In Loving Memory............

This is in loving memory of my second cousin, Christine McNabb. She was killed last Saturday by a car when she was walking back to her dorm with a group of friends on campus at Virginia Tech. There was such a lovely ceremony at the funeral and the church. Students from Virgina Tech spoke; I never realized how many people she touched.

From the church to the cemetary, we had to cross county lines with the funeral procession. I have never seen so many police at a funeral event in my life. Each county had at least 20 cops along the procession route to make sure we had the right-of-way. It was very impressive. When we got to the cemetary, we all noticed that there we no tombstones anywhere. This is very common in Virgina (the call them memorial parks). She was buried on a hill next near a tree. Everything was beautiful, Christine would have been proud.

When I Must Leave You

When I must leave you for a little while-

Please do not grieve and shed wild tears

And hug your sorrow to you through the years.

But start out bravely with a gallant smile;

And for my sake and in my name

Live on and do all things the same,

Feed not your loneliness on empty days,

But fill each waking hour in useful ways,

Reach out your hand in comfort and in cheer

And I in turn will comfort you and hold you near;

And never, never by afraid to die,

For I am waiting for you in Heaven!

We will never forget you Christine!

I'm gonna be an auntie again!

Hey everyone. I am so excited. Not that long ago I found out that my sister-in-law Christina is pregnant. I'm gonna be an auntie again! I believe she is due in September or October. I can't wait! But the only thing that is gonna stink is that they live in England, so I won't get to see them or the baby much for the first year because my brother isn't due to come home until September of 2009. But that is ok, as long as they move back close to home so we can all see them often. Who knew that I would be an auntie again so quick. I'll keep you updated on the details!

I haven't died, don't worry..............I have just been EXTREMELY busy!

Hi everyone. I know I haven't blogged in FOREVER! but I have been so busy. A lot of things have happened since the last time I blogged. Lets see, where did I leave off.............



Oh yes. Cameron James Stack was born in September. Well, he is almost 4 months old now. And he is huge. I know you can't tell from the picture, but he is pretty big. And he is so CUTE! I love him so much. He is the greatest Godson I ever had (well, he is the only one I have ever had, but you get the gist).



Brady is getting huge too. He is talking up a storm. And his obsession with my father is growing too. Brady thinks my father is his own personel playmate. Whenever he comes over, Brady drops everything he is doing and runs to the basement door and says, "We go downstairs, and play with toys?" Well, yesterday we were over my brothers for the Patriots (GO PATS!!!!!!!! Super Bowl, here we come!). Brady sat at the bottom of the basement stairs for about 20 minutes saying over and over and over again, "Come on Dziadziu!" (Dziadziu is polish for grandfather). He is relentless this child. It was driving me insane. But I love him anyway. How can you be mad at that face!



Well, next thing that happened was that my brother, Jay, found out that he was getting deployed to Iraq in March, so him and his fiance Christina moved up the wedding to December 23rd (yes, that was 2 days before Christmas). It was insane. My whole family was going nuts with everything we had to do for Christmas and everything we had to do for the wedding. But is was worth it. We had so much fun. Brian did the best speech at the reception ever. If you want to read it, visit http://brianstack.blogspot.com/ and scroll back a couple of entries. I had a lot of fun being with all of my cousins and my aunts and uncles. It is rare when we ALL get together like that.

And last but CERTAINLY not least, I got a new job. I got my nursing license, but Portsmouth was not hiring when I got it, so I started looking at other places. Well, I ended up at Elliot Hospital in Manchester and I love it. It is so nice to see those two little letters after my name on my name tag, RN. It really is a great feeling. I can't wait until the paycheck. I am going to be rolling in the big bucks now (Well, I will be soon).

So that's the update on everything. Hope that catches everyone up. I will try to blog more often. Until next time.....................

Cameron James!

Cameron James Stack, 8 lbs 5 oz, born on Sept 25th @ 11:15am! My newest nephew is the cutest baby ever! Erica pushed 3 times and he was out. I went to visit that afternoon after he was born, then I went home to watch Brady so my mother could go over. Then the yesterday my mother and I went over in the evening. Brian brought Brady over yesterday to spend time with "Mama and Cameron". He was pretty good when he was there, but I think he is a little confused. It will be intersting to see how he acts with the baby around the house these next couple of months. But it is Brady's b-day soon, so he will love all the attention he will get and the presents! Welcome to the Stack Family Cameron!

Weddings, Weddings!

Hi everyone. I haven't blogged in so long. I'm sorry. Well, one big thing that has happened since the last time I blogged was that my brother Jay got engaged to his girlfriend Christina. They will be getting married in April. Christina has asked myself and Erica to be bridesmaids. She picked out pink spagetthi strapped dresses (they are cute).

My cousin Cassandra FINALLY picked out the dresses for her wedding in June. She went with the dress she liked at David's Bridal (above) but in the sorbet color (coral/pink). She is doing a silver sash and shoes with it. I am so glad she finally picked something out. And I really like this dress too because it fit me really well and looked good.

So the cutest Brady Michael gets to the be the ring bearer in both weddings. He is going to look so cute in his suit. My cousin wants him to be in crop pants with suspenders and a bowtie (the english look). So my mom figured she can buy him regular pants for Jay's wedding and then shorten them for Cassandra's. We also found pink shirts at Burlington Coat Factory (so he can match the girls!, as long as they still have them in 6 months). He is going to look so cute!

Well, that is what is going on in the wedding world. I will keep you posted.

Rascal Flatts

OMG! The concert was soooooooooo good! I went to see Rascal Flatts last night at the Tweeter Center. It was amazing! Jason Aldean opened for them. I didn't recognize any of his songs, but he was good. He played for about 45 minutes. Then the crew set up the stage for Rascal Flatts and they played for almost 2 hours. I took so many pictures. Sorry that some are fuzzy; the real close-up ones are pictures of the big screen.

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the drummer was definetly wearing a Red Sox hat!

They started off the show with these really cool pyrotechnics all across the stage!

The concert was great! We had great seats, about half way up, not too far away from the stage. The concert was amazing, but then we got stuck in the parking lot for almost 2 hours. So I didn't get home until 2:30am. But it was all worth it. Go Rascal Flatts!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! At 9:30 this morning, I was officially 22 years old. Wow, I feel old. My own brother is almost 30. I told all of my patients that it was my birthday today, and they all said the same thing. "Wow, you look a lot younger than 22." Yeah, I tend to get that a lot.

My friends and I went out last weekend to Boston to celebrate my birthday and my friends birthday, which was August 6th. We stayed at a hotel for the night. We were suppossed to go to Waterworks, but one of my friends forgot his ID (thanks Josh...........j/k). So, instead we hung out and stayed at the hotel and had our own little mini party.

As you can see above, we went to the local liquor store and bought all kinds of stuff! We had our own party. We had two rooms at the hotel (but only because they screwed up), so it worked out well because anyone who wanted to go to bed (or needed to because we had to work the next day) could go upstairs to sleep.

We had so much fun that day. We will definetly go back sometime and actually GO to Waterworks. We want to go on a Saturday because that is when Kiss 108 is there. My birthday gift to myself in next Saturday's Rascal Flatts concert. I will definetly post pictures from that.

Best Concert of the Summer Season!

Myself and three of my friends were lucky enough to get tickets to go see Rascal Flatts on August 24th at the Tweeter Center (Thanks to Katie's efforts!). I am so pysched we got tickets. Katie and I found out that they were coming to Manchester this past winter, but we found out too late and couldn't get tickets. I am such a Rascal Flatts fan. Even my brother is envy (Sorry Jay, I will call you during the concert so you can at least here them live *wink*). This is going to be the best ever. The tickets were a little pricy ($85 with fees) but it will be worth it. Katie was able to get fairly good seats, ones that are underneath so if it rains we won't get wet; they are also fairly close to the stage as well. I will definetely post pics the next day!

Long Time, No Post

Sorry everyone. I have been such a bad blogger since I got out of school. I have been so busy with everything lately. But let me catch you up on some things

Monday I started my new job at Portsmouth Hospital. I had orientation that day, then got to go up to the floor and orient and train there. I am actually starting to get the hang of everything (now that they gave me my code to the computer system). I am a Unit Coordinator this summer (which is a fancy word for floor secretary). I basically put all the orders into the computer, answer the phone and call lights, and any other secretarial stuff that needs to get done. I will be starting my new RN job in September. It has been going really well there. I am learning fast, and it helped that I knew the computer system already.

And I have a brand new car to drive to work in! I bought a 2007 Toyota Corolla. And I love it!

It is a pretty shade of blue (almost midnight, but in the sun it looks bright).

Of Course, i have to still show UNH pride (ewww.......Terriers, gross.......lol!)

The inside is gray and it has this cool wood grain look to parts of it.

The car looks so good, but someone to manage to hit it with their door on the first day i parked it in a parking lot (and I was only away from my car for 60 seconds). I was going to get my car inspected, walked into the place, found out the wait was an hour and a half, walked out, and went home. I got home and noticed there was a dent with white paint on the gas tank door. I was so pissed. The person even had the nerve to try to wipe it off. They left their finger prints all over it (I should have had the police come and dust the car for prints.......j/k). But I am still pissed. The dealership gave me touch-up paint for free, so I will have to see what I can do with it.

So, that is what is going on right now. I will keep you posted on what is happening in the wonderful life of "Alyssa: The Real World"