Now I'm Only 15 Posts Behind...

Well, as the title suggests I am trying to make up for the complete dearth of postings from the XY co-owner of this blog. As I have been reminded by my lovely wife several times I have been talking about blogging for weeks now. Well I finally have something big enough (although I'm not sure how big many people would consider 11.4 lbs) to get my lazy tail/fingers off the couch.
So much has happened since the latest post by Ann that I don't know where to begin. I know there are those of you asking for info on our latest furry addition (Mills(er)) but I have chosen to write this chronologically. So first things first.

As Ann mentioned in her last post we were able to go up to Nashville for Singarama a couple of weekends ago and thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind time there. We left immediately after I got off work Fri and were able to get there in time to eat dinner with both of our families at the Smith compound before heading to the show. I always enjoy it when both sides of the family will put aside their constant bickering and sit down for a meal together (obviously kidding here). That is truly something that Ann and I are both thankful for - our families get along very well and I know my folks and brothers and sister in law were very grateful to V and C for hosting the crew. Not only was my family there, but the Cincinatti Smiths (Grady and Jeanie) were also in attendance to see their son Andrew in the show that night as well.

So after dinner we all piled in way too many cars and headed over to Lipscomb to enjoy corny joke making at its best. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to see the re-done Willard Collins Alumni Auditorium, drop what you are doing/holding/etc (unless it is a small child or grenade) and go see the new Purple Palace of Performance. They really did a fantastic job with the remodel and I look forward to many years of enjoyably performances there.
Saturday morning Andrea had a "hair appointment" - this is language that I would clearly not use unless I was married. I always thought you went to a barber shop or got a hair cut, but apparently they are termed "appointments" now. Anyway, after getting her sleek new look (which I love) we met my folks, Granddma Eva and Grandaddy Wayne, and Aunt Kay for lunch. It was great getting to see all of them, and I'm hoping to get to go to Columbia maybe in a few weeks while Ann is doing wedding stuff with Sarah Rummage.

We went to the Sat night show of Sing-to-your-mama that night and were smart enough to leave after the last group so that we could make it back to Birmingham before it got too too late. The reason we didn't stay was that the young marrieds class from our church were all going out to eat the next day and we really wanted be there, not to mention the fact that week from Durham, NC was coming up (if that last little bit didn't make sense, just remember my undying hatred for all things from that town and see if it isn't a perfect euphamism for the traditional phrase).

As Ann mentioned in her last post I successfully passed my Qualifying Exam and am now hopefully only about a year away from finishing my PhD. To "Qualify" each student in our department must do about a 45 min to 1 hr presentation on their research and then submit to questioning from anyone at the public presentation, followed by a private exam by the members on their committee. The easiest thing I could relate the experience to was pledging believe it or not. When my committee was going around the room questioning me it was difficult not to flashback to the unmistakable voice of Josh Maxwell saying "Hardison? I thought he already pledged?" or Justin Bagwell's "Pledge brothers come to meeeeee." Anyway, after it was over they informed me I had passed and, Lord willing, was on track to graduate next spring.
My week was pretty much over, but Ann's was just beginning. She had taken a test on the day before, on Monday, and still had to skills validations at the end of the week, not to mention two papers due. Thankfully I am married to an industrious, intelligent woman who had already completed the papers weeks before and had been studying along for the test and validations. I'll let her go into more detail about the validations since it is her area of expertise but here is a brief description. Using either mannequins or a partner all the nursing students are required to demonstrate specific skill sets like giving injections, taking vital signs, etc. This week they were being tested over installing a catheter (ouch) and doing a complete physical assessment. She of course passed with flying colors and made an A on her test, so a banner week for our small family.

So on to the more exciting news - for those regular readers of ours (shout out to St. Lou, soon to be LA) it is old news that we have been thinking about getting a dog for a while. Well as GW so memorably claimed - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! On Fri, April 10. Andrea and I adopted a wonderful 10-11 month old MaltiPoo (Maltese-Poodle mix) named Alexis who we are calling Lexi. We got her from a small dog rescue society called Little Bits Rescue here in Birmingham and she is perfect for us. For a relatively small fee we got a dog that has had all her shots, been fixed, doesn't shed (neither poodles nor malteses do - important for an allergy sufferer like Ann) and is the perfect size for apartment living. We cannot be more happy with our newest roommate! They rescued her off the street and we are so happy that we could give her a new home. She is 11.4 lbs and is not expected to get any bigger. She is mostly white with a little bit of brown as you can see in the pics. She loves going outside for walks which we usually do 2 times a day and cannot get enough of her rawhide bone (best $.96 I ever spent!). As if she wasn't perfect enough already, she is practically already house-trained. She'll go over and stand by the door to be taken outside and has only had two accidents in the whole week that we have had her. You'll see in the photos that she still has the sutures and staples from being fixed but those will come out this Fri or Sat and she will be ready for a bath!

To wrap this long meandering post up, I am so thankful for my wife and the life that I lead and all of our friends that we are able to see from time to time, both here and in all points north and south (here's looking at you Pensacola - CMW looks like a keeper).

Favorites!!!

On the way up to Nashville this past weekend, I came up with a fun activity to help pass the time... We play games a lot in the car....Would you Rather, The "Fun" 20 questions game, states and capitols, etc... This time I decided that Matthew and I were to name our Favorites. So here goes...for those of you that know us well, you may be surprised, or not at all!

Combined Favorite Movies

Tommy Boy

Dark Knight
Mama Mia

Love Actually
The Sting

Matthew's Favorite Movies

Forrest Gump

Dark Knight

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Star Trek VI (gross!)

Empire Strikes Back..I think you can see a trend :)

Andrea's Favorite Movies

Sound of Music

To Kill a Mockingbird

When Harry Met Sally

Remember the Titans

Favorite Combined Songs

Bones- The Killers

Read my Mind- The Killers

Reckless Abandon- Blink 182

Deeper than the Holler- Randy Travis

Online-Brad Paisley

Anything ABBA!

Matthew's Favorite Songs

Sweet Child of Mine- Guns and Roses

Thunderstruck- ACDC

The Boxer- Paul Simon

Since You've Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson

Higher and Higher- The Killers

Andrea's Favorite Songs

Ain't Goin Down till the Sun Comes Up- Garth Brooks

Believin- Journey

You Give Love a Bad Name- BonJovi

Joy to the World- 3 Dog Night

Anything Brad Paisley or Billy Joel!

Favorite Kid's Movies Combined

Lion King

Peter Pan

Toy Story

the Sandlot

Matthew's Favorite Kid's Movies

Jungle Book

Great Mouse Detective

Robin Hood

Sword and the Stone

Muppets Christmas Carol

Andrea's Favorite Kid's Movies

Robin Hood

Care Bears

Little Mermaid

Anastasia

The Parent Trap- the original of course!

Favorite TV shows Combined

Frasier

House

Office

Grey's Anatomy

Matthew

West Wing

Seinfeld

Dirty Jobs

Arrested Development

Andrea

Friends
Desperate Housewives

24

Home Improvement

Dawson's Creek....i know i know

Matthew's Favorite Books

Atlas Shrugged

Harry Potter

Spock's World

David Copperfield

Chronicles of Narnia

Andrea's Favorite Books

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Firm

Pride and Prejudice
Harry Potter

Crime and Punishment

That's all we could fit in on that trip, maybe we'll have a Favorites Part 2 later... the jury is still out for my last favorite movie and song... I'm just not ready to commit those spots yet :)

In other Hardison news.... Matthew passed his qualifier... he is now officially a doctoral candidate and I am so proud of him! He is of course relieved for it to be over....only 6 months now until the next committee meeting. Happy Thursday!

P.S. It's still my other half's turn to blog :)

Nursing Update

I'm almost halfway done...with my first semester that is. I'm at least halfway done with clinical, which in my opinion is the biggest accomplishment. Tuesday was prep day for clinical week, which is where I go to the hospital to get information on my patient, meet my patient, etc... Most weeks my instructor has assigned our patients to us, which is sort of what she did this week, except when it came around to me. She told me I had three patients to choose from, all with different diagnoses. Another girl in my group asked my instructor why I got to choose which patient I wanted, and Dr. J answered, "Because I like her". I was beaming! Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but I was just glad to know that she thinks I have been doing a good job.

Wednesday was my first day to administer medications. Unfortunately, my patient only had one shot (sub-Q), the rest of his medications were by mouth (PO) or an IV med, which we are not allowed to give yet. Regardless, giving meds definitely made the day go faster, which is always a blessing! My patient was a really nice person this time around. I really enjoyed talking with him. I would go into more specifics, but rules are rules.

I have my third test this Monday. Hopefully all will go well.

The picture above is my "student" picture so the professors can remember my name. Big difference from my professors at Lipscomb knowing my name already b/c of my dad/sister/mom/husband! But a nice change to be under the radar a little!

P.S. I don't need anyone to point out that I blog more now than when I did before I was in school...I promise I study:)

Smiths hit Birmingham!

Well the day finally arrived... my "deadbeat" parents decided it was finally time to visit their daughter and son-in-law in Birmingham! Don't worry deadbeat is a word that is used frequently in the Smith household...fondly of course :) I was so excited for my parents to finally get to visit our home here, that I was looking forward to it for weeks! If you know me, or my mother, you would know that I was cleaning for days! Matthew would say, cleaning what? Mostly because our apartment stays pretty clean most of the time, but I couldn't help it. With my mom being such a OCD cleaner like me, I had to make sure that it was completely spotless...I think I did a great job!

They arrived Friday just as I was pulling Grandma Eva's awesome Heath Bar Cake out of the oven. It was a success, thank you Grandma Eva for the delicious recipe! Little Matthew raved about the whole time they were here. After giving mom and dad the grand tour of the apartment, which took about 1 minute considering our apartment is approx. 800 sq. feet, we went downtown to meet Matthew for lunch at Jim and Nicks. Even though mom and dad have one of these in Nashville, they never think about eating at one unless they are traveling through Birminghan, but we were more than happy to oblige dad so he could get some of his favorite cheese biscuits. After eating, we drove my parents around to give them a taste of the Magic City. We hit up Samford, Mountain Brook, and Mountain Brook Village. Friday night we went to go eat at our new favorite Mexican restaurant Sol Azteca. Knowing how much my mother and I are alike, I knew she was going to love this place...and she did. Unfortunantly, I got one of my pesky headaches that have been plaguing me the last couple of weeks right before dinner, so it was an early bedtime for me. Little buddy was staying with us on the pull out sofa, so big Matthew was more than happy to have someone to play Wii with, while I popped a Benadryl and crawled into bed.

( Beautiful Samford, in my opinion one of the prettiest universities...Go Bulldogs, right Kristen?)

Saturday morning, my mom and I got up to head out to the Summit to get in some needed mother/daughter shopping time. We didn't spend long there, only going into a few stores (maybe causing a little damage to mom's Visa), and then headed into downtown Homewood. I knew mom would love it there, because it is an area with a lot of eclectic shops and boutiques, right up Vicki Lynn's alley. I kid you not...we went into every baby/children's boutique so mom could talk about what clothes she was going to by when the time came (I didn't tell Matthew how she was looking at christening gowns, the ones he hates with a passion, but I have insisted that every baby wears one on their first Sunday, boy or girl!).... Of course she still wanted to go to the bridal shop down the street, it didn't seem to matter to her that I was already married!

(here's just a taste....for Matthew's sake...haha) Matthew insists that no other church of christ church does this except Harpeth Hills, but I politely beg to differ :)

Meanwhile, Matthew took the boys downtown to show my dad and brother the lab where he works. He showed them how to make cigarrette smoke extract and demonstrated how cold liquid nitrogen is....only -160 degrees! Little buddy loved it! We all met up for lunch at our favorite pizza place Davenports in Mountain Brook Village. After devouring two pizzas, dad thought it would be a great idea to get ice cream from Mountain Brook Creamery (and I am proud to say that I declined as well...only to have Heath Bar cake later!) After lunch, we headed back to the apartment to cheer on the Cats to victory!

All in all it was an awesome weekend! Please come back soon!

p.s. My mom throughout the whole trip could never make out Vulcan the statue, only then to insist that it did not exist.... we promise it does mom! here's the proof!

"How much is that doggy in the window?"

If you know me or my husband you would know that we are dog lovers. For the duration of our engagement, I begged Matthew on an almost daily basis for a puppy... My reasoning was that I was moving to a new town where I knew no one but J and K, and I wanted my own furry little friend for a companion.

Fast forward to November. Matthew finally caved, and we put a deposit down on a pocket beagle puppy who would be ready to come home with us right after Thanksgiving...

(for those of you who don't know, this is what she would have looked like)

(or this)

But, of course I'm an idiot and I was the one who ruined it and told Matthew it would not be smart of us to get a puppy right before Christmas, when we would be out of town a lot, and right before I started nursing school. I was right...but I really wish I wasn't. How can you say no to that face?

Another dilemma is that my parents just got a new puppy in July, and we (but especially Matthew) LOVE her! She is a free spirit and definitely has a mind of her own. We are afraid that if we got a puppy now we would compare her to Macy. What if we didn't like ours as much as her?!

(This is Macy right after we first got her! So cute!)


So, here we are in February and I want a puppy again. I never said I wasn't indecisive! My good friend in nursing school says that she is totally supportive of us getting a puppy or having a baby....Since the latter is not happening anytime soon, I could definitely go for a dog!

(This is the one I have fallen in love with at the Birmingham Humane Society, her name is Anna, but I think having a lab in a apartment is not the best idea!)

I keep telling Matthew I wish I had a dog to go running with...but until then, I guess he will just have to be my running partner instead!

The New Year

Well, like my beautiful, eventual-to-be nurse wife said, it is, and has been my turn to blog for some time now. I will try to do a brief synopsis of our first married Christmas, and then catch you up on events other than nursing school.

On the first married Christmas my true love gave to me...
The Dark Knight on DVD, and a new part to a controller for our Wii. For those of you who don't know, the Dark Knight is easily in my top three movies of all time which is something quite impressive considering it has neither Tom Hanks or Bob Hope in it. So needless to say I was thrilled when I opened the packages on our Christmas night (which was Dec. 17, if my memory serves correctly). I gave Ann a set of Christmas china from Macy's that was meant to be representative of whatever Christmas china pattern she decided to go with. Unfortunately my plans to take her to Macy's and have her pick out her own set were slightly derailed by a set of impromptu doctor's visit that week, culminating in an endoscopy at 6 am Friday the 19th when we were planning on going up to Nashville for my family's christmas that night. Long story short - it turns out that Ann has pretty bad acid reflux disease that was making her feel queasy and just not well so we got her some medication for that and things have significantly improved since then.

Christmas in Dixie...
Christmas was great this year being married, we got to see so much more of each other than last year, even with Ann being in two weddings on back to back saturdays and dealing with all of the lead-up events that go with nuptials these days. We had a great time with my family the weekend before christmas and rocked the brother/sister/mama/papa bear shirts for the umpteenth year in a row. I mean it wouldn't be Christmas without old red sweatsuits with puff-paint letters on them right? We had a bountiful haul the next morning where Ann got textbooks and a stethascope and I got a brand new suit (all of which we desperately needed!) Andrea and I then translocated to her parents house where we stayed prettty much the rest of the time. Normally we would have gone up to Lexington some to spend some time but my parents were down in Nashville/Columbia most of the time and with the multiple wedding to get to unfortunately we were not able to go. On the 24th, our third Christmas eve, we went to the candle light service at Harpeth Hills and then to the dinner at the home of one of the elders there for a big meal. I had the fun of experiencing a glimpse of what fatherhood was going to be like without any of the pesky things like actully having a kid yet when I helped Chris set up Little Matthew's electric piano that night. The next morning was again a banner day when Ann got a new purse, a North Face jacket, and I recieved Rock Band 2 for Wii the new Killers cd! Much of the next two weeks was a blur between more family gatherings, either in Columbia or Memphis, and pre-wedding activities. We were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with our friends Heather and Russ Clendenin in Memphis who for obvious distance reasons we do not get to see that often. We spent New Years Eve with The Joneses, The Hasselbrings, and The Allens, we went out to eat at Rafferty's and then went back to Adam and KB's apartment to hang out and play Wii and just have a good time.

Well, this post still only brings us up to the beginning of the year and it is already pretty verbose so I will end it now and attempt to bring us up to date in the next day or two with another epistle. Thanks to all for reading!

Nursing 101

It has been a very busy month for us! We have finally settled somewhat into a routine schedule, which suits me perfectly...My husband may or may not claim that I am slightly OCD. When he reads this, he will think, slightly?

(For those of you who dont' know this is Florence Nightingale, whom we fondly call FLO...she is the founder of my profession, and it seems like my professors are pretty much in awe of her. I mean I know she kind of put sanitation on the map, but come on people! As my friends boyfriend said, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you don't know what to do, just think WWFND, "What Would Florence Nightingale do?")

Anyway...I am officially a nursing student, and I absolutely love it, despite the fact that I have to walk a 1/2 mile to class everyday. It is definitely culture shock compared to my comfortable Lipscomb bubble :) This week was a week of firsts for me. I had my first test and my first day in the hospital. That was definitely an experience! My first clinical rotation is at a satellite UAB hospital in a town called Bessemer, AL, which is about 20-25 minutes from our apartment. I have to be there at 6:15 in the morning, to start a shift at seven. Why that early you ask? I have yet to figure it out... The first day was challenging. Our instructor just kind of threw us out on the floor with not a lot of instruction, and we were pretty much like lost sheep. All we have been taught thus far is how to take vital signs and give baths... full day huh?! My patient had a history or medical non-compliance which just added to the angst my partner and I were already feeling!

This pretty much describes me on my first day... CLUELESS!

Day 2 was much better! We had one day under our belts and felt much more comfortable. We even got our patient up out of bed and ambulating in the hallway without much complaint... that's a fancy word for walking :) And I got to take my patient to dialysis where I met a really nice nephrologist who was more than happy to explain all the physiology behind dialysis and kidney failure. Who knew that there was that much to it? There are a lot of details about my two days that are probably not appropriate for sharing on our blog...if you are really interested to know, just ask Jonathan, he really enjoyed hearing the stories at dinner last night :) Regardless, I felt like I had done a fairly good job, but I'm still convinced that working a MedSurge floor is NOT the job for me. My mom told me it was her least favorite as well. Actually her quote was " I'm with ya girl!" At the end of my first day, an Operating Room nurse came up to our floor to prep a patient and I looked at one of my friends in my clinical group and said, "That's where I need to be". We will see!

This is all for now... It is actually Matthew's turn to blog and he will be filling everyone in on what else has been going on. So...blame him for our lack of blogging...Any complaints please e-mail Matthew.Hardison@gmail.com. Happy January!