continued

So my to be continued continues…..

Had an interesting thought last night… Phil and I were watching a part of a movie that involved the military and I asked him if he had ever considered enlisting… One of my great friends and past roomie is now a member of the military and is overseas currently. I am so proud of her and what she does but yet part of me wonders if I could ever handle something like that… Boot camp and being yelled at and forced to do pushups… etc…. I just don’t know if I have it in me to handle something like that…. Although I have to admit I consider enlisting every time I think about how much debt I am in from school…. I keep thinking about how they can help me pay for school and I was told by a recruiter that they would pay off my debt because it was acquired over three years of medical school in return for enlisting for 3-4 years depending on just how bad it was…. Its kind of a tempting offer but then again I wouldn’t start until after graduate school which already puts me at 30yrs old and then throw 4 years of military on top of that and we are talking 34yrs old and I would like to have already started a family by that point not just starting to settle down and make a life for myself…..  But yet again money is a scary thing and you have to have it to survive and I would like to have some to support this family that I want one day and getting rid of all that debt is still super tempting…. Can you tell I’ve put some thought into this?.....

Anyway The boss is back in town and you better believe she has assigned homework for us hahah Guess its back to the old grind and 9-5 days hahah Oh well it could be worse… at least I like my job and what Im doing which is always helpful…..

I can’t believe its already August…. It seems like 2012 is flying by and especially the summer portion of it…. I’m just not ready for winter yet…..

Edon Daze were this past weekend… kinda sad to have missed it… I used to love all the random town events like breakfast at the firehall… truck pulls… ice cream social by the band… basketball tourneys and kids games and sidewalk sales… you see everyone and their brother there and it was nice to be reminded just how small of  a town you come from occasionally… The fair will be in September and if Phil and I don’t find one to go to around here you better believe Im coming home for the Williams County Fair hahaha I love silly fun stuff like that….

Ok that’s enough for right now I need to get back to work….. just needed a minute in my own head but now its back to science I go…..

Life's happenings

I know I am doing a terrible job keeping everyone updated this summer but I'm trying I promise......

Here goes the newest thoughts and updates

So.... Where to begin... Work is going well.... I have been getting a lot accomplished which is always good... I feel productive anyway... The boss has been away for a month so it's been kind of lax hours which will make it hard to get back to normal next monday but I guess I gotta suck it up now that Im a big girl with a 9-5 job haha. I finished all the controls for the circadian experiment I was working on with my collaborator from Chicago. Now I just have to start writing the paper we are hoping to get published based on the results...  We have a new post-doc in the lab now and he is going to be working on real time PCR with me starting Monday so we will see how that goes... I am not taking classes this coming fall because of Antarctica but Im thinking about sitting in on a biochem just so I know whats going on when I take it in the spring.... Im such a weirdo... I might be doing my seminar this semester instead of next too since i can't take classes. Hopefully it goes better than last time and I dont sound like a conceited bitch which evidently is how I came across last time even though that wasn't my intentions.......

speaking of Antarctica... Im getting more and more excited the closer it gets but it also gets more and more terrifying... I dread spending all the money on the warm clothes but at least I should be able to use some of it for caving and hiking with Phil after I get back.... Thats another big part of the fear.... Leaving Phil.....I dont like the thought of it at all... Its not like Im expecting him to go running into the arms of another girl, I think I know him better than that but Im just not liking the idea of being away from him.... The more nights we hang out and the more mornings we wake up together the more I fear not waking up to him or seeing him when I get home at night... I love him so much and Im not looking forward to being away from him for 8 weeks.... We were talking about it the other night and he was getting sad and I couldn't help but change the subject because i just know that if I see him upset Im going to break down and lose it... Ive been so good about not crying or thinking sad things but if I saw him sad I wouldn't be able to hold back... I already know I will sob like a small child at the airport but Im going to put it off for as long as possible which knowing me means it will get harder and harder the closer we get to that time..... I hope he doesn't realize it was easy to live without me by the time I get back....

Which leads me to Phil and my's newest adventure..... house hunting.... He has set it in his mind that he wants to buy a house... We looked at a few in Oxford but they were crap so then he started looking into Ross and Hamilton ohio.... I dont mind living a little farther from Oxford since right now he is driving 40 minutes to work each day, it seems only fair that we split the distance.... Im not gonna lie though I will be sad to leave oxford commons... I love my little apartment and my huge closet and the work out center and the closeness to the school. But Im pretty sure I can adapt. The way I figure it Ill just claim the spare bedroom for my closet haha and as far as working out goes I think it might even make me more disciplined... I might start going to the gym at like 7:30 every morning so I can work out til 8:30 then still get to work by 9 since the gym is on campus and I doubt a ton of people will be there at that time in the morning. Then I can get my workout in before work and then when 5pm rolls around I can head home to spend the evening with my baby. Its kinda interesting though looking for a house... I mean its not exactly how I imagined it but Its not bad either... I dont know what I imagined really but I guess I always imagined moving directly into a house I was going to build a family in but that isn't really practical the more I think about it... Neither of us are in a financial position to buy a house like that... I never imagined searching for my "starter home" but thats definitely what we are doing. We even found a cute little two bedroom that would be a good size for us to get started.... I dont know if its the one we will decide upon or not but I can tell he is super excited about it which makes it easier for me to get excited about it... I kind of was hoping for a small dining room or a big enough kitchen for a 6 seater table just so i can have people over and cook for them but I don't know how realistic that is either.... Phil is amazing when it comes to construction and stuff like that so I have no doubt in my mind that  even if we bought some crappy little joint he could make it amazing for us... Really when I get to thinking about it I dont care where we live because I know that the two of us would make it a home.... We have enough love for each other that the home would be filled with love and no matter what it would be ours and we would make it perfect..... I think its more important for us to be together than where we are together at..... Any house could become a home... but I get more excited about house hunting the longer we do it.... If it hasn't already I bet something perfect will fall into our laps soon.... Or at least I hope so......

I can think of a few more topics but I need to get ready to leave for Phil's parents house... We are headed to a Sugarland concert down at Riverbend tonight so Ill try to update the rest this weekend....

God Bless

amazingness

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2012/07/27/in-the-basement#.UBMaba6lnaR.facebook


this is an amazing post i suggest you all read

First time caver!!!

Talk about a crazy weekend… I gotta tell you about the craziness of my first caving experience… 

So Phil took me to KOR this last weekend (Karst-O-Rama) down in Kentucky. On Thursday night we got there and got the tent set up and hung out with some people before the rain started. Friday morning we get up and head out for Millers Cave. Phil’s cousin was leading a group there so Phil was tailing the group so of course I stayed second to the end so that he was always there to keep an eye on me. Let me set up this view for you… I have coveralls on over my layer of under armor, knee pads to protect me, and a bright yellow helmet with a light on it which makes me look just like a coal miner hahah… so anyway we get there and hike up the side of a mountain to get to the cave entrance. So by this point I am petrified beyond belief and my heart beat is a million beats a minute but I think I did an ok job not looking crazy scared hahaha. So we get in and the first thing we have to do is army crawl… forever… ok not forever but it’s a long way and Im thinking “oh god what if we get to a point where I don’t fit” well anyway I did and sure enough eventually I make it out to the other side and am officially in the cave now. The cave was kinda cool but I was so busy paying attention to where I was going and not falling or not dying that I didn’t spend much time looking around. I worked my butt off trying to keep up. I thought I got stuck once but Phil calmed me down and told me how to make my shoulders fit better. This calmed me down a lot… Then there was this crazy hole where phil just spider manned his way up but they had to pull all of the rest of us up since we couldn’t pull the same act he had just done… By the time all was said and done 4 + hours later I was exhausted and convinced that I wasn’t a fan and wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it again on Saturday….
Saturday morning came and I woke up petrified yet again of what the day would hold but I sucked it up and told myself to put on my big girl panties and deal with it… So we head out for day 2…. A new cave and let me tell you about this crazy drive… all the roads here are po-dunk little back stone country roads and then all of a sudden we pull off this currently crappy road on to what they call the “goat path road”  It is only as wide as a single vehicle… you have to have 4 wheel drive and it has brush growing down both sides and puddles the size of creeks across them…. It takes quite a while and a lot of good driving to eventually get to a place where we had to get out and walk the rest of the way because the road was washed out…. This is a real road that is actually on a map… you wouldn’t even believe it…. I’d have trouble getting a crappy 4 wheeler up this road…. Anyway we get out and head into the cave…. I was warned that it was a wet cave and I would be getting soaked…  so we get in and I decide to follow Phil’s cousin so that way I don’t have time to get freaked out haha… There was this crazy long passage that was super narrow  but we were going so fast I didn’t have time to worry about it… I was jumping over obstacles and propelling myself through some areas and crawling through water and squeezing through areas and for once I felt like the spiderman of this relationship hahah. I was really proud of myself…. Anyway we get through that and we take a minute to relax on this big hill in this big cavern and we all layed down and shut off our lights…. Its crazy how dark it was… you don’t realize what dark is until you have done something like that… you keep looking for light or looking for some speck of light or you start seeing what you think is something when there really is nothing but pitch black…. It’s the coolest thing ever… I just couldn’t get over it and your eyes don’t adjust eventually like they do in a dark bedroom or closet… you are just in blackness… it was sooo amazing… so anyway we eventually get up and moving again and we are wading through water waist high in places and im climbing up stuff and exploring and was even leading for awhile…. I found ways to climb up without assistance… I was climbing on ledges and up through holes and under rocks… I tested my body in ways I didn’t know was possible… It’s funny what the body is capable of when you make it do stuff you don’t think you can do… at one point I was climbing up these rocks to get into a secret formation room and I fold a hand hold, pulled my leg up past my known flexibility and pulled myself up with my arms until I was up then proceeded to do it again from a smaller ledge with a smaller foothold and I managed to get up there yet again…. Then again and again I kept surprising myself… I even found a way to climb down something by pushing my back up against one wall and walking down with my legs pressed up against an adjoining wall…. I didn’t know I could that….   And since I wasn’t freaking out this time I actually stopped to look around and let me tell you…. It was beautiful… the formations in the caves and the waterfalls and the shapes and colors of the rocks…. You wouldn’t believe how gorgeous it is when its normally in complete darkness…. The stalagmites and stalactites were just gorgeous and I was fascinated and drawn into it all…. I was officially hooked I think at that point right before we decided to turn around and head back out…..  By the time we saw sunlight again I was exhausted but it was sooooo worth it!!!

Saturday night we hung out, had dinner, and phil took me up the main cave there. Its just a tourist cave that you can through in shorts and sandals but it is still a gorgeous and very large cave… there is this thing they call signature alley and it is this tight passage where past workers and cavers have signed their names into the wall… you aren’t allowed to anymore because its considered a historical place but if you try real hard you can find this picture of a well drawn bird which is the signature of someone famous…. I’ll leave you in suspense as to who drew it but its amazing…. Phil even ended up buying me my own new red helmet and bright helmet light and I bought a red cave suit to go with it…. I do believe I’m officially a caver (don’t tell my mother haha) and I guess that makes us a caving couple hahah….  How many people can say that hahah….

So anyway a rough start led to an amazing weekend and a new fun hobby. Oh and I found out later that that first cave is considered one of the hardest “intermediate” caves that there are and a lot of people were amazed that that was my first ever cave…. Maybe ill have to go back and tackle again so I can say I defeated it unafraid…..

I still have a lot to learn but Phil is a good teacher and my next big thing will be carrying my own backpack hahaha

Random off subject side note: while I was gone my friend Teresia got engaged to her boyfriend Christopher!!! I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED FOR HER!!!! Congrats again T!!!  Love you tons!!!!

July

So now it is well into July! Birthday Month!!! Hahaha I love birthdays… not just mine but everyones hahaha. Im a nerd but I know my sister Jenni is just like that too so I’m not the only one. So lets get caught up shall we?

Last weekend Phil and I headed to Cumberland for the weekend to hang with his family on the lake. We took our sweet time getting there stopping for random shopping trips and just took our time but eventually we got there and hung out around the campfire that night. Saturday we went out on the boat all day and I got fried hahah Im already peeling from it. Come to find out Phil is quite the water skiing champ and I got to witness it first hand. He said he will teach me too which should be interesting hahah. Saturday night his family surprised me by celebrating my birthday!!! Mom and Dad got me an awesome 6qt crockpot and an amazing set of new measuring spoons for me. My sweetie got me the 50 shades of grey book and his sister got me the other two parts to that series. We even had a yummy dessert which they put candles on. I was so surprised but super excited!!! Sunday morning we went fishing and caught 4 fish!!! Pretty good for a beginner like me I thought!!!!! Phil was a great teacher!!!

Had a flat tire this week that was a pain to deal with but oh well… Take everything in stride I guess!

Last night Phil got off work early since he went in early so we decided to go try out Frisbee golf… It was actually pretty fun since we teamed up rather than competing but I had a great time and it gave us a chance to get outside and explore some… It was a great date night.

Heading home this weekend!!! My niece got married in Ireland a week or so ago and her reception is Saturday night so I will get to see the whole family which Im excited about. Phil should have met almost everyone by now but in case we missed anyone they should be at the reception.

Summer is going way to fast…. I need it to go ahead and start over hahaha

Next Thursday we leave for my first caving experience!!! Guess who is excited…. This girl!!!! Phil took me to get my ‘caving suit’ and he bought me gloves and there are only a few more things we need to figure out. We leave Thursday and cave Friday and Saturday then we come home Sunday morning and Phil and I have another concert Sunday night…. Talk about a busy couple of weeks hahaha

Live it up I guess… we are only young once!!!

Peace and love

past to future

I had a funny idea cross my mind this morning and I thought Id share it with you all. So as Im walking to my car this morning I realized how life changes without you realizing it. So every morning I get up and go for a run as Phil goes to work. We leave the apartment together and kiss goodbye and I head to the gym and he heads to work. As I threw my bag in the car to go to work today I realized that I used to throw my bag into the car to go to school.  I remember how incredibly excited I was to finally have a drivers license. I remember going to pick up my friend Teresia to go for the inaugural drive. She had taken me for one on county rd G when she got hers so I picked her up for mine.  It was incredible. Then school started and I drove to school every day often going faster than I should most of the time. I’d park in my designated spot and walk into the school feeling like I owned the place because now I could drive hahah. Now I don’t even think twice about getting up in my own apartment, cooking my own breakfast with food I bought at the grocery store or farmers market, brushing my teeth in my bathroom or heading to work in my car… What a grown up thing to say right? I went to work today…. I mean Ive been working since I was little. I babysat until I was 16 then I immediately started waiting tables which I did until a year ago just to support myself. Some summers I had multiple jobs working at the hospital and the diner or working at the bees and running the school phone system, odd and end jobs here and there just to put myself through school and pay my bills but now something feels different. I wake up to the man of my dreams. I put myself together and run in the morning. Head off to work and come home around five. I cook dinner and eat with Phil before settling down for the night. Sometimes going out to play with him or sometimes hanging out in the reading chair working on my latest novel. Whatever it is it just feels different now. Phil and I talk about houses and rent and mortgages and car payments and gas prices and politics and stuff I used to think was all grown up nonsense. Ive always paid my own car payments and insurance and stuff like that but yet it feels different now… Isnt that the strangest thing?

We went to a wedding this past weekend with his cousin getting married. I caught the bouquet and I couldn’t help but think… She gets to throw this thing to me and she never has to think about catching one ever again… She will wake up tomorrow morning married…. I wonder if she feels different at all or if the happiness just continues forever…. Its just something kind of fun to think about I guess….

Everything I do on a daily basis now…. Will I look back at it ten years from now and have the same conversation with myself that I had this morning… Will I have kids and a home and a husband and will I walk to the car in the morning carrying a sleeping child to take to daycare and look at my car and laugh and say… wow I remember when it was just me coming to the car in the morning and driving to work after waking up at that tiny little apartment in oxford.  Hahahah who knows…. Maybe one day this will all seem like a distant memory just like getting my drivers license seems like it was a lifetime ago…..

Check back in ten years and Ill let you know hahaha

God Bless

Its been awhile, sorry

Hey all... I hope this post finds you well and happy and healthy and loving life!

Sorry it has been since the 5th when I last updated... You know how life goes.... It just is hard to keep up with sometimes... so lets see.... 
Nothing much happened with the end of that week. Phil's uncle had a birthday party that Friday so we got to see a lot of the family on his dad's side that night which was nice!
then on Saturday we went to a Detroit Tigers game in Cincinnati and of course Detroit won!!! it was funny because we were cheering for different teams and even the lady next to us got a kick out of watching us never cheering at the same times hahahah But my boys didnt let me down and we won!!! Verlander must have known I was coming because he shaved hahaha Phil was a good sport considering I oohed and aahhed over Justin Verlander for the entire game ahahha

How cool is this I got the ball in midair

I was pretty excited about this photo not gonna lie hahaha
We went to this church festival after the game and I got to see fireworks which of course made me happy and Phil won be two adorable bears at the carnival games hahah. Love him....

 That night was another concert night in our summer series so we headed to riverbend to see Jarrod Niemann, Chris young and Miranda Lambert

Jarrod is the bottom picture and I didn't have any awesome ones of Miranda to post but I have plenty pics of the concert on my facebook so feel free to check it out there! Some are very blurry... I really need a new camera and a few lessons on photography but hey I don't try to impress I just wanted the memories for one day when im too old to remember that Phil and I went to a million concerts in one summer hahahah maybe my lack of talent will improve with age and one of these days ill be awesome at photography hahahah (not holding my breath)

So anyway Concert was amazing and then on Saturday morning my mom and dad came to visit me!!! I was incredibly excited to have them here since they haven't seen the apartment all decorated and finished!!! It was so fun to show them the place and to have them stay with me. Phil got kicked out for a couple days but I figured he could stay with parents since it was fathers day weekend anyway hahaha. Saturday night we went to a party for Phil and his house and my parents met his ENTIRE family (both sides) and everyone seemed to get along great which is definitely a blessing!!! Will make the future much easier for us both hahah
Sunday morning I made a huge breakfast for us and we went to church. Dad was excited to see where I go to church here and I think he really liked it and the priest which was cool. I think he feels better about me living here now hahah Then sunday night I made a huge Fathers day feast with grilled malibu chicken, squash and zucchini, rice, and even an array of desserts for  him. Phil and his mom joined us and I thought dinner went well! Everyone said they liked it so maybe I am getting pretty good at this whole domestic housewife thing hahaha I love learning to cook though and I think i am getting much better at it now that I buy only fresh foods.
If it can go bad its good for you if it can't go bad in a week it isnt - awesome words to live by. So i dont eat any fast food and i avoid processed foods like its my job so now its a lot more fruits veggies and proteins.
Anyway I gotta get to work now
I will finish updating you more soon

peace and love