Nathan and Nichole

About one post a year isn't bad, right?!

2011-01-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

Lots of things changing for us this year. Again. Last time I updated, Reagan had just joined the family and now she's over a year old! She's great and we're glad to have her.

In other news, I'm still doing mobile MRI. Thankful to have a job.

Nathan has had many changes this last year. He's no longer attending St. Olaf and no longer working at Northfield Urgent Care.

St. Olaf was a great school, but we unfortunately learned that the degree they offer (B.A.N-Bachelors of Arts in Nursing) is not the degree that the Army accepts. They want a B.S.N (Bachelors of Science in Nursing).

And that's his main goal, to be a nurse in the Army. Along with that, his dream is to work in a war zone like Afghanistan. Believe it or not, I'm ok with it. More about that later.

The Army is a little confusing, but our B.I.L, Parker is a nurse in the Army, and has been really helpful in navigating our way around. We really appreciate him.

So this is where life gets crazy.

He's been accepted to a nursing school in Louisville, KY that starts in May. It's an accelerated program and it's the degree he needs. Also, Nathan's sister and her husband (Anna and Parker) live down there right now so we'd have family there! :)

But in the meantime, Nathan's applied to the University of Minnesota to their Master of Nursing Program. This is our first choice for sure. One, it's a masters program, so he'd get a higher level degree. The one in KY is another bachelor degree.

It's also accelerated at 16 months. There are a lot of benefits in him going to the U as much as I'd love to get out of state for a while.

We won't find out about the U until March or so. He first needs to get an interview and then from there, it will be decided.

The program is very competitive. They take 300ish applicants. Interview 100ish. Accept 64. Yikes!

We do have hope though because he's very qualified for the program and being a male can only help our cause.

If Nathan doesn't get into the U of M though, things will happen very fast. He won't find out about the U until March or even April and Nathan starts class in Louisville May 9th. That may mean I have to stay behind for a while getting things together. Thankfully, we've been invited to stay with Anna and Parker while we're down there which is an amazing blessing for us.

So...we wait. It's much easier typed than done. We're trying to stay busy. Nathan's working on getting some prerequisite work done for the U and I'm always very busy with work. Nathan's working at Apple Valley Medical Center now where he's worked in the past and he enjoys that.

I'm also trying to get in touch with my crafty side. I've finished a lot of unfinished projects in the last 6 months or so. Knitting, scrap-booking, sewing, organizing.

It helps. And gives me that sense of control I feel I need. ;)

This sounds a little pathetic, but I really feel like this is one of the biggest tests of my faith as well as for our marriage. We've had some curve balls thrown at us in the past, but this seems to top them all.

I do know that God is good and He has a plan, but it's very hard waiting. Especially during which I'm at a job I don't love or even like most of the time.

I am very much a planner and I can't do any of that right now.

I know there's reason for it and that good things will come from this time of the unknown.

So that's our life right now. Confusing. Fun. Stressful. Exciting.

I know this is very common verse, but I cling to it during this time.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give

you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

.love.

Ok...I'm back...for now.

2010-03-05T09:13:00.001-08:00

Hello!

Yes, it's been since September that I last wrote...I seem to be more of a Facebook girl now. But I'll try to update.

Since September...hmm....I guess I a lot has happened.

We're still living in our amazing townhome in Northfield. I should put some pictures up.

That's all going well. Nathan is still working at the urgent care partime. However, this last January he started going to St. Olaf for nursing! It's very exciting for him. School is right around the corner from us. It's completely different from the U so he loves that. Much smaller class sizes and a much smaller campus. He'll graduate May 2012.

I am still working for Shared Medical Services doing mobile MRI. I've been really blessed in this job over the last 7 months. A truck was just based at the Allina clinic in Northfield! So 2-3 days a week I drive up the street to go to work. So awesome!

The funnest update for us since last time is that we got a puppy! We got Reagan, a vizsla, new year's day! A perfect way to ring in the new year. She is so sweet and we love her to pieces! She's around 4 months old now. She's a great addition to our little family.

Other than that, the same old stuff! Busy with work and school.

Hope you all are doing great!

Love!

Sorry...there I go again!

2009-09-26T19:31:00.001-07:00

Of course, I fell off the edge again and have failed to post for a while now! So the last post I think said that we were going to move...and we did!

We moved into a great town house in Northfield. And also since then, Nathan has started full time at Northfield Urgent Care...and big surprise...I started another new job. I had been working full time at Northfield Urgent Care, but then an MRI job became available.

I had applied at the company: Shared Medical Services back in January, but they decided to not fill the position. But then in July, I got a call, and there was an opening. And I pretty much had to take it because of the educational opportunity. And it also means more money in the future.

So I was offered the job and took it. It's a mobile company out of Wisconsin. So the MRI scanner is in the back of a truck and we travel around southern Minnesota to small facilities. It's very interesting and unique.

THEN, in August we moved and that's been really great as well. It's so nice having a house now. Spare bedroom, double garage, deck, and a lot more room! It's been great!

Well, that's all the big news for now! I'll try and get back in the groove of things and write more!

Love you guys! :)

WE'RE MOVING!

2009-05-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

That's right!

We're moving to Northfield, MN.

We haven't signed the lease yet, but we found a great townhome to rent down the street from the urgent care. And Nathan just got hired on there as well. He's just on-call right now, but we hope he can get more hours once the clinic has been open for a while.

I'll write with more details soon!

Things

2009-04-26T14:54:00.001-07:00

What is it about "things?"

Items. Materials. Stuff. Clothes. Furniture. Jewelry. Cars. Houses. Electronics.

All of it.

What is it about these things that make us jealous?

Covet?

And so many other non-brag worthy feelings?

What is it about these things that will make us live outside of our means to get it?

And it's all the social norm.

Why is it that I love materialistic things that only fade away?

What is it in our human heads that gets us so excited over materialistic things?

I'm not saying that "stuff" isn't OK. I REALLY REALLY like stuff. And there's a lot of cool stuff that helps us make more time for the more important things.

I'm sure it sounds like I'm stating the obvious here.

But I guess I find myself getting very frustrated for wanting so many things when I know what God has to say about it.

1 Timothy 6:9, 10

9. However, those who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin.

10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have been led astray from the faith and have stabbed themselves all over with many pains.

1 John 2:16, 17

16. Because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. 17. Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.

Those are such straight up verses. I love them. These just show how simple this truth is. These materialistic loves do not come from God. And even more, they don't last.

Like Dave Ramsey says, money itself is not evil. Neither are any of the actual materials we desire. They are indifferent. It's the attitude and feelings that WE have about money and materials.

It's interesting at how our culture looks at material things. We want them so bad that most of the things we have, we don't even own. We borrowed to get it. So it's not even really ours.

Some of us make so much money, but we buy more and more of what we can't afford. So really, we're worse off than the less wealthy person making a quarter of what we make who has no debt.

Weird to think about.

Well, there's my ramble. I'm done now.

Northfield Urgent Care Is Open for Business

2009-04-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Why the picture of Tim Pawlenty? You'll find out further down...haha

My job has officially started!

The Northfield Urgent Care is officially open!

We opened Monday, April 20th and it's been surprisingly busier than we thought.

We've been averaging about 10-12 patients/day which is great for a small community.

I'm really enjoying it. I've only done 1 x-ray, but I've been training in on the front desk and also on rooming patients. So, hopefully soon, I'll be able to do just about everything! I can't wait!

This is our logo. It reminds me of a sign for a sport's bar! haha Whatever works, I guess!

Things are really good for us. Not a whole of new information. We are starting to entertain the idea of moving down to Northfield. We haven't found a whole lot of options yet, but we're still looking. Ideally we'd find a townhome with a washer/dryer in unit! Oh what a luxury that would be!!!!

Well, I hope all is well with everyone!

Oh yeah. The Tim Pawlenty picture. Nathan and I sat next to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty last Sunday in church which was super crazy! Super cool! We hope you run in 2012, Tim!

2009-04-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

This was an old post I forgot to put up from a few weeks ago....

We went to the capitol. Walked around. Took silly pictures in the governor's office. Tried to sneak in the senate chamber (unsuccessful: the door was locked, ha). It was a blast.

Then we went to Mickey's Diner. It's a super old dining car that's kind of famous, I guess.

Totally random. So fun.

It was great because there are so many things we haven't done here in the metro even though we've been here for a few years.

So this our way of knocking some things off the list.

We probably won't be around for a whole lot longer. 3 years at the most, probably. All the D.O schools are far away and then if Nathan becomes a nurse: the military.

Gotta soak it all up while we're here! Mpls/St. Paul is actually quite kickin.

A Weekend To Remember!

2009-03-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Nathan and I went to a marriage conference!

It's called 'Weekend to Remember.' It's put on by Family Life which is a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. Nathan's brother and his wife (Ryan and Gretchen) gave us this conference as our wedding gift and we were finally able to attend!

It was at the Marriot City Center in downtown Minneapolis. It was a very big event with around 1200 people!

It was a great conference and we would definitely recommend it for any couple!

Saturday was our favorite day. It was the longest day of the conference. We got to have lunch and dinner downtown which was a HUGE treat.

We had lunch at an Italian place called Zelo. And for dinner we went to Seven Steakhouse and Sushi. It was amazing!

It was so much fun to spend the weekend together and learning ways to strengthen our marriage.

It was also great getting to hang out in Minneapolis. And I LOVE it when we get to try out new places!

Long Time, No Talk

2009-03-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody.

So it's been forever since I've posted anything. Sorry about that. I was afraid of that happening.

Well, things have been good for us.

Since we've last talked I've been offered a full time job in xray which I've accepted. It's at an urgent care in Northfield, MN. A doctor that both Nathan and I have worked with at Apple Valley is opening it up. And work should begin around the second week of April.

In the mean time I've been picking up shifts at the hospital in Waconia and at Apple Valley. In between that, I had a hardware surgery to get all of my screws and nails out of my foot and ankle. So that feels so AWESOME to have all that stuff out.

Nathan is working at Apple Valley and getting things organized for the upcoming year. School applications for D.O and nursing schools as well as getting ready for the MCAT. His hours have been cut at work due to the economy of course so he's been great at taking care of the apartment and things while I'm working.

Nathan's sister Anna and her girls came to MN for a week and we were able to spend a bunch of time with them which was so great.

That about does it for us. Hope all is well with you!

Christmas!

2008-12-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas! We did! We had a great time at the Lakes. This year it was Bob, Kathy, Ryan, Gretchen and us! Ryan and Gretchen brought laser tag and that was so much fun! Nathan had me for secret santa and got me an AMAZING north face zip up in my favorite color! It's so COOL! Parker had Nathan and he got an XBOX 360 game and a fun family card game. It was great being with family...and the lobster was SOOOOO good too! :)

We got home on Friday the 26th because Nathan had to work. And we've both been working this weekend. Have a Happy New Year! Love ya!

REWIND!

2008-12-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well...it's been a while since we've written and, wow, have things changed!

First, my new job has...not gone well.
That sounds harsh and I'll spare the gory details, but basically I gave my notice last Friday and this Friday is my last day (if I can make it until then).

So along with that, we are no longer moving. We're staying in Eagan and that's fine with us. It saves us the hassle of moving and we're pretty happy here. And I'm back to searching for a full time job. In the meantime I have two casual x-ray jobs, a job at Applebee's, and a job at Volkart May and Associates. That's where I was working during my recovery after my surgeries. ANYWAYS, it's all good. It's been...an experience I guess. It's nice that all my previous positions are more than willing to have me back. We're extremely thankful for that! If any of you know anyone in radiology, you know my name! ;)

Some good news!
Nathan finishes his bachelors in biology this Wednesday! Whoo Hoo! We're so excited and happy. He's done such a good job and worked so hard. I know I wouldn't want to have traded places! Other than that, just finishing up Christmas shopping and things like that. We're going to hurry up and send out our Christmas cards this week (we're running a little behind this year, sorry!)

I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the holiday season! I know Nathan and I are very excited for Christmas. We love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Apartment

2008-11-30T13:50:00.001-08:00

Since I've accepted the position at IPPMC we are clearly needing to move! A hour and a half drive one way (not including traffic) just isn't going to work. So as soon I got the job, which starts tomorrow the 1st, we decided that Plymouth would be a good place to move. Nathan will be working full time in Apple Valley as an urgent care tech come January. So we think that's a good middle spot. We are bound in our lease here in Eagan until next August. So in order to move, we need to find renters. We staged our apartment and put it on Craig's List and we have a gal who is very serious about moving in. She's handing in her application to the rental office on Monday so we could move as soon as December 6th if everything clears. If that's what happens, it'll be be a busy few weeks, but completely worth it in the end! It'd be nice to get moved before Nathan's finals and Christmas. And in the mean time I can stay with family up in the St. Cloud area if the weather is bad. These are the pictures we took for the online post on Craig's List. I'll try to keep this updated as things happen! :) Love you guys!

SO....I GOT A JOB!

2008-11-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

Yes! I got a full time x-ray job! It's at a clinic in Sartell, MN called the "Interventional Pain and Physical Medicine Clinic." We're very excited and hoping it will be great experience. It's a one doctor clinic who does muscle and spine treatments. I'll be the only x-ray tech there and the job will consist more of nursing duties than x-ray, but either way it'll be great. The hours are great with no call, no holidays or weekends.

Check the place out if you're interested at http://www.ippmc.com/ .

So that's obviously what we're thankful for this holiday season! Thanksgiving was great. We did a Thanksgiving lunch at Dad and Callie's followed by a dinner at my grandparents.

We stayed at Bob and Kathy's while they were in PA for Thanksgiving. We stayed in Fairmont for a couple days and relaxed. We saw the movie "Twilight" Friday night and we actually thought it was pretty good. We were skeptical we wouldn't like it because we're not 13 year old girls, but it was pretty good. We actually started reading the book series.

Speaking of books, I just read "The Shack" and it was amazing! I loved it. I read it in 2 days (and I'm not a very fast reader)! You should really read it. It really touched my heart.

Culver's with Kristina

2008-11-16T17:45:00.001-08:00

Since life is not really exciting right now, I'll just share our everyday events with you! :)

Today, I went out for lunch with my wonderful friend Kristina. She's such a beautiful person and has helped take care of me during my recoveries. And it's great because she just lives down the street from us. We met when I first moved to Eagan and we both worked at Applebee's. Neither of us are there anymore, but we've moved on to better things! The first picture up top is a picture of us when we were first getting to know each other around two years ago. And the second picture was taken today. There's a little bit of a difference, but not too much.

This was my second outing since the surgery and it was nice to get out. Poor Nathan has been so busy with homework, work, and taking care of me. So this was a nice chance for him to have some quiet study time. I practically passed out when I got home because I was so tired, but it was such a great time!

Surgery 2.

2008-11-15T22:49:00.001-08:00

And then, this last Wednesday, November 12th, I had surgery on my other foot.

This one was minor compared to the last one, but still not very fun. I had a bunionectomy! Yes, I know...not really age appropriate, but oh well. Haha. Having such major problems with my other ankle caused me to develop a bunion on my left foot. And I found out I had an extra bone in my left foot as well that caused problems. My surgeon said he had never seen that before. I think his specific words were, "You're kind of like a mututation!" Jokingly of couse...I think! So on Wednesday I said "See ya!" and had it removed. So hopefully, besides hardware removals, my feet should be good to go from now on!

It's been a long recovery that is still going on, but I'm so glad that I was able to have it all done within a short amount of time. And oh man, Nathan has been the best at taking care of me! What a stud! Without him, I would have been in trouble. He's sooo wonderful!

Surgery 1.

2008-11-15T22:40:00.001-08:00

As some of you know, I had some major surgery back in August. I had surgery on my right ankle. I had subtalar fusion, tibial bone grafts, lateral ligament reconstruction, and an arthroscopy. Phew, lots of stuff, but hopefully I'll be good to go now. Apparently, my ankle bones didn't separate like they were supposed during development and it caused some major problems. Anyways, here is a cool picture of what my ankle looks like now.

New (Kind of) Car

2008-11-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

Even though it's been a while, I thought I would post about the new car Nathan and I purchased back in July. It was our first big purchase together and we were in desperate need. Nathan's Chevy Lumina was loved dearly, but it was SOOO time for a new car. We found the 2008 Mazda 6 and we were impressed with it and really liked the price. And for us, new was the way to go because we do not need sporatic car repair bills...especially in the next few years. So here it is! Isn't it pretty? :) Red was the only color they had left. I wasn't quite sure about it at first, but man do I love driving a sassy red car!

BLOG!

2008-11-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

So, I've tried the blog thing before and I haven't done a good job at keeping it up, but I will try again. Anyway, here's the update with us.

I graduated from college back in August. I'm officially a radiologic technologist, so that's sweet. Since then, I've had two surgeries: one on each foot. And now, I'm just trying to recover from those and find a full time x-ray job in the mean time. The market in Minnesota is pretty sad right now. So I'm applying all over the country and praying that a job offer will soon follow. We know God has a plan for us and we're just trying to be patient until He tells us what it is!

Nathan is finishing up his bachelor's in biology at the U. He will graduate in December. Then he plans to take a year and a half off from school. During this time, he'll prepare for med school or nursing school. This is another area with some uncertainty so we'll just see where God takes us!

That really is mostly of what is going on with us, but I will try and keep this updated with the fun little things we do! And this will be a nice way to keep distant family and friends updated as well!