One more thing I was going to post about in my last blog (which I know was only like 5 minutes ago, but I just couldn't not post this).
This kid is AMAZING! Have you heard him? If you haven't you will now. His name is David Archuleta. He's 17 and he's a fantastic singer. I don't even have time to watch Idol right now, but for him I will try and I will vote. Enjoy......
Ok, I'm done for real this time....
Until next time......
Friday, February 29, 2008
Young Author in the Making?
My sister sent me an email last night of an "email conversation" we had had about 9 months ago in regards to one of the tv shows we watch. I was making predictions for the next season. She forwarded the email to me while she was cleaning out her inbox and wouldn't you know it, I was pretty much right on in my predictions. I could have written the new season all by myself! :) So then I emailed her back and said "I'm a genius! I should be a writer." She replied with, "Yes, you should, and I can be your editor." When I asked what I should write about she said she would have to get together with the creative writing team and get back to me. Haha!
It's conversations like that one that let you slip away from your real world and dream of becoming a famous writer, or a movie star overnight, or who knows what else you dream of being. Wouldn't that be crazy if one day I actually did write a book or something? You could say, "I knew her way back when she started a blog about when she was in nursing school. She was really high strung then." Who knows, maybe one day I will write. I like to write, I just didn't like the whole grade thing that was attached in school. It's easier to just write what you're feeling and not have to worry about passing a class. Anyway, I digress....
I'm still knee deep in work, but I'm not feeling as stressed as I was last week or even the day before yesterday... or yesterday. It seems I finally catch up and then I get slammed with more work the next week. That just doesn't seem right....
I'm finally getting together with my community project partner and we are going to start our paper. We first need to finish our outline of our part to give to the entire group, but then we can start actually writing the paper. I want to atleast have it started before Spring Break. I have a feeling it won't really be a break at all. It's going to be my "Ultimate Catch Up" week without having any extra work added on.
Tonight is Fundue/Fondue night at church! Woohoo! I'm looking forward to a night that will actually be fun and not where I am planted in my computer chair doing my mounds of paperwork. Then tomorrow I have the baby shower and the Doctor's Dance. I was eating dinner with my parents last night and they said they were going out to eat with friends Saturday night. I begrudgingly told them I was going to the Doctor's Dance (against my will mind you). My mom got excited for a second. She said, "Do we need to get you a dress?" I started laughing... "It's not Prom!" Haha! My dad started to chuckle too. I said, "I am not buying a new anything to go to this dance. I'll wear something I already have." She asked what I was going to wear and I said, "Who knows. I'll decide a couple hours before I go." I'm not that worried about it, and contrary to some people's belief there are no "hot med students" there. The doctor's put it on for us nurses... they don't attend. Oh well... the last cute med student I saw wasn't so cute after he added 5 new meds to my patient's list that had to be given an hour apart. I was not quite so enamored with him after that....
Alright, well I should probably get back to work. I have a little over an hour before I need to leave and my hair is about 1/2 a mile wide at the moment.
I should probably fix that.... I'll probably be back tonight or tomorrow night to let you know about the festivities. Who knows... maybe I'll be back with news about my book I'm writing in my spare time... hahaha... laugh with me people.. it's funny....
Until.................................
Monday, February 25, 2008
So far, much better....
I know, I know... you're thinking "Who died? What happened?" since I'm posting on Monday. I don't usually post on Monday nights because I don't often have time. I'm usually still knee deep in paperwork at this time, but by the grace of God I only have one patient tomorrow (although he is in isolation for MRSA, and we all know how much of a treat that is) and I got out of school by 4:30 instead of 6:30. I actually made it home before my mom!
On the downside, I was feeling a little puny today, but nothing too awful. I'll probably head to bed in the next hour or so, otherwise my head will hit the keyboard out of exhaustion.
So anyway, yes, today was better than I thought it would be. I was still stressed, but this whole one patient thing was fantastic. The funny thing is I had already been assigned this patient a few weeks ago. He didn't end up wanting me on the actual clinical day though, so I wasn't technically involved with him at all. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I had a small part of his paperwork already done, so it took me even less time. Praise God!!! So, hopefully he still wants me tomorrow and I don't have to "work on the fly" tomorrow with a new patient.
I am feeling a little better (emotionally that is) today. Yesterday I finally had a major breakdown. I think I cried with my mom for a good 15 minutes and just let out my frustrations and anger and anything else I could think of. I felt pretty drained afterwards, but a whole lot better too. Now, hopefully I can make it through the next two weeks until spring break. This Wednesday will be a test of my strength again. I made two home visit appointments for only 2 hours apart. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but hopefully all will work out and I will get everything done that I hope to.
Alright, well I just wanted to update you all and let you know I had survived the dreaded Monday.
Oh, and pray that the roads are safe and driveable tomorrow. We're supposed to get that crazy "S" word again, and I would really like it if school wasn't cancelled since I don't want to have to make up a clinical or anything crazy like that.
Ok, well I better get to bed soon. Have a good next few days, and I'll be back later this week.
Until.................
On the downside, I was feeling a little puny today, but nothing too awful. I'll probably head to bed in the next hour or so, otherwise my head will hit the keyboard out of exhaustion.
So anyway, yes, today was better than I thought it would be. I was still stressed, but this whole one patient thing was fantastic. The funny thing is I had already been assigned this patient a few weeks ago. He didn't end up wanting me on the actual clinical day though, so I wasn't technically involved with him at all. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I had a small part of his paperwork already done, so it took me even less time. Praise God!!! So, hopefully he still wants me tomorrow and I don't have to "work on the fly" tomorrow with a new patient.
I am feeling a little better (emotionally that is) today. Yesterday I finally had a major breakdown. I think I cried with my mom for a good 15 minutes and just let out my frustrations and anger and anything else I could think of. I felt pretty drained afterwards, but a whole lot better too. Now, hopefully I can make it through the next two weeks until spring break. This Wednesday will be a test of my strength again. I made two home visit appointments for only 2 hours apart. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but hopefully all will work out and I will get everything done that I hope to.
Alright, well I just wanted to update you all and let you know I had survived the dreaded Monday.
Oh, and pray that the roads are safe and driveable tomorrow. We're supposed to get that crazy "S" word again, and I would really like it if school wasn't cancelled since I don't want to have to make up a clinical or anything crazy like that.
Ok, well I better get to bed soon. Have a good next few days, and I'll be back later this week.
Until.................
Sunday, February 24, 2008
"...and much study wearies the body."
I kind of took that part of Ecclesiastes 12:12 out of context, because the Bible is talking about how you should only study on the Bible, because other things will fill you with untruthful knowledge. I'm using it in reference to my own studying for school. I thought this last week was going to be fairly easy, because of various different reasons. It was quite a smack in the face when it turned out to be anything but easy. There were many tears shed and some late nights, but I'm glad to say that week is over, and a new one started today.
Today when I got home from church I saw a big post office box sitting on the counter with my name one it. I knew what it was, but didn't open it right away. It was a care package from the church. They'd been collecting items for a few weeks so that they could give them to college students or people overseas. I figured, what would be the point, it was just going to be filled with candy, pens, crackers, etc. Nothing that couldn't wait until after I changed my clothes, let the dog out, finished reading my magazine, and ate lunch.
Well, my mom and dad got home from Walmart, and my mom told me to open the box so we could see what was in it, so I did. On top of all the things that I thought would be inside the box (that were when I dug around) was a note from the CBC Ladies' Missionary Fellowship. There are probably a dozen little notes on the paper with encouragements like, "Enjoy the treats and know that love and prayers were packed inside also!", "We will be praying for you! Keep up the good work.", "May God bless you as you study nursing.", "You were prayed for tonight.", "I am praying for you and your busy schedule and that you will feel the love and peace of Jesus surround you.", and my personal favorite "Be not weary in well doing." Could this package have come at a better time?? This was exactly what I needed. Not the box full of candy (although I did already eat three pieces), but the notes of encouragement.
This semester is very tough and there is a lot going on, so I feel like I don't get to do anything fun anymore. I barely have time to do anything when I'm not studying, eating or sleeping. I'd love to be the carefree person I was just last semester, but I don't see that happening anytime in the next 10 weeks, so this is a forewarning people.... I'm going to be a stressed out, high strung, sleep-deprived, train wreck for awhile. So steer clear if you don't want to deal with this walking mess.
Well, I should get some studying in since I have a quiz tomorrow. Hope you all have a good rest of your weekend, and have a better week than I did last week. I'm starting over this week, maybe you can too.
Until next time............
Today when I got home from church I saw a big post office box sitting on the counter with my name one it. I knew what it was, but didn't open it right away. It was a care package from the church. They'd been collecting items for a few weeks so that they could give them to college students or people overseas. I figured, what would be the point, it was just going to be filled with candy, pens, crackers, etc. Nothing that couldn't wait until after I changed my clothes, let the dog out, finished reading my magazine, and ate lunch.
Well, my mom and dad got home from Walmart, and my mom told me to open the box so we could see what was in it, so I did. On top of all the things that I thought would be inside the box (that were when I dug around) was a note from the CBC Ladies' Missionary Fellowship. There are probably a dozen little notes on the paper with encouragements like, "Enjoy the treats and know that love and prayers were packed inside also!", "We will be praying for you! Keep up the good work.", "May God bless you as you study nursing.", "You were prayed for tonight.", "I am praying for you and your busy schedule and that you will feel the love and peace of Jesus surround you.", and my personal favorite "Be not weary in well doing." Could this package have come at a better time?? This was exactly what I needed. Not the box full of candy (although I did already eat three pieces), but the notes of encouragement.
This semester is very tough and there is a lot going on, so I feel like I don't get to do anything fun anymore. I barely have time to do anything when I'm not studying, eating or sleeping. I'd love to be the carefree person I was just last semester, but I don't see that happening anytime in the next 10 weeks, so this is a forewarning people.... I'm going to be a stressed out, high strung, sleep-deprived, train wreck for awhile. So steer clear if you don't want to deal with this walking mess.
Well, I should get some studying in since I have a quiz tomorrow. Hope you all have a good rest of your weekend, and have a better week than I did last week. I'm starting over this week, maybe you can too.
Until next time............
Friday, February 22, 2008
Moments from a Meltdown...
I almost had a breakdown today. I thought this week was going to be nice and easy since I only had one patient for Adult and I was offsite for Community. WRONG!!! I don't know what happened, but I pretty much worked on school stuff ALL day on Thursday and then today I was just going to do one or two small things, and it ended up being so much more. By 2:30 I HAD to get out of the house. I was going crazy!! So what's the most logical thing to do? I shopped....
I ran to the bank, let my mom know I could be reached by cell (because if she calls and I'm not home, she freaks out) and I hightailed it to our neighboring city. I was having issues with a login for school, so I made a pitstop at school to get that cleared up, talked with one of my instructors about my project, and then off to the mall I went.
The mall was pretty deserted, so I went straight to where I had to go and then got out. Then I ran to Target in search of a baby gift (for little Maia Ruth), but instead left empty handed. I saw a couple cute things, but I guess I wasn't in as big of a mood to shop as I thought I was. Oh well, I still have another week before I need to have the gift. I might go try again some other time this weekend.
After dinner my dad and I went printer shopping, because we only have one printer, and it's connected to the dinosaur computer. Seriously, it takes me 20 minutes to print out two pages, when it should only take me 2 minutes tops. So now I have a nice all-in-one printer on my desk. As if I needed something else on here. Good grief!
That pretty much leads us up to right now. Oh, I did want to mention two things. One of my dear friends, Ashley got into a car accident yesterday on her way to school. The roads were a little slippery from the snow we got and she spun out and got t-boned by a camaro. She wasn't seriously hurt, Thank God, but it shook her up and she's quite sore. So pray for my buddy that she heals quickly and can get back to normal. Also, on a kind of funny note (kind of not), I woke up at 4 this morning to a THUD above me. Then I heard my dad get out of bed in a hurry and run around their bed. (There room is directly above mine) I heard some indistinct shuffling overhead and then nothing. I was so exhausted because I had only been asleep for a few hours, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. In the back of my head though I was wondering if my mom passed or something though. You know what... SHE DID!! She said that last night when she was changing clothes so she could go get her hair cut and colored she hurt her back somehow. Well, when she woke up it still hurt. She washed her hair and when she got in the bathroom she felt kind of sick so she leaned against the vanity, and the next thing she knows, she on the floor. Haha... if anyone is going to pass out it is going to be someone in my family. My sis Holli and I are known for it. We have some pretty hilarious stories, but I'll save that for some other time. :) Anyway, she says she's ok now, her back still hurts, but she's fine. I don't know what that's about, but we'll watch her and see if it happens again.
Alright, well this old woman is going to take a shower, get in her jammies, and probably be in bed before 10 again. I'm exhausted after my long week. I'll be back at some point this weekend, I'm sure.
Until then... have a good weekend.....
I ran to the bank, let my mom know I could be reached by cell (because if she calls and I'm not home, she freaks out) and I hightailed it to our neighboring city. I was having issues with a login for school, so I made a pitstop at school to get that cleared up, talked with one of my instructors about my project, and then off to the mall I went.
The mall was pretty deserted, so I went straight to where I had to go and then got out. Then I ran to Target in search of a baby gift (for little Maia Ruth), but instead left empty handed. I saw a couple cute things, but I guess I wasn't in as big of a mood to shop as I thought I was. Oh well, I still have another week before I need to have the gift. I might go try again some other time this weekend.
After dinner my dad and I went printer shopping, because we only have one printer, and it's connected to the dinosaur computer. Seriously, it takes me 20 minutes to print out two pages, when it should only take me 2 minutes tops. So now I have a nice all-in-one printer on my desk. As if I needed something else on here. Good grief!
That pretty much leads us up to right now. Oh, I did want to mention two things. One of my dear friends, Ashley got into a car accident yesterday on her way to school. The roads were a little slippery from the snow we got and she spun out and got t-boned by a camaro. She wasn't seriously hurt, Thank God, but it shook her up and she's quite sore. So pray for my buddy that she heals quickly and can get back to normal. Also, on a kind of funny note (kind of not), I woke up at 4 this morning to a THUD above me. Then I heard my dad get out of bed in a hurry and run around their bed. (There room is directly above mine) I heard some indistinct shuffling overhead and then nothing. I was so exhausted because I had only been asleep for a few hours, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. In the back of my head though I was wondering if my mom passed or something though. You know what... SHE DID!! She said that last night when she was changing clothes so she could go get her hair cut and colored she hurt her back somehow. Well, when she woke up it still hurt. She washed her hair and when she got in the bathroom she felt kind of sick so she leaned against the vanity, and the next thing she knows, she on the floor. Haha... if anyone is going to pass out it is going to be someone in my family. My sis Holli and I are known for it. We have some pretty hilarious stories, but I'll save that for some other time. :) Anyway, she says she's ok now, her back still hurts, but she's fine. I don't know what that's about, but we'll watch her and see if it happens again.
Alright, well this old woman is going to take a shower, get in her jammies, and probably be in bed before 10 again. I'm exhausted after my long week. I'll be back at some point this weekend, I'm sure.
Until then... have a good weekend.....
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Lazy Lunar
Well, I was all excited about the Lunar Eclipse tonight. That is, I was excited at 8. The excitement faded as the night went on, and the progress was slow. I was getting more and more tired as I ran back forth from my room to the window.
I took a couple of pictures, but I'm not gonna lie... they're a little disappointing. Here they are though....
I took a couple of pictures, but I'm not gonna lie... they're a little disappointing. Here they are though....
You get the gist. As you can tell, I kind of got tired before it turned orange. Haha! That part seemed to happen quickly. Figures....
Ok, well I better get to bed. I'm exhausted. I have lots to do still, and for tonight I think I'm done.
Until next time.......
My back and knees and feet... Oh My!
Ugh! I'm so exhausted. Not just mentally buy PHYSICALLY too! Tuesday was grueling as always because of clinical in the morning, but in the afternoon I went to the GI lab to observe. I got to watch an ERCP (Endoscopic retrograde cholioangiopancreatography) performed. In other words, they put a long tube with a camera down this person's throat and jammed it into a duct in their gut, injected some dye so they could see it on an xray, and then placed a small stent to allow drainage from a blocked area in the pancreatic duct. It was both cool and disgusting at the same time. Since this procedure requires a live xray everyone had to wear a lead apron and a piece of lead around the neck as well to guard the thyroid. So not only were my back and feet hurting already from the day, as they usually do, but then you put pounds of lead on me and make me stand for an hour and a half procedure, and I was practically a puddle by the time I left. It was a good experience though, and as soon as I finish this blog I need to do my write up.
Today I went to my old high school. I observed the nurse's office. Oh what fun that was. Some kids came in for logical and legitimate things like diabetes, bloody nose, irregular heartbeat, hand slammed in their locker, vomiting.... Others came in just to get out of class or get sent home. Every single person that came in complaining of not feeling well had their temp taken and throat inspected. Not one person had a fever. It was ridiculous. (Not to say you have to have a fever to be sick.) I could never be a high school nurse because I was annoyed (just like I am now, by my mother). We sent the majority of the students home if they wanted to go and their parent/guardian consented. Only two kids actually threw up, and the rest complained of headaches and "ummm... a stomachache" and "umm... a sore throat" and the list goes on. It was a little ridiculous after awhile. If they had to say "ummm" and pause afterward you knew they were pretty much faking it. This one girl kept adding to her complaint. First it was one thing, then it was that thing and another, and by the time we got her mom on the phone you would have thought she was close to death. Oh well.... if they want to miss school and not get a good education that is their choice.
After my time at the school was over I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to talk to my Community instructor about our HUGE project. Everyone in class that thinks our "group" project is easier because there are more of us is sadly mistaken. If anything we have a BIGGER job and responsibility because we are developing a whole entire wellness program for an ENTIRE school, not just one class in one school like some are doing. We also have to follow Governmental guidlines and Educational regulations. It is no easy task, let me tell you. I won't get into all that now though. You don't want to get me started.....
Ok, well I have a lot to get done this week and I need to get started on some tonight so I can rest a little easier tomorrow and Friday. I'm sure I'll be back before Monday to start the whole ugly cycle over again.
Until then....................................
Today I went to my old high school. I observed the nurse's office. Oh what fun that was. Some kids came in for logical and legitimate things like diabetes, bloody nose, irregular heartbeat, hand slammed in their locker, vomiting.... Others came in just to get out of class or get sent home. Every single person that came in complaining of not feeling well had their temp taken and throat inspected. Not one person had a fever. It was ridiculous. (Not to say you have to have a fever to be sick.) I could never be a high school nurse because I was annoyed (just like I am now, by my mother). We sent the majority of the students home if they wanted to go and their parent/guardian consented. Only two kids actually threw up, and the rest complained of headaches and "ummm... a stomachache" and "umm... a sore throat" and the list goes on. It was a little ridiculous after awhile. If they had to say "ummm" and pause afterward you knew they were pretty much faking it. This one girl kept adding to her complaint. First it was one thing, then it was that thing and another, and by the time we got her mom on the phone you would have thought she was close to death. Oh well.... if they want to miss school and not get a good education that is their choice.
After my time at the school was over I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to talk to my Community instructor about our HUGE project. Everyone in class that thinks our "group" project is easier because there are more of us is sadly mistaken. If anything we have a BIGGER job and responsibility because we are developing a whole entire wellness program for an ENTIRE school, not just one class in one school like some are doing. We also have to follow Governmental guidlines and Educational regulations. It is no easy task, let me tell you. I won't get into all that now though. You don't want to get me started.....
Ok, well I have a lot to get done this week and I need to get started on some tonight so I can rest a little easier tomorrow and Friday. I'm sure I'll be back before Monday to start the whole ugly cycle over again.
Until then....................................
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Not sick... just tired
Is this semester over yet? As us girls "studied" tonight (I use the term loosely) it was a common thing for one of us to say that we were tired of studying pretty much every five minutes. I am so burnt out. It's crazy to think that this semester is almost halfway through, but then again it seems as though it drags on. More and more things keep being added on it seems, and I'm beginning to get that feeling of being drowned. Every once in awhile I get that tightness in my chest of not being able to get a full breath and I think "Oh good grief.... here we go again." Is that what a panic attack feels like? Maybe I'm having a mini panic attack. Or maybe I'm just so tired, that I can't think straight right now....
I have a test tomorrow and I feel overwhelmingly underprepared. I'm hoping that it will be easier than I think, but I highly doubt that. Well, I better get to bed. This week should be easier than last week (hopefully), so I should be able to finish my paperwork earlier than normal.
Until later this week......
I have a test tomorrow and I feel overwhelmingly underprepared. I'm hoping that it will be easier than I think, but I highly doubt that. Well, I better get to bed. This week should be easier than last week (hopefully), so I should be able to finish my paperwork earlier than normal.
Until later this week......
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Ultimate Gift
I just finished watching the movie The Ultimate Gift. If you have never heard of this movie you should look it up. If you have heard of it, but haven't seen it, you should rent it. It has a very good message. Doesn't hurt that Drew Fuller is in it either. :)
Alright, that's all I have to say for now. Have a good Lord's day....
Until..............
Alright, that's all I have to say for now. Have a good Lord's day....
Until..............
Friday, February 15, 2008
Hair today, gone tomorrow...
That title is so over used, but until I can think of something better it stays....
So lets have a recap of the day, shall we?
I didn't do too much this morning. I should have been studying, but whatever... that's what I'll do tomorrow and Sunday. I met my partner for our community project around noon and we drove around "population area" doing our windsheild survey. Basically what that means is we drove around for an hour and wrote down what we saw. It was pretty boring, but we had to do it for our part of the paper. So we finished up with that around 1:15.
Then I headed over to meet Hol. She was getting her hair cut. She had emailed me a potential hair cut the night before, and it was WAY different from what she had. It was time for a change....
So we arrive at Pure Essence a little before two. No one was inside... was that good or bad??? So we met her stylist and she sits down to start. This is where the real fun began....
Hol showed her the picture and she started cutting. Since Hol has curly hair, the stylist opted to cut it dry. Yes... dry. The more she cut, the bigger it got. That was a little scary, but Hol was tough, and no tears were shed (not that there would have been if she had been upset).
So the girl washes her hair, and goes back to the chair to start styling. There wasn't much talking (which was good. Concentration was imperative). So Hol asks where she worked before PE, because they just opened in September. The girl replies, "Oh I'm just out of school. This is my first salon I've worked at." *silence* Hol kept her cool, but inside I was going "Oh great". The girls did a great cut, you gotta give her props for that, but when it came to styling, she was a little lost with the task of curly hair. It was fine though, Hol went home and re-did it herself, and her hair is ADORABLE! She was in need of a change, and her reward for finally taking the plunge was an excellent new hair-do! Below are pictures of the process. Your welcome....
(The before shot. Look how long it is!)
(Cutting the curls DRY!)
(Bye bye curls. We will miss you!)
(Discussing the style)
(Final touches to the cut before going for the wash)
(Right before she started drying it. She curled it with her fingers to enhace her natural curls.)
(Partially dry)
(The finished product. Isn't she pretty?)
I was also going to blog about our girls night, but seriously, who can follow the incredible hair story I just provided. :p I'm tired, so I'll blog later. Sorry for the lack of creativity in this post, but really, did you want to read or just look at the pictures? That's what I thought...
Until next time......
Shoutout: Jeff... Holla!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Ode to Holli....
How do I begin to describe Holli? She is kind, compassionate, loving, understanding... she is my sister, my friend, and most importantly my own personal GEEK SQUAD!
Tonight was horrific! When I got home after clinical (an hour early I might add) I thought "It's done. The week is over. Hallelujah! I can put this awful week behind me and look forward to the next." Ooohhhh was I wrong....
I should have finished my paperwork for Adult last night. I admit it. However, I was tired and I knew that I would be able to squeeze it in tonight because my paperwork for Community was shorter than normal because I was offsite. So, I come home at around 3:30 and start in on my paperwork around 4:30. At 5:05 all that was right with my world came to a screeching halt. I was two sentences away from completing my 10 PAGE clinical journal when all of sudden it said there was an error when I tried to save. No big deal right? I'll just try again. WRONG! It wouldn't let me try again, and to top it all off it RENAMED my document! Can it do that??? I guess, so because it did and then it closed the program. *crickets* I sat there for a second stunned at what had just happened. I tried to retrieve it with no such luck. I did find the renamed file, but it wouldn't let me open it because it said it had been renamed and this shortcut no longer worked. Are you kidding me?!?!? I felt like I was in a nightmare. You know the kind where you're back in your old high school and you can't remember the combination for your locker and you're late to class....
So this is when my beloved sister comes into the picture. I'm pretty computer savvy, but when I have a problem she's the one I call. I called her up acting all hysterical-like to which she tells me to calm down. Calm down??? After I just lost my 10 page clinical journal??? How is it possible to stay calm in a situation like that?? So she rushes over to help me, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling around and restarting my computer she finally retrieves the original document and saves it to my hard drive instead of my flash drive. (We are thinking the sudden malfunction has something to do with the fact I had my flash in use when the power went out a couple weeks ago.)
So, crisis averted, Holli named hero of the day, journal for clinical has officially been sent off, so I can breath easy now. *sigh* Talk about stress.....
Now I am going to relax on the couch and watch a little tv as I try to forget about this horrible week. Hope your week has been better than mine so far..... I'm sure I'll be back later this week. I just had to share with you all about my hero/sister.
Until next freakout..... I mean time......
Tonight was horrific! When I got home after clinical (an hour early I might add) I thought "It's done. The week is over. Hallelujah! I can put this awful week behind me and look forward to the next." Ooohhhh was I wrong....
I should have finished my paperwork for Adult last night. I admit it. However, I was tired and I knew that I would be able to squeeze it in tonight because my paperwork for Community was shorter than normal because I was offsite. So, I come home at around 3:30 and start in on my paperwork around 4:30. At 5:05 all that was right with my world came to a screeching halt. I was two sentences away from completing my 10 PAGE clinical journal when all of sudden it said there was an error when I tried to save. No big deal right? I'll just try again. WRONG! It wouldn't let me try again, and to top it all off it RENAMED my document! Can it do that??? I guess, so because it did and then it closed the program. *crickets* I sat there for a second stunned at what had just happened. I tried to retrieve it with no such luck. I did find the renamed file, but it wouldn't let me open it because it said it had been renamed and this shortcut no longer worked. Are you kidding me?!?!? I felt like I was in a nightmare. You know the kind where you're back in your old high school and you can't remember the combination for your locker and you're late to class....
So this is when my beloved sister comes into the picture. I'm pretty computer savvy, but when I have a problem she's the one I call. I called her up acting all hysterical-like to which she tells me to calm down. Calm down??? After I just lost my 10 page clinical journal??? How is it possible to stay calm in a situation like that?? So she rushes over to help me, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling around and restarting my computer she finally retrieves the original document and saves it to my hard drive instead of my flash drive. (We are thinking the sudden malfunction has something to do with the fact I had my flash in use when the power went out a couple weeks ago.)
So, crisis averted, Holli named hero of the day, journal for clinical has officially been sent off, so I can breath easy now. *sigh* Talk about stress.....
Now I am going to relax on the couch and watch a little tv as I try to forget about this horrible week. Hope your week has been better than mine so far..... I'm sure I'll be back later this week. I just had to share with you all about my hero/sister.
Until next freakout..... I mean time......
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Feeling nostalgic....
After I got done studying tonight I went in search of a new blog header because my sister said the current picture "doesn't fit me". Well, I didn't find a new header, but I did run across the pictures from my 2004 Missions trip to Grenada (small island 70 miles north of Venezuela). A team of us went with some missionaries from our church and we evangelized and helped out some local pastor's on the island.
So anyway, I thought I would post some of my pictures from the trip. I won't go into lengthy detail, but I'll atleast tell you a little caption under each picture. Enjoy my trip down memory lane......
(Chris, Nate, Me and Hope waiting in Customs once we were on the island. Cathy got in trouble for taking this picture. The woman you see right above Nate's backpack started yelling "You can't take pictures in here!" right after Cathy snapped this, so needless to say we put our cameras away until we were officially accepted into their country.)
(I can't remember who took this picture, but this is what happens to my hair when all the windows are open in the van and we are going like 40 miles an hour.)
(Here we are at breakfast. Every meal we ate at this table in the hotel restarunat we rotated seats clockwise and the person at the head of the table had to pray for the meal.)
(Here is the group at one of the pastor's churches in Tivoli. I wil never forget this church because a bunch of us got SO carsick on the way to this church. It was over an hour of extremly bumpy and winding roads. I was literally crying at one point because I didn't want to throw up like Ben had in the van.)
(This is Pastor Samuels. He seranaded us in his lovely church. This was the same day wen went to the church in Tivoli.)
(This is me, Erica and Hope on pastor Samuels balcony of his home. Talk about a view!)
Here Hope and I are standing on the street corner evangelizing. I'm sure that soon after this picture was taken we approached the woman coming toward us.)
(Here is Chris modeling his strawa hat. The man with him is the one who weaves and sells the hats.)
(This is Pastor Bill and our driver for the duration of our trip. His name is Pirate. Yup... Pirate.)
(Here is a view of the island from a cliff we were on. We were visiting some old fort. I don't remember a lot of the details, just that we were at a fort and it had to do with a war.)
(Here is the whole group of us on the cliff with the pretty ocean as our backdrop.)
(This is the night I gave my testimony at our crusade/revival meetings. Don't I look a lovely shade of red, and let me tell you it wasn't all from ebarrassment of public speaking. This is what happensto a VERY pale girl with red in her hair when you get her WAY too close to the equator.)
(Here is Terri on the street of one of the villages we went to evangelize in. The name of the village was Gouyave (pronounced gwa-vay) This was, let's just say, one of the more "unsafe" neighborhoods that we visited during our time on the island.)
(Here I am with a group of the local school children from the aforementioned villages. can you find me???)
(We went to eat at some grill place afterwards. College kids hung out there, and it was right on the beach. Some people went and got in the water, but the beach wasn't the cleanest, so I opted to hold some of the groups things so they could run through the disgusting sand with the mangy dogs that hung around there. Yea, I know.. lovely visual.)
(At some point in the afternoon between evangelizing and the crusades we went shopping downtown. Bill and I ventured off while some people were still making purchases and when we saw these phone boothes we knew we had to take a picture in front of them because they were so cool. We were in the Caribbean so of course they would have these british phone boothes.)
(This picture is of Liz trying to make a "horse tie" around my neck using Chris's tie. We were going back to the hotel from our night at Crusades, and I don't know why we started talking about horses, but she said she knew how to do the tie that cowboys use to tie up their horses so they can make a quick getaway if they need to. I know... it's weird, but it made for an interesting picture atleast.)
(This is what the humidity and heat can do to a digital camera. It worked pretty well after this, but I'm not sure what was going on with it here. Anyway, this is Chris, Me, Erica, and Ben loaded into the back of the van ready for our day of evangelizing.)
(So this is a bunch of us on the roadside of the town we were supposed to be evangelizing in. We call this the "ghost town". Apparently there was some holiday we were unaware of and everyone in that town had the day off and was at some festival. Basically we made the trip for nothing. We did run into a boy with a maschette though. That was fun.)
(So once we were done doing our scheduled things Kerry and Terri (our missionaries) surprised us with a visit to a black sand beach. It was gorgeous, and I don't know about you, but I had never seen black sand before.)
(Here I am with Bill and Kerry on a bluff near the black sand beach. We climbed up to see the view, and man was it windy up there. I didn't dare get too close to the edge. yikes! I wasn't quite up for a swim just yet. After the black sand we went to the beach by our hotel. I'll spare you the pasty legged pictures from that part of the day.)
(Here we are at the little hut on the beach where we ate lunch before we went off on our separate ways to snorkel, bake in the sun, play with a little naked native boy, or a combination of those.)
(This is actually the group of us snorkelers coming back from the even smaller strip of island where we snorkeled off of. It was amazing. We saw a bunch of fish, I saw a jellyfish which I quickly turned and swam away from, and Ben got his foot pricked by a spiky sea urchin. Let me just tell you.... 1 pasty white girl + 2 1/2 hours in the sun, mostly spent in the water with her ENTIRE back of her body exposed to the sun = MANY MANY MANY hours of pain to follow.)
(Pretty much everyone was exhausted by the end of this day, as you can tell from the picture. I couldn't lay down because my entire backside was roasted. Doesn't my hair look lovely as well?? That's the wind for ya....)
(Do I not just look so incredibly miserable in this picture? You can see my swollen arms and face. I have pictures of my back from that fateful day of snorkeling, but I again thought I would spare you the horror. *shudder* Makes me sick just thinking about it...)
(Here we are perched on the railing of the roof of our hotel. I look stiff as a board because my shirt on my back was causing me severe pain. And you know what I had to look forward to later that day??? Over 7 hours of riding on planes. Yipee..... Everyone had the option of going back to the beach by our hotel that day. I opted to face plant into my pillow and sleep for a couple hours. By face plant, I do mean bury my face in my pillow. I couldn't very well lie on my back now could I?)
(This is the view from our plane as we were leaving. This is the college on the island. I think it is mostly the medical school. It was quite impressive. If I was more of a "roughing it" kind of girl I would have considered going to school there. But I'm not, and the humidity was enough to screw my hair up for a couple weeks, so I'm perfectly fine with going to my local nursing school. :))
So anyway, I thought I would post some of my pictures from the trip. I won't go into lengthy detail, but I'll atleast tell you a little caption under each picture. Enjoy my trip down memory lane......
(Here is Me, Erica and Hope in the O'Hare airport waiting in line to check in our baggage)
(I think Chris took this picture of me on the plane. This was our second plane departing from Philly.)
(Chris, Nate, Me and Hope waiting in Customs once we were on the island. Cathy got in trouble for taking this picture. The woman you see right above Nate's backpack started yelling "You can't take pictures in here!" right after Cathy snapped this, so needless to say we put our cameras away until we were officially accepted into their country.)
(I can't remember who took this picture, but this is what happens to my hair when all the windows are open in the van and we are going like 40 miles an hour.)
(Here we are at breakfast. Every meal we ate at this table in the hotel restarunat we rotated seats clockwise and the person at the head of the table had to pray for the meal.)
(Here is the group at one of the pastor's churches in Tivoli. I wil never forget this church because a bunch of us got SO carsick on the way to this church. It was over an hour of extremly bumpy and winding roads. I was literally crying at one point because I didn't want to throw up like Ben had in the van.)
(This is Pastor Samuels. He seranaded us in his lovely church. This was the same day wen went to the church in Tivoli.)
(This is me, Erica and Hope on pastor Samuels balcony of his home. Talk about a view!)
Here Hope and I are standing on the street corner evangelizing. I'm sure that soon after this picture was taken we approached the woman coming toward us.)
(Here is Chris modeling his strawa hat. The man with him is the one who weaves and sells the hats.)
(This is Pastor Bill and our driver for the duration of our trip. His name is Pirate. Yup... Pirate.)
(Here is a view of the island from a cliff we were on. We were visiting some old fort. I don't remember a lot of the details, just that we were at a fort and it had to do with a war.)
(Here is the whole group of us on the cliff with the pretty ocean as our backdrop.)
(This is the night I gave my testimony at our crusade/revival meetings. Don't I look a lovely shade of red, and let me tell you it wasn't all from ebarrassment of public speaking. This is what happensto a VERY pale girl with red in her hair when you get her WAY too close to the equator.)
(Here is Terri on the street of one of the villages we went to evangelize in. The name of the village was Gouyave (pronounced gwa-vay) This was, let's just say, one of the more "unsafe" neighborhoods that we visited during our time on the island.)
(Here I am with a group of the local school children from the aforementioned villages. can you find me???)
(We went to eat at some grill place afterwards. College kids hung out there, and it was right on the beach. Some people went and got in the water, but the beach wasn't the cleanest, so I opted to hold some of the groups things so they could run through the disgusting sand with the mangy dogs that hung around there. Yea, I know.. lovely visual.)
(At some point in the afternoon between evangelizing and the crusades we went shopping downtown. Bill and I ventured off while some people were still making purchases and when we saw these phone boothes we knew we had to take a picture in front of them because they were so cool. We were in the Caribbean so of course they would have these british phone boothes.)
(This picture is of Liz trying to make a "horse tie" around my neck using Chris's tie. We were going back to the hotel from our night at Crusades, and I don't know why we started talking about horses, but she said she knew how to do the tie that cowboys use to tie up their horses so they can make a quick getaway if they need to. I know... it's weird, but it made for an interesting picture atleast.)
(This is what the humidity and heat can do to a digital camera. It worked pretty well after this, but I'm not sure what was going on with it here. Anyway, this is Chris, Me, Erica, and Ben loaded into the back of the van ready for our day of evangelizing.)
(So this is a bunch of us on the roadside of the town we were supposed to be evangelizing in. We call this the "ghost town". Apparently there was some holiday we were unaware of and everyone in that town had the day off and was at some festival. Basically we made the trip for nothing. We did run into a boy with a maschette though. That was fun.)
(So once we were done doing our scheduled things Kerry and Terri (our missionaries) surprised us with a visit to a black sand beach. It was gorgeous, and I don't know about you, but I had never seen black sand before.)
(Here I am with Bill and Kerry on a bluff near the black sand beach. We climbed up to see the view, and man was it windy up there. I didn't dare get too close to the edge. yikes! I wasn't quite up for a swim just yet. After the black sand we went to the beach by our hotel. I'll spare you the pasty legged pictures from that part of the day.)
(Here is a picture Chris took of me and Erica on our balcony of our room. This was before our "Day of fun" began.... It was Friday and Kerry and Terri had arranged for us to take a boat to a neighboring island, Petite Martinique, so we could snorkel and swim and just hang out before we had to leave the next day.)
(Here we are on our way to the small island. I am SO white in this picture. Not for long though...)
(Here we are at the little hut on the beach where we ate lunch before we went off on our separate ways to snorkel, bake in the sun, play with a little naked native boy, or a combination of those.)
(This is actually the group of us snorkelers coming back from the even smaller strip of island where we snorkeled off of. It was amazing. We saw a bunch of fish, I saw a jellyfish which I quickly turned and swam away from, and Ben got his foot pricked by a spiky sea urchin. Let me just tell you.... 1 pasty white girl + 2 1/2 hours in the sun, mostly spent in the water with her ENTIRE back of her body exposed to the sun = MANY MANY MANY hours of pain to follow.)
(Pretty much everyone was exhausted by the end of this day, as you can tell from the picture. I couldn't lay down because my entire backside was roasted. Doesn't my hair look lovely as well?? That's the wind for ya....)
(Do I not just look so incredibly miserable in this picture? You can see my swollen arms and face. I have pictures of my back from that fateful day of snorkeling, but I again thought I would spare you the horror. *shudder* Makes me sick just thinking about it...)
(Here we are perched on the railing of the roof of our hotel. I look stiff as a board because my shirt on my back was causing me severe pain. And you know what I had to look forward to later that day??? Over 7 hours of riding on planes. Yipee..... Everyone had the option of going back to the beach by our hotel that day. I opted to face plant into my pillow and sleep for a couple hours. By face plant, I do mean bury my face in my pillow. I couldn't very well lie on my back now could I?)
(This is the view from our plane as we were leaving. This is the college on the island. I think it is mostly the medical school. It was quite impressive. If I was more of a "roughing it" kind of girl I would have considered going to school there. But I'm not, and the humidity was enough to screw my hair up for a couple weeks, so I'm perfectly fine with going to my local nursing school. :))
(And last but not least here I am on the plane from Grenada to Philly.)
It was VERY long plane ride. To top it off, we were late getting into Philly, so when we got off this plane were had to RUN through the Philly airport because they were holding our plane for us so we wouldn't have to wait until the morning for the next flight out. So I'm already tired, I'm in pain, and they expect me to literally RUN through an airport. It was not quite happening. One of the guys did grab my bag for me, which was nice, but the running was just not quite working out for me. Luckily we did catch our plane, and I saw a couple on the plane that we had seen when were leaving Chicago to go to Philly. They're faces lit up and they said "How was your trip?" (They were newlyweds, so they were on cloud nine at this point no matter what time of night it was, after they had to wait over an hour for us to board the plane). I should have said, "Amazing", "Unforgettable", "Life-changing"... but instead I replied with "You don't want to know." I know.. not the best response but once they got a closer look at me they saw why I said that. You could visiblly see them cringe when they noticed my lobster skin.
So yea, I don't remember a whole lot in the next 24 hours after we boarded that plane to Chicago. I do know there was crying involved on the 3 hour bus ride back to my hometown. The tears and the pain were fresh when I got off the bus and my mom, dad, and two sisters were there to greet me. I saw my mom and started bawling, partly because I was exhausted and the other part because all you want when you are sick is your mom. As I walked toward her I should have seen what was coming, but I think my vision was blurred by my tears. Before I could get it out she had enveloped me in a huge bear hug. I literally started screaming and crying even harder. My sisters were like "Mom, I think you're hurting her!!" To her defense it was 3 in the morning and she couldn't tell what I looked like. God love her anyway though. She apologized profusely and everyone said their goodbyes and we headed home. I crashed for the next 10 hours. My mom faithfully was by my side while I slept because once we got home she saw the extent of my burns. It scared her half to death. The next part of the day was a blur. I went to two birthday parties (because of course everyone wanted to see me) so I got to tell about my trip a bagillion times, then I think I came home and crashed again. I don't quite remember.
Anyway... since I was feeling all nostalgic about my trip I thought I would share it with you all. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and captions. I guess I lied about not going into lengthy detail, huh? Of course there were many more pictures and many more stories, but seriously, how long can one blog entry be? Do I win for longest entry ever???
Alright, well I must go to bed because I have a test in the morning and I think I've been working on this post for 2 hours now. Have a good week, and I'll probably post again at the end of the week.
Until................
Another bird pic...
Ok, so I don't think you can click and enlarge pictures that have been trimmed, so we'll see if by me posting this picture the way it was before editing if you can enlarge it and see the bird better.
Enjoy birdwatching......
Enjoy birdwatching......
Watch you like a hawk OR the eagle's eye
Ok, so that is a stupid title, but I had to incorporate both of those birds into the heading because that is what the indecision is. Well actually it's between a hawk, an eagle and an owl. That sounds like a REALLY bad joke...
Anyway, so we were pulling into our driveway after coming home from my cousin's 14th birthday party when my dad goes, "Look! Do you see that?" I immediately saw the bird he was talking about, but we sat in the middle of the road for a minute so my mom could spot it too. So we're looking and he can't decide if it's an eagle or a hawk. My mom thought it was an owl, but my dad told her it wasn't. So then they proceed to go back and forth between what it is. So I'm in the backseat and I say "Hurry up and pull in the garage so we can go inside and look out the window!" We had a much better view from inside. So me, being the oh so devoted blogger that I am, rushed inside and tore down to my room to grab my camera. By the time I was back upstairs both my mom and dad were at the window looking at the mystery bird as it was perched on a branch on a tree in our backyard. They had ruled out that it wasn't an owl by that point. I know nothing about birds so I was no help. I was just there to take some pictures of it and then I was out.
So any bird experts out there???? My dad briefly toyed with the idea that it could be a baby eagle, but I'm thinking "no". I got some pretty good pics of it, so you be the judge. It could be a baby hawk, it could be something entirely different.
Anyway, so we were pulling into our driveway after coming home from my cousin's 14th birthday party when my dad goes, "Look! Do you see that?" I immediately saw the bird he was talking about, but we sat in the middle of the road for a minute so my mom could spot it too. So we're looking and he can't decide if it's an eagle or a hawk. My mom thought it was an owl, but my dad told her it wasn't. So then they proceed to go back and forth between what it is. So I'm in the backseat and I say "Hurry up and pull in the garage so we can go inside and look out the window!" We had a much better view from inside. So me, being the oh so devoted blogger that I am, rushed inside and tore down to my room to grab my camera. By the time I was back upstairs both my mom and dad were at the window looking at the mystery bird as it was perched on a branch on a tree in our backyard. They had ruled out that it wasn't an owl by that point. I know nothing about birds so I was no help. I was just there to take some pictures of it and then I was out.
So any bird experts out there???? My dad briefly toyed with the idea that it could be a baby eagle, but I'm thinking "no". I got some pretty good pics of it, so you be the judge. It could be a baby hawk, it could be something entirely different.
(Seriously, could the bird have been anymore photogenic for you guys. There's a view of the back, both profiles, and head on. )
Shortly after snapping these he/she flew away and it's wing span was pretty impressive. My mom continued to make a joke about if it came back it could carry Sydney away so we should be careful. Of course she was kidding because Sydney is 100lbs and I don't think a baby bird could snatch her up. None the less I didn't find that joke too funny, so I came down to post these lovely pictures for you to look at. So, if you can 100% confirm that this is a hawk let me know. If you think it's something else let me know that too. Otherwise, this day will now be known as "the mysterious bird day"......
Have a good one!
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