Student Conclave '08

Last weekend some of my classmates and I attended the Texas Physical Therapy Association's Annual Conference which involves professionals and students. This was my first year to go to the conference, the fact that it was in Lubbock helped that matter a little. We were able to sit in on some lectures given by current professionals in our field. Then we walked the exhibit hall to get a bunch of free goodies.......pens, goniometers (a tool used to measure joint range of motion), tape measures, etc. Lindsey and I could only bear attending for one day. But we were able to meet up with some of our long lost buddies from the other campuses and catch up.

We went to a dueling piano bar! Super fun!

A few of our classmates from Odessa, Lindsey, and I.

Lindsey, Dustin (a first year PT student in Amarillo), and I

Sherry and I

Lindsey, Me, and Talal.......Talal and I kept each other from going insane our first summer of PT school!

Brittney and I........she just graduated from PT school in August and moved from Amarillo to Lubbock, she was extremely kind enough to let several of us Amarillo kids crash her place for a few nights!

Pottery Update!

Well, this past Tuesday was officially our last day of pottery class. However, we were running a little behind getting our pots trimmed and prepared to stain. So that is what we will be doing next Tuesday. We also decided that we just couldn't bear saying goodbye to pottery, it has been a wonderful outlet. So 6 more weeks here we come!

Becca and Kent, our pottery teacher whom Lindsey has deemed the "pottery wizard." He fixes all our screw ups!

Me and one of my creations.

Lindsey and her pitcher she was sooo proud of.

Becca and Lindsey trimming some pots.

Here I am spinning the wheel. Oh, and yes that is a beer on my table. How cool is that, he lets us bring beer to class. I promise that we've actually only done it one time and we share with him.

A trip to the Fort......Fort Smith that is

This past weekend I made the trek all the way to Ft. Smith which takes about 6 1/2 hours to drive from Amarillo. The drive really isn't too bad since it is straight on I-40 the whole way. But I won't lie, it does get kind of boring being in the car that long. So while in Fort Smith, I had a pretty relaxing weekend with Chris and his family. Friday night we had dinner with his parents. After dinner we rode the ferris wheel that is in downtown Ft. Smith right by the Arkansas river. I had never been on a ferris wheel before and honestly I was a little nervous. Chris thought it was funny that I was a little scared. To make matters worse, whenever we were stopped at the very top he decided he needed to look down at the ground below. Well whenever you lean forward, the whole cart rocks.........not ok! However, I did survive my very first ferris wheel ride. On Saturday, Chris took me for a late breakfast to my very favorite place to eat breakfast - Cracker Barrel. We needed a good hearty breakfast before hitting the trails at Devil's Den National Park. Chris and I hiked the main trail which had a couple of caves that you could explore. I again was a little nervous about these caves, but I sucked it up and went in anyway. We went as far as we could go before having to crawl through tight spaces. I couldn't bring myself to do that. There were also bats hanging on the walls right at eye level. After discovering that I definitely shined my light on the wall before touching anything! Later that night we went to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant that had a hibachi grill. That was also a first for me and was quite fun. All in all a good weekend that went by way to fast as usual!

Isn't it pretty all lit up at night? I think so.

Here we are on the ferris wheel. Aren't we cute?

Our scared faces.....well they were supposed to be scary.



Chris the trail guide

Takin a little breather


Here we are at the entrance to one of the caves, see how creepy it is back there. I mean Chris is soo scared he can't even open his eyes.

I found this walking stick along the trail, I couldn't believe how much it actually looked like a stick!

This little falls was on the trail, what awesome scenery!

Here I am standing along the creek.......or maybe they call it a "crick" in Arkansas.

This falls was not on the trail we hiked but we found it when we were driving around the park. Absolutely beautiful!

Ohhh to be 3 again.......

A couple of weekends ago I went home to visit the family, watch some good ol' TX high school football, and go to my little cousin's 3rd birthday party. I forget how exciting birthdays are for the little ones. It was fun to watch Easton open his birthday presents and be absolutely ecstatic about it. He is completely obsessed with tractors and other farm equipment, needless to say that is pretty much what every present was. All of the kids then took turns trying to bust open a pinata filled with candy, sadly my camera ran out of batteries before we got that far.

Easton opening the present we got him........tractor books!

Say Cheese!

Little sister Elliot thinks she needs to help.

I think everyone else was just as excited as he was to open those presents!

Showing off another gift.

More Quotes......

Well I finally finished 2 of the 3 books I am currently reading. Now I can focus on Harry Potter again for a while. I did want to share some more quotes that caught my attention from one of the books.

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.
-Confucius

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.
-Emerson

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do that makes life blessed.
-Goethe

Voyage, travel, and change of place impart vigor.
-Seneca

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
-Thomas Edison

One word frees us all of the weight and pain of life. That word is love.
-Sophocles

No more softball.

I think I neglected to mention in my posts that some of my classmates and I formed a coed softball team to play in the city league here. We were placed in the second highest league, which was not good for our record. We only won like 2 or 3 games I think, I'm not even sure how sad is that! During our 2 week break from school in August we had to forfeit 4 games. Oh well. We all had fun and that's all that matters!

Hanging out in the dugout.

Coming in to bat.

Who knows.....this is typical Lindsey!

Good game.

80's Bunco Night!

Our classmates wife, Erin, wanted to organize some activities for the girls in our class and the wives and significant others of the guys. A couple of activities she had in mind were Bunco and a video scavenger hunt. Our first Bunco night was on Friday. The theme for the night was 80's. That afternoon Lindsey and I went to a few of the local thrift stores to find some treasures. I stumbled upon the perfect piece for an 80's outfit.......a black and neon orange swimsuit which I envisioned as a leotard. It was fabulous. I also purchased a grey sweatshirt, some neon green keds, and leg warmers. Oh it was an amazing outfit. I even borrowed a crimper from one of my friends and crimped my hair, talk about a big ball of frizz! Whew! I also found these perfect neon green glasses. However, I forgot to wear the glasses into the party. I accidently left them in the car and completely forgot about them until I got back in my car to leave.......what a drag! But, I did end up tying with Kat for best dressed (She was an 80's bride). We almost had a dance off to determine who would claim the title, of course I would've won because I had the dance outfit on.....I mean geez, come on! All in all it was a super fun night!

Group pic.....man we went all out!

Lindsey, pretty in pink, putting Bridezilla in her place!

My sweet outfit!