DIY Invitations & Showering

Wedding Invitations = Done!

The Do-It-Yourself invitations were extremely simple & easy to do! I was able to do them on my parents' printer at home & used probably less than 10% of an ink cartridge. Probably around 25% of them were reeled into the printer a little ahead of themselves (the type started closer to the top than I had hoped), but all-in-all I was very happy! So, if you won't be anal if the printing doesn't go exactly on the paper where you had hoped then this might be for you! I hope to get a picture of the wedding invitations & our Save-The-Dates because I am so very happy with them!

Our first wedding shower was on Saturday. It went well! It was a little awkward at times as I wasn't sure what do/say.. But the shower hostesses did an AMAZING job & everyone seemed happy! The cake and punch was wonderful! We got far more than we would have ever imagined and I had a blast catching up with people I haven't seen in a while! We are so thankful for all of our friends & family! I can't wait for the next one which is with Seth's family on April 2nd! His Aunt Becky is doing a bridal brunch in her backyard & I know it will be delightful!

Today marks one week until HESI (deep breath)... I'm nervous/ready for it to be over.. I'm hoping it goes well & that I find out in one week that I will indeed be graduating on May 13th (of this year). If I don't pass it, we get one more chance to pass & still graduate in May. The 3rd chance to pass it puts you graduating in August. If I don't pass it at that step, I either have to take the class over again (graduating in December) or have to start the nursing program over again.. I'm not sure of the rule if you don't pass after 3 and hope that I don't have to know it EVER.

Let the wedding festivities begin!

Today is our first shower. I'm nervous. My mom only ever did family birthday parties so I've not been the center of attention around friends & such very often. Seth is here, but refuses to go with me. He says that showers are for women. He is going shooting with my Dad instead... Thanks, bud.

It seems unreal that it is actually time for all of these things to start happening. We had our 4 years of officialness on Tuesday. Neither of us realized it until that evening when someone mentioned that it was March 15th. Weird, I know. It is because we're not really sure at what point we became exclusive. We had our first date on February 18, 2007 after having been friends for a year and 8 months and after sharing our first kiss in the beginning of December 2006. Sometime during Spring Break while sitting on his tailgate in my parents' driveway, we shared "I love you"s and decided that probably meant we were 'going out.' Neither of us happened to look at a calendar for a while and could not remember what day that was... So we picked the day in the middle of Spring Break that year, March 15th, and decided that would be our anniversary. Hopefully we'll be more attentive to our wedding anniversary.. :)

So today, let the wedding festivities begin. I really wish people wouldn't buy us things, but that is the way American's do weddings. And we will need some stuff to start off our lives together. So I will receive these gifts with a welcome heart and try not to think of how many mouths could be fed or good could be done with the money that was used to purchase them. I'm a better gift-giver than gift-receiver.

I hope you all have a very blessed last Saturday of Spring Break. This is my last Spring Break ever.. Weird.. I might be able to convince my first employer to give me a whole week off next year to properly observe this sacred holiday... ;)

Lent

I was planning on observing Lent. Not as an actual suffering observance. More so, I was going to observe it as a convenience. I was going to give up eating meat because I'm not a big meat person. My roommate is Catholic & she wanted something that would cause a lot of suffering for her (meat).

This morning at church, we studied Matthew 16:23-17:23. We talked about the suffering of being a Christian and how it is essential and very necessary. My pastor referenced Matthew 19:23. He made a very big point that I think everyone else may know but that I never realized.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

In this passage, Jesus is not talking about money. Most people I've heard talk about this have referenced it to money. He means if you are rich with the things of the world; if you indulge yourself with the ways of the world & do not long CONSTANTLY for the Kingdom of Heaven, you will have a hard time getting there. Suffering the ways of the world, facing sin every day and forcing yourself to not seek the pleasures of the flesh, is inevitable in a Christian life.

In order to know Christ, you must know the cross.

So for lent, I am giving up complaining. Some may look at this sacrifice & say that I should give that up anyways. I need to stop complaining everyday. But it is my comfort. When I'm having a hard time, it is a comfort of mine to complain. It is for this reason that I will be giving it up for Lent.

If you are around me hold me accountable, please. :)

Senior 2

So... this semester is an odd bird.

I don't like to talk grades, but I'm going to for the sake of blogging. I have a 4.0. Many are amazed by this. I'm not really sure how it happened and I don't take credit for it happening, but it did. My first B on a nursing test happened last semester, but I was able to pull the grade back to an A average before the semester ended. This semester, my test grades in my three classes are the following: 88, 80.03, and 83.75 (that last one isn't officially posted yet, but I'm pretty sure that is the name it will go by).

I have senioritis in its deepest form. In fact, I have already figured out that if I pull all Bs this semester, I will still graduate Summa Cum Laude (3.90845) and I'm ok with that. You see, I think an employer will look at that and see about the same thing as they would see with a 4.0.

If you know me, you know this peace is a weird one. I have been so grade obsessed my entire college career. I'm not highly competitive with others but I am when it comes to myself. I'm finally losing to past-Kaelyn and I'm ok with that and I know why...

I finally feel like a nurse. I love my clinical rotations this semester. For one of them I am with a school nurse and for the other I am at Parkland on a step-down ICU/telemetry floor. I feel like I may have what it takes to eventually be trusted with a patient one day. It is an AMAZING feeling that trumps any feeling that a grade can give me. I am going to be a nurse and a good one, at that.

Still, I'm frustrated with my slackerness lately. I don't study. I can't force myself. I won't force myself.

I feel so dumb because I'm so close to the end (69 days and 11 hours from my last undergraduate final exam EVER). This is very comparable to the last 400 meters of a long run. You're so close to the end. If you sprint that last 400 meters, it will suck. You will hurt & your body will probably hate you for the time being. But at the end, you will be so proud of yourself & your body will reward you with endorphins.

This is me. Unable to recognize that there will be endorphins at the end of this if I just suck it up. No, I'm ok with a little shortness of breath and some sweat. Who needs endorphins?

This morning...

I realized that most often, my blogs are kind of down and whiny. Not this morning. I have a test in 2 hours and 20 minutes over things I know not. :) (I should know them. I just haven't chosen to learn them.. It is for my leadership & management class)

But I won't let this test get me down. I am completely blessed in life & I want to shout it from the rooftops today!

I am absolutely and completely in love on 2 accounts:

The first is with Jesus. I haven't been this close with him in years. I finally feel like I'm at the point that I've been searching for since I left it years ago. I have a relationship with Him & He just gets me.

The second is with the love on earth He has provided me: Seth. :) He makes me laugh when I think that is the last thing I want. He always knows what I need--be it to cry, laugh, mope, complain, etc... He can turn my day completely upside down (in a good way) from 1441-ish miles away. Today I am reminded of how lucky I am and how wonderful life will be in 102 days when I am his wife. Everyone tells me that this is just the honeymoon phase. They tell me that it will change and to wait until we see each other everyday. I say NO! We have been this way for most days of the past 4 years (our 4 year first date anniversary was last Friday, February 18th on Seth's 22nd birthday), what is 50 more when you've already done 4?!? I know it will be hard. I am in no way saying that our marriage will be all sunshine & giggles. But why can't that be the majority of it? We are given so little time to love on the people in our lives the way God wants us to.. Why not do it with all of our hearts everyday?

Today I am in a good mood (even if I'm about to go fail this Leadership & Management test). If you have ever had senioritis after 17 years of school, you must understand.

I hope you can be in a good mood today, too. Just think of all of the ways in your life that you are blessed. I've only mentioned two, but this list could literally go on and on until Jesus comes back.

:)

Wintery Mix

I revised my 'What is Nursing School?' post and you can find the new & improved version here.

I have gotten so much wedding planning done in the past 3 days. You see, in Texas we started having a "wintery mix" on Monday night. At first, I didn't take this seriously. Boy, was I wrong. It has been 20 degrees or less for the past 3 days (ok, maybe it crept up to 22 a couple of times..). I busted my butt on Thursday's sidewalk. It had about an inch & a half of solid ice on me. My Lucchese boots never new what hit them (by the way, yes I just name dropped. I have a pair of Lucchese's and they're wonderful. They are also about 30 years old. They were my Dad's!). I'm pretty sure my 21 year old hip is now well aware of the dangers of frozen sidewalks. Last night, snow started falling. It is BEAUTIFUL! I'm no weatherman, but I think about 5 inches or more has fallen.

Our school was cancelled for every day this week except for Monday. Seth is jealous. He says it snows all the time in New York but their school never gets cancelled. In fact, he swears West Point has never cancelled school on account of the weather. NEVER! To which I reply: "Well, maybe you should've gone to a regular college."

It never gets old. NEVER!

The one task that I intended on doing with my newly acquired spare time--writing my Community Health 10 page paper-- is yet to be done. I can't bring myself to write this paper. They pushed the deadline back from 2/7 to 2/14. They wanted me to procrastinate.

I have indeed been productive. I booked a hotel for the night before & of the wedding and blocked off rooms at a hotel for our wedding guests & solidified a group rate! The only detail I lack that could be done right now is getting our invitations printed. I think I may be putting it off. I'm afraid they won't turn out the way I want them to which is exactly why I am waiting until they have to be done to print them. Because that makes sense.....

Seth is getting anxious. He has been REALLY busy this semester & can talk right now and, alas, I am blogging. I guess I can stop for now. :)

Have a great weekend! Or, if you have been out of school this whole time, enjoy the rest of your week off!

Post Night

Tonight is Post Night at West Point.

Although Seth and I were lucky enough to find out around November where we would be (he is branching Aviation and the only place to do Army flight school is in Fort Rucker, Alabama), our other friends were not. Tonight was their night to find out where they would start out the lives in the "real" Army, as they like to call it.

I'm a little surprised with how emotional this feels right now. Seth's best friend Sam is going to be in Kentucky at Fort Campbell. That is a 7 hour and 15 minute drive from where we will be in Alabama. These two guys have spent their last four years on the same floor. They have even spent two semesters--the equivalence of an entire academic year--in the same room. Sam has been such an important part of Seth's life at West Point and it is hard to think that he will not be in Seth's physical presence as much....

Other friends of Seth's (and now, mine) are going to be with Sam in Kentucky. Some in Colorado. Some in Hawaii. Others in Australia.

We're almost done with West Point. Four years has almost past. If you would have told me 3 years and 7 months ago on July 2nd, 2007 that it would go by this quickly, I never would have believed you. But we're almost there. We've almost made it past the biggest hurdle in our short lives, to date.

I'm not going to let myself get too emotional. Surely I can't start being sad about starting my life four months (to the date) before my first day as Mrs. King....

Don't get me wrong. I'm CRAZY EXCITED about waking up every morning next to Seth. He and I have spent so many nights missing each other, we have a lot of making up to do. That day will mark my last day as a child. That is what it will mean in my mind, at least. I know one could argue that you only grow up when you let yourself. But how much more grown up can you get than as a married college graduate?

I'm not going to get sad yet. I'm not quite ready to wave 'so long' to my immature and irresponsible years. Not yet...