Joy to the World, I'm finally done!

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.

.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!

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.

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!!

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?

• 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.

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!

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.

• 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!

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

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?

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

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.

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

Have you seen my spare time?

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!

...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?

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

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

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.

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This Old House

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.