welcome back, Christmas!

well, i have a confession to make. i have skipped Thanksgiving and moved right on to Christmas. i LOVE Christmas!!! i love the lights, the smells, the tastes, the family gatherings, and the joy that flows out of people... well, most of them! i love that people fill the need to give to those less fortunate at Christmas time and as a whole people are... dare i say it... nicer! . it truly is the most wonderful time of year. i wish the world was "in the spirit of giving" all year long.

we did have Thanksgiving at my house this weekend, so i didn't completely skip it! it was the only time my sister and her husband could come down, and of curse my dad is here all the time now! i loved having them here. heather and i cooked on Saturday, we had lunch, and then we just spent the afternoon/evening together as a family. we shopped and then we decorated my house for Christmas! i hated to see them leave on Sunday, but as soon as they left matthew's mom and her best friend debbie were here. we had a great time with them shopping and hanging out.

this is our second holiday season without my momma. she loved Christmas. as a matter of fact, she is the person that made Christmas such a special time in our family, and she is the reason i love it so much! oh how is wish she were here to celebrate with us, but i know she would not come back to this earth for any reason. imagine spending Christmas day in heaven with our amazing Lord and Savior. what a celebration we have to look forward to. however, i am selfish and want her here with me. i think about her everyday, and i cherish the precious time i had with her. i will carry on her traditions, and with time we will make new traditions. the Lord is good, and He provides healing for my broken heart. even though, sometimes i can't see it at the time.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year! Love on your families and friends this Christmas season! Enjoy every moment together.

it's fall.. ya'll

oh how i love the smells, the scents, the weather, and the clothes of the fall! i am a much happier girl when its fall! AND, all these changes mean that Christmas is just around the corner!!! can't wait!

well, not much as change sine i posted last. well, except my header, the leaves, and the fact that my daddy moved to the burg!

i am so relieved! i am happy to have him here and he says he is happy to be here. he seems to be adjusting well. he has found a sunday school class at our church, and he is developing a new routine. God is amazing. He has provided us with the strength and courage to take the steps toward healing. i miss my momma like crazy. i have so much i want to tell her and so much i need her advice on, but the Lord is good and he provides healing for broken hearts.

life is such a blessing. i am so very thankful for all i have.

sickville, usa

well, hello world! i know you have been waiting anxiously for my next post. considering they are so interesting and i keep you hanging on every word!

since i blogged last... i have been a little under the weather! i seemed to have contracted "the kissing disease." yes, friends this is correct... MONO! how? you ask. well, i don't really know. i had been back at the ER for a total of 7 shifts.

last thursday i woke up and told matthew that i didn't feel very well. i was really tired and the left side of my throat hurt and my glands on that side were swollen. i got to work about 645 and about 730 i started running fever. took ibuprofen and an hour and a half later i still didn't feel any better. so i went over to minor care and asked one of the nurse practitioners to take a look at me. by this time i felt so bad i was headed home. she told me that it was either MONO or strep throat. great!

now would be a good time to remind all of you that i just started back working at the ER on aug 3rd. that's right, you guessed it.... that means i don't have insurance until sept 1st. whooo hooo yeah me! so needless to say. i am thankful to have NP friends that can help me out in times like these.

so i started the antibiotics on thursday. friday i woke up and wasn't much better, but i just thought to myself "its going to take a little while for the antibiotics to work." saturday i woke up and i was 10 x worse than i was on friday. so, i called my NP friend and she added another antibiotic and magic mouthwash to help with the pain in my throat, because by this time its like swallowing a knife every time i swallowed. by saturday night my tonsils were so swollen that i had to sleep in the chair, because i was having a hard time swallowing. so sunday, i ended up at the ER. i went just for my NP friend to take another look at my throat and tell me what i needed to do. well, one look and she told me i had to check in. so much for free healthcare! it was bad... really bad! so bad i was willing to be a patient in the ER! that takes a lot! i got IV fluids, steroids, pain meds, and a bunch of lab work to find out that i have MONO.

today is day 7 and i am finally starting to feel like myself. i still don't have much energy, but i know that takes time. this is by far, the sickest i have EVER been in my life. it definitely makes me praise the Lord for all the blessing of great days in my life!

last thing, i have to say that matthew is the GREATEST husband in the world! he has taken excellent care of me while i have been sick. whatever i needed he provided. he is AMAZING!!! even though i have been whiney and pitiful he has been right by my side. i love him so much. i am so thankful for him. thank you, baby. i love you.

long time... no blog!

well, not much has changed in the past 6 or 7 months since i last blogged! i went to work at hattiesburg clinic to work in an ob/gyn office. i worked there for 6 months, but it just wasn't for me. i recently made the move back to the ER. i know, i know! crazy. as much as i complained about it... i went back! i am very happy to be back. i am better suited for emergency/critical care nursing. i guess the short time away helped me see that.

i am currently working on an application to USM. i am planning on getting a master's in nursing. i took two classes at the University of South Alabama last fall. i did fine, but i did not enjoy that the classes were totally online. i work better with a little verbal instruction. i am praying that if this is the direction i need to go, everything will fall into place.

well, the topic of several of my past blogs have been about baylee and brody and all the havoc they have brought to our life. however, i am proud to say that they are very well behaved these days...(crossing my fingers)!!! i guess they are growing out of the puppy stage. they are so fun! i love them more and more everyday!

well, i guess that is all i have for now. maybe i will update sooner next time!

ting's warf

this past Friday, January 16Th marked the 10 year anniversary of when Matthew and i became a couple. we spent the weekend on the coast and had a wonderful time. we got all dressed up and ate at Ruth's Chris on Friday night. it was fabulous. then we shopped on Saturday and spent Saturday evening/night with our friends drew and Tabitha. it was so much fun!

yes,  that means we were 16 and 17 years old. he and i had been friends... well, best friends for 2 years prior to that. i liked him, but we were just friends. i even tried setting him up with our other friends. WHAT?!!?! are you stupid.... what if one of those "set ups" would have stuck?!?! well, thankfully, the Lord is in control and despite my efforts to "help" he protected both of us from other relationships. i know its a bit corny considering we were only in high school, but that's just how our story goes. 

long story short and many details left out, finally, one day, i had just enough. Matthew's senior prom was rolling around and he was going to take my best friend. oh no you don't mister...  i had stood by long enough and decided that i would just tell him how i felt, right there in the middle of lit class. so i did, and the next weekend we went on our first date. needless to say i was his date to the prom! :) we dated for 6 1/2 years until we both finished college and then we got married may 21st 2005 and i have loved every minute of it!

Matthew is the smartest, most patient, loving, forgiving, handsome man i know and the only one i love. if you look up the meaning of his name, it is Hebrew and it means "gift of God". that is definitely  what he is to me. i don't think i could have hand picked anyone any better for me. i can ask him anything and he knows the answer. i can say just about anything and he just smiles at me... sometimes in disbelief. i am so thankful to have him in my life. 2008 was a pretty rough year for me personally and he was right there by my side holding my hand and telling everything is going to be alright, and we are closer for it. 

Matthew, you are the only one for me. i love you so much. thank you for being my rock and my support. thank you for laughing with me and for laughing at me! i am so thankful that the Lord gave you to me. i look forward to our future and i can't wait to experience it with you. 

i love you, always,

Brandi

my life before your eyes... hopefully

well i found out recently about project 365.  what this is, is a time line of your life through pictures. there's this whole web site about it. just click here to check it out.  the point ( as i understand it) is to take one picture a day along your life's journey and give a brief description of what you saw, who you meet, or what you did that day. take your camera everywhere you go.  so i am going to try this. i am sure that i will have to make up days. i mean i am already starting 4 days late.  so lets start with day one. 

JANUARY 1st  2009:

forrest general er

yep! you guessed! even though i am no longer a full time employee of the good ole' general i still spent the first day of the year there. i took care of all the drunks who blew themselves up with firecrackers the night before, but they were too drunk to feel it. so when they woke up in screaming pain they came to visit me! fun was had by all!

JANUARY 2nd 2009:

matthew and brent playing madden football

this is a pretty frequent event at my house. we (us and our friends brent, meagan, and heath) on a friday or saturday night and 9 times out of 10 we end up at my house playing the wii or watching strange tv. on this night, it was just me, matthew and brent. heath was in orlando and meagan was at her parents home celebrating the japanese new year... don't ask! 

JANUARY 3rd 2009:

this is the beautiful sky after the torrential rains earlier this day. God is good!!!

JANUARY 4th 2009:

baylee

now i know that i have talked about her before, but i thought that this picture captured one part of her personality! she really is a good, happy, fun loving dog and i am glad to have her. even though she sometimes makes me want to drop her off in the woods! just kidding. ;)

moving on...

well, christmas is over and i have enjoyed spending time with my family. i was able to go home to meridian and hang out with my wonderful family that i am so very thankful to have. this, as many of you know, was the first christmas without my mom. it was bittersweet to say the least. but the Lord is faithful and He provides peace and comfort to us. He is truly near the broken hearted.

my nephews sidney and lane were there and we had santa on christmas morning. its always fun to experience christmas through a child's eyes. 

if any of you like to read, i recommend reading The Purpose of Christmas by rick warren. it is an amazing book and helps to remind us what the true purpose of christmas. its hard theses days with all the hustle and bustle of buying and giving gifts and spending time traveling and seeing family to really focus on our Savior and his gift of salvation. if you get the chance pick it up. 

in other news, yesterday was my last full time day at forrest general!!! i am staying on there PRN, but i will be starting a full time job at 28th place which is the women's clinic of hattiesburg clinic. goodbye working weekends! hello every weekend off!!! i am  so excited to make this change. now don't get me wrong. i am really nervous, but i know that this change is for the better and i can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me there.