...I'm backkkk

Well it has been a longgg couple of months with the craziness of graduate school...and I have to say it probably won't settle down for a couple weeks until I hear about where I get an internship for the fall BUT I did finish with my first year of graduate school and I think that calls for a celebration (and a blog post!)

ok so I'm not having that big of a celebration...a girl can dream :)

Anyway, one of my dearest/bestest/oldest friends wrote on my facebook wall the other day that she checks this blog every day just to make sure I hadn't posted so I thought I'd surprise her with a post just. for. her.

As a child she was always the teacher and I was the student...

Yup that would be me...the stuffed bunny

I was Nellie (the servant girl) while she stole the leading role of Samantha...

Source: google.com via Lulu on Pinterest

As we got older she began to give me a little more power to take charge and the rule the world with her...

Source: nidaomar.tumblr.com via Rita on Pinterest

No, sadly that is not me as a child...

And somewhere in between we became the best of friends...

After 3 years of living together and many smiles, laughs, tears, dinbat moves, Christmas cards, and roadtrips later I made the leap to grad school and left her in the city where we had (kinda) learned to be adults.

So Ms. Samantha...although I know I'll always be Nellie in your eyes (even though you don't dare admit it), thank you for always being one of my biggest supporters, followers, and friends, not only on this blog but in our 20 some years of friendship.  You are the definition of a true friend.

LOVE YOU!!!!

Blogoversary!

I know I know, I'm utterly terrible at posting on here anymore...how times change!  This time a year ago I was just starting this lovely blog...oh well, I'm not going to beat myself up about it but maybe one day I'll get back to blogging!  January somehow made itself very busy, with 2 trips to Virginia, 2 bad colds, and a trip to Anguilla it was over before it even started. And here I am halfway through February already, how time flies.  Anyway, to celebrate my blogoversary and one of my favorite holidays (because I just love the colors!) I thought I'd find some fun Valentine's pics on Pinterest, enjoy!

Source: google.com via Deb on Pinterest

Source: vintagerosegarden.tumblr.com via Deb on Pinterest

Source: google.com via C on Pinterest

Remembering to SMILE daily

So my sister has been really slacking lately on this blog thing and it has been driving me crazy. You see it is the little things in life that I rely on to keep me smiling and one of those things is reading her blog! So as I was just counting down the minutes to the end of my work day I decided to snoop a little on “When all else fails Smile” and see what interesting things I could find. After skimming over Pey’s inspiration (aka me jk but really) I gained a bit of perspective. Here in the corporate world of the organic food industry times can be a bit depressing reading and talking constantly about the state of our food system and I realized that throughout the day I really do not smile enough!

So while Peyton is gallivanting in and out of volunteer work, classes, watching my younger brother Jack and saving the world one child at a time I decided to step in for a bit. It may just be for today or maybe a week but I am smiling just writing this (secret) post about what makes me smile and for that I cannot but be a bit excited to see what Miss Smiles followers think of her not so always smiley sister….

Over the past 2 weeks ½ of my family (mom, dad and sis) has had the opportunity to visit beautiful Anguilla Island, ever heard of it? While I will not dwell on the beauty of this island because I am sure Miss Smile herself will create an elaborate photo montage for you all to see sometime soon I will say it has been fun to receive random texts from my mom describing her experiences…the latest one gave me the best giggle;

“Darvin (reggae singer on the island) serenated ann and frank last night. I sang a little bit of course and Chuck Norris’ wife was there hugging Darvin!”

Sounds like they are having a great time down there and hearing bits and tidbits of their adventure is fun while even though the texts also very rarely makes much sense.

In other news this weekend I went skiing in Vail and the beauty of living in the Mountains still takes my breath away! There is no calm like standing on two skis on the top of a mountain so high you are practically in heaven. I am definitely a beginner skier but I am proud to say that I tackled some blues this weekend and even took a few jumps (I also took a couple good falls as well)! All in all it was an excellent day except for the most ridiculous traffic jam I have ever been in (picture a trip to the beach the night before the 4^th of july for you east coasters) but not to worry the adventure continued as we stopped at a “Euro Grill” but I think I will save that part of the trip for another post!

All in all life ain’t so bad here in Colorado. Gotta remember to keep on smiling though!

-Miss Smiles sister.