I Love these

I just ordered these Wellies from LLBean.  I think that I will totally love them!  They are so cute and preppy with the pink and the green and the lobsters and crabs.  So New England Prep!

Photo Friday

This is my smallest sister, CeCe.  She is too funny and such a little firecracker.  Love that kid.

WOW

Nothing makes you feel older than having your best friend from high school call you to tell you she's getting married.  I am so excited for J and her fiancee, but it seriously freaks me out.  I am all about marriage and husbands and wives, but I am NOWHERE near that part of my life and it is so weird to think that this friend, who is younger than me is taking the plunge.  I am not even 20 yet.  Crazy how that happens.  Congrats J.  I am sure you and R will have a lovely lovely wedding and an even lovelier life together!  J, you inspire me so much!

Love, 

P&P

Just Some Thoughts

I love that my friends call me when they need a sober driver instead of one of our other mutual friends.  I love that they trust me enough not to judge them and to not take advantage of their intoxication.  I love that even though I don't drink I can still be friends with these friends and that they don't judge me for not drinking.  I love that we respect each other and our decisions.  I love my friends and I love spending a sketchy Friday the 13th together.

25 Things about me!

I already put this on FB, but I thought y'all might enjoy it.

1) I'm LDS (Mormon), just in case you didn't know.

2) Oxford Commas make me happy.

3) I judge your grammar/usage/sentence construction/spelling, etc.

4) I've lived in O----- my whole life and I LOVE it.

5) I pronounce "crayon" and "crown" the same way (the "crown" way), I didn't know they were pronounced differently until I was a junior in high school.

6) I hate phone calls.  Seriously, I only answer the phone for my parents and about 8 other people.  If you want to talk to me, texting is the way to go.

7) I have a phone voice.  All my friends mock it, I'm okay with that.

8) I've been to both the summer and the winter Olympics.  They were both incredible and I can't wait to go back.

9) In general, I don't like "ethnic" food, but Mexican food is an exception.  I can eat Mexican everyday and not get sick of it.

10) I love Harry Potter, but I refuse to read Twilight.

11) If I weren't in pharmacy school, I could graduate from school by this Christmas (counting my AP credits) or next May (not counting my AP credits).  Oh well.

12) My favorite Gossip Girl characters are: Chuck (on the show) and Blair (in the book and on the show)

13) Children who I "babysit" are awesome, children who I "sit", "keep", or "watch" are not.

14) I am always cold.  Always.

15) Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving until we've boogie boarded down the leaf hill at my grandparents' house.

16) It upsets me that we rarely use the subjunctive case in English today.  I'll be even more upset when it's gone for good.

17) Facetious is my favorite word because it contains all the vowels in (alphabetical) order.  Facetiously includes "y" (also in order) and is a close second.

18) I am a hypochondria, ask C.  She has had to consult WebMD more than a few times for me.

19) I've ordered snow cones with no flavor, just ice, on more than one occasion.

20) I own a Snuggie.  Judge all you want, but I was not cold on the train back from Chicago.

21) I text Google more times a day than should ever be necessary.

22) I believe in Capitalism and the free market.

23) I'm ridiculous about my teeth.  I am convinced that I will wake up one morning and all of my orthodonture will have been for nothing.  Because of this, I wear my retainer every single night.

24) My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  The BBC/A&E miniseries/movie is also perfect.

25) I am lost without my planner.

Reason #89734895 why I love my SCHOOL!

So, it's no secret that I LOVE my university. It is the perfect blend of Old South traditions, new ideas, innovation, and all other fabulous things you can think of. I am not only a part of our fabulous pharmacy school, but I am also a very active member of the Honors College on campus. This institution was named one of Reader's Digest's top three Honors programs in the country, and it probably wouldn't be too hard for y'all to figure out where I go to school. One of the things that our Honors College does is host a Fall and Spring Convocation. For this, we always bring in big name people to speak to us. Last year, we were honored to hear from Thomas Friedman and some other wonderful and inspiring people.

Tonight, however, takes the cake. Thanks to our wonderful and generous benefactor, we were able to host General Colin Powell. He is someone that I have a great amount of respect for and tonight only solidified that respect. He was so eloquent and jovial. I felt like he was being so genuine when he spoke to us (impressive since we FILLED our biggest venue on campus). He talked about his time as Secretary of State and his life after stepping down. He spoke of the times of transition in our lives and how "whenever we feel down, go buy a Corvette. It really does help!" He explained why he chose to endorse Barack Obama and then told us that he still considers himself to be a Republican. It was so good to listen to all of this. He talked about the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He told us that Iraq is not a war we will win, but it is not because of anything we are doing, it is because of the people there. Our dedicated soldiers are doing exactly what they need to be doing and it was wonderful to hear. He talked about how we NEED to be in Afghanistan. How the people there will never be able to move on from their tribal fighting and wars until a STRONG central government is in place. They will not do this for themselves, we NEED to be there. It will take a long time, of course. This is not something that will be resolved in two or three years, it is President Obama war now.
General Powell spoke of his family and his life. How he has seen so much during his many decades of service to our country. The thing that stuck out to me the most, was, however, how much the rest of the world still looks to America as the example. They like us, they want to model their countries after us. The media can try to spin it all they want, but America is still the ultimate symbol of FREEDOM and CAPITALISM. No matter how much the media tells us that people in far off countries dislike us and think that we are arrogant, fat, self-centered people, this doesn't stop the many people from standing in line outside the American Consulates and applying for visas. They want to be here, because they know that we are doing something RIGHT!
It was so nice to hear all of this tonight. It gave us the boost that we needed for sure. Thank you General Powell. Your words were so inspirational and full of wisdom. We hope you come back to visit us soon. We will be happy to have you here again and show you our Southern Hospitality.

Crazy Semester!

So, this semester has been going on for all of a week and a half and it is already all kinds of crazy.  Seriously.  Between Organic II, Physics II, Medical Microbiology, and Psychology I already  know that I will have NO free time this spring.  The one thing that is keeping me sane though is my friends.  If you've been reading my blog, you know that my friends mean the WORLD to me and without them I would be a little more lost than I already am.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have lab in the afternoon (Physics on Tuesday and Organic on Thursday).  Because of this, I am stuck on campus pretty much all day, but I did give myself a break for lunch.  Well, my friends and I have a standing lunch date on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  On Tuesdays it is me, CDM, SC, SS, SP, and JBA.  On Thursdays, we get a couple more people including DMB.  We have so much fun during lunch.  It's great to sit in the Student Union and just be obnoxious and loud.  I love it!

Another thing that I can already tell is going to keep me sane is my Ballet class.  I told y'all about it when I first signed up for it, but now it has started and my, oh my, it is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!  We had our first technique class on Thursday and wow.  I could feel the burn and all we did was warm up and learn how to walk.  Crazy.  

I thought y'all might like to see the leotard that I am wearing because I love it!  Our teacher has a very strict dress code: Black leotard, pink tights (smile), pink ballet shoes, hair in buns and out of eyes, and nothing else.  I picked up this leotard at the small sister's ballet school.  It is the Capezio American Ballet Theatre Twist Tie Back Leotard.  I have it in black. It is super comfy and I think it is just darling.

I have some physics homework to do now, so I'll try to write this semester, but it might be very scattered and sporadic.  Later!

Ps.  If you get a chance please say a little prayer for a fellow blogger Grits.  She is such a darling girl and is going through some tough times right now.  Leave her a little love if you feel led to do so.  

Chicago!

So, I told y'all about how I was planning on going to Chicago this month. I went and it was awesome! I had such a great time with all of my school friends.  I went with the Honors College at the University I attend.  It is called the Sophomore Service Trip and it is basically an opportunity for us to get away and do some good in the world.  It was fabulous.  We left from the Honors College at 7:00 pm on Thursday night and took a fleet of Charter buses to the Amtrak Station.  Yes, we took an Amtrak to Chicago.  117 twenty year olds in two train cars.  It was a 12 hour trip and it felt like it was every bit of those 12 hours.  Luckily we traveled at night both there and back so we were at least able to sleep for most of the trip.  I brought my sleep mask so that was very nice to have.  

Once in Chicago, we checked into our hotel and changed into our warm clothes (the highest temperature in Chicago the whole weekend was 7* F) and headed out to our volunteer sites.  We had five different sites: the YMCA, the Salvation Army, a greenhouse, bicycle building, and my group, the Treehouse Animal Haven.  We spent the day clearing out a basement in their downtown location so that they could use the extra space for a free clinic to spay and neuter feral cats.  Isn't that great?  For dinner that night, we went to a Brazilian Steak House where they bring the meat out on skewers.  It was super yummy.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go back to Treehouse to help at their Argyle Street location, but the people who work there were super nice and let us wander the city handing out fliers to promote their "Sex and the Kitty" program.  It's a great program that allows families in the area to trap feral cats, bring them in to be neutered and then return them to the wild.  We had a fabulous day wandering the city and seeing a lot of cool sites.  

That night we had a fabulous night of partying.  We played circle of death with the cool kids.  I played with Diet Pepsi, don't worry.   That is a fabulous game that is super fun to play before going out.  Then we went to eat some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza and my goodness, it was delicious.  We had planned to go to the Hancock building for dessert afterwards, but they wouldn't let us in because we were under 21.  Oh well, we still got a great view of the skyline.  Later SLG, DMB, and I went down to Navy Pier for some pictures.  We took some pretty fantastic ones (NOT) but here's the best.

On Sunday morning, CMC and I headed up to the Magnificent Mile for some hardcore shopping.  It was so fun.  We also went ice skating with some friends.  Poor C could barely stand.  As for me, my skating skills came back and I was able to not look like a fool! Ha.  We had so much fun that whole day and then finally headed back to the hotel so that we could head back to Union Station as a group.  Another 12 hours, and we were back to Memphrica so we could head back to the Honors College (we arrived in Memphrica at 5:45 am...it was VERY early).  

But by far, the highlight of the weekend, was when I stumbled into a fabulous store that sold Snuggies.  You better believe that this girl SNATCHED that up.  It is amazing and lovely.  And it is endlessly entertaining, ask anyone who was on the trip who I even talked to on the way home!  Later kids.

Pray for Kelly and Baby Harper!

Please join me tonight as I pray for Scott, Kelly, and Harper.  Kelly's blog is one of the first blogs that I started reading and it's really what got me into blogging.  It has been such a joy to watch Kelly throughout her pregnancy and it is even more of a joy to see her faith and trust in God and Christ. 

Baby Harper was born today and it is looking like there are some very serious complications.  There is, however, something that we can all do, and that is PRAY.  Pray that the Lord will show his hand in all of this.  Pray that Scott and Kelly and their families are comforted during this time.  Pray that Harper can recover from this.  Pray that this precious family will be given strength and hope.  Pray for them to see the hand of the Lord and to have peace this night so that they can have much needed rest. 

I will leave you all with some scriptures.  Thank you for joining me in this.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is, that we may have this hope, that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

Moroni 7:48

New Phone

So I've been having some serious issues with my phone recently and I really want to get an iPhone or a Blackberry.  I just think they would both be so nice to have, but in order to get one of those, I would have to commit to two years of a $30/month data plan.  I don't really feel like, at this point in my life anyway, I need to be throwing away $360 a year just to be able to get on facebook all the time.  So, instead, I bought an LG Shine.  It is red and gorgeous and it has plenty of  storage space on it for ringtones.  YAY! Ringtones are seriously fabulous.  I think that ringtones are something that can definitely personalize a phone.  My ringtones are so eclectic, and I just love them.  Today I got the Pride and Prejudice theme song and it is perfect.  

In other news, I leave for CHICAGO in less than a week.  That is so crazy.  I really feel like I need to start packing right now because I know I don't want to be doing it next week when classes are starting up.  I was watching the Weather Channel last night and yesterday in Chicago, the high was -1 and that was at midnight and the rest of the day it never got above -6.  What will I do?!?!  I seriously might become a little ice cube.  Or maybe a non suicidal Anna Karenina.  I also found out that the Jonathan Adler store is probably too far away from our hotel for us to go, which is way sad. 

That's all for now, just waiting to hear from Kelly that baby Harper has been born.