Brooke's Bloggature: Trying Again

Don't mind me

2011-10-19T15:26:00.001-05:00

This is only a test.

Testing!

2010-12-02T19:36:00.001-06:00

Just testing out this new iPhone app for posting to blogger.

Location:Booker St,Little Rock,United States

Say Goodbye

2009-11-18T08:42:00.002-06:00

To this blog, not to me! Hopefully you've noticed that I've been blogging over at http://dutchbaby.wordpress.com. If you haven't, please redirect yourself there, because I'm going to be shutting down this blog soon for good. I've imported all of my old posts from this blog, so we can hang on to the memories. This was my first blog, so I'm a little sentimental about it. But it's just not practical to be writing on one blog and have another just floating around the interwebs. So, I hope you'll follow me on over to http://dutchbaby.wordpress.com. We've been having a lot of fun over there lately!

Cheers!
Brooke

Vote for our project!

2008-08-14T10:27:00.001-05:00

But Mom, Can't We Keep Her???

2008-01-14T16:25:00.000-06:00

This is Willow. We're fostering her, and I lover her and want to keep her. She's so cuddly and cute and friendly. Plus, she's great with the rest of the furry family members. And she makes piggy noises. There's a family with kids that's interested in her, but if that falls through, I'm not sure how I could say no to keeping her.

The pros: She's awesome.

She totally fits in with the family.

She looks like a teddy bear.

She makes a good companion for Nari.

The cons: We've already got three pets.

Our house will be so full when we decide to start a family.

It's one more round of shots and vet visits to pay for each year.

She competes with Tarzan for a spot on the bed at night.

mmmmmmmm

2007-12-14T17:01:00.000-06:00

Test your vocabulary: For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

2007-12-03T14:25:00.000-06:00

Just click the banner.

If you need something to blame it on, blame hunger. Or PMS.

2007-10-05T18:18:00.000-05:00

Well, didn't I fall off the bandwagon...? That's different from falling off "the wagon," right? Once upon a time, I was quite the prolific blogger. I blame it on life. And the fact that our office isn't much of an office at this point. I'm not promising to be the good blogger I was before, and you probably don't need me to. Besides, do I do this so you (if there is a you anymore) can keep up with my comings and goings? If you don't already know what I'm up to these days, maybe we should try hanging out. Or having a phone conversation. Have we really become so busy that we rely on blogs and facebook to know what is going on in the lives of our friends? How did people used to do it, and why aren't we doing that? Maybe, in a time when communities were more tactile, rather than virtual, people just let go. Do you really need me to post a picture of my house so you can know what it looks like? Why not just come over? Should I really be publishing on the internet the anxiety I have about the status of my parents? Somehow, tonight, it just seems wrong. I mean--I'm busy. But should I be worried that I've been too busy to post on my blog, or is it more concerning that I haven't had a decently long conversation about how things are going with anyone other than my husband and co-workers in too long? My friendship with my laptop is strikingly lonely.

I agree with Leah--our college days were some of the most fun when it came down to our social lives. Maybe because it was before blogging and facebook (though we really just barely escaped it), and we actually did things like have coffee together to whine about crushes, and play frisbee, and have photo shoots in our Halloween costumes. And you didn't have to constantly check the internet to learn if you friends were getting together. I get being busy. Everyone's busy to varying degrees. College was a different time, one when there was loads of time.

I really want to do something different with this blog. What, I'm not yet sure. Maybe a place to practice writing outside of grant writing. Maybe a place for Existential rants and crises such as this. But not a place where you get to learn what my day-to-day life is about. If you want to know that, pick up the phone. Stop by.

I'm not trying to criticize, or judge. If this works for you, to each his own. But it doesn't work for me. Not anymore. Maybe never. I want good, old fashioned, friendships.

shhhhhh.........

2007-07-31T09:02:00.000-05:00

i'm blogging at work, and i'm totally not supposed to...

i realized today that i never posted pictures of nyc or of the house. but the ol'laptop went off to the laptop doctor, and probably won't be back until later in august. i'm sure everyone's gotten used to me not posting. who knows--maybe i'll just get a mac-book and start a new .mac blog or something. maybe best buy just needs to give me a new laptop, even if it is another hp whose power charger something will melt and not charge. or whatever.

better go! you know how to find me, in the meantime...

coming soon...

2007-07-12T20:11:00.000-05:00

wow. two months and ten days. elizabeth, thank you for still checking my blog.

a whole heck of a lot has happened since may 2nd, but i won't labor you all with the details. bought a house, in a wedding, moved into said house, unpacked a little, had a great housewarming party, worked a ton, paid some bills. that about sums it up. i think.

so here's what's coming soon: i'm going to new york! for work. for over a week! i'm going to the foundation center's grantseeker training institute for a whole week of grantwriterlearningship. and while i'm there, i'll be doing as much sightseeing and eating as possible. plans so far--sunday afternoon bastille day festival (be french for a day at a jam-packed street festival) tuesday night yankees game with some family that will be in town, thursday night ushering at a blue man group show (aka, seeing the show for FREE, thanks Dave!), friday night MOMA. other loose plans include bronx zoo, serendipity 3, going out on the town with cousins, museum of natural history, eating hot dogs and pretzels and ethiopian food.

also coming soon: pictures of the house. with stuff in it. maybe with painted walls. i have to clean some. i should have taken pictures at the housewarming, but i was too freaking frazzled and then it was too dark.

so here are some pictures to hold you over (or tide you over, as some would say)

i took a sick day wednesday, which provided me with the perfect opportunity to do a little photo shoot with miss june bug. these are my favorite two. don't worry, she's just yawning, but she looks so badass and ferocious.

this next one is of two of the pieces ms. leah billings helped me select for our new house. we've bought a great couch, and leah helped us pick out this great table and lamp to go with it. no, that's not the couch in the picture, it's the old pooey one that's going in the other room once the new one gets here.

that's all i've got for now, people. that and my laptop is beelzebub (my computer actually spell-checked that word for me!)...the power connection is bunk, and earlier it was doing this: AC power on, AC power off, AC power on, AC power off, AC power on...you get the picture. it reminded me a little of wayne's world--camera one, camera two. only much less funny. keep it real.

huisje

2007-05-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

well. here's the house! i know we haven't been keeping everyone posted on the process, but we looked at it twice, decided it might be the one (after lots and lots of discussion), and last night we had an accepted offer. today has been a whirlwind of phone calls, and we even got our inspection done already! it gets a pretty clean bill of health. we're supposed to close on the 16th. that's right, of may. i can't even believe it. we're totally insane. this month is crazy at work, and i've got something big every weekend--without all of this house excitement. anyway--to the pictures! this first one is, obviously, the front of the house. it's a good front porch, and there are hooks for a porch swing. the second is of the master bedroom. it's the only room with carpet, and i think we might leave it for a while until we can afford a big area rug to go under our bed--nari likes to crawl under beds, which is bad news for uncovered hardwood. this house has great hardwood! the second is from the front door looking back through the living room, into the dining room, and that door in the back is, well, the back door. the third picture is of the dining room. it's so big that i think we're going to put the table to one side and have a little sitting area on the other. the next two pictures are of the kitchen, which has plenty of room. trevor is pumped about the dishwasher. i'm pumped about the drawers and counter space. the next one is of part of the bathroom. i kind of don't like the tiling around the bathtub, but that's totally doable. and the last is of the garage apartment. yep, you read it right. once we get that baby fixed up, we'll be looking for a tenant. landlordship, here we come! not pictured: the guest bedroom/office with big picture window, and the big backyard with privacy fence, weeds, and a pile of cool old bricks.

so keep your fingers crossed that we make it over the finish line! no kinks so far...

let the househunting begin!

2007-04-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

so we're not pre-approved just yet, but we are well on our way! it's so exciting! it could be a matter of months, weeks even (well, probably not weeks), before we're movin in to our own home. what a relief that will be! no more pet deposits, no more ugly paint we can't change, no more neighbors stealing our cable. of course, we'll be taking on heaps of responsibly, but it will all be worth it cause of a little thing i like to call "equity". and don't worry, that's not our dream house or anything. in fact, it's the huckster's old triple-wide! where we spent our "honeymoon". thaaaats right. now we just have to find a homey and pick out our mortgage product. go our team.

meet the june-bug

2007-03-22T18:43:00.000-05:00

here's our new gal, june-bug. she's a cutie, and she's fitting in just right! she's had some health problems this week, but we're getting her all fixed up.

that's her on the left sharing food with tarzan, who is happy to have a kitty girlfriend. no, we didn't leave the food bowl there for long...
it took us about 20 minutes before we finally found her in the closet sleeping on trevor's sleeping bag.

she blinks more at the camera than tarzan tends to. before long it will be too hard to tell them apart.

the waiting.

2007-03-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

gosh! so i've been sitting here for almost half an hour with all of my crap ready to do an over-the-phone mortgage application. the chick said i could call anytime this evening. now i'm worried to get caught up in making dinner. and what if she doesn't call until after 8. that would be a real problem as it's thursday.

this is the lamest post ever. maybe i'll download my camera pics to my computer and come back and post pictures from the past....um....couple of months.

this is just too much!

2007-03-05T18:05:00.000-06:00

i don't know if this is old news, but this is one of my new favorite sites ev-er. it's the bible done lego-style. i think there are over 3,000 images. whoever did this is an artistic genius! i wish i had ideas like this...

that ho stole our cable!

2007-02-27T18:24:00.000-06:00

um yeah, so i hate it that i'm starting off my first blog in a looooong time with so much negativity, but seriously. we've finally gotten our cable/internet back today. the verdict on why it was out for a WEEK to begin with: our little duplex ho of a neighbor STOLE IT! that's right. trevor said the cable dude came out and couldn't find anything wrong inside the house, so trevor took him downstairs to the "storage" basement that we share with the prostitute (i am actually pretty sure she's into something shady like that--pimp and all) and found that the line on our side had been cut and run to her side. it takes a freaking key to get in that room. i mean, come on, it's one thing to steal from the cable company, but it's quite another to steal from your duplex neighbors who are PAYING good money for the effing cable! whew. that's a lot of rant.

in the news: we had a great time with everyone at the oyster bar on saturday. thanks a ton for helping me surprise trevor with some birthday love! and sorry we never showed up, elizabeth, we kind of crashed when the last of the folks left our place (sad that it was only 11).

sunday (trevor's actual bday) was spent doing chores and running errands. one of those errands was to go to petsmart to get nari a prettier collar and to get tarzan some cat treats. well, we got those, but we also managed to come home with a cat. a real live one. a little pretty kitty. i know most of you are icky about cats and may never come over again, but she's precious. and nameless, at the moment. no, we are NOT naming her jane.

today was ex-hausting at work! we moved from the third floor to the fourth in the train station, and i am pooped! i'm getting all new office furniture, and today i put together my awesome rolly chair and bookshelf.

more to come later. must figure out wireless internet and move laptop to "office" instead of holding it in my lap in the bedroom.

em-ployed

2007-01-27T11:55:00.000-06:00

hey folks. i'm employed! got the grant writing job i was hoping for. we're all moved in to the duplex (but far from settled), and we don't have internet yet...trying to figure out how to make it happen...no dialtone=no dsl. so, i'll be a bad blogger for quite a while, i suspect, as i'm probably not allowed to do such things from my grant writing computer...boo.

anyone watching the super bowl this year? trevor's kind of obsessed with the fact that the bears (as he would say: thabears thabears thabears thabears) are in it. so i'm making him hot wings.

un-employ-ment

2007-01-16T11:15:00.000-06:00

yes. today is my last day at asyr. last time to post at work. because i don't have a job... well, sort of. i STILL haven't heard back about that grant writing thing, but i'm calling dude TODAY if i haven't heard by 4pm. i swear. seriously. how can they leave me hanging like this???

but we're moving anyway. saturday. so if you're feeling extra-friendly, give me a call, cause we will probably need some help unloading the freaking u-haul. that i am NOT being the one to drive this time! and if i don't hear from you, i might call you anyway (as is becoming my fashion--see above).

so...the last day at the office. nari came with me today. just wrapping things up here and there.

and one more reason i'm glad to be moving back to the big lr (by the way--we'll temporarily be in a duplex off of university and h)--underground houses are want to let water in when it rains four hundred inches. and ruin art and other niceties. yeah, lovely.

just keeping it real.

buying the cow

2007-01-10T08:47:00.000-06:00

so...we're back. the wedding was great fun, and everything went smoothly. i don't have any pictures, so if you're reading this (ahem, leah, elizabeth), and you have pictures on your camera, be prepared for me to stalk you at some point...trevor's dad took tons of pictures on his film camera, which is apparently not working so well, so all of those "free" pictures i was counting on getting...only getting a small portion. i'm pretty bummed about that. i should have assigned my camera to someone...but my camera kind of sucks at taking pictures in dimly-lit rooms.

the "mini-moon" was alright. we spent most of the time in the car. driving to the degray campus. driving to hot springs for dinner (german food.mmmmm). driving back to the triple-wide (yes, as in huckabee's infamous). then back to hot springs for lunch (argentinian food.mmmmmmm). and then back to the big l-r to house hunt.

we've found a duplex off the corner of university and h. it's cute on the inside, and totally temporary. we're hoping to get ourselves situated and start looking to buy a house (that is, with the salary i currently do not have), or to move into one of the loads of houses around little rock that force you to commit to a one-year lease. geez, people. not everyone wants to rent for-ever! either way, we'll be getting back to having high-speed internet at home, which should lead to better blogging. well, more frequent, at least.

one freaking week!

2006-12-29T10:54:00.000-06:00

i don't really know what else to say. . .

fully licensed...

2006-12-20T14:13:00.000-06:00

...to be married!

so we got our marriage license yesterday. we could just go get married today...tempting, for sure, but i guess since we're in the home stretch of this whole wedding thing, we might as well go for the gold. just two and a half weeks! that's totally crazy. but exciting.

in other news: i've put in 5 applications for jobs in tennessee, and i had a phone interview yesterday for a grant writing job in little rock (thank you mattyp). i still haven't heard anything yet from the governor's office (that is, the governor-to-bebee), but i've got my fingers crossed for a policy research job. not counting any eggs before they hatch, though.

the office threw us a really nice wedding potluck/shower yesterday, and we got tons of goodies...some of which will certainly have to be returned, but it's the thought that counts, right? i feel a little guilty about turning in my notice after such a nice do, but then i remember that everyone brought chicken dishes even though most of them know i don't really eat meat, and we were given a wal-mart gift card (i'll admit, we've been a few times, but really...).

so that's your update. if i had faster internet at home, you'd be seeing pictures of erica's baby, pictures of our 4-foot chrismas tree and other goodnessess. alas, i do not...

does blogger hate me?

2006-12-13T08:59:00.000-06:00

i can't get it to let me post comments on other blogs! first, i couldn't post yesterday on leah's blog. then, this morning i couldn't post on kristen's. and now leah's again! what's the deal, i wonder? my username and password are right (otherwise i wouldn't be writing this), and i get those scrambly letters right...hmmmmmm. it's like it doesn't want me to make comments.

not much news to report. need to get on applying for jobs. and wrap up wedding plans. sheesh.

WPWT

2006-12-05T10:38:00.000-06:00

that's the pinkslip i'm giving myself: wrong place, wrong time. i've messed up. not supposed to be here. not now, at least. i'm almost to the 6-month mark at my job, and i'm coming to the full realization that it's just not the right fit. so now i'm in some sort of an existential crisis. what to do? where to go? what do i even want to do? i have almost no idea. and the ideas i have aren't realistic at the present moment.

so i'm looking for jobs. possibly any time of job. so, seriously, if you know of a job opening (almost anywhere, for real), pass it on, yo.

5 weeks and counting!

2006-11-30T11:02:00.000-06:00

yes, just 5 weeks from tomorrow. it's totally creeping up on us! but i think we've got most of the details straightened out. i think.

i've actually got my bridal portraits tomorrow. i'm a little nervous about the weather...i'm supposed to leave home by 8:00 tomorrow morning, and we're supposedly going to have 1-3 inches of accumulated ice/snow overnight, and i'm not sure if it'll be clear enough that early for me to go down the 2 big hills that separate my house from the "greater batesville area", let alone all the hills i have to navigate between batesville and the rock. not to mention that all this rain can quite possibly equal disastarous hair for little brooke. that's the true downside to the curly hair--you just never know how it's going to turn out until it's dry, and by then it's pretty much too late. so i just cross my fingers and hope for the best!

i'm also having my meeting with the cake folks, and i STILL don't know what i want the cake to look like. i'm stumped! any ideas? ooh, and if you've got any clever ideas for first dance songs, i'm game to hear it.

venez t'ici, dinde

2006-11-22T14:48:00.000-06:00

oh, man. if i could just get nari and tarzan to do something like that... i'd be set.

happy turkey-day, folks. tomorrow trevor and i are heading down to little rock to have thanksgiving, france family style. we're having a whopping record 45 people at our thanksgiving dinner!!! usually it's just around 30 or so. my aunt is maniacally amazing. i'm actually making a food contribution: vegan "spicy green rice" casserole. i've got a vegan cousin, and other people acutally enjoy the casserole as well.

friday will probably consist of lying around and scrounging for leftovers. i'll probably be ready to hit the booze by friday night, so i may give you little rockers a call. saturday we're off to a chili-cookout in honor of the to-be-wed joel and ashley. i'm super excited about getting to see them. and hopefully i'll get to see erin m., but you never can tell...

to all of you traveling: safe travels.

and for you non-francophiles, that's "come here you turkey". try it out on your mom this weekend. good stuff.

26

2006-11-21T08:31:00.000-06:00

yeah, that's what temperature my car said it was this morning. a whopping 25 minutes ago! burrrrr. and after much trying, trevor and i FINALLY got one of our propane heaters to light. the gas people are gonna have to come out today and light the other one. we're weenies. i'm also glad that someone is going to come out and check out the BLACK MOLD problem we seem to be having in the masta bathroom--yikes. i just hope we don't die or something scary like that firefighter man. so all of this means nari is at the office with me all day long. fun stuff! she's finally learning to loosen up around my coworkers a bit. she even went right into marty's office without being invited. shame on her, but horray for slightly less shyness. now, she wouldn't let him pet her, but we're making progress. slowly but surely.

and woohoo for thanksgiving. and a three-day work week. not as awesome as elizabeth's 1.5, but still... i'm excited for turkey and mashed potatoes and corn casserole and aunt cathy's green creamy jello stuff and spaghetti. yes. spaghetti. it's a traditon at our house, for those of you unlucky enough not to already know and tasted. leah, you know what i'm talking about. remember leftovers in the dorm? those were the days.

lots of wedding progress has been made. the dress is at aunt margie and uncle gene's house, the engagement portraits are done, bridals have been scheduled (december 1st for anyone wanting to be helpful around 4:30), groom's cake pretty much squared away, bridesmaids' dresses in, tuxedos ordered, bridal shower fabulousness (and thank you cards on the way), rehearsal dinner mostly planned. that might be it. still no dj. brooke=lazy and forgetful on this one item. has anybody heard anything, good or bad, about the arkansas dj people? they seem good, but i'm a little nervous to use someone without a reference...

and i guess that pretty much wraps it up. i'm in for another bor-ring day at the office.

oh, and here's a thought: what if i applied for a rotary scholarship and we went overseas for a year? awesomeness? eh?

boil water order

2006-11-08T09:51:00.000-06:00

well, i'm back and with trevor in tow. horray!!! and i can make my camera hook up to my work computer. horray!!! but we came back to a boil water order. boo!!! gotta love living in a place where sometimes you have to boil your water for it to be potable. it could definitely be worse, though. anyway, so here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment.

this is what i look like without my glasses. and standing next to the executive director of the women's foundation of AR...this is after the luncheon...what you can't see is the check for the grant we received. great luncheon. awesome "party favors" from b. barnett.

here's a picture of us with two of trevor's sisters and their boyfriends. from left to right we've got greg and chanda, trevor and me, jeff and hannah. we're just missing gwen and ben.

and here's my lovely family. nari and tarzan were just as glad as i was to have trevor home. horray!!!

the wedding countdown: less than two months. yowza!

longest day ever

2006-10-31T08:50:00.000-06:00

yes, today promises to be quite the long one. it's my last day to be at the office before i get to see trevor again. hopefully i'll find enough to do to keep me busy...i am going to pick up nari at lunch and bring her up to the office. i'm tutoring this evening after work, and sarah wants nari and me to come in costume (we're party animals). so that should be pretty fun.

tomorrow i head to little rock for the women's foundation of arkansas "power of the purse" luncheon at which i will be awarded the check for the grant proposal i wrote. go me. and i've got a fun coworker as a "date", so it'll be good even if the luncheon is boring. it's at the peabody, so the food should be pretty good...just hope there's a meatless option...

thursday is the greyhound day. 14 hours on a bus. yuckola. but not as bad as 24, as it was when i "moved" to denver. thank goodness for that!

booo on blogger!!! i was going to post a picture of what trevor looked like before his trip, but it's not letting me...and i'm even on my office computer. booo! maybe i'll come back and try again later.

testing, testing 1-2

2006-10-29T14:16:00.000-06:00

oh, so i guess i just have to post really small pictures and wait ten hours for them to show up...durn dial-up...

maybe when i have some energy, i'll post some more pictures. of last night's rockin halloween party at sarah & will's.

but for now, this is my house.

it's magarin!

2006-10-24T15:02:00.000-05:00

yo, i'm so on a roll with this posting thing.

this is just a quickie to say: holy crap! my wedding dress was on tv last night! and it will be again on monday. now, i just want to go on the record as saying that i got the dress BEFORE seeing it on the bachelor, rome. but hey, it's a pretty dress. i'm no bachelor fanatic (in fact, this is my first season to watch it...i was a joe millionnaire fan, though), but it was totally the dress that the bitchy lisa had on in the preview for next monday's show. so if you want a sneak peek at what i'll be wearing at le wedding, just keep your eyes peeled for nutso lisa wearing it on her hometown date (who does that...seriously?).

and am i wrong to be obsessively worried that aunt margie STILL has not ordered the invitations. i mean, the wedding is just 10 weeks from freaking friday! i think i'll just have her hand-deliver them as punishment. i wish.

blogging...from...home...dial-up style...

2006-10-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

first time blogging with dial-up. we'll see how that goes. i'm even going to attemp to post some pictures in here, and i'm a little nervous about it. yeah, that didn't work out so well; i guess i'll try to do that at lunch tomorrow.

things are alright here in bethesda. i'm still plugging along with this solo thing. less than two weeks now. still feels like an eternity. everyone else seems to believe that the time has just flown by. but they're not the ones with empty houses and needy pets (one of whom has decided she's no longer house-broken--that's a TON of fun, let me tell you) and boring drives to and from little rock and nobody to laugh with when the movie is funny. it's pretty sad, really. i really liked living alone when that was my life. liked having my own space and not cleaning up after myself unless i felt like it. and NEVER making the bed. trevor moving in changed a lot of things...i quit eating the same thing for dinner over and over (example: last week, from monday through friday, i ate either homemade vegetarian chili or three-cheese tortolini), i started making the bed every morning, sunday was "clean the house day", i got to get back in bed while he showered because i knew he wouldn't let me over-sleep. and i don't mean to say that everything is entirely different since he's been gone; it's just been lonely, and i can see the good habits slipping.

anyway, on to current events!

my biggest adventure of the weekend: getting myself and my captive passenger, anna-kate, extremely lost deep in the ghetto of little rock. as in college station. scary. freakin scary. but we had gelatto at the river market to calm our nerves, and all was well. had papa johns (soooo needed that) and a movie date with leah--marie antoinette. good quality time.

and although my sunday appt. with the alterations lady went well, the boobs at lens crafters "forgot" to call me to tell me that my contacts haven't come in, and that i have to come back yet again next weekend. which won't be a total loss, since i'll get my early voting in, and make it to some halloween fun!

oh, and happy thoughts for my nonie. she's in the hospital with pneumonia.

on the bandwagon

2006-10-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

well, i guess i'm on myspace now. it's actually pretty ridiculous how i ended up on it...i've been trying to track down my former piano teacher for weeks so i can ask her if she will play the piano during our ceremony. so i finally got internet at home again. dial-up-is-pretty-slow. and i did a search on both her and her husband's names, and i found her myspace. well, it wouldn't let me send her a message unless i signed up. so i did. and now i'm finding all sorts of folks on it that i would have never thought to find. it would be pretty easy to stalk someone, you know. way easier than this blogger bit...i don't know how long i'll keep the myspace account, cause it's kind of freaky.

anyway, if you are as bored as i am, and you want to check it out, the link is http://www.myspace.com/abrookeje

and i'm trying to make it look nice. i don't seem to have many decent pictures of myself to put up...i'm beginning to think i'm even less photogenic than i once believed. hmmm.

it's what trevor would call a boomshackalacka moment

2006-10-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

yeah, baby. my first grant came in! a few months ago i wrote a grant to the Womens Foundation of Arkansas for their mini-grant awards. and i got it! well, i got $3000 of it. which is not quite how much we asked for, but every little bit counts around here. and i get to go to their luncheon to accept the award, and i get to bring a guest. it'll be pretty funny to have my boss, the ceo, be my guest to a luncheon. silly.
now, the down side is that it'll be my responsibility to put the program (an offshoot of our farm program, but just for the girls) into action. and my plate is getting fuller (on paper and in theory at least) each day. but i guess i'm young and can take the heat.
the only thing is...i got my one phone call from trevor on friday, and he's liking outward bound so much that he'll likely want to apply for a job. which would mean moving. and leaving stuff behind. i complain so much about my job, but i also kind of feel like i'll be leaving so many things undone. but everyone is replacable. and nothing is set in stone.
in other exciting work-related news...last thursday we had the arkansas field coordinator from heifer international come out to have a meeting with us. he showed us a video and we talked about the steps toward becoming a heifer project partner. which means we'll be getting trainings and money for livestock and garden stuff and all kinds of great things. i'm holding a more inclusive staff meeting in a couple of weeks to show houseparents, farm staff, etc. the video and to prep them for when mr. ashanti comes back to do a values training with all of us. i'm pretty pumped. because it was my idea...it's my baby. and it's really happening.

anyway, it was a decent weekend: friday i watched a video (imax videos can come on netflix) about dolphins and ate too many cookies. saturday i went to little rock and ran errands/had lunch with katie and then went to lenscrafters to be fitted for contacts. my eyes=horrible. they didn't even have my perscription in stock, my astygmatism is so bad. so i've got these "practice" ones that are the closest they could get. but i can't get them in. i got one out and one in on my own, but otherwise the dr. had to do it for me. she seemed really confident, but i'm a little worried i can't do it. my eyes are so small, and i can't seem to keep myself from blinking and flipping the contact inside-out on my finger. and my eyeball hurts from trying so much. and it's making the headaches worse. wah wah wha. but i'll be the little engine that could, because i want to have 2 eyes, and not 4 for my engagement photos, bridal photos, wedding, etc.
saturday night i went to sarah & will's for mike c's belated birthday party, which was a total blast and much needed. after the first wave of folks left, sarah, holly, kat and i had a dance party, which was loads of fun. i haven't danced like that in for-ever.
tonight i'm making vegetarian chili for my non-vegetarian brother. we'll see how that works out...

those were the days...

2006-10-10T08:38:00.000-05:00

ha! i just found this on katie's ringo site. there is some editing, of course (nobody wants to see that...). this is from well over a year ago and it totally cracks me up. we're at heifer ranch's "northside" house where katie and her cousin ben used to live. i don't remember the occasion for the party, but it involved much drinking. at this point i had lost my clothes to travis (hence the overalls with duct tape around my chest), trevor had won them from travis, and i was trying to win them back from trevor. i'm pretty sure trevor just let me win. that's love, folks. the rest of the night included ali and me dancing on the counter to ocms wagon wheel song and my very first keg stand. yeah, i think i was already too old for that business. much sickness later.

how fun to reminisce...and to post pictures of trevor in my clothes while he's away in north carolina.

the weekend: meeting with melisa the photographer; hanging out with pals i haven't seen in a while; staying with meg and her crazy dog; telling the lady at clinique to help my face; buying too many clothes at banana republic (on sale); walking halfway across the big dam bridge with nari...while wearing burks--bad idea; dog park; meeting with sarah the photographer, and probably some other stuff...

the coming week: cpr/first aid in like 12 minutes; tutoring two nights this week; meeting with heifer international dude; meeting with the arkansas community foundation; GETTING A PHONE CALL FROM TREVOR SETH! i'm very excited about that part. but it might not happen...still have my hopes up.

well, that's enough blogging. just be glad i didn't blog about what ashley said i should last night. then you'd think i was the devil, instead of a girl in overalls taped to her...

off the deep end

2006-10-04T08:25:00.000-05:00

it's official: i'm desperately hating living up here. i mean, i love my house and being in the woods a quarter of a mile off the road, but that's about it. work is alright, if you pretend that the big raise really was big and not small, and if you pretend that i don't still feel like a total fish out of water. i'm making more per hour tutoring after work than i do at work, and tutoring is just down the hall from my office. but at least i finally have an office door to close if i want to have a meltdown.
one good thing is that i've been hanging out with my brother, paul, for the past couple of evenings. monday night he cooked spaghetti for me, and last night i made tacos (taco tuesday!) for paul and his friend, jc. and saturday i went to a coworker's dad's friend's farm to strip sorghum. yep, that defines my social life in independence county.
i am going to be in little rock this weekend, so hopefully i'll see some friendly faces and drink some alcoholic beverages...anybody free for such a thing?
i'm still on the hunt for the perfect photographer, but at least i've got one meeting sort of scheduled--with sarah bussey or something. we'll see how that goes...

ASSISTANCE!

2006-09-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

i need help, people. planning my wedding from batesville is getting a little harder on the parts where i don't already have a clear-cut idea in my head. like, i already know my cake is coming from mickey's, so there's no need to shop around and do comparisons. but photographer, music, i have no idea where to start! well, i've kind of got some ideas...but if anybody has any suggestions/recommendations for reception music, photographers, etc., i'd really appreciate the help.

think nari would let me...?

2006-09-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

halloween is in the air...i can feel it! 41 days and counting.

one is the loneliest number

2006-09-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

that's me. i'm sad. only 4 more days with trevor seth before he's gone for 45+. i'm probably also sad in this picture because i'm so misshapen and my hair is bad. and the wonky leg. which is what happens when you live too far out in the woods for dsl and you have to give up the internet at home and use the computer at work.

on a lighter note, we've got our rings ordered and i've got my dress. progress abounds.

here's to hoping i get better at cartooning in paint.

just so you know...(not that it's all that interesting)

2006-09-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

this is what went out this morning...yahoo, i feel so much more important! like i got that degree for a purpose...

Brooke Stapleton is hereby named to the new position of: Coordinator of Professional Services

As an MSW..She will take on the above position for Program Services In addition to her responsibilities as Exec Asst to the CEO

She will be responsible for: Coordinating House Parent Training.
Creating a streamlined admission process.
Integrating the Program Team Balance into Program Services
Development of Professional Resources for Program Services Development of a New Youth Tracking System ( allowing us to know quicker the exact services a child needs)
Recommending both Policy (to the BoD) and Procedures (to the CEO)
Overseeing compliance with Child Welfare Licensing

Trevor Edwards will be going on a Sabbatical to Train with Outward Bound in the Smokies for 6 weeks. He will be out in the wilderness and completely cut off from the "good life". ( So, everyone will have to interact with Brooke even more than usual to keep her sane.) Thanks to the animal shelter a dog of unknown origin, Nari, has been hired to baby-sit Brooke in Trevor's absence.

seed ticks = the devil

2006-09-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

alright, so i've found the hole in the gloriousness of living in the woods: seed ticks. i mean, seriously, they are the DEVIL. when our landlady said "the ticks are really bad," i thought she meant the regular ones that you can pick off with relative ease. um, no. friday trevor and i took off early from work to "unpack", which was code for exploring the woods we're living in (we had been dying to do so ever since we first saw the place). we ran into a few seed ticks here and there in the first stretch...found the old salvage yard that was on the property along with some random abandoned trucks, boats, a school bus, trailers, etc. then we started following a cattle highway in hopes that it would lead us to the river (we know it's out there somewhere!). we did find a super old-school chicken house and a 1970 AR license plate. and a mess of seed ticks. all over our feet. horrible. we eventually gave up the search for the river when we came across a shale pit and could tell that the river was quite a ways off, and made our way up the trailless hill back to the house.

saturday we went to little rock to do some wedding stuff. trevor's dad was stopping through, so we got to have lunch with him at the flying fish. we went to look at wedding invitations, and tried to go purchase our rings, but the jewelery store was closed for the holiday...bummer. looks like another trip to little rock this coming weekend. boo--tired of driving/riding in the car! but we did get to have dinner with katie and travis at vino's-delicioso.

sunday i messed with the ipod i stupidly purchased on saturday. it seems that it and my laptop don't want to get along. it worked the first time i connected them, but not since. i'm thinking about just taking it back. what a fiasco.

monday we spent about 45 minutes getting seed ticks off of nari, and then we got the tip to bathe her with lemon fresh joy. we also treated her with the regular flea/tick stuff, so we'll see how it works out. she's been pretty miserable. but still in a pretty good mood.

lots of unpacking has taken place, but we're not quite ready to do a photo debut of the house. but you'll all be jealous of the paradise. except for the ticks i can't seem to stop talking about. i'm stopping.

officially official: for real this time.

2006-08-30T09:06:00.001-05:00

wha-hoo...we're getting mawied! we've booked the place (pleasant valley country club...pretty swanky...who'd a thought?) and picked the date (friday january 5, 2007). it's just barely over four months from now. we're soo behind on planning, it's unbelievable. we're heading back to little rock saturday to order the rings we've picked out and so i can try on my aunt & mom's wedding dress (which will be way too small since they weighed like 100lbs when they got married...or less). so it's time to get crackin. if anyone's got any fab winter wedding ideas, i'd love to hear them. i'm kind of digging this snowball cake. i found the photo on the internet.

a couple of side-notes: 1. i'm going to be a girl scout troop leader! all by myself. i'm a little nervous, but so far it's just going to be 2 third graders in cushman. they're going to try to get a few more...maybe 5 total. pretty cute, though...brownies.

2. today is moving day. we're going to have one of the houses of boys help us this evening, and they love to work (and they're adorable), so it's going to go by really fast. horray for free help and no uhaul!

3. i'm taking the director of profesisonal services (i think that's what i'll be called) position, which means supervising people (yikes!) and way more moolah (horray!).

that's all, folks.

who knew...

2006-08-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

that it is acceptable office etiquette to purposefully dump hole-punch dots so that the woman who does the cleaning in the mornings will vaccuum your office? i mean, come on! i heard some people talking about it one afternoon last week and i thought they were kidding. but then i saw a bunch of dots on the floor of marty's office yesterday morning. i'm sure it could be a coincidence, but you never can tell, i guess. and i'd be willing to bet that paula's wise to the scheme; she's just too sweet to make a fuss. is this common? is this the way of the office?

in other news, it's now just ONE WEEK until we make our move. um, yeah, we've only packed a handful of boxes. but we've had tons of offers for help, which is awesome. turns out i'm a sucker, and we'll still have the internet at our new house (they really give you a deal when you try to disconnect your service). also, it seems that my student loans have gotten effed up: my bank sold the loans to some company while i was in the process of consolidating. the consolidation folks sent me a bill even though the bank sent them a check. oh, and for some reason, the company the bank sold the loans to believe i'm in school till 2009, and can't change my status until ualr tells them otherwise, which means the consolidation folks can't buy my loans while i'm "in school". talk about a snafu. i'd better get my $200 check back!

and ashley, i've put another post on my other blog. i know i've not been writing on it nearly as much as i thought i would...

10-toed sloth

2006-08-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

oh man, we've been such couch potatoes this weekend! friday we went to the melba to see the devil wears prada--don't see it if you don't like to receive the message: you're fat, unfashionable and homely. just another anne hathaway make-over movie. it was entertaining, though. yesterday was spent...grocery shoping, baking cookies and watching sex and he city. last night we went to the wards' house for movie night with some of the ranch girls and some of david and melissa's teenage nephews. 8 teenagers, 3 movies. three movies! we watched valiant (so david's little kids could participate in movie night), when a stranger calls and the benchwarmers. it was pretty amusing to watch a "scary" movie with a bunch of teenagers. more amusing, in fact, than the movie itself. we didn't make it home until midnight, which i belive makes our latest night out in independence county.

today we watched more sex and the city, packed a few boxes (this is our next-to-last weekend in this house) and lounged around. oh, and i've decided to take up "art". i'm basically playing with pastels making these "birds" taht are pretty weird. who knows how long it will last. it's pretty fun, though, and maybe i'll post some photos of them if i get brave...you have to promise not to laugh. and i've been playing the heck out of my mandolin. i got a new book last weekend that's way better for learning than the book i bought when i first got the mando. pretty soon, i'll be takin my sho on the road...

friends with ambitions

2006-08-16T21:36:00.000-05:00

just a quick hoo-rah for my brilliant friends embarking on the world of graduate school. i'm super proud of my pals, and am actually somewhat jealous that they'll be starting a fresh semester while i'm sitting in an office. so here's to leah, who begins orientation for uams pharmacy school tomorrow; and to ashley who is studying american studies (need thesaurus) and will even have a literature class of her own...watch out university of iowa sophomores; and to miss megan moss, going all the way to vermont to the school of international training (now why didn't i think of that?); and to chandle, who will be the youngest, freshest and brightest new student at the clinton school of public policy. whew.

as for the rest of us, go us.

today i submitted my first grant on behalf of the sheriffs' youth ranches. a whopping $4905 to start a program that i will direct (that is, if the money comes through)...i'll be teaching the girls about business and finance and entrepreneurship and arranging guest speakers on science and math and technology--that's funny, i thought i studied social work...

up and out

2006-08-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

so it looks like our time on hawkins street is coming to a close. no, we're not moving back to little rock...we've found a house about a mile from work for literally half the rent! yeah, sweet deal. we're gonna save so much money. sure, we'll be about 15-20 minutes from the grocery store or hastings, but we can learn to consolidate our trips so we're only going that far once a week or so.

the house is pretty neat. the rocky drive way is about a quarter of a mile long, and there are no neighbors in sight. the house is built into a hill, so it's almost completely underground (read: practically no windows, but excellent energy efficiency). there's a sun room, a huge living space, 2 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. it sits on 100 acres, which technically is leased to a cattle farmer, but is mostly wooded and we'll be able to trek through it with the dog all the way down to the white river (hello ticks!)...hopefully there will be a nice swimming spot! i'm thinking about getting some hens, and maybe even borrowing our friend's dairy goat that he's not milking. who knows.

i'm pretty excited about the house, but not so much looking forward to moving all over again. we'll be moving out/in the last/first of the month. so if anybody wants to make a field trip up to batesville to help, you're more than welcome.

yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!

2006-08-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

well, one week later...here are the long-awaited (or not) boat race pictures.

ashley and megan having a pre-race chat.

travis, katie and sarah all decked out in costume (and a half-naked trevor in the background:)our boat's crew: me, sarah, ellen and katie...our boat was so huge, we probably could have used more paddlers...and notice the sexy old lady blow-up doll in the front!
a frenzied start (this is only about a third of the boats)
our boat in the home stretch...after downing melted jello shots that tasted like super thick cough syrup--yuckola
betsy & chris's amazingly crafted fightin' cock (rock out with your cock out as they'd say)
our boat was awarded "bigest boat" and katie did a dramatic reading from a trashy novel while sarah violated me (in order to best depict what was happening in the novel, of course)
surprise, surprise. i'm pretty sure that i've taken this picture each and every year. i think they even host the race and part cause they know they're going to win.

overall, it was a total blast. even nari had fun. we stayed later than we should have, but still missed out on the slip-and-slide. bummer.

holy running bobcat, batman!

2006-08-03T11:50:00.000-05:00

so i know i need to be posting photos from the boat race, but i'm at work and without my camera, and i just have to share this crazy story from my drive to work this morning.

so i'm beebopping along down highway 106 to bethesda, when something darts across the road. i didn't have to slam on my breaks or anything, just had to let off the gas. trevor asked if a deer had run by, but i said no, it was a bobcat! i've never seen one before in my life, but i am 99% sure that's what it was. short tail, black spots, fast as all get out. it was a bobcat. apparently the people working in the lime quarry have been seeing a few of them around, and i guess that's probably near where i saw it.

anyway, it made my morning, for sure.

testing out you tube

2006-07-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

wanting to be able to share video from the boat race if i take any with my cameroo...

so i'm posting (or at least i think i am) a video of disco tarzan.

looking forward to the weekend: blue & leah's housewarming party!
seeing chandle!
boatrace/pirates & port whores party!!!

enjoy the video--if it works.

not much to report

2006-07-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

finally, a weekend where we don't drive in the car for hours-on-end. it's always such a toss-up: do we drive an hour and a half to be in little rock, two and a half to be in perryville, or stay put in ho-hum batesville? well, after several weekends in a row of travel and trevor's complaints about wanting to just have a relaxing weekend at home, we decided to have a batesville weekend.

friday was actually pretty eventful. we got a pretty good storm at work, which i was worried would keep us from going to the fair. but it let up, and we made our way to the independence county fair to see some of the ranch (arkansas sheriffs', not heifer) kids show their horses. the kids took quite a few ribbons, and we left before seeing who took best in show. the storm kicked up again while we were there watching, much to the chagrin of the horsies. it's actually kind of scary to watch a teeny little kid show a huge horse that doesn't want to behave itself...

saturday we finished up nari's pen in the backyard. i think it's fully escape-proof. i guess we'll find out this week (hopefully not the hard way). we watched city of god last night--very violent, but poignant.

today we've been doing our chores: trevor did dishes and mowed the lawn, and i cleaned the kitchen, did all of the floors, and am about to start some laundry. we're going to try to see pirates of the caribbean this afternoon. for our FORTH TRY! yes, we've unsuccessfully tried to see this movien here in baesville 3 times and it has been sold out. granted, it's a pretty small theater, but good grief! hopefully we'll get lucky this time...fourth time's a charm???

oh, and for those of you that are interested, i've started a new blog. i'm going to begin "practice writing" so that maybe one day i can write a book. i'm not going to make it super public (though that's pretty hard to do on the internet...), so if you'd like to be a reader and give me input, let me know and i'll email you the link.

later peeps.

testing, testing one-two-three

2006-07-21T11:02:00.000-05:00

just trying to get my new "about me" to show up--that info is no longer current since i don't live in little rock anymore, i'm not in school, etc. i'm thinking if i "republish" it will work...

"another medium dog..."

2006-07-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

those were the words of travis, which are pretty true with that crew. between all of us there is one huge dog, one teeny dog and about 4 or 5 medium dogs. we went to perryville saturday to see our friends, joel and ashely for the next-to-last time before they move waaay far away to iowa city (not ohio). we spent part of the day at their yard sale melting in the sticky heat, and then had some delicious bbq for lunch with joel and ashley, katie and travis, and andy and mandy. yes, it came from exxon--but it's made at a restaurant somewhere else in town, i was assured. after a bit of a rest we headed to the aplin watershed and took nari (oh, that's what we decided to name her) and katie's dog fletcher for a swim. nari is quite the natural-born swimmer, though she got spoiled by us holding her and started sinking when she was around anyone she thought should be keeping her afloat. i sure wish i'd had my camera.

things are alright here. uncle gene had a heart attack in florida, and the shit has kind of hit the fan with the family in various ways. it's really hard not being down there with everyone, but i think he'll be in little rock by the end of the week. he's going to be alright, it's just been a long road.

on the up side, i'm looking forward to some camping, a party in the rock, and the boat race/pirates & port whores party. and not being poor. paychecks once a month is freaking tough!

name that pooch!

2006-07-11T07:08:00.000-05:00

yes, that's right, we've gone completely raving mad!!! yesterday we broke down and adopted this here pup. she's about 6 months old (or so we think) and just as nervous as can be. never been on a leash, totally not potty trained. thinks we're going to do something bad whenever we walk toward her. needless to say, i've been feeding her lots and lots of pigs in a blanket treats. she did actually sleep well in her kennel thingey we got her. we have to put up a dog yard, as per our land lady's request, but that should be no biggie. i'm hoping i'll be allowed to take her to the office sometimes, cause kari gets to bring tiko. anyhoo, this all boils down to the sweet pup needing a name. we've just been calling her "girl", and that doesn't really work when you're trying to encourage and reward behaviors. so far we've thought of fagan and veda, but i'm not so sure either of those are her... so let us know what you think we should call her, and we just might!

life is soo good

2006-07-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

and here's a fine example of why: our 4th of july feast. no, we didn't make it to the fireworks (we later heard that they weren't that good and that the riverfront park was packed with batesvillagers), but we sure had an all-american meal. we had ribs and corn off the grill, baked beans and arkansas-grown tomatoes. mmmmboy.

another example: horseback riding yesterday. we went out with david w. (new farm guy at the ranch) and some of the ranch kids; rode down to the swimmin spot on the white river and then down to the lock. tarzan's just lovin on my cowgal boots. trevor was riding zeik and i rode shorty. how appropriate. except that i've never been on a trail ride before. in fact, i figured up that i've ridden a water buffalo many more times than a horse. the whole trotting thing...a little scary. even scarier, however, was the bucking thing shorty did to kick the horse behind him. all i could do was hang on and say "bucking. bucking. bucking." like that was going to make it stop. need to get more experience with those reigns. yikes. all in all, i loved it and i'm ready to go back for more. though i am wiped out, sore like a mofo, and i can't believe how tight my right arm is from hanging on for dear life. i think we might try to ride with david every week, if possible. and once we get comfortable we'll be able to go out on our own whenever we want. a little perk of working for a ranch that has a horse program...

and then, in shining glory are our washer and dryer. halleluia. or however it goes. i won't go through all of what it took to get to this point, but i'll leave it that thanks to paul and melanie and reece (who knew exactly where the freakin storage unit keys were the entire time--no one in my family thought to ask her), we got them up to batesville without a hitch. trevor's even done a full load of laundry.

tonight to kick back we went to the melba to see over the hedge. pretty good and smart. i'd forgotten about the charms of going to a children's movie. laughing at things they don't get, kicking you in the head when their parent carries them out crying. and this theater sells little glow stick/bracelet thingeys. it was a good night. it's been a good week. all is good. hope you're all doing as well or better...

no, i'm not expecting!

2006-07-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

a short, sad story to kill time because i'm one of the only 5 people in the country stuck working at the office today. (and yes, ashely, i'd agree that i'm becoming a little obsessed with this--but i can't help it).

the scene: it's after a long, hot day in trevor's air conditioning-free car running all over little rock doing wedding things and we're checking out some dogs for adoption next door to ozark outdoor. my hair is a bit wind-blown, i'm pretty sweaty, but i'm wearing a cute white skirt and a pink tank top. trevor and i are looking at this awesome, calm dog when a volunteer lady comes up to us and starts telling us about the dog. so i'm petting the dog and looking at how cute it is when the lady says to me "oh, are you expecting a baby?" yeah. my worst fears confirmed. sure, i've had a 6-year-old ask me if i was having a baby, but i chalk it up to wearing a shirt that's a little funny-shaped and to her being only 6. adults should freakin know better! i wish i'd thought to say something clever back to her like, "yeah, just as soon as trevor here knocks me up!" or "sure, in a couple of years". geez. she was totally embarassed. she should have just given us the dog.

no, we didn't end up getting the dog due to better judgement. but if we see her again there one saturday when we're in little rock, we're getting her. she rocks.

more about the weekend and finding a place to be wed to come...

friday eve my arse!

2006-06-29T15:28:00.000-05:00

man, i don't think today could get any longer. i'm in hiatus right now on my board stuff and haven't started ANY grant writing, so i've just been researching and taking notes on foundations that fund in the areas i think i'm going to be applying in. bor-ring. i'm making all of these tedious lists, and i'll pobably never use them. but i really don't have anything else that i can really work on until next week when staff reports come rolling in...
i took my first sick day on tuesday because i thought i'd be cute wednesday and do some rockette-rockette kicks in between my jazz and ballet segments on my "dance it off" exercise video to boost my calorie-burning. yeah, i couldn't sit tuesday morning. my lower back hurt so bad, that standing and lying down were about all i could handle. which doesn't really work at a job where you sit at a desk all day. and so, today, my entire middle back is killing me, and now i'm all squirmy in my chair. i just want to go home...
i am really looking forward to the weekend, though. tomorrow i get my first salary paycheck ever! now that's cause for celebration (especially since we've totally depleted our "savings" and have no money). saturday we're going to little rock to "shop" for a ceremony/reception site. we've got appointments at the lafayette building (left), the manor house & gardens (below) and the albert pike hotel (last...though i don't think i'll have that bride there!). then we're off to perry for will's birthday party...old married man! hopefully i can get in a swim at the watershed on sunday and some sushi at some point...

bad mood

2006-06-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

man, i'm in such a nose dive. time of the month, feeling left-out, living in batesville with no friends, blah, blah, blah. thinking i'll eat a candy bar that megan brought me back from the netherlands (nuts bars--think snickers but with hazelnuts--i'm rationing them) when i get home to cheer myself up.

on a less somber note, there's this woman that works part time here in the office that totally reminds me of the creepy little lady from poltergeist (carol anne, go into the light...yeah) in both looks and sound. it's kind of freaking me out. i don't like it when she talks--i know, i'm a terrible person, but it's a really scary movie to have to be reminded of all the freakin time!

just words

2006-06-13T06:56:00.000-05:00

i've now successfully gotten up at 6:27 for two mornings in a row. many may say "pish posh", but to me this is quite a feat. we decided that we'd rather our work hours be from 8 to 4 than workin the 9 to 5. and this is really the first time trevor and i have had to share a bathroom to get ready to leave at the same time. hence the almost 7:00 posting.
the jobs are going to be good. trevor's doing more maintainence-type work, which at first bummed him out i think (he was looking forward to being a farm-boy), but he's come to realize that he's going to learn a ton working under his supervisor...like welding and laying tile, etc. yeah, build me a house, buddy. i've finally got a long and snazzy title: i'm the executive assistant to the ceo for program development. oh, and i'm also now the board relations gal, which means i'm starting to spend much of my time at the copy machine printing stuff on the wrong side of the 3-holed paper and saying "well, i guess i've got more scrap paper now!" there are effectively 4 different types of boards. yeah.
the house is kind of coming along. the spare bedroom is not quite living up to that name, however, because we don't actually have anything on which a guest could sleep. unless they're a cat. we're looking to get a futon, once the cash gets a rollin, but until now it's kind of the room where all of the yet-to-be-used decor hangs out.
well, it's about time for me to get ready for work. oh, and we're cooking up a houswarming idea...probably next weekend (not this father's day weekend, of course). any interest???

a series of fortunate posts

2006-06-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

whew, i've just finished the following 3 posts with accompanying pictures. it seemed easier to split up the post into multiples. but it sure took a long time to get them just right. so take a look at what we've been up to the last 2 weeks. busy as the bees. i, of course, didn't get shots of everything, and we sure did a lot.

in fact, there's a whole lot that's left out. so here's a little list of other things we did:

*ate. and ate. and ate. meat at lunch and dinner...and i don't mean deli slices. pie. dinner rolls with homemade strawberry jam. i'm fatter, for sure.
*spent lots of time with trevor's family. and his best pal, rick.
*saw x-men III
*went to the bretheren young adult conference in pennsylvania. saw my grandmother that lives there (haven't seen since 7th grade). did not, however, see any horse-drawn buggies. bummer.
*tried to get chanda's vw bug posted on ebay. yeah, if you're looking to buy a baby blue bug, let me know.
*watched a lot of tv. animal planet. the little zoo that could.
*went contra dancing. man, i loved it! i wish i could find something like that going on around batesville.

i'm sure there's loads more that i'm leaving out, but i'm sure you're already bored to tears, and you've still got 3 more posts to go!

coming soon: pictures of the house with (ghasp!) furniture and the like. kitchen: check. dining/living room: almost check. rest of house: negatory.

oh, and call if you want the really big news...

home, home on the range

2006-06-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

well, it's not exactly a range, but it sure is enough for me. trevor's "homeplace" is just about perfect. his grandfather built the house in the early 50s, and it sits on about 10 acres or so. yeah, the new plan: put a house on the back end of the land and start homesteading and maybe a goat dairy...mmmmmcheese (his oldest sister, chanda, is on board as well). just have to find jobs in northeast tennessee...

here's the "treehouse" trevor and his sisters grew up playing in. it's actually built on top of the well pump. sweet.

this is a morcel of the amazing farmland across the street that, very sadly, has been sold and split into a 97-lot "planned residential community" called red foxx run. snazzy. and the worst part is that the showy entrance will be directly across from trevor's family's house. poop on that.

a dark shot of trevor on the porch swing. it's really shaded and hard to believe how much cooler it feels hanging out on the porch than anywhere else.

this is a round hay baler. i'd actually never seen a round baler--only square. the baler kind of "poops" out the bale. man, i love farm implements.

a day of hiking

2006-06-06T19:53:00.000-05:00

on wednesday of last week trevor took me to linville falls in western north carolina for a bit of a hike. it was a short, but difficult hike down to the falls and back, but it was totally worth it. the pictures i took don't to it any justice. the falls aren't all that tall, but it's a beautiful sight.
to make the trip more adventuresome, my knee and then hip were in some serious pain by the end of the day, and trevor's car's (the faithful red jetta) windshield wipers decided to poop out on our way to grandfather mountain. and, of course, it was raining. it took us an hour longer to get home because we kept having to pull the car over because trevor couldn't see. yikes. but it was still a great day.
ahh, i am the master of the squinty, chubby cheek face!
no, these aren't quite the smoky mountains. more so the blue ridge. but they sure do look smoky...

blue plum festival

2006-06-06T19:40:00.000-05:00

good times were had by all at the blue plum festival in johnson city, tn. i sweet-talked ellen into coming into town from nc to hang out for a night, and she even brought a new pal, jessica. when we met up with them, ellen's car was on the fritz, and trevor's dad ended up replacing 2 belts! he said she wouldn't have made it back to nc without having caught those problems. thanks, hollis!
the festival was good fun. lots of art, food and music. i bought some pottery, ate an organic black bean quesedillia and a bloomin onion (by no means organic!), and listened to martha scanlan (formerly of the reeltime travelers...think soundtrack to cold mountain), the waybacks and railroad earth (both non-native bluegrass bands. love it).

in this picture we've got trevor's bff, rick; ellen's friend from "the farm", jessica; and miss ellen herself.
and here we have trevor; his sister, gwen; and gwen's bf, ben (aka "gwenjamin").

i'm baaack...

2006-06-06T08:08:00.000-05:00

and will begin the dubious task of unpacking boxes and putting everything in its place (because, baby, it's got one). let the madness commence.

will post later with photos and tales from the two week adventure that was tennessee (and pennsylvania, and north carolina, and maybe some virginia).

oh, and i'm off until thursday when i start my new job, so give me a call and help me fight the boredom.

hi-atus

2006-05-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

well folks, finishing up packing the apartment. we'll go to pick up the u-haul in about 20 minutes or so, and then it's even more madness to come. last night we discovered some icky stuff that tarzan couldn't keep down and i had to make an emergency run to kroger for cleaning supplies. then, after midnight, we realized we were pretty much out of boxes. gotta love packing up your pantry in plastic grocery bags (i knew i kept those for a reason). packing has gotten pretty creative. empty hangers in a bookbag. comforter stuffed into a bag way too small for it. trevor's car is already almost brimming with stuff too randomly packed to make sense for a moving truck. and did i mention that it will probably be me driving said truck up to batesville? never driven a 14-foot truck before, but i've really never driven trevor's car out of second gear. add to all of this that i've caught trevor's summer cold and i've got a bit of a tummy ache. oh, and that my family can't find the keys to the storage unit in which my washer and drier have been living. shite.

well, this will probably be my last post for awhile, seeing as i'll be in the great state of tennessee (and also pennsylvania) for 2 weeks. so i'll leave you with the above photo and this deep thought:
Sometimes, when I drive across the desert in the middle of the night, with no other cars around, I start imagining: What if there were no civilization out there? No cities, no factories, no people? And then I think: No people or factories? Then who made this car? And this highway? And I get so confused I have to stick my head out the window into the driving rain---unless there's lightning, because I could get struck on the head by a bolt. --jack handy

takin a break!

2006-05-19T12:47:00.000-05:00

whew! i'm pooped. packing, packing, packing... what a way to spend time off.

today has already been a long day, and days of our lives isn't even over yet. at 6:15 i got up, ate leftover cake and milk for breakfast, 6:30 got on the road with a car FULL of stuff headed to batesville. i had to go up there to have the gas turned on (apparently you have to be there, cause some houses have blown up...oops) and figured i'd take what i could. note, i did not fit the entirety of that pile below into my car, spacious though it is. i was planning on being stuck there most of the morning waiting on the dude to turn on the gas, but i had just been there 5 minutes when they called. i unloaded the car and tried to take a nap on the floor, but ended up unpacking the boxes i'd brought in. with nothing left to do, i made it back to the apartment by about 11:15. crazy business.

tonight we're going to the seiter-seivers wedding...yahoo chad & rachel!!! i still remember having "girl talk" time with chad about how he had a crush on rachel our first summer at the ranch. very exciting. i don't think i've ever been to a catholic wedding on a friday before...

tomorrow we're going to vino's for our "last night in little rock"...come one come all. we'll be there around 7, so be there, yo.

long time coming

2006-05-16T10:22:00.000-05:00

i'm back. and glad. today is the first day since last thursday that i've spent more than an hour of the day at the apartment. so i can finally post pictures and whatnot from graduation. it's been soo busy lately. friday was my hooding ceremony, followed by a party at reno's argenta cafe, then on to katherine's for some more wine, then to whitewater tavern to see the amy garland band. saturday i went to yellville with katie to a goat show so she could try to find a doe for sale, and so we could try to sell her cutie puppies. if anyone is in need of (or desire for) a male great pyraneese pup, let me know, and i'll hook that up. then i went swimming at the watershed with katie and ashley and trevor met me in perryville so we could hang out with that crowd for dinner in morrilton. sunday, of course, was mother's day. went to mass, then took my mom & dad to perryville so my dad could see heifer ranch. dinner and games at aunt margie & uncle gene's. monday was another trip to batesville to take a load of stuff, get the water turned on, and fill out some paperwork at the sheriffs' ranch. dinner at melanie's and kathryn to the quirky little apartment to watch the grey's anatomy finale (intense). yeah, i'm glad to just be sitting down on the couch. but there's so much more to come in the next few days. friday i'm back to batesville, but then on to a wedding in conway. saturday is the last day in the rock, and sunday is the big moving day. monday we're off to tennessee and pennsylvania for two weeks. my vacation is wearing me out.
here's my list of things to get done in the next couple of days, just so you have an idea of how hectic things are...

grocery store
laundry
take give-aways
buy boxes
buy stuff for the new house
pack: photos, decorations, books, dvds, rest of office/computer stuff for friday's trip
write thank-you cards
get tarzan ready for staying at friends': make phone calls, get flea treatment, get food & litter, write note for those keeping him
pack for tennessee
deposit money
cash in change jar for gas $
not to mention doing those "last time in little rock" sorts of things and entertaining my parents that seem to be staying forever.

alright, that was tedious, so here are some photos to cheer.

this is a very dark shot of me after receiving my hood. i've been told that there are better copies out there. i hope so.

this is my fabulous mickey's special affairs cake. i've finally been able to eat my leftovers for breakfast today.

here's part of the crowd that came to celebrate me: melanie, ashley, joel, me, aunt margie, uncle gene, katie, trevor. not pictured: my mom & dad, carrie & nathaniel, meg, leah, aunt cathy, linda & roy. it was a really good time, despite the incident where i had my knee caps slammed into with a keg on a dolly. much food and drink.

this is perhaps the best shot of the evening. it's miss ashley in my griffindor msw hood. stylish as ever.

and this is trevor teaching hunter, lauren frances and lindsey to play croquet on mothers day. if it were any cuter, i'd barf.

some stuff

2006-05-11T17:49:00.000-05:00

well, the time is quickly approaching. i'll no longer be just brooke s., i'll be brooke s., msw (well, lmsw as soon as i quit being lazy and apply for licensure).

it's been nice being on vacation. i've done some reading, some packing, katie came over for a visit and to deliver the bowl i painted when we went to firefly studio last week. i've also been working on getting utilities and internet and whatnot all set up at the batesville house. turns out i've got to go up there two times next week--monday with trevor to thake another load, get the water turned on and to fill out some paper work job stuff; and then friday to get the gas turned on. so if anyone is planning on being bored on friday (not as in tomorrow) and wants to take a trip to batesville (a very pretty drive) with me, i'd love the company since it'll just be me otherwise.

my parents should be getting in sometime tonight. they've been driving for days from seattle. yikes. that's a lot of sitting. tomorrow trevor is taking me to lunch before the convocation. then afterwords (and all reading this that know who i am and live in the viscinity) we're all going to louis's restaurant, reno's argenta cafe, for festivities.

well, i'm gonna watch some tv now. i've been making myself do more wholesome things all day (except when my story came on...leah knows what i'm talkin bout), but now it's time for friends and that 70's show. love it.

breaking and entering

2006-05-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

so here's a fun sunday:

trevor and i thought we'd take up a load of boxes and whatnot to the batesville house, you know, just get a bit of a start. we also thought it might be fun to take the tarz up with us so he could also check out the house. so we get to the house and unload. eat lunch, make a couple of phone calls, put the boxes in closets and such. tarzan was doing alright, so after lunch we thought we'd leave him there and go check out the availability of our favorite foods at the local kroger.

the excitement all begins when we get back to the house from our trip to the store. the front door had been unlocked when we showed up earlier, so we were extra sure to super lock the back door and to have the front door locked behind us. well, i go to unlock the door with the key our land lady gave me (trevor left his in little rock...what's the point in having 2 keys?), and nothing happens. nothing. yeah, the key is bum. bum.

trevor decides to try to key the door open, and i put him on the phone with the land lady. meanwhile, tarzan's at the door pawing and meowing for us (sadness). land lady says she doesn't have a key on her, and later lets us know that there's no one at the office. message: you're on you own. trevor keeps trying and trying to key the door open, and i walk around the house trying to find alternative ways in. no luck. trevor then decides to get a little more physical with the door. and breaks it down. essentially. the lock was totally jacked up. yep, we were certainly on our own.

so then trevor goes to the wholesale hardware store up the way. long story short(er since it's already gotten pretty long), the wholesale store carries crap and the door knob set he bought was junk. after trevor messing with it awhile, i decide to head somewhere else (that will be kept anonymous) to purchase a more sturdy knob set. finally, trevor gets a new knob and lock and all set up. we're good to go. drive back to little rock. get to the apartment. yeah, where are the apartment keys? you had them last. no, i put them on the counter. uh-huh, they're in batesville. only option: break into our second home of the day. fortunately enough we have the only second-story fire escape and i was able to get on trevor's shoulders, climb the ladder and get in through the one screenless window on our apartment.

we're pretty exhausted. it's tiring breaking into houses and apartments. almost time for grey's anatomy. don't forget to check out the pictures below i took of the house...

housie housie

2006-05-07T20:01:00.000-05:00

well, this isn't so much a picture of the house, but this is tarzan riding among the boxes on his way to see his house to be. doesn't he look excited?
here is the kitchen. it has a lot of cabinet and pantry room--sweetness. and note the icing on the cake: a DISHWASHER. the dishes will finally be super clean, the way i like it.
this is the master bedroom. the other 2 bedrooms look pretty much the same: currently very boring. i'll have to take photos when we've actually got stuff in the house.
here's a dark shot of the living room. all of the windows have low sills, which tarzan already loves.
the front of the house. ahh, brown.
this is part of the back yard. the post is one of two, which means i'll get to line-dry laundry when the weather permits. awesome.
view of the back of the house. note the charcoal grill that someone must have left behind. finders keepers...
and this is tarzan hysteria. the ceiling is really high in the living room/kitchen, and there are these platforms--one in the kitchen and one at the front door. yeah, that's tarzan contemplating the distance of the jump to the other one. he got up there by going counter->fridge->cabinets->platform. yikes.

i don't know much about cinco de mayo...

2006-05-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

but this site does: mexonline.com

as does ellen degeneres (sort of). well, i'm now on my first official day of my month-long vacation. super. it's been pretty chill. did a little reading this morning, and spent part of the afternoon with my sister cause she wrecked her car this morning. yikes. now i'm just wasting away on the couch in front of the television.

hopefully trevor & i will be making a trip up to batesville sunday with our first load of crapola. we packed up a couple of boxes the other night, which was a bad idea since now i don't have anything to do while trevor's at work. except for scare the shit out of tarzan with the vacuum (totally an accident). so yeah, i'll do my best to take my camera to the new house so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

alrighty, this is the most boring post ever, so i'm going to go. happy cinco de mayo everyone! margaritas all around.

trevor sleeps like a baby

2006-05-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

but not me. some nights i'm awake for hours on end with little explanation. tonight i've got a pretty good guess what's keeping me up, but that doesn't make it any easier to sleep. it's funny, i always get this way the night before the first day of school; but never before the last. things are different now. this could be my last last day. i don't really remember being like this when i graduated from uca...but then i knew i was heading off for more school. now i have no idea when or if i'll ever be a student again. i mean, i've been a student for the past 21 years, with only one year off. i've always been able to look forward to yet another year of school; it was my decision to discontinue my life as a student, but i'll still miss the reliability of the classroom.

this sounds nerdy (and social workey), but i don't think i've really prepared myself for this very well. my afternoon class tomorrow is having taking a casual setting for the last day at the rivermarket, and we'll be dealing with termination. termination: the end of the relationship. it inevitably comes in most relationships, not soely therapeutic ones. my eleven classmates and i (all women, by the way) have essentially been together since the beginning. sure, there were some that i didn't have classes with in my foundation year, but most of them i have. and all of us have been together this entire school year. we don't have that much in common outisde the classroom and our quests to be masters of social work, but there's still something monumental about this end.

i know i'm off to a new adventure, to a new job (details to come later when things are official), a new town (batesville), and a MUCH bigger living arrangement. we found a 3-bedroom house this morning and signed on the dotted line (renting, not buying just yet). no fence, but i'm allowed to dig and garden. nice neighborhood, but don't know where we'll ride bikes. it'll really be an adjustment...can't just have a beer at the local restaurant, different restaurants, lack of friends, a new grocery store...but i know we'll have a good time. i'll try to remember my camera when we take a load up this weekend so i can post pictures of what the house looks like. it's pretty hard to believe we'll only been in little rock for about 3 more weeks. we're heading to telford, tn on the 22nd, and when we come back we'll officially be batesvillers. batesvillites. batesvillagers.

oh, and if anyone is dying to cat sit...tarzan is a treat!

MSN Money - What driving a hybrid will really cost you

2006-04-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

MSN Money - What driving a hybrid will really cost you

a decent article for those considering purchasing a hybrid in the near future. the title makes it sound like hybrids are a bad idea, but that's not what the content of the article points to...

posting at the office

2006-04-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

hmmm, i've never yet tried this. i'm at the office, and i'm posting. this is my last hour and a half of my last day of my next-to-last week here at arkansas advocates. i've spent all day (all week, really) working on the contact database...bor-ring to the max! but at least i get paid to do that, unlike all of my other internship duties. now i'm just waiting for the kids count steering committee meeting to begin--i'm updating everyone on the bookings i did for the 3 upcoming events. very important.
the birthday went fine. i made it to 25 without serious harm. flying fish on saturday with loads of pals (and one sister...thanks meg!) for the annual crab leg feast. i just wish i could eat them quickly enough for them not to get cold. that's pretty unrealistic. sunday trevor & i went to pinnacle and hiked from the west side to the east on the base, up the east side, and then down the west side. i really thought people were just being weenies when they called the east side "the hard side", but that's no joke, man. that's some hard business. dinner with the fam at the purple cow (what the heck?), and then spending all of my b&n gift certificate immediately on 4 books i'm pumped about reading now that i don't have to read for school ever agian. well, unless i go back.
yeah, and so i've officially turned in the last of my assignments. possibly for the last time ever. hmm, food for thought...
sunday and monday trevor and i are planning to go up to batesville to see if there's a house around those parts that suits our fancy. i've got lots of criteria, and i'm betting i'll have to give up several: pets allowed, fenced-in back yard, gardening allowed, washer/dryer hookups, dishwasher, hardwood floors, central heat/air...those are the necessities, but we'll just have to see what's available.
well, i think that meeting's getting ready to start...gotta jet

i have a weakness for these silly things

2006-04-22T09:04:00.000-05:00

i know these are pretty cheesy, and i totally stole this from kari's blog (but she stole it from someone else, so it's okay), so don't feel obligated to read this at all. if you want something with more sustinance, read friday's post about my little feet in the world of bigger shoes.

A - Available: nah
A - Age: 25 on sunday (dum, da dum dum)
A - Annoyance: bad grammar

B - Best Friend: trevor seth
B - Birthday: tomorrow

C - Crush: aidan from sex in the city
C - Car: professor plum
C - Cat: tarzan, the crazy cat

D - Dead Pets Name: that's kind of morbid, but heidi is the one i miss the most
D - Dads Name: dave and gene(uncle)
D - Dogs: we can't wait to get one, but can't agree on what size...

E - Easiest person to talk to: boy: trevor, girl: ashley
E - Eggs: delicioso, especially with cavendars
E - Email: 4 friggen accounts

F - Favorite color: green and pink
F - Food: everyday: potatoes, special occasion: crab legs, dessert: lemon icebox pie
F - Foreign Slang: i think i could get myself into trouble with that one, so i'll go safe: testa duda (italian for "hard head")

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: haribo bears...best nonchocolate candy EVER
G - God: not sure
G - Good Times: what i look for

H - Hair Color: dyed it dark brown over spring break, and NOT ONE person has noticed!
H - Height: '5''2 and a quarter (and yes, the quarter counts)
H - Happy: generally, except when i've got pms (as in now)

I - Ice Cream: moose tracks
I - In school: graduate in 3 weeks...msw

J - Jewelry: silver only
J - Job: intern at arkansas advocates for children and families
J - Jokes: horrible at telling them

K - Kids: want two...recently learned the "secret" to having a boy
K - Karate: ummm, i love the karate kid
K - Kung fu: i have no idea...

L - Longest Car Ride: phoenix, az to seattle, wa (took 4 days with my family and hampsters)
L - Longest relationship: roughly 5 years
L - Last kiss: just this morning

M - Milk Flavor: skim or chocolate or strawberry...i love milk!
M - Mothers Name: laurie and margie(aunt)
M - Movie Last Watched: crash--even more intense than i'd figured

N - Number of Siblings: six, three brothers and three sisters
N - Northern or Southern: SOUTHERN
N - Name: alexandra brooks stapleton

O - One Wish: to be happy with the job i take
O - One Phobia: storms
O - Otter Pop: any flavor but grape

P - Parents, are they married or divorced: married
P - Part of your appearance you like best: hair
P - Part of your personality you like best: not a good question for today

Q - Quote: "A way of life in which each person used only a fair share of the resources of the world and yet somehow enjoyed life would be a real step toward world peace." B.F. Skinner
Q - Quick or Slow?: driving and walking: quick, eating: slow

R - Reality TV Show: wish i didn't like them, but i don't like them all
R - Right or Left: most things: right, belaying: left
R - Right now: trying to keep tarzan of the laptop

S - Song Last Heard: i have no idea
S - Season: spring
S - Sport: riding my bike...not that i do that in any sort of sporty way, tough i do have the gear...

T - Time you woke up: 8ish
T - Time Now: 9:26 am
T - Time for bed: between 10 and 11

U - Unknown Fact about me: i don't wear deodorant
U - Unicorns: pretended to be one when i was a kid
U - You are: ready for breakfast...mmmmmm lucky charms

V - Vegetable you hate: i've never tried brussells sprouts, but i know i'd hate them
V - Vegetable you love: fresh asparagus
V - Voice: HORRIBLE

W- Worst Habits: chewing on the inside of my cheeks
W- Where are you going to travel next?: probably ne tennessee and pennsylvania (where i've never been)
W - Where were you born?: camp springs, md (essentially washington, dc)

X - X-Rays: my thumb when i was little (what a waste), and on my leg when i got a stress fracture from playing ultimate in college (actually required a bone scan)
X - Xylaphone: i have a difficult time spelling that word
X - X: men, wish i were one...i'd want to be invisible, i think

Y - Year you were born: 1981
Y - Year it is now: 2006
Y - Yellow: not a good color for the bedroom...too exciting

Z - Zoo Animal: not a fan of the zoo, but i do like the primates
Z - Zodiac: taurus
Z - Zoolander: hi-larious. i just can't get enough of ben stiller

sizeism--a rant

2006-04-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

now here's a question...why is it so impossible for me to find shoes that fit my feet? i understand that we size fivers are in the minority. but we do exist! and we also like to purchase and wear shoes (except for when it's hot)! just a couple of weeks ago, for example, i'm in dillards looking for some shoes to wear for the moyer-french wedding/easter, and the first salesman i encounter simply tells me that there's no way they've got that shoe in a size five. in fact, dillards just hardly even carries size fives, his wife can't even shop there. he doesn't even bother to look! the next salesman was willing to look, but carried the same message: we don't order shoes for your kind here.

again, i do understand that my feet are in the minority, but i can certainly think of 3 people that wear the same size. they, too, like to wear shoes. also, how is it that all of you with larger feet managed to skip size five, thereby eliminating the need for such a small size in local department and other shoe-selling stores? i mean, is size five not on the road to size six in some transitional sort of way?

my latest desire: a pair of chacos. i've been holding out on getting a pair as i have some pretty sturdy tevas that i got on super-sale (like nineteen bucks) my sophomore year of college. but i discovered some backstrapless chacos that struck my fancy and that would serve a different purpose than the tevas (so as not to insult the tevas and imply that they were too uncool for my feet). i tried ozark outdoor (preferring a local approach)...no luck. gene lockwood's...no luck. it's as though the internet is the only option for small feet like mine. and it's not like i don't appreciate the convenience of ordering off of the internet, it's just that sometimes a gal wants her shoes now. is that so much to ask of little rock? apparently so.

fortunately, trevor is the best ever. yesterday there was a little sticky note on the door from the ups people about a package to be delivered. being the clevertrevorseth, he pretended to have no clue what could be coming in the mail (and i really was convinced, confused, but convinced). the package arrived today, and he had me open it while he was on the phone. yep, it was the pair of chacos that i'd seen on sale on the internet but that were out of stock when i went back to order them (it is now clear that trevor was the reason they were out of stock).

anyways, that's just my long rant and rave about how i can almost never find the shoes i'm looking for in the size i need in this darned city. for next time: pants...either too long or too short...

bummer

2006-04-20T12:44:00.000-05:00

looks like we won't be moving to north carolina after all...

spring is in the air...

2006-04-16T21:09:00.000-05:00

it's another sunday without gray's anatomy, and the end of a busy but beautiful weekend. picked tron up from the airport thursday night and he got the distinct pleasure of a night on the couch with noisy tarzan. friday tron and i made it out to heifer ranch in time for lunch, and it was pretty weird only knowing a few of the volunteers out there. joined in on a lesson on making romanian batik resist eggs...mine stood for wish fulfillment. we've got plenty of wishes around here that need fulfilling, that's for sure.

mawwage. mawwage was what brought us to petit jean saturday. sarah & will's wedding was at camp mitchell's chapel of transfiguration. the weather was amazing (a little windy), and there were hawks soaring in the vista. the officiant was joel's dad, david; he did a truly wonderful job making unique connections between sarah and will. i think i'd have to say that the best part was sarah's stripper shoes. reception at their house...lots of madonna. champagne spilled on my new skirt twice! still managed to wear it again today for easter. it was soo good to see everyone. there were lots of old pals in town--in addition to tron, we saw ellen, meredith, m.c., jan, and the other usual suspects.

mass was loooong, waaaay hot, and there was no place for trevor & me to sit. yeah, standing for an hour and a half in heels when you never wear heels: not good. the food was great at aunt margie & uncle gene's...ham, roast, spaghetti, green creamy jello, deviled eggs, salad, strawberry shortcake: wow. not as big of a crowd as usual, we all actually fit in the living room. confetti eggs, tons of pictures, candy.candy.candy.

this week should yeild a decision as to where we'll be and what we'll be doing. we're meeting with mike cumnock (ceo, arkansas sheriff's youth ranches) tuesday, and i'd better hear from blue ridge asap. i'm getting so impatient. will keep posted.

the sage is in bloom

2006-04-11T09:04:00.000-05:00

i've decided today's a hookey day. i don't have morning class anyway, and my allergies have me coughing, sniffeling and sounding like darth vader. so i'm thinking...laundry, taking pictures around the apartment and the like.

winds of change have been more tornadic lately. snafu and poof, trevor's job is gone. i may still have a shot with blue ridge women in agriculture. or i might end up working for arkansas sheriff's youth ranches. essentially, we'll be either in batesville or boone.

good stuff in the news: a higher minimum wage improves the lives of over 100,000 arkansans.

just about one month until graduation. it's hard to believe that i may never be a student again. probably i'll just go back in a couple of years. i'm in the home stretch with my assignments, with only 3 weeks of class & internship after this week.

oh, and i guess i'm the last on the bandwagon to say horray for chandle and david's engagement. what a happy time of year. sarah and will get hitched this saturday, and just one month later it's chad and rachel's turn. and believe it or not, raquel adami will be making her trip down the isle summer 07. twitterpated. that owl on bambi sure had it right...

and be sure to note the new blogs linked over on the right~>

some awesome news!

2006-04-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

well, we got some really good news today! trevor has been offered the challenge course coordinator position at the ranch!! horray! he had his interview yesterday, and got the call this afternoon. now we're just waiting to see if i got the job with blue ridge women in agriculture...i should hear sometime tomorrow. not sure what will happen if i do get it though...we'll have some deciding to do. anyhoo, i'll keep ya posted as to what happens next.

them bones them bones them lazy bones

2006-04-03T12:52:00.000-05:00

um, yeah, so the majority of my spring break was pretty much spent with a crew of animals. house/dog/cat sitting for amy was a good way to spend spring break...it was nice to be in a house for some time. i think even tarzan appreciated living in a house for a week and a half. so here are some photos of the ginormous doggies, and some of our silly kitty.
other than that, i was pretty successfully unproductive. with the exception of my interview, of course. stay tuned...

this is jessi...she just couldn't keep that tounge in!

ah, how easy it was to mistake jasper for a horse!

and tarzan sure loves playing softball...

but do you have as we have a boy cat in a bag???

i love a quickie

2006-03-23T16:49:00.000-06:00

not much time to post...must go feed (very huge) doggies i'm taking care of...
i get to stay in a sweet little stifft station house, and tarzan is starting to come around to the (very huge) doggies...too bad the resident cat, ma rainey, seems to hate tarzan's guts. but she lives mostly outside, so i think it's gonna work.
spring break starting: NOW. not going in to earn extra dollars at advocates. must be lazy.

BIG EXCITING NEWS: i have my first interview! it's a phone interview with blue ridge women in agriculture (can't really afford to get to boone...and they can't afford to pay my way). 4 or 5 board members--yikes! that makes me pretty nervous. guess i'll have to put on my sweet schmoozer phone voice. leah, remember how we used to argue over whose turn it was to order the pizza? this is like that, only for an hour and it could land me a job!!! WOW

okay, i've got to get to the house and feed some (very huge) doggies. i'm taking pictures to post later in the week (when i'm on spring break and have nothin to do but be nervous about the interview)...

a touch of activism...

2006-03-21T17:41:00.000-06:00

so here's what's up:

payday loans bad, increasing the minimum wage good.

arkies...do something good with your spare time and check out these sites (and hopefully take it a little further).

arkansans against abusive payday lending

give arkansas a raise now

kiss me...i'm irish!

2006-03-17T09:43:00.000-06:00

in my native land

Stapleton
De Stabaltun

The Stapletons are the descendants of the Normans, who arrived in Ireland, in the wake of the Anglo-Norman conquest in the year 1170. The name is derived from the Irish Mac An Ghaill, which means "Son of the Foreigner". The name was originally established in Counties Kilkenny and Tipperary. The name in some instances, became Hibernicised, and some branches of the name accepted Mac an Ghaill, subsequently, becoming Gall and Gaule. Robert de Stapleton was Sherriff of Waterford in the year 1287; Frank Stapleton (b. 1956) of Dublin, Irish International Soccer Player won 71 caps for the Republic of Ireland between 1977 and 1990.
The name has remained in the South Leinster-Munster region, since it was first established there in the twelfth century. Counties Kilkenny, Tipperary and adjoining ccounties are the most favoured locations of the name.

MOTTO: FIDE SED CUI VIDE.
"Trust, but in whom, take care."

Yep, we Stapletons are Irish indeed.
Happy St. Patty's day, everyone!!!!

makin' music

2006-03-03T22:50:00.000-06:00

yes, i'm on again about the mandolin. i'm still learning some basic chords (i suppose i will be for quite a while), but i'm really happy with my decision to pick it up. it's so calming...that is, except for when i'm trying to tune it--i currently have the d-chord all out of whack. what i'm really trying to get better at is moving quickly between the chords. i've got c and g down pat, f pretty good, d is a little tricky for my fingers, and a sucks pretty bad. pretty soon, though, i'll have good calluses, and that should help. i've found a great mandolin website, mandolin cafe. check it out.

it's been a pretty low-key friday night, which is for the best since last weekend was so packed with fun and volunteering. we ordered papa john's and watched fast times at ridgemont high. awesome. tomorrow i'm looking at sleeping, playing harry potter on xbox, playing with the cat, and maybe applying for some jobs. there's a bit of exciting news on that front: rich, the executive director at arkansas advocates (where i intern in case you were unaware) is going to pass along my cover letter and resume to jo luck, the ceo of heifer international when he has a meeting next tuesday with someone that's good friends with her. i have no idea (and a good bit of doubt) if it will open any doors, since heifer has such a formalized hiring process, but it's certainly worth getting it to her--especially since she was the first e.d. at advocates (hello, name recognition).

i still haven't heard from winrock international, but it's not even been 2 weeks. i need to figure out how to go about following it up since i only had to email my cover letter and resume...they posted no real contact info. oh, and i've found the PERFECT job for me (minus the fact that it doesn't pay nearly what i'll be worth in may and the position may only last a year due to funding)...it's a project director position with blue ridge women in agriculture, which is in boone, north carolina. yeah, perfect. i'm going to apply despite the two pitfalls. i mean, it could set me up for something else awesome, and the pay will still be about twice what i'm living off of now....

well, that's enough rambling from me for now. to whomever reads this...goodnight.

currently watching: trevor playing tiger woods pga tour

happy carnival to all

2006-02-28T09:08:00.000-06:00

you know you're at a progressive redneck birthday party if...

2006-02-27T20:12:00.000-06:00

* the birthday boy gets presents from the oppelo flea market
* nobody bothers to put the pbr in the fridge

* you drink your wine from a mason jar
* instead of hamburgers you have deer burgers

* the highlight of the evening is arm wrestling
* the dogs present have names like "bruiser" and "dixie"

* even the girls arm wrestle
* there's a real slingshot hanging from the ceiling

* trading outfits is the norm (yes, he's wearing my clothes)
* this is the first time you've seen the floors finished (and you're not allowed to ash or spill beer anymore)

* the cowboy and the computer guy can switch roles (and clothes)
* there's a light-up "mad dog" sign on the wall

32 Short Things About Brooke Stapleton

2006-02-23T18:19:00.000-06:00

1) i graduate in 11 weeks
2) i have a migit toe
3) some might consider me a tad compulsive
4) my best friend in 6th grade once convinced me to take a splinter out of her bum (she didn't have one...just wanted to see how good a friend i was)
5) my cat tarzan is laying on me right now kneading my arm with his paws
6) i just took up the mandolin
7) chocolate gives me headaches sometimes...but i LOVE it
8) i applied for my first really real job the other day
9) i'm super scared of sharks and alligator garr
10) i want to be a farmer (small-scale) when i grow up
11) i once "moved" to denver for like 11 days
12) i played basketball for 3 years and scored a total of 6 points
13) i learned to like beer in the netherlands
14) after gaining some weight, i realized just how vain i really am
15) and speaking of vain, i can't stand when people can't tell when i'm having a bad hair day (which means they can't tell the difference between that and a good hair day)
16) i can tell when trevor's getting home because of how his car sounds (he just pulled up)
17) i hate the comcast digital cable commercial..."dad, the cable's out again can you fix it?"
18) i miss camping and wish i went all the time (or at least sometime)
19) i don't like the cold of winter unless it's snowing (otherwise, what's the point?)
20) i'm a harry potter nut...from the books to the movies to the xbox games
21) i really like goats..they don't go to hell!
22) i wish i were an artist, like a painter or sculpter or photographer or something
23) is the day i was born
24) is how old i am right now
25) is how old i'll be in 2 months
26) i wish i was a little bit taller, i wish i was a baller, i wish i had a girl who made a good apple cobbler what?
27) sometimes i miss my sophomore year of college...those were good days
28) what i really miss is dancing like a maniac (slut, whatever) like i did in college
29) movies i secretly like: princess diaries, sweet home alabama, and some other ones i can't think of
30) i finally quit sleeping with my stuffed animal, mutt, this past fall
31) i didn't learn to swim until the 5th grade
32) i once got a speeding ticket for doing 92 in a 65

did you make it?

shabooyah

2006-02-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

it's that time again. yep, time for another photo update. i don't know why it takes me so long to get around to putting my pictures on my computer from my camera. there's been a good bit going on lately. i'm putting in my first job application (nervous!) for a postition with winrock international at their arlington, virginia office. that would be nuts, huh...living so close to d.c. i have no idea what my shot is at this job, it's definitely not a "social work" job. but i think i could do it. well, anyway, to the photos!

this is the major spread i made for the superbowl "party". we had homemade hot wings, seven-layer bean dip, potato wedges, homemade cheese, and puppy chow. there were sooo many leftovers. we ate them for days. and we've still got a fridge FULL of beer.

here's lindsey at her 3rd birthday party (not her most photographic moment). it was at the gym where the kids take gymnastics and gina teaches. it was super cute, especially when all the kids were in the foam pit. gina did the dora cake, which looked awesome. she was up all night with it. good stuff.

here's trevor and me after our delicious valentine's day dinner at vermillion water grill. we ate sooo much food; i couldn't even sleep on my stomach i was so full. we had shrimp pad thai, salads (trevor's had duck on it), basil seared scallops with garlic mashed potatoes (me), lamb loin chops with garlic mashed potatoes (trevor), and white chocolate raspberry creme brulee. it was amazing.

ahh, yes. the highlight of my week. my new baby, my new hobby, my new obsession. since trevor and i decided to do a road trip instead of costa rica for my graduation trip, i decided to splurge and buy myself a mandolin. yep, i'm teaching myself to play. i've got chords c and g down pretty well, and i'm working on f (can't get it to sound pretty), d and a (both of which are hard to get my fingers to do). i spent over an hour trying to tune it properly with trevor's help. man, that's hard. my e string is tough to get just right. i'm really excited, and i think this just might be my thing.

and here are the boys on the wintery day. trevor's getting started on his 4-hour marathon of golf on the xbox. tarzan slept quite a bit. ashley walked over and the three of us walked to sufficient grounds for lunch and warm beverages. rented a movie, and i've been cozy inside since.
well, that's all of that for now.

currently watching: cast away on abc

my current addicions:

2006-02-13T20:27:00.000-06:00

1. wasabi...i want it anytime, on almost anything. dab some on a piece of sushi, cover some peanuts or freeze-dried peas. i love it. burns my nose. love it.

2. cookies and milk...oreos and nutter butters. extreme goodness. easy on the mouth. mmmmm.

3. the olympics...we're watching so much of it here. love the skating, love the skiing, love the snowboarding. love it. i think i might try the luge some day, but trevor thinks i'm crazy. i mean, they do go 90 mph or so. either that or be a jockey (as in with the racing horses...i am pretty short, just have to drop 30 pounds or so).

the bane of my existence: my impacted wisdom teeth that think they're going to come in. i've been in pain on one side of my mouth or the other since LAST THURSDAY! it's totally out of control!!! i'm eating bananas for breakfast since the ibubprophen hasn't kicked in by them.

a saturday morning photo shoot

2006-02-04T18:35:00.000-06:00

yeah, so this is what you do in bed on saturday morning with your cat when you don't have to be up for much...

the heat is on...and so is the party!!!

2006-01-30T21:55:00.000-06:00

so we're gonna do it: super party I for super bowl XL. all are invited; bring friends, beverages, and food (just if you want to add to what's gonna be here already). if you don't already know how to get here, just email or give me (or trevor) a call. i'll have 2 tvs set up for optimal viewing. on the menu: seven layer dip, homemade wings, and something sweet! i'll probably end up making some more stuff, who knows...
anyhoo, just let me know if you're a comin, i'm trying to get a bit of a head count so we can know just how much food to make.

ADDITION:
i believe the festivities (or kickoff, i'm not sure which) begin at 5. i figure, just come on over whenever you want; we'll be ready sometime in the afternoon...the food will probably come in waves.

a show of hands...

2006-01-24T16:50:00.000-06:00

just taking a quick poll of who would be interested in coming to a super bowl party at the quriky apartment. i'm up in the air about it, trevor wants to do one...a decision needs to be made as the event is qucikly approaching. so here's what i'm thinking: i'll borrow a bigger tv and make some good snackies...seven layer bean dip for sure, something from the crock pot (a dip or some little weenies or something), and maybe nutella fondue; if enough people are in (and i mean really in, i don't want to make a ton of food for just trevor and me!), then we're on. so yeah, let me know.

i may not know much about football, but i know about hosting...

curried hummus and kitty snapshots

2006-01-21T13:28:00.000-06:00

i'm finally posting that recipe for curried hummus that some of you enjoyed at the survivor finale party. sorry it's taken so long to do so...busy and distracted and whatnot. i've been playing a lot of harry potter on xbox. celebrating ashley's birthday with pizza and cake, and joel's with even more pizza. okay, so here it is:
curried hummus
2 cans chick peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
4 teaspoons curry powder
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup water
salt, to taste
hot sauce, to taste

i just threw it all into my cuisinart and blended it until i got the consistency i wanted.

and here are some random photos of the cat. who, by the way, is obsessed with jumping onto the tv which is not on the sturdiest of tv carts (yikes!) and wandering the halls of the apt. building (but NOT going outside, sadly). note the SNOW in the first shot...i couldn't believe it!

how cute is my little family?!

the first of the last

2006-01-17T09:07:00.000-06:00

since i didn't have trevor take a picture of me on this first day of my last semester (that's right folks, last semester!), here's a photo of me from my first day of fourth grade at holy souls. well, this has got to be cut short as i've got 15 minutes to pack my lunch, brush my teeth, etc. and get out the door. and poor tarzan, alone almost all day long...

when it rains, it pours

2006-01-14T14:13:00.000-06:00

i tell you what, this blogging thing is sweeping the nation! within one week i've had 3 friends pick up the habit. well, for some this is a second (and hopefully more successful) attempt at sharing their lives and stories with the masses. so here are my props to them:

first is kristen & jr. kristen is a pal from the glory days of msm. this is a picture of them i stole from their blog. they went marlin fishing in cabo (hey, jealousy!)

next to come along is smellen ellen's blog "in the cuckoo's nest". this is a photo of ellen and me (i have no idea what i'm doing with a bird face like that!) from summer 2003 at heifer ranch. ellen and i go back to the halls of tekyo university in maastricht...well, we'd actually been acquainted before that, but it ways the semester abroad that did the trick.

last but not least is cale, also a uca and heifer ranch friend. quite the gardener, this one. also tears it up (his feet, at least) on the basketball court! his blog is called "my garden year: hopefully i'll grow more than weeds". and here's a sweetie picture of cale...

well, that's all i have for now. just spending a lazy saturday reading, playing harry potter on xbox, and hearing my neighbors' sex despite the loud music they think covers it up (yikes!).

to school or not to school...that is the question

2006-01-11T12:53:00.000-06:00

i am again at the decision crossroads. i've been thinking lately that maybe i won't go back for more school right after graduating (that's right people, just 4 months and one day till i'm a masta). i'm thinking i might like a break from the poverty of student life. it would be nice to live off of more than nine hundred dollars a month, to be able to go to the dentist (i've probably got a thousand cavities and definitely need my wisdom teeth out of this little mouth), to buy my own car and make the payments and insurance all by myself. all of those grown-up type things. i sure do like school, though. but how great would it be to make a serious dent in my student loans before taking on more schooling.
i just don't know! then there's the decision about where to get that salary-paying job. i'd love to get one in north carolina (then i'd be guaranteed in-state tuition when i do go to appalachian state)...and trevor would be more likely to find a job he loves. but i've got more contacts here.
so anyway, if you've got suggestions (or know of any non-counseling social workey jobs), give me a shout.

the cat that thinks it's a dog

2006-01-07T13:59:00.000-06:00

what a weird morning. at about 5:30 or 6 this morning we were awoken by the insane meowing of the cat across the way. now, i've heard this cat before...sometimes another cat gets involved and there's a bit of a scuffle (which did, indeed, happen)...but it had yet to happen since tarzan entered my life and apartment. i have no idea if this is normal, but tarzan's reaction to all of the commotion was not to meow but to growl. i've heard him do this before, but i just thought it was kind of like a purr. this was definitely growling. you know, the type of growl a dog does right before she barks. of course tarzan can't bark or anything since he doesn't even have the right kind of vocal chords or whatever...but there he was, walking all over us on the bed, looking out the window, growling. it was nuts! i kept waiting for him to bark...so weird. do other cats do this, or does tarzan think he's a dog??? food for thought...

photo update

2005-12-30T17:35:00.000-06:00

yes, i realize i've not posted in almost a month. that's a really long time for me. you would think that i'd be posting all the time out of boredom since i'm on school break, but i really started this blog to begin with as a means of procrastinating with my schoolwork; no schoolwork, no need to procrastinate. so anyway, here are a bunch of photos to catch y'all up on the life of brookeje. enjoy:

the pink frilly blanket i made for lauren frances and the weird looking metalic scarf i made for aunt margie...

lindsey and hunter sure had a good time with those cupcakes!

a photo of the christmas tree house at kavanaugh/cantrell. i didn't even think my camera was taking photos, seeing as i was in the car and it was really dark.
meet the cat...yes, i've adopted a cat. i got him from this girl i grew up with (we even have the same birthday) who is moving to memphis and could only take one of her cats (sadness...i would have just lied). the picture doesn't really demonstrate the sheer enormity of this beast. he's probably a maine coon, and he's like 5 1/2 years old or so. he came with the name james (lame, unless you're a cute boy), so i'm thinking of calling him tarzan. poll: is it wrong to change a cat's name at this point. food for thought: if i'd found him on the street i'd never have known what his name was anyway...

here's leah and me after new year's eve dinner at cajuns. man i get slouchy after a couple of glasses of wine...aunt margie would be disappointed with that posture!

and here's ashley and me at the big peabody party. what a babe in the tophat.

well, that's it. did you make it all the way through? i promise i'll be better about posting more regularly again...happy 2006 everybody!

say hello to my little friend..

2005-12-07T09:35:00.000-06:00

subtitle to the post: could brookeje be losing her mind???
so i just had one of the WORST nights of sleep ever! ashley and i had a fun little girlies night with damgoode and beer..."i'm going to sleep so well," i said. i mean, i haven't been drinking enough water, so i was totally buzzed before i'd finished beer #1 (pathetic, i know, but good since i only had two beers at the apt). i figured i'd sleep like a ROCK. but no, something awoke me at about 1:45. at first it was some crampies, then a bit of a tummy ache. then it was "scratch scratch scratch...scuffle scuffle scuffle". yep, the squirrels (i'm hoping for squirrels over rats or mice because at least they're not quite as scary or gross) living in my outer wall and the other wall by my bed were having an all-nighter. i don't know what the hell they were doing in there; sounded a lot like tag and build a nest...yikes! i couldn't fall back asleep! at one point i dozed off, only to have this weird awake dream where i SWEAR i heard the noise get louder and i felt something jump on my bed right behind me. i'm pretty sure it wasn't real, because in the "dream" i sort of thought it was a cat or something (way too big to be living in my walls). at about 5:30 (that's right, folks), i was certain i heard them in my bathroom. and not just under the bathtub like i normally hear them when i'm showering; i could hear one IN the bathtub. i put on my brave hat (and my tennis shoes in case i had to bolt to safety) and flipped on the light in the hall...in the bathroom...no noise. so i step up on the toilet (can't get me there), and fling open the shower curtain. nothing. now, there's this hole in my wall under the sink around one of the water pipes, and i've always suspected that whatever's been living in my walls sometimes sneaks through the hole and hangs out in my bathroom (which would totally explain the origin of the fleas in my bathroom when i do not own a pet!). grabbed some duct tape, and closed the sucker up. i'm hoping i'm pretty critter-proff at this point. i mean, man i don't want rabies or some flea-carried disease from a nasty little rodent. i want to call my landlord, but....what if i'm crazy? what if what i'm "hearing" isn't real? wouldn't be the first in my immediate family...children of people with schizophrenia have roughly until the age of 25 to develop it if they're going to get it genetically...still 24 here!

no really, they're totally real though.

if i had a million dollars...

2005-12-01T12:12:00.000-06:00

okay, so i don't have a million dollars, but i was given a pretty large (by my standards, anyway) "christmas bonus" from my nonpaid internship. i can't decide what in the world to do with it! so i'm asking for suggestions. some ideas: i-pod (fun, but certinaly not necessary), random things i've wanted but wouldn't otherwise pay for (wool sock leather bottom slippers, for example), or finally starting a savings account (i am 24, after all). any suggestions???

and here's a fun little test...i really tied between ginny and hermione.

You scored as Ginny Weasley. You definitely share your mother's (Molly Weasley) fiery resolve and slowly but surely people are learning to respect you because of it.

Hermione Granger

80%

Ginny Weasley

80%

Albus Dumbledore

75%

Remus Lupin

70%

Ron Weasley

65%

Harry Potter

60%

Sirius Black

60%

Severus Snape

55%

Draco Malfoy

50%

Lord Voldemort

20%

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...?
created with QuizFarm.com

family and then some...

2005-11-28T12:38:00.000-06:00

39. that's right. 39 people for thanksgiving. it was actually quite a good time. so here's the overview of the holiday week: monday i went to the fountain with rachel (a friend that calls) to meet up with evan and watch the razorback game. tuesday i skipped out on class early to meet up with trevor and family (his mom, dad, and younger sister) in perryville. wednesday trevor and i took his family to louis's restaurant so they could informally meet some of my family. wow, almost everyone was there! thursday was lunch at aunt margie and uncle gene's...tons of food, tons of people. we didn't go to a movie, though...first time in years! trevor's and my family really hit it off. good stuff. we were just sorry that his older sisters couldn't make it.
friday we had breakfast with his family before sending them off for tennessee. got to see some old friends, horray for jena! saturday was pretty lazy; went to see nonie because she broke her arm on friday at the salon. sunday we had quite a day...three hours to retrieve aaron from siloam springs, and three hours back all amidst the crazy storminess.
so now i'm in the home stretch. last week at my internship, last week for MCP and stats, and just 2 weeks for evaluation & research. woohoo. then it's weeks and weeks of work-free bliss! i'll be knitting, knitting, cleaning, knitting, and watching loads of movies and tv. i'm pumped.