Can I go back on vacation, please?

Well, after being back to the real world for 2 weeks now, I figured maybe I could post some pics from vacation. The only thing is that I really didn't take that many pictures, or rather that many interesting pictures. But anyway, this one is of Mama and Daddy by the little mountain stream that runs down the road where our property/house-to-be is. Right after you turn onto our driveway, you cross this stream, and they are standing in the driveway in this picture. Have I mentioned how excited we are about our house?! We can't wait till it's finished! Party in the mountains next summer and everyone's invited! :) This pic is of Ben and me at New Found Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Believe it or not, it was actually pretty chilly here in this picture! Probably had something to do with the fact that we were 5,046 feet above sea level. Oh yeah, and if it looks like we are cringing in pain in this pic, it's only because we were trying to hold our eyes open and not squint as we smiled for the picture while we were facing the bright sun that was glaring into our eyeballs! And you can't really see it very good here, but if you look at the mountains in the background, you can see why they are called the "Smoky" Mountains. This picture here is Nantahala Falls... the last and biggest rapid on the Nantahala River, where we spend a lot of our time when we go up there. This is a Class III rapid, which means it's a pretty damn scary thing to run in a canoe/kayak (at least for amateurs)... but it's a whole lot of fun in a raft as long as everybody stays in! By the way, this picture does not do it justice at all.. it looks like 10 times more scary in real life. And there had been a lot of rain up there so the river was up a little and the water was more fluffy than usual. FYI: the word "Nantahala" is a Cherokee Indian name that means "middle sun" or "midday sun," therefore the Nantahala Gorge is referred to as the "Land of the Noonday Sun."
Anyway, on a different subject, today I had the pleasure of meeting with the Director of the Graduate Program in Clinical Health Sciences. I am going to be applying to the program but the deadline is November 1 to start in the Spring because I missed the deadline to start this Fall. But he agreed to let me start taking a class as a "Special Student" this Fall quarter which starts in August! (I know, I know.. not that kind of "special." Just special in the fact that I will not be officially enrolled in a degree program.) Then I will take another class for the Winter quarter, and by February when the Spring quarter starts, I will hopefully be accepted into the Graduate Program and be an official "Grad Student"!! Yay! You can go ahead and practice referring to me as "Dr. Taylor" so that way you will be used to it when the time comes. ;) So I guess since I'll be starting school in a couple of weeks, even though I'll be working, I could technically imagine myself to be on "vacation" until classes start! VACATION HERE I COME! :D

Hump Day

Happy Hump Day! Halfway through with the work week. Yay! Except that when I get done with this work week, I get to keep on working straight through the weekend and on through next week. :( But it's ok... I still enjoy knowing that this week is almost over and that even though I will have to work the weekend, I will be at a different place than my normal, everyday job.
I haven't posted in a while, so let me see what I've done in the past week... Oh yeah...
My grandmother came and stayed with me Thursday and Friday nights last week (oh joy of joys). Notice the tone of unexcitement in my voice. So after she finally made it to my house and I was given the options of Cindy's, Penn's, and I suggested Cock of the Walk (all three are fried catfish places), we went to eat at Cock of the Walk Thursday night. Then it was to Abner's Friday night (Chick-fil-a was the other option I was given). She apparently loves fried catfish and fried chicken tenders. Saturday, we drove to Hattiesburg to my aunt's house for what was basically a family reunion of some sort. That was pretty fun. Then it was time to get back to Jackson so dear Mimi could move along and get to Doris's (her kinda "boyfriend" I guess you could say) house. Thank goodness she was staying with him Saturday and Sunday nights because I had had my fill. Then, I had a "date" (as Mimi called it) with Adam Saturday night, and we just went to Buffalo Wild Wings and ate wings, had a couple of the big draft beers, and played some trivia.
Sunday morning, I actually made an appearance at church, and Adam came along with me where he also had the opportunity to meet my mom and grandmother (I told Mimi to be nice to him and not scare him away). Then after church, we went to lunch at the Haute Pig in Madison. And even after Mimi's interrogation, he doesn't seem to have been scared away. At least he hasn't run off yet! Mimi and Mama actually told me later that he seems like a very nice guy. :) Hopefully he'll stick around for a while.
So that was my fun-filled weekend. Sorry Sarah... my weekend sounds kinda lame compared to yours with AL and the demolition derby! But it really was a good weekend, though. And the best thing about it was... that I didn't have to work! :)

Genius? I think so...

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Above Average Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

So I'm a genius... what can I say?

I love ice cream!

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Why strawberry? And why is everybody I know strawberry? Strawberry is ok, but what I really like is Ben and Jerry's "Magic Brownies" ice cream. It is my favorite flavor lately. "Half Baked" is also really yummy. And I want to know who my "chocolate chip ice cream" is.

Well, today turned out to be a pretty good day at work today. I got taken out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday for my birthday. (We ended up not being able to go the week of my birthday and then I was off for a week, so we went today.) Then this afternoon, I ended up going and meeting a professor in the School of Graduate Studies in Clinical Health Sciences, and finally made my mind up about starting work on my Masters/PhD. And I may even be able to start taking a class as early as August! We'll see though... really I missed the deadline and they aren't supposed to be taking any more of what they call "special students", but I'm thinking they'll let me if I talk to the right people, so we'll see what happens. Oh, and also today I found out I got a raise! Yay! :D It really turned out to be a great day. But anyway, that was my day in a nutshell, and I just felt like sharing about it. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something a little more interesting to talk about? Who knows. See y'all later...

Back to the Usual

Well, I returned home from my vacation in the Smoky Mountains on Friday and went back to work right away on Saturday. :( How awful! It was hard enough coming home to start with, but then to go right back to work the very next day made it even worse. But I was glad to get back home to pick up my children (Mattie and Aubrey) from the kennel, and to remind my cats (Gracie and Bert) of who I am and that they really don't own the house. Everyone seemed to be very happy that I was home. :)

This is Bert and Gracie (right to left). Don't let the picture fool you... They're not always that sweet!

Here is Aubrey and Mattie (left to right) posing for the camera.

This is just a funny pic of Aubrey from New Year's Eve... I think she partied too hard!

Well, I promise to get better at this blogging thing and start posting more. Maybe now that I'm back to the old routine I'll find more time (probably while I'm at work!) to add stuff. Next time I'll post some pics from my trip to the mountains.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Here are a few pics from the bachelorette party Saturday night... The limo picked us up here at the house, and we had it from 8pm - 2am. We made stops at Left Field Sports Lounge, Philip's on the Rez, Sportsman's Lodge, and finally Headliner's. We had a blast!


Today is my birthday... 25!! A quarter of a century. Gosh, that's old!! But from here on, I will turn 25 every year again. I may re-evaluate the situation next year though, and see how I feel about getting older than 25, but 30 for sure is as old as I go! Overall, I had a pretty good day. Adam (this nice guy that I met a couple of weeks ago) took me out to dinner at Stix (a Japanese steakhouse), and it was yummy! It was a great time. :)

Sorry I have not been very good at posting to my blog this week. I have been pretty busy with work and partying for the 4th and then my birthday! And Friday, I am leaving to go to the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina for the next week. I am SO ready to go! So, needless to say, I will not be posting anything new next week since I will not have internet access. But when I get back I will have lots of catching up to do! See y'all next week!

Elizabeth's Getting Married!

Well Elizabeth's getting married a week from today! And that can only mean one thing... Tonight we're taking her out for her Bachelorette Party! One last big night out with the girls to say goodbye to the single life and get her ready settle down for the married life. And I'm so excited! We're going to have so much fun! We've got a stretch Navigator limousine for six hours to chauffeur us around to wherever we please. My big dilemma thought right now is what to wear... Now, the other night I went shopping at Kohl's and found 3 cute shirts and a couple pairs of pants. My favorite of the three shirts was the one that I was pretty sure I wanted to wear (pending the opinion of one other person to assure me that it was so cute!). But then I was talking to Tracey yesterday (who will also be there tonight) about what she was going to wear, and as she described the cute shirt that she bought at Kohl's, I knew it was the same as mine! Now, I can't wear the really cute shirt that I was so excited about wearing. :'( Elizabeth told me to go ahead and wear it, but then we would just look dumb wearing the same shirt out and being all together as a group. So what do I do?? I guess I could wear one of the other 2 shirts that I bought, but I just don't feel like they look quite as good on me. But Elizabeth and I are going to run to Migi's soon because they have the whole store 40% off today, so maybe I will find a cuter shirt there. Who knows. So I will post tomorrow (after I recover from tonight), and let y'all know what I ended up wearing and about how much fun we had!