Independence...In More Ways Than One.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks here in the Stout residence! Unfortunately, due to the excitement, I neglected taking as many pictures as I would have liked.  In the words of John Mayer, "I want to see the world through both of my eyes, no more 3X5's."  That's not an exact quote, but you get the idea.

First. I PASSED THE NCLEX! After three wretched years of this test hanging over my head, I finally was able to take the nursing boards test and I finally get to put some letters behind my name...Carlee RN, BSN. I made Sean look to see if I passed, I was way too nervous.  When my test ended at 75 questions my heart was beating right out of my body, and it didn't stop until I saw Sean smiling at me as he looked at my results. Three days later, I had my first day of work at Shriner Children's Burn Hospital, which deserves a post all to itself at a later date.

We left straight from the NCLEX to Fort Worth. Sean said  I had to go to Buc-ee's at least once in my life, so obviously we had a little detour on the way :)

The day we found out we passed the NCLEX, we went to our usual celebratory eating facility...Red Robin! This is a direct quote from Sean: "Wow... my hair looks so 80's in this picture." 

We also got dessert....unfortunately we only got to enjoy it for about two minutes, because after that we realized we had eaten the entire thing.  

Finally a big girl :)

Second. We spent an amazing weekend in Fort Worth! It turned out to be a little family reunion since the entire family was there, not a person missing! 

Jumping at Jenny's. Sean will always be a kid at heart :)

Everyone always posts pictures in Texas of how hot it is in their car, I just wanted to fit in. 

I wanted to color. I made Sean color with me so I didn't feel stupid. I guess I'm a kid at heart too. 

I left for a minute or two and came back to find this on my coloring book. I married the BEST man in the world!

On Jenny's and Kempton's boat. I loved spending the weekend with these guys!

These two have a little crush on each other. 

At the Fort Worth fireworks!

I finally have nieces and nephews! I seriously love them all! I am so blessed to have married into such a great family!

Dallas watching the fireworks...

Payton watching the fireworks....

This is not flattering...But I was SOO tired on the way home and Sean though it was funny...

Texas is an interesting place. 

 Third. We got home Sunday night and I started work Monday morning. Luckily, the OR takes a break on holidays, so I got paid to play!

There are two things I would like to point out in this picture. One, that giant pickle. Wow. Two, the fact that I asked Sean to grow a goatee and he did it. He hated it, I thought it was kind of nice. Haha.

We went to La Estación for breakfast on the Fourth. No better way to celebrate the birth of America by eating Mexican food, right? 

Their giant burritos... 

We finally decided to get an antenna for the TV. Unfortunately, the  only channels we get are in Spanish or Chinese. And in order for those to work, Sean had to hold the antenna like this. 

After some time, we finally found another spot that worked well for the antenna.

We finished celebrating America by going to a "ward party." It wasn't really a ward party, but a lot of people from the ward were there. It was lots of fun! We met some new friends, watched the Galveston parade (which was at night; kinda weird) and finished it off by watching the fireworks light up the sky. I LOVE fireworks to the point where I nearly get emotional! In fact, I love fireworks nearly as much, if not equal to the amount I love Christmas lights, which is a big deal. Anyway, it was a fun few days filled with lots of memories!