flowers

after we met with a potential florist last week, i've got flowers on the brain. girly i know, but here a few of my new favorites:

pink astilbe

craspedia

green button mums

and more inspiration:

inspiration

when you're planning a wedding, there is a lot of inspiration out there! it has been exciting (and also overwhelming) to create the look of the wedding i didn't even know i always wanted.

we've met with so many talented people who have helped us brainstorm, problem-solve, and create. we get new ideas every week and then work to make it happen- it's awesome!

mom has collected over 180 vintage plates to help create the look. here's a sneak peak:





And as my friend Serwah says, "let's look at the blogs....":

Love and Lavender

Style Me Pretty

Grey Likes Weddings

Sparkle and Hay

proud sister

a few weeks ago my little brother stephen finished his eagle project, and it is awesome.

let me start out by telling you a little about stephen: as the youngest sykes child stephen could have easily just followed in doing things that his brother and sister had success doing when they were his age. instead stephen chose to be different. he pursued creativity and became an excellent worship leader, student, friend, and servant of the Lord. He grows everyday in so many ways, and I am humbled and proud to be his sister.

stephen worked tirelessly during his hectic junior year: he carefully designed a bridge, raised money for the project, lead a team during workdays, and worked hard until he finished. as jonathan sykes (who is also pretty awesome) claims:

"Only a nuke would take that thing down."

confession

although being engaged has been a fun and exciting time, it has also been a challenging one.

there is weekend after weekend of wedding plans, fun people and fun experiences but monday after monday i return to an empty apartment and it's back to work until the next weekend. i have never lived by myself and i'm glad now that i will never have to come october. it's been hard to motivate myself to do things when the only one holding me accountable during the week is me.

while i don't want to overwhelm austin with all of these expectations, i still believe that it will be way funner doing things with two people rather than one: bikes rides, walks through the neighborhood, going out to eat, watching movies, and cooking.

being long distance stinks. i'm not sure if it stinks more with an end in sight or without one.

that just happened

walk in to patient A's room, who's feet are "burnin' up so bad" because of nerve pain that he is having. he is not due for any pain meds for another couple hours, so i'm offering every alternative i can think of: can we get an ice pack on your feet? does it help if we put a pillow underneath them? do you want a heating pad?

no, no, no. still moaning and groaning from pain.

just as i am about to give up, i tell him i will come in with his pain med as soon as it becomes due again. "you just let me know if there is anything else i can get you, okay?" i say.

"ya'll got any ice cream?"


really? REALLY?

these PEOPLE.

funny girls

when you don't have too much going on in the looks department, a girl must be funny. i've spent years developing this skill and it is quite often one of the only attributes i can fall back on. luckily there are women out there who i can look to for inspiration, one of them being tina fey. i am currently reading her new book : bossypants. it is hilarious.



it's kind of a cross between a memoir, how-to guide, and self-help with many jokes like this along the way:

"Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” was constantly on my FM Walkman radio around that time. I think that made me cry because I associated it with absolutely no one."

Simply hilarious.

seriously, who doesn't love this woman?

"these lights"

last saturday i got to experience one of the coolest things i have ever been a part of: helping the less make their "these lights" music video.

adam, zac, michael, kyle, and paul of the less have worked so hard to get to this point: years of writing, planning, playing anywhere and everywhere, going against the expectations of going to college and getting jobs, and most importantly never giving up on their dream.

as everyone arrived at the old warehouse in downtown atlanta the excitement built around these guys and what they were doing. the energy level stayed high all night even during the 527638th take of the bridge to the end of the song, as you can see in this pic:


the feeling of community and encouragement was overwhelming that night as old friends caught up and new friends were made, all with the common goal of supporting these guys making a huge step towards their goal.

the way the support was raised for this project, the professional talent that worked (for free) to film, and the meaning behind the song and the video all showed just how much these guys are blessed by God and are doing what they are called to do.


i'm so proud to call this talented group my friends. trust me guys, the finished product is gonna look good.

DNR

For those of you who don't know, this is a term we use in the medical world meaning "do not resuscitate." It is used as a status for those patients who have chosen that they do not want heroic measures (such as cpr, artificial breathing) taken to be kept alive should the situation arise. My opinion on this subject became even more defined this week after watching one of my patients near the end of her life.

I don't want to be misunderstood: I am in no way in favor one person ending another person's life. I am simply not in favor of unnecessarily prolonging one's life.

As I watched my 80 year old patient with a severe lung infection have a tube inserted down her throat, and then endure the trauma of CPR after her heart stopped a couple hours later, my heart ached. I think I felt a little of what her husband felt when he went to visit her a few hours later and said, "I don't think she would have wanted this."

As I watched the events unfold I couldn't help but wonder if I would feel the same way if it was my mother or spouse in that situation. Would I want that person to "live" as long as possible, no matter the cost? Or would I have had the peace to let go when their body did?

This is a heavy topic, surely one that requires a lot of discussion, thought, and consideration to the situation.

Often times with these kinds of patients I find myself praying that they know Jesus, and He would take them then.

wedding planning has commenced, which has introduced us to a whole new world of invitations, vendors, and formal wear. we keep referencing our favorite scenes from father of the bride to keep us sane. i think we can all agree that this scene is pretty hilarious:




also, i have a few wedding mags laying around the house with articles on the cover like, "what is wrong with my dad lately?" so naturally this weekend dad comes up to me and says, "according to your magazines i'm supposed to be grouchy all the time."

funny funny, good thing he hasn't been (yet).

engagement times

i have a fiance, and it is so exciting!



austin surprised me in auburn last weekend and asked me to marry him on the steps of samford hall, which may sound cliche, but that's also where his dad proposed to his mom and his brother proposed to his wife. i am so excited and can't wait to begin wedding planning, honeymoon planning, and marriage planning!

some funny stories from engagement day that you probably have already heard:

• i was a tiny bit tipped off to the surprise by our friend nate, who greeted me at the toomer house by saying: "hey ellen, i didn't know you were here. i just saw austin...." to which i said "what???" and the room got very quiet. he felt awful (poor guy) and when we got back to the house after the proposal he gave austin a huge nate hug saying, "i'm so sorry, man...." . it's okay nate, austin is just anxiously awaiting the day you want to propose.

• my phone call with jonathan to tell him our news:

me: hey jonathan, me and austin are going to get married!
jonathan: that's awesome! hold on a second- (muffled) can i get a plain hamburger, nothing on it, just the meat and the bun? and an m&m mcflurry."

our news took second place to the mcdonalds drive-thru, apparently.

• while i was telling my mom about how many we wanted to have in our bridal party, she goes: "ooooo, seven, the Lord's number!"
  

can't wait to share more plans and fun thoughts as the day gets closer!

confession

okay, so his oscar hosting might have been a little awkward, but i still have a crush on james franco. he kinda has the nerdy cute thing going on. and if you have never watched freaks and geeks, get on that.

and while we're on the topic of celebrity crushes i've always been a little in love with the drummer from that thing you do. pretty adorable.

and by celebrity crushes, i mean people who i can't feasibly be in a relationship with. so calm down austin melton.

cool things in (just outside of) athens part 2

a little uga trivia according to sarah cornett: in the 60s an iron horse statue was put onto the uga campus. the students hated it and tried to destroy it, so in the middle of the night the sculpter and the farmer moved the statue to some farmland about 20 minutes outside of athens, where it still is today.

naturally we climb it

it was fun times.

code blue

it really happened. you talk about that stuff in school, but until it really happens you can't really grasp the weight of it all.

she had no pulse and was not responding, so we pulled the code button on the wall and started cpr. within seconds 15 more people entered the room, all working to save this woman's life.

it was unreal:

the way this person went from walking and talking to being so close to death.

the way i could see the heartbeat i was making doing cpr on the monitor.

the way that code blue team worked calmly with ease and confidence to restore this woman's heartbeat and bring air back to her lungs.



in some ways i hope i become more confident and used to this situation, and in other ways i don't.

in other news....

no more rats! we are back in our house, and there have not been any rat sitings or evidence of them.

SCORE.

burnt out

I’ll just say it: last week at work was awful. Mid-week I found myself burnt-out and praying for the weekend, which is mostly out of character for me. My patients wore down my patience (pun).

Between staffing issues, patients who were very demanding of pain medication, and one we even had to call security on, I had had enough. Why do I want to do this again?

I’m finding this patient population very difficult. A group of older, unhealthy adults who aren’t always the most polite bunch. It takes being underappreciated to a whole new level when I’m wiping your butt and you are still rude to me.

Conviction came Sunday when we talked about James 2:14-19, about faith and deeds. I found myself wondering do I have deeds without the faith sometimes, and is that even possible? What is the motivation behind why I do what I do? What gives me that last smidgen of patience when I am ready give up on being polite to someone who has been a pain to take care of?

This past week that last bit of energy might have been the tiny bit of ethical and moral obligation I have to my patients and my job, but this week, I want it to by a testimony to God’s glory. Because of his majesty, every person matters.

We’ll see how it goes.

cupcakes

maybe it was that valentines day was in the air, or maybe it was the 15 minutes of cupcake wars that i watched, but cupcakes are my new thing. and this is weird, because i would take chips and salsa over a sugary dessert any day. but valentines day i found myself eating large amounts of frosting and experiencing a sugar high like no other.
yeah, that's like a four good inches of frosting. thank you, gigi. picture this: while sitting innocently on the sideline of austin's frisbee game on sunday enjoying a cupcake, a frisbee comes at me out of nowhere and knocks the frosting off the top. after tossing the frisbee back, the opposing team got sugary goodness on their hands every time they caught the disc. sugar sabotage, you're welcome austin.

silver lining cupcake company is my alternative place for getting cupcakes until gigi's opens in athens. it comes in a close second.

2.7.11

oh this night was fun. the melting point might be one of my new favorite venues- great food and great atmosphere. sarah and i got there when the doors opened at 6 to score an awesome table. later when kristen and eric joined us we forged a "no standing" sign to secure the awesome view for the rest of the concert- and it worked! no one stood at the railing in front of us the rest of the night, and we giggled everytime we overheard latecomers say "let's go upstairs, there's no standing here...."

joy and john-paul (yes, we're on a first name basis) were fun, enchanting, interactive, and inspiring. the best song of the night might have been "falling" (the first one they wrote together) but all of the others came in close second. i found myself smiling, wishing i was joy williams, and just getting lost in good music.

wish these weren't so blurry: my camera was nearing the end of battery life and joy moves around a lot.

this was a fun cover

the civil wars are oh so good

my famous friends

recently i've had a couple friends leave behind jobs and school to pursue their dreams of music full time. it is a bold and inspiring move.

my friends adam, zac, michael, kyle, and paul otherwise known as the less have just finished up a new album and are looking forward to the next step in songwriting, playing, and touring. these guys are SO great, i see nothing but awesome things for them in the future!

austin's twin andrew recently made a big move to nashville with his friends to pursue their band full time. they've re-vamped a lot of things, including the name of their band, the coronation. they are a talented group and i know they will rock nashville!

both bands have a different style but are certainly full of talent; i wish them the best!

in another life

sometimes i like to pretend i'm brooke fraser. or joy williams. or ellie holcomb. or all of the above. these talented girls make such beautiful music and i can't help but be jealous of their lifestyle of cute scarves, creative songwriting, and sweet harmony. ohhhh how fun.

the civil wars' new album "barton hollow" was released today. usually i am quick to replay new songs a few times until i can sing along, but today i find myself just sitting back and enjoying work of art that is this album. CANT WAIT to see them on monday at the melting point in athens.

saw another talented young lady saturday downtown by the name of emily hearn. give her a listen, can you believe she's only 20 years old?

i heart singer/songwriters.

on church shopping

first of all, i do not like the idea of church shopping. when i get into a 'church shopping' mindset, letting God move in the way he wants to move in me at a new church becomes impossible. i analyze everything from the opening song to the benediction. i think about what could be different for me to really get on board with what they are doing at this church. for me to really get into worship and the message.

the truth is, it is not about what the church needs to do for me to get me to join. how realistic is it to expect a church to blow me away during the one sunday that i visit? not very realistic at all.

i ask myself what i love about the churches that i have been involved with in the past: the people and the relationships formed there. the personal spiritual growth that i experienced there. this takes time. this takes a commitment of more than one sunday from me.

at the same time, i don't want to be 'wasting my time' at one church trying to force it to be my church home when it won't turn out to be a good fit in the end and there is another church out there that could be my true spiritual home.

finding a new church home isn't easy. meanwhile, i shall pray for patience and discernment.

funny story:

this morning while visiting a new church i clearly didn't quite understand their communion ritual. while everyone else took theirs' back to their seat to take after prayer and reflection, i did my shot of wine and scarfed down my cube of bread in the front of the church and inadvertently choked on the bread and body all the way back to my seat. thumbs up for communion.

rats are not cute and cuddly

this is not the first time disney has lied to me.

yeah, right.

they do not help you cook. they are not cute. they keep scurrying in the walls and THEY NEED TO GO.

the exterminator is coming tomorrow. dun dun dun. as my mom says: "tell ratatouille his days are numbered!"

new years resolutions

just the one divorce in '99!

ignore the weird subtitles?

my roomie is the best

buttermilk pancakes after a long night of work. you rock lasarah!