Eat your veggies

The other night when I was at my friend Amy's house having dinner with her and her adorable kids, Lauren (her 5 year old) was talking about how she wants to eat cake for every meal, and she wants the whole wide world to be cake...she even wants to LIVE IN CAKE! Then I broke the news to her that if she were to do that then we were going to have to invent broccoli cake, and pork chop cake so that she could get all the nutrients she needs. The idea of eating cake for every meal started sounding less appealing to her. Amy said "well, there actually is such a thing as carrot cake." Lauren made a face of disgust while I remembered how much I love carrot cake. Luckily Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite bloggers) posted a yummy looking carrot cake recipe today. I think I may attempt it.

I have my community rotation of clinical today, so I got to sleep in. Sleeping in, even when it's only until 9am just makes the day feel so much better.

The birds are chirping, the sun is out, and the high is 87 today. Easter Pageant is today, I'll go after clinical. It's a perfect day.

Sunshiney Weekend

This weekend was great. The weather was so springy and it made my heart happy.

Friday was stunt night, it was SO funny. The junior class came away with the well deserved, esteemed Judge's Choice award. We celebrated at Wing Stop, and Captain Planet threw a chicken wing bone at Julie and I. Rude.

Saturday I literally watched Glee all day long. Our new friend Joy came over and we just had to introduce her to our favorite show. After 6 hours of Glee, we took Kenz on a walk on our new favorite trail. We ended the day with Chic-fil-a, and the cute movie Whip it. We also rented Mary Kate and Ashley's New York Minute, but didn't get around to it.

Church was great on Sunday. That kind of great that is hard to admit it's great because it kinda hurts to hear the truth some times, but it really was good. I really love my church. I took some graduation pictures of Leslie. It was a simple assignment because she is probably the most photogenic person on earth. We had fun, and got some good shots too!

Now it's back to school. I'm having some motivation issues, which will have to resolve by the end of this week.

I'm going to be the summer RA this summer, which means I have to move on campus Mid-May. I'm excited about this change. I'm looking forward to having residents again, meeting the sweet little clueless, uncomfortable freshmen, making them goodie bags and having dance parties in the hall. But I was hit with the reality this morning that I'm not going to be living with my roommates anymore. I got real sad. I love them so much, they are my family. Granted, they are all moving on with their lives; getting married, going to grad school, working in third world countries, so I wouldn't be able to live with them even if I wasn't going to be an RA next year. But that doesn't mean I wont miss them. I think I might go through the grieving process this summer. Kubler Ross get ready.

Here are some of my favs from our photo-shoot on sunday:

Okay, who am I kidding? I like all of them.

What's Cookin'?:

The answer is: nothing. This blog should actually be titled what's not cooking.

Well, actually I have made 3 turkey sandwiches this week, and eaten my fair share of bananas and plums. OH, and I bought some Easter chocolate from Target for the roommates and I, and some starbucks ice cream (that stuff...AMAZING). But I didn't 'cook' anything. You should talk to Lindsey though, she made this delicious looking Italian stuff last night. Me, I ate a turkey sandwich and some of Julie's unwanted squash.

I do plan to get back into the swing of things eventually. This week has been a transition week. It's a little sad I need to transition after only being gone a week, but that's just how I work. I had to get used to going to class again, I was in a new place at the hospital, AND to make me week even more exciting/different I got to go pick up Andrew from DFW on his way back from Israel, and spend 4 hours with him during his layover.

Today I have the day off. I was going to babysit from 5:45 until 2:00 today, but the kids got sick, which means I got to sleep. And boy did I sleep. I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 9:00. I woke up in a position that I have never woken up in before. My face was planted face-down on my arms, and as I drug myself into my bathroom I almost screamed at the horrible sight in the mirror. My eyes were so swollen and my face had a huge red mark across it from where my arms were. Although it was horrifying at the time, now I'm wishing I would have taken a picture.

I'm going to study today, because I haven't done that in a while and the month of April is going to be CRAZY. 6 tests in 4 weeks. Aye aye aye!

Teeny tiny little ones

Today was my first day in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I wasn't expecting to enjoy it. During our first day of clinical this semester when we took a tour of all the units we were going to be on the NICU seemed like such a sad place to be, considering the one patient I saw was a 24 week, drug addicted baby whose parents had never visited.

It wasn't as sad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, there are sad parts to every story, hardships, difficulties, hurdles; overall though, it was such a neat environment. I loved it. LOVED it. It helped that the nurse I followed was awesome, a UMHB grad who had so much passion and enthusiasm and wanted to help me learn (that makes all the difference!). All 3 of our patients were stable. Oh so tiny, and oh so precious. "C" and I cuddled for about an hour after I fed him because he just did not want to lay in his isolate all by himself. It was crazy to me that I was holding a human so small. His little head fit in my hand, and his feet didn't even reach my elbow. I got some new experiences with tube feedings through a gastrostomy button, and also learned the art of changing a 1lb baby's diaper.

One of the more serious babies was in a room close to where my patient's were, she had a myelomeningocele, which is the most serious forms of Spina Bifida. I got the opportunity to do a quick assessment on her with one of the nurses. It was so interesting, and scary. I know you don't want a nursing lecture right now but let me just tell you about this...part of this baby's spine, and spinal nerves were on the outside of her body! She was only about 4 hours old, so they were still doing tests on her, but they knew she was also missing part of her cerebral cortex, which is fairly common in infants with this type of spina bifida. She was breathing on her own, only had a small amount supplemental O2, and could move her arms legs...amazing!

The real amazing part of all of this though was when her parents came in to see her for the first time. I had no idea what to expect. I tried to put myself in their position. I imagine myself going into the NICU thinking that I was going to try and be strong, then getting in there and seeing my baby (who I thought was going to be perfect and healthy) and not being able to hold it together. Instead they walked in with camera in hand and gleamed with pride over their little one. Mom put a pink and white bow in her hair while dad took pictures, then they leaned over her and I snapped their first family photo. I'm not sure what they taught me. But I know that they taught me something. Maybe to be joyful and grateful even in the toughest times. I'm sure they are struggling, but in that moment all that showed was their enormous love for their baby. It was inspiring and precious.

I think I might want to work in the NICU some day. A tiny part of my heart was stolen by those tiny humans (and their parents) today.

Costa Rica Memories

What a trip this was! Probably the biggest adventure of my life. It was a blast. Terrifying at times, but the kind of terrifying that you look back on and are glad you did it.

The beach was gorgeous. The water was clear and blue when the waves were calm...but they weren't calm often. Santa Teresa is known for its great surf so the waves are big and strong. Our hostel that we stayed in was just about 100 meters from the beach, it was the perfect walk every morning, or afternoon, depending on how late we slept in...usually afternoon.

The food was great, minus one "soda" we ate at (way too greasy for our costa rican bellies). I pretty much wasn't hungry the whole time (I blame it on my sickness), but I still enjoyed the fresh fruit, best smoothies (batidos) ever, and really really really good avocados and guacamole.

Sunsets. Oh beautiful sunsets. I'm a sucker for sunsets, even here in Temple when Julie and I take Kenzie on walks in the evening. Add a beautiful ocean, surfers walking around, and kids playing with their dogs, and it's over, I'm in love.

Robyn and I met a lot of fun people along the way. Even though the beach, sunsets, playing in the waves, and eating delicious food was absolutely wonderful, the friends we made, and the crazies we met will be the sweetest (and funniest) memories. If I was to make a list of the people we met it could probably be about 20 people long, most of them including the people on the infamous mexicana flight 848 that turned around in the air and went back to mexico. We decided we need to have a "mexicana flight 848 reunion". It would be a really fun time. I'm really wishing we would have gotten a group picture now. But thanks to the great world of facebook, I found a picture of some of our new friends in the airport. And yes, I realize this may seem borderline creepy, or maybe not even borderline. If they saw this though, they would be happy, and not creeped out...I promise.

There's Cara, Allison, Julie, Zach, I don't remember that girls name, and Ron. If you look really hard past Allison you can see me scratching my back in a green shirt. My back was peeling at the time, and was very itchy. TMI? probably.

It was a great trip. I would go back in heartbeat, but would probably take Andrew and other men with us for safety, and fun of course. I mean, who wouldn't want to go back to this:

It's alright though. It's a race to the finish of this semester. 7 tests in 7 weeks. Should fly by (hopefully). Then I'll be 2 semesters away from graduating college.

¡Hola!

So, it's our last night it Costa Rica. Quite sad. It's been an amazing trip. I can't wait to get home and upload pictures to share the fun times (or at least the ones I caught on camera).

Tonight we are in San José (it's fun to type on a spanish keyboard when you can actually use the symbols...not so fun when you can figure out how to type a question mark). It's looking like it might rain. Our hostel has free internet which is an awesome plus since we have been paying 250 colones for 10 minutes of internet back in Santa Teresa, and since it's too dangerous for us to go out in the city without body guards. We did venture to a Quiznos for lunch though.

There's an old lady here that keeps talking to us. She's an interesting character. A traveler, claims to be a christian, also claims to be married to a muslim, but also asked us to hook her up with any men we knew. I'm sticking with the nod and smile for this one...

I just accidently discovered ¡ when I was going for the apostrophe (it's up at the top on this keyboard) I'm easily amused. ¡¿çñe€¡¿

Alright, time to kick back and listen to this weird tripy hostel music.
Next time I type I'll be back in the good ole US of A.
Hasta Luego!

Interesting turn of events

Don't ask me why I'm blogging right now. I have about a hundred other things I need to be doing right now. Packing and sleeping being the top 2 on that list. I'm just feeling compelled to keep you informed. Whoever you may be.

So, I haven't been feeling good the past few days. I've been feeling awful for about 2 days. I went to the dr. today because I couldn't breathe and he told me I have pneumonia. What?! Yes, pneumonia.

I'm still going to Costa Rica...unless I don't make it through the night. :)

I told Julie today that I would rather have pneumonia on the beach in Costa Rica then in Temple, TX.

It might not be the wisest decision, but it's a risk I'm willing to take for some good r&r on the beach.

I'll let you know in a week if it was the right decision or not.

Beautiful

picture courtesy of my friend with the cutest kids ever, Stephanie Caldwell

I went to Dallas/Fort Worth this weekend for my sweet friend Chelsea's wedding. The wedding was so worshipful, beautiful, and incredibly sweet. Dominick and Chelsea beamed with love for each other. I have to admit, I got teary watching beautiful Chelsea walking down the isle toward her groom, it was such a special moment, and evening. It was also great to see so many people who I haven't seen in a while. I was reminded of the wonderful family I had at my church in Keller. Those are the people that taught me, helped me grow, and gave me my first taste of God's perfect love. I loved catching up with people who have meant so much to me and influenced my life, it was special. I also got to hang with one of my favorite old timey friends, Caitlin. We go way back and it was so fun to spend time with her in her ghetto neck of the woods (deep ellum).

Overall, it was a beautiful weekend.

You know what else is beautiful? I go to Costa Rica in about 73 hours.

Just 1 pediatric test, and 1,500 miles to go!

One more thing...Dom and Chels gave their guests the coolest wedding party favor (is that what it's called??) ever. I tried to document its awesomeness but photobooth snaps pictures so fast, it was a difficult task.

It's a carabiner that says "Dominick and Chelsea" on one side and "March 6th, 2010" on the other. So fun.

What's Cookin'?: A Ritzy Meal

It was a ritzy night here in the Raindance house.

You may be interpreting "ritzy" as fancy, and if that is so, you are mistaken. It definitely wasn't fancy. On the menu tonight was:

Ritz Chicken and Ranch&Ritz Asparagus

I got the recipe for the chicken here.

The asparagus, I've eaten it before some where so I try to mimic that. It's super easy and yummy.

-1 lb. of asparagus

-1/2 cup of Ranch dressing

-Ritz crackers, crushed (I think I used about 12-14 crackers)

-shredded parmesan cheese

WARNING: Asparagus has a tendency to make your pee smell quite strange. I have been curious about this of phenomenon, so I did some google research. According to wisegeek.com only 40-50% of people can smell the asparagus pee smell. It's because of a certain gene. Weird, huh?

Anyway, this pee talk isn't very appetizing so I guess I'll give you the recipe now.

Simmer the asparagus in water until they turn bright green, and are cooked but still crispy (about 3 minutes). Toss them in ranch dressing. Sprinkle the ritz and parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until heated through, nice and bubbly.

I messed up on a few things tonight. I said up there 1/2 cup of ranch...because I made it with 1/4 cup and it wasn't enough. Oh well, I learned. I also burnt the chicken. It was still edible, just not super wonderful. The basil made the chicken yummy though, I didn't ever know I liked basil until tonight.

So, overall, it was a good learning experience.

I took pictures but I can't find my camera now, and I'm not feeling up to looking that hard for it. You'll just have to imagine what chicken and asparagus look like covered in ritz. You can do it.

For dessert (yes, I went overboard tonight...don't expect this every week, I was just feeling ambitious): Cinnamon roll sugar cookies! Wee! Here's the recipe. Oh my goodness, seriously delicious. If you have a massive amount of free time, and preferably a KitchenAid stand up mixer, you should definitely make these. We just have a hand held mixer and I nearly killed it. This dough gets THICK...I ended up mixing the last cup or two of flour with my hands.

Anyway, this has been way too long.

Bon Appetite.

EDIT: I found my camera. Apparently last night when I was looking for it, Lindsey was sitting on it. Ha. So, here are the pictures. As you can tell, I'm mostly excited about those cookies, because they are AMAZING.

I made half of them with a yummy cream cheese icing, and half of them without. Mostly because I am planning on taking a bunch to my simulation test today to share with my nursing pals, and the icing could get messy during transport.

"We are not long here,

our time is but a breath,

so we better breathe it.

And I; I was made to live.

I was made to love.

I was made to know You. "

-Brooke Fraser, C.S. Lewis Song

Trying to rock the new bob.

Getting a hair cut feels so good.