Done and almost done

We are so close to the end of our semesters, we can taste it. My classes ended on Tuesday, April 23rd. I had one final on Monday, April 30th, and my last final was today, May 7th. If that is not the most stretched out way to end a semester!

Ben ended his classes this past Thursday. I was able to go up to Westminster with him on that last day. It was a real treat to sit through some of his classes with him and to meet some of his friends. At the beginning of the Fall semester, Westminster had a welcome picnic that we attended. We pretty much stood in line for food, ate the food, then left. Not much interaction with anyone. So spending the day with Ben at the end of the Spring semester and seeing him interact with some friends and professors and witnessing how he's succeeded at Westminster....well I was pretty proud of him. He gets to hang out with my friends from nursing school way more than I get to interact with his friends from seminary based on where we live (2 min. from Penn, 30 min. from Westminster), so it was a fun swap for a day. He even took me out to dinner at his favorite pizza place up there. Here are a few pictures of Ben at school. The most handsome seminarian if you ask me.

And at the end of the day, some homemade lemon ice cream. Great day.

The next day, we decided it was time for some fun.  I had heard about this "German" town out in Lancaster County and right next door is a brewery we really like so we set out for that general direction. The great thing about Lancaster County is that it's beautiful scenery and there are so many little towns about 5 min. drive from one another that although we went out to Adamstown, really, we visited many towns. 

We found this market to be neither wonderful nor good. 

Fortunately it was a stone's throw to the brewery. Apart from the home brews Ben's had out here, he would rank this the best beer he's tasted in PA. 

Full of good food and good beer. Ready to tackle finals. Thank you, Stoudt's Brewery.

And lastly, just in case you were missing this sweet guy.

29th Name Day in DC

If you don't understand the Name Day reference, it's time to pick up a copy of Game of Thrones and get started. In the meantime, the translation is that we spent my 29th birthday in DC with the Barretts! My birthday started off with my last 12-hour clinical for my pediatric rotation. I loved spending the day with some of my nursing friends in the most excellent children's hospital. Later that night, Ben drove us down to DC where Pete and Kara had chocolate martinis waiting. So amazing. I wish I had taken a picture!

The next morning we got to do what we love doing best in DC....play with Miss Annalise.

It's been almost six months since we saw her last and we couldn't believe how much she's grown! 

Ben and I took the metro down to the mall to visit some Smithsonians. We started in the Natural History Museum. 

There was this awesome exhibit about the rescue of the miners in Chile. Crazy to see how tiny the shaft was through which they were rescued.

Next we strolled on over to the National Portrait Gallery. It is attached to an art museum. We had a blast.

This is a portrait of a woman I admire, Alice Waters.

Here is a portrait of our friend, Joey.

Here is Ben in the hall where President Lincoln held his inauguration ball.

There were a few art pieces of the United States that we found really interesting.

"modern art"

Museums always tucker him out. Fortunately there was a bear rug he could rest on.

It was a beautiful day spent out on the mall. I even got to take a cheesy "Ben" photo...usually those are reserved for Philly!

Meanwhile, back at Pete and Kara's, Annalise had been hard at work...

...making chocolate frosting!!

delicious!

She even made me a card

And helped me blow out the candles. She wanted to take them out soon after though in order to eat her delicious frosting.

Yep, still want the candles out.

This girl LOVES balloons.

And, she loves to dance.

But only to the right music...

Later that night she even let us go out with her parents. It was such an awesome day.

To top the weekend off we spent Saturday strolling through Roosevelt park and they showed us around Georgetown. 

Annalise with her beautiful mama. 

All in all, amazing way to start off the last year of my twenties! Can't say enough how thankful we are to live close enough to the Barretts to drive down and hang out for the weekend. Thanks for making my birthday so special, guys!

Why I love Michelle Obama

1. She appeared on one of my favorite tv shows, The Biggest Loser, to cheer on the contestants and to promote her Let's Move campaign. In one of the interviews with her on this episode she said she is willing to make a fool of herself sweating and working out on national television if it inspires kids to get up and move.

2. She loves to garden and looks fabulous doing so.

3. She loves nurses and acknowledges that nursing will help move healthcare forward in this country. She even came to my school to tell us that.

4. She also loves military families and focuses a lot of her time on meeting their needs.

5. She is a supportive wife, involved mother, ridiculously talented professional, and somehow she finds the time to take care of herself. When she spoke I felt like I was sitting at her kitchen table with her. She's graceful and sassy and brilliant and full of class. 

I love that she is our First Lady.

Home Sweet Home

Last Saturday, we decided to move. It's a longish story filled with bouts of my dramatic inability to make decisions and Ben's very matter-of-fact, very logical ability to make decisions. "We" finally decided on a place. To help our landlord out, we took some pics of our current place. It made me realize that I never posted pics of our little Philly home on our blog once it was all set up. So here they are...right before everything is about to change. Hopefully it won't take me 10 months to document our next place.

The lovely Spring view from our window

 The family room

My candy apple red kitchen

The entrance

My current laboratory =)

From the family room

We did the best we could to spruce it up but this is my least favorite part about the apartment

Our bedroom

The "living room" 

Can't believe it's already been 10 months!!