A Thought

As I sit here on this lovely Saturday afternoon, trying to find some kind of motivation to study, and wishing that instead I could be out enjoying the nice weather (winter apparently doesn't start out here until...I don't know when, but it definitively isn't here yet), I realized something. As much as I enjoy school and am truly grateful for an education; as much as I love to think and learn, I really look forward to a time in life when Christmas is not associated with finals.

The small things.

So, it's the small things in life that end up making it really worthwhile, yeah? My ward (aka church organization) here in Northern VA is doing sub for Santa. I picked an individual to buy gifts for. Lucky for me, I got a child, 7 year old boy to be exact. I pretty much had the time of my life at Target this evening choosing what I wanted to give him for Christmas. It was so much fun that it should be a crime. I love shopping for kids. And let me just add to that, that thus far into PT school, I haven't lost my aspiration to become a pediatric physical therapist. I mean really, I will have an excuse for the rest of my life to go shopping in the toy section. What more could a girl ask for? I don't wanna grow up. Toys are way more fun.

On a more serious note though, I love the simplicity of children. This little boy was asking for notebooks and pencils for Christmas. I mean, for me growing up, a notebooks and pencils were an everyday part of life. We always had a stash of them and I could raid them and claim them as my own whenever I wanted. I'm really humbled to live the life that I do and have what I have and I was also reminded that sometimes I need to take my eyes off those big fancy vanities and remember the joy that can come from simplicity.

Tag, You're it!

So, I got tagged from someone else's blog and I don't have time to blog what I want to blog about today, so I'm doing the tag instead. Here it goes...

8 favorite TV Shows:

1. What not to wear
2. Trading Spaces
3. Full House :)
4. Anything with surgeries or injuries that you get to see cool medical stuff
5. College football- no two episodes are alike :)
6. ah...I am out, it turns out that the only show I actually watch these days is What Not to Wear, so I am kind of making the rest of it up.
7. The Office
8. Ah...I ran out of things to make up

8 Books you recommend:

1. Sense and Sensibility
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Harry Potter (All 7 of them, though the second is my least favorite)
4. Anne of Green Gables
5. Little Women and Little Men (I know, that's two- I am cheating!)
   
6. Tuesday's With Morrie
7. A Wrinkle in Time
8. The Hiding Place

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

1. I saw my favorite bus driver for the first time since Tuesday
2. I went to school
3. I saw the Capital, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial on my way in to school
4. I went to the bank to get a money order to pay my ticket from last month :(
5. I went to my first every ugly sweater party
6. Studied physiology
7. Took a quick nap
8. Watched What not to Wear for the first time this week (really a tragedy that it took that long)

8 Things to Look Forward to

1. Christmas Break
2. Going to Utah!
3. Second Semester, I'm ready for the first to just end
4. Christmas lights at the DC temple, I hear they are amazing
5. Seeing my nieces and nephews
6. Christmas Eve, it's my favorite day of the whole entire year
7. Being a physical therapist (and getting to say, I'm a doctor!)
   
8. Having the print I bought for above my mantle framed

8 things on my wishlist

1. A space heater for my bedroom
2. no student loans :)
3. for my new phone battery to last longer than the first one did
4. A kitchen aid...someday it will happen
   
5. a piano
6. more time to read
7. re-hair my violin bow so it is easier to play
8. a piano- a real one...yeah, that's pretty high up there

8 things that I love about fall

1. The color of the leaves in the east!
2. crisp cool mornings, they feel fresh and clean
3. it means snow is on it's way!
4. it almost feels like a fresh start because for most of my life it's the start of a new school year.
5. crunching dry leaves on the ground
6. pulling out the warmer clothes
   
7. diversity in the weather- some days it's hot, some days it is cold
8. school supplies

8 people to tag

1. Ashlie
2. Melanee
3. Katy
4. Lowell
5. Elise
6. Bryn
7. Jen
8. Molly
   

Halloween

I know it's delayed, but I had to get the pictures from a roommate. This was my Halloween costume this year. I honestly haven't dressed up for Halloween since....maybe I was 12 or something like that. I had a ton of fun doing it this year though. What were we? The Chinese Olympic gymnastic team, passports and all to prove that yes, we were 16. :)



From left to right: Kate, me, Megan, Lori


The mug shot- same order as before.


Kate


Megan- she's amazing, she made our medals,
passports and flags for the "leotards".

SPI

Standardized Patient...Interviews? I don't even know what the I stands for, but those three letters have been the cause of serious fear and trembling this semester. Tomorrow at 12:30 I will be told to enter a room that is actually set up to look like a doctor's office and I will take a patient history and do an initial examination of an actor who is paid to act like a patient with some kind of injury. While I do this, there will be cameras and on the other side an unknown faculty member watching and evaluating me. Pretty much the scariest part of the semester considering all that could potentially go wrong the first try. Really, I am sure it will be fine, but there is some unavoidable anxiety that goes with the situation. It is super funny to watch the stress level of the class rise (probably even funnier when I am not one of the individuals experiencing it).

Anyway, one of my classmates sent this scene from Grey's Anatomy out to the class. Perhaps it won't be funny to the rest of you, but it cracked me up because it is probably how my dreams will be tonight. This week we met with some students that are training to be Physical Therapist Assistants and one of their students was being evaluated in a similar situation and in that scenario the patient coded (aka their heart stopped beating, start CPR). Pretty much- my worst nightmare (physical therapy clouds my dreams these days). I know none of it will happen and everything will work out fine tomorrow because even if I fail on my first try, I get a second chance. Nevertheless, it's that unavoidable anxiety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eF1gmkmoIs

North Carolina

It's been quite a weekend! I went down to Fayetteville, NC to visit Catherine (same friend who came up a few weeks ago). We had a really fun and relaxing weekend. The drive is beautiful- the highway is surrounded by a wall of trees that are turning colors, it's really amazing! Here's the proof of the trip. Oh and by the way- turns out that they pull people over for speeding a lot in NC- blast! Wish I would have known that earlier- once you cross into Virginia you can speed, but not so much in NC. :(

The colorful leaves...








Catherine and her adorable niece at the Veteran's day parade!



Catherine and I at the parade. That is the Fayetteville trainstation in the background. It's really old, but still operating.


Apparently no southern parade is complete without the "bars and stars" of the confederate flag. I must admit that this is the first parade that I have attended that has had a confederate flag- don't think it is considered appropriate in Colorado or Utah. But, there you go! The real deal- a whole "float" dedicated to the confederacy. Welcome to "The South"!


This is me at the Special Forces Museum in Fayetteville. It goes through the history of the special forces from WWII to present. There was a fake "plane" that you could sit in that is like the old planes...from WWII I think...that they did airborne missions from and jumped out of. So- this is me preparing to jump!

Voting

An interesting change from the west to the east- When I was in Colorado and even more so at BYU people asked all the time "Are you going to vote?" I think the majority of people that I knew at BYU never voted. Change of pace- out here not a single person asked me if I was going to vote, but when I was going to vote or if I already had voted. I am amazed at people's enthusiasm over politics out here. I don't always love the politics, but I must admit that I love that people appreciate the right that we have to vote. Honestly, getting to the polls was the number one priority yesterday. I think it is quite a priviledge that we have to dictate who our leaders will be and what goes on in our country and we often take advantage of what a blessing it is to have that freedom.

Success!

I went to a friend's house last night to hang out for a couple of hours and I had never been to her house before. I was pretty excited because I made it all the way to her house and home without getting lost. You have no idea what an accomplishment that is for me! I just had to share so you could all appreciate it too! :)

You know you're not in Utah when...

You walk out of the hospital and there are three policemen decked out with bullet proof vests, all kinds of weapons, and machine guns...and no one bats an eye.

A homeless man on the street tell you that "you're a pretty white girl" who is also "intelligent" (I was outside the medical library) and declares "I'm in love with you". Then proceeds to make up a rap song to sing to you as you walk away across the quad.

The man next to you on the bus tells about this great bike path he found, and once he even rode through a police chase while he was riding on it to get to the metro.

Wow- to steal a classic line: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

And that was just one day.

The Week: A Synopsis

Sometimes, so much happens in a week that it should be illegal! Life was hectic this week and I am not so sorry that this one is over for very many reasons. Still, there have been good things. Here are a few of the highlights:

My car decided it needed some special attention. I went to IHOP on Thursday night to study because I needed to get out of my house to be able to focus and I wanted a milkshake. I stayed and studied for about an hour and a half, but was feeling so exhausted that I just had to go home. I went to my car and alas! it would not start. I couldn't get help from anyone at IHOP or the adjoining hotel and not being able to get a phone book from either business I called my roommate for help. I also called a guy in my ward and the two of them came to my rescue. Unfortunately, we couldn't get another car close enough to my engine to jump the car that night, so I left it and went home. The next evening another roommate spent a good three hours with me trying to get the car going, but alas still no luck, though after calling for help etc. etc. we ended up taking the battery out and having it checked at an AutoZone and discovered the battery was bad, but they didn't have the type of battery I needed to replace it. All in all, Saturday, I learned how to replace a battery in my car and it is home safe and sound- thank goodness!


Saturday, my freshman roommate, Catherine, also came and visited me from NC. We went into the city for a bit, and wandered through the National Museum of Art. The first picture is of my amazing parallel parking job. I promise it doesn't look this good every time I try to parallel park, so this was definitely picture worthy, and the second picture is of Catherine and I. We had a great time together.




Yesterday, my roommate Kate went apple picking and came home with a big bag of apples. We decided to make apple cream pie (which I am going to pull out of the over right now!) with those wonderful apples. I peeled almost an entire apple in one long strip- another amazing stunt for a clumsy gal like me- and thought that was also picture worthy. Kate got to wear her cute apron, as seen in the picture below.



So, there's the short version. Life is never dull, that is for sure!

p.s. I kind of love getting my hands greasy working on my car. I've decided that I really want to learn a lot more about working on cars so I can worry a bit less about getting ripped off by dishonest mechanics.

A Story

I love to tell stories and haven't posted this week- so here's one for the record from when I had pneumonia.

The morning that I decided to go to the emergency room, I woke up at 6am and couldn't sleep anymore. I knew that I wanted to go to the ER early hoping it would be less busy, but I thought that 6am on a Sunday was just a little bit too early to ask my roommates to take me (I actually considered driving myself, but decided that I didn't want the wrath of my roommates for doing something so ridiculous), so I spent some time looking up hospitals that are close by because I didn't know where the closest hospital was. When I got my roommate up and we were ready to go, we looked at the computer again to decide exactly which one we would go to- there were a few to choose from. We got directions, hopped in the car and headed on our way. When we arrived at our destination we were rather confused. It was the strangest looking hospital I had ever seen- very residential and not very clear. We were driving around trying to find an entrance to the ER and a place to park, but all we could find was a big entrance for ambulances and police and another for employees. We eventually found a place to park and made our way to the front of the building. We were within 20 feet of the door when my roommate saw a sign that indicating that Dominion Hospital (where we were) is leading in mental healthcare. "Click" It all came together- we were at a psychiatric hospital- thus no ER, not much parking, and no signs telling walk in patients where to go. I was super glad that we hadn't actually made it into the door. We laughed so hard at our silly mistake and then called my other roommate and woke her up to help us find a regular hospital with an ER. Fortunately, that roommate had taken a wrong turn once coming home and thus knew where a hospital was fairly close to our home. Ah- the joys of a new town. At least there is always something to laugh at.

An Antigen!

My sister-in-law had a baby yesterday! I am so excited for their family and so sad that I can't be there to see my beautiful new niece. I have had the opportunity to live close to this brother and his family ever since his oldest daughter was just a few months old, so I've been able to watch their kids grow up and really get to know them. It just kills me to be so far away from the happiness and celebration, but I am having my own little celebration here. Congratulations on the new baby Trent and Ashlie. I love being an antigen- I mean and aunt again! (Laura that's for you! and for those of you who think the antigen thing is weird...well, it is! It's a long story and if you want to know it, I'd be happy to tell you, but really it's one of those things that is most funny in the flesh.)

Life is never boring...sort of

So, I haven't blogged for a bit- things have been rather on the eventful side. I had some fun things to write about last week, but got side tracked so maybe I will get to those later. For today...guess what? I have lived here less than two months and I already know where the emergency room is- and a few places where it is not! Yes, I have continued my unfortunate trend of having random problems. This time- pneumonia. When I say that it seems like everyone then asks: "How did you get pneumonia?" My answer: "I have no idea." Bacteria got lodged in my lung and decided to fill it with fluid. I didn't have a clue what was wrong with me when I went to the ER. My whole body hurt, I thought I was having a bad asthma attack that I couldn't get control of, and I had a horrible fever for two days. There was no serious coughing, sore throat, cold..nothing. Came out of the blue as far as I could tell. Chest x-rays, blood and urine samples and even a nose swab later and I have pneumonia . Fun times. The good news was that they didn't keep me over night at the hospital. Let me tell you, that is very good news. The PA who was treating me didn't know it, but I would have put up a fight over that one. Apparently, the admit most patients who come in with pneumonia, but since I could walk around and didn't act too horribly ill, he let me go home and follow up with another doctor two days later.

So here I sit- Thursday night. I am so tired of being at home. I do not make a good invalid. I have watched so many movies that I am sick of the TV and reading is so sedentary. I haven't gone running in over a week so I feel like a bum. Alas! I hope I make a better healthcare professional than I do a patient. Don't worry about me though- I am really doing ok. As soon as my fever broke, I started feeling so much better, now I am just so exhausted that I don't have the energy to do much. And there you have it. My week has been sitting at home on the couch for hours- not so exciting, but some day soon when I have more energy, I will write about the adventures of getting healtcare treatment here in VA (nothing can ever be too easy!) because that was quite eventful.

Sunday Dinner

My roomies and I made dinner together on Sunday. It was great fun. We had an amazing meal. Steak, homemade biscuits, spinach and strawberry salad, couscous, and sparkling cider. It was a fantastic meal and we even set the table nicely. We were pretty much amazing. Below is Megan cooking steak, Kate cooking couscous, and Megan trying to open the sparkling cider. I love my roommates. They are wonderful!

More monuments

Friday night after my dinner was ruined and before PF Chang's, my roomies and I went into the city and walked around some of the monuments. We went and saw Jefferson, George Mason, and Lincoln. Good times. This really is a beautiful and interesting place. I especially loved watching the sunset over the Potomac. I love to see the reflection of light across the water. 'Twas lovely.

Food for the week

This is the pepperoni pizza that I bought and pulled out of the freezer to cook last week. You'll notice the two quarters of a pepperoni. That makes 1/2 pepperoni on my whole pepperoni pizza. As I paid $6 for it and it is a Freshetta pizza, I was less than impressed. Fortunately, I emailed them and they are sending me a coupon for another.

Minor mishap: Friday afternoon- it's been a very long week. Seems like everything I have tried to do has gone a little bit wrong. Riding home on the bus and thinking about dinner and a hopefully relaxing evening. In the morning I had put some chicken, potatoes, and onions in the crockpot to cook. A little bit of fresh garlic, brown sugar, and BBQ sauce made the dish sound rather appetizing. I walked into the house and it smelled delicious. I went upstairs to examine my wonderful smelling dinner and found a note from my roommate. In case you can't read it, it says "That smells freaking amazing! Nice work Nicki. Nice Work." Ah yes, it does smell amazing. I open the lid to look at it and alas. Burned to a crisp. I honestly was expecting that because how could I make it through the rest of the day without something else going wrong. I walked downstairs to find my roommate walking in the door from work. I sat down on the stairs and asked "Megan, what are you doing for dinner?" Answer: "Taking you to PF Changs." Good answer. I just had to laugh though- it just had to happen this week, I had no doubt that it would and the note from my roommate right next to my char broiled dinner just cracked me up!

Maryland

Last weekend, my ward went up to Maryland for the weekend and stayed at a "campground" aka cabins at a National Park. Interestingly, our camp was the camp right next to camp David, which I was told not to take pictures of. The advice came from a girl who did take pictures last year and was tracked down by the authorities who deleted all the pictures off of her camera. So, no pictures were taken. However, I did have an enjoyable time and loved being in the wilderness. There are just so many people in DC and Northern VA that I appreciate being able to get away more than I ever did in the west. I guess that I just like my personal space. These are the few pictures I took. One of a waterfall that we went to, the next with me by the entrance to the camp and the other with my friend Joe who went hiking with me all Saturday afternoon. We got to be in three different states in one day because we also drove up to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. It still baffles me how small the states are out here.

Ah yes, school really did start.

Oh dear. Last year was such an easy year in school for me (I only took 8 credit hours this last semester) that I forgot what it is like to have a full schedule. Really, since I am not working, I am pretty sure that things will turn out just fine for me this semester, but I am still kind of adjusting to a new city, new program, new teachers, and I had one of "those" weeks- one that goes on and on and feels like it will never end. As such, I haven't found the time to blog during the week. However, my plan is kind of exciting! I did manage to take quite a few photos and have had a lot of stories to tell in the last two weeks (which has honestly felt like two months rather than two weeks). Today I am blogging all my photos, but setting each post to be released on a different day this week, so check my blog a lot this week! There is much to come. Life is really a sort of adventure right now. There is so much to see and do that there is a lot to tell.

Today's blog: the virtual tour of my home. I realized that I never took the pictures of my place that I promised long ago. I took some today, but my room is kind of a wreck (a nice reflection of the stress of this week) so don't judge. Just look and enjoy the spaciousness and beauty of my cute town home.

This is my front door. I live in a whole complex of town homes. They are pretty cute- there's just a whole lot of them crammed into a not so huge area. Housing here is up and down more than side to side, so we have a tall skinny home.

This is one side of my room- the side where all of my homework tends to reside. Like I said, it is kind of a mess at the moment, but it isn't always this cluttered!

This is the other half of my room- I am standing in front of the desk to take this picture. My room is huge. It is actually supposed to be a living room, so there is a fire place right by the desk. We just have it converted to a bedroom so we can have four people living here. It's kind of cool, except I would prefer a closet over the wardrobe.

This is the coolest wall in our house. It resides in the front room. My roommate collected pictures from all four of us and printed them to make this collage of our own photography. It is a great addition to the house. Love it.

This is the front room (my back is facing the cool wall). This is such a huge room. You can see one of our really tall windows. There are two other just like it along the same wall and the dining room is up a half level and open to this, so the room is huge, tall and very open. It's not super decorated, but still fulfills our needs.

This is the dining room. Simple and good. Over the railing is the front room and you can see and appreciate the huge windows.

This is the kitchen. We have even more cupboards on the wall that was behind me and a second fridge. AND there is a dishwasher and garbage disposal- both of which were not a part of my life the last two years. Yeah for modern conveniences!

Hope you enjoyed the brief tour. It's even better in real life if you ever care to see!!

Hurricane Hannah and the first week

One week of PT school down....only about 100 or so left to go! :) It's been a fun week. Not too surprisingly, the first week of school hasn't been too difficult. I expect that after this week, the pace will pick up and I will have a lot more studying to do, but it has been really nice to slowly ease into things. My favorite experience so far this week: Wednesday, second day of school. Setting: bus ride in the morning to school. Nicki is sitting on the bus reading The Physical Therapist Guide to Practice which is published by the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association, (of which I am a member of, by the way). Woman gets onto the bus and sits by Nicki- she is slightly older and walks with an assistive device (a term I learned in school this week), namely a cane.

Woman: (after looking at the book) Oh, it looks like I sat by the right person!
Nicki: Yes, I can tell you everything I know. I have now been in school for one day! :)
Woman: Oh....silence, a slight roll of the eyes and looks away.

Ah yes! This is my future! For a year now I have had similar conversations. If you say that you are going into any kind of health care profession, it seems that people think you know everything. It makes me laugh. I really will have a future of service to the community, which I like- but right now, I don't think I have a lot to offer. I can drape a patient correctly with sheets, do proper squats and lifting techniques, and take a patient history. Very helpful right?

So now it's the weekend and we are under a flash flood warning, and a tropical storm watch thanks to our friend, Hannah. And on a nice rainy morning like this, what is it that my roommates and I decide to do? Go running. Yes, three of the four of us went out this morning. We got drenched (surprise surprise) but the rain is so warm that it was actually quite nice. Brilliant, I know, but we were safe about it. People probably thought we were crazy, but we blame all our silliness these days from being the new girls in town.

The evidence...

The end...

The time has finally come for summer to be an end for me. Really it is the end of all summer vacations. I don't think that my future career choice will include summer break and from here on out, I go straight through school. Alas, it is a bit sad to be at that point in my life. BUT since summer is going down, I thought it should go down with a bang. I went to Virginia Beach today with my roommate and a couple of people from my ward. I literally sat on the beach and played in the water all afternoon. I think we were actually driving for longer than we were on the beach, but it was so worth it for those hours in the sun and the time in the ocean. It was beautiful, relaxing, and almost too good to be true. I really enjoyed my break from classes up until the very end.

Hiking Again

Trista and I went hiking for a few hours yesterday and had a great time. Hiking in Virginia is totally different than hiking in Utah. Where we were, there was a lot less up and down, but a lot more trees and tree roots and rocks to maneuver over. We went on Billy Goat Trail which goes right along the Potomac. It was really beautiful. I love water and I loved being by the river. It was really great to me to be able to get out of the city. I was itching to get away from so many people and cars and I didn't realize how much I missed the privacy and sounds of nature as opposed to the urban life. I do love it here in Virginia so far, but I was so grateful for the chance to get away. Here's a few of the pictures I took.

The Fridge

I am blessed to live in a place that has two refrigerators. I love only having to share the fridge with one person. It makes it so easy and I don't even have to label my food. Ah- the convenience. Unfortunately, the fridge which I am so lucky to use had some serious issues when I moved in. We couldn't put anything on the door of the fridge because it was cracked and kind of falling apart and there was no bar across the shelves to keep things on the shelf. It really irritated me, so I decided to do something about it. My solution? Duct tape and a moving box. I had a great time and was proud of my self for doing this. Yes, it looks a little bit...lame, but I can safely put jars and condiments on my door with no fear that they will fall over and it was less than $5 to fix it. Thank you duct tape!!

The DC Experience

It's been a while since I had a good chance to sit down and blog, but tonight is the night to catch up! This is what I did last week. Emily came and spent almost a week with me and we spent a lot of time doing the tourist type things that I won't get to do quite as much of when school starts. It was fun to take time and actually do this before I fall into the hum-drum and stress of school. I took SO many pictures, but put together the slide show below that includes pictures from most of the places that we went. Our journeys included the Air Force Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, The Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, The Natural Science Museum (Smithsonian), The National Zoo (Smithsonian), and an Orioles, Red Sox baseball game up in Baltimore. We had such a good time, but we were so exhausted every night by the time that we got home. Like I said, it was a blast to see so much of the city. There is still tons for me to do- so many museums and monuments and such, but for two days I was a tourist instead of a resident so we packed in as much as we could.

Slide Show

More in Virginia

I have done SO many things this week and haven't had the chance to post yet so, look for some good pictures and things coming this week. Also, I am so very close to having my room set up and ever so slowly our apartment is becoming a little home, so very soon I will post my current abode. I thought I would post about a few things I have learned this week- a few adventures that I have had. First, wrong turns can be so disastrous out here. I honestly don't think that I ever left my home to go anywhere without getting lost. The other day my friend Emily and I were trying to go to Arlington National Cemetery and I missed a turn in this large roundabout and driving straight into DC right by all the monuments and such. I was so glad that Emily was with me because she could navigate while I drove. I do not know how I would have found my way out without her!
I also learned not to take simple things for granted. It's really odd the things that you think are so normal, but in a new place they are so not normal. For example, I have been trying to find some small pots to plant my house plants in and I had the hardest time finding any! I finally found a few at Ross and I will go to Home Depot and hopefully will find some there tomorrow, but I never realized how hard it was. In Colorado Springs I could find them anywhere including the grocery store. I also had to make a copy of our lease the other day and it took me over an hour to find somewhere where I could make a copy. It's weird the small things that can become so difficult.
I seriously miss the mountains. Yes, they are beautiful and while I love the trees, I like mountains more, but even more than that, I have no sense of direction. I try to use the sun, but then I do stupid things like forget that the sun actually sets in the west, not the east and I drive 30 minutes in the wrong direction before realizing it. Yeah, that ended up being a nice long drive before I made it home.
So there ya go! My life is full of all those new discoveries and adventures that come from being in a totally new part of the country. I will have more to post later this week when I get all my pictures ready for posting- so more to come.

Wedding Bells Are Ringin'

But not for me! Jeremy got married this morning. It's totally amazing. It was so fun to see him married to Kelly. They looked lovely and the ceremony was beautiful. The open house last night was supposed to be outside and Kelly really wanted to be married outside, but we ran into some problems. It rained for the first time in months last night here in Colorado! Fortunately, this morning the rain abated for just long enough that the wedding happened outside. A lot of my siblings have been here and it has been great fun to see everyone.