brief update.

just a quick note to let you all know what we're up to this week:

stuart is in pine bluff, just beginning his family medicine rotation. it works out super great, because stu's parents live in PB, so he is staying with them and getting to spend a bit of time with them (and mimi, too!) which he has missed the last couple of months because school up in little rock has been so busy and time-consuming on the weekends.

tomorrow is my very first, big-girl RN shift! i'm officially off of orientation, so tomorrow i have my own patients all by myself. i was really excited about this, until last night when i had a dream that i was assigned more patients than the typical workload, and all the patients were spread out all over the floor, so i spent all day running back and forth between all of my many, many patients and it was awful. i don't anticipate that tomorrow will be anything like that, but the bad dream was just enough to make me anxious.

earlier this week, i was down in pine bluff with stuart, working for pop in his OB-GYN office. the ladies in his office are just so great, and stu's mom works there, too, so it's just a fun time all around. i work my "real" job th/fri/sat this week, so i am back up in little rock all on my own. friday, stuart is heading up to fayetteville (home of the razorbacks - woo pig sooie!) straight from pb with some family for the football game. he'll return late saturday night, so until then i am just a hard-workin' woman in little rock, all on my own! oh, except for oz - derek and beth's dog. they're out of town, so i'm puppy-sitting, and i'm thankful for ozzie to keep me company.

i'm visiting nc the 2nd week in november for a short, short trip because i miss my mama and dad. too much. so i am just hopping out there for a few days to see them. and little katie, too. i just love my family. (matthew - wish i could see you, too, bo.) i think i've done pretty good to go almost 4 months without seeing them. so, i deserve the trip. :) i may try to be at christ community sunday, nov. 14 if i'm able (i know a lot of folks will be gone for the conference - boo). just a heads up!

i'm off to visit oz one last time for the evening... pray for my first week as a big-girl nurse! i'm pretty anxious about it! anxious, but excited. :)

recent events: arkansas state fair.

2 weekends ago, mama and daddy acree were supposed to visit, but several unforeseen circumstances kept them from visiting the lovely state of AR. stuart and i ended up doing at least one of the things we were going to do with them: visit the state fair.

the arkansas state fair was rather enjoyable for many reasons, number 1 being the opportunity for people watching. oh, all kinds were observed. funny how one event can bring out people from all walks of life to enjoy wildly expensive gross food and crazy rides.

here are some images to help you feel like you were there with us:

stuart getting some cash from the ATM - a necessity when visiting the fair.

scoping it out.

kim & eddie.

goat.

stu & bunny.

oh my!

i wanted to buy one of the rabbits labeled as "unshowable" because they had a little scar or their nose, but were otherwise perfectly lovely and cute. only $10. stuart said no.

petting the giant cow.

cow show!

us! taking in everything arkansan.

mengarellis.

yum-o funnel cake.

okay, so it looks like all we did was look at animals. we did other stuff, too... but maybe we mostly looked at animals. :)

recent events: pumpkin carving at the mengarelli's.

kim & eddie mengarelli are a couple that we are good friends with from our church here in LR. eddie is also in medical school, a year behind stuart. kim works for an organization that gives grants to rural communities in AR so they can purchase things like firetrucks and other necessary community-type items. kim & eddie are really great. one of my favorite things about them is that i can look out the front window of our apartment and see their house - they live so close by!

a few weeks ago, they had some folks over from church to to carve pumpkins. we drowned ourselves in apple cider, pumpkin cookies and banana bread and got our creative juices flowing... photos from the event:

getting ready with my pumpkin.

grant and jessica lewis, rob bradsher all working on their pumpkins.

rob, eddie and stu.

stuart performing a delicate surgery on his pumpkin.

cleaning out the guts.

P! (for pierce, duh.)

eddie working on his creepy-face pumpkin.

kim working on her pumpkin.

cuteface.

grant and jessica finish first!

our jack-o-lantern family.

close up of my P and stu's batman sign.

one of the mengarelli kitties. she is the halloween cat. the flash was too bright for her.

a rainy morning.

it's super rainy here today, so instead of my morning jog (i've been so good lately!), i'll update everyone on what we've been up to here in LR...

stuart is finishing up his last week of internal medicine on the wards of UAMS. he's liking this much better than the similar rotation he did at the VA a few weeks back. i like it, too, because he comes to visit me on my floor at work a few times a day :) this week is my last week of orientation, so next week i start as a real, big-girl nurse! my schedule will be changing, too. i have been doing w/th/f every week, but starting next week it will be different each week. i guess it will be nice to have a change in my routine (?? not really - i'm kinda bummed that i won't have a set schedule every week. oh, the hardships of being the new girl.)

the last few weeks at work, i've mainly been rocking in the IV start department, so that's been fun! usually a nurse will call someone else to come help if their patient seems to be a "hard stick," so often they will call my preceptor since they know that she has a little more free time since i am doing all the work to take care of her patients these days ;) but the last few weeks, she has called me to try and start the IV so i could get some experience. i've gotten all of them on the first stick! i even had a patient tell me i was "good at that." a nice, new-nurse ego boost.

next week stuart starts family medicine, which will be based in pine bluff. so, he'll be in pine bluff staying with his parents m-f for the next 4 weeks. there are a few weeks that my work schedule has me off for a few days in a row, so i'll go down with him and maybe work for pop in his office those days. family medicine will be a nice change of pace - mostly 8-5pm hours, no weekends (we think).

we've been up to so much these last few weeks (i've just neglected blogging about it... oops) and i have a bunch of photos to put up! i'll start with one event and save the rest for later.

earlier in october, little rock hosted the harvest festival on kavanaugh in hillcrest (this is our neighborhood). jenna and colin came up from pine bluff, and derek and beth brought ozzie out and we spent the day out in our neighborhood celebrating fall with a street festival.

there were street vendors selling locally-made things and good food.

we had lunch at u.s. pizza on kavanaugh.

us at u.s. pizza. :)

beth and derek at u.s. pizza.

beth enjoying some kettle corn and local music.

music on kavanaugh. me, jenna, colin.

ozzie pup snuggling with stuart.

jenna and stuart at the fountain on kavanaugh.
(these cousins could be TWINS!)

more recent events (and photos) to come...!