My hubby's birthday!

So...Wednesday was Danny's birthday. Unfortunately, Danny has class on Wednesday evenings, and does not get home until about 10:00, and is usually fairly exhausted after being mentally taxed for 14 hours straight.

Luckily, this weekend was pretty free, so we went today to Annapolis for Danny to have a "photo" day. For his birthday I had gotten him the Photoshop Lightroom software, and since he has recently gotten a new camera, I wanted to give him the opportunity to take some pictures in a cool area. Annapolis is a beautiful little town, very clean throughout all of it, with beautiful shops, streets, old buildings and lots and lots of sailboats.

First we found a quiet little picnic bench by the water (not easy with the amount of people in the area today!) to have our picnic lunch. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town, taking pictures, walking through cute little shops, and taking pictures.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, beautifully refreshing for both of us :)

Really cool calendar!

So...let me give you a bit of background information. In our first year of marriage, the calendar and our schedule has been one of our biggest struggles. Not as much that we disagree with each other, but simply that we both feel like we overschedule ourselves often. We have tried several different ways to prevent this, but none have worked as well as we would like.

One of the biggest struggles is when I am at home, looking at the calendar, and Danny is at work and can't see the calendar - we end up miscommunicating or misunderstanding each other, and it can lead to conflict later on.

This past week, Danny found a very cool thing on Gmail that we both think will really help with this problem! Through Gmail, you can share calendars. This way, either of us can type into the calendar (Danny's events show up in blue, mine in pink) and we can both view it. It really helps so that we can both see what is going on, as long as we can get to a computer.

I've always really liked being able to see the calendar on paper, but it has not been working for us, so this will hopefully help!

Changes to be made...

Well, I signed up for the NCLEX this morning (the nursing licensure exam). I will be testing on July 12th at 3 o'clock. Over these next 3 1/2 weeks, I could use prayer for several things.

• First, that I would keep God first in this time. I have always struggled with having consistent quiet times, and I would like to develop this as a habit and a desire over the next 5 weeks before I start work.
• Secondly, that I would use this time productively. Having just finished school, it is tempting to spend this time doing whatever I feel like doing, which most often (okay always) is not studying! I would much rather spend time with family, friends, cleaning my house, seeing my horse, etc. However, I need to do well on this exam, and want to be well prepared.
• Thirdly, that I would retain the information that I am studying! There is SO much that I need to know for this test, and it covers most of my college careeer. While I do know most of this stuff, there are a lot of areas that can be confusing or just hard to remember!

Thanks for praying - feel free to ask me too how it's going, and how disciplined I am being!

Pictures!

Alright, so I finally got around to adding pictures - it took a lot longer than I thought it would! Sorry that it took so long :) Also, please excuse the spacing - it looks different than when I write it, and I gave up!

What a wonderful month! There are some from graduation and the rest are from our wonderful trip to Bermuda - enjoy!

Graduation Day - it's over!!

Shelbie and me at our pinning ceremony - we're finally done!

Shelbie, Jeanette, and Me - friends through all the "fun" times of nursing school :)

The beautiful sunset in Bermuda

Our little private beach, most everybody at the resort was older, and didn't really come to the beach much at all, so we were usually there by ourselves!

The fish off the dock at the end of the beach, we fed them every day, and they were crazy! It's a miracle they don't eat each other when we feed them.

Our cat for the week, he followed us all over, and waited at our door for us to come back every night. You'll see him in other pictures.

What a gorgeous place :)


Danny taking pictures of the sunset, and the cat like I said, wherever we were.

The sunsets were beautiful!

A little cove where we pulled off the day we had the moped so I could swim :)

Diving in!

A little cold, but SO refreshing! And so amazing to swim in water this blue!

The lighthouse that we climbed (all 185 steps) the last day to look around the island.

It was REALLY windy!

A view of the island from the top

Danny on the moped..."Red Lightning"

as he named it

Another evening outside

One night, we went out on the dock and fooled around with some of the nighttime settings on the cameras, this is one of the pictures I took.

Danny climbing the rocks in Horseshoe Bay to take pictures. Yes, he's the one all the way at the top in sandals - making his wife very nervous!

He did get some amazing pictures though!

It was an amazing island, with so many friendly people, and we can't wait to go back someday! Sorry for so many pictures, but it's hard to choose which ones to do!

How can I begin....

I can't even imagine being able to describe these last three weeks! I have so much to write about and so many pictures. I'll give you a rundown now, and then I'll have to do more in-depth later with pictures when I have a little more time.

Let's see....graduation! This was a blast of a week, having all my family in was so much fun. A little cramped in our little rowhome, but we managed alright. It was pretty crazy, with a lot of running around the two days of pinning and graduation, but it was a good time. We spent a day at the zoo in DC, or half a day really, because we got lost. It was great to see everybody, and thank you all for coming to celebrate with me! It doesn't feel totally real yet that I'm done with school FOREVER, but I imagine it will as the days go by.

Then, last Thursday (the 31st) Danny and I caught a plane at 3:30 to fly to Bermuda to celebrate our first anniversary (woohoo!). Wow. What a beautiful island. The beaches were more beautiful than any I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of beaches! We spent the first day just on the beach, and then on Saturday, we rented a moped and rode around the island. It was so much fun! It took a little time to get used to driving on the left side of the road, but the cars coming at you on the right helped that process along. :) We went to see the beautiful Horseshoe Bay, and rode all over the island. One of our favorite parts of Bermuda is that you can actually interact with the people and the culture more than other islands. When we were in the Dominican Republic last year, we were just on our resort (which was amazing, don't get me wrong!) the whole time. Even there, there were so many different languages, we couldn't really talk to anyone. It was great in Bermuda to feel safe all over, not worry about the food or water, and to interact with the locals!

This week, being back, I'm taking a Kaplan review course for the nursing board exam (NCLEX). It's pretty intense, but seems like it will be really helpful.

I'll try to get pictures up soon from everything, and will be posting a LOT more now that I'm back and settling into a normal life without school!!!