191 days!

Six months and one week from tomorrow I'll be graduating from PA school. Thank. You. Jesus. (Seriously, thank you, Jesus!). I'm getting so antsy!!

Anywho ... a little catch up on what's been going on lately.

Sam and Tammy came to see us the weekend of Talladega (they had tickets to the race) and we had a great time with them. We went out to dinner, visited family in Tuscaloosa, shopped, and played around with my plants and succulents outside. Tammy and I added to my succulent lantern. It's hard to see the difference because a lot of what we added was on top, so I don't have any pictures to share. In fact, we took very few photos the whole weekend!

Dinner Friday night

Visiting Tammy's cousin, Gayle, in Tuscaloosa

A few weekends back Lindsay, Adam and I took our pups to a fun doggie festival called Do Dah Day in Highland! It was so much fun! And I was very impressed with the fact that Lucy was very well behaved. We never have to worry about Sadie and Marley misbehaving because they're wonderful little dogs, but my Lucy can be a little devil. Hence her nick-name Lucifer.

Poor Marley got tired of walking.... No, not really. Adam just wanted to be silly.

After Do Dah Day, we took the pups to Rojo to enjoy some chips, cheese dip, and margaritas. We sat outside so that the dogs could hangout with us, too.

That Sunday, I went to Lowe's and gathered the supplies to paint my own flowerpot. I've got a pretty serious obsession with succulents, and I've been thinking about starting a strawberry pot with some hens and chicks that Tammy and I had left over after adding to my lantern.

But I didn't want just a regular clay pot, so I decided I'd decorate my own. I really wanted to be creative with this, but the farther I got into the project, the less things were going my way. I had intended to follow Debbie Doo's blog on how to paint your own pot (you can find the post here), but mine was going to be in shades of purple. Here are the materials I used and the first shade of light purple.

In the blog I mentioned above, she did this neat thing where she used stencils to add wood filler to the pot, just to give it extra texture. I really liked the idea, but I wanted to either use paisley or lace of some kind. Hobby Lobby had cute paisley stencils so I went with those. Here's a picture after I've crackled it once and added a dark coat. Obviously it has the wood filler on it already as well.

Well I got close to the end where I was to add the second color...and mine just looked terrible. The colors weren't blending beautifully like Debbie's. I immediately hated it. By this point it already had several layers of paint and crackle medium on it but what was another layer gonna hurt? So I decided to repaint the whole thing with my light shade of purple again, add the crackle medium again (which was actually just Elmer's glue), and then paint over with the dark purple. Again. I finally achieved a look I was happy with, but it sure is obvious that there are plenty of coats of paint on it. Oh well. It just makes it look old. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I might sand over the paisley a little just to make them stand out more, but here's my finished product. It is what it is. And I think it'll do just fine to hold flowers.

Also, our golden beauty says hey in the background.

This past weekend, Jenn and AnnaBelle came into town! Lucy wasn't very nice to either of them, but I absolutely loved seeing them both! We did nothing more than lounge around the pool, watch youTube videos of crazy stuff, drink wine, and catch up. A lot. Oh, and take selfies.

This is my favorite photo from the weekend. And to save everyone from a ridiculous number of pool selfies, I'll just post a couple of our photos. 

I loved having her here. I miss that girl.

So, that's about it. You all are officially caught up. Have a fantastic rest of the week! Until next time.

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Georgia, Georgia, Christmas, ...Georgia, and Clinicals!

Oh my goodness, it's been quite a long time. So much has happened since then, so here's a very quick recap:

After Adam's actual birthday, we drove home for a surprise 30th birthday party for him that Tammy and I had planned. Although I don't think he was 100% surprised, I know he thoroughly enjoyed seeing and visiting with everyone.

This is the only decent photo that I got. :(

After Adam's birthday, we came back to Birmingham for another two weeks before we trekked back to Georgia for Christmas. During this time I finished the didactic phase of PA school. Holy mother, there is no better feeling. I really think this deserves it's own line, so I'll say it again.

I finished the didactic phase of PA school.

 For a while it didn't even seem real. Like it hadn't clicked yet or something. I was excited ... kinda, but I guess I was also distracted by Christmas crafting and things of the such. But after the new year, it really started settling in. And it feels real, real good. I'm pretty sure I've said that PA school for me feels analogous to climbing a mountain. Well, I really think I've made it to the top. I know that most may see graduation as reaching the top, but in my opinion, coming back down is half the battle. Clinicals = traveling down the mountain. Real life will continue once I've accomplished and attained this monumental mountain known as PA school. Real life starts on the other side. Adam and I are so ready for it! Less than a year!!

 (This is our "holy $&!%, we're about to treat real life patients??" face.)

So after school let out, I had LOTS of crafting to get done. What better way than to do it with friends?? So I had Katie and Casey over. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Casey, but she helped me with my wreaths again. I was pretty happy with how they (and everything else) turned out!

These are Katie's craft projects. I think they turned out great!

I made these a few days after our crafting party:

I guess it's hard to tell what's going on with the wine bottles. I sprayed them with adhesive and put Epsom salt on them to give them a snowy effect. 

So I was pretty busy during my break before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we made our way to Georgia for what felt like the billionth weekend in a row. Christmas morning we started at my parents' house and then went over to Adam's parents'. Adam sent me on a super cute, super fun, and super creative treasure hunt for my Christmas present from him. I loved reading his little rhythms and solving the puzzles which ultimately lead to my new pearl stud earrings! I love them. :) He's been watching a lot of White Collar, the TV show, lately so he might have been prompted to do this because of that show. Either way, I loved it!

We came back to Alabama the weekend after Christmas, and then (surprise, surprise) drove back to Georgia the next weekend. We had not one, not two, but three parties to attend. We made it to all of them! And we had a great time. We drove straight to Bryan and Whitney's Friday night for Bryan's 30th birthday party and spent the night. Then on Saturday we drove home to my parents' and that evening we went to a wedding reception and ended the night at Lindsay and Jon's engagement party. We had a great time at both events!

On Sunday we came back to Birmingham and that next day, I started my clinicals! I'm already a week in! It's been terrifying, exhausting, empowering, amazing, exciting ... tons of emotions. This next year is going to be so different than what my classmates and I are used to, and we're all looking forward to that. Can't wait to continue and try out all the different specialties. It'll be a new job every five weeks! Very exciting. 

One of the gifts my mom gave me for Christmas is a daily devotional book called Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I'm only on day 12 (because it's only Jan. 12th...) but I'm absolutely loving it so far. Every day I find that it definitely applies to me, and I'm excited to see how it continues to line up with my life right now and in the future over this next year. I know it'll make clinical year even easier and more enjoyable. Less than a year left! It's exciting to think "this time next year..." because this time next year I'll be finished with school and will either already be in, or will be shortly moving to Charleston. Woo!! Exciting things to come!

I'll leave you all with this photo of my sweet niece, Emma-Grace. She had a wilms tumor, but has been cancer free for two years! :)

Have a good evening, friends.

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Thanksgiving and Adam's Birthday

I know, I know. I didn't finish my 30 day countdown. But I have a valid excuse. I was with family that I don't get to see everyday and, therefore, didn't open my computer much to blog. My apologies. But to sum up those last three days, I am very thankful to have spent an entire week back in Georgia at home with my family, visiting with friends, and helping both mine and Adam's parents put up their trees. Marley and Lucy loved it, too.

Blurry, but Lucy is a little dancing dog.

So let's see. As I mentioned in my 30 days of thanks, my parents came to our apartment the weekend before Thanksgiving. Their visit had two purposes. 1) to help me decorate our little apartment for Christmas and 2) to take me back home to Georgia with them. I'm so glad my mom was here to help decorate because everything looks SO MUCH cuter than it did last year. I need an experienced veteran's eye for this sort of thing apparently.

Anyway, over Thanksgiving break I studied and did a lot of crafting for a couple of different things. My nieces and oldest nephew and I made glitter Christmas ornaments. I made one for myself and one for my sweet friend Katie. My PA school girlfriends and I did a secret santa gift exchange (don't worry, we've already exchanged. No secrets being prematurely revealed here) and that was one of the gifts I gave her.
Can you guess which one is mine?

Yep, Katie's a Clemson girl.

Lindsay had my name and she gave me these two things:

I think these both sum our friendship up perfectly. We both LOVE Christmas, and we both love drinking wine together. :) I had been on the lookout for a new special wine glass, so she got me one! Love it. 

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving break. The other craft I was working on was a ten day countdown for Adam's 30th birthday, which was yesterday!

Before and after they were sealed. He got a clue each morning as to what he would get for that day. 

So yesterday he came home for lunch and I gave him his real birthday present. After that, things started getting much more exciting. His mom ordered a bouquet of balloons for him so I picked them up and took them to Adam's work.

While I was there, I took the opportunity to decorate his truck. :)

Rickie had decided a few weeks ago that he really wanted to surprise Adam for his 30th, so after Adam came home from work, Rickie jumped out of the spare bedroom! They decided to head out together to pick up Chinese-to-go and then I got this picture in a text:

So we had Hooters for dinner. Oh, and we topped off the night by watching the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. I think Adam enjoyed his 30th birthday. :)

You know I can't write a post without at least mentioning school a couple of times. So we're FINALLY in finals week. I have two left, one tomorrow and one Friday. And then I'm finished with didactic forever. I cannot even believe it. Not even a little bit. I remember how I felt this time last year as I was finishing up my first semester of PA school. Being at this point seemed entirely too far away back then. Ugh, that makes me cringe. I count my blessings every night and am SO thankful that I'll never have to do that over again. Ever.

Two. More. Days. Oh, and only 368 days until graduation!

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My very last ever summer break is over. :(

It's been a while! But believe me, I've had a fantastic break. Been too busy to stop and blog about everything. So, here's a recap of my break in pictures... enjoy!

For the first few days, I deep cleaned the apartment pretty well...it kinda needed it. :/ But let's not dwell on that. The first Friday of my break, Lucy and I went to Georgia to spend time with my mom. My dad had traveled out of town for some work so it was just a fun girls weekend! I spent lots of time with friends which was much needed, and I got to meet one friend's brand new sparkly baby boy! Very sweet.

Wednesday, I drove back to Birmingham and then on Friday, Adam and I packed up our stuff and went back to Georgia. On Saturday, I attended Whitney's baby shower (which was so adorably decorated, and the food was delicious!!) and Bryan and Adam took a motorcycle ride up to Dahlonega, GA. I had mentioned in a previous post that I had some DIY stuff planned for break and I was not kidding! After spending time on Google, Pinterest, and Etsy, I decided I was going to make Whitney a cute picture frame for her nursery. I really wanted it to match her colors and patterns, and what better way to display the frame than with a beautiful picture of Mrs. Preggo herself! This was the final outcome: 

I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

Here are a few other photos from the shower:

Belly shot of Whitney (Left) and Bryan's cousin's wife. In Whit's belly is either Baby Jack or Baby Callie. We don't know which yet, but we're so anxious and excited to find out!

I collected the most pins in the "Don't say 'baby'" game ... only because Whitney was winning but then slipped up when talking about a baby show she attended, and I caught her! :)

On Sunday, we loaded up the truck and met Adam's family at the beach in Pensacola. Our condo was beautiful, as was the view! We had a great time. One rainy day we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. It was incredible!

The picture on the right is moon rock! How cool is that?!

A 360 degree simulator. :)

One morning we woke up and noticed a ship wreck! Or at least that's what we thought it was. Turns out it was a target boat for the Navy to practice blowing it up. During the storm the night before, it had somehow drifted to shore.

One afternoon we rented a boat. Tammy caught a squid and Joel caught a catfish and a shark! 

 If you notice in this first picture of Joel's shark, you can see that the shark actually broke Joel's fishing pole!

Pretty shot of a storm rolling in one day. I loved watching it from our balcony.

We also went to a Beatles cover band concern and danced the night away!

We got back to Birmigham on Thursday and then the next day my parents brought the dogs and came into town. It was so nice to just have them here and the dogs were very excited to be back home (but after spending two weeks with my mom, Lucy is pretty depressed about her Grammie leaving :( )

My dad hung some pictures for us, which makes our apartment so much more like a home!

 This, below, is something Mom and I had worked on back when I was in Georgia with her. Remember the birdcage succulent plant holder thingy I'd mentioned a few posts back? (You can find that post here.) Well our Pier 1 store in Athens is relocating and they had e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g in their store marked down/on sale. So instead of buying a birdcage, we purchased an antiqued lantern. It had glass in it but we just took that out. I love the way this looks, and I almost think it works even better because it provides more support for the plants.

I'm not completely finished with it. I'd like to add a small ground covering succulent, something like John Creech, but Mom and I both agree that I need to let the current plants root before I disturb them anymore. We found a super cute table at HobbyLobby for the lantern to sit on and I'm loving it out on my patio!

Last thing --

In my post referenced above, I also mentioned making a wreath for my SIL. It's still in the works, but it's coming along well enough for me to share with all of you!

My SIL had requested that I make her a very large wreath, and I wasn't able to find anything already that size, so I made my own wreath base. I bought some pool noodles at the dollar store and then taped them together with duck tape. Then to hide the tape/blue noodle, I wrapped the entire wreath in regular burlap. I couldn't find a pack of only blue burlap rosettes like the ones in the picture she sent me, so I decided to buy a small pack of teal/turquoise ribbon burlap and make my own. I used this post from Craftaholics Anonymous as a guide for making them. While I was at HobbyLobby for the burlap ribbon, I also bought a wooden B. With some black paint I already had, I painted it and then voila! The "toppings" of my wreath were completed. I've started adding chevron burlap to the wreath, but I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with it. The good news is, since I've pinned the chevron burlap down with floral pins, I can start over and redo it at anytime. 

Anywho, that's about all I've done this break! :) It's been wonderful! Now for my last didactic semester. Let's do this!

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