Basketball Season in the Bluegrass

Hey y'all! This week/weekend has been a fun one! I started a new rotation, and I am loving it so far! My schedule is much more convenient for me. I'm no longer on an 11:30-7:30 schedule, and I'm liking it so much better!

I tried a new dish for dinner one night last week, and I LOVED it! I got the recipe from Pinterest (of course). Here is a link to the pin, or you can find it and other recipes on my Recipe board here. I substituted the onion for minced onion since Tyler and I don't really like onions but I didn't want to lose the flavor it would add. I also added Lawry's Seasoned Salt to it, which isn't an ingredient on the Pinterest recipe. It was very easy to make and filled us up! I made some cornbread to go with it too. So southern! Also, look how cute this dish is. Ali, Kelly's big sis in sorority, and her mom got me this as a wedding gift. You can't see it, but under that delicious hash mix is a pretty beige swirling pattern on the dish. I love it! They also got me several dip mixes, which I plan to try out soon!

Now on to something a little more interesting than what I cooked for dinner LOL 

Last weekend Ty and I got tickets to the UK game against NJIT. When we made our way to our seats, I was shocked! Our seats were awesome! The game didn't start until 8:00, so I made sure to nap AND have a second cup of coffee that evening to stay awake LOL Here are some pictures from the game.

Did I mention our seats were awesome? 

So this isn't the best picture, but at every UK basketball game, they let off small fireworks inside the arena when they announce the players. They scare me every. single. time. I was able to snap a picture of one of the fireworks, but they are so quick that I wasn't able to get a great picture of them. 

Two important things about this picture: 1) My hair is getting so long! FINALLY! I have been taking Biotin like candy LOL 2) It doesn't look like it here, but poor Tyler was pretty sick at the game. Today he went to the doctor, and he either has bronchitis or walking pneumonia. He got a ton of meds from the doctor, so I hope he starts feeling better soon! I hate seeing him sick. 

Sunday morning, I had my morning coffee with my Scruffy girl on my lap while we ordered our Christmas cards for this year. I'm going to try to learn "modern calligraphy" (look it up on Pinterest y'all!), so when I address cards they will be pretty. The key word in that last statement being try. LOL We will see how it goes!

Since this post was so short, I'll leave you with this sweet picture of my little girl. When I got up from the couch to get ready for church, she flopped over on her back and sat like this for about 5 minutes. I cracked up because she was just chilling out with her little arm propped up. It is no secret that I love this sweet little thing. She's so precious to me!

After a great service at First United, we went to Saul Good with Pastor Mike and several other young couples in the church. Pastor Mike arranged for all of the young couples to meet, and he treated us to lunch. It was great! I thought that was such a nice gesture to help us meet people our age in the church. This isn't a church like back home where everybody knows everybody. There are give or take 300 people that attend every Sunday. We have been going there for over a year, and we had yet to actually meet anyone our age. Thanks to Dr. Powers, we now know several young couples that we can hang out with outside of church. Everyone was so nice and had similar values as Tyler and me. What a blessing to meet these wonderful people! 

I know this post wasn't the most enthralling, but this coming weekend Kelly is coming to stay with me on her Thanksgiving break. Enough said. Y'all know we will come up with something good for my next post! Take care!

Viva Las Vegas

Hey y'all! This last week has been so crazy! As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Las Vegas for the ASCP Conference, a series of lectures prepared for pharmacists to learn about caring for our geriatric population with trade shows exhibiting new products that are on the market. It was a very interesting trip!

I was a little nervous because I would be traveling alone and, well, to be perfectly honest, we all know how my trip went the last time I tried to travel as a self sufficient adult. If you don't know what I'm referring to, read my post "The Spring Break That Broke." Spoiler alert: I missed my flight which caused me to miss my cruise ship which caused me to ruin my and my sister's spring break. Oops. 

I arrived at the airport on time, parked my car, checked my luggage, and patiently waited to board my nonstop flight to Vegas. So far so good!

When I arrived in Vegas, I took an airport shuttle to my hotel and met up with my preceptor. When I checked into my hotel, the lady at the front desk informed me that the room I was supposed to be in was above a night club in the hotel. She told me I would need earplugs to sleep since they blasted club music until 4:00AM. No thank you! Fortunately, she moved me to a quieter section of the hotel. I ended up having a beautiful view of the Las Vegas strip.

This picture is a view of the strip at night when I first arrived.

Here it is again the next morning. I love the mountains in the background. Kind of reminds me of West Virginia. Kind of. (Hey, I'll take what I can get!) LOL

The next couple of days were full of lectures and trade shows. I started my day around 6:00 in the morning with a product theater that offered us breakfast. Then, I would attend lectures on various geriatric based topics. Fortunately, product theaters were set up throughout the day to feed us. I would listen to a lecturer talk about his company's product, and they would feed me. It was a good trade off LOL The food they provided was actually really good!

I tried to take some pictures when I could, but snapping photos during a lecture was a little awkward. That's why selfies in my bathroom mirror seemed like the best option LOL I have to tell y'all, I stuck out like a sore thumb! Nobody else had on pink pants or a pink skirt (or pink anything for that matter.) Oh well. 

Day 1

Day 2

This was the view I had most of my time in Vegas.

This is the room where the first lecture was held. They introduced us to the board members of ASCP and told us all about their plans for the future of pharmacy.

I have to admit that is not coffee in that cup. I found a little cafe inside Paris Hotel that sold hot chocolate. I may or may not have had one every day I was there. They were delicious!

I told y'all they fed us well! LOL I do have one complaint though.. the West Coast only has Pepsi products and unsweetened tea to drink. That just does not work for me. I am a Dr. Pepper/Coke and super sweet tea kind of gal. Not only do I like Coke, I prefer Vanilla Coke or Cherry Coke. I was craving my pop so bad even after just a few days without it. 

After long days of lectures, my preceptor and I were pretty tired. We did go to see two shows during the evenings we were there. The first evening we saw Tony and Tina's Wedding. It was hilarious and so unique. Basically you are a guest at their authentic Italian wedding. The room is set up like a wedding reception, and you watch the ceremony as the couple exchanges their vows. Then, it is time for the reception! We ate from an Italian buffet and even had wedding cake afterwards. The actors and actresses never broke character as they walked around and interacted with all the guests. It was so fun! 

The second evening we saw a show called Menopause the Musical. I know what you're thinking. I've always said I'm an 80 year old woman trapped in a 26 year old body, but this was even a little too far for me. I looked around the theater and saw I was surrounded by older ladies that were absolutely cracking up at this show. The thought ran through my mind that I am a 20-something year old in Las Vegas on Halloween weekend, and what am I doing? - sitting in Menopause the Musical of course! LOL Y'all it was one of those situations that if I didn't laugh I would've cried. I ended up really enjoying the show, but I have to admit that it was a funny/unique/ironic way to spend my last evening in Las Vegas. They don't call me Granny Grimmett for nothing! 

After the show, I took my preceptor to see the fountains at the Bellagio. She had never been to Vegas before, and I really wanted to make sure she saw the fountains. We didn't have a lot of time to tour, but this was a must. It was one of my favorite things to see in Vegas.

A view of the Eiffel Tower from The Bellagio. 

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Going back to Las Vegas made me reminisce on when I went for my senior year spring break trip with some of my best friends. Now THAT was a fun trip! Here are a few pictures from 2011 when I was in Las Vegas with some of the best girls ever!

We went to the pawn shop from the show Pawn Stars and got to meet the cast!

Ashton, my adventurous Little, talked me into riding the ride on the stratosphere. It was so fun and scary at the same time. Rachel and Jill snapped this picture of us as we were going around the outside of the stratosphere. 

This was the evening we watched the fountains at The Bellagio - one of my most favorite experiences of the trip. 

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Las Vegas is fun and all, but there really is no place like home. I missed Tyler SO MUCH. This was the first trip I had gone on alone since we have been married, and it felt like I was missing my right arm. I was so glad to get home to him. 

I left Las Vegas at 4:30AM and landed in Cincinnati at 3:15PM. It was a long day to say the least. I drove an hour and a half back to Lexington, and when I arrived, Ty had a surprise waiting on me. He cleaned the whole house. Y'all I'm talking dusted, vacuumed, and did laundry. He also made me my favorite cheeseburgers on the grill. He is seriously the best. I spent the evening relaxing with him and our little Scruffy girl.

The next day after returning home from Vegas I had to be at Marshall for a meeting. I got to have a quick lunch with my sister and see my family for a bit. It was a long trip with a lot of traveling, but it was totally worth it. I snapped this picture of our capital in Charleston on my way home today. I wish I could say I did this safely, but I can't. I held my phone up to the car window and just kept hitting the camera button hoping I would get a decent picture out of it. LOL Let me say I kept one hand on the wheel and my eyes on the road the entire time. That doesn't make this okay. I swear I don't text and drive! It just felt so good to be back in the mountains of West Virginia and to see all the beautiful fall colors. When I saw our capital from the interstate, it was just so beautiful. I had to capture it!

As y'all can see these last few days have been a whirlwind! I am wrapping up my rotation at Omnicare this week, and next week I will start at Clark Regional. I'm really looking forward to going to a new place with new experiences, but I will miss everyone at Omnicare. I absolutely love all the technicians that I work with there. After this block, I'll be half way finished with my P4 year! It's hard to believe! I hope y'all enjoyed my post about my short and sweet Vegas trip. Take care!