New Blog!

Hi friends! Please head on over to http://ourlittleurbanlife.blogspot.com . I will be blogging over here now. We would love to have you keep up with us over at Our Little Urban Life!

This makes me smile

Shutterfly

This post is about Shutterfly. You can get to there website here. I first used this company when Bryan and I got married. I was scrapbooking and with the best of intentions I had some honeymoon pictures printed and of course I never got around to it but at least I have the pictures in my possession! I have actually scrapped scrapbooking……I got rid of all of my scrapbook stuff with our upcoming move BUT I still like to have pictures printed! I would recommend using Shutterfly. I have always had great customer service with them and I always just pay for the regular shipping but I have always had my prints get shipped to me so quickly.

I think we are going to use our Christmas cards this year as a moving announcement type thing and I am so excited about all of their designs to choose from!!

I love this one….

…just picture a little chocolate lab in that picture somewhere : ) Here is the link to some of their other great designs: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

Bryan and I have also been syncing our schedules using Google calendars. We are able to view what each other is doing and it works a lot better than trying to remember all of those details. Google calendars is great but these are so tempting http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

You can also get some really cool canvas prints http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art

I have always wanted to do a stretched canvas but I have never spent the money but these are really reasonable.

Aaaaannnndd, this might be the best part yet. Bloggers, you can get 50 free holiday cards. Just follow this link: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

 

if you are reading this then you are patient.

Geessh it has been such a long time since I have blogged. I am going to jump right into some MAJOR updates!!

We are moving to Denver, Colorado in less than one month, for starters!! We close on our home on December 3rd and we could not be more pumped!! We will be about half a mile from Coors Field (where the Rockies play) and Bryan will be within walking distance to his work. Our house is in an area called Five Points and it is in Denver proper. I love our house and cannot wait to make it a home and I cannot wait to show pictures!!

I graduated from nursing school, praise the LORD! And I passed Nclex. Wowzas. I was working at WakeMed in the Chest Pain Unit and absolutely loved my time there. Because we are moving in less than one month, I am not working anymore. I worked as an RN for about 4 months and cannot wait to be working again in Denver. Nclex was no walk in the park. People have asked me what it was like and I really cannot remember a single question. I think that I have blocked it from my memory-for realz. Any nurse that I have ever talked to about it says that you leave the test thinking that you have failed and they are right. I thought there was no way that I passed that but by God’s grace I did!

Buuuttttt I am still in school. I am getting my BSN from UNC-Chapel Hill. It is a program that is completely online other than 1 clinical portion. I will do my clinical at a hospice place in Denver during the Spring semester. It is a really great program. UNC is legit and it has not been a walk in the park. I am learning a lot about leadership in nursing, research in nursing, etc.

Penny is officially a one year old! I joke that she has a zest for life as she drags me around the neighborhood. She is about 85 pounds now and is sweet as can be. She has not met a dog that she doesn’t like (this is not mutual unfortunately) and she has adjusted to apartment life really well. She is still incredibly playful and not all dogs are crazy about playing with a puppy but this has not stopped her attempt to play with every.dog.she.sees. I will post some pictures soon of the Pennster. JD joked about having dogs as idols in your life on Sunday morning….she is definitely not an idol but she is just too cute for words.

Thanks for your patience with me if you are reading this post….which you are. I just got back on Twitter this week and according to WordPress, I haven’t blogged in nearly half a year. See you soon….definitely in less than half a year.

Radical

I created a reading list at the beginning of the year. There are SO many books I want to read and I felt like I never had a plan for what I was going to read so I would just grab a book off my shelf and start. At the end of 2009 I thought through what would be a realistic plan  and set some goals. There have been so many books that have come up that I want to read so badly and I just want to pencil them into my list but alas…I don’t let myself. Until Bryan showed me this video:

So, I just penciled in Radical by David Platt. You should too, church. I feel like a preacher saying that but I agree with his final comment….there is NO plan B.

DC Trip

My parents and little brother headed up to DC the other week. We made a pit stop in Richmond to pick up Kathy, my wonderful MIL, and Bryan’s grandparents. Bryan had to stay behind for some other things he already had scheduled. My awesome little brother, Kevin, is headed to USC in the fall and my Mom is trying to squeeze in a bunch of trips before he leaves. The last time we went to DC he was in a stroller and she really wanted him to be able to go again. (Sidenote: Is it ok to call my 18 year old brother “little?? He probably doesn’t like that very much. Oh well.)

We got to see most of the monuments, memorials, and museums. My favorites were the Lincoln Memorial,Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Air and Space Museum. We also paid to do the double decker tour bus of the city. I do not want this blog to be about advertising or dissing companies but….don’t pay to do a double decker tour. Enough said.

The Mall. I really wanted to join this game of kickball.

the fam

Arlington Cemetery on top of the hill and a dreaded double decker bus

loved this quote from the Korean War Memorial

We had a great time together. We stayed in College Park, Maryland. The University of Maryland has a campus at College Park so we were able to hang out with Bryan’s brother, Eric, and Eric’s girlfriend, Jana. They are so cute! I wish I had a picture of them to show you just how cute they are together. I wish Bryan could have gone but he was keeping up with his schedule and holding down the fort with the Pennster.

The Longest Trip Home

I think this post will be a little lighter than my most recent book post. Should be, at least.

I read John Grogan’s Marley and Me a while back in preparation for seeing the movie. As with all books made into movies go, the book was SO much better than the movie. Sorry Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson. As I was reading it, I found out that Grogan was going to be putting a memoir out titled The Longest Trip Home. I loved his style of writing and the way he told such simple stories so I was so looking forward to reading his memoir.

Grogan tells the story of his life, growing up as the youngest child in a suburban Michigan family up to the death of one of his beloved parents. His honesty is amazing. He shares stories of lying in Confession from the beginning, his first experience with a girlfriend, smoking marijuana, and realizing that other moms were prettier than his Mom. He writes as if he were telling all these stories to a big group of friends.

I just loved this memoir. I am kind of a fan of memoirs in general though. I made the huge mistake of getting Bryan a memoir that Nicholas Sparks had written. I read Three Weeks with My Brother when Sparks became really popular with the movie version of The Notebook. So, I naturally wanted to share this good read with Bryan. I would like to consider myself a good gift giver but I strictly stick to his wish list on Amazon if I want to get him a book. All that is to say that if you like memoirs, then you will like The Longest Trip Home. If you liked Marley and Me, then you will like it even more.

And I just have to say this: I still think Bryan would really like to read Three Weeks with My Brother.

my first 10K!

Our church does a lot with Habitat for Humanity and recently put on its first ever 5K and 10K as a way to raise money for Habitat. The Summit gave 100% to Habitat! Bryan and I decided to do the 10K. Bryan zoomed off ahead (he is a MUCH faster runner than me!) and Jenn stuck with me. Jenn is an amazing athlete-she has competed in triathlons and marathons and is going kayaking this weekend for fun with her OWN kayak. We have run together a few times and am always incredibly thankful that she doesn’t mind running at my pace. We finished the race together. My time was 1:12:46. I also finished in the top 20 for my age group in the 10K. That’s right…..#20 of 20.

Food Rules

I want to start this post off by saying that I do NOT follow all of the guidelines that Michael Pollan gives in his little guidebook to eating well. I wish I did, but I don’t. I have excuses and I know that they are excuses.

Pollan has put out some pretty popular food books recently, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and more recently Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. I plan on reading the first two of his that I mentioned and maybe then I will be sucked in to that mindset of thinking but until then I really enjoy baking some frozen chicken nugget’s every now and then. Don’t you?

(image from Overdrive)

Pollan’s little guidebook is broken down into 3 sections that he bases all of his eating guidelines on: Eat Food, Mostly plants, Not too much.

When he says “mostly plants” he does not mean eat lettuce for 2 meals out of the day and then a bowl of broccoli for your third meal. Rule #23  (“Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food”)will clarify this general guideline so just read this little paragraph from the book before leaving my blog and never coming back again: “Meat, which humans have been eating and relishing for a very long time, is nourishing food, which is why I suggest “mostly” plants, not “only”. It turns out that near vegetarians, or “flexitarians”-people who eat meat a couple of times a week-are just as healthy as vegetarians. But the average American eats meat as past of two or even three meals a day-more than half a pound per person per day-and there is evidence that the more meat there is in your diet-red meat in particular-the greater your risk of heart disease and cancer.” We have known for years that meat isn’t necessarily the best option to consume our plates with. I remember taking a Nutrition class at USC and learning about the general guideline that a serving of meat should not be any bigger than a deck of cards. That was tough to hear then and now meat is only supposed to be a treat.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite rules: Rule # 21 It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. Think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles. Rule #15 Get out of the supermarket whenever you can. Rule #7 Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce. Rule #53 Buy smaller plates and glasses. Rule #63 Cook. Rule #19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t. Rule #20 It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.

I found myself laughing at half of the rules in the book because it is rather ridiculous how Americans (myself included) choose to eat. We CHOOSE to drive through McDonald’s and get a meal that consists of a burger that is loaded with bad fat and not even the best meat, a sugar filled soda, and a side of potatoes that have been cut into strips and fried in oil and tossed in salt. We CHOOSE to put something in our buggy at Target that has a paragraph of ingredients that we have never even heard of or couldn’t pronounce (it’s because they are chemicals!!!) I say “we” because I am so so so so so so guilty of these things.

Pollan opened up my eyes a little to the….stupidity….of the way we eat. His purpose was not to give his readers a meal plan or recipes or something like that but to be honest, I kinda wish he did. I am incredibly curious to find out the way that his family eats. It is hard to plan meals and snacks so I would have loved a little snapshot into what exactly does he eat on a day to day basis.

As a Christian, I want to look at this whole topic and read Pollan’s book through the lens of the gospel. How do 3 general guidelines relate to me as someone who has been saved by grace? Bryan recently sent me an article, “You’re Probably Fat” from the Resurgence website. It is specifically written to pastors but I am pretty sure that the Resurgence wouldn’t mind if you read it. Proceed with caution and then pray about how the way you eat can be a reflection of your life in Christ. Here is the article.

water dog

Penny continues to do SO much better with the HOD. She will be completely cleared on April 25, the 6 week mark. We can hardly tell that there was anything wrong with her and she continues to have consistent good days. We are praising the Lord for that!

We took Penny to Umstead Park on Saturday. Umstead is this amazing park that is in the heart of Raleigh but is filled with a lake, miles of trails, rivers, and picnic spots. Bryan and I pretended like we had to cross a river on one of our hikes so Penny was forced to get in the water. She was hesitant at first but once she had all 4 paws in she was in LOVE! It was the cutest thing ever to see her experience the water.

Bryan had to be in Durham all day yesterday so Penny and I went to a park in Wake Forest with the Acevedos. We found an ankle deep river for Pennster to play in. She is just at home in the water. She does a mixture of holding her mouth wide open in the water (like a bear trying to catch a fish) to rubbing her face straight in the mud to hopping around like a bunny. Alex got some amazing pictures that I wanted to share with you.