operation: buy a house.

Crazy picture, huh?! There was some very strange weather the other day that left the sky looking like a beautiful painting...

So our newest goal is to buy a house... ie: pay off debt, save a little in the process, get our act together, and hopefully within the next year be ready to buy. Needless to say, I have been dragging on some credit card debt for quite some time now and am ready to be free of it for good. For this, I have made a pay off goal for each month between now and January and will hopefully pay it off by then with our own money, and the remainder to be paid by our tax return in January/February. Boring, I know, but so worth it in the end! Our lease is up in February, so I'm thinking we will sign one more and just save for the next year for a down payment. Can we do it? If I give our credit cards to mom and dad and instruct them not to let us have them, yes :) I can't WAIT to buy and not feel like I have a cloud of debt hanging over our heads 24/7. This isn't even talking about my student loans, which I just consolidated, which I hope to pay off by the time I die! Money SUCKS! Anywho!

I went to an information session for RN-MS today and am totally motivated to do it as soon as possible! I only wish I had started looking earlier so I could be starting this month! Instead, I will apply by Feb 1st and hopefully find out if I was accepted by May and start August 2012. If I do this, I will have my NP by Spring 2014... meaning full time school and possible full time work, WOW I'm crazy. But so so so worth it if I am done by Spring 2014 :) I really want to do the pediatric NP, but am hearing more and more that I should pursue family NP because there are more options available once I graduate, but I can still do pediatrics with it. Decisions decisions! Enough rambling, I need to run to clear my head.

peace :)

wowzers.

Needless to say, it's been QUITE a long time since my last entry. Between the wedding, new job, and life period, I truly didn't have time to even think these last few months, not to mention blogging! So as of this past Sunday, John and I have been married 3 months :) The wedding was amazing and absolutely the best time of both our lives. The week prior could have been better, but no use in dwelling. Note to self: don't combine two families like that EVER again the week before the most important day of your life. BAD IDEA! The wedding went without a hitch and I was incredibly pleased with ALL of our vendors whom I obtained all on my own :) Here are a few of our favorite pics:

Poor Beau couldn't be in the wedding because he would have dragged my niece down, so just Lilo was in the wedding ;) But Beau did have a fantastic time at the beach!

LOVE the black and white pics :)

It's official!

Whatcha lookin at?!

So I have continued to run, even though I have slowed down a lot on the training. The next race I have is the Wicked 10k on Halloween weekend, but I am tentative about signing up for anymore incase "something" were to happen between now and then ;) Yes, John and I are TALKING about little ones, but still just playing with the idea, no definites yet ;) Mentally we're there, but is it a good idea of I'm thinking about starting back to school this coming spring? Should I go back earlier rather than later? Should we buy a house first? Mom's response to that was "you can easily fit a baby in your rental home!" Ha ;)

From what I have learned, if you don't have your NP or are not enrolled in an NP program by 2014, there will be none and all will be required to obtain their doctorate in nursing instead. I definitely DON'T want to do that, so NP it is! I'm actually going to look at VCU tomorrow for an information session about theirs in either family practice or pediatrics. I miss pediatrics! I love my unit, but with all the crazy changes and over-flow patients we have gotten recently, I'm wishing more and more that I was in pediatrics now... We shall see what the future holds!

More to come later, off to make some granola!