Monday, May 17, 2010

Engagement Slide Show

Our engagement photos were done in Columbus by the fabulously talented EB Cairns!  Erin has immense talent and it was so fun to work with her in this capacity.  (She and I went to nursing school together).  Check out the slide show below.  The song, "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" by The Police has special meaning to Joe and I as a couple--he used to always sing it to me saying it describes me. 



Friday, November 20, 2009

Engaged 'n stuff

On October 18th Joe asked me to marry him. We're currently in the planning stages of our wedding. Details can be found on our wedding blog, The Jess & Joe Show: http://thejessandjoeshow.blogspot.com/



As for me, I just finished up my rotation in the ICU and totally loved it. I never thought I would be interested in being an ICU nurse; however the experience really intrigued me. I may have found a new specialty!

On a side note, if you or anyone you know is an RN and knows of any hospital openings let me know. I'm currently on the hunt for a job! I'll relocate pretty much anywhere for the right opportunity. I'm highly motivated and organized.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I'm Baaaack!

Today I had a realization that I want to keep up on my blog. I have not contributed to it in 9 months.

So much has changed with me.

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In January I ended my 5 1/2 year tenure with the State of Ohio and entered nursing school. In fact, this week marks my halfway point! It was a huge, but needed change. I am pleased with my decision to grow some and finally take control of my life, instead of just coasting by.

First day of Clinical

Since my last posting, the following has also happened:
Mgan and Stacey got married. Kristen and Rob got married.
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I continued my lease until March. I became a Red Cross Volunteer (in two departments). I've met some great friends in nursing school. Another Comfest has come and gone. Our traveling has been cut in half. Since my last entry, we visited NYC for Mgan's wedding.
We traveled to Clearwater/St. Petersberg, FL on my Spring break, relaxing away on Indian Rocks beach eating stone crab at Crabby Bill's every night.
You must hydrate, my friend

Joe went part time at work and took up full time school. He also joined a rock band.

So here I am today. Last week I began my psych nursing rotation. I have the pleasure of being assigned to Twin Valley hospital for clinical. I am very excited about this assignment, mostly because my initial thought when deciding to go into nursing school was that I would return to work for the state as a psych nurse at Twin Valley. I'm not sure that will be happening, but I am glad to be afforded the opportunity to work in a long term inpatient psychiatric environment. And, a state mental hospital at that!

I've been spending the week working on a presentation I am giving for my class on Psychological First Aid. It is coming together really well.

Last Saturday Joe and I went to see Bruno. I was rather disappointed with it. Bruno was my favorite character on the Ali G show, but I don't feel that the movie gave him any justice. And, unless I missed it, I did not hear anyone say "das a nicht nicht!" So sad!

We spent Saturday night at Char Bar with Cass, Ben, and Jon. Lots of long islands later, we headed to Bar 23. Not at all my scene, but the Pop Rock martinis they kept feeding me were appeasing.

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There you have it.
'till next time...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Do the Humpty Hump!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is hump day!! Luckily for us government employees, we had a long weekend to begin with!

So, what have I been up to? Let's see....

Last Thursday we treated ourselves to a free Black Keys show at the LC. I won tickets at Comfest and decided to use them. I sort of enjoy their music. They're from Akron, so they're sorta like our hometown boys. We saw them at Lollapalooza, so it was cool to say we've seen them twice this year...We pregamed at Barley's, one of our favorite spots just beyond the Short North. Then it was more fun at House of Crave. Not really, I hate that place. Always have. Back when it was Fat Eddies or whatever it tried to be. Anyway, we meandered over to the show and planted ourselves in the very back edge of the grass, under the video camera guy. A lesbian couple was sitting in front of us and asked us to watch their belongings as they went to do whatever they were going to do. We agreed. 10 minutes later we had free beers! Yeah!

Friday we went to see Barack Obama at Genoa Park. It was seriously amazing. Huge crowds. We got relatively close, considering there were over 10,000 people there:



It is like he's looking right at us!!







That evening, we enjoyed an awesome Halloween Party at Cheri and Von's house. Since we were feeling political after the rally, Joe and I went with the theme...



Yup, that's right folks! Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin!

Saturday morning I became American Heart Association BLS for Healthcare Providers CPR certified. I then went home and slept my hangover off....

Sunday we shopped at Easton. Then we saw Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was your cliche teen movie. It was okay, I guess. We had dinner at the Melting Pot. Not too bad. The best part is the dessert. The dinner portion actually made me pretty sick...not too keen on boiled meat.

I don't know what I did on Monday......

Tomorrow night I have my Poll Worker training. Woohoo! Friday we're traveling to Circleville for the Pumpkin Show. Yay!

Have a good week!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Back in Ohio and I need a break!!

I looked at my calendar yesterday when my mom asked when I wanted to visit Aunt Goldie in Corry, PA. I realized that I have not had a free weekend (i.e. was not traveling, hosting guests, or having class) since April 11. That's nearly 6 months! No wonder I've felt like my life has been a blur lately. This weekend is still not entirely free--we have to travel to Cincy for Sophia's baptism tomorrow. But, I am pleased to say that today it is 6:21PM and I still have not left the house! It feels great!

Our whirlwind tour of the South was so much fun. In Nashville, we were able to hang out with all of our NADE friends. I'm going to miss those guys once I leave the DDS. Hopefully I can make it down to the Covington convention next wear to visit with everyone. We didn't get to do much sightseeing since we were in meetings all day and catching up with friends all night.

On our way to Memphis, we stopped at the Loveless Cafe. THE BEST FOOD I'VE EVER HAD. PERIOD. It recently was made even more famous by Bobby Flay. If you are ever anywhere near Nashville, you MUST EAT THERE. They had the best biscuit I've ever tasted. A biscuit is a biscuit is a biscuit. Until you've eaten at the Loveless Cafe.

Our trip to Memphis was interesting...I saw cockroaches, rats, and hippies. I got to party at Wet Willie's. I toured the Gibson Guitar Factory, saw Graceland, and Sun Studios. I had the opportunity to say I've been in Arkansas and Mississippi. I got advice from a pimp. I ate BBQ at the world famous Rendezvous. I watched the ducks parade in The Peabody. And, I spent two nights on Beale St. I will probably never go back to Memphis, though. It's a sad little city. But, I'm glad that I visited.

On our final leg of the trip, we visited with Ashley and Josh. We got to see their house and then toured the Opryland Hotel and mall. MUST SEE destinations when you are in Nashville. We loved Nashville.

Last weekend, we traveled back to New Philadelphia/Dover for another cousin's wedding. We spent Saturday morning at the Sugarcreek Swiss Festival. Sugarcreek is an adorable little town that I never knew existed in Ohio. It's right on the outskirts of the largest Amish settlement in the world. It's little Switzerland themed. So cute! We bought so much swiss cheese and Joe got a Swiss cheese hat for sampling so much!

This week was spent recovering. I caught up on my doctor's appointments and am in the final stages of making sure all of my vaccines are up to date. I've gotten my most recent teatnus shot, Hep B, and Gardacil. I'm currently awaiting my MMR and Varicella (chicken pox) titers. Then, I should be good and protected against anything that will come my way in nursing. :)

I spent today in my own home. It was great! We cleaned up and it is looking awesome. Almost like we actually live here!! Tonight we head over to Mike and Christie's for some Buckeye football action.

Well, that's a brief recap...

'till next time........

P.S. My computer has been acting up lately and doesn't want to post pics....so check out my Flickr site to get all the pics from our travels.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Murfreesboro, Y'all!

Greetings from Murfreesboro, TX!

We left yesterday morning around 7:30 AM and enjoyed a breakfast break at the Sonic in Grove City. I totally love Sonic, especially on roadtrips. It turned out to be a total downpour throughout most of the Ohio and early Kentucky trip. We hit a really bad accident in downtown Cincinnati which delayed us. But, it wasn't like we were in a complete hurry. We stopped at a Kroger Fuel station in KY, just outside of Clermont. $3.99 a gallon! Crazy. We spoke with a truck driver who was on his way up from Texas and he said gas was cheaper in TN. After we bought gas, we heard on NPR that the KY Governor had just signed a bill banning gas stations from raising prices in anticipation of Ike. Go figure.
We got to the Jim Beam Distillery around noon. We enjoyed a short tour and a sampling of Knob Creek and Basil Hayden's. The buildings the bourbon is aged in smelled so delicious! Whiskey is one of my favorites, so it was a lot of fun to learn about the process and the history of Jim Beam. I hope sometime when we have more time, we can do the entire Bourbon trail. I think it'd be especially fun to stop at Maker's Mark. Below is a pic of Joe, Jim Beam, and I, sippin' whiskey.




After that, we headed south to Cave City. We were going to go to Dinosaur World, but decided against it. Instead, we took pictures outside the front:





We then stopped at Mammoth Cave to figure out if we should go there on the way home. The decision was no, because, Mammoth Cave is totally awesome and deserves a trip of it's own.

We headed to Murfreesboro for our last stop of the day. We were fortunate enough to hit the Nashville rush hour traffic. Lucky us hitting both AM and PM rush hours! Our hotel is really nice - it is a brand new Holiday Inn Express. I love their cinnamon rolls! We ate at this awesome restaurant called Toots. We had a pitcher of beer and two dinners for $21!! So cheap! We drove around town and visited the MTSU campus. George Clinton went there. It was pretty neat.

Joe came up with this idea that we take Obama Rama around on our trip, photographing him in various places. We just so happened to drive by the Murfreesboro Republican Headquarters, so we snapped a shot:


I was pretty disturbed this morning to hear about hurricane Ike. CNN was showing a shot of the Chase building in downtown Houston...all the windows were blown out. Almost 4 years ago, I was on the top of that building looking out among the city. I wish everyone in Texas the best of luck and a speedy recovery.

Well, we're off to Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniel's Distillery.

More later

Thursday, September 11, 2008

in the bar light, she looked alright

today was my last day of work for the next 6 business days!

I almost have my desk all caught up, which is good. If I keep it like this, it will be smooth sailing until my resignation in December.
Joe called off work today, so I drove alone. On break I ran to the library to grab the Neil Gaiman book I reserved on CD to listen on the trip and gassed up with my Kroger fuel discount. On lunch, I deposited my OADE check for the trip and headed to Jimmy John's for lunch. #12 on 7-grain baby! I'm a 7-grain convert. This was my second Jimmy John's this week...can you say F-F-F-F-F-F-atty?
After work I went to Sax for a car wash. I was well overdue and I want my car to sparkle as I cross the Mason-Dixon line.

I accompanied Joe on his errand run once I got home. We went to Staples to have the NADE award narratives copied and laminated. We had 30 minutes to spare, so we browsed. I found the best rear-view mirrow air freshener in the beauty store at the Lennox (of all places!):



A perfect, subtle way for me to show my support while I'm on the roadtrip. I love it!
I spent the evening packing and printing up directions to all of our destinations. We leave tomorrow at 6AM! Woohoo!