Week #23

I hope everyone had a good week and will enjoy week #23 of my Pic-A-Day challenge!!!


Day 155: Today we celebrated my mom, aunt, and cousin Zach's birthdays! My family got together and ate some cheese fondue, pizza, and ice cream cake. My little cousin Asyra made this picture for my mom using some glue and leftover confetti from her mom's baby shower! Isn't it cute?!

Day 156: I started reading Breaking Dawn for the second time today. I had borrowed the book when I read it the first time, but when I got it as a present for Christmas, I decided it was time to read it again! I'm almost finished with it now.

Day 157: I have been obsessively going through the new WV Weddings magazine since it came out! Love it!

Day 158: I had gone over to Phil's house the day before cause I felt like just being a normal couple and getting to see him whenever I wanted. It's hard just being able to see eachother on the weekends! Anyways, I left from his house this morning when he left for work and it's a good thing I did cause shortly after, it started pouring the snow!

Day 159: Mom and I went here to Nandel's so I could try on some more wedding dresses. The people and the dresses were nice but it just didn't compare to THE dress that I'm going to go purchase today!

Day 160: Dad cut his fingers on a countertop he was moving so bad that he needed 19 stitches! His hand looks like Frankenstein's!

Day 161: I was at Phil's house again this weekend and we went to go eat at the Buffalo Diner. This is who we want to cater for our wedding! The food is sooo good! I got the stuffed chicken, pasta with garlic sauce, green beans, and garlic cheese bread! Mmmmm...

This coming week is looking fairly busy for me, so hopefully I'll have an easy time getting some pics to share with you all for next week!

Christmas Prep Work!

It's hard to believe how much work goes into preparing for Christmas! I thought this would give me a chance to show you all the baking, wrapping, and decorating that has been going on at my house!

Christmas Candy and wrapped presents!

Phil's grandma's Christmas tree shown with all kinds of presents!

My family Christmas tree in our dining room

White and Red Poinsettias

Our Christmas Mantle

The decorated table next to our front door

The Christmas tree in our kitchen, along with some stairwell stockings!

Mine and Phil's little Christmas tree down at my place

Some ornaments on the tree includes the ice cream cone that I stole from my family tree this year!

The newest additions to the little tree are these 2 Incredible Hulk ornaments Phil found!

The old Santa of my grandparents that plays music, walks around, and shakes his bell!

My huge candy cane and stocking!

You can see last year's decorating along with some more of my favorite ornaments in last year's Christmas post!

Week #8

Welcome to Week 8 of my Pic-A-Day Challenge!

Day 50: I went to a pumpkin patch with Phil and his family! I don't know how I have not heard in the last 5 years that we've been together that there was a patch 5 minutes from where Phil lives. I got a lovely green pumpkin that now, a week later, is orange. Oh well!

Day 51: Columbus Day was a lovely fall day! This is a pic taken while I was driving Phil to get his rental car.

Day 52: These are my new feather earrings (Adam!) I got at the Pumpkin Festival the weekend before and my new favorite shirt of the season. Today I went driving around with my friend Lee and we ate lunch in the park!

Day 53: I also got these concord grapes at a market the past weekend and they are so yummy!

Day 54: This is most likely the location of my wedding ceremony! Right there on that patch of grass in front of the pond.

Day 55: Phil took me out to eat to an italian restaurant we have never been to for our anniversary. This was a couple days after our dating anniversary, but it was on the day that marked exactly a year before we are getting married! This picture was in the bathroom of the restaurant and I found it an odd place to be (plus an odd place for me to take a pic!).

Day 56: We treated ourselves to some Maggie Moo's this fine Saturday! I got the kiddie-sized cotton candy that turned my lips and teeth blue, but it was pretty tastey!

Have a great week everybody! And don't forget to carve your pumpkins!

I Got Tagged!

My friend Miranda over at Hangin' Loose With The Tucci's tagged me with her little question/answer thingy! Here they are:

1. What is your daily routine like? What time to you get up, go to bed, dinner routine, etc.

• You all probably don't wanna see this, but during the week I usually get out of bed around noon. I was going to lie and say around 11am, which is sometimes true I guess, but more than likely it is noon. I love my sleep and I don't usually have anything to do early anyway. I am a night creature and looooove staying up late and go to bed around 2am. Obviously this will chance once I have a job! During the day I am usually looking for a job, planning my wedding, going to the Y, and/or hanging out with my mom. On the weekends, I am with Phil since we don't get to see eachother during the week very often. And believe it or not, it is the weekends that I get up fairly early (for me anyway) cause Phil and I like to go go go!

2. What are things you do with your family for fun. And for those of you with children, what fun things to you like to do with your kids?

• I love to travel with my family. My fondest memories are ones that involve the beach, skiing, or going on any trip! Family birthdays always turn out to be interesting too... my Aunt Marcia has seriously used the same wrapping paper for presents my entire life and most likely longer! Thanks old Lazarus!

3. What are your FAVORITE holiday traditions?

• My favorite holiday traditions are: carving pumpkins with Phil, going to haunted trails/houses/hayrides/places for Halloween with friends, decorating the Christmas tree, waiting (or trying to wait) until midnight on Christmas Eve to open a couple presents with my mom, dad, and Uncle Abbie, eating and filling up the living room with wrapping paper with my entire family on Christmas Day, and dying/hiding/hunting Easter eggs.

4. What do you do when you want to relax and have some "me time" ?

• I usually get online (here), watch some TiVo, or read a book.

5. What is one of your favorite books you've read so far?

• This is sort of a hard question. My answer I always have given before has been "Every Living Thing" by James Herriot as my all time favorite and I'm pretty sure that still stands true. His books could be counted as a series but I like that one as it stands on its own. My favorite series would have to be the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. I could also say my favorite mystery book is "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie.

6. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

• Ice cream. That was an easy one :-)
  

Now I have to come up with my questions for 6 lucky readers:

1. What is your favorite book(s) of all time? <- I liked this question courtesy of Miranda :-)

2. Do you have any pets? If so, tell me a little about them! If not, is there a pet that you would like to have?

3. What is your favorite color and why? <- kinda lame but I'm curious!

4. If you are not blogging, what is your favorite website you like to visit?

5. What is your favorite vacation destination or one you'd like to go to?

6. Do you have any wedding planning tips for me??? <- anyone can comment on this one!

The 6 lucky readers I am tagging are:

Kelsey Claire @ Lavender, Leopard, and Lace

Jennifer Fabulous @ I know, right?

Hutch @ Be Awesome Instead

Sarah @ Princess & the Blog

JMJE @ Making Stuff is Fun.....

Not Quite Awake @ Reality Faker

Do this only if you want, and anyone else who wants to do it, please do!

Week #7

This is my week #7 of my Pic-A-Day Challenge! Hope you enjoy!

Day 43: Phil and I had carved 3 pumpkins the night before, so I decided I need to toast those seeds! There was a lot of them but still not enough! I love pumpkin seeds!

Day 44: This Monday was the day that I got to work half-a-day! Easy money for only 2 patients, and both of those patients were kids, so doubly easy! It felt so good to get back into the swing of things, too bad I can't do it more often. This is a pic of my instruments in their cases by the way!

Day 45: Mom and I went to go pick out my parent's pumpkin and I saw these pretty flowers while doing so.

Day 46: I had got a small pumpkin that I wanted to paint black, cut holes all around it, and put some pretty black glitter on! It turned out pretty good, but I have yet to find one of those pumpkin lights that are battery operated that is not strobe! I can't find them anywhere.

Day 47: Thursday was the first day of the Pumpkin Festival in Milton, WV. Mom and I used to go there every year when I was little but it had been awhile since we had gone. Every time we went I got a beaded pumpkin ring. This year I got pumpkin ice cream! YUMMY!

Day 48: This Friday started off good enough. I was at Phil's house and we decided to go down to the gas station about a mile from his house when a deer decided he/she wanted to hit us. Phil's car did not enjoy that at all. So that was the rest of our evening :-( Poor car, but we were fine cause we were only going like 35mph.

Day 49: Saturday I went to the Pumpkin Festival again with Phil and his mom. There were a lot more vendors there this day, but there was also a lot more people and it was much hotter. It took us around an hour just to get into the park and then we only stayed there an hour. This is the covered bridge in front of Pumpkin Park.

I hope everyone enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather of this past week and that you didn't have a run-in with an animal like Phil's car did!

Week #4

To see previous Pic-a-Day posts you can go here.

Day 22: Sadly, this was the season 3 finale of True Blood. Now I have to wait all the way until next summer to see it again! I've been thinking that I will now have a True Blood marathon since I own seasons 1 & 2 and have 3 on my TiVo. Did I tell you this already? Cause I think I may be repeating myself, but oh well... I love True Blood!

Day 23: These are some pretty flowers mom and I got the previous week that were still really pretty! They felt really fall-ish to me!

Day 24: Apparently, Kroger thinks it is National Ice Cream Month. So to verify it, I looked it up and Ronald Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month in 1984 and National Ice Cream Day is the Third Sunday of July. Kroger, I enjoy your eagerness to have ice cream recognized every month because I am ice cream's biggest fan! I declare it National Ice Cream Year every year!!!

Day 25: So as you can probably tell, I did forget to take a picture this day. But I can tell you mom and I went to go see the movie "Eat Pray Love". It was pretty good, but it didn't inspire me enough to wanna go out and buy the book to read.

Day 26: Yay! Pumpkins are out at the Kroger, along with their friends the mums and cornstalks!

Day 27: This is the third time I went to Kroger this week! This is what Phil and I found in the international aisle... yes, it says "Spotted Dick" and apparently it is a pudding... ew.

Day 28: Chilifest! I tried so many chilis and each was really good and it was for a good cause - The Ronald McDonald House! Phil got some chili too and this one guy asked if he wanted extra hot sauce in his and of course Phil said yes. So this guy proceeds to put a heaping teaspoon of this black sauce on his chili and Phil stirs it in! Phil took 2 bites, threw it away, bought and chugged a bottle of water until I told him to eat some crackers. I've never seen him not like something spicy so much!

So yeah, I went to Kroger 3 times this week... and I really did cause the first time mom and I went, then I went to pick up some stuff mom and I forgot to get, then Phil and I went cause we wanted to make quesadillas for dinner but didn't have some stuff I needed for a recipe I found online. I think it is my official record, but that could be broken! Hope everyone had a great week and I'll try to remember next week to take a pic every day!!!

I Scream! You Scream!

Ice cream is by far my favorite dessert! I found this little gem on Yahoo! News (pretty much my only source of new) titled "5 bizarre ice cream flavors that sound crazy delicious". The 5 ice cream flavors include:

1. Bacon Ice Cream
2. Brown Bread
3. Rosewater
4. Black Truffle
5. Strawberry Basil

I don't know about you, but give me mint chocolate chip any day and I'm a happy girl! The craziest I've gotten with an ice cream flavor is the occasional Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Dazs. I would be willing to try these flavors out though cause I am an ice cream lover!

Do you like ice cream?

Would you like or try any of these flavors?

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?

My Story (of the past couple years) Condensed - Part 1

I am a born-again student when it comes to going to college. I first attended Marshall University in August of 2000 and graduated in December of 2004 with a degree in biology. I had all intentions of going to vet school, but [fortunately] the vet school gods did not accept me 2 years in a row. During that time, I worked for the local Animal ER which deterred me from trying the third time. I am glad I found out I didn’t want to do something before I had to pay for it. My only problem was figuring out what I did want to do since I had wanted to be a veterinarian since kindergarten and didn‘t have a back-up plan.

I knew I liked working with my hands. I knew I didn’t want to be the person in-charge. I knew I would like to work by myself, but also be able to help people. And I knew I did not want to work in a hospital. I had to think of things that interested me, preferably something in the medical-related field. I kept having the thought of going to see my Papa in Wayne after getting my teeth cleaned and him whistling and saying “I can’t see those teeth are so bright!”. Then I thought of how I would always trick my mom after coming home from a dentist’s appointment (something I still do to this day!) by telling her I had a cavity, which in reality I’ve never had one, but she still had the same astonished reaction every time. I always loved going to the dentist most likely for these reasons. This led me to going to dental hygiene school.

It was all a whirlwind after that decision. I remember deciding whether I wanted to go into an associate’s program for 2 years or get another baccalaureate’s degree and go for only 3 years. I still can’t remember what made me stay in West Virginia, probably in-state tuition and the fact I love WV, but I applied to WVU pretty much right at the deadline. I also remember having to do some extra stuff cause I turned in all my paperwork so late. I got excepted as an outstanding sophomore in the fall of 2007.

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TODAY: Had my last final of the semester! Missed 22 out of 150 and still got a 96%. Please tell me how that happens, but I'm really not complaining! I went to Black Bear to eat with Rachel and Kristen for lunch. I have to study for boards tonight. I really want ice cream badly. And tell me how my nail polish always chips a couple hours after I paint my nails?