Settled

We're finally settled in. Thank God!!! We spent this last weekend cleaning and organizing the last of the stuff. Finally I can get rid of some boxes! Yeah!!

I finished school earlier this week with a B in my Nursing class. Off to a pretty good start I'd say. I'm quite content with that grade. Next semester isn't going to be easy at all, but I'm ready for it. What can I say...1 down, 3 to go!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm off til Wednesday, but I have to work the New Years Holiday's and the weekend before, so that kinda sucks, I'll have to work 5 days straight, which will pretty much lead to a very cranky lady. Dan is off until January 3rd, so that's a nice break for him.

We were supposed to head to the zoo last night, but we had double booked ourselves, my girfriends 30th birthday was last night, so we headed back up to McHenry to visit with friends. It was a nice night all together.

Today I'm sitting here in my nice clean apartment, baking. I'm trying my hand at irish soda bread. Though it'll never be the same as my Aunt Mary's, I'm hoping for some good results.

We have a date tonight with sone of Dan's old friends, we're meeting all of them in Tinley Park. This has been a whirlwind week already and it's just going to get busier!!! As we head in two different directions tomorrow to spend Christmas eve with both of our families.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!

Follow the List!!!

Oh my....Dan had his first solo trip to the grocery store this past weekend. What an experience...I had to work, hence why Dan headed to the store alone. He had a list, a specific list of what to buy, so...how is it we end up with so much "other stuff?" There were three things on that list that I really wanted, then a couple things that we needed. The three major things were....a dish rack, a three or four drawer set to put under counter, and mosticolli noodles. I came home from work at 4am to find the counters and cabinets full. Yet, I don't see my drawer set, and I do find a CASE, full case of tangerines!!! What? Those weren't on the list. Next I open the cabinet to find, not one, but two...5lb bags of flour, 2-5lb bags of sugar, 3 cans of veggies, carrots, mixed and corn! Now mind you, flour was on the list, but only 5 lbs, sugar was not on the list, canned veggies were on the list; corn, green beans, and peas (no carrots or mixed veggies). He had bought not one but two napkin holders. One because it had a hole set, napkin, paper towel holders, and salt and pepper shakers. We have all the other stuff, we just needed a napkin holder!

When Dan woke up the next day, I questioned his shopping motives...His response, "it was on sale, honey!" When I asked where the missing items were, his response was..."the cart was full honey, so I just thought they weren't necessary!" So, I had to remind Dan that we were only two people and bigger isn't always better, and the reason he has a list to follow is so that we can avoid a second trip to the store. Lucky for us, we were able to return all of the unwanted items (except the tangerines) to Meijer, with little hassle and he learned how to follow the list. Hopefully next time will be better.

I know we've all had our days when we've missed that one thing we truly need and we all have days where we buy more than was necessary, but...I thought this was so funny. He was so proud of himself. I'm glad he did the shopping and is learning and I honestly don't think that he purposely screwed up so that he wouldn't have to go back. He's learning to become more independent, because he's never had to be.

New Beginnings

Well, we moved out. We've moved into an apartment in Naperville. Dan was scheduled to move all of his stuff this past weekend 12/1, I had to work, so my plan is to move my stuff next weekend 12/8.

We pretty much beat the snow. All of his stuff was in the apartment right before the snow started, then the downfall occured. They managed to get the truck back in plenty of time and come home on the slick streets. While truck return happend, Dan's mom and I unpacked and organized my new kitchen, and bathrooms.

Unfortunately, I had to work this afternoon at 3pm. Ugh!!! IT took me an hour and a half to get to work!! I was so very tired... I had been up since 730 that morning, and had to work a 12 hour shift!!!! Work went well and I headed out around 330 that morning. Lucky for me the roads were much clearer and I was able to get home in about 30 minutes.

Upon arriving home, my key didn't work!!! I couldn't get in the apartment!!! I had to call Dan and wake him up in order to get in. But, he was actually awake. Why is that? He had set up a carpet picnic....champagne, cheese, apples, crackers!! It was so very sweet, I started to cry, mainly because I was so tired!!!!!! So, I had a glass of wine and a couple crackers and apples, then asked Dan..."ok, can we go to bed now?"

So, we went to bed and then were able to spend a couple hours together on Sunday before I headed back into work.

We get to do it all over again this coming weekend when I get to fill a truck and get all my stuff down to the apartment.

7 years

Ok, lets do a quick catch up....

Thanskgiving was wonderful like always. Lots of bodies in the Karner household, too much food, good times.

7th annual Ryan Pub Crawl...can you believe we've been doing this for seven years already??? Wow!!!! Once again, a great time had by all, and, I was stone sober the entire night! This may have been our biggest crawling crowd yet.....pictures to follow later....

My health, the pulmonoligist said I'm looking good. I feel good. My last INR last Tuesday was 3! The upper level of the range they want me in, but still good. Yeah!!!!!! I go to the hemagologist on the 6th, but so far, all the tests have come up negative.

School, busy as ever....1 project, 2 tests, 5 clinicals and one final until I'm done for the semester December 17th!! Then I have a wonderfully long month off, which I know will fly by, because that's how things work. But, I look at is as I'm 1/4 of the way through with nursing school....Thank God!!

Work....nothing new to report. I'm back to 12 hour shifts. They could not accomidate me with 8 hour shifts. They informed me they were heavily saturated and couldn't "create" the hours I needed, but if I wanted to lower my FTE (hours per week I work) that we could do. Whatever....I'm doing it. I've requested an 11am-11pm weekend program, working every Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That way, although I'll have to work every weekend, I'll at least get a decent amount of sleep every night.

Dan and I are moving next weekend!!! Yeah~!!! He's moving all of his stuff on Saturday December 1st, because I have to work that weekend, I'm going to move just the essentials that weekend and I'm going to rent the truck and move the bulk of my stuff on Saturday December 8th. I'm so excited though. It's truly been hard for me to have to say goodbye, knowing I won't see him for a week or longer.

Thats all that's new around here.....

Rough week

It's been a horrible week. I returned to work this week at a decreased pace. Per the doctors, they only want me to work 8 hour shifts, so I can give my body a rest. Ok. I told this to my boss while I was in the hospital, he said they'd work with me. I'm still putting in the same amount of hours, 72 hours per pay period, which equals to 4-8 hour shifts one week and 5 the next. SHouldn't be too difficult right??? WRONG!!! This week, I only worked 24 hours and as of Thursday they still haven't figured out my hours. Now they're suggesting that I work all my originally scheduled shifts, just cut them down by 4 hours each. OK, but I still need one or two extra shifts per week in order to make it work. Now the suggesstion is that I drive in for 4 hour shifts , well, I would need 4 of those per week to make that work. Thats and awful lot of driving!!! Oh, poo....someday we'll get this figured out. If I could cut down my hours I would, but my benefits and scholarship are dependent on my hourly commitment.

On the good side, Dan and I are moving. We got ourselves an apartment, in Naperville. I know this seems far away, but it's really a halfway point between both of our jobs. Until he's willing to move to a job further north, that's where we settle. But, we are moving in the first week of december! Yeah!!!!

Marty celebrated his 25th birthday this past Thursday 11-8. Ralph will be 56 on 11-13, and Dawniepie will be 26, big party in the city for Dawn's bday!!!

I spent the past two weekends with Dan's family, it's been very nice. School is going well, I'm just getting excited to end the semester. Next semester isn't going to be easier at all, it's going to be very difficult, but hell..I can do it!!!!

My blood work has been all over the map again. Thursday my INR was 6.6, technically a critical level!!! No coumadin Thursday or Friday, Start again Saturday, blood work Tuesday! Well, thats all for now!!!

Ugh!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

I had to get up today and drive to Harper to take my oral meds test. Not a big deal. I just had to prove that I could look up medications, check they were ok, and administer the meds without killing the patient. Honestly, I had absolutely no worries about it at all!!!! Until I got there, the girl in front of me was pacing because she wasnt' so sure she passed. She was told to wait in the hallway until they could check things out, I listened to her story and started to worry because I would have done exactly what she would have done!!! Then, I took my test. No problems, I passed, I'm done and now I can actually pass oral meds to my patients when I'm at clinical! Yeah!!!

But, I'm irritated with the school. You see, last week while I was in the hospital, I missed 1 class, 1 lab, and 2 clinical dates. This week, I also missed clinical, per doctors order. I had asked what I could do to make up the time so that I didn't get too far behind and such. All I was told was to stay up on my reading so that I didn't get behind there. So, today right before I started my exam, I was given a piece of paper with a make up assignment. To make up the 4 hour lab time I missed while in the hospital. I have to go in on my own time and watch 3 dvd's about patient communication. I then have to write a paper on what I watched, ok no big deal, except...it's due Monday!!! I also have a test Monday morning. I just wished they had given me a smidge more time to catch up....but....I'll just have to get it done. I'm also going to have to make up 12 hours of clinical time....at $30 each section, so $120 total. Trust me, it just doesn't pay to get sick and spend a week in the hospital. It's not worth the effort!!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful night and the ghost's and goblins stay away!!!!

will it ever be right?

Went for blood work today, got a phone call about 2 hours ago. INR is 5.8!!! Way too high. They want me between 2 and 3! So, no coumadin tonight or tomorrow. More blood work on Thursday, which throws a little bit of a cramp in my style.

You see, since I'm on the road to recovery, I decided to head to Dan's Wednesday afternoon after my Medication test at school. Now, I have to delay that decision and head down a day later. Not too big of a deal, just less time with Dan. Oh well....we're used to it right? :)

Happy day to all of you!!!!

Success....and Health??/

To all of you who made it to the party for my parents this weekend, Thank you so much. Dawn did a wonderful job pulling it all together. I felt horrible, for I was stuck and there just wasn't much I could possibly do to help. I think we really got my parents, they truly weren't expecting the party. It was lots of fun, but by the end of the night, I was absolutely exhausted!!!!

As some of you know, I was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon around 1230. INR 3.25...too high!!! UGH!!! They were going to try to keep me, but, finally they decided that if they tried to get the numbers exact, I could be there for another week and that was just silly!!

So, they released me with a Coumadin dose of 7mg per day. I head back for another INR test tomorrow.

I had made appointments for wedding dress shopping and wasn't sure if I was actually going to make it because I was so tired. But, we did it. Mom, Dawn, Dan's Mom, Dan's Grandma and I headed out to House of Brides and Davids. I did find a gown I love, and I look really pretty in it :) Also, although it's early, we found a gorgeous dress for the girls...Dawnie tried it on and looked fabulous!!! Here's the catch....it's going out of style. Go figure!!! But, I figured that it's a very simple dress that should be easy to alter if needed. If all the girls like it....fabulous!!! If not, oh well, we start all over again, in the beginning of the year.

Headed back to school today. I tell you, I'm having a very hard time with this light duty stuff and trying to slow down. It's a tough recovery. I get winded walking from the car to the classroom, and I removed all the heavy books because I'm on light duty restrictions...no more then 15 pounds!!! I want to do more, but I get tired really easily. But next week I can go back full force. Funny isn't it? I never thought it would really hit me this hard. The doctor told me that my body had gone through a horrible stress and it would hit me even harder when I got home. That's true. I mean, I understood what a stress my body went through, but I didn't think it would be this tiring when I got home!!!

updates

Thursday's INR 1.6, biggest jump yet. Dr. Fischer says....I think perhaps you can go home tomorrow. Dr. Amin..."nope, perhaps Saturday!" So.....here I lay. Thursday's coumadin dose 9mg.

Saw a hemotologist on Thursday as well, the same one dad sees. He's running some tests, not all th e possible tests because I'm currently on anti-coagulants, so I could have skewed results. Point of the hemotologist is to see if there is a clotting disorder that may be to blame for these clots, more then just the birth control pill and smoking. Eitherway, both of those behaviors have stopped and will never occur again.

Friday....INR 2.1 YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still in hospital, Dr. Amin's pretty positive to get me out of here tomorrow morning. Some test results are back. I am negative for Factor V Leiden, and the lupus anticoagulants. That doesn't mean I don't have Lupus. They're still going to test for that. THere are a whole slew of blood tests out there being run, and I'll meet with the hemotologist sometime next week to discuss all the results. They'll run another test later for antithrombin III, this is a clotting disorder that my uncle suffers from, but they can't run it while I'm on heparin. So sometime next week they'll take care of it.

Thats it in a nutshell. I can't wait to get out of here.

INR 1.25, Coumadin dose tonight 7mg, hopes of getting out tomorrow...totally demolished.

Per Dr. Amin, pulmonologist, yesterday's pain and today's windedness, were/are the clots spasming. New funky bruise....to be watched, make sure it doesn't grow any larger. I know the heparin causes bleeding and bruising, but this bruise is in such a funny spot, I wasn't really sure what it was! He said normally 5 days on IV heparin...."but you're taking so long, perhaps 7-8 days for you!" Damn, I said. PTT levels stabilized, so my dose of Heparin is actually less. I'm on 1500 units/hour. I've been on 1600 from Sunday until early this morning.

They want the coumadin level to be abut 2.5 for 48 hours!!! So, Not only do I have to reach that level, I have to then maintain it for 48 hours! So If by chance of luck I manage to double the coumadin dose by tomorrow, I'll be out on Saturday.

I'm off work next week as well. School, the doc and I came to an agreement....I can attend lecture, but no clinicals. He wants me to not be sedentary, but to take it easy next week as well and go from there. He said, if I take it easy, I'll be a little less likely for re-occurance. So, I said...OK. I'll take next week off. My boss was totally cool and he said he'd work with me with coming off the 12 hour shifts, so....thats it in a nutshell.

not much for new news

Well, It's now Wednesday, I haven't yet see the pulmonologist or family practice docs today. They must all take Wednesdays off!!!

They had to change the Heparine dose again. They've lowered it this time, so therefore, I get more blood draws! Oh joy! They have to have two consecutive levels every six hours adjust the heparin level. Now I just have to wait and hope. My next draw will be around 730 this evening. Lets hope its the same at the 130 this afternoon draw. I have't heard what my INR was today, then again, I keep forgetting to ask!

Yesterday was a tough day. Around 230 in the afternoon, I had a very sharp pain in the right side of my chest and experienced SOB, the doctor happened to be there at that time. My ECG was normal, but my O2 saturation was low again and my blood pressure went up. So, they sent me for a third CT scan. The results of this scan showed no difference from Monday's scan, which showed approximately 70% of the clots were gone. So now my question is why aren't more of the clots dissappearing?? What is going on with my body??

Today, I found a very strange bruise with a lump on my upper left arm very near to my armpit. I informed the nurse, but havne't heard from the doc yet. I've been quite tired today and get worn out easily. I cleaned myself up and washed my hair, and was just pooped! I feel like I get winded easily. I've been taking my laps around the nurses station and just watching everything I'm doing. Today I've been attempting to study. I'm getting some reading done, but not enough. You would think the situation would be ideal, but it's really noisy, the staff keeps on coming in to ask more and more questions, and I'm drinking so much water in order to flush all the CT contrast dye out of my system in order to not have kidney problems, that I'm peeing all the time!!!! If I receive much more contrast, I'm going to be glowing like one of those glow necklaces you get at a carnival!!! My blood sugars have been pretty good, which is a good thing, at least one thing is starting to work in my favor!!!!

I've had lots of visitors and lots of love. There is no shortage of love and prayers which I am forever grateful for. Thanks everyone for your positive thoughts and I'm doing my best to get the hell out of here. I'm really miserable!!!

updates..(and a little whining!)

OK, had a repeat CT scan of the lungs tonight, per the nurse, the report said....significantly less clots notices. Now, I was actually discouraged by this because I had that TPA therapy, which was supposed to break the clots and my understanding was they ALL would be gone, not just some of them. Well, they're not. So, now I wait to hear what the pulmonologist has to say. Actually, I was crushed because I thought everything was going to work out perfectly and all the nasty clots would be gone. They also repeated the Echocardiogram, now, here they did find some improvements. I don't know what the exact measurements are supposed to be, but they were half of what they were on Saturday, which the tech said was they were now in the "normal ranges." So, that was good news. Also, my INR, which is a blood clotting ratio level, was tested again today. The doctor started me on Coumadin last night, I had a 5 mg pill. Dr. Fischer informed me that he wants to see my INR level somewhere between 2 and 3 before they can let me go home!! Today the nurse came in and informed me that my INR level wasn't even 1! So, once again it was discouraging news. They upped my Coumadin level to 7 mg tonight in hopes that the higher dosage would get me to the levels I need to be in. All in all, the tests don't seem to be heading in the directions that I want and need them to be in in order for me to go home sooner.

All in all, it was a very very emotional day for me. I think all the news hit me like a Mack truck this afternoon. I was extremely tired all day long, and cried at the drop of a hat. I think the fact that this was truly a "life-threatening" problem, hit me today. After I got the results of the CT, I just cried and cried and cried. Thank God Dan was here, he just sat and held me and let me cry. I then called my mom with the results I had and cried some more. I'm scared. I'm truly scared, I don't really know what to do anymore! I'm doing everything they tell me to do, and I guess I just hoped for faster results than I'm seeing. Please just keep me in your prayers. I'm hoping for some miracles and to be heading home by Thursday.

I'm fine....It's just an anxiety attack.....

WRONG!!!!! No, I was not suffering from sudden onset panic attacks, like I originally thought. It turns out I was really really sick. It started earlier this week. I had a cramp in my left leg. No redness, no swelling, no heat, and I was able to walk on it, all signs that it was just a cramp, literally. Not a clot as I thought. Then Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling a little strange, I felt tachycardic (fast heart rate) and like I couldn't expand my lungs fully. Not short of breath so much, just like I couldn't get a full breath. But, those symptoms went away and I was feeling better. So, I figured I'm beginning to suffer from anxiety attacks. The stress was getting to me.

Saturday night I headed off to work and while I was walking to my car all of about 25 feet, I felt winded. At work, just sitting my heart rate was 120, and really pounding away!!! Finally I had an ecg done and it was normal, just fast. But the Doctor said she didn't like the way I looked and wanted to run some tests...you see, it turned out my heart rate was fast, my respiratory rate was fast and my oxygen saturation was low, and I was pale. After a bit of arguing any stubborness on both sides, the doctor won. I checked myself in. AFter some blood work was run, a chest xray and finally a CT scan of my lungs. It was found that I had multiple bilateral pulmonary emboli....in laymans terms, and the doctors words "lots of blood clots on both sides of my lungs!!!" I was immediately started an heparin, a blood thinner. Then the pulmonologist came in and told me that with my age and the location of the clots, I needed to be more aggressive. They started me on a drug called TPA, it's a clot buster. It breaks the clots up, and can produce bleeding. So, I ended up in the ICU for a night on major blood thinners and major watch. At first they wouldn't let me out of bed at all, then around midnight, they told me I could get up to pee....thank god!!!! Now I'm in a regular room, still on the heparin. I will have IV heparin until at least Wednesday. Thursday is the soonest they'll let me go home. I'll be on coumadin for at least 6 months, then more tests will be run.

So, it's been a whirlwind weekend for me. Hopefully all will be better by next week. I have to talk to the doc, they informed me I have to lower my stress levels. My 12 hour work shifts might be over. I'll probably have to enter the land of normal people and actually work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. That'll most likely work better with school anyways. The school was cool with me so far with all that's involved. So that's a good thing.

Everybody thanks for you prayers, I'm just hanging out at St. Alexius. At least they all know me here, so that makes it easier to deal with some of the stuff. They're extra nice to me. And contrary to popular belief, thus far I have been a wonderful patient. I haven't gotten snotty or mean with anyone...but it's still early! :)

Where does the time go???

OK, now its the middle of October, which to me as student means....once this week is finished, I'm officially half way through my first semester!!! YEAH!!! That's huge, cuz I've been counting this sucker down week by week, it's the only way I can make it through.

Also, all my weddings for the year are finished. Phew.....you don't understand, we had three weddings in six weeks! Last night being the final one. I'll recap....Mary's wedding, lots of fun, once again a Ryan wedding, never a disappointment. Dan was blown away by the Ryan family, yet, he fit right in. Thanks Mary, we had so much fun....I hope you had a wonderful honeymoon.

Last night was definitely a different wedding. It was a Rock and Roll Wedding, where prelude music included such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Iron maiden, Metallica, Disturbed...the groom walked into MOby and the Bride and bridal party to "Don't' Stop Believing!" by Journey. Instead of a framed photo or a guest book, there was a guitar to sign, interesting. The bride wore Chuck Taylor's, which I thought was genious, because she was totally comfy in gym shoes all night long. Never had to worry about when it was acceptable to take off the heels.... All in all it was quite cute! Tough to dance to though, how do you dance to heavy metal? My fiance got quite excited, you see that's his type of music, and I think was a little crushed when both his mother and I said "NO" to Iron Maiden at our own wedding....Whats your vote? Do you agree with me or Dan?

All in all, thank God it's over! Now I'm just back to the grindstone of school and work. You know, I heard on the news today that there are only 71 shopping days left til Christmas....It's not even Halloween yet!!!!!! Oh well, it all gets earlier every year.

Woe Is me

Tonight I'm sitting here writing this blog when I should have been celebrating with Mary. Unfortunately, I'm suffering a horrible head/chest cold. I was struck with this nasty disease on Thursday morning. I went to school, suffering, I left early, came home and climed in bed. Then I got up Friday morning for clinical....feeling even worse. I headed to Alexian Brothers and my instructor asked me why I was there if I was so sick. I informed her that I didn't want to have to make up the time. I just wanted to get it over with. She told me early in the day that if I felt that bad, get what I could get done and go home. At 1045, I was hit with a horrible coughing fit, which had me gripping the wall for stability. My instructor sat me down and checked my vital signs! When it was discovered that I had a fever of 102.4, she sent me home for the rest of the day. On my way home, I called off sick to work that night. I got home and crawled in bed, sleeping the rest of the day and most of the night away. I also preceeded to sleep most of the day away on Saturday...I didn't even emerge from my bedroom til almost 4pm....yes, thats right. I had made the decision not to attend Mary's bachelorette party, more in fear of infecting anyone else with this god-awful process, right before her wedding!!!

So, I'm currently sulking, but....everyone else's health is more important. I've heard they're having fun!!!!!

Nursing school....1 month down already. Can you believe it? I'm shocked, where did the time go? It appears to be going well. Hopefully I can just keep it up. Next semester will be tougher because I'll be taking physiology on top of nursing 102...

Dawn's house is up on the market, hopefully it seels soon. You see, the plan is for her and I to head into the city and get an apartment together. Dan is planning on coming with us, so we'll have the Three's company house.

Wedding plans are currently halted. We've settled on a date and a hall, and thats as far as I've gotten! But, I'm totally ok with that. We've got some information on photographers and djs from some of the other weddings we've attended.

I'm seriously looking forward to Mary's wedding next weekend. It's been too long since we've had a Ryan wedding....and it hasn't even been a year!!!! Dan is also excited, he's heard so much about how fun our family weddings can be that he's not really sure what to expect!

Summer's Gone.....

Long time, no blog. Oh dear, I've been too busy to sleep let alone blog! :)

At the end of August, Dan and I headed north to Garrison, MN with his family for a relaxing week of fishing and basically doing nothing. Unfortunately, Saturday, Sunday and Monday it rained cats and dogs. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the owner of the resort said, "nah, we're not gonna get any rain, we're in the middle of a drought!!" Of course, Murphy's law, it rained....a lot. But, we did manage to catch some fish and even get pedicures!!! That was wonderful. Dan's mom paid for the pedicures after I tried, she said..."no! I finally have a daughter to spoil." That was very sweet. Tuesday, we were suppossed to head south to the Twin Cities to see friends and Meg and Joel. Unfortunately, we didn't make it. The weather finally broke, so we decided to stay and get some fishing in. We did manage to get to see my friend Shane and Dan't friend Scott later in the week, we met up at a halfway point. Sorry I missed you Meg! Bad combination of weather, and misplacing your number. We did discover that I am the "greatest fisherwoman ever!" All in all, we had a wonderful week and a lot of fun. It was nice to kick back and relax before life carried on again.

We headed home Friday afternoon and stopped in Chippawa Falls at the Leinenkugels brewery, took the tour, had a couple beers and headed out! Unfortunately, we were there on a cleaning day, so they were not brewing any beer, but we did get to see them do the bottling, that was neat to see.

Saturday, Dan and I had two appointments to view a couple reception halls. Mom and Dad decided to join us on our quest, just in case we wanted their opinions. We had a very productive day, saw two halls, two hotels, one church, and had lunch! All in all, it was a great day.

Sunday we had a wonderful dinner with Dan's family as they stopped to pick up Dan.

Nursing school started Monday August 27. It's kinda tough quite honestly. It's not the content that's hard, it's the fact that this first semester it escentially teaching me to do the job I already have!! I understand it's all a means to an end, but it is tough.

This past weekend, we attended a wedding of good friends of mine. It was so neat be at this wedding, because I had watched their relationship grow from their very first date. It had been so fun to watch them plan and prepare. Here's a picture of Dan and I at the wedding.

Where do I start???

Had a wonderful weekend. We headed southwest to Oregon, IL to Lake Ladonna Family resort. I hopped a ride with Matt and Tina because Dan was going to be meeting me there a bit later. Fifteen of us headed down, and were on 4 sites. It looked like a little shanty town because there were six couples and then three individuals....a total of nine tents!!!! Couple gazebos, four picnic tables, 16 chairs, six cars, 16 cases of beer, two grills, 40 brats, 64 hot dogs, and a partridge in a pear tree!!! Anyway, we had a wonderful time and all the girls sat and talked wedding stuff, because two of the girls (Adria & Heather) have upcoming weddings, Amalia was just married in July, and then Sam and myself, just dating, and Tina, married 13 years! There was lots of talk of how the proposals went and how the wedding plans were going. Jokingly, I told Dan to take notes :)

We headed home today for an early birthday dinner with the folks. Dad asked me what I wanted and all I asked for was chive potatoes. Dad made a BBQ beef roast on the grill, corn on the cob and chive potatoes. I ate too much at dinner and was overstuffed. I was helping with dishes and mom says to me that we have birthday cake....I said "I ate too much, lets just have cake later, I'm too full now." Then dad was totally insistant that there's always room for chocolate cake. I was not really in the mood to argue (surprisingly) so I sat down at the table. Mom asks if we should sing and Dawn tells me 29 candles is too many to put on the cake. The entire time, I'm sitting at the table and Dan is standing next to me, they all sang Happy Birthday to me and I was about to tell Dan to put the cake down already!!! As they finished the song, Dan put down the cake and I looked at it...it had a ton of writing....Well, I didn't look directly at him, the cake said...."Happy Birthday Amy, Will You Marry Me??" As my eyes welled with tears and I turned toward him, he was on his knee with a ring in his hand, asking me to marry him and make him the happiest man in the world. I said "yes, yes of course I will!!" then of course I planted a kiss on him.

We all celebrated with champagne and the cake that I didn't want to eat. Shortly after all of us had eaten, I asked my parents and Dan....did anyone take a picture of this???? No one thought to take the picture!!!!! I have included a picture of the half eaten cake, please use your imagination with the rest of the cake reading "Will you marry me? I guess Dan asked my Dad's permission to marry me at the Ryan Family Picnic and he's been plotting ever since. Dad was in on the whole thing and Mom found out yesterday!

So, Dan and I are officially engaged!! Yeah!!! No dates are set yet. We have so many Ryan
weddings in 2008, who knows whats gonna happen!!!!

So, it's been another whirlwind week here. It started this past weekend. Friday night was Mom's bday lots of company for dinner and overall a good night. Saturday I headed to Annet's new home in Bartlett for her housewarming party. I came armed with a tray full of jello shots, which I heard were a big hit! Unfortunately, I could not stay for much more than an hour due to other plans. But, Annet you have a beautiful home, the food was fabulous and the beer cold. What more could we ask for???

Then I headed into Elgin to Holly's new home for Girls Night Out. As always it was a wonderful time. It was a little frustrating before hand because I was driving all over Elgin looking for a grocery store, only to find one blocks away from the house!!!! We planned to head to the Flyers game which started at 620. I think we finally made it at 715!!! Bridget won the first bet and got herself a beer, MOlly was the lucky winner of bet #2 and won $6! We enjoyed some ice cream and a couple beers then piled back into Molly's van to head home. Picked up some pizza and chowed down. As always, we enjoyed each others company, cold beers, awesome pomagranite martini's, taco dip and twizzlers!!!! A long round of 80's trivial persuit and it was time for bed.

Sunday was a recovery day. Thank god, I needed it. Then I started a 4 day stretch at the hospital. I'm trying to pick up the overtime now, before school starts!!!!

Later today I'm headed out to Oregon, IL to go camping with a large group of people from work, ought to be a great time!!!

mom hits a milestone

Well...it's already been decided that I'm a notoriously bad blogger. I guess I just feel as though I really have nothing new and exciting and my life is actually quite boring and who really wants to read about that??

But anyways....today is mom's 55th birthday. Hopefully she has a wonderful day.

Two weekends ago Dawn, Dan and I joined the Ryans for a camping trip. Dawn proved to be the bags queen. She also made us giggle with her headlamp antics, A*@hole skills, bathroom seeking skills, and her comments about how much work camping is as she watched Dan and I set up and tear down the tent!!! Great time was had by all. Enjoy a few pictures...

Dan had his tonsils and part of his uvula removed last week. The surgery went very well and he's recovering nicely. Plus, he gets the magical benefit of losing 15 pounds in the process....ah, the beauty of surgery! Nah, I'm just kidding, he was a bit miserable for the first couple days but came through like a champ.

Work is work, no changes there.

I officially start nursing school in one month!! It's The Final Countdown...(que in cheesy 80's music)

Looking forward to girls night out this weekend, my work camping trip next weekend, and then I'm off to MN with Dan's family. Meg, Joel, and Jean...watchout...I'll be giving you a call!!!

Are you Dan??

It was a wonderful weekend. Dan accompanied me on his first (hopefully of many) Ryan Family Picnics. Needless to say he was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people there!! He later told me that he didn't know if he'd ever remember everyone's name!!! But he felt safe in asking any of the male members of the family if their name was Dan! So, I reassured him that it was ok, eventually he'd figure it out. But a note to the Larry Ryans, and Hagerty's....he's got most of your names down!!! He enjoyed himself tremendously and thoroughly enjoyed soaking me with both egg and water balloon! We also got to reconnect with the Feeney crowd as we don't see them very often. Dennis and his new wife Chelsea were in attendance, and Ray was in from Georgia. As always, good food, good company, great day!

Getting all my stuff together for nursing school. As I mentioned earlier, I have many hoops to jump through before August 1st. I stopped by the school today and realized that my health file is up-to-date, I paid for my security check. Don't you think it would make sense that you do a security background check before they admit you to the program, not before you start classes, because if you don't pass the background check, you are dropped from the program. Hmmm....interesting. All my health check stuff is done, except getting my final TB test read later this week. I have to finish a bunch of computer courses, 20 to be exact, on hospital basics, HIPPA, Patient rights, stuff like that. Now, you see I had to do these exact same computer courses for my job at SAMC, but...they make us do them all over again. Hopefully, I should be done by tomorrow...I only have 4 left!!!

Well, that's all to report! More later....