Graduation Weekend

So evidently I have been slackin' on this writing blogs business, my apologies. Life has been a little bit of crazy since we last talked in April. Where to start? Well I graduated pharmacy school, moved to a different state, became a certified pharmacist and started working for a great company. I guess I will slowly start my recaps chronologically, so here we go . . .

Graduation Weekend

Back in May I accomplished something that I am pretty sure I thought was impossible at different times during my academic career. It only took me 6 years, two colleges, many miles down the road, countless hours studying, and the best support systems a girl could ask for, but I graduated pharmacy school with my Doctorate of Pharmacy. This is by far one of the greatest accomplishments at this point in my life and I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everybody who helped along the way. I know I may be a little partial, but I really am blessed with the best family/friends/classmates/colleagues! Before I get all sappy, I better start sharing the fun of graduation weekend.

Thursday night before graduation, our class put on a graduation banquet for our class and our family/friends. It was a fun, carefree night with the family. My parents, brother, his girlfriend and my Mom's parents all attended. Now mind you, we got stuck at the back of the banquet, could only hear every fifth word that was said, but we had a ball! Laker Lover's posse (yes posse, because she took up 2 tables at the banquet) were in town for the festivities too and we all had a blast together that night.

Friday morning, bright and early, Laker Lover and I headed downtown to start getting ready for the pre-graduation ceremony obligations (class pictures, etc.). The rest of our crew showed up just in time to save seats and snap a few pictures beforehand. Luckily for me, I had my own personal photographer aka mother to document the weekend. By eleven o'clock the ceremony started and an hour and a half later, we were officially PharmD's!

My favorite part of the outfit was definitely my shoes!

The original study crew minus one!
I couldn't have done it without them!

My two biggest supporters!
I would be lost without all their love support!

My two favorite Kansasians made the trip down!

After graduation festivities were over, we all shifted into party mode. Laker Lover and I rented out a room at the hotel we were all staying at for a graduation party. The party was a complete success if you ask me! We had about 100 family members, long time friends, classmates, and anybody else who wanted to stop by to enjoy the brisket dinner, cake and drinks. Times like these really reinforce my thoughts on how extremely blessed I am! Between Laker Lover and I, we had people there from at least 5 different states supporting us. It was a great weekend celebrating our accomplishment as well as catching up with everybody. It ALMOST made the idea of going back to school for something worth while if I could repeat the graduation weekend. ;)

Whew, that was kind of picture overload....

Happy Weekend Friends!

Birthday Announcement

Today is two of my absolute favorite lady's birthdays, Mother Dearest and G-Ma.  I am lucky to have two of the best people and wonderful role models I know in my life as family. I would not be where or who I am today without these two women. I love you both and hope you have the wonderfully blessed day that y'all deserve. 

Just a friendly reminder folks that you have exactly ONE week until the Spread the Love link-up ends!

Happy Hump Day!

Life Update With Rotations

Well I know my posts are pretty much once a month and I apologize, but for lack of better words . . . Shit got crazy! G-Ma if you are reading this, I am sorry for cussing. Anyways life has been as busy as ever, so I'll try my best not to leave anything out.

1-Packed my car up with everything that was left in my house && I even had room to spare in my passenger seat. Score!

2-Stopped in Las Cruces and spent about 4 days with my G-Ma and Papa for some much needed R&R. We had a lot of fun and of course hit up my 2 favorite spots in Cruces, Andele's and Caliches! Yum!

Also while I was in Cruces we went and put flowers on the graves of all our loved ones that are smiling down on us. Here are my 2 great-grandparent's graves.

3-Next stop was down to Silver City for a few days before my rotation started. I was lucky and got my parents to come down too. While my parents were busy working on the ranch I was getting settled in and spending time with my youngest cousin, Riley! She is a doll!

4-Then finally rotations started. This month I am at Albertson's in Silver City. It has been a great one to start with. My preceptor has had a lot of fun things set up for me including following an internal medicine doctor with his own private practice. It was so nice to see how the other side of the prescription pad operates and I was able to answer any questions his patients had about medications. Needless to say I am 2 weeks into my rotation, have driven over 1,000 miles and having a blast. This is a little different type of summer time fun, but I am still loving it!

5-Oh and this is just a few of the gems that I found in Neno's stash of pictures. Look how cute Brother of Mine and I were back in the day. P.S. Look at that dress I am wearing too. Ha I am glad those days are over! :)

6-Finally just a few of my favorite pictures I have stumbled upon over the past few weeks. Enjoy.

7-This past Saturday, my lovely parents celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary! They are such a good example of a strong marriage and true love. Love you both! (Parents if you are reading this: Yes this is the last shout out I will be giving you guys since I have exhausted all my options, so don't worry.)

8-I ended up taking my handy 'ol otter box on my most recent trip home from Cruces and I am finally getting to use this cute phone cover I bought in March. Happiness is . . .

9-Since my next rotation is back in ABQ I thought I would start pumping myself up with a little e-card humor and changing my FB picture to the city lights!

10-I just had to this one because not only do I make lists for everything (as if the numbered topics didn't give it off already), but I am also OCD and wanted them to end a multiple of 5 (my favorite number). Weird I know, but hey that's me! I hope yall's summer is going just as great. Until next time my loves!

Pinning Ceremony

April 25, 2013 was a big step in my pharmacy career. Myself, as well as my fellow third year students, had our pinning ceremony signifying the completion of our didactic portion of our career. What a relief it was.

The ceremony was very simple and nice. The dean and two other speakers gave their little spiel then each student was presented with UNM College of pharmacy pin. Each student was allowed to invite all their friends and family and we had well over 400 people in attendance. Here are a few of my favorite snaps from the night to demonstrate the ceremony better than I could describe.

My main crew in the upper left corner.
My lovely parents in the upper right corner.
My sweet grandparents in the lower left corner.
All of us reciting the oath of a pharmacist in the bottom right corner.

The Dean presenting me with my pin.
Dr. Ray pinning me.
The lovely cake my mother brought 225 miles from home!

A few of my favorites!

Miss Artesia, Laker Lover, and myself!
The top picture is from our white coat ceremony before our first year.
The bottom is the trio from our pinning ceremony.

Now off to the next step, rotations!

I am behind...

Yes yes I know, world's worst soldier's angel right here! I was supposed to get this package off at the beginning of my spring break and I mailed it yesterday! (Insert disappointed face and finger shaking!!) As you can tell this package was March themed! St. Patty's Day decorations, carmel apple candy, flavored tootsie rolls, ranch sunflower seeds (one of my favs), crackers, more candy (Do you see a pattern here?), and some toiletry items.

I actually got really lucky that my G-Ma is so on top of things, because she saved my butt this week! I only had about half of those items already bought for the month and she had contributed the rest. Thanks G-Ma, you're my saving grace!!

All the goodies laid out!

&& them all packaged up with some decorations on top,
which will probably be the bottom by the time he gets it. Lol

Hope y'all are more on top of things this week than me!

Hope it's not my old age sinking in already?? :)