The Past Couple of Weeks

December 13, 2009

Sunday

I had my graduation/going away party.

Had a better than expected turn out. We had about 35 people show up which was a little over half of how many we invited. At first we thought that we didn't order enough food, but as it turned out, we had a lot of left overs!

December 18, 2009

Friday

Celebrated a friend's birthday!

I called into work that night, which I normally don't do that, but let me tell you, it was completely worth it!

I don't think that I had that much of a good time since the start of the fall semester.

I didn't get home until 130 or so.

I got to meet some of her friends and they wereawesome.

December 19, 2009

Saturday

Was the big day!

(well at least in the education part of my life!)

Graduation had finally come.

It started at 930 in the morning.

It was a pretty nice ceremony, but of course they could have done with out some parts of it, but thats ok.

My mom, dad, sister, grandma, uncle, and aunt all got to go to it.

My uncle had just gotten home from Seattle they night before, so it was nice that he could make it as well.

December 20, 2009

Sunday

Went shopping all day in St. Louis!

Me, mom, my sister and my uncle left around 730 that morning.

We went to the Galleria Mall and maybe spent a few hours there.

Then we went to Trader Joes, one of my favorite stores.

Looked around WholeFoods. First time going there, and I wish there was one closer to me instead of being 2 hours away.

Then we went to Costco, which is one of my uncle's favorite places to shop at. I have to say they do have pretty good deals on things.

I don't think that we got back until 9 that night.

I think that was the most time that we got to spend with my uncle when ever he gets the chance to come home for the holidays. I really enjoyed spending the day with him, my sister and my mom.

December 21, 2009

Monday

Celebrated my sister's birthday.

She turned 26.

We didn't do a whole lot

just had a small little family party at home.

She picked what we cooked for dinner, which was tacos,turned out pretty good :)

And then we had Larry House of Cakes, red velvet cupcakes, yum-o!

(a little side note: they have the best iced sugar cookies that you could possibly have, especially the pink ones! for some reason the pink ones are the best)

December 24, 2009

Thursday

Got together with my mom's side of the family at my grandma's house.

Had great food, like always!

I don't know what it is but you can't get anything better than enjoying grandma's cooking.

Then we all opened gifts after everyone got done eating.

I got exactly what I wanted.

I finally got a North Face jacket and some gloves to go with it!

They are so warm!

But really, what I enjoyed the most was how the that side of the family got to spend time with each other.

Later that night, we opened all of our gifts that were just from each other.

I do believe that mom, dad, my sister, and myself loved what we got from each other.

We open our gifts on Christmas Eve because we go to my Dad's side of the family on the 25th. But this year we did this, because my dad had to work from 8-4 on Christmas day.

By the way, I got so many DVDs to add to my collection that I could open up a small video rental place. haha!

December 25, 2009

CHRISTmas Day!!

Went to my aunt's place to have lunch and exchange gifts with my dad's side of the family.

Had a great time spending the afternoon with everyone.

I think that everyone enjoyed what they got.

Then we all got to talk to my aunt who lives in Colorado,

which was nice because I don't really get to talk to her that much like we should.

After that we just sat around and watched a movie that my uncle had gotten and enjoyed each others company.

So I will post some pictures of the events that I told you about in the next post.

Hopes everyone has a great weekend!

Until later,

Merry Christmas!

(I will come back and do a complete post of what has happend the past week or so)

Thank God I am feeling better!

Especially since I have to go workout tomorrow with everybody that is in the same Navy DEP group as I am in.

So hopefully I will be able to do pretty well tomorrow and be able to do at least 16 pushups within the time limit.

I am praying that my arms will have the strength to be able to do that!

Until later,

Cold please go away...

Dear Immune System,

Please fight off this cold or whatever it might be that I feel that is coming on. You have been great all year, as I have not been sick yet. I have a things planned this weekend that I would like to enjoy...minus the running nose, headache, and slightly sore throat.

I have a Christmas party on Saturday for the place that I have been working at for my internship. And then on Sunday I have my graduation/going away party. Wouldn't be so great if i didn't show up for my own party, now would it?

So please do your best to keep me well :)

Thanks,

Put Catchy Title Here....

Since last time....

* Thanksgiving was great!
We went to my grandma's for lunch...let me just say it was yum-o! She always fixes way too much food but she always fixes everybody's favorites. :)

* My sister was able to come home from Wednesday thru Sunday. It was nice to have her come home for the holiday. I think that my mom especially enjoyed it because she had a shopping partner for Black Friday. They started shopping at 12 am and didn't get home until noon. Can you imagine shopping for 12 hours in that crazyness?? The only reason I didn't go out into that mess was because I had to work that night.

* So my hip is doing much better. I did end up getting the Cortisone shot which has helped greatly. And actually getting the shot wasn't as bad as I thought as it would be. Thank god for that!

* I have started back running...woo hoo! It feels so great to get back into running.

* Only four more weeks left of my current job and then I will be done working nights!

* Only 5 more weeks until I leave on my cruise to the Bahamas!! I am so ready to not have to worry about anything for a week.

* And pray that I do well on my physical fitness test (PFT) on the 16th of this month...this is just see where I am at physically before I leave for bootcamp. The only thing that I am really worried about are the push ups. So right now thats what I am really working on.

* Then in about 7 weeks I leave for bootcamp...wow how time has flown since I first enlisted back in March.

* And I think that the best thing that is coming up is that I graduate on the 19th!! Finally! Seems like these past 4 years have taken forever to get through. I will graduate with a BS in Health Care Management.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

until later,

I know...its been a while since I have posted anything. Please forgive me :)

Well, there still isn't a lot going on with me. Still working 6 days a week. But that's for only for the next 4 weeks until the semester is over. Then I will go back to just working my regular full time job.

My internship is going really well. I will have to say that I will miss it and the people when I have to leave. I just found out on Tuesday that they are going to end up giving me something to say thank you for all of the work that I have done. I was surprised when they told me that. That is such a nice thing to do! I can't wait to see what it is.

Also, at the moment I am planning to go on a cruise for one last big vacation before I leave for bootcamp. I am going with a girl from work, which should be a good time. We are going to be going to the Bahama's on Norwegian Cruise Line. Its a 4 night cruise and we stop at three ports. I am so ready to go and just relax and not have to worry about a thing. So if any of you have ever been on that cruise line, let me knw what you thought about it please.

Speaking of leaving...I hope that I will be ready for it. For the past few weeks I have had to stop running because I have bursitis in my hip. It has been killing me that I have not been able to go running. I have a couple of more weeks of physical therapy left, and hopefully this will take care of the problem. If not, I will have to get a steroid shot in my hip that will take care of the problem. So I am thinking positive thoughts about the therapy so that I won't have to get a needle stuck in my hip! So far the therapy is working. It is still a little sore, but not as bad as it was when I first started going.

Well, I better get back to work. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Until later,

BOO!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT ONE

ESPECIALLY WITH AN EXTRA HOUR TO ENJOY IT!

hopefully i can write a longer post sometime tomorrow

since it has been a while.

until next time.

One of my favorite times of the year

Fall has to be one of the best times of the year that I enjoy. I love it when the weather is just cool enough to be able to wear just a hoody and still be warm enough to enjoy being outside. So here are a few things I enjoy about this season:

gotta LOVE when fall colors start to show:

I also enjoy sitting around a bonfire on a crisp fall night

while making an enjoying some of these!Also, whats fall with out some football:

Go Dawgs!

(my school that I am currently attending right now)

Can't wait to see what the new stadium will look like!

Below is the current one:

Pumpkins! Gotta carve at least one :)

And, who doesn't love Thanksgiving!?!

You get to be around family, love the smell of the house when you are cooking the great meal for that day, and just be able to think about what you are thankful for a little bit more than you would on any other given day.

Hope you all have had a great weekend!

until next time,

Friends

Been thinking a while about how great it is to have friends. I myself really didn't have any best friends while I was in high school. Granted I was friends with most everybody in my class. But it wasn't until I started going to SIUC that I met my bestie.

I had just started in my program of Healthcare Management and was in one of my classes and just picked a seat in the back, like I normally do. So she sat down next to me and thank goodness she did, because we had to get into groups so that we could do group work. And that was the start of our great friendship. I have no idea what I would do with out this girl.

We have had some great times together and I am sure that we will have many more in the future! I have no idea what we are going to do when I leave for the Navy in Jan and she is planning on joining the Army as well. She is still thinking about it, but I am pretty sure that she is going to go ahead and do it. But I am sure that we will still be able together some how and have a great time! ;)

So here are some quotes that I have found about friends:

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."

"Friendship doubles your joys, and divides your sorrows."

"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."

"Side by side or miles apart, dear friends are always close to the heart."

As I promised...

Sorry that it has been a while since I have posted anything. So where do I begin....

First off thought I would tell you about the Dierks Bentley concert that I went with my best friend Joanna. We had a great time that night. It was at Harrah's in Metropolis, IL, which is about an hour a way from where I live. So her family knows someone that is pretty high up that works there and he got us free tickets to the concert. The tickets are just general admission which are pretty decent seats, so we where pretty happy with where we ended up. But a few minutes after we got there and got something to drink...the guy that she knows took us into the VIP seating which was the section of seats that where right up next to the stage!!! How awesome was that!!

So we decided that we would go up right next to the stage to get some good pics and then just find a place to stand for the rest of the concert. So we got our pics and then we just kind of stood there because he was going around shaking everyone's hand that where next to the stage. So he got to Joanna and then he got to me. So I had my hand up and he took it and I was thinking that it was going to be some nice hand shake and thats it...boy was i wrong! He ended up holing my hand and singing to me for at least a good 30-45 secs! It was AWESOME!

The rest of the concert was great. It lasted for a good hour and he sang all of his popular songs and I have to say that it was the best concert that I have ever gone to ever.

This is how close we where for basically the whole concert!

above: One of my favorite pics
~ so thats the end of my concert excitement until the next one ~

Also, I have started a new running workout. It is a combination of just normal running, interval workouts, and biking. So right now it is going pretty well. I am only on the second week of it. But I have had to take a few days of because I have some how pulled/strained my left thigh muscle. So I have been trying to let it heal up by not doing the full running program. There is something to do from Monday-Saturday and then you have Sunday as a "rest" day. But as for me, I have had maybe a couple of days off instead of just only one. I didn't think that was too bad. Hopefully this will help me get where I want to be with my running.

So my Summer vacation is now over :(

Starting tomorrow I will only be working weekends at the hospital..Thursday thru Saturday. Which is my regular full time job = 36 hrs/week. And then starting next week I will start working at my internship which is Monday-Wednesday which is 24 hrs/week. Thats right if you did the math, I will be working 60 hrs/week from now until Christmas break! With part of it being unpaid and the other part working nights. So needless to say...there goes the little of a social life that I have right now. Not much you can do on a Sunday afternoon after waking up from working a 12 hour shift from the night before! But I will have to say that I hope that this will make the semester go by fast, since I will be so busy working the whole time!

Some other random news:

I have finally gotten to my goal weight that I needed to be able to meet the requirements for the height/weight standards that the Navy has in place!! Now I am just working on losing a few more pounds just in case their scales weigh heavy.

Found some great deals at New York & Co. today! They are having a buy one, get one free sale on some of there pants. They are about the only place that I can find dress pants that are available in my size and they are talls! You should check it out :)

Got my eval done at work and received my 3.5 % raise which will start in Sept. So looking forward to that.

Well that is about it for now, I will let you all know how the internship goes and if anything else that happens. Hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Until later,

Hello every one!

I promise that tonight I will post an update. I have a couple of things that I need to post about and post a few pics as well.

until then,

random...

So I was just sittin here thinkin that I really need to start looking over my Navy history stuff. But the only thing is that I am not that motivated to get started because I am really not all that into history to tell you the truth. But I really need to learn some of it before our next meeting on Aug 10th.

Not only do I need to know it for the meetings but I have heard that I need to learn some of it before I actually leave for bootcamp. This is not my strong point, Lord help me!

Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend!

~ Post of Pics of PCB ~

A LITTLE BIT OF BEACH AND MARGARITAVILLE!

Great way to start out a Monday!!

Finally have some great news!!! drum roll please........I finally got an internship..woo hoo!! So that is one less thing that I have to worry about right at this moment. I will be "working" at Southern Illinois Orthopedic Center in the HR depeartment. The manager that I talked to today seems really nice so that is a major plus right there. Also, she said that I could set my own hours, just as long as I get my required time that I have to get in for the semester.

So basically I will be working Mon-Wed there and then Thurs-Sat I will be going to work at the job that I have now at the hospital. So during the week I will be working a total of 60 hours! wow I will be one busy person. oh well, it will be worth it and it is only from Aug 24th to sometime in December when school is over.

Oh I will try and get my pics up from PCB sometime later this week since I don't have to work from Wed-Sat.

Hope you all had a great weekend and that the rest of the week is great as well!

PCB '09

So this past week was most likely the best week so far this summer. I finally went on most needed vacation to the lovely state of Florida! We rented a place in Panama City Beach. The house that we stayed at was right across the street from the beach which was perfectly fine with me. It was about a minute walk from our front door to the water.

The weather while we were there was perfect. Only had one day that it rained where we couldn't do anything, but we still had a good time that day anyways.

We actually didn't do a whole lot while we were there, excpet laying out on the beach and just relax. We did go to Pier Park, where there are a lot of different places to shop and a few places to eat. One of the best places in my opinion is Magaritaville. Great food, drinks and the place itself was awesome. Completely reccommend it.

But one of the best things that I did while I was there was to go Para Sailing! My aunt paid for my way for a birthday gift, since she said that she never gave me anything for my birthday. So she wanted me to do the highest flight that you could do. So I went on 1200 ft up in the air, for 4 miles, and they did 3 dips in the water while you were up. Let me tell you, it was one of the best things that I have gotten to do in my life. Also, to add to the great day, was that I got to ride on the banana boats that get pulled behind a jet ski. Which that was a blast as well, except the part of tasting a little more salt water than I wanted too.

On Thursday, I went to Destin to go out with my friend/old roommate. We had a great time that night. We went out to dinner at AJ's Seafood and Oyster bar and had a great dinner. Saw a band while we were there which was pretty good and had a few drinks of course. But one surprising part of the night when out of no where fireworks started going off. AJ's is right on the water so some boat out there put on a show. That was a nice little extra to our night. We also went to some other place called, club overboard, but it wasn't as good as AJ's. But over all it was nice to hang out with Jessica since we haven't done anything since I moved out earlier this month.

I hated that the week ended and I had to come back to reality. I could of stayed there for at least another week! But I guess all good things have to come to an end sooner or later.

I will try and get some pictures up pretty soon to share with all you guys. Hoep that your week is going well so far!

Until Later,

MIA for the past week, and this is why....

This isn't going to be very long one since I just got back from a 11 hour car ride from Panama City Beach, Florida. It was a great vacation and it was just what I needed! I will do another post and let you all know what we did while we were there and post some pics as well.

Hope that everyone is having a great weekend!

Sweet Home Alabama!!

So this past holiday weekend was the best that I have had in a while! As I said in my last post, I went to go see Lynyrd Skynyrd on Friday the 3rd at Harrah's in Metropolis, IL. I was able to go for free with my best friend and her dad, since her mom's sorority helps out during the concerts. Over all we had pretty decent seats and the weather couldn't have been any more perfect than what it was. They played for about an hour which was a pretty decent amount of time, I thought.

Here are some pics:

My best friend and I at the concert

After the concert we went out to have a some more fun:)

So on the 4th we went to her Aunt and Uncle's house at the Lake of Egypt. Even though the weather wasn't so great, since it rained most of the day, we still had a great time though. We were still able to go tubing. I have never done this before and I had a great time while we had the chance to do it. Can't wait to go back there again and just spend the day on the lake.

The weather finally cleared up in the evening and we were able to see some fireworks that night.

Hope you all had a great 4th!

Until later,

Finally the weekend!!!

Starting off I want to say that I hope that everyone has a great 4th!

So I am really ready to get this weekend started!

On Friday night I am going to Metropolis to go see Lynyrd Skynyrd with my best friend. So it should be a great time and I can't wait!

Hopefully this wonderful weather we have been enjoying will stay around until after this weekend is over! I am going to be spending the night with her, since who knows what time we will actaully get done having a good time that night :)

Then on Saturday, we are going to be heading to Marion, where her aunt and uncle lives, and spend the whole day on the lake! She has told be that we are going to be tubing as well. So I have never done this before, so pray that I don't get hurt while I attempt to do it. But other than that, I have no idea what is in store for that day. I know that we are going to be going somewhere to watch the fireworks that night, which will be a great ending to a great day!

So I will tell you about my weekend sometime next week!

Do you guys have any great plans for this weekend?

Until later,

**Updates**

So today I am moving back into my parent's house. I don't think that it should be too bad of a move since I have most of my things alrady over there and plus it is onl y a few minutes away from where I am now. So hopefully, everything will go alright after I move back in since I am use to doing anything that I wanted to without having anybody questioning me what I was going to be doing. So that's what is new in my life right now. I know..pretty exciting right?? yeah, not so much lol

****started this a couple of days ago, move went great, just have to get everything organized now***

on the other hand, some updates on what I have written about earlier:

Internship: still looking for one. but the good news is that i now only have to work 20 hours a week for it instead of 40. this is pretty good since i dont have to keep looking for a paid one..which let me tell you..i dont think that they exist!! so keep your figers crossed that i find one pretty soon. i am hoping to get one by this the end of this week.

Navy things: so on my winery trip the past week, i learned about the college fund that is available that you can get that adds more money whenever you get the G.I. Bill. So I thought that this was a pretty good deal. When I got home I researched about it a little then headed to go talk to the recruiters about this. But as it turns out, I wouldn't be able to get this until after I have been in for 3 years. Not as soon as I would like it to be.

But my only dilemma is that, if I take the LRP right now, I won't be able to get the GI until I reenlist and the catch with the college fund is, from what I have read about it, that you have to ask for it when you first enlist. So what I am trying to decide is just take the LRP or not? Because if I could possibly get quite a bit extra from the college fund I could use that to pay on my loans that I have. But my only question is that, would I still be able to get it if I wait until I reenlist after my first five years are over?

Also found out that if I do decide to go to school when I first start out that I would only be able to get Tuition Assistantance since the GI doesn't start until after I am in for 3 years. This would only pay for the tuition and not the books or anything else that I may need. Again, still not a bad deal. I would much rather pay for books and not have to worry about paying the tuition any day. I guess I could do this if I took the LRP or not. What to do????

I have came to the conclusion that I hate having to make hard decisions, but I guess that is just part of growing up and I need to get use to it.

Well thats about it for the updates,

until later,

~ Crazy Friday ~

So today was suppose to be just a normal Friday, just like any other day after I get off from work.

So my plan for today after I got off from work at 0730 was to go over to Marion and go to Wal-Mart and pick up a card for my parents anniversary and then go running. So not a too bad of a plan I thought.

So I was almost to Wal-Mart and then I heard a thud sound and I thought something fell off of my car. I looked back and didn't see anything, and this is where my day goes down hill. Then I heard an awful sound while I was driving. Thankfully I was close to a turn lane. So I turned off of the highway and into an old parking lot...got out and then just as thought...I had a flat tire!!

I was going to change the tire myself...I even had the owner's manuel out just for a guide. I got everything out and then I was going to get the jack out...and thats where it hit a dead end. Somehow they have it locked into a holder and all that you have to do is unscrew it to loosen it and then slide it out. Apparently it hasn't been used because it to tight for me to get.

There I sat...with my back hatch up waiting for someone to stop and help me. Well, needless to say no one would stop. So thank goodness we have roadside assistance through Verizon wireless. Which was nice because they will come and help and it won't cost me anything. Well the wait time at the most would be 1 hour and 55 minutes!! I didn't want to wait that long, especially since it was getting hotter by the minute.

While I was waiting for the service to show up, this guy on a Harley shows up and offers to help me change the tire Thank You God!!! So he was nice enough to stop and help since everybody else and their mother just drove by. In the meantime I cancled the roadside assistance, since they were taking too long.

And the really great part about it was that my spare tire is actually a normal tire that you can drive around on and not have to worry about getting a new one. He did a great job changing it and it didn't take too long to change either. I told him I wish that I could give him something for helping, but then he told me that he wouldn't take anything because he was just being nice.

I wish that there were a lot more people like Jimmy who would stop and help people out like me in this situation. So hopefully there will be some way to repay the kind act to someone else. So I will keep a look out for some way that I can help someone else.

Over all, got my tire fixed, which only was $15..so not too bad! And then I went running. Not the greatest time that I have ever ran...but at least I went lol.

So I hope that you all have a great weekend!

Mini Winery Tour Fun!!

So for all of that don't know..Southern Illinois has a great Wine Trail avaible to go on. I know who would have thought that around here that we could actually grow grapes and make some awesome wine. It is a great way to spend a free day, especially with all of the tasting that you can do at each winery!

So on Monday, me, my mom and my aunt went to a few of them and spent most of the day enjoying the scenery, the wine and the company of each other.

Our first stop was Von Jakob. This was the first time there and they have some pretty awesome wine. The one that my mom and I liked the best was the Jonathan Apple Wine. It taste like you are "eating" an apple. It was so good...we had about a half of a bottle between the two of us.

So after that we decided that we should get something to eat before we went to any more. So we headed over to Giant City Lodge and had some good food there. After we had a great lunch it was time for stop number 2.

The second stop was at Rustle Hill Winery. I have to say that this is the best one that we went to that day and the best one that I have ever been to myself! The view is awesome and so is the wine. But the best thing that you can actually get there..is the Sangria!! If I didn't have to drive that day...I think that I could of had been able to drink a whole pitcher of it! But I stuck to only having a single glass plus whatever I tasted as well. The wine that I liked the best was Traminette. Now that I think about it, I should of gotten a bottle for later...oh well, just means an other reason to go out there again, hehe

The third and final stop was at Starview Winery. I have to say that this wasn't my favorite but it was pretty nice. They did have a few wines that I liked. They also had a Sangria that tasted like it was hawaiian punch but not as good as Rustle Hill. But the best thing that they did offer was Wine Slushies!! Who would have thought! It was perfect to end with that since it was so hot that day and the drink was so cold! I did find to wines that I liked and they were, Bellastar and the Concord one.

The wonderful wine slushie


So I say if you should ever happen to end up in Southern Illinois, you should stop by any of the wineries that we have around here.