That one time I didn't post for 2 weeks.....

I haven't updated the blog in about 2 weeks. My bad.

Its not that I haven't wanted to its more that I haven't had anything to say.

If I'm being totally honest its 100% because Ive been feeling very under the "weather". By weather I mean Pittsburgh. Moving hasn't been my shiniest moment in life. Its so odd because before I moved I would have told you all about how I couldn't wait to get out of Arkansas and explore a little. Then I met Juss and he wanted the same as me and before I knew it we were selling his house and planning our move. I think it just all got way too ahead of me. I can't help but feel like I got steamrolled. I never had any interest in moving to the north east. I really dislike cold weather. Like I dislike it so much that opening my front door and it being cold outside makes me cry for hours and not change out of my pajamas. My idea of leaving Arkansas and exploring was mostly moving to South Carolina or Florida, right next door to my grandparents. Then if you add on the extra two months it took me to find a job and then not being able to start said job until another month later kind of put me in this very dark mood. I haven't been the easiest person to live with these days. I honestly am trying for Juss's sake because he LOVES it here. He loves his job that he goes to everyday ( that is not an exaggeration...he works everyday) and his family is basically down the street and its the greatest thing to happen to him. I however feel so very alone. I miss my family and friends so much its a horrible ache every day. Everyone keeps telling me it will get better but I just can't swallow that. I don't see how the things I don't like about Pittsburgh are going to change. Its April and its cold outside still. Not the kind of cold where you need a light sweater, the kind of cold where I'm still wearing sweatshirts and jackets and socks. Our apartment is so dark and dingy. Even with the lights on and the curtains open its still dark. It makes me sad. The city is so backwards. It takes 20 minutes to drive somewhere that is right across the river because of the bridges and one way streets. Parking is so ridiculous. We have to pay 80 dollars a month to park at a lot and then STILL take the shuttle to work which gets stuck in traffic and makes you late anyways. If we chose to park at the hospital it would be 200 dollars a month for parking. THAT IS INSANE. We live in the city now but when we move next year to a house we will have to drive even further to a lot then still shuttle. Juss and I want to be homeowners so we look at houses. I'm too southern for a PA house. They are all so close together and run down. Juss doesn't want to renovate. They don't have yards and if they do they are so far away from the city. The school system here is so bad. Every neighborhood we look at has a school district that ranks on a scale from 1-10 as a 5 or 4. ALL the schools here are low ranking.

I know that my feelings are intensified because its new and because I always imagined being surrounded by my friends. Juss and I had such great friends in Little Rock. I wanted to raise a baby at the same time as my best friend. I wanted to be at our friends kids birthday parties and weddings and have a community. I know eventually I won't be so sad and I will grow to adjust to Pittsburgh but right now at this moment I am so incredibly home sick. And I need sunshine like yesterday.

Anyway...this is my rant for the week.

Next week Ill be back with a more cheery and positive post about my new job, our new bed set, and our camping trip we are going on this weekend because Juss thinks it will cheer me up to do something I love.

XOXO,
N. Sanchez

That one time we went to Mt. Washington...

Its Monday night and I'm updating the blog. This is starting to become a habit, which is good. I used to have this photography blog where I would put all of my pictures up and talk about being a photographer. Then I realized I didn't really like to talk about being a photographer..Id much rather just take pictures. My blog has like three posts and then nothing. My dad still checks it for updates. 

Shout out to pops for being a fan/supporter....no matter what!

Speaking of dads, we got our wedding pictures back from our amazing photographers and my all time favorite picture is this one of myself and my dad during our father/daughter dance. Isn't my dad such a rock star? Anywho this isn't a official picture...its a picture of a picture. We haven't gotten our disk or release forms yet, but when we do I will make a post about our favorites and our not so favorite ones. If you are in the market for photography and live in Little Rock or surrounding areas I recommend the Nolan duo because they are amazing. For reals.

www.thenolansphotos.com

So something you probably didn't know is that Jussus is super close to his cousins. I mean they are his best friends. They all grew up together and they range from 10 to 3 year age difference. They are all so different and exactly the same. Its weird. When they are together they bro out so hard. I enjoy spending time with them because they are all such great guys (who also have such awesome girlfriends/wives) and its always a good time. This past weekend his cousins Nelson and Justin (and his girlfriend Nikki) came up to visit us. Our house is still kind of a mess due to the plumbing issues (read here) so we knew we weren't going to be hanging out in it all day. Instead we decided to take the Monongahela incline up to Mt. Washington. If you don't live in Pittsburgh right now you are probably like the what??? Its this cool trolley cart that goes up a track to Mt. Washington which is a little area of Pitt that has the best views in the city for sure. We took pictures and then headed to a local bar to get rowdy. And rowdy we did. There were car bombs folks.

(http://www.richmcpeek.com/2012/04/16/monongahela-incline/)

View of Pittsburgh, PA

Jussus, Me, Nikki, Justin @the top

To end our awesome Friday adventure we had dinner at the American Serbian Club. Every Friday during Lent they have a fish fry. They serve fried or baked fish, pierogies, mac n'cheese, vegetables, fresh home baked bread, and pasta for 8$. AND there is beer. We discovered them two weeks ago during our search for fish on Friday. Jussus and I are both catholic and in the middle of observing Lent (thus no meat on Fridays). They(the ASC) are always so nice and welcoming and we love hanging out with them on Fridays. Jussus makes friends wherever he goes.....

The condiment dance....

After our crazy hectic weekend I'm definitely looking forward to a nice casual relaxing evening of Hulu and Secrets and Lies. Have you guys watched this show yet? I mean Ryan Phillippe is enough to get me interested but this show is intense and I love a good mystery. You should check it out!

See you later!

Natasha S.

That one time our basement flooded...

Hi Family (and friends)! 

So this last weekend in the Burgh was the weekend they celebrate St. Patricks day. You might be thinking okay.....cool, but so what? if you live in Arkansas because lets be honest...St. Patty day St. Schmatty day amiright? Well in Pittsburgh, St. Patty's day is like a two week celebration. The first night we were here the woman working at a coffee shop we visited told us "Oh you guys are in town just in time for the best holiday!" She then went on to tell us all about St. Practice day (Yeah that's right). Its the weekend before the big weekend where people test out their alcoholic fortitude and decide what bars they want to bar hop to and from. They basically practice for the real thing. So this tells me that people in the burgh just really want to party....everyday. 

Jussus and I weren't really in the market for celebrating St. Practice day due to the fact that we had to study for our boards. So we studied and studied our butts off and then we took our big, huge, life changing test last Thursday at 8am. Then I immediately threw up. The lady at the testing site said I wasn't the first to throw up that day...I couldn't help but laugh thinking about how many people had thrown up breakfast before/after taking these kinds of exams. The thing about the boards, for me, is that you don't get immediate scores so you have to wait. The waiting is the worst, you guys. Juss and I tried to go out to celebrate being done at last, but you can't help but have that feeling in the back of your mind that you didn't pass. I mean this test, this monster of an exam, is so HARD. Its a competency exam for our nursing license and its so ridiculous the amount of information that can be tested over that their is no way you could possibly know everything. So you sit down and you just answer these questions even though you've never heard of this drug or that kind of traction device and your test just turns off at 75 or 78 or 265 questions ( well really any number of questions after 75, just enough to show you can or you can't ) and then you sit and stare at a blank screen because that's it. You did your best, you hope, or you just floundered and now you have to pay $200 to retake the test. So that's why you can't really celebrate being done...because are you really done? In my opinion you aren't done until you see a RN behind your name.  Never the less here's a picture of Juss putting on a brave face at Fatheads after the test. Its such an attractive face right?

Blueberry brews :)

So that next day (Friday) Jussus had to work at the base and when he got home he had the BEST news ever. He had gotten a call from UPMC for a job interview. I  screamed at the top of my lungs because this was such a relief. We both are currently unemployed (as far as nursing goes) and are tumbling towards desperation (not really but you catch my drift). Then J connected the most important dots....He said " Its weird because I haven't applied for a job in like 2 months. I wonder if they know something I don't?" In Arkansas your board results will post to the state nursing board in 48-72 hours so you can check usually check the site. We had no clue what Pennsylvania did but we certainly hadn't thought to check the NEXT day.  So we logged on and I typed in Sanchez, state PA and nothing. Hmmm......Then I tried Petitjean and skipped the state box and BOOM! You guys...I PASSED MY BOARDS! AHHHH! miniature party in my head because at first I thought I passed but my husband didn't. oh no....He was so brave. You would have never been able to tell he was devastated. I wasn't ready to face defeat yet so I thought well lets check yours again. So this time I typed in Sanchez, no state and lo and behold their it was in all its glory. Jussus Sanchez, RN. Their was jumping on the bed, and crying, and calling of our parents. Best day ever :)

Saturday was St. Patricks day celebration day and we were prepared to celebrate in style. Let me tell you why. Our basement flooded....like our pipes froze, unfroze, and then burst the previous week. Our landlord, R, is such a nice guy and this is his first rental property (bless his heart). He got us a hotel room at a very nice hotel down the street so that the plumbers could basically undo all the work Ive done unpacking and decorating our apartment. They had to re pipe the bathroom and put it upstairs instead of downstairs...Its a mess in our apartment right now. I am prone to anxiety and stress induced temper tantrums that end in me crying under the blankets while Jussus tries to convince me life is not over. At this point you should all be realizing how amazing of a man I married because letsbehonest...I'm a handful, and not always in a good way. ANYWAYS. We avoided all that because we stayed away for the weekend. Check out this view from our hotel suite. Isn't Pittsburgh beautiful?

Downtown Pittsburgh from the Sheraton in Station square

The only part of the weekend I would change if I could, would be the rain but the Sanchez family made the best of it...we even caught about 15 minutes of the parade before we bailed and day drank instead. I'm  happy to announce that my drinking all night and into the early morning days are long past me because we lasted until around 10:30p before we both collapsed into a bundle of down comforters, glasses and face creams in our fancy, free king suite. Here's some pictures of our St. Patricks day fun

Kegs and Eggs at Excuses

Sanchez Trio at the St. Patricks day parade :)

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO,

Natasha Sanchez

      

   

Words to live by : Tuesday

These words have been so strong and present in my life over the last year and half. Sometimes it is so hard to close the door to a friendship/relationship but when you do it is so freeing.  I can honestly say that Jussus walked into my life and made it so much easier to let go of things I had been holding on to. I am so grateful to have him ♥

Love,

Natasha Sanchez

That one time we got married.....

I'm a married woman. I have a husband. My last name is Sanchez. What is this life?

Those are the first thoughts that come to mind when Ive woken up every morning for the last week. Yeah that's right...Ive been married a week and some change. So crazy. Anyhow, I decided to create this little blog to keep our friends and family updated on our whereabouts and whatsabouts and everything in between. It's been slow to start simply because we have been unpacking and studying like two crazy kids. So forgive me for the lag in updates for a minute. But now that I'm here let me tell you all about our crazy trip to PA! 

First things first my phone got transported to Ohio on accident after the wedding which stressed me out a tiny bit due to having to drive 14 hours and also because I was leaving all of my friends and family and wanted to call/text/see them before I left :( My genius husband (eek) came up with the idea of us using walkie talkies to communicate. This of course led to us having perverted and perfect road call signs. I mean...you're looking at Big Booty Sanchez right here! Hilarious endeavors followed as we got lost, snuck our pets into a hotel room and then snuck them out the next morning, and finally arrived in PA and moved into our house while it was snowing...joy!

Me standing in the street while it snowed :)

Since we have been in our row house we have explored our neighborhood and found 1 trillion awesome and cool bars/coffee shops/ restaurants within walking distance. In fact I'm currently sitting in Cupka Joe which is one block down from us and a auto shop/garage turned coffee shop. I will probably write from here a lot! 

One part of this duo also got a new hair cut and she is feeling fabulous! If you have been listening to anything I have said for the last 2 years it was that I couldn't wait to cut my hair. The only reason I was holding on to the length was for my wedding day hair. I promised Juss that as soon as we got married I was getting chopped and I stuck to my word. I surprised him because I did it without warning and he came home from work to a new woman. He loved it (Thank goodness)! I was only slightly worried he wouldn't be into my new short hair, so my fingers were crossed until the minute he walked in and laughed and said "OMG you cut your hair! I love it" Phew......

11 inches gone

We take our boards this week so wish us luck! Ill be back later to update you guys on our scores and how we are planning to celebrate! Until then here's a picture of our pup pup just being spoiled and sleeping in our bed....

Kai Sanchez, cuddle extraordinaire

Love,

Natasha Sanchez