Jamaica!!

So yesterday I discussed having no monies.  Today I am going to talk about our upcoming vacation to Jamaica!!!!  (yes, I am fiscally irrisponsible).  Please allow me to explain:

• Our poor-ness is short term:  as of next week we will be a dual income family.  Whoop whoop.

• Nursing is a fabulous profession:  my new job is basically paying me to work there (in addition to paying me for my work there...does that make sense?)  I get a sweet bonus just for signing on to work at this particular hospital...which I will be given in approximately 90 days.  Hollerrr.

• Wrecking your car = expensive:  even though the car accident WASN'T OUR FAULT!!! we had to pay a good deal of money out of pocket that we will be getting reimbursed for shortly. 

• We're not really going to Jamaica...yet:  We are looking into going the last week in February and have yet to book anything (because we're po'!!)

BUT WHEN WE DO, we are hoping to stay here:

Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica:  We WILL be coming for you.  At some point in time.  Someday.  Hopefully in 2013.  Maybe in February??

Shopping: Temporarily Prohibited

Moving is flipping expensive.  Combine that with not working for 6 weeks, purchasing new furniture, wrecking your car and therefore needing to replace it, and oh ya, spending $XX,000 on your fabulous wedding a few months back and what do you get??  NO MONIES.  Panic has started to set in (because I am a little dramatic) and the bills continue to pile up with no paychecks coming in for another couple of weeks.  Being on a strict no spending policy is not fun.  Yes, we have enough money to pay our bills, but no, I cannot justify getting my nails done or anything else that I wouldn't have thought twice about before (hell, I can barely justify spending $3 on an iced coffee!)

So here's what I'm currently lusting over (thank you Pinterest)

Aqua and Coral:

Leopard Acessories:

Chambray Shirts:

And hell, if I can't shop for new clothes, can I at least purchase a lovely new nailpolish?!?  PLEASE?!?

A Big Ole FU to State Farm

Remember when our car was totaled en route to Philadelphia? The car that hit us was at fault, yet somehow we are the ones being inconvenienced by all of this.

3 weeks later, we finally got an offer from State Farm (our insurance company) on what we would get paid for our car. Then they sneakily said "now that we have given you an offer, you have 5 days to replace your car and we are no longer covering your rental car". Um, what?? Who buys a car in 5 days? And we don't even have that money in hand yet! The State Farm rep's response to that was "well you can still buy a car and then we will reimburse you". So J told her he works 2883884 hours a week and doesn't have the time off to purchase a car in the next few days and she said "well can't your wife handle that?" So ya, that happened...

So other than that, what have I been up to as of lately?

First off, I've been trying to eat healthier (I have gained 4lbs since leaving Vegas and am not terribly thrilled about it)

...and eating freakishly large baby carrots

And decorating our new home with lovely things that my mom puts together.  She's got an eye for such things.

And hanging out with my family and enjoying every minute of it!

Vacation Planning

I have been out of work for exactly one month.  Our days have been filled with the joys of packing/moving/unpacking and decorating.  Don't get me wrong, I love that I have had time off to get settled in our new place, but part of me is ready to go back to work.  J starts work this week and a teeny tiny part of me is envious that he will soon be in a normal(ish) routine.

So this is going to sound really whiny, as I spent the first paragraph talking about how I am looking forward to going back to work.  Even though I've had a good amount of time off, we have had little time to ourselves and certainly not a vacation.  I realllllllly wish we could just go on a trip and truly RELAX before diving into our busy life with 2 new jobs and the stresses of residency. 

I decided, what better time than now to plan our next vacation?!  We all need a little something to look forward to.  So here's what I'm thinking:

It need to involve flying somewhere. I don't want to go somewhere we could drive; I want to get AWAY.

Maybe somewhere in the Caribbean?  It's somewhat easily accessible from the East Coast (as opposed to, say, Hawaii)

The Bahamas are a reasonable option and I'm sold on the pictures

I have also always been intrigued by Bermuda, which isn't terribly far off the East Coast either

I would also love to visit the Virgin Islands

Mexico, while not a Caribbean Island, is always an option too. We've never been there and it's definitely affordable. I just wouldn't want to venture outside of a resort...

So there you have it; our non-existent vacation in pictures.

Road Trip!

I had big intentions of documenting our cross-country road trip and taking lots of pictures.  I did not.  I got caught up in all of it and now have little to show for our trip!

We changed our route and decided to stop in Salt Lake City (even though it was out of the way) because we had heard it was beautiful.  The beginning of our trip, Nevada into Utah, looked a lot like this:

We were in the desert for AWHILE before it turned to this:

Salt Lake was pretty but we were kind of disappointed.  There was literally nothing there outside of Temple Square.  The temple was beautiful though and I'm glad we experienced a little Utah before continuing on East.

The next morning we got up early and drove through Wyoming.  It was actually really pretty and we kind of loved it.  Everything was crazy cheap there (we spent $4 on breakfast, no joke).  Before we knew it we were in Denver and OMG WE LOVED DENVER. We literally spent the night contemplating if and when we could move there.  It was that awesome.



It should be noted that I didn't wear makeup for the entire trip and lived in the same jeans and sweats.  It was sexy. 

After Denver we drove to Kansas City which apparently I didn't feel warranted any photos.  We do love it there though (remember when J spent a big chunk of last summer there and I cried about it all the time?  No?)

After THAT, there was a lot of THIS:

We spent an entire day driving across Kansas and that was boring.  We listened to a lot of Dane Cook and Robin Williams stand up that day which helped to pass the time. 

The next day we drove to Columbus.  It was boring.

The last day of our drive it POURED.  We drove through Ohio and this happened.

So the trip ended on a bit of a sour note and I am now slightly neurotic in the car.  HOWEVER, overall we had a great time and it was fun to explore parts of the country that I may never have visited otherwise.  We are safe and sound in Philadelphia and learning our way around our new neighborhood. 

REWIND: Wedding Weekend

We just got our office and wireless internet set up so I can finally share photos from a wedding J and I attended a couple weekends ago.  One of our friends J went to school with married her long time boyfriend in a classy Vegas country club wedding.  It was beautiful and they spared no expense.

The ceremony was held outside and the bride and groom walked in over a hill, appearing at the beginning of the aisle.  It was beautiful. 



Following the ceremony, the couple hosted a cocktail hour which was amazing,  Open bar, delicious hor devours and a harpist.  It was held on a balcony overlooking The Strip at sunset and was unbelievably beautiful.

After cocktails, we went inside and were seated for dinner.  The place settings were GORGEOUS as were the centerpieces. 

It was the first time in awhile that we attended a wedding that neither of us was in.  It was also the first wedding we have attended as a married couple and we had a blast. 

This was also the dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner...shhh!

 J lookin awfully studly :)

After dinner, it was time for the first dance and guess who made an appearance?!?

We had joked about hiring an Elvis impersonator to perform at our wedding but in all seriousness, this guy was AWESOME and was a surprise to everyone. He stole the show.

The rest of the night was full of lots of shenanigans.  It was our last night in Vegas (we moved the next morning!) and our last night out with all of our friends.  It was definitely bittersweet.

And before we knew it, we were sending off the bride and groom and the night was over.  (After party was at Green Vally Ranch, one of our favorite places to hang out in Vegas).  Congratulations Jenny and Dave!!

J went to school with the best group of guys.  We have made some great friends over the past 4 years and I am really going to miss these boys.

So peace out Vegas, we miss you already!