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!

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!

Update Time

Well as you guessed it, life has not slowed down since we last talked. Lets just say I am very thankful to finally be on my vacation month! Whoohoo ;) So as for the update on all my craziness, here we go!

My last rotation was in Lubbock, Texas living with with Mrs. Lubbock and Kaydence Lynn. To make my stay that much better, High School BFF had her precious little boy the first Tuesday I was there! Both little ones are absolutely precious and have their Auntie Lauren wrapped around their tiny little fingers! I sure am lucky that my friends have the most precious kids to keep me busy until I have my own.

So as for the rotation, it was GREAT! I was with Walgreens doing Medication Therapy Management as well as some pharmacy management and other stuff y'all probably do not care about the details, but I had a blast! My preceptor aka boss was great, which no doubt my rotation that much better. It was definitely the best rotation that I have had so far, which led into my vacation month perfectly.

Vacation. . . ahhh can we just sit and think about that for a minute. No homework, tests, studying, working, or dealing with mean customers for an ENTIRE month? No stinkin' way! Well I wish it was that easy, but y'all know I am not the sit back and drink coffee all day kind of girl. So lets just break it down for you . . . (take a deep breath)

I spent one last weekend in Lubbock with my loves and their little ones. On Tuesday I drove to Kansas to Surprise Brother of Mine for a few days (which I have had a ball BTW). Tomorrow I will drive down to Roswell, NM to help Daddy O out at the Eastern New Mexico State Fair. Next Wednesday I am meeting Laker Lover in Artesia to get our hair did (of course), then sometime towards the end of the week I will be headed back to my parents house to re-pack my car before I leave for Washington. On October 8th (the following Tuesday) I am going to ABQ for a few days to see some friends and hopefully work a little. Then the BEST part of the vacation happens after we hit up the Balloon Fiesta, on Ocotober 11th Mother Dearest & I will be loaded down on a week long road trip to Washington for my next rotation!! Whewww, did you get all that?

I can not tell you how excited I am for October the 11th. Knowing that I am a planner, I already have the trip planned out "slightly" but would be willing to take suggestions to cool places to hit up. So far on the itinerary we have: Las Vegas (to see Baylor Babe), Pfieffer Beach (at the suggestion of Future Famous Guy), San Francisco (I am sure Miss Football has a few suggestions here for me?), Napa Valley, National Redwood Forrest, Portland, Seattle's main tourist attractions and the suspension bridge in Vancouver. What places to we need to hit up along the way or in those spots?

I hope y'all are all doing great! Until next time lovelies!

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!

The Beginning of the End

Have you ever had that one moment in time when something completely insignificant happens, but it completely changes everything? Well this seems to be happening a lot lately. Most recently we got our rotation schedule for our fourth year of pharmacy school, and I swear it snuck up on me. I know it is one of the moments that I have been waiting for since I started pharmacy school, but when Wednesday came last week and we got our schedules it finally sunk in how fast the past few years have passed.

Of course after it sank in that I only have 6 weeks of classes left and I will be starting my fourth, FOURTH year of pharmacy school in about two months, I was so relieved. Granted, my fourth year won't be a walk in the park, but it will be a nice change of scenery. No more long days spent at the library and late nights spent at Village Inn. No more weekend plans canceled because "we have a test on Monday" or beautiful days spent indoors wishing I was outside not studying.

It also means, no more living with Laker Lover (who I have pretty much lived with for the past 4 years). No more movie marathon days, or late night hair dying extravaganzas. No more seeing my friends almost every day, or ability to use the excuse of "I am still in collge, I don't have a future plan yet."

In two months, I will start transferring out of one chapter of my life and starting a new one. Granted, I am not officially done with school, but for the most part I will be working in a pharmacy five days a week and starting more of a "regular" schedule. I will be able to get my life back into a routine and schedule again. (My type A personality is loving this part!) I will be phasing out of my college days and beginning to start my grown up days.

That means the future is just around the corner. The day I have been looking forward to since I started college, graduation, is less than 14 months away. So between now and then, I have my work cut out for me. I have some serious decisions ahead of me: Where do I want to live? What type of pharmacy do I want to practice? How many states do I need to apply for licenses in? Not to mention all the smaller things I need to do between now and then. As nerve racking as some of this may be, I can't help but be excited! The only thing I have to say to that is, bring it on!

Tuesday Fun

As y'all all know, last week another year bit the dust! Of course my friends were kind enough to celebrate this joyous occasion with me. How else better to celebrate this occasion than a steak and a night full of dancing. I was blessed to have so many wonderful friends come out and celebrate it with me. Here are a few snap shots of our night of fun :)

My Little B

My Little B and Miss Artesia

Laker Lover and her Dad

As Miss Football calls it, "Our People"

Oh and just a little teaser, I have some EXCITING news I am dropping on you guys tomorrow, so get ready!

Happy Tuesday lovelies!!