what we are doing riiight now.

Right now life is good.

Right now life is how it should always be.

Jude and I just finished making two batches of laundry detergent out on the deck. Then we danced and twirled all around to "Something in the Water" by Brooke Fraser. The weather is lovely. 77 degrees and it feels just perfect! (Dan may think otherwise...)

Dan is figuring out how to install the washer and dryer. I would put all the legistics but it's beyond me. Something about 4 inch pipe having to fit through the hole in the laundry room to get outside. So he's been running back and forth from Lowe's to home and then from the laundry room to the crawl space from the laundry room to the crawl space figuring it out. We think he did it. :) Having a house sure teaches you a lot of things you didn't know and helps you do things you've never done. We spent the morning trimming hedges with these super cool Edward Scissorhands hedge clippers and fearlessly facing spiders head on.

He works so hard. He doesn't stop. And he found some wild strawberries in our backyard... :)

Oh, not to mention, this little boy. He loves his three naps per day. He loves attacking Daddy's face with big wet slobbery kisses. He loves advancing to the size 3 diapers while we are waiting on a washer and dryer to wash his cloth ones. He loves playing with his feet and cuddling with Mom and Dad while we watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And he gives me a little too much to work with when I pull out the camera...

"How's this pose Mama?"

movin in.

We have officially made residence in sweet ole' Boiling Springs. 

We are proud to say we are official Costco members! It was a big day for us.

The sunsets here are beautiful and breathtaking every night! 

Yep, another Lowe's trip. 

Here are a couple sneak peeks of our house!!

The side of the house with the driveway and the basketball hoop. So cute!

moved.

We have officially moved to Boiling Springs, South Carolina as of yesterday.

we

are

in

love.

It's a little ridiculous. We're the new kids in town. Loving it all and eating it up like two kids on Christmas. Our own house?! Really?! With the most gorgeous view of green as far as the eye can see outside the back windows? Or a perfectly placed wooden patio perfect for evening dinners? Or big, open windows that let all the light in? Or Jude's own room?! We are so happy and thankful and excited for all of these things and much more. Just in case we weren't thankful/humble enough...

After a long trip, we excitedly turned the corner onto our street. We drove down to the end of the cul-de-sac to find a man, a complete stranger even, mowing our lawn. Spending hours out of his day to mow the lawn, the extremely large, highly inclined lawn, of complete strangers in the humid heat of day... just to welcome us into the ward. Kind might be an understatement. Before long we had loads of men over who unpacked our ten-foot U-haul in a matter of minutes. We been welcomed so warmly already!

Now let the unpacking, appliance shopping, and Lowe's trips begin!

PRETTY

This baby is pretty. There's no denying it.

He loves to stick out his tongue and hold his bottom lip and suck on that sometimes too. He loves life. :)

northport medical center

DCH

Northport Medical Center

Med-Surg

PCU

my first job as a nurse.... so many memories. from the plain and simply nasty to the indescribably funny to the utterly life-changing to the scared to death to the infuriatingly angry. i have felt every emotion known to man in the walls of that hospital. not only have i learned about congestive heart failure, lung sounds, and total knee replacements, but a lot about organization, time management, kindness, life, myself, and lots lots more. sometimes i loved it. sometimes i hated it. it always pushed me. here are the kinds of things i did:

• administered lots of medication 

protonix, synthroid, zofran, phenergan, dilaudid, demerol, morphine, ancef, zosyn

• assessed lots of bodies

hearts, lungs, bowels, skin, movement, sensation, pulses, heart rhythms

• asks lots of questions

hey mr. ____, how are you feeling? are you in any pain? what would you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten? when was your last bowel movement? do you drink alcohol?

• explained lots of things

procedures, tests, disease processes, vital signs, normal, abnormal, medications, some things i knew, some things i made up

• put in catheters

the intravenous kind and the urethral kind

• helped people to/use the bathroom

by bathroom i mean not only the actual bathroom but the bedside commode, the bedpan, their catheters (yes, people need help with that), urinals (even a "female urinal" once. that was interesting), some people can't even wipe for themselves. nice.

• got my fair share of bodily functions

every and any kind you can imagine. i was there witnessing it, stopping it, facilitating it, listening to it, smelling it, or any other verb you can think of) see this post.

• exercised

walked up the halls, ran up the halls, jogged up the halls, skipped up the halls, mosied up the halls, to the blood bank and back, etc. my most common transportation of choice would be a brisk walk- to the medication room, to the patient's room, back to the medication room ("is my nausea medicine in there?"), to the lab, to the nurse's station, to the snack room, to the nurse's station, to a patient's room, to another patient's room, and then six more)

• forgot what a circadian rhythm is

have you ever stayed up all night? it's just not natural. you were probably really tired. so was i. then i came home and slept in the brightest light of day. we did not do the black out shade thing. i met a whole new side of rachael mulder since this all began. delusional, cooky, ridiculously emotional rachael. my husband didn't know he married a whiney seven-year old. surprise! i worked eight nights in a row and had six off. on my last day i would try to stay up "all day" so i could sleep that night. i never made it. not once. by seven i was all the above things and i would finally give in and fall asleep on the couch. then dan would coax me into bed and i would so kindly say things like "LEAVE ME ALONE!!" and "I JUST WANNA GO TO BAAEEDD!!" and "AAUUHGGHH!!!" 

• got realllllly tired

remember that one time i was on my way home from work and as i approached the bridge i noticed a long line of traffic so i so shrewdly thought, "i'll just around all these suckers..." so i took a quick left so i could bypass the traffic and go under the bridge... it wasn't long before i realized my mode of transportation would not safely get me under the bridge and across the river. 

• cried

in the bathroom (this story), in patient rooms, in the break room, walking out those sliding glass doors when i can finally cry, and at home, plenty.

night shift was so hard. i'll never do it again (after this summer). it's just not natural. 10:30 pm. everyone else in the world is getting ready for bed. i'm leaving my husband and sweet baby child for a hospital full of looney geriatrics and other sickies. it's just not right. i'm not interested in being that kind of working woman for life. it's not the life for me.

i made some of the greatest friends i have ever had there. anywho, that chapter of my life is over. i look back on it fondly but i sure don't miss it! 

Jack Warner Pkwy

Here are a couple pictures from our little apartment at

1130 Jack Warner Pkwy NE #8B

Tuscaloosa, AL 35404

We loved that little place. It was the perfect little apartment for us to live in after the tornado until we moved. That little loveseat was given to us from one of Dan's old professors. We loved that little loveseat! Until it became Jude's changing table.

These chairs were given to us from the girl we subleased from over the summer. They are the nicest modern little chairs! We still have them.

Our little plant didn't make it through the move. But we love that little stool that we refinished! That TV stand we got off Craigslist too.

I made this bean bag chair for Dan for Christmas. It's full of down feathers!

The view from the kitchen. We loved how open it was.

Ashley made me that beautiful flower garland. I love it!

Our kitchen table that survived the tornado. It has personality.

The front hallway from the front door. Lots of walking Jude up and down those halls in the middle of the night!

We sure loved that apartment!

University of Alabama grad!

My sweet Dan has graduated with honors with a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Alabama! I am so proud of him. He didn't walk at graduation so we are waiting for his diploma to get here in the mail and we will have an official celebration! He had lots of good memories there so I asked him a few questions to help us always remember them. :)

What are your best memories from the University of Alabama?

"Football games, swimming in the outdoor pool with the water slide, going to the Bahamas, my labs"

What were some of your most memorable classes?

"Organic chemistry, generak biology with Dr. Olsen (because of the teacher, not really the class), Freshman English was crazy because my teacher was psycho (he used to swear all the time and I was smarter than everyone else because I was way older). I really liked my rural studies with Dr. Wheat. I liked my general chemistry labs because I got to dissect lung fish, frogs, rats, and more. I liked working in the lab with Dr. Lopez and Hu studying phycology. Cell cycle regulation was challenging but I felt like I started out knowing nothing and had a firm grasp on it by the end of the class."

What are your favorite memories at UA?

"The football games"

Tell me about the football games.

"I liked  screaming roll tide, learning all the songs, winning, picking fights with LSU fans...

The LSU game was a lot of fun even though we lost. We beat LSU though in the National Championship though so that was much better. One time a drunk, loud LSU fan was being really crazy and stupid and kept saying that LSU was going to go to the National Championship and we had no chance so I pushed him. He pushed me back. Then he started swearing at me and everyone else told him to be quiet. He yelled “You wanna fight?! Let’s go!” And I said… “You better keep walking if you know what’s best for you.” Josh had my back. Literally, he was standing behind me. Trevor was like ten people behind me with his baby strapped on. Trevor told everybody about it. He thought it was awesome. I was just mad because we lost the game."

You are in the process of applying for the Navy. Tell me what happened the other day.

"It all began in New York City, the Big Apple. Rachael tried to buy some postcards from a Chinese guy and he refused to sell them to  her because she insulted him on accident. We found ourselves wandering down the sidewalk of Times Square at 10:00 pm with no postcards. A mystical sign appeared in front of us, "10 postcards for $0.92". We looked at each other and said, We gotta get some postcards! We started looking at these postacrds when this naval officer walked up and started looking at them too. He had heard us talking about how cool these postcards are. So Rachael was joking with him and said, "We don’t need ten postcards; we should go halfsies and each pay 50 cents." That opened the door to discussion. Then I said, “I’m actually applying to the Navy right now. “ And he asked me who my recruiter is. I told him HM1 Gerity. He said "Oh, I don't know him but he’d know me. I ‘m Force Master Chief Grey and I’m in charge of all naval recruiting." Then he handed me a card and told if you have any trouble in your application process let me know, and if things don’t work out how you want them to then give me a call. He then bought his postcards and left. 

It’s such a small world and a great blessing to have met the head of recruiting for the Navy right when I was desperately trying to gain acceptance into the Navy and get their scholarship!"

What other memories do you want to remember?

"The University of Alabama trucks would ride by and I would grab onto the back of them (usually without them even noticing) and hitch a ride around the quad on my skateboard. Everyone would watch me and think it was so funny. That was fun. I liked that."

"I missed my finals twice. The first time was because of the tornado and I never had to make them up. That was a good thing because I probably would have failed Organic Chemistry if I would have had to take the final. The second time was a miracle instead of a tragedy! Instead of life being taken away it was given when Jude was born. I had to make up all my finals. I got a 98% on my Biochemistry final so it turned out pretty good!"

We had a mock graduation ceremony in the midst of packing and moving since Dan didn't walk. So he donned his honors stole, Katlin played the University of Alabama song and I gave him his super official diploma. It was so great.