The future has arrived...

...at the Spann household (oh my, that's fun to say)! We have officially moved into 2009 (er, 2004?) and signed up for CABLE. We jump forward to 2006ish with digital cable with a DVR (ahhhhhh!) and flash forward to 2008/2009 with AT&T U-verse.
Goodbye rabbit ears!
Goodbye TERRIBLE, stupid digital converter box. I hate you.
Goodbye VCR (don't worry, I didn't smash it yet... it's still connected to my DVD so we'll keep it so I can watch "The Karate Kid" and "She's All That," both on VHS).
Goodbye tapes that I still tape things on that I swear have "All My Children" from 1986 taped on it. No lie.
Goodbye having to program the VCR, only to realize you had it on the wrong channel and it didn't tape "Idol."
Goodbye to people saying, "Did you watch that awesome show on (insert cable channel here) last night?" Immediately followed by blank stares and "What? You don't have cable?"

Hellooooooo Bravo. Project Runway. VH1. Best Week Ever. Biography. Food Network. The Daily Show! Colbert Report! Housewives of Orange County! National Geographic! That show where people bomb whalers on Discovery! What else do you "cable people" talk about...?
TV- I promise not to watch you more than I already did. ;)

Any takers?

It's time...
I officially need an adult who is willing to let me assess their intelligence! Dum dum DUUUUMMM (lightening crash in the background)!
You must be between the ages of 16-89. You must also not be my immediate family or spouse, sorry guys.
Any takers? ;)

I can't give you an exact number (although I will know the number I come up with)... but I can give you a range (see the picture). Since I'm just "practicing," that's the way it goes... Oh, and I do have to write a report, but your initials will be used only. Let me know if you're interested. Ha ha.

I have an addiction, sir

Ohhhhh no, and today I've officially made my first purchase. Put it in your Google Reader... you won't be able to stop, either. The great deals! The ticking clock at the bottom! What's going to be there tomorrow?? Oh no!

Click here and become and addict too.

In Honor of Our Birthdays...

Happy birthday to me, KJ, and JR! In honor of our birthdays, I thought I would post this HIlarious picture of us from high school. As you can see on the front row, we have me, Liza, Kristen, and Leah.
You girls are going to kill me, right?
Also thought you should know that I used this picture in a presentation for all-girls schools that I gave recently.
But I digress. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kristen and her fantastic hubby. How cool is it that we all share birthdays?

Don't kill me for posting this. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Oooooh... Fancy...

Look what I got last night...

It's the Palm Centro. It's what stopped us from buying an iPhone. But seriously, it's pretty sweet.

I still don't own an iPod. Why would I jump on the Apple bandwagon now? ;)

Oh, and I don't think Oaklawn is going to happen on Saturday. It doesn't seem like it's a good weekend for people. Plan B...??? No plans!

Best Week Ever.

3 days till our birthday (mine and Kristen's). Whooooooot!

The last couple years, I've had a pretty bad attitude about aging another year. However, this year, I've returned to my usual lovin-my-birthday self and will celebrate without remorse! It's going to be a great year, I can tell already!

Inauguration today.... yay! I hope to be able to watch and not be stuck in class (she says with her fingers crossed!).

To celebrate said cumpleanos, I will be going to Oaklawn on Saturday. Anybody want to come?

Poor Pooty.

Friday night, Pooty had a run-in with an aloe vera plant. Ummmm, did you know that aloe is bad for pups' GI system...?? We did NOT. Until 2:30 a.m. when the vomiting began. Poor little Pooty... Apparently, aloe blocks food from being absorbed, they get all bloaty, and then they vomit... a lot. No fun. She also seems to have some sort of inner-ear, head wobbly thing going on that is quite scary... We're keeping an eye on her. She seemed just 100% fine yesterday and Sunday, so I'm sure it's alright. Just a scary weekend!
Wedding items are pretty much put in their proper place by now. I am not going to lie, I'm a little bummed it's all over! It really has been lots of fun. Be sure to check out flickr... I put many more pictures up there. If you need the link, let me know. It's on the wedding bloggity, too.
I'm officially back at work now! Whoot. This semester is going to be quite tough, I believe, but there will be NO comps, so how bad can it be? ;) We'll see. I might need to practice some IQ and behavior tests on friends, so beware. I'm analyzing you... Just kidding.
Oooh, birthday's coming up! 10 days. ;)

Hello, 2009!

My resolutions for this year:
1. Be more active! I realize that a good chunk of 2008 was spent with a broken-in-three-places leg, HOWEVER... I am ready to get back out there!
2. Going along with that: I have a goal to be well enough to go backpacking this Spring. I miss it.
3. Relax more, stress less! Comps are o-v-e-r. There is nothing giant and stressful hanging over my head. There is nothing giant but wonderful (the wedding) coming up, either. Therefore, I vow to not sweat the small stuff!
4. Enjoy married life! I have a feeling this is going to be an easy one...
5. Tell my husband every day that I love him. Eeeeee, I just said husband!
6. Visit with friends more... I miss Survivor night! What can we change that to...? Any ideas? ;)

Happy New Year, friends. I do believe it's going to be a good one!!

Pictures from the Honeymoon!

Honeymoon

Helloooooooooooooooo! We're back!

Hey guys! We have returned! I am still sorting through all the millions of pictures and videos (all awesome), but go visit the wedding bloggity for some pictures from the honeymoon...!
Good to be back, I tell ya! But it was awesome. Much much love!

Yeah buddy!

Here it is...! Pictures from graduation! I got hooded. And became a MASTER. It was actually pretty exciting and fun. In the picture (starting on the left): Amy, me, and Krystal












Next we have: Jamie, me, Krystal, and Amy















Followed by the same folks + Josh...
















And guess who was there?? Kim was watching her brother graduate. What a happy coincidence!!














Jeremy got me an AWESOME Nikon camera as a graduation/wedding/
yaywe'regoingonvactionsoon present! It takes the clearest pictures. Ever. My old camera (I believe) was a 2.3 megapixel. This one's a 10. WOW. And it waits for people to smile. Trust me, we've tested it out. So here comes many many more pictures on the blog cause my camera won't be so crappy. ;) Thanks, Jeremy!
We are down to FIVE DAYS!!!!!!!!!! Hoooooooray! I have serious doubts you'll hear from me before the wedding, so this is me, signing off for now. Much love you all, and there will be many many posts to follow! Thanks for all the support, guys.

EIGHT DAYS.

Go see the wedding bloggity... 8 days away! Can you believe it?
We made our bags of snow for you guys to toss at us as we leave the reception. It's going to be beauuuuutiful.
I graduate tomorrow! Pictures of the batcape to come. This robe is hilarious. Whoot whoot!

Word.

A message from Pooty:
If you haven't reserved a room yet for the wedding and you are still wanting one... please oh-please do that soon! We are trying to get everything all figured out and it would help mucho mucho!
You know who you are. ;) That little thing in your invite has a stamp on it. Hee hee.

But seriously, getting mail every day is FUN. Seeing who is coming to the wedding is often the highlight of our day. We cannot wait. We are in the HOME STRETCH. 20 days. TWENTY! Wow.
Besides all that, I am wrapping up school. Finals this week. Finish up at work next week. Graduate on the 13th. Yes, I'm graduating the weekend before the wedding. Cap, gown, and hood and all. Should be incredibly exciting. I will get my masters... but I still have a semeseter of classes to go. Yeeehaw.
If I am quiet for the next few days/weeks, you will know why. Call me and make sure I'm alive. And maybe go have a happy hour with me. I might need it. ;)

Whoot, whoot double whoot whoot!

I.passed. Hoooooray!!!

I got the letter on Saturday. I almost passed out from anticipation... but it came, and I passed! NOW I can finally relax. And finish up wedding plans. :) Hollah!

DONE. For realz

Well, it's over. Finally. After alllll the months of worry, dread, and studying till I was cross-eyed, it's over. I was in there from 8:30-4. The first half of the day was multiple choice (150), and the afternoon was essay.
Was it really as bad as I thought, you might ask??

YES. It was. Perhaps worse.
After reading the questions on the first page, I had a moment of pure panic. My vision actually blurred and I freaked. I didn't know any of them. These were questions I had never seen in my life. Concepts we had never talked about.
So I skipped to the next page, and it got a little better. Then it got a little worse. I skipped over 50 questions the first time through.
At lunch, I discovered everyone else in my program thought maybe we had been given the wrong test, too.
But we hadn't.
So I have no idea how I did. Fingers crossed that I got a 70%. For real. Fingers crossed. I was hoping to have this huge sense of relief that's over, but I'm not quite there... Now I'm just nervous about the results. Oh, and essays went great. I think. Oh, no.
But I AM glad it's OVER. There is no more studying and freaking out (well, except for the normal amount). Who's letting me borrow "Twilight?" Tonight?

Where you can find me:

TOMORROW: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. COMPS... Oh, Lord, here it comes.
Tomorrow 4:30-??: At the bar. Either crying or celebrating, it remains to be seen.
Thursday night: Juanita's for Ben Nichols
Friday: BACHELORETTE PARTY.

Counting down the hours... Think of me tomorrow. I need all the good vibes I can get.

Many, many pictures today!!

This picture is from FOREVER ago, but I have not updated in forever, so here it is! ;) This is from Melissa's birthday waaaay back on October 17th. HAPPY VERY VERY VERY BELATED BIRTHDAY to my wonderful sister.
I truly love this picture.


What a busy weekend we had! Friday was our HALLOWEEN SHOWER, so be sure to head over to the wedding bloggity today to see the millions of pictures. Everyone looked awesome.
This is the pumpkin we carved this year. You might notice an odd sheen on it....


That's because we painted it with blacklight-reactive paint! Jeremy hung a blacklight on the porch, so our jackolantern was so super spoooooky and glowy this year. The kids loved it. ;)

SPEAKING OF JEREMY... it was HIS birthday yesterday! We went to Playtime Pizza on Saturday to celebrate and out to dinner with his folks last night. I made him pumpkin cake... mmmmmm! More pictures... scroll on!

Engage-iversay...

Not only was yesterday Jeremy's birthday, but it was our engage-iversary. It has been exactly one year since we got engaged (can you believe it? I cannot.)! To commemorate, we drove out to the spot where he proposed (Flatside Wilderness) with the pups and checked out all the gorgeous trees that are blowin' up. It was a gorgeous day, and it was really nice to revisit our spot. I haven't been there since that day. We have just about a month and a half until the wedding. I can't wait!

Pooty-Zoey were also very happy to return to the spot. ;)

That rock is exactly where the proposal took place. Everybody say, "awwwww...!"

Pretty awesome though, yes?

Whoot.

Many pictures to share with my friends today, but I will start with yesterday's activities with that darling Nate. ;) I got to witness Nate's very first pumpkin patch experience, and it was quite fun. I think he really enjoyed it... the parts where he was awake. Hee, hee.
Our old pumpkin patch (Hidden Valley, out hwy. 10) is closed now (sadness), so we went to Motley Farms. It was $6 to get in, but you got a hayride, petting zoo experience, and pig races included! My pig finally won in race #3.
We got some pretty awesome pumpkins and decorated a little for Halloween. Yay! Pictures of that to come...

Friday, Jeremy and I went to the capitol to listen to Hillary. It was pretty cool, I must say. It was my first political rally (unless you count that one time I went to listen to Nader at UCA years back). Those who spoke included Mary Steenbergen and hubby (my mind just blanked, all I can think of is Tony Danza... what's his name??), Blanche Lincoln, Vic Snyder, Marion Barry, David Pryor, and Mike Beebe. It was good stuff.
If you click on it, you can see Hillary... my camera kind of sucks. ;)

One last cool pic of the capitol...
















LAST weekend, we went to Memphis for marriage counseling with our pastor, and we were going to go camping afterwards. So we loaded up the pups and headed out. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a good spot and ended up coming back to LR. But look at them snuggle....
Even several more weeks back, we went to the zoo. These guys were pretty funny. The gorilla was beating on the big metal door before his feeding time, on the other side of the exhibit, this ape could hear him beating on the door and would run up, jump on top of the bucket, look in the window, and screech back at him. It was a little intense, and also hilarious.
Check out the gorilla with his fists up. I hear ya, buddy.



A side note: I officially registered for comps. They are November 11th. I am starting to seriously study now (not that fake stuff I was doing before). Wish me luck. I am going to be very, very stressed and worried about them, but I will survive! I'm really just ready for them to be OVER now.
Catch ya on the flip side.

Anyone want to go?

Hill's going to hold a rally at the capitol steps tomorrow evening at 5:00 for Obama! Anyone like to go with us??

(PS, don't they look kind of in lurve in this photo? ha ha)

I can't believe the election is so soon... let's go listen to Hillary! Come on, kids!

Here I am!

When did I become such a terrible blogger? I think it's when I became obsessed with google reader and I didn't have to go see my blog every time I wanted to see if any of you guys had updated. Since I don't have to see mine all the time, I kind of forget. I used to be so good... Ah, well. Update!
1. Last weekend was the Lucero Family Picnic in Batesville.
2. Kim and Martha came with me and Jeremy. We had a great time.
3. Jeremy and I talked to Ben, and he's definitely in for the wedding. Can you freaking believe it? This is really happening.
4. Kim and Martha handed out sparklers to many fans at the show. It was a beautiful moment.
5. They sped up the lineup because of the impending hurricane. Lucero came on at 7:30 instead of 10:30. They played for a long, long time, and we didn't end up getting wet. It was awesome.
6. My school year is going really well so far... I am actually working in Conway Public Schools, doing real work. I am totally going to love my job when this is all over with.
7. Classes are not too terrible right now, however...
8. I am in the process of studying for COMPS (gasp. gulp.). That means I have a test on November 11th over every.single.class.I've.ever.taken. Multiple choice and essay (she says as she vomits).
9. My GA position is going (pretty) well so far too. I am in the same building pretty much all day, which gets fairly old, so please feel free to send me an email to entertain me during the loooong days.
10. Today is the first day of fall. This makes me very happy.
11. Jeremy and I have enjoyed a couple of firepits in the past week because of the cool(er) weather. This also makes me very happy.
12. Know what else makes me happy? I have some pretty amazing bridesmaids. You girls are awesome. Thanks for all that you're doing... for realz.
13. Katie's bday was last week! Happy (very) belated birthday, my love!
14. I got to talk to Chandle for a long time on the phone on Sunday. She makes me laugh. A lot.


15. Corey Branan and Ben played an acoustic set at Josie's (just like last year). They were incredible, as usual, and I think Kim fell a little in love with Corey.
16. Ummmmmmmm..... that's all I can think of at the moment. My evenings are much less homework-filled these days (except the nights I study for comps... once a week at this point). So call me. ;)

Good news!

Da booooooooooooooooooot's off! Halle-freakin'-lujah! Let me tell you, it feels so much better. The doc says it's not healed but it's healing. That means I should be very careful... no running and jumping for a while, but low impact should be ok. ;) So hooray! Three of the longest months of my life. OVER. Yay.
This is my first-day-of-school pic, Mom. I had my first day of classes today! Here are my classes for this semester: Applied Behavior Analysis, Practicum I, and Intervention I. I start prac next week, which is basically an unpaid internship where I'll be doing "real" school psych duties. Should be a lot of fun... and a lot of work.
I ALSO got a job today! I am a G.A. again this year, but this time I am working for 2 psychology professors. I got assigned my stats and research design professor and my undergraduate thesis adviser. Should be pretty good. So glad I got a job... I had pretty much given up on it and resolved myself to find something else. This will work much better.
So good news all-around! It's going to be a crazy semester for me, and I know things are going to just fly by as the time gets closer to the wedding. Bear with me...! ;) Peace out.

Pretty nice, don't you think?

Hey kids-
This past weekend we decided to take advantage of SUMMER VACATION 2008 (whoooooooooot) and go camping on Lake Ouachita (every time I spell that word I say "oh-wha-cheetah" to myself to help me out). We got there Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. It just so happens that this weekend was the first time in like three months that it rained for more than 10 minutes at a time. The first night was lovely, and Saturday afternoon was gorgeous and sunny. At about 6 p.m., though, the rains started, and they didn't stop until Sunday night. Whew. On top of that, one of the dogs (who shall remain nameless, ZOEY) barfed in the tent right before bed, the tent leaked allllllllllll night on me, and there was an unfortunate encounter with some fire ants. Despite this, we had a blast. It was so nice to be outside and do something since I haven't in SO long. I mean, seriously. Check out that sunrise!
So it's "summer break" for me now. I start back on the 21st. HOPEFULLY I am getting das boot off on the 19th. Fingers crossed! I have no plans for the next week, so if you're around, gimme a call. I'll be watching "Buffy." ;)

Fingers crossed.

Just a quick update....

• I'm coming up on finals week.... hooooody whoo!!! This time it's only just regular tests, not cumulative- THANK GOD. I have group counseling on Monday learning problems on Tuesday. I.can.do.this. This is the last of summer school for me for the rest of my life. Knock on wood.
  
• I kicked some serious bootwah last week with all my hard stuff. I led group counseling on Monday, and it went great. I had them do puzzles (it's really much deeper than that, but that was the fun part, ha ha). Tuesday I had a pretty tough test in learning problems (totally got an A). Wednesday I had a group presentation that I was completely dreading. It was on medical aspects of learning problems (ICK). Totally got an A.
  
• Once Tuesday's over, I am DONE. And I have 2 weeks off. We're planning on taking a mini-vaca (a "staycation" if you will, ha ha ha). Looking forward to it more than you know.
• Making huge advances on wedding planning. My goal is to have all the hard decisions made by the time schools starts for me again. I think we can totally do it. Feeling really good!
• Going to see Kat, Karl, Nate, and Blake tonight. Hoooooray!
  
• That's about it for now. Someone entertain me in my 2 weeks off. I'm free to hang out, hallelujah!!