Sigma Theta Tau

I had the honor of being inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the International Nursing Honor Society. I was one of 13 in my ABS nursing class. It was quite exciting!

Saturday Thrifting Treasures

So, I haven't written in ages! I'm sorry. I want to move my blog site...but I can't think of a new name. Do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking of including these sorts of thoughts: grace, journals, literary references, cozy, home sweet home, thoughts, small delights...I'm open to ideas!

We had a great day. I worked at the hospital this morning, and when I got home, we scrubbed and vacuumed the Green Bean (our trusty old jetta). She sparkles now!

Tonight is a delicious evening...Oliver and I are listening to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, and I'm puttering around lighting candles, washing dishes, and vacuuming, thinking of how I'm going to set up our office, and enjoying my thrift store finds of the day! Here they are: delightful amber decorative glass thing that creates a nice Thanksgiving glow, a beautiful copy of On the Banks of Plum Creek ($1!) and a nice old set of Tolkien's Ring trilogy (which I've been meaning to read...a winter project). I also picked up some lovely antique glasses (as in, to drink from, not for reading!), and a cute little vintage tin for my kitchen (maybe for tea?).

Hope you're having a cozy, beautiful, autumn Saturday as well...

Summer's End

Here is a smattering of snapshots from summer's end....

Garden Walk 2008

Visit from Mom Z. and Matthew

Beautiful Jacob Donovan (stylin' a mohawk)

"Hello? Hello? Yes, hello, Jacob here..."

Jersey Shore with the Van Wyck family

Changes

Hi all....it's been a month (almost) and there have been lots of changes in the Van Wyck family (wow, that makes us sound so official). Unfortunately, I have no pics for you because my computer died tonight (sniff, sniff). I have been camping out in the Health Science Library until the wee hours of the night to finish my assignments. Today was my last (yep, it's true) my LAST final exam for the summer session marathon. Hallelujah! I am so thankful that this summer is over. It's been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. It will all be worth it in May 2009 when I get my nursing license.

So, here are the changes that have happened recently *(use your imagination for the pictures):
1. New house on Russell St. with two bedrooms and a cute linen closet
2. New wheels (her name is the Gray Goose...she's an adorable VW Jetta...my very own!)
3. Mom and Matthew came up to the Van Wyck work camp...they helped us lug boxes and clean out cabinet drawers! (I'm so thankful for my mom...she made my kitchen so cozy!)
4. First time being camp counselors at the FRC summer camp last weekend...I've never actually been with so many 16-18 year-olds. It was exciting and exhausting.
5. My sis and her hubby moved as well...and he started med school...check out her adorable new house HERE.

Well, that's it for now....hope you all are enjoying the winding down of summer. I'll be thrilled to see the month of September.

And...pretty soon this old blog will be moving as well.... I'll let you know before we go.
Signing off,
KVW

State of Affairs

Friends, this was the horrendous state of affairs yesterday. Don't show your small children. They might be frightened.

2.5 hours and lots of aluminum foil later, here's the state of affairs today. Whew!

Very, Very Boring Post.

Hi Friends. Warning: this is a very boring post. That is because there is nothing to write about (I'm not kidding.) I spend every moment of my life in school, and if I'm not in school, I'm spending all of our money buying humongous books for school. Sigh. My first session is over, with a whirlwind of finals last week (I squeaked by with 2 As and a B). I am thrilled to be starting my next clinical rotation in Pediatrics. I'm sure it's going to be a super experience. I'm getting more and more excited about completing my MSN and becoming a Nurse Practitioner...but let's get through the summer first. Anyhow, I've been unforgivably remiss in calling friends and keeping in touch with family, but I assure you, it's not because I don't miss you. I am drowning in stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs!

I am thrilled to be going to NC this week to FINALLY see my family and spend a little time on the beach.

Some exciting news is that our dearest Ben and Cherie have a baby girl (lil' Evie). Check out their gorgeous kid here. Also, I've gotten about 5 phone calls this week of friends announcing a new pregnancy... is it the time of year? Is it in the water? Or is it that no one is driving anywhere because of the billion dollar gas prices, which makes for many weekends at home...together :) ? Anyhow, we're thrilled about all of you. You know who you are.

Here are a few totally scattered and miscellaneous pics of Buffalo lately, to at least give some meager portrayal of our lives this summer. We've been loving the cool, crisp weather, and the blue skies. We can't wait for our (my) big break (one week) at the end of August so we can take advantage of the great hills and hiking trails that upstate NY has to offer. Any and all visitors are welcome to come! We'd love to see friends...just be warned that I'll probably be taking your blood pressure and listening to your heart sounds.

Here are some other tidbits of June:

We spent Memorial Day at Buffalo's waterfront, home of the USS Little Rock. I don't know much about it. Ask James. There was a whole ceremony going on, starring many veterans, who sang and gave great speeches, and did the taps on the bugle (is it the bugle? I'm really showing my ignorance here....so sorry). Anyhow, below you'll see these great men who served our country in the various WWs and later. I cried all the way through the ceremony (of course).....

(If you look closely, you'll see this awesome old guy with the feather cap...he was too great for words.)


...we explored Buffalo's waterfront....


...walked around an old church downtown....


...ran in a 5K race with my co-workers....


...and watched the flowers get all ready for Buffalo's annual Garden Walk (gorgeous!)...

Race for the Cure (and) I love my mom!

On Saturday June 14 I ran the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer race in celebration of my Mom. She's been free of breast cancer for 9 years. What a gift!

Here are my fellow runners-my friend Megan (fellow nursing student) is on the left.

Megan in slow motion! She's actually one of the fastest ruuners I know. She's my coach, and she shows no mercy. She joined me at the end of this race (she had finished well before me) and made me run SO hard...."Kelly, we're passing these two NOW....GO!...now the next two.... run HARDER, run HARDER!!!...
Is it possible to love and also want to punch someone at the same time? I guess that makes a good coach. Well, I finished about a minute sooner than I would have, thanks to her.

Summa Cum Laude

Congratulations to James, who graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master's Degree in English from the University at Buffalo, with a perfect 4.0 GPA. I'm bursting with pride.

What More Could a Girl Want?

Cherie, Rachel, and I in Canada...

...than to spend days upon end with her girlfriends? The past few weeks have been girlfriend central, and I'm loving it. In March I visited Cherie and Rachel in Canada, where we had a deliciously good time staying up late and chatting, enjoying great meals and wine, visiting a winery, exploring Toronto, and hiking in the escarpment. It was delightful to see my college kindred spirits again, especially because a little munchkin is about to join the gang (Cherie is due this summer!)

The second batch of girls were my very own crazy sisters and mom. We trekked down to the beautiful Longwood Gardens, and stayed in a bona fide 1700s house (original down to the floorboards!) We just had a grand old time cracking each other up, shopping, hanging out with Cheryl and Chip, the pleasant (!) innkeepers and Teddy, their one-eyed poodle, and generally acting like our crazy selves times 4. We thought we might give those old innkeepers a heart attack when we piled into that creaky homestead with bags and bags full of clothes, shoes, movies, schnacks :), and more... "You're all staying tonight?"... and so it went.
Life is good, and I'm so thankful to have these great women in my life to laugh and grow with...(sometimes that's too literal. I'm afraid chatting usually goes beautifully with munching :) Oh well, spring has finally arrived here in Buffalo (hallelujah, it's about time), and I'm hoping to get out and run a whole lot more now that the sun will keep me company.

Quiet

March. Happy birthday to my sister Kathleen this month (18!). Congratulations to Erik and Rachel Van Dyk, our dear friends, on the birth of a healthy girl, Olivia Maria. We're so thrilled for them! Here are some pics of Jacob from our last trip to NJ (already a month ago) as well as this week's snowstorm up here in NY. Our most recent comedy of errors is that our passenger side window doesn't stay up. Trusty old Jetta, giving out on us! So, soon, if it is not fixed, we shall be reminding ourselves of Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" when he drives across the country in the back of the pickup truck, icicles frozen from his nose...

This time of year is one of introspection and hibernation. The resurrection joy of Easter is still a few weeks away, and we're still in this quiet, inward-looking time of Lent. Somehow, being snowbound is a lovely living metaphor for the quiet, the snowbound, the soul-searching of the Lenten season. It's often hard to get through these months, these days, but the quiet is good for us, isn't it? It's good to be alone with yourself once in a while. As my friend Wendell Berry says,

"Best of any song is a bird song in the quiet. But first you must have the quiet."

Still Winter...

Yes, and it's still winter. I guess I should just stop whining because winter has just begun here in Buffalo...but it doesn't feel quite as cozy as last! The reality of ice and snow and slippery roads is starting to make me grumpy. Well, I shouldn't complain too much, as James still drives everywhere in our trusty old Jetta. Last night after spending all our energy at the gym, we walked outside to find a huge ice storm raining down on poor little us in our gym pants. Ice balls were falling from the sky! Really, it's true. We had to scrape about a solid inch of rock-hard ice off the car, only to bobsled home to our apartment! Ah, winter...

As you can see from our pictures, nothing very exciting is happening around here. I am wearing myself out with work and school (my Pathophysiology course is AWESOME! I get to do all these case studies and try to diagnose pretend patients. It makes me feel like House). My classes are a lot more work than I had counted on when I signed up for 40-50 hrs/week at work! Sigh.

I should explain the dumb picture: Wegman's has these gorgeous crates of clementines on sale this week and last, and I've been eating them like a madwoman. Like 3 or 4 at once. That's the story. That's how exciting our life is...I'm writing about clementines. OK, I'm signing off....happy winter.

January

First, I want to say happy birthday to my Dad! His birthday is tomorrow, the 20th. This was the last page of a story I wrote in 1987, age six, and I love you even more than I did then! Hope your day is relaxing and full of blessing. Wish we could be there to celebrate with you in person, Dad.

So, January. January is an odd month. I've been feeling kind of drab, a sort of post-holiday let down...but there's also a sort of coziness to January- no crazy long lines and last-minute Christmas gift shopping- just winter. It feels kind of nice to stay in (like we're doing tonight), snow piling up outside, drinking wine or tea and listening to the sound of each others' pages turning. James has been reading piles of books on Nathaniel Hawthorne for this semester's course. Hawthorne, who wisely noted that

"It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate."

That's why I hang out with James. It helps to widen my sphere of understanding and experience in this world. (Right. Actually, we hang out because we have precious few other options in terms of social engagement! :) Anyhow, Hawthorne also said that

"The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash."

Well, we're not sure if the cash is going to come flowing in anytime soon, but James is experiencing the pleasurable toil of writing his thesis...much to my gratification and enjoyment. He also promised to write me some poetry in the upcoming weeks...Maybe I'll post some if you're lucky. We visited Hawthorne's home, The Old Manse, in Concord, MA on our honeymoon (I know, I know...). But we loved it. It was all closed up for winter, but we peeked in the windows (James lifted me up), and tried to read (backwards) the words that Hawthorne's wife, Sophia Peabody, had engraved with a diamond on the glass pane of the first story window. It was a very romantic honeymoon day :)
Well, here's hoping your January isn't too drab, and that you're enjoying the hibernation!

New Beginnings

Hello friends, and happy new year. I hope you all had a Christmas full of joy and wonder. James and I were so glad to be back with the Jersey gang this Christmas, although it just wasn't the same without Rachael and Reilly around! We loved the Christmas party at the Witko's (especially that beautifully set table!), the fun at Aunt Debi's Christmas, and a cozy night in front of the fireplace at the Van Wyck home. We're back in Buffalo, and we're both feeling that it's a time for new beginnings. We have officially been married a full year. It's been beautiful. Hard, sometimes, and we've both learned a great deal about sacrifice and especially about grace. In all, it's been far more beautiful than we had ever imagined. As we have hardly any other friends in Buffalo, we've learned, for better or for worse, to be each others' entertainment. Thankfully, I laugh pretty hard at really corny jokes, so James is in luck, and he can still make me die with laughter at his crazy accents. And though our apartment seems to be growing smaller every day, thanks in part to the fact that Oliver has gained about 10 pounds since he's lived here, we still love being home together.
Another new beginning will officially happen in May of this new year. I was accepted into the Graduate Nursing program at the University at Buffalo, where I will officially begin my career in medicine/nursing. James and I have big hopes and dreams, and it feels good to be getting on the road leading toward the realization of those dreams. We're trying to plan a trip to Haiti for this spring, so that we can just smell the air there, feel the dirt between our toes, and see and hear the things we're working for. If you'd like check out Double Harvest's newly spritzed-up website (www.doubleharvest.org). We're so anxious and excited to get our hands to work on this life goal of ours. For us, this year will bring more purpose, more serious living for the dream of getting back to that beautiful country, to work towards this kenosis, handing out glasses of water. We're still trying hard to live with eyes wide open.

"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act." -Albert Einstein.

So, happy new year, and bon courage to all of you who are starting new beginnings in your lives. Isn't it exciting???