Monday, January 27, 2014

Homework, Hospitals, and Meeting the Parents

This week I was studying for my first exam of the new semester. All about heart stuff, which is not my strong suite, so there was lots of this all week long:
(and Jill made me popcorn!)
In other Jill making food news, she also made this delicious 'taco soup', mmmm
Super tasty, and nice to not have to cook!
I did make this earlier in the week:
That's actually deer. Jill's dad got one, I think that's even from last year, so in our annual attempt to clear out the freezer, I crock-potted it up. It was actually not bad, but still hard to get my mind around the idea of eating a deer.
I wore one of my new Christmas scarfs, I like it!
So today I took my exam, it felt SO bad taking it, but she had a self-check and I got 91%! I was surprised, but I'll take it!
After class I had to go to the hospital.
As a patient :(
Gosh, those gowns and bracelets make you feel like such an invalid. I wish I could just wear my normal clothes.
Anyway, so I've had Grave's disease for awhile (a thyroid condition where it makes too much) and not even really. I had it in 2006, but went on meds for 2 years and have been in remission ever since. But back then they saw 2 little spots on my thyroid so I've had to get it ultrasounded every year and then every two years. Anyway, every time it's been fine and too small to biopsy. But this last time I went my doctor called and said they both doubled in size and I had to go to the hospital. And I got a letter from him with the box marked "don't worry just call the office" and the "don't worry" part was actually crossed off. How comforting, please worry and call the office asap! I actually opened that letter right before I was about to do my workout, and was worried, and my first thought was 'guess I don't have to worry about exercising, it won't matter if I'm fat if I'm about to die of cancer.' Later I was really shocked at how fast I 'gave up hope'.
Anyway, so today I go to get the biopsy and the ultrasound tech is looking, then she calls in the physician assistant, and finally they call in the radiologist doctor to look at it, and no one can find anything. It was strange. Miraculous healing? Or lurking in the depths? I was telling the doctor to look again because I didn't want to go home and die! But they said there was nothing there to even see let alone biopsy. Wow. I'm thankful.
Another thing I'm thankful for is this awesome guy God has brought into my life. Earlier in the week he gave me these coupons:
I like how there is a 'loophole' in the coupon, it specifies a "good" massage.... um, sorry that was just 'fair'... KEEP RUBBING!!! haha
And I got this one:
I like the 'for ever ever' part, from some song I can't remember
So this weekend I met his parents (well, met them more in depth technically). The night before he asked me if I was nervous and I said no, but then the next day I was a bit nervous. Both to meet them, and about how our relationship would be. I was disappointed by my in-law relationship in the past, especially after he was divorcing me and they were just like 'yay- our son will be coming back home!!' Um... healthy. Anyway, so I'm not even sure what to expect for the future and I was talking and sent this text
He has shown me so much grace, even when I am completely undeserving and practically insulting his parents. I felt bad after I sent that. We talked more about it later, and I had a good talk about it too with Jill about identifying my own fears and thoughts- and seeing them for what they are, and not letting the way others are/or aren't be skewed by my own fears. It makes more sense in my brain than it is here. But it was a good talk. And good to be reminded that my relationships can be whatever I want them to be, they just take work and conversations.
So anyway, I'm thankful. And I'm excited. I think God found a good one for me :)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Catching Up

Gosh, I am not liking Med/Surg 2. So hard. The class is all about all kinds of heart problems. I guess I always thought I could just be very vague about the heart and get away with it, nope, I'm supposed to know all these valves and fibers and nodes, and of course all the problems, signs/symptoms, and interventions. There has been lots of this lately:
And where there's studying.... there's cookie making
My classmate brought me this vanilla from Mexico as a thank you for helping her register for her classes while she was on her honeymoon, how nice!
Toasting the pecans
Dicing figs, ew, they look like cockroaches there
Tossing the figs and chocolate chips with a little flour so they didn't clump
And viola, Turtle Oatmeal Cookies from my favorite vegan recipe blog girl. I think they tasted a bit too pecan toasty, but everyone else who had one said they liked it.
Also recent goings-on included marking the anniversary of 1 month of dating. My lovely gifts:
fritos, my true love, and
pretty, but stinky, flowers. I told him I definitely appreciated the thought and gesture, but for future reference I did not like this type of flower. I felt kinda bad telling the truth, but I figured a bit of sad feelings now vs. me potentially getting stinky flowers the rest of my life. He didn't seem too crushed. So that's good.
I got a mystery cold over the weekend and it lingers on. So I'm not feeling fantastic, but this guy playing in the hospital lobby today really lifted my spirits.
have harp, will travel!
This dude wasn't just playing heavenly choruses either, he was playing songs from the Beatles and that Dreamed a Dream song from Les Mis, it was a beautiful treat to hear while eating lunch today. And I told him so too.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Day of Togetherness and Adventure

Well I'm back to the grind of work and school. Feeling that terrible feeling of being overwhelmed as I figure out the new semester and get into the groove. Just heard the most recently graduating class of 36, 6 of them failed the N-CLEX exam, so I am super worried. Plus this semester is all about the heart, my least favorite topic. But anyway, last weekend I had a whole day to go on a date. I told him it would be my last free Saturday for the next 16 weeks, otherwise I have to go to work, so we took advantage.
It started with me making breakfast:
mmmmm, scrambled eggs, potatoes, turkey bacon
We had breakfast and then he took me down to Belle Isle. He remembered me saying that I loved Belle Isle, but did not know that some of the memories, including getting married there, are bittersweet. At one point I started to feel overwhelmed and an emergency text was sent to my friend Jill about how I was feeling. She listened to me, and reassured me it was okay to have good memories of Andrew, and that I didn't need to abandon those memories to have a future with anyone else. And she reminded me that I may have memories of new perfect days with him in the future. I felt much better, and am excited for what is to come.
Anyway, first up was the Aquarium, I don't think I'd ever actually been there when they had fish there, it had been closed down before
found Nemo!
This was funny, first he was like "look at that eel!" then a second later "look at that hand!!"
bowmp-chicka-wow-waaa (gross albino frogs, at least they find each other attractive...)
Also something I had never seen at an Aquarium, a fencing demonstration! We were laughing at their attempt to link up the two things, 'fish have swords.. and so do people!' but he got to put the stuff on and fence a dude
After that we went to the conservatory
We were in the desert/cactus room and I asked him what he'd do if we got trapped in there for a week, his response? "I'd eat you after 20 minutes", haha.
Then we went to the Nature Center and watched a squirrel and opossum gorge themselves.
Then, speaking of gorging, he took me to Slow's BBQ where I fell in love with my sandwich
The Yardbird. No bacon, no mushrooms. Oh. My. Gosh. Heaven.
Then we headed up to my friend Liz and Mark's, and talked, played ping-pong, and it wouldn't be a weekend without watching Pitch Perfect. Good times :)

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

2 Extra Days

My flight back to MI was cancelled because of 12" of snow that fell there. I had been checking the flight status all day, and it kept saying "on time", then it was delayed 3 hours, and then as I was sitting in the van to take me to the airport I checked one last time, and now it said "cancelled". So I hopped out of the van and my brother came back to pick me up. We laughed a bit because I was taking this van to save him a trip to the airport, but because of the delay and cancellation, now he would have driven me 3x to the van pick up spot. Haha, whoops. I was glad I found out it was cancelled though before I got to the airport because it turned out there wasn't an outgoing flight for 2 days!! Would not have wanted to live in the airport for 2 days. Yuck.
Honestly I was a little bummed because I had planned to host book club that night, and I had a date the next night, and I was supposed to go back to work. But, it was really nice to have an extra couple days with my brother, and Michelle and Molina.
It is going to be so hard to go back to 'real life'. I hear it's still in the negative degrees in Michigan, and it's been so nice being on such a relaxing vacation. For 2 weeks now I have had time to read my Bible everyday, sleep 9-10 hours a night (!), and exercise everyday. It has been great. It's going to be pretty rough waking up again at 5:30, when I've been sleeping till 11am (MI time). Ouch.
Some pics:
getting baby girl a head start in her Bachelor watching love
see she likes it!
pretty blue eyed baby girl
me & Molina
she makes the funniest little faces
turtle photobomb
awwww... "the thinker" sound asleep. I made her that blanket and those little jammie pants
I had one of these a few days ago, and had my laaaast chance at another this morning, but decided on health instead
And now I'm totally regretting it. Chicken tender on a flaky buttery biscuit, complete heaven. Sigh.
Otherwise, such a great vacation! I hope it's not too long before I see everyone again!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Tell-er-Draw

I love this game I call tell-er-draw because it's like that telephone game, but with drawings. Each person has a stack of papers with the # of sheets the same as the # of people, and you write a phrase on the top sheet then pass the stack. The person looks at the phrase and draws it, and then passes, and around the table it goes alternating drawing the phrase and guessing the drawing. Then at the end each person shares the journey of their stack. It's fun.
Here are some ones I thought were funny from some of our game nights this past week:
and
and
game players
good times