High Five for Friday!

Hello everyone!  We hope your week has gone well.  Now it's time to celebrate the fact that it's Friday!

1.  Cousin Jessica and her hubs Jarrod came to visit this weekend.  They were nearby for the Alabama game and crashed at our house after a long night cheering on that other team.  It was late and they were tired, but it was so good to see them, and we were glad they could use us as a stopping place instead of driving through the night.

2.  I finally took the time this week to go to Community Group Bible Study.  Jesse has been going, and I've been studying.  But I enjoyed it a LOT this week.  Not only was it a break from the books, but it was a very insightful approach to 1 Samuel, surrounded by wonderful people.  And there were lots of laughs afterwards, which definitely made my week.

 3.  I have been itching for a Hobby Lobby trip.  In Auburn, I used to go all. the. time. to Hobby Lobby during my lunch break. (Hi Heather.  I miss Hobby Lobby trips with you!)  It all started when wedding planning, but then I discovered all of the hobbies you could have while there and couldn't stay away.  If I had a million dollars I could spend it all at Hobby Lobby, and they would love me for it.   Anyway, a few neighbors have hung some fall decor by their doors, and I wanted to show my love and welcome to the season as well, so I swung by the ole H.B. and picked up some things for a flower arrangement.  Why I chose flowers I'm still not sure... I've never arranged flowers in my life (again, new hobby inspiration due to being in Hobby Lobby), but I think it turned out pretty well. (The coloring in the picture is a bit off... it's much more fall-ish and less bright green.)  I plan to use the container again each season and change out the flowers.  It's a much prettier sight to come home to than a blank doorway.

4.  Jesse had spent the week in training courses, learning all about nuclear power.  Now I know how he feels when I come home taking about optometry school things.  Let's just say he is the one made for engineering and not me. :)  (Way over my head)

5.  Random fun fact for the week:  The lens of they eye has some of the oldest cells in the body.  In the very center are cells formed during fetal development.  New cells are constantly growing, but they just become more and more compacted around the center.  Since these cells have been with us throughout our entire lives, they can be used to determine the age of an individual.  This is helpful in identifying victims after natural disasters.  It was noticed in Alaska that Bowhead whales that were caught would sometimes have spears stuck in them that were of much older technologies than the spears we use today.  So, scientists have used their lenses to determine their age and have discovered that some whales are up to 200 years old!  Pretty cool, right?

Have a wonderful weekend!  Go out and enjoy this fabulous weather before we are bundled in coats... or back in shorts... who knows.

Perspective

Some mornings as I'm pulling out, I see the school bus come by and pick up little kids from our apartment complex.  Some mornings I have to stop for the bus, but even if I'm in a hurry I don't mind.  I love seeing the little ones with there backpacks as big as they are, dressed in their cute little-kid clothes. They look much more excited than I do about starting the day so early.  One day a couple of weeks ago, amid my stress from testing taking I had to stop for the first time for the bus on my way home.  I smiled to myself in the car because I was going to get to see the cute little girls unload excited to be home for the day.  Really, I was thinking, "those kids have it so simple.  It was so nice back in elementary, you don't have huge exams to study for and you might even get naptime."  So I stopped for the red flashing lights on the bus, and a minute later the little girl got off, her backpack slung low over one shoulder, nearly dragging it behind her, and the biggest frown on her face.
And then I realized - just because she's a kid doesn't mean she doesn't have her own troubles.  It doesn't mean her day was full of fun at school.  There I was thinking my problems were bigger than hers because my plate was full for the week, and she's just a kid.
And my problems of stress and school seem small when I compare them to what other people are going through.
But the truth of the matter is that we are all important to God, and He is bigger than all of our problems - no matter who we are.  He cares about the little girl who may have been picked on at school and came home crying.  He cares about me making it through this path that He is leading me on.  He is in control of it all, even though I'm not.  And His plans are greater than anything I could dream of.

Thanks for the reminder, Lord.

Just for Kicks

Tonight, I came across this picture on Pinterest. And laughed. A lot. 

Maybe it was because I've spent all of this beautiful day inside studying and lost my sanity, but I could not stop laughing at this.

Enjoy.

(Thankfully our Maggie is a good dog, and we have not experienced this first hand, but she surely does look guilty on other occasions.)

Yep, I'm still laughing.

High Five for Friday

Happy Friday, y'all!

1.  This past Saturday we went to our friends Jennifer and Jarrod's wedding.  We are so very excited for them to finally be Mr. and Mrs. and were thankful to be there on their big day!  They are two absolutely wonderful people that are just perfect for each other and will be even more wonderful together.
Now let's talk about her dress.  Jennifer is always dressed cute, so it was no surprise that her dress was gorgeous.  But I'm talking drop.dead.gorgeous. Every bride looks beautiful in her wedding dress, but brides have different tastes about what the "perfect" dress looks like, so I'm not gonna lie - there is usually something I can pick out that would have prevented me from buying almost every dress. (I'm surprised I found my own dress so quickly!)  Not this one.  It was perfect in every way.  I know you can't see from the pictures, but it laced up the back, fit like a glove, the material would sheen just enough in the light, the beading was beautiful, and the way the bottom draped was....stunning.  Can you tell I liked the dress?
But we love the bride and groom even more!  Congratulations to Jarrod and Jennifer for joining the married club!

2.  On a much different note, I got to dissect an eyeball this week!  A cow eye, that is. Fun stuff happens in optometry school sometimes. :)  (The bottom left is the lens.  Pretty cool, huh?)

3.  So remember the book I told you about last week?  Well, this week I got to meet the author!  She's a food blogger that I follow named Jenna.  Long story short, I found her through Instagram (via sketchy searching on my part... don't judge, you know you're guilty too).  Lots of her Instagraming consisted of inspirational verses that were part of a devotion on the Bible app that some of her friends had made a website for to encourage women to go through this devotion. (see SheReadsTruth).  I'm almost to the end of the first devotion, however there was such great response through social media that they are continuing on to do more devotions together. (Cool right?  Social media for the Good.) Well, turns out she has gone to culinary school and is now a food blogger that shares great recipes with the world.  Also turned out that she just wrote a book and was coming to Birmingham for a book signing!  So I ordered a copy and planned to go.  She's a pretty cool gal.  I talk like I know her, but I really don't. That's the fun part of the blogging world.  There are so many inspirational women (and men) out there sharing their stories and passions, and you as readers can become a part of it in a small way.  It's like free advice or inspiration on any topic you're interested in.  The book signing was a fun experience.  I had never been to one before, and it was neat to hear the author herself read an excerpt from her book then share her story with us. Jenna was really sweet and you can tell that she is still humbled by the whole fact that her dreams are coming true!

4.  I filled out my desk calendar for next month and we have a [much needed] fall break coming up!  However, the two weeks before that (aka the next two weeks!) are insane.  All prayers are welcome during those weeks!

5.  Every Wednesday an on-campus organization hosts a speaker in the medical field and gives us free lunch.  This week was free Chick-fil-a and a gynecologist telling us about his mission work in Africa and how God changed his heart to even do that kind of thing.  It was some great inspiration during a tiring week.

How was your week?  Don't be shy to share some of your highlights!

While you are all out having fun this weekend, think of me.... sitting at my desk... studying my little heart brain out.  LOL

High Five For Friday [Belated]

***Sorry this is late. I had it all typed up and forgot to post it!***

What's up, world?

Not much around this neck of the woods. This week has been quite a stressful one, full of studying and not much else.  I certainly hope your week has been better!

I seriously don't think 5 fun, cool, exciting things happened this week, so let's see if we can come up with something for High Five for Friday...

1.  I made it through my test yesterday, and didn't think it was tooooo bad.  Someone in my class said this week, "every week in optometry school feels like finals week of undergrad - without the relief of it being over."  True that, true that.

2.  I got my copy of this book this week. (When I will have time to read it, I'm not quite sure yet.)  There is more about this book that is important for next week... so stay tuned!

3.  We made another trip to Steel City Pops this week.  Half because they were having customer appreciation day and $1 off pops, and secondly because I needed a treat after making it through my test yesterday. :)   They have a few funky flavors like Strawberry Balsamic which I tried this time and it was delicious!

4.  I picked this up at Target yesterday.  I've been wanting to try an eyelid primer, especially on days that I wear eye shadow to see if it helps keep it in place.  This is also a brightener, which I thought I might could use now that I probably look tired all the time. LOL.  We'll see how I like it.

5.  We are leaving today headed back home for our friends Jarrod and Jennifer's wedding!  We are SO excited that are soon to be man and wife.  They have been together nearly as long as we have (forever!), so we are glad  they are finally getting hitched!

A Few of My Favorite Things - Kitchen Edition

You all know that cooking is something that happens pretty frequently around here.  (Less my doings lately, and more Jesse's.)  To save money and our waistlines we prefer to eat in instead of out most nights. Kitchen gadgets that make life easier (or just more delicious) are such wonderful inventions that I thought they are worthy of a post.  I love to browse through kitchen stores, and if weren't for Jesse's logical thinking I'd probably have so many random kitchen gadgets.  You know, they make something for everything, and often times it's just so darn cute.  When we did our wedding registry at the earthly-heaven-of-all-things-home store (aka-Bed, Bath, and Beyond) we spent (no lie) almost 3 hours just in the kitchen section of the store!  We made sure we were going to get things that we would really use and that would last a long time. (Half of that time was probably spent talking me out of things...) By no means do I think these items are true necessities for the kitchen, but they are ones that make me smile and make cooking a little more fun.

So, here they are in all their culinary glory:

Numero uno has to be our KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer! This has to be the one I'm most thankful for.  Is it normal for a girl to dream of owning a Kitchenaid mixer?  'Cause this one did.  I use this fairly often, and not just for desserts.  Snap on that whisk attachment and you can make the creamiest creamed potatoes ever. Mmm.... And the dough hook is fabulous - it does all the kneading work for you for most breads! (As I linked this item from Amazon I noticed the current price. Do NOT pay this much for a mixer.  They are expensive, but you can frequently find sales.)  Now, if you've already got one of these, then you need to get one of these:

Best attachment ever! (Thanks to Heidi for mine!)  It wipes everything (batter, cookie dough, whatever) down the side of the bowl and you barely have to stop to scrape the sides down. Genius!

If you do anything that requires mixing and pouring, a batter bowl is where it's at!  Plus, they come in all different colors and designs and are super cute.  This is definitely my go-to mixing bowl!  Makes me sing "here is my handle, here is my spout."  Moving on...

An ice cream maker! This is definitely not a "necessity," but it is so fun to use.  We made so much ice cream the summer after we married (and still no extra belt holes for Jesse... if that doesn't work I don't know what will).  We've made several flavors of ice cream - vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, blackberry- and a couple of sorbets. I'm definitely making myself hungry with this post.  I didn't even know this fancy electric ice cream maker existed.  I thought they all required ice and rock salt.  Not this one - you just freeze the inner bowl and take it out when you're ready to churn!  Again, genius!

This KitchenAid vegetable peeler is awesome!  I grew up with one of these

and let me tell you, compared to it, the Kitchen Aid one works wonders. (It could have been the fact that mom's vegetable peeler was as old as me, and therefore had seen better days.)  It takes off just the right amount of peel - not so much you feel like you're not going to be left with a carrot once you're finished, but enough that you don't have to go over the same place twice.  I even gifted one to my mom to replace the one pictured above. :)  You can usually find these at TJMaxx or Ross for cheap.

A slotted spoon.  After we got all of our wedding gifts we gave away lots of kitchen stuff that we didn't need anymore.  Somehow that involved getting rid of Jesse's old slotted spoon, but we never got another one.  I know that sounds funny, but I remember looking at serving sets in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and other places and thinking they all seemed too fancy or something, so we never bought one.  Every time I would cook peas or beans I would think, "I'm tired of fishing these out of the pot. Why don't I have a slotted spoon?"  So, when I came across a deal on some daily-deal site for the Knork serving set (pictured above) I jumped on it. Not only was it a great price for a good-quality 5-piece set, but they match our silverware almost perfectly!  (You can't tell in the picture, but our silverware spoons are very deep, and they are matte finished instead of shiny... kind of hard to match.)  I really didn't care much about the whole set, although nice to have, I was just excited over the slotted spoon.  And isn't it the cutest slotted spoon you ever did see?!

I told you... I have some weird connection with kitchen gadgets.

These are the ones that came to mind for me.  What are your favorite kitchen tools?

High Five for Friday!

I hope you all have been having a good week!  Nothing too fancy going on around here, but here are the highlights!

1. Top of this week's list is a baby-holding session!  Our friends Mike and Kelsey brought a beautiful baby girl into this world a few weeks ago and we finally got to meet her this week!  I always forget how tiny (and fragile seeming) new babies are.  To hold a new little person in your arms is such a precious, humbling thing.  I know what half of you are thinking about here- "when are you going to have kids?!," to which my reply would be unless you want to come and care for my child while I go to school then it's gonna be a few years. :)  In the meantime I will just enjoy holding every else's babies!

2.  I heard one of my favorite songs on the radio this week.  I know, I know... we live in the land of ipods and MP3s and I could just have it at hand to play over and over and over again, but I still enjoy the thrill of a song you love randomly catching the airwaves.  This plays on the radio by the David Crowder Band, but it was written by a guy named John Mark McMillan, who I got to hear while at Auburn.

3.  Three Optometry school organization meetings this week meant 3 free lunches.  Can't beat that!

4.  I finally got our recycling organized!  We try to recycle as much as possible, but it's just piled up in random boxes lately and was not very easy to take to the recycling center that way.  This week I "installed" some bins on our balcony/porch and added some cute labels. :)  Organizing trash probably shouldn't make a person this happy...

5.  A few things I learned this week (top left, clockwise):  how we see colors, all about the anterior chamber and how aqueous humor exits it, how the cornea is optically clear, the refractive power of the cornea and why you can't see clearly under water!  It's been an interesting week, huh?

We hope you all have a great weekend!