2 Weeks of Chaos

It's been a pretty crazy last couple of weeks. It would have all began 2 weeks ago on Saturday. Once I was done with work, I headed up to the cities for a Swarm game. First, I met up with a school friend at her brand new house with her new puppy. I would have been on time, except for mapquest decided to tell me to turn right on a street that could only be turned left on. I went around the block a few times before calling her, and turns out I was supposed to go left. I was actually 3 hours down. They could see my car the whole time. That's mapquest for you! The house is really nice, and the puppy is so cute! Taffy will have yet another friend once we move up there. The Swarm game was awesome! It was for a classmate's birthday. We were up on club level, so not too close to the field. However, we all got autograph passes to go on the field after the game to meet & greet some of the players. Sadly, we didn't win. Although, if the refs would have counted 2 of our goals, we would have won. We ran out of challenges. It was still a good game, and it was fun meeting the players.

The next exciting event would have the the following Monday, which was the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Most of you know that I am not Chinese, so why would I celebrate do you ask? Because it's a great excuse to make Chinese food! And an excuse to have a party! Even though it was just my parents and I, it was a nice dinner. I made Chinese chicken salad, which was amazing, and wontons, which were just as yummy. There were Chinese chocolates (haystacks) and fortune cookies for dessert. It was a very tasty dinner. Just like the Chinese do, we opened our windows to let the bad from last year out and the good from the new year in. It was pretty cold outside, since it was in the below-zero stretch, so the windows were only open for a matter of seconds. It's the thought that counts.

There were more long days of working, and then we reached the superbowl. Like every other Sunday, I had to work at the clinic. However, I only missed the first quarter and part of the second quarter of the game, so not too many commercials. I was just happy to make it home in time for half-time. Afterall, I don't care too much for the actual game. I was cheering for Arizone though, since it was their first time. The steelers are good, but it's not fair that they one again. They have already won 5 times; did they really need a 6th win? Apparently. Oh well, it was a good game, and Arizona put up a good fight. The following day, I started fulltime in place of the tech on maternity leave. She had her baby almost 2 weeks early, and that means more money for me :)

And that brings us to this weekend. Last night was the annual tree burning party at a family friend's house. It's a night of yummy food and a huge fire of Christmas trees and wooden pallets. There was barbaquesu, cowboy beans, noodle salads, cookies, brownies, and so much more. There was a really yummy fruit salad with grapes, cream cheese, vanilla yogurt, and walnuts. Someone else got lazy and bought strawberry cheesecake, which is fine with me cuz it was really good. Outside by the fire, there was a wooden swing chair. We got a really cute family picture, as well as one of just my parents.

Speaking of my parents, tomorrow is my dad's surgery on his shoulder. Some of you may remember, almost 2 months ago my dad fell on the ice and tore his rotator cuff. In other words, he tore a tendon in his shoulder. The MRI revealed possibly a second torn tendon, but we'll find that out during the surgery tomorrow. I admit, I'm a little worried just because there is always a risk with anesthesia. The surgery is pretty common, but I know he will be in a lot of pain afterwards. However, they do say that it gets worse before it gets better. Let's hope that all goes well.

Boards

My certification exams were this past weekend. After reviewing the powerpoints all week, I felt prepared. The national exam was on Friday about a 2-hour drive away. Being the paranoid driver that I am, I allowed a little more than 2 1/2 hours to make the drive. I was afraid of traffic and accidents with it being a snowy Friday morning. Luckily, there was no traffic. I arrived an hour early for the test, so I have extra study time. But of course I didn't study cuz my brain hurt. I met up with some classmates, and we caught up before the test. According to the e-mail, check-in was at 8am and the test was supposed to start about 8:45am. Due to slow people and proctors, we didn't start the exam until 9:25am. 225 questions later, I handed in my exam and headed to IHOP for lunch. We had 4 hours, but I was done in a little over 2 hours. IHOP was really yummy, and cheap since I had coupons.

I returned on Saturday to take the state exam. Unlike the national exam, this one was in familiar territory. It was held at my school with my teachers at the proctors. It was more relaxing, and it went on time. This test was only 100 questions, lasting about an hour. Instead of being the typical bubble test, it was timed over a projection. Each question was on the screen for 30 seconds, and only appeared once. There was no time for second guessing, so it was a good thing that most of it had pictures. I'm thinking I did okay on both exams. However, I won't hear back for 6-8 weeks. In other words, it's either going to be a good birthday present or a bad birthday present. I'm crossing my fingers for at least one good score!

The Power of 3

Most of you know that I have the big certification exam this coming weekend, so the plan was to spend all day today, tomorrow, and Thursday studying for it. After all, I didn't spend $200 for nothing. However, when I went to work yesterday, I was informed that a coworker of mine had a family emergency. She had to leave Sunday to go to Montana for the week. Because I am the new person who gets all the crappy hours, they decided to schedule me to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, before they even asked if I could! So of course I explain that I planned to study for the exam, but they wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Finally I was able to compromise into being allowed to bring some notes with me to study when it's slow. I guess it's better than nothing.

Anyways, the day was long yesterday. Due to the weather, one doctor had to leave early afternoon. With the other doctor in surgery til 2, there was only one doctor on. Luckily the weather caused a pretty slow afternoon. Around 4:30, two clients called in to see if we had time to see their sick animals. I said yes and set one up for each doctor around 5. One decided to show up around 5;10, and the other around 5:20. The clinic closes at 6, so right away I knew that I'd be there later. However, I was thinking maybe 6:30 at the absolute latest. Boy was I off. I didn't clock out until 7:10! That's an hour and ten minutes AFTER we closed. It was retarded and annoying, but at least I got paid for it.

So it took me another ten or so minutes just to walk to Buck surrounded by drifts and find him under all the snow. 25 minutes or so later, I finally make it home. By then, I'm not even hungry due to a very intense migraine accompanied by sinus pressure. I decided to make a salad since I knew I had to eat something. During dinner, I was informed that my aunt passed away earlier that day. To make matters worse, I find out that the funeral will be sometime on Friday, the same day as my national certification exam. So not only have I not seen her since October, but I won't even be able to say goodbye at the funeral.

This morning I woke up planning to study all morning and go to work this afternoon. While eating breakfast, I am informed that my great-aunt passed away last night. I can't even remember that last time that I saw her. Once again, her funeral will either be on Friday or Saturday. Either way, I won't be able to go due to the exam. It sucks. Part of me wants to skip the exam to be with my family, but then I will be out $200 because there are absolutely no refunds. So I am forced to pick the test over my family, Now I'm just waiting for death #3 to come around, since they always seem to travel in groups of 3...

Everyone's Doing the Fish

So I finally got my new cell phone yesterday! I've been waiting quite some time to get rid of the free phone I got a couple years ago. Since the 2-year contract is up this month, I went to Alltell to upgrade yesterday. I got the new LG camera phone, so I can now take pictures and all that fun stuff. I love the phone! It's so fun and light-weight and exciting! Then again, most new things are fun and exciting. I love it.

Also yesterday, I went to see Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto in concert. It was amazing! I've seen both in concert before, with the last time about a year and a half ago. I didn't recognize too many songs by Streetlight Manifesto this time around, but Reel Big Fish played a lot of their old stuff. I new every single song that they played! We had a really good spot too, not too far from the stage and just the right angle to see everyone. I have a great spot to watch Scott the dork too. It was a great concert, and of course ended with a 3-song encore.

After the concert, we went to get half-price appetizers at Applebees. It wasn't the best supper, but it tasted good and was cheap. Then we went geocaching; it was my first time. The first couple were still hidden in the snow, so we headed to a different town on the way home. I found my first geocache in Coates. It wasn't very exciting: a pack of crayons and a keychain. However, there was a hockey stick and puck just underneath the cache, so I took that as my prize instead. A couple hours and a few caches later, I made it home for [half of] a goodnight's sleep.

Taffy, the ADD Dog

Taffy had her annual check-up today, and she was pretty darn excited to go to work with me. She was so excited that she forgot to poop this morning, so I had no sample to bring in to have checked for parasites. It's a good thing that I work tomorrow, so it can be checked tomorrow. Anyways, once the doctor entered the room, she decided to have a little excited tinkle on the floor. I was hoping it wouldn't happen, and I thought I was safe after she said "hi" to 6 people before the doctor. Oh well, we're used to that at the clinic. She got her physical exam on the table, and all checked-out normal. She's even lost over 4 pounds since last year! She weighed in at 29.5 lbs, which is 4.2 lbs less than last January! Now she's only 2.5lbs overweight. I guess all that running around the backyard is helping her out. Luckily, she only got 2 shots this time, bordetella and lepto, and she didn't even flinch. She didn't care about her blood draws so much either, but I was told that she jumped off the countertop, aka about 4 feet up from the floor. She's kinda psycho that way. It was a good vet visit. No ear infections, no plaque/tartar on her teeth, and a decrease in weight. So looks like I have a healthy dog again. :)

Lets Play HOCKEY!

So I went to the Wild game this past Saturday, and it was a special event. We got going early that afternoon in the van; there were 7 of us total. The weather wasn't the greatest. We were lucky enough to have a nice sheet of ice falling before any snow came down to hide it. The two roomies somehow managed to create a drinking came on the way up. Every third car in ditch got one drink, as did every cop car. Snow plows got 2 drinks for safety. Why you would drink more for safety, I'm not sure. It's kinda ironic. Anyways, they had fun with it, and they were pretty fun afterwards. We saw about 37 cars in the dirch throughout the entire 1 1/2 hour drive.

Before the game, we ate at the usual location, Eagle Street. It was packed! Luckily we got there about 2 hours before the game started cuz there was a 40 min wait. Finally when we got called, we started following the hostess to our table. She was heading towards the kitchen, so I was thinking a special chef's table, which would have been pretty sweet. However, turns out there are stairs in the kitchen leading to a basement. There's more bathrooms and a complete bar in addition to the extra seating downstairs. It was so crazy! We had no idea that it existed, so it was pretty sweet. Plus, since we were that close to the kitchen, our food arrived within 10 mins of ordering. So no worries after waiting for 40 mins. We made it across the street in no time for puck drop.

The game was pretty boring at first. The entire first period wasn't very exciting. Finally during the second period we got some powerplays accompanied with goals. Not to mention, the 2 goals were within seconds of each other! It was amazing!! Although, the red wings decided to tie it up 2-2 in the third period. Sudden death overtime was uneventful other than a fight. Next up was a shoot out, aka my first LIVE shoot out!! Even though everyone in front of me stood up and I had to was a majority of it on the screen and we didn't win, it was still exciting to see my first shoot out. Now all I need to see is a live hat trick, or any hat trick for that matter. I've heard about them, but never seen one. Last chance this season will be the last home game in April. If not, there's always next season. Let's go wild!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! It's a time of new beginnings and new adventures. I have a few resolutions for the new year. I suppose I can't say that I will try to post more cuz that was my resolution for last year. This year, I first plan to work out more. I recently joined a new work-out club with lots to offer. I forgot how good it makes me feel to work-out, so I am going to aim to hit the gym at least 3 times a week. My other resolution for the year is to declutter my life. I came across a book last month at the library by Peter Walsh (the guy on TLC). It helped open my eyes to see that I have too much stuff that I don't use or don't need. The plan is to get rid of clothes that I never wear, books that I never read, and so on. I have already done the first step of decluttering and got rid of 2 boxes of clothes alone! Hopefully it continues working as it should so I can declutter my room and my life. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Happy new year everyone! I hope this year is better than the last, and wish you the best in 2009.

Where Are You Christmas?

It all started on Christmas Eve, December 24th... I got up for work like any normal day, so it didn't really sink in til after I got home around 1pm. My dad was kinda silly and decided to save his shopping for the day before Christmas. Once he got home from work, we headed to the mall and did his last-minute shopping. Compared to other years, it went pretty quick and he was able to find exactly what he was looking for. So, we headed back home to do the wrapping. My mom didn't come home from work in a good mood, but that's nothing new. Dad got lots of wrapping done for her, so that seemed to cheer her up a little bit. Then it was time for church. It was a little weird since my sister and her husband weren't able to make it this year, but still all went well. It was good for them to be able to spend more time with his family, since there are multiple days with our relatives through-out the holiday season. After church, we all met up at my parents house for some yummy gingerbread dessert. Then it was time to dream of sugar plums...

Christmas day suprisingly went well too. Those of you who haven't known me for awhile know that this is a first for several years. I'm betting it's because no one was coming over yesterday. In other words, there was nothing to get ready for or clean the house for. We weren't rushed through opening presents or anything. It was very relaxing. We spent the afternoon playing Uno. We spent almost 2 hours playing the same hand! It was insane! It was a lot of fun though. Anyways, now we have my dad's relatives coming over for Christmas tonight and my mom's relatives coming over tomorrow. Now is when the real fun begins **sarcasm** Wish me luck everyone, I'm going to need it. My mom has been flipping out all day to the point of my depression returning. Once again I say, I hate Christmas. After going through this year after year, I dont think I will every like Christmas again. And I have my wonderful, pessimistic, border-line insane mom to thank for that.

Break Time

It has been a pretty relaxing few days, even though the weekend started out on a sad note. First off, I actually had 3 days off last week!! Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of Thursday were spent scrapbooking and cleaning in my pjs. It was pretty awesome to not have to worry about going anywhere or getting dressed for a couple days. It was relaxing time that I was greatly in need of. However later on Thursday, I had to say good-bye to a good friend of mine for about a year and a half. He decided to enlist in the air force, and he heads down to basics in a couple days. We met for lunch to catch up and say good-bye. It was good to see him and lunch was yummy, but I'll miss him over the next 18 months. Hopefully all goes well for him, which I'm sure it will. :)



Friday was another not-too-happy day, or so it started out. I had to be up early and head to the cities for some Christmas shopping. What I planned to get was no longer in stock, so I had to find a plan B. I'm still hoping that this plan B works out, so let's hope it all works out. Then I was off to school for a mock exam of boards in January. I decided to go in completely blind and unprepared just to see how much I would remember from my internship and classes and everything. I guess I didn't better than I thought I would on the mock exam, but I didn't do that great, or so I thought. Supposedly, anything above 65% is awesome on the mock exam. I averaged 68%, so I guess I did really well! After the exam, I met up with some school friends at IHOP (where else??) for dinner. It was great to catch up and see them again, even if the weather sucked. It too me almost 2 hours to get home! And usually it only takes an hour and a half or so. But I did make it home eventually.

The rest of the weekend has been spent working and decorating. Although, I took a break from the decoration last night to go to "Wonder of Nativities" last night with my mom. It was a free holiday activity that was worth checking out. There were over 200 figurine nativities from all over the world. It was really neat to see how countries all over the world create a nativity. Some were handmade, while others were crystal statues. It was so cool, and definately will become a new holiday tradition.

Temper Tantrums

Is anyone out there living with a mom who is going through menopause but in denial? I am, and it sucks. Just about every day she decides to flip out over something little and generally meaningless, and I'm getting so tired of it. Tonight it happened yet again. It all started, like it usually starts, with something my dad said jokingly. Being the crazy person she is, my mom took it seriously and threw a fit, stomping off down the hallway and slamming doors. About 5-10 mins later, she returns and starts complaining about the previous topic, my dad tells her to calm down, and she replies with an annoyed "FINE" and claims she won't talk anymore. A few mins later, she returns and the same thing happens all over again. This continues all night long until everyone goes to bed, and it's sooo annoying!!! If she is going to drop the topic, then just drop it! I don't understand why she can't follow through and just let it go. Flipping out and complaining about it doesn't do any good. It's not like anything can be done come 9pm anyways, so what's the point? All it does is stress out her and everyone around her. It just increases tension and makes everyone even more annoyed than to begin with. I was so happy earlier because I finally had a day off today, and then she decides to throw a little tantrum like a 4yr old, causing my dad and I to go to bed feeling frustrated, resulting in very little sleep. It's not good for anyone, yet she still can get it through her stupid little head.

So I ask all of your bloggers out there, does anyone else have this going on? My mom is over 50, and is clearly in the beginning stages of menopause. But she is in denial. When she has her mood swings, she claims she is as happy as can be and doesn't even realize what is going on. How do I get her to understand what is happening? How do I get her to calm down over the little things? How do I keep the depression away from the household? How do I keep myself sane during her outbreaks? I don't know how much more of this I can take. I have survived more than enough years of her outbreaks, and each one pushes me more and more closer to the edge. So if anyone out there has any advice, I would love to hear it!