burned out.

I'll be home in a few short days. Until then, I hang on to thoughts of things to come, which prompts the following list of delights I'm looking forward to enjoying upon my return home and my respite from academia...

5. No School. I wish each of you, my utterly faithful readers, could truly grasp the significance of this for me. For those of you in and around my daily life or somehow associated with nursing school or the medical field in some way, shape, or form, you probably can. For the rest of you, allow me to paint you a picture...by the time I graduate I will have completed a staggering 1005 clinical hours. Come next Tuesday, I will have completed 143 tests thus far in my college career. I would say that I am not being dramatic with the guesstimate that I have completed 3600 hours of studying hours since freshman year. Nursing school is so stinkin' demanding for the outcome, in my humble opinion.

4. R&R...I'm slowly becoming a little bit more seasoned and picking up on more and more military lingo. R&R is affectionately known as "rest & relaxation" by our servant-hearted military personnel. R&R for me over the next month will lend to much needed sleep, TV watching, PLAYING WITH BILLI (one of the things I look forward to most about going home, even though she sends my allergies off the deep end), blog catch-ups, and eating my mother and father's home cooked food. Speaking of R&R, Karl's going to be getting some of that too! See #1 below...


3. WORK! I know. Call me crazy. Most people would groan and moan over the thought of working over their Christmas break, BUT, I have been graciously accepted back by Covenant Kids, a non-profit foster care and adoption agency that I work for over Summer and Christmas break. It is just the nicest place to spend a few weeks over Christmas, seriously. Great work, great people, great boost to my savings account.

2. I have my first dress fitting the first Saturday that I'm back. I am thrilled. Let me repeat myself, THRILLED, about this. I know we are a little premature for fittings because lets be real here, I'm hoping (like every other glass-half-full bride) to have hit the gym a few more times come August BUT, I'm having my bridal portraits done up here (by, ahem, my obsession) this Spring. So, better hop to with the alterations.


1. KARLLLLLLLLLL!!!! This requires a sublist...


A) I haven't seen this boy since the beginning of October. That is far too long, if you were wondering. Karl is being deployed to Iraq in January and I just am so desiring time with this boy before he goes. I feel blessed we get to spend Christmas with each other.

B) We will do wonderful things including but not limited to: REGISTER (which I clearly have been excited about for a while now), finalize wedding details with the venue, pick a wedding invitation, finalize our guest list, see a movie (because according to my calculations, we haven't seen one together in almost 18 months), celebrate the birth of our savior, relax.

C) Can't wait to relax with him. In reference to R&R, he needs some of that too. He's a hard worker, he actually ties for first place in the "hardest worker I have ever met" contest. My dad would be the other 1st place winner. I can't wait to serve Karl while he's home...sorry all you feminazi's who read my blog, but if your fiance's hands looked like this after work, you would want to serve him too.


D) Celebrate the start of 2010, which, if you were curious, is the year we are getting married, to each other.

So, may the ghost of finals passed (pun intended) be with you all as you embark upon this finals week and weekend (which, in my humble opinion is just downright sinful. That's right Gammy, we have finals on a Saturday! Throw be a bone Chancellor Gearhart!).

hannah