Round is a shape

An update on my fitness goals:

Rose's Graduation 2 months ago

As previously discussed, I have been trying to loose some weight. Although I agree round is a shape, it's not quite the shape I am going for.   The whole process was going great until clinics.  I quickly found that a love of stress eating and stressful clinical rotations make weight loss incredibly difficult.  I have been able to continue to running while on (most) rotations.  For my birthday Chris bought me a Wii fit (I was sooooo excited he had to kick me off so that I would go get ready for dinner the first night).  I have played games and exercised on it every day so far (pretty easy to do since it has only been 3 days).

At this point my goals have shifted from weight loss to toning.  I still would like to drop a few pounds but now my goal is to make my thighs look like Carrie Underwood's (anyone else jealous of her thighs?) and try to pretend like I actually have abs that work.
I found a few pictures to demonstrate my progress.  I think the weight loss in my face is the most obvious.  I dropped about 3 dress/pant sizes but I don't think that weight loss is as obvious as it is in other places.

Taken in 2011

Taken 7/11

White Coat Ceremony taken in March 2013

Now its time to set some new goals.  I want to continue to eat healthy, run the Neon Vibe 5K (yes-neon paint is involved), and continue to exercise regularly.  In the next 3 months, I want to hit my target weight, run an average of 4 miles three times a week and start to see muscle lines on my thighs and stomach.  We will have to see in 3 months if the pictures more clearly depict all the hard work.


I couldn't pick just one keep calm sign for this post.  Remember Keep Calm and Carry On

Ketchup :)

Since I have been horrible at blogging while on clinics its time to play catch up (or ketchup if you live in my sleep deprived vet school world).  We have finally made it to K block.  Block 11/26.  We are so close to being halfway done!   I have found that each of the rotations have taught me something new.  Some have taught me more about veterinary medicine and some have taught me life lessons.  Both types of lessons have been valuable but some were harder than others to learn.  Take Emergency medicine for example- you quickly master the art of making clay paws for owners with deceased pets.  You also learn how to deal with the sadness that comes along with euthanizing someones pet.  But enough about rotations.

I haven't had a ton of time for crafting but I did manage to make some new bows when Chris' family came to visit.  Ginny and I had a lot of fun picking out the supplies and crafting.  Good thing I have some great models to demonstrate the bows!

Since time has flown by and I still think it is June- I also forgot to post pictures from my sisters graduation.  I am so proud of her!   I still cannot believe that she is 22 and has graduated college- I mean just last week she was in high school!  We had a ton of fun visiting and getting to see more of Lawrence University.  

I am sure that there is more that I am missing but for now this is all.  As always-Keep Calm and Carry On.  

Keep Calm and Garden On

Over the last three years Chris and I have been trying to improve the appearance and curb appeal of our  house.  It took forever but I am finally happy with the flower beds in front of the house!  Instead of buying flowers from Meijer (like we normally do), this year we went to a nursery.  They had an awesome selection of unique plants.  

 This photo shows one of the yard art (that I'm pretty sure Chris hates:)), a hosta and one of the new dark purple plants.





Below are some more of our plant nursery finds.  I love the Martha Washington Geranium in the hanging basket.  The color is so amazing!  We also planted some impatiens to make the beds more colorful.

While our yard will never (ever ever) look as good as our neighbor, it is a definite improvement.  I think my favorite part was the time Chris and I spent together picking flowers and planting them!

This is my favorite yard decoration!!!  Took me 3 years to find one that I love and even longer to find a stand but I think it was totally worth it!

Since it was a three day weekend, I decided to splurge and bought the Kenny Chesney rum.  It was fabulous!!!!  We made rum and coke zeros.  I also made pina colada popsicles from this website!  They were amazing!!!!  There is nothing like drinking rum and coke and pretending you are on a Caribbean Island (if Kenny Chesney happened to appear it wouldn't suck:))

Early Morning Study Break

 I wanted to share some finished scarf photos.                                                              





I absolutely love the pattern.  It was easy and quick ( I finished most of it while watching a movie Sunday night with Chris!).  Here is the pattern I used.  I also love how versatile it is!

Ok...back to studying! Have a Happy Tuesday!

Getting Crafty!

Time recently has not been on my side.  Every time I sit down to make a to do list I am discouraged when the things I need to do require more time than exists in a day (if I ever want to sleep!).  I recently decided that I needed a break.  SO what did I do?  CRAFT of course!

I loved my leaf wreath but was ready for a new Fall  wreath.  I was really excited when I found Hobby Lobby had flowers on sale!  There was a wreath on Pinterest that made me wanted to make my own version. I think it turned out really well!!!  It was really easy to make.  The hardest part was not burning myself with the hot glue gun and tiny flowers.  

My next project was to finish the hat that I promised Chris.  I was trying to crochet the hat with a stitch that was too small.  Once I finally accepted this fact (and undid all the work I had done), the hat took shape really quickly and looked a million times better.  Here are some pics of the hat (thanks to my favorite model :)

                                      

For Halloween I wanted to make my nephew, Noah, a present.  I loved the monster hat so I decided to try my hand at it.  I think it looks pretty scary!  The funny thing is the stupid little tooth by far took me the longest!!!                                          The dogs also wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween so we dressed them up!  I'd like to tell you that they loved it but Chris will tell you a different story.  The good news is that they were so distracted by the trick-or-treaters that they forgot to be mad at me for the costumes!  I still maintain that Ally likes her headband.  She will wear it for a few hours before shaking it off.  It could also be that she has finally realized she is fighting a loosing battle since I continue to put it on her.  

My final project is a new scarf pattern that Jenna found.  It is a normal scarf that has buttons so it can be converted into an infinity scarf.  So far I have finished one for Rose and am mostly done with one for me.  Pictures to come very soon ( I hope!)  The nice thing about crocheting is that it doesn't require my full attention.  I found that relistening to lectures ( because who really listens to the 6th hour in a row of lecture on a Friday afternoon?) is much easier  (by easier I mean I actually stay awake) when I can crochet at the same time.  Plus then I get cute things!

So any way.  This is what I have been up to recently (besides the normal class, studying and stressing out).  Hope you all had a great halloween!

Midterm Crafting!

 Third year has managed to keep me busier than previous years.  One of the time consuming activities is spaying and neutering dogs and cats from local shelters.  So far we have spayed one dog and neutered 2!   The left image is basically how I spend every tuesday morning!  So far all the pets have done great!

Another activity taking up time was midterms. Luckily those weren't too bad (Don't get me wrong I still freaked, hyperventillated and stressed about them :)  ).  

Right before midterms I decided to de-stress by making fall decorations.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons!

My fall board turned out really cute!  This is all due to Jenna's dedication to going to Hobby Lobby and Michaels over and over again!  I know it was hard work for her :)

I finally found leaves to make a wreath from my pinterest page.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  It was also really easy to make.  

After midterms, I finally had a few days where I didn't have any material to study.  I went home to see my families new puppy, Zoey.  I also got to see some of the family.  It was a fun way to spend my day off!

Chris and I also ventured to Madison, IN for Laura's baby shower.  It was a blast!  I also had a lot of fun crafting presents!  It was hard because I was trying to be sneaky so I couldn't pin anything (so Laura would be surprised).  I ended up making a diaper wreath.  The base is rolled diapers of varying sizes. Then I tied on socks, shoes, hats, toys, clothes, mittens, and hair ribbons.  I followed Laura's theme of safari.  I think it turned out really cute.  I know she loved it!

During the driving from all of our trips, I was able to finish crocheting the baby hats!  I made Juilana Rose Love a football hat that I found on pinterest.  It is my first crochet piece.  It is an odd shape but that is due to the ball of yarn I pretended was a baby's head ( I thought about going over to the neighbors to ask if I could use their baby's head to see how the hat fits.  I reconsidered and decided that would come across a little creepy!)

I made Baby Snell a hat as another shower gift.   It also turned out really cute!

Lantern Flowers

For a while now I have wanted to check out The Art Party Studio.  They offer classes demonstrating how to paint different paintings.  They provide all the supplies and demonstrate step by step.  It took me 6 months to find a time that worked with a painting that I knew I would love to hang up in the house.  Probably would have been much quicker if I didn't spend the summer working nights!  Jenna and I finally had an opportunity to attend a class to paint lantern flowers.  

We took this opportunity (before school gets crazy) to go on a double date.  We took the husbands to dinner at an amazing pizza place.  Chris and I tried a gyro pizza (Jenna and Jesse were horrified by it:). It was amazing!  We got polar pops to take to the studio (anyone surprised by that?).  

When we arrived, it turned out that we were the only ones painting (probably because it was a Thursday night).   We had so much fun painting.  The lantern picture was fairly easy to do.  It surprised me how different the two paintings of lantern flowers turned out.  Both will look amazing in our houses!  I am already looking for another date to paint another picture!