Welcome to Adulthood!

In the past two months, I've been trying to get things ready for the wedding (paying for it is not so exciting),  learn how to be a nurse, and get the fiance and myself a little bit more prepared for married life. Thankfully, I have everything planned but the cake, the most delicious part :) I think I've done a pretty good job pulling this all together with 7 months to pay spare...

My Mom always taught me that marriage is about sharing everything; from sharing space, to sharing money. Taking that into consideration, Phill and I decided it was beneficial for us to make a joint account before the wedding so things run a little smoother after the "I do's." We don't want to start out our marriage worrying about joining or changing one more thing... So yesterday, I took the steps to make this shit show bill pay thing a little more user friendly. Turns out, his idea of paying bills, God I love that boy to death, was to pay them so that each paycheck had an even amount of bills coming out. While this sounds pretty logical and the bills always got paid, they were not being paid by the due dates... He apparently thought he could make his own due dates haha... Such a man thing to do. Again, I love him dearly for taking the reigns of bill paying while I was in school, but now it's my turn. I successfully added every stinking bill to our "bill pay" through our bank so that we could see it all getting set up to go out and could track it a little better. There is nothing I loathe more than when a bill is supposed to come out on a specific date and it doesn't come out until you realize you've spent that money until the next week...

Enough ranting about money!

So I've been a "nurse" now for a little over a month and I've learned by making a little mistakes here and there, never hurting or killing anyone (Thank God!). I've also started looking at patients differently than when I was a PCT... Before they we're messes i had to clean up after just sets of vital signs and helping them with everyday life activities, i.e. bathing, eating, toileting (all the fun things). Now, I'm forced to look at them as a whole; from diseases they suffer from, to medications that prevent this, that and the other... Let's not forget I still am in charge of doing mostly all of the same things I did as a PCT.   Being honest here, giving people shots is a little more scary for me than the patient. If you flinch, I jump out of my skin flinch but try my best to keep it together. Time management has never been an issue for me but as a nurse, there is sooooo much crap charting, researching, passing medications and lastly sucking up talking to the doctors. I now understand why the longer you're a nurse, the bigger that paycheck gets; we earn every darn penny and then some.
I love my job, I really do. Learning how to be a good nurse is tough work. There is so much stuff you have to remember to do... All the little stuff is so important.

Meanwhile, our friends Jesica and Trevor, welcomed the most precious baby girl into the world on February 12th. Aubrie Elizabeth is beyond adorable and she makes me want a baby of my own. Those of you reading this that know me, I've had baby fever since I started babysitting around the age of 12 or 13... There is just something about that little bundle of joy that makes my ovaries ache my heart beat a little faster.  I know though, for our sake and the future babies sake, that we want to be married and be more financially stable. After paying for the wedding we will be freeing up a decent amount of money so we can start stashing it away for home improvements, college funds and just to have piece of mind:) So, I'll just continue down this path that we're creating and enjoy our time together:)

I think I've spilled all the beans that I can this morning!
-Bri

Well, Hello there!

             Today, I found out that I am officially a Registered Nurse. That, in itself, is by far the most exciting news I have ever accomplished. To say in the least that the past two years were probably the toughest years I have had to endure, ever, is an understatement. In October, I finally graduated. I took my State boards in November and failed. BIG EYE OPENER; you're not invisible Bri, get your shit stuff together. Since then, I have been studying my tail off. Hard work pays off.
             In other news, I have been a wedding planning away! I have my dress, picked it up today!! It's as amazing as the day I picked it out. Jennifer and I went to go pick it up today (perfect opportunity to put it back on). I decided that while I had it on, I was going to prance around like a 5 year old in a princess costume walk around the store to make sure it fit properly. Nobody gives you funny looks at David's Bridal when your strutting your stuff in your wedding dress, in fact, you get oo's and ahh's...  I'm in Love. I felt like a Disney Princess.
             Last year was simply amazing. My friendships grew stronger with some of the most amazing girls. We made some awesome memories! My bestie got married to the Love of her life! It was a pretty amazing wedding:) One of my best and oldest friends had her baby boy, Josiah! We found out that they are being stationed closer to home from Delaware! I cannot wait to be within driving distance! Josiah was born an hour and a half after my birthday on June 1st... Little chunk wanted his own birthday:) My other friend, Jesica, is due any minute with baby Aubrie! I cannot wait! I'm a little obsessed with this child already... Everytime I'm around Jes, I have to awkwardly feel her belly to see if Aubrie wants to move around for me. I have always been obsessed with babies and pregnancy... Some people see this as creepy stalkerish odd, but I can't help it. Eventually, I will have my time to be a human oven baby maker:) Right now, I think I'll focus on learning to be a nurse and planning our wedding!
             I'll add some random pictures from this year! It feels good to be able to blog again instead of having to worry about studying and homework!

Love,
Nurse Bri

Tree Burn Extravaganza

Well, January 2013 was quite successful! We had the 7th Annual Christmas Tree Burn up at Phill's Dad's house and it turned out to be quite memorable:) We had the best crowd around, no drama (Save it fo yo Mama!!!) lol, and some well deserved R & R!

 Here are my favorite girls!!! As you can see, Lyndsey and I were sporting a bottle of Wild Turkey American Honey which lead to drunkness fun:)

 This wasn't from the tree burn but the weekend fun. Christine's son Tyler drove home, of course with Phill's help, and it was only 3 blocks... Completely insane safe:)

 Here we have Rebekah learning young how to bottle feed someone... She got it in Uncle Phill's nose haha.

 Lolita, formerly known as the butterball, was chilling in my vest... She was shaking like a leaf, poor thing.

 and the Winners of the annual Kick ball game, was My team!!! Probably no thanks to me since every time the ball came at me, I ducked for my life tried to catch it:)

Ahh the triplets:) Twice the trouble and three times the fun!

 Probably one of the best fire pictures I've ever been able to capture:)

Some more girly time pictures:)

So, the weekend after we got back, we hung out with our neighbors Hody and Savanna (They have a zoo as well at their house, thank God we aren't the only ones)... Well Phill decided we needed turtles.

We got 2 Map turtles that are only about 2" in diameter and Oh so cute! We named them after some famous and unforgettable turtles, Squirt (From Nemo) and Franklin ("Hey, it's Franklin!!").

The first Picture is of Squirt. The poor guy is scared of life and hides from me in the corner every time I walk outside... He'll come around, I'm a good Mommy:)

 This Precious, little photogenic thing is Franklin... He loves coming to say hi to me and is very outgoing. By the way, I know it sounds insane to know a turtles personality... Phill already told me haha:/

 This is what we brought them home in:) They are aquatic turtles, so they love swimming but they also have a cute oasis they can lounge on:)

 Thought I would add some pictures of my other kids:) Elle Belle has turned into quite the running partner (When she isn't chasing a squirrel)

 This is My favorite boy in the entire world... Mater (Tow Mater from Cars) He's posing for me:)

 And my little Fluff ball, Sophie! She's my princess, and she acts knows it:)

 Finally, How often in January can one go to the beach? This girl did, and she got a tan! It was a gorgeous day and I was off of school so obviously I took advantage of it!!!!

That's all for now Loves~

~Briana

Hello New Year!

   Hello Loves!  

              I swear I haven't forgotten to blog, life has just been hectic, and amazing all at once. I believe I left off in the beginning of November, talking about how stoked I was to go to my Fiance's family reunion! That's right, my fiance!!! More on that in a few paragraphs:)

               So, reunion was packed full of fun events. We were located in the center of Burnsville, NC (which is just the daintiest little town:) We stayed in the Nu Wray Inn, which used to be a Bed and Breakfast. Any-who, we had tons of fun playing games like "minute to win it", "cupcake wars" and "family feud" that were a cluster blast! 30 of Phil's family all in one place makes for a little crazy time. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll just have to upload some so that you can see how nuts some of this was:)

This was 3rd generation cooking night aka Italian night (since I'm the only italian there lol, I made the menu and executed it... with lots of laughs help) We made baked ziti (beef, veggie and plain ol' cheese) Delish!

The grass up here was not like crappy FL grass, it was somehow... musical? I was just trying to capture all of the moments, and then I was going to attempt to figure this one out lol...

This little angel is Miss Abigail. She is cousin Stephanie's baby. She is one month old here and such a sweetie pie and a very good and quiet baby:)

During this 5 day trip I took tons over 600 pictures and tried to find my inner photographer again. She's been locked up since school started and it was amazing to get to mess around with my big lens and really capture the family and scenery:) This is one of our twin nieces, Elizabeth. The leaves in her hair were from playing in the pile her and her favorite Uncle Phil made... They decided to jump in and kick them around everywhere and have a blast! (He's going to be such a good daddy someday)

Ahhh Cupcake Wars... Cousin Emma and I were a team and our cupcakes won over the judges! We were given certain ingredients to make our amazing cupcakes out of... We chose a chocolate cake with a blackberry compote in the center topped with a cream cheese/ agave nectar frosting with ground cloves on top. It sounds like a mouthful of flavors and they surprisingly went very well together:) We were proud!

 
As you can see, I continued to play with my camera and I shot a pic through sunglasses:) The boys were all playing a friendly game of football in the center of town, which basically happened to be our front yard)
 
These are the boys afterwards, eager to go in and eat dinner:)

Our other niece Rebekah, also modeled some leaves for me:) 

As well as jumping in the leaves on with her sister:) They had way too much fun being 6 year olds!

Showing me what she picked from the garden:)

One of my favorite pictures of the reunion is when Phil bit the bullet and held the tiny baby. He was so natural, but so scared since she was little. Ahhh a glimpse of the future!

Now on to my favorite part of the season, Christmas Eve! For Christmas Eve dinner, we were at my parents house with Mom, Dad, Jen, Grandpa, great Aunt "J" and both Grandma's. Phillip barely ate (weird for him... he's usually a pig big eater)... Something was up. Nonetheless, I shook it off and focused on my dinner. Afterwards, I heard him talking to my mom about maybe going to see Christmas lights. So, naturally, I chimed in. I told him that we absolutely should, since we hadn't all season. Mom suggested Largo Central Park aka the Choo choo train park (we used to go ride the trains there when we were little and they always have an awesome light display). We were walking around Largo Central with everyone and their mother, and Phil said, "Why don't we go off on our own path..." I went along with it and we proceeded to sit on a bench and just chit chat. All of a sudden he sprung the a question to me that I actually had no idea of the answer... He said, "Do you know what happened 28 years ago today?" Peoples birthdays started trailing through my head and finally I answered, "ummmmmm nope." LOL ( I really had no clue). So we stood up, still wondering the answer, he turned me to face him and told me...

"28 years ago today, your Dad asked your Mom to marry him... and tonight, I'm going to carry on that tradition by asking you to marry me." In shock I watched him, in slow motion it seemed, get down on one knee and continue, 

"Briana Nicole DeCresie, will you marry me?"

The most amazing ring was opened up in front of me and I of course said yes! I was like a kid in a candy shop, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I didn't cry, I just couldn't stop being excited! He took a picture of us to commemorate the moment and it is now my favorite picture in the world. My sister #pic-stitched it for me:) 

We proceeded to go to his parents house to show and tell and my parents showed up with grandma and we had a nice little get together to celebrate the night. His sisters came home from church with the girls and we continued to celebrate. We are tentatively planning on October 4th, 2014, so that I have time to finish school and then devote all of my time to wedding planning! EEK!!!

After the celebrating, we went to Pasadena Community Church with our friends for the 11pm service. It was nice to be around friends that can share in the joy and excitement of our big day:) After church we headed to the Dockerty's for a 2am Christmas breakfast! I love my friends:) Over all, a very blessed Christmas!

Lyndsey and Derek had the first annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party... I kinda think the above picture says it all:) 

The weekend after Christmas, we camped out at Redneck Yacht Club to see boobs skanks the big beer can drop at Midnight... the only thing was, it wasn't actually new years eve... anyways, we had a blast riding the four wheelers and camping!

 So, for the real New Year's eve we went to the newly weds (Sean and Cali) home for a little get together. It was such a drama-free perfect night to bring in the New year! We truly have the best friends there is:) We ALL got a little toasted:) Example- The monkey faces explain themselves...

Lyndsey and I bringing in the new year:) 

Ohhhh, In other news, I just finished my 5th quarter of school today and I will now be getting a week long break and then start 6th quarter:) October can't come fast enough, graduation is right around the corner! But, while I'm waiting, I've decided to try to make a healthier me and loose a couple LB's:) We shall see how long I keep it up for but I have a wedding dress to fit in to next year:))))) 

That's all I have for now! I promise I won't take as long to update next time:)