Date Night!

This past week's date night was pizza night!  Chris and I decided we would make a homemade pizza, and it actually turned out great!  We were both a little skeptical, but pleasantly surprised.

Date Night!

Our Masterpiece! :)  It tasted soooo good!

Pizza night was such a success that Chris has requested we do it again this Friday night..we might just have to open up our own pizza parlor in our free time. ;) 

We are doing well and continue to be extremely busy!  We will be home the week of Thanksgiving, which we are both really looking forward to.  My brother has a SNC basketball game on Tuesday, November 22 which we will make it home just in time for!  We are so excited to see him play!  It will surely be a wonderful week to be reunited with family.  Thank you to everyone for your continued support, thoughts, and prayers.  We are so thankful for the abundance of blessings in our lives, and thank God everyday for all of you. 

Love and miss you all, and we will see you in 2 weeks from Tuesday! :)

Love always,

Chris and Rachael 

"For your kindness is a greater good than life; my lips shall glorify you.  Thus will I bless you while I live; lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name."
~Psalm 63

PS: Thanks for the subscription to The Word Among Us Mom and Dad!  We read it everyday and love it! :)

Nightly Walks :)

Chris and I try to take advantage of the beautiful Pennsylvania scenery as much as possible.  Whenever Chris needs a study break, or we have time on the weekends, we go for walks on the path right behind our apartment.  It is a great walking trail and our walks are a very therapeutic way to unwind from a long day and spend some time together!  

This is the Monongahelia River..literally in our backyard!

The lovely walking trail..you can see the apartments in the background..that's how close we are!

Husband&Wife

Beautiful views from the trail!

My wonderful, handsome husband

We love our walks together and will continue to take them until the weather gets too cold and snowy!  Although I bet the views are beautiful in the winter as well...

Love to all,

Rachael & Chris 

A few summer photo's....

I found a few summer pictures that were on Chris's camera.  Just thought I'd share! 

Sneaking a quick hug! :)

One of Paul and Chris's many Fox River Fishing Excursions.

Paul! :)

Punta Cana..Honeymoon!

Another one from the honeymoon...

The Peterson Men

Such wonderful drinks in Punta Cana!

On the boat to go snorkeling!

Paradise! :)

Our Apartment! :)

I FINALLY took pictures of our apartment!  Enjoy! :)

A Quick Update

Hello All!

My sincere apologies for not updating the blog lately...I promise I will get better at updating once we become a little more settled and used to this routine!  I thought I'd give a quick update on how the Petersons are doing.

The first word that comes to mind when describing life right now is B.U.S.Y!  I never imagined life as a newly married couple could be this busy.  I knew Chris would be incredibly busy, but I didn't think I would be as busy as I am.  Chris has been very stressed and busy with midterms lately.  He had 3 exams last week, and he has another 3 this week.  After the 3 exams this week he has at least one exam every week until finals.  Not to mention, he also has lots of projects, homework assignments, waxing teeth, and other odds and ends to do before the semester is over.  However, he is still loving school and Pittsburgh, and he tells me every day that he can't wait to be a dentist.  Last week he learned how to drill for the first time and his teacher asked him if he had drilled before because he was doing such a great job.  He was pretty excited about that compliment!  For me, working 40 hours/week consumes most of my time.  The free time that I do have I spend cleaning, trying to stay in shape & working out every night, ironing, grocery shopping, laundry, paying the bills, and lots of other "wife" stuff.  Chris and I don't get to see too much of eachother, but we make the most of the time we do have together and we keep saying this will all be worth it in the end!  We try to have "date night" one night on the weekend; this Friday night we are celebrating the end of Chris's midterms by having a date night and making homemade pizza together..should be fun!  We know we have to put in our time now and continue to make sacrifices so we can reach all of the goals we have as a family. 

I continue to enjoy my job and I am learning SO much.  One thing that I dislike about this new job is that we take care of tons of cancer patients who come in to have procedures done.  I have never liked oncology nursing and I don't know how there are enough nurses in the world who have the ability to care for cancer patients.  I keep praying and thinking that maybe this is God's way of showing me that being in Pittsburgh really isn't so bad, because there are so many people who have a heck of a lot more on their plate.....

Once again, thank you so much to our friends and family for your support during this transition of life.  We are so grateful for all of you, and you continue to be in our daily thoughts and prayers. 

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Love always,
Chris and Rachael

Life as a dental student...and an RN!

On our way to school and work!  Unfortunately this is the best picture we could get this early in the morning... (Chris's head is just a litttttle cut off) :)  

First of all, I apologize for not updating the blog lately.  Life has been absolutely crazy busy and I feel like there are not enough hours in a day!  I keep telling Chris it's a good thing we don't have kids because we are so busy and it's just the two of us!  Every day when I get home from work I clean up the apartment, workout, eat dinner with Chris, clean up dinner, pack our lunches, make dinner for the following evening, iron our scrubs, and by the time all that is done it's time for bed!  Like I said..not enough hours in the day!

I started work last week Monday.  Last week was just orientation for new UPMC RN's, so it was pretty boring.  I do feel very proud though to be working for such a prestigious health system.  UPMC employs almost 60,000 people, and it is ranked one of the top 10 health systems in the world!  I feel very fortunate to be employed by such a great system.  This week I started working on my acutal unit, which is the Interventional Radiology Unit.  So far, I absolutely love it.  I work with great people, and they are all so willing to make both my transition at work and in Pittsburgh very positive. My hours will vary, but will always be daylight hours.  This week I worked 8-4:30 and then 5:30am-2pm for a couple days.  I am learning SO much and am very overwelmed, but I also love how much I am learning and how knowledgeable I will become.  As an RN in this department, I get to take care of patients before they go in for their procedure, I am in the procedure room during the actual procedure, and then I take care of the patient after the procedure before they either go home or back to their hospital room.  This department performs hundreds of different procedures, anything from placing a feeding tube to taking care of an emergency stroke patient.  I love the variety and I love being a part of the procedures; the doctors are all so willing to teach me what they're doing and why..so I am learning so much.  I also really like the varying shifts for different reasons.  Most of the mornings I am able to drop Chris off at school before I go to work, which is nice for him because he doesn't have to take the bus!  It also works out quite often that I am able to pick him up from school when I'm done with work; the hospital and the dental school are only about 1.5 miles from each other, which is very conveniant for us! 

Life is certainly busy right now, but I have to say my favorite part of the busy day is coming home to see my wonderful husband.  Even with our busy schedules we make time to eat dinner together and hang out every night, and every Friday night we have "date night," which includes a home-cooked meal, a walk to the ice cream shop, and then usually renting a movie.  We both agree it's the best night of the week; a great way to kick off the weekend. :) 

As always, thank you to our wonderful family and friends who continue to support us and pray for us.  We feel so blessed and SO loved! 

We love you all! :)

Love always,
Chris and Rachael

"Delight yourself also in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of your heart."

Psalms 37:4

University of Pittsburgh Football!

This past Saturday Chris and I attended the first home game for the U of Pitt football team!  Chris has season tickets and it's only $5 for me to go, so we will hopefully make it to many of the home games this season!  It was a 6:00 game, but we picked up one of Chris's dental school friends and headed to the stadium to tailgate with some other fellow dental classmates.  Tailgating and the game were really fun; it's such a great atmosphere and it was really cool to see Heinz stadium (same stadium where the Steelers play).  The only bummer of the day was that it was SO hot outside.  I'm not sure what the exact temperature was, but it felt like well over 100 degrees.  Needless to say there were a lot of sweaty Pittsburgh fans by the end of the game.  I took a few pictures from the day! 

In our Pitt gear all ready to go!

One of the views from the stadium.  The terrain in Pennsylvania is so different from Wisconsin; we are still fascinated by this every day when we drive through the area!  

Great view of the skyline from the stadium!

Another view.

We were in the nose bleed student section!

Pittsburgh ended up winning 35 to 7; a great way to start the season!  The following day Chris and I got a few things done around the apartment and then were invited to a cookout at one of his dental friend's house.  It was a nice evening and it was great to socialize and meet more new people!  Chris didn't have class on Monday because of Labor Day, so we ran some errands together and Chris did some studying.  It was a nice relaxing way to wrap up the holiday weekend.  We have definitely met a lot of people since we've moved here, and every day things feel a little more comfortable in this new, enormous city!  I start work on Monday so that is yet another new beginning in our Pittsburgh adventure.  I will be working at a hospital very close to Chris's school; primarily day shift which will be absolutely wonderful!  My background and passion is in cardiac nursing, but I am excited to learn everything I can in my new department of interventional radiology.  It will definitely be a learning experience but I am excited and ready for a good challenge! 

Once again, thank you to everyone for your love and support each day.  We are empowered by your prayers, kind words, and warm thoughts.  We miss everyone so much, and continue to pray that God keeps you happy, healthy, and safe.  Since we moved here I have been holding onto some wonderful words of wisdom from Grandma Valentyn: "Give everything from your day to God..the day's triumphs, sadness, happy moments, and suffering; give it all to God and he will carry you through each day, because God never gives us more than we can handle."  This is something my Grandma has been telling me for years, and when I hugged her goodbye the night before we moved here she whispered these very familiar words to me again.  Thank you Grandma, and thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends...we are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Love always,

The Petersons

"For I can do everything through Christ, who strengthens me." 

Philippians 4:13