Who says you can't go home?

Bon Jovi is on the Today show this morning, hence my title. I love the Today show. I always suggest my patients watch it in the morning. Also, we went home last weekend. For less than 48 hours. But it was still glorious. Who knew Kansas City was so wonderful? I didn't. Until I moved away. Funny how that works.

Anyway, Caleb had to go back for a Kiewit meeting. I tagged along. I was going to take like a million pictures but ended up taking about 10. Go figure. I will share them anyway. Because going home for the first time in three months was great, even if it was for only 48 hours.

We connected in the Atlanta airport, which is a fantastic airport. They have Starbucks and Chick-fil-a in all the right places. Which are just the best, especially when you get there at 7:30 am after your 6am flight.

I'm starting to run out of positive adjectives, I better slow down.

I snapped a couple pics in the plane with my phone...

Good morning! 

Went out to lunch at Mi Ranchito with my bffs. Cream cheese enchiladas and best friends...I miss you!

So cute!

Caleb and I went out for dinner with Mat and his cutie date, Sarah. PF Changs and the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza. Let's not add up how many calories I consumed that day.

Now that is just adorable.

I highly recommend the red velvet cheesecake.

Yum.

Good morning to 435 from the 18th floor!

While my hub was in his meeting, I went with my parents to visit my grandma. She is turning 90 this month! Crazy. I brought our wedding album to show her. She has Alzheimer's and was very surprised that I was married. But she loved seeing the album. She said my husband is a very good looking guy with large teeth. Well said, Grandma.

I'm not sure why, but I have no pictures of any other family members. Except, of course, George.

Reading the Foot Book with Uncle Caleb.

Note about George's grandparents: I've heard legends about how they are in love with this child. Its really true. They are totally obsessed. They won't even let you hold him. You are like, hey can I hold George for awhile? And they actually tell you no. Or they pretend they didn't hear you and walk away. This is the honest truth. If you want to hold your nephew that will be like twice as big the next time you see him, you have to physically take him out of their arms. Poor kid, so unloved.

The one photo of my cute hubby and I during the trip:

Love this.

Kansas City, we love you! People in Kansas City, we love you more.

Things I'm thankful for today:

1. Amazing family and friends

2. Airplanes

3. The Pioneer Woman and her wonderful recipes, check out her website and her throwdown with Bobby Flay on Food Network next week! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

4. Weather in the 70s in November!

5. Living in a beautiful place, even if its not home. Check out my view from the hospital earlier this week.

Beautiful sunset. And yes, those are mountains way back there.

Gearing up for a weekend of work. Planning on tackling Grandma's cinnamon rolls next week! Documentation to come! Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Pink Party!

As everyone knows, October was breast cancer awareness month. So we got to see lots of pink ribbons and talk about our ta-tas. I think breast cancer awareness month is everyone's favorite thing to be aware of. No wait. I know that.

Anyway, at the beginning of October Caleb and I were very surprised to see strings of bras hung on our street. At first we thought it was an advertisement for the lingerie store (which would be clever) then found out it was (surprise!) to promote breast cancer awareness. You could drop off your old bras at this radio station and they would hang them on our street. It was called "Bras on Broad." I thought it was hilarious.

There were four rows of bras. It looked like someone did some major laundry.

At work we have a very sweet secretary who just went through a battle with breast cancer this summer. We decided to throw her a party and it was very pink. Pink decorations, pink food, pink presents.

I made cupcakes. The batter was pink and I did the pink ribbons. Caleb helped.

Pink deviled eggs. Hilarious.

Some coworkers. My boss is the one in front.

Lynn, our secretary is the one in the middle showing off some of her gifts. What an awesome lady! 

Yay for Breast Cancer Awareness! In case you were wondering, November is Alzheimer's Awareness, Lung Cancer Awareness, Diabetes Awareness, Healthy Skin Awareness, TMJ Awareness, COPD Awareness, and Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness (holla to Unit 66!). I am going to a pulmonary nursing conference this month and I suddenly understand why.

And just because its November and we are all getting thankful...here is a list of things I'm thankful for today:

1. My job...and that I have four days off

2 My sweet friend Breehan who went on a lunch date with me

3. Panera on rainy days

4. A washer and dryer

5. That the shoe store downstairs is now selling clothes starting today!

Have a beautiful weekend! Lots of pictures to come next week!

George the Monkey

I love being off on Mondays after working all weekend. Sleeping in until 7 (two hours past when I usually wake up), a slow cup of coffee, the Today show, and blogging! Caleb's brother Zach and his wife Audreyand their sweet baby George came to visit us last weekend. We had SO much fun...eating, shopping, playing with George, just hanging out and catching up. Looking through my pictures I realized that most of them are of George...because everything a baby does is cute. Eating, sleeping, smiling, frowning...seriously we just took pictures of everything he did.

I'm trying out a new photo collage program that Audrey introduced me to...so here we go.


While Caleb was working, we went antique shopping and to the hotdog store on our street.

I love the lady looking adoringly at George.

FYI, George adores me. All other aunts, beware. I am his favorite.

Men love blondes. What can I say?

He also adores his uncle Caleb. Who let him play with the new Harry Potter wands. (See previous post!)

This was hilarious. And adorable. 

Of course, George loves his parents most. He lights up whenever Zach is around. Seriously, the sweetest thing ever!

Zach and Aud even cooked us dinner one night. Which was awesome. Who doesn't love a great meal that is delish, cooked for you, AND cleaned up for you? Yes, I would love to hold your child while you cook me dinner...

More of George just being an awesome baby...

Love all his expressions.

I bought him a monkey costume for Halloween. It was probably the cutest thing ever. He hated it. Go figure. Don't worry George, I will stop buying you costumes with built in footies after you can walk. (Unlike the aunt in the movie A Christmas Story.)

Note the look of terror by George. Sorry kiddo.

Much happier naked!

Adorable.

We love this kid and our awesome brother and sister! 

Sweet family shots!

Zach and Audrey: Thanks for making the trip to East Tennessee! We loved having you! Please come back!

Let me know what you think of the collage...I just realized that I should have made all the backgrounds black. Oh well...next time!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Ah, October 16, 2009...the day we were married. Its been a year, who would have guessed we would be living in East Tennessee? No one, that's who. Anyway, thanks to Kiewit (check out this blog post: Mullet Man) we went on a sweet vacay to Orlando to celebrate! You might ask, "Why Orlando?" Here is why: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, now open in Universal Studios. Yes, we are nerds. No, we don't care.

So we set off early Friday two weeks ago and arrived in Orlando by 9:30am. The Ritz Carlton let us check in at 10:30 (love that customer service.)

Ah, beautiful room with balcony. And two beds because after a year, we sleep in separate beds. Kidding.

And then off to Universal Studios! Since we've never been there before, it took us awhile to find HP world. But the first sighting of Hogwarts Castle was beautiful.

Oh Harry Potter World!

It was truly a magical place. There was butter beer...

I'm pretty sure it was cream soda with some sweet foamy stuff on top. But still delish.

Olivander's wand store...

Those are wands stacked up in the background. Don't worry, we left some money there.

The Hogwarts castle with a super sweet ride inside...

And lots and lots of people everywhere.

So as you waited in line for the castle ride, you did a tour of the castle. Which was amazing. Since it was pretty dark and we didn't want to be epically annoying (like the women in front of us), we only took a few pics. The walls were lined with moving pictures that talked, just like in the book/movies.

Amazing.

Everything was gorgeous with snowy rooftops...

Love that chunky child next to Caleb. There were many chunky children.

There was Honeydukes sweet shop with chocolate frogs, Burt's Every Flavor Beans, blood-flavored lollipops and more.

Yes, we left more money here as well.

We ate some lunch one day at Three Broomsticks. They had a lovely selection of English foods...fish and chips, shepherd's pie. And of course more butter beer.

Don't worry, the Hog's Head was just next door where you could get real beer.

Caleb decided that if he went to Hogwarts, he would be a Ravenclaw.

And he's so excited about it.

The Hogwarts choir performed with us, along with their singing frogs.

They made the Slytherin girl be mean to all the other choir members. Hilarious.

I love choir.

Caleb hates having his picture taken so that's why most of these are of me. But I convinced him to pose with the Hogwarts Express conductor.

Fantastic.

We tried to take some pics worthy of sending to the boss that sent us on this trip.

This is pretty funny. I  might send it.

We did two long afternoons at Harry Potter World (as I like to call it). Outside of Universal there was this super cool area called City Walk with restaurants and bars and shops and a big stage (kinda like Power and Light in KC). We went to Hard Rock Cafe on our anniversary after our HP adventure ended.

It was very cool and we got to sit in the Michael Jackson corner. Nice.

A belt he wore on tour...his old yearbook photo...so fun.

Caleb even got to sit next to a Beyonce quote. Lucky him!

Good thing Michael had such an effect on B.

We had the best server ever, Mikey, who gave us free anniversary dessert. I always tell people things like that in hopes that they will give me something free. I think it annoys Caleb. But you would be surprised at all the free things you get for just asking!

Yum.

We spent the better part of Sunday at Cocoa Beach. I love the beach and this was no let-down. Note how my skin tone matches the sand. It later turned bright red. Because they confiscated my spray-on sunscreen at the airport. So I had to use my travel size bottle of normal sunscreen. So then I had to buy some aloe. Which they promptly confiscated on the way back. I always try to sneak full size bottles and I always get caught. Stupid airport rules.

LOVE the beach!

On the way back to the beach we went to this magical mall we found the day before, Mall at Millenia. We knew it was a big deal when we saw it had valet parking and there was an Aston Martin parked in the front row. This mall had more designer stores in one place than I've ever seen. Actually most of these stores I've never seen in real life. Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors, Burberry, Louis Vuitton...the list goes on. My sweet husband fed the monster he created with a new Coach purse. I am so spoiled. Its ridiculous. 

I think I could live in Orlando for awhile.

We went to McCormick and Schmick's for dinner on Sunday night. Amazing. 

One year!

Awesome vacation. Loved Orlando and HP and the beach and this amazing man that I married a year ago. Thanks Kiewit!

My house is weird and quiet this morning. Its the first day I've woken up to a day off at home with nothing to do and no one else here in like...a month.  Zach and Audrey and George were here for the weekend and that will be a whole new blog post soon!

One final pic to leave you with from Suess Land at Universal...

Party with the Voths

Three 12 hour shifts: check

All patients still alive as of 7:00pm on October 13th: check

Sleeping in: check

Coffee: check

Discussion with Expedia.com customer service rep: check

Ahh. I had a delightful week of work. But a much better four day weekend with my wonderful parents in town. Yes, they decided to venture into the great land of East Tennessee. We really had a good time. Mostly it was me dragging them and Caleb around to all the things I wanted to do. But they were game. And the hubs pretended to be oh-so-excited to spend the weekend doing lots of fall themed activities. 

Day 1 (Thursday)

I have like 20 antique stores just on my street. We started at the top of the street and worked out way down. We probably shopped for like 3 hours and we didn't even make it into all the stores. Thats how many antique stores there are. Unfortunately, I have no photo evidence of the antique store adventure because Caleb had the camera at work. Don't worry, you are just missing looking at lots of really old junk.

Day 2 (Friday)

My parents and I love a good outlet mall. We have a huge one about a hour away. I thought it would be a good idea to drive down there, mostly because there is a Coach outlet. And I love Coach. (My husband can thank himself for starting this minor obsession.)

The Coach store was insanely busy with crazy women holding like 10 purses.

I didn't buy anything. Sad. Then we went to Johnson City to look at the hospital I work at. So exciting. But we did eat some bbq at this super cute bbq place called The Firehouse. It was delish and adorable and cheap. So many of my favorite things combined! It also provided a great photo op.

My parents. Don't they look great with the fire truck? Also, I used the "antique" effect in editing this pic and I think it looks way better than the original.

Day 3 (Saturday)

The most classic fall day I can think of. This was a great day.

We started with the farmer's market. Because I LOVE the farmer's market.

Delightful.

I love early morning light. Especially the way it shines through those pickled eggs. Mmmmm.

I love pumpkins. Which you would know if you were at my wedding a year ago. I got this little beauty for a whole dollar.

*Side note: See that little circle of weird light in the middle of this pic? I have a really nice camera with two great lenses and I get these sometimes. Can someone please tell me how to NOT get these little reflective light things on my pretty photos?*

Lots and lots of apples. My favorite.

Delicious.

I also purchased a cookbook at the FM. It is called the 2010 Kingsport Farmer's Market Cookbook. I wanted it as a souvenir of Kingsport. It has some great recipes such as "How to cook a possum." Perfect. I was just wondering how I would go about doing that.

Up next: Chick-fil-a breakfast. A Baker Saturday morning tradition. C and I always eat Chick-fil-a breakfast on my Saturdays off. My parents had never experienced the greatness that is the chicken, egg, and cheese bagel.

That is perfection right there.

We had to document such a positive experience.

Next: driving to Rogersville to check out the Kiewit project and to attend "Heritage Days." Thats right, readers. Another festival. SO many things I love in just one day...

The road that takes Caleb to work. I think its super cool.

Peeking through the fence at the tower cranes.

On to Heritage Days...

These mini pumpkins bring back memories of wedding pumpkins...

There were tons and tons of great booths...this was my dad's favorite.
                                                                 

This lady made yarn from Alpacka wool

Mom models a hat made from the yarn.

The alpacka and her dog.

Caleb and the Kiewit booth.

Caleb and one of the Kiewit guy's kid. I just think this is cute.

There was also tons of live music on a stage in the middle of all the booths. This kid was our favorite...by far. 

Amazing tiny child playing the fiddle. He was awesome. And hilarious.

What festival is complete without some festival food? Deep fried oreos=yummmm.

All four of us at Heritage Days.

There are so many great pics, I will probably make a facebook album. But this post is getting pretty long. And we still have one day left to go.

End of Day 3: introducing my parents to sushi. No pics of this, but it was great seeing them fumble with chopsticks and getting their first bite of raw fish. They liked it! Success.

Day 4 (Sunday)

We went to Bays Mountain Park, which is a really cool place very close to where we live. It has a planetarium and lots of animal habitats and fun stuff to see.

After getting in trouble for driving on the bike paths, we finally found a place to park and hiked for a bit. Mostly, it was just beautiful with all the changing leaves and the lake.

Love that.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We loved having my parents here!

Up next: a fabulous weekend with my husband to celebrate one year of marriage...can you believe its been a year? Me either.