Excitement is . . .

As of 11:30 tonight, I will officially be in New Mexico!! I am so excited to be back home for Thanksgiving, I can't control myself. I think my emotions can only be described as a combination of: 

Enjoy your holiday with your loved ones, I know I will be counting my blessings.

What I Have Missed

After graduation I spent a week with my family in southern NM before we loaded up all my junk and headed for northern territory. At the beginning of June, my parents and I moved me up to Kansas. I now live in a smallish town in the middle of Kansas. I have enjoyed the town so far, but there are a few things I miss about home:

1. CHILE -- Green or red at this point, I don't really care. I miss being able to smell the chile roasting in the fall. I miss being able to drive around any town in the state and still find good mexican food. I mean the salsa up here tastes like tomato paste. Come on man, show me the CHILE!

2. State Fair -- I have been spoiled the past 4 years living in ABQ. (A sentence I NEVER expected myself to say about living in ABQ). The state fair claim several of my favorite childhood memories and are always such a fun time surround my friends and animals. Walking in the barns to the smell of final bloom, hearing the fans roaring in background, and the fact that it takes an hour to walk down each aisle because you are continually running into somebody you know, always brings a smile to my face. This year my mother was the official livestock photographer for the fair. Ya I know, she is big stuff! I wish I could have been able to visit the fair for all the great memories, but also to watch her on her new adventure with the fair.

3. Balloon Fiesta -- I think I was feeling a little homesick in October and the fact that all my friends in ABQ were posting pictures of the Balloon Fiesta, it just made things worse. Y'all have heard about my trips to the fiesta, but I also miss the fact that the entire month of October you can almost always find a hot air balloon in the sky. Oh and they have Tom Thumb Donuts there too. My fellow AG friends remember the deliciousness of Tom Thumb from the early years of the State Fair.

4. People -- Yes, I know Kansas has people too, but they aren't my people. I guess I have just been extremely spoiled having all my family and friends just a short car drive away. Moving to a town that you don't know anybody is an adventure all in itself and I am usually a person that enjoys plenty of alone time, but dang I just miss my NM peeps sometimes.

5. Sunsets -- I have always said that NM has some of the prettiest sunsets around, but it is true. Occasionally we get "pretty" sunsets, but they don't even begin to compare to NM sunsets. Ahhh I guess that's one more thing to add to the list of things I will enjoy on my trips back home.

There are a few other things, but you get the general gist . . . There is no place like home and New Mexico will always be home!

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!

Patience My Friend

Yes, yes I am alive, you can call off the search parties. I have taken a little sabbatical from the blogging world, but I am going to start back up soon. Partly because I have lots of things to share and second because I have officially been called out on social media about my lack of blogging.... 

The only rebuttal I have to that is:

1. I have been extremely busy the past few/7 months. You will get the recap once I get back to blogging, so I won't spoil the fun now.

2. I have still been reading everybody's blog, so that is part of this blogging stuff right?? I think it partly counts.

3. This is for the person that called me out *cough*Mrs. Football*cough* (Did you see how I changed that to Mrs. Football now?? How exciting! A blog about that weekend to come soon too.)

Stay tuned friends,

For What It's Worth

Books: Lone Survivor

One thing I have enjoyed about rotations, is the "free" time I have. It is not necessarily free time, but I am not spending all my time studying, so actually want to read and have time to do so. While I have been on rotation I have been able to tackle a few books. The first one I read has probably one of my favorites books to date.

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
This one I absolutely love, love, loved! After I adopted a soldier last year, I decided that once a year, I want to read some type of book with military influence. I am sure y'all are all aware of this book by now, if anything you have heard about the movie. I highly suggest reading this one even if you saw the movie. As with most books that are turned into movies, the book is a million times better! The book goes into detail about Marcus's life prior to joining the Navy SEALs, his time during his service, and after he returned home. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

I will never quit. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down i will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my enemies and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.

Fear is a force that sharpens your senses. Being afraid is a state of paralysis in which you can't do anything.

Because above all, we’re patriots. We will willingly carry the fight to whoever may be the enemies of the United States of America. We’re your front line, unafraid and ready to go in against al Qaeda, jihadists, terrorists, or whoever the hell else threatens this nation.

Hope you have a wonderful week loves!

Confessional Friday

Linking up with Leslie today for . . . Confessional Friday!

I confess that since I have been done with school with rotations for a week, I have slept in past 9 almost every morning.

I confess that even though I took this month off for studying, I have yet to start studying.

I confess that even though I attended the Kyle Park concert Wednesday in Manhattan, I might go to watch him again tonight with Josh Abbot Band in Lawrence.

I confess that I have thoroughly enjoyed lounging around all week in workout clothes and a messy pony tail even though I haven't been working out.

I confess that I would much rather read my Karen Kingsbury book than my Rx Prep book.

I confess that I am overly anxious for these next few weeks to come and go.

Have a great weekend loves!

Check it out!

During these past few months, I have stumbled on a few interesting articles. If y'all have some extra time today, check them out!

A picture thats worth a thousand words.
For those of y'all who love photos as much as I do, this article is a must see. Sometimes when our words fail us, we can refer to that visual documentation to spark a million memories. These are some pretty inspiring/humbling/remarkable photos.

I've got the travel bug.
With my last few days of college are coming to an end, I have the travel bug now more than ever. Then I found this article about some of the most beautiful hotels you need to check out before you die. These hotels have some of the most breath taking views! I would love, love, love the opportunity to stay in each one of these, but I would certainly be ok with only seeing a handful of these amazing places.

& the bug just got worse.
Then to make my travel bug even worse, this article is a list of 11 people who left behind their normal their normal lives to go on a grand adventure. Easy girl, don't get any crazy ideas. . . yet.

Quotes: Month 3

We have another month down in the books! This month was very eventful one for me and I am happy to see it in the rearview mirror. Here are a few of my favorites from this month.

Week 10: We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. --Ronald Reagan

Week 11: If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. --Albert Einstein

Week 12: I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. --Fredrich Nietzsche

Week 13: You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breath, trust, let go, and see what happens. --Mandy Hale

Happy Monday y'all :)

I can't believe it is here!

Well I can't believe it is finally here, my last day of rotation. It feels unreal to think about, I have completed 6 years of college, spent numerous hours studying, and met some of the best people. I have been fortunate enough to travel to 3 different states to practice pharmacy, as well as all over the state of New Mexico. Since rotations started on June 3rd, I have traveled thousands of miles, visited a new country and been fortunate enough to spend the year with my family and friends.

Thankfully I limited my "necessities" that I took to every rotation by the end.

I had a ball with my little cousin during my Silver City rotations.

One of my last weekends "living" in ABQ I went out with some of my favorites!

This year, I started to learn to love to run.

I was there when Carson Ross was born. 

One of my favorites!

A few of my favorites from my month in Washington!
I think I left part of my heart up there.

I was able to help celebrate Kaydence Lynn's first birthday!

Attended the AFC Championship game!

A smirk because I am almost seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 This year has no doubt been one of the craziest and best years of my life. I am so fortunate that I have been able to have this experience and I want to thank each and everyone of y'all for your love and support along the way.

We are officially 49 days from graduation, FORTY-NINE DAYS!

You don't always need a plan!

Happy Monday sweet ones!