it's fall!

and i love fall. it's my very favorite time of year. stuart likes it, too, but he says that's because it comes just before his very favorite time of year (the holidays). here's some fall things we've been up to:

roasting chickens.
this is almost a weekly thing for us now.

switching up the decor.
and lighting fall-scented candles.
and opening the windows.

buying fall-y foods!
i also got some delicious pumpkin butter, not shown here.

baking with said purchased foods!

having fun baking!

making a huge mess while baking!
it's stuart's job to clean up after i cook :)

the end product: williams-sonoma's apple coffee cake. pretty good.

this coming weekend is the long-awaited harvest festival on kavanaugh in hillcrest. it's an all-day street festival deal, including a chili cook-off. oh, my heart is so glad and i can't WAIT! also, a week from saturday my mama is coming to visit. also can't wait for that! more decorating and cooking to ensue, yes mom? maybe purchasing some random fabric? and baking all kinds of goodies? it's a good couple of weeks coming up!

3 months and a lovely saturday.

we've been married 3 months today! my, how time flies. we celebrated by having orange rolls and bacon for breakfast - yum. we went for a walk down by the rivermarket, and the weather was so nice - cool and breezy. some farmers have pumpkins out already, but we're trying to hold off at least until october. that's when it really seems like fall, i guess. and the med school had a free diabetes screening booth set up, so we both had our blood sugar checked, and we're clear! :)

last weekend we went to hot springs for some relaxation. momP and pop, derek, beth and oz were there, and it was really a great time! it was hot, but we were able to use uncle rick's boat to go out on the lake and swim around a bit. it was just nice to rest, lay around and read, and let the boys watch football ;) it's a blessing to have some family close by. maybe someday we can be close to the acree family, too.

derek & beth with oz.

me and the hubs.

the whole fam.

pop swimming.

oz is still happy at this point because he hasn't fallen in yet.

riding on the boat.

beth, oz and stu on the boat.

beth & ozzie.

relaxing!

the week was busy - full of planning crock pot meals and getting ready for work. stuart is just finishing up his second rotation of internal medicine in the diagnostic clinic. he liked this much better than being on the wards at the VA. next week he starts "taste of medicine," where each day or half day he travels around with different doctors and clinics to see a bunch of specialties. we'll see how that goes.

last week at work i took 2 patients (the goal is to have 4), and it was a big week learning about palliative and hospice care, as one of my patients went downhill quickly and this is where the family ended up with their decisions. tough week, but good learning experiences. this week i took 3 patients, which kept me busy, but i'm definitely feeling more confident in managing everything i need to just to get through the day and take care of all of my patients. also, every blood draw i stuck a patient for this week, i got on the first try. woot. and i dropped an NG tube successfully on the first pass. another woot. (that was for mama acree, she'll be proud). :)

stuart's been asked to lead worship at church a bit more recently, and he is loving it. he sits in the living room playing different songs throughout the week trying to pick the best ones, so i'm loving it, too.

tonight we're getting together with some friends to play settlers of catan and eat icecream. it will be a good time!

some more photos.

i found these photos yesterday. thought everyone would enjoy looking at a few kinda recent photos that i never got around to posting anywhere -

the night before i MOVED AWAY FROM HOME for the first time in my life, we went out for dinner with mom and dad acree and mom and pop pierce. we ended up at 18 seaboard, where katie works. and she was our server. it was lovely!

shortly before leaving zebulon.

again, shortly before leaving. (aren't we good-looking?)

seeing some of my favorite, long-time lady friends at swo.
[rocky, hannah, mandy]

stuart holding sweet parker benjamin (my dear friend rocky's cutie little babe).

oh, the sweet davie ladies at lydia's wedding.
i miss these girls.
[grace, kit, mandy, lydia, mary catherine, christina, virginia]

me and hannah at lyd's wedding.

me and stu, just arriving to our apartment in little rock!

weekends. and lots of photos.

the weekend before last, we went up to visit mema and grandad in NW arkansas. it's beautiful up there - reminds me a lot of wv. it made me miss my mammas and pappas acree and parsons. and barker, of course, who i hear little kt is choreographing a piece about. she emailed me some interview questions that she had mema acree ask mema barker. i love it. i'm glad she's doing a project on her. i remember when i was in the 5th grade, for my AG class i had to interview someone who was old, i guess (i don't really remember the point of the project). but, i know that somewhere i have a cassette tape with pepa acree interviewing mema barker about her life. i wish i knew where that was.

mandy and stuart with mema and grandad younger.

mandy, jenna and beth on the swing at mema and grandad's. (please note beth's cute little baby bump!)

mandy and stu at mema and grandad's. we still like each other.

it was a busy week - stuart in school, spending time at the VA hospital learning about internal medicine. he's not liking it much so far. hopefully he'll enjoy his time at UAMS better in the next few weeks. i have been enjoying the 2 weekend days and 2 week days i have off every week so far. i really can get a lot done if i plan it right! we've been experimenting with different dinners for nights that i work. lots of slow-cooker crockpot meals. so far we haven't been immensely impressed with my slow-cooker abilities, except for the bomb bbq chicken legs i made this past friday. yum-o. it was also the easiest one i had made yet... maybe that's saying something? :)

i LOVE my job. it's just perfect for me. cynthia, my preceptor, is such a wonderful teacher (and nurse!) and is helpful to me in all the ways that i learn best. she doesn't really throw me out to the sharks, but she definitely doesn't tiptoe around and hold my hand. i have been timid about starting IVs and drawing blood on my patients because, come on, they have cancer. and they're already in agonizing pain. the last thing they need is a new nurse to come along and poke all over them. so, i've been letting cynthia do most of the sticks. but this past week i got the courage to stick my first cancer patient, and i got it on the first try! it was even a patient who gets very anxious and is terribly uncomfortable with needles, and she hardly even noticed that i stuck her. it was either because cynthia was on the other side of the bed being silly and cracking jokes with her, or because i pre-medicated her with ativan, per the patient's request. ;) i'm getting ready to start week 3 of orientation, and i am already feeling very comfortable in taking patients, doing assessments and charting (cynthia says this is the real important stuff - skills you can always practice, but a good assessment and documentation are the backbone!). i'm also learning how to talk to doctors (all kinds - interns, residents, fellows, attendings, etc.). all around, i love it. quite fun, if i don't say. the Lord is good to provide! and not just the bare necessity (a job with a paycheck), but something for me to spend time doing where i can really pour my heart into it.

this past saturday we went to a razorback football game. fun times, although it was uncomfortably warm outside.

uncle stu and aunt mandy with cutie ava claire.

aunt kathy's razorback cookies.

eating bbq before the game.

miss ava claire.

it's hot.

the field.

pop and beth hanging out before the game.

in other news: my basil has just had it. i don't know if the creepy mushrooms were just too much for it to handle, or if it just got over-watered, or under-sunned, or who knows. but it's a goner. he got thrown out today. :(

clearly unhealthy basil plant.

the good news is my rosemary is looking awesome. and i cut him back all the time and just toss bits into various dinner dishes. RIP mr. basil.

this morning, as a treat, i made stuart some blueberry muffins from his favorite boxed mix (i'll have to work on a homemade version) in his new dinosaur muffin tin that he got as a wedding gift.

this one was his favorite.

they turned out pretty well!

if our little nieces (kara and anna) ever come back to visit our apartment, i will certainly make them something in this dino pan. they used to love dinosaurs... so we could make them some dino treats!

ok, that's all for now! love!