Helloooooooooooooo Dothan!

Since Thursday, you haven't been able to wipe the smiles off the faces around this house!  Know why?  We got the call--Kerry has a job lined up for when he is finished with school!  We are so thrilled!

We had been kayaking the Econfina all day Thursday with my parents.  When we got back to the car to unload and drive back to PCB, both our phones had missed calls from Dothan, AL numbers.  He returned the call, and put it on speaker phone so we could hear the conversation.  Kerry will be working for Flowers Hospital!  Let me tell you, I was DANCING in that passenger seat!  We are one step closer to being done now, and we are both thankful that we will still be close to family.

So of course, typical me, I laid awake most of the night that night worrying about change.  Change is good, but change stresses me out 99.99% of the time.  "We need to find a house."   "How can we afford a house?  We've only rented the entire time we've been married."  "What will I do now?"  "We'll have to find a new church, doctors, friends, etc"  All these things were running through my mind at once!  I always envisioned the day we found out where we'd end up would be a load off our minds, not a NEW load. 

I've done a lot of praying, and I've had Kerry bring the last 2 weeks sermons from church back to my attention (which were both about fear and worry...ironic?).  I've always hated to move, but since we've done it SO much since we got married we should be pros by now.  Hopefully this transition will be smooth, and we'll get to stay put for a long, long time. 

P90X...a retrospective.

The past 90 days we have been working our fannies off!  Literally.  :) 
I didn't really post a whole lot about it for the first couple of weeks because (classic Nicole) I was afraid of failure.  When those first 2 pounds came off and I said, "You know,  I might actually be able to do this,"  I decided to go public with the fact that we were giving it a try.  Since I never blogged about it, or did much more than write a couple of facebook statuses about it, I'll reflect on it now.

We started back in January while Kerry was on his rotation in Marianna.  We're not big on New Year's resolutions or anything, it was just a timing thing.  Based on a little research, we picked up with the Lean version - mostly because it adds more cardio into the mix, and that's what I love to do!  We also adopted a higher protein eating plan, and tried to get more veggies in the mix as well. 

Keeping track of everything was the fun part.  We took pictures the day before we started, at 30, 60, and now 90 days respectively.  We measured at 30 days (because we forgot to at the start) and again at 90...and I was a little blown away with my results.  Kerry wasn't really looking to lose weight so much as he was looking to bulk up a little and shed some flab.  What flab?  Ha...I've always thought he looked awesome myself ;)

I started out at a weight that I've been since 2006.  I'm pretty good at maintaining...I credit that to a liking for running.  Now, I'm at a number I haven't seen since my freshman year of college at Troy!  11 pounds may not be drastic like biggest loser numbers, or anything--but they're 11 pounds I won't miss!  From day 30 to day 90 I shed 8 inches as well...and depending on the brand of pants, 2 pant sizes!  Yay me!

top left: day 1  top right: day 30
bottom left: day 60  bottom right:  day 90

Kerry lost about 12 pounds and 9 inches.  The biggest difference in him has to be muscular, though.  He has abs for crying out loud!  I'm so proud of him!  :)

left: day1   right: day 90

We're not stopping here, though.  We're taking a weekend off to relax and Monday we start Insanity with Shaun T. Gluttons for punishment? Maybe so.  But to quote Tony Horton, "I hate it...but I love it."

BRING IT!!!

Happy New Year!

Bye bye, 2010! I can't even begin to say how enormously excited I am that this year has come. It is officially Kerry's graduation year. Not that we're wishing our lives away, but this is a time we would definitely like to get behind us. Everyone makes resolutions this time of year...but I'll plead the fifth for ours until later.

Christmas and the days after were good to us. We got to see nearly all of our families! We are truly blessed.

Kerry is working at a small hospital in Marianna this month, so we won't see a whole lot of each other. I'm praying this month flies by!!

Semester 4 is in the books!

Congratulations, Gooding Institute class of 2010!

Yesterday was graduation for the upper class. It was an awesome day! Watching the seniors get their hoods and diplomas, I was looking ahead to next December and just dreaming away. Kerry even received a scholarship during the ceremony! We had no idea, and it is GREATLY appreciated. I am so insanely proud of him and his accomplishments, and the best is yet to come. So now with that group graduated and out, Kerry's class is instantly promoted to senior status. One year to go. That is exciting in itself. :)

Not to put myself in the spotlight, but I will also mention that I was selected as Bay Medical Center's employee of the month for December 2010. I'm floored and deeply appreciative of this, as I've only been there right at a year. I have great co-workers, and a pretty awesome manager, and without them in the clinic, I'd be more than crazy!

Christmas is here, as well! Our favorite time of the year by far, and this year will be very special. I can't wait to see my big brother, hang out with the rest of the family, eat, go to a Christmas Eve service at church, watch 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS, help Brayden celebrate his first Christmas, swap gifts, and the rest of the things that come with the next few days. And since we'll be spending the night at my parents' house next weekend, I'll probably do just like I did for years as a child – look at the stars out the window in my room and look for Santa. ;)



Merry Christmas to you.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

I realize it's the last day of November, and I'm late posting, but you'll have to excuse me.  We've been home in Red Level/ Andalusia loving on our new nephew, Brayden!  He is SO beautiful, and we're thrilled to be Uncle Kerry and Aunt Colie.  He got here pretty late on the 22nd, and was beautiful and healthy from the get go.  It was an amazing Thanksgiving back home with family.  Congratulations to Erin and Josh!

As December starts and this year comes to a close, we're so very excited to only have a year left as a student and wife of a student!  We don't mind it for now, but we sometimes (me in particular) get restless and ready for a change of scenery.  It is a little mind boggling that 2010 is nearly over, and as I sit here and write out Christmas cards, I can't help but look forward to all the events that will come in the next year!

Please continue to remember us in your prayers, and as soon as the magazine is out, I'll post Kerry's article.  That's his latest project...he'll be a published author!  Isn't that something?   My current projects still revolve around cooking, and I must say, I'm getting pretty darn good at it.  Except for the fact that I'm somewhat of an accident waiting to happen, i.e. slicing my finger on a mandolin and burning my entire hand on a cast iron skillet, I'm making some pretty tasty things.  So come visit, and I'll cook you up a little something ;)

I am due to return to the neurologist in a couple of weeks, so I'll update on that as it comes.

Days go by...

Yesterday was our 3rd/9th anniversary.  It's hard to imagine a more crazy day than the day we got married.  Thank goodness for pictures, because so much of it is still a blur in my mind.  Even with the madness, I still consider it to be one of the best days of my life...I mean, look at this picture!  So goofy and in love, just as we have been from the moment we met.  I wouldn't trade the past nine years for anything.  Not to say they've been perfect, but if things trend the way they have, we have a lifetime of goof left in us (ha).  

To celebrate this year, I cooked a big dinner on Friday night before our anniversary.  Then the actual day of, we headed for Bonefish grill, as per tradition, and walked the beach and sat in the sand watching the sunset.  I know blah-dee-blah romantic stuff, but it means a lot for us to just unwind and take in our surroundings while we're here.  And this happens to be the PERFECT time of year.  I couldn't imagine celebrating an anniversary any other season...it just makes sense for us.  

This time next year I hope to be sorting things to sell or give away so that we can MOVE, and I certainly hope Kerry has a job nailed down by then.  It just seems so far away, but when I look back, I think it isn't all that long.  Heck just yesterday we loaded the Equinox like the Clampetts and drove all the way to Baltimore for an adventure, right? 

So on to the future...this weekend we will fulfill our other anniversary tradition and snap a few photos, this year without Otis because he's just too camera shy.  I'll post to facebook and maybe here when that's done. 

'til next time  : )

SEPTEMBER!

Today marks the start of my most favorite month of the year!  In honor of that, I'm posting a video I made for my Kerry to honor our 3rd anniversary...even though that doesn't happen til the end of the month.  I celebrate the whole month though, and I see absolutely NOTHING wrong with that!!!!


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.