Go Tech!

This week has been a good one. Busy busy with all the wonderful things of the season. Brian and I have a few events that we've been participating in, and oh ... of course there's football!!

Last weekend we went to a 90th birthday party. It was a blast. We had a great time, and Brian and his family were able to see many old friends. I just enjoyed the company and getting dressed up! :)

Brian and I all spiffed up! :)

Then, we got the week in full swing. I was very excited because I got to see Emily and Marcus's precious little gift, Lawrence Gray Wooley. I was in such a hurry to get dinner to them before going to our church group that I completely forgot to grab the camera. But, he's a precious little boy, and I sure could just sit and hold him for hours! I patted that little bottom right to sleep while I was holding him. So precious! I really am so excited for them ... God's given them a sweet gift! In the midst of cooking a delicious low-fat King Ranch Chicken in the crockpot (an altered Southern Living recipe) and baking pies and chopping salads ... I decided to bake some homemade soft pretzels for Brian. He's been very persistent in reminding me that it's been forever since I made the last batch. They were smaller this time, and looked a little funny, but they were SOO good! Maybe next time I won't wait so long before I make them again!

Yummy soft pretzels ... so warm ... right out of the oven ... smells delicious!!



The recipe came from the cookbook "Baking Illustrated." Great for any level of baker. If you're new, it'll give you step-by-step detail of how to bake some of the seemingly hardest recipes. It'll also show you many pictures of the process! I strongly suggest it! :)

 The rest of the week went along relatively smoothly, except for the fact that all my Nurse Practitioner school plans got jumbled into a mess by TTU's school of nursing. I'm so thankful for God opening new doors, though. Subtracting all the details of the process, I'm excited to say that I have applied to Angelo State University, and I may be completing the last bit of schooling through their FNP program. Anxious to see what happens!

We took a load off over the weekend, and enjoyed a change of pace with Tech football. Go Red Raiders ... way to beat Mizzou on prime time television. It's awesome to see what happens when you show up to play football! :)

Well ... off to study and prepare for a busy week. I'm getting real excited about Fall and Christmas ... I had a momentary thought of wanting to decorate for Christmas next weekend. Then, I realized I was stealing some of the thunder from Fall and Thanksgiving! That is just unacceptable ... so ... I've been checking out Thrifty Decor Chick for some fabulous fall ideas. This is one of my new favorite design idea blogs. Check it out!

Have a wonderfully, blessed week!

A great week

This week turned out to be an awesome one with a few great things happening. I began the week by giving my presentation, and thankfully I did great and passed with flying colors. Now ... just have to finish the semester! It's exciting getting closer to being done with my Masters, but that just means I'm closer to starting NP school which definitely makes me nervous! I am also studying for my critical care certification exam. So ... many prayers for focused studying and a successful exam!

Brian surprised me at work this week with flowers. It was awesome and made me feel so special and loved. I just could never have asked for or imagined a better husband!

Brian and I had a blast last night ... we got to go see the Eagles in concert! It was so awesome. Definitely the best concert I've been to, yet. They sounded amazing ... the music was awesome, and their voices were just as great as ever. We laughed because at the beginning Don Henley said, "Welcome to the Assisted Living Tour!" Fun times!  Brian and I were talking about the fact that it's amazing that a band that made it's big debut when our parents were around our age is still going so strong. What's sad is that when our kids are our age, the likelihood of another great band still being around is slim. Music just isn't the same anymore! Anyway ... here's a couple shots from last night. It was awesome!

Me and my sweet hubby :)

Hotel California

Don Henley

Tonight we have a fun 90th birthday to go to with cocktail attire. Excited to get all dressed up! Pictures to come :)

God bless!

The Weekend

This past weekend, Brian was away doing a "Bug-out" Competition. I missed him but managed to keep myself busy!

Saturday we celebrated that the Heart Walk is over!! Yay!! Our team did a great job at fundraising, earning nearly $10,000. We had a small group from our team of 50 show up to the walk. It was a good time and a great celebration of a job well done. It's good to know that the money raised will go directly toward fighting heart disease locally. Most of the funds will stay at Texas Tech to do research. It's fantastic!



My heart walk team!



Katrina and Me ... she's my Lubbock blogging buddy. We've become minorly obsessed with this together!

I also got to enjoy getting a pedicure with my sweet girlfriends from church. We have so much fun together and they've definitely blessed my life! We went to for our last girl's outting before sweet Emily has her little baby. She's due to deliver on Thursday. So ... lots of prayers! We're very excited to welcome baby Grey into this world. He will be blessed with very sweet and loving parents!!

Taryn, Emily, Laura, and I from her baby shower

     Today, I'm off to give my final practicum lecture for my masters program. I'm in my final practicum of education this semester, and I'm getting excited that I will be officially done with my masters program in December. I'm nervous, though about teaching today over a topic that I'm not very comfortable with. So ... hopefully it'll go well, and I'll get a good grade (since it is 50% of the semester grade!)

God bless everyone!

You've gotta get it!

I'm really not planning to do this blogging business more than once a day (or daily at that!). But, I've gotta tell someone about the my new, most favorite, fragrance!

One thing you'll have to know about me, when I find something I love, I just can't resist the urge to tell everybody and their dog about how much I love it and how much they need to love it, too! Good thing I have this blog to help me with that! :)

Katrina (a friend from work) told me that I needed to smell the Bombshell fragrance from Victoria's Secret. I was out of my perfume, so I did. It is awesome! I wasted no time in buying some. So ... you should check it out!

I bought the body mist, but they also have perfume and lotion, etc. I think the body mist is just as good as the perfume, and it's cheaper!

Also, I know not everyone is a split pea soup lover, but I tried a recipe from Gina's WW Blog. It's delicious! It has made my house smell very fall-like. This blog is great for getting healthy recipes. I definitely recommend the recipes ... I haven't found a bad one yet!

Gina's: Split Pea Soup with Ham Hocks

Have a great night!

Venturing Into the Blogging World ...

Blogging seems to be the new fun way to keep up with the happenings of everyone's lives. I've really enjoyed reading several of my friends, and I have been encouraged to start one myself. Not so much because my life's so interesting ;) ... but rather because I like to do interesting crafty things and bake and cook. I think it'd be fun to share those things with my sweet friends and family.

Most of my friends have sweet little babies to show on their blogs, but that time hasn't quite come. So, for now ... it's me and Brian and the fun adventures we find ourselves in.

I have been very busy between work and school lately. I decided to increase my hours at the hospital to work an extra shift each pay period ... the extra money is nice! But, in addition to that, I'm juggling my homework and clinicals and the volunteer opportunities I seem to find myself in.

My two most recent projects:

* The American Heart Association: I accepted the offer to be our team's captain for the CICU. That was a big feat, but this weekend, I will celebrate that it is done! We raised $9,570. I am quite impressed with that, and think I have an awesome team!

* I made some more of my wine bottle lamps. You might ask ... what's a wine bottle lamp? well here you go:

Here's a group of them. They are wine bottles with Christmas lights and marbles inside with a pretty bow on top.

So, I sell these bottles to Classy Country in our mall ... a great little boutique! I recently had to fill an order of 50 bottles! Good thing my friends like to drink wine. So ... I went to town making bottles, and enjoyed the opportunity to be crafty. If you're in Lubbock or Odessa, you'll be able to find these inthe Classy Country booth at the Holiday Happenings put on by the Junior League.

I'm off to study. So, hello blogging world ... I think I'm going to like you!