Happy Birthday, Peanut! We love you. We won’t reveal your age here, but suffice to say this is your last one that starts with a two.

Emily barely got out the door this morning for class without Poppy grabbing a bite of her birthday croissant au amande (almond croissant). Leave your birthday love for Emily below in the comments.

So how did it go?  Well it started off pretty good.  Using the pattern was simple and cutting it out went fine.  Hemming it got a bit troublesome at times but I persevered.  Then it came to those darn buttonholes and the process came to a sudden smack-me-in-the-face halt.  I ended up using poppers and hiding them behind the button.  Lets just say the dress isn’t 100% practical but at least it stays up and looks pretty haha!  I need some more practice and the wisdom of my mother.  p.s – I’m aware that it looks too big for Poppy.

Here it is.

Last night we finally used gift certificates we had been given for Christmas. And thanks to our friends and neighbors GPA, Momma K and V we could leave Poppy at home for the evening and go out just the two of us for a meal. We ate at an upscale Tuscan/Italian place in Raleigh for which a very gracious benefactrix blessed us with a gift certificate. (Thanks!) Otherwise, we never would have gone.

The food was delicious but Emily made the evening. Just look how gorgeous she is in this picture. I felt nervous taking her out! Last night I re-discovered the joys of dating my wife. I would simply be a fool not to take her out again. Such a hard-working, fun-loving nurse, mummy, and helpmate deserves not only the best that Raleigh has to offer, but the best that I have to offer.

I love you, Peanut!

All this working though means I’m not at home with my sweet pea, she gets the honor of spending lots of time with her Daddy now.  So if you want more photos and updates on the little rascal then you better leave  a comment to show your vote for more photos.

As the semesters went by each one was tougher than the next in more ways than one.  Semester two was the hardest in terms of course content and workload, then semester three I was pregnant with Poppy.  I didn’t have nausea and vomiting during my pregnancy but I did have fainting, which wouldn’t be an issue if I had an office job but during clinicals I was on my feet alot.  I remember my clinical in the newborn nursery, they kept the nursery so warm!  I tried really hard to hold it together until the room started closing in on me and I looked at my instructor with panic in my eyes and said, “I need to sit down.”  She grabbed me and steadied me out of the room.  There were a couple of close calls during that semester but thankfully I never actually went down.  Then for my last and final semester I had a newborn baby.  Poppy was around 6 weeks when I started back, my sister had come over to ease the transition and I was so thankful.  My emotions were all over the place and the smallest set back or bad comment I received on my work felt like my nursing career was over.  It was horrible.  But I was determined, so determined to finish what I had started.  I kept saying to myself that I’d gotten this far and I was going to keep going until they asked me to leave.  When I think back to that semester it really was a miracle that Drew and I got through that and both graduated on schedule.  And I’m so thankful that Poppy was so young, she would just sleep while I studied and it was perfect, at her age now it would be extremely hard to get in enough study time.

Well we finally graduated and it was a sweet time for both of us and both sets of parents.  We were all together for Christmas and it was just a magical time.

The final step was to take the state board of nursing exam and officially become a Registered Nurse.  Christmas had been hectic so I booked my date  with about a month in between to really get prepared because this was an exam I REALLY needed to pass on the first try, one for my own dignity and two because I already had a job waiting.  I went in feeling pretty good, I knew it was going to be hard but I felt ready to give it my best shot.  All I can say is there are no words to describe that exam, or my experience.  But I can joyfully say that I passed am now Emily Maust, RN.

The journey has ended and I have never felt more relieved.  We celebrated by going out to eat at Texas Road House and then coming home and making a bonfire   The photos will tell that story, heehee.  My in-laws also sent me flowers which arrived in the late afternoon, what a wonderful surprise!  Today was a very good day.

I just have to say that this book had fallen apart, no one would want to use it, the pages had come unstuck to the binding.

Here is the story of Poppy’s snack discovery in pictures.

More pictures are available in the the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure.

I’m now learning what a special occasion it is to live with a pregnant woman. No caffeine in the house. Flinestones’ vitamins daily. New clothes. More fiber. And less superfluous spending.

So, I come home yesterday between work and class and about to go play ping pong. I open the front door of our apartment to find the lights dimmed, TV softly droning, and a sleeping caterpillar wrapped up in a comfy cocoon on the couch. How can an affectionate husband not respond by approaching and leaning in everso delicately and kissing his fair femme vitale on the cheek? That’s what I do.

As the kiss is lingering, there’s life from the cocoon, but only a restrained, barely audible voice. “Ah, she’s waking up to greet me before I run back out to play ping pong and then to class,” I idealistically surmise. Then, the words that (slightly) altered my evening.

[Whispering] Get…me…Chips…Ahoy.

I think to myself, “I know this phenomenon: cravings.” A month or so ago it was Sour Patch Kids. That didn’t last too long. We now find ourselves on our second packet of “Chunk” Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name). I can’t complain too much. They are pretty darn good. In fact, I think I may be pregnant.

Watts School of Nursing honors the nursing students’ completion of their first year with a special ceremony called a Black Banding. Originally the Watts nurses wore caps to which could be added a colored band to desiginate their levels of seniority while still doing their clinicals, the primary way the students gain hospital experience.

Though their uniforms no longer include a cap, the same tradition of honoring and designating the student nurses continues. Today black banding is done with the pinning of a Watts pin to the students’ uniforms by a Registered Nurse (RN) whom the student has asked. Emily honored my mother as a nurse by asking her to participate in this special ceremony by pinning her.

Click on over to our videos page to see Emily’s introduction and exit from Mount Sylvan Methodist Church where the ceremony was hosted. There’s also bunches of pictures in our photo gallery.

Congratulations, Peanut, on the completion of your first year of nursing school! I am so proud of you! You’re half-way there!