Winding down the semester...

I don't have much time to make a big long post. I'm in preservation mode to get through the semester with straight A's. I'm may be a bit in denial about how much work I have ahead of me. I do have a ton to do, but am working on one task at a time while also making sure to keep a tally of all the things that need to be done by December 17th. I went to see the UMSL School of Nursing. It's competitive right now, but I'm hoping all the hard work I've put into school, this time around, will give me an edge. I really liked the campus. It made me excited to start the nursing school portion or this trek, but like I said...one task at a time. BUT I have registered for classes next semester and am in the process of applying to UMSL while also looking into other options because of the competitiveness.

The Scientist (until I can come up with a suitable nickname) broke his arm on Thanksgiving. The story is basically this...he was having trouble getting motivated to get his coat on to leave, I challenged him with "I bet you can't make it into the kitchen in two seconds," he did but ran full tilt into the door frame. I knew he was really hurt (not that hurt, but hurt) and after consulting Children's Hospital's website decided with The Scientist to "watch and wait." He went through Thanksgiving day flinching every now and then, but doing most things as normal. We called the nurses line the next day. She suggested not going to the emergency room, but go ahead and see the pediatrician. Once there he recommended x-rays and that led to a six hour wait for the orthopedic pediatrician to decide whether to cast or splint the fracture. He's good now but milking the "I can't write" angle for all it's worth. To an extent we're going along with it. That may change once we go see the orthopedic nurse practitioner tomorrow.

Otherwise, we've been busy with schools and gymnastics and family get-togethers for Thanksgiving/Christmas. The Scientist was asking me today what we do as a family to celebrate the holidays. He didn't realize that we start Christmas at Thanksgiving and that goes until New Years. Busy, busy, busy.

You will also notice that I've changed the background layout of my blog. Thanks Half! I snatched the website from you.

Note to Self...

When "tapping" a dish to get the air bubbles out from under the surface of the food stuffs, make sure to use a ginger "tap." Otherwise, you will end up splattering the food stuffs, hypothetically speaking guacamole, all over yourself. It will get in your hair, on your sweater, all over your face, and I should let you know that your glasses won't help to shield your eyes from this mess either. Getting a hypothetical dip that has lime juice, onions, tomatoes, salt, and jalapenos in your eye does not feel good!!! This is of course for future reference. That hypothetical guacamole does taste really good though. Too bad it's not for home.

Halloween 2009...

This year, we told the boys that we had to use what we had, costume wise, or design inexpensive costumes. I don't know if anyone else has noticed just how expensive Halloween costumes are, but they are and they aren't even made very well. It makes me wish that I had a sewing machine and the ability to make things with it. I would quit spending so much time on the computer find the time. I think it would be fun and I like making things and using my hands. Where was I?*

Oh yeah, so Monkey, being the Transformer fiend that he is, chose to go as Bumblebee from last year. Great that was easy. Who's going to remember? Well you will if you follow that link. :D Okay, and The Scientist, who will henceforth be known as Pokemon Trainer, wanted to go as a Skeleton Wizard. I kind of thought at first that, man oh man, we are going to have to buy a bunch of crap to make this work. Dirty jumped in with some creativity and said, "We can use the tape that I used for my costume." I didn't get a picture of his costume, but he taped a gigantic "E" on his shirt and he's a boy...get it??? He was "E-mail."

Right, anyway, he used the tape and put the shirt together. He did the pants too, but while the shirt looked alright but anatomically incorrect I'm working on the perfectionism the legs looked pretty shotty. So I redid those as the sun was sitting. Earlier in the day, we went to the Halloween store and bought some cheap facepaint (Lord, please don't let it poison him. One time use should be alright, right?) I really enjoyed painting on his face. If the career as a nurse for some reason doesn't work out, my next move might be cosmetology. Gosh, I'm having trouble staying on topic. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube on creating skeleton looks and painted his face letting him give input on what he wanted. The YouTube tutorial didn't have lines across the gumlines, but it's how he wanted it and it was so. I wanted to keep going and make it even more shaded, but he cut me off. The colored hair spray was right next to the face paint in the store so he decided he wanted green hair too. We used one of his LOTR capes (he has two LOTR costumes because we gave into his "I don't want to be Aragorn this year. I wanted to be Legolas." even though they are basically the same freaking costume. However, times are tight we need to get creative and put a little work into it. Voila!!!

So I finished Pokemon Trainer's costume as the sun was setting. I told them we could go. We walked down the steps and, after I'd already opened the door, I remembered we had not taken a picture. So after a quick temper tantrum from Monkey and the threat of "We will NOT go Trick or Treating!" we trucked back up the steps. Pokemon Trainer was actually excited to get his picture taken. This is actually extremely out of character for him, but I'm not complaining. We hit our neighbor's houses and kept asking each other where all the Trick or Treaters were. As we got to the end of our block and made our way over to Flora Place to Trick or Treat our way up to Dirty's parents house, I saw streams of Trick or Treaters crossing the streets. See Flora Place has all of these huge houses. I would venture a guess that most of the houses are three stories and have an average of 6 bedrooms. Apparently, big houses=big candy. There are always tons of people who drive from all over the city to Trick or Treat on this street. Crazy! Yet again, I digress.

So we made our way up the two blocks and the boys were going to trick Grandpa C. We stood back and Pokemon Trainer went up the steps and said, "Trick or Treat!" That was about the time that I heard Grandpa C. say, "Sorry, but I'm out of candy. They have some though." And he directed Pokemon Trainer to the next door neighbors. Monkey went up, but didn't bother with his mask so Grandpa C. said to him, "Oh of course I have candy for you! Where's your brother?" Monkey pointed him out and Grandpa called him over again. That was kind of funny. So we went inside and I the boys dove into their candy bags and the adults went into the kitchen for cocktails. Once the boys got a little rowdy, Grandpa C. put on Monsters vs. Aliens and they settled down again. It was a nice night of visiting.

It's become a bit of a tradition, and it's nice. The boys don't end up with too much candy because we really only hit three blocks. They don't seem to notice because we end up at Happy Fun Land Grandma T.'s and Grandpa C.'s and we get to visit with Dirty's parents while the boys gorge themselves on candy and watch satellite tv. You know what the crazy thing was? As soon as Grandpa C. dropped us off, and while I was walking up our front stairs, I had this feeling like I wanted turkey and a Thanksgiving feast. I'm ready Thanksgiving goodness. Bring it on!

*I lost the post-it that had the "strike through" feature written on it. It took me forever to find a copy of it in my many past posts. Luckily, I don't know if it was me or Jeannette, but I had a copy in my dashboard. That started me on my lack of focus for this post.

Note to Self...

If you are going to not pay attention in Huber's labs, then I would suggest you start bringing a medical dictionary with you when you study. Half the stuff he brings up isn't in the book or his oh-so-comprehensive study notes, which means you need to have a tool to look this crap up. That's all. Get back to studying. You had better keep that "A".

Happy Birthday Monkey...

I can barely believe that it's been five years since he was born. He's no longer a baby or a toddler. He's a kid now. He'll be going to kindergarten next year. However, he still likes to cuddle every now and then. I've been on the verge of tears for the last couple days. Some of it has been frustration with not knowing what to do about The Scientist's anxiety, but I think some of it is also that Monkey is five...a whole hand!

For The Scientist's fifth birthday, we had a HUGE party at The Heights. For Monkey, we're having a party at The Heights, but we haven't had the time or the energy to make it as big as it maybe could have been. For that, I'm sorry. I'm sure he'll have a blast, because that's the kind of kid that he is. I know that I'm doing things for all of us that, in the long run, will be totally worth it. I still worry about what we're having to give up now. These moments pass so quickly. I swear I'm doing the best that I can, and I hope that one day, the boys will be able to look back and appreciate it.

So here's my favorite picture of him at the moment. I think it expemplifies his spirit; on the go, happy, outgoing.

Oh brother...

I've been busy(read trying to stay on task for school yet sometimes getting sidetracked which is why I'm only getting a "B" in Microbiology). I am otherwise doing well in my classes. I have an "A" is Anatomy and Physiology II, an "A" in Bio-Medical Ethics, and an "A" in College Algebra (which is actually what I remember doing freshman year...in HIGH SCHOOL!!!) I would be okay with the "B" in Microbiology, but it's slipping. I went from a high "B" to a barely "B" and that is with the "drop the lowest test and quiz scores." Why am I so obsessive about my grades, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you why I'm so obsessive. I am in my third semester of a BSN. I am starting out at community college because (1)it's cheap and (2)it's close. If I were to do the nursing program at the community college, I would have to finish their prerequisites and then sit on a wait list until they have a spot for me in their program. Since there is a year/year and a half wait list, I would basically be working on the classes that I would need for a BSN. Their program is about as long as the BSN program and I would only end up with an ASN. That seems inefficient. This leads me to why I'm so obsessive about my grades...I have to transfer after the fourth semester to a BSN program. All of those BSN programs look at your cumulative GPA. My first go round of college was disastrous (read in some instances as 0.00 GPA that I have to work back from.) There seems to be a lot of competition to get into nursing programs, so I need a good GPA. I'm hoping that once I'm in a program, I can back off a bit.

We've also been busy with the boys schedules. They are both in soccer, which makes two hour-ish practices during the week and two hour games on Saturdays. We were introduced to a new athletic club that we are excited about. Monkey did the gymnastics class and LOVED it!!! They have the spring floors and he did not stop bouncing the entire time...even when he was sitting. The Scientist tried an older gymnastics class and liked it alright, but I'm not sure if it's enough to go back. Monkey's is one night a week. The Scientist's are two nights a week. Then we've been doing family things on Sundays.

We went to Six Flags a couple weeks ago. We all had a blast. The Scientist rode his first roller coasters (not his thing). Monkey wanted to ride the roller coaster, but was one inch too short. :( We had dinner with the in-laws last week. We went to Onesto...so incredibly yummy. This week, we go to "Day Out with Thomas." I have only a slight clue as to what that actually entails. I think we'll have fun though. Upcoming, we have Monkey's FIFTH BIRTHDAY!!!!! I just wrote that and it hit me. I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S TURNING FIVE!!!!! And of course, there is also Halloween, which I haven't even begun to think about. I'm hoping the boys will want a recap of Halloweens Past. I vaguely remember Monkey saying something about wanting to be Bumblebee again, but I think that was in a line-up of a few different characters throughout all of the Halloween Festivities. I guess I need to think about that. I haven't even asked The Scientist.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BUS STOP TIME!!!!! BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. This is my life lately. I have anxiety about every little thing including if we missed the bus, even when I logically know that it always comes later than 8:30 a.m., but what if it, for some reason, came before and we missed it. ETC. Is it Christmas break yet?

Honest Scrap Award...

This is probably the second blog "award" I was given. I look at them more as linky-love and will follow the rules as such. I will also attempt to do this in the next twenty minutes as I have to go to the bus stop to pick up the boys.

1. Choose 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.

2. Show the 7 winners’ names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they have won the Honest Scrap award.

Elizabeth

Theresa

Franchesca

Jeannette

Half-Pint

KBO

Kim

3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

#1 I forgot about this portion when I started this post
#2 I'm a bit longwinded...but I'll leave it there for now.
#3 I love being a full-time student. So far I'm really good at it. I know I'm just at the community college right now, but I feel like a rock star when I'm there because I excel in most of my classes. The only one where that didn't happen was Macroeconomics, and I honestly didn't put that much work into it.
#4 I'm a perfectionist.
#5 I'm scared to death about going into the workforce someday.
#6 I'm a procrastinator.
#7 I'm overweight. I don't necessarily look like it, but I am. I have my tricks, but I'm not healthy so looking good doesn't matter as much.
#8 I started out wanting three kids. Then reality set in as well as personal responsibility and I realized that it just wasn't in the cards. I would love to have more, but then I remember "freedom". I will only be 44 when Marcus turns 18. NICE!
#9 I am perfectly content in my own head and could really do without human interaction most times. Probably why I love reading. But there are times when you wish the person talking back to you wasn't yourself. :D
#10 While I talk about leaving St. Louis to live somewhere else (Phoenix AZ), it will probably never happen. I love St. Louis...a lot. I can't really imagine myself anywhere else permanently.

WOO! I finished. I'll comment on those blogs that I linked later. I've got to get to the bus stop.