She talks to A n g e l s

Reading List

2008-01-16T23:06:00.001-07:00

To Read:

P.S. I Love You (Currently reading...but very slowly!)
Tuesdays with Morrie
Dinner With a Perfect Stranger
Angel Falls
Midwives
Vanishing Acts

And until I get through at least half of those, that's all that is on the list!

Jewel

2008-01-16T22:23:00.001-07:00

The other day I suddenly remembered that I own CDs. So lately, on my way to work, I've been listening to some of them instead of the crap they play on the radio! Specifically, I've been listening to my Jewel CDs and remembering how much I love her music & poetry. I've already posted (a very long, long time ago) my favorite poem of hers, but here is a refresher.

So just kiss me and let my hair
messy itself in your fingers

tell me nothing needs to be done-
no clocks need winding

There is no bell without a voice
needing to borrow my own

instead, let me steady myself
in the arms

of a man who won't ask me to be
what he needs, but lets me exist

as i am

a blonde flame
a hurricane

wrapped up
in a tiny body

that will come to his arms
like the safest harbor

for mending

Wii Would Like to Play!

2008-01-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

I bought a Wii yesterday!

Since Christmas they have been very hard to find. I wanted to get one from a place like Target, Best Buy, etc - rather than one of those video game places you find in the malls. It took awhile to find one, too. Target has been out for awhile, so I thought it was going to be awhile before I'd find any. After going to both Target and Circuit City yesterday with no luck, I decided I might as well stop by Best Buy.

Looking around... looking around... no Wii. So I grabbed Wii Play and a Wii-Mote charger stand, because I figured I'd need those eventually anyway, and took them up to the checkout. To test my luck, I asked the guy if they by any chance had gotten any in - not to my surprise, he said no. Then, another Best Buy-Guy chimed in and said yes! They did in fact have one Wii - someone had just returned it - unopened! All the Best Buy-guys standing around their registers applauded me, and I walked out with a Wii.

We had a lot of fun playing it last night. I can't wait to get some more games! Especially Wii-Fit, when it comes out.

Snowboarding

2008-01-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Date to remember: Saturday, January 5th, Trevor and I went snowboarding at AZ Snowbowl in Flagstaff. It was my first time ever! We had a great time - it was quite the adventure. On the way to Peace Surplus (the rental place), we got pulled over because we were turning around on a one-way street. Luckily Trevor only got a warning...

It was snowing when we got there - I haven't seen falling snow in so long. I only wish I had taken my camera, but I didn't want it to get stolen or lost. So when we got to the bottom of the mountain, there is a big sign that says "4x4 or Chains Required" to get up to the mountain... uh oh. We didn't have four wheel drive or chains. Luckily we found someone to take us up the mountain and back down. Although, we probably could have found a better ride down.. we froze our butts off in the back of a truck while it snowed all over us. And it wasn't a quick ride down, either. It's about 7 miles, but takes about 15-20 minutes because you have to go so slow. Needless to say we were so happy to get in my car and turn on the heater!

When we got home we were both so sore (well, I was anyway!). But it was definitely worth it. I can't wait to go again!

Happy New Year

2008-01-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year! Can you believe it? Time has really flown by... a New Year means so many things... so many changes, but hopefully for the good.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I definitely did. I celebrated early with my family (we had Christmas Eve on the 22nd and Christmas on the 23rd) because my sister left for Italy on the 24th. It was a great time, as always. On Christmas Eve and Christmas, I celebrated with Trevor's family, so it was a long but fun 4 days. I was lucky enough to have 8 days off of work over Christmas - it went by way too fast!

As the New Year started to approach, I thought about what I would like to change in my life. And aside from the very vague "be a better person" idea that I seem to have every year, I tried to look for something a little more specific. Part of my New Year's Resolution is to stop making unrealistic goals for myself. I know that I'm not going to write in this blog every day, or take a picture every single day and post it here, or write in a paper journal or make some life-changing event happen every day.

So, with that - I want to take more pictures in general. I want to have memories. And although I'm not a great photographer, I am going to get better. And I'm going to be better about printing those pictures so that I can have them in photo albums. I've been keeping my pictures on Shutterfly, but who knows when those places won't be there anymore? So I want to have the important photos in my hands. I've actually already started, too - I signed up for a year membership at Shutterfly, which gives me a discount on printing pictures for the year. I also got a free 20-page photobook - so I basically created a scrapbook online that they print and send to me. Now that is a great idea!

So no more unrealistic goals just to be disappointed in the end. This year is going to be a good one, and I'm going to remember all of it!

Andes Peppermint Oatmeal Cookies

2007-11-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

The other night, my roommate and I (well, mostly my roommate) made these really wonderful cookies. They are on the back of those Andes Peppermint Baking Chips bags. I've been looking and looking online for the recipe, and I've found a couple that are very similar, but they add Coconut and Pecans, which we did not add. So I'm just going to take those out!

(Trust me, these are delicious)

What You Need:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups Andes Mint Baking chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes).
Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
On low speed, add baking soda and salt, and then flour. Mix completely.
Stir in oats and Andes baking chips.
Measure out 2 tablespoons for large or 1 tablespoons for small cookies. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet two inches apart. Press lightly.
Sprinkle some of the remaining chips (from the 10 oz. bag) on top of each cookie.
Bake for 20 minutes for large cookies or 12-15 minutes for small. Do not overbake.

Delicious!

Update!

2007-11-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot going on, really...

Thanksgiving was great - I heart Rockband and Guitar Hero III!
Christmas shopping is a pain, and I'm getting a very little amount accomplished every time I shop. But hey, at least it is something!
I am in the midst of planning a trip to Cabo or Cancun with a friend of mine from work (Jen M.) - it won't be until April or May, but I am very excited - I can't wait to start doing some traveling/vacations.
My birthday is coming up. I am not really super excited - I know I'm not old, but sometimes I feel like it!

I am asking for this wonderful new perfume for my birthday (from Trevor) - it is called Burberry by Burberry. I really love it, but had a very hard time deciding if I really wanted to switch scents. I have always worn Sweet Pea from Bath and Body Works and have a really hard time thinking it's OK to wear BOTH scents, because I'm basically neurotic. But I'm such a rebel and all, I think I can do it...;) I have just never worn perfume before because it always gives me a headache. But now I've finally found one I love, so I'm going for it. Courageous, aren't I?

There is really not much else to ask for as far as my birthday or Christmas, but here is my list so far:

2007 Christmas List

Cheapo silver and/or beaded jewelry
Sweet Pea Candles
Bare Minerals Makeup
Gift card to Chris Anthony's (my salon)
Clothes, of course!
Cute patterned socks
DOCS work shoes (like Crocs)
Mad Gab (awesome game!)
Scrubs
Willow Tree Statues

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2007-11-19T17:55:00.001-07:00

November 17th (Saturday) was my dad's 50th birthday! My brother and I took him to dinner - it was great. We had these huge margaritas that were DELICIOUS and ate way too much. Afterwards we went home to watch the Phoenix Suns game (they won!)

That was the only picture I took the whole night... at least I got one, though. I'm going to try and take tons of pictures @ Thanksgiving - and start doing Project 365 soon ( a photo a day ) - yea, we'll see.

I Can Cook!

2007-11-17T23:19:00.001-07:00

Well, sort of.

I've decided I'm going to start trying new recipes. I really want to learn to become a good cook, so I officially got started the other day. I've found a lot of good ones I want to try over at Recipe Zaar. So this is it (it's really good, and easy!)

What You'll Need:

4-5 boneless chicken breasts
1 (15.5 oz) can black beans
1 (15 oz) can corn
1 (15 oz) jar salsa, any kind
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

Take 4-5 frozen, yes frozen, boneless chicken breasts and put them into the crock pot.
Add 1 can of black beans, drained, 1 jar of salsa, and 1 can of corn, drained
Keep in crock pt on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked
Add 1 package of cream cheese (throw it on top) and let sit for about 1/2 hour
That's it!

Now, since the salsa and everything gets so runny, I usually add about 1-2 cups (actually I just eyeballed it, but it's probably about 1-2 cups) of uncooked rice (when you add the cream cheese).

Easy!

ShopGirl

2007-11-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. It's the 13th of November - what is going on? It seems like the year is going by so fast. Before I know it, it's going to be Thanksgiving... THEN Christmas (although everyone acts like Thanksgiving doesn't exist... radio stations are already playing Christmas music!). That's absolutely crazy to me! I feel like time keeps going and I make no progress... in anything really. I have so many things I want to do. Eventually I will get to them... I hope.

Trevor and I watched American Gangster the other day - a very good movie. Although I didn't think it was quite as exciting as I had expected, it was still good. I'm not sure that Denzel Washington has ever been in a really bad movie. Bone Collector, Remember the Titans, Pelican Brief, Training Day...and obviously the list goes on. It's a long movie, but definitely worth seeing.

My parents came home from Puerto Vallarta the other night - they were there for about a week and had a wonderful time. It looks absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to go one of these days. And of course my mom and both had today off (she is a nurse as well) - and what do we do on our days off? Spend too much money, of course. On the plus side, though, I got a birthday present for my dad, who turns 50 on Saturday! I am very happy with the present I got him - my brother and I will be taking to him to dinner Saturday night. It'll be nice - unfortunately my sister and mom can't come, but at least it's something - I couldn't stand the thought of my dad sitting around the house by himself on his birthday! Back to work tomorrow.

Halloween Party

2007-11-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

When there's no time to write, upload photos!

Best costumes ever!

H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N

2007-11-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

Well, Halloween was pretty uneventful as usual. My nephew, Nic, was supposed to come over to go trick-or-treating at my parent's house. However...he's been having a few "troubles" at school. "Troubles" being not doing his homework and failing the 3rd grade. His mom and dad told him he wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating if he didn't bring home his agenda on Tuesday (the 30th)... and he didn't bring it home! Everyone was really, really bummed. It always sucks to tell a little kid they can't go out on Halloween, especially because you just know everyone at his school will be talking about it today. But a parent has to do what a parent has to do. He was going to be a gunslinger - maybe next year.

We had some friends over to our apartment but I opted to go to my parents house instead. My mom, dad, brother and I ate dinner and handed out candy. It is always nice to hang out with the family. And we always give out really, really good stuff. My parents always buy full size candy bars - Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, 3 Musketeers... yea, the real good stuff! That is what they have always done. One green-faced witch child came up, did the "Trick-or-Treat" thing, and I thought being the nice gal I am I would let her pick which one she wanted. So she grabs one, puts it in her bag, and actually goes to grab another one! I actually had to tell her "No...just one." Needless to say I was extremely appalled! Maybe I'm crazy. Overall, though, it was good. And I think this year I carved my cutest pumpkin ever - a little kitty cat. Don't you love it? :)

Tonight Trevor and I are going to one of his friends' Halloween party. I think it's kind of weird to have a Halloween party the day after Halloween...but to each their own. It should be fun anyway - we are going as gangsters, like a Bonnie and Clyde kind of deal! I am very excited about that - it's been a long time since I've actually dressed up for a Halloween party! I'm sure I will have lots of pictures.

Photo a Day

2007-07-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

So while reading over at Shanni's blog, I found Photojojo - Project 365 . What a great idea! Post at least a photo a day to help tell the story of what you did that day. I'm going to try really hard to keep up with it. Since today wasn't a great day for me, I'm officially starting tomorrow, the 4th of July! This should be interesting!

*Update* - How full of crap am I? A lot of things have changed in my life since this post - I'm officially working as a Registered Nurse on my own, and I've moved out on my own - living the "grown up" life! Today is Halloween, which also means it's the end of October - the beginning of a new month. Time to start making some changes in my life....

Tired

2007-07-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

I've had a very busy 3 days off of work. Luckily I only go back tomorrow night and have another 2 nights off - hopefully tonight and tomorrow I can catch up on a little sleep. Working the night shift is not easy. I prefer it, of course, over the day shift - but mostly because I wouldn't work during the day with the people at my work for all the money in the world. Now, that might sound rude of me, but you have to understand - working in a labor & delivery unit with a bunch of women is hard enough without throwing a bunch of over-the-top chatty & perky women into the mix - it just doesn't work for me!

I did have a good 3 days off, though. I seemed to fit plenty of things in - going to the salt river (which mind you, I was dreading because I hate the dirty river. But it actually turned out to be pretty fun), having a BBQ at my friend Jens, and meeting some friends out for drinks last night. It was good to see friends from Nursing School, but also a little bit awkward - there's not much for us to talk about now that all of the stress is gone. No complaining about tests or studying, nothing. Just a quick update on where we're all working, and that's that.

A couple of my friends from high school were also there, so that is always fun. It was a very good time, but I need to start learning to take cabs out to the places I go. Not that I drink a lot, but it always seems like time catches up with you so fast. All of a sudden it's 2am and I've just finished a beer - not really a great time to drive home. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely responsible - but it would just be good to get into the habit of taking a taxi.

This picture is of an old friend Mike and I - the further into the night it gets, the harder and harder it is to take decent pictures! We took at least 4 - and this is actually probably the one that came out the best... go figure.

This week I work Monday, Thursday, Friday. It'll be nice to only have to work one night and have 2 off, although I do like doing the 3 in a row just to get it over with. Since it's a holiday, I don't get to work with my normal preceptor, Jen on Thursday or Friday. When you're training you don't get to work the holidays because of the extra $ - darn... ;) I'm glad to have the 4th off though, it should be fun!

Off to take a nap. Going to see Knocked Up tonight - I've been wanting to see it for so long!

Registered Nurse

2007-06-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

Well, it's official - last Monday I took my State Nursing Boards @ 9am. That night, I headed off to work, checking the Arizona State Board of Nursing website approximately every 5 minutes. At about 7:10am the next morning, I was a Registered Nurse!

I am more than relieved to be done. I'm not sure if it's officially hit me or not yet... but I'm sure it will as soon as I'm signing "RN" after my name tonight at work!

In the meantime I celebrated in Rocky Point, Mexico, with my sister, our friend Heather, and our mom. It was a very good time. We sat by the pool looking out on the ocean, went shopping, ate, and drank. I was getting a little nervous about going to Mexico 2 days after I took my boards, since the trip wouldn't be all that exciting had I failed... so I am relieved that I got to celebrate instead of mope around. I'll post more pictures soon!

Resolutions

2007-01-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

New Year's Eve was a blast. Jenn and I (as usual) planned a "get together" at Trevor's house. There ended up being a few more people than we expected, but everything went really well. We made a huge 4 ft party sub and bought snacks and drinks. I only say "Jenn and I as usual" because we are pretty much the only ones who plan anything for anyone... but oh well, it's fun. :)

I have a few New Years Resolutions this year... and we will see how they go. First of all, I signed up at Spark People so that I could get some help in getting rid of the 7 lbs that I need to lose. I figured 7 is a good in between number because I'm not overweigh by any means, but I would like to feel a little better about myself, so 7 is where I'm headed... and no, I'm not saying "I weigh this much now and I need to weigh this much", because I'm the only one who really needs that information.... :)

My next resolution is to be less high strung. I tend to be a little uptight about things that don't even really matter. I need to relax. That's the key word here. I'm not this crazy, out of control person that I sometimes portray. And I'm talking in every aspect... school, work, and personal life. I need to learn to take deep breaths and just deal with things as they come and not worry so much. I know at least Trevor will appreciate this....:)

I would like to read and write more this year. I would love to say this means "offline writing" or paper journaling, but I've tried that. Typing is more for me! And I love to read - I just need to make time for myself, because it is something that really does make me happy. So I need to make time for things like that. I think that'll help with the whole high strung thing, too!

So that's it- these are my goals. I just feel like I've become this unmotivated person (besides in school...) and I need to get back to being active and passionate. I've become lazy, because all I let myself do is worry, worry, worry... mainly about school. I've decided, though, that I'm going to make this semester a good one. Actually, let's make this year a good one!

Cheers. :)

NCLEX

2006-11-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

Pssttt... I need a new NCLEX Review book. I am dying in the psychiatric portion of my Process class and need to practice as many questions as possible for my final exam. Do you guys have any suggestions? I already have the new Saunders review, which I LOVE. I can't seem to find another quite as good...

Oh, and don't forget to check out the new blog in the "Rent My Blog" section! :)

I'm Trying...

2006-11-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so trying to get through this nursing school thing, but it's so hard.

I'm in my psych rotation and, it's safe to say, this has been the hardest semester of all. My psych final is coming up and I'm pretty much, well, freaking out. I can miss 37 points on my 100 point final, but I will never believe that that's enough! I can also miss 20 points on my 60 point Pharmacology final, but again... not enough.

Am I crazy? I mean, I've stressed out every block... but Block III has definitely put me at the max.

I say I'd never go back and do it all over again, but the truth is, I probably would. I have so many friends who are going into nursing... it's hard to be encouraging knowing all of the time and energy that goes into it, and I think I scare them with my lack of free time. But what else can I do? Sugar coat it? I love that a friend of mine who recently turned in her application says she won't get a job in a hospital while she's waiting to get in because she "doesn't want to clean old people." Interesting. Yes, she's my friend... but I cannot help but think to myself, Wow - get ready for a wake up call. Do people think nursing school is all about taking care of healthy babies and children? Is this what people think we do? Hmm...

Anyway, I will feel so relieved when this semester is over. I feel that if I can get past an accelerated 2-month Block II and Block III, I can do anything.

I guess we'll see.

I'm Alive!

2006-10-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not... I am still alive. :) Just insanely busy with nursing school... I'm in Block III now, currently doing my Psych rotation... so far, so good!

Thanks to those of you who have been coming and leaving comments even though I haven't updated in ages... I will find the time soon, I swear!

Off to Pharmacology for now... :)

Game 7

2006-05-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm really tempted to delete that last post. I must have been feeling very desperate! I cannot even count the number of more important topics I could be writing about. My upcoming 5 week Pharmacology course, for instance. A whole semester/block of Pharm in just 5 weeks- ouch. There's so much to do even before our first class on June 1st. I'm going to be one busy lady.

In other news, the Phoenix Suns are playing game 7 against the Clippers tonight at 7:30 AZ time. I cannot wait - I know Nash and Marion are going to pick up their game, and Thomas will be back in as well (so I've heard). It'll be awesome to see them move on to the next round! So that's my main focus of the night.

Go Suns!

Brassy Blonde

2006-05-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, as un-interesting as a topic this will be, I need hair advice! Leave it to me, of course, to ask for hair advice on my blog.

I recently colored my hair and actually got great results- except for one little glitch. My roots that were growing in from my last coloring were brownish(or dark blonde, however you want to look at it). When I colored my hair blonde, the dark roots turned a brassy color- the rest of it, though, looks GREAT! I love the blonde. I even have little streaks of strawberry blonde/brownish color because of my previous highlights. Does anyone know how I can fix the roots? It's not terrible, but it still bothers me. I've heard of washing it with dawn dish soap to tone down the brassiness- am I crazy, or does that sound right? :) I was also going to grab some toner from Sally's, but I don't really want to screw it up. So any advice would be much appreciated. :)

I have to work tonight and tomorrow night, so I'm off to take a small nap. This two night thing is working great for me- much better than the previous 3 in a row. In the 7p-7a shift, one night makes a huge difference.

A Well Deserved Break!

2006-05-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

So my final was yesterday, and I got my very last grade- a B in Process class! I was very happy with a 44/50 on my final. Could have done better, I'm sure, but I am happy nonetheless! That's way too much stressing for me... I'll have to remind myself not to cut it so close in Block II!

Today we had a one-time math prep class to prepare us (those who signed up for it) for our Block II Pharmacology math test. We have to take a 10 question test the very first day back (May 30) over calculations of medications, pediatric medications based on weight, IV drip rates, etc. and get a 100%. We have three chances to take it, but I took the one credit class as a "just in case". I'm glad I did, too... I'm not sure I could have taught myself everything we went over just by reading the book. Math and I don't get along.

Upon receiving my grade yesterday I went ahead and did some very needed hair care: I box colored my hair myself... ahhh! It actually came out pretty good ... very, very light blonde. The roots are a little brassy because they were darker than the rest of my hair... I'm working on fixing that. Otherwise I'm pretty happy... I just have to get a tan and get used to it!

Now, the most important subject of the day: Did you all see the season finale of Grey's Anatomy last night?!?

I had a few of my girlfriends over to watch - It was, in a word, amazing. I'm absolutely addicted to the show. Unlike most viewers, though, I'm not a huge fan of Chris O'Donnell, or as you may know him, "Finn", aka "McVet". I was absolutely, positively ecstatic when Meredith and Derek left the prom and met up with each other. I'm a very, very big McDreamy fan. And the way he loves her... well, it just makes your heart melt.

Denny dying- absolutely, positively terrible. I was really not expecting that, even though I probably should have been... I didn't think I would be so sad to see him go.

Oh, and can we talk about Cristina? How rude was she? She's lucky she went in there and grabbed Burke's hand to redeem herself... I was not happy!

Ok, now that I got all of that out... I cannot wait for season 3. Actually, I can't even wait for season 2 to come out on DVD.

I probably watch way too much T.V.

Student Nurse's Prayer

2006-05-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Lord, I know we go through this every day but please give me the knowledge as to why I actually wanted to go to nursing school.

Lord, give me the strength to make it through those boring three hour lectures without falling asleep.

Lord, please give me the patience to make it through twelve hour clinicals with instructors that can't just give you the right answer and on the same note, give the nurses the ability to remember what it was like to be a student and give us just a little more respect.

Lord, give me the endurance to read all the assigned readings and be able to remember it when I am taking a test with four right answers.

Lord, give my family and friends the ability to realize I really am on the edge of insanity.

Finally, Lord, give me the vision to see that one day I will be a real nurse and I will never have to wear this ugly uniform again.

F i n a l l y it's Finals!

2006-05-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

Guess who only has one more day of class? Oh right, it's me! I have a final on Monday in my Nursing Process class. The good news? I've heard it's really easy. That's a blessing because I only have 15 points to lose! I'm feeling mucho confidente. I'm going to be so relieved when it's over. I've already planned an outing to celebrate!

Last night we had our "end of clinical" party at my instructor's house. Have I mentioned how completely great she was? We really could not have asked for a better experience. Her name is Melissa, she is 30 years old and she's an ER nurse. Judging by everyone else's clinical stories, we got really lucky. Anyway, the party went well. Not too many people showed up, but we had a few drinks, lots of laughs, and it was a good time. Melissa and her friend(who is also a clinical instructor, who is also awesome) are starting up a great website - Out of the Box RN... hopefully by the time anyone clicks that, it'll be up and running. :)

In other news, I absolutely hate the My Super Sweet 16 show on MTV, and I absolutely love Grey's Anatomy. The season finale is on tomorrow and Monday and I cannot wait!

Also, a huge way to go to Steve Nash (back to back MVP!) and our Phoenix Suns for being so kickass.

That's all for now!

Time to Relax

2006-04-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Whew- it's about time, I know. I'm not going to do a play by play on my last two weeks at clinicals because well, that's just to much work. Let's just say they were good, and I'm learning a lot. :) So far, I've gotten to do these clinical skill checkoffs:

Started an IV (successful on the first try!)
Did subcutaneous injection (multiple)
Did my first accucheck, plus about a million more after that
D/C'd a male foley
Did an IM injection
Gave p.o. meds (oral meds)
Flushed an IV

That's about all I can think of right now. I think that's pretty good for only being in Block I! And I have a week and a half left. Whew.

I never imagined how stressful and exhausting this would all be. I am literally tired 24/7. I hope it will all be worth it in the end. I am even more stressed right now because I got a bad grade on my last test (along with about 50% of the class, so that made me feel a little better...). I have about 20 more points to lose, with one more 30 pt test and a 50 pt final. That's not a lot of cushion, if you ask me. So I have to make sure I get a *great* grade on this next test, and you have no idea how much pressure that is! I'm not used to having to count every little point- usually I leave myself with plenty of room for error. This is a very new feeling for me, and I'm hating it. I'm sure I will be fine, because really, even if I get the lowest passing grade on each test (a 23/30 and 38/30), I'm still fine. It's just a sucky feeling.

In other news, I bought a new ipod nano. My friend Lindsay brought her 20gb ipod into work the other night and all of a sudden I decided I wanted one, too. So I bought the black 2gb nano from Apple - I was a little leary of the black because everyone says it scratches and shows marks a lot more than the white. However, I plan on going out and buying a case before I even touch it, so hopefully we'll be A-OK. I wanted the black- it looks so sleeeeek! Also, you might wonder why I got the 2gb instead of the 4gb. Well, basically, I don't really listen to music all that much, and I don't have that many CD's, so I think 2gb will be just fine for me. I mean, that's 500 songs! I don't even know if I know 500 songs! Hopefully it will suffice! :) I was also torn about the new video ipod, too, but also decided that's a lot more than I really need. Not to mention I have my brand new snazzy laptop to watch videos and shows on anyway!

That's all for now ... I'm going to get better at this, I swear! And well, It's Deal or No Deal time, baby!

Week #1 Clinicals

2006-04-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I'm doing this- I'm updating every week, at least. That's not so much to ask, is it?! I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it...

So this week (or last week, really... well, Wednesday and Thursday) was my first week of clinicals for Block 1 Nursing. I'm happy to say it went very well. However, I was on Endoscopy on Wed. and the OR on Thurs. So basically, I just observed... I didn't have to pick a patient and do a care plan or really provide any sort of patient care whatsoever, so technically this week is my first week.

So here's how it goes. Every Tuesday night, we are supposed to go to the floor of the hospital we are assigned to and "pick a patient". This means find a patient with an interesting diagnosis who is going to be there for the next two days. We are basically this patient's private nurse for Wednesday and Thursday. We have to look through their chart, write down all their information (history, lab results, diagnosis, etc). We put that all into a care plan (which really is just a bunch of paperwork where we have to fill in the blanks and do a little research here and there). If there is information we need that we cannot find, we need to get it directly from the patient. Therefore, we have to dress nice and wear white lab coats when picking our patient (very snazzy). I am actually excited to do mine this week! Wednesday and Thursday we meet at the hospital at 6:30 a.m., go to our respected floors, and meet back at 2pm for post-conference. Last week was kind of disappointing because I got to hear everyone talk about the foleys they started, the shots they gave, the meds they gave, etc. But now it's my turn!

Wednesday I was in Endoscopy and it was actually really interesting. I saw about 3 colonoscopies, a bronchoscopy, an EUS and an ERCP. In one of the colonoscopies the man had about 3 polyps, so I got to watch them remove those. He also had what is known as diverticulosis(which, I learned, is different from diverticulitis). That looked like a bunch of holes in his colon... pretty interesting stuff. :) The bronchoscopy was extremely painful to watch. This girl had been diagnosed with a disease known as Wagners Disease(I have yet to find out what that is). She was prescribed prednisone, which gave her symptoms of pneumonia. She was in bad, bad shape, coughing the whole time (and keep in mind, she was pretty sedated). It sounded like she was drowning- basically, it was terrible. All in all, though, the day was very interesting. It seems to me, however, that nurses on Endoscopy don't do too much besides some paperwork here and there, and maybe an IV or two. Please, correct me if I'm wrong!

Thursday I was in the OR(surgery) and it was amazing. I loved every second of it. I was lucky to get paired up with an excellent nurse, and I stayed with the same 2 nurses, doctor, and anesthesiologist most of the day. The first procedure I saw was a laprascopic cholecystectomy (basically? Removal of the gall bladder through a scope). It was amazing. The liver looks like every picture of a liver I've ever seen. The gall bladder is this little egg hiding behind it. This lady had some huge gallstones. The next procedure I saw was a mass being removed from a lady's buttocks (not so interesting), and the last was a bilateral inguinal hernia reconstruction. This guy also had what is called a non-communicating hydrocele, which basically means he had a bunch of fluid around his testicle. It was crazy to see the testicle pulled up through the stomach. It also looked like a little egg! Around 1:45 or so they were going to start a gastrectomy(removal of the stomach) and I just missed that... very upsetting, because that would have been awesome to see!

So that's it for this weeks Adventures in Nursing School. Hopefully I'll have an interesting patient to tell you about next time! :)

Wow

2006-03-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Wow ... it's literally been forever since I've posted. If forever had a time frame, it'd be from the last time I posted until now.

Honestly, I just haven't had too much to write about! I've been in school - school is going great. I got an A in one class and a B in another. I just had Spring Break... it was nice and relaxing. I did a lot of shopping- way too much shopping, actually! We celebrated Trevor's 20th birthday- that was a very good time. I surprised him with all of his friends at dinner! And this week I start clinicals! And yup, that's my recap.

I really would like to try and write more... I don't want another one of those blogs that I start and just forget about. I've had way too many of those. So really, I'm going to work on it!

In other news, I'm obsessed with Walk the Line and of course, have it on DVD now. I bought the Cash: Autobiography from Amazon and it should be arriving any day! I don't know why I'm so interested in it all. Also, 16 Blocks is a very good movie- we saw that the other night instead of Failure to Launch. I guess that's too much of a "chick flick" for Trevor... so I'll have to go on a girl's night or something. :)

Have a wonderful day, and I'll let you know how clinicals go! (Hopefully...)

Britney Spears

2006-02-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today when I signed onto AIM, my AIM Today window popped up. The very first thing I saw? A picture of Britney Spears with her baby on her lap... in her car. So I did a little more looking around. Apparentely Britney and her bodyguard were at a starbucks and her bodyguard went inside. Britney took her baby, Sean Preston, out of his carseat to hold him, and was then approached by aggressive paparazzi, got angry and "scared" and drove off. Very interesting, don't you think? It's funny because just the other day in class we were talking about babies and carseats and had to look up the laws online. I'm pretty sure this doesn't follow any of those.

You can read more about it over here: Just Jared: Britney Spears Driving With Baby on Lap

Starting the Week Off . . .

2006-02-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

So I realize I have not been the best at keeping up with this blog... it's been a little crazy. Last week was the worst. I worked the whole weekend(Fri, Sat,Sun..if I haven't already complained about that). Then I had class Monday, Wed, and Thurs... two tests included. It's very hard to try and fit everything in. Work, studying, school, Trevor, friends... it's just not working out that well, but I guess it'll be worth it!

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in myself. We've had two tests in Pharmacology. Like I said before, I got 18/20 on the first one, that's 90%. The last one we had, however, was difficult for me- 80%. This is not good, people! That means my average thus far is 85%, a B... I have two tests left and have to keep a 76%. Ok, yes, I'm sure I'll get the 76%, but I'd like a little cushion that I'm not giving myself. After the tests I immediately know which ones I got wrong... so why can't I just figure that out while I still have it in my posession?

On my other test, I thought I did really well, only to find out that I got 22/25. Ok, 88%- still fine. But I was really expecting an A, and it's getting really frustrating.

I know that when I go apply for jobs no one's going to be looking at my grades. Just that I've passed my classes, got my AAS, and passed the NCLEX. However, I would like to get A's and B's for my own sake.

Anyway, this week shouldn't be so bad. We have a P.O. medication(oral meds) check-off on Wednesday morning, and no more tests 'til next week. I am learning 11 medications- what they do, when to give them, side effects, nursing implications, etc. We have to show the instructors that we know how to triple-check our meds and give them to the patient. Shouldn't be too bad, I'm good at the clinical stuff. I did have a dream last night, though, that I woke up late Wednesday and missed my 8:45 check-off. I was very stressed in the dream, and still anxious when I woke up! I hate those ones.

Anywho, wish me luck ...

Hello, Hello!

2006-02-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hello world... from my new laptop! That's right, folks. I'm sitting here, cozy as can be in my room in Scottsdale with my new laptop! It's a Compaq Presario V2000, 14", 512MB, CD/DVD Read/Write, 60GB, etc. You can see the rest over at Best Buy's Website!! I'm very, very happy with it. I went to look at them Monday night after dinner with my mom, Betty and Trevor, and decided then and there this was the one I wanted. Of course, though, they were out of stock. So, I bought it anyway and came back to pick it up the next night(last night). Since I had to get up early this morning, I barely had time to play with it! Very disappointing...but now, here I am! I am *so* happy to have found a wireless connection. I got one earlier at the library, of course, and am relieved that I can just sit here in my room and be online. That was my biggest concern. Who knows how long it will last or if I'll ever pick it up again, but oh well! I also played Sweet Home Alabama on here earlier and it looked great. I was told that a 14" might be kind of small, but considering I was going to buy a portable DVD player with a 7" screen, I figure I'm doing pretty good. I'm so happy!

Anywho... I had my first test this afternoon in my Health Assessment class... I think I did really good! At most, I probably missed 1 or two questions... still an A! I'd be happy with that. Tonight, though, I have to cram for our pharmacology test tomorrow morning(7am!) I've been so worried about today's test that I haven't spent much time on it.

For the rest of the night, then, I'll be studying, watching Lost and probably American Idol(and I just realized I probably missed it last night!!), and of course, playing on my computer! :)

I Need a Laptop!

2006-01-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have a new obsession and it's driving me crazy. I really, really want to get a laptop. At first I just wanted a portable DVD player. Then I thought, why stop there? Why not get a laptop that can also be a DVD player? Right?! I've been sitting here at work looking at Best Buy, Dell, and Circuit City. Yes, I'm obsessed.

So anyway, I've asked my brother to help me with this little project. I need to find a good one that won't totally break me. I mean, I have money to spend on one, I do... but I still don't want to spend that much. I thought it would be handy to have while in nursing school .... there will be a few days that I have to stay in Scottsdale during the week and it would be nice to have with me to do my homework. However... I'm a little worried about the wireless internet thing. I don't necessarily want to get wireless service... just a computer with the card built in. But how many places really have wireless internet access? I don't even think I can use it at my hospital... but can I plug it in to our computers that have access? I don't know anything about anything.

Anyway, if you know anything, please fill me in. Is it a good investment? What do I do about the internet? Where should I buy one from? Can I hook it up to any printer? What else, what else?! Thanks! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2006-01-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday! Unfortunately, I've had to work the weekend so I didn't get to do much with her, but her, my dad, and their friend from Michigan went out last night (and are going out again tonight, of course) to the casino. At 5 minutes til midnight, she hit for $1250! Happy Birthday to her. :)

I wish I could explain how great she is. She's one of my best friends, and I don't know where I would be without her in my life. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful relationship with her; I've seen other people who barely even speak to their mothers anymore over stupid, petty arguments or what have you, and I'm so lucky that we have such a strong bond that can never be broken. So, happy birthday to my mom... she deserves the best! :)

Quote of the Day

2006-01-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

" I have said nothing because there is nothing I can say
to describe the way I feel as perfectly as you deserve it. "

What doe this quote mean to you?

I Can't Think of Anymore Titles!

2006-01-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from Scottsdale. I got an 18/20 (90% for the math wizzes) on my first Pharmacology test. I'm not at all impressed. Not because I'm crazy, because yes, 90% is a good score. However, one of the answers I got wrong, I initially had right. I changed my answer in the middle of the test. That is always, always a bad idea! Another 5% would have made a big difference, but nothing I can do about it now, right? I'm just such a perfectionist. I want to make sure that I'm not struggling. We need to have an average of 76% overall, which I believe means I have to get an average of about 15.2 on every test...? Which ok, I have a good start. But I don't want to be stressing out at the end because I'm right on the edge, you know? That would drive me crazy. I get a 75.9%? I fail. That's a scary thought... but I know I won't fail. Don't get me wrong here, I'm very excited about nursing school!! It's just stressful.

Anywho, I don't have a whole lot to say ... I'm just kind of in a blah mood. I guess partly because I have to work three nights in a row, which I'm really not looking forward to. At least I'll have some time to get some studying done ! Also in part because I'm not at all impressed with my writing skills. I never really have anything overly exciting or meaningful to say. Believe it or not, I used to write all the time, whether it be short stories, poems, etc. Maybe I should start posting more poetry and things and I'll get inspired or something!

Well folks, that's all for now! I'm off to hopefully get a lot of sleep and get up early to run some errands. We'll see about that. :)

This Week's To-Do List

2006-01-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

It's not that I have a lot to do this week, but it's nice to just kind of go over what's in store. So, for those of you who like to know(and I know all of you do...) here is this week's to-do's!

Tuesday(Today) - Study. I've been studying most of the day... this includes re-reading each chapter and making outlines to study from. I have chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 covered. This is what Test #1 will include, so I should be good to go... I just have to actually go over the information. Also, tonight is American Idol night, so I will be watching that around 7:00! I'd also like to stop at Target to pick up some jeans that are on sale for $18. Important stuff, I know.

Wednesday - Last lecture in Pharmacology before Test #1 from 7-9:30am. This lecture should cover chapters 4 and 5, which I've already reviewed and outlined! Afterwards, studying with Kathleen before our 1:30-3:30 class. We have an online quiz due before this class, but of course, I've got that done, too. ;) The rest of the night will include... dinner and studying overnight in Scottsdale. Sounds like a fun day!

Thursday - Test #1 at 7 am(cross your fingers for me!). Then I'm sure we'll still have lecture afterwards til about 9:30. In between, home to do whatever I feel like until 1:30! And after that class? Home! Our good friend Betty is coming in from Michigan around noon ... I'm always excited to see her.

Friday - Whatever I feel like, until my nap around 1 or 2... I've got a great 3 nights in a row to look forward to from here.

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is what this week's schedule entails. Besides studying for the test and the actual test, it's looking pretty good. I've actually been really good about using my planner to keep track of everything, too. It's helping a lot.

I would love to hear from anyone who's actually gone through nursing school... are there any of you out there? Maybe I should start a "Nursing Student Blog" club. ;) I can guarantee you... that's what most of my entries are going to be about from here on out, sadly enough! Oh well, it'll be like therapy.

Pssst...

2006-01-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

Note to blogrollers! If you have a blogroll, that's great... but so many times have I been to a site that I've loved, looked at the blogroll list, only to see they don't have a "Blogroll me!" link. Now one might think, OK lazy, go into your blogroll and manually put their blog on your list. Well guess what, folks? That's just not the way I roll! (Wasn't that clever? ;)). I've been to so many sites that I've liked and immediately forgotten the URL because I couldn't add it to my blogroll with a click. Sorry, but it's true. I just don't take the time to do it. But the question remains... if you have a blogroll, why wouldn't you have a blogroll me link? It just seems simple. Anywho, this little rant came to me last night when I realized.... I never visit the sites on my blogroll list. And the sites I would want to visit aren't there because I couldn't blogroll them immediately. So anyway, I revamped my list. I am hoping that through my blog travels when I find that special site, I will see that beautiful little link and voila! Add it to my site. :) Please?!

Books !

2006-01-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

I was just over at Elizabeth's blog, and was immediately inspired. First of all... I want you guys to check out her portfolio... and if you ever need any work done, she is awesome, so keep that in mind, ok? :) Second of all... she reviewed the movie In Her Shoes and it reminded me of how great the book was... and how great a lot of other books I've read have been. In light of that, I'd like to make a small list of some books I've read recently that I would recommend, in no particular order. Some of them I remember the authors, some of them I don't... so bare with me!

In Her Shoes, Jennifer Weiner
Good In Bed, Jennifer Weiner
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer
Perfect Match, Jodi Picoult (unbelievable)
My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
The Pact, Jodi Picoult
Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold(*I* didn't particular enjoy this one that much, but it was worth reading, and a lot of other people have loved it)
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
A Cry in the Night, Mary Higgins Clark

Ok, so I remembered all of the authors. These are some great books... as you can see, I particularly like Jodi Picoult, and I am really anxious to get started on another one of hers. However, for now I'm slowly reading Dive from Clausen's Pier, but I haven't had much time to spend on it. Anywho, there's my 2 cents! If you guys have read any, let me know what you thought... and if you are gonna read them in the future, let me know as well! :) The other books I want to read eventually are A Million Little Pieces(I've heard great things about this one) and White Oleander, I believe it's called... ? I'll get around to it eventually.

Happy Birthday To You

2006-01-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go ahead and assume everyone's doing great, the weekend was fantastic, and nobody can wait to get back to work tomorrow! ;)

Last night was a disaster. It was our friend Lisa's birthday, so I called my good friend Jon (also her boyfriend...) to ask him what he had planned, since we have this crazy tradition of actually doing something for everyone's birthday. ;) However... he had nothing, but added, "I'm sure she wants to hang out with everyone after dinner..." So ok, being the great friend that I am, I try and put a little something together (which of course, I later regretted). It was already about 5:00pm or so, so I got in touch with my fabulous friend Jen and we decided for everyone to meet at BJ's brewery around 9:30 for dessert(which later was pushed back until 10pm, since everyone was working). I ended up not even wanting to go... but I did anyway. Needless to say, Jon and Lisa claimed they "could not get ahold of anyone", and when I called Jen at around 10:20 to see if everyone was there- well, let's just say...they weren't. It was her, Kayce, Stacey and Nick waiting around for everyone. Keith, Bear and Nick had not gotten off of work yet, Jon and Lisa "were late"(and I say it like that only because they're always "late"), and Trevor wasn't coming. Anyway, to make a very long story just a little bit long, I got there, the four of them ordered, and Jon and Lisa showed up about 20 minutes later... fighting. Obviously, Lisa was pissed because Jon didn't plan anything for her birthday. Very understandable. So, we ate in awkwardness and said our goodbye's around 12am. Needless to say, I won't be planning anymore last minute birthday get-togethers.

What an exciting story, no? Oh well. I just felt crappy because Lisa had such a terrible birthday... but what can ya do? We'll make it up sometime I'm sure. In the meantime I'll be busy helping plan get-togethers for my mom, Stacey, Keith, and Trevor. Don't you just love birthdays?

Get A Rhythm

2006-01-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Howdy! How's everyone? I hope your weekends are going great so far. :) I've spent most of this afternoon studying or Pharmacology and doing our online quizzes for Heatlh Assessment. The quizzes are pretty easy... 10 questions, 1/2 point each, straight from the text Physical Examination and Health Assessment, Jarvis. Needless to say, I got 100%... not a bad start! ;) I did most of my study guide for Pharmacology, which covers course competencies I, II, and III. I also put a bunch of notecards together to study from... mainly definitions. We have our first test Thursday and I want to be prepared. The stuff we've been talking about so far has been pretty straight forward. The absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs... stuff like that. I think I'll be ready... I've got a lot of time to study between now and Thursday since I'm off. Thankfully I've hit it off with a couple of girls in my classes(there's the same 40 or so people in every class... we're here together from beginning til graduation!). It will be good to know people so we can study together... that's always great.

Although this is off topic... have you all seen Walk the Line? If not, I *definitely* recommend it... I saw it awhile ago(I'm not sure if I've posted about this before...) and I really loved it, so I got the soundtrack! It's awesome. Mostly Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, and just a couple others. My favorite song is Track #1, Get a Rhythm... it puts me in a great mood! If any of you get it, let me know what you think! :)

I Will Survive

2006-01-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

DunDunDun... I survived my first week of Nursing School, minus one class (MLK Day). Surprisingly... it was a lot better than I expected. I'm not quite so nervous anymore. At 7-9:30 on Wednesday and Thursday I had Pharmacology. Luckily we don't have to memorize a million drugs... just about 10-15 of some common ones (aspirin, etc). We have to know what it does, when/why you give it, what happens when you give it, the trade names, generic names, etc. That shouldn't be too bad. Of course, there's much more to the class... but as long as I study and read regularly, I should be fine. :) My first test in there is Thursday... eek. From 1:30-3:30 on Wednesday and Thursday I had my Health Assessment class. Basically we are learning about doing patient interviews, doing head to toe assessments, collecting patient history, etc. etc. Not too bad, either. Yes, it's just the first week... but at least my instructors aren't hardasses!

Other than that, I am ready to relax for the weekend. I've been staying in Scottsdale since Tuesday with no Internet access(God forbid!), and I worked last night... time to sit around and watch a movie. :)

Visit Life My Way

2006-01-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't had a chance to say much about her, but you should all go check her out. Life My Way is a beautiful blog... she's renting mine this week(and I think that the time is almost up already!).

So go visit! :) Let me know what you think. Thanks!

I've Been Tagged!

2006-01-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh. I just realized I was tagged for a meme and I didn't even know it, so I'm a few days late! I'm very excited... I've never been "tagged" before! ;)

So this meme is to write five weird habits about yourself. Apparentely, I have to choose 5 new people to "tag" as well and link to their blogs. So ladies and gentlemen, here we go...

1) I am a serious perfectionist, but I'm not ashamed of it... OCD runs in my family, so to speak. I have to have everything done my way, because if it's not....well, it's just not right. I wish I could help it, but I don't really think it's a terrible quality. Why settle for anything less than the best, right? Sometimes I go a little overboard, though, so I'm working on that.

2) I don't feel clean after I've taken a shower unless I shave my legs. You might say I'm a compulsive shaver. I don't know what it is, but that silky smoothe feeling just does it for me. Maybe this isn't considered "weird", necessarily, but most people think I'm crazy when I tell them I shave every day.

3) I am severely annoyed with people who chew with their mouth open and make all kinds of noise. Why is that weird, you ask? Like I said, I get severely annoyed. I try to keep myself away from that kind of situation as much as possible... even the tiniest sounds bother me.

4) I can hear you clipping your fingernails from a mile away. (This kind of goes in synch with the previous, I guess). I hate that sound, and if someone's doing it at the opposite end of the house in a small bathroom with the door closed... I will hear them. Believe me, I really wish I didn't have this problem!

5) I'm extremely indecisive. About everything. I cannot for the life of me settle for anything. I am always wondering what the other choice would have been like. If I'm with another person and there is a decision to be made, you can bet they'll be making it. Although... it's usually with petty things. I'm better at making the decisions. I never really thought that much about it, but this is probably something I'm really going to have to work on before I become a nurse!

Ok, there you have it. The weird and not so weird habits of yours truly. Let's see... I think I will tag her, her, her, this old tenant, and her! Enjoy :)

It Ain't Pretty

2006-01-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm at work and I desperately felt the need to be blogging... however, blogger is blocked. Grr! So I'm testing the "email your post" thing that Elizabeth reminded me of. I guess we'll see how that turns out. :) I don't really even have anything in particular to write about, I just felt the urge.

I currently am on the floor that we call "3D" that we each have to take turns working on. To sum it up, it sucks. There's nothing going on, so it's 12 hours of studying, searching the internet, playing whatever games that aren't blocked... doing whatever you can to keep yourself busy.

I just heard that new song from INXS(is that right?) on the radio, "It Ain't Pretty". I watched a couple episodes of their little reality show/competition. I really like the sound of that new guys voice ... I think I would actually buy that album.... possibly.

I've decided I need to take more time to visit blogs daily. There are a very select few that I actually keep up with... mainly because I don't have the time. But yes, I need to make time! I was also recently reminded of meme's. I miss doing that. It is actually fun, and better yet... gives me something to write about, what a concept. ;)

Ok, enough of the randomness. I hope everyone had a great weekend (better than me, anyway! Sleep..work..sleep...work... you get the picture). Oh, and please don't forget to check out my new tenant... I always forget to mention them! :)

People

2006-01-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Howdy. Have I ever mentioned how completed addicted I am to things like People and Us Weekly? Well, I am. And although this is old news, do you realize that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are having a baby? This is serious stuff, people... so we'll start with that.

I never really liked Angelina and Brad together. Let's face it, most people don't. I almost refused to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith after I heard about it. Never the less, though, I had to go see it... and as ashamed as I am, I actually liked the freaking movie. I do not, however, like the idea of Brad and Angelina having a baby together. I'm not that bitter about the break up, OK? If two people aren't happy together, then there's nothing you can do about it. But to be seen with Angelina immediately after, pampering her and her children, adopting them, and then having a baby with the homewrecker? Not the ideal situation. I would like to add, though, that I absolutely love Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. If they had a baby, I'd probably be OK with it. So you have my blessing, guys.

Secondly, I'd like to talk about Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. Actually, I wouldn't like to talk about them. I'd like to say that Kevin Federline is the biggest piece of white trash I've ever seen... and Britney is borderline for marrying him, and 100% moron.

I think that's about it. I know this isn't the most intelligent piece I've ever written, but I needed to get that off my chest, OK? ;)

Juuust Bored

2006-01-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

I am so ready for this break to be over. Being out of school sounded so great for awhile... but when I think back on last semester when I was only taking one class online, and I think about the things I accomplished... nothing really comes to mind, and that kills me! I had so much free time and I didn't do anything with it. I'm ready to be busy again, you know? I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune once I'm back in nursing school, busy as can be... but at a time like this when I'm everything but busy, I realize the life of always having something to do is a little more suitable for me. I suppose I did get a few things done... I learned a little CSS, read a lot of great books, saw a lot of movies, made new friends, passed a statistics class at ASU towards my Bachelors degree... but nothing life-altering. I hate sitting around just waiting to go back to work. It's like every day's purpose is just to be over so we can move one day closer to work or school! I really don't mean to complain... it was a fun semester, I guess. Christmas was fun, New Year's... Las Vegas, my birthday... I guess it was better that I wasn't tied up so I could be there for all of that. But regardless, all I'm waiting for now is school! Who'd have thought?

Nursing School

2006-01-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

So I had my "general orientation" for nursing school on Monday. I came home very, very stressed out! The meeting itself was okay... and yes, I'm looking forward to starting. But I'm also scared. Being a student who is in charge of medications, IV's, shots, and in some cases, a person's life... that is a lot of pressure, don't you think?! Not to mention the books. Ohhh the books. We had to gather all of our books in cardboard boxes and have someone help us with a dolly to take them to our cars. At the moment, I have 12 large books sitting in my room waiting to be used, one on the way from Amazon.com. I have chapters to read before school even starts, which I expected... but first I'd like to finish up my Human Development class at ASU! Ahhh.

Anywho, besides that, life is good. I've had about a week off and I have to go back to work on Friday. I start my new schedule where I work three in a row- Friday, Saturday, Sunday, have 3 off, and go back Thursday. The three in a row might be tough at first, but it'll still be nice to have a week off after that Thursday shift.

What an exciting post! Ok, maybe not so much... but I'm trying! :)

It's off subject, but here's a little something to leave you with.

Whom do you admire most? In what way does that person inspire you? -From The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, PH.D.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

Eeek! I'm back, I swear! How was everyone's Christmas and New Year's Eve? Mine was fantastic!! Happy 2006!! :) I made a few resolutions, but who knows how they will go. I want to lose 5-10 lbs. Just because I put on a little "holiday weight", as they call it. I also want to be a little less...well, cheap. I've saved up a lot of money and I don't want to waste my years worrying about spending it! I stress way too much about stupid things, and I'm a teency weency uptight... so I'd like to stop that. :) What are your guys' New Year's Resolutions?

Other than that, I've been working a little here and there... I picked up an extra shift the other night because everybody called off. I had a wonderful Christmas, got wonderful things, and everybody loved the things I got them! My best present? I couldn't say. I got a cute little blanket/cow named Gracie(it sounds weird, I know, but I've been wanting it!), lots of clothes, candles, bath and body works stuff, a scrapbook, jewelry, purses, gift cards... it was great! I finally put everything away yesterday and cleaned up my room... it was ridiculous!

Today, the girls and I headed over to Tortilla Flats... this little podunk(is that a word?) town on the way to Canyon and Apache lake. It just has a few buildings. A restaurant, a couple of little shops, and an icecream parlor. It was a fun little outing...we had lunch and looked around. We should do stuff like that more often.

I also started my Winter Intercession class at ASU, Human Development. It just runs for 13 days, so it will be over in no time and I'll start nursing school! I better get reading, though, I have about 4 more long chapters to read this week!

Have a wonderful day, and I promise, I'll be writing more often!! :)

Wow!

2005-12-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap... I knew it had been a long time since I've written, but I didn't know it had been this long!!

I will do my best to give a little recap of what I've been up to... :)

My 21st birthday was awesome. On Sunday, December 4, I celebrated with my family and Trevor.... opened presents, had cake, etc. My mom and dad are way too good to me.

On Monday, my actual birthday, I went shopping with my mom in the afternoon and went to On the Border to have some margaritas. They were delicious ... even more so now that I could drink it legally! ;) I was a little disappointed, though, because I didn't even get carded. What the heck? Oh well, I got over it. After that, I got ready for the rest of the night. Trevor picked me up and took me to his house where I opened presents. He did a really great job picking things out for me! He got me some gloves, a really cute silver scarf, 3 pairs of silver earrings, a Keith Urban CD, and a black belt- awesome. After that, Keith picked us up and we met everyone at Applebees where I pigged out and ordered drinks! I also had to do a very embarassing birthday shot... but we won't talk about that. :) Everyone pretended to go home after that, and Keith, Trevor and I went to the store and picked up some Bacardi Silver. They took me, blindfolded, to Kayce's house where everyone was waiting with a cake and sang Happy Birthday. We played Hoopla until the night was over. :) It was pretty perfect.

On Thursday we left for Las Vegas... which was more fun than I can possibly describe!! The first night we went to this piano bar where these twins did "dueling pianos"... it was a lot of fun. My sister, Heather, my dad and I all had a little too many lemon drop and kamikaze shots, and I also got to dance a little on stage. It was definitely a night I'll remember...but so was the morning after! We went to the Improv the next night which was great. Then, the girls and I got ready to go out. We walked to Treasure Island where we went to this club called Tangerine... not great, but still fun! We ended the night at Tequila Joe's watching karaoke. The next night, we went to Cirque du Soleil and saw Ka.... I can't even tell you how amazing it was. I loved it. After that, the girls and I headed to Studio 54!! I had been waiting forever to go here. It was even better than I imagined. They actually played good music, there were couches everywhere, two levels, dancers dancing on podiums and coming down from the ceiling on swings. Very, very exciting! :) After that we headed to Coyote Ugly, which was a lot of fun, too, but not somewhere I'd spend a lot of time. Heather and I danced on the infamous bar, so that's something to remember. :)

All in all, it was a great birthday week! I had a really amazing, unforgettable time. I love my family and friends!

Grrr.

2005-12-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm getting pretty pissed off with my hair guy. My appointment was Saturday, I call Sunday and leave a message(they are closed Sunday and Monday) that asks him to please give me a call, I had a few questions... so I wait. Tuesday, no call...Wednesday morning, no call. So yesterday, early afternoon, I call again, talk to the receptionist, and make an appointment for a root touch up. Number one, I told her please still have him call me! Because I wanted to talk to him, make sure he can fix what I needed fixed. Number two, the appointment is for Tuesday at 4:30..the day after my birthday! Grrr. Anyway, I waited all yesterday and this morning. Guess what? No call. So I called again and told him please have him call me. Am I being annoying? Yes, I'm sure I am...but I paid a lot of money to have my hair done! I wanted it good for my birthday and for Vegas. Now I'm just getting mad. Is this so unreasonable?

Am I going to go Tuesday? Hell yes I am. Am I going to be happy about it? NO! Call me crazy. I know this is a pretty petty thing to be getting all upset about, but that's what I do... get mad about stupid things. :)

I'm Going Crazy

2005-11-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Lost is driving me crazy.

I have been watching season 1 for the past 3 days ( a little at a time... ). We are on disc 4. If Kate and Jack do not get together(I know they aren't going to in season 1... but I'm praying for season 2), I'm going to go insane. He is killing me here. Screw Sawyer- why don't Kate or Jack make a move?! Ok, not screw Sawyer, he's a good guy once in awhile. I'm very partial to Jack, though. I absolutely love him. Who knew Matthew Fox would get so hot? Ahhhh!

Ok, so maybe I'm a little obsessed. I don't even care! It is going to be a very sad day, though, if Jack and Kate never get together. Or at least open up to each other a little more, for god's sake! :) I don't even remember where we left off last night... it was episode #16, "Outlaws". I need to finish this season. I'm wondering, if when I finish season 1 I can jump right into the middle of season 2 (the ones that are playing on Wednesday nights...), or if I have to wait for the season 2 DVD's to come out? Huge dilemma, as you can see! :)

Off to finish my last week of statistics before the final!

I'm LOST!

2005-11-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

So we had a really, really great Thanskgiving. I was introduced to a very addicting new game, Dance Dance Revolution, played some Mad Gab, Cranium, and of course, stuffed my face!

The best part? Elizabeth and Gary brought me the first season of Lost to watch. Trevor and I finally popped disc 1 in last night... we watched the entire thing. I am completely addicted. We watched 2 more episodes today and only stopped because he had to go to work! He won't let me watch it without him. :( It is very suspenseful... I always wondered what all the hype was about and now I know. I could definitely watch an entire season in one sitting, no problem.

Oh! I almost forgot. My hair appointment was yesterday... I got super blonded. It looks great, I really love it! My only problem is that in some parts, it doesn't look like the color is close enough to my roots... is this a problem? I don't know how it's supposed to be. I have dark blonde/light brown hair to begin with, so maybe that's just the way it has to be when you go that much lighter? I called the hair place and left a message for the guy to call me back... hoping maybe he could touch up my roots or something? Is this unreasonable? :)

I have to do my SECOND TO LAST QUIZ in Statistics! Only 1 more week and the final exam... Thank God.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I hope everyone is having a really great Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I have to work (and worked last night as well), but as I said before, we're having our Thanksgiving tomorrow! :) I'm really excited about it ... I love the holidays when everyone gets together. We eat, talk, watch movies and play games. It's basically my favorite thing to do. We don't really have any "traditions" per say... we all just usually get together at my mom's house to eat... I guess playing board games is kind of a tradition. Either way, I love it. What are your traditions?

There are so many things I'm grateful for this year ... my family, Trevor, my friends, my new job, getting into the nursing program, turning 21 ;), and everthing else. I really can't complain about my life thus far. Everything is going pretty well for me, and I'm thankful I have so many things to be thankful for! :) Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for?

Balloon & Roses

2005-11-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

Balloon & Roses
Originally uploaded by celestialss.

Remember how I said I haven't been feeling very well? Yesterday, Trevor showed up with these roses and a balloon for me. How lucky am I?! :) I'm feeling much better now, but I was very excited to get the flowers.

I'm Alive!

2005-11-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Eek. I haven't written since Thursday. Not a tragedy I guess, but I need to keep up! I have not been doing as much with this blog as I would like... I planned on having questions of the days, quotes and all that fun stuff. I will get around to it. :) I think on the days that I don't have much to write, I'll at least try and put something like that up.

This weekend I worked Friday and Saturday... I was thinking about it, and I really do love my job. It's just perfect for me. Especially since on Saturday it didn't seem too busy, and Lindsay and I sat around playing card games in the off-time...and yes, got paid. I have three days off (today and tomorrow left), and I work the Thanksgiving holiday. We have to work the eve and nights of holidays ... which is fine because I get paid time and a half anyway. I would rather work Thanksgiving than Christmas, so I'm not too bummed. Also, my family planned on doing Thanksgiving on Friday this year anyway... it works out better for everyone. :)

Are we all aware of what is exactly two weeks from today? I hope so - my 21st BIRTHDAY! Ahhh. I can't even talk about it with anyone anymore because I get too excited. Not really for my birthday, but for Las Vegas. I can't wait. The other day we went to Desert Ridge to do a little Christmas shopping and I picked up a little wrist-purse-thing at Old Navy... it's just a little black zip-up bag with sequence on it.. I thought it would be handy for when we go out at night so I don't have to lug a huge purse around. It's just big enough to fit my cell phone, debit card and some money. Perfect!

Ever since yesterday afternoon when I woke up from my nap I've had a terrible headache. I've felt like crap. All I did yesterday, basically, was lie in bed and/or sleep. I'm feeling a little better today... I finally got my ass up, got in the car, went to the tanner, and picked up a slurpee on the way back. If you didn't know, Coke slurpees make everything better. Believe it or not, I'm seriously feeling a lot better!

That's it for now. I need to do something exciting so I can take more pictures with my beautiful camera! :) Yes, I'm obsessed. Have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2005-11-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my dad's birthday!!! :) We went out to dinner last night, and tonight we're cooking dinner for him, along with a Razzleberry and Pumpkin pie.... mmm! I got him an awesome new down blanket. He is always stealing my mom's, so I thought he'd like it! :)

Happy Birthday!

Chef Decor

2005-11-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Chef Decor
Originally uploaded by celestialss.

I am just testing out this flickr thing. I set up an account and all that, but I still have some searching to do! Here is a picture of some of the chef stuff I bought. There is more, so I'll post that later! :)

Weekend Wrap-Up

2005-11-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

I wrote this whole entry yesterday but something weird was going on. My style sheet wasn't showing up after I posted it (on my computer, anyway), so I deleted the entry(which I thought I had copied so I could just re-paste) to see if that would fix it. Well it didn't, and I lost the entry! :( I think something was either going on with my computer or yahoo, where I host all of my images and style sheets. Oh well, it seems to be working fine now!

So the weekend went surprisingly well! The wine party was great- it had a much better turn out than Allison and Heather had expected. Turns out I actually do like wine. But then again, after a few glasses everything probably starts to taste good. It was a fun night. I took a lot of pictures, but when I post them on here they show up huge. [I don't know how to adjust the size to fit on here from a 4x6 picture. I would even be okay with just putting the thumbnails and linking them... so if anyone could let me know how to do that or what size to make them(in pixels), it would be greatly appreciated! :)] I stayed the night out there, and on Sunday we did some shopping. Heather needed Christmas ideas for her boyfriend Jason, and apparentely I'm their new go-to girl. Needless to say, she got all of his shopping done that very same day! She was very excited... I wish I had all of Trevor's shopping done!

Yesterday I had a nursing meeting in the morning over at the college. That went very well... very quick, which is even better. It turns out my Block I schedule is not going to be quite as bad as I thought! I only go 3 days a week ... could be a lot worse...which I'm sure Block II will be!

I got almost all of the way caught up in my statistics yesterday... we had an exam, which I didn't realize was this week until Sunday. So I took it yesterday, along with cramming in 2 of the lesson plans beforehand. Procrastinating is very, very bad. I ended up getting a 70%! Which is a far cry from my 82% and 90% on my first two. Oh well, though, I'm still maintaining an 85%... and there's only one more test left, lucky me!

Ok, I think we're all caught up now. As for my plans for the week, I have no idea. Tomorrow I'd like to go out to Desert Ridge and do some Christmas shopping ... I really want to get as much as I can done before my birthday and Las Vegas trip in December. I'm off to watch ER and get cleaned up for the day! :)

Back to the Blog!

2005-11-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well, my "work week" is over and I'm officially on my 8-day stretch of days off. I only work two nights a week, so every other week I get a nice long break! It works out very well for me. Work was fine as usual... but it seemed this week there were a few more weirdos than usual. I must have a sign on my forehead. "Attention Weirdos: Please Talk to Me". I'm not kidding you. I swear, one guy was going out to get some "fresh air" (which usually means he is going out to smoke). He starts talking to me about the windows in the rooms and how they're too hard to open, and how in jail, they have these little small windows that you can open just a little(he has not been to jail, of course, he just has officers in the family). However, some of these prisoners throw rocks at the windows, the windows break, and when it rains they complain. But hey who's fault is that, right? Oh my God. This part of the conversation must have went on for about 5-10 minutes before he started talking about the air in the hospital, whether or not he should buy an air purifier for when the baby comes home, and proceeded to tell me his family history. What an exciting job I have!

Anyways, I went out to Circuit City today and bought a 256mb memory card for my camera! It was $29.99 and has a $10 mail-in rebate...so $20. Not bad. It seems to be working great so far. I cannot wait for this weekend so I can take some pictures! Saturday night I'm going to a "wine party" at my sisters and Heathers. I think I'll probably get some interesting pictures there. Stay tuned! :)

It's here!!

2005-11-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

While I was taking my nap this afternoon (since yes, I work tonight), the doorbell rang around 3:00... My eyes bolted open as I ran to the door to grab my digital camera!

I have just one word- amazing. It is *AWESOME*, and I haven't even read about all of the different features yet! It is tiny and very stylish! I am very impressed... I had high expectations, but this camera exceeded even those! I am so excited to go to work tonight and play with it! :) (I'm on the 3rd floor... this means I do nothing for 12 hours, so since I got my camera today it's a perfect time to be up there!)

I am so excited! I cannot wait to start taking a bunch of pictures. First, though, I have to get a memory card and another battery... I'm going to go broke!

Chef City!

2005-11-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

I am possibly the biggest dork I know. My mother and I found all of these cute trinkets and things at Ross and I started looking through different kitchen decorations- they had the cutest stuff. So, I ended up buying a few pictures, a cutting board, a napkin holder, a salt-shaker holder, and a few other things for my future-but-non-existant-kitchen. It's all very french/bistro/cafe/chef ... I decided a long time ago that's how I'd decorate, and now I have a headstart! I'm very particular about things. Everything needs to be coordinated. Currently, my whole room consists of star/sun/moon things and goes together so well... and that's how it will be when I finally move out! :) I feel pretty stupid planning that far ahead... but hey, I had a great day. Now all I need is to get my digital camera so i can take pictures of it all!

Last night Kayce, Jen and I had a girls night and went to dinner at Red Lobster... it was delicious! It's always fun to spend time with the girls. Sometimes I feel like I don't do it often enough. Afterwards we headed to Black Angus(the steakhouse I used to work for, and where Kayce, her boyfriend Keith, and Trevor still do) and had some cheesecake. My favorite. We also took some very dorky pictures afterwards... I'll leave you with a couple of my favorites, although I'm not thrilled about the huge SMOCK I'm wearing!

100 Things

2005-11-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've been putting this off long enough. It's about time I do my 100 things... I was a little disappointed I could not find my 100 things from previous blogs, but that's just because I'm lazy! Ladies and Gentlemen, here we go.

1. My name isn't really Celestial... I just like it because I'm obsessed with stars/moons/suns.
2. I cannot wait to turn 21... not because I'm a lush, but because it's about damn time
3. I grew up in Michigan and moved to Arizona at 13
4. At the time, I hated my parents for it
5. I love it here now!
6. Dirty Dancing is, and always will be, my all time favorite movie
7. Gladiator is a very close 2nd
8. I love sports... I wish I was still as athletic as I used to be
9. My favorite was volleyball, I was a setter in high school
10. I went to prom 4 times
11. My favorite book is Summer Sisters
12. I get along with my mom very well.... my dad and I have ups and downs, but I love them both more than anything!
13. I didn't grow up going to church
14. I still don't go ... just to Chi Alpha once in awhile
15. I wish I was more artistic
16. I used to write a lot... poetry, short stories, etc
17. I wish I still did
18. I'm extremely self-conscious
19. I watch too much T.V.
20. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant, but don't do that as my job
21. I can be a brat
22. I love to eat
23. I have a slight obsession with Mark Wahlberg
24. I hate science fiction movies/books
25. I've never gotten a ticket
26. I'm very indecisive
27. My childhood fear was Freddy Krueger(sp?)
28. I love dogs... shar-pei's in particular!
29. I have a brother and a sister... and a half brother and sister that we really don't discuss
30. My favorite physical features (on myself) are my eyes and legs
31. My favorite physical features(on someone else) are eyes and hands
32. I love Coke Zero
33. My favorite subject in school was English
34. My most hated subject in school was math
35. I am beginning to really love and appreciate Biology
36. I am very good at speaking/understanding/reading/writing Spanish
37. I would love to do travel nursing in the future
38. I have never done drugs and never will
39. One of the worst movies I've ever seen was Dreamcatcher
40. I desperately want to learn to cook... good food
41. I live at home, but sometimes wish I didn't
42. I want to be more independent
43. I am secretly(well, not that secretly) addicted to The O.C. and Laguna Beach
44. I'm having a very hard time finding 100 things about myself!
45. I love subs
46. My family used to own a Blimpie
47. Blimpie is better than Subway
48. I am a shop-aholic
49. I'm not superstitious
50. I love to tube, jet-ski and wakeboard
51. My favorite drink right now is raspberry margaritas at On the Border
52. I'm usually an outsider
53. I have friends I have talked to online since I was 11
54. I have always loved the computer
55. I type 120 words per minute (on average)
56. Most people don't believe me until they see it
57. I am very responsible
58. I am very organized
59. I have somewhere around 1000 seashells, if not more
60. I want to go to Magic Mountain...I've never been
61. I love roller coasters!
62. I am afraid of the dark
63. My favorite holiday is Christmas
64. I love to play board games
65. Cranium and Mad Gab are my favorite
66. I want to have 2-3 kids
67. I pretty much have their names picked out
68. I'm obsessive
69. My biggest pet-peeve is the sound of chewing
70. I've wished on stars
71. I love candles
72. I don't really talk to angels
73. One of my favorite songs is "Near You Always" by Jewel
74. I get poetry
75. I'm very sarcastic, it runs in the family
76. I'm impatient
77. I'm watching The Animal... it's possibly the dumbest movie ever
78. I love shrimp
79. My favorite place is Sea World in San Diego
80. I also love the beach
81. I'm a very good swimmer
82. I am a junk-food addict
83. I always have to be right
84. I always am right ;)
85. I used to play the piano... not so much anymore
86. I used to have very blonde hair
87. I thought I was adopted
88. I am pro-choice ... in most cases
89. I believe in the death penalty
90. My parents are my heroes
91. I also like spiderman
92. I am extremely cheap
93. I once paid $60 for jeans and thought that was outrageous and crazy
94. I used to beat all the boys running the mile in elementary school
95. I like my own handwriting
96. I used to dance- tap, jazz and ballet
97. Sometimes I wish I still did
98. I also played soccer, volleyball, softball and basketball
99. Needles and blood do not bother me
100. I am trying to learn how to live my life to the fullset

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That took forever. :)

Saw II and the Other

2005-11-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to say thanks to Elizabeth for getting me interested in seeing Saw II. It was... ridiculous! Much better than I was expecting. Even the very beginning had me with my hands gripping my face in suspense ... although the ending had many teenagers whispering, "Well I think what happened was..." and "No that meant that..." It's definitely worth seeing, especially to see a small glimpse of Mark Wahlberg every time you see Donnie Wahlberg's(Detective Matthews) face. I have a slight obsession.

I'm going to be taking a nap soon(I work tonight), but I doubt I'll get much sleep. I'm anxiously awaiting my digital camera and I cannot stop thinking about it... all the pictures I want to take, what I want to do with them... so so many ideas, and still probably a week to wait. Ahhhh!

And on that note, I'm off to sleep. :)

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round

2005-11-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

So for a small recap- my sister, Allison, and her roommate(also a family friend) are special education teachers. They got their degrees from Central Michigan University and have been teaching here in Arizona ever since. The other day, for the first time, I had the pleasure of seeing what the teaching thing is all about !

First, we headed to Heather's school where her and Allison run an after-school program... a reading club. These kids are somewhere along the lines of 3rd/4th grade. It was a pretty awesome, and a little amusing, experience. They had a lot of fun trying to guess who I was related to (and one, of course, had to guess that I was Allison's mother... not something I want to hear), who was oldest, who was youngest, etc. It's very interesting the way kids' minds work. When we had them guess who was the oldest and youngest, they had us all stand up...because obviously whoever was the tallest is the oldest, vice versa!

After that we had dinner at Macayo's and headed to a wine bar, where, after a couple glasses of wine, Heather talked very loudly about the fact that she "could not believe I was not 21 yet!" It was an interesting night...;)

The next morning I went with my sister to her school and had the pleasure of working with Ben, an 8th grader with downsyndrome ... something I never thought I could do. He was the sweetest kid imaginable, and I had such an awesome time with him... he even told me I could marry him if I wanted, and asked me if he could give me a hug when he left. It made my heart melt! I definitely want to go back ... although I don't think I could ever teach for a living... I was not blessed with much patience!

Now, after that lovely story... I'm off to see Saw II. Have a fantastic night! :)

New Camera!

2005-11-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

So the past couple days (Ok, really, the past DAY), I have been really interested in getting a new digital camera. So today, I bought one! My family tends to have the "want it..gotta have it now" mentality. I don't like to wait when I have my mind set on something. So, ladies and gentlemen, here it is...

Unfortunately, I bought it online so it won't be here for awhile... :( But the shipping was free, so I guess I can wait.

In other news, the We Will Rock You show we were planning on going to while were in Vegas (for my 21st birthday!!) has been cancelled. Apparentely they are going on tour, so this was kind of a disappointment. However, we will now be going to the Cirque de Soleil (I'm sure there are too many spelling errors to speak of there), so I'm excited for that!

I have to go pay my tuition at ASU for my winter intersession class... Human Development, so I'm going to do that right now. And I should also probably do my statistics for the week. But I really do not feel like it- shocker. I also have to tell about my adventure at Allison and Heather's... so I'm sure there is more blogging to come shortly!

I'm Back!

2005-11-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back from my sisters... What an amazing experience! I have so much to write about, but I'm going to save that for a little later. In the meantime... I found this at Elizabeth's new blog and I thought it was really cool.

Post a Secret, Share a Secret

Enjoy! :)

Happy November !

2005-11-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope you all had a good Halloween. Can you believe it's November already?!

My Halloween actually ended up going really well. I spent most of the day shopping and found the greatest pair of shoes at Bakers for just...$14.99! I was thrilled because I am cheap and I love shoes! :)

Anyways, when we got home I got cleaned up and gathered the candy. Finally, around 6:15 or so people actually started coming. Every year it seems like less and less people are out. Still, we went through about 120 candybars. Not too bad. While we were sitting outside, though, a police helicopter was flying over the neighborhood announcing that they were looking for two missing boys. Very scary... these days, you just never know. Not to mention I just finished reading the book The Lovely Bones, so I was even more worried about it. (By the way, I'm not too sure I recommend this book... I had to force myself through most of it).

Around 8:00 some friends started showing up and I played hostess. We ended up watching The Amityville Horror because Jen had not yet seen it (the rest of us saw it in the theater. I have never been so scared of a movie in my life... Ok, except maybe when I was five and watching Nightmare on Elm Street). Not a bad Halloween movie. :)

All in all, it was a pretty fun night. This afternoon I am heading over to my sisters house for the night. Should be interesting!

Happy November!

So Just Kiss Me

2005-10-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have always really liked Jewel... her music. Awhile ago my sister bought me her poem book, and this has always been one of my favorites... and today, I guess, I just need this.

So just kiss me and let my hair
messy itself in your fingers

tell me nothing needs to be done-
no clocks need winding

There is no bell without a voice
needing to borrow my own

instead, let me steady myself
in the arms

of a man who won't ask me to be
what he needs, but lets me exist

as i am

a blonde flame
a hurricane

wrapped up
in a tiny body

that will come to his arms
like the safest harbor

for mending

Pumpkinless

2005-10-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

I was really counting on the Friday Five today, but apparentely I have been out of blogging for far too long... and it no longer exists. What is up with this? Maybe I will make my own Friday Five. We will have to see.

I was planning on getting into the Halloween spirit today by going to some haunted houses, but now I'm not so sure. I'm just not feeling it. I don't even have pumpkins this year. How boring am I? I guess I'm just not a big Halloween person. I will, however, be passing out candy Monday... that is my favorite part of all!

I remember when I used to live in Michigan and Halloween seemed like such a big deal. I can't decide if it was because I was younger, or if it really was just better. We lived on the corner in the biggest house on the block... it had a long driveway leading up to the house, and we would have scary music playing, decorations, etc. My dad and our neighbor would even dress up and do various things to scare the kids in the neighborhood while we were out trick-or-treating in our 7 layers of clothes with a costume on top.

Ah...Those were the days!

Ta Da!

2005-10-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! Can you believe it? Doesn't it look gorgeous?! I am so excited to have my new template up and running! :) I just love it. I am so excited that I kept with it and it turned out just perfect... Thank you so much to Elizabeth, my sister-in-lawish, for the awesome artwork, and to my brother for putting up with all of my CSS questions! I'm so proud. :)

What do you guys think?! I'm so glad that I can start to focus on the content of my blog now and not have to worry too much about the design(although I'll still be tinkering with it, I'm sure!) Hooray :)

Books, Books, Books

2005-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

I have been dying to write something tonight, probably because I'm at work, and technically I can't post anything. All the blogger sites are blocked, so basically I can't do anything and it really sucks because I'm on the "boring" floor we call 3D tonight. Anyway, the reason I've been wanting to write is to tell the world about yet another awesome book I just finished. It's Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult. Apparentely she's a pretty popular author these days.. The only other book I've read of hers is My Sister's Keeper and it was great, too. I would definitely recommend them.

This one is about a district attorney, Nina Frost, and her family. More than anything, though, it's about her son, Nathaniel, who was sexually molested and left mute. It's phenomenal and I couldn't put it down for a second. It was funny, too, as I was sitting here at the computer a patient was walking around the floor and saw it, so she tells me, "You're reading an awesome book!" I let her know later that I had finished it. :)

I have about a million other books that I want to read... I don't know when I became such a book-geek. Here are a few..

A Million Little Pieces (this one is in Oprah's book club and I've heard really awesome things about it) -Josh Freye, I think?

A Man Named Dave (and the one that comes before it, I can't remember the name. They are the 2nd and 3rd books after "A Child Called It"...I've already read that one. It's about one of the worst cases of child abuse recorded in history... very intense) -Dave Pelzer

Little Earthquakes -Jennifer Weiner

Goodnight Nobody -Jennifer Weiner

So anyway, yea, I have a lot of work to do. :) Hopefully I will get to it sometime this semester ... because God knows I probably won't have a lot of reading time next semester when I start my first semester of clinicals in nursing school! Did I not mention that I got in? ;)

Still going . . .

2005-10-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

So, most of today was spent working on my little "practice blog"... it's coming out pretty nicely. (You can check it out here if you'd like!) There are still a lot of things I need to learn, but I'm working on it ! I am keeping a little notebook with a bunch of different tags for reference. And my brother and Elizabeth have been a lot of help ! My main problem, now, will be using the blogger tags with the new template I create. Any helpful hints?

Other than that, not much has been going on. My wonderful nephew's birthday is on Sunday and I did a little birthday shopping for him. He'll be 6 going on 15. Unfortunately, I have to work the next two nights. I'm a Health Unit Coordinator in the labor & delivery at a hospital out here. I work nights, 7pm to 7am and I really do love my job... but it's always hard going back after 9 days off! :) One of these days I'll have a little about me area or something... but I haven't quite gotten to it! As busy as I've been and all... ;)

Quote of the day: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. (Simple, yes, but true, no?!)

Style Sheets !

2005-10-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

I am currently sitting awake teaching myself CSS! Yes, I already know HTML believe it or not... but there will be no beautifying my blog with HTML, so I had to go to the next level. Thus far, it's going pretty well. I have a little practice blog that I created so I can test everything I learn. Now I just need to become artistic so I can piece it all together... :)

Anyways, this is my new obsession. Of course, I'm still going to be pounding down peoples' doors to design a site for me... but I thought I would give it a shot. Wish me luck!

Chi Alpha

2005-10-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we continued our little journey and stopped over at Chi Alpha. I would have liked to stay the whole time since I can only go every other week, but we just were not feeling it (and by we, I mean Trevor and me). It's such an amazing place to go, though... I went in with a bad mood, and came out feeling a lot better, believe it or not. I don't know what it is. Shawn and Candi are a couple of the most amazing people I have ever known. They are really making a difference in peoples' lives. It makes me wish I had more of an impact on other people, but I'm sure my time will come !

The countdown continues with one month and two weeks left to go 'til the big two-one !

In Her Shoes

2005-10-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

Probably everyone should read this book, along with a few others that she has written!

Black Crowes

2005-10-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

She never mentions the word addiction
In certain company
Yes, she’ll tell you she’s an orphan
After you meet her family

She paints her eyes as black as night, now
Pulls those shades down tight
Yeah, she gives a smile when the pain comes,
The pain’s gonna make everything alright

Says she talks to angels,
They call her out by her name
She talks to angels,
Says they call her out by her name

She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket
She wears a cross around her neck
Yes, the hair is from a little boy
And the cross is someone she has not met, not yet

Says she talks to angels,
Says they all know her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels,
Says they call her out by her name

She don’t know no lover,
None that I ever seen
Yes, to her that ain’t nothing
But to me, yeah me,
It’s everything

She paints her eyes as black as night now
She pulls those shades down tight
Oh yeah, there’s a smile when the pain comes,
The pain’s gonna make everything alright, alright yeah

She talks to angels,
Says they call her out by her name
Oh yeah, yeah, angels
Call her out by her name
Oh, angels
They call her out by her name
Oh, she talks to angels
They call her out
Yeah, they call her out
Don’t you know that they call her out by her name

-Black Crowes