Brutus is not cooperating

Here are some pictures of Nate and Brutus. Brutus is a bit stubborn and wouldn't hold still for the pictures. These were taken in early December 2007. You can see that the weather in AZ never changes. It is always beautiful!

Nursing School

I have been studying for this exam in nursing school for about 3 weeks now. If I could get in the excellent range of scores than I would be excluded from having to take the final. I actually got in the superior range with a score of 950 out of 1000. WOW!!! I am so excited. I am done for the semester so now I can relax. What a relief. I feel like my brain is about to explode. I can no longer tie my shoes but I can cardiovert a patient in acute atrial fibrillation to save their life!!!

Personal shopper

I was complaining that I didn't have anything to wear so Edgar decided to solve that problem for me. He went out and bought me a bunch of outfits. He did really well with the sizes and styles. I was so thrilled. He really was sent to me from Heaven. He is my angel and I love him. (who wouldn't!!!! )

Pictures in sepia

Here are some pics of Brutus and I. I was fooling around with some photo editing.

A cold day in Phoenix

Wow! It is soooo cold here today. I got up to run at 6 am and it was 42 degrees out. That is the coldest that it has been this year. I decided to play in the yard with Brutus in the afternoon when it warmed up. He loves to play tug of war and fetch but he can be a little crazy sometimes. You may be wondering where Edgar is. He has decided that he doesn't like to be in pictures anymore. I will have to see if I can snap a few of him later. LOL

Quilts

These are some quilts that I have made in my craft room. The pink and green one was my first real quilt that I ever made. I got the fabric for the second one from an awesome quilt shop in Las Vegas called Quiltique. I absolutely love that store. I can't wait until our next trip out there so that I can get some more fabric and start on another one!!!

Here is another pic of Monica's baby shower. These are some of the guys in my class. They don't look like typical nurses, do they? LOL They make class very interesting.

This is a picture of Monica and I at her baby shower a few weeks ago. Monica is one of my girlfriends in my nursing school. She is going to have her baby in January. I am so excited for her!!!!! I sewed her some homemade burp cloths. She loved them. I can't wait to have my own babies so I can start keeping some of the blankets and burp cloths that I make. LOL

Craft Room

Well, here are some pictures of my finished craft room. I usually spend a lot of time in here....... but lately I have been focusing on school. The last things that I made were some burp cloths for a classmate that is having her first baby.

Well,
Here are some recent photos that Nate took. We were just about to go to a design show in downtown phoenix. It was pretty neat to see all the great ideas there. We got a lot of inspiration for our house. We typically decorated in a traditional style but now we are thinking that we would like a change. I have pretty much "undecorated" the entire downstairs so that we can get a better look at the room to see what new things we might be able to do. Once we choose at least one piece of furniture, I think that it'll move along quickly....... It is just getting to that point. We are both really unsure of what we want. LOL

It's been a while

Well,
It has been quite a long time since I posted anything. I started up nursing school again, so needless to say, I don't have a lot of free time. The courses this semester are pretty rigorous so I spend most of my time studying. I also have a 12 hour rotation at the hospital on Saturday and that eats up a lot of our fun time. The weather out here has finally started to change. The days are around 85-88 degrees and the nights are getting down into the 50s. It is beautiful. This is why we love Arizona. Edgar and I will be going to NH for Christmas this year and we are looking forward to seeing everyone. We may even take a trip to Boston! It will be nice to see snow again. Hopefully they have some by that time in the season. Well, I will start to post more frequently now. Hopefully I can take some pictures and post them too!

White Tank Mountains

Our house is at the base of the White Tank Mountains, a national park. Edgar and I decided to take Brutus up there on a Saturday to go hiking. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of me hugging the cactus that is to the right of me in the pic. Unfortuately, I must have moved because I got stuck in about 7 different places on the palm of my hand. All Edgar could do was laugh and take a picture. LOL. Smart move.

My Craft Room

Here are some pictures of my craft room. I have always wanted an apple green room. These pics were taken before it was finished. I need to take some more of the finished room. I made the curtain and the ribbon board in the second picture. I spend a lot of time in this room. I do rubber stamping, scrapbooking, and sewing. Edgar is very supportive of my addictions in these areas.

Home in Arizona

These are some pictures of our home in Arizona. I have had a few requests for some pics of the house, so here they are. They were taken when we first moved in. We now have furniture and accessories so it looks a bit different. We are currently redecorating the family room (not pictured). When we finish, I will put another post up.

Just kidding

OK, here is the real backyard. The pic of the pool and house below is actually one of Edgar's designs. He really is very talented. We haven't finished the other side of the yard that isn't in this pic. It is a sunken patio. It is about 4 feet deep. On one side there is a waterfall that disappears below ground level and on the other is a fireplace. We still have to finish the retaining wall and the stone facade. I'm sure it won't be too long until it's done. Edgar built all the stone walls by himself and he even went to Mexico and bought me the fountain as a surprise for my birthday last year. Isn't he thoughtful.

our backyard now

Except for some help with the hardscape and planting the larger trees, Edgar did this himself. He really is amazing. We weren't sure about getting a pool but we finally decided that we would really enjoy one. Edgar did a great job of transitioning the pool area to the planter beds and the sod. My grandfather, Vinny, helped Edgar lay the sod back in November. He was such a big help.

Our backyard

This is what the backyard started like. Edgar is a fantastic landscaper. He is a perfectionist and is great at what he does. He has really turned our yard into an oasis.

Brutus

These pictures were taken by my girlfriend. She is a phenomenal photographer, although she will tell you that these pics weren't the greats. Nate and I think that they are awesome. (Brutus agrees too!) If anyone needs pics, let me know and I will send you the link to her blog. She's great!

Our baby, Brutus

We know that some of you have much cuter babies than this one. For instance, maybe you have two of the sweetest littlest babies at the same time. Or maybe you have spread them out and have 3 or 4. (You know who you are!) Either way, there is one similarity between all these babies. They all drool the same. LOL.
Brutus is about 2.5 years old. He weighs about 125 lbs and is quite a goof. He is very spoiled by Edgar.

Edgar's New Toy

We finally got rid of my old Honda Passport. I was sad to see it go but oh so happy for something that had good a/c. Edgar had been wanting a truck to do all his manly excursions with. When he found this one he fell in love. How sweet. It is definetly nice to be able to see over the other vehicles on the road. When we drive the car, we feel like we are on the ground. LOL After test driving a few other models, we decided that we liked the power of the Duramax. This truck even has a chip to give us additional horse power when we need it. Like the other day when Nate got pulled over. I told him to step on it but he decided to pull over and abide by the law. He was doing 67 in a 45! :) And yes, he did get a ticket.

San Diego

This was taken in San Diego on Memorial Day weekend. We were standing in front of the Star of India down by the bay.

MEXICO

On Memorial Day weekend, Edgar and I decided to make a trip to San Diego and go to Mexico. The bottom pic is of Tijuana. We had so much fun. The vendors have so many neat things. I absolutely loved the ceramic dishes that they have. They had hand painted ceramic sinks and they were selling them for 35.00$ When I got home, I searched them on the internet and found them selling for 190.00$ each. Wow. That just goes to show you the mark up. If anyone wants anything ( like prada, coach, dooney and bourke etc ) let me know. They are super cheap!

Labadee, Haiti

Here we are in Labadee. This is Royal Caribbean's private island in Haiti. They did allow some vendors on the island so that we could shop. Edgar and I have been to Mexico before and so we thought that we knew what to expect when bartering with the "locals." The people here are about 100 times more aggressive than mexicans are. There were a few times when I thought that we weren't going to make it out of the market. The would literally chase you to get you to come back to their shop. Scary.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

This is a picture of Edgar. The day after St. Martin he got a rash all over his body. It was from a combination of the sun and the antibiotics that he was on. He was soooo itchy, that I took all our towels and wet them down. I made him lay down and cover up with the wet towels to help the itching. It was hilarious. He really was in a lot of pain though:( A doctor's visit and 200$ later, he was feeling much better ) LOL

ST MARTIN

Here is a picture of the port in St. Martin. This was our second spot. We went snorkeling on one of the surrounding islands. I couldn't believe all the tropical fish that we saw.

Rum Distillery in San Juan

These pics were taken at the Bacardi Rum Distillery in San Juan. We thought that the tour would be awesome. We wanted some time on the island to explore and since this excursion was about 2 hours, we thought that we'd have plenty of time to shop in the markets afterwards. We really wanted to learn about how rum was made. We figured that since sugar cane is Puerto Rico's main crop and since Rum is made from this that we would learn a bit about the island. It ended up being horrible. We waited in the hot sun for about 1.5 hours and the tour lasted for about 15 minutes in a small room. We didn't even get to see the machines that they use for fermenting the sugar cane etc. We did get some good pictures though.

Here is Edgar in the dining room. It was 3 stories high. The food was delicious and the service was excellent. We both dieted before the cruise but I think that we each gained a bit of weight with all the eating that we did. LOL!

So, I finally got Edgar to take a "real" vacation. He really needed a break from work and we needed some alone time.

This is the ship that we took our cruise on. Currently it is the largest cruise ship in the world. It had an ice skating ring, movie theatre, surfing simulator, miniature golf course, casino etc etc etc. It holds about 7000 people. WOW. We absolutely loved it. We went to San Juan, St Martin, and Labadee.

Hi Everyone! This is our new blog. Everyone is doing it so we'd thought we'd join in too. These blogs are super easy to do and a great way to stay in touch with family and friends. We hope you all will do it too!

Here we are on 6/17/07 at Christen and John's wedding in Las Vegas. We just came back from our vacation in the Caribbean on Saturday and made the drive to LV that night. We were so tired. It was a great wedding! We are so glad we made it.