The Sanborns

I’ve been taking pictures, but I’ve been such a slacker about sharing them… hmm let’s play catch up, shall we? Click through to learn more, there are far too many pictures for me to describe them all, again. Some may be out of order because I keep uploading several in one day.

Alright people… today is national delurk day.

So if you don’t normally comment/never have commented… come on out and say hey!

First, some pictures…

On the 9th of January, Gray and I went to visit with Teresa and Ryo, her Japanese boyfriend. It was so much fun to see others I hadn’t seen in years and Teresa, of course! I am excited that I get to see her again later this year, it will be a good time.

Sunday I held a house party for the new game Your Shape for the Wii. Because of some circumstances, only two girls were able to show up, but it was probably for the best as I don’t have a lot of room or extra controllers. We all tried the game out and then played another game they sent me call Just Dance. I had some veggies with ranch dip and then the new Jello Mousse for people to try. I love the Jello mousse!

Yesterday I went and ran a few errands. First we tracked down a Redbox to find the new Final Destination movie since we had a free rental code. Then it was off to AT&T to swap out my old phone for my new phone (that is the exact same as my old phone). Finally, we dropped by campus to get my books and look up Gray’s. These are the majority of my books and I’m only taking four classes. One class DOES have a lab though.

Speaking of school, I was looking through my syllabuses, trying to wrap myself around everything and noticed I’m going to need some more stuff, specifically a clicker and a skills kit. I knew it would cost me more money, but I’m just sad that I have to part with more money.

Today I am going to pick up an extra DVD and perhaps later today we will go be social with some of the Cru kids.

The past few days will live on infamy, mainly because the Nashville metro area was promised snow and we barely got any. It was ridiculous. Gray and I had to get out in the snow and drive to campus because of my nursing physical and I have to say, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the weather man said. Of course, it never is down here, we just don’t get much snow!

The most interesting thing about the snow was that when we returned from my physical, there were little bird footprints!

Anyway, my nursing physical… let’s talk about that ordeal. I got there right around on time and was actually called back within minutes! This is the health services I’ve come to know (very well). I had quite a bit to “do”, including the basics of physicals (weight, height, ears, eyes, etc) and some lab work. I had to give MORE blood, this time to make sure my blood counts are normal. They are apparently perfect, hooray!

After some more waiting, it was time for a lot more paperwork and MORE vaccines. Yes, more vaccines, ugh. I had to get a tetanus (Dtap) vaccine and since it was free, I got the H1N1 vaccine. I was a little iffy about getting it, but since free turned out to be paid for with my tuition, I said sure.

We finished my paperwork and I went home… only to realize not all of my paperwork was done. So back we drove to campus, only to find out that everyone was at lunch. Gray and I decided to get lunch ourselves at Taco Bell. Mhmm.

A quick visit back to health services fixed the paperwork and we came home once again. I ended up scanning all my paperwork and emailed it to Accusource, the company that is keeping track of it all for me. I was able to confirm with them that it has been received, so I am pretty happy.

My left arm is definitely not happy with the Dtap vaccine, but the right arm seems to be having no problems with the H1N1 vaccine. I have spent most of the afternoon playing the Sims 3 (World Adventures) and I just finished “Julie/Julia” which I highly recommend if you enjoying cooking, blogging, or both!

I’m not doing resolutions this year because I’m still doing the 101 things in 1001 days. Instead, my goal is to participate in project 365. I will post pictures here occasionally but most of them will be in my flickr account.

New Years day I hung out with Trina. We grabbed lunch at Demos, a favorite in these parts. Then we went to Target and Wal-greens where I purchased a new purse, some sinus rinse refills, and some more facial lotion.

After that we went back to Trina’s to try out her New Moon game.

The object is to collect all the scenes and Bella and Edward cards. You do this by answering trivia questions and a lot of luck. We were surprised at how fun it turned out to be and it wasn’t super hard. I wasn’t a huge fan of the book when I first read it but I still knew most of the questions, except for the Voltari because apparently I didn’t pay close attention to them.

We had snow on the ground Saturday morning!

Saturday afternoon we drove over to the new, big Embassy Suites hotel in town. We decided to do a staycation and check out the new hotel, rather than driving to Nashville.

We were both really impressed with the hotel. I should have taken more pictures, but it has a huge atrium in the lobby. They gave us complimentary cocktails from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and then we got a complimentary hot and cooked breakfast this morning. We also discovered some free water bottles in our fridge because we are Hilton Honors members. Gray signed us up when we got married and stay the wedding night in a HIlton Hotel.

Anyways… it was pretty fun and something different for us to do. Now we have to go back to the mundane. Tomorrow I’m getting blood work done so we can figure out if I have immunity for all those vaccines I did last year. Last year, haha!

We have less than two weeks before work begins again. After tomorrow I should know when my physical is for nursing and then I have nursing orientation and I will be all ready for the spring semester. Woohoo!

So I made it through another year of posting every day in November. It was a lot easier this year, probably because I wrote a lot of drafts to remember things to blog about. I also scheduled some posts ahead of time due to the holidays.

There is more to write about coming soon as today I am getting dose two of the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine. Ugh.

This week is full of a lot to do and let’s face it, the end of the semester is usually pretty insane.

Here’s hoping I can make it through the next three (?) weeks until Christmas break!

So, first things first…

My glasses arrived Friday. They are progressive lenses made specifically for my eyes to adjust to different focal points. Basically, I will be able to read up close, medium, and distantly by looking through the lenses in different ways.

Also:

Our tree is up and decorated! No presents are under it yet because I’m an exhausted human being right now. We went shopping yesterday and bought ALL of the gifts (minus our gifts to each other). It made for a cranky Gray and Becca but we survived.

I am so happy the tree is up because now officially beings my favorite time of the year!.

Phew, I don’t even know where to begin.

Wednesday night, Gray and I left Murfreesboro at around 5:30 and took HWY 96 through Franklin and all the way to 40W in Dickson. We did this because traffic is usually insane and awful in Nashville at rush hour and if you combine that with Thanksgiving, it’s just worse.

We actually made it in about two hours, pretty good if you ask me. The next morning we drove to Memphis with my parents and had Thanksgiving lunch with Gray’s family. The rest of the day included shooting a BB gun, watching The Blind Side at the theater (AWESOME movie, especially since it takes place in Memphis at the school (under a different name) that Cathy went to, pretty cool!), came home and had leftovers, and then finished the night by watching Star Trek, which was also good.

This morning(Friday) we drove back to McEwen and went to my aunt’s for lunch and now I’m playing catch up on ALL the gazzilion emails and such that I got over the past two days.

I’ve been kind of cranky the past few days and I’m sure there is a reason behind it, but I’m just not sure. Regardless, I am still thankful for the time with my family.

Finally, tomorrow we drive back and I finally get my glasses, woohoo!

P.S. – I think I might actually be in love with Eric from True Blood, but in a fictional way of course.

So, I was listening to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” and decided to look up and watch the music video. You know, the music video that won her an award where Kanye decided to be a douche. Yeah, that one.

This video made me cry (at the library none-the-less) and I started thinking about why.

You see, women are fed a lot of crap by the media. We’re told we should be perfectly skinny, great hair and makeup, and of course, land the man of our dreams.

After watching that video, a little part of my heart cried out for a love like that. Seriously.

Now I am happily married to a great man, but even I still fall victim to these thoughts. You know, the ones when you watch a great romance where the couple are happily ever after in love? Well, when I was done with this music video, I began to remind myself that although they seem all happily ever after in love, that’s where it cuts off. They don’t show the bad moments, the ones where they probably fought a lot about petty little issues.

See, I do have that happily ever after in love with Gray, but it’s not without other issues. That’s just called being a human.

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that it is SO easy to get caught up in a perfect love story that you forget to remember that it’s not real or realistic at all. Yes, you CAN have a great love story, but it’s not going to be without some kind of hurt. We watch these perfect love stories and then feel unsatisfied when our own lives go off rail. “Why can’t my life be like that?” Because it’s not real.

When I look back on 2008, the year I got married, I remember thinking that the entire year just plain sucked. Getting married did not pull me out of a funk that is called trying to find a job in a lousy economy. It did not save me from the fact that I thought marriage would be an easy ride without hardships. OK, so I knew there would be hardships, but it’s like I would forgot about that until I hit a bump.

The point being is that marriage did not make me any happier. It didn’t solve any of my problems. It gave me a lot, that is for sure, because my husband is pretty awesome, but he’s not without faults. I am not without faults.

When I watch movies like Pride and Prejudice I get sucked into all the romance and just wish Gray would be a little more like Mr. Darcy. It’s not fair to Gray at all.

Just some observances from my own marriage and thoughts. I do like a good romance story, but a lot of them are just female porn, making us believe love is a certain perfect way, when it’s not.

Today is Thanksgiving. Gray and I are traveling with my parents to visit Gray’s family in Memphis. I thought it would be a good idea to share what I am thankful for:
1. Salvation: That I know where I will be when I die.
2. My Husband: Because sometimes he’s the only thing that keeps me from jumping out of windows.
3. My family: They are all a gift to me in some way. I was blessed with a massive family and it just got a little bit bigger now that I am a Sanborn.
4. My friends: There are a few that stand out to me: Trina, Rachel, Sam, Lory, Kelsey… and then my new nursing friends… it’s going to be a long year!
5. My church: We’ve been blessed with a wonderful community group and great church family. I am thankful for my mentor Molly who has been such an encouragement!
6. My job: I get to work on campus and get paid a lot of money for not doing a whole lot. I am thankful because it pays as much as working a minimum wage job but I only work 20 hours a week, great for a student!
7. Nursing school: I am so thankful I got into nursing school!
8. Working vehicles: I am thankful we have a way to get around.
9. Technlology: Without it I wouldn’t have a job!
10. You: Thank you so much for reading our blog!