for. So....we did not get the golden ticket. Oh well. We packed up and headed home, got home about 5:15 am on Saturday.

This video was Dan lip singing to the group song in order to save his voice for his actual audition. The judges were watching us so he was "gettin it to it"

July

June ended with a bang! We finished up the month with another wedding, my cousin Tom and his wife Julie, much to how we started the month!! As always, fun was had by all. I can honestly say....the best weddings ever, are Ryan weddings. The dance floor was packed all night long, and for once it wasn't all Ryans....good to see the Farrels can party too! The hot dog cart was a great addition, watch out Tom....that idea might be shared sometime in the future! And Fannie Mae was a fabulous little gift to each place setting. Great company + great tunes + great fooD = great time!

The summer semester is officially halfway through. Yeah!!!!!!!! It's hard to believe, but honestly I'm tired. School Monday- Thursday and work 4 days a week is really tough, but I'm surviving! Only 4 more weeks right? Then it's truly summer vacation, at least for 3 weeks!

This weekend was a very busy one. I had to work on the 4th, and it really wasn't so bad. Actually it was so slow that at 4pm I was begging to go home, that way I could meet up with Dan for some friendship and fireworks! Well, that didn't occur, I worked all the way through, oh well....it wasn't so bad. At least there was a good crew, therefore good company that night. Dan spent the day back home with friends, playing volleyball, drinking beer, and shooting fireworks! I begged that he avoid all the fireworks so that he could please come home with all his limbs! I was quite happy to see Saturday morning he had all digits, limbs, and eyesight (though his ears were ringing still :))

Saturday started with the wedding ceremony for a couple coworkers, then onto a 90th birthday party for my great aunt Dorothy, followed by a friends annual 4th of July party, on the 5th! Oh man, we felt like we never stopped. It was nice to get home and get to sleep. J

Today was a lazy day. I got some studing done, laundry, we did more stuff for our own wedding. Plans are coming along quite well. It was wonderful to just be with Dan for the day.

Where or where does the time go?

June is just about over....where did it go? It's been a busy month and as I'm learning it's that way for just about everyone. I've had nothing but graduation parties, bridal showers, and bachelorette parties!

Three weeks of Micro are down, and quite honestly, I don't hate it. I kind of like it....and I'm doing well! What more could I ask for?

Last weekend was a very busy one, I was invited to two graduation parties, two bachelorette parties, and a baptism...honestly, I made it to my girlfriend Brenda's bachelorette party on Friday night, my best friend Mary's graduation party from Vet school on Saturday and that was it!

I opted to spend Sunday with Dan....just him and I, and it was wonderful. We went to the zoo and walked, looked at the animals, just chilled. What more could I ask for?

Our own wedding plans are in full swing. I think we have all the big stuff nailed down. Dress check, Photographer check, DJ check, church check, hall check, table decorations check, rehearsal dinner booked check! We picked out our invitations, decided on bridal party gifts and parent gifts as well this past couple weeks. I know, I seem like an overacheiver, which I'm really not...I'm just trying to plan the fact that I won't be able to do much once school starts full swing again and my time is really limited, so if I get as much done as possible now....great!

Other than that....not much going on around here. Dan's in back playing guitar, I'm sitting here catching up on all the news that is my family and friends. Hope all is well..........

What a Day

Today school started. A full two months of microbiology...oh boy! (can you sense my sarcasm?)

It's gonna be a busy semester, class and lab 4 days a week! But my instructor seems pretty laid back which is good, but I think it's going to be a very busy class, lots of reading, homework and 8 tests, several quizes! It's only an 8 week class!!!! I think I was very smart to give up my summer rather than try to squeeze it in on top of my nursing class next semester!

I had to go to the podiatrist today because I got a pedicure a couple weeks ago and ended up with two ingrown toenails! UGH!!!!! I of course tried to fix them myself (I know I'm not supposed to...) well, my right great toe got infected! The doc gave me a good lecture, but had to numb my toe in order to clean up my nail. I almost crawled off the table while he injected the lidocaine into my toe! He was actually really glad to see that I had such good feeling still in my feet....he said "it's obvious you don't have any problems with neuropathy!" Now the meds are wearing off, and my toe is throbbing.... but it looks much much better!

Dan and I had our final FOCCUS meeting with the couple at church tonight. Now we only have to meet with the priest, go to our engagement retreat, and natural family planning meeting. So, we're getting there! Just the other day I mentioned to someone that it's really quite a ways away, but honestly...it's sooner than I like to realize! I know after August, after Ray's wedding, the time will really fly!

til next time