Book Review: Sammy's Hill

I just finished reading such a fun book- Sammy's Hill. My sis-in-law loaned it to me so I knew it'd probably be a good read. :) This book is about a young woman working for a senator and follows her through various funny predicaments,etc. Kinda reminded me of Bridget Jones or Confessions of a Shopaholic. Only not English. Anyway, I found myself laughing over and over because I saw so much of either myself or my sis-in-law in this girl. She reminded me of Julie in several ways - first just her fun loving, upbeat attitude towards life. But also her ability to get herself into embarrassing and amusing situations with the greatest of ease. For example, she sends an email referencing cameras and whipped cream to her boyfriend (who works for another, rather high powered senator) and manages to copy the email to his entire mailing list, including all the work emails. This is so something I expect to hear that Julie has done one of these days! She reminds me of myself more because this girl is a neurotic mess. She gets a weird idea in her head that maybe she has some deadly infection from a paperclip that stabbed her in the foot so she immediately goes into planning mode of how she will live without her left foot, she practices walking without it, etc. She obsessively calls her boyfriend when he doesn't answer her first call, cried when her fish dies, makes all kinds of emergency plans for crazy things that have no way of EVER happening, wears mismatched shoes, and I am not making this up- she has a phobia of sitting down on a toilet and having a snake bite her on the butt. I thought my sister and I were the only ones on the planet who occasionally jump back up to doublecheck for snakes!
So if you need a good fluff, chick book- this one is definitely a great read!

Still here

Hello again from the land of no blogging~

I kinda hate not maintaining this thing very well but life seems so unsettled and like there is so much just hanging up in the air that I'm afraid to speak of something in case it crumbles to dust or blows to bits or whatever the case may be! Things change so fast these days so I guess it's easier to not put things down for the world to read about.

I do have some things going on however! So I guess I'll take the chance and fill you in and if things change because of something outside my control - well they just do and that's that.

So first of all- my nursing program! I ordered all my equipment and scrubs for my nursing program- all I lack are the ugly white shoes. Blah! Even I know plain white leather shoes are a no-no! Kind've a fun reason though- it's cause they want you to be able to see the bodily fluids that will most likely fall on your shoes during your shifts! ha! I can already tell this nursing thing is never going to be boring to say the least! I love the scrubs- LOVE THE SCRUBS! They are a very pretty eggplant purple- and seem to be pretty comfy- esp once they've been lovely thrown through several wash cycles. :) Can't wait to have those as part of my normal clothing routine. Not that it will be THAT huge of a departure from my normal jeans and t-shirt. But at least I'll look undressy for a reason now. (at least on Mondays and Fridays!) I start my program in mid January- right off the bat I am in clinicals- reporting Monday morning at 6:15 sharp. I am really getting excited about getting started- its hard to realize and stressful to contemplate but I just am in love with what I am doing so far. So let's all pray that continues :) I think we hit all the major departments at the hospital but I don't have my papers right here in front of me so I'll have to share all that later.

Classes this semester are still going well. I have strong grades in both so heading into the final weeks will be a little less stressful. I still really want to do a post on some of the most interesting things I have learned about the human body but I have to get all my thoughts together for that and they have been decidedly NOT together lately. Nothing else gross going on in microbiology- we are in the final stretch. Studying all the specific microorganisms and what diseases they cause which is interesting. Next time you tell me you're sick, I'll tell you what organism caused it. :) In lab (ugh, I don't love lab) we are hopefully going to correctly identify our mystery microorganisms this Friday after doing several tests on them over the last two labs. My partner, (grrrrrr) almost screwed us completely by forgetting to invert the petri plates upon which our organisms were growing in the incubator which could have killed them before we even got started. Luckily, I happened to be standing right behind her (and by happened I mean intentionally followed her around to make sure she wasn't messing up) and saw the mistake and was able to sneak around and fix it without her knowing. She's a little sensitive to say the least. A and P is even more interesting this semester- learning a LOT more than I did in the last class. Which is scary and disturbing since that was supposed to be everything I "needed" to know. Yikes.

On the home front, I had my lady from Upper Case Living come today and help me put up my wall decor. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I am so excited about how it turned out. Now I just need to get to work on every other single thing in the room. :) I also finished my tv center project - I really like the way it looks but I am sure Adam will hate it when/if he ever notices it and everyone else might too! But I like it so I'm leaving it! I'll take some pics and post them later.

Other than that and taking care of my sweet baby girl, there is not a terribly lot of interesting things going on right now. Looking forward to the holidays, trying to work with Anna on some "schoolwork", doing some reading and some farming (hehe- I love farmville!), and I guess that's about it.

Here are the Halloween pictures as promised forever ago. My friend Brooke gave me a great suggestion last year that I really wanted to try out. I think it turned out so freaking cute on her! For some reason, my obsessive (read crazy) personality makes me want to have a meaning in everything so since Anna is so so so into painting lately, this fit in perfectly. And it was so cheap to do! She had such a fun time with the holiday- we went to a couple different area Halloween functions. And don't worry- I did my motherly duty of eating the ones that might possibly be a choking hazard ;) The bigger function was complete with cookie decorating, coloring, rides, and bouncy houses (her favorite!) She was such a darling in this costume.

Fall Leaves

So fall is upon me and it's been cold! Argh! Fall is my most favorite time of year so I'm getting a little cheated here :(

Anna and I did get out and play in our front yard with some leaves today. Notice I said play in the leaves... not rake the leaves. We only have one tree out there now courtesy of an ice storm a couple winters ago, but this tree was looking quite pretty, sporting all the various colors of fall. We had purple, green, yellow, red, and orange and every shade and combination in between. Anna had all sorts of fun throwing leaves at momma, reaching up as high as she could to reach the limbs, and basically just trying to strip the tree of leaves as fast as she could. Quite by accident, she was wearing a cute new jacket courtesy of a great friend :) that looked beautiful with the leaves. It was nice to do something so "fall-y" instead of just staying inside watching the rain. Maybe this weekend we'll have some nicer weather to get outside a few more times before we have the big S word...snow!

Here's some pics...

Boring blog

I haven't blogged much lately so I guess that means I can catch you up on what's going on with me. It's super interesting and not at all like anything I've done lately. Oh wait- no its not - its exactly what I've been doing forever! I guess some of the specifics are new, but the general idea is pretty much exactly the same.

School is going well- love my classes for the most part. Learning some interesting things and I really am very happy with the new school. Not so much dissection in A and P this semester- my lab partner (not the swab one!) enjoys the actual dissection work so she does it all and I just get to observe which suits me just fine. So far we've just done a cow eyeball and a sheep brain. We got to see the layer in the eye of animals that makes the light reflect off the eyes and makes them all shiny. Never knew what that was before. Sheeps brain is boring- just a small grey blob with a very few structures that are recognizable- mostly just have the know the basic area where things are. I already told you what we've been up to in Micro :)

I was accepted into the nursing program so assuming everything goes as planned I'll be starting that in January. Crazy huh? One of my girlfriends got in as well so I am really hoping to be able to get all the ducks in a row and complete the program along with her. Sure would be nice to know someone in the program right at the start. I start working at the hospital right off the bat- don't have much detail on any of that yet. My orientation is this Tuesday so I am looking forward to hearing some more specifics and getting registered for classes.

I have a couple girlfriends who recently moved into beautiful new homes and all the talk about decorating has inspired me to make some changes to my own rather dated things. Some of it has been up since I moved in! And that was a while ago... I took almost everything out of the kitchen and the rest of it is going as soon as I get some other projects done first. Redoing the living room as I find things I like so it is quite bare too right now. I just decided on something I want to try so if I like it I'll post some pics of before and after. But don't send my any "I hate that" comments cause that will make me sad.

The big project for the moment and probably until Christmas is getting Anna's dining room turned playroom to look like an actual designed playroom instead of an empty room with toys thrown everywhere. It was driving me nuts and looked terrible so I've made that my priority. I have some cute ideas (I hope) and already have some of the things for the room. Some additional storage was a MUST cause dang does that girl have a LOT of little tiny toys. I also got a really cute uppercase living wall lettering...thing... I don't know what those are called? Like wall stickers but not... Anyway, it says Dance, Giggle, Sing with little pink flowers in between the words. Totally Anna and really cute. I am really looking forward to seeing what it looks like - hope it's as cute as I think it will be! Mom is making me some curtains for the room and we're going to make up a little memory board for her as well. I think she'll like having a place to stick her photos of all her little friends and whatever else her sweet little heart attaches itself to that day. I bought the letters of her name to alter with scrapbooking paper and embellishments- this is super cute when all done. Also have some half formed plans to attach a pretty ribbon to some pretty hooks and string it up somewhere with altered clothes pins to hang her art. She is painting so much these days that I think it would be fun to let her display some of it. I kinda stole that idea from a friend but hers is an entirely different format so too bad! I think I'm going to try and have it all put together for Anna to wake up to Christmas morning.

Aside from classes, home stuff, house work, homework, and trying to ensure that Anna gets every bit of time she needs and deserves from Mommy, that's really about all I've been doing. I feel like I'm getting a little out of touch with friends because time is so limited which bums me out. I hope that isn't going to be such a problem going forward but its a pretty intensive program... so here's my plea to all my girlfriends- don't forget about me while I'm in school!

Sorry for the boring blog- it even feels boring as I type it! Maybe we'll dissect something more interesting in lab wed so I can tell you about that! ;)

**edited to add** Oh I forgot to tell you about my newest time wasting obsession! I think Jules (B- its Jules V fault that I even play these) is quite disgusted with me about this new habit! I started playing farmville and happy aquarium on facebook. Yes they are as silly as they sound but actually pretty fun and gives me something to do with my brain late at night when I can't sleep. I actually "play" a lot with Anna- she likes to see the animals and fish and gets super excited when I add something new for her. They are actually HER aquarium and HER farm :) and I think she enjoys being on mommy's computer.

Holy Crap!

I stole that title from a text from my sister-in-law just to give the appropriate credit. (question: after all these years do I still have to call her sis-in-law? or am I good with just sister- cause that's really what she is...)

ok on to the reason for my post- I think I encountered my first "eww gross" in the course of my nursing career. And yes as a disclaimer- I realize I will be doing MUCH MUCH grosser things than this- but it makes a good story to start grossing you all out with. :) I am in microbiology this semester- its interesting and boring at the same time. For our lab yesterday, we had some extra credit available to those who needed/wanted it. Three things were needed to complete this project- all samples of our "normal flora" -microorganisms that exist in/on our bodies at all times and as long as we are healthy, actually help us in various ways. For those of you that didn't know that you have microscopic creepy crawlies on and in your bodies all the time- I am sorry to be the one to bring that to your attention. Anyways, back to the samples.... we needed a throat swab, a spit sample....and you guessed it- a rectal swab. All together now...."ewwww!" For everyone's peace of mind- I'll just tell you that I totally made my lab partner do the rectal swab because she needs the extra credit and I don't! Sometimes studying DOES pay off :) The bad part is that next week we have to observe the cultures (yes we had to incubate and grow the microorganisms obtained from the swabs- just like they do in a medical lab) and also make microscope slides of everything. Now I just have to convince her to do the slides as well....

My artist

I find myself quite close to Halloween with no clear idea how I got here. Seems like I just started classes again last week. Yet somehow I'm almost halfway through! Or maybe more - its hard to keep track. Well, not hard but I'm too tired and lazy to go look it up for you. All I know is I just took my lab midterm and my 3rd micro test this week. My brain is fried and my body is REALLY tired! Anyhow, back to Halloween. So after much agonizing over what Anna should be for Halloween this year, I have decided on an artist. (thanks to "Miss Brooke" for the suggestion last year- LOVE it! I say "I" decided because Anna wanted to be a witch. Yeah...my innocent 3 yr old somehow got it in her head that a witch was the way to go. I am still not entirely sure how she came up with this suggestion- I don't let her watch scary tv... unless you count the occasional Arthur that has a slightly scary character and must be fast forwarded through very quickly. I suspect that my arch nemesis (as far as tv shows goes!) is the culprit. I speak of course, of the dreaded and horrible "Dora". I hate and despise this show. Yes I said hate- and I meant it. Its the worst show ever in the history of shows. It is literally mind numbing and makes me want to shove something through my eardrums and eyes so that it cannot reach my brain for one more second. Anna, on the other hand... loves it. Sigh- the things we put up with for our kids! Anyway, bygones about that. So, after much explaining to her (and Adam) why I don't want her to be a witch, I talked her into being an artist. This is extremely fitting (which as we all know is important to me- I like for there to be meaning in everything I do- makes for some unneeded stress sometimes....) as Anna loves loves loves to paint right now. A big thank you also to my mom who introduced Anna to "big" paints as opposed to the normal watercolors used by every other child on the planet. She is now using the craft paint that most definitely does not come out of clothing. She loves them however. She also loves to color, sticker, glitter glue, draw, etc. So artist in real life and artist for Halloween. I have the cutest little beret hat that is WAY to big for her head and will be heading to the nearest Hobby Lobby this week for the palatte, brushes, and apron. Should be cute!

What Anna's been up to

Pictures in no particular order.....of some of the things Anna has been doing the last few weeks. Some of the things she has been doing I can't capture on camera! Little stinker- she is really settling into this role as a 3 yr old. :) For instance, I didn't take a picture of her room after she colored all over it with black crayon...or with yellow chalk. And I didn't take a picture when she told me she needed her "burporizer" (vaporizer) on tonight. I did take some cute pictures of a recent playdate with sweet Emery.

I didn't take a picture when she told Adam that he was stinky (cause he had some intestinal issues that night) and maybe he went poopy. And I didn't take a picture when she put her pants on backwards and neglected to put on panties at all... and I didn't realize til she had run around like that for most of the afternoon. But I did take pictures of her spraypainting the driveway with Daddy.

I really wish I had gotten a picture of her at Walmart in the checkout line when she folded her hands and prayed "Dear God, Please help me be a really good girl and make this a "special occasion" so mommy will buy me a PEZ..."

But Aunt Julie did pass along this picture of her and Papa wearing the Patriots hat and headband.

I didn't get a picture when she asked two nice ladies for their names so they wouldn't be "strangers" anymore cause after all, if you know their names, then they're not strangers! And I didn't get a picture of her throwing her cheese in the trash can because I told her that she couldn't have a cookie until all the cheese was gone.... guess I'll need to be really specific with this one... But I did get a picture of her decorating our backdoor with Halloween clingies with Daddy- and acting like a scary ghost.

And finally, I didn't get a picture of her rescuing animals with her Diego backpack, singing Oh Oh Oh It's Magic at the top of her lungs, dancing in the living room, or being so brave when I have to leave her for classes or walking, but I have gotten some great pictures of her favorite new toy....an old mattress that was supposed to go home to Gma but somehow ended up in our living room being bounced on, slid down, hidden under, danced on, laid on, climbed up, and generally providing so much fun for a little 3 yr old that I am not sure how we will ever get rid of it!

btw- I call this my flower child picture- check out that long hair!

Happiness... one iced white chocolate mocha at a time..

I know I've once again gone into blog hiding. I don't have time to explain- I have a micro test drawing ever nigh that I am terribly unprepared for and must become completely ready to regurgitate her notes back to her by 1 oclock tomorrow so my time here is limited. About 30 minutes ago, I began to wonder how in the world I was ever going to prop my ever so tired eyelids up long enough to learn these pages of notes about microscopes and animalcules- yes I spelled that right- its what he called them, and toxic substances in the cell walls of bacteria when the brilliant voice of my friend Julie whispered right into my ear...well at least I think she did- she's not really here right now and I'm really tired so I suppose I could have hallucinated that... anyway... I heard .... "coffee, my friend, coffee is the answer!" So off I headed, with notes in hand, to the nearest Starbucks with a drive-through. (I'm in my jammies and it's way to much trouble to put on shoes, am I right? One venti iced white chocolate mocha with one less shot of espresso later (full fat milk and whipped cream - why yes... I will... thank you) and I am feeling quite the surge of happiness and energy! Too bad I still have these pages of notes to learn otherwise there's no telling what I could accomplish!

Here's my all time favorite quote on coffee- from the movie/cartoon "Open Season" - its about a deer and a grizzly bear that team up and this deer who walks and talks finds a cup of coffee in the garbage and tries a sip.....

Elliot: (takes a sip) Yuck. (takes another sip) Yuck. (yet another sip) Yuck! (caffeine finally kicks in) It's terrible and wonderful at the same time! It's like freedom in a cup!

Here's to freedom my friends! And to waiting til the very last minute to learn your micro notes....

Here's the haps!

Ya know... I just can't really pull off the slang like some people can.... oh well.

Been absentee blogger again- been doing a lot of thinking, a little traveling, a lot of peeing (new meds make me pee all the time- I know you wanted to know that), making some lists, starting school, trying not to let the overwhelming mess of my child's toys make me crazy in the head, looking for some good ideas to organize Anna's stuff better, getting caught up on some projects that have gone by the wayside during the craziness, and things like that.

So here's what's been going on...

lots of thinking~ regarding my pit I've been in and how to pull myself back out - possible blog on that coming if it doesn't end up being too depressing. Don't want to push all of you into pits too...

a little traveling~ we went to visit cousins and aunts and uncles in TN. We had such a fantastic time. It was wonderful to spend time with family that we don't get to see all that often, and oh my heavens did Anna have a fun time! She played til she dropped every night. Her cousins are all boys and they are such great kids! I was so impressed. The oldest one is Alex and he was so great with Anna- carted her around and played with her and entertained with never a hint of irritation. I wanted to pack him up and bring him right back home with me. The second cousin is Brexton and we didn't get to spend quite as much time with him because he didn't spend the night at my Aunt and Uncles, but Anna would just follow him around all day if she could. The youngest is Ande- he is just a little bit older than Anna and they hit it off and played and played. I loved loved loved watching Anna playing with her cousins- she was wild and crazy and loved on those boys like she'd been around them every day of her life. My Aunt and Uncle made us feel so welcome- food was incredibly good and so was the conversation. Notice which one I mentioned first...sigh. Here are some pics of the trip.

Alex and Anna

Alex, Brexton, Grandma Sue, Ande, and Anna at the city park

Ande and Anna watching tv in Aunt Wanda's room

Ande with his gigantic leap into the pool

Ande, Alex, and Anna

a little peeing~ that pretty much says it all. My meds make are supposed to help drain off the excess spinal fluid from pressing into my brain. (speaking of which- I get the weirdest things happening to me. I mean really- the odds of this happening to me were less than one percent. anyways..) I have started to feel better in the last week- a lot of my symptoms seem to be going away and the "I literally am too tired to continue moving around today" feeling seems to be going as well. The fogginess is lifting from my brain. Not sure if those problems were an effect of the fluid trying to crush my brain or something else entirely but man am I GLAD they are going away. Glad to be mostly rid of the horrible sharp headaches too. Still get those occasionally but at least they're decreasing. I'll take the inconvenience of peeing every 5 seconds and the weird tingling in my hands and feet any day. And for the record, I am doing very well on my diet so am hoping to add some exercise back into that soon and start seeing some good results from that.

making some lists~ mostly just of stuff that I need to do...

starting school~ I'll try and contain my excitement when I write about school so I don't irritate everyone. :) I think I'm going to like my professor- same one for both classes. I have heard her tests are hard but she seems to be very fair so far. Gives us lecture notes already typed up except for small pieces of info to write in (I think just to make sure we stay in class?), adds in 5 pts extra credit to each test, tells us when quizzes are (I HATE pop quizzes very very much), and said we are only responsible for things we go over in class. I am hoping this will cut down on my crazy note-taking that I did the previous two semesters. We'll see. I sure do love A and P- its just so interesting how everything works together and works in such small details. One of these days I'll break out my books and give you some cool examples of how tiny tiny mistakes in the cells can cause huge huge problems in the body. I know you'll be waiting breathlessly. I have class with one of the girls I met last semester and I really just love her to death. We are hoping to go through the entire program together. There sure were a lot of young girls there....wow... I am gonna be an oldie in that program.

all the other stuff~ ok all the other stuff isn't really blog worthy so I won't type anymore tonight. :) Stay tuned for more school adventures!