Monday, February 28, 2011

Earthquake!

So apparently last night, there was an earthquake about 37 miles from my house.  It happened about 11pm and it was a 4.7 earthquake.  I slept right through it.  I am kind of disappointed in missing my first earthquake.  I really didn't know about it until I checked my Facebook this morning and everyone was talking about feeling the earthquake.  People in Fayetteville (3 hours away) and even Memphis were talking about feeling it.  I kind of feel left out.  :)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

ABCs of Me

So several of my blog peeps have done this lately, so I thought I would finally jump on the bandwagon.

A. Age: 25


B. Bed size: Queen

C. Chore you hate: Vacuuming.

D. Dogs: Not yet.  I was considering it, and then I dogsat for 3 dogs.  Not ready.  :)  Maybe if I could find one that didn't poop or pee in the floor or bite me...
E. Essential start to your day: Food!  I'm always starving when I wake up.
F. Favorite color: Pink, and sparkly.  haha.

G. Gold or silver: Silver.

H. Height: 5' 9"

I. Instruments you play: Flute, Piccolo, Handbells.  I used to be able to play piano and guitar, but it's been so long that I have probably forgotten.
J. Job title: Clinical Tech II. So now of course you know what I do, right?

K. Kids: None.

L. Live: Arkansas.

M. Mom’s name: Sheila

N. Nicknames: Jess

O. Overnight hospital stays: None

P. Pet peeve: Tardiness
Q. Quote from a movie:  Hakuna Matata

R. Righty or Lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: One younger brother, one younger half-sister, and one really younger half-brother.

T. Time you wake up: Well, my alarm goes off at 6:42, but usually I roll out of bed at 7:33.

U. Underwear: Always.

V. Vegetables you dislike: Mainly just one – Eggplant.

W. What makes you run late: I’m usually early everywhere except to work... and then sleeping is to blame.

X. X-rays you’ve had: Right hand and dental.

Y. Yummy food you make: According to my sister, I am the best cook in America.  I make some mean brownies and canned ravioli apparently.  But I like to think that I make yummy desserts!

Z. Zoo animal favorite: Giraffe. But I hate the zoo- it smells bad.

Friday, February 18, 2011

My Alma Mater- University of Arkansas

Today I'm linking up with Kelly to talk about my Alma Mater.  I can not believe that I am the first one to talk about the University of Arkansas.

I guess really you could say I have two Alma Maters, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (where I did my bachelor's degree) and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (where I did my master's degree).  Honestly though, I really only consider U of A (in Fayetteville) to be my Alma Mater.  So let's take a walk down memory lane and talk about the University of Arkansas.  I had the time of my life there.  It was a wonderful place to be and I love the town of Fayetteville with all of my heart.  I was super involved on campus.  I was in Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the Razorback band, Society of Women Engineers, Biological Engineering Student Club, Women in Engineering, and I am sure some other stuff but I can't think of it right now.  I worked part time at the library on campus for the first 3 years of college, and then my senior year I was a recruiter for the College of Engineering.  That job was awesome.  I got to meet lots of people and I think it helped me get used to talking to strangers.  :)  So on to the pictures ( I just raided my facebook for these, so there really aren't any from before my sophomore year when facebook came to our campus).
Of course we love our Hogs!  Sports are kind of a big deal.  :)

Obviously I was in the band.  I played at football, basketball, and volleyball games.  I also liked to go to the baseball games and gymnastics meets.
Bud Walton Arena- Basketball


Reynolds Razorback Stadium- Football



Baum Stadium- Baseball



The University of Arkansas gave me some pretty awesome experiences.  I got to go to some pretty neat places and do some neat things:

Winter Park, CO for Spring Break with University Baptist Church


Disney World with the band during the bowl game in Orlando



Dominican Republic:

Now this was a really neat one.  I was in the college of engineering, and our department developed a relationship with Physicians for Peace in the Dominican Republic.  We got to go there for a week and present our senior design projects (ours was an adjustable lower limb prosthesis for children in developing countries) to people in the clinic there.  P.S.  I look happy drinking out of this coconut.  Let me just tell you that was the most disgusting thing I have ever consumed.  :)

College Station, TX for a Society of Women Engineers Conference


Atlanta with the band for the SEC Championship


South Carolina for a football game



Did some crazy things:

I was in a sorority.  Obviously if you know me IRL, you might think that was pretty crazy for me.  I never thought that I would be a sorority girl.  However, I had some of my best times with my Alpha Delta Pi sisters.  Here are a couple of us buying drinks for a rush party.  Coke, Sparkling Grape Juice, and Water.  Tons of it.  I think we also went to 2 other stores after this.  :)


The UofA might be a huge school, but my department was very small.  I graduated with about 12-15 people in the Biological Engineering department.  Of course, I did have some huge 200 people classes, but mostly I had small classes with these same 10-15 people.  We got to know each other pretty well over the four years, and our senior year we started doing birthday cakes in class for everyone's birthday.  It was fun.


Of course we always dressed up for Halloween.  I'm pretty sure that all three of these costumes were pretty much last minute.  Who knew that a free blue foam Statue of Liberty Hat from a Tax company could come in handy?  And Yocum Hall, I am sorry for the silver spray paint that I may or may not have gotten all over the sidewalk behind the dorm.


This is me before a football game in Little Rock.  Apparently all those years in soccer paid off.  I can actually kick a field goal.  I mean, sure it might have been a fake one that was considerably lower.  Whatever, I was proud of myself.  haha.  And that band practice uniform was sexy! haha.


I was on an intramural sorority bowling league team.  We were the champions.  It was fun.  Let's just say that sometimes La Huerta was visited before the game.



Traditions:

This picture is also in my last post.  I love this tradition at the Uof A.  (P.S. When I was writing this, I thought of the commercials that are about the YOU of A.  I think that is the dumbest thing ever.  Please don't judge the University on behalf of those commercials.)  Anyway- back on track.  The university engraves the name of each of its graduates on a sidewalk somewhere on the campus.  It is always fun to go back and visit my name.  The ones from waaaay back in the day are actually hand engraved in the stone.  Obviously now, they are done by a machine.  The really old ones done by hand are much cooler, though.  I am so glad that they spelled my name right!


The GO HOGS spell-out.  Every football game, the band does this after the competion of its halftime show.  I think it is super fun.  Basically the announcer says give me a "G" and then they make the G. and then give me an "O" and so forth.  I'm sure you get it.  :)


The "Big A".  I absolutely love this one too.  This is part of the Pre-game show that the band does every game.  It is much harder to do than most people realize, but it was always my favorite part of being in the band.  And look at how many people are in the stands.  I never did get used to being down there in front of all those people.  Every time we did a new show, I would get nervous and forget the show right before we started.  Of course it always came back to me before we went on the field, but man it sure would be scary.
Fayetteville Arkansas

Calling the hogs!  Here is a link to the proper way to call those hogs!  This is something that you really can't explain. 


Old Main.  This is the symbol of the university.  I think it is a pretty old building.
Old Main (Home to the Community and Family Institute)

So that's a brief introduction to the University of Arkansas.  The official website is here.  I hope to see some more blogs about UofA and reading about your school!  Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Celebrate 2011 With a jasmere Code!

Do you shop on jasmere?  If not, you should!  :)  It is my favorite shopping site.  If you want to join, go here.  It is a daily deal site and there is a different product or company every day.  I have bought several things from them and I have never had a bad experience.  And the customer service is top notch!  You can choose to have the deal emailed to you every day if you like.  That is what I do.

If you see something that you like, use the code SAVE11, good for 11% off any order. Good through Feb 28, 2011 and apparently you can use it as many times as you want until it expires.

Let me know if you get any good deals!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Fayetteville

On Friday, I decided to make the trip up to Fayetteville to see my friend Lyndsey.  I wan't completely sure about the roads, but obviously I made it just fine.  The interstates were all perfectly clear- and most were practically dry.  The streets in Fayetteville were mostly clear too, except for the neighborhoods.  I must say that I was very impressed by the work of the city of Fayetteville after the snow.  Their roads were better than those in Little Rock, and they got 25 inches, as compared to our 6 inches!  Friday night, we went to eat at Hammontree's, which is a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant.  My kind of place!  :)

Saturday, we went to see the Razorbacks play basketball against LSU.  Luckily, the Hogs won.  I think we were good luck.  Here we are at the game:


Then of course we had to go walk around campus.  This is me in front of Engineering Hall, the building where my department is housed.


And of course, no trip to the UofA is complete without finding your name on the Senior Walk!!
and obviously if you are paying attention, my name is cut out of the picture.  didn't want the weirdos to know my whole name.  :)  I have a picture from last time I was on campus, but this one is much better!  I love how the University engraves its graduates' names in the sidewalks.  I think it is a neat tradition.  I even have a rubbing of my name in my diploma frame that my mom got me when I graduated.

After the game, we went to Target and then to dinner.  It seems like all of Northwest Arkansas was out and about.  Cabin fever had certainly taken over by that point.

Sunday we went to church and then I had to come home since we started back with the Women's Bible study.  This time we are doing Beth Moore's Daniel study.  I hope it will be a good one!




Friday, February 11, 2011

Snow day adventures

So after my last post, I was wondering what I should do since I had already cleaned almost everything.  I was sitting in my bed watching tv and had a huge glass of grape Kool-Aid that we made when my sister was here last weekend.  (We just made it this weekend- I did not have it sitting on the nightstand since this weekend)  :) Of course, being the graceful person that I am, I managed to knock it over before I even drank any of it.  Purple stuff was all over my bed skirt, night stand, computer, wall, and worst of all- the carpet!  I somehow managed to get it all cleaned up, but it took a while and a lot of carpet cleaning stuff.  Seriously though- how come these things always happen to me? haha I am the clumsiest person I know.

Yesterday morning I got up and did this workout video called Bikini Ready Body.  haha we will see if it works.  It was mainly a stretching video, and I can say that I am sure not as flexible as I used to be!  I have seriously neglected my exercise video collection since before I moved into this house about 10 (!!) months ago. I have kind of forgotten which ones I like, and which ones are worthless, so I am trying to go through them and decide what to keep and what to sell/trash.  I am going to try one of the old school VHS ones today.  My sister and I actually still watch a lot of VHS tapes since I have a combo DVD/VHS player and I still have all of the Disney movies from when my brother, cousin, and I were little.  Hercules is a favorite around here.

Yesterday I also walked over to my friend Mindi's house.  She lives just down the street from me, which is good because I was not brave enough to drive yesterday.  She sometimes cuts my hair for me.  I basically have the same hair cut, but only shorter and without all the split ends.  Here is a before and after shot.
 

P.S.  Don't hate- I know you don't wear makeup on snow days either.  All this dry weather is making my hair crazy!  There is some serious static going on in both of these pictures.  How do you keep your hair from looking like a crazy mess with all the dry air?

I am still planning (hoping?) to go to Fayetteville today.  I still have not recieved my basketball tickets in the mail, so that does make me kind of nervous.  The mail did not make it here the past two days, so I sure hope it runs today and that the tickets are in there.  My neighborhood seems to be completely clear, so I sure hope they get here before I try to leave.  It should get above freezing both here and in Fayetteville this afternoon, so I am hoping with all the people going back to work and the rising temperatures, that I will be able to make it.  My plan is to give it a shot, and if the roads are too bad, I will just stop and get a hotel and try to finish the trip in the morning.  The game is at 12:30 tomorrow, so I should be able to make it I think!  If I do drive all the way up there though, and I don't have the tickets, I sure hope that they will let me in based on my confirmation email.  I will be very upset if they don't!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

B.O.R.E.D

So I left work at around 8:30 this morning.  I got in 2 hours, so that was good.  I was one hour of vacation short of being able to take off the rest of the week due to the weather.  It was snowing pretty hard when I was leaving.  I made it mostly ok, but when I got off the interstate and had to cross an overpass, I must have hit an icy patch.  My car was going sideways and maybe even a little backwards.  I was pretty scared.  Luckily I didn't hit anything or anyone.  I baked some banana bread, made pepper/zucchini fajitas, cleaned my bathroom, vacuumed my whole house, mopped the floors, cleaned the kitchen, washed the baseboards and did all my laundry.  I have caught up on everything on facebook and read all the blogs I follow.  I am counting down the mintues until the Hogs play basketball tonight so that I can watch it on tv.  I am afraid that tomorrow is going to be awfully boring since I won't have anything to do but watch tv.  I am still hoping to get up to Fayetteville on Friday night or Saturday morning.  They got 25 inches of snow today.  We only have around 6 here, but everything is definitely shut down.  I'm hoping that the roads will warm up quickly.  Here is what the filling of my fajitas looked like, except that I also added some cheese and sour cream:

Any ideas for what I can do tomorrow?

Here comes the snow. again.

So I am blogging from my office.  at 6:47 am.  Normally I am still asleep at this time!  They are predicting 6-8 inches of snow for us today, which is a lot for this area.  It pretty much shuts down the town!  And guess who has 23 hours of vacation time, and 24 hours left in the work week.  Me!  So I got up with the chickens (I don't have any chickens, or even know anyone who has chickens) and came in to work so that I could get in at least an hour before the snow starts.  Last night, everyone was telling me that the snow was supposed to start in the night, but I looked on the weather channel website, and it said 8 am, so I got up at 5:45 and made my way in to work.  It looks like now they are saying 9am is when it will all start, so I am hoping to get in 2 hours of work.  The morning commute that normally takes me 30-45 minutes only took me about 15 minutes this morning.  School is cancelled and a lot of businesses are too, so almost everyone was still sleeping when I left.  I am hoping to go to Fayetteville this weekend to see a friend and go to a basketball game, and if this weather screws that up, I will be very sad.  And poor, since I will have spent $60 on tickets for no reason.  Which, P.S. the tickets still have not come in the mail, and that makes me very nervous!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Long time, no blog.

A lot has happened since my last post!

I think I last blogged a week ago, so I guess I will just catch you up from there.

Last Tuesday, I was supposed to go with my bff to look for a wedding planning book.  The plan was to hit up Barnes and Noble and Target and just spend the evening talking and what not.  Unfortunately, the snow decided to come and threaten us with icy roads.  We decided to postpone our outing to another day.

Wednesday- nothing special.

Thursday, Cherry and I did go to B&N and Walmart.  We looked through about 50 million pages of wedding magazines and picked out a cute wedding planner.  We had a very important conversation about the Bachelor and read the People magazine article about the secrets of the show or something like that.  It was very uninformative.  A fun time was had by all.  :)

Friday, by the time I was heading to work it was already snowing.  During my staff meeting from 9-11 am, my dad called me and said that the roads were starting to freeze.  I left work at about 11:30 on Friday and went home.  This was me walking to my car.  I was freezing!

 

The roads were not bad at all, but I was glad to have a half day at home.  I was very productive and I did my taxes and several loads of laundry.  Some friends and I were supposed to have a Glee watching party to catch up on some of the old episodes, but I was concerned about driving in the snow since my street is so steep.  My friend Ashley volunteered her husband to come pick me up in his truck, and so the party went on in spite of the snow.  We had a potluck taco dinner and managed to watch about 1.5 episodes of Glee.  We had fun anyway, despite the lack of Glee-watching.

Saturday, we had a 10 am birthday party.  I decided to be brave and try to drive up my street since apparently the rest of the roads were not too bad.  That was a big mistake.  I could not get up the hill, and just kept sliding around and down the road.  I ended up in someone on my street's yard.  At least I did not hit anything.  One of my friends came and picked me up for the party.  By the time we got done at the party and had lunch, the road was clear.  It warmed up to the 40's by the afternoon, and the snow melted.  I went to move my car, and I got stuck in the mud in the neighbor's yard, and I made an ugly mess in their grass.  I went and apologized and offered to buy them some grass or dirt or something, but the lady said she wasn't worried about the yard, just their sprinkler system.  I really hope that I don't have to replace part of their sprinkler system...

Super Bowl Sunday-  My Sunday School class had a Super Bowl party on Sunday evening.  I don't think I really watched any of the game.  I did, however, probably eat my weight in snacks.  We had SO much food, and I think I ate some of almost everything.  I did discover a new love for jalapeno poppers.  :)  This is what I made:






Mandarin Orange Upside down cakes and candy box caramels.

Both were super easy and pretty good.  All the caramels got eaten, and almost all of the upside down cakes got eaten.  I was very glad not to come home with too much sweet stuff, because I would eat it all!

Today is another slow day at work.  Hopefully things will get more exciting around here really soon!  And I don't have any jury trials this week either.  Jury duty so far has been really easy!  :)