Answers!! Part I

Holy haircut, batman!

FYI - This is the picture in the dictionary next to the new word funnyuglycute.



The H-man got shaved by the nice people at Petsmart Friday night.



They really did do a great job and it's soooo not their fault he came out looking half rat/half dog.



It's his irresponsible parents' fault for not brushing him consistently and letting him end up with lots and lots of knotted rat nest hair that had to be shaved down to the skin to get rid of the mess and start anew.



We're really going to try and not let this happen again. Fingers crossed and good intentions intact for now.

*************

Nick and I went "home" to Eastern Kentucky this weekend so we could attend his brother Chad and fiance, Lauren's couples wedding shower on Saturday night. What fun! I am floored and extremely excited for their wedding this weekend. I'm working straight through the next few days so I can be off and start the weekend off right on Thursday night with L's bachelorette party in Cincinnati.

Girls just wanna have fun.

So bear with me, some more, while I have absolutely no time to blog to the best of my ability. It is all for very good reason and really... I'm not apologizing for my absence - a girl's gotta live! ;) Just think of the many many pictures that are to come from such a longmand blessed weekend.

I should be getting a couple pics up from the shower in the next couple of days as well!

NOW - Onto the ANSWERS!!!

Hendrix's haircut leads well into my first question from a sweet, must been sent from God, kind of girl who sent an email and asked: I just love your hair cut. I love the length and side-swept bangs. Is there anything in particular you tell your hairstylist when they cut you hair?

I took a moment to pause after reading this, partly to laugh, partly in awe that someone would write this and then a moment to thank God for his angels who email.

I sent her a response on email and it pretty much boiled down to this: I rarely get my hair cut. It is, most always, a disappointment.

I scan every magazine in the house, google celebrities, and stalk friends on facebook for the perfect 'do. I'll find a picture, bring it to the appointment, then show the beautician so I don't have to explain something I can never explain.

Then, usually, the response is something like this: "Oh honey, yours could never turn out like that, your hair is just too fine..."

Gee, thanks. Why do I even try?

So, I quit. I got my hair trimmed this past May. It was only to get the frazzled ends. Nothing was shaped, no layers, nothing.

And then yesterday morning, after paying to have my dog's hair cut the night before, I trimmed it myself. I've always cut my bangs myself and am in the process of growing them out. But trimming the entire length was very new to me.

A blurry picture of my current condition:

I find it weird taking blurry self portraits in the mirror with my phone. Could I be any more awkward?

We got lots of questions about mine and Nick's relationship. I've even been asked to do a guest post on another blog with all questions about US! It's still too crazy that even one person would be interested in our story - but I LOVE to share =)

So that's all the time we have for today, folks ... sheesh, one questioned answered.

But I've got to get on the road tonight and check into my hotel for work at 8am tomorrow morning.

Momma, was a rollin' stone...

If you want a few juicy tid-bits before I get to the questions about our engagement, check out this post, written back when almost NO ONE was reading besides our sweet moms =)

Be back soon!

©Stephanie

The Life of a Pharmer

...working from sun up to sun down.

My goodness... my time has not been MY time this week at all!

Monday morning, I woke up waaaaayy early to drive 3 hours to a CVS in the middle of nowhere. No cellphone service, no internet. I got to my hotel at 10 that night, slept a little, back at work in nowhereville at 8am and home by 7 tonight. I got to enjoy a lovely grill meal `a la Nick, a long walk with my man and our dog, shower, lunch box prepared and clothes laid out, now set to work 12 hour days tomorrow and Thursday... which we can go ahead and call 14 hour days with the hour drive there and back. Any time left for me? Yeah... on Friday!

Pigs in a hospital setting... double meaning for this "Pharmer"... and because I thought it was funny.

{Can I just go ahead and say that I am extremely thankful for this job and am totally aware of this blessing and trying not to sound too whiny about the blessed circumstances I'm in? Great. I love taking these moments to write a disclaimer.}

All of that to say - I haven't even got around to starting part one of the Q&A session :( AND I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT AND REALLY WANNA GET TO IT!

Part one coming Friday. Seriously. Unless some other blessing decided to take up all of my time =)

I love my Brittney =)

Finally, on Saturday evening, my friend Brittney and I got our act together, set a date and time and had ourselves a big ol'visit!

This isn't just any friend, y'all. This is THE friend that lived with me for 4 YEARS in undergrad. We moved 4 times, to 3 different schools. Crazy, I know. We have an amazing amount of memories together of the wackiest years of my life. I love taking our walks down memory lane together and realizing just how mild our lives are these days ;)

Brittney, having a silly moment as a gorgeous bridesmaid on our wedding day.

You also know she's gotta be crazy after putting up with me for that long. Nick and I have been together for only 4 1/2 years. Brit and I like to remind him that we have been together for almost 8 years!!

The visit had several purposes, such as for Britney to meet our precious fur-child:

And more importantly, for us to finally meet her man I've heard so much about:

We had a blast catching up over pizza and pool.

{We tried to play rock band on wii but it was NOT cooperating. The boys were making fun of us for doing crappy and I was INSISTING that something was wrong. They didn't believe us until one of them finally tried and then consented that the calibration WAS actually off. So YEAH! And what's y'all's excuse for that terrible game of pool?! ;) }

Our friend Adam also stopped over for some fun.

Tomorrow morning I've got a 3 hour drive to work somewhere far, far away from home. I'll be spending tomorrow night in a hotel and hopefully, since they'll be nothing else to do before bed, I'll start formulating my answers to your wonderful questions!

Until then...

Should I??

I've had a lot of fun with the emails I've been receiving with questions about every facet of our lives so I was thinking...

Should I do a Q&A?

If there's something you'd like to know about me or us, whatever it may be, from how we did some project in the house to how we live together without strangling one another, just leave your question in the comments on this post. You can be anonymous or not or even email your questions, as always, to me at robertslove {at} live {dot} com.

If I don't get any questions, then I'll know your answer - I should NOT do a Q&A. I'll understand =)




P.S. Today and tomorrow, I'll be driving A LOT and working very LONG hours, so I doubt you'll see me again until this weekend. Don't miss me too much - HA! More on my first couple of weeks as a pharmacist soon. It's been quite the undertaking, though I'm hanging tough, natch!

Why not a bridge?

We took an old country road instead of the busy, inner city, rush hour traffic roads to get to my sister and BIL's part of the world and to visit with my mom who was visiting with them.


We hadn't actually taken this road before and weren't sure what to expect.

We thought, when checking out the directions on the GPS, that there might be a ferry to take us across the little blue "line" on the screen but thought nawwwwwww and took the road anyway...

Well, low and behold, we pulled up to the river and settled in for a 20 minute wait, watching the tiny ferry slowly traffick 3 cars with each pass back and forth to shore.

When it was our turn, I put the 4-Runner in park and naturally, hopped out to take a few pictures.

We had a pleasant little experience.

The men on the ferry were lovin' their job with lots of waves and smiles and the kind of southern hospitality that always makes me appreciate living in Kentucky.

Nick stayed in his seat, maintaining his independance from the crazy snap happy girl running around on the ferry... if you can't tell, that's him in the passenger seat, which means I drove onto and off of the boat, which may have made me just a little apprehensive about my driving abilities in the moment.

{I told Nick to grab the dog out of his carrier in case we had to make a quick getaway from a sinking vehicle; he didn't, but I was totally serious.}

Don't you just love finding joy in the samll stuff?

Day dreamin'

My boys are precious together. With a puppy-daddy like this, the future looks very bright, very precious.

Happiness is...

...sleeping in late on a Friday morning with my husband, since we both had the day off.

...being able to sleep in late because my wonderful hubby installed the curtain rods and hung up the new curtains to keep the beautiful sunlight out when it's not so beautiful in the wee morning hours.

...enjoying laying out in the sun on the deck for the first time this summer {and most likely, my last} while Nick reads a book and the pup hides under the deck to escape the heat.

...not putting on my full mask of war paint, a.k.a. make-up or washing/blow-drying my hair.

{Though I did shower! Twice even!}

...spending a good amount of time shopping the sales while the hubby finds happiness on the links with friends.

...meeting back up with hubby after our shopping/golf for dinner on the deck and happily remarking that it is the most perfect temperature outside.

...strolling around the neighborhoods with my boys, people watching and helping Hendrix find his happiness in the sniffing/peeing on of every blade of grass, tree, and inanimate object along the way.

...going to bed early for my 12 hour shift starting at 7am on Saturday morning.

...having a job, especially in this economy, and especially since it's such a great job.

I hope you all found happiness on this good Friday!

Dog for sale

Dear Federal Reserve,

If Hendrix didn't have half of a shredded $10 bill in his mouth, he would let you know that he's really sorry about tearing your currency. After a little chat with him, he now realizes this is actually a crime. But before we could talk, his dad and I actually had to offer him a treat to drop the money.


On a side note, we've actually learned to offer him a treat to get him to dispell anything from his mouth without having to reach in there to get it ourselves and risk puncture marks to the hand. So either #1) he will think what he did was "good" since he earned a treat for it, or #2) he will grow up thinking you can bribe anyone with a $10 bill to get what you want.

Lastly, to whom it may concern at the Federal Reserve, we found what was left of the currency in another room and taped it back together. A large piece of Alexander Hamilton's face is still missing and have come to the conclusion that it is most likely in the belly of the beast. We were hoping that, possibly, we could trade ours in for a new, slightly less torn $10 bill. We are not made of money around here, and, well, you are. So how's about it, Mr. Federal Reserve?

Kind regards,

The Roberts Family

Home is where the heart is

After a crazy first week of being a pharmacist and lots of long hours, Nick and I packed up and headed east to see our families. We drove the 2 hours to my parents house and ended up there about 11:30 on Friday night, but we only made the late trip after I made my mom promise a big breakfast on Saturday morning...

Saturday morning came and we loaded down our bellies with lots of good home cooked breakfast foods before visiting my sister's in-laws to see the new baby. My brother-in-law (and sister too) are now the proud parents of a custom ordered 2010 Camaro. It is, most definitely, David's pride and joy that he has been waiting to receive since ordering it last year and being promised it would arrive this JANUARY. Was he excited? To say the least... it is gorgeous! I only wish I had a picture of the gorgeous inferno orange and black interior.

When we all had our turn of high speed trips down windy country roads to be jealous of his new toy, we made our way to the lake to have fun with David's other toys, the boat and jet ski.

My dad, trying on Nick's hat to shield his head from the killer rays.

I took lots of pictures, but knowing the way I would feel to see my bikini clad body on the wide world web, I am going to respect the wishes of my family and only put a couple of the safe ones on the blog...

David, tubing.

We had an absolute blast with beautiful weather and an almost empty lake. I am STILL so sore from holding on to the intertube - it was a wild ride! I couldn't care less if I was knocking Nick off the tube, I was doing my best to hold on for dear life ;)

On Sunday, we got to visit not only the Church of Christ my parents attend where I grew up in Prestonsburg {and where we got married}, but we also got to stop by for Sunday evening service to see our church family in Pikeville at the Church of Christ on Main Street where we attended before and after our first year of marriage. The Pikeville church even had a baseball game after services at the Y, so we got to go and catch up with everyone even more after services! WE MISS EVERYONE SO MUCH :(


We are so thankful that our parents' live only 20 minutes apart. Sunday night we spent the night at Nick's parents' house and got to hang out with Karen some more today before leaving. Nick's dad is on a job up north and wasn't home for our visit - We missed you, Bob! The weekend went by waaaay too fast, but I keep thinking how it truly felt like we were on vacation... our moms cooking all the food, no house cleaning or chores to do, and lots of fun with our favorite loved ones.

Now I've got to get back to icing my cupcakes - how else would I bribe the people at work to like the new pharmacist??

MAN it feels good...

... to be a gangsta licensed pharmacist.

I'm off today, and since I have nothing to study for, I'm ready to do some much needed work on the house. I may be switching all the furniture between the guest bedroom and office - all by myself - we'll see. I think we've decided that the guest bedroom could use more space while the little used office really didn't need all the open floor room.


I bought this bedding for the guest bedroom:



Remember our messy office? It's day has finally arrived.

If I get the time and the sky stops storming here in gloomy Lexington, Kentucky, I hope to make it out and discover more thrift shops and the jewels that I know are waiting there for me. I have so many things on the list I'd love to find cheap and give a fun facelift.

But before I go...

Did you pay much attention to the first line of the post?

No, I'm not actually a gangsta.

But I am a...
LICENSED PHARMACIST!

I haven't received my test scores from the horrible, no good, very bad pharmacy law test yet, but I knew I would probably be able to call the board of pharmacy today to see if Stephanie Roberts was a licensed pharmacist, even before I got the news in the mail. It's public knowledge to anyone who calls, so why not?!

I was having nightmares about it this morning and couldn't really sleep, so at 9 am, before I had even stepped out of bed, I grabbed my cell and called!!!!! The man on the phone took forever. He put me on hold TWICE. I thought he was preparing himself for breaking the bad news to me. NOT THE CASE.

Praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow! Without HIM I would be nothing and this wonderful moment and passing those horrible exams, would never have been possible. {It was definitely by the Grace of God that I passed the law...}

I am relieved, happy, and ready to move on with my L.I.F.E.

This is one girl who may be working hard on her house today, but it will be excitedly, with very loud yippity-skippity music playing, and lots of dancing in between.

LOTS of dancing.

giveaway winner

We had a fun-filled day visiting Nick's mom at their new condo near Cincinnati, followed by catching a Reds' game in their {his parents} super nice season ticket seats.

Now we're back home, I've got mountains of laundry and junk piled everywhere that was being put off until after my exams were over. Time to start tackling that junk pile! But before I do...

And for the winner of my fabulous $50 gift certificate to SEPHORA... {it's okay if I do deem my own giveaway fab, right?}

I numbered all of the entries in the order they were written with their lucky numbers corresponding to how many entries they earned.

So for example, if the first person got two entries for leaving a comment and being a follower, they were #1 and #2, and the next person got four entries for posting on their blog, they were #3, #4, #5, and #6...

All of the "lucky numbers" added up to 165. I took that number and headed over to random.org and typed 1 - 165 in the range and let them do the rest. According to them, #18 is the winner! {And if you were my in-laws, you would think that is crazy strange, since the number 18 has kind of become their goto lucky number with lots of sentimental reasons. Faaarrrr out weird, dude.}

All of that explanation just to let you know how I chose, as randomly as possible and as easy as I could figure out how in my overworked/overstressed small sized brain.

And who's lucky #18?????????????

It's Courtney! Comment timestamp from July 26 at 2:06 am.

If you're feeling like a gracious loser =)=)=), stop over and check out her blog, "Starting Out" and say congrats! She's quite the GORGEOUS girl, whom I have decided, really does not have need for a single product's use at Sephora. Maybe she'll realize and want to give it to a very sweet gracious loser?????????

{To the winner: just shoot me an email to RobertsLove {at} Live {dot} com with your email and your e-certificate will be on it's way. Isn't that just too easy? Plus you don't have to give me your real mailing address, lowering the chance that I may show up at your door, gift card in hand, and force you to go shopping with me.}

Onto my wifely duties.