Our Week

Happy Tuesday! Mitch is studying, which takes up about 90% of our day. So I have lot of free time on my hands. But in between all the studying, we have had some time this week to explore our new town and meet some new people. So here is what we've been up too this week/weekend.

I have continued the job search. I found out last week, even thought I have an OK teaching license, because I have not taught for three years, my license will not transfer to TN. So guess what- remember those teaching tests I took over this past year, yep I have to take them all again for TN, an they require 4! So to say I was a little sad this week would be an understatement. I am still trying to work something out, but in the mean time I have put in my application for aide and sub positions. This is what I have been doing all week and I hope it ends soon.

A a more positive note- Bella got her first bark box here in TN. We have been doing this for a little over a year now and it is just so wonderful. I know people think its weird that I pay a monthly fee for my dog to get toys and treats sent to us in the mail. Well- first off don't dog it until you try it. Mitch DID NOT want me to do it at first, but I told him to trust me and if after the first few months he didn't like it or thought it was too much money, I would stop. (Ask him now- he tells everyone with a dog about it and how much $ we save). Yes I do treat my dog like a child, but this box is seriously the best thing ever. We pay a small fee and we usually get two large toys, bags of treats and some kind of bone/rawhide. When you add the cost of everything in the box- its way more than we pay a month. And also we NEVER, and I mean never go buy her anything from petsmart, etc anymore! It saves us so much money. Before we would go out and buy a small bag of treats and a small toy and its more than this box. You get so much for your money. So if you have a dog and spend lots of money going out and buying treats, toys, etc- give this a try. It really will save you money and you gets so many wonderful, healthy stuff for your dog (and your dog will be oh so happy when that box shows up on the porch).

Also, some more positives for the week, I received my first card from my sweet Hadley. She is the sweetest little second grader and I am so thankful for her and her family. I had her when she was in kindergarten and she is just one of those kids that I clicked with. I visit her and her family every time I'm back in tulsa, but in the meantime-I love being "pen pals". 

Mitch finally got a new backpack. He has had this huge old backpack for forever and finally in college I talked him into getting a nice Northface cross body bag. Well it is still in great condition, but it doesn't hold all of his stuff that he needs for class. So he went and picked out this Patagonia one and I am actually a little jealous. :)

Since Mitchs classes don't start until afternoon- his earliest class is at one- we have the mornings together. So the other day we went and tried this donut place that was suppose to be amazing. And it was pretty good. Mitch's all time favorite thing is donuts and so if he approves, it must be good.

And... thats been the extent of our exciting week. Mitch's school is really starting to pick up and getting more intense everyday. We have been hanging out with several married couples in the program and it is so nice to have other people to relate with during this crazy time in our life. We are headed back to Tulsa for labor day weekend. Mitch doesn't ever have class fridays, and he is off monday- so we are headed to OK!! I kinda had to beg him to go ha. Not really but he has a test tuesday when we get back and since I am missing home he was all for going back. Since he will be studying the whole time, he knew I would be able to spend some time with my family and friends! Even though its a long drive, I am thankful he is willing to let me go home. His program director and other older classmates told him if we want to go back home or anything, this is the only year to do it. Once he starts next year- there are zero breaks(including holidays) and so no time to travel home. So we might be making the drive a lot, especially this first semester, but I am thankful for that. 

Until next time~

Our house

I thought it is about time to share some pictures of our house here in Tennessee. The process of finding this house was beyond stressful and honestly at first when we looked at it, I wasn't a huge fan. There were just little things that I thought were going to really bother me. Well, I must admit- I was wrong. I really love this house. I was able to look past some of its small flaws, and now that all of our stuff is in it and decorated, I really love it. So here are some pics.. The only room we do not have done is the 2nd guest room. It is currently cleaned out and I am shopping for a vintage rod iron full/queen bed and quilt. I am in no hurry, especially since we already have one guest bedroom if we do have any guests :) 

-Also, these are just iPhone pics so I apologize if the quality is not the best. I was too lazy to get out the nice camera ha! 

Front door and entry way

Entry table

bella wanted to sneak in the picture :)

our little living room

Kitchen

I do have to say, since we took this pic, we have purchased a new fridge. Unfortunately ours went out, but on the bright side we got a nice new black one that matches with a ice/water spout on front 

i love love love my new kitchen table. You can't see it very well but it is a white pedestal table with a vintage wood table top.

i still haven't put up my china in the hutch yet- but that is a project for this week

Office

more office

guest room

guest bath

our room

master bath

My least fav thing about the whole house is that our standup shower in the master does not have a door! I was so confused when I saw this- so we have a curtain up for now and debating if we should install a glass door. I hate the curtain- I feel like I am showering at camp ha! But its hard to install anything or do any updates since its just a rental.

So thats our new little Tennessee house. I am really coming around to it and finally calling it home.  I am still missing home a lot, i think its especially hard this week bc I am watching all my jenks friends and kids go back to school. But on the positive side things are going well here. The program Mitch is in, is very family oriented and always like to plan stuff for the crna students and their spouses. So this weekend we are going to a cookout! 

I did find out some rough news about getting my TN license and to say I am bummed is an understatement. I will do an update about that when I feel like I can write about it without getting upset and when I know more. I keep telling myself I know God has an amazing plan for us here in TN, but right now I could use some prayer while I try and figure out what I'm going to do. 

Until next time~

Our trip home

We had a wonderful week back home and yes I know what your thinking... we weren't even in TN very long. That is true, but it was still so wonderful to be home. I have always told Mitch I will support him and go anywhere he gets into school and I was actually excited about TN. But when you make the move it is a lot harder than I thought. I still think we will love it here and I am so excited to be in TN! I think what is making it harder for me is that I had established myself at a school I fell in love with. I know I have talked about Jenks before, but it is where my heart is. The kids, teachers and staff are more than wonderful. My heart is sad that I will not be there, but also because I was suppose to be teaching my first year of kindergarten there this year. I have worked so hard this past year to become a certified teacher and I wanted nothing more than to be a teacher at Jenks. I know 100% God has called us to TN, and although it is going to be hard at first, I am so excited to see where he leads Mitch and I. I pray everyday I will find a school here and love on those kids just as I did at Jenks. Marriage is all about sacrifice and this is the biggest one we have faced so far. I am so thankful for Mitch and his drive to be a better nurse. I will do anything and everything to support him and I know he will do the same for me when we return! 

So more about our trip back home. We were in TN for a week and it was so wonderful to get settled and unpacked so when we came back it was all done!! We left last thursday and made the long drive back to OK. We got in super late because we couldn't leave until mitch got done with class. Friday we had some errands to run for the wedding then we went to the rehearsal and dinner. The dinner was at El Guapo and was so fun! Mitch went out with the guys after and I headed home. Mitch spent saturday with the guys and I had some girls form the tennis team coming up for the wedding. 

We had lunch and walked around Utica. It was so good to see them and catch up. Saturday night was the wedding and it was at our church- FBC Tulsa and then the reception was at The Mayo. 

Couldn't ask for two better friends to do life with

Sweet Lauren and I

It was so pretty and so much fun. It was so nice to see so many of of close friends before we left for good.  We didn't get home until around 1am and we had to be up at 7 for church. We had to go the early service because right after we were headed to Stillwater to move my brother into school. It was a surreal day and I still cannot believe he is a freshman. This summer he joined a fraternity-ATO, and so he had to move into the house and I really think he is going to love it. He officially starts classes monday, but they have had activities all week for the guys and he is loving it.

Monday, Mitch had a lot of school work to do and I had made plans to have lunch with a few of the teachers I worked with. I ended up grabbing lunch and just taking it up to the school. I also had several of my kids coming up to see me. My sweet Hadley, game me the sweetest card and "best friends" bracelet ha! I will miss her so much!!!!!! 

I was up there from 11-3 and it was seriously the perfect day. I am so sad I will not be spending the school year with them. When I left the school, I went to my good friends, Tayler's new house. I have been trying to get over there to see for what seems like forever now- so I made it a priority to see it before I left. I stayed over there for a while and it was so nice to just sit and talk.  I always tell everyone I would be lost without Tay in my life. She has been so encouraging and supportive over these past several years of my life. 

Later that night my parents took us out to dinner and of course we had mexican! That is one thing we don't have here in jackson, or should I say, we haven't found yet, is good mexican food. It is a big city with lots of chain restaurants- but no mexican food! If you know mitch and I at all- we live on mexican food so were hoping to find one soon.

Tuesday was a lazy day at home. We relaxed and hung out at my parents house. Later that night we went to our good friends, Katie and Tommys house. It was so good to see them before we left. 

Early Wednesday morning we made the drive to bentonville. We hung out there for a few days and it was so good to spent time with my sis-in-law! I miss hanging out with them so much! We went and got pedicures and it was just wonderful! 

We left super early friday and got back home to TN fairly early on in the afternoon. We had several little things and errands we needed to get done. One of them being getting my id card and parking permit for Union. I have free access to all their facilities so that will be nice!! 

It was move in day for the new students so it was crazy up on campus. I think I have said before, but Union is a sister school to OBU- they are actually the "model" university for OBU now. We have a good friend that works at OBU and he always tells us they use Union for an example for how they want OBU to be like. So things are very similar and I love that! 

Also- I was super sad, but I had to put my parking sticker right where my little razorback was on my car. So I said goodbye to it and added my union parking sticker. Also, since osu was my first love and it is what I was born and raised on- not to mention we have a cowboy in the family again now- I switched back to Pistol Pete and it makes my heart so happy! Of course I still love the hogs and will always cheer for them, but my heart will always truly be with the Cowboys. 

Today, we are grocery shopping, cleaning and doing lots of laundry- I know sounds like so much fun!! I am so happy to be settling here and can't wait to start this new journey! 

First post from Tennessee!

Well we are here!  While I am writing this post we still do not have internet, so by the time y’all read this (this was written Tuesday)-it will be a little out of date, but I thought while I had some down time I would document about our first 5 days in Jackson, TN.

It has been a crazy busy week! We “luckily” got here Friday- I was so sick (more on that in a min) that we didn’t think I was going to be able to go. But I did.  We got all moved in- well I should say we got everything unloaded and it looked like an explosion in our house. We have been spending the past several days unpacking and getting things in order. I am a person who likes to get it all done right off the bat. The more of my stuff I have around the house, the more it feels like home. My mom got to stay the week with us and it has been so nice to have her here while Mitch has been in orientation. We have got the whole house pretty much put together and everything hung on the walls. We just have one extra guest room which we aren’t use to-so we are trying to fix that up and we will be done! I’m impressed with how fast it went. I couldn’t of done it without my mom being here.

So lets back up a little and about me being sick. Okay-I’m going to warm you, this was the sickest I have ever been in my life! It was unreal and I am still trying to figure out where we went wrong. But anyways, we went to Mexico in July and while we were there I started to have stomach issues. Nothing bad- it honestly didn’t even concern me while we were there. Well we got back on a Wednesday and I was off and on sick through Friday morning. It would get real bad and then I would feel okay. Thank goodness I was able to make it to our going away party our ss class had for us. Friday morning I went to lunch with Natalie and got some soup. On my way home I ended up at urgent care. My stomach pains were unreal. The determined it was something I picked up in Mexico and put me on 3 antibiotics. They said if it wasn’t better by Sunday to go to the ER.. Well I only made it to Saturday. Early Saturday morning I found myself in the ER. I was having the worst pain and couldn’t keep anything down, not even a sip of water. Anything and everything would make me vomit.  Well they immediately admitted me and I ended up spending the next 3 nights in the hospital. Not what I was expecting. They took so many tests and I had a bug in me and it caused a bad infection in my colon I had colitis and was severely dehydrated. Long story short- it was awful and I was so glad to be home. I left with 7 antibiotics and they made me feel awful. Today was my last day of them and oh am I thankful to be done with those.  We had several friends tell us not to go to mexico and too be careful, and I guess they were right. I honeslty don’t think ill ever go back after my experience. Yes it was that bad! But our trip was amazing and I wouldn’t trade it. I would say nothing bad about our resort, excursions, etc- I just wish I hadn’t got that sick.

Now, more on Tennessee. Mitch started orientation/class this week but officially starts the 18^th.  He is really enjoying it so far and he is figuring out how intense this program is. Union has one of the hardest, but best crna programs. This is not your typical grad school program and they are making sure he knows that ha! I’ll up update more on that as he continues school. I am trying to figure out what I am going to do for a job. I want to teach so bad, esp now that I am certified, but the school districts are so rough here and it may be hard for me since I have never been a classroom teacher. We will see. I could use some prayers bc I am so torn on what to do. I cannot imagine not being in a classroom setting, but I also don’t want to end up hate teaching after this.

Thursday, we are headed back to Tulsa!! We have Peters wedding Saturday and then we are moving my brother into OSU on Sunday. We are going to stay in Tulsa unitl Tuesday and then spend the rest of the week in Bentonville before coming back to TN. We are slowly but surly settling in-it is so exciting, but also so weird not being in Tulsa. It will definitely take some getting use to.

I’ll update more on our trip back home soon! Until next time!