Happy Valentines Day blog friends and family :) We hope you are having a fabulous day with your loves. Our Valentines has been nice, but not typical. My poor 3 year old cousin that I lived with throughout nursing school is in St. Mary's with RSV. Aaron and I went to visit him today. The little guy looks pitiful with his oxygen, IV, and monitors, and broke my heart when he started saying "help me". I see kids like this every day but, I don't think I ever realized just how hard it is for families to be in the hospital with their sick children until today. I got a totally new appreciation for those families today by getting a sneak peak of a day in their life and I was only there for a couple of hours.

Many of you know that I am totally in love with my job in the Pediatric ICU. When I chose to go to nursing school I had absolutely no idea this career would give me this much gratification and fulfillment. I love the bond that I form with kids and their families. I love being able to help them feel better and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being able to send them home back to their normal lives and get a big hug as they walk out the door. Not all of my days are fun or satisfying, in fact, many days I want to and do cry when I leave because the kids we see are sick puppies and it breaks my heart to know that somedays we just float through the day and make no progress towards getting them better. I've had a hard time being ok with that but am slowly realizing that thats all you can do sometimes. Regardless, the job gets done and eventually the kiddies get well. Kids are resilient to almost anything-Im convinced of that whole heartedly-another reason to love my job.

Ok, ok enough with the sappiness of my job I'm sure Aaron would love to blog about how much he loves crunching numbers and taking people to court one day so stay tuned for that :) I hope everyone has a great week-Im going to wait for my call to come into work! Crossing our fingers for no more snow this week like they are predicting. Happy Valentine's Day again!

Another Snow-y Weekend!

Fortunately, the weatherman was wrong in his prediction of Spotsylvania getting up to 30 inches of snow this past weekend. Unfortunately, we still got 14 inches and were trapped inside for yet another snowed-in weekend. We were fully prepared and this weekend didn't make me lose my mind quite as bad as the previous weekend! Friday afternoon Aaron and I ventured out for one last time before the snow fell. We, well I, found a new DVD (27 Dresses-only $4.99!) at Best Buy and new North Face gear for both of us at Dicks-we were READY! That night we enjoyed homemade chicken pot pie and baked friendship bread together. Saturday we cleaned, we read, we played our wii, and we took a couple walks in the snow. The day went by fairly quickly. Yesterday, determined to get out, Aaron and his "fan club" (thats an entirely different post) dug out our cars, which surprisingly only took 2 HOURS! We didn't have anywhere we needed or really wanted to go, but decided to venture out anyways. We ended up going to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse and using a buy 1 get 1 free coupon-we looove restaurant coupons! After dinner we came home to enjoy the Super Bowl on our new 50" plasma TV. Aaron and I are getting very good at entertaining ourselves in our 800 sq. ft. apartment. Im reminded weekend after weekend that its very important to take time out of our busy lives to stop and look around and thank God for the blessings we have and the beauty of the earth he has made, regardless of how much I'm beginning to despise snow! We hope everyone has a great week. Aaron tried to start his this morning and had to turn around-roads in NoVa just aren't up to par quite yet. Stay safe and stay warm!

Frat party weekend?!?

I've been working night shift this week and as of yesterday hadn't seen Aaron since Sunday afternoon. While this schedule is hard, we've gotten used it and its only for a little over one more month. Yay! We decided when Aaron got home last night to go to a local pizzeria and wal-mart for groceries in case we get the 30-yes 30-inches of snow that has been predicted for our area. We thought we would be ahead of the game and well prepared-well, we thought wrong.

Let me just say this first:Wal-Mart is not by any means my favorite place to shop; however, they always have exactly what we need without going store to store and their prices help our budget greatly. Hence, Aaron and I grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Well that theory was changed last night. Apparently the residents of Spotsy know more about this alleged snow storm than Aaron and I. The shelves were bare-completely empty. No bananas, no eggs, no salad, no milk, no meats, barely any frozen foods-we were not doing well with our preparation. Determined not to be defeated by wal-mart Aaron and I strolled each aisle to find something we could eat this weekend. What did we find you ask: potato skins, beer, chips and dip, nutty buddy bars, go-gurt, and canned veggies. Weekend full of junk food at the Stewart home! Whoo hoo! Funny thing is (well maybe not so funny)-our cart usually has some of this stuff in it anyways when Aaron goes grocery shopping, but I at least counteract it with veggies, fresh fruit, and lean meats. Last night we just looked like a bunch of college frat guys! Can't say we didnt try though :)

Im hoping we don't get the amount of snow the weathermen are predicting. I don't think I can take one more weekend of being trapped in my apartment, but if we do, we are totally prepared. Good thing we have a wii fit is all I'm saying!