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!

Has the world stopped moving?

Nope, but it sure feels like it! My first NSLC session ended on the 3rd, which means break time! Those 10 days were some of the most exhausting, crazy, emotionally straining days EVER but completely worth every second. It was so weird how in only 10 days, I became so attached to the little preshies in my group (give or take one or two). It's definitely going to be weird having to do the whole thing over again with three more different sets of kids but I can't wait.

My first day off involved a lot of sleeping (we basically had to stay up the whole last night so no one could get into crazy shenanigans) then a nice dinner at somewhere other than the dining hall for once. Yesterday was the 4th, so of course I wanted to go into the city. We made our way to Dolores PArk and hung out for a little bit, then went all-american and got ice cream at the Bi-rite Creamery which was worth every bit of that 3 dollars. The hills KILLED me, I definitely got my workout in (for a year). My calves were on fire this morning when I woke up. After walking up hills on hills on hills on the appropriately named "Hill Street", the group headed over towards Union Square which was crazy busy with people. It reminded me a lot of Times Square but it was prettier. After a quick dinner, we walked towards the piers for fireworks and of course they were gorgeous but when are fireworks ever not? So I've crossed a few things off my San Francisco bucket list but I still have a few more things to do! I really want to go check out Golden Gate park and all of those shenanigans and Santa Cruz and Napa. Hopefully I'll knock a few more off the list next break!

Ropes Course Round One

The stinkin Bay Bridge

Some of my little nuggets at pier 39

Sloth Face

Giant bubbles? Alright

Da speedy sloths

Plaidurday Saturday

such a great place to hang out at fishy whart

I'd love to make a living scaring people