Holiday-Card Score Sheet

This was in the Real Simple magazine December 2008, written by Laura Sutherland. I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share it!

GAIN POINTS WHEN YOU RECEIVE CARDS FROM:
-dentist, insurance agent, hairdresser, dry cleaner, mailman +0.5 each
-your own mother +0.5
-anothr relative +1
-a friend via e-mail +0.5
-your boss +1
-friend you see at least once a week +1
-above, with reference to an inside joke +3
-long-distance friend, devoid of any personal message +2
-above, with personl message of at least three lines +5
-anyone who includes a hadwritten personal note of more than 5 sentences +5
-long-lost friend who hasn't been heard from in 20 years +10

LOSE POINTS WHEN:
-card and envelope are same piece of paper -1
-signature is imprinted rather than handwritten inside card -2
-photo is of a helpless pet in a holiday costume -3
-your name is spelled incorrectly -4
-highly religious card celebrates faith other than your own -5
-card is the same one you received last year -6
-return address label was provided by charity to which sender may not have actually contributed -7
-family newsletter contains words such as: gallbladder, spleen, and gout -8
-family newsletter is from ex who is (not so) subtly gloating over his recent wedding and cushy new job -10
-long-lost friend who hasn't been heard from in 20 years asks for money or a place to live -20

BONUS POINTS:
-gilded envelope +0.5
-handwritten return address +1
-card in which all family members appear to have signed their own names +2
-newsletter or family photo in card +2
-card with moving parts +3
-extremely clever handmade card +4
-oversized card requiring extra postage +5
-card sent from foreign country +6
-newsletter with humor at progeny's expense +8
-card with check, cash, or gift certificate +20

IF YOU SCORED:
-Negative points -- Did you forget to send out cards last year???
-0-20 points -- Not too shabby. And you still have time...cards will probably trickle in until 2009.
-20 points and above -- Well done! Looks like your mantel boasts cards aplenty. You're a shoo-in for Miss Congeniality.

The journey of my hair

My hair had an amazing journey today!

Here's how it started the day

Then it became this

Some of it ended like this

while the rest is in a package being sent to Wisconsin where it will become a wig for a woman with cancer.

Quite the productive day for hair!

Christmas shopping

If you are planning on doing any shopping online, please feel free to use the link below. By shopping through the link, the company Upromise puts 3-10% of your purchase into my student loans. It doesn't charge you a thing! Thanks!!!

Your personalized link:http://www.upromise.com/guest/2087414286

Replacing old with the new

I'm finally starting to put all of our old stuff away and break out all the new, wonderful items we received from the wedding! We have a lot of stuff that's obviously been used, but it's in pretty good shape. I was going to post it on Craig's List or take it to Goodwill, but thought I'd see if anyone needed anything first!

placesetting for 4 of Pottery Barn white dishes...4 mugs, 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates and 4 bowls.
I think 4 sets of silverware, maybe more
Offwhite bath towels and hand towels, 4 or 6
cotton ball holder, q-tip holder and extra toilet paper holder
toaster oven
2 blenders
hand mixer
crockpot
some kitchen towels
set of steak knives and kitchen knives in a block, missing a steak knife
a vacuum...it works well, but sometimes it will stop and you have to let it cool off for a bit
3 shelf bookshelf in light wood
silver utensil holder
silver cocktail shaker

We'll probably have more, but that's all I've gotten through now!

ER advice

If you're in the ER waiting to be seen because of difficulty breathing, do not be outside smoking when your name is called.

Butterflies?

Is anyone else starting to get really nervous about the wedding? No? Just me? Yikes.

Let me get one thing straight...I am by no means worried about marrying JM. (You can relax, sweetie). It's more about everything getting done and turning out alright. I keep telling myself that come next Friday (OMG, next Friday), I will care less about all those little details and all the other things I've been worried about. Yet somehow, anxiety gets the best of me.

On a VERY uplifting note, all of the 10-day forecasts are showing next Friday to be sunny with a high of 60. It may be a little chilly, so make sure you dress for the weather! And yes, I will be obsessively checking every single weather website for the next 218 hours.

Hard at work?

Yesterday while I was hard at work on a Saturday (and yes, I really was hard at work yesterday), this is what the rest of my apartment was doing.

Harp Music for the Wedding

I'm trying to kill the last half hour at work so I found the songs that our harpist is going to be playing so you can hear it...on the harp. Enjoy!


Seating of the Grandmother and Mothers
Wind Beneath My Wings:
http://www.victoriaschultz.com/audio_pages/wind_beneath.htm

Bridal Party Processional
Hymne by Vangelis
http://www.janaldridgeclark.com/wedding.htm

Shannon & Dad
Processional by Linda Wood:
http://www.harpmelodies.com/audio_samples.htm and click track 17

Sand Ceremony
Only Time by Enya:
http://www.alyshowe.com/html/wedding.html

Recessional
Allegro Maestoso from The Water Music Suite by Georg Fredric Handel:
http://www.victoriaschultz.com/audio_pages/water_music_handel.htm

E-pics

Check out a few of our engagement photos!

Beautiful fall days

First and foremost, my matron of honor had her baby on Tuesday! Yay!!! Gabriel Michael was 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and perfect. Both mom and baby are doing wonderfully.

Today, JM and I went and filled out the application for our marriage license and got all of that taken care of.

Yesterday we had our meeting with the photographer to finalize all of the details. If you haven't checked her out, you should, I think she's incredibly talented and can't wait to have her shoot our wedding! Here's her blog:

http://erinhession.com/

Tomorrow is our engagement photo session and if the weather is anything like today, my world will be wonderful! I'm going to Studio 2000 earlier in the afternoon because Michelle does my hair MUCH better than I do! Then JM, Kodi and I are meeting Erin at Coxhall Gardens for the photo shoot. Kodi is SUPER excited. Here's the Coxhall Garden website:

http://www.coxhallgardens.com/Home.aspx

We're also meeting our new harpist tomorrow. The one we had originally signed with had a conflict come up, so she got us another woman. I'm excited to meet with her and see what ideas she has. This is her site, I think you can listen to some of her music:

http://www.janaldridgeclark.com/

That's it for now!

Comic strip promotes the upcoming inhaler changes

Day 2 in progress

I woke up starving. But then I got on the scale and was down 0.6 pounds. Not bad for the first weigh in! I had my motivation for the day.
I'm in the ICU today and it had been busy (until now, obviously) so I really hadn't thought too much about it. I woke up too late to pack lunch this morning, therefore I treated myself to a trip to the cafeteria and the salad bar. I'm not being sarcastic here, I really love our salad bar! I piled my bowl high with lettuce and spinach and cucumber and hard-boiled eggs. Added some cheese and grabbed a Ranch dressing and was on my way. Woo hoo!
Then, I walked into the department with my ever-so-exciting lunch. The smell of pasta and pizza almost knocked me off my feet. One person was eating Bazbeax's. Really? Come on now! Another person was eating Clarian's Healthy Choice meal for the day...lasanga! On top of that, they FINALLY filled our snack cart and what do you think was in it?!? Yep, HO HO'S!
Thinking I'd be smart I ate quickly and read my book to not notice all the wonderful food around me. Then I headed back up to the ICU. I had to take the elevator 6 floors with a woman with a HUGE slice of chocolate cake.
Now I find myself sitting here, proud of my day. One of my co-workers walks in and says the nurses had a pitch in for lunch and we can have the leftovers. He has proceeded to bring in (for all of us to share), 3 large chocolate chip cookies, 1 large brownie, 1 GINORMOUS piece of yellow cake, and a plate of soft tortillas to make tacos. How sweet of him.
I'm going to check on my patients before everyone notices the large puddle of drool on my keyboard.

Day 1 Recap

I made it through my first Atkins day. And...I SURVIVED!!! I only ended up eating 9 net carbs, but I didn't eat any of the veggies, so I technically didn't do it completely right. Oh well, close enough for me!
Things I learned today:
1) Atkins Advantage Chocolate Chip Bar tastes like stale cardboard.
2) Atkins Day Break Chocolate Crisp Bar tastes like stale cardboard with artificial flavored chocolate cardboard chips.
3) Atkins Milk Chocolate Delight Shake is, in fact, no delight. More precisely, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever choked down.
But, I made it through the day. A little grumpy at the end, but I made it and there were no fatalities. Yet.

How long will I last?

Today I officially started the Phase 1 of the Atkin's program. I tried yesterday, but we didn't have the right food at home so I ended up eating regularly and going to the grocery.
Side note, I'm trying this out per my doctor's recommendation. I was having some (who am I kidding...a lot!) of trouble getting the ball rolling on my weight loss so I started going to the Piatek Clinic. I've seen some progress, but not as much as everyone claims to see with Piatek. He recommended trying the Atkin's program...the meds he's given me have decreased my appettite enough that if I add low carb into the picture, the weight should really drop. I'm skeptical, but trying it.
First off, going to the grocery was depressing. I had the printout of what you can eat the first two weeks and thought there was a lot on it (look here to see what's on it). Yea, that's what I thought until I got to the grocery. I would go up and down aisle after aisle and not see anything on the list. We don't have enough money to get good meat, so I was rather limited. I have a feeling I'll be living on eggs for the next couple of weeks. (According to Atkins, it's nature's most natural food!!! Ugh.)
Last night before bed I read a couple of more chapters of my current book, Jen Lancaster's "Such a Pretty Fat". (BTW, if you haven't read any of her books, you need to! It's hilarious!!!) Of course in the chapters I read she started the Atkin's program. Although it was quite amusing, it also made me a little more negative about starting the program. I think so much like Jen Lancaster that it led me to believe I'll face the same hurdles.
Anyways, today was D-day. So far it's ok. I'm not hungry, but not exactly satisfied with my eating. Then I read a chapter where she discusses Olive Garden...NOT HELPING!!! I did just talk to JM and ask him to eat dinner before I got home from work so I didn't see it. I figure this is just 14 days. I can work hard for 14 days, right? Right???

Balls and Claws update

I forgot to let everyone know that Scout is doing fine! He's back to his loud, demanding, meowing self. Except he's missing a few things :-) His bad eye seems lazier though...weird. On the sheet from the vet it showed that he weighed in at 6.3 pounds! What a hoss! When we found him he was just at 1 pound.

Anyways, he's up to date on all his shots and happy as can be. I was even able to switch back to the regular litter today. Thank goodness!

Sand Ceremony

During the ceremony, JM and I are going to use the sand instead of the unity candle. Mainly, because I like the idea of it better. I'm not losing my past, I'm just merging my life with his. (Plus, the colored sands are pretty!) Then, the more I thought about it, I realized that the ceremony is outside. What if there's a breeze or it's windy??? Then the unity candle will blow out and that CANNOT be a good omen for the marriage. I don't usually pay too much attention to signs...but that one would be obvious!

Anyways, I'm trying to decide which 'sand ceremony' kit to get. Here are my options:

On this one, I liked the nesting unity sand vases (because you could use the vases later on), and the 'new oceans away'.
http://www.makingmemoriesandmore.net/sandceremony

This one I don't really like the vases, but they have a wider variety of sand.
http://www.moonglowcandles.net/wedding_sand.htm

This was kind of neat because we could each have our inital on our vase.
http://www.daisy-days.com/decanter-unity-sand-ceremony-set.html

Let me know if you have any grand ideas!

Tuxes, dresses,and cakes, oh my!

Well, we're another step closer to being prepared for the wedding. We emailed all the guys today and let them know the tuxes we picked out. We got them through A Step Above Bridal, which is where my dress is from. The guys will all wear black notch lapel tuxes and french vanilla shirts. The dads will have black ties and vests while JM will have an ivory vest and white and ivory striped tie. The groomsmen will have chocolate brown vests and chocolate brown and black striped ties.

This is the tux and JM's ensemble...Then this is the swatch for the groomsmen's...My dress came in last week so Mom, Lynds and I went over on Saturday morning and I put on the whole she-bang. It's still wonderful! And I still need to name the dress!!! For those of you who don't know, the first one who buys one of Antonio Fermin's designs gets to name it! This is a MUCH harder task then I had imagined. So much stress!!! I would love to name it 'The Shannon', or after seeing myself on Saturday, 'Princess Shannon'. But, my mom used Grandma Haines's inheritance money to pay for it, so I feel I should pay tribute to her somehow. 'Elaine's Love' (Connie's idea) or something of the sort. Anyone have any suggestions?!? Maybe I'll make it a contest...whoever comes up with the name I use wins something. Hmmm...I don't really have any prizes!

We also decided on a cake. Ritz Charles will be bringing the cake as well as the food. They won out pretty much solely on price. I was amazed at how good of a deal they gave us. Anyways, it will be the 'Ritz Buttercream' frosting, yellow cake and chocolate truffle filling. This is what it will look like (minus the flowery thing). The main color will be more of a lime green and then the borders will still be chocolate brown.We still have to decide on a cake topper. No clue what to do about that. We may just go with a big 'L'. How creative!

Our engagement photo session is in a couple of weeks and will be done by our photographer, Erin Hession. We had been planning on having it downtown on the canal (with Kodi, of course), but a friend of mine did hers at the Oliver Winery and the pictures turned out amazing!!! I emailed Erin today to see if that was an option. Also, it's my last name, and we're going to a winery for the honeymoon, so how fitting!

I think I need to hit the hay now. I'm not working tomorrow except for a class at 3, but I'm hoping to check out a couple of places and find out about bridesmaids dresses. Less than 10 weeks now...need to get my butt in gear!

I'll blog later about the honeymoon, rings, and hopefully other things that have been accomplished!

Balls & Claws

Scout (the recently rescued kitten) finally reached the weight to get declawed! Yay for my furniture!!! And for my hands and arms which are constantly scratched up!!! We decided while he was sedated, we might as well get him neutered. Although we felt bad...the poor little guy was going to wake up missing a few things he loved dearly!
This was him the night before surgery playing at my mom's house.
Here is one of the claws that I'm NOT going to miss!
and I was attempting to get a picture of the other 'items' he was going to lose. Murray's laughing at us.
JM picked him up this afternoon from the vet. (The vet requires them to spend at least one night there after the surgery for observation). When he went to get Scout out of his carrier, his paws were bleeding. He had to take him back to the vet and they're going to keep him for at least one more night. The vet said it wasn't a big deal, the wounds had just opened. I feel bad though!!!
I don't think Boo and Kodi are missing him too much. Boo slept on the bed...Kodi's not being batted at. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow to tourment the others!

Government Stats Shed Light on Respiratory Hospitalizations

July 9, 2008

The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has just released new statistics on hospitalizations, and the data show respiratory conditions continue to top the list.

In 2006, pneumonia was second only to childbirth as the most common reason for hospitalization, accounting for 1.2 million admissions and ringing up a bill of $10 billion. Other conditions making the top 10 list were: hardening of the arteries, congestive heart failure, chest pain, injuries to the mother during birth, other complications of labor and delivery, heart rhythm problems, osteoarthritis, and heart attack.

COPD ranks number 15 on the hospitalization list, and asthma comes in at number 26. Respiratory failure follows at number 27.

Data on pediatric hospitalizations suggest respiratory conditions make up a large percentage of admissions, with pneumonia coming in at number 2, acute bronchitis at number 3, and asthma at number 4.

On the list of procedures, “respiratory intubation, mechanical ventilation” ranks number 5.
You can search for respiratory-specific statistics in the AHRQ database by going to the agency’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project web site. To view tables on the most common reasons for hospitalization nationally or in your state, click on the “Quick National or State Statistics” tab.

Catering Tasting

Last Friday JM, Mom, Dad, Lynds and I went to the Ritz Charles to taste a few samples so we can make a decision on the wedding menu. It was really neat, they had a table set up on the dancefloor for us so we could see the china, linens, etc. that will be used for our reception.

This is how the tables will look, minus the diet coke can! We will be using these ivory tablecloths, but we are having chocolate cloth napkins. The centerpieces come with the catering (the votives with the mirror). I haven't decided whether or not to add some rose petals, leaves, or whatever, in addition. The family tables will have centerpieces made by the florist...but it was way too expensive to have one at every table!

We are going with the buffet option, in which we get to chose a salad, a couple of sides, a veggie, 2 main meals, and then rolls. We were able to try 3 of the main dishes, so the first one we tried was the london broil. The chef came out ahead of time and explained everything. He had marinated it for 2 days in a tomato basil. The rose is made out of tomatoes. It was excellent.

Then we tried the key lime chicken. I didn't want to do the usual chicken with sauce or gravy, so I thought this would be different. It was marinated in lime and honey and then it was cooked so the marinade became a glaze. I thought this was amazing. The chicken was sooo juicy.

We then tried the beef brochettes, which I had no clue what would be! They were awesome. It was flank steak on skewers with olives, pearl onions, artichokes, and some type of sweet pepper. It was then sprinkled with feta cheese. The chef said it was Mediterranean inspired.

While it all was amazing, we could only pick two. I wanted a red meat and then a chicken, so we obviously went with the key lime chicken. It was a tough decision between the brochettes and the london broil, but the brochettes won out. We thought it was a very unique dish to have at a wedding and sooo tasty!

Then we tried 3 different cakes to see what icing, cake flavor and filling we liked. The icings we tried were cream cheese and buttercream. It was a unanimous vote of the buttercream. We then tried the white, chocolate and yellow cake. That was a toss up, but in the end, yellow. It was moist and didn't take away flavor from the rest. The fillings were almond mousse, cafe mocha and chocolate truffle. The cafe mocha was way too coffee-like. I really liked the almond mousse, but the majority vote was for chocolate truffle. We're not for sure that we're going to have the Ritz do our cake, but if we do, this will be the cake.

It's a wine/beer bar. There will be a white and red wine and then the two beers will be Coors Light and Mich Ultra. That may change, but for now it's what we're going with. Cocktails will be cash only.

We still haven't decided on appetizers or sides, but that should be taken care of in the next week or so.

Hope everyone had a happy Father's Day!

Book reviews by me

I've been reading (fun books!) like crazy since school got out. It's so nice to have time! Although I really should be spending more time studying for my board exams, I feel like I need to catch up on my books!

Connie introduced me to Jodi Picoult who I have found to be an amazing author. The first book of hers I read was My Sister's Keeper and it was beyond words. The writing, the story, incredible. I HIGHLY suggest this book to anyone. It's about a young girl who's older sister is sick and needs various transplants...from her. It's a very interesting and thought-provoking read.

Then I read Nineteen Minutes. Still very good, but not as good My Sister's Keeper. It involves a school shooting by a boy who's bullied throughout most of his life.

I decided to take a bit of a break and read Memory Keeper's Daughter. A woman has twins and the girl baby has Downs Syndrome. The father sends the nurse away with the baby girl which she ends up raising as her own in a time where most children with Downs' didn't survive. The father tells the mother that the baby girl died in child birth and the book revolves around these lies. I thought it was a very well-written book, but the topic was so depressing. Don't read it if you need a pick me up!

Then I read James Patterson's new one, Sundays at Tiffany's. It was GREAT! If you're familiar with Patterson, toss everything you think you know about his writing out the window. It's completely un-Patterson and a great read. I finished it in 2 nights :-) It's the story of a girl's childhood imaginary friend reappearing in her life. Like I said, you have to just go with the story and not think too much about it, just enjoy it.

Finally, I just finished Change of Heart. Had to go back to Picoult! This is her new one in which a terrible crime happens. The story is years later and how one man on death row can make everyone question their faith and beliefs. Again, took me 2 nights :-) I think I have a problem!

Tonight I'm going to try to get to bed at a decent time and not stay up reading till midnight! Good night!

Worldy updates

Well, maybe not "worldly" updates...but Shan updates!!!

I took my CRT (certified Respiratory Therapy) exam last Monday and passed! Very exciting because then I was able to officially start work this week. Yay for being paid!

I still need to take both parts of the RRT (registered RT) exam. I'm signed up to take the written registry portion on Friday, June 13th in the a.m. Then I'll take the clinical simulations on Wednesday, June 18th. The clinical simulations are when they give you a situation and you have to pick answers based on decision making and information gathering. I think there's 10 of them and it's very long!

So I started working this week at Clarian's Indiana University Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. It's where I've worked for the last year as a student RT. I even got my one year anniversary key chain the other day! Tuesday was rather exhausting, it was Clarian orientation. The same EXACT seminar I had to sit through last summer. But, I got paid well AND I signed up for my health insurance and all of that. It will all go into affect on June 1st. Yay!

I had yesterday off and then today I went in the morning for some computer training. While working as a student I wasn't able to check off meds on the computer or write orders so I had to learn how to do that stuff. Tomorrow I go in for 8 hours for department and general care orientation. Next week I'll get into the 12 hour shifts I need to get accustomed to!

I went and looked at some houses with Mom today. There are a lot of cute ones out there but that might be making it a harder decision. Tomorrow night we're going over to Lyndsay's to play (or in my case, try to play) poker. Nothing but yoga planned for Saturday and Sunday is church and a bridal show.

Off to bed. I do have to work tomorrow!

Getting settled

I continue to be amazed as to how well this kitten is adjusting! Boo is now it's idol. He's getting a little better with Kodi, but there's still hissing and spitting if Kodi gets too close. Every night Scout asks for milk so we had to run out tonight and get him some more of the kitty milk. I figure he probably didn't get as much as he should of from his mom so he deserves a little treat! Here are a few pictures I took tonight of Scout and Boo playing around. Above Scout is trying to play in Boo's big girl litter box.

Boo and Scout playing around the door.

Scout playing acrobatics on the bookshelf.

Drinking some milk and Boo watching over.

If you want to see more pics, visit my Picasa page.

It's a boy!

I was able to cut out of my board review early yesterday afternoon and take Scout to my vet in Fishers. Turns out it's a boy...1 pound 0 ounces. They treated him for fleas and worms just to be on the safe side. He tested negative for the feline leukemia which was great because now there are no worries of him being around Boo.
My most exciting news was yesterday morning. It was his first night and when I went to check on him in the morning I opened the door and was hit by the smell letting me know he finally went potty. But guess where he went?!? His litter box! He's such a great little guy.
He has also become the sweetest kitten. He didn't even make a noise when they took blood from him for the tests! In the car he laid on his back in the cat carrier and sunbathed the whole long trip. Boo and him are getting a little better acquainted...she's still a little rough with him but he's dealing with it. Kodi came home today and they met. There's a lot of hissing but Kodi's a good boy and isn't aggressive, he just sits there and watches Scout. By the time I put all the kids to bed Scout was ok with Kodi being in the room.
Now it's time for me to go to bed!

Making some progress

Scout has let me pick her/him up!!! Mom came over to check her out and we both just sat in the bathroom here she/he had made a nest out of a towel. He/she looked really sleepy and to be honest, I was getting worried that it wasn't making it. We cleaned out the extra bedroom closet and made a whole nest area for her/him in there and I picked up the towel with Scout in it and was able to set it down in the closet. I even picked her/him up and put it in the litter box and tried to explain what you do in that...Mom even made peeing noises. I'm not sure if he/she caught on though. JM and I bought some puppy training pads and lined the closet with them, so even if she doesn't use the litter box right away it's ok. He's eaten about 2 small containers of food...totally famished. And now he's back to hissing a bit and a little more active. He seems to like the light off in the closet, I figure that's because it lived under the ramp with no light. But she let me comb her with a flea comb and JM's even allowed to pet her now. Here are some pics from after the move to the closet.

Oh, and to make her a little more lovable...she has a lazy eye.

Notice the tiny head in the middle of the towel bundle?

Mom petting her to show how little she is. Her head's about twice the size of her body.

Close up

Scout is finally caught

After 3 days (which seemed like much longer), we caught the kitten! For those of you I didn't ramble to, here's the story. I was driving into the apartment complex on Saturday morning and I happened to see a tiny head poking out from under the wheelchair ramp leading to our clubhouse. I walked back and sure enough, it's a kitten. And a VERY wild kitten! After many cans of food, coaxing, and sitting out in the rain, JM and I finally caught it today. We found out that it is the last of 5 kittens to have been caught from under there in the last week or so. Not sure where the mom went, but they were all very hungry, scared and lonely.

I'm not sure how I thought the encounter would go, but so far it's been a bit of an exhaustion. It flipped out when JM picked it up and has just finally stopped meowing (it's now been almost three hours). We put it in the cat carrier in the bathroom and left it with food, water, a make-shift litter box and a blanket with a hot water bottle inside of it. We go in periodically to try to talk to it and get it a little more used to us. It doesn't spit at me anymore at least! I am desperately hoping it won't be too long of an adjustment period.


I'm hoping to foster her (or him...not sure yet) until it's more well-adjusted and then try to find a home for it. If you know of anyone who may be interested, please forward this on!!!

This is where she has been living...

Now here she is scared and mad in our bathroom!

Little girl's first

I was in the living room getting ready this morning with the windows open and I heard a bird chirping. It sounded really close to our open windows, which was odd because the birds don't come that close because a predator (aka Boo) is usually in the window. I looked, and no birds. What in the world? Turns out it was Boo. It was the funniest thing to watch. She would hear them chirp and then make different noises at different pitches until she thought it sounded like them. Our little girl is growing up :-)

Finals have begun!

I had my first final this morning! It went very very badly, but I don't really care at this point. I have clinicals tomorrow, another final on Wednesday, last day of clinic on Thursday and then a final on Monday morning. After that...I'M DONE!!!!

Word to the wise

Never get a pedicure right before a race. Especially a race you haven't technically been training for.

Mom and I went for our spring pedicures last Friday and it was wonderful. Then Saturday morning I had the 15K training for the mini. (FYI, I'm walking it). The first four miles I'm doing great. My pace was averaging about 14:30/mile and I felt like I could go forever. It was cold and even started raining, but still felt good.

During the fourth mile, I started feeling blisters coming on. To make a long story short, by the seventh mile I was in excruciating pain. The last mile I was seriously walking on my toes. I refused to stop because...well, I was being stubborn. It was horrible!!! So, lesson learned. Never get a pedicure and have your feet all soft and smooth before 9 miles!

Day in surgery

We had our third to last day of clinic today! We got to stand in on two surgeries, a thoracotomy and a coronary artery bypass graft x 3. The thoracotomy was very interesting for me because the patient happened to be the gunshot wound I had on Tuesday. It was neat to see the patient progress. They were able to get about a liter of blood out of his lung...and that was after 2 days of having a chest tube in to drain! Hopefully this will clear him out. We looked at the x-rays and he literally missed his heart by centimeters.
Did anyone get to watch the new Office tonight? I was cracking up. It was a little much at times, but it was great to have a new episode!
I'm going to the salon tomorrow. I have my first hair appointment with Michelle! Very exciting!!! I feel bad for her though...I haven't even had a trim since November!!! Mom and I are getting our annual "Welcome spring" pedicures afterwards. I have a 15K the next morning, hopefully it won't mess up my pedicure!
TGIF!!!

Satisfaction

I'm currently at Methodist Hospital for clinic in the ICU. Today was a rather depressing day. One of my patients is over 400 pounds (down 200) and has been in ICU on a ventilator since November. My other patient was a gun-shot wound that came in last night. When I was getting report on him I thought it might be some exciting story, but nope, it was self-inflicted. He was with it today so it was hard seeing his kids come in and him mouth 'I'm so sorry' to them.
My third patient was an older woman who had been in Hawaii for the last few months and was starting to feel short of breath. So when she got back to Indiana, she went to the hospital and it turns out she had pneumonia. Long story short, she had to be intubated and this morning I was able to extubate her...yay! She did great all day, weak, but she did an awesome job. Her husband was there and we chatted a lot. Poor guy has been sitting next to her bed for a couple of weeks in an ICU where there's no one to talk to. When I was getting done, he asked if I'd be back tomorrow and I told him no, I'm back on Thursday but she'll be in a regular unit by then (God-willing). He walked over, gave me a hug, and thanked me. He said, "Thank you for the care you've shown with my wife and I today". It's sentences like that which make the extra student loans worth it.

75th Anniversary

Today is the 75th anniversary of the 21st Amendment. Therefore, I propose everyone buy a drink today to celebrate the end of prohibition!

A visit to the wedding site

Last Friday, JM, Mom, Dad and I went over to the Monon Center to meet with the coordinator and take a look at the grounds. Everything was a blur when we went there originally and decided to have our wedding there, so I wanted to take another look and get an idea of what we need to order and decorate. Turns out they have made some major purchases that I am THRILLED about! They bought white wooden folding chairs for the outdoor reception (which we don't have to rent!). They also are buying a shuttle so the bridal party doesn't have to walk all the way over to the ceremony site...it's not that far, but it will be when I'm dragging a train behind me! Now they're thinking of buying...ok, I can't think of the word for it, but it's that rectangle thing that the bride, groom and officiant stand underneath. Kind of like this...

Although there won't be an ocean behind us :-) (BTW, this is Courtney, one of my bridesmaids, and her husband, Ben's, wedding in Naples last November).

I'm very happy with all that the Monon Center is doing. They actually haven't had any weddings there yet and they're bringing in a wedding coordinator from the Ritz Charles so they have all of these ideas. Yay!!! Here are some pictures of the site.

These are of the banquet halls where the reception will be. They had it walled off for an event that night. This side has the stage. We'll also have all the balcony area that you can see outside.

The wall that you see to the right of this picture below will be open leading into the other rooms.

This is the other side of the banquet hall.

And the kitchen area where the food will be set up.

If the weather is poor (which it BETTER NOT be!!!), the wedding ceremony will be held inside on this breezeway. The doors at the end of this hallway will be shut and the furniture will be removed.

This bridge will serve as the background to the wedding ceremony outside. That's JM and Dad up there ahead of us.

Closer picture of the bridge and Dad videotaping for Greg.

This is looking out from the bridge. Everything's flooded right now so it's not a great view...but if you can tell there's a small hill on the right. They are going to build a walkway up to the top of the hill and that's where the ceremony will be held.

I should be hearing from the Monon Center sometime this week with their final decision on the catering (it should still be the Ritz Charles). I'll also get to speak with the girl who is going to be coordinating the weddings and get some ideas from her.

My cupcake attempt

I decided to try my hand making cupcakes today from a recipe in my Kraft Foods Magazine. They turned out soooo good. Good enough I'm including pictures and the recipe!





Lemon-Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Prep time: 10 min Total time: 1 hour 34 minutes (includes cooling)



1 pkg (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 pkg (4-serving size) Jell-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

1 cup water

4 egg whites (I used the egg-beater whites)

2 Tbsp oil

1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar

1 pkg (8 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened (I used the reduced fat)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

2 Tbsp lemon juice

gratings from 1 lemon peel



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick). Beat on medium-speed 2 minutes. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined 2 1/2 inch muffin cups.



Bake 21-24 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.



Meanwhile, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter, 1 tsp grated lemon peel and juice with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes and garnish with additional grated lemon peel.

Do you see what I see???

Why, I believe it's my first sign of spring!!!

I was walking Kodi today when I noticed these buds of flowers popping up from the ground outside of our apartment. (Yes, I know, Kodi needs his St. Patty's Day bandana taken off).

We walked by another building that must get more sunlight than we do because their buds were making some more progress than ours.

Anyone living here in Indiana will know that this was quite the sight for sore eyes today. With all this rain and dreary days, SAD has been hitting me a little harder than usual. It was so uplifting to see...And last but not least, we walked back to the creek (Big Eagle Creek) to see how high it was. Not only is it high...but it's ROARING! Well, as much as a creek can roar :-)

New Marines Commercial

http://our.marines.com/cms_content/showblogvideo/rel_id/169/id/870

We may have found it!!!

As you know, finding a place and a date for our wedding has been quite the predicament. And by predicament, I mean pain in the @ss. Anyways, JM and I decided for a different approach. Screw having a neat, unique place, and let's spend less and maybe save for...I don't know...a house?

So, JM, Mom and I went to the Monon Center tonight to check it out. We liked it!!! Thing is, we'll be cutting a TON of costs, so in exchange, there's a particular photographer I want who is slightly pricey. The only dates in October that the photographer and the Monon Center have open in common are Oct. 17th and 24th...both Fridays. But, we get a discount on just about everything because it's not a Saturday!

I REALLY want the 24th (day after my 30th birthday...how fitting!), but another bride is going to look at the Monon Center tomorrow morning for a couple of dates, the 24th included. I just left the lady a rather desperate message and said that we discussed it and we definitely want the 24th...we'll come in tomorrow and pay the deposit! I'm hoping she'll at least sway the other bride away! If not....keep your fingers crossed that the photographer is open on the 17th! She was open the other day, I'm just hoping she isn't already booked!