photo update

yes, i realize i've not posted in almost a month. that's a really long time for me. you would think that i'd be posting all the time out of boredom since i'm on school break, but i really started this blog to begin with as a means of procrastinating with my schoolwork; no schoolwork, no need to procrastinate. so anyway, here are a bunch of photos to catch y'all up on the life of brookeje. enjoy:


the pink frilly blanket i made for lauren frances and the weird looking metalic scarf i made for aunt margie...

lindsey and hunter sure had a good time with those cupcakes!

a photo of the christmas tree house at kavanaugh/cantrell. i didn't even think my camera was taking photos, seeing as i was in the car and it was really dark.
meet the cat...yes, i've adopted a cat. i got him from this girl i grew up with (we even have the same birthday) who is moving to memphis and could only take one of her cats (sadness...i would have just lied). the picture doesn't really demonstrate the sheer enormity of this beast. he's probably a maine coon, and he's like 5 1/2 years old or so. he came with the name james (lame, unless you're a cute boy), so i'm thinking of calling him tarzan. poll: is it wrong to change a cat's name at this point. food for thought: if i'd found him on the street i'd never have known what his name was anyway...

here's leah and me after new year's eve dinner at cajuns. man i get slouchy after a couple of glasses of wine...aunt margie would be disappointed with that posture!

and here's ashley and me at the big peabody party. what a babe in the tophat.

well, that's it. did you make it all the way through? i promise i'll be better about posting more regularly again...happy 2006 everybody!

say hello to my little friend..

subtitle to the post: could brookeje be losing her mind???
so i just had one of the WORST nights of sleep ever! ashley and i had a fun little girlies night with damgoode and beer..."i'm going to sleep so well," i said. i mean, i haven't been drinking enough water, so i was totally buzzed before i'd finished beer #1 (pathetic, i know, but good since i only had two beers at the apt). i figured i'd sleep like a ROCK. but no, something awoke me at about 1:45. at first it was some crampies, then a bit of a tummy ache. then it was "scratch scratch scratch...scuffle scuffle scuffle". yep, the squirrels (i'm hoping for squirrels over rats or mice because at least they're not quite as scary or gross) living in my outer wall and the other wall by my bed were having an all-nighter. i don't know what the hell they were doing in there; sounded a lot like tag and build a nest...yikes! i couldn't fall back asleep! at one point i dozed off, only to have this weird awake dream where i SWEAR i heard the noise get louder and i felt something jump on my bed right behind me. i'm pretty sure it wasn't real, because in the "dream" i sort of thought it was a cat or something (way too big to be living in my walls). at about 5:30 (that's right, folks), i was certain i heard them in my bathroom. and not just under the bathtub like i normally hear them when i'm showering; i could hear one IN the bathtub. i put on my brave hat (and my tennis shoes in case i had to bolt to safety) and flipped on the light in the hall...in the bathroom...no noise. so i step up on the toilet (can't get me there), and fling open the shower curtain. nothing. now, there's this hole in my wall under the sink around one of the water pipes, and i've always suspected that whatever's been living in my walls sometimes sneaks through the hole and hangs out in my bathroom (which would totally explain the origin of the fleas in my bathroom when i do not own a pet!). grabbed some duct tape, and closed the sucker up. i'm hoping i'm pretty critter-proff at this point. i mean, man i don't want rabies or some flea-carried disease from a nasty little rodent. i want to call my landlord, but....what if i'm crazy? what if what i'm "hearing" isn't real? wouldn't be the first in my immediate family...children of people with schizophrenia have roughly until the age of 25 to develop it if they're going to get it genetically...still 24 here!

no really, they're totally real though.

if i had a million dollars...

okay, so i don't have a million dollars, but i was given a pretty large (by my standards, anyway) "christmas bonus" from my nonpaid internship. i can't decide what in the world to do with it! so i'm asking for suggestions. some ideas: i-pod (fun, but certinaly not necessary), random things i've wanted but wouldn't otherwise pay for (wool sock leather bottom slippers, for example), or finally starting a savings account (i am 24, after all). any suggestions???

and here's a fun little test...i really tied between ginny and hermione.

You scored as Ginny Weasley. You definitely share your mother's (Molly Weasley) fiery resolve and slowly but surely people are learning to respect you because of it. Hermione Granger 80% Ginny Weasley 80% Albus Dumbledore 75% Remus Lupin 70% Ron Weasley 65% Harry Potter 60% Sirius Black 60% Severus Snape 55% Draco Malfoy 50% Lord Voldemort 20% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

family and then some...

39. that's right. 39 people for thanksgiving. it was actually quite a good time. so here's the overview of the holiday week: monday i went to the fountain with rachel (a friend that calls) to meet up with evan and watch the razorback game. tuesday i skipped out on class early to meet up with trevor and family (his mom, dad, and younger sister) in perryville. wednesday trevor and i took his family to louis's restaurant so they could informally meet some of my family. wow, almost everyone was there! thursday was lunch at aunt margie and uncle gene's...tons of food, tons of people. we didn't go to a movie, though...first time in years! trevor's and my family really hit it off. good stuff. we were just sorry that his older sisters couldn't make it.
friday we had breakfast with his family before sending them off for tennessee. got to see some old friends, horray for jena! saturday was pretty lazy; went to see nonie because she broke her arm on friday at the salon. sunday we had quite a day...three hours to retrieve aaron from siloam springs, and three hours back all amidst the crazy storminess.
so now i'm in the home stretch. last week at my internship, last week for MCP and stats, and just 2 weeks for evaluation & research. woohoo. then it's weeks and weeks of work-free bliss! i'll be knitting, knitting, cleaning, knitting, and watching loads of movies and tv. i'm pumped.

cat's out of the bag...

so here's my secret. although i am saddened by all of the evidence of the greenhouse effect, i secretly love the warmer weather. that's right. i love it that the high tomorrow is 70! why is this??? am i mad? no, i just don't like cold weather. it hurts. my fingers and toes turn yellow and they sting and i shiver. yuck. if it worked out for me to move to a place where the high was always 76 and the low 64, i'd totally do it. i can always travel to get my seasons. they're totally overrated. i'm sure most of you think i'm ridiculous, but that's just the story.
whew, thanksgiving starts today for little brooke. trevor's family gets in tonight, so i'm off to perryville after class to see them and to spend wednesday with them. then dinner at louis's restaurant (reno's argenta cafe, for those who haven't heard) and probably meeting up with rachel to hang out. thursday, of course, will be thanksgiving with the family... the count is currently 37, with the possibility for a total of 40 people if louis's girlfriend and her parents show up. i think that might be an alltime high. aunt margie is going crazy! i don't blame her. well, i've got to get to my full day of classes. i'll leave you with this link. be careful, you can get addicted for sure. it's a numbers puzzle called sudoku. i'm loving it!
happy turkey day peeps!

in search of "plan C"

well, plan A didn't work out so well...i'm on to plan B, so why not have a plan C???

that's right. i'm thinking of applying for peace corps. actually, i've kind of already begun the application process. i probably won't end up doing it, it's just a thought...i mean, if all else fails, maybe i can do some good work and have an adventure. it's been something i've always wanted to do, it just hasn't fit in to my "plan", but who knows?

not much to report from the weekend: football game on friday, food poisioning and barfing all day saturday, sleeping sunday AND monday... wow, it's just been so much fun!

playin hookie

ahhh, it just feels so good. i went to school totally planning to go to all of my classes (which usually last from 10 am to 7:30 pm), but decided to fink out after giving my presentation on external validity (BOR-ING) and left after having lunch in the lounge with my ADP pals. so instead of going to class i went job hunting for christmas break. if anyone knows of a job lead, by the way, let me know. then i took to making a sweetness surprise for trevor seth as tomorrow is our 2-year anniversary. crazy how fast 2 years go...
the saturday potluck was a success. we had a good handful of people here and everyone left lots of leftovers...which is really good cause i'm too poor to buy groceries for a while...
sunday trevor and i helped todd with a heifer booth at an alternative gift market and then had lunch with todd and kat.
this week is internship busy...i had tons of stuff to do yesterday, tomorrow is the staff retreat at millinium bowl, and thursday is the culmination of the project i've worked on most of the semester. whew!

tons of pictures...perhaps too many...

from party #1: jr (biker) and kristen (daphney)
blue (dirty priest) and leah (stepford wife)
me (garden) and elizabeth (narnian ice queen)
emily and eric...hosts of the party, costumes self-explanatory...
audra and mike...what a hoot!
from party # 2: moyer...can you believe this sweet ladie works at ann taylor?
trevor seth as trevor seth and me as a garden (or whatever)
joel (steve zizzou) and ashley's mom sarah as a fat belly dancer (yes, with a fat suit!)
travis the werewolf and katie the butterfly
cutie ashley the queen bee
gina and the kids, lauren frances (princess jasmine), hunter (blue power ranger), and lindsey aka "marty" (minne mouse)

open invitation

so i don't know what this is all about, i guess it's some sort of game. but i'm having a potluck dinner this saturday at my apartment at 6:30. there will be no dice involved. i sent out emails to those that i have, but if i didn't send one to you, and you're reading this, consider yourself invited. there's no theme or anything. i'd like to know who is planning on coming, though, so i can get more plates and stuff if i need to. oh, and if you're afraid you won't know anybody, just bring someone you do know.

halloween pictures are coming soon. be certian of that...

coach trevor

i'm kind of in a bummer mood, so i'm not going to go through the entire process of posting all of my pictures from this weekend. i'll just do saturday morning, when trevor coached the last 2 games of the season for the buzzing bees of conway county, a co-ed under-12 (i think) team with a great group of kids. jacob was actually their official coach, but trevor and phil did a good bit of co-coaching. they didn't win their last 2 games, but played really well in the first one of the morning, which was super foggy. these pictures are from the second game in which they didn't play quite as well, for several reasons that might not interest the average blog reader. anyhoo, i'll post my halloween pictures soon.

aaaannnd...ACTION!

well, just killing a little time before i go pick trevor up so we can head on down to the hot springs documentary film festival. ahh, memories. that was trevor's and my first adventure together (before we were actually an "item"). i love it. we're going to try to catch the opening film, Homemade Hillbilly Jam, tonight and then we're camping out on lake ouachita (that's watch-a-taw, for those of you non-arkies). i'm pretty excited. we didn't get to go last year. we'll only be staying through part of saturday, because it's katy and travis's birthday party saturday night. how interesting it would be to have the same birthday as your boyfriend...and both libras...
i spent the morning with ashley at saver's getting ready for halloween. we're both going for a sweet look. nothing more shall be said... i'm in a bind, though, because i've got 2 parties i could go to on the same night; one in little rock, and one in thornburg (the one where trevor and i had our first smooch...man, am i sentimental and gross or what?).
oh, and for your central arkansans: wednesday louis's restaurant should be open, and then friday the 28th there should be a grand opening/birthday party (for louis) down there. same location as cornerstone was, but a new name and a new style: reno's argenta cafe. more info on that later (i seem to be the last to know almost everything in my family).
alright, well, i'm gonna get to work...lots of packing to do, and cleaning (to probably not do). i'll just leave us with a cute picture of trevor and me in the early days...

sometimes i wish i had a shetland pony

i mean, really. i think it would do a lot for my life. probably not much for my image (or persistent flea problem), but it could really round out my personality. i can just picture coming home each day to a little pony in my apartment. of course, i'd take it out all the time so it could play and i could ride it. there are even seeing-eye ponies! i'm so tired, i sound like a nutt.

what a week! totally void of school-like things (that is, unless you consider taking a nasty midterm scholastic). monday night was the "welcome chanda (trevor's oldest sister) and sarah (chanda's friend) potluck" in perryville. i took homemade pumpkin pie, made from a real pumpkin. some people say that it's better from the can. i disagree. wholeheartedly. i even toasted the seeds with garlic salt. tasty. tuesday trevor and i had a little "chat" that was i suppose a bit less than pleasant. wednesday was back to perryville for meredith's going away party (moss, i thought you were gonna be there). had dinner at joel's first, which was delicioso. today was the longest day ever at my internship. i just didn't have enough to really keep me busy enough not to notice how exhausted i've been. tonight trevor, chanda, et. al. came in to town and i met them at the flying fish (favorite) for dinner. then everybody came back to my apartment to hang out for a while. i think it was the most people that i've had over here since i moved in...kind of sad. i'm thinking of having a dinner over here or something...any takers?

marry gay men, have sex with robots

ah, it's fall...for some reason fall always takes me back to my sophomore year at uca. i had a really awesome fall. there was frisbee, we went camping all the time, i had a super great crowd of friends, we partied a lot (but weren't out of control), we made our "six lists", i took a poetry class and wrote a lot. it seems i operated on such a different philosophy. in fact, the above post title is a reference to the masterplan that virginia and i came up with. the perfect solution. now, things have settled quite a bit with the trevor man, and things are going to be okay, but i've just got to link this site: throw rocks at boys. it's a game that's easy to get stuck doing for a while. i'm pretty good at the first level, but have yet to get past level 2...it's hard to time the rocks, as you're dropping them rather than throwing them. anyways, it was linked on v's blog, and i checked it out. oh, had i only had this game to play when i really felt that way about boys...what a wise fool...

cuteness factor

so this saturday was filled with loads of fun family time. nothing like watching your favorite kiddos do their thing...hunter's soccer game (their team didn't do so well, but fun was had by all). it's always so cute to see him in his gigantic umbros and jersey. he was the smallest of them out there, but he sure ran his heart out.

and here's lauren frances at her gymnastics show. she's already on the show team at the age of 6, which requires hours of practice each week. it was super cute.

of course we can't forget the ultimate spectator. adding new words to her vocabulary every day, she cheered hunter on "go hunter go!". tonight aunt margie was bribing lindsey with chocolate chips so she'd give kisses. "i want bunches!"

i wish i could upload the video i took of all of them. i'm tellin ya, cute cute cute. if they weren't my neices and nephew, i'd kidnap them in a heartbeat. my kids had better be this cute!

so who's with me???

now, i know it's not quite chilled out just yet, but i'm thinking maybe we should put some camp-out plans in the works...eh? whaddayasay?

so here's what i'm thinking: how about either the weekend of october 7-9 or 21-23? heck, i could do both! doesn't have to be hard core, doesn't even have to involve the whole weekend. i just miss those camping days of college where we'd decide on a whim to pack up and go camping, setting up camp by the light of the car headlights. ahh, the good old days. but i recognize that we've all become busy important people, thus necessitating a little forward planning. so that's what i'm doing. i'm putting it out there. who's comign with me?

copy cat strikes again...

so my brain hasn't been working so well lately. lots of not so good stuff going on. but, to keep it light and unoriginal, i'll copy (but add in my own details) an idea from someone else's blog post.
10 years ago:
1. I was a freshman at Mount Saint Mary Academy
2. I loved going to CHS football games, but I always got really nervous about talking to new people
3. I spent 4 hours a day on the phone to a boy that would never become my boyfriend (but who would break my heart...the little troll)
4. My bedroom was half of a garage and had no windows (but was painted pink...which i didn't actually like)
5. I had fewer friends than I'd like to admit

5 years ago:
1. I was a sophomore at UCA
2. I had a massive crush on a friend who shall remain nameless (not that he didn't know it...not that i didn't tell him...)
3. I played a lot of ultimate frisbee, kinda sucked, and got a stress fracture in my leg
4. I made out for the first time with a boy that wasn't already my boyfriend
5. I started boozing it up and going to (and throwing) some awesome parties

1 year ago:
1. I was a first-year MSW student
2. I lived in an awesome house with Leah
3. My laptop was brand new
4. I went to school without a group of people i was already friends with for the first time since the fourth grade
5. We only got 3 channels on the tv

Yesterday:
1. I watched 7 episodes of Dawson's Creek
2. I cried a lot (not from Dawson's Creek)
3. I ate boiled crab legs
4. I ate some more of those delicious cookies (see below post)
5. Ashley was an amazing friend

5 songs I know all the words to:
1. hook, the blues traveler (yep, worked really hard on that one in 9th grade)
2. american pie, don mclean (another massive effort)
3. livin' on a prayer, bon jovi (since i was like 5)
4. wagon wheel, as done by old crow medicine show
5. baby i got your money, odb (that's right v, i still got it)

If I had a million dollars I would:
1. give a lot of it away
2. pay off my student loans and pay for my next degree
3. buy a hybrid
4. get out of my flea-infested apartment
5. fix up trevor's car

5 things I would never wear:
1. a ski mask
2. a long jean skirt
3. a short jean skirt
4. a chain around my stomach
5. a hat with an umbrella on it

5 Bad Habits:
1. saying the f word
2. scratching my head (it really is a habit i've had since forever...not a result of the fleas)
3. gossiping (oh, come on, we all do it)
4. smelling my armpits
5. procrastinating

5 Biggest Joys:
1. trevor seth
2. my neices and nephew
3. hot showers
4. sleeping in
5. plants and animals

well, that's it. i commend you if you made it through the end. so here's a question for the night...is it possible for a blog post to hold its own without photos?

milk and cookies

sweet mother! okay, so i totally don't generally condone pillsbury products, mostly because of their advertisement tactics (my man's so big and strong, me woman gonna make him some biscuits...oh, we can heat our dinner rolls up one at a time so our family never has to eat together...you get the point), but holy crap! i stumbled upon something i'd never even imagined today at the grocery store. an additional disclaimer: i also don't usually support the very ready-to-bake cookie sort of thing. but they have smores cookies! that's right, folks, smores cookies. graham flavored cookies with chocolate and marshmallow chunks. now the marshmallow leaves a little to be desired, but on the whole, i'm impressed. and here's my rationale: i am not exactly what one would call a baking connisseur. i'm actuall not so great at it. would i buy chocolate chip break and bake cookies? no. but smores, come on, there's no way i'd be able to craft that one up. though if i could, maybe i could get on martha's next season.

alright, so moving right along in this here commercial...and on to my favorite buy each week. all natural milk from mountain springs creamery in marshall, arkansas. yep, you can get milk from healthy (read: hormone and antibiotic-free grass-fed ladies) from a local consumer. wow, you must have to drive to marshall, one might think. nope, you can get it in several (and increasingly more) locations around town. the best pick is hardin's river mercantile in the river market (not just because they're my friends, but also because it's owned by local folk and not by a corporation). a handful of kroger stores in little rock have also caught on to the craze (notably hilcrest and the heights). glass bottles, pasteurized at the lowest allowable level (better flavor, good bacteria, but still no fear of the bad germs), and available in skim, 2%, whole, creamline (whole, un-homogenized milk...closest you're gonna get without milking the cow for yourself) and chocolate (tastes like what you make at home, only just right every time).
okey dokey, i'm insane. i just promoted 2 entirely different food products, one of which is a bit beyond my food ethics. but let's call it even. i just plugged some awesome local milk, and hope that all you arkies go out and get some.

so on a personal note...here's to me having a really productive week and getting to watch tons of dawson's creek, season 5. i love it. time management...who knew?
later peeps..

about darn time!

carnival in maastricht, the carnival capitol of the netherlands





finally got to have a chat with my old pal andy (he's not old, we've just been pals by far for several years now). we're not that great at keeping in touch, but it's pretty much always easy to catch back up. he's doing well...looking into moving from denver back to minnesota (yes, i do seem to befriend many minnesotans!), his homestead. andy and i were in maastricht in 2002 and lived in the same building. rock climbing buddies and daytrippers, we had a blast. so here's some photos of the beloved netherlands (and other visited places), as a shout-out for mr. andy nelson.

that's andy there at quirin chapel, just one stop on our busy busy day trip to luxembourg









how i wish i were there...neice is nice

winning the war

that's right, folks. today i'm finally winning the war against these freakin fleas! no more skirmishes, where i think i've gotten them and they manage to rally the troops for yet another assault on my ankles and belly. nope...i've called in for the big guns. i'm totally hacked with myself that i didn't do it sooner. i guess i worried that my landlord would just say, "hey, that's your problem". but he didn't, and today at 2 someone is coming to show those fleas some deadly business.
wow, who knew i could talk so much about fleas? that's ridiculous. well, i suppose that when most things are pretty stressful (as they are now, from family to wedding shakiness to schoolwork i can't make myself do), you just pick your fights, and the fleas have got to go. sad taht this seems to be the only thing i've really got some control over (okay, i can control how much homework i do in a night). okay, so this post is taking a turn for the worst. and i'm not even posting any pictures, which seems to be about the only way people will think my blog is interesting and comment on it. yikes. i think someone slipped a little sad into the water here. at least tonight i should perk up. got a show to go to at sticky's with ashely and some other pals.
oh, and i've got yet another girlfriend who has started a blog. be warned, she placed a disclaimer on her first post, so you never know what you're gonna read from virginia.
alright, enough is enough.

photo tour

so here's a little look at the quirky little apartment...well, everything but the bathroom (just inappropriate) and the kitchen (totally a wreck)...

dining room with awesome table and chairs and indian batik tapestry...
bookshelf with plants, painted chair, and window out of which the fire escape garden lives...
hallway to bathroom...
"bedroom" with tv and "fireplace"...
office portion of hallway...
front door, snazzy bike, pretty chair, tasteful nude...
view from front door of "living room"...

well, that's about it. it's not much, but it's home...and free of fleas for the second.

labor day weekend

so the weekend was without a labor day cookout, but it was certainly a good weekend. friday trevor came to town and we had dinner at vino's with ashley and joel after seeing ashley's new apartment (less than half a mile away). then it was to joel's sister's house to toast their brother andy for having passing "the bar". next to pizza d's where i suddenly didn't feel so well. but trevor had a good time and it was really funny watching him try to put sheets on the bed while a wee bit drunk. saturday we headed to perryville and hung out with some ranch kids. sunday we helped benjamin and stephanie with chickin' choppin' (see picture below), went swimming at the iron horse watershed, back for pizza lunch, then to two other watersheds for swimming adventure. the day was followed by a dinner get-together at jacob's new house. we were supposed to go camping but were scared off by tales of creepy seed ticks. yikes!
monday was spent trying to rid the apartment of fleas (gross!), only for me to find a few more this morning. out of desperation i threw out my prized bamboo floor mat because that seemed to be harboring the majority of the little buggers. i figure the mat is replacable, but my sanity is not!
school is still plugging along. by the end of the 11 hour school day i'm pretty desperate to get out. i mean, desperate...it's really hard being bored to death by 2 of the 3 classes i'm taking.
alright. i've got to go to bed now. internship in the morning and i'm prone to sleepiness.

so the picture is from last year's chickin choppin, but this is the general idea of what i do in the whole process. yes, the pictures sure can get more intense...

the W word

well, i've been nerdy and i've created a wedding web page through the knot.com. it doesn't have tons of info yet, and i'm not sure how much i'll actually put on there, but it does now exist. so for any interested parties, you can check us out at our wedding webpage.
i think we're about to head out for some perryville fun, so i'll have to post more later.

friends on the web

just a quick post to spread some love. more pals have joined the world of blogging... so here they are:
elizabeth's blog
chandle's blog
kari's blog

they're all there to the right, along with the other blogs and places i check out from time to time.

pup portrait

here's a picture i've been meaning to post...i'm with twelve-o at his art show (or the one in his honor by peter and hayden).