Support our Troops!

I know that so many of you are either related to someone or know someone who is serving in the military for our country right now.

I got this email from a third year student at our school today letting us know about an awesome website that can help make a small difference in these amazing men and women's lives while they serve our country. Please do this! It only takes a second...and pass it on to your friends and family as well.

"There are lots of military personnel who are currently deployed away from home and are serving to protect America's interests abroad this holiday season. I wanted to ask each of you to visit this site http://www.letssaythanks.com and fill out a quick Happy Holidays card that will then be printed by Xerox and sent to the troops. It literally takes 5 seconds and 3 mouseclicks and can make a huge difference."

Thanks guys!

Picture Perfect....

OK, I just realized that I barely took any pictures this weekend, but I'm going to post a few of the ones I did just for fun! Hopefully I'll remember to take more over Christmas break! Enjoy!

My sister Kristen and I on Thanksgiving; she's really not this much taller than me....she had heels on and I had no shoes on.....just thought I had to explain....no I don't have a complex or anything!

My mom and I....if you ever wonder why I'm stubborn and sarcastic, you can thank this woman! :)

Our classic roadtrip picture...good times....

So excited to be going to see friends in South Bend!
This is why you cannot leave me in a car for 6 1/2 hours by myself with a camera....I get bored....things happen....I can't help it that I'm weird! It's genetic.

Continuing the Hacienda/Shopping Cart Adventure....only this time in the Martin's Parking Lot!

The girls and Rich (AKA, Creepy Guy in the Back) at the new Martins....yeah we're dorks. :)

Taking a quick break from our car dancing for a cute photo op! :) I love these girls!

Ladies and Gentlemen....I give you the new Lord of the Dance (or "Laura of the Dance???") Hehehehe....

And lastly, your obligatory "I have the cutest puppy in the whole word picture." I'm not quite sure what Bentley was doing here, but he ended up going to sleep like that.....comfortable I'm sure.... :)

Baby it's cold outside....

Yesterday's Weather: Sunny and a high of 69

Today's Weather: 30 degrees, freezing rain turning to snow

Gotta love Missouri weather! It's so cold out right now, and it took me almost an hour to make it from school to home, which is usually only a 15-20 minute trip. Oh the fun.... :) They're talking about closing school tomorrow due to the weather, but honestly I'd rather they didn't. In college I would have loved to have a day off due to weather; unfortunately now I realize that whether or not we have school that day, this stuff is still on the boards and still needs to be known for future patient contact. So, that being said, leaves us with the fun of making up all the lectures from tomorrow on some other day that already has it's own lectures scheduled. Like I said....so much fun. :-P
Tomorrow I'm also scheduled to be an Ambassador for an interview day for prospective students. It's always fun giving tours and trying to "sell" the school when it's freezing and sleeting/snowing all day long. Should be an interesting day!
My plans for tonight are simple: Get cozy in my favorite pajamas, turn the heat up, grab my favorite blanket and snuggle up on the couch with my ......pathology notes. Blechh...it was fine up until that last part. :) Actually I've got to study those notes for the first years because I'm supposed to start tutoring them for this section on Friday and I haven't even looked at those lectures from last year yet! :) It might be helpful if I know what I'm talking about when I go into this!
Adding to the fun....I have a new puppy that's HATING this weather outside and really not wanting to go out. It was so pathetic...I took him outside and all he did was paw at my legs and cry when I put him outside. Should be a fun evening!
Well, I thought I'd post now (nothing profound of course) so I could get more done tonight. If I think of anything earth-shattering or more interesting to say I'll post it later. I'm sure you're all waiting in breathless suspense.... :)

This post brought to you by NyQuil

Since I have just recently taken my dose of Nyquil for the evening so I can spend the next several hours in my own happy drug-induced coma, this post is bound to be a ticking time-bomb counting down to the moment I happily drift off sounding oddly like a cross between jet engine and a whistle. However, since I will be happily drugged, I won't care about the fact that I can barely breathe and will drift off into my own little happy land where I dream about some of the weirdest things on the face of the planet. (last night I had a dream Bentley learned how to talk....and that was the most normal part of the whole dream.....weird). Anyway, all that to say, this post will likely be incredibly random, rambling and the like....probably pretty reminiscent of the post I wrote on xanga over a year ago while still high off the nitrous from getting my wisdom tooth out....hehehehe....

Today was interesting. Since I had drugged myself last night before going to sleep as well (I figure if I'm going to be sick and since it's just a cold there's nothing I can do about it, I might as well be drugged so I don't have to feel so gross!) I overslept by about an hour this morning...yikes...but was still pretty out of it, so I didn't really care. I ended up walking into class just as lecture was starting this morning; talk about being on time! It was not a good day to have trouble focusing already though. We started off the morning with an exciting Biochem lecture on the kidney (thrilling, I assure you), then moved into a riveting two hour lecture on.....the kidney....Things didn't pick up much after lunch either.

Due to the Dayquil I was on at that point as well, I kept drifting in and out of reality this morning while in lecture. I was trying really hard to focus because I need to know all this stuff and the kidney's a little complicated, but it was a little difficult to do! I could tell when I was studying tonight the parts of the lecture that I just hadn't been there for!

We did have a really good lecture on ethics this afternoon which I thought was really interesting.

After coming in this afternoon, I sat on my bed for a minute and the next thing I knew, I woke up and it was two hours later! Yikes....

Well, I obviously don't have anything profound to say here....there were a lot of thoughts going through my head before, but the meds are kicking in....So instead of being profound and riveting (yeah...sure) I've decided to ramble on and waste anyone's time who decides to read this. :) I still haven't loaded pictures from this weekend, and I really am not in the mood to find my camera cord so you'll just have to wait some more! :)

OK, I'm crashing so it's off to bed for me! Adios, arrividerci, and however you say goodbye in another language.....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........................

Crazy few days....

I just got back yesterday from a VERY quick trip home to St. Louis and then on to South Bend for some visits with friends. It's always good to have a break from school and to see the people I love. There are also some times you need it more than others too...this was one of those times!

There's been a lot going on in my life recently resulting in a lot of stress and decisions to make. Some of these situations are due to decisions I have made, and some are situations that came looking for me that I've had to deal with. Either way, regardless of where they came from, it's been an exhausting semester so far (not bad, just exhausting) and I really needed a break away from everything.

That's one of the reasons it was great to just be at my parent's house for a few days. I literally did NOTHING and it was wonderful. I was able to relax, recover, and spend time with my family. It was also nice because there were four other people who thought Bentley was the cutest thing on the face of the planet (see the picture below for proof) and were more than willing to take care of him, which meant a little more of a break for me! I seriously feel like a mom sometimes with this new puppy....he's always in the back of my mind, I schedule things around taking care of him, etc..... :)

Early Friday morning, Laura and I left to head to South Bend for a few days and a short trip to see her family and catch up with friends. It was great to see a few people this weekend, and have some really great conversations. Honestly, though, the best part of the weekend was not what I expected it to be. I knew I'd have fun, and I thought hanging out with a bunch of friends was what I needed to relax and recharge. However, the best part of the weekend was actually two separate situations. On Friday night, four of us girls just hung out and talked and I ended up talking about some things that I've been thinking about recently and realized a lot of things that I hadn't before. Then, on Saturday night, I was able to see Melissa Key who I haven't seen in so long and we were just able to talk for a while. It's amazing talking to this girl, because when we sit down and talk, it doesn't matter how many people are around, we're both completely focused on the other person and time flies! It was so good for my heart just to sit there and chat with her and talk about things going on in each of our lives.

Even though this weekend wasn't necessarily what I expected, it was what I needed. I got a lot of things out in the open for myself so I can face them. The new title of my blog is from a Superchick song they sang at GCC this weekend. The lyrics are exactly the words running through my head and my heart right now and I'm really identifying with it.

I'm sure I'll have more to say on this in the future, but for now, I should go. I've got to start studying some renal (the new section we started today) and take some more Dayquil....this cold is lots of fun that's for sure! :)

Oh yeah, and I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I'll post the ones I did later!

Your typical Thanksgiving post....

(OK, I wrote this yesterday and posted it on MySpace, but I thought it would be a good way to start my blog here!)

In an effort to actually spend time with my family tomorrow, I've decided to write and post this blog now. I know it's the typical thing that everyone writes at Thanksgiving, but I've realized that I just don't take enough time to sit down and think about all of the wonderful things in my life. It's too easy to get stressed out and caught up with the day to day things and miss all of the amazing little things that I'm blessed with every day. With that in mind, I'm going to do my best to make a list of just a few of the things I have to be thankful of this year!
1) First and foremost, my wonderful family: I have great relationships with my brother, sister, and parents, and they're all healthy and doing well and that's HUGE!2) My amazing friends all over the country: I am blessed with friends in Indiana, Kansas City, North Carolina, Indy, Florida and countless other places. Even though I'm not constantly in contact with most of them, I can always count on them for support and an amazing time whenever we do get to see each other.3)Getting my first choice for third year rotations: I'm so excited to be going to St. Vincent's in Toledo; it will be an awesome experience to learn in a completely different way than I have yet and grow some more!4)On that note, I'm blessed to even be in med school. I'm so thankful that I've been given a dream and the opportunity to pursue it so early in my life! I love what I'm learning and what I have the chance to become5)Regardless of however many situations I've been through this last year that have at the time been stressful and challenging, I have learned SO many lessons (a lot of times the hard way) and I am on my way to being a different person because of all of these situations. While I know I haven't always made the best decisions, I've been given the chance to start again after a lot of not so good situations and learn from my mistakes....I guess this comes down to the simple fact that I'm thankful for GRACE!6)I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to see both family and friends over this break and celebrate and relax with all of them.7)I'm thankful for my (well, my brother's) brand-new puppy that brings so much love and fun into our lives.8)I'm thankful for getting this far through school and not only surviving, but doing better than I thought possible! (completely not by my ability!! God's awesome!)9)I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm completely thankful that I live in a country where I'm able to get an education, do what I want with my life, and succeed in whatever way I can without unjust boundaries.10)I'm thankful that my family, friends, and God realize that I'm not yet who I will be and I'm a work in progress and have the grace every day to put up with the annoying things I do that are (I hope!) being worked out of me as I slowly become the person I am meant to be.
There's about a thousand other things I have to be thankful for, but I thought I should keep this relatively short!
Thanks to every one of you for all of the love you've given me, all of the support you constantly show me, and all of the fun times we've ever had together. I am so blessed to have each one of you in my life, and you all are amazing, wonderful people! I love you!!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Following the crowd...

So I've decided to start blogging on here. I got tired of blogging on myspace or facebook and only having whatever people are on there be able to read it (my thoughts are just too inspiring to limit to a select few! :) ) Anyway, this might be easier, and I thought I'd give it a try! :)