Christmas

Sweetest note from my mother to my father (his Christmas present was a Dr. appointment)

Merry Christmas!

This is love :) 

Thankful

Today, I am thankful for technology.  That I get to hear Chuck preach, listen to Christmas songs, and that I get to see my sweet parents and grandparents via the internet.  Thank you AFUMC.  

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

Brian and I attended our first KU basketball game the other week.  Let me tell you, it is quite an experience.  Being used to big time college basketball, I naturally was excited to experience a big time basketball school.  Every school has traditions, and let me tell you, KU has some of their own.  I almost wish I could redo undergrad and attend KU so I could experience being a hardcore basketball fan.  Their fan section is nuts.  Anyway, what I want to express to you is that, "Beware the Phog," now makes sense.  They sing this cultish song that makes you feel like ghosts of the past are coming back to get you.  

Check out the song! (it happens at the end of the video, and it is much better in real life)

Mambo did it!

VICTORY!!!  

Migraines

This about sums it up.

Words of Wisdom from

That moment when your pen stops producing ink on a page, and then you turn it, and it starts producing again, and then 5 lines later it stops again.  What a sad moment... especially when it's your favorite pen and hinders your productivity

Habanero Poppers... are never a good idea

You will sweat, you might cry, you might want to die, or you might engage in self-injurious behavior.  And nothing that you do... no water, no talking, no coughing, no holding your breath will help.  They are nasty little buggers.  

wisdom

For those of you wondering if you can burn a hot pocket... yes, yes you can

MAMBO #5 LEARNED HOW TO PRESS THE LEVER TODAY!  V FOR VICTORY!!!!

Graduate School

So, everyone meet Mambo (rat #5).  Thank you Brian for the name suggestion.  Yes, this is my rat.  And I am attempting to train and reinforce and shape his behavior.  Crazy.  Feeling a lot like Skinner and all the basic researchers these days.  Poor Mambo has defecated in the research box.  And yes, that red thing is a lever.  

Thoughts from the trail

Brian and I went camping this past weekend.  And, we learned some lessons...

1. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN - actually think about what you are doing

2. Choose where you want to go - this we did the day of

3. Let someone know where you are going in case something troublesome happens - this we did!

4. Strategically pack your bags - ha, this is a definite no

5. Buy food that will not burden your body, i.e. stay away from can goods (like progresso soups)

6. Split your water up into nalgenes or camelbacks - we decided to carry 2 gallons

7. Don't pack three or four days worth of dog food when you are going for a shorter amount of time

8. If your pack is super heavy, you can make it up the hill, but it might not be that much fun

9. Eat a lot of food at dinner and breakfast so that your packs are lighter on the way down

10. Are you in bear country?  If so, make sure you pack rope and what not to make a bear bag

11. Pack warm clothes!  It gets super cold at night in the mountains.

12. Make sure your tent has a foot and a rain fly (mine does not have a foot... it is worth the purchase)

13. Via packets of coffee and hot chocolate packets are a necessary must.

There will be more to come soon.  After a trip of successfully not preparing nor planning, we made it back in one piece minus the water bottle that was sacrificed for the bear bag (walmart nalgene knockoffs shatter when they hit rock, fyi).  And it was beautiful.  And now my butt is extremely sore.

Christianity

Pretty cool article I read this morning...

http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209?src=soc_fcbks

Mrs. Lauren Douglas

How beautiful is she??  Talk about a fairytale wedding!

Hello All

Hello All!

Here's to a new semester for those of you started school or working at a school, or here's to a new season for those of you who are not.  I wish you the best this fall.

So, I am finally blogging again.  I would like to say it is because I have missed it and just really feel the urge to update this.  Ha, but I would be lying.  Honestly, I am procrastinating from doing homework.  That's right, I said it, I have homework again.  And, it is before the start of the semester.  WHAT?!?  I guess it's a rude awakening for graduate school.  Goodbye syllabus days in which classes lasted a max of 20 minutes.  Goodbye straight memorization and hello discussion courses.  I will miss you greatly.

So here's to a new semester, a new state, and a new football team (not really, I am still a Tiger fan... WAR DAMN EAGLE).

~ J

And for all of you KU/Mizzou rivals, you haven't seen anything yet. Welcome to the SEC

Countdowns

5 minutes - Jennifer Foster
3 days - Tom Foster
5 days in Park City with Brian Juanico
16 days - atlanta ga with Kelly and Scott and Jennifer and Tom Foster
17 days - blackberry farms for one of my best friend's wedding!!!

Inspiration for the day

In honor of procrastination, I am going to blog today.  I am currently rereading articles and writing summaries on them.  Note to self: write the summary after reading the article, so that I don't have to go back through it.  Do I think I will actually implement this lesson?  Very doubtful.  Reading articles about rats and pigeons from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s is not the most exciting thing to do on this beautiful Saturday afternoon.  I could be in the ATL celebrating this girls bachelorette party...

But sadly, ticket prices were entirely too expensive, and since I had to choose, I chose the wedding to buy a plane ticket for.  So, I am still in Lawrence, KS.  On campus.  On a Saturday.  Welcome to graduate school Jessica.  

Here is some inspiration for the day!

Maybe if I procrastinate even more I'll write a second post ;)  Expect it in about 15 minutes.

To Kelly Foster....

So, I remember why I changed from tumblr to blogger... I couldn't figure out how to leave comments or allow people to leave comments.  And it drived me nuts for some reason.  Hence, I am writing this blogpost as my comment to your most recent post... Who wants to go to Disney World with Me?

And my response that I would leave in a comment box is....

Picture can be found at this link (http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/1733211/suri-cruise-disney-world-05/) 

The end of my 30 days of Dr. Seuss

I am sick of Dr. Seuss quotes.  Not as motivated anymore to do that.  So here is my last one for you...

We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

How incredible is that?  

Definitely in mutual weirdness with this guy. ;)

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

Dr. Seuss

You have brains in your head, 

You have feet in your shoes, 

You can steer yourself, 

Any direction you choose.

~ Dr. Seuss

Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.... So get on your way.

~ Dr. Seuss 

THINK and WONDER, WONDER and THINK

D Seuss 

You'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.  - Dr. Seuss

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

God bless America.  Seriously!  This is one of about 3 4th of Julys that I can remember not being at Camp DeSoto.  The other 3 - St. Augustine, Athens, and... no idea.  So maybe this one is number three?  Oh, I was in Costa Rica for the third.  So, I think this makes number 4?  I can tell you what.  4th of Julys at camp are something special.  You get woken up with crackers going off and the smell of smoke.  Then you get to deck yourself out in red, white, and blue and dance the day away.  Sing patriotic songs, eat huge pieces of watermelon, county fair, and of course the entertaining fireworks show at the end of the night.  

This 4th, I will be spending it working on reading articles and writing summaries about them.  Sounds fun right?  Maybe a cookout tonight?  Not sure.  But, I am sure am thankful for this place that seems to be going down the drain.  We still have religious freedom and other freedoms lots of other people do not ever get to experience, so thank God for that!  And thank God for Camp DeSoto ;)

On another note...  "Why fit in when you were born to STAND OUT?" ~ The Dr. Himself

Let's just say I provide my family with hours of laughs on my wardrobe choices.  I am often told by Jen or Tom that I look homeless.  Ha, I call it creativity and personal style.

Scott trying to break open that coconut.  Kept throwing it against rocks over and over again.

The princess and queen themselves.  No explanation needed here.

Yes, he pumps up car tires with a bicycle pump.

Ha.

Amy!

This is how John would wait on all of us to catch up.

Heather and Ryan after their hand treatment.

Brian at the Kentucky Derby museum

Chad on the last day of the season

Love from apartment D1!

~ J

Don't cry because it's over, SMILE because it happened! 

Dr. Seuss 

Living it!

30 Days of Dr. Seuss Quotes

"Today you are you, that is truer than true, There is no one alive who is Youer than you!"

Inspired by Pinterest and the words of Dr. Seuss himself....  And that silly girl up above!

Love from the office of 1147, 

Jessica

Save the Date

I love getting save the dates!  I got one today (ha I decided to check my mail today and not yesterday)!  My dear YMCA camp friend is getting married to a guy she has been dating for quite a while now!  It is so exciting!  Here it is...

Very excited for these two!  

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!  I am just now getting over a two day migraine.  Wohoo.  Finally, what a relief.  Also, interesting news... looks like my two first research projects will be on increasing physical activity in young children and delay discounting (waiting).  Pretty exciting stuff.  I am excited to get the ball rolling on graduate school.  Hope all is well.

~ Jessica

Friday Morning Craziness

Hi all!  I know it is now Sunday, and this is about the past Friday, but that is ok.

So, I woke up with a migraine that morning, so I am groggy and completely out of it.  I decide not to make my own coffee but to head to Dunn Brother's Coffee to grab a drink.  So I am driving down 23rd (I think that is the road), and the sun is completely blinding.  I pull into the left turn lane in the middle of the road, and 15 yards ahead, I see a man jump out in front of the car that had been beside me.  The car missed him by just a little bit.  The man continued running (staggering is a better phrase), face plants in the middle of the road, stands up, and does a somersault on the other side of the road.  He then proceeds to stand up and sprint off the road to the other side.  By this point, I have pulled into the drive thru and am so shocked by what I saw.  I was trying to process it in my head (migraine and processing information don't go well together), but by the time the Dunn Brother's employee asks to take my order, I am starting to put it all together.  And then I heard sirens.  WHAT?!???

So, I proceed to hazily order my coffee, and drive through.  I am slowly processing that the man I had just seen, was probably running from the cops.  No one just jumps out in front of a car unless something is chasing them, or they are trying to end life.

So, after I got my latte, I was debating... Call 911 or not to call 911.  I turn off 23rd onto Ousdahl making my way to campus.  I chose not to call 911 because there were 5 cop cars in the span of 4 blocks.  They were literally in the area where the man had staggered to.  One cop car was weaving up and down the roads, and you could tell all the other cops were on the look out as well.

What a way to start a Friday morning!  I also told a couple of the other graduate students that morning.

As I was talking to Brian last night, I decided to look online at the Lawrence news to see if anyone had been arrested that morning, and this is what I found...

"Officers were involved in a foot pursuit just after 7 a.m.. The Officer called out the chase at 7:05 with a black male suspect running northbound along Ousdahl Road from 24th Street. Officers were able to catch up with the male about two minutes later in the 1600 block of W 22nd Terrace. It sounded as though the man had numerous warrants for his arrest. As of this report he has not been booked into the County Jail."

Yes, that is real life.

Office Decor

Well, since the entire weekend is all mine, I have decided to start pulling together some decorations for my office at KU.  I share it with two other people, and they both have stuff hanging on their walls like diplomas, pictures, etc.  So I decided to get a bulletin board and spiff it up a bit.  I got the inspiration from pinterest, naturally, although I cannot find it again.  

So here is the bulletin board with tape.  As you can tell, I started removing the tape.  Removing the tape is maybe the most entertaining thing ever because it gives you straight lines.  Blows my mind every time.

Here is the board after all the tape has been removed.  I think I like it.  I was thinking about nixing this idea and doing a Starry, Starry Night board, but that is going to take entirely too much time.  So, here is the finished project.

I'll take a picture when I put it up, so yall can see it!

Hope everyone is having an incredible Saturday!  

~ j

Strawberries

I have been trying to eat healthy and exercise a lot recently.  With that being said, this week I have struggled hard core with mainly the latter one.  I am so tired that I would rather come home and watch an episode of this tv show...

And fall asleep rather than go to that spin class or go swim laps.  That needs to change soon, but I will give you my graduate school schedule, so you can decide for yourself whether it is worth it (meaning exercise).  Might I add, these are the times that I am on campus.

Monday: 7:15 am - 9:00 pm
Tuesday: 7:15 am - 7:30 pm
Wednesday: 7:15 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday: 7:15 am - 5:00 pm
Friday: 7:15 am - 5:00 pm

So I LOVE Fridays, and the phrase TGIF really resonates with me because I am actually thanking God that it is Friday.

Other wonderful news, my dear sister Kelly just started a blog of her own!  Following in her dear sister's footsteps.  I am sure her blog is going to be so entertaining and inspirational and fun loving. Because that is who she is.  You can check it out at this link... http://kfost13.tumblr.com/

What else can I tell you?  Oh, I got KU's football season schedule.  It's a nail biter to say the least.

Yup, the only team that I have ever seen on the Auburn schedule as well was West Virginia.  Mallard and Lola, we aren't in Auburn anymore, we are in Kansas.  

Oh, I remember now why I started this blog post.  Ha, I just reread the title.  I made a pinterest creation tonight.  You can find the recipe for it if you click on the picture.  I will say that it turned out delightfully delicious.  Sweet and tangyish at the same time.  I don't think I would put cilantro on it if I were to make it again.  Also, I forgot cheese at the grocery store, so I used the munster that was in the fridge (ha, that sounds funny, no monsters in my kitchen thank goodness) and it turned out extremely well.  I also put a ton more fresh strawberries on top.  Delicious.

Stay thirsty my friends ;)

~ J

Timing

I seem to have impeccable timing in turns of coming home after a long day.  The sprinklers are ALL on, and I have to sprint down the sidewalk to get to my apartment.  It is just splendid.  Keeps me on my toes.  

Sanity

If you are wondering what has become of my sanity... here you go.

Graduate School

Sorry!  I have been so terrible lately...  In case anyone was wondering, this is what grad school has been thus far.

1. I got an office (I have yet to decorate it)

2. Got 6 keys to open lots of doors where I am.  I also have to guess which one opens what.  I got lucky the first time.  All attempts after, not so much.

3. Done a lot of cleaning

4. Registered for classes (practicum for the summer)

5. Packed a lunch for myself 

6. Got a parking pass

7. Watched the entire first season of Damages this past weekend.  Go ahead, guess what I am going this next weekend?

The kids (meaning two and a half year olds and older) come tomorrow.  I needed to clarify this because people think I am talking about undergrads when I say kids.  Undergrads are only one, two, three, four, of five years younger than me.  Ha, when I say kids, I mean actual little children.

I'll keep you posted!

~ J

No place like home

Kitty cat readers of the world!!!! I am officially a resident of the great windy state of Kansas. There is no place like home. I obviously didn't finish my road trip blogs. Sorry. Nothing too exciting happened. But I made it here with my mom and dad and a huge uhaul truck. My mom is still here, and I am dreading the day she leaves. We went to a liquor store today and bought lots two bottles of wine and two 6 packs of Free State (brewed locally in Lawrence). I said that this will last me a while this summer. Jen them said that she was imagining that I would make friends, and I of course said I didn't imagine that. I'm a grown up loner here. Ha I'm sure it will be ok.

I almost adopted a baby bunny today. He was so cute. Barely 10 days old. Couldn't open his eyes yet, and the momma bunny abandoned him. Makes me cry thinking about it. Anywho I googled... "I found a baby bunny, now what?" and it told me to return the bunny to where I found it because the momma bunny will come looking like it. Isn't he cute?

So we returned him, and guess what we found?  Another baby bunny!  So we put them together in the grass in the big open field.  GOOD NEWS... the baby bunnies were gone this morning.  So I think the momma rabbit found them.  Other options have been suggested by my Mom.  But we are going to say that they made it safely back to their nest.

I may have cried watching this earlier...

http://mobile.oregonlive.com/advorg/pm_29235/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=fvdXMXr5

Also, watch this movie if you haven't seen it yet. Pretty great seeing the incredible love this guy has for his wife.

Stay thirsty my friends.  Until later.

~ J

Day 8, 9, 10 - And it continues

St. Louis, MO > Duck Down Farms (Crestwood, KY) = 278 miles

We finally made it somewhere we where would get to relax a little bit.  Meaning we were still going 100 miles per hour, but we were in one place for a little bit, which was very nice.

Cute puppies ready to run for days.

Made it to Indiana!

This place was CRA CRA.  The food was delicious.  If you ever go to Louisville, this is a must.  And you must eat Lynn's Brown.

So eclectic 

Enjoying the beautiful Duck Down Farm and admiring the sunset

Happy bird dog

Love me some sunsets

Dad and Brian loving on some mint juleps.  We got to go to a party the night before.  She breeds horses, and the horse named Hansen was bred at her farm and was running in the derby the next day!  Brian and I were the youngest by 25 years.  Felt like we were in old Kentucky among old Kentucky money.  Crazy feeling.

Kitty cat

Day of the derby.  My mom is wearing a hot pink fascinator.  I didn't even know what those things were called until she pulled it out.  Ms Jenfer getting fancy.

Derby tickets.

Bdiddy and I

Beautiful mother

The hard working veterinarian 

Backside at the stables

YAY

It was so hot!

We got to meet this horse the day before along with Mrs. America and Mrs. Kentucky.  My uncle was taking care of Union Rags, and unfortunately Union Rags didn't place, but we love him anyway.

My mom has all the really good derby and horse pictures.  If you want to see them you should friend her on facebook.  Jennifer Foster!

Dad's sherpa

Kentucky wildflowers!  So vibrant!

The derby was awesome.  So happy that I had the opportunity to go again.  It really is a whirlwind, and this weekend crazy things kept happening over and over again.  We were in the right place at the right time.  That never happens to me.  It has to be because we were with Uncle Foster.

Total Mileage: 2,654