Life's a gas...

Good Friday morning all!

I've gotten into something of a routine the past two weeks. My mom has been out of town so I'm on double-dog duty. The puppies wake me up around 5:30, we go on a morning walk, they eat breakfast, and the three of us fall back into bed around 6 to sleep for a few more hours. This morning however my mom's dog, Jack, tooted just after we all got settled. Normally I don't smell puppy gas, however Jack was sleeping right by my head. Consequently, I'm up and alert at 6:30. Mom comes back tonight from her business trip, so I won't have to take the morning shift anymore.

I worry about how Ellie will cope when she moves to Houston with me in August. Ellie and Jack have definitely become good pals. I left Ellie with my mom here in Corpus after spring break, since I knew April would be a crazy month so she and Jack have bonded. I hope she enjoys being a single dog again.

So my brother bought rock-band and brought it home earlier this week. Those who know me, know that I'm not a gamer, by any means, but I LOVE this game! When I play with groups of people I sometimes am mocked for the enthusiasm I show when playing the drums, but man is it fun! Matt and I have a band named the "Casual Philosophers"--thank you rock band software. I have Alicia to thank for my rocker name though, ladies and gentlemen: by day I am Stephanie-overly positive word-nerd, but as soon as that game starts I become: Stephanopolis--rock drummer extrodinare!

If I don't count the weekend, today is my last day of "summer vacation" since I start my internship on Monday. I'm excited and nervous about it, just like I was when I was getting ready to start grad school last June. It's so strange to think that I was a newbie in grad school just a year ago and now I'm 9 weeks away from being finished. Gosh time flies.

Oh, random thought here. I took the pups with me when I ran errands yesterday and when we went to the drive through at the bank the teller sent two milkbones back with my reciept! How cool is that?! I had heard tales of such things happening, but I hadn't experienced it. Kudos to the bank teller for treating the puppies!

I treated my brother to dinner last night. We went to the one chain restaurant in Calallen that isn't a fast food joint: Chilis. It was good, some of our old high school friends are on the waitstaff there so we got to chat with them and then we ran into my favorite high school teacher: Ms. Crum.

Crum was my pre-cal and calc teacher both Junior and Senior year in hs. She gave me many of my favorite one-liners. If someone dropped their calculator she would say: "It works better that way." Now I use that when someone drops their phone. My all time favorite one though, happened during one of our classes, someone was frustrated and said "Jesus Christ" and without missing a beat Crum looks at the kid and says "Where?" Witty humor gets me every time.

Here's to dogs, dinners, routines, memories, and favorite high school teachers!

Blessings to you on this fantastic Friday morning!

The real world is inching closer...

Okay, so in order to be a real-live speech pathologist I had to pass a comprehensive exam from Baylor (passed) and a national certification exam. Studying for comps and praxis is one of the most stressful times for any of my fellow grad students, including myself, but I had forgotten to stress about getting the scores.

Over the weekend two of my classmates asked me if I had gotten my scores yet, and I hadn't, but I wasn't expecting them yet. However, this morning I looked on line and ta-dah! there they were.
Drum roll please....

I PASSED!!

Now all I have to do is finish my internship, graduate, and do my clinical fellowship and i'll be an official edumacated speech pathologist :) Huzzah!!

Blessings to you in all your endeavors this week!

Puppies!

I finally dug my video/picture importer out of my packed belongings, so for your viewing pleasure: the Bridgeman family dogs, doing what they do best, being silly.

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So...what's new? Not much? Me either. Last week I successfully moved my worldly belongings back to Corpus where they will hibernate for the summer. I was not able to move them in one trip though, it took 2 trips. So I drove 15 hours in 3 days...not my favorite thing, but a necessary evil. Normally I love driving, but for some reason this time it was more tiring than usual.

So far I've spent the last few days doing nothing productive, and I've enjoyed it a lot but I wish there was a good coffee shop in calallen. Doing nothing is best disguised as reading a book and drinking coffee, unfortunately I'd have to drive "into town" (a 20 minute drive) to the closest starbucks to fulfill that desire. Ah well, I guess I'll have to find a new way to avoid productivity while I can.

My mom has been in Philly with Joy, Jeremy, and Danny boy for the last 10 days and she sent me some adorable pictures of my nephew today...so since I don't have a whole lot to say I'll simply share them with you!
















This is Danny after a bath...apparently, I think he's going to be a ton of fun when he gets just a teensy bit older :)











This is my mom and Danny, she's a proud Mimi













And here's the whole happy family!











Here's to coffee, brothers, nephews, moms, mimis, sisters-in-law, doing nothing, and being productive!

Blessings to you!

To my Mama Llama :)

So, today is "mother's day", and as I sat in Panera, studying for yet another exam (albeit my last one ever) I found myself thinking about the wonder that is motherhood.

I was surrounded by many mothers with their families, but what struck me, was how many mother/daughter dining pairs there were.

I will be the first to admit that I don't always get along with my mom...and if we're being honest (and 'cause you're an authentic person let's be honest) who does? Mom and I are more alike than sometimes I care to think about, but when I look at her sometimes I don't see the person behind "mom".

How often to we forget that our moms are people too? Is that why we give them poorly made, but well intentioned cards, gifts, and maybe breakfast in bed-for the more daring kiddos? Why do we only do that on one day a year? Okay, maybe 2 if you count their birthday.

That little birdwalk aside, how do mom's do it? How did/does my mom do it? How do you put up with nonsense from your own family that you love so much on a daily basis? Maybe there's something that gets introduced into the female system when they get pregnant, or have a baby that triggers the "mom" persona to come out. I guess I'll have to wait until I too join the ranks of mothers to find out.

I joke sometimes that it feels like mom is getting a second childhood now that Jeremy, Matt, and I are growing up and leaving the "nest". She's had to put her life on a back burner for the last 27ish years and now she's exploring new technology, new style, it's a whole new world (pardon the awful, and unintentional Aladdin allusion). Even while she's figuring out all the new-fangled-ness of life my mom is still pretty dang cool. Now, 10 years ago you couldn't have paid me enough to say that, but after reflecting and growing up a lot I can safely say that my mom is top o the line.

My mom teaches junior high sunday school. Yeah, I can't really stand junior high kids...and then I think back to when I was one...eek (sorry mom). What's so funny, is I would never have thought that she would be so perfect for that task, but lucky for her, God knew, and so did the youth minister. Mom and I were shopping in the mall over christmas and suddenly she was hailed by two teenage girls (apparently from her class) and they were genuinely excited to see her. The reaction was mutual. These kids always say hi to her and make her feel loved, so even though she's getting to live an adult life again, she will always be part "mom". At least for an hour or so on Sundays.

My mom, my mama llama (as is my favorite pet name for her), you are so amazing and I know I speak for Jeremy, Matt, and especially me when I say we are blessed to have you in our lives, and ridiculously lucky to have you as our mother.

So here's to all the moms, grandmas, aunts, daughters, great grandmas, mimis, me-maws, ma-maws, nanas, nonas, mommys, mamas, and mama llamas out there! Thanks for everything that you do for us...and as a sharp tongued child I can guarantee that one day even the children with the most attitude will turn it into gratitude and be awed by your grace.

Blessings to you and your Mom today!

...baa....just call me a follower

Okay...so...
Last week I followed the "big" trend, and joined twitter...mainly just to follow people, and not to do anything myself...but I when I woke up from my Sunday nap today I discovered I could not hide for very long on the Twitter site. Sigh.

So, since I have to be interesting for my 1 follower, I figured I'd go ahead and out myself now, so that they won't be alone...so for your viewing pleasure only: please look to the right of this post.

I can't say that it will be interesting, or updated often...but it is what it is.

Much love!!