So much on my mind....

So, in May I told all of my friends that I was pretty much at the most perfect place in my life and that I thought I could see nothing but happiness ahead. Well, for the most part, that's still true. However, I still find myself wishing things were different. Nothing too big, but just some smaller things.

For example, next Sunday, I come off of orientation and I am 100% responsible for my patients without someone checking behind me for various things. That scares the living crap out of me. However, at least I know that I have the personality that will ask questions before I just keep doing things without knowing for sure what it is exactly that I should do. Will I ever feel competent as a nurse? I'm not sure...

Secondly, I'm still ever so slightly depressed about losing Sandy, our Golden Retriever of 12 years, a few weeks ago. We got the new little guy that you see below, who is absolutely precious... but still. When I think about how I reacted to Sandy's death, it was much more intense than I ever thought I could react to the loss of an animal. When I look back though, there were a lot of things over this summer that I did not react appropriately too. I think all of my emotions just came out when Sandy died. I guess that's normal?

Speaking of the new little guy... His name is Dusty and he's about 9 weeks old in the picture. He's sooo cute. He's still got the awkwardness of a puppy and all the love that only a dog can share with you. I absolutely adore him. He's just what my parents needed to feel the void that Sandy left.

Finally, the one good thing that I can share is that the wedding planning makes me absolutely happy. I never imagined that it could be so much fun. At this point we have the following completed: the location of the ceremony and the reception, I have a dress, my bridesmaid dresses are picked out, we have designed our invitations (we just need to figure out what time the ceremony will be and we can go ahead and print those), and many of the smaller details are finally coming together. We also have picked out our photographer... Check her out: Andrea Wood. Also, we are thinking of using Katie Pietrowski for our engagement pictures and my bridal portraits. I honestly could not be more excited about all of the photo opportunities in the coming months. In addition, my friend Lorie Beth is going to do some engagement pictures with us and she'll also do some bridal portraits of me. How exciting is life? Seriously... I have so much to look forward to.

In the more near future, I am going to the State Fair this afternoon with Margaret. I have not been to the fair since I was in the 7th or 8th grade and I don't remember anything about it at all. Isn't that weird? I hate that I'm beginning to lose memory of some of the best days of my life... I can remember so vividly my high school and college years... but I have huge gaps of my middle school years at Hobgood.  I sure do miss those friends though.