Leah Billings Living

Just another cog in the wheel

2010-06-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't intend for the title to sound so depressing. Things are really going quite well with the new jobby-job. I will admit, though, that I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I've become a piece of a corporate machine.

Don't get me wrong. I realize that hospitals are also run with a business model in mind. The corporate stuff is just a little more in your face when you work big-box retail pharmacy. But like I said, things are still going great. Everyone I've met has been exceedingly friendly and they have not been bothered by my multitude of questions. Once I get settled in and feel comfortable with the whole retail way of pharmacy (b/c it's WAY different than hospital pharmacy), I have a feeling I'm gonna be quite happy with my decision.

It's back up to Springfield for a few days for some more training (and maybe a little detour to the outlet mall in Branson on the way!). All the while I'm furiously trying to cram in as much studying and review as humanly possible without losing my mind, because my board exam is only 16 short days away!! I'm very much looking forward to getting that beast of a test over with and then settling into a new routine as I adjust to being back in the working world.

A ten year accomplishment shattered in a split second

2010-05-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, I was driving home from orientation on Tuesday afternoon. By the way, the drive to and from Springfield stinks. Two-lane country roads most of the way, twisty-turny hills, run-down gas stations...not my idea of a pleasant drive. I was very excited to get home and therefore was allowing my bad habit of a lead foot to get me there a little quicker. Then I got to Greenbrier. Then I noticed a cop up ahead coming toward me in cross traffic. Then I hit the breaks and crossed my fingers. Then I noticed him slow down as I passed him. Then I watched him turn his lights on in my rear view and make a U-turn. Then I said some very unlady-like words.

Yes, I got pulled over for speeding...about 30 miles from home no less. I've been pulled over once before about ten years ago in early under-grad. Ten year clean driving record exists no more. The funny thing was this time after the cop introduced himself he proceded to ask me if "I had a legal and justifiable reason for exceeding the speed limit?" Uh, what? I wanted to say that the reason I was speeding was because I think its stupid to require people to go 55 mph hour on a four-lane highway, but instead I said something dumb like, "uh, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to the speedometer." But seriously...ARE there legal and justifiable reasons for speeding? If so, please let me know because with my lead foot, the odds are against me that this will be my last ticket.

Also, I must mention that Faulkner county is still stuck in the 1960's when it comes to techonology. The officer wrote a phone number on my ticket and told me to call it to find out how much my fine will be, so this morning I've gave it a ring. They ended up telling me that they won't be able to tell me how much money to send in until the first week on July because that is how long it will take get them to get my ticket entered into the system. That seems utterly ridiculous. I want to know how much it's gonna cost now, Faulkner county. Join the 21st century. Sheesh!

Saying goodbye to one of the best dogs in the world

2010-05-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is Abby. She was our family pet for the last thirteen years. She was the runt of her litter and ended up staying slim and trim her entire life...no labrador jowls for her! She had the softest, blondest coat in the world and really long toes and nails. She always smelled like a hamster because we kept cedar chips in her dog house to deter pests. She loved milk bones and scrambled eggs. She was a little neurotic and always energetic even into her elder years until her arthritis forced her to slow down. During her puppy years she tore down all of the wood trellis around the bottom of my parents deck in the backyard...ALL of it. She loved going for walks around the neighborhood or hiking in the woods. She loved being brushed and petted but HATED baths. She definitely had a stubborn side, but she was also incredibly loyal and affectionate. After a long thirteen years with our family, it turned out that yesterday was her time to go.

I hope you're having fun in doggie heaven, Abby. I miss you so much already!

Welcome to the Real World

2010-05-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

P-school is DONE!

Graduation is OVER. It was a whirlwind of events, family, friends and fun times. Thanks to all of you out there who helped me celebrate and/or sent me well wishes.

I originally thought I'd have a couple weeks of vacation before the new job would begin based on a convo with one of the high-ups a few weeks ago, but then I got a phone call on Tuesday from a different person who informed me that I'd be starting Monday morning (tomorow) with several days of orientation...in Springfield, MO! I guess they don't have a training facility in AR? Anyway, here I sit in my little hotel suite chillin' out and watching the end of Lost.

So orientation starts bright and early tomorrow, and then later in the week I'll be back in LR starting my training at stores around central AR. Lets get this party started!

I still don't really believe it's true.......

2010-04-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

......

Big news folks: I FOUND A JOB!

I've excepted an offer from T@rget pharmacy. I'll be working at a store here in LR and will also float to other stores around the area as needed. I've only ever heard good things about them from other people in the profession and they've got a good hours, major holidays off, and a great benefits package to boot (and I might even get a store discount....Squeeee!), so, yeah, I'm super excited.

I actually excepted their offer a few weeks back, but (as alluded to in the title of this blog) I've been a little hesitant to go public with the news. I've never been hired for a job way far in advance of when I could actually start working....and I guess with the stinkin' economy and what not I've just got this silly fear in the back of my mind that they won't have a spot for me anymore when the end of May roles around. I'm being ridiculous, right? I mean, I've got the offer in writing...that counts for something, ay?

My tentative start date is set for the last week in May. I'll be training for a while up until I take (and pass **fingers crossed**) by board exam sometime in June or July. Then I'll be let loose on the world dispensing drugs and educating patients.

It's been a roller coaster the past few months with this whole job search, but at last it looks like I just might be able to breath a little sigh of relief. High five people! Leah's got a job!

Sunday Rundown

2010-02-21T15:40:00.000-08:00

I had truly intended to spend the day cleaning the house. Once the rain set in around 10AM or so I made the executive decision to forego that plan and instead spent the day lazing around doing things that make me happy. Here's how I spent my Sunday:

1. Sunday Morning Ritual:

For the past 2-3 years Blue and I have had this ritual on Sunday mornings that involves reading the Sunday paper and watching CBS Sunday Morning. (Occasionally we throw in a trip to Shipley's but we haven't done that in a while--trying to get back our girlish figures...or mine at least). Sometimes this routine makes me feel like an old fart, but I love it none the less and don't plan on giving it up anytime soon.

2. Some Mii Time:

Yes. It's true. The Billings-Allen household has joined the world of Wii. I received one this past Christmas and we've have been hooked since. We're currently obsessed with the new Super Mario Bros. We've beaten the game the first go round, but are now trying to find all the hidden star coins in order to unlocked the secret worlds. Man, do I sound like a nerd or what? :)

3. Point-and-click shopping is dangerously fun:

My good friend Kat turned me on to this fantastic website. If you haven't heard of it I would recommend checking it out. They carry a myriad of household products...anything from toilet paper and toothpaste to floor polish and even things like batteries and stamps. Their prices are comparable to the local big box and they ship your order to you in 2 to 3 business days for no charge. I spent at least an hour today perusing the products and creating my product shelf. I'm looking forward to receiving my first big blue box in a few days.

4. I L.O.V.E. cooking Sunday dinner:

And this ladies fantastic group of blogs/websites gives me great ideas. I've noticed lately that others have mentioned her on their blogs, so you may already be familiar with her fantastic world of food, photography, cattle ranching, home schooling, and all out frontier living. I spend at least on hour or two a week exploring her world and almost always end up with a new recipe to add to the list. I'll be making one of her dishes for our dinner this evening: Cajun Chicken Pasta. Sounds mouthwatering, eh? Speaking of, I think I'm gonna go get it started right now. Check her sites out the next time you need a food idea.

Guess what came in the mail today...

2009-11-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Squeeeeeee! The MSL December issue. It's extra thick and I can't wait to tear into it to see all the glorious holiday craft and food ideas they've come up with this year.

I'm not gonna lie. There are some days that I just want to be this woman. Okay, maybe I don't truly mean that, because I love my own life. I suppose I just hope to one day have the means and time to own an acreage filled with flower and vegetable gardens and an orchard and farm animals and dogs (absolutely no cats allowed, though!) and the most comfortable of comfortable houses with lots of room for crafts and creative projects and space to display antiques/collectibles AND we can't forget the fantastic kitchen to do all my baking and cooking in. Call me crazy, but it's a lifestyle my little heart desires.

Speaking of collectibles, I have a secret: I like to collect things. Okay, okay. Maybe it's not such a secret to those of you who have seen my dining room (and the bookshelves that contain all my cookbooks in said room). The cookbooks are really the only collection I have going at the moment...but reading Martha always reminds me of all the other possibilities that are out there. Dishes/serve-ware/stemware, etc; milk glass; knife rests; salt cellars; antique jewelry...the options are limitless. Now, I'm not saying I want all this stuff. These are just some of the categories that I consider when thinking of the possibility of starting a new collection at some point down the road.

It all started when one of my uncles passed down to me a rock collection around the age of seven or eight. I kept it in this bright blue hat box and would take all the rocks out and look at them and then I would organize them and tuck them back in their home. When my mom would take me to the library I would check out "rock" books and pick out rocks that I didn't have to keep in mind for future acquisition. When we'd go to gift shops that had the bins full of all different kinds of rocks, I would beg to pick out one or two to add to my box.

I think that is part of the reason I enjoy it so much. It's like a hunt. You see what's out there, decide which ones you want to add to your group and figure out how to get them. Surveillance, strategy, and going in for the kill. Some people might say it all boils down to materialism, but I disagree. I look at as a hobby. Does it not sound similar to what all those boys do when they go deer hunting or fishing?

Though it would be fun to start something new, for the time being I'm gonna stick with cookbooks 'cause my little house would feel a little to stuffed with much else.

Trying to relax

2009-11-06T05:47:00.000-08:00

I've officially been on vacation for nine days now. I feel well rested and the house has been deep-cleaned (for the most part). I've done some cooking and baking and caught up on a lot of television. I say all this leading up to my main point: I just can't seem to chill out.

I've developed this...well, I guess I'd call it a bad habit...of constantly thinking, "Okay, what do I need to do next?" over the past year or so. I've noticed that I don't just focus on whatever I'm doing. I've always got one hand in one basket and one hand in the other lately.

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for some multi-tasking. Apparently, we're supposed to grow better at it as we age (we as in women...how's that for a stereotype?). I just don't like that I'm doing it all the time. I mean, I can't even watch TV at night with out also reading a magazine or looking at a cook book and planning the weekly shopping list, or doing my nails, or this, or that. I've tried to just sit there, but it usually ends up with me feeling this nervous tic-like sensastion and my brain screaming: "I'm not being stimulated enough!! Read something, plan something! Do it or I'll make you explode!" (Okay. Maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic here, but sometimes this is really what it feels like.)(Oh, and please don't tell me I have ADHD, 'cause I don't. Seriously.)

I think part of this issue is due to my brain not having yet transitioned out of the classroom mentality it has been working under for the past 3.5 years. I no longer have to worry about that weekly quiz in the class that I hate or the two back-to-back exams next week or the presentation on Friday. I mean I get some of this on my intern rotations, but it's different than being in class. Maybe once I graduate and land a job and settle into a routine that doesn't change every month my neurons will find a little more peace.

May 2010, baby! Let the countdown begin.

I love my siblings!

2009-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

My sister, Katie, just sent me this for Halloween:

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I have tears of laughter streaming down my face. These things are fantastic...and so are my siblings. :)

853 miles, 4 tanks of gas, and 14 Sonic cherry limeades later...

2009-09-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

I completed rotation #3 in the great little town of...

This turned out to be a great rotation! I never would have thought that I could enjoy working at a little independent retail pharmacy, but I ended up really liking it. Now don't get ahead of yourself and start thinking that I'm gonna go work retail now. I'm still leaning toward the hospital side of the profession, but I must say that if this pharmacy called me up and offered me a job I would give it fair consideration. They basically let me work as a pharmacist at my own little computer entering prescriptions and then sometimes filling them as well. Aside from all the great experience I gained over the month here are a few little observations etc. that I picked up in that little town just southwest of LR about halfway to Pine Bluff:

Pharmacy customers in small towns seem to be a lot more pleasant. They tend not to act like a-holes because you usually know who they are.

There is nothing decorative about having a fake well in your front yard, but they seem to be very popular in this town.
Don't forget your lunch very often because your only options are Sonic, Subway, or Sonic.

Dogs here are smart enough to look both ways before crossing the street. (I witnessed it several times!)

Some people out there, people that you would never expect, have the biggest hearts in the world.

I'll wrap things up with the best phone call we recieved that month:

Gentleman caller (GC): Do ya'll sell formaldehyde?

Rx: No sir.

GC: Well, do ya'll know where I could get me some 'cause I taxidermied a turkey and I think I left some meat in the wing 'cause its starting to smell pretty bad.

Uhhhh, what? Only in small town AR.

Tra la la, My sister is getting married...

2009-08-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

And I'm sooo excited!! She'll be the first one of us sibs to take the plunge. I'm a miniscule, teensy bit sad though, because it means she's moving to Virginia...like next week!! That's where Andy, her fiancee, just moved to for a job. She's there right now visiting so I haven't got to chat with her in depth to get all the delicious details, but I'm sure it was fantastic and I'm sure her ring is beautiful and I can't, can't, can't wait for the wedding. Hooray!

Congrats Katie and Andy!

Your call is important to us. Please remain on the line. A representative will be with you shortly.

2009-08-16T17:58:00.001-07:00

I can't shake the feeling that my life is on hold. Interning is a little more involved than I originally expected. Maybe it stems from the fact that I didn't get summer off or that, because of my hosital job, I have to work 12 days in a row every two weeks. I don't know. I'm not all sad and stuff...just kind of annoyed and frustrated. I like having me time where I can relax and work on little projects or read or cook or clean or whatever. I need that kind of stuff to "re-charge." I've also been involved in this school game for almost the past five years. I certainly don't regret it and am excited for what I'm about to accomplish...I'm just ready for the next chapter of my little story is all.

Let's turn my frown upside down...with a list, of course!

A couple things I'm looking forward too next summer:

Earning a salary again. It's been too many years living on a college budget, especially since those days of drawing a paycheck are still fresh on my mind.
Being able to plan, pay for and enjoy traveling/vacations. (So, so, so looking forward to this!)
Getting back some me time.
Feeling like an "official" adult.
Having the time/financial means to really give back...both physically and monetarily.
Getting a new car (not because I don't love you little 15 year old Camry...(translation: please don't die over the next 10 months!))
Taking pride in all the sweat and tears I've put into earning the "Dr." that will go in front of my little name. Heck yes. :)

A Notion to Blog

2009-08-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

If you can believe it I've thought about blogging pretty much everyday for the last ~2 months. Why haven't I blogged, you ask? Well, I kept chalking it up to not having enough time or being too tired, etc., etc.....but not anymore! I'm back.

As most of you are aware, I'm in my fourth year of p-school and have been working as an intern for the past few months. It's month three right now. Aside from missing out on summer vaca., interning has been better than being in class...so far anyway. Here's a quick run down on what I've been up to:

Rotation #1: During the month of June I worked at the AR Drug Info center located on UAMS campus. This turned out to be a great rotation to start out with. It's basically a call in center and we got to be the ones to answer to phones (there were two other students there with me that month). We had to do a lot of busy work during down times when we weren't getting a lot of calls, but it helped me review some info. I'd since lost in the recesses of the brain. Overall: good.

Rotation #2: In July I did my "over-the-counter" focused rotation at P*rk West pharmacy in west LR. I did not enjoy myself very much at this site. The employees were all very nice and what not...it was just BORING. The owner/pharmacist in charge of me had me spend most of my time sitting at a desk waiting for customers to come in who needed help with OTCs. Its a tiny store and therefore there were very few customers needing that kind of assistance. I also had to do a lot of presentation type stuff to faculty at the end of the month. Overall: ehhh.

Right now I'm working at another retail pharmacy in East End. I don't wanna go into detail until my grade gets locked in at the end of the month, you know, just in case my preceptor likes to search the internets, but it is going well so far...much better than last month.

I meant to take a vacation....I swear!

2009-05-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

So, where to begin? I'm finished with school (woohooooo!) and have been enjoying my 3 weeks of summer vaca before my interning starts next week. I entered into this little break with the hope of chillin' out and taking some time to relax and laze around....but turns out I've been running around like a bullet train for the past two and a half weeks. Luckily I have the next five days before my first rotation to squeeze in some down time and you better believe I'm gonna take full advantage. Here's a run down of what I've been up to lately since I haven't talked to you in so long...in list form, of course!

-School ended on Friday, May 8th. I worked at the pharmacy the next couple days in order to make some dough.

-I left for STL on Wed. with my mother (yes, we drove...yes, it was a long drive) to attend my little bro's graduation from WashU.

-Got back from STL Friday night. Went to my sis Katie's graduation from UAMS College of Nursing on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend hanging with my other sis, Ashley, who was in town from CO.

-My mother hired me to re-wallpaper her master bath which I started on Monday. This involved taking down the old wallpaper (easier than I thought), re-painting the crown moulding, and putting up new paper (which turned out not to be the pre-pasted kind...arrgh!). I was expecting the job to take about 15 hours...ended up taking 25 (finished late Thur. night). If anyone asks you to re-wallpaper a bathroom...RUN...run very far away. (1st pic is post demo, 2nd pic is new stuff)

-Friday was Jill's highschool graduation from Little Rock Christian. Had family in town. Did lots of cooking. Had lots of family drama (but I'll save that for another time). Suffice it to say, she's more than ready to head to college (she's going to Quachita).

-It was back to work on Sat./Sun. I've been getting crap shifts lately because everyone is on vacation. Double Argghh!

-Monday morning I left with my brother to head back to STL to help him move home. We spent a couple days packing and cleaning and ate a final italian meal on The Hill. I headed back to LR yesterday in his car, and he presumably left last night in a U-haul. He stuck around to spend some time with his g-friend. He's happy to be leaving his apartment, but sad to leave her.

-Now I'm home and more than ready to savor these last few days before I have to start showing the world what I've learned over these last three years. Cheers to some Me time!

13 more days...only 13 more days

2009-04-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

These last few weeks have been challenging, but the end is finally in sight.

Brain power-wise, this semester has been one of the easier ones, but there has been so much little crap that we've had to do, I'm about to cut my left foot off. We had to get 40 volunteer-type hours, which doesn't sound like too much but when you can only do it in 2 to 4 hour blocks it drags on and on. We had to attend 2 AA meetings (which I haven't done yet, oops...anyone wanna go to an AA meeting this Saturday?) for my addiction class..............
I won't bore you with the rest, but it has just been a lot of "on your own time" kind of requirements and I usually use "my own time" to study so it has become a big mish mash of frustration and fatigue trying to get through each week.

Things to look forward to:

-May 8th is the big day!!! No more classes, quizzes, lectures, labs, or exams (except the summative exam in december and the NAPLEX exam next summer but since they are so far away we're not going to count them right now)

-I get to take a mini-vaca to STL for my brother's graduation in May. Katie also graduates this weekend from nursing school and, at least for right now, is gonna work in LR.

-Baby Sis is graduating in May too. She'll be heading to college soon. Sad but also exciting.

-All my intern rotations are in LR or NLR. Woohoo!! No crazy traveling around the state. (I'll tell you more about these in there own post.)

-I-phone. June 23. Oh yes, you will be mine.

You don't mess with WonderWoman

2009-03-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is Jill. She is my youngest sister. This is her current facebook profile and I love it! I think she was three in this photo. She always had the best halloween costumes when she was little. She is currently eighteen and about to go off to college and that makes me a little sad. Here's what she looks like now all grown up...and extra pretty!

Speaking of siblings, I just found out that my brother and one of my other sisters both have tattoos! What?!! I guess I'm showing my age with my surprise. My brother just got his a week ago, but my sister has had her's for forever. She even hid it from everyone while we were in Paris last summer (it's on her wrist). It's funny that Peter and Ashley are kind of alike and they both ended up with tattoos....and me and Katie are kind of alike and we both got our tongues pierced back in our early college days (and just found out that each other did it a few months ago). Wonder what Jill's gonna do? Peter hypothesized that she'll end up with 17 illegitimate children. Guess we'll have to wait and see! (disclaimer: She is currently a very well behave young lady...that's why this is so funny.)

I mowed the lawn yesterday for the first time this season, and it was fun. I will not be saying this about lawn mowing come June, July, and August, but for now I am enjoying it. I'll leave you with a shot of our grape hyacinths that have sprouted in the backyard. How can you not love Spring when it brings in stuff like this??

Just go ahead and put me in traction already.

2009-03-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

My spinal flare is gone. Hooray! No more sciatica! It alleviated early last week, and I was thoroughly relieved...

This morning, though, I was sitting at the computer and stretched my arms out and then something made a crinkly popping sound and now my neck and shoulder hurt. Uggh! Enough with the skeleto-muscular pain. I can't stand it anymore. Plus I'm out of naproxen-must get more on the way home from school. It feels like the majority of the pain is coming from my left shoulder where the large tendons are, so at least its not my spine again. Hopefully this will not last very long.

Moving on...

I know I'll probably get some flack for this, but I must say that it fills me with joy that we will be getting some more cold weather toward the end of this week. Don't think that I don't love a beautiful spring day...it's just that the sorrow of losing my beloved wintry cold takes precedence. I will say, though, that the impending springy-ness is exciting in its own right. I'm already getting anxious to plant flowers and watch our gardens flourish and start going to the farmers' market again and getting some sunshine on my skin.

Now I must head to school and read my novel for a few hours....errr, I mean listening intently to my professors lecture on highly important topics...

A Run Down

2009-02-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

Things that are bad:

-My yahoo e-mail has apparently been hacked. If you get any weird looking e-mails from "me" @yahoo.com don't open 'em.

-My "lower back injury from like five years ago never ending annoyance" has reared its ugly head again...and this time its something new. I usually just have a stiffness and muscle spasm flare every few months, but this time it decide to show up as nerve pain. Blah. Picture lightning bolt shooting from my lower back through one or both hips down one or both legs with. every. step. It's been bad for about a week now. Surely it'll let up soon, right?

-I start interning in June and I'm starting to feel like I don't know ANYthing. What happened to all the stuff I've crammed into my head over the last three years? I don't know. I can't find it.... I've heard this is normal at this point in my schooling though, so I'm gonna try not to worry too much about it.

Things that are good:

-I learned at the start of this semester that I can purchase and download books onto my PDA and then read during class instead of sitting there drooling in utter boredom. I like to think of it as my own little ghetto Kindle. It feels great to get back into reading seeing as I haven't read for pleasure for any good chunk of time in at least the last couple years. Speaking of, read any good books lately?? I'm about to start "In the Woods," but am always looking for the next to add to the list since I spend at least three hours in class a day (=reading)...I go through them pretty quick.

-LOST is FINALLY on TV tonight. My sisters are coming over to watch and we're going to eat popcorn and it will be fantastic.

-I think I'm gonna go get a new phone today! This excites me immensely. It will be the first phone I've ever shelled out some real dough for (singing in head: "I'm a big kid now!" from the pull-ups commercial).

To iphone or Not to iphone

2009-02-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

So, I think I want an iphone. I've had the "get a new phone" itch for about a month now. In the past I've always been stingy when it comes to phone expenses. I always go for one of the free models and never get a new phone until it's time to upgrade. I guess I don't mind coughing up the 200 for the phone because I've played with my sister's and decided it is totally cool, but I'm hung up on the 30 dollar a month data plan fee. Will it really be worth it? What do all you iphoners out there say? Worth every penny? Other pros/cons you care to share??

This week stinks.

2009-02-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

But this little gem has helped turn my frown upside-down:

(Disclaimer: I still hate cats, though.)

Anyone need a shot?

2009-02-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I don't mean the alcoholic kind.

Yesterday I got certified to immunize! It was a little nerve racking at first jabbing a needle into my partner's arm (and then her into mine!), but now that I've done it a couple of times it feels like no big deal. Oh, and we were just dosing each other with normal saline, no actual vaccines while we were learning (and using each other as test subjects). I've been begging Blue to let me practice on him to no avail. I guess I can't blame him. Oh well, I suppose I'll have to wait until the next flu season when I'm out interning.

Blah. It's Friday, but since I have to work this weekend it doesn't feel like Friday. It is also the beginning of the "slow" season at the hospital, which means long, slow, boring shifts. I guess I'm glad that I have a job at least. Though there has been talk of cutting back on people's hours...Yikes! When this recession stuff starts to hit the healthcare field you know we're in trouble!!

"Can I take your order?" "Yes, I'll have a KATV-channel 8 cooked extra lame with a side of tremendous idiocy, please."

2009-01-29T05:35:00.000-08:00

Really, channel 8? Really?

I was pretty frustrated last week when instead of showing the LOST season premier you had a basketball game on, but then I sit down last night to watch the television program that I most look forward to each week and, guess what...

YOU ARE ONCE AGAIN SHOWING A BASKETBALL GAME INSTEAD OF LOST!!

I could cut you a little slack if these were playoff games or even if an Arkansas team was playing in either game, but since neither applies all I can say is that I am beyond infuriated. If this happens again next week....I don't even know yet, but it won't be good.

All Work and No Play

2009-01-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

Sheesh!

Christmas break was a complete blur. Actually, I'm gonna extend that blur out to the past 2.5 months. Busy, busy, busy! It was still a decent break though. I made it through finals and passed all my classes (phew!). Then it was on to wedding cake and celebrating E&J's fabulous wedding. Great times!! A few days later I was on a jet plane to MN for the Dad's family Christmas. Then it was back to work for the entire last week of vaca. including new years eve AND new years day. (Grrr...not my intention...never again will I tell work they can schedule me as much as possible during a certain time period.) Now I'm back in school looking forward to the last semester of classes! Woohoo!

The new year this year has felt a little strange so far. Not sure why. I just feel kind of old I guess...not in an "OMG, wrinkles and gray!" hair kind of way...just like my life isn't where I pictured it being when I was younger...and I don't mean that in a bad way, just that it is different. I sense this underlying feeling of time running out. Yes, I know in the grand scheme of things I'm still quite young, so in all reality I have many, many years left to do all the things I wish to do with my life (knock on wood)...it's just interesting how your perspective can shift from one year to the next. That's all.

I've never been one for resolutions, but I am looking to get things organized around the house. After living somewhere for almost three years the clutter builds up in the nooks and crannies and it is now time to tackle it...Spring cleaning, if you will since the weather down here already feels like it's about to turn in that direction to me. I don't know how you people tolerate such a lack of frosty weather!! :)

Finals spells evil backwards and in a different language

2008-12-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

My brain hurts. It is Friday, but to me it feels like Monday. What kind of horrible torture is that? Three down, four to go. Arrrrgghh.

It's that time of year again...

2008-12-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

Hooray! December is finally here. I am about two thirds through my Christmas decorating and am starting to really get into the seasonal spirit...especially with this glorious cold front that has blown in!! With X-mas fast approaching that means it is once again time for the annual Christmas Party!

3rd Annual Christmas Party!!

When: Saturday December 13th, 7:00PM

Who: You and any of our other friends--the more the merrier (kids and babies are 100% welcome)

Where: My house

Food: Please bring an appetizer to share. I'll have lots of Christmas sweets as usual.

Drink: BYOB

Gifts: Please bring a wrapped, unmarked gift to play Dirty Santa. What type of gift is totally up to your imagination (just don't spend too much).

Turkey Love

2008-11-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

We are at the starting line of my most favorite time of the year. It all starts with T-giving tomorrow. Turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and pies...mmmmmm. Even more than the holiday meal, I think I like the days following becuase my mother always sends me home with tons of leftovers and I get to eat T-food for days extending the enjoyment. My mother banned me from desserts this year...I think because she is a traditionalist at heart and I tend to be a little more adventurous and never bake the same thing twice for the holidays...she just wants good ol' pumpkin and pecan pie this year. I do get to bring a delicious green bean casserole though, one of my faves of the season. It's a Martha recipe and it's fantastic. Homemade sauce and everything...no cream of mushroom soup here, though the old standard is just as delicious in its own right. All my siblings have made it into town too, so hopefully there will be lots of fun times over the next few days.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Blue is my hero.

2008-10-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

The stress is almost over. I've got one more test to go and then after tomorrow I can breath again for a little while. Then I just have to get through rounds 3 and 4 and then the grand finale that is finals and I'll be home free.

Despite school stress, a lot of other things have been going wrong and adding to the stress. This is where Blue has swept in and saved the day...on numerous occasions. It all started with our dryer. It just quit working one day a few weeks ago. I know nothing about dryers, so therefore I went back and forth for about a week on whether or not to call a repairman or just go buy a new one as the mountain of dirty clothes kept piling up (I also had a big test this week, so the dryer did not receive my full attention). It got to the point where I had to towel off after showering with two washcloths because we had run out of clean towels. Blue ended up doing some research and went and bought a new part, took the dryer apart and ta-dah!!, it now works perfectly.

Around this same time I started to notice that my brakes weren't working as well as they usually do. I mentioned it to Blue and when we looked under the car there was a large pool of brake fluid under one of my tires. He took the wheel off and we discovered that my brake fluid line had split and fluid was leaking out in copious amounts. Long story short Blue also fixed this. I'm just glad we discovered it without me having to crash into someone or something when my brakes failed!!

About a week after all of this we started to notice a stinky smell on the back porch. A few days beforehand there had been a fight between the neighbor's dog and a racoon that Blue witnessed. Apparently said racoon decided to crawl under our porch and die. It found the one small opening between the wood and the brick of the house. Thank GOD Blue was here for that one, because I don't think I could have psyched myself up in anyway to begin to even go near it. I did decide to watch when he pulled it out, mind you I was at least 10 feet away. It was the. grossest. thing. I've ever seen. Let's just say that it wasn't the only creature(s) that were present....bllaaaaaaaaach...okay I'm stopping there.

Last night our oven broke. No worries though. It broke once before and Blue fixed it. What a guy! I've been more thankful than ever to have him around lately.

So much drama in the LBC

2008-10-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Uggghh. My family is driving me crazy right now. If you didn't already know, my mother and step-father are separated and have been for over a year now. Oh yeah, and this is the second time in the course of their marriage that they've been separated. It has turned into this big stalemate with neither of them taking any action to end the marriage (which in my opinion is the only realistic option at this point)and the whole thing has become completely disfunctional and it aggravates me because I'm tired of hearing about it and tired of having it mess up holidays and family get-togethers. And I'm tired of the way it is affecting my brother and sister.

On top of that my brother and mother are currently involved in WWIII. To make a long story short, my brother isn't satisfied with what he is currently studying in school and wants to make a change. My mom doesn't want him to and voiced her opinion in a very confrontational and kind of mean way. My brother then responded back with hurtful statements and now they are not speaking and he doesn't want anything to do with her which includes not coming home to visit, apparently ever again....and I'm now stuck in the middle of all this. Soooo not what on my plate I need right now.

On lighter, less annoying note Fall seems to have finally arrived!! And October is here too which means its almost November and December, my two favorite months of the year. So many fun holidays coming up. I can't wait!!!!

Swimming in a Sea of Infectious Disease

2008-09-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

Infectious disease has been my life for the past several weeks. We're studying it in therapeutics. We've got about a week and a half to go, and then we'll take what will probably be the biggest test of the semester (aside from finals of course). I've had the pleasure this week of actually contracting my own infectious disease. I think I caught the respiratory virus that everyone else seems to have. Normally I can handle a such an illness, but this particular bug knocked me out yesterday. I had to call into work and skip school and everything. Thanks to my Mr. T-like immune system though, I think I'm starting to win the battle. It feels like things are breaking up in my chest and sinuses, so hopefully I'll be back to normal by the weekend. I better be because Blue's mother and sis are coming to visit on Friday, and thanks to this illness I haven't started cleaning yet. Yikes!

Shoot me now. Just go ahead and get it over with.

2008-08-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

I'm embarking on a new form of torture thought up for my by the people who run p-school. I'm sitting here waiting for my 2:20 appointment at the clinincal skills center where I'll be taken in and presented with a mock patient case. Then I'll be given ten minutes to prepare after which I'll enter an exam room and converse with either a patient or a doctor (actors) about the case I was just presented. Oh yeah, and they film us during this lovely session of make-believe. And I have to do it twice. I'm not being graded for todays session which takes a little of the anxiety off. This one is just practice for the real session in Dec. where we'll have to do six patient cases and it counts for a sizable portion of our grade in therapeutics. It's just freaking me out that I'm gonna be filmed. Too much pressure! They said it would get easier our third year. They lied.

Don't call me sugar and Don't try to escape from the psych ward. P.S. I've decided that I need a personal assistant.

2008-08-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back in school. Studying is my life. One exciting thing, though, is that this is my last year of classes (and tests, well except for a few big ones at the end). Next year I'll be tossed out into the real world to fend for myself during my nine intern rotations, but I'd rather not dwell on that right now. I've also gone back to working a regular schedule at the hospital. Right now I'm doing one night a week and every other weekend....more than I've done before in previous years while in school. We'll see how that goes.

So, yeah, last night I was at work taking the delivery at 6pm to cover for the courier while he goes to dinner and one of the transport techs (the people who push patients around the hospital when they are moving to different units or going to get scans, etc.) passed by me in the hall and said, "Hey sugar, how are you doin'?" And this is not the first time I've experienced this sort of thing whether at work or at school when I have to walk by the construction guys on their lunch break or walking back to my car when I have to walk past the detention center where prisoners are out doing yard work. I, of course, responded with a cold stare and a monotone yet somewhat bitchy voice and said "Fine" as I kept on walking by. I just don't understand. What makes these men think that speaking to women in such a baseless and childish manner will get them anywhere? Are they just that desparate? Anyway, it's just something that really annoys me, and I'm not a violent person but if I could go around and punch people in the gut during these situations, I would! Arrrrghh.

I'm a little behind on posting photos that I tagged in the back of my brain for the blog, so, don't laugh, but let's head on back to May (this is why I've decided I need a pers. asst.!!) and take a look at a little cake that I made my mom for Mother's day:

It was vanilla cake filled with lemon curd and raspberry jam, topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with coconut on the sides ('cause she loves coconut). I've should have taken a close-up because it was very pretty once cut with the different colors inside. Maybe next time.

This was the first time I officially had the fam. over for a meal. It was quite fun. I got to play house and set up the table and everything, complete with fresh flowers:

Around this same time Blue and I took some snap shots of the garden he put together this past spring. We like to keep a pictorial record of what we do each year. Check out his handiwork:

He's got a knack for this stuff. We had good produce all summer. I'm already getting excited for next years plans. I think we're gonna try and grow most things from seed because I've found some really cool heirloom seeds catalogs that have the most amazing stuff in them. But even before that, hopefully in a couple weeks when this incessant, miserable heat leaves, I'll get to do our fall landscaping and fill up the yard with pansies and violas. Hooray!

I'm craving the smell of cold air

2008-07-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

I'm at work waiting to go home. I've got an hour left. It's 10PM. That's one of the bad things about working at a hospital...they never close.

I'm heading to St. Louis tomorrow with Jill to visit Peter and I'm very excited because the weather there is supposed to be slightly cooler (read low 90's...nothing amazing but any little bit helps). This super hot weather lately is killing me. I'm starting to get the fall itch. When I was putting some syringes away in the freezer earlier I smelled a hint of "winter smell." I can't wait for the season to change!!

I was also thinking earlier about winning the lottery. I started to wonder if I would quit my job. I'm pretty sure I'd finish out p-school because I not going to have done all this hard-a@@ work for nothing....but would I work after that??? It's hard to say. I might give it a try and see if I like it. Would you quit your job if you came into a large sum of money? And if you (or me, or anyone) says no, what does that mean? Does that mean you are not doing what you are "supposed to be" doing? Not really trying to get all philosophical or anything, just kind of speaking in stream of consciousness cause I'm bored. Oh heck, I'm pretty sure I'd start up a bakery either way just like I'm going to end up doing anyway one day, so there, question answered I suppose.

I've been tagged

2008-07-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here's my list:

1. I have a giant hairy nevus (yes, that is the actual medical term) on my left ear. What is that you ask? Well, its a congenital melanocytic type of birthmark. It's flat, dark brown, and yes, it grows hair. It has made for some funny looks and remarks like, "hey, you have dirt on your ear," but other than that it doesn't bother me much. I have to have it checked by the dermatologist every once in a while becaues they are more likely to produce melanoma. At least it's not on my face.

2. If I could go back and be re-born as a singer with a deep sultry, soulful voice from the 1970's, I would.

3. The fear of the dark that most of us have when we are little and eventually outgrow...well I haven't outgrown it. I'm okay when at home, but I travel with a night-light if I'm going to be sleeping alone just in case I get freaked out and can't sleep.

4.I HATE fresh tomatoes! Hate them. They make me gag. I can eat fresh salsa if it's not chunky, but on sandwiches and in salads...never.

5. When I'm bored I read menus online at random restaurants in different cities. I find it highly entertaining and educational.

6. When I start eating a meal I first analyze the food and decide on what will be the perfect last bite and then eat the food accordingly in order to save that bite for last. Anal retentive, much?

Why does food taste so good?

2008-07-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

I'm home. Back from Minnesota. It was the usual kind of trip: hanging out with the Dad, seeing all the extended family, celebrating small-town 4th of july with a parade, family dinner, and fireworks.

On a side note, I'm totally on a hot dog kick lately, which is weird because I've never been much of a hot dog person. I always go for the hamburger. They certainly have their ick factor, but lately they are all I want when it comes to summer, outdoor, grilling, picnic food (no crude jokes allowed).

While we are on the subject of food, I'm milling around the idea of starting a separate food blog or at least committing to doing a weekly food post featuring the stuff I've made that week. The only problem is photos. Food styling takes effort and time and when I'm cooking and start thinking about doing a post about it I always get lazy and don't take pictures. I want to start making an effort to pictorially document my most fun hobby because I love to share ideas and get opinions and such. Like take this week...I could have a totally fun food post if I'd just taken some pics because so far I've made:

-buffalo chicken strips with buttermilk blue cheese and chive dip

-grill eggplant and portabello salad with fresh mozzarella

-creme brulee (with vanilla beans from France!)

-twice-baked potatoes with roasted red pepper, corn, and cheddar cheese

-and I have plans later in the week for some steaks with blue cheese butter and a roasted chicken

I just love making things with food. I gonna consider this a little more. If I really wanna do it I'll just have to make the time for photos to share. Too bad blogger doesn't have scent sharing. Now that would be fun.

Summertime

2008-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

This summer is turning out to be a busy, but good one. Lots going on lately.

-more travel coming up in the form of a little trip to the homeland (aka Minnesota) to visit fam up there

-starting to renovate the office, painting first, pictures to follow sometime soon

-Little Nate Hills made his debut a few days ago to proud parents Kat and Karl. So happy for you guys, and I'm coming to meet you as soon as I get back from MN, little guy!

-Celebrated E & J's engagement with a little party the other weekend and got to go bridesmaid dress shopping this weekend. Hooray! So fun.

-Finally sat down and finished up the Europe posts. See below.

Final days in France

2008-06-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

On day five we hopped on a train and went to Versailles. I was very excited for this excursion because I didn't get to see the palace my first time through France. The main gates were under renovation, so we didn't get any good shots of the front facade, but here's a small side view.

We toured the main palace seeing, of course, the hall of mirrors,

the king's bedroom,

and Marie Antoinette's bedroom. This is were all the public births took place in the palace. We were told they did it that way to ensure that a switcheroo didn't occur with the royal babies.
Then it was on to the palace gardens, which were amazing!

They were also huge. They made a footprint about eight times the size of the palace. This is the main promenade. It went on for forever.
We did lots of walking and toured the Grand Trianon, a vacatioin home on the grounds. Then we made it to Marie Antoinette's hamlet, the farm-like village she created to get away from the palace atmosphere.

Its been completely restored (except for the inside, can't go any buildings) and it is run as a working farm with gardens and animals.

It was so cool and peaceful that we all decided we wanted to live there.
We lunced at a restaurant on the central canal and then hiked back up to the palace, which was a treat because they had turned on all the fountains in the garden.

Day six started off with another train ride. This time we were headed to Lucerne, Switzerland for an overnight stay. This was much needed at this point. The hustle and bustle(and dirty air) of Paris was all starting to wear on us, so we were very excited to head to a smaller more refreshing area. We loved it. If you ever go to Europe I highly recommend a stop in Lucerne. It's a great little city.

After we checked into our hotel we decided to take a boat cruise around the lake(which is huge). It was a great way to see the countryside.

We headed back to town to do some shopping and touring. We walked across one of the older attractions in the city, a covered wooden bridge that spans the lake in the center of the city.

We, of course, had to have some fondue, and we fed the swans that live on the lake too.
We got home late the next night back to Paris and had to get a few hours sleep in order to be ready for our next train ride bright and early the following morning to the Normandy coast to tour all the WWII sights. We started at the beach where the US built a giant harbor to bring in all the supplies it needed for the big attack. These are the remains of some of the floating structures that were built so that ships could dock out in the deeper water and then unload supplies that were trucked to shore on floating bridges.

We moved on to tour some of the german gun holds. A lot of the things the germans built back then are still intact.

Next we stopped at one of the more heavily hit sights on the coastline. It was interesting to see that the landscape is still scarred.

Then it was on to Omaha beach (think the scene in Saving Private Ryan where they ride in those boats to the shore to make the initial attack). I can't describe what it felt like to be there...a mixture of sadness, awe, and pride. During the first two hours of the attack, no Allies survived. Thousands of soldiers died that day. This is a monument to the first group that arrived. You can see the beach in the background.

Next we stopped at the American cemetary. The land was gifted to the US by France and is considered American soil. If you had a baby while you were there it would have dual citizenship.

There are some 9,000 graves here. All the markers are evenly spaced in a way that they are in rows from all directions. You can kind of see it in the picture above.

Then we made a stop at the German cemetary. It had quite a different atmosphere. Over 22,000 remains are contained here. The mound in the center is a mass grave and the marked graves on the grounds often contain multiples soldiers.

Well, that's our Euro Vaca in a nutshell. We had a blast and I think now that we've all had a couple weeks to rest up we're ready for that next trip.

The sight seeing continues

2008-06-23T08:47:00.001-07:00

Day three started out with a trip to the Louvre.

We saw all the major works...couldn't see everything, obviously, because there are like 5 days worth of art in there...

We decided to have some fun with Les Trois Graces (the three graces). It's one of my favorites pics from the trip.
After the Louvre we headed down the river and walked through Jardin des Tuileries. The obelisk in the background at Place de la Concorde is the sight where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were beheaded.

We continued on and lunched on the Champs Elysee. We walked the length of it looking at all the pricey shops and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe.

After that it was on to the Eiffel tower.

My mom really wanted to go to the top, so we all accompanied her even though it was kind of scary...well all of us but Jill that is. After her incident on the bell tower at Notre Dame she wasn't up for any high rise adventures. Views from the top:

It was great to see the city from such a vast viewpoint. I want to go back one day and do it at night. I bet the lights are beautiful.

Day 3

Day three began at Musee d'Orsay.

It's set in an old re-modeled train station and stocked full of pre-Impressionist and Impressionist art work and sculpture. We saw all the big names like Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, and so on. It was great.

After lunch we headed to the Catacombs. Long ago the cemetaries of the city became very unsanitary and a plan was hatched to excavate tunnels under the city and move the human remains there. Hence Paris has catacombs.

It was quite a long walk down tunnels and passageways to get to the main entrance above which it reads "Stop. This is the empire of the dead."
It was an interesting place to see. Its hard to explain what it was like to be among that many skeletons.

We headed back out into the sunlight and took a long metro ride up to the north end of the city to explore Mont Martre, the bohemian-like artists quarters. We toured Sacre Coeur, the famous white church at the top of the hill.
On our way out of the neighborhood we made a stop at the Moulin Rouge for good measure.

Le Jour Deux

2008-06-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

Day two began bright and early with a short walk to Notre Dame cathedral on the island in the center of the city on the river Siene.

We toured the interior first. The lighting made for good photos. Very gothic.

After walking through the inside we went back outside and got in line for the 400+ steps to climb to the top of the bell tower.

It wasn't an easy task. They have you climb up on one side and then cross a bridge that goes across the front center of the building to get to the other bell tower where you make the final climb to the top.

This is what it was like walking around the building to get to the second set of stairs.

I'll admit, it was definitely an unnerving experience. Heres a shot looking back at the bridge I mentioned. Notice the toothpick like spires it rests upon and the cracks in the stone. My youngest sister, who struggles with heights, had a sort of panic attack after this and had to climb back down without making it to the top.

Before the final climb there was a side excursion climbing up these creaky wooden stairs to see the bell. It was huge! (And these stairs were even scarier. Who knows how old that wood is!)

After the short climb to the top it all became worth it with the sight of the great views. If only we'd had a little sun to top it off.

We climbed back down and walked throught the garden behind the church to get one final view of the architecture.

Then it was on to the Marche aux fleurs, Paris's best flower market. The flowers were amazing. It was mainly potted plants, but they also had cut flowers too. I would have given anything to take some home for my garden.

After exploring the flowers we continued our walk on the island in search of more sights. We stumbled upon La Conciergerie, a very old prison that is now a museum. It is where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution. This is the main hall of the prison where the guards were stationed.

Here's the courtyard where prisoners were allowed some fresh air. (We couldn't resist.)

We had a short walk down the street to Saint Chapelle, another cathedral.

This turned out to be one of the most beautiful places we visited. The main chapel was almost completely encased in stained glass. Gorgeous!

After a little lunch (we ate a million baguette sandwiches while in Paris and of course crepes. I think Jill had a total of 28 croque monsieurs (grilled ham and cheese). She's a picky eater.) we made our way north to Centre Pompidou.

We visited the modern art museum on the 4th and 5th floors of the building. It was a nice change of pace from all the history we'd been immersed in up to this point.

From here we headed to the Musee Picasso which was a nice little museum with some of his lesser known works. Then it was on to our last destination of the day: Jardin des Plantes. Its a garden that dates back several hundred years.

It had some extremely large (and old) trees.

It also housed a zoo that dated back to the 1700's. It was small but very personal. You could get right up close to the animals.

The garden also had a labrynth that we played in. It was a maze made out of hedges that had secret passage ways and hidden exits. It was quite fun.

We dragged ourselves back to the hotel at this piont. We chose to try using the metro because our feet were very tired. It went well. I found it very easy to navigate and we ended up using it a lot during the rest of our time in the city.

If you didn't believe me when I said day two was big, you do now! We got a good nigthts sleep that night and got ready to start day three.

J'adore Paris

2008-06-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

Phew! I'm back.

It was a long and wonderful trip. Now that I'm home and can look back on it fondly. The bad days we experienced don't seem so bad and the good memories are in full effect. I caught the cold of my lifetime on day three, but kept trooping on. I sprained my pinky toe after a fall in the rain and my mother fell up the stairs upon exiting the metro once. She and my youngest sister got robbed in a movie theater and we missed a connecting train the day we visited Normandy, but other than these few things we had a fantastic trip. I'll just jump right into the pictures because thats the best way to tell the story.

We arrived in Paris early in the morning, and after being driven to our hotel we spruced ourselves up and headed out to see the city. We all felt like death after 24 hours of traveling but knew that we had to keep going in order to help acclimate.

I was the navigational director for our vacation because most of my family is geographically dyslexic, so with maps in hand we set out on a walk to tour our neighborhood.

The weather was overcast like below up until our eighth day, which didn't make for the best photo taking conditions, but at least it wasn't scorchingly hot.

We started out at Musee de L'Armee and Hotel des Invalides = military type museums.

We saw lots of relics from the middle ages all the way up to WWII stuff. A main highlight was viewing Napoleon's tomb.

From there we headed to the Musee Rodin where we viewed The Thinker among other great works.

On my first trip to Paris back in highschool I only got to view The Thinker from a bus window as we drove by the garden where it is located. It was a treat to see it up close and personal this time. The museum gardens were full of roses. Paris is a great place for flower lovers.

At this point we all ventured back near our hotel for dinner and then proceeded to crash and went right to bed. This is where I'll leave you for know. Day two was a very eventful day and requires its own post.

Things were going smoothly...

2008-06-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

And then the power went out. They sure know how to burn my toast! I was planning on doing a nice big 'ole post to catch you up on my goings on from the past two weeks because I leave tomorrow bright and early for the family Euro Vaca 2008 and will not be able to post for a few more weeks. I'm at my mother's house trying to finish a load of laundry so that I don't have to walk around Paris in the nude. Maybe the power will come back on at my house later. If not, see you in a few weeks (with plenty of pictures).

Adventures in Pharmacy Torture....err, I Mean School

2008-05-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

My internship is OVER! ("Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh" = angelic chorus singing in the background). The people I worked with were really nice and I'm glad I got to see what it was like in a retail setting, but needless to say I'm 99.9999999% sure I will not be working in retail pharmacy upon graduation in two years. Oh yeah, that reminds me: I'M OFFICIALLY HALF WAY THROUGH P-SCHOOL!!! Thank the lord.

Here are some of the things I learned over these last four weeks:

*Some people are just rude for no reason. Don't throw money at me or argue with me or yell at me unless I've done something to deserve it please.

*Some people are really smelly. Do they realize how badly they smell??

*Elderly people seem to fall into three categories: really nice, really cranky, or really out there.

*Never ever take a managerial position as a pharmacist. They make you do a lot of annoying, useless crap that would drive me insane.

*People hate their insurance and unfortunately their insurance usually hates them too. These ill feelings tend to be taken out on pharmacists.

*Viagra and like drugs are really expensive ($10-15 per pill) and men are willing to pay cash for it (insurance usually doesn't cover). I guess I can't blame them.

*When Kroger says it offers 300 generic drugs for $4.00, that doesn't mean all generic drugs known to mankind available on the market are $4.00. People had a really hard time understanding this one. "But it's generic...."

*A lot of people take pain pills. A LOT. It was sometimes hard to say if they were using them out of medical necessity or not and I don't want to assume incorrectly because chronic pain is something that is real, but sometimes you wonder.

*Working in a grocery store is fun. You can go get a snack whenever you want.

*Be nice to your pharmacist. They take a lot of crap.

Rotation, Blaaaaah

2008-05-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

-So, I'm halfway through my early rotation/internship that finishing out my semester. I'm working at Kroger pharmacy in Hillcrest. It's going okay. It's a little boring at times, but everyone I work with is nice, so, yeah, seven days left (I'm not counting or anything :) ). I've seen a lot of interesting stuff and learned a few things about what retail pharmacy is like, but more on that some other time.

-We've been planting like crazy people this year in our yard. We've added some new stuff and made some improvements (and spent a little too much money...woops). A garden party is in the works. Think late June. I'm sure I'll have some pictures forthcoming once everything gets into full swing.

-Last but not least I want to wish a very happy, though a little belated, yet none-the-less happy birthday to Chandle and Kat. They both celebrated the big 2-7 this past weekend. I hope you ladies both had great time on your respective days. Love you both!

The Last Glorious Day in Maui

2008-04-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

Our last full day in Maui...looking back is a nice break from my studies right now (I'm stuck in the middle of finals, blehhhh). We started out the morning with a whale watching trip out on the ocean. We saw North Atlatic Humpback whales. They come down from Alaska to the warmer waters of Hawaii to mate and give birth. We saw several mother-baby pairs. It was one of the coolest experiences on the trip. Here's one of a mom and her kid about to take a dive:

And their tails:

We also got to see some nice scenic views of the island from the boat:

Toward the end of the trip we came across a very playful little baby. He stuck his head out to say Hi:
Then the Mom got very close to the boat and just floated for a while (you can see the baby on the left):

The pictures don't do these guys justice. They were HUGE! The most amazing moment occurred when we were in about 40-50 feet of water (you could see the bottom) and one of the adult whales decided to swim under our boat. It was astonishing to see something that large right below me in the water.

Unfortunately Jill is really sensitive to motion sickness and she spent all her time on our various boat trips over the week in this position:

We docked in a town called Lahaina (MTV did a surfer show there a fews years back, you may remember). We spent some time there walking around a shopping (it's very touristy but charming). They have a park-like area known as the Banyan Tree because of an enormous banyan tree that grows in the center. It was an amazing tree:

All the off-shoots you see in the background are part of the main tree. It was a fun place to play.

After we got back to our condo we had to go for one last snorkel. Below is Black Rock, the beach we spent most of our time on. You can see the lava formation on the right (hence the name). Under the water there was lots of coral and therefore lots of cool fish to see. People even jumped off the lava. Hawaiian culture believes that this is the point on the island were people's souls leave once they die.

Our Aunt and Uncle planned a big dinner celebration for the last night, so of course I had to get an official Hawaiian dress to wear to the party:

The flowers on our walk to the restaurant were beautiful (as they were everywhere). Here's a well-known hibiscus and my favorite, plumeria:

I'll leave you with a few sunsets. It was a fantastic trip and I hope to be able to go back someday. If you ever have the oppurtunity to visit Maui don't pass it up. I highly recommend it.

Days Four and Five

2008-03-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

On day four we got an early start at 7:30AM. Jill and I went on an expedition with my aunt and cousin to go look for what we heard was the best place to snorkel on the island. We stopped at a place called Big Beach which we thought was it, but it ended up not being the site. It was gorgeous none-the-less.

There was a surge that day so that meant no swimming here. We knew that Little Beach was close by according our map and we saw a trail leading up over the hill that the above picture was taken from, so we followed it. Little did we know that Little Beach was a nude beach. They made me take a photo so that we had proof.

After that experience we decided to get back in the car and drive further down the road. We stopped at another promising spot that turned out to be this pretty little cove beach where we got to watch a couple get married. It was the perfect place for a wedding.

My Aunt left us to hang out there while she went to find the snorkel site. She ended up finding it, but unfortunately we would have had to walk over sharp lava to get into the water and with my younger cousin it just wasn't something we could do that day...So we decided to head back to civilization and spend a few hours at the Grand Wilea's beach (one of the poshest hotels on the island). It was a fun adventure.

On day five most of the family went on a deep-sea fishing trip, but those of us who weren't into that went on another trek along coastal roads up around the northwest corner of the island.

We were looking for a place called Blowhole. It's a port hole carved into some coastal lava that when waves come crashing in, it sends a plume of ocean water into the air. We parked up at the top of the coast line and had to hike down to get to the site. Here's a picutre from up above and one down at sea level:

It was incredible being so close to the "raw," untempered coast. The waves were huge. It was like being on a different planet. Very cool!

Days Two and Three: HA '08.

2008-03-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

On day two we rode a large boat out onto the ocean and went on a snorkeling excursion to an atoll off the coast of Maui known as Molokini. Here it is up close and from the shore. I don't have any other pics from that day cause we used underwater cameras and haven't had them developed them yet. The snorkeling was really cool. I think I snorkeled everyday I was in Hawaii. The ocean is so fun!

On day three we woke up at 2:30AM to ride a bus up to the top of Haleakala, the tallest volcano on the island, to attempt to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately the crater was shrouded in clouds and misty rain...no sunrise for us. Here's me and my grandfather at the top:

After the botched sunrise it was our turn to ride bikes all the way down the mountain. Going from 10,000 feet to sea level in about two hours was pretty amazing. Here's the whole group (minus a few people who didn't want to get up so early) before we started and a few views from the ride down:

On the drive home from the bike shop where we ended up after our ride, we decided to stop at a scenic overlook and stumbled upon a beautiful surfer's beach.

You can kind of make out the little black dots in the photo below (surfers) and check out those waves. I can't even imagine what a rush that must be.

A few more scenic shots from the beach:
On our way back to the cars we stumbled upon a guy selling organic Maui pineapples out of the back of his truck. It was one of the best I've ever eaten!

Stay tuned for even more fantastic Hawaii-ness.

I'd give my left ear to go back.

2008-03-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hawaii was beautiful. We had so much fun. If I'm ever able to have a vacation home somewhere it would be hard to pass up the island of Maui.

We flew all day on Saturday. It was a long flight, but after waking up next to the ocean the next morning it made it all worth it. We stayed in condos on Kaanapali beach on the northwest side of Maui. Here's a view of the resort from the beach:

We lucked out. Out of every condo that my family stayed in (my grandparents took the whole family: 6 separate immediate families) we got the one with the best view. Here's what we got to see from our patio:

On our first morning we went straight down to the beach to hang out for a little bit before a birthday lunch for one of my uncles:

Jill and I were the only kids from our immediate family who were able to go. We missed Peter, Katie and Ashley, but still managed to have some good times. Later that evening on our first night we went to the Old Lahaina Luau:

They had an open bar, the food was delicious and the dancing was very exciting. Some day I'm gonna have to learn how to hula. It was an amazing first day!

Okay, I must go to bed now. More to come.

Adventures in Bikini Waxing

2008-03-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

I'm assuming by now that you've figured out that I'm currently involved in one the most unreasonably crazy semesters of my lifetime. I won't go into all the gruesome details because I'll end up getting stressed out and frustrated and angry and will collapsed into the couch in a flacid, comatose state and then won't be able to finish this post. Just know that it is accelerated because we finish with classes in april so that we can do an internship during the last month of the semester and it sucks!

Moving on.......

Something that kind of makes all this misery a little bit worth it is the fact that I leave for a spring break vacation to Hawaii in two days!! My grandparents (mom's side) are taking the whole family there. We're staying in Maui on Kaanapali Beach for the whole week. I'm bringing my snazzy new camera, so there'll be an exponential amount of pictures. The computer is coming too, so maybe I'll even post a little while I'm there. There are a million things I need to do between now and Sat. morning (like a bikini wax...yes I'm gonna do it myself....I've already warned Blue that he may have to help when it comes to pulling....I've done a leg wax before and in my opinion it hurts more when you yourself are causing the pain as opposed to someone else....we'll see). I'm gonna have to miss two celebrations for different friends while I'm gone and three of my siblings can't go, both of which make me a little sad. I'm also not really looking forward to the long flight, but hopefully these things will be balanced out in light of the great experiences I'll have. Woohooo! Sandy beaches, tropical waters, and lots of sunshine here I come.

Welcome to the Jungle (aka 2008)

2008-01-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Phew! It's been a busy past few weeks. What's new, right?

2007 was a pretty good year. I have a feeling '08 will be great too. There are a lot of fun events on the horizon including but not limited too a new president (thank god!), a family reunion in Maui (!!!!), many friends with many fun events coming up in their lives, and reaching the true mid-way point in p-school in just a few short months (one day at a time). Here's hoping the new year brings you lots of happy times. Happy 2008!

So, christmas: I spent the actual holiday here in LR with my Mom and family. It was a pretty standard christmas except for the fact that I had to work on Christmas day (which sucked) and which led us to do most of the celebrating on the Eve. My younger sister was most pleased because this meant she got to open her gifts that evening. Normally we have to wait until x-mas morning after "santa" has made his stop at our house. My favorite gift was the one I gave to Bruno (Katie's dog). (The photo is a little blurry...if anyone out there can take a clear picture of a 6-month old pomeranian, you win a tropy!)

He's a Pomareindeer!

He loved it! Can't you tell?

On the 26th, it was off to the great north (aka, Minnesota) to spend some holiday time with my dad and his family. Luckily they had a decent amount of snow there this year. It was a joy to spend a few days in a true winter atmosphere.

New Years for us this year was pretty quiet. I flew home the day before, so I was still worn out from traveling. We just cooked up a nice dinner (salmon, asparagus, and a salad) and then had some dessert and champagne at midnight and then hit the hay. True old fart style! (at least we stayed up til midnight).

Now I'm just enjoying the next few days before my next round of brain olympics begins. (School starts back a week from today!) Here's to the new year and hoping that we all have lots of good health, happiness, and continued friendship. Cheers everyone!

Joy to the World, I'm finally done!

2007-12-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

Hallelujah! One more semester under my belt. Finals sucked big time, which is why you haven't heard a peep out of me in a while. I had four. The first three were pure torture, but luckily the last one was not bad so I got to end it all on a good note. Now I just have to wait for my grades to be mailed out. Dun, dun, dunnnn. Hopefully they'll get here sometime this week.

Once I finished all my tests, I switched myself into party mode and started prepping for the annual X-mas shindig. It turned out to be a great night. We had a full house that included some faces I haven't seen in quite a while which made the evening all the more fantastic. Thanks everyone for bringing delicious food to share. It was all very tasty as usual. The dirty santa gift exchange was great this year. So much fun as always. Blue got some women's cardio gloves, a brazillian flag, and some kids patriotic sunglasses. I walked away with Keg Pong! That's gonna get some good use I'm sure. All in all it was a fantastic evening. I'm already looking forward to next years.

Since I was having so much fun, I neglected to take very many pictures, but I'll leave you with a view of the early stages of the dirty santa. Cheers everyone!!

It's that time once again, folks.

2007-12-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

.There's a nice chill to the air, lights are twinkling all around town, you can smell cinnamon and pine at every turn, jolly music is playing on every station. That can only mean one thing:

It's time for the....

Second Annual Fantastic Christmas Party!

Who: You!

When: Saturday, December 15th, 7-ish

Where: Leah and Blue's house

Food: Bring your favorite hors d'oeuvre/appetizer to share ( I'll do the sweets)

Drink: BYOB (FYI: thanks to Miss Elizabeth I've been inspired to make up some x-mas jello shots just for the fun of it and we'll probably have a community stash of beer as well)

Gifts: It wouldn't be a Christmas party without Dirty Santa. To play everyone needs to bring 1 gift each, wrapped and unmarked. It's up to you, nice or naughty, funny or simply ridiculous, just don't spend a fortune.

Hope to see you all there!
Feel free to spread the word.

It's the most wonderful/busy/wonderful time of the year!

2007-11-30T06:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, I've been MIA lately. It's due to all the usual reasons. Moving on...

Thanksgiving: It was fantastic to see all my siblings. The food was good. The leftovers I brought home fed me for a week! The family was a little disfuntional, but, hey, what are the holidays without some of that.

School: Craaaazzzy! I'm so close though. I've got one more regular test next week and then my finals begin on Friday. Once I finish with this semester I'll be halfway through the "classroom portion" of my program. Woo hoo!

December: I love you. Its cold and fantastic. I've almost finished decorating the house. I've taken to covering lots of things in glitter this year...a little messy, but oh so fun and sparkly. Blue is doing everything he can to try and convince not to put glitter all over the walls of our office when I start re-doing it over break. (I wouldn't really do that...but I really want to.) He says I must have some fish DNA in my genome because I respond so much to bright, shiny, sparkling objects. I'm planning on putting lights up on the house this weekend and maybe trying to finish the majority of my X-mas shopping. I have a little over half already, but none of it has been wrapped. I suppose I need to start on that too. Call me crazy, but I love all the busy-ness that goes along with this season.

Thank goodness its Veterans' Day.

2007-11-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

First and foremost to thank all the veterans. I may not always agree with what they have taken and are taking part in, but I still think its very important to honor the sacrifices that they make. Thanks veterans and current service members for your efforts.

I'm also glad its Veterans' day because that means I get to stay home from school. This is much needed not only because I have three tests this week and am so thankful for an extra day to study, but also because I feel like manure. I started feeling icky on Saturday morning and things went downhill from there. I felt better on Sunday and decided to run some errands that afternoon but it was a dire miscalculation on my part because last night sucked. Things are looking up today, so I'm just gonna take it easy, study my little heart out, and hope for the best.

Halloweenie!!

2007-10-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take much to get me to dress up, so when a holiday comes along whose main purpose is to put one's self in costume you better believe I'm gonna go all out.

Check out Marie Antoinette herself:

It took way too long to make my dress (and I must say that my test grade tomorrow will probably suffer because of it), but the end result made it all worth it.

Blue was into the spirit as well and we came up with what I think is his best costume to date.

Meet Mr. Rogers:

To see all the party pics head on over to Miss Elizabeth's blog. Hooray for Halloween!

Daylight Savings Time, Where Arrrrre Yooooou?

2007-10-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

I'm finding it increasingly hard to wake up in the mornings while it is still dark outside. Shouldn't we have had daylight savings time by know? I think I remember something about them making it later this year...why, I don't know. Just give me my extra hour and sunshiney mornings already!
Work was a zoo last night. The hospital's census is at an all time low right now (that's the current number of patients present), so that means the pharmacy bosses have issued mandatory staffing cutbacks, which is good and bad: good because I get to leave an hour early for the next couple shifts I work; bad because the pharmacy still seems to be as busy as usual even with fewer patients in the hospital so it makes for a hectic work environment when you don't have as many employees present(they're cutting back on staffing numbers to try and stay within budget--less money coming in from patients means less money needs to go out to employees). Blahh. It's annoying sometimes how everything revolves around money.
My classes are boring. And a waste of my time. I do not equate learning with having powerpoint slides read to me when I have copies of them that I can just read to myself at home. When do I graduate again? Wait! Don't tell me. Must. Not. Think. About. That. Right. Now.
Okay. Enough complaining cause in one day it's Halloween party time! I better go eat some grits and then get to work on my costume. (Yes, I eat grits. Wipe that grin off your face. I also eat lefse, smoked oysters, and pickled herring to stay true to my northern roots, so there.)

Relaxation at the Cost of My Education.

2007-10-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

After last week I decided that I wasn't gonna study this weekend no matter what, and I'm happy to report that I succeeded. It was very nice and relaxing not to have to pound info. into my brain and instead do all the cleaning and projects that I've been pushing to the side over the past two weeks and otherwise be lazy around the house and completely veg. The weather was gorgeous which made for two fantastic afternoons of yard work. I love the task of getting your yard all spruced up before winter rolls in. I also managed to make some progress with the H-ween costume. There's still a lot of work to go though, so I've got to buckle down this week and make it happen. Hooray for October!!

P.S. Was Grey's not fantastic this week?? "You traitorous b!tch."

P.P.S. I get to make our third soup of the season tonight: Wild rice soup. I can't wait. Last week we made white bean chicken chili and it was very good. Double hooray for Fall!

P.P.P.S. OMG!!! In one month it will be time to decorate for christmas! Right now that seems crazy to me. Maybe its due to the mild weather thus far this year. That also means the time is slowly nearing for the second annual El Fantastico Christmas Party. Oh, what an exciting time of year this is!

Aaaaahhhhhh!

2007-10-16T06:55:00.001-07:00

Giant test on Friday. Haven't been studying much up to this point because I was studying for the test I had to take yesterday. That equals no time for blogs this week. See you in six days.

Butternut Squash don't mess around.

2007-10-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some butternut squash soup last night for dinner since fall is officially here and it turned out to be a major aerobic workout. Butternut squash is some serious $#%*!! First of all its really hard (even the inside) and then you have to take the really hard peel off of the really hard flesh with out stabbing or slicing yourself. Not an easy task even for someone familiar with a chef's knife. It all worked out in the end though. I didn't sustain any cuts and the soup was delicious.

I wish dogs had a better sense of reason. I woke up this morning to find not just one but two puddles of dog barf. Did I find them on any of the hard floors we have throughout our house? No, I found them smack dab in the middle of the lovely wool rug in our living room, the only real rug we have in the entire house. Good going mozart. I just hope we can find a way to get the spots out. No luck so far.

Woohoo!! I've decided on a halloween costume! I'm breaking out the sewing machine this year and it's gonna be a big undertaking, so wish me luck cause I don't have a lot of free time as it is already. If I can pull it off, it has the potential to be spectacular. Here's my inspiration:

Have I told you how excited I am about this propect?!! Well just to reiterate: I'm tremendously excited! And, no, Blue will not be dressing up as King Louis. We do have a pretty good idea for him though, but for now I'll keep that under wraps. Oh, I can't wait till halloween!

Embarrassed!

2007-10-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

Blue and I have started jogging lately and we did this little hill in Alsopp park the other day and it made my calf muscles quite sore. I was walking to my car yesterday after class which involves stepping over this chain barrier (picture single links of chain strung between wooden posts) and I guess because of the pain in my leg my body decided not to lift my foot up high enough and my toe caught on the chain and down I went into the dirt. Luckily, there was no one in my direct vacinity to see it up close, but I'm sure the groups of people walking about 40 yards behind me witnessed my grace none the less. It's laughable now, but at the time I was pretty mortified. It's funny how our brains react to embarrassment. There's this moment of shock at what just happened and then it's like "get up, get up!! just keep walking, don't look behind you, just go, escape, run! and then your conscience has to step in and say "it's not the end of the world, just remain calm and go on about your business. No one will remember this tomorrow...we hope." Oh embarrassment, what would we do without you?

Oh Happy Day

2007-10-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

Finally, my introspectivity from last week has come to an end. No more being stuck inside my brain. I've done some decent studying over the weekend and am starting to feel mildly prepared for my first test of "Exams: round 2" that I have tomorrow. I'm focusing on the fact that when these four test are through, I'll be half way done with the semester (instead of getting crazy stressed). Yaaaaaaay!

Good things from this past weekend:

I got to hang out with some friends for a change, which was nice. I didn't get to see everybody, but, hey, there's always next weekend.
I helped my sis, Katie, move into her new apartment, which included getting to play with Bruno the wonder pomeranian. He's getting fiestier by the minute!
I spent an evening being silly with Katie and Jill.
Woohoo! My bulbs that I ordered last summer have finally arrived from the Netherlands. Blue started building the new flower bed in the backyard that we are going to fill up with them.

It looks like fall is on its way back this week, which will make working in the yard enjoyable once again. (I did not have fun mowing the yard yesterday=sweat city.) Pretty soon it will be Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I love this time of year!

Have a good week!

Where'd the reckless abandon go?

2007-10-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

I don't exactly know why, but lately I've been thinking a lot about my years spent as an undergrad and I've realized that there is a lot I miss about those good ole days. Our biggest worries were whether or not the person we were into was interested in us too and who was gonna by the beer for us for the coming weekend. We did things like go get coffee at 11:30 at night 'cause we weren't tired yet, stay up for two days straight just to see if we could do it, explore a cave during a weekend of camping that involved swimming through 50 degree water in total darkness to get to the interior which ended with us being accosted by a park ranger for breaking the law (luckily we weren't ticketed), making hilarious videotapes of all our debauchery that took place during parties, getting my tongue pierced on a whim(no I don't have it anymore), loading up friends into my car and driving to the giant parking lot behind Ryan's restaurant following an ice storm and practicing evasive driving manuevers on the ice coated pavement, and one of my favorites: when Brooke and I lived together in the dorm the fire alarm went off one night around 3AM. Did we get out of bed and go outside? Nope. We didn't care if the building was actually on fire. We just wanted our beauty rest. (Subsequently some fire men ended up breaking into our room to make sure we were alive.)

I love looking back on this stuff, but at the same time I feel a little saddened that it's over. It's not that I'm not happy with my life right now. I have many blessings, excellent friends and a supportive family. It just seems that we've transistioned into a phase of life that is less wild and carefree than it used to be. I'm not saying those years didn't have there trying moments. I certainly made some mistakes and have a few regrets (not so much that I wish I hadn't done some things I did, just wishes that I had handled a few things a little differently). Maybe this is just a touch of Peter Pan syndrome. Maybe the mental brutality of p-school's got me down. Ah well, they say life is cyclical. Better to look to the future than dwell on the past.

Must Stress Less

2007-10-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

I seem to be experiencing minor anxiety issues, and I don't know how to get it to stop. Yeah, school is stressful, but for me to have random bouts of twisty stomach, shallow breathing and rapid heartbeat during the day(w/o known provocation) just seems a little over the top. I'm just not the kind of person who typically freaks out/loses it, so this is way bizaare to me. It just started yesterday, so I'm hoping it is a short term thing. I'm gonna try and find ways to burn up more energy during the day and hope that that helps. Is it funny that I'm not at all interested in pursuing pharmaceutical therapy for this issue (e.g., drugs=what will one day be my job)? My current stance is that a large amount of people out there are over medicated and have been trained to look for a quick fix in the form of a pill for many of their problems. That folks, is another topic for another day, though, so let's look at some happy pictures and make the poopy feelings go away.

This picture is funny on so many levels.

I love snow!

Spring break, you can't get here soon enough.

If there were only more dogs out there like this one...

This is where I want to be today. Too bad I have to go to class.

2007-10-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

(Myrtle Falls, Mt. Ranier national park, Washington.)

Have you seen my spare time?

2007-10-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, me either.

School has been brutal these past two weeks...not life threatening, just all-consuming. I went through my first round of tests without any major injuries and have already started preparing for the next round that starts next week. I also had to intern every morning last week in the UAMS outpatient pharmacy. It was an enlightening experience. I had not had much one-on-one interaction with patients up until that point. I learned two main things: There are huge...HUGE problems with the current entity that is health insurance in America (bad huge), and that a lot of people don't understand their own health. Regarding the second one, I've decided that it should be a mandatory part of secondary and post-secondary education to have to take a basic anatomy and physiology course. I'm mean, heck, they make us take algebra twice (once in high school and once in college) and I certainly don't use that on a regular basis. Why not also require people to learn about something that's going to impact the amount of time they get to be alive? Just a thought.

On a more fun note concerning the past two weeks, I got to make Jaime and Ryan's wedding cake for their wedding last weekend! You've probably already seen the photos from the event on Elizabeth's blog, so I'll just give you one during construction:

(Fun fact: It took about six pounds of icing to do the whole cake.)

In other fun news, my sister Katie got a new puppy that is one of the cutest I've ever seen in my life. His name is Bruno and he is a pomeranian. He is afraid of Mozart's tail, but has a very loud bark for such a little guy. He's also camera shy, so these are the best shots I could get:

(Side note: That's Jill, not Katie.)

They came over on Thur. to watch the Grey's season premier. I just don't know anymore. I was very disappointed and let down with the finale as a whole last season, and questioned whether I would continue watching the show this time around, and I must say, things were not looking good during this new episode. It did pick up during the last three minutes of the show, but still....at the end I just felt like "of course George was gonna tell Izzy he loved her and Meredith was going to continue to act like a bipolar emotional whacko with Derek." Anyone else feeling this way or is it just me?

I Think It Might Finally Be Here!

2007-09-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

...The early begins of Fall '07 that is. Oh, I'm so very excited. There's almost no better season than autumn (outside of winter, of course). I can't wait for the blustery days and pretty leaves and soups and stews and pumpkins and spiced tea! Fall also includes two of the best holidays: Halloween and Thanksgiving. I could go on and on, but instead I'll put up some photos from last year to wet our appetites. Happy Fall!

Did Elizabethan England Practice Proper Dental Hygiene?

2007-09-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Brushing my teeth is now currently one of my favorite activities. Why, you ask? Because of this:

Up until this point I've been using the archaic manual tooth brushes. What a snooze in comparison! This tooth brush is like nothing I've ever experienced, and, at only $5, its a steal compared to those Sonicare ones and what not. I love it.

Another point of excitement this week has been my discovery of a sequel to the movie Elizabeth (with Cate Blanchett) that will be coming out in October. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was fantastically acted with enthrallingly beautiful costuming and succinct direction. If you've never seen it, go rent it. It's good. Here's the new trailer if you're interested. Have a good Friday.

Lame-O

2007-08-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

I've thought of at least one thing to blog about almost everyday this week, and when I sat down to the computer just now during this short study break I had the intention of telling you about them, but because my brain is drowning in drug names, I've got nothing. And!! I have to work tonight and tomorrow morning, so poo. I'm in a doo-doo mood, so I better just get back to studying. This blog sucks. It may be my worst ever. I'll do better next time.

P-2

2007-08-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

It's official. I'm now a second year p-student. I had my first day of class yesterday, and let me tell you, I'm already feelin' the pressure. I expected it though, so I'm sailing along so far.

It was a momentous event this past weekend when I packed up all my materials from last school year and put them into storage (only to be resurrected in two years when I have to start studying for the NABPLEX (National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Licensing Examination)). Here's what went into (and in some cases rapidly decided to hide deep in the recesses of) my brain this past year:

It was kind of fun going through it all and realizing that I had survived. One down!, three to go.

In other (more embarassing) news, you won't believe what I did to myself...again!....at work last Thur. Yes. You guessed it. I stuck another finger. This time it was my middle finger. Luckily the needle did not go all the way through, but it was just as painful none the less. Is this supposed to be some sort of sign that I'm not meant to be a pharmacist? Is it some sort of omen or just me being clumsy? Either way I felt like a doofus. If you're curious to see there's a picture below...If not, don't scroll down.

This Old House

2007-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been waiting to show you the new kitchen because I was hoping to find some time to get the tile backsplash installed, but, alas, I've got five days before p-school resumes and I just don't think it's gonna happen between now and then, so just pretend you can't see the remain lovely fruit wallpaper that is still present.

Here's the before:

And the after:I also just finished a couple paintings I've been working on for the living room that I'm very happy with and some new sconces to finish out the wall (didn't make those though, they're store bought). This is the one room in the house that is almost "complete"....just some new drapes, a new loveseat, and a new TV remain. (Too bad I don't have a money tree in the backyard.)

The Great Homeland

2007-08-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

Turns out I picked the perfect time to leave the south this past week...right when the August heat wave decides to show. I left this past Sat. for a last minute trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit my families lake home (Mom's side), see my Dad, and do some good ole' shopping at the Mall of America. What a blast! My sister has all the photos on her camera, so I'll have to show you those later.

The lake was nice and peaceful and I got to spend lots of time with my twin 18-month old cousins. They're adorable and they even know sign language...genius! What a fantastic idea....teach your babies, who can't speak properly yet, a way to communicate with you. I'm surprised more people don't do it. I'm definitely filing that one away on the to do list.

The mall was a complete shop-a-thon experience. We spent a solid twelve hours shopping on Wed. We barely fit all our purchases in our luggage. It was intense. I also saw The Bourne Ultimatum with my dad while we were visiting. If you're a Bourne fan, you won't be dissappointed. I recommend it for sure.

At least it hasn't been a month this time

2007-07-27T06:38:00.000-07:00

Good news:

My brother flew in from Germany last night safe and sound. Don't have many trip details or pics yet because he'd been up for over 36 hours traveling. We're hanging out tonight though and I can't wait.

Bad news:

The kitchen is not finished, so that means I don't have any pics to show you. All of the painting is done, but the hinges for all of the cabinet doors don't fit properly by like a MILLIMETER (that's me yelling my frustration out). We're off today to go try and find some that will work, so until then I'll show the lovely discovery of the original cabinet finish I found when I pulled down the so very attractive fruit wallpaper. MMmmm. Seventies fugliness.

Good news:

Miss Elizabeth was just accepted into her school psychology graduate program. They only except a handful of people. Congratulation to her! Also, Miss Chandle returns to the U.S. in only a few short days. We wish you safe and speedy travel.

Bad news:

I accidentally stabbed a 16-gauge needle (that's big for a hypodermic needle...think the diameter of a piece of cooked spaghetti ) through the my thumb the other day at work. Umm, yeah. It hurt really baldly. Luckily I was working with a concentrated antibiotic solution right before it happened, so the wound stayed nice and germ free. It was pretty gross though. It happend when I was putting the cap back on the needle so that I could remove it because we have to show the pharmacists the syringe we used after we've made the IV's (when you use needles on actual patients you obviously don't do this because of the danger bodily fluids). I felt that I had missed the cap and gone straight through my thumb before I had time to stop it. The worst part was having to remove it...though the bleeding was pretty bad too. No. I take that back. The worst part was having to finish the rest of the day with a very painful thumb that I had to continue to use to draw up syringes. Yeah, I didn't stop bleeding till I got home later that afternoon because of all the pushing and pulling that I kept doing on the wound. Have a look if your curious:

Good News:

I finished HP yesterday. Loved it! Totally the best of the seven. I'll leave it at that for any who haven't made it to the end yet.

Have a lovely Friday!

Good news and good news.

2007-07-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

So, I had the doctors appointment yesterday and I was fantastically given a clean bill of health! Yay! It's a huge weight off my shoulders. Without given too much info., it was, in a nutshell, a cancer scare. All of the imaging and tests that they ran came back negative, though. What a relief!

To celebrate I took a little shopping trip to the new Fresh Market in west LR. If you haven't been you should definitely go. It was my third time there and it is still as exciting as the first. Maybe it's just cause I'm a foodie, but I still think most people can find something new and fun there. It is a little pricey, so don't go there expecting to do your normal grocery shopping, but it's definitely worth a trip to buy stuff for a special dinner (and the also have a bulk candy bar!!! Yes, I have a serious sweet tooth. I'm not too proud to admit it.). I picked up a wild caught sashimi grade tuna steak that I season with ginger and lemon and pan-seared for a minute on each side. Along with it we had a lightly dressed ceasar salad (because heavily dressed ceasars are just pretentious and obnoxious...in my humble opinion) and I also picked up an excellent loaf of ciabatta that we dipped in some olive oil (like at Macaroni grill). To accompany the fish I had a glass of my new favorite wine: Oroya. It's billed as a sushi wine. A japanese company makes it from Spanish grapes and I love it. If you like summery white wines that aren't too sweet or too dry, try it. We picked it up at Colonial the other day. To finish off the meal I whipped up a milk chocolate mousse and threw on some fresh organic raspberries from the market. What a meal! It was the perfect way to celebrate.

In other news: The kitchen remodel is in full effect. I'm gonna have to work my tush off to get all the painting done this weekend (the tile back-splash is gonna have to wait), but I hope to have pictures for you next week.

Anyone doing anything fun this weekend?

Okay, okay. I get the hint.

2007-07-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I was shocked when Chandle pointed out that it has almost been a month since I posted anything! I don't think I've ever gone that long. I could blame it on a list of things, but I won't cause that would ultimately be boring conversation, so I'll just say that I'll try to get back into the swing of things from here on out.

Umm, has anyone noticed that I only have five weeks of summer vacation left????? I hadn't until just now and it kind of freaks me out. I'm not ready to go back to school yet, people. I feel like I just left. I think it's more of an anxiety issue because last semester was really hard and I amost didn't make it in one class. I'll just have to keep reminding myself that I made it through the first year, so I can make it through the second year too.

What have I been up to lately you may be wondering? Mainly work. Okay, almost completely, exclusively work. I won't lie. I've been working a lot more than I expected too, but I like my job and the people I work with, so aside from taking over the majority of my summer, it's been a good experience. We've been doing lots of out-doorsy stuff on the weekends over the past couple weeks and I've managed to take a few photos. Have a look see.

Almost four weeks ago we met up with some old buddies from the UCA under-grad. days for a weekend of camping and floating on the Buffalo river. Funnily enough this is the only pic I took while there.

Artistic genius I say. I did manage, however, to acquire a lovely little sunburn...one of the worst in my life. It even blistered and then became this grotesque peeling, itchy nightmare. Here's phase one and phase two of it. (P.S. Hold your lunch.)

The next weekend I attended Brooke and Trev's house warming party, which was lovely. Brooke made lots of delicious food and I'm sure we turned up the heat in their new dwelling. Then it was off to the Little Red River to meet up with my sisters Katie and Ashley (in visiting from Denver) and Step-Dad for the day to do some trout fishing. I would have had a great picture of me holding an enormous trout that I caught but as my step-dad was handing it to me it flopped itself right out of the boat. Alas!

This past weekend Blue and I went back to camp at the Buffalo with my sister Katie and her boyfriend who was visiting from Colorado. We had great weather, especially for sleeping cause it cooled down at night up there. Katie and Andy went kayaking the next day and Blue and I moved on over to Sylamore creek for some swimming and fishing and fun....And! I took pictures there.

Our lovely little camp site right on the water.

Mo's camp site:

This is my new favorite picture of us:

So, there you have it...the last four weeks of my life in a nutshell. I have a lot of new garden photos too, but I'll save those for another day. I've also had a very strong remodeling itch that needs to be scratched, and I've got a nice four days in a row off coming up next week so look forward to some pictures of a snazzy new kitchen in the new future.

Also, I have a doctors appointment next week on Thursday that has me a little stressed because it's concerning a medical thing that could potentially be bad. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to go into detail just in case it turns out to be nothing...but just in case it doesn't it would mean a lot to me if you crossed your fingers for me that day. Love you guys.

Pie is a great thing.

2007-06-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm still busy working most of my summer days away, but I've got a four day in a row break that I'm really looking forward too coming up next week. We're planning on taking a float trip over that span of time with some old friends from college, which promises to be a much needed retreat from work/city life/etc. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds out.

My sister Ashley is coming to visit for several days later next week too, which will be lots of fun. It'll be just us four girls with no brother to contend with (since he's off sowing his wild oats in Germany). Lots of girly time ahead (and hopefully some picture to boot).

I went out with the fam last night for dinner and a movie to celebrate Father's day. We saw Waitress at Market Street. I highly recommend it. It was along the same lines as Little Miss Sunshine, well, maybe a little but different, but funny and touching and thoughtful none the less. Go see it if you can. I may be biased because of the fact that the main character was a pie baker, but I still think the average joe will consider it just as good. Here's the trailer if you're interested.

I am alive. (You may have been wondering.)

2007-06-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

I've been pulling forty hours in the pharmacy, which wouldn't be bad except for the fact that my shifts switch back and forth from day shift to night shift which makes may general alertness when I'm not at work suffer, so, yeah, that's my excuse for not blogging in forever. I only work thirty two hours this week and they've just hired another p-student, so that should help lighten the load shortly too.

Okay. Now lets play catch up.

Bon Reise mein Bruder.

My younger brother Peter left last Sunday for a ten weeks stay in Germany. I'm so jealous, but also so excited for him. He's over there attending a university to further his knowledge of the language (it's one of his majors). He's gonna have a blast. There's nothing like going to Europe for the first time. To top it all off, he's staying in a renovated castle that is part of the university's campus. How cool is that?

Garden City.

The garden has come alive with some serious ferocity. Here's what we've got to show off this week:

Broccoli-Wokoli.

Zuchinni. Not my favorite, but still fun to grow. We had a summer squash the other day too. Now those I like!

Tomatoes galore! Seriously. We have a million. Those of you who know me know that I don't eat these guys (not raw anyway, with salsa being an exception), but Blue loves them.

Are white lillies finally bloomed and they are gorgeous!

We have zinnias coming out are wahoo, which is a good thing because they make great cut flowers to bring inside.

Ta-DAAAA! Take a look at my first gladiolas that have bloomed. We've got forty seven more bulbs left to go, so I'm sure you'll see more of these in the near future.

This is what the flower spike looked like when it first appeared. How cool is it that that turns into the flowers above? I love it!

Hey! I thought I was supposed to be on vacation.

2007-05-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I've been working in the pharmacy a lot lately. I'm not really complaining cause I still like it, I'm learning a lot, and I'm making some much needed money to pay my bills over the summer (cause you don't get happy little student loan excess aid checks during summer break). I've trained for the day shift over the past couple days and then this Saturday I'll be training at the Sherwood branch. Training is not that fun, so I'll be glad when that is over but happy that I'll have a few more options when it comes to what shifts I can work.

We didn't really do anything festive this past holiday weekend. I worked Friday night and then early Monday morning so that didn't leave a whole lot of time for camping or anything like that. We didn't go to Riverfest either. I did, however, hang out with my siblings quite a bit. My sister Katie just moved here from Denver. She's starting nursing school at UAMS. It's nice to have her here. I'm sure you all will get to meet her soon.

Okay. I'm feeling rambly and boring. I'll post more later.

Floral Awareness

2007-05-23T09:22:00.001-07:00

Here's an updated photo of the progress we've made in our backyard:

Ha! I wish. This is actually Drummond Castle in Scotland....not my backyard, but we do have some new flowers blooming. See below. Now all I need is for the gladiolas to do there thing and then I'll be really pleased.

The lilies are starting to bloom. We've only had yellow and orange so far. I'm hoping for some red and white soon.

This is tigridia. They are my first bulbs to bloom (other than the tulips, but I cheated with those cause I bought them after they had already sprouted). Aren't they cool? They remind me of orchids.

You are getting very sleepy.....

Blue planted some zinnias from seed in his veggie gardens to attract the bees, and they've already begun to bloom. He has a knack for growing things from seeds (that I do not...none of the seeds I planted grew).

Our gardenia bushes (that came with the house) are blooming too. They smell amazing!

Finally, this snazzy little desert plant (can't remember the name) that I've carried around with me for two years now is still putting out flowers. The plant itself looks pretty dead, but if it is still giving us a show I guess it might make it another year.

I've died and gone to blog heaven.

2007-05-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got free time on my hands to putz around the internet, I've stumbled upon the most fabulous blog ever! I'm kicking myself for not thinking of doing it first. Get your taste buds ready and go check out The Cupcake Blog. Scroll on down to the 3rd recipe: S'mores cupcakes. Oh Yeah, I'm definitely gonna make those...and I'll be willing to share.

Mooooom, Margarita was mean to me! I don't want to play with her anymore.

2007-05-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Let's just say I won't be drinking margaritas for a looooong time. I'll spare you the unpleasant details because there are much better things to talk about like how great Chandle's going away party was. She's on her way to Nepal today to make a difference in the world cause that's just how great she is. We love you Chandle! Keep yourself safe and come home ASAP.

Now onto the photos from the party:

MMMmmm. Cake.

Kimmy P. and Virginia were in town, which added to the fun. It was like a college reunion of sorts (minus Brooke, of course, who couldn't make it).

We even had an arm wrestling contest. Yes, I lost.

I'll wrap things up with my favorite photo series of the evening:

Yea! We're happy. This is fun!

Hmmmm. Maybe this wasn't the best idea we've ever had.

Kim says it all.

I Got My Hair Cut and My Life Back and It Feels GREAT!!!

2007-05-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! School is OV-ER! I can't even begin to tell you what a neurotic mess I've been the past seven days. There were tears shed and naughty words spoken, but I survived.....And I'm ready for some FUN!!! I'm gonna keep it short today cause I gotta go play outside in the gorgeous weather, but I have the feeling I'll be blogging on a much more regular basis now'a'days so you'll hear from me again soon.

Those WERE the days!

2007-05-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'd trade my current school tasks for busy work any day. Oh, what it would be like to be able to once again study for tests the night before you take them and make A's with such little effort. Those days are long gone. Now I start studying at least four days before a test, which averages out to about 20 hours of studying. Craziness! I'm so close, yet the end of the semester still feels so far away.

Needless to say, I spent the majority of the weekend with my nose in the books. I did make it out on Sat. night to celebrate Miss Chandle's b-day. It was so much fun to go bowling. I hadn't done it in forever. Good idea Chandle!

Well, I've got a med chem test on Tuesday and then finals begin on Friday, so you may not hear much from me for the next 1.5 weeks. May the force be with me cause I'm gonna need it (in at least one class anyway). See you on the other side.

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy Birthday...

2007-05-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

To Kat!!

Today is Your day. Have an excellent one!

I wanna wish a happily dappily birthday to...

2007-05-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Miss Chandle Fantastico Devor!

In the Home Stretch

2007-05-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhh!

I'm way stressed, but I'm also way excited. I've only got ten days of school left, but in the next 6 days (weekdays) I have 3 regular exams left and then a study day (yes, only one) and then 4 days of final exams. Talk about sticking it to us! I've only have one class in which I don't have the grade I want right now as opposed to 3 classes last semester, so I'm a little better off than I was back then but still feeling the pressure. Serenity Now!!

Did I mention how excited I am to be out of school? I. Can't. Wait.!!!! This is going to be a summer of fun for sure. Bring it on.

Fun Fact: Did you know that when an average person coughs the force of the air coming out of their lungs is around 600 mph? That's some speed!

Third times a Charm

2007-04-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

I completed my third night last night of working in the hospital pharmacy...and I liked it! I'm becoming a TPN pro. (TPN = total parenteral nutrition...think big IV bag full of carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins used for people who can't eat the regular way). It is my favorite thing that I get to do. I'm also feeling more comfortable with a lot of the other IVs I get to make (there are alot!). One thing that still leaves me a little anxious is the delivery that I have to make each shift at 6PM. This involves dropping off drugs/IVs all over the hospital in the med rooms of each unit. It's not hard. I just can't seem to learn my way around the hospital. It's like one of those mazes that they put mice in in laboratories. I'd better get it straight soon, though, because after two more wednesdays there throwing caution to the wind and having me cover the shift all by my lonesome (no more working with my trainer). Ahhh!

Now for some COMY:

We have growth! Here are some before and after shots to give you an overview:

Before:

And Now:

We've picked our first vegetable: radishes! (I ate the one that is in the photo just now and it was delicious. Nice and spicy!) And we have some peas that will be ready soon too. And, and!! the clematis has it's first bloom! So exciting. Check it out:

17 Days and Counting...

2007-04-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Oooooh, I can't explain to you how ready I am for summer. I'm looking forward to being able to deep clean the house, spend more time working in the yard, do some house projects that have been sitting around for months, cook more often, excercise more regularly, organize things, etc. All in good time.

It was a crazy weekend to follow a crazy week and I've got another test tomorrow to boot. I'm just taking it one day at a time now until the end of the school year and like I said above, only 17 days left.

On a more festive note I'd like to wish a happy b-day to Brooke. Welcome to the "now we're officially old" club.

Happy Birthday!

To the OR, STAT!

2007-04-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

My little sis Jill (pictured above before her most recent formal) was rushed to the ER last night for an emergency appendectomy. Everything went smoothly and she's doing well. She has one more round of IV antibiotics and then she'll be released this afternoon. They did the procedure laparoscopically (think little camera inside so they can see) so she only has three little stitches. I found this cool (it might only be cool to me since my brain is totally medical-ified, but whatever) illustration of what they did to her:

Though it is weird, I must say that I've wanted mine out since I was about nine. I'm just so curious about what it would be like to have surgery and this seems like a relatively safe and routine procedure. I suppose I'll just live vicariously through her. I'm just glad she made it through with flying colors.

Don't. Push. Me. 'Cause. I'm. Close. To. The. Eeedge.

2007-04-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

*My professors have become very cranky lately...cranky as in being mean and annoying in class and also deciding at the last minute to give us things like lab practicals.

*Car Wars (aka idiot marketing scheme to get peolpe to buy lamo vehicles) is going on this weekend which means the giant parking lot at War Memorial stadium where I park for school is closed which means there are 5,000 people fighting for 200 parking spots everyday for the rest of the week.

*I started my job last week, and though I think I'll like it eventually, I don't like having to work while I'm still in school. It sucks a whole day of my week away because I'm at school from 9am to 2pm and then work from 2:30pm to 11pm not to mention that I'm responsible for not killing anyone with the IV's that I make. Stress!

*We still have ants!! I keep getting rid of them in one area and then they show up in a different room. We're not dirty people. Leave us alone you crazy insects!

Disclaimer: I'm not complaining. I know I could have a lot bigger problems in my life. Sometimes you just gotta blow off a little steam.

COMH (+ TGIF! Yahoo!!)

2007-04-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

Check out the new side table and lamp that my mom bought me for my b-day. I've had the table for a while (seeing as how my b-day was back in Feb.), but the lamp just came in last week. I love them both but especially the lamp. Only a few more things left to do to the living room before its "done!"

Fun fact for the Day:
The outermost layer of the covering that surrounds our brains (underneath the skull) is called dura mater which means "tough mother." Ha!

Privacy Please.

2007-04-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

So, I have not started my new job yet. Maybe next week. Maybe the week after that. It turns out you have to jump through a lot of hoops and over a lot of hurdles to be able to work in a hospital pharmacy (they even light one on fire before you jump through). I won't bore you with all of them, but I will tell you about what I had to do this morning. I went up to St. Vincent cause they needed me to fill out some paperwork for a background check (as if I haven't already had four or five done since I started p-school...you think they would have found out if I was naughty by now). Then I had to go up to employee health for a drug screening among other health related things. Now here is where it gets out of control. I was required to let the nurse watch me pee into the cup!! Some of you may be saying big deal, but bathroom time for me is private time and I didn't enjoy sharing this moment with some random lady. And, of course I couldn't go cause she was sitting there watching me the whole time so it took like five whole minutes. It's not like I'm gonna smuggle in some pee to take the place of my own, but I guess they have a problem with that and that is why they have to watch. I'm just glad I didn't get hired to watch people pee everyday.

Oh well, now it's off to the nuclear pharmacy down the road to take a tour for one of my classes. Hopefully I won't glow when I'm done. (Really though. It's pretty safe.)

How'd You Spend Your Weekend?

2007-04-01T19:20:00.001-07:00

The Long and Short of It

2007-03-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

*alternate title* :

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I did it! It was time for a change and its so exciting now that its happened. I love it.

<---Here's what it used to look like.

<---Bye-bye Hair!

<----Hello Shortness!

(Please excuse the scrubs...its a school day)

It's so fun! It's like I have a new car or something. Thanks Emily. It's fabulous.

Made My Day

2007-03-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

If you haven't look at Toothpast for Dinner today, go do it. Right now! Click it!

Lick. Lick.

COM...Y (yard).

2007-03-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Our yard is slowly but surely coming along. We've got several things starting to sprout all around the yard, so I may be posting more of these COMY instead of COMH over the next few weeks. I spent a little time this afternoon playing photographer with the tulips that are blooming in our front yard. Take a look at some of the good ones:

Salad makes the world go 'round.

2007-03-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Walking club was much fun last night. Thanks for hanging out girls. Here's the recipe for the salad that I served with dinner. The girls liked it so much that they asked me to post the recipe. It's a nice summery salad with a tasty dressing. It's easy to make and is a good thing to take to potlucks or bbq's. Enjoy!

Southwestern Layered Salad with Cilantro-Jalapeno Dressing

Dressing:
1/2 c. white wine vinegar
1 generous tbs. chopped jalapenos
1/2 lime
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. olive oil
1/2 c. packed fresh cilantro

Salad:
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. chopped purple onion
2 c. loosely packed chopped lettuce (I used romaine, iceberg would work too)
1 c. seeded and chopped tomato
1 15-oz. can corn, drained
1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1 c. (4-oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 lime

1.) Once avocado is chopped, squeeze lime juice over avocado and toss until coated. This prevents browning.

2.) Prepare dressing: Process first four ingredients in a blender until smooth. With blender on, gradually add oil in a slow, steady stream. Process until thick and smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Add cilantro, and blend until finely chopped. Cover and chill.

3.) Place lettuce in bottom of salad bowl. Toss beans with onion and place on top of lettuce. Drizzle with one or two tablespoons of the dressing. On top of beans place the following ingredients in the following order: tomato, corn, green pepper, cheese, avocado. Drizzle a few more tablespoons of dressing over the top of the salad and garnish with a few cilantro sprigs. Serve remaining dressing alongside the salad.

(If you want to make the salad a little naughtier, you can put some crisped, crumbled bacon on top just before serving.)

What happened last week?

2007-03-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I was a little MIA last week. It was mainly due to p-school (3 tests in one week= blahhh!), but some other stuff happend too.

First of all, I'm now part of the working world once again. I've been hired by St. Vincent hospital to work as an intern/tech. I'm not sure when I'll start, but when I do I'll be working second shift one day a week, that is until summer starts. Then I'll pick up a lot more hours (hopefully) because I have to start accruing interns hours (I'm responsible for getting 500 hours) so that I can take the licensing test when I graduate. All I know so far is that I'll be making I.V.'s in the clean room. It actually sounds like fun to me. We'll see.

In other news, and another reason I was not all here last week...My old back injury (two fractured vertebrae and a herniated disc in 2002) reared its ugly head again. It happened on Thur. m0rning in the shower without any provocation. There was just this pop all of a sudden and then I couldn't stand up straight for two days with pretty serious pain. I'm on the mend now just taking it easy around the house (luckily I'm on break this week). You can still feel the lump on my spine, but the pain is slowly subsiding. All this said, my public service announcement for the day is "Take care of your spine. It's important." Oh and here's a visual of what's going on in my back for your viewing pleasure:

Ouch!

Weekend Update

2007-03-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

Whooo! Last week was a mess. I'll probably fill you in on all the details of it tomorrow or something cause today I want to talk about the fun weekend I had. On Friday, I took my little brother who was on spring break and visiting from St. Louis out for some sushi. Its kind of become a tradition to do that when he's in town and what good tradition because sushi is Great! On Saturday I helped Jillian (my littlest sister) get ready for a formal dance. She looked so pretty:

Then that evening we had a little soiree to celebrate St. Patty's day. It was filled with tasty food, car-bombs, a fire (0utside of course), dress-up time, and lots of fun for sure. Thanks for coming out guys. We had a blast! Here are some photos from the evening:

FYI: This was taken during "dress-up" time.

This picture is one of the last ones taken that night and it makes me laugh because its pretty much a bad picture on all of us, but we each look funny in a different way. Oh, St. Patrick's Day! We love you.

Love It!

2007-03-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been a complainer lately, so today I'm gonna list some things that I love:

*Flowers. Yeah, if you read my last post you're probably like, "Duh!" They just make me smile and I'm very excited to start seeing them in my yard in a month or two.

*Garden Parties. I can't say that I've ever actually been to one but they sound like a fun reason to get together. With all the beautification that we're doing in our yard you can bet there will be a garden party at our house some time in the future...oh yes, there will be a garden party.

*"Juice cocktails." This consists of a half a glass of juice with the rest filled with soda water. I am obsessed with them. They are my new favorite beverage when I'm at home.

*Passin' my classes! Though I'm still having to work pretty hard, this semester is going much more smoothly than last semester (so far...knock on wood).

*Almost being finished with my first year of P-school! Self explanatory.

*Listening to Madonna: the immaculate collection while I'm cooking. This is my music of choice lately while I'm in the kitchen and it is so fun.

*Watching This Old House on PBS on Saturdays at noon. This is one of the main highlights of me weekend. Yeah, it might make me a little nerdy, but I can't hide it.

*Reading the Sunday paper. This is another weekend treat that I enjoy. Am I getting old or what? Whatever. The weekend is almost here. Woohooo!

THIS...is what I want my yard to look like:

2007-03-06T07:54:00.000-08:00

I think it can happen people...especially since I've gone a little crazy and now have 176 bulbs to plant (I'm not kidding). This number does not include the aforementioned flowers I ordered a little while back. Now that the weather is finally warm enough, planting will commence this afternoon after......
I take a really nasty medicinal chemistry test this afternoon at 3:30. It deals with drug metabolism and I'm not looking forward to it. My brain just doesn't seem to want to retian information lately. Maybe it's all this nice weather or maybe it's because spring break is SO close (two weeks away). Or.....
Maybe it's because there are too many TV shows currently on or about to premier that I want to watch. There is of course the old standby Grey's, but then you add the fact that Survivor and ANTM have started up again, Dancing with the Stars premiers in a week or two, and I regretfully admit that I've gotten sucked into the illegitimate reality TV show that is The Hills on MTV. P.S. ANTM seems like its gonna be a good one this time around (minus the stupid "boot camp" intro they used).
On top of all of that we just realized that with our Netflix we get to watch movies online for free as part of our membership. Oh, The Humanity!
Okay...I just realized I'm being a little whiney. Enough of that. I'm this close to cutting my hair. How short should I go? (Don't worry. I won't pull a britney. School hasn't made me that crazy...yet.)

God Made Dirt and Dirt Bust Your A@@!

2007-03-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

5,000 lbs. that is. Blue had said dirt delivered to our driveway on Monday. As you know, the indigenous dirt down here in the South sucks, so he got some good stuff to fortify our gardens that are quickly multiplying around the yard. We're up to four big "gardens" and 5 flower beds that we plan on planting in. Sheesh! Anyway, we spent Monday and Tuesday afternoon dragging pile of dirts on a tarp to the various beds around the yard. Talk about a work out! Actually it was not that bad due to the beatiful, sunny weather we had. I think we're going to go buy some more bulbs and seeds tomorrow and start planting this weekend or next. Hooray for nature!

Oh and I've finally remembered to post a fun fact I've come across:

Did you know that in 1 oz. (think 2 tablespoons) of poo there are 10 to the 11th microorganisms? That's 100,000,000,000 little crawlies. Ewww!...Gross.

Finally...a Corner or Two

2007-02-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

I've loved the idea about showcasing parts of our homes thought up by Miss Kat, but I haven't been so good about doing it on Fridays...so here are a couple pieces of my home for your Monday morning viewing pleasure:

I've made some progress in the living room filling up the "entertainment wall" with a new bookshelf and a new piece of artsiness that I made the other weekend.

Here's a close-up. The colors are a little off in the photo, so you'll just have to come and see it in person.

This is a new addition in the dining room (remember the greens and browns a few weeks ago). The light fixture is the same. I just made some new shades to make it a little prettier and more fun. They used to be plain, black and round.

We had a great weekend this week. It was a good mix of relaxing, hanging out, and working in the yard in the beautiful weather. I didn't do as much school work as I probably should have, but I've only got one test this week...and this semester is going pretty well so far. I've passed all my tests up to this point. Knock on wood I suppose.