Black and White Masquerade Ball

Ashley had been dying to go to the annual Black and White Masquerade Ball held at the Hotel Roanoke, this year we got everyone together and had a blast!  

I kinda missed the memo that most people would wear black or white, I was the only one running around in a pink dress, it was helarious.

I think even the boys had fun wearing the masks!

Afterwards we went out in downtown Roanoke to the metro, we had great time and hope to do it again next year!

Mom's Birthday...Ole!

To celebrate Mom's birthday we went out to dinner to Alejandros, one of her favorite Mexican resturants.

Dad had told the waiters that it was her birthday so she got a sombrero and confetti dumped on her head while they sang to her.  It took awhile for Dad to fess up that he was the one who had told them.

Mom got earings, a Micheals gift certificate, and I gave her tickets for her and I to go see Circ de Soliel in April.

Happy Birthday Mom!

River Ridge Dermatology

This new year brings new possibilities and...a new job! Actually this post is over due, I started in early December.  I am still at Carilion ER as a PRN (as needed) staff but my new full time job is at River Ridge Dermatology, the office of Dr. Chad Johnston. 

The move was a difficult one for me, I went to nursing school to be an ER trauma nurse so I never would have imagined myself in a physicians office.  Leaving the high paced level 1 trauma center in Texas and coming to a small level 3 regional ER was a rough transition and really pushed me to make a change.  I am so glad I did!!!  The work environment is fantastic and while I'm still getting the hang of a lot of the dermatology I am having fun learning something new.  We are a small office of 1 physician, 1 practice director/office manager, and 3 nurses.  The practice opened right after I joined the team in December and aside from a few bumps in the road has been relatively smooth.  

(this is Dr. Johnston's first private practice what 

betterway to celebrate than with a skin cake?)

I am so thankful for all the support I had from my friends and family who helped me take the leap, I can see myself staying here for a long time and look forward to settling in!

New Years Eve

Oh we are getting so old :)  Alan and I went out to dinner at Macados where my sister Sarah works.  They had specials and happy hour all night long and a piano player.  We left with the idea that we'd stay out and celebrate but what happened was...we were in bed by 10pm.  Needless to say we went to bed feeling rather lame and old.  Oh well.  It has been a good year with many changes for us.  We started the year as newlyweds and ended it with our first anniversary.  In July we moved from Texas to Virginia and began new jobs.  Alan started work with Kaleo construction as an electrician and I started at Carilion New River Valley ER.  While I'm still there a few hours a week I have recently started working with Dr. Chad Johnston, we opened his first private practice in December.  We are looking forward to the new year and are sure to have many more changes as Alan heads back to school!

Merry Christmas To All

Christmas came so fast this year.  I had everyone's presents this summer believe it or not, however I still managed to forget that most of those had to be shipped!  So I was that girl at the post office frantically trying to get her packages out in time.  Oh well, packages got shipped and cards got mailed.  My mom suggested that after holidays and important events I write down a list of what went well and what didn't go well to look at the following year.  Turns out this is her trick for making the holidays run so smoothly, now it all makes sense!

What went well:
1.  Getting presents early, I started during the Steppin' Out festival in July and having all the gifts took a lot of stress out of the holidays.
2.  Used our wedding invitation list for our Christmas mailing list.
3.  Had all the materials on hand for frantic last minute wrapping.
4.  Sent our first family Christmas photo out with our cards.

What didn't go well:
1. Had the presents early, wish I had had them wrapped and shipped earlier.
2. Wish I had gotten the Christmas cards out by the second week of December.

Looking at the lists I guess things went better than I feel like they did.  I think a little more planning could have eased a lot of the last minute stress.

Blacksburg decking the halls! The festivites include carolers visiting downtown restaurants and the finale is the lighting of the Christmas tree.

Looking at the lists I guess things went better than I feel like they did.  I think a little more planning could have eased a lot of the last minute stress.  We spent the holiday with my parents so the pressure to have festive decorations and yummy food wasn't all up to me.  Christmas Eve we had our traditonal hors d'oeuvres dinner before attending the midnight mass at St. Mary's.  Christmas morning we headed back to my parents house.  We opened our stockings and presents in the traditonal youngest to oldest fashion.  The highlight of the morning was definetly my mom and I getting Kerig's from our wondeful husbands.  We have both been drooling over this wonderful machine for awhile now.  We had a Christmas ham and finished up with Mom's famous "cookie tray" that we look forward to every year.  After feeling like we had done nothing but eat for the past two days we settled in early for our long winters nap.  It's funny how exhasting the holidays are now as an adult, as a child I think I had enough energy to celebrate Christmas all week long.  Until next year Christmas!

New Job!

Well today marks my second week at my new job!  I am now working at River Ridge Dermatology with Dr. Chad Johnston.  The office is his new private practice so we are building it from the ground up, which to me is an exciting challenge.  For now I am mainly working in the front office and assisting the practice director.  Once we get everything up and running the plan is for me to begin learning and getting some experience in dermatology.  It is going to be a departure from my ER experience that's for sure but it was definitely a needed change.  So far I am loving my new job, yay for new beginings!

One Year Anniversary!

Alan and I celebrated our anniversay this weekend in Roanoke Virginia where we got married one year ago.  It's hard to believe it has been a whole year!  We stayed at the Hotel Roanoke in the same room that we did on our wedding night.  Saturday night we had a delicious dinner at 202 Market and then headed off to the ballet to see the Nutcracker.  Sunday we enjoyed breakfast in bed and then attended mass at St. Andrew's church where we were married.  We spent the afternoon walking around downtown Roanoke and poking in the local businesses looking for last minute Christmas presents.  We headed back for our anniversay dinner at the Regency Room at the hotel.  Dinner was amazing Alan had steak Diane which was flambeed tableside and I had a crab cake floating in a delicious soup.  We finished up with a chocolate souffle over coffee.  It was a very relaxing and indulgent mini vacation, we can't wait to go back next year!