I never thought the day would come where I would have to ask “Permission” from someone else to spend my money…well, okay so it’s not entirely ALL my money. Jonathan and I just made a pretty good sized purchase and before I could buy it I had to ask him if it was okay–Wow, I can feel my independence slipping away. I am a pretty independent person and always have been, but it just dawned on me the other day that in about 2 months, I’m about to lose some of that. I guess that comes with the territory huh. But I would rather be married with less independence than single with all the independence in the world. I’m sure there’s a lot more that I’m going to have to get use to though.

Jonathan and I just went live with our wedding website. Check it out
sometime – www.casadeblundell.com

We also both have new email addreses through this domain.
laurie@casadeblundell.com
jonathan@casadeblundell.com

Jonathan's blog has already moved to this location and mine will be
soon
www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan

I got this in an email today and couldn’t help but share it. It is hilarious and I can just picture this happening at church…

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the
foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with
names with small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The seven year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so
the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly,
“Good morning Alex.”

“Good morning Pastor,” he replied, still focused
on the plaque. “Pastor, what is this?” he asked.

The pastor said, “Well, son, it’s a memorial to all the young men and
women who died in the service.”

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Alex’s voice, barely audible and trembling with fear,
asked, “Which service, the 9:45 or the 11:15 ?”

As some of you know, I love to re-do old furniture and make it look all
pretty again. I have re-finished a lot of my furniture and I decided to
re-finish a dresser that Jonathan had so it would match the rest of the
furniture. Well, I started on it yesterday and forgot how much work you
have to put into it. I just got the drawers sanded and that took a lot
of work. Granted it probably took more work than necessary because the
type A personality and perfectionist in me was coming out. That and I
had a dog circling me and barking at the sander the whole time. But I
still love to do it…there’s just something about taking something that
has been beat up or is just old and making it look new again. I’ll show
you pictures when I’m all finished with it.

So my dress came in about a month ago and when I tried it on I couldn’t
zip it up all the way….because I’m a McFatty! Just kidding, somehow my
dress was made a little too small. So I went and had my alterations
done yesterday and hopefully I’ll be able to breathe when I zip the
dress up. Actually, I’m just thankful that I will be able to zip it up
all the way. Let me tell you, alterations aren’t cheap either! But then
again, nothing about a wedding is cheap. Now let’s just hope my dress
is finished in time for my bridal portraits, and it fits!

I think I have, or will have, the record for moving the most in one
year. Let’s see, From this time last year, I moved from my apartment
with Jen to a house with two other friends, from that house to a new
house my friend bought. Then this weekend I just moved in with my
brother in Forney for a coule of months before the wedding. Then in 3
months I will be moving to Waxahachie then 3 months later when the lease
is up on Jonathan’s loft we will be moving again! That will make 5 moves
in 1 year, wow. The good part about that is that with each move I get
rid of more and more stuff. I will say that it comes to a point where
you are tired of living with half of your stuff in storage or at least
not with you. My brother has been gracisously storing a lot of my
things at his house and now I finally get to live where all of my
belongings are…but they are still all in boxes and will remain that
way until May. Ok, I feel like I’m talking in circles so the point to
this is that I am sick of moving and I’m ready to just buy a house and
stay there for a REALLY REALLY long time! Oh and we (Jonathan and me)
calculated it and it’s going to cost us roughly $15 in gas every time we
want to see eachother. So by the time we get to eachothers place we’ve
already spent the money we were going to when we went out. GEEZE…but I
guess it doesn’t help that neither one of us have a car that gets good
gas mileage Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike traffic and that I
think the majority of American’s spend probably a total of 10-15 hours
in traffic a week. That’s just wrong I tell you, wrong. I took me over
an hour to get to work this morning–too long!

Have you ever felt like your life was stuck in a rut, you just do the
same thing day in and day out. Well, mine is anything but that right
now. But I have felt like that before and thought to myself, “What is
the one thing, or maybe two things, that I could do and be the
happiest?” Not necessarily for a job or pay or anything – money or time
is no object.
Jonathan and I have talked about this before and besides the obvious of
being a spouse and parent I would have to say that if I could do
anything at all and it would make me the happiest in life, I would work
in a childrens home and just love the kids who don’t have parents. I
have a huge passion to go to Russia and work in an orphanage (short-term
of course). But there are just as many parentless kids in America.
Every child needs to feel the love of a parent or a parent figure. They
simply need to feel loved! I would also work for Habbitat For Humanity
building houses. I love the fact that I can use my hands and my
abilities to help build someone else a house. What would you do, what
would make you the absolute happiest in life?

It’s snowing!!! I can’t believe we actually had a winter this year.
Normally it’s warm during our winter so I am very excited that we are
truly having a winter! I could just sit by the window and watch the snow
fall but unfortunately I have to work….can’t we just tell the patients
that we are busy watching these white pieces of heaven fall from the
sky. Oh well, back to work.

I was just told yesterday that I have to do a short lecture on Friday
morning at work over complicated exercise testing. All four of us have
a different aspect of testing that we are covering. I get the pleasure
of covering CO2 production and minute ventilation.
Some people have wondered what I do now in my new position at
Children’s so you can have some kind of clue as to what I do in the
pulmonary physiology lab (a recent name change of the lab) here is part
of what I will be talking about on Friday:

CO2 output (VCO2) during exercise is determined by factors similar to
those that govern O2 uptake: cardiac output, CO2-carrying capacity of
the blood, and tissue exchange are major determinants. However, because
CO2 is much more soluble in tissues and blood, CO2 output measured at
the mouth is more strongly dependant on ventilation that on VO2 (oxygen
consumption). In addition to this, because dissolved CO2 is a weak acid,
the body uses CO2 regulation to compensate for acute metabolic acidosis,
which affects the pattern of VCO2 as work intensity increases above the
point of anaerobic metabolism…….During progressive exercise VO2
increases nearly as much as does VO2 over the lower work rate range,
with an average VCO2-VO2 relationship of slightly less than 1.0. It
should be recognized that the slope of the VCO2-versus VO2 relationship
is not equal to the respiratory exchange ratio, as the relationship
usually has a small positive intercept on the VO2 axis…..VE has been
demonstrated to be closely proportionally coupled to VCO2 during
exercise, it is useful to analyze Ve in relation to VCO2……

So what are your thoughts on this?

Many people I talk to say that I am a closed book, or atleast
not an open book. I will agree with this, but mainly because I’m not just
going to spill my life to someone. If anyone wants to know anything
about me they can ask, I don’t mind answering anything at all! All this
to say it’s just not me to open up to people a lot. Recently I’ve had a
lot of people tell me that they know me but they don’t KNOW me. Well, I
don’t know how to help you but this might be a good start:

I’m a city girl and love living in the big city, but I’m a country girl at heart! (I’m a big Texan) I love country music but secretely like some
Rap music (sshhh, it’s our secret), I love Ice Cream and brownies, I
like the smell of rain but love the smell of snow. I like the smell of
exhaust from cars in the winter because it reminds me of the cold and
snow. One of my favorite songs is The Way You Look Tonight. I believe in forgiveness. I would live in the mountains with snow if I could, but at the same time I would live in NYC. I like to walk anywhere I go but people
look at you funny so I end up driving. I love animals and will always
miss my beloved Rat Terrier Annie, but I love my new doggy Presley too.
I like Elvis Presley, don’t ask why because I can’t tell you. I love Dr.
Pepper but can’t drink it, potato casserole is my favorite food, I like
cherry cordials and maraschino cherries. My favorite color is
orange (burnt not neon), I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, I wish I had
a voice to sing or the talent to play the piano, I love to sing in my
car (you’ll never hear me sing out loud)… I bust out in song like the
best of them. I love the smell of fresh cut grass. I love the feel of sand on my bare feet. My niece and nephew are my two most favorite kids in the
whole world. I want to adopt a kid from Russia, I want four kids (i
might change my mind after the 1st one). My fingernails are always blue–don’t let that freak you out. I am engaged. I’m marrying a 6 foot 5 inch guy, yes that’s 13 inches taller than me! I love to be the photographer. I
like chick flicks but also action movies, I don’t like scary movies, I
think they are stupid. I like to watch Disney channel, there’s just
something about nice clean family shows. But I also LOVE Grey’s Anatomy and ER. Friends is my most favorite show ever. I like to go shopping
but don’t over spend (most of the time), I like root beer floats, I hate
working out. I like riding my bike and roller blading. I love to
snowboard, even after breaking my tailbone doing so. I don’t know how
to snow ski, I can’t get up on the wake board when I go out on the lake.
I love to drive but hate paying for gas. I like to go to the dog park
and watch all the dogs. I love to people watch and listen to their
conversations. I will just sit there and add my own monologue to
peoples hand gestures when I can’t hear what they are saying. I will do
the same thing to dogs in a backyard or at the dog park (I’ve told you
I’m crazy). I love Christ and live for Him everyday. My favorite trip
I’ve ever gone on is a missions trip to Mexico the summer before my
senior year of high school (long live the 3 amigas!) I will forever
remember my high school group at church. I don’t like it when people
look at me or blow in my face or basically in my general direction. But
I have to have a fan blowing on my face at night–go figure. I love to
have my back scratched. I love the sound of rain on the window. I’m scared to
death of fires and tornadoes–so scared I should probably seek counseling. I don’t like thunderstorms. I hate to
stay by myself at night. I’m not afraid of death, but I am afraid of
leaving people I love behind. My family is the best (Medlins included)
and my new soon to be family is also the best (Lehmanns included) 😉
I’m a grouch if I don’t get my sleep..a girl needs her beauty sleep. I
don’t like to bother people, if I feel bad I probably won’t say
anything–why should my problems be put on someone else. If I pass out
I’ll just get back up and get back to what I was doing…even if I’m at
work. I’m scared to death that I’m gonna pass out at my wedding-haha.
When I’m mad I like to be by myself—it’s not that often though. I
hate conflict or arguments. I’m a people pleaser and that gets you into
trouble sometimes. I have to have a night of doing nothing at all once
a week. I don’t like to be too busy you don’t have enough time for
loved ones. I love science and physics. I hate math. I work to live,
not live to work. I HATE mushrooms and am allergic to seafood. I don’t
like tomatoes but like tomato paste, I don’t like peaches but I like
peach flavor. it irritates me when people smack, if I ever do please
smack me! I have 3 brothers and 1 sister (technically 2 brothers). I miss my grandparents and wished I got to
know them better. I’m a goofball when you really get to know me. I wish
I didn’t have to take medication everyday. I like giving hugs but
probably won’t initiate one. I’m a woman of few words–if you could
only see inside my brain soo many thoughts. I laugh at myself- A LOT. I love to re-finish furniture. If I could, i would quit my job and volunteer for Habitat
For Humanity helping with the houses. I want to open a doggy daycare
someday (doubt it will ever happen). I’m not a morning person but once
I take my shower I’m usually okay. I like to dance to music but you will
never see that. I love to observe things and watch peoples behaviors.

pheww…did you get all that. There’s more where that came from but I think this is all you can handle now. I told you it was a rambling!!