Have you caught the cabin fever?

cab·in fe·ver

noun

informal

noun: cabin fever

1. 1.

   irritability, listlessness, and similar symptoms resulting from long confinement or isolation indoors during the winter.

   
   

   Alright y'all,

   
   

   I don't know what the rest of the world has been up to, but I have been laying in my bed for the majority of the last two days. Apparently Snowpocalypse 2013 has decided to decend upon Fayetteville, just in time for finals. As I make my way through the elbow-swingin' terror that is Walmart 'pre-storm', I immediately regret making the venture out. I don't know why people feel the need to stock up on so much bread but too each his own. If I was going to be snowed in for days possibly without power, I'd much rather eat Jelly Beans and chips and salsa. Thankfully, no power was lost and the weather seems to have stopped for the most part, but it's still too freaking freezing for me!

   
   

   Now, back to the finals. Eight more tests stand between me and Christmas break, aka three weeks of sitting on my butt and doing absolutely nothing. Lemme tell ya, after this semester, I deserve it! And that wash't a typo, 8 tests in 9 days…LOL. Not too mention about half of my grades are borderline, excuse while I drop off the face of the earth and move into the library, feel free to send prayers and coffee

   
   

   Back to the cabin fever, I'M GOING STIR CRAZY! Up until a few hours ago, I had been stuck in Trideezy since Thursday morning. I think it was mainly the fact that I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted that was making me nutty. Last night ended up turing into a fun night when all the girls still in the house played Heads Up, an incredibly fun app like the game HeadBandz, in front of the fire. The lovely cooks left some eggs in the fridge for the weekend so I woke up to a lovely omelet made by Monica this morning, nomz on nomz. Then, as my sanity reached a boiling point, my awesome brother offered to drive down in his basically tank to come and pick me up, always there to save the day! 

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

My own version of the Lion King

So I bought a new sweater yesterday and I'm in love with it. Soft. Comfy. Perfect length. Perfect colors. You name it, it's awesome. Too bad I got a hole in it this morning. Except for...THE HOLE WAS FROM A BABY LION!! That's right, homegirl got to play tug or war with a little cutie this morning. Where you may ask? The Gentry Wildlife Safari Drive Through Zoo. Aka the best thing ever. Going to Africa is still my top "real life lion king" experience (because it actually was), but they don't let you play with their lions out there and they could also eat me so I don't know that I would have wanted to. So today, not only did I get to fall in love with Kova and Kiera but I saw a baby kangaroo and all the usual zoo friends and then ended the trip by riding a camel with my nephew. How was your Sunday?

Then just when I mentally prepared myself to spend the next 12 hours doing homework, of course Mother Nature decided to through a wrench in my plans. I got out of the car to go to the library and of course the weather was insanely beautiful and I just knew I couldn't stay inside. Thankfully, one of my amazing littles was free so we decided to cruise up to Devil's Den to go hike for a little bit. The views always get my but my oh my with the leaves changing. BAM. Serious take your breath away type material.

A REAL LIFE JOEY

My new obsessions

Reid attempting to feed the giraffes

me and a horse just horsing around

I'm going to pretend he's giving me a hug and not trying to rip my sweater

nature rocks

never ending 

Happy Fall Y'all

Welp, it's been a while. Days, weeks, months have come and gone and it all seems like a blink of eye. To say this semester started off a little rough is probably the understatement of the year but don't worry, I'm still kicking;) Speaking of kicking, nursing school has been definitely kicking my butt. My day to day consists of class, study, eat, sleep then repeat. Thankfully I've started to become way more adjusted so I get to toss more funsie stuff in there. Speaking of adjusting (segways on segways!), I've had to do quite a bit of that myself these says besides just school but trust me, I'm working on it (slowly but surely). Now to catch myself up on everything that has happened since school started would probably be close to impossible but I have some pics so don't fret.


A few things I can catch up on, my beautiful family! So in addition to the two fantastic parents, three amazing brothers, two sweetheart sister in laws, two chunky nephews, and two perfect pup dogs, I now get to add one darling little niece and one more on the way! Thankfully, I got to meet baby Quinn just a few days after she was born and I just wanted to hold her all day she was so adorable. It makes me even more excited to meet baby Sloan in February. And the nephews...keep getting cuter and cuter. Its almost embarrassing how much I talk about them but I can't help it, they're just little bundles of joy!

My school kind of rocks

my gamma chi girls during recruitment!

PC 11, some seriously foxy ladies

typical first day of school pic

the sibs

so blessed to call this family mine

the little booger, marshall

my little tri delta family

My nursing school babes on the rare occasion we're social

great day to hike at devils den!

nature is just too cool

oh just hanging out with Dale

baby quinn

Gameday with the roomz

Fall is cool too

Those overalls though

For sale sign finally hit the yard

A little fall break MCKLAPROCK reunion

Color Vibe 5K

My favorite pup picture

dark hair don't care: Delta Airline edition

Just hanging out with the Blue Man group...

Even though we see each other just about all day everyday, somehow we haven't killed each other yet!

That's all I can mange for now but maybe if I get back into the swing of posting, I won't have so much to catch up on!

To be continued

Where to even begin? I just got home from the craziest most incredible two months in awhile. So much happened that even trying to organize my thoughts is quite the challenge. I went into my job as a TA for NSLC expecting to have some fun, interact with some cool high school kids and see San Francisco. Boy, was I wrong. Yes, I did do all those things but I did so much more. As much as I thought this job would be about the kids in all of the sessions, I feel like I benefited more from the entire summer than they did! I’ve never had so many boundaries pushed (again and again and again).  I can’t even remember the person I was when I arrived on campus and I think that’s for the better. I’ve grown as a person in more ways than I’m sure I’ve noticed and I feel more like myself than I have in a long time. I’ve realized its my imperfections that make me who I am and there’s no use tying to change them. I’ve learned to take risks again and roll with the punches, enjoy life as it comes. In the words of Blaken “embrace my inner weirdo.” Speaking of Blaken, now its time for my lovey dovey I love my staff family rant. I remember the very first staff meeting when the site director Jason told us we would love the job and everything that comes along with it but the real bonus was the people you get to interact with on the staff. Let me tell ya, he was completely right. I’ve never been so positively affected by a group of people ever and they’ve definitely become my NSLC family. I was trying to think of a quirky way to describe everyone (I got nada, the whole emotional sobbing thing is really getting in the way of my attempted humor). The best I’ve got is MTV throw back of Real World: NSLC, where people stop being polite and start being real. The only difference is we were never not polite and we were real from the get go. OH maybe it took a few days of warming up to each other but I’ve never worked in such a genuine, quirky work environment with such kind-hearted and sincere people which of course led to such incredibly organic friendships that I’m hoping last a long time.  I guess that’s what happens when you spend basically all day everyday (and nights for that matter if its de-reg day!) together. I noticed the kids would get all “sappy, crying, miss you bffs” after 10 days and I always thought it was so neat, but I never quite picked up on the fact that that was happening to me the whole two months. It makes me think of that song “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”. Except, I sort of knew what I had but it didn’t really hit me how cool and neat it was till I had to leave. A truly stinkin awesome experience. Will my journey with the NSLC be over? Only time will tell but I sure hope not!