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| how amazing are those candles?! |
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| the girls |
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| my wedding date foreverrr |
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| Knoxville girlz |
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| oops |
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Mr & Mrs McPheeters!
A few weeks ago, one of my closest friends and confidants in pharmacy school, Chelsey, married her groom, Josh. And I must say... it was a great wedding! The ceremony was soo sweet and beautiful and maybe even made me shed a tear (even though I don't cry.. ever) and then the reception was just a down right good time.
In true pharmacy school fashion, everyone from around their state made their way together which was so much fun! We don't get to all be together very often anymore so we pretty much be sure to make the most of it when we are. One of my favorite things about the wedding was all the homemade sweets Chelsey's mom made. There was a sweets buffet with cute little goodie bags to take things home in. I'm going to need every wedding I go to in the future to have one of those too. The groom, Josh, doesn't like sweets (I knooooow) so he had a groom's cake made out of Jimmy Johns sandwiches which was pretty darn awesome also.
The night may or may not have ended in Cook-Out after the above picture. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better night with great friends and I'm so happy for Chelsey and Josh! Chelsey and I are hoping we can have a joint 2nd honeymoon with the husbands when we go to Thailand in December/January. Don't worry... we had separate honeymoons the first time :)
Sunday, July 13, 2014
4th of July
Welllll.... it's been a really long time since I've last made a blog post. But I keep reminding myself that the whole reason I wanted to do this in the first place was to remember some of the fun things we have going on in our life that I don't want to forget. So I'm just going to jump back into it and see where it goes this time.
This past 4th of July was a big one for us. It was Darren's first 4th of July in the USA! Even though we've been together for around 5 years somehow Darren has always avoided this splendid holiday. Maybe it's because of the fact that it's a reminder of our independence and dominance of his motherland? Nevertheless, Darren actually got really into 4th of July this year.
We met 2 of my college roommates and BFFs and their boyfriends in Tybee Island, GA for the long weekend. It was a blast! I have all of July off from rotations and Darren is still legally unable to work (must be nice) so we decided to extend our vacation and spend the night before in Savannah since it's only about 20 mins away from Tybee. Spoiler alert: I LOVE SAVANNAH. I already want to go back. I found a Groupon for an old hotel right on the river and it was amazing. Our room was upgraded and absolutely beautiful. The hotel was an old cotton exchange and it had so much history and southern charm. We spent our time in Savannah eating amazing seafood and walking all over the gorgeous city.
We met Candace on Tybee Island Thursday afternoon and watched fireworks on the beach that night. Then we "stayed up" waiting for Chelsea, Nathan, and Garrett to arrive from Nashville. Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the beach and didn't leave until that night. Amazingly, this was also Darren's first time "going to the beach". Obviously he has been to beaches before and has been to way more places around the world than I have but he had never just gone the the beach to hang out all day. We had so much fun playing in the ocean, playing ladder ball and spike ball (a new one to us, but really fun!). Chelsea and Candace brought lots of USA decorations for our beach area and it was so cute and festive. Saturday was basically a repeat of Friday except it decided to rain in the afternoon and get really windy (RIP tent) so we headed back to our condo a little early.
Sunday we packed everything up and headed to Nashville to pick up our pup. Our 7 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive but we got home safe and sound. I feel so blessed that we were able to spend quality time with 2 of my best friends and especially that our significant others all get along so well. It was just a really fun and happy weekend that I'm so happy we were all able to make happen despite our busy schedules. Can't wait until next time :)
This past 4th of July was a big one for us. It was Darren's first 4th of July in the USA! Even though we've been together for around 5 years somehow Darren has always avoided this splendid holiday. Maybe it's because of the fact that it's a reminder of our independence and dominance of his motherland? Nevertheless, Darren actually got really into 4th of July this year.
We met 2 of my college roommates and BFFs and their boyfriends in Tybee Island, GA for the long weekend. It was a blast! I have all of July off from rotations and Darren is still legally unable to work (must be nice) so we decided to extend our vacation and spend the night before in Savannah since it's only about 20 mins away from Tybee. Spoiler alert: I LOVE SAVANNAH. I already want to go back. I found a Groupon for an old hotel right on the river and it was amazing. Our room was upgraded and absolutely beautiful. The hotel was an old cotton exchange and it had so much history and southern charm. We spent our time in Savannah eating amazing seafood and walking all over the gorgeous city.
We met Candace on Tybee Island Thursday afternoon and watched fireworks on the beach that night. Then we "stayed up" waiting for Chelsea, Nathan, and Garrett to arrive from Nashville. Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the beach and didn't leave until that night. Amazingly, this was also Darren's first time "going to the beach". Obviously he has been to beaches before and has been to way more places around the world than I have but he had never just gone the the beach to hang out all day. We had so much fun playing in the ocean, playing ladder ball and spike ball (a new one to us, but really fun!). Chelsea and Candace brought lots of USA decorations for our beach area and it was so cute and festive. Saturday was basically a repeat of Friday except it decided to rain in the afternoon and get really windy (RIP tent) so we headed back to our condo a little early.
Sunday we packed everything up and headed to Nashville to pick up our pup. Our 7 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive but we got home safe and sound. I feel so blessed that we were able to spend quality time with 2 of my best friends and especially that our significant others all get along so well. It was just a really fun and happy weekend that I'm so happy we were all able to make happen despite our busy schedules. Can't wait until next time :)
Monday, October 28, 2013
The Sweet Life
Life got a little sweeter now that this goof ball is back in Knoxville :) Especially since it's for almost a whole month. The next time he comes back will be FOR GOOD. He'll be trapped in America.... mwuahahaha.
Chelsey and I also found out we were accepted to present a research poster at ASHP Midyear in Orlando in December. Excellent news but now lots of work to do.
Definitely thankful to have these two in my life :)
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Fall Weekend in Michigan
Note: I started writing this 2 weekends ago when I got home but have just now had time to finish it. I blame pharmacy school and my incessant allergies.
Last weekend was a whirlwind... lots of traveling, spending time with friends and family, laughing, drinking, not sleeping, and having a great time. Here's how it went:
I went to class Friday morning in Knoxville until noon and then drove to Nashville. I flew to Detroit with my friend Jake. My parents let me use some of their southwest points for a free flight so it made sense to just fly southwest out of Nashville with Jake. We had a mild panic attack on the flight because we were sure we would miss our connection in St. Louis... luckily our other flight was delayed a few minutes too so we made it! We were not happy about the idea of being stuck in St. Louis and not seeing our friends. When we got to Detroit our friends Andy and Danyelle were there waiting for us! I have known Andy since elementary school and he just got an awesome job as an engineer for GM (yeah, he's kind of a genius). Danyelle is Andy's girlfriend that also happens to have an internship in Michigan this semester. Andy gets to borrow a new car from work every once and awhile and this week he had a beeee-u-tiful Cadillac CTS (i think?) coupe. While it wasn't fun for the 4 of us to take turns getting in and out of the back all weekend it was such a fun car to have. We took a little tour around downtown on the way home which was pretty cool. Then we stopped and went to a bar in Royal Oaks. I'm still not really sure what kind of area that is but it was super fun and the bar was really cool. After awhile we made our way back to their apartment where we continued our antics and I "taught" everyone a card game. It was a little rough explaining the rules but we all had fun and ended up staying up waaayyy too late for our 6:20am wake up call.
After about 2 hours of sleep, we woke up and got ready to head to East Lansing for the Michigan State football game! Andy let me drive the car that morning which I was really excited about at the time but in hindsight I think I got tricked because it would've been nice to sleep. Funny story, when we got there I accidentally got out of the car, walked away, and left it turned on! That darn thing doesn't have a key and it's soo quiet that I just got confused. We tailgated with my parents, my Uncle from Idaho, and my Aunt and Uncle that live there (and all of their usual tailgating friends). The tailgate theme was Oktoberfest- which meant lots of bratwurst and some reuben dip I could've eaten with a spoon. It was fun having my family and their Michigan friends be entertained by my southern friends' accents. My favorite tradition of the tailgate is when everyone takes a shot of Crown before leaving for the game... I wish we did that at every tailgate I went to! The game was alright but it's really the tailgate that was the best. It was the perfect day to walk around Michigan State's campus so that's what we did for a little bit after the game. I got to hear "this is where we did this, this is where we did that" from my parents. It was sweet! I can only imagine how I'll be going back to UT's campus- but I don't have to worry about that now because apparently I'm on track to stay foreverrrr.
After the game a nap was more than necessary. We were in rough shape from our lack of sleep and activities. After narrowly dodging a flying bicycle on the interstate on the way home we basically collapsed. I'm still shocked that we somehow managed to make it out to dinner. We went to a super cute Mexican restaurant but were still feeling a little pathetic. Somehow we made the biggest recovery known to man and decided to go out in downtown Detroit. We went to a bar called the Detroiter and watched a little Tigers baseball. We were the only people in the bar not wearing tigers or redwings outfits. I think we had signs over our head saying "We're from Tennessee y'all". But we still had fun there. It was a good sports atmosphere, clearly. Then we went to a bar/club that was nothing like I've ever seen before (and I lived in Memphis, people). Most of the time there is a parking lot next to a little bar. Well on Saturday nights in Detroit this parking lot turns into a full out dance club/rave with a DJ and all the necessities. Just in the middle of a parking lot. It was weird... and soo crazy. We went up to the third floor of the bar and pretty much just watched people doing crazy stuff in theparking lot dance club all night. People watching is the BEST. We weren't quite crazy enough to join in on that scene.
Sunday we were LAZY. Once we all finally woke up Danyelle, aka my hero, went out and got us bagels for breakfast. Jake and I then sadly packed up our things and we all headed to the airport. On the way we stopped at a BBQ place that had the best ribs I have ever eaten in my life. Slow's BBQ my friends. If you're anywhere near Detroit (no jokes about running away) then do yourself a favor and go. I can't even put into words how perfect they were. It's also just a really cool restaurant in general. It had 50-some beers on tap and the design of the place was awesome. I made everyone go to the bathroom after I went just to see how cool they were. We also couldn't even figure out how to get into the place because it has this cool wooden door with kind of a hidden handle. A homeless lady walking by had to tell us how to get in (true story).
We were soooo sad to leave Michigan. I really had one of the most fun and crazy weekends I have had in a long time. Thanks Andy and Danyelle for having us!!! I had to arrive in Nashville and drive straight back to Knoxville and start studying for an exam I had in a few days. That was a fun welcome back. But at least the next weekend I was headed to the smoky mountains with my pharmacy fraternity and that ended up being pretty darn fun. But more on that another time....
Last weekend was a whirlwind... lots of traveling, spending time with friends and family, laughing, drinking, not sleeping, and having a great time. Here's how it went:
I went to class Friday morning in Knoxville until noon and then drove to Nashville. I flew to Detroit with my friend Jake. My parents let me use some of their southwest points for a free flight so it made sense to just fly southwest out of Nashville with Jake. We had a mild panic attack on the flight because we were sure we would miss our connection in St. Louis... luckily our other flight was delayed a few minutes too so we made it! We were not happy about the idea of being stuck in St. Louis and not seeing our friends. When we got to Detroit our friends Andy and Danyelle were there waiting for us! I have known Andy since elementary school and he just got an awesome job as an engineer for GM (yeah, he's kind of a genius). Danyelle is Andy's girlfriend that also happens to have an internship in Michigan this semester. Andy gets to borrow a new car from work every once and awhile and this week he had a beeee-u-tiful Cadillac CTS (i think?) coupe. While it wasn't fun for the 4 of us to take turns getting in and out of the back all weekend it was such a fun car to have. We took a little tour around downtown on the way home which was pretty cool. Then we stopped and went to a bar in Royal Oaks. I'm still not really sure what kind of area that is but it was super fun and the bar was really cool. After awhile we made our way back to their apartment where we continued our antics and I "taught" everyone a card game. It was a little rough explaining the rules but we all had fun and ended up staying up waaayyy too late for our 6:20am wake up call.
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| THE jake face makes an apperance |
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| Andy showing us around his city |
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| reunited! |
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| Royal Oaks |
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| My riiiide |
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| MSU is beautiful! |
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| best tradition ever |
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| Noon games won't stop the four of us! |
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| You can take the UT alumi out of TN but you can't take the TN out of us! |
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| mi familia |
After the game a nap was more than necessary. We were in rough shape from our lack of sleep and activities. After narrowly dodging a flying bicycle on the interstate on the way home we basically collapsed. I'm still shocked that we somehow managed to make it out to dinner. We went to a super cute Mexican restaurant but were still feeling a little pathetic. Somehow we made the biggest recovery known to man and decided to go out in downtown Detroit. We went to a bar called the Detroiter and watched a little Tigers baseball. We were the only people in the bar not wearing tigers or redwings outfits. I think we had signs over our head saying "We're from Tennessee y'all". But we still had fun there. It was a good sports atmosphere, clearly. Then we went to a bar/club that was nothing like I've ever seen before (and I lived in Memphis, people). Most of the time there is a parking lot next to a little bar. Well on Saturday nights in Detroit this parking lot turns into a full out dance club/rave with a DJ and all the necessities. Just in the middle of a parking lot. It was weird... and soo crazy. We went up to the third floor of the bar and pretty much just watched people doing crazy stuff in the
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| a mere "super burrito" |
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| this really doesn't come close to doing it justice |
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| aww... best friends! |
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| Andy in front of his world HQs |
Sunday we were LAZY. Once we all finally woke up Danyelle, aka my hero, went out and got us bagels for breakfast. Jake and I then sadly packed up our things and we all headed to the airport. On the way we stopped at a BBQ place that had the best ribs I have ever eaten in my life. Slow's BBQ my friends. If you're anywhere near Detroit (no jokes about running away) then do yourself a favor and go. I can't even put into words how perfect they were. It's also just a really cool restaurant in general. It had 50-some beers on tap and the design of the place was awesome. I made everyone go to the bathroom after I went just to see how cool they were. We also couldn't even figure out how to get into the place because it has this cool wooden door with kind of a hidden handle. A homeless lady walking by had to tell us how to get in (true story).
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| Slow's! |
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| there are no words... |
We were soooo sad to leave Michigan. I really had one of the most fun and crazy weekends I have had in a long time. Thanks Andy and Danyelle for having us!!! I had to arrive in Nashville and drive straight back to Knoxville and start studying for an exam I had in a few days. That was a fun welcome back. But at least the next weekend I was headed to the smoky mountains with my pharmacy fraternity and that ended up being pretty darn fun. But more on that another time....
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Not much time to blog lately as life has been carazay! Sometimes I wonder if it will ever slow down... I'm thinking not any time soon but that's OK. If I'm not doing four things at once I feel like I'm being lazy. Here's a little bit of whats been going on in my world.
Two weekends ago I went to Nashville for my friend Jordan's bridal shower and bachelorette party. It was an awesome weekend! It was so much fun to catch up with all my high school friends again. I wish I took more pictures but the shower was soooo cute. It was Breakfast at Tiffany's themed and everything was adorable! It was the perfect day to spend all afternoon outside. Saturday night we stayed at a hotel and went out downtown. I also got to fulfill my high school fantasy of riding in a hummer limo. We had so much fun! I can't go to Jordan's wedding because of my Michigan weekend but I know she's going to be sooo gorgeous!
I packed up my bags Sunday and headed back to Knoxville. This week flew by with studying for an exam on Thursday. We picked out our final rotations and found out our entire schedule Friday (more on that later). Before I knew it was the weekend again! Thank goodness! Both of my brothers and a bunch of pharmacy friends came into town for the weekend and we had a blast. Saturday we had a day full of tailgating before the Tennessee/Georgia game.
I still can hardly think about that game. Absolutely heartbroken. However, it was one of the most fun games I've had in Neyland Stadium so I can't hate on it too much. We were just soo close! I hate that Darren had to miss out on that game too. He would have embarrassed me by how excited he got but we would've had a great time. And win or lose... we looked good in those uniforms! I'm definitely a huge fan of the smokey gray and hope we see it again soon. Head to toe it was awesome!
I am now procrastinating starting to study and doing laundry. My parents are going out of town this week and Peter couldn't take Bawse so I am now a puppy sitter this week! I'm so excited to have the little guy with me. Gracie on the other hand is not so excited. I did not know cats could have facial expressions but Gracie does... and she is pissed. They get along pretty well though, all things considered. Time to force myself to watch Clin Lit lectures.... :(
Two weekends ago I went to Nashville for my friend Jordan's bridal shower and bachelorette party. It was an awesome weekend! It was so much fun to catch up with all my high school friends again. I wish I took more pictures but the shower was soooo cute. It was Breakfast at Tiffany's themed and everything was adorable! It was the perfect day to spend all afternoon outside. Saturday night we stayed at a hotel and went out downtown. I also got to fulfill my high school fantasy of riding in a hummer limo. We had so much fun! I can't go to Jordan's wedding because of my Michigan weekend but I know she's going to be sooo gorgeous!
I packed up my bags Sunday and headed back to Knoxville. This week flew by with studying for an exam on Thursday. We picked out our final rotations and found out our entire schedule Friday (more on that later). Before I knew it was the weekend again! Thank goodness! Both of my brothers and a bunch of pharmacy friends came into town for the weekend and we had a blast. Saturday we had a day full of tailgating before the Tennessee/Georgia game.
I still can hardly think about that game. Absolutely heartbroken. However, it was one of the most fun games I've had in Neyland Stadium so I can't hate on it too much. We were just soo close! I hate that Darren had to miss out on that game too. He would have embarrassed me by how excited he got but we would've had a great time. And win or lose... we looked good in those uniforms! I'm definitely a huge fan of the smokey gray and hope we see it again soon. Head to toe it was awesome!
I am now procrastinating starting to study and doing laundry. My parents are going out of town this week and Peter couldn't take Bawse so I am now a puppy sitter this week! I'm so excited to have the little guy with me. Gracie on the other hand is not so excited. I did not know cats could have facial expressions but Gracie does... and she is pissed. They get along pretty well though, all things considered. Time to force myself to watch Clin Lit lectures.... :(
Friday, September 27, 2013
Make this right now!
I promise you this will be the easiest, most delicious football food you have ever made. I'm talking about buffalo chicken dip, people! I have never met anyone who has tried this and not become instantly obsessed. It's the perfect mix of creamy and spicy and not to mention incredibly easy to make. Without a doubt, this will be present at any tailgate or football watching party with my friends. It's become synonymous with football and we all take turns making it.There are a lot of variations of this recipe but my favorite is a recipe from my friend Tommie Jo (shoutout!)
Buffalo Chicken Dip
1 large can chicken
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup Frank's Buffalo Hot Wing Sauce
1 pkg cream cheese
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Mix everything but shredded cheese together then slowly fold in shredded cheese. Put in 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until bubbly. Best served with Fritos!
See, I wasn't kidding-- it's that easy! And I didn't say it was healthy :) And definitely don't use any sauce other than Frank's. It's a DAW1 for all my pharmacy peeps. It just has the perfect flavor for this and I promise it really isn't very spicy at all. Here's a few pictures of the process. It doesn't photograph very well but that's not high on my priorities for tailgate food.
In other news this baby had her yearly vet visit to get her shots and we found out she needs to go on a little diet! So that's going to be fun... She's really not that huge (about 10 lbs) but since she's only two we don't want it to get any worse. They told me how much food exactly to give her and it's really not much different than what I have been giving her but hopefully the small change will make a difference. We're headed to Nashville this weekend for one of my friend's bridal shower and bachelorette party!
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