my Music Monday

I see a lot of "music Monday" posts...I love music, and often write blogs based on songs I hear...So here is my music Monday....
***just click to read.
It's my party and I'll cry if I want too - Lesley Gore
If I Could Write A Letter to Me - Brad Paisley

Lean on Me - Bill Withers

If I Die Young - The Band Perry
You Can't Always Get What you Want - The Rolling Stones
Free Fallin - John Mayer
Keep Your Hands to Yourself - Georgia Satellites
The House that Built Me - Miranda Lambert
Highway 20 Ride - Zac Brown Band
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
Hey Soul Sister - Train

American Honey - Sugarland

HAPPY MONDAY Y'ALL!

Ein Blog über Deutschland

Last week Kyle went to Germany (for work). I had one request, PLEASE take a picture of the food(not kidding, this is all I wanted). I have this vision of what I think German food looks like. I will take you to that vision. Have you seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the first best one), okay, remember Augustus Gloop? the fluffy little boy from Germany? You know he was sitting at the restaurant with his family, STUFFING his face with GIANT sausages, smothered in some sort of JUICE that barely made it into his mouth...and if it did, it didn't stay long because it was slowly coming out of his mouth, where he then proceeds to eat the reporters microphone? Do you remember? That is vision of German food. YUM with a huge sprinkle of sarcasm. okay so Kyle went and besides some other REALLY GREAT souvenirs he brought back pictures of the food. He said it was delish. However, from the looks of it, I would have lost some major weight from NOT eating. I also have no idea what any of this, most of it looks like sausage covered in whatever they had in the kitchen at the time. Oh, and french fries with mayonnaise, which some people do over here. I DO NOT. Hope you enjoy.

 I think this is the night they had GREEK food.

 This is their take on a hamburger.

 The curry style sausage

It really doesn't look all that different from our food. They sure do eat a lot of sausages though. I'll just stick to eating them for breakfast in between a nice, fresh from the oven, biscuit. no mustard, no extra juice, and no french fries with mayonnaise. 

Did you see my update on my Aunt? It is a pretty awesome way to start a weekend, but I haven't stopped praying for those whose weekends aren't as bright. Happy Friday!!

God is Good

ALL THE TIME.

here is an update on our sweet Aunt Lynn.

****Post radiation follow-up CT scan looks GREAT! 5cm mass reduced to 1cm, think its just scar tissue; neck is clear; lymph nodes in middle chest are all normal size. Taking 2 wks off from chemo to give bone marrow a break. She is having problems swallowing, seeing the surgeon to discuss. Please pray that she will be able to eat on her own soon. 

 PRAISE THE LORD! 

but mrsAdryne still needs our prayers. please continue to check out her caringbridge for all of the updates.  

Fill in the blank Friday.

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things, I would grab: Tallulah, my computer (solely for all of the pictures on it); although I have managed to save them all on cd's since my computer is kinda old, slow, and run down...don't tell him I told you that. So, I would grab Tallulah, something that had my pictures, and well I can't really think of a 3rd thing because as I was reading what mrsLauren would take over at the thelittlethingswedo, she said she would take her g-wagen. That is my most loved car that I will one day have. If I had one, or when I have one, I would FOR SURE add that to my list of things to grab!

2. A smell I really like is vanilla berry from bath and body works. vera wang princess. fresh laundry. the ocean when it doesn't smell like seaweed.

3. Something you might not know about me is I was in the girl scouts in 3rd grade.

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are people.com, perezhilton.com, blogspot.com, facebook.com, and twitter.com. i'm kinda on the computer way too often.

5. This weekend I will be studying. WHOMP WHOMP whomp

6. Nothing makes me happier than the beach, hanging with my littles, and knowing graduation is less than 4 months away.

7. A bad habit I have is biting my nails, and overanalyzing EVERYthing.

VLOG-ity VLOG.

MY FIRST EVER (dialect) V-LOG. 

here are the list of words: 

aunt, route, wash, oil, theater, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, New Orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, Alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught.

and here are the questions:

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call your gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval shaped body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at a supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

*****I found this snazzy idea over at Baily's Blog !!


THANKS FOR WATCHING MY FIRST EVER VLOG. It was pretty fun, and 
maybe I will have a few more in the future. 
HAPPY HAPPY THURSDAY!

Remember when?

 

Way back 21 weeks ago, 

I had a very special guest blogger.  

Here is the post, right here!!  

Did you see it? 

Well, I have asked her a few more questions,

and since she is now  

9 weeks away from the

big due date,

I felt it was the perfect time! 

1. How far along are you?

31 weeks on Sunday

2.  What are y'all having?

A little boy      --------------------->>>

3. Does he/she have a name?

Yes, but we are not telling anyone.  *** On a sidenote, SHE IS NOT KIDDING. We have ideas of the possibilities of the names, but we won't know his name until he is here. The suspense is killing us all. :) not really of course, we will love him no matter what.

4. Is this pregnancy different from the first? How?

Yes, everything is different. Different eating habits, extremely tired, and much bigger. (at least I think I am)

5. What does Ryleigh have to say about being a big sister?

Ryleigh is really excited about her "baby brother," she wants him out of my belly.

6. Are you ready for him to be here?

Yes we are ready for him to be here! Only 9 more weeks!!

*********also, the first ultrasound was Ryleigh's. The second one is baby brother's! I just can't wait until he is here. It is such a blessing, and we are all more than thankful. God is good.

                                     

Have you seen this?

What a strong strong man. He has my vote!

A Heavy Heart.

"It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you,

it's what you leave behind you when you go..." -randy travis

Normally this song would be just another song, but now it has a whole new meaning. Sure I haven't gotten much sleep and I am running on fumes and we are only in the middle of week 3, but I am thankful. I'm loving this whole "I am a 5th semester nursing student thing." However, today my heart is heavy. I promise yall, I am not always a downer. (but since I treat my blog like my diary, this is what you get) It doesn't affect me per say, but it affects me personally because people's lives are rapidly changing. Not for the better either. If you only had 1 year to live your life, would you do something different? Would you seek out people you haven't seen in years? Would you tell someone that you loved them? Would you travel, pray harder, love deeper? Or do nothing at all? What if YOU were faced with such a decision? How would your life change? By no means do I live my life like this right now. I should, and sometimes I try. However, I often fail hard. I don't have the funds to travel wherever I want, and often put off saying what I really feel. I say, I'll just do it later. But our tomorrow is now today and we are still putting it off. If you only had 1 year to live, would you be okay with what you left behind? Some people actually have to face that decision. Could you face it? I don't think that I could, not right now anyways. BUT ALL WE HAVE IS RIGHT NOW.

I heard this song while driving the other day, and only a few of the lines stood out to me. I'll give you a quick background story of the situation, not the song. A sweet family friend, a teacher, a mother to 3 children under 16, a wife, a daughter, a sister, was diagnosed with t cell lymphoma that is very aggressive. So aggressive and rare that only 1 - 2% have been diagnosed with such cases, and so aggressive that she must immediately begin treatment and begin a journey no one should ever have to face. Now the song talks about a teacher, and how she "leaves her wisdom in the minds of lots of children, and did her best to give them all a better start." I am absolutely 100% sure she has done this, and so very much more. So hearing the song, I began to really listen to the words, really feel what the lyrics were telling me. When you leave this world, we only take ourselves, but we leave so much behind. Would you be proud of what you left? Would you be honored? Would you be satisfied? I only ask, because like I said earlier, I have never even asked myself these questions. I live my life like tomorrow will be here before I know it, so we will just put everything off until then. Or in my case, I have all of next week to study, I will just do it then.

Not everyone has next week.

Again, my heart has just been super heavy for her and her family, as well as, my aunt who has 2 chemo treatments left in this first round. It is hard for me to get any work done when my brain is all over the place, so I came here to sort it out.

I will continue to pray & ask that you do too.

 

If you would like, you can visit her caring bridge site right here. You can read her story, and see just how amazing she is. She doesn't question. She only thanks God for her time here. She really is an inspiration.

nursing nonsense:: week three

Sunday started my third week into school and I had my 3rd precepting day. I'll have to do 11 to have enough hours in. I really REALLY love the pediatrics unit. It's not too fast and not too slow, and hanging with littles all day is where I belong. I really need to get on top of my readings though. I have started reading, but NEED to do a lot more. Also, I need to get going on my portfolio and start freaking out preparing for my interview stream. Where we students get to sit in front of a computer that asks us typical interview questions all while we are being taped! It sounds fun, I know. Today, I had my first clinical in TSICU (trauma surgical intensive care unit). I went in super intimidated but left more confident than I have about any clinical day. Not to say that next week could not be nearly as interesting, but since I am taking it day by day, today at clinicals was pretty dandy. So there I am folks. 3 weeks in, still with most of my sanity. Sidenote: please pardon the lack of blogging. As much as I love to blog, school is first and takes up a lot of time, so I blog when I can or feel the need to. HAPPY TUESDAY.

Nursing Nonsense:: Week Two

Well, this week has been anything but nonsense. It has been more CHAOTIC, to say the least. We didn't have school on Monday (Martin Luther King Jr Day), instead I worked. Tuesday was just a normal boring day, and all fury broke loose yesterday. In one day we managed to go from 0-60 in less than five minutes. In other words, we recieved our clinical and preceptorship schedules. My preceptor is on the PEDIATRIC floor at the local hospital. I AM STOKED. Let us not forget, it starts TOMORROW. So every other Thursday-Sunday (minus today) I will be precepting. Our classes are on Monday and Wednesday, and we have clinicals every Tuesday. My first one is in the TSICU (trauma surgical intensive care unit). Have you soaked all of this in yet? I haven't either. But I have a huge sore smile, because I can't wait. Sore, because yesterday I went to the dentist and had a root canal. OUCH is an understatement. Also, I must have won the lottery because I get all four wisdom teeth cut out next. I know, I know, I am pretty lucky gal. However, I am just grateful that this can all be fixed and managed, because there are so many things that aren't as fixable. Enough about the dentist, which by the way, is ABSOLUTELY terrifying. I now know how my poor little pup feels when I take her to the vet. She starts violently shaking, scratching, and crying for me to leave. That is EXACTLY how I felt walking into that office yesterday. HORRIBLE. I know that it can be worse, and it turns out, all the people/workers were ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC, SPECTACTULAR. I told them they have almost lessened my fear of going there. HA. Well, my second week into semester five is long from over.

HAPPY HAPPY THURSDAY!!

It can't be that bad

DISCLAIMER: this blog shouldn't offend anyone, just make them more aware of their spoken words. 

In a little over 3 months I have known 3 people diagnosed with cancer. In three months every single problem I thought I had, no longer really mattered. Because someone is actually having a really bad day. One of my biggest pet peeves lately has definitely become seeing all of the negative comments on facebook & twitter. Comments like "ugh, I have the worse luck, they didn't have the shoes I wanted", or a "My messy house needs to be cleaned, agh my life sucks." Really? I am sure it sucks having to clean your house, but your life sucks because of that? No, seriously?  Atleast you have a house, atleast you have the ability to get what you want when you want it.  (And it isn't these comments, per say, just the negative comments in general.) So the complaining should probably stop. ***I know I have more than likely been guilty of such a crime, but I really have tried a lot lately to just be thankful.  If people only knew what was really going on with that person sitting next to them with a blank look in their eyes. Do you know their story, or are you too busy complaining about all the things you don't need? I don't mean to rant but RATHER make people more aware of the people around them. Not everyone is as fortunate as you might be, and if they have the means, you still don't know their story. Take a closer look.

It might surprise you.

How To

how to::

  properly eat orange peanut butter crackers.

demonstrated by: Ryleigh. (the niece) 

step one: get one cracker.

 step two: choose which side to tackle first.

 step three: lick off the peanut butter on first side.

 step four: repeat same action on other cracker

 step five: say HEY SISSY!

 

 Step six: Place crackers precisely on Sissy's belly, 

because she is too busy snapping pictures

 

Step 7: stack crackers up that are "finished"

 

or sneak a cracker to Tulah, 

who has been patiently lingering in the background.

 

THE END! 

Hope eating orange peanut butter crackers is a 

little more simple for everyone now!

Nursing Nonsense :: Week One.

Today was the first day on a first day when we didn't have lecture. I know it sounds crazy, but we do NOT miss a beat. It is a non stop, constantly going kinda thing. So to not have a lecture when we are altogether is CRAZY. However, you will hear no complaints from this gal. Just stating the obvious. Also, I cannot wait to find out where I will be precepting. Hoping for a rotation on PEDIATRICS. That would be fantastic. 

sidenote:: precepting is just clinicals on steroids. Instead of having one patient, we have a whole team. 

We are basically the rn's right hand man. 

We will have to have 90 hours of precepting and 90 hours of clinicals along with class Monday and Wednesday. Luckily clinicals are just one day a week, and we have all semester. We won't be as lucky with precepting. We have a very short window frame, like 4-5 weeks, and we must have all 90 hours done accordingly! Sounds busy. But we nursing students are almost used to this chaos. Almost, not quite. After a while you learn to deal with the madness. You learn that no one outside of school even remotely understands, and you learn to shut out the outside world. Almost again. There are some things I can't quite give up. Like my blog, and reality tv. One of my favorite shows has started, so my Tuesday night time slot from 9 to 10 is full. Teem Mom 2 has completely interfered with my life. It really started with 16 & Pregnant. It makes for quality entertainment. Or something of the such. Actually, it probably started a long time ago, but right now I will blame it on 16 & pregnant. Sure, it might be sending a wrong message, but the message I get is entertainment and drama. I think that is what they are going for anyways, right? So right now and until it interferes even more, I just can't give it up, and what is even better DVR. and the angels start to sing. Okay, not really... but one of the best things ever. 

So today I am back to the grind. I am a 5th semester Nursing student.

Okay, on the COMPLETE FLIP SIDE.

This morning while we were in class,

a classmate got a life changing phone call.

Her house was on fire.

Her husband, son, and daughter

LOST everything.

I can't even imagine.

It breaks my heart. 

PLEASE keep her, and her family in your prayers.

1/11/11

Now, that the good ole' south is getting over the 6inches of snow ice, we can get back to our regular lives. Because for us, snow isn't the norm, and it throws us in a loop. However, most of it is finally melting, the stores are opening, and we can now focus on counting down the days to SUMMER.

via

So our first day of class was canceled. The thought of it is wonderful, but the reality is not so wonderful. Just means everything will be even more crammed pack. Maybe it will go by even faster? Back to school in the AM. 

 via

PS... Yesterday was 4 months until graduation. What does that mean today? Less than 4 months away.  FINGERS CROSSED. 

 via

 Happy Tuesday

Everyone... 

I take it back...

I

kinda

LOVE

this

whole

snow

thing.

sledding.snowballs.laughs.

yeah, its a lot of fun.

shhh...don't tell anyone.

I might be dead if they find out I am putting this up. 

Courtesy of Just Dance...

I wasn't kidding...

when we have the slightest possibility of snow or ice, everything is CANCELLED. and what do we have here. 

NO SCHOOL/work TOMORROW, 

for practically all parts of alabama. crazy right?

 via

so we make a big pot of chili.

pop in Just Dance on the Wii...

and have our very own

SNOW PARTY.

seriously...

see, down here in Alabama...
we don't see much of this stuff.

via

it is actually, quite a rarity down here. 

or a lot of it at one time anyways.

via

so, when the weatherman says snow, everyone FREAKS out.

via
seriously, you can't find bread or milk in any GROCERY STORE. any, AT ALL. and really, most people probably don't even use that much bread or milk.

WHATEV. 

one time, in March 1993, we had a really bad blizzard. That is about the extent of our history with snow. which is A OKAY with me.  and they are predicting snow tomorrow and monday.

YIKES. 

Fill in the blank Friday...

                                                                          thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com

1.   Winter is       too cold for me, and one of my not so favorite seasons...although this year I have managed to get a few new cardigans that I am in love with.

2.  Summer is    amazing, lovely, fantastic, soothing, and AWESOME....

3.  If it were summer instead of winter right now I'd       OMGEEEEZZ I WOULD BE COLLEGE GRADUATE WITH A DEGREE IN NURSING...okay in all seriousness, I would love for it to be summer, because I could get a little more color to this shade of olive I have going.

4.  My favorite thing to do in winter is  curl up in my flannel sheets, play cards, watch movies..

5.  My favorite thing to do in summer is       go to the beach, OF COURSE.

6.  The ideal outfit for a sunny summer day is      a flowy top, shorts, and some flats or flip flops...or a snazzy little sundress.

7.  The ideal outfit for a frigid winter day is       jeans, boots, cardigans, scarves...or pjs, so I can stay inside.

Happy Happy 
Friday!!



I give to you my trunk...

about 3/4ths of my collections over the past 4 semesters.

let us not forget the forest I could build with my mounds of notecards.

however, school starts monday, and I am pumped.

4 down and 1 to go.

I'm dreaming of you...

Disney World...

it seems everyone has been this holiday season.

well everyone, except me.

via

via

 well, I did go 2 spring breaks ago.
and let me just say
I NEED TO GO BACK.
SOON.

Today...

I took these sweet little girls on a grand walk...

poor Lu looks extra fluffy, she just got a bath. ;)

Today, I washed some clothes, and ran some much wanted errands.

Today, I only have FOUR DAYS left until I start 5th semester.

Today, I got to snooze a little bit longer.

BUT NONE OF THIS COMPARES to what my sweet aunt had today.

HER LAST RADIATION TREATMENT. ***until more tests are done.

GOD IS GOOD!!

A little recap...

With a new year comes new posts, so I give to you a small recap of my favorite posts. Check them out.

What are your favorite blogs?

My life as of Right Now

Nothing Sweeter than Summertime

Crazy Little thing called Love

Fair Choices

The House that Built Me

Highway 20 Ride

You Can't Always Get What You Want

It only hits the hardest when it hits right at home

Lean on me

If it were only so simple

This too shall pass

a post about a wedding/new years eve/and a birthday.

The Thursday before New Years, I went to a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding of two wonderful people. (the groom I went to high school with, and I met his beautiful bride in college). The reception was at the snazzy little place called Ted's Garage. I got to hang with some of my favorite people. See these people right here...

then the next night was new years eve, and lo behold, I don't have my camera... Luckily others did, and I was able to snag a few of theirs...

yes, I wore the same dress because it was too snazzy not too. Courtesy of Lotus Boutique.

and two more from the wedding. 

I guess I can't forget that today is this ^^^^ guy's birthday.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, babe. 

I HOPE YOUR DAY IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!