It's Been a Long Time Coming

I can't wait.
Next week I have a whole week free from rotations, work, drugs.
It will be my first full week off since last year August.
Sad- I know.
Awe... sweet life!
I have a million things floating around in my head that I want to accomplish, including writing a few more blogs.

I feel as though my cup of tea keeps overflowing without time to clean it up.
My week off is a time to catch up, accomplish, and reflect.
If only I had more than one week.

So, please stay tuned...plans are in the making.

Speaking of reflecting, this is my last full week in St. Louis. Ever. No more 4 hour drives home. No more 4 hours drives back. No more beautiful arch peaking through the skyline. No more hour walks with Lynn in the evening. No more calling Emily at 6pm when she gets of work while I am on the road to pass the time. No more nights at the girls house with Liz and Andrea trying to control what is on the tube. No more trying new places that Ashton loves to eat at. No more rides with Kelsey reflecting over career choices and men. I will miss my friends. I will not miss the drive.

In case you read this and realized that my blog has become boring, uneventful, and all out drab, I highly recommend you head here. Be warned...Rebecca June's blog is addicting!

Soothing Isn't It?

Eye Candy

I love flats. They are comfortable and cute.
I feel too tall in heals (I am only 5'7" but I still feel tall).
I have fallen in love with these flats. I always love buckles. Is it weird to have buckles on shoes? I hope not, I like them.
They come in other colors, but I think I like the gray ones. I don't own any gray shoes. The color gray makes me think of freckles chick. If you don't read her blog, you should. She is hilarious and also loves gray.

Do you spell gray gray or grey? I think I have seen it both ways. I am a terrible speller though, so please don't spell things the way I spell them. Crap, I just looked back at the website and they spell it grey. I would be wrong....oops!

What do you think? I have never spent $80 on a pair of shoes before.
(okay, I have running shoes that are worth more, but my dad bought me those, so they don't count in my book)
Maybe the hubs will get me them for me for our anniversary. Then I could wear them when he takes me out on a hot date. I highly doubt the probability behind this. I have to force him to even buy new shoes for himself when his are falling apart...
I can always dream right?!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I have been busy. A little too busy.
I have missed blogging.
Every time I get on here to blog, I spend so much time reading all the other funny/inspiring blogs, I run out of time to blog myself.

If I would have found more time I would have shared about:

My grandparent's 50th wedding celebration- it was fun and funny...
My grandparent's don't have the typical lovey dovey relationship you picture in a couple married 50 years. In fact, if they were not Catholic, I think they would be divorced. But they are Catholic, so they are not divorced. And they have 6 kids. And they are funny. We still celebrated their 50 years together, and I am so glad we did. We have an amazing family who still knows how to have a good time no matter how many crazy ups and downs everyone faces.

My friend Emily coming into town for the weekend...

I knew the weekend was going to be good times as soon I I figured out I was heading to the wrong train station to pick her up! But we a good time. I made her eat with my in-laws. I made her put up with our dog licking her feet obsessively, and I made her spend most of Saturday on the lake fishing, only to catch one fish! She is probably glad we don't live closer so she doesn't have to go through all that more often ; ) But seriously, I am so glad she came to visit and see our new place.

The end of an amazing rotation...

My first rotation was at St. Luke's East. It is an amazingly nice hospital. Their staff is top notch. I now dream about returning their to work. I am contemplating doing a year residency, starting next summer, just to make this dream come true. I couldn't have asked for a better first rotation, even though they made me work my butt off. Now if only they like me as much as I liked them!

My 4th of July weekend....

It started with my sister's 18th birthday. I can't believe she is getting so old! She is such a gorgeous person inside and out. I hope she has an amazing senior year. If you have been following my blog, you may remember she is a talented sewer. She also is a talented, up-and-coming photographer. I can't wait to see where she goes in life. But enough about her, it was also my dad's birthday that weekend (hers is the 3rd his is the 4th). I got spend an afternoon with him. I helped him pick out his gift for Kara (an amazing ring I hope she likes) and bought him lunch at Olive Garden. Then we celebrated with firework at lake Viking and then firework at my niece and nephew's house. We blew a lot of stuff up. We ate a lot of food. I can't wait to do it all again next year.

Our new found friends...

Don't you just love when you meet people that you instantly connect with? There really isn't much to this story. Brandon made friends with a guy named Jeremy who started working for Honeywell this year. I made friends with his wife while we were watching the hubs's play softball together at corporate challenge. They are another young, newlywed couple like us. They are fun, and full of life. I have enjoyed each time we have hung out this summer. They even make home-made ice cream... who wouldn't like hanging out with them!

Hope I didn't bore you with the recap.

Maybe I will write another blog and show you the cute shoes I found online...give you a little eye candy to hold you over until I write again in another month...

(I intend for this to be a joke, but please forgive me if it becomes reality)

Garage Sale Season

I think I may have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. I love garage sales. Isn't it fun looking at the things other people have collected over the years?! Plus, you can snag the occasional "can't live without" item, for pocket change prices...love it! Well, even though I have been hitting up garage sales, Brandon and I actually took the time to sort through some items that we had accumulated and participated in our own neighborhood garage sale this weekend (gotta love the free advertising). Here is a picture of some of the things we had left on Saturday...
Don't worry, Brandon's parents, my parent's, and Gma Leslie all brought stuff over too. We aren't that big of junk collectors ; )

So, we added up all those 25 and 50 cent stickers, and the total come to...

Over $220 dollars (you don't think we added up every nickel and penny did you). Brandon and I actually made just over $100 ourselves. Now, what to spend the extra cash on?

I am thinking the guest bath. Brandon is thinking a paint sprayer. Decisions, decision...

Coupons and Cabinets

I finally found the time to put of cork boards in the inside of my cabinets. I got the idea from John and Sherry from This Young House. Here is how the process went...

I picked out the cabinets that I wanted to put the cork board up in. I picked the two next to the stove by the refrigerator because that is where the coupons usually start stacking up.
Then I measured the inside of the cabinet by marking a piece of paper. I used this paper to make slits in the cork board before finally cutting it with one of those razor blade knife things...My husband made me promise not to chop off a finger before he kindly handed his over.

Then I attached the cork board using the nice little Commando Velcro attachments. The cork board comes with permanent stickers to attach them with, but I didn't know if the next person to own our house would appreciate those.

It took two sized down cork board squares to fill up the inside of my cabinet. Apparently John and Sherry's cabinets are much larger than mine, because the used three whole squares with space between them on theirs! Good thing I only bought one package of 4 cork boards at Hobby Lobby.

Finally, I added the pictures/coupons I have been saving with little thumb tacks. This cabinet got my Pottery Barn cataloge cut-outs...

And this one got my coupons....

Don't you just love saving money with coupons?! And don't you just hate it when you get to the store and realized you forgot to grab them ; )

Doesn't Everyone Have Family Haircut Days?

Sorry, didn't mean to disapper from the blog world for so long. Time is passing by too quickly this summer. I have quite a few blogs I have been meaning to write. I will be satisfied to write this one before crashing tonight though. So...

I got my hair chopped of for Lock of Love. I had been growing it out for 4 years.
See, it was pretty long...
My aunt measured out a million little pony tails to 11 inches. It has to be 10 inches to donate. We did 11 to be on the safe side....

My aunt owns her own hair salon in a retirement village. She is an awesome hair dresser. It seriously is the best thing ever to have an aunt who does hair. We use and abuse her probably a little too much. Notice the short hair in this picture. We were goofing off under the dryers...

The funny thing about this evening is that we didn't really plan it. It just happened that some of our cousins wanted hair cuts the same night. See, here is Landon getting a summer buzz...

And Aunt Kelly, cousin McKenna, cousin Connor, and cousin Lauren...

And Uncle Vinnie and cousin Cayman munching on chips and queso from On the Border...yum!

It was like a family reunion at the hair salon. It was fun seeing everyone. I think we all enjoyed the unplanned get together. Well, maybe not Connor...

He isn't the biggest fan of scissors next to his head. I can't really blame him ; )