Christmas

Christmas is my favorite holiday & season of the year! I look forward to it every year and as soon as Thanksgiving is over, I start setting up my Christmas decorations and listen to christmas music. This year has been a little different. Aidan is almost 20 months old and is into everything that he can possibly get his hands into. Plus, I worked all weekend so I didn't get to do my ritual of setting everything up the day after Thanksgiving. Oh well...at least I get to set up some things. And best of all....we're in our new home! I decided to put our little 4 foot pre-lit fake Christmas tree up this year because Aidan just has to pull and tug...and touch just about everything he sees. He keeps pointing and saying, "Don't touch???" and touches anyway. So, we figured that if he's going to knock over the tree...at least a four foot fake tree wouldn't hurt as much! Hopefully next year we'll get to go to Stokoe Farms and cut down our very own real tree. I've definitely got to get some more Christmas decorations though! I have my tree decorations but now I've got a mantle to fill! yay for this season!

One thing we're doing this year is "Advent Consipiracy". Lots of churches around the country and quite possibly the nation, are joining together in this. The focus is to not go out and "buy, buy, buy" but to actually focus on giving to those who are in need. So, we're going to buy maybe one thing or a few small things for Aidan and then the rest of our focus will be on the community. I think our church does a program where you adopt a family and buy gifts for them. I want to do something where you give clothes, etc. We'll see. I just love this time of year! Wish I could spend it with my family though! I miss you guys tons! Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!

Our new home

So we've finally moved into our new home. We got approved for it back in August and didn't close on it until Nov. 4th! But we are so excited to be in our new place! And...we're only paying about $100 more per month and we own it! That's the best part. Naw...actually the best part is making it our own! I came in the night we closed and primed the walls and then Wednesday came in and painted. The livingroom is a smoked light blue and the dining room is a smoked periwinkle color. The blue and the periwinkle go very nicely together...I can't wait to hang my brown curtains up! Yay! It's coming along now too! The kitchen is starting to fill up with our food & dishes, etc. My couches even though I hate them...actually look nice in the blue living room with their couch covers on. I'll take some pics soon and contrast them with our before pics of the home so you can see the difference.

Fall season

Aidan and I have been having so much fun together lately. He's at an age where I can take him places and show him things. He's so interested in everything and its cute. I took him to Stokoe Farms for their pumpkin patch. He pointed and said "pumcha...pumpcha...!" We went through the corn maze together, rode a "choo choo train", fed the goats, and just had a blast! His most favorite parts were the "pumcha's" though. Above are some great pics of our day together last weekend. I can't wait until Christmas because we're going to take him back to Stokoe Farms for their christmas tree farm!

Things change

Well, we went and bailed Frodo out of Lollypop Farms. We just couldn't bare the thought of him being put to sleep. We're going to try some obedience classes once we get settled into our new house and we're just watching Aidan and Frodo extremely closely. The biting can't happen again. If Frodo continues to be aggressive then we're going to send him to a "no-kill" shelter in the area. That way I know for sure that he will be in a good home, without children.

On another note...we finally got a closing date for our house! November 4th, 2008! So we can go vote in the morning, drop Aidan off at the sitters, and then go to our closing! We're so excited! I want to be able to go to the closing, get the keys, and then start the painting that evening. That way I can go in on Wednesday and paint the living room and dining room walls...then Thurs or Friday have Stanley Steemer go in and clean the carpets...then Saturday we move in!!! I so can't wait! We're finally going to own our first home!

A Sad day

Our dog, Frodo, had been with us for six years. In fact his sixth birthday just passed on October 7th. He was our baby and we loved him so much. He never really adjusted well to Aidan being around and bit him last month. Well...Aidan was loving on him and they were playing together and Frodo just flipped & bit Aidan in the face. I don't know what happened because one minute he was loving the attention and then the other he just turned on him. So, that was the last straw. We loved him so much but had to take him to Lollypop Farm. I'm hoping that he'll at least have a chance and be adopted into a loving no-child family. I cried all the way there and all the way back. I'm going to miss him incredibly but the safety of my son is more important.

Things to look forward to

So, I've had a lot of time this summer to be home with Aidan and Jesse and that's been really nice. I've gone back to the normal day/eve/night rotation and I feel more human. When I was on nights, it felt as if my off days were spent catching up on sleep and chores around the house. Now I only do nights every so often to fill my share. Towards the end of August (21st or so), I'm going to "weekend contract" which means that I'll work either Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon depending on what Jesse's school schedule will allow. Right now as it stands, if I work Fridays, then I'll have a babysitter. If I work Mondays, then I'd have to find one. Hmmm...easy choice I guess. LOL!

August 15-21st we're going to Portland, ME to visit Jesse's parents and just get away for awhile. It will be really nice to have a vacation from everything. Then when I get back, I'll start that weekend contract deal. It's not so bad working weekends though because then I can be home with Aidan during the week and spend mommy time with him. I think I'll take him to parks, take him for walks with the dog, and in the winter we'll play in the snow together. I'm really enjoying my time with him lately. He's forming such a cute little personality. I love this age.

Since I'll be getting quite the raise with the contract, we're going to be looking for a house to buy here in the city. We want to be close to our church community, my work, and Jesse's school so the city will be a good location. Right now we're thinking about the 19th Ward, Swillburg if we can find something cheap enough, possibly Southwedge (if we can find something safe enough), or in the area that we live right now Merchants/Browncroft. We really like it over here because of it's location and it's pretty quiet too for the most part. I love it because it's close to the parks and lake/rivers. I wouldn't mind living closer to Lake Ontario but I know it's not really feasible right now. Who knows where we'll end up!

God has really been working on me lately. I've been so angry and depressed lately and I feel that burden lifting. I've kind of got away from spending time with Him and that's probably the cause of most of it...but I've also been really homesick and wishing that we could be back with my side of the family. It's been good for us to be here though and it's been good for Jesse to be back closer to his family. Rochester really is a beautiful place.

Taking advantage of nap time

Aidan is down for a nap and so I thought I'd write a bit here.

I'm still at University of Rochester/Strong Memorial working on their heart transplant/VAD/Electrophysiology floor. It's been a wonderful learning experience and I have met some really cool people there. This next year will bring even more teaching and learning experiences with it as I will be trained in Swan Ganz catheters (a huge IV line that measures the pressures of the heart/lungs) and as a charge nurse for the unit. Lots in store.

Jesse is taking the summer off to enjoy books, movies, and family life and will start back up at St John Fisher in the fall. He is really enjoying his studies. He has a year and a half left and will graduate May 2010 with his bachelors degree in History with a minor in Anthropology. The plan right now is for him to work in a museum or in a library. This may change though by the time he gets through. We both can't wait for the day until he's done!!! It's not far away but it seems like it. This last semester went really fast though.

This year is going by so fast! I can't believe that it's almost June already! Lydia (my sister) is coming out here for a visit for a few weeks in June and so we're going to try to take her a few places around here. She may come here to live with us when school is over and attend college out here too depending on if she likes it here. In August, we're going to try and head out to Maine for a week's visit with Jesse's parents. Maine is so beautiful! We went last June and had a blast! I'm off this Christmas too. I switched with someone for their New Years Day so I will have both Thanksgiving and Christmas off this year! I'm so excited. I love visiting with family.
Saturday, Jesse's cousin is getting married. We're having his sister and her husband stay with us and then his parents will be staying at Jesse's grandpa's house in Brockport. I have the week off so it's been really nice to be able to just work on house work and just relax around the house before family gets here. It should be a fun filled weekend.

Catching up to speed

There has been a lot going on in the past year. I switched jobs from UofR to Rochester General in their postpartum department and then came back to UofR where I'm enjoying every minute of it. I think it took me leaving UofR to realize how much I really do like it there and love the people I work with. I still grudgingly go to work...but it's because I want to be a stay at home mom. I love working on the Heart Transplant floor. There is never a day (or night) that I don't learn something new. I have been trained on Heartmate II VADs (Ventricular Assist Devices) that basically pump for the heart when there is little or no pumping function. The next step will be to get trained on the Thoratec VAD's and the Jarviks. Exciting but scary all at the same time! This summer I should be trained in SWAN's which is a high tech IV type catheter that goes through the subclavian vein to the heart and measures the function of the left ventricle. Then the last step will be to get charge nurse training which should be sometime this fall. Wow....so much to do and I still feel so clueless sometimes!

Aidan is almost 10 months now. He is so fun at this age! He's holding onto tables and chairs to get around and tries to let go sometimes in order to stand on his own. He has many bumps and bruises because of it. He crawls everywhere and loves to hear his own voice. Most of his mumblings are "Mommom", "Da dad", and "awahwa" (like Tarsan). Very cute. He of course has his tough times too...he's starting to throw tantrums. Oh boy! That's what we get for naming him Aidan ("Fiery One"). LOL! It's been really fun though and over all he's a very happy baby.

Jesse has finally started back to school at St John Fisher. He will complete his History degree in May of 2010. He's not sure right now what he wants to do but he's leaning towards getting his Masters in Library Science. But for now he's just concentrating on getting through this semester. He's doing really well though from what I can tell. He always has been a good student though. I'm proud of him for going back!

We moved into a house that we're renting in the city. It's a duplex so we have the whole top of the house and our neighbor has the bottom. It's wonderful! We've always rented really small apartments and this is much bigger than anything we've ever had. We love it! We can't wait til we can own our own home....but at the same time we're not ready for the responsibilities that come with home ownership.

All in all, 2007 has been a great year and 2008 looks like it will be much better! Aidan and I are going back to AZ for a nice well deserved vacation and we're going to enjoy the sun! Yeah!!!