Preparing for nursing school

This last year feels like a blur to me. I took all my pre and co requisite classes for nursing school. I applied, and was accepted. I shouldn't have been to surprised since I have a 4.0 gpa. Then the stress started. The company my husband worked for closed in Feb. We had officially known it was closing for a few months. Fortunately we had been planning for it for over a year. He was offered a lovely severance package that included company paid COBRA for 4 months. The day his final paycheck and the severance package was due to arrive in our accounts is when it started getting crazy. The final paycheck came, but not the severance. The company's initial answer was that we were confused on when it was supposed to be paid. A few days later we received a letter saying they were out of money and it wouldn't be paid and neither would the COBRA. TERRIFIC! I needed to have a nursing school physical and dental exam, and some new immunizations. That was going to be great fun with no insurance.

Fast forward a few months. My husband is still out of work. He has gone on lots of interviews and has been told more times than we would like that he was one of 4 or 5 finalist out of over 100 qualified applicants. Yet, we still don't have income or insurance. My mother is unable to find my immunization records and as a result of this I need to have titers for the MMR and chickenpox. My doctor has told me that they are very expensive. The chickenpox titer is around $300. I went to a low income clinic for the physical, which did save me some money, but they said they couldn't do/order the titers. Another friend who has used that clinic has told me they could. This is all so frustrating!!! I wish my mom could find my records, it would take some of the stress off. I keep hoping soon I will catch a break and the records will appear, or I can find someone to do the tests for free or low cost. That is probably just wishful thinking though. For now I will plug away on what I can handle and try to relax for the last few weeks before school school starts again. Wish me luck! TTFN, Miki

Free Tupperware

I grew up in a house full of Tupperware. I am sorry to say that my house is not. As a child I remember attending or being the child of the hostess of many Tupperware parties. My cereal bowl, cups and toys were Tupperware. We also had many other pieces. One our family nicknamed the "popcorn" bowl. Obviously by the name you can guess we used it for popcorn. It was a large mixing bowl and held lots of popcorn for our family. It was used almost every day. I would love to have more Tupperware, but haven't been inivited to a party in years, and haven't bumped into anyone selling it either. Now, one of my favorite bloggers, Jessica Gottlieb, is giving away Tupperware. Yea!!! You can try to win some too. Just visit Jessica's blog Good Luck and I hope to blog again soon. -Miki

quick catch up and funny story

Sorry its been so long since blogging. School and kids and life in general really keep me busy. The good news, finals are next week and then I have a few off. Better news, right now I have pretty solid A's in all of my classes.

A few weeks ago after lots of pestering from my sister, I read the first book in the Twilight series. After that I was addicted and read the next 3 in a few more days. I had planned on reading the first book between Anatomy subjects so as to not distract from study time. Unfortunately this addiction cut into a little study time. Fortunately I still got an A+ on my bones exam. My older kids then began reading the books. We have a rule in our house that if they are making a movie about a book, you have to read the book first, because the movie will never do it justice, and you won't read the book after. With Twilight coming to the theaters at the end of November the kids really had to focus on getting it read. My oldest daughter finished Twilight as the previews began to roll. I enjoyed the movie, as did she. It did make me a little homesick. Much of the movie was filmed in northern Oregon and southern Washington. I miss the green of the forests, but not the gloominess and rain that makes it. Long story short my oldest two have now moved onto the next books. My daughter is nearly done with book 2, and my son has just started book 3. I won't give away story, but suffice it to say, they were upset at just the right times, at one point my daughter not sure she wanted to continue reading. So here's the funny story... Last night at dinner, she didn't want to stop reading to come to the dinner table. She told us that she really wanted to finish the books because they were so good. I agreed and ask her what she was going to do when she was done reading them. She answered that she didn't know, because she had never found any book to read that had interested her in such a way. I then told her that I was sure that there were other really good books out there that she would enjoy. Her younger sister, my middle daughter then replied, "Yeah like my diary, because it is all about me." Needless to say she has a rather large ego.

One another note, I have recently done a product test for Ghiradelli chocolates. I sampled their milk chocolate with peanut butter. It was quite good. I am not sure if I would purchase this myself, because I rarely indulge in good chocolate, but they sent coupons, so maybe I will. Try some for yourself, you might like it too.
TTFN, Miki

Catching up real quick

Whats new in our house...My husband will most likely be out of a job after the first of the year. We are stuck in a frustrating limbo as a result. If he leaves early, he forfeits the severance package, and a bonus, leaving a large sum of money "on the table". If he waits it all out, he might beat the rush of others in the same situation and get a job, but most likely at a significant pay cut. I don't think there is a right answer to this one. Right now he is looking all over the country for any employment. I don't want to move. I like the life we have created where we are, and I hate moving. I will move, although I joke with him when he tells me where he has applied, or where he has an interview that I will miss him. I just hope it doesn't have to come down to trying to sell our house and relocate once again. I am still plugging away at school. I only have a few weeks left in the semester and still have all A's. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope it stays this way. I have having so much fun. I wish I had figured out 20 years ago this is want I wanted to do. Not only would I be done by now, but this layoff wouldn't matter as much, as I could pick up a few more hours at work. Oh well! I should be appling to nursing school in Feb., of course that is if I don't move. Moving may just throw everything off as each state/school has their own pre and co recs. Again lets keep our fingers crossed. The girls' cheer season ends today with States. We have not done as well this year, but the squad is closer this year than years past. We have practiced less which makes the parents happy, but it makes them frustrated that we aren't placing...which we might do if we practiced more. We can't win for losing. Well I am off to States, wish us luck! TTFN,Miki

Dogs and the Military

So today I learned that soldiers are not allowed to befriend an animal, and if they do they can be court martialed and the dog can be killed. The SPCA supports a wonderful program that helps Iraqi dogs find homes stateside often times with the families of soldiers that befriended them. Please read the following story to get the whole story of how far the military is going to destroy the morale of their soldiers.http://www.spca.com/press/item/56 This needs to stop! Please pass this info along to everyone you know.
TTFN, Miki

Tank Girl finished

I finished the knitting of tak girl. Yes I finished a knitting project. I need to stitch the sides closed, and add the straps. Then it will be ready to wear. Of course I should also block it. I usually don't block things...maybe I will this time, it might make it look just a teeny bit nicer. As soon as it is wearable, I will post a picture. Today should be a boring day spent inside as Tropical Storm Hannah is here, the back yard pond has now connected with a large part of the back yard, and it continues to rain. TTFN, Miki

Health Warning

Do not quote 70s Santana lyrics to your children at the dinner table when they want to hear you say a sentence in Spanish. Your husband may choke on his French bread, and you may think about performing the Heimlich on him. I really wish it had been the wine, that would have been SO funny.

Side note...I took 5 years of Spanish in high school, and scored a 5 out of 7 on my IB test. I am now taking Spanish for a humanities credit toward my degree. It is pretty easy, but easy is good when I am busy with kids and coaching and A and P.

Anatomy and Physiology Fun

As we prepare for Tropical Storm Hannah to hit, I am bored and ask my husband if I can label him like the anatomical man as practice for my A & P test. He declines and tells me I'm wierd. I think I should maybe be worried that my son so readily agreed. It was great fun! I will add that there were several regions left unlabeled, not because I didn't know them, but because I didn't need to label those regions on him. TTFN, Miki

First Day of school

Today is the first day of school. Yea! Hooray! Peace and quiet in the house for a few hours each day. Too bad I am only home two of them. TTFN, Miki

Girl Scout Leader Ettiquette

As a Girl Scout leader for the last three years, I have pretty much held my parents' hands through everything. I have emailed, and printed out schedules, I have made phone call after phone call reminding them of deadlines, and then reminding them again, and then adjusting deadlines for them. Today I decided that would be coming to and end. I drafted my beginning of the year letter and told them we would be making changes. I told them that a deadline is just that and unless there was an extreme emergency it would not be adjusted. I told them that I would not be giving reminder calls. (I will probably send out general reminder emails, but they don't need to know that.) that I would not store product (nuts and cookies) for them in my home. There would be a pickup date and they needed to find a way to pick them up on that day. Any product not picked up, could be sold. I told them that any incentives earned by their daughter that are not picked up in a timely manner, would be donated to charity. (I still have cookie incentives from the Spring for one of my girls.) I didn't do this to piss people off, I did this to as subtlety as I could tell them that they were grown adults and they need to be more responsible about this stuff. One mom emailed me back saying that, "my requests/demands seemed reasonable." I cam off as demanding...not exactly my intention, but then subtlety was never my strong suit. The mom whose items I have been storing called. I unfortunately missed her call. She put it all on me. I guess it is my fault that I still have her daughters stuff. Whatever. She says she has left several messages this month...nope just one when I was in New York. She wanted to register her daughter for next year and pick up the items. I didn't call her back. I guess it is my fault. I did tell her in June when she called for the same thing that I was going to be out of town and would leave them on my porch for her. I then went into the attic and dug out her daughters stuff along with the registration form and left them on my porch. A week later I brought them in because it was going to rain, plus she had missed the early registration deadline. I once again stored the items. I will unpack them next week just before the meeting, she can wait and if that doesn't work...too bad. I have called her back and left her a message. We will see what happens. TTFN, Miki

Back in School

So I have started school again after a few very short weeks off. I am taking Anatomy, Math and Spanish. Yes I took many years of Spanish already, but have not used it and do not feel comfortable putting on a resume that I speak Spanish. I totally wimped out and decided to take Spanish 101. This class is for students who have never had Spanish. The teacher wants me to move to another class. She thinks I won't be challenged. I explained to her that I already felt challenged, and that it would be a really good refresher for me, and that if I felt like it was too easy I would switch classes. She had me take a placement test of sorts and she didn't email me that I "knocked it out of the park" so I will take that as I can stay in the class. The way I see it, I can refresh my Spanish and get an easy A at the same time, plus I can spend less time studying Spanish and more time on the Anatomy.

As a complication to my best laid plans, the bookstore gave me the wrong math book, and did not even carry the right one. The smart people who ordered it somewhere else, have the right one. I have now ordered it somewhere else and should be able to study soon. Of course I have time to study right now, and no math book to work from. I guess it is a good think it is a virtual class. Of course it looks as if it were a normal class that I would have purchased the right book. Oh well, here is to another semester...TTFN, Miki

Vacation and catching up.

So, Olympic fever has set in at our house. The kids LOVE watching it all. My youngest is amazed by most of it. The highbar in mens gymnastics is probably her favorite, but she discovered pole vaulting the other night and liked it too. My daring middle daughter likes the still rings in gymnastics and all the diving. Makes me wonder how long till we visit the emergency room. Maybe the Olympics should come with a disclaimer...please don't try this at home, these events are done by highly trained athletes. Oh and BTW, the youngest is in love with Michael Phelps...she couldn't miss any of his races while my son has a big crush on Shawn Johnson.

Vacation...we finally took the kids to New York. I can't feel to bad about it being a trip we put off as they have been so many other places no one they know have been. Plus now they were a little older and could enjoy much more of it.

We chose to stay in a Hotel in Jersey to save a few bucks. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Fair Lawn. It was lovely, clean and not a bad drive for us to find a way into the city. The staff was extremely helpful and always remembered our name as if we were wearing name tags. I will definitely look at staying at the Hyatt again. Next time though we will probably choose a hotel in Manhattan...it would just make things that much easier.

We left last Wed. and used the GPS to tell us the fastest route. After a VERY strange backtrack it led us on in DC, it took us off the major freeway and led us on a path through rural Pennsylvania. A drive that we expected to take about 6 hours took us about 8. The drive was beautiful, but slow. We had hoped to go into Manhattan on Wed., but after all the driving we just crashed at the hotel. That was ok with us, as the Olympics were on. Thursday morning we got up bright and early so that we could visit the Statue of Liberty. We had prepurchased our tickets and also ask for monument passes. Only a limited number of visitors are allowed in the monument. Unlike when I was a kid, you can only go into the base and gaze up the inside of the statue. After doing this I now know why. The spiral staircase up is very tiny, and there is only one. We stopped at Ellis Island first, but only walked into the lobby area as our tickets for the monument were timed. We later learned that really didn't mean anything as we stood in line for over an hour to get in. Also, with all the genealogy research I have done, I have yet to find a relative that has come through Ellis Island. From what I can see they all came to Canada first and then immigrated from there.

The statue was beautiful. The kids also enjoyed it. At this point, the vacation for Craig took a turn for the worse. He was stung by a bee or something similar on the left bicep. He took the last two benadryl I had, but still the arm swelled all the way down to his wrist. By the end of the day with more benadryl in him, his arm was so swollen that you couldn't feel the bone in his elbow. It felt as if there was jello in his arm. YUCK! The heat, pain and swelling continued until Sunday night, even with the benadryl. I think it may have been a localized allergic reaction, and the next sting will be worse.

After the statue, we took the ferry back to the New York side instead of the Jersey side. We bought all day tickets for the subway, and began our trek through the city. We stopped at the Girl Scout Headquarters in New York City, and the Empire State Building. We didn't go to the top of the Empire State, that will have to wait until next time. We then headed up towards Central Park. We decided to take a carriage ride through the park. At this point of the day, a storm was just about to hit. It did this during our ride, so we had to ride with the top up. Our carriage driver also told my daughters that the crowd outside The Plaza Hotel across the street were there to watch the filming of the Jonas Brothers new music video. My oldest couldn't wait to get off the carriage. Unfortunately it began raining hard before the had started shooting, and no one had seen the band. We waited about an hour for the rain to pass, but finally the crew began to pack up and we knew they wouldn't be shooting that day. The girls were bummed, but we did all we could for them.

After Central Park and the Plaza Hotel, we went to Rockefeller Center and Times Square. We didn't catch a Broadway show this time. This trip was really all about the Yankees. Neither Craig or I, both long time Yankees fans, had ever seen a game in Yankee Stadium. This is the final season in Yankee stadium, so it was now or never. As a side note, I have never been at a game were the Yankees have won. It hasn't matter what stadium I have seen them in, who their opponent was, how good either team was, who was pitching, etc. I have seen the lose the year they had a record number of wins, and have also seen them lose years they have won the World Series. It is so bad, I have friends who are Red Sox fans who have offered to buy me season tickets. Long Story short, Friday was game day, we chose to drive into the city and park as we learned that public transportation in the late evening hours, especially to Jersey is very lacking. This would explain why in extra inning games the stadium doesn't look very full. They all need to catch the last train. So, we got there early, and explored the area of Brooklyn right around the stadium. We had lunch, hotdogs from a cart of course, and got in line early to see Monument Park. We also wanted the final season commemorative coin they were handing out. We got in the stadium, saw the monuments and were settling in for batting practice when it began to rain, and the ground crew began covering the infield. This was at about 530. The game was scheduled to start at 705. We sat in the concourse to stay dry until about 830. By then it had pretty much stopped raining and they began to prep the field for play. The game was great, very exciting it was tied at 3 at the top of the 9th when Mariano Rivera came in. At this point I was expecting extra innings because well duh it was Mariano, after striking out I think 2, with one on base, he threw a wild pitch that scored a run. What! Mariano, who you expect to be perfect wasn't. We did get out of the inning giving up only that one run. Bottom of the 9th and the Yankees were still in it. Two outs, bases loaded. I think both Jeter and A-Rod were on, and Jason Giambi was at bat. Jason was 0 for 4 that night, so he was due for a nice hit. But instead of a lovely walk off grand slam, or even a simple base hit, he popped up to center. Game over...Yankees lose. Same story, for me at least. Just once, I want to be in the stadium when they win, however it is getting to the point, that I don't want to see them play, so they at least might have a chance to win. BTW, did I mention the were playing the Kansas City Royals. The Royals! They lost to the Royals!

We drove home the next day, ignoring the GPS, and taking the Turnpike to I95. It took almost as long, maybe the GPS was right.

Non vacation news...I started on a new knitting project while on the trip, if I had brought it to Yankee Stadium, I may have finished it during the rain delay. It is Tank Girl, by Vicki Howell. You can find it on Knitty Summer 08. It is very cute, and I will post pictures when it is done.

Also, while on vacation my grades for last semester were posted. I received all A's...a 4.0 feels so nice! I start my next smemster on Monday. For the most part the classes won't be hard. I am taking Spanish 1 ( cake considering I was fluent when I graduated from High School, although I am not as confident anymore as I haven't used it), Basic Math, and Anatomy and Physiology. I think the Anatomy will be my hard class, but fortunately I don't have other difficult classes that will also eat up my study time. Actually the only thing eating up study time is life and other commitments, like Girl Scouts and Cheer. BTW, my oldest and youngest are doing a read a thon fundraiser to raise money to purchase cheer mats. We are required this year to own our mats instead of using the schools because of MERSA. If you would like to sponsor the girls, or just give a flat donation, that would be greatly appreciated. It is a tax write off, and I can provide a receipt. Just let me know. Thats all I have for now, Miki

Wondering

Is there such thing as a vacation hangover? If so...I think I have it. I will blog later about the trip, and other cool stuff. Right now I need a large cup of coffee. TTFN, Miki

Exhausted

My nieces left this morning. We had a wonderful time with them. They were on their best behavior, and I am sure I will miss them again soon. I however now know why I am not the mother of 6. It is completely exhausting, even when they are all good.
Its a good thing that I don't have school tomorrow so I can recover. TTFN, Miki

Do some people just not own a mirror?

My sisters two oldest daughters are here, so it seriously looks like I am a mom of six this week. The girls just want to swim. This is fine with me, but I would like them to have at least one memorable adventure. Yesterday I suggested Maymont. It is lovely and educational. I thought they might enjoy the Japanese gardens or the bears. They said no. I then suggested the Metro Richmond Zoo. They have a terrific giraffe exhibit so that you are nearly eye to eye with the giraffes and can feed them. The younger of the two girls told me giraffes were her favorite animal, but she would rather swim. So we swam.

In the evening we took them to their first ever concert. It was at a nice outdoor venue that will let the kids under 12 in for free, so it didn't break the bank. We saw Foreigner. They have a new album coming out. I wonder if anything will chart. The girls had a good time.

But why the title you might ask, well my oldest daughter noticed a woman as we were buying our tickets and she was both shocked and repulsed. Now mind you, she is at the age that EVERYRTHING shocks and repulses. But even I had to admit this was bad. This woman was wearing a micro mini skirt in a sporty type fabric that really had no coverage over her ass. I mean we saw what little panties she was wearing, and both cheeks. On top she was weaaring a skin tight pink and white striped crop shirt that barely covered her boobs. And to top it off she had a nice roll in between. YUCK! I wanted to take a picture to post, but my husband told me it would be inapproriate. To make matters worse, the ladies selling beverage tickets commented that her attire was more conservative than the previous week. Really, was she naked the week before? Once again I told my husband that I wish I was able to go to the Poison concert in a few weeks just to people watch. TTFN, Miki

Where did my progress bars go?

I just noticed that my knitting project progress bars are gone. Not that I have finished much on them, but where did they go? When did they leave? Now I need to figure out where I found them, and how to put them back, or if I even want them back. TTFN, Miki

Midlife Crisis?

So, I finally relented, and my husband got a convertible. This one does have four seats so if he is responsible for more than one kid we can still use the car. Plus it gets pretty good gas mileage.

More soon, TTFN, Miki

When schools fail what can you do?

Yesterday while reading one of my favorite (who am I kidding, it is my favorite)blogs I read a comment from another reader that mentioned a HORRIFIC event in a school in Florida. If you have not hear of this, as I hadn't, a teacher encouraged her students to tell another child what they didn't like about him, and then they voted him out of the class. Horrible on all accounts, but this child is also in the process of being diagnosed with Aspergers. School should be a safe place for a child. Why is it that these actions were not reprimanded? Why is it that we live in a society were this is considered acceptable. I am outraged! Today Sue, my favorite blogger, wrote a lovely post about this. I encourage you to check it out. TTFN, Miki

Motorcycle accident update

Not sure how to title todays post. I just read in my email prayer requests from my previous church in Oregon that the husband of my friend who died in the motorcycle accident has also passed. His injuries were also to severe. I pray for peace for the family as they deal with this tragedy. I also pray for the driver of the car as this is something he will live with for the rest of his life.
TTFN, Miki

I am getting to old for this

Wednesday night Craig and I attend the Eagles Long Road out of Eden concert. It was FABULOUS!! We had a terrific time. They sang many of their new songs, and many of their clasics. The next night we attended a James Taylor concert in Virginia Beach. Normally I wouldn't go to back to back concerts, but we had purchased the James Taylor tickets before the Eagles announced they would be here. Long story short, Thursdays concert ended at about 1130, and we arrive home at 315 in the morning. It took us about 2 hours to move 5 miles. The traffic through the tunnel was down to one lane due to construction. I was tired and cranky the next day and no ammount of coffee was going to help.

I will say though, if you get a chance to see the Eagles, do because they were great.

TTFN, Miki