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Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I went home for about 9 days, and I am just getting settled back into things here in Vegas. I had a great time being home... it was the first time since December 26! I had my camera with me throughout the duration of my trip, but I took very few pictures. Here is what I did take...

I left out on a Sunday evening, and I got lucky enough to see Gavin in action at work.

He was working on the plane that I was about to fly out on.

On my first day home, Mom and I drove to Birmingham to shop around and to visit my grandmother, Faybaby. We were able to grab a bite to eat with Dad and John Jr as well. The following day, I headed to Auburn to catch up with some friends. I had such a great day seeing people I hadn't seen in nearly 6 months!!! I really wish that I had thought to take out my camera and get a few pictures. The rest of the week was spent at home with Mom, Dad, and Sassy! It was great to spend some time with Sassy because I hadn't seen her since Christmas. Lesley graduated on Friday, but she was gracious enough to not require my attendance for the ceremony. Thank you Lord (and Lesley). She graduated cum laude in exactly 4 years, I am so proud of her!

Les and me.

Faybaby and I at Lesley's graduation party at the lake.

Mary Margaret came and spent the weekend with me at the lake. She brought her baby, Beasley. It was so great to spend time with the both of them!

I went back to Peachtree City, where we did some slacklining. And as usual, we drew a crowd.

It was so great to be home for a few days. I already miss everybody. I am open to visitors any time!!!! Okay, I am sorry to give you a play-by-play, so thank you for reading if you made it this far!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there! Today is your special day! Although I am not yet a mom, I do know that it is one of the most important jobs in the world. The older I get, the more I realize how important a mother's role is in her children's lives. I also learned that everyone else was missing out because my siblings and I were the only 3 people lucky enough to have my mom all to themselves. I mean, I always knew she was great, but the more people that I met in college the more I realized how lucky I really was.

The list of why Judy is so wonderful is far too long to list here, but I would like to touch on some of the things that I most appreciate. She has managed the most wonderful balance between being my biggest fan and putting me in my place (kindly and gently, of course). I have met some mothers who believe that their children can do no wrong, and Jude isn't one of those... and I appreciate that. I love our honest relationship. Also, since we live so close to Auburn, she was very much the mother to all of my friends and sorority sisters. And, she lets me vent! That may be my favorite thing! I can scream, kick, and cry, and she will just let me! Amazing! Okay, that was a random short list, but those are the things that came to mind. I am sorry I am not being very poetic, but its late, so this is the best that I can do! Basically, my mom is the most amazing mom there is, and I am so thankful that God sent her to me (or me to her)... He really knows what He is doing!

Not only do I have an amazing mom, but I was also blessed with other amazing moms throughout my life. There are many people who have played a role in rearing me, and I wanted to say thank you, and wish you all a Happy Mother's Day. Here are some pictures that I wanted to share with you all.

Random picture of mom and child in Africa (had to throw it in, it was too cute!)

So cute!

My beautiful mom with her daughters.

In Hawaii.

I have a mom that will stay up late after graduation to help me make brownies despite the fact I am 24 and can do it myself.

Jude and MM in the kitchen. My mom shares family recipes with her "other daughters" and then teaches them how to bake them. These two love each other.

Sassy, my precious grandma.

Faybaby. She is one of my favorite people in the world.

Amie. She was my babysitter when I was growing up. She was like a stand-in mom on at times. She actually lived with us when Judy broke her arm! She now has 3 BEAUTIFUL babies of her own. Happy Mom's Day, Amie!

This is Mrs. Rose, Jennifer's mom! She was my other mom, as I lived at their house in elementary school! We did family vacations and a million other things together. Mrs. Rose treated me just like I was part of the family. She was one of those close family friends who was allowed to discipline me without it being weird or her over-stepping! Like I said, I was her other daughter. I love this woman- Happy Mother's Day!

This is beautiful Sarah. If I had ever had an older sister, she would have been it. She is now the mother of her own two BEAUTIFUL babies. Happy Mother's Day to you, Sarah!

This is Momma Kim. She is Tori's mom, but my mom, too. She is my college mom to be exact. I met her and Tori my sophomore year, and I became one of her many, many daughters as soon as Tori joined Sigma Kappa. She is great with advise and always up for tailgating or a girls night (the picture above is from a concert in Huntsville where we got caught in a terrible downpour)! I love you Miss Kim.

Here is a picture of Tori and I with our moms.

This is my beautiful friend, Chelsea with her Avery. She is an amazing mom and wife, and she is one of my very best friends! I am so thankful for her!

Aunt Cindy is my mom's best friend. She is another one of my moms growing up. I love her and Uncle John, they are truly part of my family. I hope that your day is wonderful!

The only mom that I think that I am missing in Mrs. Tucker. I didn't have a picture on my laptop, but I have a million at home in Alabama. I split my time between the Davis' and the Tucker's houses. Mrs. Tucker was also a mom who treated me like part of the family. I have wonderful memories with her and her amazing family!

So, Happy Mother's Day to all of you. I hope that you know how loved you all are.

(If you thought that mother's day was long, just wait until father's day... I have a million uncles to recognize!)

More Visitors

Gavin's brother and sister-in-law (Aubrey and Meghan) came into town this past weekend, and it was such a blast. They stayed at my apartment because I have more room at my place than Gavin does. They were a lot of fun and really easy to entertain. Gavin and Aubrey have a friend that lives in Phoenix, Eddie, who came up to visit with his girlfriend Aly, so it was a full house! We went to the strip and ate at a nice restaurant, and Aubrey did some gambling. He won $325 in about three hours! It was really great getting to spend some time with them! Below are some pictures from their visit. Aubrey and Meghan are not much on being outdoors, but we were able to get them to go to Red Rocks to see where Gavin does his highline. Aubrey got a little woozy being close to the edge.

Aubrey trying to make a small climb in his sandals.

Meghan and Aubrey in the great outdoors.

The four of us at Red Rocks.

This was as close as Aubrey would get to the edge.

Gavin and I at the casino where Aubrey won all of his money.

Meghan's huge plate of nachos at Margartiville. She barely made a dent.

Gavin and Aubrey playing the ring game while we were waiting at Margaritaville.

On Unemployment and Persistent Prayer

This is me on my second graduation day this past December! I am really, really proud. Nursing school was hard. I didn't sleep very much! I cried and I whined! And Mom had to listen to me on the phone whine about why my life was so had (oh the drama)! And it was finally over without any embarrassing failures, and I have a degree that will allow me to do what I most want to do which is to help others.

On the way to the coliseum for the very long and boring graduation ceremony. It was raining really hard that day.

Me with my proud parents.

This picture was taken the night before graduation at the School of Nursing pinning ceremony. Faybaby came as a surprise to pin me!

It was really special for her to be there for my pinning. I am the first granddaughter to take after her and become a nurse. She is one of my favorite people in the world, and I know that she doesn't like to leave her house, so I was happy that she was there!

Okay, now to get to the point of the post. All of those proud pictures and hard work paid off and I got my diploma. BUT, I have to pass the state boards and I need a prospective employer. I am loving my life out here with very few responsibilities, but I am afraid that I am forgetting all of that nursing knowledge I worked so hard for. And, I really want to connect with people. I loved my time at St. Jude's Research Hospital, and I would love to have a job like that out here. I know that that is a long stretch, but I will take almost any nursing job in the meantime. God sets aside seasons in life, and I am in love with where I am right now! I would just really enjoy the chance to start my nursing career and to help others. So, I am continuing to pray for the right doors to be opened (and that I can have the perfect schedule). So, if you have time to remember me in your prayers for a job, that would be much appreciated. I miss all of you and I hope that you are all doing well! It is almost summer!

My Weekend at the Airport

I spent most of this past weekend at the Las Vegas Airport trying to use a buddy pass to get to Atlanta. Gavin had a wedding to go to in Baltimore on Sunday, so we were both going to try to fly out on the redeye to Atlanta. We both made the flight and we even got to sit together! We had the very last seats on the plane, and we were all buckled into our seats ready to take off when... BAM! We both jump up out of our seats to see what had happened. The flight attendant had deployed the emergency slide on the back of the plane. Gavin immediately told me that this plane was not going anywhere because Las Vegas did not have the parts needed to fix this problem. He said we needed to grab our stuff and get off the plane immediately because we would be stuck behind everybody if we waited. So we all but sprinted to the front of the plane only to find that the door was already closed, and the pilots and flight attendants at the front had no idea about the deployed float at the back of the plane. They wanted us to take our seats again, even after Gavin explained that he was a mechanic and that this place wasn't going anywhere! About 30 minutes later, they announced that they needed to de-plane everybody! Here is a picture that I was able to take with my camera phone (this explains the quality). This is the plane on the left and Gavin on the ramp looking at the slide. That is him in the blue shirt on the right side of the picture. The plane on the left is the plane that was going to take me to Atlanta to see my mom and dad until the genius flight attendant accidentally deployed one of the emergency escape slides. You can see the engine and the wing on the right side of the plane. And if you look past that you can see a white slide. Long explanation, sorry about that. So, we headed back to the airport the next day and I missed more flights because the slide from the night before was still messing everything up. And, on Monday we tried again, and missed even more flights. Gavin could have caught one of the first flights, but he was being sweet and denied taking a seat until I could fly out with him. We probably would have made it too, if it weren't for 2 foreigners flying standby who used up 6 seats over two flights. But that is a different story. God just had other plans for us this weekend, so Atlanta will have to wait.

We took turns napping on the floor in the terminal. I guess if we had to be stuck, we were lucky to be stuck there together!

Tori is ENGAGED!

My little sister, Tori, got engaged last Friday!!!!! I talked to her in the afternoon for about 45 minutes while she was getting ready for her date with John Carl. When she called me back about 3 hours later, I thought about silencing my call because I was lost in traffic, but figured it had to be important for her to need to call me back. I am so glad I answered... she got engaged! I am so excited for her and John Carl, and his proposal story was priceless! I was just really, really sad that I couldn't be there to celebrate with them... or see her ring in person! So happy or you, Tor!

Best Friends!

I couldn't be there, but they took a picture of her talking to me!

Good lookin' couple!

Desert Day

On February 10th, just a few days before we went to San Diego, Gavin and I went to meet some of his work buddies out in the desert. One of his coworkers, Ed, had just recently purchased a Polaris Rzr, which is an off-roading sport vehicle. It was a beautiful day, and I was happy to come along and be the only girl. This first picture below was the view from where we were parked. We were on the east side of the city, and we were able to watch Nellis Air Force base do test runs on some of their jets that day.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the Stratosphere (needle-like building) on the right side of the picture. This kind of reminds me of a scene out of CSI.

Looking under the hood...

Two of the many jets I saw taking off and landing.

They were very loud.

Ed even let me drive for a while. I was really nervous to crash or mess up his expensive new toy, but I got the hang of it, and it was a lot of fun.