life in technicolor

18 days until the University of Arkansas School of Nursing pinning ceremony!  Then I'll be done with my formal education at least for a while :)
Also, GO HOGS!!  :)  If Auburn wins the SEC Championship game, it's off to the Sugar Bowl for the Razorbacks (due to our amazing #7 ranking in the week 14 BCS standings)!  Totes fun!!!!!
Turns out this past Saturday was the most exhausting day I've had in a while.  I drove to Little Rock and back, and almost (ok, I did a couple of times) fell asleep on the way from Das Fort to Fay.  When Corey and I got back to Fayetteville, I got half a second wind and we took apart his desktop computer to replace the hard drive.  Fun, right?
Sunday we slept all day.  Literally.  Woke up at 4pm.  Then I made at home P.F. Chang's (delicious.  orange chicken.) and made a poster on nursing care for patients with hepatitis for my critical care class.
Also tried to brainstorm topics for a website.  Like, if you wanted to see a website all about anything, what would you want it to be about?  I am not that creative, so I couldn't think of anything, but I'm still brainstorming.
We tend to find the nerdiest things possible to do with our time, but I wouldn't change a thing.  :)  In fact, right now we're making a game that is like a "Choose your own adventure" game.  He's scripting it on the interwebs.  This is too fun.  I'm making up the story in classic Ruby storytelling style.  It's a horror story set around Christmas.  Grand. :)


"oh love don't let me go"

strawberry swing

Thanksgiving was, as it is every year, one to remember.  Many things were different, but a lot was the same.  
We did what we always do:  ate way too much lunch, had conversation/nap time, watched football, played board games, caught up with each others' lives, and simply enjoyed each other's company.  
Things that were different:  Brandon wasn't there (we missed him for sure; he spent Thanksgiving with his new[ish] wife), everyone brought their significant other (we're totes growing up.. :)  Laura, Kate, and I brought boyfriends which was probably weirder for our parents than anyone else), we didn't all sleep at Aunt Beth's house (we always did that when we were kids; we would stay up and talk, play cards, and play N64).  
Growing up isn't scary, but what I'm afraid of is growing apart.  I love my family dearly and growing apart from them terrifies me.  I liked that we were still able to get together and spend time together like no time had passed at all.  I'll always cherish this Thanksgiving like I've always cherished all the ones before.


"the sky could be blue, I don't mind; without you it's a waste of time"

no sound but the wind

I'm finally home for the holidays!  It was good to get home and all the normal Thanksgiving preparation is already happening just like every other year.  The holidays are such a comfort to me.  They are one of the few things in life that, at least in my family, never change.  We do the same things every year.  Today, we'll cook all day and just hang out as a family.  Tomorrow, we'll go to my aunt's house and spend all day cooking, eating, watching football, hiking outside, and just spending quality time with one another.  Friday we'll all go our separate ways to go home or go visit other family (my sisters and parents and I will go to Little Rock to see my dad's family ... and me and my boyfriend will go to the LSU game :)) ).  


Anyway, it's Thanksgiving and I'm excited.


"our blood is cold and we're alone, but I'm alone with you"

God is a DJ

Today I took an exit survey for my Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, and it got me thinking. Graduation is in three weeks. In three weeks, I will be an RN. Granted, that is only a temporary license and I still have to take the licensure exam in January. This a huge step in my life. In three weeks, I will be done with formal education if I want to be. I'll be a third generation University of Arkansas graduate. Sometime in the next year and a half, I'll be able to walk around campus and find my name engraved in the sidewalk.

I have learned a lot in the past four and a half years. Much more than just what I was taught in class. I learned about people, love, and living. I had the best college career I could have asked for. I had a carefree freshman year, I was a member of the Razorback Marching Band (nothing like performing in front of 75,000 people every week at an SEC school leading your home crowd in support of the team), I joined Tau Beta Sigma National Honorary Band Sorority (I learned how to work with people in personal and professional relationships, I learned how to branch out and meet new people, I met most of my closest friends), and I found what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have the tools I need to be a responsible, professional, working adult. And I'll have stories to tell my children about ... when they're old enough. :)

I'm both excited and afraid of what the future holds, but I know it's going to be alright.


"life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, you are the music"

teenage dream

One of the most fun things to do ever in the world is to experiment with cooking. Of course you want to make sure you cook stuff properly so you don't end up in the hospital with food poisoning, but you know what I mean. My boyfriend and I have a lot of fun cooking together especially when we're making something new. Tonight we wanted sushi, and so that was the experiment of the day. We got all the stuff (included going all over God's creation to get some tuna filets) to make my favorite: spicy tuna rolls!!! They were totes delish especially with some extra wasabi....spicy foods are my favorite. :) It's always fun to get creative and try something new! I highly recommend it :)

"you and i will be young forever"

one time

I'm writing this blog as I skip class for my mental health. I think the University of Arkansas should adopt the policy of our local Fayetteville Public Schools and take the whole week off for Thanksgiving. That would be totes awesome. :)

I'm extremely excited about Thanksgiving this year (I always am, actually) after talking to my mama just now. We talked about the whens and wheres of travelling and seeing our various family members. Which is my favorite part of the holidays. I guess I just crave social interaction with the people I care about. I don't necessarily crave social interaction outside of that, but being with my family and closest friends is the most important thing in my life.

An interesting change this year in my holiday anticipation is that I am actually enjoying getting ready for Christmas. Here's the deal. I am a Christian and I love celebrating Jesus, but I don't like cheesy Christmas music and decorating and talking about Santa Claus and gifts. I like spending time with my family and going to church. This year, I happened to acquire someone in my life who is teaching me to enjoy the cheesy side of this holiday and really get into the Christmas spirit. And like it. Except taking pictures. I'll probably never like that. Let's just say that my mother and sister appreciate that my boyfriend has been a good influence on me in the "celebrating the holidays for half the year" department.

I'm happy. :)


"your world is my world; my fight is your fight"

everybody (backstreet's back)

I just had to make a quick note about the American Music Awards.  My response:

1)  Can't believe Justin Bieber got Artist of the Year.  I voted for him for Breakthrough Artist, but best of the year?  I don't agree.  I voted for Katy Perry :)  (I would have also been happy with either Eminem or Lady Gaga)
2)  Usher is hot.
3)  I love Train.
4)  I loved the New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys performance at the end.  Takes me back to my middle school days. :))
5)  While checking Twitter afterward, I got to see my childhood favorite 'N Sync (I'll love Justin Timberlake forever) as a trending topic.  I would have LOVED to see them perform.


"everybody rock your body"

back in the USSR

So I stole this off the interwebs.  Of course :)  So what you have to do is go through the whole list and say how many of these books you have read.  Supposedly BBC said the average person has only read six of these.  I'll highlight the ones I read and add them up at the end.  We'll see if I'm average or not.... :) 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible (not all at the same time, but yes) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read quite a bit, but certainly not all) 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky  28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34 Emma - Jane Austen 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (isn't this the same as the Chronicles in number 33?) 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell  42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins  46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.  48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert  53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen  55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.  56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold  65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville  71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome  78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt.  81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery  93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare  99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

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I got 22!  Awesome.  Found some books I haven't read in a while that I really loved (like Sense and Sensibility.  LOVE that book.  yeah, I like Jane Austen.) and have written like the longest post ever.
This week I am really excited to go home for Thanksgiving.  It is truly my favorite holiday.  The best thing about it is getting to see my family and just hang out with them.  Also, I am getting excited about Christmas.  It is traditionally not my favorite holiday because of people taking pictures of me, the cheesiness of Christmas music, and the focus on gifts.  But my boyfriend is super enthusiastic about it and for whatever reason, it makes me excited and happy, too.

"been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it's good to be back home"

tiny dancer

I started a new blog (again).  I started a Xanga last week, but I couldn't do the stuff I wanted to do on it, so here I go again starting a new one.  I'm going to copy and paste a few of my posts from the old site on to here including the first post which is as follows:


Ok, so my darling boyfriend and I were talking (and laughing) about blogging and reminiscing about how we used to blog here on the xanga when we were in junior high and high school.  I think I shut down the site to my old blog and unfortunately couldn't go to look back on it, but just for fun, I decided to start a new one.  Not on blogspot or wordpress or whatever else the "sophisticated" or "grown up" bloggers use (what is that anyway?  blogging is for angsty teens, right?), but I wanted to go back to the beginning and use xanga.  :)

So here are the rules:
1)  All my posts will have song titles as the...well, the title.
2)  You won't see any real teen angst here.  Only sarcastic BS meant to make fun of that genre of blogging.  When I feel angsty, I tell my boyfriend or my sister about it.  Because they're real people.
3)  This blog is for fun.  I'm not here to be serious about anything or consider myself a serious or committed blogger.  :)
4)  I think I'm going to end all my posts with a short line from the song in the title of the post.  If that looks dumb, or too angsty/weird, I'll probably stop doing it.

"pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man"