BIG UPDATE :)

Howdy everyone!

So much has happened in the last few months!  I know I promised (awhile back) that I'd do a big update, so here goes (with some pictures)!

First of all, Frank and I got married on August 6!

It was such a fun and wonderful celebration!  The best wedding and everything we could have hoped for.  The ceremony was amazing, and at the reception the food was wonderful, there was a photo booth, and LOTS of dancing!!

We went on a cruise for our honeymoon...

The cruise stopped at Cozumel, Roatan, Belize and Grand Cayman.  We went cave tubing, sea-treking and had so much fun on the ship!

Thirdly, this semester has been filled with football games, weddings, camping trips, and lots of fun with friends!

Our gift to ourselves for Christmas was camping gear - so we took our first trip to Guntersville State Park with our friends, Courtney and Daniel.  We've also been going through a Bible study with Courtney and Daniel.  We've been studying 'This Momentary Marriage' by John Piper - so far a wonderful book!!

We adopted two adorable lap puppies - Belle and Beaux.  They are brother and sister and are such a wonderful addition to our family!

They're only 3 months old right now and growing so quickly!  They are very smart and have already learned to 'sit'!  They are also very curious and in to everything around the house, lol.  However, they are learning to obey most of the time :).

Lastly, I finished the semester with all A's and B's!  WHOOP!  Now I am done with my didactic (classroom) portion of school and all I have left is a year of clinicals!  My first rotation is OB/GYN at the free hospital in Birmingham.  I've been studying a bit to get ready to amaze my preceptors.  I'm so excited to get some hands-on experience!

I'm also very excited to go home for Christmas!  We are driving out this Christmas Eve to spend some time in Shreveport with the extended family, then headed to Texas for some time at home.  We haven't been home or seen my family since October - which feels like a whole lot longer than 2 months!  We are also taking the puppies with us to meet the whole crew!  It will be such a fun time!

Coming up is my best friend, Rebecca's bachelorette party and wedding!  We (the bridesmaids) have been scheming and have lots of fun things planned!!

Anyway, that's it as far as an update!  I'll try to keep up with the blog as I go through clinicals so everyone can keep up with my rotations!

Gig 'Em and War Eagle!

Catie

We're FAMOUS!!

I got an email not too long ago from the 'Shelby County Bride' magazine writer asking for a proposal story so they could have a local bride on the cover.  So I submitted our, and although we didn't win, we were the runner up, so we will be in the magazine!! YAY!  It'll be the August issue, which is perfect because that's the month we get married!  Now, I just have to edit the proposal story, add a bit about how we met and that sort of thing, and add some pictures!

Also, here's a few of our latest engagement pictures in case you haven't gotten a chance to see them :)

Aren't we just precious?

The shoes we will be wearing on our wedding day!!

So anyway, that's it for now... make sure you get our autographs, because we'll be famous soon! :)

Gig 'em and War Eagle,

Catie

It's been a long time...

It's been a LONG time since I last blogged - I mean the last time I blogged was right after Frank and I got engaged and now we're only 73 days away from the wedding!

Last semester was just SO busy.  I thought the first semester of PA school was hard... well the second semester was even more stressful.  Add wedding planning to the mix and you've got crazy Catie!  Anyway, I made it through, thanks to my wonderful support system.

Frank and I are SO READY to get married!  We only have 1 more premarital counseling session, and everything for the wedding is set!  There are just a few small tasks left to accomplish before the big day!  WHOOP!  Engagement pictures are on the way, wedding dress bought and altered, decorations picked, vendors booked, and invitations are stamped, packed and ready to go... now time just needs to go faster!  It's crazy though - we thought we were in love the day Frank proposed, but our love just seems to grow more and more with each day.  God has shown us and taught us so much these past few months, it just amazes me.

Anyway, right now I'm in the full swing of the summer semester at school.  Thankfully, we only have 3 classes this semester - pharmacology II, health policy, and clinical research.  We also have other things planned for each month.  This month, I have been in the OR every morning, getting to observe, scrub in, and assist with all different types of surgeries.  It's been so fun, but very tiring.  I have 1 week left of OR, and I am thankful to start getting a little more sleep afterwards.  Next month, I will spend 2 mornings in the ER, practicing my H&P and oral reports.  The last month is inpatient month, with lots of different physical exam learning sessions and some simulation labs.  So, its just this semester and the fall semester then I'm done with classes!  Just clinicals and graduation after that!  YAY!

So, I'm going to try to get better at blogging again... I want to keep everyone updated about my life in Alabama!!  I'll post engagement pictures and more wedding details soon (since it's all I can think about)!

We're ENGAGED!!

So, it's been a LONG time since I last blogged and SO much has happened.  However, to bring you up to speed in my life... FRANK PROPOSED!!  :)

To start off, Frank has been telling me that it will be after the holidays before he proposed, and I quote "maybe around your birthday or something"  so this came as a COMPLETE surprise.

So, I flew home for thanksgiving with my family, and Frank told me that he was going to spend thanksgiving in Georgia with family.  Wednesday night, my ENTIRE family went out to eat at Dead Fish Grill which overlooks Belton Lake.  We were still waiting on Dad to get off work and Callie, my cousin, to drive in from Baton Rouge.  Honestly, I was surprised that they would let Callie drive 7+ hours each way from LSU, but I didn't think anything of it.  Then, our family friends, the Parkers (yes, same last name, no relation) showed up "just to say hi!".  I mean, I understand we always try to get together over the holidays so we can hang out when Brennen and I are in from college, but to come all the way out to a restaurant, with no plans to eat, just to say hi when you're leaving the next day to go see family - yea, a little off, but still, I didn't think anything of it.  Then Callie came in a sat down and we chatted a bit....

....Then, everyone's heads turn to the door, so of course, I did too.  And Frank walks in, with my dad and Kelley Ligon (more about her later) behind him.  I said, "What are you doing here?"  Cameras are flashing, and he strides over to me...

...drops on one knee and says, "Catie, Caitlin Parker, will you marry me?"

  

I was barely able to squeak out a "yes" and jumped into his arms.

  

I was BEYOND surprised.  I didn't even have time to comprehend that he was actually there before he was in front of me on one knee.   Here's a little bit of video, not good quality, but at least you can see how it happened...

It was completely amazing.  My mom even thought to hire Kelley Ligon to take pictures of the whole thing for us, and the photos turned out so wonderful!!

So we took pictures, ate, and Frank was able to spend some of the day on Thanksgiving with us before he had to fly back.  I woke him up early the next morning and we took some pictures ourselves of the place he proposed...

It was a better engagement story than I could have asked for.  My whole family was there and everything was perfect.  I honestly was completely speechless, I don't even know if anyone other than Frank heard me say yes.  I still am amazed that it happened.  It still hasn't quite sunk in yet.  :)

And for all you girls out there - the ring is BEAUTIFUL!  It a huge princess cut diamond solitaire in a white gold cathedral setting.  Perfect!!

So for everyone's information... we're not making any concrete plans until after my finals.  We have some dates and ideas in mind, but nothing will be definite until after I get through this semester :)

Thank you to everyone who was a part of it and who kept it a secret from me (which was basically everyone), thank you to my wonderful parents for helping coordinate everything and especially to my amazing fiance` Frank for the perfect proposal.

from pumpkins to football to karaoke and everything in between...

Wow, it has been a long time since I blogged, so brace yourself for a longer post :)

Have I mentioned that my boyfriend is amazing?  Because he is.  With how crazy our lives have been lately, Frank and I really hadn't been able to spend good quality time together, which I hate, lol.  However, life is crazy, so I just figured life would slow down in a couple of weeks and then we could both just take a breath.  Apparently, Frank can read me completely, which is something that very few people can do.  I am very good at hiding my emotions, but not from him.  He told me last weekend that we were going to spend the whole day Saturday together, whatever I wanted, and put aside all our 'to do' lists.  This is EXACTLY what I needed.  So we went to a pumpkin patch, watched football :), made dinner together, and carved our pumpkins.  It was so fun!

We went to 'Old Baker Farms' in Harpersville for the pumpkin patch!  They had a corn maze, cotton picking, hay ride, yummy food and, of course, PUMPKINS! It was so fun, and such a beautiful day!  We had a ton of fun finding our way through the maze (maybe with a shortcut or two), and looking for pumpkins.

Frank chose a GREEN pumpkin, because of how extra-creepy it would look once carved, lol.  Now, after about a week, its starting to turn orange on parts and looks extra-EXTRA-creepy.  I chose the traditional orange pumpkin :)

For dinner, we made baked tilapia, asparagus, new potatoes and garlic toast.  It was so yummy!  And Frank did most of the baking!  He's such a pro!

Our pumpkins turned out so well!  I really love the creative face on Franks :)  They now sit on Frank's porch for all to see!

So anyway, we had a wonderful weekend.  It was very refreshing, and gave us time to slow down and just enjoy each other.   

Last week was actually a really slow week for school.  Probably the first time we actually have felt like we could catch our breath.  Monday, ALL of our classes got canceled!  It was so great!  And, other than a bonus quiz in Anatomy on Tuesday, the week was pretty stress-free.  Bible study was moved to Wednesday, and although very quick, VERY good.  The verses we read were 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 which talks about the church as the body of Christ, and how each part works together and cannot do without the other parts.  After being in anatomy and the medical field in general, these verses have such a bigger impact than they did when I first read them years ago.  We also talked about being lonely away from home.  Honestly, I do sometimes get lonely and homesick being so far away from my family and close friends.  It was surprising how relieved I was to hear that everyone else felt the same way!  I guess its just good to know that I'm not alone in feeling lonely.  We also decided to be more diligent in encouraging each other and working to grow closer together to help with being in a new place around new people.  And honestly, I am already seeing the group change and grow closer together, even though its only been a few days.  

On Thursday night, a bunch of the girls from the program got together to do our own pumpkin dissection!  There were a lot of people that came, but only 5 of us decided to carve pumpkins. :)  I guess anatomy dissections are enough dissections for some.  I am so glad I decided to go!  We had such a good time being away from school and just having fun!  

 Mine was the spider :)

After the pumpkin carving, some of us went out to celebrate another girl's birthday at Innisfree Pub.  There was karaoke, a band, and dancing!  Honestly, I'm not one to go out and party, but Julie convinced me.  I'm so glad she did!  I had so much fun!

I got some really great action shots of all the action on the dance floor.  Make sure you look at my facebook album to see them all!

On Saturday, Frank, his dad, Sean, Abbey and I went to the Auburn vs. LSU game!  Although the morning was stressful for me - looking for tickets - we found them and the game was so great!  It was Mr. Trivett and Abbey's first game and SUCH a great one to go to.  We WON!  WAR EAGLE!

The tickets we found (3 together - such a find!) were actually GREAT seats!  We were surrounded by LSU fans, but it wasn't so bad, especially because we were winning most of the time.  It was COMPLETELY packed, it really was a blessing that we all found tickets.  Now Auburn is 8-0!  WHOOP!  The Aggies also BTHO Kansas, so all in all, an amazing football weekend!

After we got back from the game, Frank and I headed to 'Starz' for some karaoke with some people from school!  He is such a wonderful boyfriend, because although he was completely exhausted and really just wanted to go to bed, he willingly came and we had so much fun.  Everyone from school has been asking me when they could meet Frank, so I'm glad we found a time when he wasn't working for him to meet some of them.  Hopefully everyone else can meet him at the Halloween party!  For the party, I'm dressing as a flapper and Frank is going to be one of the Rat Pack - SO FUN!  If you haven't already, make sure you watch the video of our rendition of 'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls - we're pretty much amazing :)

Click Here for the Video!

All in all the past two weeks have been completely amazing!  

Please pray for me over the next week or so.  My second anatomy test is the Tuesday after Halloween.  For those who don't know, I failed the first anatomy test.  Although I studied hard for it, I fell behind with the material and could never quite catch up.  I was very disappointed in myself, but I have accepted it, and have worked even harder this time around to stay on top of everything.  I've been keeping caught up for the most part, but I really really need a good grade to bring my grade up.  I am confident that I can do it, but I still have times when I start to freak out and worry with the "what if?" and self-doubt.  To say the least, I probably won't be blogging for awhile because I am going to be in anatomy overdrive.  

OH!  So I said a few posts ago that I met a PA that works in the trauma surgery/burn center at UAB hospital.  I get to shadow her on November 5th!  I'm so pumped!  I really want to see a PA in the field I believe will be my field of choice and what the job incurs.  

Countdown to Thanksgiving/trip back home = 31 days!  1 more MONTH!!

Gig 'Em and War Eagle!

Catie