Happy Birthday Traci!!

Instead of being the typical friend and mailing my friend Traci a birthday card I decided to dedicate a blog post to her birthday plus she's one of like 3 people that reads this blog. (It may also be that I forgot to mail a birthday card, but that's not the point-instead the point is how really awesome of a friend that I am).

My friendship with Traci started in high school. It started out as me being scared of her (like most people who meet her because she's intimidating) and eventually we became friends (I'm not exactly sure how this occurred). Throughout high school we hung out a lot whether it was sports, school, church or just hanging out at one of our house we had a lot of fun. She also became apart of my family and my dad refers to her as his favorite daughter. Once she left me for college we still hung out when she was home or I would go visit her. I also started a tradition of staying with her the weekend of her first home indoor track meet so that was always fun.

I'm really glad that we've stayed friends when we both went off to college and that we've kept in touch. Whenever we hang out it's like we haven't been apart for too long and we can quickly catch up on each others lives. I'm very blessed to have her as friend.

Now here are some wonderful pictures that I could find on my computer of our friendship.

Happy 24th Birthday Traci (you're getting pretty old)!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Sunday

On Sunday we also slept in since driving to and from Brookings wiped us out. We then headed back to my grandparents and had lunch. We then got to work on making a family Christmas tradition of cookies-that I don't know how to spell.

After making the cookies we also set up my grandparents Christmas tree (we're getting really good at this) and then we hung out for a bit at my grandparents before we each headed back to school.

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Saturday

Earlier in the week my mom got the idea for us to go to the SDSU playoff game and my dad, Carina, and I also thought that was a good idea (Isaac's a loser-which should explain everything). So we decided that we were going to go.

We got up early for the 4.5 hour drive to Brookings and also used our experience from the previous day and dressed up even warmer. We arrived to SDSU and were greeted by Kris at the family and friends of the players tailgate. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the Shafrath's and Pratt's at the game and even better that the jackrabbits won and are moving on to the next round of playoffs.

I had a lot of fun at the game and really enjoyed the atmosphere. It reminded me a lot of high school football in that way that everyone seemed to know everyone. It may have just been because I was around the players friends and family so they all knew each other.

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Friday

On Friday we woke up and headed to Ames for the ISU game. It was going to be a cold one so we tried to put on as many clothes as we good as you can tell from Carina in the picture below looking so (not) stylish.

While we were outside tailgating it wasn't too bad or cold. Then my mom and I went to our seats on the hillside and were sitting on the ground and not a lot of people were around us and we got really cold. We were planning on leaving the game early anyway because we were going to Beauty and the Beast so we decided to call my grandma at halftime to see if she would be ready to pick us up and found out that she was actually on her way to Ames already to shop and such until we were ready to go. So my mom, Carina, and I headed out from the game and she picked us up.

It's strange that the ISU regular season is done. I will miss going to the games on Saturdays and it's strange not knowing where I will be next football season so I don't know if I will be able to watch the games at Jack Trice.

After the game we headed to a few stores in Ames to do a little shopping and then changed our clothes in the Starbucks bathroom, which was an adventure in itself. Then we headed to Ankeny and ate before heading to Beauty and the Beast at the Civic Center.

Beauty and the Beast was great and I really enjoyed watching it. It was really similar to the movie and so I knew all the songs and were able to sing along (in my head of course). It was also longer than I expected it to be, but the time just flew by. They really did an amazing job with the performance!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Thursday

For Thanksgiving we headed to my Grandma and Grandpa Albers house for festivities. After stuffing our faces with tons of delicious food the family headed to a farm to go shooting. It's become a new found love of my family to go shooting at events such as camping or whenever we're all together. I've never actually shot a gun, so this year was a first for me. I found out that I am too weak to hold the gun for very long and I didn't actually hit the clay, but I at least shot it. Here are some pics from the fun:

After the shooting adventure we went back to my grandparents. My cousins Alicia, Brooke, mom, and Carina all played the Game of Things and had a lot of fun. It would have been a little better if halfway through the game more people didn't come and listen to what we were saying, but it was still a good time.

After that people started snacking some more and then started to head home. We stayed for awhile because I wanted to watch Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Hallmark channel, but part way through the movie my dad reminded us that he had to work in the morning so we headed home. I made it home in time to watch the ending so that was good.

Thanksgiving 2012 was a successful one I will say. It was a little disappointing not going to the Hanson side as well, but we will get to see them for Christmas so that will be great!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Wednesday

I'm going to do a little recap of my Thanksgiving break the rest of this week so I hope you enjoy it. These next few posts will probably be my last until after finals, but I'm not for sure.

I had class until 4 on Tues. and headed home after that. I didn't do too much at home that night so that's why I'm not really including it.

Wednesday I got to sleep in, which is always welcome. Then I ate breakfast and attempted to do a little homework. I didn't really get anything done [and that was the only amount I got done while at home]

In the afternoon my mom made us put up our Christmas tree. Last year we ended up not putting one up, which was fine with my siblings and I, but not my mom so she made sure we did it over Thanksgiving break this year. I'm not really sure why we aren't a fan of putting up our Christmas tree, but none of the 3 of us really like it. It may be some suppressed event in the final.

Then I went with Traci to her church for their annual Thanksgiving potato bar. I've gone with her either the past 3 or 4 years we really couldn't remember. This year the potatoes were extra good so it was a wonderful dinner. After eating we went to her church's Thanksgiving service. After the service we headed back to her house.

I helped Traci make snicker salad with her mom and then we just chatted for awhile. It was great to catch up since I haven't actually talked to her in quite some time. We also got scared by a little mouse that was in her house. We probably should have tried to give it a cookie, but instead tried to set a trap, which didn't work. After chatting for awhile I headed back home and went to bed.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday:

• Woke up and went to get my haircut
• Went grocery shopping
• Did some homework
• Courtney came over and we carved pumpkins

• After carving we went with some people from intervarsity to worship at the barn, which was at the simpson barn in johnston. It was a great time they sang some "typical" worship songs and then also did some blue grass ones so it was a great experience. There were also tons of cute little kids so they were fun to watch dance around and worship!
• After worship the intervarsity peeps went to perkins for some food. I sat at the end of the table with Emily, Katie, Matthew, Courtney, and Mandy and I loved chatting with them. I have missed just hanging out with all of these wonderful people so it was really nice to just talk about random things with them!

Saturday:

• Woke up and ate some breakfast
• Did some homework 
• At 3 left and went to Ames for the ISU game
• Hung out at the Hampton tailgate and talked with some peeps before going to the game. I sat with my grandpa and really enjoyed the game. Even though it was cold outside it was nice to watch the cyclones win and they played really well!

Sunday:

• Woke up and went to church with Sarah and Josie (a DG new member) it was a great sermon as usual
• Came home and did some homework
• Went to CiCis pizza with Ken, Wade, and Erin and did a little shopping at the dollar tree
• Did more homework once I got back home
• Watched Erin carve her pumpkin with a drill and she made polka dots all around the pumpkin

Fall Break

So a couple of weeks ago (Oct 12-16th to be exact) I was on fall break. I love fall break at Drake. It comes right after midterms and halfway through the semester when I am just ready for a break. I wish that it was a full week (like Creighton) instead of just Monday and Tuesday off, but it still much better than a lot of other schools get so I'll take it.

I don't have class on Fridays (the first and only time for this pharmacy major) so I went to work Friday morning, then out to lunch with some DG alums at Exile Brewing in Des Moines. It's a newer restaurant and was really good. I had the pesto chicken salad sandwich and fries. Their fries are seasoned with some herbs and were AMAZING (at least to me). Then I headed to DMU to take part in a simulation lab. Each P3 pharmacy student has the opportunity to go once. We work with DMU med students and some nursing students to treat a "patient" their is a lead physician who is the voice of the patient and we treat the patient like it is a real person and try to diagnosis and treat him/her. It's hard to explain, but it was a great experience. I was really overwhelmed because we hadn't learned some of the information related to the case yet (we just learned about it yesterday), but it was still really interesting. It showed me how much work I still have to do to apply information that I learn in classes and can get right on a test to a real-life situation.

After sim lab I went home and got my stuff packed in my car and then Carina stopped at Ken and Wade's so we could drive home together. After we got home we hung out around the house for a bit before her roommate Brooke came to our house. We then ate supper with my mom, dad, Carina, and Brooke and had some good family chats. Then the girls all decided to go to the high school football game. We didn't get there until right before half time and were only there for about 30 minutes when it started storming so the game was postponed for a bit. We decided just to go home since we didn't want to sit out in the rain.

After we got home I gave instructions to my mom about our tailgating dish (I read her the directions from the blog post online) and chatted for a bit and Carina's other friend from college Sarah came over. We then all went to bed since we had an early morning football game to go to. We headed to Ames, tailgated and then us college kids sat in the student section. I'd never sat in the student section at an ISU game so it was a new experience for me. It was very similar to any other student section and I had fun even though ISU lost and it was kind of rainy for the beginning of the game. After the game we headed to Isaac's frat for some food (it was family weekend) and got a tour of the frat before we headed back home.

Saturday night Carina showed her friends the great town of Hampton before Sarah headed home. Then Carina, Brooke, mom, dad and myself went to a comedian at our church. He was pretty entertaining. Not the funniest ever, but not too bad.

Sunday we went to church and then hung out around the house and I did some homework, watched a movie, etc.

Monday we helped clean a family friends house and did some more homework and then I Tuesday I think I pretty much just hung out some more around the house.

I really enjoyed being home (like usual) and I wish it was longer, but o well it was still a great break. Now I'm finally getting back into my usual school routine so that is always good as well!

Haunted Forest

Today I was in Ames to give flu shots at ISU during the day and then I stuck around and studied a bit while Isaac finished classes and such. Then Isaac, one of his friends (Will), and I went out to eat. We went to a mexican restaurant in Ames and then we hung out for a bit before going to the Haunted Forest.

I've always wanted to go to the Haunted Forest in Ames, but I never have anyone to go with. The friends that I've asked to go all say no. I believe I've also asked Isaac in the past and his usual answer is no. This year though I decided to try again and I was surprised when he said yes.

So we traveled to the Haunted Forest and got our ticket and waited in line. As we were waiting in line we discovered we were the only people over 14 in line. I told the boys that this was going to be so much fun and it would be a blast. They weren't so sure.

We finally entered the forest. It really wasn't that scary since I don't think we were the target audience. We ended up pretty much just going for a little walk through the forest were we had a few people pop out at us, scream at us, talk to use, or follow us with a chainsaw.

Overall, I'm glad I did it because I've always wanted to. I don't think it was probably worth the $11 we paid, maybe $5 would have been more appropriate. If you ask Will or Isaac though I'm sure they will tell you that they had SO MUCH FUN ;)

Catch Up

Well I seem to be doing lots of catch-up posts lately so sorry about that. I'm not going to say that I will for sure start blogging regularly, but I will try to more consistent for the rest of the semester.

Here is what I have been up to since August when school started.

• I go to school everyday, but Friday. I'm usually pretty busy with school related things and tend to have a least 1 test and 1 quiz each week if not more than that (hence the lack of blogging)
• So far my classes have been going pretty well and I'm enjoying the majority of my classes as well
• I've started looking at rotations for next year. I'm for sure going to Alaska for my ambulatory care rotation and I'm also looking at doing a rotation in India, possibly for the FDA, and some at a variety of other locations throughout the country, but mainly in Iowa. It's crazy that I'm starting to actually look at rotation!
• I've been watching Iowa State games and have gone to 3. My grandpa has actual seats this year and I got to sit in them for 1 game, but was on the hill for the other 2. Iowa State has been playing pretty well so far and the games have been really packed so it's been a lot of fun. Hopefully they will pick it up after last game and win some more games so it's a little better to watch!
• I went home one weekend and ran a 5k with Traci and Halie. Traci and I also made an appearance at a high school football game where Deb and Aaron met us. It was great to catch up a bit with all of these people and running was fine as well I guess.
• I've started going to "study tables" with a group of my pharmacy friends. That is what we are calling it where we go to each others houses and study on Sunday evenings. Depending on what class we are studying for it tends to be more just eating and chatting and less studying, but it's a lot of fun. I'm glad that I have this small group of girls to keep me sane during some parts of pharmacy school.
• I'm a leader for KQ (Sunday School) and Powerlife (confirmation) this school year. It's a lot of fun so far and I'm leading a great group of kids. 
• Lutheran Church of Hope is currently doing an all church study on The Story. It's been really great so far. The sermons, all children's programming, and adult studies are doing topics based on the weeks reading. So far I've really liked it especially since I'm doing it with all different age groups. I love looking at each story for a little bit different perspective.
• I went to the movie Pitch Perfect on Tuesday and it was amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone. It's hilarious!
• I've been doing quite a bit so far this semester for my pharmacy experiential hours. I'm doing some hours at an ER so that is really cool to be able to see what a pharmacist can do in an ER setting. Also I gave flu shots for the first time yesterday and I'll be giving some more on Friday and Saturday.

Ok that's all I have for now and can remember doing this first month and a half of school. If I remember any other highlight I will be sure to share it, but I don't think there was much more since I mainly just go to school and work.

The Iowa State Fair

On Extreme Sunday Courtney and I went to the fair. We didn't spend too much time at the fair because we both aren't super into fairs. We saw the main things and ate some food. It was good to see my favorite things and skip the things I didn't really care about.

We started out by going to the Varied Industries Building and walked around. We also made sure to get some cookies. We ate them so fast that I didn't even think about taking a picture of them.

Next we hit up the lemonade stand and also got some cheese curds.

Our journey then took us to the agricultural building where we waited in line for a while to see the butter cow, butter snow white and the 7 seven dwarfs, and evil queen.

Next we had to try out the double bacon corn dog that we had heard about. I had heard from a few different people that it wasn't that great, but I still wanted to try it. They were right. It wasn't very good-I would rather have a normal corn dog, but was glad I tried it.

We found the Big Boar and Big Bull and some other random animals as we walked thru the animal barns.

After that we were pretty much done with our fair experience so we headed back to Courtney's house and our 2012 Iowa State Fair Experience was complete!

Book Update

I'm sure you all love my book updates so here's the latest. Also this time I tried to include a little description of the book. I'm not super good at these so if you're interested you should probably just click the link and read the real one. All of these were really good books and I would highly recommend reading.

The Forever Marriage by Ann Bauer

This book is about a wife who never really loved her husband while they were together. She was cheating on him thru most of the marriage. He dies of cancer at the beginning of the book and the rest of the book explains their relationship and her life and she is starting to realize how much she misses him. It's really quite good.

I Couldn't Love You More by Jillian Medoff

This one is hard to explain without really giving too much away. It's really good though. I would just read the description from the link and see if you think it sounds interesting to you.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I've really started living John Green books more. It's hard for me to get into them and the first half I usually read really slow because it's not super interesting. He does a great job of setting up the story for later, but sometimes it's really hard for me to get into. Once it is set up though I read it really fast and really enjoy the book.

An Abundance of Katherines is about a boy who was a child prodigy. He has only ever dated Katherines and after he gets dumped by the latest Katherine he decides to go on a road trip with one of his friends. They end up in a small town and work for a lady while he also tries to work on a relationship equation.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Another John Green book about relationships. This time a boy goes to boarding school in search of adventure. He meets someone named Alaska and he falls in love with her, but she sends him off on a little adventure looking for her.

Wonder by R.C. Palacio

This is the story of a boy who was born with a facial deformity. Because of this he was homeschooled, but now he's going to be going to school. It's really the story about him going to school how the other kids, his family, and himself see him and treat him. It is a children's book so has really short chapters and is a very quick read. It is really good though-probably one of my favorite books from this summer.

The Lost Wife by Alyson Richmond

The book is mainly set during WWII. It's about a couple who get married and then are separated because they are both Jewish. Then each start a new family in the US thinking the other one is dead. They meet up years later.

Jester Park

Last weekend my family went camping (big surprise) and we went to a park that we hadn't been to before. Jester Park is near Ankeny and we got there Thursday and I left on Sunday. The park has tons of walking trails, a bison and elk exhibit, and a natural playscape. It was fun to walk around and go exploring. Here's the breakdown of the weekend and also some pics at the end.

Thursday:

• I got there after work and then my dad and I went to Grimes and had some Chinese food since it was just the 2 of us.
• We drove around the park for a bit to see what was all there
• Then I spent the rest of the evening watching the olympics
• My mom and Isaac around around midnight

Friday:

• We ate breakfast and did some other random things
• We explored the park a bit more-this time by foot. We went on some of the walking trails, saw the bison/elk, bird blind, and the natural playscape
• I made Isaac take some pics with me, but he wasn't really having any of it

Saturday:

• Woke up and went to the farmer's market
• Then we went to my uncles house and saw where I would be living this year and looked at what furniture I would need to bring. We also talked to them for a bit.
• Went back to the campground and Carina and Kyle came. 
• Isaac left to move back into school
• We ate supper and after supper went exploring some more.
• My mom, Carina, Kyle, and I went on some different trails and walked to the bison/elk and natural playscape
• Carina was much more willing to take pics so we had some nice pics from that
• After our walk we got dad and we went to the High Tressle Trail Bridge since Carina hadn't been in the dark and took some pics there

Sunday:

• Carina went back to camp
• Mom, dad, and I went on a bike ride and went back to the bridge so we could see it in the daylight
• I then headed back home so I could make it in time to watch the closing ceremony

It was a nice little weekend of camping. We ended up pretty much just staying around the campground, which was nice and relaxing. Normally I like to go do a bunch of stuff, but this was a nice break.

Olympics, Olympics, Olympics

Sorry again that I've been MIA lately. This summer I just haven't been very good at keeping up with my blogging. My latest excuse is that I spend from July 27-August 12 watching the Olympics as much as I could. I made my family bring the tv whenever we went camping, each night you could pretty much guarantee that I would be sitting in front of the TV watching the Olympics. I also set up a mediacom email account so I could watch swimming live during the day. I now follow a multitude of athletes on twitter (traci beat me to them all though).

I'm not sure what exactly it is about the Olympics, but I just love them. I love hearing the stories about how far they've come. I love watching the records being broken and history being made. It's all just so amazing. I wish the summer olympics were every year, but then it wouldn't be as special so I guess I'll accept it being every 4 years.

The weekend of the 3rd I went to Minnesota to visit my friend Erin. We spent quite a bit of time watching the Olympics and she has DVR so that was so much better. We were able to fast forward through the commercials and also skip the events that we didn't really care about. Also while I was visiting her we went to the Mall of America and the nike store. While there we saw lots of the uniforms that the athletes wear. We saw the jacket that they wear on the podium when receiving their medal and wanted it so bad. The only problem is that is it $450.  Just look at this beauty:

So if any of you are looking for something to buy me this would be it ;)

While with Erin I also had a tour of her hometown and saw where she went to high school, etc. We also did other random things around town and worked on our tans a bit on her deck. It was a great weekend and I'm so glad that I went. I'm really glad that we decided to live together last year because she has become one of my best friends and I really value our friendship. I'm also really glad that Marc's still in pharmacy school with me too so she'll be visiting DSM frequently this year!

Franklin County Fair

Last week was the Franklin County Fair. Now the fair isn't necessarily my favorite thing in the whole world, but I do enjoy everyone coming back and hanging out with a lot of my friends. Since most of the summer I've been mainly been hanging out at home with my mom and Isaac it was nice to hang out with other people and catch up with them. Here's a break-down of my fair week.

Thursday:
I worked during the day and then came home and ate supper. After supper I headed over to Jamie's house and met up with Angela, Traci, and Jamie. We then walked around the fair for a little bit before we headed to the grandstand for the rodeo. The rodeo wasn't the best, but it was nice to catch-up with everyone. It was also the first time I believe that I stayed for the whole thing. My favorite part was probably the announcer saying 1 billion times "on a Thursday night" After the rodeo we got some mini donuts and looked at some animals. Then we went back to Jamie's house and played the game boxers or briefs and just  talked about things. It was really great to catch-up.

Friday:
I ended up babysitting for a family and so I didn't go to the fair. Instead I hung out in the morning with the kids and then came back in the evening

Saturday:
On Saturday I went with my parents and my cousin Gabe to the fair around noon. Gabe was doing a livestock judging contest so first we walked around for a bit and then we met up with the rest of the people doing the judging. We also ate lunch and just walked around some more. Then after the contest we headed back home. Then around 5 I headed back to Jamie's house and met up with Tara, Thomas, and Jamie. We went to the fair and walked around a bit. Then I found Anna and Ben and they joined us while we walked around looking at some livestock and things. Then Kelly and Nate also joined us and all of us went over to play bingo. We played for quite a while and both Jamie and Tara won. After bingo we headed to the grandstand for the Rodney Atkins concert. We decided to head to the beer garden. At the beer garden Traci and Paige met up with us. Then Macala came for a bit to chat with us. I didn't pay a ton of attention to the concert. I mainly just talked to everyone and caught up. It was again great to see everyone. After the concert Tara, Jamie, Thomas, Paige, Traci and I headed back to Jamie's and again played boxers or briefs before going home.

Sunday:
I started the day by going to church with my family at the fairgrounds. Then I stayed and hung out with Jamie, Thomas, Traci, Dean, and Gwana and we walked around the fairgrounds for quite awhile. We looked at the train set, historical museum, and pleasant hill. Traci and Jamie even taught us a small little lesson in the school house. After doing that the Wirtjes crew went back to their house for lunch. Traci and I decided to walk around a little more and then we went to the talent show, and hypnotist. After that we went to the grandstands for the monster truck show. Traci's parents, Jamie, and Thomas all met us in the grandstands and sat with us. The show wasn't that good since they didn't get started on time and then they just had long pauses between things where they weren't doing anything. After the show we ate some food. Then Traci and I went back to my house and watched the end of the bachelorette.

The fair was quite a bit better this year than it has been for me in the past. I think it was because I haven't gone in 3 years and this year I really hadn't seen a lot of my friends in awhile. I loved catching up with them and really seeing them for 3 days. It's been a little bit of a letdown this week not spending time with any of them.