Whirlwind Weekend

Whoa. This weekend has been crazy. Fun, though.

Kelsey & Luke's wedding went without a "hitch" (that one is for you, DB). It was sweet, pretty, and the reception was fun.

Then I headed off to Fort Worth for Monica's bachelorette party. It was SO fun to spend time with Monica and Danielle together...we haven't done that in at least 2 years.

This picture got me looking at a few older pictures of the three of us. It was fun, but I'm going to save that for another post.

Statistics is calling my name.

What's new?

A whole bunch of things. If you care to know...

I'm completely moved, attempting to enjoy this living alone thing. It's hard for me. We have discussed this before. I don't do alone well. It is nice sometimes, but then I start talking to myself, and it's all down hill from there. I know it's bad when I get excited about "getting" to go clean my old house with my roommates.

I have been pretty occupied though, so that has been good. I started my job this Monday. So far I have sat through around 16 hours of lectures about privacy policies, safety policies, self defense, more privacy stuff; and have learned how to use these awesome patient lifts.

I really think this job is going to be a fantastic opportunity to learn a whole bunch. I'm already learning a whole bunch and tomorrow is just day 3.

My brain is going through information overload about 99% of the time.

Statistics is coming right along. It's much harder than I anticipated. I'm not sure why I anticipated an easy class...it's statistics. I'll be glad when it's over, but it's not awful.

Andrew got to visit last weekend. It was way too short of a visit, but we sure did cram a lot of fun into those couple of days! We got Whataburger twice (one of Andrew's favorite TX treats), went to a Rangers game, visited with family, rode 4 wheelers, spent lots of driving time together, and Andrew got to meet most of my mom friends and all their adorable kiddos at lil Kate's 3rd birthday party. I was not good about taking pictures, which I always regret. Maybe someday I'll get better. Here's a cute one though...

These next couple of weekends will be wedding weekends. Friday and Saturday, Kelsey & Luke's wedding. Sunday, Monica's bachelorette party. Next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Monica & Bret's wedding. It's an exciting time, for sure.

Lots and lots of learning, driving, and wedding reception dancing in my near future.

Can't complain.

Also, 347 days until I graduate.

Just sayin'.

post moving day feelings

I am almost completely moved out. Besides my share of the dishes, dvds, and a lamp. Moving is my least favorite thing in the world to do, but I got it done. I kept thinking that this is my last time to move as a college student. That helped. Now I just have to unpack. Because I can't function in a dorm room with boxes and un-organization surrounding me. This feeling no longer exists:

If I had a picture of Julie slumped over looking sad in front of what used to be our wonderful, lovely house in front of a corn field, I might post it, but I don't have one.

Today is unpacking day, and statistics day. Oddly enough, I'm feeling extremely motivated to get this stats class done with. I have never in my life felt any motivation to do math, so it's a strange feeling.

Also, I love Belton but I just really want to go to Hawaii.

That's all.

Not Story Time

I'm tempted to tell another kid story, because I have quite a few, and Allie says she really likes them. But since I live with her and all, I can just tell it to her.

Instead of another story I'm just going to show you a sunset from a couple of nights ago that took my breath away.

I'm going to miss this house. I'll miss walking out on the back porch and petting the pup while watching the sunset over the corn field (wow. that's country for ya). I'll miss being able to lay in the living room at any time of day and nap because it's so dark. I'll mostly miss these people though.

I'll miss talking in Julie's comfy bed on sunday mornings, and getting way too pumped up about Glee, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance (which by the way comes back in 2 WEEKS!!), and any other show that we get into. I'll miss Allie's "that's racist and it makes me feel uncomfortable" comments about anything under the sun, and that crazy Mama's Family voice. I'll miss Lindsey's strange obsession with eggplant, and frying things. The I'll miss list could really go on and on.

I'm outta here in 3 days. If I was a cryer, I would cry.

Story time again

So, remembering the bird flying into the ladies hair story opened the floodgates for more Alex and Allye stories. I don't know if this is interesting for anyone to read, but I think it's fun, so I'm just gonna type away.

Alex and I went to school together for a couple years and even though she is a year younger than I am we would still get to eat lunch together. One particular day, when I was in first grade and Alex was in kindergarten, I was feeling extremely funny. I was on a roll with telling jokes. Probably something along the lines of "How do you catch a unique rabbit?...younique up on it!" Actually, that's a joke that I just learned a couple weeks ago from my very funny boyfriend. But, that's beside the point. I was telling a lot of good jokes. I remember thinking I was pretty cool, and Alex (who was used to usually being the center of attention) started trying to one up me. I was a little annoyed and so instead of just not laughing at her jokes I started laughing REALLY loud and obnoxiously. This plan quickly backfired when the evil Ms. Knight (my former kindergarten teacher) came over and shushed me and told me that if I wasn't quiet she would tell Ms. E (my first grade teacher) that I should have to turn my card. To this I'm sure I rolled my sassy little eyeballs and thought something like "pshhh, it's already on red...and it's been like that for the past month and a half." She walked away and the jokes continued. I stopped laughing so obnoxiously, but only because other plans were brewing in my crazy little brain.

Ms. Knight got up to leave the lunch room. That's when it happened...one of my worst decisions. Alex told some joke about butts (I remember this because I used it as an excuse later to attempt and get myself out of trouble), I took a huge gulp of chocolate milk and "laughed" so hard that I spit it all in Ms. Knight's Texas sized hair. I think I knew the second it actually reached her head that I had made a horrible mistake. I didn't go back to class that day. Instead I sat in the principals office trying to convince him that Alex's jokes really are THAT funny.

I honestly can't remember if he ended up believing me or not. I do remember going back to school the next day and making up some crazy story about how I got like 5 paddlings from him though. Everyone thought I was so tough.

Ms. Knight, if you're reading this somewhere out there, I eeepologize (I'll save that story for another day).

See, always the center of attention. I just wanted the spotlight for one day, and look where it got me...the principals office.

Story time

I was reminded of this story while perusing facebook this afternoon.

My cousin Alex and I basically grew up like sisters. We were together constantly. At times best friends and at other times worst enemies. Alex and I have very different personalities. She is very dramatic, cautious, and girly. I, on the other hand as a kid was very carefree, adventurous (taking way too many risks), and the opposite of girly. Together though, we were both SO imaginative, which got us into a lot of trouble.

Our grandparents used to take us on a trip to the Big Bend area every summer. It was our favorite time of year. We would listen to our walkmans and sing loudly in the car. Alex would demand that our granddad choose who was the best singer. He would pretend to not hear us, and our grandma would say over and over again "you both are WONNDERFFULL" (or something to that extent). I would climb really tall rocks, and spend hours trying to convince Alex to follow me. Her cautious (smart) side would usually force me to go play with her on the ground.

One day we were eating at a restaurant in a town outside of the park. Our grilled cheeses were taking too long so we decided to play on (ride) the pig statues in the garden. While on some wild adventure on our stone pigs, I saw a baby bird in the bush.

Side note:I haven't mentioned yet how much of a animal lover I was back in the day. I literally had every breed of dog memorized, probably had about 20 books about horses, and my favorite channel was the animal channel.

So of course seeing a baby bird all alone in the bushes was very concerning to me. I ran over probably exclaiming something like "OHH NO! We have to rescue it!" Alex decided it was too dirty to touch with our hands, and plus, it could bite us! So we found a stick and began poking at it. It was pretty unresponsive, and fearing the worst, I decided to nudge it hard with the stick. Thats when it flew into the patio of the restaurant into a lady's hair. She freaked out. And when I say freaked out, I mean it. She stood up screaming, started jumping around and hitting her head while her husband waved a napkin at her head and her children sat there shocked and confused.

We ran away. fast. So I'm not really sure what became of the baby bird we "rescued" from the bush. But I'm pretty sure that poor lady will never forget.

Graduated

Saturday was the bittersweet graduation of a few of my wonderful friends. The ceremony is always so long, and not always the most entertaining thing, but it is still fun to be there for the people you love. This time though, it was different for me. I could not help but think about how in just a year I will be dressed up in the black cap and gown with those lovely purple and gold tassels singing "Up with the Purple". I thought about how a short year from now I will be standing up in a line with my nursing family hearing our names called like it was just another day of class with Mrs. Emmerson calling roll, but this time we're not in class, and it's not really roll..we will be finished. I can't wait for that day. I can't wait to see the joy on my friend's faces, to hear the crowd cheer for us as we hug our dean and proudly get our picture taken with our diploma. It's going to be one of the happiest days of my life thus far, I suspect. While I can't wait for that day, my goal is still to remain focused on the present. Because right now a year seems like a really long time, but that's what I thought at last year's graduation, and it has flown by (remember, like a white-throated needletail). Plus, I have a feeling this year is going to be super sweet. I mean, it's my last year of college...I'm going to soak it all up.

Alright, in an attempt to focus on the present (I guess technically the past now), here are some pictures from this weekend.

Alz, excited about that teacher pin!

Leslie. Enough said.

Mary Hardin-Baylor class of 2010

Robyn with the Phillip sisters

On this week's agenda:

Working my tail off in my online stats class, moving, spending time with leslie, robyn, and roommates, babysitting, and sleeping.

To all who have mothered

(part of) Mother and child by Gustav Klimt

The definition of "mother" according to my computer's dictionary is "a person who provides the care and affection normally associated with a female parent." There are other definitions. Ones that would be fitting for most "a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth." But I'm going to go with the first one, just cause it works for me and what I'm trying to get across here. Which is, how unbelievably thankful I am for all who have mothered me. From my neighbor in elementary school who let me bake with her, to the many Godly examples I have in my life right now who teach me, worry about me, encourage and love me. You make the world a better place. You have made my world a better place.

Happy mothers day to all the sweet, beautiful, inspiring women who have loved, encouraged, counseled, comforted, and loved some more.

Summer Living

3 days of summer have passed.

It doesn't really feel like summer. I have no big plans for adventures, or even small plans for adventures. So far my summer has consisted of checking people out at the dorm, closing down the dorm, a harker heights run with my favorite Leslie, and watching our nightly t.v. with my roommates. I start my online statistics class on Monday and hopefully will be completely moved out of this wonderful house that I'm going to miss so much by next week.

Summer living is almost the same as school year living, just without the looming stress of tests. I'm liking it that way. I surprise myself by saying that, because just about a week ago I was sad that this is how I was going to spend my LAST summer as a college student...in Belton. Now I'm content. Happy, even. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn down a free trip to Greece or Hawaii, or Florida or probably anywhere, but I'm still happy about being here.

I don't start orientation for work until the 24th of May. Until then I will be doing statistics, moving, going on walks with Kenzie and Julie, and learning how to run a dorm.

Here's to summer.

To living life as an adventure no matter where you are, and trying to enjoy every step of the way.

I...

...am excited about being done with my junior year of nursing school.

...cannot believe that a year from now I will hopefully have real a job as a nurse.

...am blown away by how fast time is flying by.

Thank you God for bringing me this far.

"I will not die an unlived life

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing,

a torch,

a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which comes to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom

and that which comes to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit."

-Dawna Markova

May 1st

I'm on duty tonight, which leaves me with a lot of study time. However, my eye wont stop twitching. It's kind of driving me crazy, and also leaving me with an excuse to not focus.

Speaking of crazy, that's exactly what this week was. I was going non-stop. I don't think I have appreciated my bed more than I did this week. So far, as far as I know, I have passed all of my tests. I wont know about my pediatrics final until Tuesday, which is the one I am most concerned about. I have my OB final (which will also be intense) is Monday morn, then 2 HESIs on tuesday and I'M DONE!

blah blah blah. You don't want to read about boring tests. It's boring me to write about it.

I cannot believe it is May. April flew by like a White-throated Needletail (the fastest bird on earth...it can fly 106 mph!). It was a happy month filled with exciting events, milestones, and blessings. Here are a few:

-I turned 21. Got to spend my birthday with my sweet friends.

-I visited Andrew, and rode on my first steamboat.

-Leslie's awesome recital. I'm still excited about how great it was and it was over a week ago.

-I got the job I've been wanting since before Christmas. I am so excited and grateful.

This week is going to be strange. It's almost time for graduation, which means saying bye for now to some of my favorite people. I'll be starting to move, trying to figure out when and where I will be taking statistics, and hopefully planning a couple of trips to see some people I love this summer.