The Orange Blooded Newlywed Club

Disclaimer- some pictures are jacked off of facebook.  

Shortly following the college club comes the newlywed club, and it's a club that it seems that all of our friends are quickly joining.  We've all been bridesmaids and groomsmen, brides and grooms, hosts of parties and showers, and have loved every second of it.  Looking back over these pictures and remembering the beginnings of each of these relationships makes me feel so lucky to have been able to become friends, and in some cases family, with so many wonderful couples who love God, love each other, and love Clemson.  This past weekend, we had the privilege of watching Dallas Kunkel and Elizabeth Temple join the ranks of Mr.'s and Mrs.'s, making them the fourth in a group of close knit friends to tie the knot.  It seems that weddings are the latest and greatest in post-grad get togethers, and we had an awesome time hanging out in the SC low country for the weekend celebrating and getting caught up with our college pals.  

Nick and Sean, the handsome twin Groomsmen with the newest husband, Dallas

The Crandall representatives in the Kunkel bridal party

The new Mr. and Mrs. at our wedding in August right after getting engaged.  Dallas was one of our ushers.

Newlywed Jen Moody teaching me Cotton-Eyed Joe at my wedding

The groomsmen at my wedding; appropriately included are other newlyweds Nick and Dallas

Sean, Nick, Lyndsey, and Me at their wedding in June

Nick and Dallas at Lyndsey and Nick's wedding

Nick, Lyndsey, Sean, Me, Tyler, and Jen and Dallas and Liz's rehearsal dinner

As much as I so miss being able to see all of these people every day, it's exciting to see and hear about everyone's lives going from college kids, to people with new jobs, homes, puppies, husbands, and wives.  And fun to have a weekend to hang out and catch up before all heading back to our new not-in-kansas-not-so-orange-anymore worlds.  So in honor of the latest and greatest in newlywed life, I'll end on a Michael Buble' note..

Life as We Didn't Know It

My grand dad said that after working in the Danish underground through World War II, that he was "bored" with the lack of activity when the war was over.  He was a family physician in Denmark, and evidently, normal everyday life didn't feel right, thus prompting his decision to join a whaling expedition to Antarctica in search of whale blubber for the profit of Scandinavia.  Sounds exciting, right?  He was the only physician on board, responsible for the health and well being of all men on board for I think 3 months, as well as 12 passengers that stayed with them for a smaller part of the trip.  His stories from the expedition are impressive.  He put a man's leg back together with wood after it was almost amputated with a piece of whaling equipment, so well that the man was able to work again.  He performed an appendectomy with a fake anesthesiologist and no antibiotics and was told that his patient was the first of his kind to survive such a procedure on the open sea.  All of this danger in the name of regaining the kind of adrenaline and excitement that the war had provided.  At first, you have to think, what crazy person joins a 3 month whaling expedition to Antarctica because they're 'bored', but now I wonder if on a smaller scale, I sort of understand how weird a normal life could feel.

What sparks this thought, is that today marks one year since Sean graduated from college, beginning a year for us, of a LOT of change.  A lot of trials.  A lot of uncertainty.  A LOT of trusting God.  It's been an AMAZING year, don't get me wrong, but FAR from normal.  This time last year, I knew that in a year, my life would be right side up again, but a very different normal, and that May 9, 2011, was FAR far away.  This time last year, my name was Maria Seear.  I had lived my whole life in Greenville, South Carolina, and in Clemson, only 45 minutes away.  We went to church at Crosspoint, and had a lot of college friends.  I had dated Sean for 3 1/2 years and was in the middle of planning a wedding, which had already taken over a year.  I was coaching swim team for McCarter, and couldn't imagine doing anything else.  I was majoring in nursing, but had no real idea of what I would do when I finished.  I had never been in an ICU.  Sean and I, by this time, knew that we'd be in Charlotte, but had no idea where we'd live.  Sean had just gotten a job, but had never been.  Didn't know if he'd like it, didn't know who he'd be working with, and barely knew how to get there.  I'd had a ferret in college who had died in January, so I wanted us to get a cat eventually.

Since then, Sean graduated.  Sean started his first big kid job.  My mom was diagnosed with cancer.  I finished a 20 year association with SAIL swimming.  We became parents to a tabby cat.  We signed our first solo rent agreement and moved to an apartment in Charlotte.  We got married.  I changed my name.  I completed a semester of commuting back and forth to Clemson.  I graduated from Clemson.  I became an RN.  My mom finished her cancer treatment.  I was offered and started my first big kid job.  And most recently, we bought our first house.  We've had milestone, after milestone, after milestone.

People that last year, we saw almost every day

Sean's graduation

A swim team that I love :)

Our First Apartment

Our Wedding

Graduation from Nursing

So now, here we are on May 9th, 2011.  The anniversary of the beginning of a year of change. My name is Maria Crandall.  I am the wife of Sean Crandall, the proud mother of a tabby cat named Mogatu, and the daughter of a cancer survivor.  I am a graduate of Clemson University.  We call Charlotte, NC home and I work at Presbyterian Hospital in the NICU as a registered nurse.  Sean has been a civil engineer for one year, and feels like he has a handle on his job.  He likes the people he works with.  We have signed our first solo rent agreement, decorated our first apartment, and bought our first house.  We go to Elevation Church, serve on E-kidz on Sundays, and while we keep in touch with our college friends, have a whole new set of friends in Charlotte.  I know new roads and new grocery store cashiers at a new grocery store.  And I LOVE my new life.  But sometimes, I feel like I'm in the witness protection program, or in a dream, because there's almost nothing about life that's the same as it was last year, and more than that, hardly any major thing in my life is something that I even KNEW about a year ago.  So for the coming year, with no children on the docket for our near future, and no real uncertainty that we're currently feeling other than what color couch to get, the plan is to spend the year continuing the same life that we have right now.  That's what we had done until this past year, but now, that idea seems foreign, just like the calm after World War II in Scandinavia.  Unusually calm...and really nice.

Happy Birthday Moggie!

After quite the year of trials and tribulations concerning Mogatu the Cat, he's managed to make it to his first birthday.  He started out this time last year weighing less than one pound, and most recently, maxed out at 12.8.  We've done respiratory issues (actually his first family, the Lathams, did respiratory issues), fleas and other likely pests, a neutering, bacterial ear infections, and finally have closed out the year with what will hopefully be the last of his consequences of premature separation from mom, a yeast infection.  On a small scale, I feel like I'm talking about a premature baby, but no, you're reading this right, it's our tabby cat.  Anyway, after such a tumultuous year, I feel like he deserves a celebration, and maybe a blog post.

Circa 12 weeks

After the move to Charlotte

Merry Christmas!  7 months

Happy First Birthday to Moggie

"And, thanks for the thoughtful cake that I can't eat"

So we had a small, family of three little birthday celebration in honor of our furry friend and the good company that he's shared with us during our first year of marriage :)

This Great New House: The Feeling and The Contract

While our year in the 700 square foot apartment has been charming and fun, we don't want to have guests sleeping on the floor forever, and we'd eventually like a drawer for silverware.  Thus, we've spent the last 3 months in full swing of looking for the perfect house.

I have learned, and really knew beforehand, that it doesn't take much to please me.  I felt like no less than 10 times, I walked into a house as excited as ever, knowing that "THIS" was "our house".  And then, inevitably, my all-too-down-to-earth, ever-the-most-logical, civil engineer better half would see the house and have a reason why "THIS" was NOT in fact "our house", for any one of a variety of reasons that he switched back and forth between.  Location, location, location, the backyard is too small, it's too close to 485, it's too far from your work, it's too far from my work, the traffic on that road goes in the wrong direction at the time of day that we travel (welcome to the BIG city), the master is too far away from other bedrooms, it needs too much work, the yard is too steep, there's no pool in the neighborhood, it's too small, it's too big, the neighbors don't take care of their yard, and it goes on and on.  We joked throughout that Sean had a "bag of negatives" that he could just reach in and pick from.  In reality, anyone who knows Sean knows that he's just incredibly meticulous, detail oriented, a wonderful provider, someone who cares what time of day that his not-the-best-driver wife has to travel down I-77 on the way to work, etc.  I have to say that as frustrating as consistent denial can be, I knew that when Sean finally felt that "THIS" was "our house", that it would be the right decision.  And that moment came last Thursday night.  The 11-teenth house that I wanted him to see that I loved online, he looked around, looked at me, and said "I think this is it".  And after sleeping on it, we came to agreement that THIS house, is the perfect one for us.

So after calling and negotiating what we both feel to be an extremely fair deal, we went and signed our lives away on 46 different pieces of paper, wrote a check, and are officially under contract on our beautiful new house :)  Afterwards, we both felt a little sick, which is normal I think, and pending our loan coming through, closing is tentatively set for May 26th.

Sean signing...initialing...signing...initialing...signing...

Switching out the green "available" Monopoly house in the community to a red "sold" monopoly house

A Very Happy Easter :)

Easter weekend in Charlotte was SO beautiful.  We had my mom, Ladson, Lyndsey, and Nick up to Charlotte and cooked out by the pool before our Saturday night church service.  I'm so glad that we're back in the season of cooking out by the pool.  And of course, Elevation Easter was awesome.  Over 19,000 people came to 21 Elevation 3D Easter services all over Charlotte and prompted over 2,200 salvations.

The service began with a video about the desire of human beings to shorten distance.  We walked, then ran, then rode horses, then bikes, then cars/trains, then airplanes, etc. but that the one distance that we can't shorten is the distance between us and God.  But that Jesus came to make that distance possible to overcome.  Then, the rest of the service was about Acts 1:8.  This verse represents the VERY last human words spoken by Jesus on Earth, and reads "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth'.    Pastor Steven explored the verse in 3 dimensions, looking first at the Gospel in Jerusalem, which is likened to the Bible Belt, where the Gospel is known by almost everyone, but still applies.  And then the Gospel in Judea and Samaria, which is likened to Las Vegas, where there is little morality and/or knowledge/belief of Jesus.  And lastly, to the Gospel in the ends of the Earth, which represents distance that we can all feel from God.  I LOVED this service and felt like the Gospel came alive in a whole new way.  And of course, was in 3D.  A creative presentation to teach about the original Creator.   Listen to it!

Distance.

Nick and Lyndsey spent the night with us afterwards, which was awesome.  We walked down and got some ice cream, and stayed up and watched a movie.  Haven't seen them much since we moved up here and it makes us sad, so a sleepover was probably what we needed.

On actual Easter Day, I had to work.  Newborns in Need as well as another organization that I can't remember gave each of the babies an Easter basket to celebrate their first Easters.  They had handmade newborn washcloths, burp cloths, stuffed animals, books, etc.  I love that people take time to make/do that kind of thing for the NICU babies.

When I got home, Seanie had an Easter basket on our island with a note and some candy.  He'd spent his afternoon putting together the "Apartment 139 Easter Egg Hunt".  I was psyched.  Anyway, here's some pictures from the weekend, wish I had some of my family, but I don't.

Mogatu helping Sean clean our windows :)

My post-Easter Egg Hunt Basket

I love Easter :)

Nanas

What intrigued me about nursing when I chose my major, was that in nursing, you get the unique opportunity to be with people during some of the most trying times and some of the happiest times of their lives.  Times that they'll remember, as opposed to, in most jobs where you see people during their normal days.

One of those "times" this week that made an impression on me, was listening to a new grandma explaining her role in her new grandbaby's life.  It was one of the sweetest things that I've ever heard.

This grandma had been sitting next to her baby's isolette for an hour or so by herself, without really interacting much, just holding the baby's hand, and I sat nearby and charted, occasionally exchanging a few words with her.  After a while, I remembered that I needed to prick that baby's heel for a lab, so I went over and after explaining what I had to do, offered the grandmother some options: you can wait in the waiting room, you can sit here and watch me, or you can hold a syringe with a little bit of sucrose in the baby's mouth to ease the pain.  She reluctantly went with option 3.  So I got my pricker, and my lab sheet, and the gauze and tape, and some alcohol, and a little tiny bit of sucrose for grandma.

Since we would be bonding over the next few minutes, I asked her who she was going to be, to which she replied "Nana".  "I have a Nana", I told her, "so I know that Nanas are really special people, and he's lucky to have one".  With that bit of encouragement, each of us went to our separate duties, me to pricking, and Nana to sugar-giving.

During the next 3-5 minutes or so, Nana told the baby all about Nanas, and the irony of her first job in his little life, to give him sugar.  She explained that Nanas ALWAYS have the sweet stuff.  That Nanas always make you feel better.  That Nanas love you no matter what all of the time.  She went on and on and I wanted to cry because, since I have a Nana, I know how right she was, especially about the sweet stuff.  Nanas slip you a twenty when you only have half a tank of gas.  Nanas cut the ends off of your sandwiches and then make you another one to make up for the fact that half of the previous sandwich had to be cut off.  Nanas send you a card for not only Christmas and your birthday, but Valentines and Halloween.  Nanas get you a Chick-fil-A when you already have food at home because you like that better.  Nanas pick you up from school with a coke and a bag of candy since they know you'll be hungry.  And I could go on and on.

The baby didn't cry or act upset at all.  Just looked at Nana and learned about how special Nanas are.

Workin' For The Weekend

I haven't written anything in a while mainly because most of my free time went out the window with my job, which showed me into reality right around my last post.  But I really love it thus far, so I feel pretty blessed.

A few months ago, post-CMC-rejection letter, I had resigned myself to working retail for the rest of my life and was mad at myself for picking a major that chewed up and spit out all possible free time in college, as opposed to, say, psychology.  But then I got this awesome job and am successfully using this degree of mine :)

I thought, after my rejection letter, that since God didn't put me into a new grad position at CMC, that I should be totally psyched about what was in store for my life, but it was really hard to believe that.  So I called CMC, gave up on any dream that I ever had of working with women's and children's and begged/pleaded for any position that they might have (med-surg, nurse tech, secretary, janitorial services, whatever would get my foot in the door) and was denied.  I cried.  Presbyterian had told me that they would be hiring 18 people, all from within the system, and even after listing all of my fantastic credentials, was assured that since I didn't work for Presbyterian before, I wouldn't be now either, so all was lost.  I felt like an over-achiever in college, and was really irritated that I'd done so well in school and been involved in so many extra-curricular activities only to be turned down for not living in Charlotte during school.  So after teaching me plenty of patience that I don't ever want to use again, God came through as always in the 11th hour and I got a phone call from Presbyterian offering me exactly the position that I wanted in women's and children's in the neonatal intensive care.  So in effect, I was right.  I should have been SO excited that I didn't get the job that I applied for at CMC, knowing that God had something so much better and cooler in mind than what I had limited myself to being able to do.

Anyway, onto what we've been doing in the mean time...

We saw Cirque Du Soleil's show, Totem, which is easily the coolest thing I've ever seen.  I'm a huge fan.

I planted a garden.  Basil, Rosemary, Catnip for Mogs, Onions, and Cherry Tomatos.  Our green thumbs are at work.  It's modest, but it works.

We had a progressive dinner with our small group that I wish we had pictures of that consisted of super high class appetizers compliments of Jana and Blake, dinner at Jessica and Ben's, and puff pastry dessert at Ginny and Jonathan's.  Sean and I did the salad, and we were very outdone.

 I finished making my bag :)

 And I made my first envelope pillowcase.  I was psyched about how well this would match our bed (see below), but I think I'd rather it go on a chair in our room, and maybe make a solid green one to go with it.

And lastly, we've been looking for houses like we're getting paid for it.  Where to live, how high are the taxes, do we need a yard, HOA, neighborhood pool, which kitchen do we like, how many bedrooms....there's more to buying a house than I thought.  More on that when a decision is made...don't get too excited, it'll be a while.  I like a house in Stallings and a new development in Steele Creek.  Any opinions would be helpful...