To the OR, STAT!

My little sis Jill (pictured above before her most recent formal) was rushed to the ER last night for an emergency appendectomy. Everything went smoothly and she's doing well. She has one more round of IV antibiotics and then she'll be released this afternoon. They did the procedure laparoscopically (think little camera inside so they can see) so she only has three little stitches. I found this cool (it might only be cool to me since my brain is totally medical-ified, but whatever) illustration of what they did to her:

Though it is weird, I must say that I've wanted mine out since I was about nine. I'm just so curious about what it would be like to have surgery and this seems like a relatively safe and routine procedure. I suppose I'll just live vicariously through her. I'm just glad she made it through with flying colors.

Don't. Push. Me. 'Cause. I'm. Close. To. The. Eeedge.

*My professors have become very cranky lately...cranky as in being mean and annoying in class and also deciding at the last minute to give us things like lab practicals.

*Car Wars (aka idiot marketing scheme to get peolpe to buy lamo vehicles) is going on this weekend which means the giant parking lot at War Memorial stadium where I park for school is closed which means there are 5,000 people fighting for 200 parking spots everyday for the rest of the week.

*I started my job last week, and though I think I'll like it eventually, I don't like having to work while I'm still in school. It sucks a whole day of my week away because I'm at school from 9am to 2pm and then work from 2:30pm to 11pm not to mention that I'm responsible for not killing anyone with the IV's that I make. Stress!

*We still have ants!! I keep getting rid of them in one area and then they show up in a different room. We're not dirty people. Leave us alone you crazy insects!

Disclaimer: I'm not complaining. I know I could have a lot bigger problems in my life. Sometimes you just gotta blow off a little steam.

COMH (+ TGIF! Yahoo!!)

Check out the new side table and lamp that my mom bought me for my b-day. I've had the table for a while (seeing as how my b-day was back in Feb.), but the lamp just came in last week. I love them both but especially the lamp. Only a few more things left to do to the living room before its "done!"

Fun fact for the Day:
The outermost layer of the covering that surrounds our brains (underneath the skull) is called dura mater which means "tough mother." Ha!

Privacy Please.

So, I have not started my new job yet. Maybe next week. Maybe the week after that. It turns out you have to jump through a lot of hoops and over a lot of hurdles to be able to work in a hospital pharmacy (they even light one on fire before you jump through). I won't bore you with all of them, but I will tell you about what I had to do this morning. I went up to St. Vincent cause they needed me to fill out some paperwork for a background check (as if I haven't already had four or five done since I started p-school...you think they would have found out if I was naughty by now). Then I had to go up to employee health for a drug screening among other health related things. Now here is where it gets out of control. I was required to let the nurse watch me pee into the cup!! Some of you may be saying big deal, but bathroom time for me is private time and I didn't enjoy sharing this moment with some random lady. And, of course I couldn't go cause she was sitting there watching me the whole time so it took like five whole minutes. It's not like I'm gonna smuggle in some pee to take the place of my own, but I guess they have a problem with that and that is why they have to watch. I'm just glad I didn't get hired to watch people pee everyday.

Oh well, now it's off to the nuclear pharmacy down the road to take a tour for one of my classes. Hopefully I won't glow when I'm done. (Really though. It's pretty safe.)

How'd You Spend Your Weekend?

The Long and Short of It

*alternate title* :

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I did it! It was time for a change and its so exciting now that its happened. I love it.

<---Here's what it used to look like.

<---Bye-bye Hair!

<----Hello Shortness!

(Please excuse the scrubs...its a school day)

It's so fun! It's like I have a new car or something. Thanks Emily. It's fabulous.

Made My Day

If you haven't look at Toothpast for Dinner today, go do it. Right now! Click it!

Lick. Lick.

COM...Y (yard).

Our yard is slowly but surely coming along. We've got several things starting to sprout all around the yard, so I may be posting more of these COMY instead of COMH over the next few weeks. I spent a little time this afternoon playing photographer with the tulips that are blooming in our front yard. Take a look at some of the good ones:

Salad makes the world go 'round.

Walking club was much fun last night. Thanks for hanging out girls. Here's the recipe for the salad that I served with dinner. The girls liked it so much that they asked me to post the recipe. It's a nice summery salad with a tasty dressing. It's easy to make and is a good thing to take to potlucks or bbq's. Enjoy!

Southwestern Layered Salad with Cilantro-Jalapeno Dressing

Dressing:
1/2 c. white wine vinegar
1 generous tbs. chopped jalapenos
1/2 lime
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. olive oil
1/2 c. packed fresh cilantro

Salad:
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. chopped purple onion
2 c. loosely packed chopped lettuce (I used romaine, iceberg would work too)
1 c. seeded and chopped tomato
1 15-oz. can corn, drained
1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1 c. (4-oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 lime

1.) Once avocado is chopped, squeeze lime juice over avocado and toss until coated. This prevents browning.

2.) Prepare dressing: Process first four ingredients in a blender until smooth. With blender on, gradually add oil in a slow, steady stream. Process until thick and smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Add cilantro, and blend until finely chopped. Cover and chill.

3.) Place lettuce in bottom of salad bowl. Toss beans with onion and place on top of lettuce. Drizzle with one or two tablespoons of the dressing. On top of beans place the following ingredients in the following order: tomato, corn, green pepper, cheese, avocado. Drizzle a few more tablespoons of dressing over the top of the salad and garnish with a few cilantro sprigs. Serve remaining dressing alongside the salad.

(If you want to make the salad a little naughtier, you can put some crisped, crumbled bacon on top just before serving.)

What happened last week?

Yeah, I was a little MIA last week. It was mainly due to p-school (3 tests in one week= blahhh!), but some other stuff happend too.

First of all, I'm now part of the working world once again. I've been hired by St. Vincent hospital to work as an intern/tech. I'm not sure when I'll start, but when I do I'll be working second shift one day a week, that is until summer starts. Then I'll pick up a lot more hours (hopefully) because I have to start accruing interns hours (I'm responsible for getting 500 hours) so that I can take the licensing test when I graduate. All I know so far is that I'll be making I.V.'s in the clean room. It actually sounds like fun to me. We'll see.

In other news, and another reason I was not all here last week...My old back injury (two fractured vertebrae and a herniated disc in 2002) reared its ugly head again. It happened on Thur. m0rning in the shower without any provocation. There was just this pop all of a sudden and then I couldn't stand up straight for two days with pretty serious pain. I'm on the mend now just taking it easy around the house (luckily I'm on break this week). You can still feel the lump on my spine, but the pain is slowly subsiding. All this said, my public service announcement for the day is "Take care of your spine. It's important." Oh and here's a visual of what's going on in my back for your viewing pleasure:

Ouch!

Weekend Update

Whooo! Last week was a mess. I'll probably fill you in on all the details of it tomorrow or something cause today I want to talk about the fun weekend I had. On Friday, I took my little brother who was on spring break and visiting from St. Louis out for some sushi. Its kind of become a tradition to do that when he's in town and what good tradition because sushi is Great! On Saturday I helped Jillian (my littlest sister) get ready for a formal dance. She looked so pretty:

Then that evening we had a little soiree to celebrate St. Patty's day. It was filled with tasty food, car-bombs, a fire (0utside of course), dress-up time, and lots of fun for sure. Thanks for coming out guys. We had a blast! Here are some photos from the evening:

FYI: This was taken during "dress-up" time.

This picture is one of the last ones taken that night and it makes me laugh because its pretty much a bad picture on all of us, but we each look funny in a different way. Oh, St. Patrick's Day! We love you.

Love It!

I feel like I've been a complainer lately, so today I'm gonna list some things that I love:

*Flowers. Yeah, if you read my last post you're probably like, "Duh!" They just make me smile and I'm very excited to start seeing them in my yard in a month or two.

*Garden Parties. I can't say that I've ever actually been to one but they sound like a fun reason to get together. With all the beautification that we're doing in our yard you can bet there will be a garden party at our house some time in the future...oh yes, there will be a garden party.

*"Juice cocktails." This consists of a half a glass of juice with the rest filled with soda water. I am obsessed with them. They are my new favorite beverage when I'm at home.

*Passin' my classes! Though I'm still having to work pretty hard, this semester is going much more smoothly than last semester (so far...knock on wood).

*Almost being finished with my first year of P-school! Self explanatory.

*Listening to Madonna: the immaculate collection while I'm cooking. This is my music of choice lately while I'm in the kitchen and it is so fun.

*Watching This Old House on PBS on Saturdays at noon. This is one of the main highlights of me weekend. Yeah, it might make me a little nerdy, but I can't hide it.

*Reading the Sunday paper. This is another weekend treat that I enjoy. Am I getting old or what? Whatever. The weekend is almost here. Woohooo!

THIS...is what I want my yard to look like:

• I think it can happen people...especially since I've gone a little crazy and now have 176 bulbs to plant (I'm not kidding). This number does not include the aforementioned flowers I ordered a little while back. Now that the weather is finally warm enough, planting will commence this afternoon after......
• I take a really nasty medicinal chemistry test this afternoon at 3:30. It deals with drug metabolism and I'm not looking forward to it. My brain just doesn't seem to want to retian information lately. Maybe it's all this nice weather or maybe it's because spring break is SO close (two weeks away). Or.....
• Maybe it's because there are too many TV shows currently on or about to premier that I want to watch. There is of course the old standby Grey's, but then you add the fact that Survivor and ANTM have started up again, Dancing with the Stars premiers in a week or two, and I regretfully admit that I've gotten sucked into the illegitimate reality TV show that is The Hills on MTV. P.S. ANTM seems like its gonna be a good one this time around (minus the stupid "boot camp" intro they used).
• On top of all of that we just realized that with our Netflix we get to watch movies online for free as part of our membership. Oh, The Humanity!
• Okay...I just realized I'm being a little whiney. Enough of that. I'm this close to cutting my hair. How short should I go? (Don't worry. I won't pull a britney. School hasn't made me that crazy...yet.)
  

God Made Dirt and Dirt Bust Your A@@!

5,000 lbs. that is. Blue had said dirt delivered to our driveway on Monday. As you know, the indigenous dirt down here in the South sucks, so he got some good stuff to fortify our gardens that are quickly multiplying around the yard. We're up to four big "gardens" and 5 flower beds that we plan on planting in. Sheesh! Anyway, we spent Monday and Tuesday afternoon dragging pile of dirts on a tarp to the various beds around the yard. Talk about a work out! Actually it was not that bad due to the beatiful, sunny weather we had. I think we're going to go buy some more bulbs and seeds tomorrow and start planting this weekend or next. Hooray for nature!

Oh and I've finally remembered to post a fun fact I've come across:

Did you know that in 1 oz. (think 2 tablespoons) of poo there are 10 to the 11th microorganisms? That's 100,000,000,000 little crawlies. Ewww!...Gross.

Finally...a Corner or Two

I've loved the idea about showcasing parts of our homes thought up by Miss Kat, but I haven't been so good about doing it on Fridays...so here are a couple pieces of my home for your Monday morning viewing pleasure:

I've made some progress in the living room filling up the "entertainment wall" with a new bookshelf and a new piece of artsiness that I made the other weekend.

Here's a close-up. The colors are a little off in the photo, so you'll just have to come and see it in person.
















This is a new addition in the dining room (remember the greens and browns a few weeks ago). The light fixture is the same. I just made some new shades to make it a little prettier and more fun. They used to be plain, black and round.

We had a great weekend this week. It was a good mix of relaxing, hanging out, and working in the yard in the beautiful weather. I didn't do as much school work as I probably should have, but I've only got one test this week...and this semester is going pretty well so far. I've passed all my tests up to this point. Knock on wood I suppose.

Bring on Spring!

For once in my life I am truly excited for Spring to get here. Usually it just makes me sad to see the cold weather leave, but this year I've got my own yard where Blue and I can grow things and do pretty landscaping and plant lots of flowers. (Please notice that I did not say that I am excited for summer and the atrociously hot weather and humidity that goes along with it. Boo to summer!)

I'm extra excited at the moment because I ordered some plants this past weekend and I want them to get here so they can start growing and giving me happy feelings. Here's what I selected:

These are Fairy Lilies. They are small and pretty. Don't know where they're going yet.

This is Lily of the Valley. It grows well in shade and will be going in the bed to the left of our deck in the backyard.

This is a Clematis. It is a vine that grows on fences, trellis, etc. I tore down the honeysuckle on the fence where our gate is, and this pretty lady will be going there.

This is what the clematis looks like from far away on a fence.

Say hello to Lilac. Imagine a big bush full of these flower clusters and imagine it on the south side of my house where there is currently an ugly, half dead bush. If you've never smelled lilacs you're missing out, so when mine blooms you'll have to come over and have a sniffle for sure!

I think these are what I'm most excited about. They are field grade Gladiolas. We're gonna fill up one of the three raised beds that Blue put in in the backyard with fifty of these bulbs!! I'm hoping to have lots of cut flowers to share!

Oh, and I ordered a bunch of strawberry plants too. So exciting. There not coming till March though, so I've got to practice patience. Yea! for Spring!

Ants in My Pants!!

Ughh! I woke up this morning to find an ant infestation in our kitchen. What??!! Ants in February? It wasn't a crisis style infestation or anything but there were enough of them that it was necessary for us to rumble. I proceeded, instead of studying this morning before I go to class, to scrub down every surface in the kitchen (literally, every surface....well, except the ceiling). It appears that I have won the fight. I wasn't able to locate exactly where they were coming from though, so we'll have to wait and see if I was successful for sure. If you know me, you know that bugs and I are not friends, so for my sanity's sake, cross your fingers that they aren't coming back.

Friday, ugh!....Everyday, ugh!

I can't even be excited that's it Friday people! This is because I have 3 exams next week. This comes after having two exams this week, one of which I just finished...so if this post is boring you'll have to excuse it because I'm sitting in the library waiting for my last el stupido class of the day to start at 1pm. Arrrgh! P-school is sucking out my soul. I totally wanted to take on Miss Kat's fun idea of posting home-stuff on Friday, but I couldn't squeeze in time to post last night because of all the mad studying that was going on. Arrrggghh!! Frustration!

Okay. Enough negativity. I'm a little glad it's friday I suppose. At least I don't have to go to class for a few days. I'm meeting with my mom after class today to do more design work for her and then there's Joe's going away party tonight which promises to be quite a wild event, so some fun will be had this weekend after all.

Snow Days...Hooray! Back to School...Blaahh!

Me and Mo playing in the snow!

Two snow days in a row that fell on my birthday made for a great 4-day weekend. Unfortch, it was back to normal today. I must say that school is starting to get pretty stinky. I must get back to studying...more later.

I know. You're probably like, "Sheesh! Finally!!"

Here they are...finally. Befores and afters of the dining room. Really I should say befores and halfways, cause the room as a whole is not finished yet. I've got to make draperies for the back door and I'm spruce-ing up the shades that go on the light fixture too... and a matching table and chairs would be nice...and a buffet and some artwork and accessories etc. So, yeah, check back in a few years.

Before:

During:

After: