Spring Break 2011

Sooo...I'm getting worse and worse at this blogging thing.  It's probably because I don't have much to report at the moment.  Life goes on as usual:  school and work.  Both are going ok.  There are moments when I want to rip my hair out and ask myself "Why am I doing this?!"  But in the long run all is well.

I actually got a Spring Break this year!  I went skiing with the youth group from my church at home.  Here are just a few of the pics that I took.

 The crazy group I ski'd with most of the time.

 Winter Park, CO

 Halfway up the mountain

 I don't know this guy... I just thought it was a cool pic to take.

 Me trying to be artistic...

So happy that we made it up half the mountain!

We had a great trip.  I actually ended up driving most of the way there and back.  I end up getting car sick if I'm in the car for awhile and not driving, so I opted to be a big girl and drive!  There were only a few hiccups during the travel: a missed exit here, a wrong turn there, losing the caravan every now and then.  But we made it there and back!  I am also happy to report there were no major injuries acquired on the trip, just lots of sore muscles and sunburn!

And now I am back home in AR for the rest of the break.  It feels good to do absolutely nothing!  I strongly recommend it.

Random update on my "New Year's Resolution":  it's not going too well!  :-P

I'm still working on more water and less soda, I eat out way too much, and I can't commit to a workout routine.  But I'm working on it!  I will tell you that I burned over 1,000 calories each day skiing, so hopefully that will be my boost to keep going!

That's about all I have for now.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Until next time!

Hello 2011...Goodbye Fatty Fat!

I can't believe I'm actually posting this close to my last one.  That hasn't happened in a long time!  AND!  I've been blogging for a year now!  Woo hoo to me!  I started last year in January on a snowy day.  Guess what...it's another snowy day and I'm blogging!  I feel a trend here...

Well, it's 2011!  Happy New Year!  Of course this is the time of year for resolutions.  I'm jumping on the bandwagon and actually making one this year with intentions of sticking to it (a little late, I know, but better late than never).  Mine is the generic weight loss one.  But I like to call it "getting healthy."  I have been so undisciplined and unmotivated for way too long.  It's time to get back into the swing of things!  I'm posting all of this on here in hopes that it will keep me motivated.  So if you see me you can say "Hey, how's that resolution coming?"
So here are a few things that encompass my resolution:

• More water, less soda:  This is gonna be the biggie!  I was averaging around 2 sodas a day, on top of coffee in the morning.  I have no intention of cutting out soda all together or stopping cold turkey, so I'm thinking 1-2 sodas a week is good, kinda like a little something to reward myself with.  I also wanna boost the water intake.  I have a nifty CamelBak thermos (I highly recommend one) and want to drink at least 2 a day.
• Chill out on eating out:  I eat out WAY too much.  It was just so convenient to run through a drive thru at the end of the day and grab something.  Well no more!  I want to start making menus for the week and shopping accordingly.  Hopefully this will put more coin in my pocket!
• Pumpin' some iron:  I'm gonna get back in the habit of working out regularly, at least 3 times as week if not more.  Before I went to Italy I was able to run at least 3 miles with one of my friends...not so much anymore!  I have this nifty little gym in my apartment complex and another friend that also wants to start working out more.  So I have no excuse!
• Portion control:  All last semester I would have about 1 1/2 meals a day.  I don't eat breakfast, except for coffee.  Lunch was sporadic and usually something from a fast food restaurant, and dinner varied.  I'm gonna try to implement the snacking routine, little things here and there on a more routine schedule rather than huge meals late at night.  And I'm gonna watch more carefully my caloric intake and stick to serving sizes.

Well, there's my plan!  If you guys have any other suggestions please let me know!  I'm just tired of looking and feeling like this.  It's time to get in shape!!!  Oh and here's my goal:  30 lbs. by July.  Apparently my family is taking a trip to Florida to visit my uncle, so I gotsta look good for the beach!  So...here it goes!  Wish me luck!

End of the Year Recap

Hello all!  It's been awhile since my last post!  (I'm a terrible blogger...lucky to get one a month)  So I thought I'd just give a little update since the last one.

Thanksgiving came and went like the blink of an eye.  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year.  Good times were had by all.  We all ate way too much and then played a rousing game of Cranium.

The weeks after Thanksgiving break were nearly horrible school-wise.  I was so busy and so stressed!  Having a year off of school work and then having to do it all again was not something to look forward to.  Needless to say, I finished with flying colors.  After completing a research proposal, making an undergraduate curriculum, a final, and two juries, I made all A's!  Woo hoo to me!  Next semester will be more of the same, except I will have more duties in the music therapy clinic.  So good luck to me actually balancing clinic work with school work!

Did anybody else feel like it wasn't really Christmas last week?  I don't know what it was, but I never really got in the mood of Christmas this year.  Usually it just feels like Christmas, with all the music, the church services, the presents, etc.  This year it came and went, and that was it.  We had a good Christmas though.  Here's a pic of the family we took last year for our Christmas cards!

Aren't we cutesies?!  Anyways...mom had to work Christmas eve this year, so the siblings and I headed over to the Johnson house for some fun.  Christmas morning we woke up, opened presents, ate a little breakfast, and got cleaned up to head to Ozark, MO.  This was the year of DVDs for me.  I got The Great Mouse Detective, Fern Gully (it was supposed to be the first one but oops!), Iron Man 2, and all available seasons of The Office.  I will not be leaving a tv for quite some time!  Mom and dad also got me more rhythm instruments and a bag to use for my MT sessions among other random things.  So like I said, after our family Christmas we headed to Ozark to my uncle's house for the big family Christmas dinner.  Here are some pics my aunt took of the fam.

Me and the cousin (Alex)

Laura displaying the new tv

Andy and the other cousin (Drew)

Uncle Robert carving the oh so delicious prime rib

The magnificent feast

Uncle Robert reading Luke 2 to all of us before the meal

The Christmas table

The Christmas table full of people!

And here we all are stuffing our faces

So there ya go!  A little glimpse into my family Christmas.

 

This has definitely been a season of prayer for many reasons!  So many of my friends have either gotten engaged, married, both, or are pregnant.  So many blessings all in a short time.  Each time I pray that God will be the center of the relationship and that the couple will continually love, respect, and support each other.  There have also been many prayers of healing sent up by me.  Both my grandma and grandpa had health issues the end of this year, a girl from my church had a tumor on her brain, and a good friend of mine was in a pretty bad car accident recently.  But God is good and put his healing hand on all of them.  Things could have been much worse in each situation, but He provided the healing needed.  And it was so reasurring to look on facebook and twitter to see all of the prayers being lifted up for various people.  God is Good!!!

I cannot believe it's almost 2011!  Not quite sure what my New Years' Resolutions will be (if I have any).  But when I find out I will probably post it, kinda like a form of commitment for me or something.

Anyways, that's about it for now.  I hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday season!  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Until next time!!

St. Louis/Kirkwood Trip

Well hello again everyone!  Last weekend I went up to St. Louis/Kirkwood to visit my friend Erin (who I hadn't seen in 2 years!) while she was home for a conference.  The first night I was there, we met up with our friend/former roommate Erica to go to Bailey's Chocolate Bar.  If you ever end up in Lafayette Square in St. Louis, I highly recommend this place for a little after dinner adventure!  It's pretty much a dessert bar, with sooooo many yummy desserts and drinks to choose from.  It was sooooo good!

The next day E-Mac and I headed out to Powder Valley.  Our tradition all throughout college was to take pictures of the fall leaves around campus.  Since we weren't on campus, we did the next best thing.  Here are some of the really cool pics we got.

After we got done at Powder Valley we headed off to the zoo.  Best thing about the zoo?  IT'S FREE!  We used her mom's parking pass to park really close and walked right in.  It was a glorious day for a zoo trip.  Most of the animals were out and about, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Here's some of the furry little critters we saw.

By far the cutest guys we saw were the prairie dogs.  They were working on their different burrows and tunnels, so there were a few with huge wads of straw and sticks in their mouths, like this guy.  They were squeakin all over the place at each other!  It was so cute.  I got a little video of them.

After the zoo we stopped at Sonic for Happy Hour, then I headed back to Springfield.  It was a short little trip, but it was a bunch of fun.  Thanks E-Mac!!  :)

I cannot believe it's already the middle of November!  The cold weather has finally hit, the leaves are gorgeous, and Christmas decorations are making their way into everything.  I have 2 short weeks of school and then it's back home for good food, good family, and good fun!  Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy Halloween!

Well hello again!  I just realized it's been over a month since my last post, so I figured I would take a break from homework and studying to say Happy Halloween to everyone!

I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween.  I hate being scared, I CANNOT watch scary movies (I slept on the couch for a week after watching The Sixth Sense), and I haven't dressed up for it in years.  But I do like the candy!  I'm having to hold out on munching down all the candy we have until tonight in case we actually have trick-or-treaters come to our door.

Speaking of dressing up, when I go to my nursing home sessions I get to talk about Halloween with all my ladies.  I ask what they would like to dress up as or what their favorite costume was.   I always get to tell them about the year my mom made my costume, along with my brother's and sister's.  Laura was a princess (of course), Andy was Batman, and I...I was a tube of toothpaste.  Mom made this long white tunic thing, pasted "TOOTHPASTE" down the middle, gave me a cardboard toothbrush, and put a lampshade on my head for the cap.  Priceless.  There's a picture floating around somewhere...probably on our fridge at home.  I think the last time I "dressed up" for Halloween was freshman year of college.  This was a close as it got...

Can you tell which one I am?  Yup...I'm the cool kid in the Great Pumpkin scrub top.  This was in my Music Theory class.  As a fundraiser for music therapy, we went around doing singing telegrams for Halloween.  One of my classmates paid for us to get our teacher Dr. Sharpe (the one in the hideous sweater) to dance the Monster Mash with us.  And of course, I have video!

And of course my video wouldn't upload.  Ohhh...good times indeed.  Maybe I'll try again later.  This year has been much less eventful.  I don't even have a Halloween shirt to wear!  I think I have one orange shirt I can throw on in case I have to answer the door and give out candy.

Here's another fun fact about my Halloween:  this is the second time I'm in an apartment (not on campus) for the holiday.  Last year I was in Jackson.  I bought some candy in case anyone came by, because I knew there were some kids in the complex.  At the end of the night I had two trick-or-treaters...they were in their late teens/early 20s...one was pregnant.  Good times.  This year cannot be more entertaining than that.

I hear a lot of confusion about when people are trick-or-treating this year since Halloween is on Sunday.  Do they take the kids Saturday night or Sunday night?  And what's up with some cities doing it one night and some doing it the next?  Silly kids in school.  Parents, live it up!  Let 'em go out Sunday night!   It'll give all  the teachers a quiet day at school the next day.

Well, that's all I have for now.  Gotta get back to this take-home essay test and study guide.  Until next time!

(PS...that's not my pumpkin masterpiece up top...found it on google.)

Fall is Here!!!

Hello again!  Man, it's been awhile since my last post!  September is nearly over, and this is my first post of the month!  I'm a bad blogger...

In case you haven't noticed, FALL IS OFFICIALLY HERE! I love this time of the year. It's finally getting cool again, the leaves are about to start changing, Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks, and all my favorite candle scents are back! I absolutely love taking pictures of all of the leaves. I got really lucky picking Drury as my school...since it's technically a tree farm, we have some awesome changing of the leaves. Here are some of the pics I've taken over the years.

Stone Chapel

This pic of me was taken by my friend E-Mac.  I kinda love it.

This was the sidewalk outside the house we lived in my Senior year.

The orange and red trees are absolutely my favorite.

Squirrel!  The squirrels at Drury are crazy.

Every year E-Mac and I would walk around campus taking pictures of all the trees.  Unfortunately I will have to do it without her this year since she's in El Paso.  This is quite depressing.

Time for a quick update on my life!  Not much has changed since last month.  I'm in full gear in the Masters program.  It's a little awkward in my classes since it's just me and 2 other students in all of my classes.  But so far so good!  I've had one test so far and got an A on it...my second test is this Tuesday.  I've taught one class as part of a course requirement...I'll teach another one later in October.

Sessions are going well also!  I'm finally seeing all of my clients on a weekly basis...all of them have been scheduled and assessed, so now it's a normal routine for sessions.  I'm supervising a couple of students which is both challenging and entertaining.  I feel all special and adult-like since I get to tell them what to do and what not to do.  Good times!

It seems I may be doing more frequent travels home this month!  I just got back from being home, and it looks like I may go home for the next 4 weekends for various reasons!  Oy!  I don't mind though...it's not a long drive, and I love being home.

Well, I think that's about all I have for now!  Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the beginning of Fall!  Until next time!  :)