Birthday time!

I can't believe it's already April. The years go by faster and faster as I get older. I first started noticing the years going by quickly after my freshman year of college. Up until then, in middle school and high school, they seemed to go by slowly. I had my whole life in front of me! Now being almost 2 years out from graduating college, the years are rolling by like waves. Chase and I will celebrate our one year marriage anniversary in a few months!

But before our marriage anniversary, we are celebrating Chase's 24th birthday with a lovely trip. We are taking 4 days and going to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. In Sedona, we will do some hiking and rent an ATV to ride around the red rock. We are staying in a hotel that offered a wine tasting (courtesy of a Groupon). The next day we plan to drive up to the Grand Canyon and hike a little down in there. We are staying in Flagstaff that night.

We are excited to have these experiences together. We've already done a day trip to Sedona where we hiked, but we are excited to stay the night and really see the town. I have been to Sedona twice before. Once with my club soccer team in high school for a huge tournament (complete with college recruiters...yikes!), and then again with my collegiate team when we came out to play a few AZ teams. With my Ball State team we visited the Grand Canyon. Chase has also seen it before with his family. But we are excited to make memories together!

What Chase is EQUALLY excited about is his birthday ice cream cake that I will be making from scratch. It was a good excuse to finally buy some 9 inch round cake pans. I will be making this tomorrow so Chase can eat it all day long on Friday and Saturday while I am at work. Lol - he requested this. Let's hope my first attempt at this is a major success...for Chase's sake.

Quick update

It has been a month and a half since I've posted! Chase and I are living such busy lives right now. We didn't see each other for half of February with him flying to Cincinnati for a week for work, and then me working every other weekend and also flying back to Indiana for my sister's bridal shower. Life has definitely been in the fast lane. I am getting very ingrained into Scottsdale healthcare, and I absolutely love it. Chase is loving his work too. It's weird to think that his MT program is already half over.

Today I fly out to Indianapolis for my sister's wedding on Saturday! I couldn't be more proud or excited to see my little sis walk down the aisle. It's going to be a great weekend full of fun and family!

Breaking News: You are going to DIE!

Being an RN on the Neuro-Ortho Trauma/Stroke Telemetry floor has been interesting to say the least. The devastation that a head injury can have on the human mind is incredible. It's not just the physical trauma to the head, but the mental trauma as well. I know it is very difficult for family members to see their loved ones like this. I feel like I have seen so much in only 5 weeks of working with patients suffering from traumatic brain injury. It is very rare that we discharge someone to home, it's usually to some kind of rehab, or a long term care facility.

I also see a lot of trauma patients from car accidents, ATVs, and most recently motorcycle accidents. It blows my mind the devastation a car hitting a motorcycle can cause for the motorcycle rider! I recently had a 22 year old who thankfully was wearing a helmet when a car pulled out and hit him on his ride home from work (the cars never seem to see them). Despite the use of his helmet and other protective clothing, he still sustained several facial fractures. He also had a fractured pelvis, shattered wrist, fractured shoulder, and severe road rash. Several weeks later, when I took care of him, he was still unable to walk. Miraculously, all his internal organs were free from severe harm. He survived this accident by grace alone.

Working on this floor has made me realize my own mortality as well as the mortality of my family. There are so many ways to die! Cue cheesy Christian line: But only One Way to live! Lol. But, it's the striking truth. Death can take anyone at any age. We can be fine one moment and then BAM! standing in front of God facing our judgment. Whether or not we accepted Jesus as our Savior and followed Him alone is the only thing that will matter. There is urgency to this message because death is a certainty and a reality.

I remember having this conversation with a dear friend in college. She told me that she intended on searching and exploring what she believed in and getting more into church at some point in her life, but college wasn't the time. She wanted to have her fun. With grace and truth, and many christian friends pouring into her life over lunch at Panera, several years later this woman became one of the most passionate and dynamic followers of Christ I have ever seen. Her eyes and heart were opened to not only the urgency of the gospel, but the beauty of a Savior who rules with grace, justice, and love.

recapping 2010

2011 is here! How bizarre that time moves so fast. I feel like I just graduated high school yesterday. In reality it was about 7 years ago. I can genuinely say that I never realized or thought time moved fast until I was in college. As each season of soccer went by, the reality that I only had 3 more seasons, 2 more seasons, 1 more season until my career was over hit hard. Now my career has been OVER for more than 2 years. And I'm married. And I'm turning the dreaded 25 this year. 25 sounds incredibly old to me, it always has. Mid-twenties. They are almost over. Meanwhile, my husband gets to turn only 24 in April! Not fair! At least I haven't had one patient guess me a day older than 18...which my response is always "Really? You don't mind having an 18 year old take care of you, chart your precise assessments, push your potent IV meds? How many 18 year olds with a bachelor's degree do you know?" Actually, I only think all that. In reality I'm flattered by their comments.

Last year, 2010, was such a lovely year for Chase and I. We had so many exciting changes! I graduated at the end of Dec. 2009, and landed my first big girl RN job in January of 2010. Chase played his last rounds of golf for UNC in the spring and graduated in May. After 11 months of planning, we got married in June and then went on the most baller vacation to Aruba. The day we got back from Aruba, July 4th, we began our journey out to AZ in our pre-packed Budget Truck (thanks Dan, Tim, Pat). My sister also got engaged that day. After that crazy and HOT trip to AZ, we arrived 2 days later on July 6th. We unpacked most of the truck ourselves as we made trip after trip up 4 flights of stairs. And then the next morning, Chase started his new job at Cintas on July 7th. I obtained my RN license for AZ in August, and after several months of job searching and heartbreak and disappointment, in late November I was offered a job at Scottsdale Healthcare on a neuro/ortho trauma floor. Chase and I spent Thanksgiving with friends, and had a wonderful Christmas alone. To end 2010, Chase made the night as special as the whole year was as he had a wonderful dinner + wine ready for me when I came home from working my 3rd 12 in a row. It was complete with fresh roses + champagne and watching the ball drop in New York at 10pm, 11pm and 12am MTN time.

As fun as 2010 was, it contained some of the busiest times of my life. After we moved to AZ, it also contained some of the most NOT busy times of my life.

We have so much to look foward to in 2011! My sister is getting married, Chase and I will be celebrating one year of marriage in June, and who can't forget the franchise-completing, era-ending release of the finale Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in July?

nothing like missing a red-eye

This weekend Chase is in Charleston, South Carolina for a very dear friend's wedding. The wedding is Sunday, and Chase flew out late Friday night to make it in town in time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Saturday. We had great conversation as I drove Chase to downtown Phoenix to the airport. We knew we would both really miss each other and it would be my first time in Phoenix without Chase. As soon as I dropped Chase off, he realized he didn't have his wallet. SO unlike Chase, he is very organized (perhaps I distracted him whilst packing?) We freaked out for a second, knowing that because Chase only likes to get to his flights an hour before, I would be unable to make it back to our apartment (in north phoenix/scottsdale) to retrieve his wallet and then back to the airport in time for him to board his red-eye to Newark. I tried though, and made it back in phenomenal (illegal) time...unfortunately I was 8 minutes too late and Chase missed his red-eye.

By GOD's grace, the airline (Continental) put him on the next red-eye to Cleveland FREE of charge, and though he was initially on stand-by, he made it onto the plane. However, he would have to fly from Phoenix to Cleveland to Newark and then take a later flight to Charleston. So 2 lay overs. He was going to miss the rehearsal!

When Chase arrived in Newark, he realized that the earlier flight to Charleston that he was originally supposed to be on was delayed and had not left yet, but they were very close to leaving. Pulling a "Chase move" (aka something he has done before) he went over and asked a couple times if he could switch his flight back to the earlier one, and after a few minutes, the airline agreed.

He is now in Charleston! He made it to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on time! On Sunday his is standing by his buddy, Justin, as he marries a beautiful gal. I wish I could be there to witness the awesome marriage...and ALSO to see my husband in a tux again - he's looks very handsome in a tux...that ONE time I saw him sporting one...I think it was an important day? Can't remember though. It was definitely recent.

Tomorrow is my first day on the floor at Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center. I will be shadowing a preceptor for several weeks. My body is going to get a rude awakening getting back into these grueling 12-13 hours shifts (lets be real..my longest day on 3 surgical at IU was 15 hrs...with 10 min of lunch to eat as fast as possible)...because I was a new grad...and slow. Naturally, the plus side to all this walking is the amount of cals I will be burning. Aint never gonna complain about losing a pound or two!

Miss my boy...can't wait until he's back in town!

Just the Two of Us

Chase and I will be staying in Arizona this year to spend Christmas with just each other! We are excited and bummed at the same time. It'll be nice to have time with Chase home a lot (he gets several days off), but since I have a part time job AND a real job now, who knows what my hours will be like. Not that I'm complaining! We decided it would put us in a much better position to be financially wise and good stewards of what God has given us rather than purchase plane tickets this year, especially since Chase is flying out this weekend to be in a friend's wedding in Charleston, SC and we will both be flying back to Indiana for my sister's wedding in March aaaaand I will also be flying out to Indiana in February.

We weren't going to get a Christmas tree, until we stopped by Lowe's and discovered they were 50% off...because they were dying in the heat. Lol. So different than Indiana. We found a good one though - for $12 bucks. We gave it some sugar water and it perked right up. It feels WAYYY more like Christmas now (isn't that pathetic? as if it's about a tree.) However, we are grateful, and also pretty pumped about some cute (READ: glittery) new ornaments.

Chase gave me a budget on the ornaments (let's be honest, he didn't really care what they looked like), so I made the executive decision to forfeit a nice, large tree topper in order to get more glittery ornaments. Only 23.5% of all our ornaments are completely free of any glitter....yes, I did the math. Also, Chase had two stockings from when he was younger (and often had BOTH filled on Christmas), and I left mine in Indiana to stay with my family because, as this first Christmas without all her children is going to be hard enough on my mom, I didn't want her to also be staring at my empty stocking spot all season long! SO an easy fix to this was to just tape my name on Chase's extra stocking. WaaaLaa! (also shout out to Melinda for the wonderful tree skirt:)

We've already seen the benefits of a quiet Christmas season. We've had some time together to really praise God and think about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. That God had such grace on the people He created that He would send a savior into the world. That he would allow Chase and I to be born into a time after Jesus came that we may know God personally, and not only that, but that God also called Chase and I to follow Christ while we're here on this earth, and gave us the Spirit. It will be a really special Christmas, being together alone for our first one.

Soccer Tennis

Chase and I play soccer tennis all the time. This tradition is dated back to the very first visit that Chase made to Indiana (Muncie, no less) to see me. However, I've been playing with my siblings for years up at Torch Lake, where there is a tennis court in the condo complex where we vacation. Back when Chase and I first started playing, I was still in my last season of soccer at Ball State. For some reason that I still to this day cannot figure out, Chase used to occasionally beat me...I mean like every third game...ok well maybe sometimes more than that. Yes, I know, how horrible...the collegiate golfer somehow beats the collegiate soccer player at a variation of her own game. Maybe it's because I was too nervous around my new boyfriend to go all out and kick his butt? Doesn't sound like me. Let's just say I was tired after practice and that's why he often beat me in soccer tennis...................................

By the way, soccer tennis is played on a tennis court with mostly tennis rules, but instead of using a tennis ball and racket, a soccer ball is used (with feet, of course!) I guess the scoring is more like volleyball though...we play up to 11, have to win by 2.

However since we have moved to AZ, we have been able to play often. And I am keeping score of who wins every game. I often remind Chase of these accurate statistics.

Rachael: 25 games
Chase: 2 games




In our most recent game a couple nights ago, it started off very competitive, as always. I had achieved victory already in the two games prior and we were starting a third. A couple points into the game Chase hit this great cross court shot that sent me sprinting to the left side to dish it back. Cross court shots are no doubt Chase's greatest strength in the game. As I approached the ball, it was a little high and on it's way out of bounds, so I knew I had to get my left foot around to sent it back. I hit it hard with the inside of my foot and whipped it just over the net and right down the sideline. An impossible shot for Chase to return. Except I never saw it, because the next thing I know, I was flat on my back looking at the stars. Apparently the momentum of my left leg carried my right leg out from underneath me as well and I landed FLAT on my back. No boo-tay action here to break the fall. Then there was the foreign tennis coach on the next court that gasped and asked the dreaded "Are you OK?" that drew attention to me on the ground. I've always been really embarrassed when injuries happen to me in sports, especially in such a ridiculous manner. So despite my spine being fractured (jk) I got up and pretended like nothing happened, you know...played it cool, meanwhile motioning to Chase (who was sprinting over to see if I was ok) to go back where he came from and continue the game.

Didn't happen.

He made me go home.

And I was SOOO thankful because that sucker HURT. I am also thankful for a sweet husband who felt so bad that he kept telling me what an awesome shot it was (like I cared at that point...ok, actually I did, I like to win.)

Chase also tried to tell me it looked like I was doing some sort of sweet move, like a bicycle (he even went as far as to "recreate" the move using our king sized bed as his landing pad.) But I know better...it looked ridiculous.