How Do You Live Your Life?

How You Life Your Life

You are honest and direct. You tell it like it is. You tend to avoid confrontation and stay away from sticky situations. You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly. You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren't attainable.

How Do You Live Your Life?

Sugar Fix

Ok...we have all of these baked goods. Are we (meaning me and Randy) really expected to eat all of them? Don't get me wrong- I love every single little morsel of their yummy goodness but if my hips get any bigger, I won't be able to blame their size on being "big boned" in that region!
What to do with all the yummy goodies? (ha ha- that sounds like the name of that Chinese restaurant in Venice Beach- "Yummy Goody". Never tried it out though).

On Break

After technically being on school break for 2 weeks now, I FINALLY feel as if I am relaxing. I have abso-freakin-lutely nothing to do today except watch Little House on the Prairie and eat Veggie Booty. YAY!!!! This is the life. Maybe I should just quit school and be a housewife. Enjoy myself and eat the Booty before we have kids and I begin the toughest job of my life- child rearing- for no pay whatsoever.
Hmmm...maybe not. I should just enjoy my two more weeks off (one of which will be spent in Indiana) before I have to go head first into school again. Then graduate, get a job, and go from there.
But for now, back to the Booty and Ma and Pa.
That sounds a little creepy, doesn't it?!?

Christmas pics

Check out our new online photo gallery. More to come later!

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's finally here! The best holiday of the year (in my opinion)! My favorite Christmas pasttime is watching the video of my dad's last 2 Christmases. They are funny, and I like to remember how my family once was. Even my great grandma is in the videos. My grandpa is healthy, and my grandma does a high school cheer complete with hand/arm motions. My family sings carols (well, we tried anyway) and is at their best in the videos. The sad part? The tape is in Indiana, where I'm not. I really need to make copies so that I can reminesce out here in California.
What kind of favorite Christmas memories/pasttimes do you people have?

Hurray!

It is official: I am done with NS30 and I have one more semester to go in nursing school! Woo hoo! After I took my final yesterday, I could literally feel the stress fall away from my shoulders, then tiredness overwhelmed me for 10-15 minutes. It was like a weight was lifted and I felt 10 pounds lighter. It's funny what stress can do to a person! Now if I could only find out a way to prevent the stress from coming back to reside on my shoulders January 9th. That would be no small feat!!!!
I'll be on my way to Kansas City tomorrow to be with my friend Angie. She's in nursing school too and takes her finall tomorrow. We'll probably go out and do some stress reducing activities the next few days- God knows that she needs it WAY more than I do.
So, that being said, I'm off and won't blog for a week or so. Don't miss me too much!

Trading Bibles for Porn in San Antonio

"Atheist group at UTSA encourages students to exchange religious materials"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10349028/

Holiday Funnies

Lovin the Rain

Wish it was snow, but the change in weather is definitely a welcome one in my book! It's a good "curl up in your jammies on the couch with a good episode of Little House on the Prairie" day. Ahhh....too bad I have a huge exam.

Let's see...

God never gives us more than we can handle, right?

Well how do I let him know that he's given me enough already?!?

Ready! Set! Ho Ho Ho!

It is official: we are ready for Christmas. Except for the shopping part, we are ready. The tree is up, the lights are up, and our yearly ornament has been made and hung. Randy and I have a whole 2 ornaments this year. Life is good. I wonder how many more ornaments God will let us make in this lifetime together. I wonder what kind of things will be put into the ornament next year...maybe stuff my first nursing paycheck stub into the clear glass bulb. Hmmm....
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yay! It's here! The most wonderful time of the year is here!
Well, for me anyways...

What can I say?

God is trying to teach me how to be a really good nurse. He's giving me more experiences to practice my skills all the time, even though I'm really not asking for them in the capacity that they seem to come at me.
I never quite grasped how fragile really is until lately. I mean REALLY grasped it. I have held the fragility in my hands. Literally.
Thank God for Randy who knows how to pray and that I know how to shut off emotions for a long enough time to use the knowledge I've learned to help people.
Without a doubt God puts us in the right place at the right time he wants us to be there.

We didn't start the fire...

it was always burnin since the world's been turnin.....

So this morning, I woke to my husband's voice telling me on the phone that maybe I should wake up and check out a fire that is burning in the hills above our apartment. Funny thing is, he had awaken me from a dream I was having about a fire. When I woke up and smelled the smoke in our home, I found out why the dream seemed so real. Just to be on the safe side, I packed all of our momentos/photos into 2 huge bags along with some clothes just in case we need to evacuate. I even packed my nursing books like a good little student. Too bad, can't spare the fish, but they'd probably die soon anyway of fin rot. Randy pleaded for me to pack his video games, and I did. Atleast if we needed money we could sell them.
I can currently see the flames and dark billowing smoke from where we live. The helicopters are flying right over our apartment carrying the water and making drops not too far away from where we are. Ashes are everywhere. Looks like it's spitting snow (Indiana term for snow flurries). Poli is closed off at the top of our street. I ran an errand earlier and when I got back to my street, it was blocked off from Main St. I had to flash my i.d. and tell the cops there that I lived in the lovely apartments on Aliso and they let me through.
It's weird now, sitting in our apartment, looking at the stuff all around me (on the walls, in bookcases, on the floor, in closets) that have been designated flame-worthy. None of those other things really mean that much to me I guess. It's a weird feeling, that the stuff I'm surrounded by daily is not in the bags and the stuff that is in the bags usually are put away in dark closets. What means the most to Randy and me is lying in a heap in the middle of our kitchen floor, ready to be saved. All the other stuff I will look at in a different way now. Not that I want to lose my home in any way, but what I have picked to be saved really shows what kind of stuff I could really live without.

Napoleon as a Boy

Election Rantings

What is this world coming to? I don't really understand why people voted "no" on Prop 73 (minor needing parental notification if she wants an abortion). It pisses me off quite frankly. We can't even give a kid a Tylenol in the hospital without parental notification, yet it is not illegal to perform a surgery? That is so completely wrong, no matter which way they try and justify it.

AND, I am sick of the California Nurses Association. There are around 300,000 nurses in this state and the CNA says that they represent all of them. That's such crap! Of all those nurses, only something like 67,000 are actually members of the organization. They DO NOT represent all nurses, or even a majority, and all the things they do in the public's eye are quite embarrassing . I hate unions. I guess that most of California voters like their money being taken away by an organization who does not even support the same views as they themselves do.

There are many more things I could say about the election (California is full of a bunch of morons) but I have a final exam to take.

Top Ten on Good 'Ol Trumpy

"Top Ten Ways To Describe Donald Trump's Hair" by David Letterman
10. Odd
9. Peculiar
8. Windswept
7. Trumpy
6. Strangely hypnotic
5. Unbe-weave-able
4. Wiggy
3. Stylish (dumb guys only)
2. Proof money can't buy everything
1. Taj Ma-helmet

Yummy but....

Randy and I just shared our first pomegranate together. I was a pomegranate virgin before now. He had had a few before tonight.
The insides look like bloody alien ovaries, (not like I've ever seen alien ovaries, I just imagine that they look pretty darn close) but it tasted really good.

The "Elvis as a Banana" Halloween Costume

If this guy shows up at your door trick or treating, be afraid.
Be VERY afraid.

Funny News Story of the Day

Police nab alleged 'Perpsicle'
Very rarely do suspects welcome their arresting officers with open arms.
But Ari Rayvon Stanberry was not only glad to see the police when he was arrested, he couldn't wait to get into the squad car. Why?
The Florida man had just spent a bone-chilling twenty minutes inside a sub-zero deep freezer.
Sgt. Marty Jacobson, a spokesperson for the Stuart Police Department, said although Stanberry was wanted on an outstanding warrant for a lewd and lascivious battery charge, the 22-year-old man's arrest on Oct. 9 was a coincidence.
An officer was investigating an unrelated shoplifting incident in a grocery store when he spotted Stanberry. The officer made eye contact with the suspect, recognized the man's face from his "wanted" poster and gave chase.
Stanberry, however, eluded the officer, who requested backup to conduct a thorough search of the store. Twenty minutes later, officers decided to search the store's trailer-size deep freezer and found the frozen suspect.
"He had accidentally locked himself inside the freezer," Jacobson said. "His dreadlocks were like little Popsicles."
Stanberry, who Jacobson has nicknamed "the Perpsicle," surrendered willingly; he also asked to be taken into a warm squad car.
He is thawing out in the Martin County Jail without bond.

My ER Experiences

Monday and Tuesday night this week, I had my rotation in the emergency department at St Johns. The most exciting thing I got to see on Monday was a cardioversion. This guy came in with a very irregular heartbeat (called afib) and so the doctor shocked him back into rhythm with the defibrillator (CLEAR!!! Zap!). It was very scary and painful for the guy- but atleast his heart finally was on the right beat and he wasn't dead. I jumped when it happened because the poor guy nearly flew off of the gurney. He was fine as soon as his heart returned to normal, and left the ER within 3 hours to go home.
I helped all different kinds of people throughout both nights. It was so good to be there for people when they are hurting (like the 9 year old who was on her bike and got hit by a car) or when they are confused (like the alcoholic who fell and torn open his head on a table). If you want to see life from all different angles, spend a night in the emergency room.
Last night (Tuesday), I did CPR on a real live human being for the first time. This patient came in that had been in full arrest (unknown reason as to why) and my friend and I had to take turns doing chest compressions on him for about 10-15 minutes. It was so chaotic in there- but much more than what you see on tv (Trauma: Life in the E.R. doesn't quite do it justice). This was the real deal. Doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics flying around the room while I was on a stool over this guy doing compressions, counting off. I found out how different it is to do CPR on a man vs. a mannequin. I will never ever be scared or hesitant to do it on someone out in public now that I know exactly what to do and how doing real CPR feels. The guy ended up dying and then we had to help clean him up so that his family could come in to see him and say goodbye. I now know how it feels to have done the best I could do in the moment but still not be able to save someone. Taking part in it all was such an experience I can't fully grasp, or describe in words.

What a humbling, wonderful profession I am entering.

Story From Dateline NBC

I read about and watched the video of this girl who is 12 but frozen in a 6 month old body. Very interesting...and the medical professionals are perplexed!
Check it out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9778227/

WOW!

I had to post this pic that I saw today in the paper. Meet the Dugger family from Rogers, Arkansas. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Dugger, who just gave birth to their 16th child.

Wonder if she had to push or if the kid just kind of...you know...fell out.

Thoughts

Why do I always get the pre-test jitters? Actually, calling them jitters is a huge understatement. Here I am, studying my heart out, worried to death about a grade that won't even matter in a year. I can't sleep. What else is there to do other than to stay up and study (and take a break to blog a bit)?
Tomorrow (test day) will be so much worse than the anxiety I feel tonight. It will start at 7:00 am with atleast 3 trips to the bathroom, followed by not being able to eat, followed by looking over my 50 pages of notes one last time, followed by a discombobulated drive to the school. After the test, my classmates will all gather outside and try to remember each and every question in order to compare answers. I will be famished from not having anything in my stomach. Anxiety ends when I see my grade. Could be later that day, could be in a week. Who knows?
Yes, it's all in my head, but I've made A's so far in nursing school except for on 2 tests and have gained much needed knowledge, so is this stress and IBS all worth it? Hmmm...
I must've gained 5 lbs this past summer because my pants felt tighter. I didn't mind though, because I knew that once I started back up to school, I would lose that poundage plus maybe more. Yep, I was right- the pants fit great again. My strive for perfection in nursing school continues and so does my studying....
Why am I like this?!?

Oh those Japanese...always one step ahead of us!

A Japanese company just came up with a drink called "Kidsbeer". It's a soft drink that looks like beer and even has foam when you pour it.
Eventually, once it comes over here to the US and after all the boycotts it's sure to be greeted with are over, it can be a staple at our family get togethers just like Squirt.

Ho ho ho

Since my last post was so sad, I thought I'd lightened up the mood here at Pretty is as Pretty Does.
Did you know that I have 44 days left of school this semester? That right there brings utter joy and delight to my soul. Yay!
What's even better? It's only 82 days left until Christmas! Woo hoo! I say, start the Christmas music now! (you don't necessarily have to put up Christmas lights/decorations yet though. We don't want to be all W.T.!!!!).
Merry Christmas! (oh wait- it may be too early for that too.)

Loss

Please keep my sister Keri and her boyfriend Dan in your prayers. Dan's best friend since early elementary school got killed this morning in a car accident. Dan and Jeremy were inseparable- like brothers who even worked together as deputys/captains of the sheriff's dept. Keri and Dan are both in shock and trying to deal with their loss. Even though Randy and I know all too well what they are going through, it is so difficult to find the comforting words to say without seeming so cliche. All we can do is pray for healing. God knows their pain and grief and will surround him with his love during this difficult time.

Conrad Jacob Alderson

Here is a picture that I copied off of Nate & Kristen's website of the new kid in town. If you'd like to see more, here's their blog address: http://natealderson.org

Life

Randy and I are the proud uncle and aunt of Conrad Jacob (C.J.) Alderson, born this morning at 2:08 am. He is welcomed into this world by mommy Kristen, daddy Nate, and big brother Levi. Kristen and baby are doing well.
I just got back from seeing C.J. tonight. Talk about a cute little chunk!!! He's 7lb 11oz and 18.5 inches long. He doesn't look a thing like Levi did when he was born.
C.J. makes the grand total of mine and Randy's niece and nephews to (drum roll please....) 7! Two boys from his side, and 4 boys, one girl from mine. WOW! I think we'll have to start our own professional sports team when they all get older!
CONGRATS, KRISTEN AND NATE!!!!

Death

I came to the realization tonight that I am afraid of death. Not my death, but of those nearest and dearest to me. As Randy was starting his car, ready to drive back down to training in LA, I told him "Please don't die". I truthfully, wholeheartedly meant it and began to cry as I said it. Now before you all think I'm some kind of loon, hear me out. I'm not afraid of my death (except I do have 2 requests: I don't want to feel it and I don't want to be freaked out before it happens *plane crash*) because I know what awaits me. I've "helped" some of my patients die peacefully. Usually, though, when I'm saying good bye to someone who is leaving me or driving off, I am so scared that it will be the last time I see him or her again. I've tried to get past this. I can't live in fear of losing my loved ones. I pray that God takes this fear away from me. Like I said, I'm not afraid to die, and I have it in my heart to care for those who are dying. It's just this sudden death thing I'm not so good at.

Jun. This fear all started with his death.

That Whole Plane Incident...

I can honestly say that it's not everyday that a disabled aircraft flies over me while sitting in the LA traffic. But it happened to me yesterday, and it was quite thrilling (now that I know it landed ok). That pilot deserves a raise and a vacation.

Weird advertising, but it did get my attention...

Tonight, as I was walking out of Subway after getting my food, I heard this blaring voice coming from (I guess what was) a speaker in the bushes. It was so loud echoing through the parking lot that I thought it would make car alarms go off. The message blaring? "YOU CAN GET A GREAT DEAL ON TAMPONS AND PANTYLINERS RIGHT NOW AT SAV-ON!!!!"
Thanks for the info.

I miss Randy.

He'll be back on Friday, but I've already been crying. :-( How and when did I get to be such a big baby? I get it from my mother. Not that that's a bad thing! I just don't like being left. It's too quiet. Randy's a lot of fun to be around. And I love him.
Please come back soon Randy. WWWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Friday Humor

We all need a little laughter right about now, don't ya think? Enjoy!

An extraordinarily handsome man decided he had the responsibility to marry the perfect woman so they could produce beautiful children beyond comparison.
With that as his mission he began searching for the perfect woman. Shortly thereafter he met a farmer who had three stunning, gorgeous daughters that positively took his breath away. So he explained his mission to the farmer, asking for permission to marry one of them.
The farmer simply replied, "They're lookin' to get married, so you came to the right place. Look 'em over and pick the one you want."
The man dated the first daughter. The next day the farmer asked for the man's opinion. "Well," said the man, "she's just a weeeeee bit, not that you can hardly notice...pigeon-toed."
The farmer nodded and suggested the man date one of the other girls; so the man went out with the second daughter. The next day, the farmer again asked how things went.
"Well," the man replied, "she's just a weeeee bit, not that you can hardly tell...cross-eyed."
The farmer nodded and suggested he date the third girl to see if things might be better. So he did. The next morning the man rushed in exclaiming, "She's perfect, just perfect. She's the one I want to marry." So they were wed right away.
Months later the baby was born. When the man visited the nursery he was horrified: the baby was the most ugly, most pathetic human you can imagine. He rushed to his father-in-law asking how such a thing could happen considering the beauty of the parents.
"Well," explained the farmer, "She was just a weeeee bit, not that you could hardly tell...pregnant when you met her."

Ma died.

No, not Caroline Ingalls, and not my mom. Our fish Ma. That's 2 fish in less than one month. Gone. Swimmin the streams of gold in fishie heaven.
That's all I can say right now. It's all too tragic.

$35.00

That's exactly how much it cost me to fill up my little VW Beetle today. A four cylinder, 12 gallon 2 door hatchback. I hit my record. I couldn't even imagine how much it costs for an SUV or big 'ol station wagon. Come on, people. Let's here it: how much does it cost you to fill up one tank?

Daddy and his girls circa 1980

I'll give you one guess which one is me.

Funny thing to try if you're bored...

Look up anything and have it translated into a hilarious (but all too real) dialect!
http://rinkworks.com/dialect/

Just so you know...

No matter how bad it is down in the Gulf, President Bush did not cause Hurricane Katrina. Quick! Someone call Janine Garafalo, Martin Sheen, and Sean Penn to inform them before they open their holes!!

I was wondering when someone would invent these...

Check this site out! No more squatting!!!!
http://www.urinelle.biz/html/en/About.shtml

May or May Not Feel Pain? Quite disturbing...

From the Washington Post: Article by Lindsey Tanner

Doctors should not be required to discuss fetal pain with women seeking abortions because fetuses likely can't feel pain until late in pregnancy, according to a review critics say hardly settles the contentious topic. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco reviewed dozens of studies and medical reports and said the data indicate that fetuses likely are incapable of feeling pain until around the seventh month of pregnancy, when they are about 28 weeks old. Based on the evidence, discussions of fetal pain for abortions performed before the end of the second trimester should not be mandatory, according to the study appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Assoc.
The review, researchers say, is an attempt to present a comprehensive, objective report on evidence to inform the debate over fetal pain laws aimed at making women think twice before getting abortions.
Critics angrily disputed the findings and claimed the report is biased.
"They have literally stuck their hands into a hornet's nest," said Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a fetal pain researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who believes fetuses as young as 20 weeks old feel pain. "This is going to inflame a lot of scientists who are very, very concerned and are far more knowledgeable in this area than the authors appear to be. This is not the last word definitely not."
Proposed federal legislation would require doctors to provide fetal pain information to women seeking abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks old, and to offer women fetal anesthesia at that stage of the pregnancy. A handful of states have enacted similar measures.
The review says medical evidence shows that brain structures involved in feeling pain begin forming earlier but likely do not function until around the seventh month, when fetuses are about 28 weeks old.
Some scientists say younger fetuses show pain by moving away from a stimulus, but that likely is a reflex action and not an indication that they are actually feeling pain, said UCSF obstetric anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Rosen, the study's senior author.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082400661.html

What an outrage.

Muscles the Fish 8/04- 8/15/05

I am sad to inform you that Muscles floated away today sometime between 11:05am and 12:10pm. A one year resident of Ventura, CA, he was purchased at the Ventura County Fair last year and came to live with us. He almost died but he faught back and survived another year. Muscles died from complications of Fin Rot. He is survived by his friends/next of fin: Ma, Mr.Clean, and Champagne (a.k.a. Goldilocks). He was proceeded in death by Pa and the Temptations.
Muscles was a good fish and a good pet. He was an inspiration and swam life to the fullest.
A memorial service has been planned tonight in our bathroom at approx. 10:00 pm. Internment will be at the Ventura County Sewage Treatment Plant.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the "We Want Another Fish" Fund.

Goodbye Freedom

Hello nursing school. I begin my 2nd to last semester of nursing school today, the first day of my last year. I kick off the festivities with a clinical rotation at SJRMC from 1:00 - 10:00 pm. Woo freakin hoo.
I have heard that this is the easiest semester, so that's comforting. And it's not like I don't like nursing school, it's just that it's such a big time committment. I may have been enjoying myself and my free time a little too much this summer. It was a great summer and I had a lot of fun- even at work!
Tomorrow I will be one day closer to graduating and heading off into the "real world" (again). I will be able to put into practice all that I've learned the past 2 years in order to help people. That, my friends, makes me happy.

Lost

Randy and I are officially addicted to the t.v. show Lost. We've watched the first 20 episodes all in the past few days (more specifically, 16 episodes in the past 48 hours). It began as kind of hokey, but now that the characters are more developed, it's turning out to be a really great and suspensful show! Can't wait until season 2 starts in September!
Anyone else share this addiction?

Rude Awakening

I got a phone call at 4:45 this morning from my sister, Keri. I answered the phone "What happened?!" only to find out that the Indiana tv station she was watching said that the space shuttle would be flying over Oxnard and Ventura California soon. I woke up Randy, checked outside it and found that it was overcast (go figure- yay Ventura). Randy looked up NASA.gov, saw where the space shuttle was positioned off the California coast, and we grabbed a blanket and headed out to the park across the street. Sure enough, at about 5:07, we heard the sonic boom (the loudest I've ever heard) and right after that, a "whooshing" sound as the shuttle made it's way through the air. It sounded like it was so close and right over our heads! It was incredible!!!!
All those memories about wanting to be an astronaut came flooding back. Space flight has been and always will be awesome to me. Wonder if they need nurses up in space....Maybe I could be a Payload Specialist Nurse. I could perform experiments on Bandaids and what kind sticks best of different kinds of wounds in space. Or how about different ways to insert a urinary catheter in a weightless environment? Hmmm....the possibilities are endless. I'll get around to filling out that NASA astronaut application someday.

My first bout with Creative Memories

Ok. So last Friday night I went to my in-laws house to try my hand at scrapbooking with some friends and family. We got started around 7:00 pm. Two hours and one photo later, I had completed the first page in my album and had driven nearly everyone there to the edge of madness. I do not consider myself creative, and I have been known to have perfectionistic qualities, so the two did not mix well on Friday night. However, by 11:00 pm my perfectionism had passed and I ended up with 4 finished pages with a total of 11 pictures used. Whew! I guess I just needed a little inspiration and courage to be creative. I had a great time, though I am sorry that I was such a pain in the @#% for everyone else: Ma MaJ, Martha, Kristen, and Sara. Scrapbooking hasn't become addicting yet, and I don't see it as becoming so since I start back with school ONE WEEK from tomorrow.
Oh balls. Thick you, school. (inside joke for the gals that were scrapbooking).

The funniest thing I saw today

Actually, this picture is one of the strangest I've ever seen. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. The tall girl is 7 foot 2 inches, while the short girl is 5 foot 6 inches. Wow. I just can't stop laughing!

Prophecy

I don't know how or when, but sometime over the past 5 years or so I became interested in prophecy in scripture. Specifically, end time prophecy as told to John in the book of Revelation. Having read all of the Left Behind books, I was interested in finding out what was truth from scripture. If you've never read Revelation, or if you have given up reading certain parts of the book because it is too confusing with all the bowls, trumpets, and what-not, then you were probably as confused as I was digging into the scritpure farther than I had ever done before. A couple of years ago, I found a book called "Revelations: Hearing the Last Word" by David Levy, and I promptly used this book as one person's reference for interpretation as I read and re-read Revelation. As I began to put the pieces in Revelations together, I knew that there was so much more to Revelation than what was being made known in churches and other Christian public forums. That book is promise to God's people- us- and how he was going to come again to claim this world and everything in it as his. How powerful!
I continued to read other books about interpretations of Revelation, and each and every one of them had the "Futuristic" point of view that so many Christians have: all of a sudden, Christians will disappear, and an Anti-Christ will rise and rule the world, and there will be 7 years of tribulation before Jesus sends his army sweeping to victory in the battle of all battles, Armageddon. This view is based on the fact that all end time prophecy will be fulfilled in the future. I wondered while reading this interpretation "So there has been nothing going on since the days of the Bible that is according to the last days as proclaimed in Revelation? That's weird. "
Enter the world of Steve Wohlberg and his "End Time Delusions" book. After reading Revelation, every Christian should read "End Time" word for world, page by page, and have their Bible open and ready to cross reference what Wohlberg brings to light. I didn't realize how there are 3 major prophetic schools that different Christian churches preach about, or that the Christian reformers were murdered in by the Catholic Church because they were considered "Historics" who wouldn't preach "futurism" (the Christians vanishing into thin air, 7 year tribulation teaching). Historics see the book of Revelation as actual events that occurred throughout the history of Christianity from the time of John until the return of Christ.
This blog is getting pretty long, but I encourage everyone to check out the website www.endtimeinsights.com and let me know what you think, if anything, about prophecy. Also, if anyone wants to borrow "End Time Delusions" I will be more than happy to lend it out.

Let's see...we have mashed potato, frosted, special K, scalp....

What constitutes being a "flake" or a "flaky" person? If you say that you would go to a party, but after you thought about it, decided not to go because it was a party you don't think you should go to, is that really defined as flakiness? Or is that just simply following your gut feeling, which is usually acceptable?

Crackin' Back

I went to the chiropractor today in Ojai. This is the 2nd time I've been in a year and let me tell ya- the first chiropractor I went to was a joke and this Dr. Johnston (who I went to today) was AWESOME!!! She went through a complete health history with me first, then measured my limbs, warmed my back using ultrasonic waves, stretched my back, and finally the cracking began. Or, as she called it, "alignment". I felt like I was floating on air the rest of the day. I found out that my left leg is anatomically shorter than my right by a considerable amount, and Dr. Johnston says it would benefit me greatly to have a heal insert. Maybe I will reach that 6' mark after all. I promised her that I wouldn't crack my neck anymore (and I have made it 10.5 hours without doing so). She was quite impressed with my crooked chest, and didn't hesitate to tell me how abnormal it is. Sure, not like I haven't heard that one a few times!!!!
All in all, it was a great experience and I'm going back next week too. Might have to put this one in the budget (ok, honey???).

Sleep

Just so ya know, if you can't get to sleep and are considering the aid of pharmaceuticals to induce you, try Tylenol Sore Throat and Cold. I didn't wake up one time last night, and the effects last for only 6 hours. Take a swig and brrrrrrrring! It's already the next morning.
Miracle, that Tylenol Sore Throat and Cold.

My husband, the Rock Star

For my birthday, we went to sing karaoke. Randy surprised me and dedicated the song "Your Song" by Elton John to me. The announcer had me sit on a stool in front of the stage while Randy serenaded me. I just copied these pictures off of Jared's blog site- thanks Jared!!!!!
By the way, Randy was sensational!

Lesson for the Day

It takes approximately 5 seconds for the interior of your car to be saturated with olive oil. Furthermore, it takes approximately one roll of paper towels, 5 regular terry towels, 3 old ripped-up hanes t-shirts, 2 swear words (oops), 3 hours of upholstery detailing, 2 run throughs with a wet/dry vac, and $45 to erase that first 5 seconds.
Any questions?

Is Harry Potter Day a bonafide holiday?

It was deemed "Harry Potter Day" last Friday at summer school. All these kids had to put on fake round black glasses and don witches hats. Even some of the adults dressed up like witches and did a Harry Potter skit. Then the kids all particpated in a quiz show about the books. I didn't feel comfortable sitting there wondering if a children's camp should be celebrating witchcraft or books about witchcraft. Then again, was I looking too much into it?

What do you guys think of letting your kids read Harry Potter? I've heard some people debating on the radio today and one side thought that the books are evil (being based on sorcery, witches, and the like) and the other side said to lay off, they are kid's books, that no one is hurt by reading them. I've never read Harry Potter, nor have been interested in reading the books. But I am curious as to what parents do these days in regards to deciding what their kids read. And, more importantly, what they would think if Harry Potter Day was celebrated at their school or camp.

Anniversary

Today was the day that, 30 years ago, my dad put on his pink leisure suit and my marm got out her blue flowered dress and exchanged vows "til death would they part". Well, they loved each other but eventually death did part them 11 years ago. I'm not speaking directly from my mom's prospective, though she may agree whole heartedly when I say that what her and my dad began 30 years ago people wait lifetimes for. He may be gone now, but I know his love for her and for his kids has carried us the past 30 years and will continue to do so for years to come. I can only hope to have the kind of marriage that my parents had. I think Randy and I are off to a good start! It's better to have a love for a little while than never to have had a love at all.

Thanks marm...

for having me. You remember what happened on this day better than I do (and have the scars to prove it). I love you!

Hotel Rwanda

Randy and I just watched the movie Hotel Rwanda (based on a true story, in case you didn't know). All I could think was "people are absolute savages". Has anyone else watched that movie? I want to take my nursing and go work in a refugee camp. I want to be able to help those people who are refugees from such massacres and genocides like those that happened in Rwanda. Why do I feel so helpless?

Four more days...

Why does it seem like "27" is old? My 26th birthday wasn't so bad, but 27? That's closer to 30!!!! So much to do in such little time! Yikes! (no offense you over 30 crowd) :-)

I want a Golden Ticket

Who's up for Charlie & the Chocolate Factory on Friday at the IMAX in Valencia? There's a 7:30 pm show.

Nail Biting

Ok. the time has come where I am truly annoying my husband with my nail biting. I need to quit. I don't want to, and I probably won't stop biting them altogether, but for his sanity I must stop doing it in front of him. How am I supposed to go about doing this? I have tried EVERYTHING to quit: icky tasting solution (I thought it tasted good, like cayenne peppers), getting a manicure (I felt like it was a waste of money) , wearing bandaids (yeah that's attractive and makes me look like I got attacked by a glucose monitoring kit), being offered money (hey mom- does that "deal" you made me in fourth grade still count if I stop biting my nails now???), etc...... and nothing seems to work. Or, it's a quick fix. I stopped biting my nails exactly 2 weeks before our wedding, and promptly went to town on them the day after on the plane to the French Polynesia. My motivation? At the wedding, I wanted to take the infamous 'newly married hands on the Bible' picture. That's it.
My nails are like a good old friend. I bite them when I'm scared, when I'm bored, when I am thinking, when I'm driving, when I'm furious, when I'm excited...basically all the time. Not because I'm hungry (mom) or trying to annoy people (Randy). How do I stop myself from biting them in front of people? It's second nature for me to casually put my nails in my mouth without even knowing I did so until Randy nudges me and gives me "the look". If I don't respond to his stare, I get the "Kristi! STOP BITING YOUR NAILS! PLEASE!!!!". Help me!!!!!!

Terrorists Shmerrorists

I woke up this morning to Google news telling me that terrorists had placed bombs throughout London and that 4 out of 6 of them had blown up, killing and hurting people. My thoughts turned to my friend Diane, who lives in London and takes the train every day to work about the same time as those explosions. Well, after many tries and getting the ole "All circuits are busy" recording in a British accent, I finally got through to her. Turns out she was in line at an underground train station on her route to work when the bombs went off, but at the time the station agents said that it was a power problem and that all trains were being shut down. Diane and the rest of the Brits waiting went above ground to get other transportation, but no one hardly realized where they were and how to get home because public transportation is HUGE there. People just hung out and tried to get directions to their homes or works from others around. Diane couldn't get through to anyone on her cell for a bit, since officials by that time had found out it was a bomb and had shut down cell communications (in case bombs were being detonated using cells). Finally, she got ahold of her boyfriend Hu (a tall Brit, not an Asian guy) who drove across town to get her. When she arrived back to her flat, she found out on the news that one of the train stations that blew up was the next stop on her route to work. Scary! Diane is fine, thank God. Stupid terrorists.

Quote of the day

In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.
Ellen Degeneres

My day

Sometimes I wish I could "beam me up Scottie" and arrive in Indiana just for the day. Click my heals, be in Indiana, then click them again and be back in Cali.
Today was one of those days. I called my sister on the way up to work this a.m. and she answered the phone "Sissy?" and it sounded like she was crying. Granted, my sister is 28. Not normal for her to do, so I knew something was wrong. She proceeded to tell me the story of her horrendous weekend in which she went tubing and slammed her head into her knee hard. Immediately she fell asleep for 12 hours straight. Hello? Did anyone try to wake her? NO! They just thought maybe she had drank a little too much (not realizing she had only 2 drinks that wouldn't even get a five year old buzzed). By Monday she was vomiting and lethargic and her face was swollen and painful. Today, I guess she went into work and one of her subordinates told her that she looked like crap (in so many words) and called Keri's doctor for her. She was ordered to go to the ER, and after a series of CT scans and Xrays, was cleared with an ok bill of health. I don't know whether it was fully determined that she had a concussion, but it sure sounds like it. I am so glad she's ok. I guess she looked pretty beat up though. Hey Keri, send me a picture to show me your wounds.
In other Kristi family news, my grandfather suffered what doctors are calling a stroke this past weekend while visiting St. Louis with my mom and step dad. Grandpa started slurring his words and was unable to walk properly, so they cut the trip short. Mom called me on their way back to Indiana and let me talk to grandpa. He sounded incoherent at times and kept saying "I sound like a drunk, Kristi Jean!". Well, he did sound drunk, but I knew there is a "no alcohol" rule when Donna is around. I told her to call his neurologist as soon as she got back, which she did, and had to take him over to the hospital. He spent 2 nights there and was released. He's recovering now, resting at home.
Click click click, there's no place like home.

My sister Keri and I

Taken last month in Indiana. She does have clothes on.

Explanation of pretty

When I was little, I would ask my mom if I was pretty. She would reply "Pretty is as pretty does, Kristi Bugg" and hug and kiss me. And I would go about my day with those words in mind. I commend my mom. What else would you say if a girl with legs like a chicken, permed frizzy hair, glassess, and buck teeth came up to you and asked if she was pretty? My mom wouldn't lie. She hates lying.

Mom also passed along some other proverbs. Ones like "keep your legs together and your panties up". But I didn't think that would be such an appropriate blog title.

My weird dreams

Here's a synopsis of the dream I had last night: I was at a doctor's office in Bloomington (where I'm from) and I found out that I was going to die of cancer in my 40s. My sister Keri picked me up from my appointment and took me to the mall. I hadn't said anything to Keri yet because I wanted Randy to be the first one I told, but since he was out in California I would have to tell him over the phone. I wanted to tell everyone about me dying face to face, but decided to call Randy because he had to be the first to know. I started out the conversation with "Randy, if you knew that I was going to die in my forties, would you still want to have a baby, since I've always wanted one?" He said yes (in my dream. This morning when I was rehashing the whole thing he said "no way! why would I want our kids to not have a mom?!) and I hung up the phone and told my sister about my dying. I think she was sad, but not too sure. I hope it's not prophetic!

I then dreamt about my nephew Levi last night too, but can't remember it except that he was running to me and I picked him up, threw him in the air, and then caught him. He was laughing and laughing.

I think my dreams have a multiple personality disorder of sorts.

A day in the life of a boarding school nurse...

consists of getting to the school at 8 or 8:30 am, just in time to hit the cafeteria and hand out the day's candy of choice: Wellbutrin, Strattera, Adderall, Ritalin, or Concerta (all which beat that horrible Depression or ADHD to a bloody pulp). Waiting to give the meds, I can't help but admire the 5th grade girls outfits (obviously having a Coach face off, where each one wears or carries a different accessory which they got from their movie producer parents to celebrate an older brother's Bar Mizvah). I have to watch some of the older girls who are anorexic to make sure they eat all their toast, eggs, and yogurt. The boys come in to eat next and, without batting an eye at the girls (I guess $250 flip flops turn them off) manage to eat their way through the rest of the food. So goes my breakfast.
After breakfast (of course, it's called 'brunch' on the weekends, sans Mimosas), the kids are off to their activities as I venture on back to my post at the health center, where I immediately begin getting faxes from mothers worrying about their child's medication consumption that read something like this: "Dear School Nurses, please take my son X off of his Concerta and instead give him 4 Red Bulls a day. Of course, I will be sending money so that you can go shopping for the Red Bull. FYI: The FDA just showed in a study that Concerta causes heart palpitations in youth. I think that the caffeine regimen will work fine. Thanks, Mrs. X". And I think to myself- what a load of crap. I want to send her a fax back that says what studies have indicated about caffeine use in adolescents. But I won't, not today atleast.
Next, I wait in the 90 degree heat. I wait for mosquito bites, bee stings, splinters, scratches, and burns. I wait for homesickness, chapped lips, allergy attacks, and possible broken bones. In between all these kids (adding up to 30 visits a day) I read books. I have read 4 books since June 24. Even I'm impressed.
I mentioned the kids activities earlier. Let me tell you, these aren't the normal "let's paint by numbers or make potholders" camp classes/activities. Oh, no. We have a buffet from which the little rich kids can choose from (just so it feels more like their own backyard). We have archery, rock climbing, equestrian, woodworking, yoga, martial arts, tennis, and performing arts. I have worked on injuries from each of the above activity categories (even yoga).
In between giving the 12, 3 and then 4 o'clock doses of psychotropic candy, I do some paperwork but also read some more. I'm done by 4:30 and walk out to my car which is in the nasty gravel parking lot by the horses. I take a big whiff of mountain air (horse crap) and get into my Bug, ready to head off down the mountain back into the real world.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job. It's fun and funny at times. I like that the nurses and counselors I work with are down to earth and are great people to be around. I think that we act as stability for those kids whose lives are more messed up at home than we could ever imagine. Still, you have to wonder about their parents. Caffeine instead of Concerta? Give me a break! How about spending some time and giving attention to your child? I love those kids and it's all sad to me. It's so sad.

I've entered the realm of blogging

Wow. Here I am! I mainly created a blog spot in order to keep my family and friends in Indiana and beyond up to date on my life. Just in case they care. Blogs can be so pretentious- that's why I've never wanted to have one before. Now I see it as a fun, informative way in which friends could keep up on what 's going on in your life and vice versa. It's still 2-way communication that people can respond to if they so desire. This is my diary...sometimes it will be filled with boring day-to-day crap that no one gives a hoot about (except, maybe, my mom), and then other times I will go off into the deep end ranting and raving about some thing in life or society that ticks me off. Whatever. Do with this blog what you please. Just have fun with it!