Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope all of you had a great V-day!

I sure did!

Bernie sent me a gorgeous arrangement of roses and lilies and some really cute purple flower.  I love it!

Wedding plans are coming along.  I have a lot of family members willing to help and I'm sooo thankful for that!  It's great to have such a wonderful family and of course friends too!
I got this super cute Valentine in the mail today from a wonderful friend, Talia!  (Thanks Tal, love you)  She lives in Fargo and I CAN'T wait to see her at the wedding!  Also, got a cute Valentine from my sissy, Laura and her husband, Body.  Now, he's real name is Andy, but I've been calling him Body for a long time and the reason for this is if you type "Andy" in your T9 texting, it comes up as "Body"  So, it stuck and I call him "Body."  Same thing happened to my friend Brian...I call him Asian.  And Jordan, my roommate, well I call her George, but in T9 she's actually Korean.
This weekend, I'll go visit Laura and Body in Manhatty!  Can't wait!
Bern is taking me to Kansas City to "Get away" for a weekend.  No wedding planning, no work, no school, just us and my sister and Body.
This coming weekend is the 2nd to last time I'll hang out with Bernie until the week of the wedding.  I'll see him from Thursday til Monday! Woot woot!  And then I'll see him on the 25th (but he might be having his Bachelor Party then) and then the 26th for Thanksgiving!  And then he has Annual Training all of March.  Hopefully, I'll still be able to talk to him on the phone in March.
And...yup...you read me right! Thanksgiving!  That's what I said! Thanksgiving! Yummy, delicious, turkey and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and warm dinner rolls...February 26th is Thanksgiving for the Nicola Family!
We're celebrating it in February because we won't be able to with John (Bil) and Bernie in November.
Man, I sure do give out nicknames.  John, whom I call Bil, is going to be my Brother-in-law.  Get it? Brother-in-law, B-I-L, Bil!  I kind of got into the habit of calling him Bil just recently.  I'm excited to get ANOTHER older brother!
Anyway, I have an Ethics test to be studying for so I'm going to read just a little bit more before I head off to bed.
Good night and Happy Heart Day!

xoxx

...and so it beings...

FINALLY!  Bernie and I had our second meeting with the priest that is marrying us!

We met with the ceremony wedding coordinator this morning and then with Father Matya.  Seems like everything is coming more into a reality.  After talking about it for awhile with a couple of friends, it just sort of really sank in..."AHHH!!! I'm getting MARRIED!!"

After today's meetings, my mind has just been popping with new ideas and new things I want to do or add into the wedding ceremony or reception.  Everything is finally coming together.

Bernie left Lincoln today to go back to Grand Island.  He enjoys his time here, but I'm sure he's getting sick of the commute.  It's really only an hour and a half drive, but after awhile, it adds up.  Next weekend, he has Drill so I'll be going to him.  I love G.I. so it's going to be a good time.  Even though, Bernie will be gone most of the day, I'll be job searching for my 400 hour internship I have to complete this summer.  Maybe I'll work on some more wedding things with Lissy.

I'm excited about this summer!  I'll be living in Grand Island with Lissy.  The boys (John and Bernie) will have left for training in Texas. (They'll be there from May until the end of July and then they'll be off to Afghanistan) 

Bernie and I were just going over our "4 year plan."  It's really not your typical newly wed lifestyle, but it's...us.     Even though this isn't 4 years, it's the beginning. Our timeline is kinda like this:
April 9-WE GET MARRIED!
April 11-Leave for HONEYMOON!
May 7ish- We move to Grand Island.
End of May- Bernie and John deploy :(
*Live in Grand Island with Lissy and Baby all summer
Mid Aug- I begin my last college semester!
December- I graduate and get "real" job :)
January-Begin new apartment search!
May- BERNIE COMES BACK!!!!!!
SUMMER- Spent going on a vacation as NEWLY WEDS
Mid Aug- Bernie starts school again...Ba ha ha
*I'll be working and he'll be studying until he graduates!

Ahh...how exciting it is to become Mrs. Nicola...

xoxx

Facetime

Bernie and I talked about getting the new iPod touch because we heard about this awesome app called FaceTime. Of course we checked into it and heard nothing but good things about it. Bernie being the wonderful man that he is-bought two iPod touches so we each have one and I love it! I almost started crying when I got mine last night because not only will I be able to talk to Bern, I'll be able to SEE him too!

Thank you, Bern
xoxx

Wedding Website

Check out our wedding website

www.theknot.com/OurWedding/MollyColgan&BernieNicola!

So...I had a kidney stone yesterday

Weirdest thing.
So I woke up yesterday morning and I feel a weird cramp in my lower back on the right side...like I slept on it wrong. I ignored it, checked my e-mail, found out school wasn't going to be cancelled, which I thought it would be because the roads were so bad from all the snow.
Went back to bed and slept for about 30 minutes.  Woke up and the cramp was still there, but turning more into an "ache" than a cramp.  I tried to stretch it out, massage it out (kinda felt like a knot) but nothing worked.
Got out of bed, made some toast and worked on a couple things on my laptop.  My roommate, Jordan was sitting on the other side of the living room and I told her I had a weird pain by my kidney.  She asked if I thought it could be an infection, maybe a UTI, or a full bladder. That's when I felt, ya know, maybe I should see if the pain goes away if I go to the bathroom.  Got to the bathroom and nothing happened....about 6 times in the course of an hour I went to the bathroom and nothing happened.
I decided, maybe I should sleep it off.  After all, it's only 10:15 and I don't have class until 2.
It started getting worse.  So much more pain and I had no idea why.  I think Jordan's mom is a nurse so she called her mom and was asking her if she knew what I might be experiencing. Her mom first thought it was a kidney infection and that I should go get an antibiotic from a doctor.
I thought, hummm....I'll call in a set an appointment.  I called in and they said they could get me in at 11 (about 40 minutes away)...and then...
IT HIT ME.  Think of all the times you ever skinned your knee, stubbed your toe, bumped your head, got a bruise, hit by a car and then a train and then a chinook and combine all that pain together and put it in your lower right side back.  That's what it felt like. I yelled, "JORDAN! YOU NEED TO TAKE ME NOW!"
We rushed to the clinic, I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand, I could not get comfortable in anyway!  The roads were awful, but Jordan has 4 wheel drive and we made it there 10 minutes before 11 and they got me in right away.  They gave me two shots for the pain and told me it was a stone.  They sent me home with a filter, pain killers, and a sick feeling in my stomach...thought I was going to throw up.
I went home and slept for about 3 hours.  Finally, I could go to the bathroom.
Today, I'm feeling much better.  Not totally sure if it's completely passed or if it's still sitting in my bladder (which is where it can sit without it hurting)
I do not wish for anyone to ever have a kidney stone.  But I hear labor will be a breeze now that I've gone through that.

xoxx

Past 3 weeks

I have only a couple minutes to get you all caught up!

With Bernie living in Grand Island, reality has finally settled in.  I am catching whiffs of what him being gone for a year will be like.  This semester is crazy.  I've been so busy with school and work during the week and when Bernie comes to town on the weekends, I realize by Sunday night that I've gotten nothing accomplished.

It's freezing rain now and Bern left about an hour ago to get back to G.I.  My guess is that the 1 and a half hour drive with take him about an extra hour.

Last weekend was awesome and weird at the same time.  We had our wedding shower at Bernie's aunt and uncles house.  It was soooo much fun!  The roads were really bad and Bernie had drill.  Because Bernie was going to be in G.I. all weekend, he was pretty nervous about leaving work at 5:30 then getting to Omaha in a decent hour, especially with all the snow we got last Saturday night.  He made it though.  We played a couple games that were a lot of fun and Bernie's aunt, Lori (with the help of her daughter, Traci and her fiancée, Stephen) made a wine bottle into a bottle with a picture of me and Bernie and burnt paper that read, "Message in a Bottle"  Bernie and I noticed the bottle and Lori said that there was going to be a game that went with it.  Well, turns out it really wasn't a game, but a helpful guide for me when Bernie is away.  Lori asked everyone to write a note or two to me for me to read when Bernie is gone.  I can read one a week and I'll be scanning them in when I read them.  It was hard to hold back the tears as she explained the game.  I can't wait to read them.  Thank you!

After the wedding shower, Bernie had to head back to Grand Island which meant we really only saw each other for about 4 hours in two weeks. It wasn't easy for me to say bye.  In fact, that Sunday was really hard.  Sundays were always the day Bernie and I had the most memories.  We'd go to church together, maybe out to eat and grab a movie to watch at one of our houses.  Sure, I was probably PMSing and being hormonal, but when I got back to my apartment I broke down in tears, mumbled a few things to my wonderful roommate, wiped my face, and went to work.  It was just hard to have a Sunday without Bernie.
It really made me realize how I need to cherish our moments more; seeing him 3 weekends a month should be plenty, but knowing that everytime I see him is a weekend closer to him leaving makes it hard.  Instead, I need to be thinking that it's a weekend closer to him coming home. :)

Anyway, Bern just left again and we still have a few things on our "To-Do" List that didn't get done with weekend, so I best keep on keeping on before work.

xoxx

Weddings, Babies, and School

So, remember my last post and I was shocked that I let a full 2 and half weeks go by without ever posting anything when Bernie made me promise I'd post something once a week?  Well, it's been a couple days over a month now...and boy, do I have a lot to mention.

First off I want to give a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my cousin, Eric who got married in California to the beautiful, Miss Jennifer.
Congratulations, Guy and Welcome to the family, Jen

Speaking of additions to the family...I'm going to be an aunt!  JOHN AND LISSY ARE PREGNANT!!!

They have known for awhile, but announced the wonderful news at Christmas!

CONGRATULATIONS, John and Lissy!!

I don't know if I mentioned what Bernie decided or not about the job in Grand Island, but he decided that he wanted to take it and so he moved over to Grand Island with John and Lissy for the temp tech job on January 4th.  He likes it so far and will be working there until about the 1st of April.  

Speaking of April, I can't believe that the wedding is creeping up so fast.  Every weekend Bernie comes back to Lincoln and we try to get more and more of our wedding To-Do List accomplished.  This past Saturday we got SOO much accomplished.  We met with our decorator to see what we can do with our reception hall and we have millions of amazing ideas, but every idea costs more and more so we're trying to limit what we can and cannot do.  We're both really excited.  We also got Bernie's wedding ring ordered..again.  The first one we ordered was two big when it came in so we ordered a smaller one.  Hopefully, it fits when it comes in.  We booked our DJ and photographer last weekend!  We're thrilled!

Everything is finally coming together.  

Spring semester has finally begun and today is my busiest school day of the week.  I have classes from 10 this morning until about 7pm. I'm excited about all my classes even though this my be my toughest semester yet...

Anyway, I best be on my way to my next class.

xoxx