Celebrating Forty Years

Last month, my parents celebrated their FORTIETH wedding anniversary! Isn't that so crazy? They must have gotten married at age five, right? ;)

We tend to drag out celebrations in our family- makes it so much better! We're having a BIG family photo session... soon {it's hard to get all thirteen of us together and photo ready} as their present from all of us, BUT we try to turn every little thing into a special anniversary little thing.


coffee in the morning - special happy anniversary coffee

ham sandwich for lunch? fortieth annivary edition ham sandwich

going to buy flowers for the front porch... you guessed it!

...

AND, we had a small family dinner to celebrate a few weekends ago in Mountain Home, so we made it a "40" theme...

"40" salad

"40" hashbrown casserole -

let it melt a wee bit too long, but it was a good thought

"40" peach cobbler -I made this! pick your jaw up off the floor - mama Nell instructed every move ;)

Delicious and sentimental.

And in all seriousness - they are the best parents / in-laws / grandparents in the whole world, and everyday should be a celebration of them!

Right on Target.

God's timing that is. And quite literally.

As of today, I finally have a job as a Target Pharmacist! I could not be more excited, relieved and THANKFUL.

When I started pharmacy school four years ago, I had a very specific scenario in mind. I would work my tail off for four years {accurate}, and then someone would hand me the perfect job on a silver platter as my reward {not so much}.

Clearly my plans were not quite in line with the Lord's, but His plans are always better. Every time. Never fails. You get the drift...

Because I had to wait, and because I had to work really, REALLY hard to prove myself, I have an appreciation and excitement for the career I am beginning that I would not/could not have had otherwise. I also interviewed {lots of interviews!} with several people that I might not have even had the opportunity to meet if I had gotten hired earlier.

And I am especially thankful to this little bunch who made April a fabulous month and dropped LOTS of hints to the higher-ups for me ;)

All this to say, I am so grateful that my life is in capable Hands. So...on this next to last day of the last week of my last rotation, I actually have a J.O.B. That sounds sooooo good :)

Who's that Lady...

She's a precious little/big Yorkie puppy who seriously rocked this Davenport world about six months ago. She's also the best impulse buy E.V.E.R.

See, Josh and I are not planners. We're talkers and we're doers, but we skip the in between part that makes everything flow seemlessly. We talked about getting a dog pretty much every Sunday for a long time. Especially sunny Sundays. Doesn't a sunny Sunday make everyone want a dog?

Turns out, sunny Saturdays will do the trick as well. We were in Mountain Home for the weekend. It was oddly warm for November...around 70 degrees. The sun was shining, and the birds were chirping, and Arby's sounded really good to me.

Josh and I were riding with my mom {she's fabulous, we'll talk more about her later}. As we were pulling into Arby's, she noticed puppies for sale in the adjacent parking lot. We were just going to go see them for fun...

I picked up a little female with a tiny pink bow in her hair. She immediately climbed onto my shoulders and nuzzled. Ohhhh shoot.

"Can we keep her, Joshie?" {The term "Joshie" can be very strategically placed when necessary.}

I handed her to Josh, and she nibbled on his ear.

"Sure."

"Really - like really, seriously?!?" I wasn't expecting him to just give in like that. I freaked out for a second. Are we really gonna be responsible for another living creature? I mean this is a big step. What if we can't handle it? What if she pees everywhere? {Ha! She totally did.} What if we hurt her? I think dogs might be expensive {right again...}. Holy smokes!

By now she was curled up on his shoulders {shoulders are her thing, I guess} as if she knew exactly she was doing. Not more than 30 seconds later, another man asked the seller if he could see the little girl puppy.

"I... think she's taken." Josh was hooked. She was ours.

Now that tiny little 2 pound furball is a whopping 8 pounds and counting. Her parents were 4 and 5 pounds. Sometimes I wonder if its God's way of preparing us to have an abnormally tall child since we are both...shorties. I'm 5'1'' {and a quarter if we're gonna get particular}, and Josh is 5'7," so one would assume our children probably won't play post for the NBA, but you never know!

I digress...

Lady, or "LuLu" as we often call her, is now pretty much like a child to us. I can't believe I'm saying that. I am admitting publicly my hypocrisy about dogs. I never thought I'd plan my weekend around a pet, let alone CRY the first time I had to leave her! Sheesh. I'm a convert.

I'm not sure if she supports my blogging, though ;)

Here's exciting news - We've decided that it's time for her to have a friend! While we walk her everyday AND play with her in the mornings and evenings and all weekend long AND let her sleep with us, Josh and I both work full time. {Sort of...I don't get paid...but regardless, I am gone 40 hours/week.} Anyways, I didn't know this, but my neighbor explained that because dogs are pack animals, spending all day alone can lead to less full and even shorter lives. Well, none of that for our puppy... She'll have a sibling by this weekend, and we are super excited!!

Show us your life - How you met your husband

You know that phrase, "You never get a second chance at a first impression?" Unfortunately, it's true. BUT you can make up for bad ones. Trust me...I am, shall we say, naturally sarcastic. I've needed a lot of do-overs in my day, and there was no exception with my husband.

We were both at Ouachita for a solid year before we ever spoke, but it wasn't on purpose {or at least not on my end}. I knew who he was because a) it is Ouachita, and b) his roommates were good friends of mine. I had no idea that those friends were trying to set us up, even though several of them asked me what I thought about him.

I thought he was a really cute guy who seemed nice. I loved his smile. And I had heard that he was really funny. That's important.

One night we were both at a "function," and one of those friends asked me to take a picture of several people, including Josh. I said sure {because I'm nice and not hideous}. They scrunched together to pose for the picture, and Josh said something that I couldn't hear. So, knowing that he's a funny guy because I had heard that from everybody and their dog, I said,

"I don't know what you said, but I'm sure it was really funny."

I meant exactly what I said, and I thought it was a valid statement. He didn't take it quite so literally. Rather, he inferred a hefty portion of sarcasm that kept him from asking me out for another month after that.

Our first date {that I refuse to call a real date because he just asked me to "grab a bite to eat"} was at The Hamburger Barn. He wore socks and sandals.

He also opened every door, still does. He told me I was pretty. He had elaborate stories about his highschool friends dragging port-a-potties onto the interstate -- he really was as funny as I had heard. He ignored how odd it was that I ordered a side salad with very specific requests and then didn't touch it. He made a mental note when I said 100 Grand Bars were my favorite candy and brought them to me the next week when I was studying. He smiled that smile I'd liked before I knew him...

He quickly became my favorite person in the world.

Here we go!

I know I am breaking the mold for the blog world. I do not have children, I am not pregnant, and I am not trying to get pregnant...yet {Josh and I have NINE nieces and nephews between the two of us, so we're good for a while!}. I am not remotely crafty. There are approximately four meals that I can cook well consistently. At least once a week I have to rewash a load of laundry that completely escaped my mind after the first washing...speaking of, I need to go put clothes in the dryer right now. I know you're all wondering how I managed to get a man to marry me, right? Well I do make him peanut butter and jelly toast every morning, served with a glass of V8 fusion juice and a side of two multivitamins. But honestly, he earns stars in his crown daily just for handling life with me ;)
Lack of qualification aside, I do love to write, and that is what you do on blogs. I know this because I stalk/follow several of them. Plus, since it is highly unlikely that I will put together a cute little color-coded monthly journal or make a scrapbook covered with those little glue-on rhinestones and full of keepsakes like the movie tickets from date night with J {please, those probably got washed...twice}, I'm hoping this can serve as a chronicle of everyday life moments we will want to remember. So if you can look past my love of run-on sentences, please stick around to see what on earth I can come up with to talk about!