I feel like The Bachelor

Little stressed today. I am supposed to give my answer as to which job I will take. I have called several people, talked, and prayed quite a bit. I honestly think I will be happy at both places, but I just don't want to question "what if" and so I am dying for a very certain answer. Hasn't come. I will keep trying though.

I was just talking to my wonderful sister telling her about the situation and realized this is what the Bachelor must feel like.

He gets down to the last two women and has no idea what to do. Wait, what? How can you not know?! You think you love both of them! Now I understand this. It is because he doesn't really know either one of them. I haven't worked on either of these floors and don't have the experience to ask all the correct decisions. I bet if I had experience on both for a month the decision would be much easier.

This realization gave us a great laugh. Eased the stress quite a bit.

Minutes left to decide and I am still floundering...But I guess that is why they call it a leap of faith.

Let's just hope I don't mess up like the bachelor did...

Stuff in your pockets

Don't you love it when you wear a coat or anything you haven't worn for a while and you put your hands in your pockets and find something you didn't expect? I love that. Like some money, or some little sample axe body spray things I just found in my pocket that I got at the Jazz Sixers game. Money is obviously better, but I needed to illustrate my point. Don't you love that?

We are on our way to NYC for the Holiday on a double decker bus. Sweet. We are meeting Julie's brother and his wife there. Gotta love how close all of these cities are back here.
Happy Thanksgiving!

New posts below.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Seeing blogs in a new light

So I haven't been that interested in blogging. I get tired of seeing all the cool things people do and feeling a little left out. But I have realized since moving away from family and friends what a great tool blogs can be. It has been so fun to know what is going on in people's lives even when we are so far away. So up front, my life is great, but we are still learning how to live with one another. That can be frustrating, exasperating, and I am tempted to question myself and say "what was I thinking!"But that really, for the all those times, I would never change having someone there supporting me 100% of that way. Anyways, enough of that.
So I will be blogging periodically from now on and hopefully Eli doesn't mind me writing every once and a while.

So here is what I have been thinking about:

Honestly, Thanksgiving is not been my favorite holiday. I really don't like turkey (unless it is my dad's and is Cajun fried). Not a big fan of stuffing. Mashed potatoes are okay. I really enjoy the rolls, but that is about it. So when November comes around, I have always find myself wanting to forget the turkey and move on to Christmas. However, I realized (when reading my sister-in-law Shawni's blog) that instead of focusing on solely on Thanksgiving day, I really should be thinking about giving thanks all month.

This really dawned on me when driving to "work" this last week. On days when Eli does not have any appointments I am lucky enough to drive. On Thursday I turned right onto Capital South to get on the freeway to Virginia and there was the Capitol surrounded in this mist of fog. I starting thinking how cool it is that I get to see this beautiful building everyday I drive to work. I then realized that the rest of my commute is pretty fantastic as well. Once on the freeway I pass by the Washington and Jefferson monuments as I cross into Virginia. I get on the 66 where I am literally feet from the Pentagon. I also see the Air Force memorial which is very cool. Then heading north I pass the Iwo Jima memorial and get to see the rows and rows of headstones from the Arlington cemetery.

How lucky am I to see such beautiful sites on a 20 minute commute to work.

Another thing I am thankful for right now are beautiful sunrises. This month I have been working quite a few night shifts. Often we give a few medications at 630 right before shift change and right as the sun is coming up. I work on the 6th floor and looking out the window on that sunrise is just incredible with all the fall trees.

Lastly, I love books. I just read this book Left to Tell. (Once again thank you to Shawni-or Saydi-can't remember) Fabulous. It is the story of a woman caught in the middle of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. It made me question my relationship with God and how much power I could and should be utilizing from prayer. You should read it.

Basically I love nature right now and feel so lucky to live where I am and that Eli has a job.

Happy month of giving thanks!

Don't forget to read Eli's new post below!

P.S. Just found out about 2 minutes ago that I got a job! I interviewed at Children's National Medical Center and got the job on the Heart and Kidney Unit and the Hematology/Oncology Unit. I feel so lucky that I will get to get to work in such an amazing place. I seriously feel so humble, because even though Eli says I am the world's best nurse, I realize that I have so so so so much to learn.
Now the extremely hard part is deciding which one to take...

around

love this place. any time you can see stuff like this…. (mind these were taken with my iPhone, I can’t find my camera charger)

 

the smithsonian. i think you could go everyday for a couple years and still not see it all. This is the tunnel between the National Gallery of Art and the East Gallery (modern art), pretty awesome moving sidewalk ride.

I think I will always be in awe when I walk past this place. This is the pinnacle of all of the incredible architecture here in dc.

somebody was really thirsty. 40 gallons is worth a picture. She was looking right at me, but to me, you are asking for pictures when you have this much milk.

drove past this on a street in maryland while driving to a school. i can’t get over the leave here. we are still hanging on to a few of them, but winter seems to be trying to take over.

I went up to a conference outside of Philly at Penn State Abington. whoa it was beautiful up there! A little campus of old rock building surrounded by leaves like you can’t believe. i wish we could have had the conference outside.

The next week, I went back to Philly where Noah was kind enough to join me for an awesome day of work and meetings with the School District of Philadelphia. We conveniently planned the day of meetings with day the Jazz were in town to play the Sixers. Julie came up from DC and met us in time for dinner and the game. We went to Buddhakan, one of the coolest restaurants I have ever been to, not to mention incredibly tasty. Any time there is at 10 foot Buddha statue in the place, it’s gonna be good right (well, this was the first time I have experienced it, but I am 1 for 1 cause it was sweet). We then headed over to see the Jazz take it to the Sixers. It was awesome to be there rootin on the Jazz…even though they started up a little rough, but I think they are hitting their stride!

DC is an amazing spot full of great stuff, weird stuff, awesome people, peculiar people. One of my favorite things about being here is the great ward we are in. The Capitol Hill Ward is full of fascinating people who I am sure we’ll be learning a lot from. We’re excited to get to know everyone better. Today one of the lessons was on Service. It fit this time of year very nicely. Thanksgiving and Christmas should go hand in hand with service. We read in Matthew 25:31-40. Read it through slowly and think about it.

  31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

  32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

  33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

  34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

  35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

  36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

  37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

  38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

  39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

  40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I think that when we serve (in any capacity) it is one small way that we can repay (or at least attempt to) our debt to the Savior. In a sense we get to be an extension of Him and do what he did. What does it mean to you? I am going to try to apply this more in my life. Really, I mean think about it, when we are sad/stressed, a lot of it is because we are spending a lot of time think about ourselves. Then think about how happy you are/the smile on your face during and after you have the opportunity to help someone, no matter how big or small the act. Thoughts?

philly.

I had to go to Philly last week for some meetings and it turned out Julie didn’t have to be in the hospital those days, so she came with me. I’ve been in Philly a lot this year, so it was fun to have Julie there to show her some of my favorite spots.

Philly is such a cool city. It is where everything started. There is such a diverse crowd of people there, and the city itself (architecture, food, layout, all that) is pretty awesome. At the center of the city is the MASSIVE city hall. According to the handout there, it is even bigger than the US Capitol Building. At the time it was built, it was supposed to be the the tallest structure in the world. It took them longer than they thought, and by the time they finished, the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower beat it out. The statue of William Penn on the top is the tallest statue on a building in the world. I have to give Julie credit for this first picture, she has quite the eye. That is the masonic temple on the left.

Then going out in all directions from the city hall is an awesome city. Some incredible architecture. We made it out to the mecca of cheesesteaks. Geno’s and Pat’s King of Steaks…the never ending debate as to who makes the better steak. Nothing like a little beef and cheeze wiz. They were both really good. I think we give the edge to Pat’s though. Geno’s was a little flashier. Pat’s had an inscription on the cement marking where Rocky stood during one of the Rocky movies. These guys take their steaks serious. It was a little intimidating to order in the right way.

Got to see the Liberty Bell and go on a tour of Independence Hall. It is amazing to hear the stories, and think about all the incredible minds that worked together to break away from England and establish this great country. Here in Independence Hall, these men basically signed their lives away as they were committing high treason. I am so glad they had the guts to not only sign the Declaration, but to make it happen.

Good times in the city of Brotherly Love. Talk about Phillies Pride. We were there the night the Phillies lost game 6. Everyone was out in every restaurant watching. Even though they lost. The loyal fans, from business men, to delivery guys still had their Phillies paraphernalia on the next day.

You’re probably wondering why the water is green…they are just having some issues with water there, and it even comes out of the tap this color. Well, actually there was some promotion thing going on so they dyed the fountain. Had you going though huh? Julie is pulling her second 7pm-7am shift in a row tonight. It amazes me because she is not what I call a night person, but she just does it without batting an eye. Julie Eyre = world’s best nurse.

the national arboretum

DC in the fall is so so pretty. On Sunday, even though it was a bit rainy we drove to the National Arboretum… a huge open space/park in the Northeast. It is absolutely gorgeous. You turn in, and you are transported and you feel like you are in the middle of the forest. With all the trees there on fire with autumn, it was so so pretty. Here are a few pics.

One of the coolest things there are these pillars. These are the pillars that graced the of the US Capitol until 1957 when they did some remodeling/expansion to the front. Someone had the idea to place them here in the middle of the Arboretum.

The rest of the Arboretum is just rolling hills with roads like this meandering through.

There was also this awesome bonsai and crazy flower garden.

 

There’s something new around every corner here in DC. Julie and I are loving it. Autumn is in full swing, and we’re coming up on the greatest time of year. The Holidays!

Colors and our first visitors.

Whoa huh? This was the sunset tonight. I got up there a bit late, but it was one of those nights where the whole sky 360 degrees was pink and red and orange. So how are you doing? Life is good here in DC. It is so so so beautiful right now. Leaves on fire wherever you look. There have been some terrential downpours, but other than that, the fall weather has been fantastic. Julie finished school! The school part (going to class) of her semester is now done. So she has taken her last tests and gone to her last classes of college!!!!! Wahoo. Now, for the next 7 weeks she’ll be in the hospital working side by side with a preceptor (like a mentor nurse) and then she’ll be done! She’ll be an RN before we know it. So that is pretty exciting. She works 7am-7pm shifts yesterday and today (sat. and sun.) and has to do the same thing tomorrow. But such is life as a nurse I guess. She is loving it so for thought and really learning a lot. She seems to be working with a great preceptor and she’ll be learning a lot. This preceptorship is at a hospital in Arlington.

So last weekend my mom and dad came in town. Other than the fact that it didn’t stop raining the whole time they were here, we had a great time. Dad is reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown right now so we went on a tour of the Capitol, went to the Library of Congress, took a trip out to McLean to check up on Mom and Dad’s house there, ate some wicked good food, went to the East Gallery at the Smithsonian (modern), and they got to come to church with us. It was so fun to have some time with just the 4 of us and reminisce about their time here when they were about our age.

Here’s some pics from the good times.

 

The Rotunda. Dan Brown will tell you a thing or two about this painting. Hmm.

Capitol tour. There is this beautiful new $700 million Capitol Vistor’s Center that is underground in front of the Capitol. It has been under construction forever, and wow, it is really cool. That building is amazing, it really makes you appreciate it more as there are exhibits that go through the history and majesty of the building. It was the first time I have been in there since I was an intern for Senator Hatch 4 years ago. The tourguide wasn’t near as exciting as I was when I was an intern (you see, I liked to keeps things interesting by mixing fact and fiction here and there), but it is always an awe inspiring thing to walk through there and to think about how lucky we are to live in such an amazing country…I think we all complain a little too easily lately. Ya, the economy’s rough, but man, this is an incredible country.

There’s a convenient tunnel between the Capitol and the Library of Congress. Holy Cow this building is amazing. DC has some truly amazing architecture, but the interior of this place might take the cake. I didn’t take a picture of the main reading room, which is SO beauty. Julie and I are excited to get library cards so that we can go in the main reading room.

Sorry for all the collages, they are just a lot faster and easier. Food. This was one of the awesome restaurants that we ate at. This was French-Asian Fusion Restaurant. So Cool. I wish I had some more pics of the inside, like the 15 foot long fireplace/inset into the wall with the strip of fire coming out of the crystals. Those are roses on the wall. Really cool place. Come out and we’ll go there again, you’ll love it. We sat on couch/lounge chair things and just enjoyed some good food.

Mom and Dad got to come to church with us too and meet some of our new friends, and see how interesting the ward here is. It was so fun to have these guys here as our first visitors.

Like I said, it is full on autumn here and oh so pretty. Here is a pic as I walked home from church today.

And one last thing. Opening night is Wednesday!!!!

Dwill and Dwight from The Office

I am getting so excited for the Jazz! This commercial just got me that much more excited. The Jazz will be flying under the radar once again this season... and assuming the Jazz got all of their injuries for the next 10 years taken care of last year, around January everyone will be jumping on the bandwagon.

Owl City

I just found this band. You might think it is weird, but I love the electronic sound. Go on my actual blog page if you are reading this is a RSS feed reader. The first four tracks are Owl City. I'll put more that I like on as I listen a little more.

It's like The Postal Service 2.0... a little different, maybe a little more catchy. Here's the bio. Interesting story.

Owl City is the electronic brainchild of Adam Young, who launched the project in 2007 while living at his parents' home in Owatonna, MN. Troubled by insomnia, Young began spending his evenings in the household basement, where a computer and several instruments provided a welcome diversion from his sleeping patterns. He eventually combined those diversions into a blend of electronica and emo-pop, using little more than his computer and various keyboards to record the material. Songs were uploaded to MySpace upon completion, and Young began attracting a surprising amount of attention on the networking site. Of particular note was "Hello Seattle," a fabricated ode to the Emerald City whose viral popularity earned Young a record contract with Universal Republic. Ocean Eyes, his debut release for the label, arrived in 2009, coinciding with Owl City's first national tour.

Let me know what you think. There's a new post below too. Read up.

As of late…

Fall is quite nice here in DC. The weather seems just about perfect every day – mid 70’s with a nice little breeze. Hopefully this keeps going on for a while. It has been an awesome conference weekend. We sat on the lawn next the Capitol and listened to a session on the iphone radio app. Enjoyed the others streaming on the internet here at home, and went to Priesthood at the church. Our ward here is awesome. We meet in an old Safeway (grocery store) building (converted into a church) near the Capitol. There are so many great people that we’ve met and we’re excited to get to know them and do whatever we can to help make the ward stronger. There’s a mix of lawyers, state dept., FBI, Dept. of Defense, Capitol Hillers, Grad students… all sorts of interesting people.

I’ve got to say one of my favorite parts about DC are the neighborhoods. There are so many different parts of the city that are all so unique in their own way. It has been a lot of fun as Julie and I have gone out and explored the various and we’ve barely cracked the surface. The other favorite part is how close we are to the mall and the museums and all the fun stuff going on there. We’re getting pretty excited for the fall leaves here. There are more trees in 10 square miles here that there are in the entire states of Nevada and AZ. I’m sure I will be posting some of those pics.

The least favorite part so far in the traffic and the roads. Whoever designed DC had some serious issues. I’ve heard that they were trying to make it hard for intruders to attack the Capitol. If that is the case, they did a heck of a job. The roads make no sense and they are always packed. Feels good to drive 7.3 miles in 90 minutes.

It’s exciting to be here with Jules on our own, blazing our own pathway. Julie has 2 weeks of school left at George Mason, then her Preceptorship at a hospital in VA, and then….Drumroll….she’ll finally be done!!!!!! In January she’ll take the NCLEX and become at RN. She’s going to be the most incredible nurse! I am so excited for all of the patient’s whose lives she’ll bless.

Here’s a few pics as of late:

We live just a couple blocks from Nationals Park. Now, the Nats aren’t good per se, but nothing like catching a few innings of a big league game once a week or so. Watch out next year! The Nats finished on a 7 game win streak, and they have awesome mascots at the game.

Then we went to Europe. It was so beautiful. Just kidding, this is the National Cathedral, and though it is brand new in comparison to cathedrals in Europe. It is beautiful, and has the same beauty and touch of Westminster or some of the European cathedrals I’ve been to. We went to Evensong there which was really cool. They were instating some new members of the cathedral hierarchy so we got to see that ceremony too. Interesting.

We went to the National Book Festival on the mall, 150,000 people and like 500 famous authors or something like that. Pretty cool to see that many people getting that excited about books. There were a bunch of speakers (authors) and then book signings. Even John Grisham was there.

 

Lots more pics coming soon. I promise we’ll put some of our apartment up soon too. It has taken us a lot longer than we had hoped to furnish the place. This week, I talked Julie into one of the most important investments for our place… (it is though, i mean, we went through our budget and planning and stuff on it today as it was hooked up to my computer).

As the first of the tour of our apartment. Here is the view from the roof.

and the other direction…

stay tuned…

3786 miles

Well, it has been a while to say the least. We’ve been in DC for nearly a month now, and I still feel like we haven’t had more than a few minutes to sit down and relax. Between trying to furnish and paint our pad (apartment for those who aren’t up on the lingo), Julie getting started with school, and me trying to get settled with being out here for work, and a million other things…it has been rather hectic to say the least. A few things we’ve learned; 1. The traffic here is even worse than everyone says it is 2. It is a lot harder and more expensive might I say, to furnish an apartment than I ever would have dreamed 3. DC is even cooler than I remember from when I have lived here in the past 4. The melting pot of cultures here is absolutely awesome 5. There is something so gratifying about running for 5 minutes and then being on the National Mall. And 6. The guy who designed the streets/layout of DC was not the sharpest tool in the shed – well he wouldn’t have even made it to the shed, crykee the streets are confusing and weirdly place here…it even confuses the tomtoms and garmins.

Let me not get ahead of myself here…I finally had a minute to put these pics of my computer, so you’re going to get a flyby of the last month of our lives which was highlighted by a car smashed full of stuff driving first from SLC to Big Bear Lake, CA for Julie’s fam’s reunion and then driving all the way to DC. We figured if we were going to drive across the country, might as well drive all the way across, not just the weak sauce SLC to DC route.

First is the car…it was a work of art. I cannot believe how much stuff we got into this little pup. Geometry has never looked so good. As you can see by the pics, we filled it up quite nicely, and after doing so, noticed that the car was considerably lower than before. But hey, it ran like a champ. Not bad for a car that was built when Julie was 2 and I was 5. Shout out to the Japanese. Notice the ample legroom.

From there we headed down to Big Bear Lake, CA, where Julie’s fam had an awesome cabin rented. It was like the calm before the storm. We just got to hang out, talk, eat, and enjoy some open space in preparation for being smashed in car for like 50 hours of driving. Julie’s fam is awesome…it has been so great to get to know them and get to know them better and better. Highlights included GI Joe with the brother in laws, hanging out on the beach, a baseball game, beauty sunsets, playing games and talking late into the night and wicked good food. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the cabin.

From there it was this: and we were on our way

A look at all the landscapes across the country. From CA, to AZ, to NM, to TX, to OK, to AR, to TN, to VA, to DC there was definitely an abundance of different terrain. It was actually a lot prettier and more diverse than the northern route (I-80)

Stopped in Oklahoma City, which was actually a really cool city. Highlighted by the beautiful memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing. I can still remember sitting in my sixth grade class watching the news the day this happened.

From there, we walked in Memphis, and then stopped where I was most excited about…Nashville! That place is awesome. Here is it is proven, that is is still cool to wear tight jeans, cowboy boots, a flannel shirt, and cowboy hat and go out on the town. They just do their thing. The coolest part was the main street there that was full of Honky Tonks. I have always wanted to go to a Honky Tonk, and we got our fix that night. Just open bar/restaurants with fantastic live country, bluegrass, Nashville music. Country music and its followers are just in a league of their own, but it was so cool to see and hear. Jacks BBQ, supposedly the most famous in Nashville was quite tasty. They were also having a PBR (professional bull riding) event at the arena there in town which made the crowd even more awesome.

Thanks to my brother Josh we learned that the only life size replica of the Parthenon is in Nashville. So we went and had a look They built it for the centennial of the city, and everyone loved it so much, they reinforced it and left it for good. Also ate at this sandwich place called “Which Wich”, you should look up and see if there is one nearby you, cause it was really really good. Julie is sandwich master 3000 and she loved it, so it has to be pretty good.

From there we spent our final day of driving…we began seeing some familiar territory/signs that got us really excited about how close we were. We finally arrived here in DC and then spent the day unloading the car and getting all our stuff moved in. The Legend (the car) was pretty excited to have its burden lifted. We didn’t have a bed, or any furniture so we had our first romantic dinner in our apartment on a cardboard box, and then slept on the floor (didn’t sleep so well), although we did gain a new appreciation for beds.

After 5 nights of sleeping on the floor (ya, I am serious), although it did get a little more comfy when our boxes of clothes arrived and we slept on them for some added padding. Nonetheless, we’d had enough, we rented a Dodge Ram, and went and bought a bed and whole bunch of furniture (somehow still not enough make a dent in what we actually need for this place). The crowning achievement was the bed though… I’ve never slept so well. We tried to craigslist and warehouse mattress factory for the bed, but had no luck and only found stuff that wouldn’t be any more comfy than the floor, so we went to trusty old costco and got a bed.

So, we still need to get chairs for our table (getting a little tired of eating standing up), get our couch (it was backordered being delivered next week), we got chairs for the living room (twice, and took them back twice) so those are still on the list. But we’ve got the place painted, and looking a bit more presentable. As soon as I have some time, I will take some pictures of the finished product, and you can let us know what you think. This is really an awesome apartment and we are loving the neigborhood, the ward, the diversity, and all of the excited going ons of the nation’s capitol. Everything from a great Shakespeare play the other night, to huge rallies and protests on the Hill for the Health Care reform…(there were visitors in church that had flown in to be a part of the million plus protestors…yikes) to museums and restaurants galore. We are loving this place. More to come soon, hopefully this brings you up to speed on the crazy month we’ve had. Can’t complain when this is where this is just a few minutes away for your Sunday walk…

We got to go to NYC last weekend for Tal’s wedding which was so so great. All of the 9 kids were there, no crazy kids, it was just fun to be in the greatest city there is with the best people there are. I will put some pictures of that up soon.