A little sleepy . . . . .

I have had a hard time staying awake today!!! I had woke up in the middle of the night after falling asleep in my clothes and finally got back into bed around 9am and thought I would get a 2 hour nap but I woke up at 2pm with my phone ringing. My sister needed to drop something off and told me she would be there shortly. I jumped out of bed, took a shower and was all ready and dressed in 30 minutes! WOW!!! That is a record for me! She showed up about 45 minutes after calling. I was glad that I was all ready and dressed.

After my sister left, it was looking a little stormy. It did rain some and thundered and then it was just cloudy again. One of my goals today was to get my yard mowed. It is looking a little hairy! Allergies and snakes makes this job unpleasant. I can see that it isn't going to get done again today since it is almost 8 pm and I am at the coffee shop! I work tomorrow night so it might be Tuesday now.

Anyway, I was planning to go to the Mudhouse to study and was still feeling quite sleepy. I checked my email and was going to get my stuff together to go to the Mudhouse and had to lay down. I took a short nap that time - about an hour. The cats thought that was a good idea too and all napped with me. I woke up around 6:30 pm and got all my stuff together and finally made it to the Mudhouse.

I haven't been at the Mudhouse since March!!!! So unusual for me but sometimes you just need a little break. I love the artwork and the atmosphere here. It is interesting some of the things that can change in just 3 months! At the corner of one of the intersections is an apartment building now! It was an old run down gas station that wasn't open anymore and it has been bulldozed and apartments built.

Since getting my desktop, I haven't used my laptop as much. I have my headphones on listening to music and it doesn't sound as good to me. I guess since I have gotten used to the sound from the desktop with the speakers I added, the laptop sounds like it needs some bass! :-)

I guess I should be productive and get some studying done!! :-)

To busy last week . . .

I headed back to work last week after being off from 7 days and I have been busy with work and school! I get back to work and there was mandatory meetings and a staff meeting. I don't like coming back to work with all that!

Plus to add to all the stress, I had an online exam that was due last week so I missed a staff meeting to get home early enough to get that done and then the online exam wouldn't let me back in to finish it later. I had to email my instructor to let her know and the next morning, I was able to get it done but turned it in late! I am really disliking school . . . . . to much work makes me not be able to play enough!

Before going back to work, I did take an adventure to Branson Landing. Ahhhh, I just love that place! It reminds me so much of when I was in Cancun, Mexico the way outdoor shopping mall is set up. LOVE IT!!!!! I love the fire and water show that they have too! I will have to go back again one evening!

Today, after getting a little sleep, I meet up with my sister at the Snowfest. The event didn't start till 4pm so it was perfect for me working nights! The big entertainment was Andy Griggs, a country music singer. I am not very fond of country and was disappointed. I had actually never heard of him before. But, he really wasn't bad at all, and kinda cute! He even had a song that he made for me about falling for a girl with green eyes! :-) I didn't realize that he has made it big already and he was putting on a free concert! WOW! The weather was good and it was a great evening!

I came home and ended up falling asleep sooner than expected. I woke up with my contacts still in and still in my clothes around 3 am. I believe I feel asleep around 10:30 pm as I had Saturday Night Live on and next thing I know I woke up to poker!

I need to do a little laundry and then get a little more sleep so I can mow the yard and get some studying done!

Interesting day

I had my day all planned out today and it didn't work out the way I was hoping. I had woke up at 7am, had a little heartburn, too some tums, feed the cats and decided to lay back down till the alarm went back off at 9am. I somehow slept through the alarm and ended up waking up at 2pm!!!!! Sooo, I had to redo my plans. My original plan was to wake up early, plant my vegetables in my garden and to plant my flowers I had bought the day before, then get my oil changed and head to Branson Landing. So I ended up doing everything but the Branson Landing part.

I am hoping to go to Branson Landing tomorrow and to relax a little bit more. I just love Branson Landing as it reminds me of the shopping mall I went to in Cancun, Mexico. Ahhh! Paradise! I plan to bring my camera and to take some more pictures. At least now, I can wake up and head to Branson instead of having to do all the other little chores I had to do today.

One funny little thing that happened today was when I got my oil changed. I went to Jiffy Lube and ended up spending more money than I was going to but they kept giving me special discounts so I suckered into it! I got a new air filter for the price I could go out and buy one myself plus I got me new windshield wipers that are euro wipers! They mold to the windshield unlike my old ones. They are pretty cool and they told me they would last longer because of the way they are made. I also had a brake light out that they replaced for me too. So, at least these things are done and I hopefully won't need anything else for awhile.

After I was done, it was closing time for the car wash but I was able to get in right before they closed. My car hadn't been washed in a long time and really needed it! After they were done wiping down my car, they pulled it out and I had all the guys from auto magic around my car. One guy asked me if I was willing to sell my car. I told him I really liked my car and wasn't looking to sell but he kept telling me why he needed it. He kept giving me trivia about my car that I didn't know about how fast it can go and the engine. Such a guy thing! I told him if he got me an Acura RSX, then he could have it!!! :-) I told him the blue book value was around $5,000 but he wanted the black book value of about $1,200. Silly boy! I finally got to leave Auto Magic, with my car! It's too bad all those guys were so young! :-)

Since I didn't go to Branson Landing, I decided to use a coupon I got in the email from Borders for my birthday. I got a free dessert and also 15% off one item. I ended up leaving with 3 books and a magazine! I can't wait till I have time to read the books and the magazine is "Essential Home Skills". I looked at the magazine as I was sitting in the cafe and it has some great tips that will help me do some things myself around the house. I might have to subscribe to this one!

When I got home today, I saw that one of my photos had made it into the interesting photos on flickr.com. I searched and searched till I finally figured out which one it was! It was a photo I took of Felix trying to get my attention on my desk! I have included that cute picture in this post! I have gotten 20 comments on it too. It is the most popular photo so far! :-)

I had better get doing something productive, like study. :-)

A crazy birthday . . .

My birthday is almost over now. It started out good but has ended sneezy! I was glad that I woke up at 10 a.m. so I can enjoy the day. I took it easy this morning, checked out the message boards and cruised the internet for awhile.

I decided that I would go to a movie in the afternoon. I ended up going to see Vacancy. Not a bad movie, kinda eerie. After the movie I went to Barnes & Noble and got me the book, "Advanced Photoshop Elements 5.0 for digital photographers". I have the first book that goes with this book. I can't wait till I can learn how to alter pictures in a fun artistic way!

Then I picked up Jasmine from Day camp and went to my parents house. My parents are remodeling their kitchen and so my mom didn't cook dinner so my mom and sister went and got dinner. I sneezed through the whole day! I even took all the allergy medication I could when I woke up because I felt like I was going to have an allergy day.

All in all, it was a good day but it would have been a little better if I could have breathed better!

Very unhappy . . . . .

I am so displeased with my Rx plan which I am sure if anyone has been reading my blog will know this. The story isn't getting any better. I have been fighting since the middle of April to get medicine that will control my GERD. Which the medications that my Rx plan says I can take don't work. I am currently taking Prevacid and I have heartburn on a daily basis and eat Tums like they are candy. I had the gastro last week which I was told if it showed abnormalities (which it did) that I would be able to prove to the insurance that I need to be on the Nexium that I had been taking for the last 2 1/2 years which controlled my GERD.

Today, I was in my doctors office and I asked if they had gotten the letter from my GI doctor and what we needed to do for this process. I wasn't actually seeing the doctor today so they flagged him and they would call me with his response. I get called and they aren't going to even try to put me back on my Nexium. I am wondering why I had that expensive test done last week if the abnormal results aren't going to get me anywhere! I was under the impression that my GI doctor was writing that I needed to be put back on my medicine. Instead of trying to get my medicine, they have ordered a nausea medicine that is supposed to also increase the tone of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). WTF?!?!?!??! Another thing I wonder is why didn't he start this medication when I called to say the Prevacid wasn't working in April? Why let me go for almost two months waiting to have the gastro done and then do nothing of what I was told was recommended. I do believe that I need to get me a copy of this letter and I might have to consult with my GI doctor about all of this too. I am not even sure how long I am supposed to wait to see if this medication is working.

I am wondering if I need to get a part-time job at another hospital that has a better Rx plan just so I can get the medicine I need!

School is back in session!

I wasn't excited about my leadership class after reading the syllabus. It seemed icky and kinda scary. Today after meeting the instructor and the discussion we had in class today, I feel better about it. I really think I am going to like this instructor. I hope this ends up being a good experience unlike last semester! I still don't have my books for the class but I think I have lucked out that the first thing due is a simple discussion board question and our first part of our paper. Phew! I hope that it arrives soon so I can get started on the reading!

One thing I am liking about this class is the way she is doing our research paper. We actually do 3 parts of the paper through out the class. Part 1 is due next week and it is the intro of our paper and some general questions. I am going to write my paper on floating to monitored floors when you haven't had any training in reading monitors. That is one thing that I don't like about floating - the fear of having to go to a monitored floor! I don't know how to read the monitors and I have to rely on what someone else is telling me. I have had good and bad experiences when floating to monitored floors. One good experience was that the charge nurse watched my monitors and assisted me on the charting. She was very helpful and I felt confident that the monitors were being taken care of. I have also had experiences where they didn't look after my monitors or didn't tell me what they meant. The unit I work on is supposed to be going to a closed unit to where we only float to our sister unit. That is what triggered the idea for my paper. But then we takes these parts and put them together, answer questions that has come up from the discussion board and put it together. I hope that it goes smoothly!

I have actually been cleaning tonight. I got home from school and mowed my yard and was wanting to get the weedeater out but it was 9pm soo I finally came inside. I didn't mean to start cleaning but decided to look for my super nintendo and hook it up to the TV tuner on my desktop. To find the super nintendo was difficult as it was in the extra bedroom where everything you don't know what to do with goes! I actually moved all the boxes to one side of the room and cleaned the part of the floor that was exposed. I finally found it in the closet in a box in there. I am going to have to start little by little clearing these boxes out so I can have my room back! I remember a time when that room was clean and I would sit in the floor and enjoy watching TV. It will happen once again!

Fun day with the nieces!

I had a great day! I was hoping to get up early to make Shilo a birthday card to go with her gift but since I couldn't fall asleep till 0530, that didn't happen. I woke up in just enough time to check the email, get in the shower and then pick the girls up from school.

After I picked the girls up, we had to do a boring thing and go get my allergy shots. As soon as we got done there, I took them to the park and took pictures with my parents old 35mm camera. I did order a new wide angle lens for my parents camera. I can't wait till I get it! I am so used to digital that I tend to use up a 24 count roll of film to fast! I tried to rewind the film so I could take it to be developed and I couldn't get it to work. When we got home, I got it to work just fine! Crazy! Then after the park, we went to Red Robin which is new in our area. It was a fun after the school hang-out with my nieces!

I also took my nieces to Circuit City to show them the digital SLR camera that I want for my birthday! I have been looking at Best Buy and found out that Circuit City price is $300 more! Jasmine told me that it was too big and wanted to get me a pink digital camera. :-) They were cute but I want the big one! :-)

I gave Shilo her birthday gift when we got back to my house. I was taking pictures and realized that the sun through the blinds was on Shilo's face so we had to do a redo of the gift opening! She is over reacting but it is cute! She got with her birthday money a little digital camera/video player so I got her a memory card to go with it. I guess the internal memory isn't very much so now she will hopefully have more!

Cats are cute!!!

Rawr!!!!
Originally uploaded by Knutschen

Here is a picture of Felix yawning waiting for me to focus my parents old Pentax 35mm camera!

I went and got my first roll of film developed today and some of the pictures were blurry, some clear and some has an odd color cast to it. The picture here of Felix had the strange color cast to it so I scanned it and used photoshop elements 5.0 to convert it to black and white. It made the picture look so much better! I hope to get the lighting figured out as I am sure that is the reason that my pictures had that funny color cast.

I am going to be picking my nieces up from school today and I am excited about that! This is my last day before I start school again and I can't wait to spend time with the girls! I will hopefully get some cute pictures of them! I actually have Shilo's birthday present still and I am excited to give it to her! She got her a little video/camera and she needed a memory card so I am sure she will be glad to have more memory!

I start school on Tuesday for the summer session and I decided this time to order my books online instead of going to the bookstore. It seems like they overprice things at the bookstore and I can get it cheaper online. This is actually the first time I have ordered online. I ordered my books a week in advance thinking I would have them but I won't. I ordered from amazon.com and I used the free shipping option not realizing that it takes longer to ship under this option. All of my books said they were in stock so I ordered them and thought it said I should get them on June 4. This weekend I checked my account to see if they had shipped and realized that it wasn't going to ship until June 4th!!! I have to go to class without my books and hope that the first assignment isn't to difficult as the delivery is supposed to be June 7-9. I guess if I do this again, I will either use a different shipping method or order 2 weeks in advance but that all depends on when the instructor post the syllabus. I even called to see if I could change it and my order had been processed so it was a no go. Makes for an interesting first week of school!

Allergy day . . .

Wow, I sneezed so much today. There is something in the air that I am allergic too!!!! My parents came over today and helped me with fixing the leak in my tub faucet so now Pandora can't sneak a drink! I have a cute picture of her getting a drink!

I am hoping to get a water line to my fridge so my icemaker will work. Since I have an older house, it didn't have one. :-( I had someone come out to give me an estimate which came to $386!!!!! I called my Dad to ask him if that was an appropriate price as I didn't think it was. He told me that it sounded to pricey but them told me that he might be able to do this for me if I just got the stuff for him to do it. I called a supply store and it would be about $50. Much better price!

I hadn't moved my fridge in awhile to clean underneath it so while we had it out I cleaned all the debris up. To our surprise when we moved the fridge back into place, a mouse was dead - flat as a pancake - underneath my fridge!!!!!! I am unsure how long that mouse had been underneath there but it had to be a long time!!!!!! I am not sure if one of the cats killed it and it got shuffled under the fridge from them batting it around or how this came about. GROSS!!!!!

A friend of mine called today and we went to have dinner together and then went shopping. She told me I was buying new clothes! I haven't taken the time to go clothes shopping in a while and don't like taking the time to try on clothes. I found me a couple of capri pants and about 5 new tops. I am excited to have new clothes! Having her there made it easier as she would get me different sizes if I needed it or find me new things she thought I should try on. We tried to find me some new sandels but if I liked the shoe, it either didn't fit or they didn't have it. I will have to try that another day. I kept sneezing through our little shopping experience!

I didn't get to go to the park today to take pictures as planned. It was storming and rainy all morning and then when it cleared off, my schedule wasn't clear! I am hoping to be able to do that tomorrow. I did use up one roll of film today and I am anxious to get it developed. I forget to drop it off at Wal-mart at the night drop off when I was there. That will be on my list of things to do for tomorrow as well!

Rainy day . . .

Today is the first Friday art walk but it was thundering, lightening tonight so I didn't go. Since it was rainy and I didn't have to much to do, I ended up at Best Buy to look for filters for my parents camera. I didn't realize that they came is different sizes and that I needed to bring the lens in to get a proper fit.

While I was there, I kept looking at the digital SLR cameras. They weren't that busy so the guy let me play around with them!!! I am falling more in love with the Canon 30D than I am the Nikon D80 now. It is so awesome how fast I can get these cameras to focus and it seems to take me forever to get the Pentax camera to focus. It is making me want a digital SLR camera more and more! I absolutely love the sports action feature! The Canon has a better continuous mode than the Nikon does. :-) I am hoping that it doesn't rain all weekend so I can go take various pictures around town!

When I got home, I started playing around with my camera and trying to take self-portraits. I finally was using the mirror to see what the screen looked like on my digi camera. I had a lot of blurry pictures but it was fun playing around!

I am hoping to get a little bit of scrapping done tonight or at least put some pictures with kits. My printer is acting up tonight so I am not sure if I will be able to print pictures. I have left it unplugged so hopefully it will reset and hopefully work!