leap day and year and all that stuffs.

Confession: I think Leap Day is the coolest holiday. I mean, the fact that there is an extra DAY in the year?! And it only happens every four years?! Mind blown. People always want more time so BOOM God gave us an extra day. That is just so cool to me...cooler than Christmas and Thanksgiving and 4th of July and all that. I happen to think it's cooler than my birthday.

Since I'm Irish and all that (truth), I celebrated by...are ya ready? Wearing a green shirt. Yep, I go all out. Excuse the greasy hair...off to wash it tonight.

If I had Leap Year, I'd totally watch it too.

Happy Wednesday, readers! I'm off to listen to the rain pitter-patter on the roof (maybe with a rumble of thunder ::squeal::) and spend time with the family talking about our Spring Break plans. Oh yeahhh.

school + sunshine

The weather here has been AMAZING. For serious. 60's & 70's might be the norm for some, but NC is all about crazy weather so we are loving the seasonal weather we are receiving! And like the title says, school outside just seems to be a little more enjoyable than doing it at a makeshift desk with the puppy barking, dishwasher humming, and radio blaring.

Something about the sunshine glistening off the pretty notebook and blinding white notebook paper, chasing after said pieces of notebook paper when the wind lifts it from beneath your fingertips, and the warmth of the concrete seeps through the seat of your jeans. Yes, I prefer the sidewalk rather than a chair. I am a weirdo.

Yes, I am barefoot. It was that or Christmas socks today...I chose no socks thankyouverymuch.

Happy Tuesday, readers. I hope that if you had the misfortune of having Algebra 2 to accomplish, you were able to do it outside with the birds chirping and breeze gently blowing your hair back. Oh yeah, and avoid the fire ants because I was bitten by one today. Craziness.

hello monday

{hello monday}

{hello alarm and quick snooze afterward}

{hello QT from under the covers}

{hello reading, new memory verses, 2 Peter study and breakfast}

{hello history reading [and sudden urge to watch National Treasure]}

{hello playing around on the Kindle Fire}

{hello chores & getting dressed}

{hello Anatomy}

{hello lunch & Little House episode}

{hello Grey's Anatomy break}

{hello afternoon of math [ugh.]}

{hello baking brownies}

{hello more Anatomy}

{hello weekly phone call from Rebecca}

{hello more Anatomy reading}

{hello dinner}

{hello shower}

{hello blogging & emailing}

{hello the Voice and Castle}

{hello sweet bed}

{hello monday}

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This post was inspired by the one and only Lisa Leonard. If you'd like to take part in this blogging meme, make sure to give credit where credit is due. Don't forget to link up in Lisa's comments as well!

it's the little things {link-up #7}

One of the most gorgeous and talented blogging women you'll ever met, Lindsay, started hosting a link up called "It's the Little Things" to remind us that God blesses in a not-so big ways. A whole day can turn around when I get a special little something in the mail or my favorite show is on TV that night, and it's great to document the little things God puts in our day to show us he loves us!



...visiting two coffee shops in the same day.
...having four of your favorite songs come on the radio while at said coffee shacks. And you'd better believe I sang along. What? No one could hear me, but that never bothers me...I belt out a song anywhere and everywhere I go.
...lunch dates with that guy I call my dad. He's pretty amazing.
...puppy bites. However much they hurt, the remind me that our sweet pup is acting normal again!

Happy Friday readers. I'm celebrating this rainy day with plenty of computer time and just chilling. I wish the same to you!

48 things about little ol' me

Saw this floating around the blogosphere and had to join in!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30. Ughhh.

2. How do you like your steak? I don't eat steak. Really, truly. It's tasty, but if I could have my choice of meat it would be a burger, preferably Five Guys.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Sherlock Holmes 2. Amazing movie! I love anything that Robert Downey Jr. is in, so I might be a little biased.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Doctor Who (DUH), Wipeout, White Collar, Grey's Anatomy, Last Man Standing, the Middle. Man, I watch a lot of TV.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Right here in Eastern NC. Sure, I'd love to live overseas for a season or two (namely Scotland because I am a sucker for their accent), but NC has everything: the beach, farmland, and mountains.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Nothing. Bad SA.

7. What is your favorite food? It depends on my mood and/or season. In the summer, a good pasta salad, corn on the cob, or watermelon but in the winter cheese sticks and soups are always my first pick. 

8. Foods you dislike? Mushrooms, okra, collards,etc.

9. Favorite place to eat? Chili's, Rucker John's CHICK-FIL-A.

10. Favorite dressing? None. My salads are raw veggies only.

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? I share joint custody of a 1996 navy blue Volvo wagon

12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans or a good summer dress.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Ireland, Scotland, and Africa. 

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 empty.

15. Where would you want to retire? Dude, that's a long way off. Maybe the beach?

16. Favorite time of day? Early afternoon or SUPER late at might when I'm the only one up.

17. Where were you born? Same place I've lived for all my life.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Does this need answering? ;)

19. What is your favorite fragrance? Japanese Cherry Blossom. 

20. What is your favorite face cream? Bwahaha. I am not girl enough to even consider putting on face cream.

21. Favorite baby/kids products? Considering I don't have kids, none.

22. People watcher? Are you kidding me?! It's as good as watching a movie.

23. Are you a morning or night person? If you ever wake me up, I will CUT YOU. At night I'm ready to partay.

24. Do you have any pets? A fat cat and a sick dog.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? I'm about to purchase something BIG.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher and a mom. Now I want to be a nurse and a mom of 7. I'm crazy, I know.

27. What are some of your favorite memories? Too many to name but generally just the simple things are the things I remember the most vividly.

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cat, although Bullet has swayed me in the other direction some.

29. Are you married? Yes, didn't I tell you? I'm married! Hahaha. Gotcha. What 16 year old gets married?!

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yep. I feel like such a rebel if I realize I haven't and we're at the end of the driveway.

31. Been in a car accident? Nope. Been close, though.

32. Any pet peeves? When people talk over other people, when people say "like" too much, smacking, and having a messy/ dirty house...

33. Favorite pizza toppings?Veggies. Onions and peppers, please. I'm sure my breath smells ah-mazing after I eat 3 slices.

34. Favorite flower? Gardenias or the little lavender buds.

35. Favorite ice cream? Moose Tracks. Man, that sounds good now.

36. Favorite fast food restaurants? Sonic.

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Hahaha, I just about failed my permit test. Was one question away from having to go back to the ::shudder:: DMV.

38. From whom did you get your last email? Jack. Ya'll remember him, right?

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I'd need a credit card first, but Target or Old Navy. Any online shop like Ruche or ModCloth as well.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Nope, although I do love a spontaneous event.

41. Like your job? Who doesn't like babysitting little kiddos with their friend?

42. Broccoli? A good broccoli salad is amazing.

43. What was your favorite vacation? Probably the time we went down to the beach for a WHOLE WEEK. Our vacays are three days tops so that one was extra special.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? My family. Gotta love them.

45. What are you listening to right now? The birds chirping.

46. What is your favorite color? Purple.

47. How many tattoos do you have? None. I'm a rebel, but not that extreme. I don't feel like breaking the law to go get a tattoo when I can use a Sharpie.

48. Coffee drinker? Nope. I prefer to get my caffiene in via other ways, but I do love a good mocha frap from the Coffee Shack.

So guys. Know anything about me that you didn't know before?

today we...

...spent the morning doing schoolwork. Algebra 2, I hate you. Yes, hate. Strongly dislike sounds too nice for that evil subject. Anatomy is flippin' amazing though. I can tell you ALL about the flow of blood through the heart. You know, in case you wanted to know.

...played with the puppy and got some battle wounds. A full update post needs to be written, but since the last one Bullet's been having seizures due to what we think is low blood sugar. He has been having great days lately (but not normal) so actually PLAYING with him is a rare treat. The bite marks were worth it.

...ran errands and blasted  the radio while playing Solitaire.

...ended the trip into town with a trip to Chick-Fil-A. Oh, Chick-Fil-A. I'm pretty sure I should become your spokesgirl because I can only sing your praises.Your waffles fries and special ketchup mini bottles make me drool and an ice cold Dr. Pepper to wash down a bite of their famous chicken sandwich is amazing.

Goodbye, CFA.

...jammed out to Jason Aldean + Kelly Clarkson, One Republic, and Colbie Calliat on the way home while taking bokeh pictures.

...played (more) with the puppy and watched our favorite show together. Perfect way to end the day...I highly recommend snuggling a puppy and laughing at Last Man Standing.

Happy Tuesday, readers.

happy birthday erika brooke!

I have some of the BEST friends. Seriously. I know everyone says that about their friends, but mine are amazing. God placed them in my life for a reason specific reason...each one is unique and the friendship that I have with them is even more so.

So. I couldn't let today go by without giving a birthday shout out to one of my best friends, Erika Brooke. Blog, you've met Erika before...isn't she rockin' those glasses?!

I'll answer that for you: YES, she is rockin' those glasses. And she rocks the whole teen thing even though she turned 13 today. I tell you, she's wise beyond her years. I feel like I'll talking to a person my age...and speaking of talking, we talk A LOT. Texting is a big thing with us too. We hug each other like it's been a year since we've seen each other when it's only been a week since WOL. I love hugging her beautiful neck and taking pictures of her equally beautiful face.

Basically, I love you Erika, in case you didn't know. Happy Birthday, friend!

my day in less than amazing cell phone pictures

I don't claim to have an amazing cell phone at all. In fact, mine are always the ones you get for the least amount of money when your contract is up for renewal because a new version of it came out. I am happy with it because it has amazing texting capabilities (yes, I am a teen and love texting) but hate it because the camera could be wayyy better. Yep, that's me and my phone: love/hate relationship.

However much I hate my phone/camera, sometimes is is way easier to whip the phone out and snap a quick picture. That is exactly what I did today, so enjoy just what the title says: my day in less than amazing cell phone pictures.

I woke up at 10. And had to leave the house to get to Landmark at 10:30. Made it in one piece to help raise money for camp this summer by passing out drinks.

They were just too colorful to resist.

 After we were done, I got to hang with these two birthday girls, Erika & MK.

Cuties <3

 Dad and Clark picked me up after lunch and I drove around town, running errands with the windows down. A quick stop for fro-yo and we were off again. Also, this needs to be noted: I didn't have breakfast today. I honestly wasn't hungry, so I skipped. Bad, I know. Then I was extremely hungry at the concession stand and got a hot dog with chips and cookies. AND THEN ADDED FROZAN YOGURT TO THE MIX LATER. Ah, confession of my sometimes horrible eating habits is good for the soul.

Cake batter with sprinkles and choco covered raisins. I so want more.

Brrrberry is in the same parking lot as Target in our town, so we ran in the store for Dad to get a hat and naturally, we had to try on all the goofy looking ones...and take pictures.

Hahaha. Makes me laugh everytime.

 

Excuse the face but this hat was weird in real life...HUGE and a weird texture. No thanks.

So that's the gist of my day: eating bad and taking even worse cell phone pictures.

Happy Saturday readers.  May your weekend be filled with fro-yo, cell phone pictures, and funny hats because let's face it...they make everything better.

tumblr.

So I have a Tumblr that I resurrected a year after orginally joining. I always seem to join in on the new website wayyy after everyone else has but that's OK. Tumblr has forgiven me because it is awesome...and it's getting back at me for neglecting it by sucking all my time. You win some, you lose some.

If Doctor Who and Hunger Games fangirl sthuff, GIFS, superhero & Pixar movie stills, and inspirational prints are your thing you should consider following moi because I reblogged a bunch of thing that fall into those genres. I reblog and I do it often, bombing my followers dashboard but I'm pretty sure they still love me.

Wanna follow?

i'm NOT going to be a surgeon or any kind. FYI.

Disclaimer: If you're squeamish or simply don't prefer to look at things that have come out of an animal, skip this post. There isn't any blood, but there are juices. Funny smelling juices, in fact. There is one other smell like formaldehyde but at least you can't smell through the computer. Be thankful...the second dissection aroma stayed with me for w

Dissections are a BIG HUGE part of Anatomy. I mean, it's understandable but definitely not my favorite thing to do. I would much rather watch Grey's Anatomy or House to get up close and personal with the insides of someone. But alas, I can't do that so I have to cut animal substitutes. And, naturally, I take pictures.

So far we've done a cow eye. That was better than the cow heart, but not by much. At least we had a video with the eye.

A cow eyeball is HUGE. It kinda freaked me out because it was looking at me. Not really, but still. How could it NOT see me with that big cornea. 

The eyeball with everything taken out of it. Don't ask me to name them because I can't anymore.

The retina. That was a little gross, to be honest.

The lens...looks squishy but isn't. It's flippin' HARD.

As you can tell, we were thrilled to pose with the cow eye parts. SARCASM.

Today we had the cow heart dissection. JOY. But first, we looked at a blood smear and tried (and failed. it was an epic fail) to identify the types of white blood cells.

After a quick review of the heart and where everything is roughly located, the real fun got started...on to stuffing our fingers in the veins of the cow hearts because that's how we roll.

Seriously, I messed with this thing forever and it helped SO much.

After we basically molested the heart, we cut into it. Kaley got the honor of cutting half of it.

Then, much to my dismay, I had to cut the rest so we could peek inside. In addition to being tough to saw through, we cut it at the wrong angle. Therefore, we spent an insane amount of time wondering if our cow was deformed because we couldn't find

Stopping for a picture by Mama!

Again, we are thrilled. NOT, hahaha. Kaley looks like she's about to barf. I don't blame her.

She's alive open!

So muscular! I mean, I knew the heart was powerful but no idea how small a space the blood had compared to all the muscle inside the heart.

Discussing. The heart right side is our left, so no wonder it takes a heart surgeon SEVEN extra years to become certified.

Now you know what I do at anatomy...use a scalpel. Fear me.

rebecca elise

So there's this girl. In case you couldn't tell by the title, her name is Rebecca Elise...she is known as Becca the majority of the time because we are tight like that. SHE calls ME wifey, and I call HER husband because we're basically soulmates. Hold up, SA. Soulmates is an intense word. Yes, I know. Rebecca is totally worthy of the word soulmate because SHE GETS ME. Plus, we've had the soulmates conversation over our graphic novel length emails that we send daily.

Last Friday (before the sleepover with her + Emily), I got to hang with my soulmates for SEVEN HOURS. It was totally amazing because we laid around on her bed and talkedtalkedtalked. Seriously, we didn't shut up until both our stomachs were growling. We satisfied them with cupcakes made by her older bro's girlfriend.

This is basically what we did all afternoon long. It was glorious.

 Whilst lounging on her (very comfy, actually) bed I took pictures of her art wall. Yes, she has an art wall. A WHOLE wall. Her parents are the best.

photo by Rebecca

Then I decided to take pictures from around her room because her room is JUST that cool.

Did I mention she can sing (BEAUTIFULLY) AND play instruments.

The best part of her room? A Doctor Who birthday card from her brother Luke (who happens to be way talented as well...he leads our WOL praise band). I died...but not before I took a picture of it.

If someone makes me a DW bday card, I will love them forever.

We ended the afternoon with more talking while Becca straightened her hair (an hour process which is probably why she doesn't do it ever), I went through her music library, we played Solitare on my Kindle, and she took pictures of me. Not many people do that.

Yeahhh, she's just a LITTLE gorgeous, dontcha think?

The rest of the pictures were taken by Rebecca...she's a natural!

I happen to love Rebecca a lot...thank you God for putting this amazing young woman who loves you with all her heart in my life!