Semester 1 of Senior year COMPLETE!

Hi all!!!
Great news! I have officially completed my first semester of my senior year! Crazy! College has flown by and I can't believe in only one more semester I will be graduating with a four-year degree and moving on to the big, real world! :) These last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy with finishing up the semester with work, school, and spending time with friends before I left Greeley for Christmas break. Can I just say though, this break is much needed. I'm currently sitting in Starbucks, sipping a cup of coffee, people-watching, listening to Christmas music and really enjoying NOT having to study for tests or think about the next homework assignment that is due. :)

Anyway, I thought I would catch up with a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. I've come to find out I like posting pictures on my blogs instead of just writing a bunch. Pictures are always fun to look at and they can describe the experience much better than I can write in words. :) My roomates and I had "Roombud Christmas Morning" the Saturday before finals week. We enjoyed a home-made breakfast, secret santa reveal and gifts, and gingerbread house making. :)









Completely edible too!

Since I'm on break now, I should (fingers crossed) be able to update my blog more often. However, I am hoping to start cracking down on some more wedding plans over the break as well. :) But that kind of stuff is fun so I don't mind being busy with that.

Until next time!

Thankful! :)

Oh my goodness! What a busy last couple of weeks! However, I made to Thanksgiving and I couldn't be happier! I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving! It's such a happy holiday filled with family, food, football, and fellowship! :) This year, Jon and I are spending Thanksgiving between both families. Thanksgiving day will be spent with his family and Friday spent with mine. Let's just say we will be eating a lot of food in the next couple of days! Haha. Another quick update, Jon and I (along with his parents) drove to Kansas City, Kansas last week and shopped around for apartments, toured the school, and officially put Jon's deposit down for starting Chiropractic school next August! Yikes! Time is just flying by!!!
Anyway, with the rest of this entry, I thought I would list the things I am most thandful this year in light of Thanksgiving! :)

1. Jon! ;)
2. My amazing family and family-to-be! What a wonderful bunch of people!
3. The greatest roomates in the WORLD! Jenni, Amanda, Hilary, Gen, and Hannah!
4. My puppy dog. What can I say, I love him! haha
5. Music
6. School, even though there are times when I really dislike it, I must say I am very thankful for it in the long run
7. Cold weather! I am very thankful for the change of weather. I love it!
8. All the blessings in my life!
9. Saving the best for last, my wonderful Savior!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

:)

November has arrived!

Yikes! November is here already! Can you believe it?! This year is just flying by! Obviously I have been greatly lacking in keeping up with my blog. Life continues to stay busy with clinicals, work, school, homework assignments, wedding stuff, spending time with roomates and friends, and seeing family and Jon when I can. Whew! Can't complain too much though because I'm continuing to make memories for me Senior year! Just last Thursday, my wonderful roomates and I carved pumpkins (it was the first time ever for 3 out of the 5 of us). So fun! Everyone got super creative and it was great to just sit and enjoy each others company while working on our pumpkin masterpieces. :)
I have also added another event within my week, intramural indoor soccer! Some of the other athletic training students and myself put together a soccer team and have officially started our season! We unfortunatly lost the first game (6-8 sad day), but we're ready to come back strong tomorrow and bring in a W!
The other big update is in a few weeks Jon and I (along with his parents) will be heading out to Kansas City to look for apartments for next year as well as get Jon all set up with the school out there! I'm excited/nervous about this new and upcoming experience in my life. I absolutely can't wait to be married and start a wonderful and new beginning with my husband in a new city, but the nerves are still there that we are moving to a place where we know absolutely no one! YIKES! Thank goodness God is always there to help us through those new/uncertain times! ;)
As for the rest of this week however, I'll be continuing to work hard so I can enjoy this weekend (hopefully HOME *cross my fingers*)! Work hard, play hard! ;)

Fall has arrived!!!

Woohoo!!! Fall has officially (and finally) arrived in Colorado and I couldn't be happier! Today started off overcast and raining, turned sunny and warm, than became overcast and cold again in the afternoon/evening. Yep, that's Colorado weather for ya! :) We've been having exceptionally warm weather for late September/early October and as much as I love warm weather, I was ready for a cool down.
Fall is probably my favorite season of the year! I absolutely love when the weather is cool enough to wear cute jeans, a long sleeve, and scarf but not cold enough to be wearing a full-on winter jacket. I love the changing colors of the leaves (especially in the mountains!) and just the all around transition from the hot summer to the beginnings of the cold weather.
Even now, I am thoroughly enjoying drinking a hot cup of tea and snuggled up with my Broncos blanket while writing this. :) I love it!
So here's a cheers to the beginnings of fall and enjoying all it has to offer! :)

Quick current life update

Yikes! It's been way too long since my last blog! And unfortunately I'm not feeling up to being creative with my blog today so I've decided to do a update list on life. :)

1. I have officially bought my wedding dress!!!! It's set to arrive on December 14th! :)

2. I get to see my family soon for my scholarship dinner and am SUPER excited!!

3. Jon visited me this weekend and we made pumpkin cheesecake! So delicious and the perfect dessert for fall.

4. I highly recommend the Chicken Fajita Pitas from Chili's. YUM.

5. I really need to stay motivated with school, homework, and work.

6. Jon and I are officially moving to Kansas City after we get married for him to pursue his doctorate in Chiropractic care. (More on that in another blog for another time)

7. I have the best roomates ever! Shout out to Jenni, Hannah, Gen, Amanda, and Hilary and our upcoming house adventure!

8. Engagement pictures have been taken! Still getting edited but hope to get them soon and post some! :)

9. Last week I gave a tour for a group that graduated in 1960 from UNC. So fun! Learned a lot of history about the campus and the school.

10. 2 tests, 3 assignments, 1 case study, and 3 chapters of reading due this week! YIKES!

Simplicity

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
Psalm 16:11

Thankful :)

Whew! What a day. I'm finally in my bed and relaxing from a busy day of school and work, and thinking about how truely thankful for the life God has blessed me with. He has placed so many special people in my life that I have NO idea what I would do without them. My parents, my brother, my friends, my love, my extended family, my roomates, my co-workers, my family-to-be, and so many more! They have each impacted my life in such a positive way and I can't help but just feel thankful!


My Dad and Mom! Don't even know what I would do without them in my life. They have taught me so much and loved me through it all! I couldn't be more thankful for them!


My brother Jon! My best friend growing up and my only classmate ;) That's the joy of being homeschooled.


I don't even know how to describe how truely thankful I am for this guy right here! He's the guy who loves me when I am at my best and my worst. Who wouldn't love a guy like that ;)


Roomates!! These are the girls that can put a smile on my face when I come home from a rough day at athletic training. So thankful to be living with such Godly and beautiful women!


Amy and Andrew! I've known them since I was 9 and consider them my other brother and sister! So many memories over the years! :)





FRIENDS!!! :)

Life is good.

1st Birthdays, Dresses, and Family :)

Oh my goodness, so much has happened since my last blog. School is in full swing complete with classes, homework, clinicals, work, wedding planning, bible study, discipleship, and church. So far I love all of my classes. I'm currently taking Exercise Physiology II, Athletic Training Administration, Athletic Training Clinical Practicum IV, Nutrition in the Life Cycle, and Pharmacology. Since it's only week 3, I'm still pretty motivated to stay on top of homework and projects.
I did, however, have the past weekend off for Labor Day and decided to jet down to Denver to spend some quality time with all my favorite people.

After working a full day of Softball practice and a Volleyball game, I drove down to Jon's sister's house to celebrate Jovian's 1st birthday!! Here are a few pics from the festivities.






The adorable birthday cheesecake. So yummy!



On Sunday, Jon and I went to church and decided to bake a cake for dessert after lunch. We made a gluten-free white cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate drizzled on top. It was delicious! We also spent most of the day hanging out with his nephews and family.

On Labor day I met my parents in Denver. This was the first time I had seen my parents since I had gotten engaged. Needless to say, it was a very needed visit! I got to show off my ring, brag about my cute fiance, and of course.........
TRY ON WEDDING DRESSES FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! Yay!!! It was so fun and I'm so thankful that I got to have that experience with just my mom and dad first. Unfortunately, I can't share any pictures with me in the dresses because I don't want Jon to see, but I will share this one of my mom and I outside of David's Bridal. :)



After trying on around 20 different dresses, my parents and I headed to meet Jon and his parents for lunch. It was the first time both of our parents had been together since we had gotten engaged. :) Overall it was a wonderful weekend!

And now I'm back to good ole Greeley and the insane schedule of getting up at 5:30am and go go go until about 8pm everyday. Haha oh well, life is good and I can't complain. :)

P.S. Quick little fact...

I am getting married to my best friend in 283 days!!!!!! AHHHHH! ;)

Ready...Set...GO!!

Oh my goodness...I have really been slacking on updating the blog lately but life has been a little crazy since my last post. Right after I got engaged (WOOOOOOOOOOO) I started right back in the swing of things with athletic training. I have been helping out with pre-season football camp for the last two weeks and it has been INSANE! Most of my mornings either started at 5:30am or 6am and go until about 7pm on regular days and 10:30pm on two-a-days. Welcome back! Haha. Oh well, the experience for the most part has been very good and beneficial for my education so I can't complain too much.

School is starting up this Monday (yikes!) and I don't feel prepared at all! Usually I'm the type of person who has everything organized and ready to go a week before school starts. Not this year! I've been so busy with football camp, wedding stuff, and work training that I haven't even had time to clean my room! :( But that's not stopping my excitement! I have been a little stressed on how I'm going to be able to balance everyting I have going on this year but for the most part I'm mainly excited! It's my Senior year of college and I'm going to make the best of every experience! :)

Here's to the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year!
Here we go..... :)







Really quickly, I realized I never posted a picture of my engagement ring so here it is. ;)

Pictures from the Engagement

Hello! Here are the pictures I promised! Hope you all enjoy :)


Our first picture as an engaged couple! :)


What a lucky girl I am!








Jon wanted a kissing picture


David, our entertainment :)






Jon and his best buds


Me and the boys

The Engagement Story

As many of you probably know...

I AM ENGAGED!!! :) On August 8th, 2010 at around 11:15AM Jonathan David Kerby asked me to be his wife, and I, with tears in my eyes, said YES! :)

Many of you have been asking about the complete story and since I don't (although I wish I did) have enough time to call each person and tell them, I am sharing the story here! Also, this way to I can post pictures. However, my camera died yesterday and I haven't been home yet to get the charger so look forward to pictures on the next blog. ;)

Alright...where to begin... :)
Sunday morning I woke up and was pretty tired from the night before. Jon and I had gone to Ft. Collins with our friends Ryan and Courtney (who are also engaged) and Dana and Bryce (who were recently married in July). So needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before and was a little cranky while getting ready. Jon came over in the morning to pick me up for church but before we left I made us tropical protein smoothies for breakfast. Yum! (I don't know why, but I always like to throw in the food references when I write my blogs haha)
We got to church at about 9:45am (church started at 10am) so I could have time to just pray and get in the presence of God before the service started. Little did I know, but Jon had actually been on planning to ask me before church but the place was already pretty crowded 15 minutes before so he decided to wait until after. While we were sitting in church listening to the scripture readings, Jon took off my purity/graduation ring my parents had given me and started playing with it. It's a blue sapphire ring that I wear on my middle finger on my right hand. He's done this at church before so it didn't throw me off at all. After looking at it and hanging on to it for a while he put it back on my finger. Towards the end of church he took it off again and once again it didn't really throw me off. I did notice however that he put the ring in his shirt pocket, but in my mind I thought he probably just didn't have time to put it back on my finger and didn't want to lose it.
After church ended, I usually stay seated for a while and just pray on my own before I leave. Jon joined with me and he led us in a sweet prayer. He asked God to protect our relationship and always keep Jesus at the center. Afterwards, we got up and headed out of the church. As we're walking to the car I realized he hadn't given me my ring back. This is how the conversation proceded...

Me: "Can I have my ring back?"
Jon: "What?"
I reach into the pocket I saw him put my ring into but didn't pull out a blue sapphire ring. Nope, I pulled out a diamond ring! I only got a glance of the diamond before I quickly scared myself and said,
"Ah! That's not my ring!" and put it back in his pocket.
Jon: "That is your ring."
At this point I started to tear up a little and Jon came over and gave me a big hug. Then he pulled away, got down on one knee on the sidewalk by his car, gently grabbed my left hand and said, "Noel, will you marry me?"
Shaking a little, with tears in my eyes (I did not full out cry, I was very proud of myself haha) I said, "Yes."
And for the next few hours I barely took my eyes off my left hand. :)



Once we got back in the car, Jon had told me he had a whole day planned out for us and that we needed to go back to my house so I could pack my clothes. I quickly threw my overnight necessities in my bag, wrote my roomates a message on the white board that I was engaged, and left to go enjoy a day with husband to be! :)
It's about an hour and 15 minute drive from Greeley to Evergreen so Jon and I just got to enjoy each others company and delight in the fact that we are now one step closer to being married! I also started calling and texting family and friends to let them know the good news. Once we got to Evergreen, Jon and I stopped at a King Soopers to pick up some food for lunch. Jon told me that we were going to be having a 5 course meal for dinner somewhere so we needed to eat a light lunch. We ended up picking out an Australian cheese, fruit, crackers, and iced tea. We ate our lunch off a trail in the mountains while I continued to call my close friends to let them know the details.
Next, we headed to Evergreen Lake. I had always wanted to go paddle boating ever since we were driving by the lake one time and I saw people on the lake trying it. So, like the good boyfriend he is (or should I say fiance!) he took me on my first paddle boating experience! SO FUN! Very relaxing but you can also get quite the workout too depending on how fast you want to paddle. :)


Afterwards, we headed to Jon's brother's house first to see his new puppy and then to his sister's house to share in the excitement of the engagement!


Now here's where the best part begins...


Jon had told me we were going to a fancy dinner and since he had gotten pretty sweaty from the paddle boating, he wanted to go home and change his shirt first so he didn't stink during dinner. While we're on the dirt road (his parents live in the mountains) leading up to his long driveway, he looks over at me and says, "Oh by the way, my mom said she has a surprise for you but wants you to close your eyes all the way from the driveway to the house." I thought it was kind of silly to close my eyes from there to there (seeing as there driveway is pretty long) but said ok.
We pulled to a stop and Jon said, "Wait here, I'll come around and open your door for you." He opened my door, helped me out, and started walking me towards what I was pretty sure was the door. The next thing I hear is "Ok Noel you can open your eyes."
I opened my eyes and was greeted by Jon's 3 best friends Jake, Nathan, and David, his mom taking pictures, and his Dad smiling in the background. Jake was completely dressed up in a chef's outfit and Nathan and David were dressed up in suit and tie. Welcome to the restaurant! :)


Nathan (our waiter) then led us out the gazebo that overlooks the mountains. It was about 7:30pm so the sun was just getting ready to set. There was a table set for two and a fire going in the fireplace. Let me just say...Jon swept me off my feet! He had planned everything out so that we could enjoy the sunset, fire, a quiet dinner, and delicious food! David, (Jon's best friend and incredibly gifted musician) even played acoustic guitar for us in the background. The whole atmosphere was PERFECT!
After we finished eating, Jon's parents said a special blessing of engagement over us. It was a perfect way to end such a wonderful and memorable day!


I am so incredibly thankful for the man God has blessed me with and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!

I love you Jon and thank you for such a special, memorable, and romantic engagement! :)

Birthday Weekend Fun!

Whew! What a busy but extremely fun weekend I had these past four days celebrating the big 2-1!! I thought I'd go ahead and start this off with a quick shout out to all the people who helped celebrate my birthday! Mom, Dad, Jon, Jon, Amy, Andrew, Dee, Brian, Ned, Susan, and Diane! Thanks guys for making this such a memorable birthday! :)

Alrighty, let's start off with Friday. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning (don't ask me why, I was planning on sleeping in!)to a wonderful and sweet birthday note written by Jon. I then watched Spongebob Squarepants (never too old for that right?), ate breakfast, took a shower and got ready for a fun day with my favorite guy. :) We started off with coffee in Evergreen and got take-out for lunch from one of Jon's favorite restaurants Saigon Landing. We then headed to St. Mary's Glacier and enjoyed our picnic. Here's a quick picture. I would HIGHLY recommend visiting the Glacier (especially if you live in Colorado). It is only a 3/4 mile hike (a little rocky but nothing too hard) and the views are absolutely beautiful!

After the Glacier, we headed to Black Hawk for me to experience my first time gambling. Let me put it simply...I HATE GAMBLING!!! Haha it stresses me out so much! Why anyone would take joy in letting a machine eat your money is beyond me. Need less to say I only won 15 cents. Haha oh well. However, I did get carded for the first time which felt very monumental for some reason. :)

After my unfortunate casino experience, Jon and I headed back to his house to enjoy a delicious birthday dinner with his parents. Jon cooked my favorite; coconut shrimp, seasoned broccoli (actually I cooked that), and homemade sweet potato fries. And for dessert, a yummy angel food cake with fresh strawberries and light whipped cream! :) Mmm Mmm! We also had a white merlot with dinner and a mudslide for dessert (Kahlua, vodka, and Irish creme)! It was wonderful!

Saturday, Jon had to work from 9am-12:30pm so I decided to read a little, catch up with a friend, watch some TV, surf the internet, work out, and then took a nap outside on the patio. Once Jon got off work, we headed down to Colorado Springs to celebrate my birthday with my family! :) My mom had picked up some delicious food to make chicken fajitas. Yummo! She also arranged for a photo scavenger hunt with the parents on one team and the kids (or should I say young adults haha) on the other. Here are a few pictures.






After the scavenger hunt, we went back to the house to enjoy cake, ice cream, and presents. My biggest present I got this year was from my parents! A new camera!! :)
Here's what it looks like!


Sunday, after church and eating lunch with my mom at the hospital (where she works), we went to see the new movie Inception. GO SEE IT! :) If you like mind-bending movies, you'll definitely enjoy it!

And now here we are on Monday already! I have to head back to good ole Greeley tomorrow for work. This is my official last week at the front desk! YAY!! However, the craziness of football camp and athletic training just begin this week! It's going to be a crazy ride but I'm ready to dive right in to my SENIOR year! Let the games begin! :)

Back at the desk

Well I'm back at the front desk again for another 8 hour shift. I have this 8 hour today, one tomorrow, a 4 hour on Thursday and then it's off to Denver for my birthday weekend! :) Work has been pretty slow this morning. I've already ran all the morning reports for housekeeping and check-ins reports for later this afternoon. I enjoyed MountainHigh fat-free vanilla yogurt with pecans for breakfast this morning and was planning on continuing to read The Rescuer in a little bit.

Last night I spent time with my wonderful roomates! I cooked us all dinner and we watched the latest episode of The Bachelorette (a monday tradition). We also chatted over our most recent topic; weddings and engagements. My roomate Gen just got engaged over the weekend and the excitement in the air is definitely noticeable! Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE weddings!! I even helped Gen start her own wedding website on theknot.com! :) I have already informed Gen that she will be my wedding buddy over the next year haha.

As for today, I'm working until 4pm and then have to run to Walgreens to pick up my inhaler. I've been having some problems catching my breath lately, even when I'm just sitting down so my mom called my doctor and had him re-fill my inhaler. Shout-out to mom! :) After that, I have to head to the church to help with some PR work for a couple of hours. When I get home, I plan on doing some major cleaning! Dishes, clean room and bathroon, and laundry all need to get done! I also plan on going to bed somewhat early tonight since I've only been averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night! Not good! I'm the kind of person who needs about 8 hours of sleep to feel fully rested.

Before I go, I thought I would post a cool picture that was sent to me in an email. It's called a smile from God. Enjoy! :)

Birthdays Galore!

Hello whoever reads this ;),

Well I just got back from a wonderful weekend spent with friends and family! This past weekend (and this coming weekend) are all about the birthday celebrations! On Friday night, I celebrated Tyler's 5th birthday! (Tyler is my boyfriends nephew) We celebrated with tuna noodle casserole and a delicious gluten-free chocolate cake shaped as a race car and completed with bright blue frosting! :) So cute! Saturday I went to the Denver Aquarium (www.downtownaquarium.com) to celebrate the birthday of a family friend! I hadn't been to the aquarium in years so it was fun getting to see all the sea ceatures. I got to touch a sting ray, a starfish, and a sea urchan. On Sunday, Jon and I went to Benihana's (www.benihana.com) to use my birthday certificate. Later that day we also celebrated Theresa's (Jon's sister) birthday/going away party with BBQ and a delicious fruit cake!

And the birthday festivities don't stop there! :) This weekend I will be celebrating my 21st (FINALLY) birthday! But the best part is I get to spend it with all my favorite people! Also looking forward to being off work for 4 DAYS straight! YEAH!
For this week however, I'll be busy with 8 hour shifts, spending time with my wonderful roomates, cooking, bike rides, and finding fun things to do.
Until later,

Noel Sarah

Hmmm

Well so much for keeping up with my blog this summer haha. My goal was to try and write a blog whenever I was at work since I work at a desk for hours on end not doing anything. But alas, I spent my time on facebook, wedding sites, Mary Kay, people.com, recipe sites, pandora, photography sites, endless google searches, and twitter. I am currently at work for an 8 hour shift (only 2 1/2 hours to go!) and pretty bored. I have already looked at my "usual" sites and surfed the internet for hours. I have also cleaned out all three of my email accounts and am now listening to Colbie Caillat radio (which I highly recommend if you need calming and relaxing music). :)

When I first got to work this morning I was dreading being here for 8 hours. I knew the hours were going to go by slow and everytime I looked at the clock, it proved that thought. But at about 8:26am (only 26 minutes into the shift lol) while I was day dreaming about later today and the fun I'll be having this weekend, I realized even during these quote on quote "boring" moments, I need to appreciate each moment of life. Sounds cheezy, I know, but think about it. If every moment we're only looking forward to the next, are we really appreciating the moment at hand? And so with that, I decided to just read. I am currently reading "The Rescuer" by Dee Henderson. One of my roomates suggested I read it and kindly let me borrow it. I'm only in the 5th chapter but so far it is proving to be a very good book. I was never much of a reader before, but over the last couple of years have found a new joy in this leisure activity.

With that, I think I'll go ahead and read a little more. :)
Until later,

Noel Sarah

The Start of Something New

Hello World!

This is my first official blog and I am quite excited. I was watching Julie & Julia the other night (wonderful movie if you have not yet seen it) and was inspired to begin my own blog. We'll see how it turns out ;). As for now, I'm going to try to mess around with the profile layout and create something fun and interesting.