Busy Sunday!

Good evening everyone!
 I can't believe it is once again Sunday night and another work week is upon us! I had a nice weekend off. We celebrated my brother's birthday yesterday with a big dinner and lots of family members over. I made this great salad that I found the recipe for on Pinterest! It was a tomato, mozzarella, and avocado salad and it was delish!

Today was a busy day! It started out with church which was really good. The reading was from the book of Matthew and was about humans' inclination to believe we know better than God and how that is just not the case. One of the Psalms that was sung was this one that really stuck with me today.

Psalm 63
⁷ Because you are my help,
   I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
   your right hand upholds me.

After church I had an appointment at the gym with the personal trainer. It was a really good workout and I'm going to be super super sore tomorrow! I'm really glad I decided to get a trainer because I feel like I'm learning all kinds of different ways to work out and they definitely push me harder than I would myself. They make me do those last few reps I would give up on by myself! After working out I decided to head to the mall and treat myself to some new workout clothes! I also picked up a couple gifts for my mom's birthday tomorrow! After the mall I stopped and got a spray tan and headed home. We had leftovers from last night's feast and now I'm watching the VMAs. I'm about to go make my lunch for tomorrow and hop into bed! I might read a few pages of The Pillars of the Earth which I'm reading right now. I haven't left any Tiffany Tips lately so here's one!

^No. 11

Open New Doors Together.

Don’t sit back. Step out.

The adventures you share build bonds that last forever.

New adventures entail some risk,

and risk can be quite intoxicating.

Have a great Sunday night everyone!

Yours Truly,
 Amanda

East Coast Trip Recap!

Hi Everyone!
 This has been a crazy week of work and today I finally have a day off! I have a to-do list about a mile long! On my to do list is to write this blog entry! Here's the summary and some pics of my recent trip to the east coast!

I flew into Boston where John picked me up and we went off to have lunch at a place called the Barking Crab! I had a clam roll, which was very good.

Then we went into downtown to walk around and we stopped at a little restaurant for a drink. Boston has Newbury Street which has all the great shopping on it. It kind of reminded me of Michigan Avenue in Chicago but more quaint.

We also walked through the Boston Commons which is a great park in the city.

 Palm Trees!!

After our afternoon in Boston we headed to Cape Cod.

The next morning we took a drive around Cape Cod. We stopped in a cute little town called Sandwich and had a little snack at this cute cafe. We also went and checked out the beach which was very pretty but the water was freezing!!!

In the afternoon we went golfing with John's dad and brother. This was a nice course but it was also very long. I didn't do that great, lol I need more practice!!

After golf John's dad made a great paella which I'd never had before. It was a great end to the day.

The next morning John and I went on a bike ride along the Cape Cod canal and walked out to the water.

After this we headed to Rhode Island where we went into downtown Providence for dinner. We went to a great Greek restaurant in the heart of Brown University's campus. Providence does something called waterfire during the summer where they basially burn fires and play music on the canal that runs through the city. There were tons of people and various vendors. It was a really nice night.

As you can see it was a fun packed weekend! Now I need to go work on my to-do list. I hope you all have a great Thursday!

Yours Truly,
 Amanda

My Apologies

HI everyone!
 My apologies for not posting in so long! After my trip to the east coast my week got crazy as I got licensed and had to train and start working on my own as a pharmacist!!! So far I've had three shifts on my own and I feel like it's been going really well! Granted these three shifts have been really slow so I haven't felt overwhelmed yet. It's still nerve wracking at times when I wrack my brain trying to remember if I made any mistakes. I think I'm most worried about dosing in kids because pretty much no prescription has their weight on it which makes it hard to double check the dosing. Anyway, the other thing I did this week was join a gym....now this is a funny/embarassing story.
So after joining LA Fitness they have a complimentary fitness assessment to help you get started with a workout plan. I was all for this since I haven't worked out in a while. So last Friday I went in for my appointment. I started out with about a 10 minute warm up on the bike then I went down and this personal trainer showed me a circuit workout consisting of pull-ups, push-ups, squats, etc. So at the end of the circuit I thought I was going to pass out. I literally could not stand up and the trainer thought I was going to get sick. I just felt so lightheaded and my vision started getting blurry. So the trainer went and got a chair for me and a manager came over with some orange juice. They kept telling me I had to drink the orange juice but I felt so awful, I couldn't see or hear or catch my breath. I started sipping on the orange juice and within five minutes I perked back up. I guess I was hypoglycemic. Needless to say this is all going on in the middle of the gym while everyone else is working out around me. haha. SOO embarrassing. It just goes to show that I need to get in shape! Yikes!! I don't think I've ever been this out of shape ever in my life.

Anyways, I know I promised a recap of my weekend on the east coast which will be coming up in my next post!!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Yours Truly,
 Amanda

Traveling!

Hello everyone!
This post comes to you from Charlotte, North Carolina as I'm sitting in the airport at Starbucks until my flight to Boston leaves! I apologize for not blogging in so long! It was a whirlwind of a week so far! Here's the recap!
Well on Monday I took the pharmacy law exam also known as the MPJE. After that on Monday I took my sister Lindsey shopping for some birthday gifts! I find that sometimes I enjoy shopping for other people more than myself. Sometimes ;-)
Tuesday I went back to work after being off for a week and a half. Now Tuesday was interesting because our pharmacy manager is on vacation and the pharmacist filling in is my age and it was only her second day of being licensed and on her own as a pharmacist! Let me just say that she seemed very stressed. We had prescriptions backed up all day and some people were told the wait was 15 minutes and ended up having to wait an hour for their scripts! Basically she was being very meticulous about researching every flag the computer system put up for each script. This made me nervous because that will be me very shortly and I hope I'm not that slow and getting customers mad and being stressed! I'm sure it just takes everyone a different amount of time to get comfortable.
On Tuesday I decided I wanted to take this Thursday and Friday as vacation days and go up to the east coast with John. A little last minute!!
So yesterday I worked and packed for my trip (my least favorite activity).
Yesterday was exciting because I found out that I passed both of my licensing exams!!! Talk about a load off! I'm so excited to not have to study anymore!!!!
So that brings me to today! I'll be in Boston, Cape Cod,and Newport this weekend!!



So I want to leave you with a link to Hilliary's blog. She had a post that is a sort of blogger game that is going around. She had me answer twenty questions and it was featured on her blog. Now it's my turn to feature a fellow blogger on my blog and that will be coming to you soon!! You can see my 20 questions here!

Have a great rest of your week everyone!

Yours truly,
Amanda

Waiting

Hi everyone!
 As most of you know I took the Naplex today. I think it went okay, but it's hard to tell! I really don't like that I have to wait for the results! I decided to take a break from studying tonight and will be studying the rest of the weekend for the law exam on Monday.

As promised I'll give you a summary of my weekend in Chicago! It was a super busy weekend!
I got in on Friday evening and we went straight to dinner with my dad's side of the family. We had none other than Giordano's stuffed pizza...my favorite!!

Doesn't that just make you drool!?

After dinner John and I went to a couple bars downtown Naperville and called it a night.

Saturday was my cousin Kristin's wedding! We first went to the church for a traditional Catholic ceremony and then to the reception at Brookfield Zoo! This was so fun! When we first got there we walked around a little and saw the lions!

Cocktail hour was in the new bear exhibit, they were feeding and getting the bears to do all kinds of tricks! I got some great pics!

After cocktails we got on a tram and went over to the discovery center where the reception was! It was a super fun wedding. The food was good, everyone danced all night and they had a fun photo booth! Here are a few pics from the reception!

On Sunday me and John went to brunch to a place in downtown Naperville called Heaven on 7th. It's a New Orleans style restaurant with thousands of hot sauces. I had a traditional breakfast and a cup of gumbo that was really good! After that John and I took a walk on the river and then headed over to my aunt's house for a barbecue. It was good to see my mom's side of the family there! John had to go back to Indy that night :-( On Sunday night I got to meet up with my best friend Kristin! We went to a bar in Aurora called Saddle Up. Let me tell you it was quite an experience! It's a place that does line dancing so there's a huge dance floor. On a Sunday night this place wasn't packed so it was funny to watch the people on the dance floor. A dance off broke out and this one guy was doing all kinds of break dancing! It was a fun night and I'm really glad I got to see Kristin!

On Monday I went to the dentist (fun!) and then had to catch my flight back to Florida that afternoon. So there you have it, the recap of my weekend! Now I'm just going to finish watching Project Runway and head to bed!

Have a good evening everyone!

Yours Truly,

 Amanda

I'm Back! (sort of)

Hi everyone!
 My apologies for not posting in so long! I just got back from Chicago late last night! This weekend I will post a summary and pics of my trip! It was a very busy but fun weekend! Right now I'm just studying like crazy until my first test on Thursday! I may be a little MIA from blogging until after my last test on Monday. It's late and I better get to sleep before a long day of studying tomorrow. I'll leave you with a Tiffany Tip!! (These always brighten my mood!)

^No. 10

Be True To Yourself.

In the heady rush of true love, it’s easy

to compromise your real opinions in the name of romantic tranquility.

This is a mistake. Be yourself. In the end it’s better.

“Thanks ever so, darling, but I don’t much care for calf brains.”

Have a great night everyone!

Yours Truly,

 Amanda