Mr. Creature

So we know that I have a tremendous fear of spiders... as in extreme arachnophobia... but I also can't stand certain creepy crawly bugs with wings either. Of course, as I was in the shower the other day I managed to overlook a very large winged creature looming on the ceiling over my head. That is until I stepped into the shower and did my usual peripheral scan of the surroundings...a precautionary measure in case there were any spiders in there b/c I have seen spiders in my shower before... and then I spotted it. After jumping a few feet and hurtling over the side of tub, I realized that mr. creature wasn't moving...I decided then that maybe I could hustle through my lather, rinse, repeat routine before he swooped down on me (b/c of course thats what mr. creature was going to do). Well, no good. Just seconds later...mr. creature decided it was his turn to flutter across the ceiling. It was time for action.

Now up to this point of my life whenever I have encountered some corta creepy crawly, I have taken extreme...or ummm...odd measures to kill the scary monster. I used to grab a spray bottle of cleaner...didn't matter what kind, but Windex works great b/c its ok on most surfaces in the bathroom... and I would assume a combat mode of attidude, sneak up to the creature, and spray the cleaner all over. I know this sounds barbaric and all, but remind you that I am seriously TERRIFIED of these things. So drastic measures must be taken...and drowning the bug in clenear until I can stomp on it just happens to be the method that has worked for me.

Unfortunately with mr. creature...I was late for work and didn't have time to assume army combat mode and find a spray bottle of cleaner... so instead I just kept a very watchful eye on him as I sped through my shower routine and ran out the door. I believe he escaped eventually and traveled on to different places...hopefully not my room now that I think about it...maybe the Walker's cat got him. Oh well... goodbye mr. creature!

41 more days till I'm home for good... but in the time being I'm loving McKinney! Its such a cute town...

Neighborhood Walk

So the place I'm "working" at has the most random hours... some days we start at 7 am, others we start at 10 am, some we get done at 7 pm, and other we get done at 4 or 2... yes random. Well today we got finished at 4 so I had some time to go for a nice walk around the neighborhood in McKinney. It was a beautiful afternoon and the neighborhood is so nice and quiet. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I was enjoy walks...I think running is great for exercise, but every now and then just a nice walk is so peaceful and a much needed stress reliever (not like I'm really stressed, but its just a nice relaxing activity). Plus I love having some time to enjoy the beauty God put in our world.

My favorite activity to do while walking, especially if Robert is with me, is to critique houses. I pick little parts of houses I like to create my own house...including driveways and landscaping. I have one mighty (maybe hideous haha) house in my mind. When I walk with my parents, my dad always jokes that my mom should have her own TLC show called "Blow up that House!" She will not just critique houses, but she will literally blow up her 'not so favorite' ones with a blast from her finger (all make believe of course) complete with sound effects. The best part is when she says "oh that ones got to go...boom" and the owner is standing outside... oops! Got to love those walks... have you gone on one lately...grab a friend or loved one and just enjoy each other's company... or critiquing someone else's house :)

One last time

I would like to consider myself a professional traveler... I mean I have been alot of places in my life and I like to brag that I am a professional packer as well. I can fit anything into a suitcase (within reason) it just takes a little puzzle piecing everything in there. But even though I'm so good at traveling, at this point in time I'm a little tired of it. Yes I like going to exciting places, but I would rather see these places with my husband.

I'm glad that these next 7 weeks will be the last of our long distance journey. I'm physically and emotionally drained from having to battle the emotions when either Robert or I have to drive away from each other. Sometimes it feels like it gets easier... I mean after 7 years of on and off distance and hundreds of thousands of miles (this is not an exaggeration after I thought about just how far we sometimes had to be separated)... I'm just so ready to be counting down these 7 weeks. I don't mean to keep bringing this up to be annoying or whatever, but for anyone who has ever had to leave their loved one for an extended period of time you know that its tough. We may have been married almost 2 years now, but I say we should go on a second honeymoon after I graduate to celebrate finally getting to actually be married in the same town. Anyone want to make a donation to the Fowler 2nd honeymoon fund? haha it was worth a try.

So for now we will just celebrate 7 weeks or 46 days of distance left for our marriage. Then I will be back in Midland (and hopefully nothing will have to pull us apart from each other unexpectedly) for my last 2 clinicals and hopefully will land a job wherever God desires. I'm becoming more open to new things involving physical therapy so my job search has expanded. I'm dreading every day away from Robert while I'm here, but I'm excited for the future for this countdown to reach 0!

I need a new eye

So last night Robert and I were eating with my parents when I realized that my left eye was draining...eww right...but I wrote it off as part of this looming sinus infection I've had for 2 weeks now. Well as the night progressed so did the puffy redness around my left eye... yep...pink eye. You've got to be kidding me...

I was supposed to leave on Saturday to drive to Dallas for my next clinical starting on Monday... but seeing as I can't wear my contacts for 48 hours my traveling is now delayed... boo. I hate not being in control of this situation and I hate even more that it ruins my schedule. I also don't like that I had to go to some random doctor (I like to call them a doc in a box) in town, which you know I showed up 10 minutes before they opened... was the 2nd person on the list (some guy was there before me) and still didn't get out of there until after 2 hours.

But at least I have to put 2 eye drops in every 30 minutes until dinnertime and then 2 drops every hour until I sleep...yikes thats alot of drops! I think the only good thing is that I get to have one more night with Robert... I just hope I don't spread to him my germs.

So as of now the plan is to leave on Sunday and arrive in McKinney, TX that afternoon. 7 more weeks of the clinical...7 more weeks of patients...and actually the last 7 weeks I have to be away from Robert!!

Boxes of Memories

So Robert and I had to pack up our disaster of an apartment and move it into a storage unit last week. I say disaster because I had packed some things... and then I left for College Station amongst the packing and left Robert to pack some things... and then when I got back from CS the Friday night before we moved it was mad dash to place all the last minute things into boxes. We stayed up that night till 2 and then woke up at 7:30am Saturday morning to continue the madness. We managed to pack all our favorite items up nice and organized in labeled boxes with plenty of that wrapping newspaper stuff you can get at Uhaul... then we managed to throw the most random things into the last minute boxes...like baskets with pictures with computer cords...and what did we label these boxes (as if we thought we were being fast and informal)..... Misc.
How in the world does that tell us whats in there! But of course its the last minute word choice when you just don't want to write out everything thats in there...so now we have like 10 Misc. boxes. Hopefully we won't need those for a while!

Even with jam packing two uhaul trailers, my parents SUV, and the bed of two trucks... we still had some stuff not make it. This was ok since Robert had to work in Abilene on Monday and Tuesday so we had to come back anyway. But on Monday night after trying to throw some more Misc. boxes (bc of course all we had left were items that didn't go well with each other) we came across a tupperware bin of old pictures and albums. We were pretty tired but we stopped and examined the contents...and to our surprise found some funny old pictures from our first prom, our high school year books, pictures from choir in high school and even some older photos on me. It was great reading through the yearbooks and looking at the pictures... how far we have come!

I look forward to actually going through all this stuff in more detail when we actually move into a home sometime hopefully soon. Its always fun to look through old photos and remember the beginnings...memories aren't meant to be boxed up and away... they are meant to be....remembered. Have a great week everyone!

An Ode to Aggieland

No I'm not really going to write an "ode" I just really like that word and it fits good in a title :)

But I have finished with College Station and am beginning a fun adventure the next 2 weeks (well now 1.5 weeks but who is really counting)... we have officially moved away from Abilene into a box... yes a box... a big box, but nonetheless a box... so for now we are bumming in with our parents and trying to save up some money. We were reminded of just how much we hate moving, but we hadn't moved since we got married so I guess we are doing alright. Just tired of living out of suitcases which I've decided one of us has done at all times since February 2008...thats pretty sad. Anyways its time for that to be finished but first I have 7 weeks in McKinney, TX for my next rotation. More on this to come of course (and I really mean it since we are able to have internet now...yay!)

Now the real reason for this post is to write to you about all my favorite places in Aggieland that I got to visit before I left (and most all of these are eating places, big surprise)...

• Sweets! aka Sweet Eugenes- the best little coffe place in CS that has Java Shakes...yumm and free internet. This is where I hung out after work in the afternoons.
  
• La Bodega- home of awesome mexican food and peach shakers... dedicated to Tracy
• Freebirds... who could go wrong with the biggest burrito ever
• Pita Pit- also a Tracy place, their pitas are huge and somewhat a healthier choice
• Mr. G's Pizza (the one in downtown Bryan)- resting ground for Bryan's own mob... no seriously, dedicated to my ASSIST committee
• Reed Arena for Aggie Muster- see previous post, best tradition ever
• Blue Baker- yes its very blue
• It's A Grind- coffee place very quite and enjoyable
• Pei Wei- Tracy again... I love their crab won tons
• Rockfish- very cheap and very good seafood... Ashley and Douglas thats for you
• Mi Cocina- love this place (Jodi thanks)
• Kolache Rolfs- goodness
• Cafe Eccel
• Laynes- Chicken fingers and special sauce so good
• A long walk around campus... in the evening when it was cool and perfectly enjoyable
• SHAKES!! Monday Sunday is the best thing ever
  
• Marble Slab and Cold Stone- I mean I love ice cream
  
• Kroger- my favorite grocery store... too bad there aren't any in Midland
• Double Dave's Pizza works- bbq pizza yay! and yes its another Tracy place
• Honey B Ham Deli- their bread is delicious
• can you say cheap movie tickets!
• And not to forget Wing-N-More...wing and tender combo
  
• this list is quite lengthy and I know I have more, but we'll keep it short.

Well those are my favorite places to eat... I would have loved to eat on campus, but it wasn't able to happen... next time! So if you are ever driving through the CS/Bryan area just refer to this list if you are stumped on where to have a good time! I miss you Aggieland!

So my time here in Aggieland is... over on Friday. I'm very sad because I have met some great people and had some awesome patients and experiences to share! I enjoyed almost every minute of being here and it reminds me of just how much I miss this place! I think the best part is that...

I Got to go to Muster! My Favorite Tradition at A&M that occurs every year on April 21st. It is a ceremony to honor all Aggies (current and old) who have died within the past year. A candle is lit in their memory and their name is read outloud... then someone in the audience answers "here" for them to represent that their spirit still lives in Aggieland. I love this tradition and its an honor for me to know that one day my name will be read at Aggie Muster and someone will say here for me.

"We gather today, Aggies all, to recall our past, to strengthen our ties, to honor those who have passed before us....We come today to affirm our commitment, our love for this place and all that it represents."

Jack M. Rains, Muster Speaker 1984

This next week is going to be full of fun and surprises and just time with Robert that is so much needed and I hope to be able to post more! We are moving out of our apartment on Saturday so wish us luck with that! Have a great April day everyone!