April in Texas

Last year we had a terrible drought & for the last several months things have been brown and dry. Over the most recent months however we seem to have our state back! Patrick and I have taken up the great weather recently by exercising and getting out more! (The pictures with no one in them are of a park, a mere 2 miles away, that go to run at on my days off. Beautiful isn't it?)

Firstly, we went down town to a rockets basketball game with his father. Aside from an older gentleman a few seats away, who may or may not have been on some illegal substances, haha, great time and we won!

A few weekends later was Sean, Parrick's brother's, birthday. He lives in Midland, Texas (desert-like oil country) and flew back to spend it with his family and girl friend who live here. Not only this, but his younger sister Kelsey came back from the University of Texas for the weekend too. Sean and Patrick have been bitten by the tri' bug. So, of course, for the birthday weekend the brothers celebrated it with a for-fun, sprint triathlon at the local YMCA. The picture of the two after the race shows them holding their awards. Sean won the competition and Patrick won his age group!

The next weekend was Easter. Kelsey was back in town with her room-mate, as she was from California and unable
to make the trip back for the weekend. I had to work Saturday, but Sunday after church, we all went to a huge brunch together. It reminded me of the holiday's back home with the huge spreads of food from get togethers on Mom's side. In the last picture, you can see the four of us... prior to a food coma. :-)

Wishing you all equally fun and beautiful weather!

Anne-Marie

New Digs - 3/01

Well, it's been a while - fast forward through an engagement and wedding (I know small feat... Is there a back dating feature on this thing?) but here now 9 months later from the wedding I think I've recouped enough to have some extra time!

I thought I'd start out by showing some pictures of our new apartment... And well, when I say "new" I mean we've lived here for 15 months, but it's new to you! :-)

You may notice a lot of your gifts about the apartment (and maybe in ways you can't see - i.e. gift cards buying curtains, etc.) and we thank you and hope you know how much we appreciate how they've come together to make your apartment feel like home.

Our next goal for the apartment is the office. It's got a ways to go though - so no pictures as of yet. ;-)

We hope you all have a great week as it seems we're all starting to de-thaw.

Young, RN

Hey Yall!

Ok, so a LOT to catch up on! First of all, as of February 18th I've been working the floor and WHAT an experience! Days are scheduled to be from 7am to 7pm; however, having just graduated, I need a little more time to get situated before the shift starts. Sometimes, and unfortunately this isn't something that gets better with time, I stay up to an hour later after the shift finishing my duties charting or giving report. I am still VERY thankful for my job however, and the opportunity to work at such a wonderful hospital! I have completed all the extra stuff and am now officially a registered nurse by the way! It's a nice pick up to my day when I can write, Anne-Marie Young, RN, B.S.N. next to my name. :)

Texas is starting to bloom and it is beautiful! The only down side is e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. is covered in green pollen, haha! The lake, the cars, nothing is spared, but it's a small price to pay for how beautiful things are becoming. Sadie gets bigger and bigger every day! The "Little One" is not so little anymore. Unforetunately, the new apartment has some minor damage due to what we like to call the "puppy willies," but we're so glad to have her still no matter what! Here is us playing with Sadie at a local lakeside park. She likes to play fetch and has a lot of tricks down, but we're still working on walking with the leash and obeying when distractions come up. For a 4 month old though, I'd say she's doing very, very well!



Recently, my little sister Maddie was able to come down and visit for her spring break and MAN did we have a good time! We visited Galveston beach the first weekend she was here and had an awesome fresh seafood dinner, a beautiful hotel room with a balcony that looked right out onto the ocean, and IHOP. Inconsequential to most of you, but for Maddie and I, beachside pancakes = HEAVEN! Plus, here's Maddie and I at the beach having a diving competition... ok, not really. ;) The rest of the week we just decided to be lazy... glorious. Although, she did get me a noise violation when we decided to have our own R&B dance off in my apt. ;) Atta girl Mad! ( Please at least attempt to be surprised that this happened with us getting together, HAhaha! )


We've gone to some big meets for his little sister Kelsey who is, literally, the most talented swimmer ever [I'm not bias ;-) ]. She's only 17, and this year was first in the Texas State Championship Meet in the 200 IM, third in the 100 Free. And let me tell you, I've never had more fun than at her races. She likes to stay back then pull out right in the last 50-25 yards. It's intense! Texas is one of the biggest states for turning out world class swimmers, and she's right there in line with them. Can't wait to see where she'll go! We've also been over to Baton Rouge to see his brother Sean swim. At the beautiful campus of LSU we saw Sean, the captain of the LSU men's swim team, swim and their team mascot Mike the tiger too! I could go on and on, but well I'll just say it's been exciting to be a groupie of the LeNeave dream team, hahaha! :)

Ok, I know this is long enough, so I'll just say take care everyone! Patrick and I are going on our first mini-vaca in a couple weeks to San Antonio - more on that to come!

Love you all and miss you very much!

Anne-Marie Young, RN, B.S.N.
sorry just had to through that in their one more time :)

Hey Yall!

Bleu and Sarah have inspired me to create a blogging sight of my own as I too am abroad from IL. So, here goes nothing! :)

I AM REALLY enjoying The Woodlands, TX and having Patrick around again. Our apartment is just great; love the view (left), nice area to walk Sadie, a gym where Patrick and I work out most mornings @ 5:40 a.m. Here is a picture of what we've done with the place so far.
And just in case you're wondering, yes, that is a monster t.v. Patrick put in here, so of course he's happy w/ the place too. ;) We love to watch Lost every day on it. Kinda has become the running joke that we ask each other what they want to do when we both know we only want to watch Lost all the time! (BIG shout out to Sonny right now by the way for getting me seasons one and two as a going away present. YOU'RE THE BEST BF!)

Other than Lost, Sadie Daul takes up quite a bit of time. She's a very smart, but has a mind of her own. It's not that she doesn't know what to do, she simply looks at you like "I'm deciding whether to do it or not!" She can "leave it, sit, come, and target." She's best at the last, which Patrick is excited about as it's the beginnings of teaching her to retrieve from hunting, haha! Right now the biggest task is walking on the leash... And when I say "walking" I mean me coaxing her every 5 steps to get up... As you can see, it's a process...


A lot of people have been asking me about work, so I'll just repeat this for those of you who haven't heard. When the hospital offered me a position in November, it was different than how they usually take on grads. Usually you're already working there in a grad residency when they hire you on, but they took me on w/o this position and I was from outside the state. When I came here for my physical in the beginning of January, they let me know they weren't aware my Graduate Nursing license would take so long to transfer in TX. So, with out this, I'm unable to work. It's been slightly chaotic trying to get signed up for the quickest process, but all my paper work is in now, so I'm waiting for notification that I can sign up for my test in the next week or so. A few days later my GN license will be available as well. I still have a position, and they have been great to reassure me that I am welcome as soon as the paper work comes in. So prayers of thanks for that!


For the time being, the running joke is God decided w/ Sadie that I needed to be on maternity leave for a while before I could start work. ;0 ) Who, speaking of which is up from her nap, and probably is poised to chew or piddle on something. Again, I love TX, but miss you all dearly. I can't wait to see you all again soon, and hope to make it back sometime this Summer. I would appreciate prayers for the paper processing to go quickly and successfully and to pass my boards as well! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

God bless & Yall take care now!


Anne-Marie