Time to resort to another bulleted list?

Maybe not.

But the gaps of time between postings are getting long...

Let's begin from.....August 2.
That was the last day of my internship at Heartland Health Care.  And it was a happy day.  I do miss some of my patients, though, and hope to visit them soon via a nursing home singing. :)

After August 2, I had a 9-day break from anything resembling employment, the first two days of which were spent working through the aforementioned mounds of paperwork.  No more Stepford hair lady, comatose guy, or wind-up monkey toy.  I currently await the arrival of my license from the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, though.....which is always a fun and exciting process (catch the sarcasm there?).

August 26th? I didn't know that.  That's a good date.

I went to EP on Friday evening and....don't remember what happened.  I think I talked to mom and dad, ate a hamburger, and went to bed.  Oh yeah, I did a sudoku and 3/4 of a crossword puzzle.  (Don't want to leave out any details here.)  The El Paso Journal contains puzzles now!  That is very exciting.

 This just popped up on Google Images. In case there was any doubt that El Paso, IL was in the middle of IL.

On Saturday was when the real excitement began.  Andrea, Melissa, and I had a picnic!  Andrea four-wheelered us out to the middle of nowhere (ok, DEEP in Dudleys' back 40) by a cornfield by the Mackinaw, and it was a lovely lunch.  It would be worth mentioning at any time.....but was especially exciting this time because ANDREA was home from OMAN.  And she had really cool stories and pictures.  And plus it was just fantastic to see her.  I would put up one of her pictures (I could snip one from the newsletter thing she sent out), but Andrea actually reads this blog, and she would thing that was creepy.  Which it would be. 

I'll do this instead.  Compromise. :)

 Before our picnic, Andrea and I went into EP to buy some corn from the corner and go to IGA.  On our way to the corn corner we ran into the parade of St. Jude Runners, which was cool.  We stopped for them and waved.  Then, at IGA, we saw a bunch of people we know selling pork chop sandwiches that we proceeded to purchase.  (We purchased the sandwiches...not the people.  I believe I dangled the correct participle, but you can never be too sure about these things...)  And of course we had to shout a hullo to the IGA bank people and chat with another lady Andrea knew at the deli.....and, of course, we ran into the St. Jude runners again on our way home.  Haha....I do love Saturday mornings in El Paso.

Now I'm just using random images to make the text not seem so long....is it working?  Didn't think so.

I spent the rest of Saturday cooking/baking lots of food for Erica's baby shower.  I made way, way too much food....but that's just the Drake family way.  And the AC way.  And I am both.  Haha.  

Babycake :)

Dear friends

The shower was awesome.  Yup.  Then after the shower (Sunday night) I went to Jim's office and he made me a night-time bite guard thingy so I don't grind my teeth down to nothing.  It was a little surreal seeing him with his doctor's mask on sticking goop in my mouth...but he is an excellent dentist. The best, really. :)  (Carl, I am classifying you as an orthodontist....but I don't think you read this, anyhow)

Monday, kids came over to swim.  I also played some autoharp/guitar stuff with grandpa, which has not been done in WAY too long.  And then we saw an awesome rainbow.

Beautiful.

Tuesday, I went to Madison and had a lovely day with Christina, John, Andrew, Laura, and Bridgy.  It was very good.  We went to the park, played legos, played dress-up, jumped on the trampoline, went on a bike ride, and ate some awesome food.  Definitely a good way to spend the day. :)

Wednesday, I got fingerprinted in Danville, and then Melissa gave me a tour of the greater Eastern Illinois Area.  I saw Rossville (the town where I will be working most of the time), which was adorable, and I had some delicious baked lasagna and chocolate creme pie at this little family restaurant there.  Mmmm...  I also got to see Melissa's house, school (the outside), and her school district's credit union.  :)  OK, but seriously...the credit union is AWESOME.  It's in an old house.  Like, picture Lincoln's home with teller windows.  Yeah.  Cool.  Heartland Bank should buy an old house like that *nudge, nudge*.

That brings us to TODAY.  I started my grown-up job today.  It's good.  The people are pretty cool and laid back.  They laugh a lot.  I like that.  People didn't laugh enough at Heartland Health Care.  But, actually, I didn't do anything today.  From a work perspective, it sort of felt like a waste of time to be there.  But, of course, I know it wasn't a waste of time.  I got to know people, and already feel fairly comfortable with them.  It will be a good year.  .....Plus, we went to the Beef House for lunch....so....That certainly counts for something. :)  Yum.  Yes, more creme pie. (Coconut, this time.)

Whew!  This is quite enough for one day.  Tomorrow I am going to Michigan with Amber, Kaleigh, Callie, and Ginny, and we are all HIGHLY looking forward to it.  Yes.  Very much so. 

So...talk to you all later....Drive thru, plz.