Hi everyone!

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last posted!

On Monday, May 5, I got together with a couple of friends from work for a nice walk around a local park, followed by dinner.  We decided on a Mexican restaurant, completely forgetting that it was Cinco de Mayo!  We were a little confused as to why the normally quiet restaurant was so busy when we first arrived, haha!

On Wednesday, May 7, Matt and I attended the Nickel Creek concert.  The band has been on hiatus for the past seven years and now they have reunited with a new album and tour.  We had wonderful seats, about 9 rows from the stage in the center.  They put on a great show, and we are looking forward to seeing them again soon (preferably sooner than seven years from now)!

We had great seats!

Waiting for the show to begin

Happy birthday to Dad and cousin Amy on May 8!

On Friday, May 9, Matt and I drove up to the north side of town to celebrate my birthday a little bit early with dinner.  We went to a fairly new Outback Steakhouse location near their house.  While there, they surprised us by telling us that they are sending Matt and me to California to meet my running buddy Anthony and his family!  I was so excited that I started crying happy tears in the middle of the restaurant!  We have not finalized any plans yet, but we are looking at a couple different weekends in September to fly out there to spend time with them and for me to push Anthony in his first 5k!

Out to dinner at Outback for my birthday

Happy Mother's Day on May 11 to all the moms who are reading!  We hope that you all had a lovely day!

Saturday, May 17, was my birthday and I decided to celebrate by running another half marathon.  I ran the Geist Half Marathon in the town of Fishers on the north side of Indy.  I was aiming for a finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes and the race provided "pacers" to help people meet their goals.  The "pacer" I followed was holding the 2:30 sign and he was an experienced runner who is good at maintaining the pace necessary to complete the race in a given time.  The race was pretty hilly, but I did a good job on sticking with the pacer for the first 10 miles.  There was a large hill around mile 10 that finally did me in and I was unable to maintain pace any longer.  I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 34 minutes.  So close!  I was proud of my time, however, since I shaved 7 minutes off my Mini Marathon time! 

I finished my seventh half marathon!

 While I was running the half marathon, Matt ran/walked the 5k.  It was a beautiful day for a run, and after we were both finished, we refueled a little bit before heading home for a nap.

We went for a birthday meal at IHOP and Matt gave me some cute cowboy boots!  Thank you to everyone who called, texted, wrote on my facebook wall, and sent cards!

Happy birthday to Sheila, who celebrated her birthday on May 18!

On May 18, I headed off to Denver, Colorado, with three other Riley PICU coworkers so that we could attend the NTI (National Teaching Institute) Critical Care Conference.  During the conference, we attended lectures given by other nurses who are at the forefront of critical care nursing.  The conference was from 7:30 am until 5:30 pm each day.  In the evenings, we were able to explore Denver a little bit.  On Wednesday May 21, we had "nurses night out" where we received free entry to Denver Zoo and the Denver Science Museum.  We got home on Thursday evening.  It was a neat experience, and Denver is a very nice city.

Hanging out in a helicopter

Yesterday (Friday), Matt and I were able to hang out, get some things done around the house, and go see the movie "Godzilla."

We hope that you all have a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

Mayflowers bring Pilgrims

Hi everyone!

I sent out an email last week, but in case you missed it, the article in the Geist Community Newsletter about Anthony and me has been published!  You can read it by clicking this link-- http://issuu.com/tombritt/docs/geist_8bceba252d7224/1?e=1606101/7677330
The article begins on page 74.

Matt and I did not end up seeing the advanced showing of "The Other Woman" like we had planned.  There were only a set number of seats available for the movie and they were all taken by the time we made it to the theater.  Instead, we went to dinner at Skyline and then saw the Johnny Depp movie "Transcendence."  It is a sci-fi movie about artificial intelligence.  I thought it was just okay.  Matt liked it better than I did.

On Thursday, April 24, I drove up to Westfield to meet with the photographer from the Geist Newsletter so that she could take my picture for the article.  Afterwards, my mom and I went shopping for some new business casual clothes for me for my conference in Denver and out to dinner.  Then, my dad and I went for a 4.5 mile run on the Monon Trail.  It was a fun day.

After a nice run on the Monon Trail

On Friday, May 2, I went downtown for the Mini Marathon race expo to pick up my race packet and to wander around the different stores and exhibits in the convention center.  I bought some energy "goo" to eat during the race to keep me fueled, as well as a new headband to wear while I ran.  That evening, Matt accompanied me to the karate "dojo" (school) to watch me promote from my gold belt to my yellow belt.  After that, we had Fazoli's for dinner to carbo-load before the race!

Doing my kata

Taking down my sensei (instructor)

Yellow belt = earned!

Mini Marathon day (May 3) started bright and early.  Matt opted to stay home while I ran (he hadn't slept well the night before, and he has been to lots of my other races so I let him off the hook :-) ).  A friend let me borrow her parking pass so that I could park (relatively) close to both the start and finish lines.  It was a beautiful day to run the 13.1 miles and there was a lot of energy from the spectators along the way.  There were so many different bands and performers during the race that I should have just left my headphones at home.  The music from the performers was so loud that I could barely hear my iPhone playing anyway!  I ended up finishing the race in 2 hours, 41 minutes, 36 seconds.  I was trying hard to finish in 2 hours 30 minutes (the cutoff for being placed in a "preferred" corral at the start line for next year's race), but didn't quite make it.  However, my time was faster than all three of the half marathons I ran last year!  I am aiming for that goal time again at the Geist Half Marathon in two weeks.  Dad and Eric also finished the Mini.  It was Eric's third Mini Marathon (and sixth half marathon), and Dad's 16th Mini Marathon!

After finishing my second Mini Marathon, and sixth half marathon!

Group shot of the Mini finishers with our cheer squad!

After the race, Matt and I drove up to Westfield to have dinner with my parents, Eric, and Sarah.  We were going to get giant hamburgers at Bub's Burgers, but the wait was long and we were all really hungry, so we went across the street and ate at Scotty's Brewhouse instead.  We still ended up getting big burgers :-)  Matt and I didn't stay too long...just long enough to watch the first half of the Indiana Pacers basketball game.  I was exhausted and as soon as we got home, I coma-slept all night!

That's all for now!  We hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

We love this weather!

Hi everyone!

We have good, busy couple weeks since the last time I last posted.

I wrote before that Matt and I will be attending the Nickel Creek concert in early May.  We hadn't bought our tickets at the time that I posted, but we finally purchased them last week.  We got great seats!  We have floor seats, not too far back from the stage.  We are excited!

On Friday April 11, Matt and I headed down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with his parents.  We had a very nice weekend.  We spent most of Saturday hiking, and I got pretty sunburned.  It was almost 80 degrees!  We had fun hiking and doing a little bit of shopping.  Our hotel was near downtown Gatliburg, with a balcony that looked right over the river.  Thank you for the nice weekend, Bob and Sheila!

Bob and Sheila at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, right between Tennessee and North Carolina.

At the top of Clingmans Dome

Matt continues to drum up computer repair business.  He struck up a conversation with a worker at the McAllister's restaurant, and the guy wants him to fix his laptop.

The 500 Festival Mini Marathon is coming up in less than two weeks (May 3)!  I am excited for it, and just hoping that I have trained enough.  We have been pretty busy lately, so it has been hard finding time to run.  I have been able to squeeze in a couple 9 and 10-milers, so I know I will be able to finish, but I am hoping that I have done enough to be able to finish strong.

Speaking of races, I will be having my photo taken on Thursday to go along with the article that is being published in the Geist Community Newsletter.  I will be meeting the photographer on the north side of town, on the Monon Trail, so that she can take some pictures.

I have started making a tutu to wear during the Geist Half Marathon.  Yes, a tutu!  Geist will be my seventh half marathon, but the first where I wear a tutu.  Since I am running it on my birthday, I decided that it would be fun to do something a little different :-)  Should make for some entertaining photos!

We spent Easter with Matt's family in Fort Mitchell.  It was a quick trip, but it was nice to see everyone.  We were able to see Matt's brother Rob and his wife Leanne.  We had not seen them since their wedding in November, so it was good to catch up a little bit.  After church on Sunday, we went to lunch at Old Spaghetti Factory with all of Matt's aunts, uncles, and cousins on his mom's side.  We headed home that evening and arrived back home around 9pm.

Happy Easter!

I continue to take and enjoy karate classes.  I have my gold belt right now, but I will be promoting to my yellow belt on May 2.

Matt and I got an email today inviting us to see an advanced showing of the movie "The Other Women" tomorrow night.  The movie doesn't officially release until Friday.  It looks pretty funny, but it is not a movie that we would ordinarily pay to see in the theater, so it will be nice to go and see it for free!  After the movie, we are supposed to go home and take a survey and write a review for others to see.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter and that you have a great week ahead!

We had this cute little wooden sign made while we were in Tennessee!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

April showers bring May flowers

Hi everyone!

We have had a rainy few days here in Avon, but that is fine by me!  We have had temperatures in the 50s and 60s, so I think that we are finally out of the "danger zone" of snow fall!

My interview went well last week with the writer of the Geist Community Newsletter.  She also spoke with Anthony's mother for the article.  I am not sure when it will be published, just that the writer's deadline is April 9.  I will email a link to the article when it is finished!

Some other exciting news is that I am going on my first (and probably only) business trip!  Registered nurses who work at the bedside do not get to go on trips very often since travel is not even remotely an essential part of our job.  However, when there are funds available, my unit tries to send several nurses to a conference every year in order to bring new information to our unit.  The specific conference is the National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition.  A couple years ago, it was in Orlando and last year it was in Boston.  This year, I will be attending the conference in Denver, Colorado, with three of my coworkers!  I believe that I will be heading to Denver on May 19 and returning home on May 22.

I am currently also studying to take my Certified Pediatric Nurse exam.  When I pass, I will be a certified pediatric nurse (CPN), which shows that I have specific training and expertise in the nursing care of children.  In order to keep my certification current, I will have to obtain a certain number of continuing education credits each year by attending short classes and lectures.  I am set to take my exam before the conference, so I will easily earn all of my CE credits for the year while attending the conference.  I hope to obtain my CCRN (Critical Care Registered Nurse) certification soon as well.

We were supposed to receive a visit from Matt's parents last weekend, but unfortunately I got sick on Friday night so we were unable to host guests.  However, Sheila will be on Spring Break next week so the four of us will be taking a weekend trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We are looking forward to it!  We are also planning to go down to Fort Mitchell for Easter weekend.

Eric and Sarah were on Spring Break this week, so they spent some time at both Sarah's parents' house and my parents' house.  We were sad that were not able to meet up with them, but they will be back in town for the Mini Marathon the first weekend in May, so we will see them then.

There is not much else to report here. We hope that everyone is doing well!

Sorry, no exciting new photos this week.  So instead, here is one of the first photos that Matt and I took together as a couple.  At the end of this month, we will have been "dating" for seven years!  Crazy, huh?

Can you believe that this was taken almost seven years ago?

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

If Spring has sprung, why is it snowing?

Hi friends and family!

After some more radio (erm, Internet) silence, here is the latest Draper Diaries entry!

Can you believe that March is almost over?  I can't, mainly because it doesn't feel like March.  After some beautiful 60 degree weather last weekend, we had SNOW today!  I don't think Mother Nature got the memo that Spring started five days ago!

Matt and I had a nice day today.  He had a doctor appointment this afternoon that we had to travel to the northside of town for, so we made a day out of it.  After his appointment, we went to linner (lunch/dinner...it was 3:30 pm when we got to the restaurant!) at Skyline.  After dinner, we went to the movie "Divergent," based on the first book of a trilogy.  I have read the trilogy, and thought the movie was pretty good.  Of course, it wasn't as good as the book, but that is pretty much always the case!  Then we went to the aquarium store to re-stock the snails and crabs in our tank.

Matt has been pretty busy lately.  He has been repairing computers for people a lot recently, and is really good at it.  So tell your friends that if they need a computer repaired, Matt is their man!  :-)

I have been enjoying a new hobby.  I started taking karate classes in January.  I earned my gold belt earlier this month and only have a couple more "stripes" to earn before I can get my yellow belt in late April.  Matt is intending to take more lessons with me as well, but since he has been busy with computers, he hasn't been able to attend consistently.

I also continue to run a lot.  My two big races coming up are the 500 Festival Mini Marathon on May 3 in downtown Indy and the Geist Half Marathon on May 17.  Yep, to celebrate my 26th birthday, I will voluntarily be pounding the pavement for 13.1 miles!  My training has lagged a bit for the past couple weeks, however.  I had a sinus infection a couple weeks ago and once I was finally feeling better from that, I did something funny to my knee at karate.  I'm still working on getting my knee to feel better, and hopefully it heals soon because I am getting stir crazy!

Running the Polar Bear race. I ran the "Doubler"--5 miles, followed by a 5k (3.1 miles)!

Speaking of running, I have an interview with the Geist Community Newsletter today.  Since I was "matched" with my buddy Anthony, I always email the race directors of races in which I will be participating in order to request an extra medal to send to him.  The director of the Geist Half Marathon loves the idea of the group that I am involved in (I Run 4 Michael, www.whoirun4.com ) and wants a piece written about me and Anthony for the newsletter.  Pretty exciting, huh? :-)

Matt and I are excited because we are going to be seeing the band Nickel Creek perform in Indy in May.  The group went on hiatus in 2007 and are now back together, have a new album coming out next week, and will be touring this Spring and Summer!  It is hard to describe their sound, but "bluegrass" is the closest I can get. I have included a video below.  We can't wait!



Thor continues to be a good boy :-)  No surprise there!

That is all for now!  Until next time, stay well!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor