tell the ones you love that you love them

a friend who is dear to my heart passed away last night unexpectedly and way too early. it leaves me wishing i'd called him more, gone out of my way to see how he was doing more... i can't change back the clock, i can't do any of this. but i appreciate the value of a friend even more now. it's cliche to say to live every day as your last. but do it. don't have regrets. tell the ones you care about that you do so. i miss him so much. he never grasped the magnitude of the love everyone had for him.

someday soon, we all will be together

Christmas is approaching :) - hopped in my car this morning... and lo and behold, frost on my windshield!

what makes studying for finals more bearable?....

Christmas music. Enough said. Thank you Pandora, Christmas Radio.

cold colds.

seasons.

Thanks to Glen Brann's facebook status,

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."

since wednseday

mom came in town to help nurse me back to help. she's always been there for me :) add thatto the list of things (and people) i'm thankful for.

we started off the day with breakfast at another broken egg - lafitte's tortilla, coffee, and donut beignets.

then, after an unsuccessful shopping trip it was off to school to take a quiz on a dementia lecture. i swung by sprinkles cupcakes on the way home and with mom as my chauffeur, we made it back to cypress that evening.

it was fun getting to watch the baker hughes guys play football and my knee got progressively better over the weekend - by friday, i found out it isn't fractured, but just bruised and i can run as soon as it feels better/doesn't hurt to do so! :) GREAT news.

the weekend was pretty relaxing; it feels weird to be back in dallas - no tanner, no practicum. i leave for long island the day after tomorrow, which is exciting!

on saturday, will and i ventured out to the Via Colori chalk street painting festival sponsored by the Houston Center for Hearing and Speech (how cool this combined my two interests - art and speech path!) check out their HUGE mural in progress below:

BAD day.

one week and a day til thanksgiving break

i can't believe it. just over two weeks of actual school left and finals, and my first semester in dallas and of grad school will come to a close. i will pack up the necessities of my apartment, put this semester's books neatly on the my bookshelf, and make the four hour drive back to houston for the month. where has the time gone? ... to take a moment and reflect:

• unpacking tons of boxes, numerous trips to tom thumb and target (having to embrace the transition from walmart to target...)
• labor day weekend in new braunfels with my favorite girl friends and new guy friends (and new boyfriend) & 6th street
• many time-consuming assignments for assessment class
• weekly practicum
• tx/ou weekend & the state fair
• maddy and matt & aggie friends in town
• oktoberfest
• two weeks of studying for midterms... and then actually taking them
• spontaneous trips to houston
• rj's housewarming party
• 5K

just to name a few... all in all, i'd say it's been a good semester. i've met new friends, settled in, and learned to call dallas home. i have amazing things to look forward to in the next two months - with thanksgiving in new york with will, christmas on 5th in WACO and then christmas break back at home enjoying my family, going to JAPAN to see corey!! and then ringing in 2011. i'm so thankful for the people in my life :)

until tomorrow, be blessed.

weekend update

it was a great, relaxing weekend with no traveling. will came in on friday and we woke up earlier to head downtown with liz for the help the homeless 5K. i was pretty pumpedbecause i did the best with my running that i'd done in all my training (even though i got sick 3 miles in)...but i ran the whole thing and it got me really excited for the Jingle Bell 5 mile in Houston in December!

the rest of the weekend was filled with lots of napping, lasagna leftovers, and a baylor football emotional rollercoaster of a game. (at least we still have the #2 lady bears bball to look forward to... oh, yeah and the dropping of lacedarius's charges, too) maddy and matt came in to town for the byx formal and we had some fun shopping around the northpark mall on sunday afternoon.

when the moon hits your eye

last day of practicum today. (whoa!)

came home and made lasagna while it poured outside. now it's sunny and a cool front is working its way in to town. will is coming in later for a relaxing night of italian food. and the help the homeless 5k in the morning. can't complain :)

i've made this lasagna before with the best recipe - check out http://mylasagnarecipe.com/ it's an easy-to-make homemade meal that is delicious!

even tanner wants a bite! he watched closely as a made the entire thing!

into the wild

i didn't know that taking tanner outside would turn into such a frightening adventure! this afternoon, when I got home from chuy's after school, i took tanner out to go to the bathroom. he's always on the lookout for squirrels, so when he looked over the left side of his body in the direction of the other apartments up one level, you can imagine my surprise when i saw the two beady eyes of an enormous raccoon charging at tanner. i picked him up as quickly as i could and didn't look back as i sprinted up the stairs back to my apartment. i was SO scared!!! now i'm afraid the raccoon is lurking out in the bushes somewhere waiting to pounce on tanner... gah!

tomorrow is FRIDAY - the last day of playgroup (crazy), the first day of the weekend, aaand will is coming in town :) then, i have some visitors saturday night (maddy and matt and some of their friends for matt's byx formal). it should be a nice, relaxing weekend...

please do not eat raw cookie dough... and other unheeded rules

today was one of those days where i just didn't feel like doing much of anything. had practicum this morning (well, half of it) and left Callier to go back home to run. (there's a picture of me wearing my ever-so-attractive lab coat for last friday's zero-attendance playgroup) unfortunately, when i got home, my knee was too achey and i figure i want to save my knee for this weekend, so i'll just run tomorrow and then have a day off between the tomorrow and the 5k. so, instead, i napped (or tried to) on the couch with the tanman. i'm so glad to have him back in my apartment... it's true what they say: a house is not a home without a dog.

and since i was so comfy, i neglected to return to Callier to go to class. but all efforts were not wasted...because soon thereafter, some girls from school came over to work on a lengthy, but interesting diagnostic project for motor speech disorders. it took a few hours to knock out, but as soon as that was done, i got to go to Panda Express (which, did you know that panda has a more upscale restaurant called Panda Inn?... who knew?!) with my long lost friend David Smith. it was great catching up with him and laughing about the same goofy things. we even stopped by northpark afterward to step into nordstrom (where i found two pairs of cute earrings for $10) and urban outfitters.

as tanner lays napping, and my eyelids are falling quickly, i leave you with the wise fortune-cookie words of Panda, "You have the ability to overcome obstacles on the way to success."

birds of a feather

claire inspired me to get back into blogging. it's fun reading back over what i wrote while i was in italy and i'd like to do something every day to look back at the past "everyday" days... maybe a picture, or a quote, or just a thought of each day. when i see the 365 challenge thing on facebook, i think it's so cool to have a whole year documented; i think it'd be really neat to do the same sort of thing with a little more depth on here.

so there's about a month left of my first semester at grad school and i'm pretty satisfied with the way i've been able to stay afloat amongst the stress and time management. today in playgroup (our last week of it, at that), we made indian and pilgrim costumes to wear for our "thanksgiving feast" on friday (the VERY last day). i made the example ones yesterday after my run, so i guess that counts as the picture for today...

i'm still doing the couch to 5k - currently week 6. hopefully i'll be able to run the whole "Help the Homeless" 5k this weekend in Dallas. Dad has us signed up for the Jingle Bell 5 Mile run in Houston on December 12! I'm super pumped for that :)

six weeks left

the few blogs i've posted on here have all been basically updates of the passing time of my senior year. and yet again, here it is - six weeks of school left and then finals. and thus comes the conclusion of my undergraduate education which is weird, scary, and exciting. it would probably all be a lot more exciting if i had a better idea of where i will be come fall. i got the nix from UT's program for grad school, but that's all i've heard back from. i will know about CU by Wednesday at the latest apparently.

the family and tammy all came in this weekend which was really fun. i got to spend time with smat on her way back to lubbock and then see my family (except corey.. :( ...) as well as Matt and his family. although the bearathon got rained out, we still had a great time. it was a full house including all 6 of our dogs, but crazy and fun nonetheless...

it's kind of a strange time... lots to do, but i just want to enjoy my last semester here and spend time with those who are important to me and all... time is fleeting. it's my last semester in waco to make new and lasting memories.

ending. beginning. same.

confusion. clarity. indifferent.

lost. guidance. stagnant.

spring semester, senior year

spring semester of my senior year already. about sixteen weeks until i graduate from college and move on to the big "real world"... kind of. i'll be back home for the summer as of yet and then heading off to grad school in dallas, austin, waco, or... boulder, colorado. it'll be really interesting to see where i end up. until then, i intend on taking advantage of my time here in waco for the remainder of the semester. i don't have class on fridays, which definitely makes the school week bearable.