How was your weekend?

Stephen and I had a very relaxing weekend in Louisville. Stephen received an invitation for an art show opening for Friday night, in the mail on Friday afternoon! The show was for one of our favorite professors and the organizer for all the Guatemala trips we've been on, so of course we made time for it. The show was at the Pyro Gallery on W. Main and it was with two other artists. Stephen and I enjoyed browsing through all of Bob's work and admiring the work of artists we had not seen before.

After the gallery we walked a block or so down to Sol Aztecas, where Stephen enjoyed a margarita (salt, no straw) and I ordered my customized fav: carne asada tacos with cilantro, lime wedges and pico...delish! After dinner we began walking back to the truck and I noticed the beautiful blue sky peeking through the windows of the facades of several old buildings that had been gutted. I had always thought they were beautiful, so I took a picture.

On Saturday night, Stephen and I met up with several friends that we had went to Guatemala with the first time at yet again another Mexican restaurant (I think we both have an addiction :) It was great to catch up with everyone and see how things are going two years later.

After dinner we were going to go to another Guatie's (that short for "Friend that I went to Guatemala with") CD release party (The Highlight Reel)...but Stephen and I are old fogies, we were pooped and ended up spending the rest of the night in watching movies-sorry Jimmy ;).

Love Birds

When Stephen and I first got engaged, I feel in love with this non-traditional, but so beautiful cake topper for the wedding. We wasted no time in ordering it and I can't wait to use it on the cake and then as a decoration in our home as a momento to our wedding day.
We wanted kind of a natural theme for the wedding and when I found this topper I knew it was the one for us. I found it in the Wedding Star Magazine and they have so many cute wedding toppers. It was fun to see all the different playful varieties.

And so it must begin....but so soon?

I guess the world is trying to tell me to get on the ball. This week, for class, we had to make tentative study plans for reviewing all of our didactic course work before we have to take the physical therapy licensure exam at the end of this year/beginning of next year. I was very proud of my study plan. I had organized material based on where I am going to be for my clinical affiliations for the next six months so what I'm reviewing will be congruent with what I'm actually doing on site.

In addition to making the study plan, I got my first test prep book today. It's weird but I feel and urge to get all my class material out and organize it so I'll be ready to go. Then I think...wait a minute, I've still got a month of classes left for this semester.


So while I've got good intentions currently, I highly doubt any reviewing will be done prior to that third week in May in between my TWO (lucky me!) vacations prior to my internships.

Nashvegas Baby...Indiana?

That's right, there is a Nashville, IN-I had no idea but Stephen's dad recommended that he and I take a one-day trip up there since he knew that we loved exploring new towns and such. First off just let me say-"wow." I was taken aback immediately when we got into town. There were people walking around everywhere, I swear you'd think we just landed in Gatlinburg or something. Apparently it's a hotspot.

We parked at the edge of town and began our exploration from there. The whole village is storybook-like and still maintains its turn of the century charm without being over the top. Littered throughout the town are small "alleys" full of artisans and unique gardens and buildings and fudge shops--oh my!

Stephen standing in front of a fudge-shop. We walked in and it smelled delicious and there was a man crafting the fudge right in front of us!

We both enjoyed going in and out of the craftsman stores and admiring their work. These places were just tucked away and it felt like we were the only ones who knew about it.

In one of the alleyways

We both appreciated the architecture and the beautiful gardens accented by the paint colors on the buildings.

One of the beautiful garden-scapes with neat glass work and metal work sculptures.

Did I mention the village also had two wineries? Ahhhh... heaven! After tasting some delicious Riesling, we followed our noses to lunch: The Hobknob Corner Restaurant. It was delicious. It was in a building that had seen better days and had previously been a pharmacy in the 1800's. Regardless, the food was amazing. We both had the special: a roast beef sandwich on homemade French bread with grilled onions and Swiss cheese and a delicious sauce. Delish!

In front of the restaurant

Overall, we were very happily surprised at what all Brown County/Nashville had to offer. We spent the whole afternoon there and would recommend it to anyone as a quick day-trip from the Kentuckiana area.

Nothing Happened Here...

Last Saturday, on one of our whims, Stephen and I decided to drive up to Madison, IN. Stephen and I are, shall we say, somewhat prone to going on last minute little one-day road-trips in search of, small towns, fun museums, good wine and small town food.

I had never been to Madison before, heck, I didn't even realize it was on the river! Our GPS took us off the express way nearly half way to Madison and the rest was all through backroads and through beautiful scenery, and not so beautiful run down dwellings reminiscent of those seen on TV housing meth labs, but enjoyable none-the-less.

I'm definitely the type that likes to make somewhat of a plan prior to setting out to explore new places. When we crossed the tiny two-lane bridge and got over to Madison, we made our way town the scenic Main Street in search of a tourist center or something of the like. After circling TWICE, we finally found a small sign that had been blocked by a van, but the sign literally pointed to a small house. We walked down the street to see if maybe it was pointing down the next street-but NOTHING! I still don't think there really is a tourist center in Madison.

We found this beautiful fountain nestled in one of the neighborhoods without a map!

So despite our failed attempts at locating maps or literature with places of interest, we began walking down Main Street enjoying the small town feel. Before we walked into any shops though we decided we had to walk down to the river.

Stephen and I on the waterfront overlooking the tiny bridge that we had to cross to get to Madison...oh and as we were told, remnants of an old pier!

After walking around on the waterfront, we ventured back up to Main Street and had lunch at Downtowners, a great little cafe that had delish sandwiches and good salads!

Main Street!

After lunch we walked down a couple streets a few blocks from Main Street. Madison is full of historic buildings and beautiful homes! You can tell that there was or is a major attempt at a town-wide renovation/revitalization. There are some buildings that you can tell have been restored right next door to ones that look like they are about to fall apart. Despite some of the eye sores, we really enjoyed the style of architecture Madison had to offer.

We found this great little plaque on one of the residences in the neighborhood, poking fun at all the historical happenings that had taken place in the town!

After hoofing it around the town we were in great need for some good wine! There were two stops of a wine trail in Madison, so we could not resist. Our first stop was the Thomas Family Winery. It had a great 19th century feeling: dark wood, short ceilings, and very good Reisling! We spend probably a good hour in the booths by the window looking through coffee table books and enjoy some wine.

Stephen caught me enjoying a glass of Reisling at the Thomas Family Winery.

We then made our way over to Lanthier's Winery which was right on the river and had what I'm sure would have been gorgous grounds had the garden been in season. We literally walked into a wine cellar entering the building and followed our ears to a bar where several couples were being served wine. We samples some very good wines and had a great time trying to pronounce some. Try: C-H-A-T-A-Q-U-A-B-L-U-M-C-H-E-N we had a blast finally mastering this one. Some of our favorites here included:

• Cranberry Grande
• Chataquablumchen
• Festival Cherry
• Blberry Social
• Mill Street Red
  

Stephen picking out some wine at Lanthier's

Overall, we had a great time exploring the town and enjoying some good wine and good company before I had to head back to school and he had to head back to work.

Celebrate!

Tonight, my university celebrated 25 years of physical therapy education in our city with dinner, dancing, live music and a key-note speaker all while honoring one of my professors who actually was integral in bringing physical therapy to our city. Stephen and I went with one of my friends and her boyfriend to the event at one of the premier hotels on the river. We had a blast and had fun getting to know the lighter side of our professors and networking with past graduates and potential future employers!

Me and Stephen just prior to the event.

Enough Already!

Ugh!!! So after the whole eye/LASIKS debacle, I'm back in the ring again, this time, it's me vs. my wisdom teeth: Bring it on! So I am 23 and I guess I've done a good job of avoiding the whole wisdom tooth thing, but now they've caught up to me.

I had my 6 month check-up today that I was supposed to have, um, back in November (busy schedule, I can't help it). Everything checked out fine, except one of my wisdom teeth is impacted :(

The hygienist did a great job of scaring me about making sure I don't get an infection, saying repeatedly, "you SHOULD be fine." Yea, I got freaked out. So as soon as I got home I called my mom and was informed that with our insurance it takes 30-45 days to get approved for the teeth removal procedure. Great considering I have 2 weeks off in May essentially before real life starts and I've already got LASIKS lined up and it's getting to be about that time for the regular Dr. check-up. Way to get me while I'm down stupid teeth :(

That is all, sorry bout the rant.

On a lighter note: I successfully completed the first week of the "couch to 5K" program. Granted I can run for 15-20 minutes already, I do feel like I'm taking a step back starting this program, but I think the fact that it has a schedule will help me build up my endurance to run for longer periods of time.

Also in a very successful attempt to avoid studying for wound care, I managed to clean out my closet. Only thing is, you really can not tell that anything is gone; seriously, I have way to many clothes. I don't know what I'm going to do when I move out and don't have a walk-in.

The arms-ful of clothes I extracted from my closet to give away or yard-sale; didn't even make a dent.

I Can See..... Well, Soon Anyway

Let me preface this post by saying that for my entire life I have been in love with being outdoors. My family has owned a cabin on Barren River Lake since before I was born and we've spent many a summer down there on the lake, in the woods, by bonfires, etc... Now I've always had issues with insects. I swear you'd think my blood was tainted in sugar the way mosquitos flock to me. And not only am I the one with ALL the bites but I'm also the one that ends up with huge whelps that take forever to go away, wherever I'm bitten. The evidence is still present on my legs from where I scratched the living day-lights out of those blasted bites.

So basically, I love being outside and aside from my yearly run-ins with the mosquits I'm lucky to have no allergies or have had any serious issues. That is until this past year....dun dun dun

So on the weekend of Easter of 2009 Stephen took me up to Mount Saint Francis in Indiana where he had his senior retreat when he was in highschool. He had constantly talked about all the time he spent in the woods and the beauty that surrounded the campus. Anyway, we took the afternoon and ventured thru the woods and around the lake and over creeks, etc... and it really was beautiful and I can see why schools would have retreats there.

But then, on Easter Sunday, I started developing a rash on my chest. Never having experienced hives before I assumed it was just poison ivy and began the proper protocol. However, by the end of the night, my entire body was covered in the hives (diagnosed by Stephen's mother) and I was itching all over the place and so confused because I've been so good about not having allergies.

You can see the rash developing on the left side of my chest in this pic from Easter

Anyway, throughout the rest of the summer, these mysterious and resilient hives reappeared 2 additional times. I eventually got over them but was somewhat concerned about the reaction.

Fast-forward to November. I go to my optometrist for my annual eye-exam-nothing out of the ordinary, I get new contacts and go on my merry way. Two weeks later my right eye turns blood red after wearing my contacts. I become very alarmed as I took a break from my contacts for several weeks just thinking my eyes needed a break. But every time I attempted to wear my contacts the redness returned.

My horribly, painless, constantly red eye (and I needed to get my eyebrows done :)

I finally went to the optometrist and learned that now I'm all of a sudden allergic to my contacts! I was peeved!!! She informed me that I probably wouldn't be able to wear my contacts again and that this kind of thing just happens sometimes.

So after weeks of pouting, I made an appointment with John Kenyon Eye Centers to talk about the possibility of lasiks. Well, my appointment was today and after having my eyes examined and poked and prodded for 2 hours I have an appointment on April 1st to have lasiks!!!

The following are things I am super excited about:

• waking up and being able to see the alarm clock where it sits on the night stand
• not blindly searching for my glasses or cell phone while in bed
• not having to worry about my glasses falling off my face while I'm running or exercising
• not having to worry about if I have my contact case and solution every time I want to stay the night somewhere
• opening my eyes under water
• gaining back those several minutes a day where I'm cleaning and either putting in or taking out contacts

I've never taken my site for granted basically because I've always had to wear some sort of corrective devices. I'm so looking forward to not having to constantly think about how my glasses/contacts will affect the activities that I want to participate in!

Peace, ya'll

An iphone...again!

So back in 2005 I got my first real, cool, bonefied, not stock cell phone-a blackberry pearl and I was in love. I thought I was cool stuff alright-I finally had a phone that was different than my mom's! Of course, back then you didn't have to buy the monthly data plan so I had all the cool looks of a blackberry without the added financial costs or hassle of the add-ons. After all, what does a high school student need with a cell phone designed for a busy professional? Anywho, thanks to my brother who always has to have the latest technology, I've been the proud owner of both a hand-me-down iphone and a blackberry bold (not too bad if I do say so myself).

My first "cool phone" I swear, if it came with the 3G network it would've been
my first choice, I love how compact it is; it fits just about anywhere
and gets in the way of nothing. I also loved the small keyboard. It made texting a
breeze. In no time I had memorized the buttons and I didn't have
to look at the keyboard at all to text-sooo convenient!

So while not having to pay for the phones my brother was letting me borrow, it was frustrating dealing with phones who had had previous owner, that were older and had seen better days. So today Stephen took me to the at&t store and got me an iphone 3G (I know the 4G is coming out in June but I couldn't take my malfunctioning bold much longer!) a hard case and a car charger! This last purchase was the end of what Stephen had declared "Surprise Weekend '10" which had consumed this past weekend. Anyway, I've been fidling with the iphone all night and I have to say it is so much more fun than a blackberry but I think the blackberry is a better phone phone. Aside from actually verbally talking with someone, the iphone rocks, and I am happy :)

I guess because my time with my brothers 1st generation iphone didn't last very long I don't really have anything to compare the 3G with. However, I do notice the faster speed which is a give-in. I just hope I get reception at school. It's really no fun to have to walk outside in winter weather just to text or make a phone call. I guess we'll find out next Monday.