Franapalooza

We spent 2 nights in Myrtle Beach over Memorial Day weekend (yes, it was black biker week) to celebrate Frannie's last single days.  We had an amazing time - obvi!  We got there Friday, went straight to the beach, had a few beverages, ate pizza in the hotel room, had a few more beverages, and then headed down to the hotel bar by the pool.  Apparently, we were there for 2 hours but my mind leads me to believe I was there about 20 minutes. I ordered shots of water if that tells you anything. :) I also have a large hematoma on my left knee from tripping (and falling) over the fence trying to get to little Fran sitting near the ocean all by her lonesome. I got to her, after much pain and effort, and immediately, she stood up and left me. A giant bruise for nothing!

Some of those crazy girls woke up at 7am on Saturday. You heard me right - 7am! They tried to get us up but we weren't having it until at least 9:30.  After we peeled ourselves away from the covers we headed down to the beach and stayed there until 5:15.  We had dinner reservations at 7:00 at Chesapeake House and OMG was it delish.  I had fried shrimp, flounder and crab cakes!! Mmm - I am getting excited to go back to the beach in August JUST so I can eat fresh seafood again. I also had a massive amount of hushpuppies and the mystery "fish stew". Anyway, dinner was followed by bar hoping (and crawling) over to Broadway at the beach.  I don't remember every going there before and I think it would best be described as a bar mall.  It was so much fun - and the rest will just have to be left up to your blogger following wondering minds. :) 

Fran's awesome suit thanks to Emily!

We learned passing around a bottle of wine on the beach was not ok

HAHAHAHHA

Our black biker week friends!! (Cindy + Kimmy)

Have a guy take off his boxers and wear them on your head...

NICE MOVES

The Before

The After - 1/2 of us

(please notice the cab driver is now in the pic and Emily got the boot...)

MIA

I know, I know, I've been totally MIA.  I've been working on the new WPP blog + catching up with all the work we've accumulated so this blog has taken a major hit.  Plus, I'm not working nights at Duke anymore and that's where I did a ton of blogging. I'm still at WakeMed and still loving it.  My schedule is kind of crazy, signing up for shifts, get cancelled, then called in, blah blah.  All is well as long as I work at least 24 hours a week.  So far I've been working 36+ so this makes the hubs happy. :)

Last weekend we went to Myrtle Beach for Fran's bachelorette party - I'll be blogging + posting pics on this soon. I headed up to SML for Sunday and Monday and had a great time with the fam-in-laws.  Our photog business has been soooo busy.  Currently, we are working on changing our name and completely rebranding our whole business.  When we started Windy Peak we had no idea we would cater towards weddings as much as we do.  Since we have found our niche, we want our name + logo + website to feel more bridal/wedding ish. You feel me?  I can't let out any secrets just yet but I have a few surprises up my sleeves!

WakeMed and WPP

I've been at WakeMed for two days now and I really like it.  I've worked in the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit) and the SICU/STICU (Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit) and both have been great.  All the nurses and staff have been super friendly and helpful.  I'm feeling pretty good about the charting systems and how all the computer stuff works. I'm a quick learner ;) I will have two more days of orientation in other units so I'm hoping to have the same experiences there. The schedule is definitely a HUGE perk.  I don't have to decide what I want to work next week until this weekend - I love that!  I think I will mostly work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday every week.  I don't like doing 3 days in a row (exhausting) and I'd like to have every Friday off + the weekend. I may do a night here and there but I'll mostly work days.  I really like having dinner at home and going to bed with my hubs.

Windy Peak is doing so well! We are so excited.  We've booked 7 weddings for 2011 so far and have several in the works we are hoping to seal the deal on.  Most are late summer/fall but our first wedding of the year is in 2 weeks.  We've booked a few for 2012 also and various bridal shoots, family portraits etc etc. We are working on an on WPP blog, so that will be up and running with all our current stuff soon.  I'll be sure to pass on the link!  Remember when I blogged about how excited I was to advertise on TheKnot.com?  Well, yea, not so much.  We did it for 2 months and didn't book a single wedding.  We got several inquires, but that's really no big deal, we normally get several a week.  I'm not sure why it didn't work so well for us but it definitely wasn't worth the price we were paying.  Word-of-mouth is our biggest seller, so people, SPREAD THE WORD, and believe it or not - Craigslist!

In case you don't have it, you can visit our website at http://www.windypeakphotography.com check us out and tell all your newly engaged friends. :)

Happy Weekend

Happy Mama's Day to all you hot mama's out there!  My sweet mom is here with me and I couldn't be happier!  She came Friday and will be here until next Sunday.  We are headed down to Fayetteville tomorrow to see my Gammo and aunt and celebrate with the two of them.  Aus plans to stay home and do some "man things..."  We had a fun day today, shopping, relaxing, and of course - Mexican for dinner!  

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  We are so glad you here with us!!!

The Wake Way

Yes, I've been MIA this week, but...


I worked 5 days last week! I started hospital orientation at WakeMed on Monday and have been there every day since.  I am sooo not use to working 5 days a week. Holy-throw-off-my-schedule! I'm very glad to be finished with that and I'll be working Mon-Wed this coming week in one of the ICU's.  During orientation we had many many speakers come to talk to us - pharmacy reps, blood bankers, infection control peeps, consultants etc etc.  We learned about the "Wake Way" for hours and heard all the typical customer service spiels.  I took classes on the charting and physician ordering systems, how to administer meds and did a bazillion online tutorials.  We also had to take a ton of tests, several of which were super hard! I had to use some major brain power.  Good news is - all this is over and I passed all the tests and I'm all set to go Monday morning at 6:45am.  I'm super nervous.  It all feels real finally.  WakeMed does a lot of things very different from what I'm use to so I'll have some major adjusting.  I'll be working with another RN for all 3 shifts next week and then my manger says we will "see how I'm doing and go from there."  I wish I could get at least one orientation day in each unit so when I go there for the first time I have some clue to what I'm doing and where stuff is.  Sometimes I get really freaked out thinking about how crazy this might be, but then I tell myself - deep breaths and lots of questions.  I'll have nurses all around me to help and I'm sure I'll pick up all the computer charting and ordering systems soon enough.  I'll be blogging next week after my 3 shifts - fingers crossed I survive this! 

Katie and David's Wedding Weekend

First, I know I have been MIA. I'll write more about why on this later...




Katie and David got married last weekend (April 30th) in Danville and it was such a fun wedding!  She got married at 2pm so we had a full day and night of celebrating and dancing.  The ceremony took place at Sacred Heart Church and the reception at Tuscarora Country Club.


These pictures are from the Rehearsal Dinner the night before.  We had yummy Italian food at a new restaurant in Danville - Cugini's.

 Getting married in 14 hours!!!

I LOVE weddings.  I love everything about them.  Of course, when the bride is one of your best friends that helps, but even besides the obvious - seeing old friends, eating/drinking/dancing, I LOVE weddings.  If I could plan weddings for the rest of my life, even for free, I'd absolutely completely do it.  I love all the traditions, the rules and proper etiquette, the details, the choices, and how every single one is always unique and special.  I've always loved weddings and all the details that go into planning them but I didn't completely fall in love until I planned my own.  Stressful? Absolutely. Worth it? Oh, yes.  Do it again? Most definitely.  I have the best memories from our wedding weekend and hope to never forget all the butterflies I had in my stomach all weekend long and the exact feeling I felt right before I walked down the aisle to marry Austin.  I could seriously write a book about this but I'll spare you. :)  I feel so blessed to be a wedding photographer and to take part of such a special time while two families join together.  I love documenting them, witnessing them and taking photos of every single detail.  If I can ever help any of you out there, holler at your girl! :) 

Easter Weekend

We headed up to Aus' parents house at Smith Mountain Lake for Easter weekend for some R&R. We had a fun and relaxing weekend and some decent weather too.  Saturday was nice and of course Sunday, the day we had to go home, was gorgeous.  We spent Saturday hanging on the dock, riding on the boat and eating our hearts out! Austin's mom always has the best food for us and this weekend was no exception.  Our Easter brunch was especially wonderful with a spiral ham, deviled eggs, cheese grits, tortellini salad (my fav) and cottage cheese. mmmm! Oh, oh, oh and Saturday night our dinner was amazing - we had a Greek meatloaf that had a feta/tzatziki type sauce on top. Sooooo good! I will post the recipe soon, it is definitely worth trying!

We drove into Danville Saturday afternoon and saw Aus sweet Grandmother at the Stratford House. All is well in her world and I hope we get back to see her soon.  I took a few pics this weekend, most of which didn't turn out too well...

Swim little doggie, swim!

a few of the yummy beers Leila brought. We started with these around 2pm...we were all in bed by 10. :)