10...9...8...

No not really, I'm a bit early. It's only 9 here and I can almost guarantee you that I will be asleep before midnight--what can I say, I am definitely a party animal. I am so excited about 2010 starting, there are so many fabulous things that are "supposed" to happen during this new year.

Anyways, I am going to do a (quick) 2009 recap:

Jan-April:

I really have no idea what happened, I was in school.

Clearly it was so really exciting stuff based on my expansive recap (told you it'd be quick!)

Oh, in April, Phillip's parent's home in TN was done. It's beautiful, we are all so thankful that they were able to enjoy sometime in it together.

May:

We went to Tennessee to visit his parents, we had a really nice time. We went white water rafting together, that was a freaking blast! (No pictures though, because my camera...my beautiful camera, wasn't going white water rafting and we weren't paying $40 or something like that for one image).

Here is his parent's beautiful house (in the middle of no where):



Here is beautiful Roman Noodle, posing outside their beautiful home:



Our family friend, sweet little Madison was diagnosed with a Wilm's tumor--it was a kidney tumor. She went and had her right kidney removed, and then underwent 22 or 23 rounds of chemo, here she is pre-treatment:



June:

Nothing that I can remember. Very exciting, I know! You're all jealous of my adventurous life. :)

July:

July was a great month. We started the month down in South Florida--we spent the 4th with my parents, I love the 4th because I love fireworks. We had a great trip. Here are some pictures from then:









THEN...JULY 25, rolled around. Phillip caught me completely off guard (which, mind you, is quite difficult to do) when he asked me to marry him at his sister's house. We ate dinner as a family and then all gathered into the family room and his parents told us the story of their relationship, from when they started dating, to their engagement, marriage, etc. When their story was over he got down on one knee and asked! He had already called my Dad and asked for his blessing...sneaky sneaky boy!







August:

The first weekend in August we threw Phillip's Mom a surprise 60th birthday and holy crap, she was surprised!! Think we got a bit carried away with the silly string, nah!







This is my favorite (probably of all the pictures I've seen of them, maybe I am a bit biased because I was the photographer) and probably last good picture of Wilson and Sherry:



Just a cute family picture to remember this day:



This month I went home and found a wedding venue with my Mom (who rocks BTW)! We also picked a date. Phillip and I will become Mr. and Mrs. Nesom on 12-11-10 at the Dove Creek Lodge in Key Largo, FL!



Then Phillip and I (and I what I mean by Phillip and I, I mean I picked and got the go ahead from his best man Andrew) picked our Photographer. We are using the fabulous Katie of Katie Beyer Photography and we started working with her on August 29 by getting our engagement pictures done. I couldn't have been happier with them! Whenever I look at them, even now, 3+ months after getting them back, I still melt. :)




















Sept:

I can't really remember anything from this month. It was a bit of a blur. Phillip's parents had moved back to Florida and resigned in the fact that they would not be going back to Tennessee as a couple, so we spent every weekend with them. I spent a night in the hospital with Wilson, where he told me a very funny joke when he was high as a kite (I'll close 2009 with a Wilson joke in his memory)!

Phillip turned 25, a quarter century of excellent!

Wilson got admitted into the hospital for the last time before he moved into inpatient hospice.

Sorry for the not so happy recap of September.

October:

Unfortunately, October was not good and possibly a bit worse than September. Phillip's Dad passed away on October 11, we had all spent the night before (Oct 10-11) in hospice with him, he waited until everyone but Jessica had gone home and passed with his oldest daughter by his side. It was sad, but honestly, we were so relieved for the suffering to have ended that none of us actually cried when we found out, (not at all saying that we didn't cry a tone during this last 10 months, but when we found out at 1225pm on Oct 11, we went to be with his mom and went about our day).

We then went up to Tennessee the next weekend and spread his ashes on their property and had a big bon fire with their closet family and friends. It was definitely Wilson's way to go out.

Then on Halloween we were up in Michigan to have a memorial service where they had lived when he was diagnosed. This was where he had been working, there was a great turn out, Phillip wrote and read a very sweet eulogy in his Dad's name. We were ecstatic to go home after this knowing that all this death, dying, memorial stuff was DONE!

November:

I was still busting my rear in school. It was incredibly hard for me to have dealt with all this with Wilson while keeping up my grades and trying to keep my head above water in the semester in nursing school where majority of student fail out. No worries, I did and I was quite proud of myself!

We found out my friend Meghan was pregnant. She is so excited, I am so excited for her. She and her husband, Graham, have been married for 2 years and then she went off her BC in June to prepare her body to start trying--needless to say, it worked. She has a bun in the oven and is due July 6!

We spent Thanksgiving at home with my family, it was nice, it had been the first major holiday we spent with my parents in a while. We were only there for 2 days, but I met with my dermatologist to get started on a new med for my psoriasis--hopefully, it'll work (I should get my first delivery of it on Jan 7, I'll keep you all up to date with that).

We kicked FSU's ass on Thanksgiving Saturday--I was watching 5 kids, Phillip was at the Swamp loving his Gators (as it should be)! Madison had finished her last round of chemo a week or so before this, I was just relieved to be able to leave the house with the kids again.

On Saturday evening following the game, we went and got our first real tree together (he WAS a fake tree person, I've converted him), and then we decorated it on Sunday. Here is our Gator pimping tree, it has orange, blue and white lights and that is Albert on the top if you look closely enough!



December:

I spent the first weekend of the month at Shelley and Bill's, I was watching Robbie, Cooper, Jackson, Madison and Fenn! It was a ton of fun, I was tired when they got home two days after they left but I had a great time with them. I miss the boys, I miss seeing them everyday.



I also took a couple of pictures for Ashley and Chip (Shelley's sister and brother in law, a.k.a. Madison and Fenn's parents) of baby Fenn:





Finals sucked, but ended the semester which was incredible! I just hung out--it was incredible. I cleaned my house (long, long...LONG overdue!), read some books, did some Christmas shopping, took care of some sick kids when the boys had a stomach bug and their nanny was also sick--stomach bug=always a blast!

Then we went home to South Florida, I went wedding dress shopping!! It was fantastic, I had such a great day with my Mom! Then we celebrated Christmas, were at my parent's place for Christmas Eve and did presents with them then left Fort Lauderdale at 11:30 pm and drove to Orlando--we woke up Christmas Day morning and drove to Phillip's sister's house and did Christmas Day with them. It was fine, I was just excited on the 26th to head home to my house, I'm a homebody, I love my bed, I love my house...I just love being home.

On a quick sad note, my little sister, Caitlin, lost one of her best friends on the 26th. Her friend Shawn, her boyfriend Oscar and their friend Hayes went out for a motorcycle ride, he took a turn too quickly coming off the interstate and lost his life. He was pronounced at the scene--mind you, these kids (Shawn was 20) wear all the gear, the padded jacket, pants, gloves, SPINE PROTECTOR, HELMET, etc--it was/is terribly sad. They laid him to rest yesterday with a full military ceremony, I forgot to mention, he was a solider.

As far as the end of the year, Phillip got up to GVille yesterday, we fixed one of my toilets which was leaking, went and saw the boys, went to Chili's for dinner and came home.

Then today, New Years Eve, we fixed my dryer which apparently decided it just wasn't going to produce heat anymore--crappy decision on it's part. We made cinnamon rolls, watched a bit of Wedding Crashers, I spent $110 on groceries (it is a new years resolution for me to start eating at home...here is to good starts!), then we made frozen pizza, popped some bubbly and enjoyed the Wii! Oh and I forgot to mention today, Phillip and I have been dating 3 years! Happy Anniversary my love, here is a picture from exactly 3 years ago when we were going on our first real date (I consider it a real date since he worked up the nerve to kiss me, we had gone out a few times before this night):



2009 had it's ups and lows, but more importantly it's ups. :)

Happy happy new years, to you and yours. I hope you have a healthy and safe night bringing in 2010.

Oh yeah, I promised to close with Wilson's joke. Wilson was high as a kite, it was a bit past midnight and I was sleeping in the hospital with him--he had just gotten his every 3 hour basal dose of 100mg of morphine and as I was falling asleep he said "If you float right side up," I was obviously a bit confused replied with "huh" (I didn't even know he was awake), he said, "listen now," I said "um, ok." He continues with "if you float right side up, do you drown wrong side down?" I just sat there...what the hell?!?!...I then replied like 30 seconds later with "I don't know, do you?" he just looked at me pondering for a few seconds and said "I'm still figuring that one out, think about it."

RIP Wilson Nesom, we all miss you. Last picture, I promise (well for tonight), here is Phillip and his Dad about a year ago.



Good night everyone!

Finally Christmas is Done

I picked up the last of my Christmas presents today. I had taken pictures for Shelley and Bill (I do pictures for them every Christmas) and today I went and printed them. I had originally planned on making paper weights with each boys picture on them, but today I decided to put the pictures in frames. I just got 3 all black 5x7 friends and put one picture of each kid in them. Last year and the year before I did big picture pieces that they hung up on the wall--I didn't want to keep taking up wall space. I figured with these they can put it on their desk or book shelf or Shelley's dresser. They are supposed to break ground on a 1,000 sq ft. addition just after the new year and I figured I can do another set of pictures once we have more wall space.

Anyways, here are the pictures of the kids. My favorite this year is of Jackson, not just because he is the baby, but I think it is the best picture (you can click on them to see them larger).



These guys are such family to me--more so than most my extended family. As soon as they found out that Phillip and I got engaged she immediately wanted to throw us an engagement party. I thought the offer was super sweet. So...with this present all put together (it'll be wrapped up tomorrow) Christmas is officially over. :)

Phalenopsis...Orchids

I love Grey's Anatomy and I love it even more when Lifetime has a Grey's marathon--how fabulous! I can watch the same episodes over and over again and I still love them. The episode that is on now is so sad and breaks my heart every time I see it, the episode on now is the one where Izzy plans Meredith and Derek's wedding and then they have Alex and Izzy get married at the end. It makes me cry, it breaks my heart--I <3 it!

The flowers that I am thinking about carrying are phalaenopsis, a.k.a. an orchid. I am thinking about carrying all white orchids with just a few pink ones scattered in. Here is a picture of them, not the bouquet I want, just the flowers:
I think I will have Keri and Caity carry a bouquet of pink and orange orchids. Love beach wedding...love beach wedding flowers...love it!

Phillip and I have already registered at one store, we've registered at Crate and Barrel but then we are planning on registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond also this week. We want to make sure that there are enough items in all different price ranges. I don't want to just have one registry with all these expensive items and make people feel obligated to buy expensive stuff--you know?!?

Tomorrow Lifetime is playing Father of the Bride, I own the movie, but it is so much fun!! I think I am going to have to put Father of the Bride on my winter break watch list. T-minus 7 days of break left, better get watching. :)

A little Skitz!

Ok, I am definitely coming across a little skitzo--I had moved to the blog that was attached to our wedding site and now, I've moved back. I didn't like the blog over there, there weren't a lot of ways for me to decorate or design my own blog--besides, I feel at home here.

I feel like on here I can chit chat with everyone a bit more and trade comments and stuff like that way easier. When I went to our other blog I felt disconnected to the blogging community and so now that I am back on here I feel reconnected.

Anyways, hello everyone. I, yet again, am going to try the hardest possible to stay up to date on things here way better than I have been. So, here we go!

Holidays were fine, nothing to exciting, I came back home yesterday and I am psyched to be home. I love being in my little house with my kitties and my house around me. I have a week left...just one week left of break...that's so sad, but at the same time, the sooner I throw myself back into the fire the sooner I graduate (April 30!!). I definitely ready to be done.

As far as wedding stuff goes, there isn't too much I've done. We've book our ceremony/reception site, book our photographer and I've also tried on wedding gowns. I feel in love with a dress and I am going back down south in Jan or Feb to go back to the dress store. The store I'm shopping at is expected a new designer's line to arrive in early Jan so I'll go home and try on some of those gowns and if I don't like any than I am going to buy this fabulous dress! I would post more about it here, but Phillip logs in every once in a while and I want him to be completely in the dark when it comes to my dress. :)

I think that's about it. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, spent some fabulous time with family and are almost ready for 2010! A new year, I cannot wait. There are so many great things to come in 2010, I graduate nursing school, sit for my boards, get my first nursing job, am the MOH in my best friend's wedding, Phillip moves to GVille, and of course...we get married. Woo-hoo for 2010! :)

We've Moved!

We've moved...
www.phillipandmeghan.com

I'm back!

I am not sure if I can promise to be back anytime soon, but...I'm here for now! I just wanted to write a quick update on things.

Phillip's Dad passed away on October 11, we had all spent the night before with him and he passed away peacefully on Oct 11 at 1228. It is incredibly sad, but honestly, it was a relief--it was time. He had been fighting for 10 months and 2 days on the day he passed away. We just got back last night from Michigan for his memorial service, then two weeks before that we went to Tennessee to spread his ashes. We are all thankful to be home and to be done with everything. Back to reality.

I am done with acute care...DONE! I missed at least half the lectures between September and now because of everything with Phillip's dad, spending time with him, back and forth between the hospital stays and then when he was in hospice. Well even though I missed all those lectures, it was one of my best semesters. There is rumor that we will be losing around 25 out of our class of 145. I feel so bad, because a lot of them are friends. :( The big thing is that I did well and honestly, I can only take care of myself.

Next, the hair--the curls are amazingly beautiful. I will try to take a picture (Phillip has my camera right now) when he gets back into town with my camera. I have spiraled, tight, springy curls--I get compliments all the time. I am so glad that I took the time to embrace what I have naturally.

Lastly, there isn't much wedding stuff going on. I wish I could say there was more, but with everything going on I haven't had much time for fun. I am not thrilled with the colors we picked, we're going to have to play again (I know Phillip is thrilled...not!). Luckily, Phillip is a trooper so I am very thankful for that.

That's all I really have time for, I should be working on my 30 page OB paper--I'm off!


Here is Wilson's obituary, we all wrote it together on the afternoon he passed away:

Wilson Franklin Nesom
ORLANDO, FLA. - Wilson Franklin Nesom passed away on October 11, 2009, he had bravely battled cancer for 10 months and 2 days. He served proudly in the United States Navy before receiving his Bachelors degree in Chemistry from Louisiana College. He put his degree to work at BASF in Wyandotte, Mich. He was greeted in heaven by Albert Einstein and Arvie Electra Red. He leaves behind his high school sweetheart and wife of 40 years, Sherry Ann of Ocoee, Tenn.; and his three loving children, Jessica Renee, 34, Allisha Sue, 26, and Phillip Brandon 25; and his adoring grandson, Zachary Thomas, 8. He will be laid to rest in Ocoee, Tenn on October 17. A memorial service will be held in his honor in Canton, Mich., on October 31, 2009. In lieu of flowers a donation may be made in his name to MD Anderson Cancer Center, Orlando.

It's late!

I know it is late, my schedule is all sorts of screwed up! This stupid clinical schedule is screwing it up, whatever, I'm attempting to embrace it. Anyways, tomorrow will be my first day back running. The race is 153 days away so I figure it is time to get going.

Tomorrow...well actually today, I will be getting up in 6 hours and heading out for a run. Clearly it wont be a long run since my butt has been lazy, but I have to start somewhere. So out I'll go, woo-hoo...damn it! I have to have a positive attitude, let's try again. Tomorrow, I get to run, I am blessed enough to be healthy enough to get out and run--so running we will go.

I also have a pretty crappy day tomorrow because I have to get up, run, then shower, then 3 hours of lecture on...trachs and mechanical ventilation, then I have to study! (then I'll nap for a few hours), then play volleyball from 6:30-9, then study some more. That sounds like I am try to cram too much in, well unfortunetly if my day doesn't go as planned and I don't get enough studying in, I will skip volleyball...again (I was sick last Monday). I don't want to, so my goal is to be super focused so I can get everything accomplished, mind over matter, right?!?!

Ok, well now I only have 5 and a half hours until I get to get up and run, so night night!

Curly!

I love The Biggest Loser. The new season started tonight, season 8 baby! These contestants are massive. It is nuts to think that I sit here obsessing over the 8lbs that I have to lose when some of these contestant need to lose >300lbs to just be in the average weight to height category. I need to start running again, soon! Jillian is psycho! She is a hardcore bad ass--I want her for my trainer. Can I call NBC and order a Jillian for delivery? I know I need to eat better, I need to get on that--I'm better than I have been in the past, considering I started nursing school roughly 15lbs heavier, but I want to be better than I am now.

Also, I started a hair routine called "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey. It is basically about getting rid of silicon and sulfates from your hair care supplies. I basically revamped the supplies under my sink. I started it 2 weeks ago and initially (as I was warned) my hair looked super crappy! It just started to get increasingly worse until today. I was really discouraged at first, but today was my first good hair day. I had to play with all the new products I bought to figure out a good routine for me and man, that was difficult. So, fingers crossed, I am going to run the same routine tomorrow after lecture for clinicals. I am going to try to keep a decent record of everything so I can see before...and after. Hopefully I will have beautiful curls like I used to have. Here are some of the pictures. All of them are taken after my hair is completely dried and usually after I went out somewhere--it is usually a better depiction of what it looks like because it always grows and frizzes after I leave.

Here is my hair 2 and a half years ago when I cut all the damaged parts of it off and made it super short! (Mind you, I'm literally 25lbs heavier, so excuse the fat face).

Then here it is a week ago when I started the CG routine with all the right products on September 8, frizz and yuck!


Here is my hair on Sept 13:

Then Sept 14:

Then here it is today after I did my hair and went to lab. (Not great, but getting better--I'll take anything I can get at this point!):

Ah!

I tried to get on to post last week, but it obviously never happened. There were days when I would get home and my television wouldn't even go on because I had so much school work to do or I had to sleep. I do try to do that occasionally. My week was nuts, I had my first test and got an 86% which was one of the higher grades in the class--so I'm proud of it. I also have two days of clinical where our instructor kept us last on Thursday which ticked me off since I didn't get home until a quarter to 11. Then Friday and Saturday I babysat, it was nice for my bank account, but not so much for anything else. I was exhausted, I barely saw Phillip this week and now I am sick. BOO!

My high part from last week was getting our engagement picture CD. Yay! I posted them all up on facebook and got so many wonderful compliments on them.

I am not sure if this link will work for everyone, but let me know:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=29800734&ref=profile#/album.php?aid=2042663&id=29800734

If it works, let me know your favorites! :) Once again, I'll try to get back on here sooner then a week.

Slacker

I know, I am terrible! I haven't posted in a week...I am such a slacker. Unfortunately, being back in school has put a real damper on my blogging time--this is my extra curricular activity that got the boot!

Last week was insanely hectic, I had class, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, a clinical expectation class on Tuesday, then clinicals Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday I woke up, cleaned my house and went to PetSmart to help with adoptions. I have been studying intermittently whenever I have time, I studied a fair amount yesterday and on Saturday I studied a bit while I was babysitting when everyone was at the game. Go Gators!

I know this is terrible to say, but this is all I really have time for because I've got some studying to do for my Tuesday test...that's tomorrow; crap. Ok, well I thought I would leave you with these few pictures while I am waiting to get the CD of the rest of them.

Weekend

I should totally be studying now...I'm not, clearly! I had a fantastic weekend. On Friday I went to the botanical gardens--I had a great time. I was there by myself, just wandering and taking pictures. There was a wedding that was scheduled to take place there at 4:30--it was hot as hell. Just one more reason not to get married during football season. I mean I was in shorts and a tank top and I felt like I was melting. I would have been so upset if I was supposed to get married and felt like my face was going to melt off. Anyways, here are some pictures from there.









Then Friday night Phillip and I went to get his hair cut and we were both hungry so we headed to Qdoba--after we ate we wandered around the outlet mall for a while. I found two tank tops, aqua and red. Then we went to a crapload of stores trying to find Phillip a new pair of jeans. He is incredibly hard to find jeans for because he has is so tall but then he has big thighs. Generally if we find jeans that fit his legs they are usually too big on his waist and if it fits his waist it usually is super tight on this thighs. Anyways, we found a pair, we found them at Ralph Lauren--mind you the outlet store price was $60 but we were more than happy to pay it at that point. Then when we were leaving we were walking past Nine West and I asked if we could go in, he reluctantly agreed--then, being the love that he is, he bought me an awesome pair of 3 and a half inch heels...the man knows how to please his woman. :) Thanks honey.

Saturday we had to get up early to head to his sister's house, we had to be there by 9:45 to get some pictures taken as a family. It was really nice, his Dad was in a fantastic mood because he got a full nights sleep uninterrupted which is really rare for him. For pictures it was Phillip's parents, his sister Jessica, her husband Doug, Jessica's son Zach, Phillip, me, his sister Alisha and her loser, opps I mean boyfriend Mike. Anyways, we took pictures of all of us together, then as individual couples, and then I had Phillip ask to have a picture of just him, his parents and his sisters. I wanted to make sure that their last set of family pictures didn't have this loser in them. Phillip's mom was thankful for that. :) We hung out at Jessica's for a while before heading at 2:45, once we got home, I had to iron some shirts and we loaded up, us and the dogs and headed to Bradenton Beach for our engagement pictures. It was an awesome experience. Our photographer was amazing, if her pictures turn out half as good as her personality then we will be incredibly lucky. Anyways, of course I will post them when I get them. That was our weekend--Phillip had to work today...Boo. I came home early and got here at 11, was supposed to study, I didn't. Whoops.

Anyways, we will end with an awesome picture of my baby boy. :)