Well we've officially finished a week and a half of classes. I feel like it's been a month and a half though! On top of all of the school work and labs and clubs and such, I got really sick this week :(. I had been kind of sick since classes started but yesterday I was just miserable so I went to a urgent care. It was a miserable experience. They kept poking and proding me various places to try and figure out what was wrong and ended up deciding to take blood. The lady tried to get my vein FOUR times without any luck. I started shaking and crying uncontrollably (probably the most embarrassing experience of my life as I rarely cry and definitely don't cry uncontrollably). So the lady gives up and I think she felt bad because she sent me home with 4 cups, pens, pencils, a magnet, and a pad of paper. So today I went somewhere else to have blood drawn and this HUGE guy did such an amazing job I barely felt it.
So anyways in happier news, I spent the weekend at jakes dads house. We had lots of fun going to the beach and just hanging out and attempting to study (yeah we weren't too successful with that). It would have been a great weekend to rejuvenate me cor this week if I hadn't ended up so sick this week! I even skipped classes this morning which is a very very very rare occuran e for me. Hopefully I'll be better soon so I can concentrate on all of my tests that are coming up!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
And so it begins.
Wow, I've been seriously lacking in this whole blogging thing. Sorry about that, but my life has been a whirlwind lately.
We had orientation Friday and Saturday. Friday involved a lot of sitting and listening and taking surveys and Saturday we had "team building". Really it didn't help me get to know my classmates all that well, but that's okay because I'm already beginning to realize that I will quickly be seeing them 24/7.
Yesterday we had our first day of classes. We start every morning with 4 lectures back-to-back. We don't even leave the classroom... all of the professors come to us. We do get 10 minutes between lectures, which is nice. However, it is still a lot of sitting. Surprisingly, though, sitting is very tiring because by lunch time I am ready for a nap. We get an hour off for lunch, which seems like a long time but it's really not because we have to walk over to vet med and go to our lockers and get everything ready for our afternoons. Afternoons consist of 1-2 labs. Yesterday we had anatomy lab. We had to learn all the bones of the forelimb and a bunch of minute details about each limb. Tomorrow is the hindlimb, so tonight will be spent in anatomy lab studying radiographs because I didn't get to that part during lab yesterday. After anatomy yesterday, I had about 2 hours off until the barbecue one of the clubs was sponsoring. So I went to the library and reviewed some anatomy and histology and then headed to the picnic for free food :)
Today was much of the same, except in the afternoon I had histology lab and then animal handling lab. In animal handling we learned how to take blood from a cow's tail and a dog's paw. We also learned how to restrain mice, rats, and rabbits. This was all on models, but in 2 weeks we get to do it on real animals!!! Ahhh!!! Well next week we get to draw blood from a cow's tail and the rodent lab is the following week. Today it was 5:30 by the time I got home. Just enough time to eat, print off lecture notes for tomorrow, and then head back to anatomy lab to study.
Luckily today I'm not as wiped out as I was yesterday. This school alllll day and studying alllll night thing is exhausting, but they say you get used to it. I sure hope I do!
We had orientation Friday and Saturday. Friday involved a lot of sitting and listening and taking surveys and Saturday we had "team building". Really it didn't help me get to know my classmates all that well, but that's okay because I'm already beginning to realize that I will quickly be seeing them 24/7.
Yesterday we had our first day of classes. We start every morning with 4 lectures back-to-back. We don't even leave the classroom... all of the professors come to us. We do get 10 minutes between lectures, which is nice. However, it is still a lot of sitting. Surprisingly, though, sitting is very tiring because by lunch time I am ready for a nap. We get an hour off for lunch, which seems like a long time but it's really not because we have to walk over to vet med and go to our lockers and get everything ready for our afternoons. Afternoons consist of 1-2 labs. Yesterday we had anatomy lab. We had to learn all the bones of the forelimb and a bunch of minute details about each limb. Tomorrow is the hindlimb, so tonight will be spent in anatomy lab studying radiographs because I didn't get to that part during lab yesterday. After anatomy yesterday, I had about 2 hours off until the barbecue one of the clubs was sponsoring. So I went to the library and reviewed some anatomy and histology and then headed to the picnic for free food :)
Today was much of the same, except in the afternoon I had histology lab and then animal handling lab. In animal handling we learned how to take blood from a cow's tail and a dog's paw. We also learned how to restrain mice, rats, and rabbits. This was all on models, but in 2 weeks we get to do it on real animals!!! Ahhh!!! Well next week we get to draw blood from a cow's tail and the rodent lab is the following week. Today it was 5:30 by the time I got home. Just enough time to eat, print off lecture notes for tomorrow, and then head back to anatomy lab to study.
Luckily today I'm not as wiped out as I was yesterday. This school alllll day and studying alllll night thing is exhausting, but they say you get used to it. I sure hope I do!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
One Last Adventure
Well, with summer coming to a close, I've been trying to fit in a few more adventures. My summer job ended, so I went home for about 2 weeks to relax with family. We went to Cedar Point for a couple of days, which was fun!
Then I went off to Illinois to visit Jake for a little bit before school starts. This past Saturday he woke me up early. I was so grumpy to him. Who wakes up at 7 on a Saturday?! Well turns out he woke me up early because he had a surprise for me! He of course wouldn't tell me where we were going so I spent an hour and a half in the car in full suspense. Turns out, we were going to Chicago!!! To the Field Museum to see the Horse exhibit which I had mentioned I really, really wanted to see! :-) The exhibit is closing soon, so I didn't think I was going to be able to see it. We spent a good 5 hours in the museum, although it wasn't long enough. We didn't even see half of the exhibits. Then we went out for Chicago deep dish pizza. We spent an hour and a half waiting, but it was soooo worth it!
Sunday we went to a state park and spent the day hiking. There were a bunch of beautiful canyons, lots of sand ("I don't understand, what's with all the sand?" said Jake), and there were SUPPOSED to be like 18 waterfalls, but they were all dried up. :-( Oh well, that just means we'll need to go back sometime! The canyons were tons of fun to climb up and the views were beautiful. We did encounter a few kids who didn't want to be there. One girl was texting away, not even looking at the surroundings. Another littler girl asked, "Why can't there be elevators?" I wish I could have gone there when I was a kid! I couldn't believe they were not awed by the beauty! However, in one of the canyons, there was a little girl splashing around in a puddle and she said, "It's soooo beau-teee-ful." She was adorable!
The past couple of days have been more relaxing because Jake's had orientation, but we did spend quite a few hours the other day in Borders and got some really cool books. One is called "Off the Beaten Path" and is about hidden, non-touristy places to visit across the United States (We got that one so that when we help you move back, Christine, we'll know where to stop ;-) )
Then I went off to Illinois to visit Jake for a little bit before school starts. This past Saturday he woke me up early. I was so grumpy to him. Who wakes up at 7 on a Saturday?! Well turns out he woke me up early because he had a surprise for me! He of course wouldn't tell me where we were going so I spent an hour and a half in the car in full suspense. Turns out, we were going to Chicago!!! To the Field Museum to see the Horse exhibit which I had mentioned I really, really wanted to see! :-) The exhibit is closing soon, so I didn't think I was going to be able to see it. We spent a good 5 hours in the museum, although it wasn't long enough. We didn't even see half of the exhibits. Then we went out for Chicago deep dish pizza. We spent an hour and a half waiting, but it was soooo worth it!
Sunday we went to a state park and spent the day hiking. There were a bunch of beautiful canyons, lots of sand ("I don't understand, what's with all the sand?" said Jake), and there were SUPPOSED to be like 18 waterfalls, but they were all dried up. :-( Oh well, that just means we'll need to go back sometime! The canyons were tons of fun to climb up and the views were beautiful. We did encounter a few kids who didn't want to be there. One girl was texting away, not even looking at the surroundings. Another littler girl asked, "Why can't there be elevators?" I wish I could have gone there when I was a kid! I couldn't believe they were not awed by the beauty! However, in one of the canyons, there was a little girl splashing around in a puddle and she said, "It's soooo beau-teee-ful." She was adorable!
The past couple of days have been more relaxing because Jake's had orientation, but we did spend quite a few hours the other day in Borders and got some really cool books. One is called "Off the Beaten Path" and is about hidden, non-touristy places to visit across the United States (We got that one so that when we help you move back, Christine, we'll know where to stop ;-) )
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Summer Jobs are Over... School Starts Soon!
Well this past weekend, I worked at a horse show. For the last time this summer, thankfully. I do like being at the horse shows, but I've gotten really sick after the last 2 shows. Plus the topic of Brutus's death inevitably comes up. So I'm looking forward to relaxing for a few weeks before school starts.
Monday was my last day of working my vet school job. For the past few weeks I've been giving a presentation to high school juniors/seniors and their parents, telling them about the prevet/vet tech programs at MSU. During the presentation I have 4 short videos that I play. We've been having issues with the sound working, however, and Friday I couldn't get it to work at all, so I had to improvise and basically just present the material that the videos were supposed to cover. The sound wasn't working again on Monday, but luckily I got there extra early. I tried everything, from playing with the volume buttons, to restarting the computer, but nothing worked. So I called the tech people.
About 10 minutes later, a cute little old Asian woman showed up. Unfortunately I could barely understand her. Our conversation went something like this:
Asian Woman: "Sound no work."
Me: "Right. I've given this presentation before on this computer and the sound was fine, so I don't know what's wrong now."
A: "Sound no work."
M: "Right."
A: "Sound no work."
M: "Umm... correct?"
A: "You try volume?"
M: "Yes. Nothing happened."
A: "Shhh, one second. I figure it out."
M: "Uhhh okay."
A: "You try volume?"
M: "Yes."
She hits the volume button and sound comes BLARING out of the speakers.
A: "You hit volume button to make sound work."
M: "I tried that. Really, I did. It didn't work."
A: "Volume work now."
M: "Yes. Thank you."
A: "Volume button make sound work."
M: "I see. Thank you."
A: "Volume work now. Bye."
M: "Okay, thanks, bye!"
As she's walking down the hall, I hear her talking on her radio: "She no know how to work volume button."
Ughhh, I tried that, I promise!!!
Haha, oh well, the volume worked, and the group on Monday was small, so I was able to make it more interactive, which was nice. It was a good group of people, and a good way to end the job this summer.
Now I'm able to spend about a week and a half with my family and then a week in Illinois, and then school starts! Ahh!!! I still have to go buy my stethoscope, boots, gloves, books, etc, and waive my school insurance. I'm sure there's about a million other things I should do, too, but I can't think of them. I did buy my scrubs, order lab coats, coveralls, a dissection kit, pen light, neuro hammers, reflex hammer, and a class T-shirt though! This summer is almost over, ahhh!
Monday was my last day of working my vet school job. For the past few weeks I've been giving a presentation to high school juniors/seniors and their parents, telling them about the prevet/vet tech programs at MSU. During the presentation I have 4 short videos that I play. We've been having issues with the sound working, however, and Friday I couldn't get it to work at all, so I had to improvise and basically just present the material that the videos were supposed to cover. The sound wasn't working again on Monday, but luckily I got there extra early. I tried everything, from playing with the volume buttons, to restarting the computer, but nothing worked. So I called the tech people.
About 10 minutes later, a cute little old Asian woman showed up. Unfortunately I could barely understand her. Our conversation went something like this:
Asian Woman: "Sound no work."
Me: "Right. I've given this presentation before on this computer and the sound was fine, so I don't know what's wrong now."
A: "Sound no work."
M: "Right."
A: "Sound no work."
M: "Umm... correct?"
A: "You try volume?"
M: "Yes. Nothing happened."
A: "Shhh, one second. I figure it out."
M: "Uhhh okay."
A: "You try volume?"
M: "Yes."
She hits the volume button and sound comes BLARING out of the speakers.
A: "You hit volume button to make sound work."
M: "I tried that. Really, I did. It didn't work."
A: "Volume work now."
M: "Yes. Thank you."
A: "Volume button make sound work."
M: "I see. Thank you."
A: "Volume work now. Bye."
M: "Okay, thanks, bye!"
As she's walking down the hall, I hear her talking on her radio: "She no know how to work volume button."
Ughhh, I tried that, I promise!!!
Haha, oh well, the volume worked, and the group on Monday was small, so I was able to make it more interactive, which was nice. It was a good group of people, and a good way to end the job this summer.
Now I'm able to spend about a week and a half with my family and then a week in Illinois, and then school starts! Ahh!!! I still have to go buy my stethoscope, boots, gloves, books, etc, and waive my school insurance. I'm sure there's about a million other things I should do, too, but I can't think of them. I did buy my scrubs, order lab coats, coveralls, a dissection kit, pen light, neuro hammers, reflex hammer, and a class T-shirt though! This summer is almost over, ahhh!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Slowing Down Time
So, just a warning, this post is going to be about how I had so much fun with one of my best friends this weekend. It might make you insanely jealous, just so you know. And it might be slightly sappy because I am in a slightly sappy mood.
Friday I was slightly annoyed with Jake because he wouldn't tell me when he was getting to EL. I figured he was running late as usual and didn't want to tell me how late he was going to be. Boy was I wrong. I got out of work at 3PM and got a text at 3:25 from him asking why I had a doormat. He hasn't seen my doormat... so I run to the door and he was here :)
After spending a couple (or 3 or 4 or 5...) of hours catching up (Jake commented that I was being as hyper as you, Christine. I told him it was just because I was soooooo excited!) we decided to go do this "date night special" at FunTyme. It included 2 pieces of pizza, 2 drinks, nachos, 2 rounds of mini golf, and 20 game tokens for the arcade. All for $20! Not bad! We ate first and the pizza slices were surprisingly good but also very small and we didn't get free refills on our drinks. The nachos were good though! Next we moved on to mini golf. We ended up behind a group of older people who took quite a while, but we were able to chat with them as we went around the course and it was fun. I made a hole in one!!!! And they all cheered for me. It was really cute. I ended up beating Jake by 1 (he claimed he let me win). Unfortunately, it was too late for us to play the arcade games since they closed at 10, so we got our tokens and decided to come back the following night to play the games.
Saturday was another eventful day. We got up early, which was impressive considering our 2 AM bedtime, and left to go to Waterloo Recreation Center. It was about an hour's drive away. Apparently you are supposed to pay $10 when you renew your license plate to be able to get in for free, but I didn't do that. They said since my license plate expires in September, though, that I was okay and to just pay when I renew. We found this hilarious because no one looked at our license almost all day. At our last stop someone did ask if we had a pass, but we quickly explained how we were supposed to get in for free and he just waved us through. Didn't even look at our license plate.
Anyways, we started by going to the beach. It was pretty small and we decided we wanted to go hiking first anyways. So we left and started driving towards the hiking spots. Now, this park was really spread out. And as we're driving to the hiking spot, I realize the place we used to show horses is IN THE PARK. Seriously. So we stop and I showed Jake around the horse show grounds. It was eerily quiet without a show going on. Next we ended up getting a little lost. We had a GPS with us, but decided not to use it because we thought finding our own way was more adventurous. But the map lied to us. There definitely WASN'T a hiking trail where they said there would be one. So we decided to go to the next stop. On the way, we saw another lake (there was something like 13 lakes in this park.) We stopped and took pictures (which I would show you, but I lost the cord for my camera and so can't download pictures.) We then decided to switch driving and as soon as Jake got in the driver's seat, he realized we were almost out of gas. And we were also in the middle of nowhere. Oops. Well since we had to pass the next hiking spot on our way out of the park, we decided to stop anyways.
Upon getting to the hiking trail, we realized there were 2 paths we could take. We decided to take the path less traveled... But what a bad idea that turned out to be. We were SWARMED by sweat bees. For some reason they liked me more than Jake and I had a good 30-40 flying above my head. I think it might have been my lavender shampoo. They wouldn't go away so I started running, but the just flew with me. I ran almost the entire trail and once I got out, they were still there. Jake caught up (I think he wanted to enjoy the trail, but the bugs were driving me insane.) He helped kill the bugs flying around my head. And then decided to go on another, shorter trail. It lead to a dead end, so we had to turn around and come back. Some bugs followed me on that trail as well, but not as many.
By that point we were both hot and sweaty and done with the bugs. So we headed to the air-conditioned nature center. They had pretty rocks which we looked at and a cool bee colony. We searched for the queen bee, but couldn't find her so we moved on to the gift shop. After thoroughly examining everything in the small gift shop, we moved on to the "live animal room". We learned about "ant lions" which are these small, tick-like creatures that live in sand and form sand pits. The sign near them said to catch an ant and throw it into one of the sand pits they formed and observe. I then saw an unlucky ant running across the table top... Poor ant. We threw it in and the ant lion gobbled it up. They also had Monarch butterflies. Well caterpillars and cocoons. We learned it takes the caterpillar about 30 minutes to shed it's skin and form the cocoon. How cool! They also had eggs, which were super super tiny. The Cocoons were so pretty we were almost convinced they were fake. They all had this pretty gold around the green cocoon. It looked like they were decorated.
Next, we decided we should probably find some gas for the car. Plus we were hungry. So we used the GPS to find the closest gas station, and were able to fill up BEFORE we ran out of gas. Good thing because the person who saves me when I run out of gas with with me... Then we stopped at Subway and split a pulled pork barbecue sub as well as a meatball sub. The pulled pork was sooooo good.
Then back to the beach. But it was really hot and humid. And crowded. And I didn't want to get my hair wet and Jake didn't want to get his shorts wet because we were headed to a party next. So we didn't stay for long.
We went to my trainer's summer party. It was fun to see riding friends I hadn't seen in so long. We also walked around and got to pet all the horses. Jake really liked the big black mare (girl horse). Except he couldn't accept it was a girl and kept calling it a "him" lol. My first dressage trainer was there and she is a sailor and invited us to go sailing at her summer cottage. We just might have to do that sometime...
Then back home. We stopped at the arcade to use up the tokens from the previous night. We had fun playing skee-ball and other assorted arcade games. By the time we had used up our 20 tokens, we had 97 tickets. I think we drove the lady at the prize counter crazy because we were there for a good 20 minutes deciding what we wanted. We ended up with a gray boxing kangaroo pen, 4 sour patch-like candies, a tootsie roll pop for Jake, and a flower ring for me. We are going to take turns having the kangaroo pen. I told Jake I'd take a picture of it everyday and send it to him. Today's picture was the kangaroo holding up a sign saying he missed Jake but it would only be 24 more days until he got to see him. The note was signed nameless since he doesn't yet have a name. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. Unfortunately Jake won't get to see the picture because the cord for my camera is still missing (no, it didn't magically reappear in the past 20 minutes as I've been writing this blog entry.)
Then some shopping to look for a silver necklace chain. Unfortunately we came back home empty-handed.
Today we got up semi-early, went to Meijer's (okay, or Meijer... apparently I say it wrong) to get bolt cutters since Jake forgot the combination to his bike lock. We freed his bike, packed up, and then headed to Jackson to visit his grandparents. They were absolutely adorable and so, so, so excited to see Jake. We spent some time talking and enjoying delicious berry smoothies his grandma made us. His grandparents are such a cute couple- as he puts it, his grandma is very bull-headed and his grandpa is ornery. They constantly bicker good-naturedly. His grandpa told me I should transfer to Illinois, lol. I wish. He also invited me to go to his Florida condo this winter. haha. Again, I wish. My parents do own a condo in the same complex in Florida, though (how weird is that?! My grandparents used to live there and my parents inherited it when they passed away.) Anyways, his grandparents live right off of a lake and have a pontoon boat, so we spent some time chatting and enjoying the water. Unfortunately, all too soon, it was time to leave. I got to steer the boat back to the dock and I think got bonus points with his grandpa for not crashing, lol.
And now I am once again all alone. And wishing Illinois wasn't so far away. But I do think I have the best non-boyfriend ever. Just saying. Don't get too jealous. I did warn you.
Friday I was slightly annoyed with Jake because he wouldn't tell me when he was getting to EL. I figured he was running late as usual and didn't want to tell me how late he was going to be. Boy was I wrong. I got out of work at 3PM and got a text at 3:25 from him asking why I had a doormat. He hasn't seen my doormat... so I run to the door and he was here :)
After spending a couple (or 3 or 4 or 5...) of hours catching up (Jake commented that I was being as hyper as you, Christine. I told him it was just because I was soooooo excited!) we decided to go do this "date night special" at FunTyme. It included 2 pieces of pizza, 2 drinks, nachos, 2 rounds of mini golf, and 20 game tokens for the arcade. All for $20! Not bad! We ate first and the pizza slices were surprisingly good but also very small and we didn't get free refills on our drinks. The nachos were good though! Next we moved on to mini golf. We ended up behind a group of older people who took quite a while, but we were able to chat with them as we went around the course and it was fun. I made a hole in one!!!! And they all cheered for me. It was really cute. I ended up beating Jake by 1 (he claimed he let me win). Unfortunately, it was too late for us to play the arcade games since they closed at 10, so we got our tokens and decided to come back the following night to play the games.
Saturday was another eventful day. We got up early, which was impressive considering our 2 AM bedtime, and left to go to Waterloo Recreation Center. It was about an hour's drive away. Apparently you are supposed to pay $10 when you renew your license plate to be able to get in for free, but I didn't do that. They said since my license plate expires in September, though, that I was okay and to just pay when I renew. We found this hilarious because no one looked at our license almost all day. At our last stop someone did ask if we had a pass, but we quickly explained how we were supposed to get in for free and he just waved us through. Didn't even look at our license plate.
Anyways, we started by going to the beach. It was pretty small and we decided we wanted to go hiking first anyways. So we left and started driving towards the hiking spots. Now, this park was really spread out. And as we're driving to the hiking spot, I realize the place we used to show horses is IN THE PARK. Seriously. So we stop and I showed Jake around the horse show grounds. It was eerily quiet without a show going on. Next we ended up getting a little lost. We had a GPS with us, but decided not to use it because we thought finding our own way was more adventurous. But the map lied to us. There definitely WASN'T a hiking trail where they said there would be one. So we decided to go to the next stop. On the way, we saw another lake (there was something like 13 lakes in this park.) We stopped and took pictures (which I would show you, but I lost the cord for my camera and so can't download pictures.) We then decided to switch driving and as soon as Jake got in the driver's seat, he realized we were almost out of gas. And we were also in the middle of nowhere. Oops. Well since we had to pass the next hiking spot on our way out of the park, we decided to stop anyways.
Upon getting to the hiking trail, we realized there were 2 paths we could take. We decided to take the path less traveled... But what a bad idea that turned out to be. We were SWARMED by sweat bees. For some reason they liked me more than Jake and I had a good 30-40 flying above my head. I think it might have been my lavender shampoo. They wouldn't go away so I started running, but the just flew with me. I ran almost the entire trail and once I got out, they were still there. Jake caught up (I think he wanted to enjoy the trail, but the bugs were driving me insane.) He helped kill the bugs flying around my head. And then decided to go on another, shorter trail. It lead to a dead end, so we had to turn around and come back. Some bugs followed me on that trail as well, but not as many.
By that point we were both hot and sweaty and done with the bugs. So we headed to the air-conditioned nature center. They had pretty rocks which we looked at and a cool bee colony. We searched for the queen bee, but couldn't find her so we moved on to the gift shop. After thoroughly examining everything in the small gift shop, we moved on to the "live animal room". We learned about "ant lions" which are these small, tick-like creatures that live in sand and form sand pits. The sign near them said to catch an ant and throw it into one of the sand pits they formed and observe. I then saw an unlucky ant running across the table top... Poor ant. We threw it in and the ant lion gobbled it up. They also had Monarch butterflies. Well caterpillars and cocoons. We learned it takes the caterpillar about 30 minutes to shed it's skin and form the cocoon. How cool! They also had eggs, which were super super tiny. The Cocoons were so pretty we were almost convinced they were fake. They all had this pretty gold around the green cocoon. It looked like they were decorated.
Next, we decided we should probably find some gas for the car. Plus we were hungry. So we used the GPS to find the closest gas station, and were able to fill up BEFORE we ran out of gas. Good thing because the person who saves me when I run out of gas with with me... Then we stopped at Subway and split a pulled pork barbecue sub as well as a meatball sub. The pulled pork was sooooo good.
Then back to the beach. But it was really hot and humid. And crowded. And I didn't want to get my hair wet and Jake didn't want to get his shorts wet because we were headed to a party next. So we didn't stay for long.
We went to my trainer's summer party. It was fun to see riding friends I hadn't seen in so long. We also walked around and got to pet all the horses. Jake really liked the big black mare (girl horse). Except he couldn't accept it was a girl and kept calling it a "him" lol. My first dressage trainer was there and she is a sailor and invited us to go sailing at her summer cottage. We just might have to do that sometime...
Then back home. We stopped at the arcade to use up the tokens from the previous night. We had fun playing skee-ball and other assorted arcade games. By the time we had used up our 20 tokens, we had 97 tickets. I think we drove the lady at the prize counter crazy because we were there for a good 20 minutes deciding what we wanted. We ended up with a gray boxing kangaroo pen, 4 sour patch-like candies, a tootsie roll pop for Jake, and a flower ring for me. We are going to take turns having the kangaroo pen. I told Jake I'd take a picture of it everyday and send it to him. Today's picture was the kangaroo holding up a sign saying he missed Jake but it would only be 24 more days until he got to see him. The note was signed nameless since he doesn't yet have a name. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. Unfortunately Jake won't get to see the picture because the cord for my camera is still missing (no, it didn't magically reappear in the past 20 minutes as I've been writing this blog entry.)
Then some shopping to look for a silver necklace chain. Unfortunately we came back home empty-handed.
Today we got up semi-early, went to Meijer's (okay, or Meijer... apparently I say it wrong) to get bolt cutters since Jake forgot the combination to his bike lock. We freed his bike, packed up, and then headed to Jackson to visit his grandparents. They were absolutely adorable and so, so, so excited to see Jake. We spent some time talking and enjoying delicious berry smoothies his grandma made us. His grandparents are such a cute couple- as he puts it, his grandma is very bull-headed and his grandpa is ornery. They constantly bicker good-naturedly. His grandpa told me I should transfer to Illinois, lol. I wish. He also invited me to go to his Florida condo this winter. haha. Again, I wish. My parents do own a condo in the same complex in Florida, though (how weird is that?! My grandparents used to live there and my parents inherited it when they passed away.) Anyways, his grandparents live right off of a lake and have a pontoon boat, so we spent some time chatting and enjoying the water. Unfortunately, all too soon, it was time to leave. I got to steer the boat back to the dock and I think got bonus points with his grandpa for not crashing, lol.
And now I am once again all alone. And wishing Illinois wasn't so far away. But I do think I have the best non-boyfriend ever. Just saying. Don't get too jealous. I did warn you.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
I'm back!
Okay, sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. Believe me, if I had something to blog about I would! But my life hasn't been all that exciting lately! Well with the exception of this past weekend. That was eventful. My sister and I spent the weekend working at a horse show. Now, this isn't all that exciting. We have been working at horse shows throughout Michigan for the past 3-4 years and we normally work about 6 shows each summer. This show was at a showgrounds we've worked at several times before. Because they were fairly short on staff, I went directly there after my "normal" job on Thursday. Got there around 4 PM and worked until 12:45. Considering we needed to be up by 5:30AM the next day, it was a good thing we worked it out with the show manager to sleep there in the club house. We get the key to the club house and walk in and what do we see? Guess. No really, go ahead and guess.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It was a BAT!!!!! Ahhhh! Luckily we only saw him that once and he stayed out of sight for the rest of the weekend.
I got to deal with some wonderful people as well. One rider, let's call her "Princess" was particularly fun to deal with. Princess grew up with money. Lots of it. I actually had the opportunity to visit her barn a few years ago. Nicest barn I've ever been in. Or seen. We're talking flat screen TVs, granite counters, brass nameplates.... Princess has 2 very nice horses she shows. She also has her groom sleep in the barn at the shows with her horses. Okay, now that you kind of get the picture of this lady (who is probably in her 30's, by the way), let's get to the part related to the show. At dressage shows, we are required to check the tack and equipment of the horses. To save time, we only have to do 1/3 of the horses in each class. We also do this each day and I try not to check the same horses each day. So Princess has 2 horses out of a total of 4 in a certain class. Basically, considering 1 of the 4 will be checked each day, and she has 2 of the horses, one of her horses is going to be checked. Pretty simple math, right? Well apparently not for Princess.
I walk up to her and tell her I am going to do a mandatory bit check. She sighs loudly and proclaims that she finds it very fishy that she gets checked at almost every single show. She thinks there is a conspiracy against her. I explain that we have to check 1/3 of the horses in every class (see math above.) She proclaims that she's "been fed that bleep before." Well you've probably heard it before because it's true!!! And then she complains that I don't have an official nametag and that's a rule. Yes, Princess, it used to be a rule, but it is no longer. Ugh. What she doesn't realize is that if I had the option not to bit check her horse, I wouldn't, just so I didn't have to deal with her. I do feel kind of bad for her though. I don't think I've ever seen her smile or be happy. Just goes to show money can't buy happiness. I'd definitely rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable like she is.
Anyways, I get home Sunday, and I ended up with heat stroke from being out in the weather all day. It's not a fun feeling. And I had 2 huge bottles of powerade and a bottle of water during the day. So be careful out in the heat everyone! Heat stroke is no fun!
Today was a busy day. Met with my mentor from church in the morning and then off to work. After work I stopped by the vet school to meet with a 2nd year student so I could try on her coveralls so I knew what size to order. The smallest size is still pretty big on me, but not unbearably so. Then I stopped by to say hi to one of the deans, two of the secretaries, and check in to make sure they got my most recent transcripts. Luckily everything was all set. Then off to meet this guy who was selling a book shelf on Craig's list. I was kind of nervous because no one could go with me to meet this complete stranger... so I gave my dad all his contact info and told him to come get me if I didn't call him 20 minutes after getting to this guy's apartment. Luckily the guy wasn't a weirdo and I ended up with a super nice book shelf. It's over 6' tall and very solid. And it just fit into my car. And the best part? It was only $15! Yay! Unfortunately there is no way I can move it by myself, so it will remain in my car until Jake comes to visit this weekend. I'm so excited to see him!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It was a BAT!!!!! Ahhhh! Luckily we only saw him that once and he stayed out of sight for the rest of the weekend.
I got to deal with some wonderful people as well. One rider, let's call her "Princess" was particularly fun to deal with. Princess grew up with money. Lots of it. I actually had the opportunity to visit her barn a few years ago. Nicest barn I've ever been in. Or seen. We're talking flat screen TVs, granite counters, brass nameplates.... Princess has 2 very nice horses she shows. She also has her groom sleep in the barn at the shows with her horses. Okay, now that you kind of get the picture of this lady (who is probably in her 30's, by the way), let's get to the part related to the show. At dressage shows, we are required to check the tack and equipment of the horses. To save time, we only have to do 1/3 of the horses in each class. We also do this each day and I try not to check the same horses each day. So Princess has 2 horses out of a total of 4 in a certain class. Basically, considering 1 of the 4 will be checked each day, and she has 2 of the horses, one of her horses is going to be checked. Pretty simple math, right? Well apparently not for Princess.
I walk up to her and tell her I am going to do a mandatory bit check. She sighs loudly and proclaims that she finds it very fishy that she gets checked at almost every single show. She thinks there is a conspiracy against her. I explain that we have to check 1/3 of the horses in every class (see math above.) She proclaims that she's "been fed that bleep before." Well you've probably heard it before because it's true!!! And then she complains that I don't have an official nametag and that's a rule. Yes, Princess, it used to be a rule, but it is no longer. Ugh. What she doesn't realize is that if I had the option not to bit check her horse, I wouldn't, just so I didn't have to deal with her. I do feel kind of bad for her though. I don't think I've ever seen her smile or be happy. Just goes to show money can't buy happiness. I'd definitely rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable like she is.
Anyways, I get home Sunday, and I ended up with heat stroke from being out in the weather all day. It's not a fun feeling. And I had 2 huge bottles of powerade and a bottle of water during the day. So be careful out in the heat everyone! Heat stroke is no fun!
Today was a busy day. Met with my mentor from church in the morning and then off to work. After work I stopped by the vet school to meet with a 2nd year student so I could try on her coveralls so I knew what size to order. The smallest size is still pretty big on me, but not unbearably so. Then I stopped by to say hi to one of the deans, two of the secretaries, and check in to make sure they got my most recent transcripts. Luckily everything was all set. Then off to meet this guy who was selling a book shelf on Craig's list. I was kind of nervous because no one could go with me to meet this complete stranger... so I gave my dad all his contact info and told him to come get me if I didn't call him 20 minutes after getting to this guy's apartment. Luckily the guy wasn't a weirdo and I ended up with a super nice book shelf. It's over 6' tall and very solid. And it just fit into my car. And the best part? It was only $15! Yay! Unfortunately there is no way I can move it by myself, so it will remain in my car until Jake comes to visit this weekend. I'm so excited to see him!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Moving Pros
Sorry for the lack of blog updates. My life has been a whirlwind lately, but nothing exciting enough to blog about. Tuesday Jake and some friends from lab helped move my furniture to my new place and then I helped Jake load up all his stuff onto the truck and take it to his dad's. We had planned on then going to Illinois that night, but packing took a LOT longer than expected. We didn't leave EL until 6PM, meaning we didn't get to his dad's until 8 PM. So, yeah, there was no way we were going to go to Illinois that night. Especially since I had to be to work by noon the next day. His stepmom said, "As a mother, I can't let you guys leave tonight. You both look too exhausted." And she was right. So Jake and his dad ended up leaving the next morning while I headed back to EL.
So between helping our friends Rex & Christine move to Nevada, and (almost) helping Jake move to Illinois, and moving myself, I think I will be awesome at this moving thing by the end of the summer. When I mentioned this to Jake, he asked if that was a good thing. I told him that I was trying to look for the positive or else this whole moving thing really sucks. So he said we are definitely moving pros. :)
After going straight to work Wednesday, I went to my new apartment. Well tried to. Apparently they changed the locks on me. So after lugging a ton (okay, not a literal ton, but it sure felt close to it!) of my stuff up the 2 flights of stairs, I got to carry it all back down to my car so I could go to the office to figure out why I was unable to get into my apartment. After getting my new key, and lugging all of my stuff back up the stairs, I find out all the shelves in my entire apartment are missing. And there are a bunch of tools/random construction supplies in the middle of my apartment. And my cable boxes are missing. Lovely. So back to the office to figure all that out. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, it was a little bit of a stressful day.
My new apartment is a mess. And although almost all the furniture is there, none of the little things you need for daily living are. So I'm basically living in 2 apartments right now. Two apartments that happen to be completely across town from each other. Yeah that's fun. I will be happy when I'm officially all moved in. I hate moving. But I WILL be a moving pro.
So between helping our friends Rex & Christine move to Nevada, and (almost) helping Jake move to Illinois, and moving myself, I think I will be awesome at this moving thing by the end of the summer. When I mentioned this to Jake, he asked if that was a good thing. I told him that I was trying to look for the positive or else this whole moving thing really sucks. So he said we are definitely moving pros. :)
After going straight to work Wednesday, I went to my new apartment. Well tried to. Apparently they changed the locks on me. So after lugging a ton (okay, not a literal ton, but it sure felt close to it!) of my stuff up the 2 flights of stairs, I got to carry it all back down to my car so I could go to the office to figure out why I was unable to get into my apartment. After getting my new key, and lugging all of my stuff back up the stairs, I find out all the shelves in my entire apartment are missing. And there are a bunch of tools/random construction supplies in the middle of my apartment. And my cable boxes are missing. Lovely. So back to the office to figure all that out. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, it was a little bit of a stressful day.
My new apartment is a mess. And although almost all the furniture is there, none of the little things you need for daily living are. So I'm basically living in 2 apartments right now. Two apartments that happen to be completely across town from each other. Yeah that's fun. I will be happy when I'm officially all moved in. I hate moving. But I WILL be a moving pro.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
AOP
It's been a while since I've written... I was busy traveling on a wild west adventure helping some friends move to Nevada. If you haven't already, you should check out the pictures on facebook. It was a pretty awesome trip.
Well my new job is in full force by now. It's so weird to think that just 4 years ago I was sitting listening to the presentation I'm now giving. So far I've really enjoyed most of the students. Yesterday's group in particular was really interactive and I found something in common with every one of the students. Today's group, not so much, but that's okay. I have had some interesting experiences so far though.
During the presentation, the students have "homework" where they have to pick out what WRA, ISS, and IAHs (general education courses) they think they want to take. They have this nice little worksheet where they can fill everything out and bring it to their advisors the next day to help them in enrolling in classes. I had one student, we'll call him "John", who was noticeably distracted during my entire presentation. I don't think he looked at the projector screen once. Come to find out, the following day during his appointment with the advisors, he didn't have a single thing written down on his worksheet. When the advisor asked him why, he said it was just too confusing and he had no idea what to do. The advisor asked John if he had asked me for help (keep in mind, I asked them TWICE if they understood what they were supposed to be doing.) His response? "Well, no..." Ugh!
Then the other day I had another student, "Bill" who came in with a lip ring which he played with during the entire presentation. His only question? "So, if we get married during the semester, can we get out of our housing contract?" Now, I do appreciate the students asking questions. But my presentation was on pre-vet classes. I think when he asked the question we were on the slide covering how to get into vet school. So where that question came from, I have no idea. I can't imagine even contemplating marriage at age 17/18 and I certainly wouldn't have picked him as a guy considering settling down, but I guess that's a lesson in not judging a book by it's cover.
Now off to work a horse show this weekend! Hopefully it won't be too rainy!
Well my new job is in full force by now. It's so weird to think that just 4 years ago I was sitting listening to the presentation I'm now giving. So far I've really enjoyed most of the students. Yesterday's group in particular was really interactive and I found something in common with every one of the students. Today's group, not so much, but that's okay. I have had some interesting experiences so far though.
During the presentation, the students have "homework" where they have to pick out what WRA, ISS, and IAHs (general education courses) they think they want to take. They have this nice little worksheet where they can fill everything out and bring it to their advisors the next day to help them in enrolling in classes. I had one student, we'll call him "John", who was noticeably distracted during my entire presentation. I don't think he looked at the projector screen once. Come to find out, the following day during his appointment with the advisors, he didn't have a single thing written down on his worksheet. When the advisor asked him why, he said it was just too confusing and he had no idea what to do. The advisor asked John if he had asked me for help (keep in mind, I asked them TWICE if they understood what they were supposed to be doing.) His response? "Well, no..." Ugh!
Then the other day I had another student, "Bill" who came in with a lip ring which he played with during the entire presentation. His only question? "So, if we get married during the semester, can we get out of our housing contract?" Now, I do appreciate the students asking questions. But my presentation was on pre-vet classes. I think when he asked the question we were on the slide covering how to get into vet school. So where that question came from, I have no idea. I can't imagine even contemplating marriage at age 17/18 and I certainly wouldn't have picked him as a guy considering settling down, but I guess that's a lesson in not judging a book by it's cover.
Now off to work a horse show this weekend! Hopefully it won't be too rainy!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Wow, I feel like summer is flying by. Wednesday I had an orientation meeting for my new job. I think I'm going to really like it and the people I will be working with! I also was able to get the first few days off, which is great, because it means I get to help some friends move out to Nevada. We'll take about a week driving out there, visiting various places along the way like Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc. All places I haven't been to before, so I'm very excited!
Today was a pretty lazy day, although I did ride Bingo. She was hard to catch again, so I went and spent some time with Oliver, who liked eating Bingo's treats (and it was hard to tell, but I think he lost a shoe again? :( ) Then Bingo finally let me catch her. We rode in the indoor today since the outdoor dressage arena was blown over. Bingo started out really good. She was lazy, but her trot work was nice and calm and she was super soft in the bridle and not bearing down on the reins. So I'm thrilled with the trot work, so I give her a walk break, then trot a little more and then ask for a canter... and all hell breaks loose, lol. I guess the relaxed attitude didn't translate to the canter work. We worked through it a bit, but for some reason her canter work was a little worse than usual today. We did go back and do some trot work, and it was AWESOME! I did a lot of sitting trot and we did 10m circles and shoulder-in and leg yields and she was great! I'd definitely say her trot work was solid 1st level today. She was even on both sides and not leaning and I finally got nice leg yields all the way from centerline to the wall without her putting her head in the air or fussing at all. Such a good girl!
Next week is going to be crazy. Cedar Point on Monday I think, then lots of errands/last minute stuff to do on Tuesday, then back home Wednesday for Kelsey's graduation, back to EL and then off to Kalamazoo so we can leave for our road trip bright and early Thursday morning. Yikes! I see lots of fun in my future though :)
Today was a pretty lazy day, although I did ride Bingo. She was hard to catch again, so I went and spent some time with Oliver, who liked eating Bingo's treats (and it was hard to tell, but I think he lost a shoe again? :( ) Then Bingo finally let me catch her. We rode in the indoor today since the outdoor dressage arena was blown over. Bingo started out really good. She was lazy, but her trot work was nice and calm and she was super soft in the bridle and not bearing down on the reins. So I'm thrilled with the trot work, so I give her a walk break, then trot a little more and then ask for a canter... and all hell breaks loose, lol. I guess the relaxed attitude didn't translate to the canter work. We worked through it a bit, but for some reason her canter work was a little worse than usual today. We did go back and do some trot work, and it was AWESOME! I did a lot of sitting trot and we did 10m circles and shoulder-in and leg yields and she was great! I'd definitely say her trot work was solid 1st level today. She was even on both sides and not leaning and I finally got nice leg yields all the way from centerline to the wall without her putting her head in the air or fussing at all. Such a good girl!
Next week is going to be crazy. Cedar Point on Monday I think, then lots of errands/last minute stuff to do on Tuesday, then back home Wednesday for Kelsey's graduation, back to EL and then off to Kalamazoo so we can leave for our road trip bright and early Thursday morning. Yikes! I see lots of fun in my future though :)
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Pony Update
Just a quick horse update...
Went out this afternoon to catch Bingo, but someone turned her out without her halter... she quickly ate the treats I had in my hand and then galloped away so I couldn't catch her. Ugh! So I tried to catch her for a while, but she was being really stubborn, so I decided to go visit Oliver. He enjoyed the rest of Bingo's treats. (And he had both shoes on, YAY!) Then went back to try to catch Bingo, and she let me catch her finally!
I decided we both needed a break from arena work, so I took her out to the cross country field with a couple of the other girls. It was incredibly windy today, but Bingo was pretty good for the most part. We had a little bit of an issue with bending/steering (but that could be because I was riding in her jumping saddle and I'm not the most comfortable in jumping saddles,) and she really didn't want to get close to the water (but there were some BIG horses running through the water, so I don't really blame her.) We did have some AWESOME canter work though! We had perfect transitions (although I think that's because cantering was her idea... now to make it her idea every time I want her to canter...) And surprisingly, her canter was very adjustable even though we were out in a huge field.
Went out this afternoon to catch Bingo, but someone turned her out without her halter... she quickly ate the treats I had in my hand and then galloped away so I couldn't catch her. Ugh! So I tried to catch her for a while, but she was being really stubborn, so I decided to go visit Oliver. He enjoyed the rest of Bingo's treats. (And he had both shoes on, YAY!) Then went back to try to catch Bingo, and she let me catch her finally!
I decided we both needed a break from arena work, so I took her out to the cross country field with a couple of the other girls. It was incredibly windy today, but Bingo was pretty good for the most part. We had a little bit of an issue with bending/steering (but that could be because I was riding in her jumping saddle and I'm not the most comfortable in jumping saddles,) and she really didn't want to get close to the water (but there were some BIG horses running through the water, so I don't really blame her.) We did have some AWESOME canter work though! We had perfect transitions (although I think that's because cantering was her idea... now to make it her idea every time I want her to canter...) And surprisingly, her canter was very adjustable even though we were out in a huge field.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Memorial Day Weekend
I had a very fun-filled weekend. It started out kind of slow, with not much going on Saturday. I tried to ride but couldn't catch Bingo, so that didn't happen. Jake and I did make a yummy dinner though! We had Hawaiian barbecue chicken and this potato, broccoli, and sausage dish that we learned from someone who we met while grilling a while back.
Sunday started out with a great service at church. We had a visiting minister from Africa give the sermon. Afterwards, we were served ethnic food from Africa which was really yummy while we were able to stop at all these booths to see how we could help minister to those in Africa. Jake and I ended up sponsoring a child in Kenya. His name is Benard and he's adorable. I'll have to post a picture of him later. We get to write to him and send him pictures and he'll write back to us about 3 times/year. As far as sponsoring goes, it will ensure he is able to go to school and has clothes and is able to learn about Christianity at his school.
Afterwards, we headed out to the west coast to go to various marinas and look at boats. Despite the stormy weather, it was a lot of fun.
Here's a cool wooden sailboat we found.
I started out Monday by going riding. Luckily I was able to text someone at the barn and have Bingo left in so that I didn't have to worry about catching her out in the pasture. I decided to try riding her without her martingale, just to see how she'd be. We rode outside in the dressage ring. She was ok. They got some new horses in and one of the new horses was in a pasture by itself and whinnying and they were bringing horses in and out, so it was quite distracting. We didn't canter, but got some nice trot work in the end. Bingo is definitely better with the martingale, but I think I might try riding her without it once a week just to see how she does and hopefully help gradually wean her off of it. After our ride, we rode up to the jump arena again and just kind of walked around while chatting to Ashley and Maddie. Bingo got a bath afterwards since it was so hot out. She was really good and stood while I held her and hosed her off. Then she got to go back out to the pasture, which she was excited about.
The rest of Monday was spent at the pool, where I got an awful sunburn (but only on my back... this might lead to an interesting tan!) Then Jake and I snuck away to set up for his roommate's surprise party. We decorated the whole apartment (well, Jake's other roommate and I did, Jake just kind of stood there) along with the birthday boy's car. He was completely surprised and his girlfriend was so excited to have pulled it off. We spent some time grilling hot dogs and spent the rest of the afternoon playing frisbee (I learned this cool new throw! Although it took me a few hours to get the hang of it, haha) and then playing Nerz.
Overall a very fun weekend!
Sunday started out with a great service at church. We had a visiting minister from Africa give the sermon. Afterwards, we were served ethnic food from Africa which was really yummy while we were able to stop at all these booths to see how we could help minister to those in Africa. Jake and I ended up sponsoring a child in Kenya. His name is Benard and he's adorable. I'll have to post a picture of him later. We get to write to him and send him pictures and he'll write back to us about 3 times/year. As far as sponsoring goes, it will ensure he is able to go to school and has clothes and is able to learn about Christianity at his school.
Afterwards, we headed out to the west coast to go to various marinas and look at boats. Despite the stormy weather, it was a lot of fun.
I started out Monday by going riding. Luckily I was able to text someone at the barn and have Bingo left in so that I didn't have to worry about catching her out in the pasture. I decided to try riding her without her martingale, just to see how she'd be. We rode outside in the dressage ring. She was ok. They got some new horses in and one of the new horses was in a pasture by itself and whinnying and they were bringing horses in and out, so it was quite distracting. We didn't canter, but got some nice trot work in the end. Bingo is definitely better with the martingale, but I think I might try riding her without it once a week just to see how she does and hopefully help gradually wean her off of it. After our ride, we rode up to the jump arena again and just kind of walked around while chatting to Ashley and Maddie. Bingo got a bath afterwards since it was so hot out. She was really good and stood while I held her and hosed her off. Then she got to go back out to the pasture, which she was excited about.
Getting ready to ride.
Trotting out to eat grass afterwards.
So nice and clean and shiny after her bath!
The rest of Monday was spent at the pool, where I got an awful sunburn (but only on my back... this might lead to an interesting tan!) Then Jake and I snuck away to set up for his roommate's surprise party. We decorated the whole apartment (well, Jake's other roommate and I did, Jake just kind of stood there) along with the birthday boy's car. He was completely surprised and his girlfriend was so excited to have pulled it off. We spent some time grilling hot dogs and spent the rest of the afternoon playing frisbee (I learned this cool new throw! Although it took me a few hours to get the hang of it, haha) and then playing Nerz.
Overall a very fun weekend!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Bingo Update
Just a quick Bingo update for her owner, Christine...
We rode out in the dressage arena today. Considering it was COLD (where's summer??? I swear it was like 40 degrees out today!) and windy, Bingo was good. We had a few discussions about bending, especially to the right. I tried something new today where if she's refusing to bend (usually by stopping or backing up) I just sit there and continually ask her to bend. She kind of fussed and raised her head and started backing up, but I just sat there and kept my leg on. When she stopped backing up, my leg came off and I let her stand there and think about it for a moment. Then I put my leg back on, asking her to move forward. If she went forward, great. If instead she started backing up, we just repeated the process. It took a while, but she seemed to get it and we got some great trot work. We worked a little bit on leg yields, which she did with minimal fussing. We also did a little bit of work on turn on the haunches. I'm not sure if she's done those before? But at any rate, she did them, they just weren't entirely pretty. But she understood the general idea of what I was asking for, so that's good. I just wanted to start doing some work getting her to understand she can move her haunches and her shoulders when I ask her to. I think that will help a lot with the bending issue and her trying to evade by dropping her right shoulder. We did a little bit of canter, but it wasn't the best today. We ended with some nice stretching trot and then to cool out, we went for a walk up to the upper jump ring. She was great, even though we were up there all by ourselves.
I checked on Oliver too today and gave him some treats. He was so funny. As I'm walking towards him, he decides to lay down and then while he's laying down, he's munching away on the grass in front of him. It was so cute! He lost his shoe again :( But James knows and is taking care of it (Christine has an awesome boyfriend!) Luckily, Caitlin found one of his shoes today too. But we're not sure if it's the shoe he lost most recently because it looks a little different from the one shoe he still has on. Oliver also ripped his blanket last night :( He must have been having fun with his buddies!
And quick edit: Today (Saturday) I went to ride Bingo in the morning, but she wouldn't let me catch her :( We tried everything from treats, to grain, to haltering her buddy and trying to take him out to see if she would follow. Nothing worked, so after about 30 minutes we gave up. If I ever decide to ride her in the morning again, I think I'm going to text Caitlin to have her kept in, since apparently Bingo doesn't think she should have to come in so soon after being turned out, lol. Caitlin also found another one of Oliver's shoes, though, so that's good news!
We rode out in the dressage arena today. Considering it was COLD (where's summer??? I swear it was like 40 degrees out today!) and windy, Bingo was good. We had a few discussions about bending, especially to the right. I tried something new today where if she's refusing to bend (usually by stopping or backing up) I just sit there and continually ask her to bend. She kind of fussed and raised her head and started backing up, but I just sat there and kept my leg on. When she stopped backing up, my leg came off and I let her stand there and think about it for a moment. Then I put my leg back on, asking her to move forward. If she went forward, great. If instead she started backing up, we just repeated the process. It took a while, but she seemed to get it and we got some great trot work. We worked a little bit on leg yields, which she did with minimal fussing. We also did a little bit of work on turn on the haunches. I'm not sure if she's done those before? But at any rate, she did them, they just weren't entirely pretty. But she understood the general idea of what I was asking for, so that's good. I just wanted to start doing some work getting her to understand she can move her haunches and her shoulders when I ask her to. I think that will help a lot with the bending issue and her trying to evade by dropping her right shoulder. We did a little bit of canter, but it wasn't the best today. We ended with some nice stretching trot and then to cool out, we went for a walk up to the upper jump ring. She was great, even though we were up there all by ourselves.
I checked on Oliver too today and gave him some treats. He was so funny. As I'm walking towards him, he decides to lay down and then while he's laying down, he's munching away on the grass in front of him. It was so cute! He lost his shoe again :( But James knows and is taking care of it (Christine has an awesome boyfriend!) Luckily, Caitlin found one of his shoes today too. But we're not sure if it's the shoe he lost most recently because it looks a little different from the one shoe he still has on. Oliver also ripped his blanket last night :( He must have been having fun with his buddies!
And quick edit: Today (Saturday) I went to ride Bingo in the morning, but she wouldn't let me catch her :( We tried everything from treats, to grain, to haltering her buddy and trying to take him out to see if she would follow. Nothing worked, so after about 30 minutes we gave up. If I ever decide to ride her in the morning again, I think I'm going to text Caitlin to have her kept in, since apparently Bingo doesn't think she should have to come in so soon after being turned out, lol. Caitlin also found another one of Oliver's shoes, though, so that's good news!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Getting Connected
It's been an eventful last few days. I decided I don't want to live where I'm living now for next year, so I spent some time shopping around and finding a new apartment. Everything ended up falling into place perfectly, and we'll be subleasing an apartment from a couple of med students for a month, and then just staying in the same apartment for the following year. It's perfect. The only unperfect part is that I move in just after Jake moves out. It will be a little strange living there at first I think because I'm so used to seeing him whenever I go there.
Rode Bingo yesterday too. It was raining, so the horses were inside. As I was walking around on Bingo, I saw Brutus's old owner, Ashley, so I sat and talked to her for about 15 minutes. Bingo was surprisingly calm and stood the entire time. I think it upset her a little, though, because afterwards she went a little crazy. She kind of started rearing/bucking and generally being uncooperative. There were also dogs running around barking, which she didn't really like, and we spent a lot of time trying to remain calm and relaxed and forward but not running around like crazy. Oh well, I guess 2 good rides in a row is a lot to ask for. Maddie said she took Bingo for a hack outside Tuesday too, so that might have gotten her a little hyped up. I'm sure with her not getting to go outside because of the rain and me making her stand while I talked to Ashley was just too much for her. Lesson learned. We did get some good trot work in the end though.
Anyways, in talking with Brutus's old owner, she said she had some old photos/videos of him and we should get together sometime to watch them together. I think that would be a lot of fun. She also offered to let me ride some of her horses if I want, which was nice of her.
Today I went to the vet school to get my picture taken. Another fellow student was there at the same time, so it was nice to get to know someone from my class. I commented to Linda, the person in charge of scheduling our photos, that I was going to visit one of my friends in the hospital after the pictures. She knew the person I was visiting, and so had me wait while she wrote her a card for me to take. She then introduced me to Dr. Abood, who apparently already knew of me from my AOP job and from Brutus's death. It's neat to get to know more people from the vet school so that it doesn't seem so scary and unfamiliar and will hopefully make the transition easier.
Ended the day stopping by home because it was my sister's senior prom today. Ahhh! Senior prom?! She's my baby sister! She's not supposed to be going to prom!!! Crazy how time flies. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and it was fun helping her get dressed and doing her nails for her. I just can't believe that was me 4 years ago! It seems like college flew by!
Rode Bingo yesterday too. It was raining, so the horses were inside. As I was walking around on Bingo, I saw Brutus's old owner, Ashley, so I sat and talked to her for about 15 minutes. Bingo was surprisingly calm and stood the entire time. I think it upset her a little, though, because afterwards she went a little crazy. She kind of started rearing/bucking and generally being uncooperative. There were also dogs running around barking, which she didn't really like, and we spent a lot of time trying to remain calm and relaxed and forward but not running around like crazy. Oh well, I guess 2 good rides in a row is a lot to ask for. Maddie said she took Bingo for a hack outside Tuesday too, so that might have gotten her a little hyped up. I'm sure with her not getting to go outside because of the rain and me making her stand while I talked to Ashley was just too much for her. Lesson learned. We did get some good trot work in the end though.
Anyways, in talking with Brutus's old owner, she said she had some old photos/videos of him and we should get together sometime to watch them together. I think that would be a lot of fun. She also offered to let me ride some of her horses if I want, which was nice of her.
Today I went to the vet school to get my picture taken. Another fellow student was there at the same time, so it was nice to get to know someone from my class. I commented to Linda, the person in charge of scheduling our photos, that I was going to visit one of my friends in the hospital after the pictures. She knew the person I was visiting, and so had me wait while she wrote her a card for me to take. She then introduced me to Dr. Abood, who apparently already knew of me from my AOP job and from Brutus's death. It's neat to get to know more people from the vet school so that it doesn't seem so scary and unfamiliar and will hopefully make the transition easier.
Ended the day stopping by home because it was my sister's senior prom today. Ahhh! Senior prom?! She's my baby sister! She's not supposed to be going to prom!!! Crazy how time flies. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and it was fun helping her get dressed and doing her nails for her. I just can't believe that was me 4 years ago! It seems like college flew by!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Summer Retreat?
Well this past weekend I was house and dog sitting. I was told the dog was quite skittish and since they were having their roof redone, I was expected to stay there the majority of the time to make sure she was ok. No problem, I thought. I'll just make this into my own mini-retreat. So I packed up a few books I've been meaning to read along with my Bible and headed over there Saturday morning. Unfortunately, between my lack of sleep the night before and the loud roofers, I didn't accomplish much. I ended up taking a nap, catching up on missed episodes of Grey's, and watching TV. By the time I felt awake enough to start doing some work, it was raining outside, which was terribly disappointing because there was this beautiful, English-style garden I really wanted to read in. Oh, well, I figured I'd leave the retreat for Sunday.
Now, sleeping in strange houses all by myself really freaks me out. I mean, sleeping in my own apartment by myself is scary enough. Somehow, in my sleep-deprived mind, I got to thinking. I believe we all have our time when we're called back home to be with God. Whether we die by a disease, accident, or old age, I believe it is our time to go. But what about if you're murdered? Are you really being called home? Or are you forced to leave before your time? Now, I believe God is able to use all events to fulfill his greater plan, so this confused me a bit. After talking to Jake, we decided you can be forced to leave before it is your time, but God can still use the horrible event to fulfill his greater purpose. Great. But not exactly comforting as I'm sleeping alone in this strange place.
Well, fortunately I did survive the night. After a great sermon Sunday morning about the similiarities/differences between Christianity and Hindium, I felt ready to try to tackle this retreat thing. So I set up a chair in the gardens, got all my books together, grabbed a notebook and pen, and got started. I did have a fairly productive half an hour or so until the beauty around me distracted me. I just had to grab my camera and take some pictures of the beautiful flowers. Ok, now time to focus. Oh wait, there's a flower I didn't notice the first time around. A few pictures later and the dog decided she wanted to go inside. Ok, get her inside and make sure she has plenty of water. Sit back down. Roofer guys decide to move from the front of the house where they have been working to the back, near where I'm sitting. Perfect. As if I wasn't already having a hard enough time concentrating. However, after another hour or so, I'm done with a chapter in each of the 2 workbooks I've been working through. Phew. Time for a break.
This retreat stuff is harder than it sounds. I'm a pretty introverted person, and normally don't mind spending some time alone each day. In fact, I'm a much more pleasant person to be around when I've had my "quiet time" for the day. However, even I was starting to feel isolated and in need of some human interaction. Luckily, Jake came to the rescue and after a game of Ultimate frisbee, I was feeling much better. I met some new people, got a great workout, and had a fun time.
Today, I was extremely productive. Woke up by 6:30 to feed the dog, and after a quick shower, I packed up all of my stuff, made homemade french toast (YUM!), worked a little bit on Bible study stuff, cleaned up the house, dealt with some vet school stuff, and checked my email, all before the owners got back at noon. Then off to the barn to ride Bingo.
It was a very windy day, so windy in fact that the small dressage arena outside has blown over. So we headed to the arena next to it and did some quick trotting and cantering around. Bingo was very excited because not only was it super windy, her friends were all whinnying to her. But she was a good girl and didn't whinny back. We did have some issues with popping her right shoulder, but overall it went well. She was getting more and more excited in this wide open space, though, especially with her friends trying to say "hi" every few minutes, so we headed over to the dressage arena. She wasn't spooky at all, even with the blown over arena. She didn't want to bend to the right, so we had a bit of a discussion about that, and afterwards I got a couple of strides of awesome, awesome canter work. The best I've felt on her so far. So I decided to be done with that. As I'm walking her around, cooling her out, it suddenly starts POURING. Seriously, it was a down pour. And it came out of nowhere. But she didn't even flinch. Good girl! Since it was raining, she got hosed off in the indoor wash rack. She did great, with minimal dancing around. However, as I was sweat-scraping her (getting off all the excess water, for those of you who are non-horsey), she backed away and into a broom. She freaked out, broke one of her cross ties, and then stood there shaking. I felt so bad for her. So I took her out, and back to the normal cross ties to settle down while I put her stuff away. Then I got lots of treats and had her go back into the wash rack and she got lots of treats while she just stood there. Hopefully she won't be scared to go back in next time.
Oh, and here's some photos from my (Almost) Summer Retreat this weekend.
Now, sleeping in strange houses all by myself really freaks me out. I mean, sleeping in my own apartment by myself is scary enough. Somehow, in my sleep-deprived mind, I got to thinking. I believe we all have our time when we're called back home to be with God. Whether we die by a disease, accident, or old age, I believe it is our time to go. But what about if you're murdered? Are you really being called home? Or are you forced to leave before your time? Now, I believe God is able to use all events to fulfill his greater plan, so this confused me a bit. After talking to Jake, we decided you can be forced to leave before it is your time, but God can still use the horrible event to fulfill his greater purpose. Great. But not exactly comforting as I'm sleeping alone in this strange place.
Well, fortunately I did survive the night. After a great sermon Sunday morning about the similiarities/differences between Christianity and Hindium, I felt ready to try to tackle this retreat thing. So I set up a chair in the gardens, got all my books together, grabbed a notebook and pen, and got started. I did have a fairly productive half an hour or so until the beauty around me distracted me. I just had to grab my camera and take some pictures of the beautiful flowers. Ok, now time to focus. Oh wait, there's a flower I didn't notice the first time around. A few pictures later and the dog decided she wanted to go inside. Ok, get her inside and make sure she has plenty of water. Sit back down. Roofer guys decide to move from the front of the house where they have been working to the back, near where I'm sitting. Perfect. As if I wasn't already having a hard enough time concentrating. However, after another hour or so, I'm done with a chapter in each of the 2 workbooks I've been working through. Phew. Time for a break.
This retreat stuff is harder than it sounds. I'm a pretty introverted person, and normally don't mind spending some time alone each day. In fact, I'm a much more pleasant person to be around when I've had my "quiet time" for the day. However, even I was starting to feel isolated and in need of some human interaction. Luckily, Jake came to the rescue and after a game of Ultimate frisbee, I was feeling much better. I met some new people, got a great workout, and had a fun time.
Today, I was extremely productive. Woke up by 6:30 to feed the dog, and after a quick shower, I packed up all of my stuff, made homemade french toast (YUM!), worked a little bit on Bible study stuff, cleaned up the house, dealt with some vet school stuff, and checked my email, all before the owners got back at noon. Then off to the barn to ride Bingo.
It was a very windy day, so windy in fact that the small dressage arena outside has blown over. So we headed to the arena next to it and did some quick trotting and cantering around. Bingo was very excited because not only was it super windy, her friends were all whinnying to her. But she was a good girl and didn't whinny back. We did have some issues with popping her right shoulder, but overall it went well. She was getting more and more excited in this wide open space, though, especially with her friends trying to say "hi" every few minutes, so we headed over to the dressage arena. She wasn't spooky at all, even with the blown over arena. She didn't want to bend to the right, so we had a bit of a discussion about that, and afterwards I got a couple of strides of awesome, awesome canter work. The best I've felt on her so far. So I decided to be done with that. As I'm walking her around, cooling her out, it suddenly starts POURING. Seriously, it was a down pour. And it came out of nowhere. But she didn't even flinch. Good girl! Since it was raining, she got hosed off in the indoor wash rack. She did great, with minimal dancing around. However, as I was sweat-scraping her (getting off all the excess water, for those of you who are non-horsey), she backed away and into a broom. She freaked out, broke one of her cross ties, and then stood there shaking. I felt so bad for her. So I took her out, and back to the normal cross ties to settle down while I put her stuff away. Then I got lots of treats and had her go back into the wash rack and she got lots of treats while she just stood there. Hopefully she won't be scared to go back in next time.
Oh, and here's some photos from my (Almost) Summer Retreat this weekend.
The flowers on this plant were in the shape of hearts! How cool!!!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Busy Busy Busy!
Well it's been a crazy past few days!
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent working at the Copper Creek horse show. Friday was scorching hot and a lot of the work done was manual labor, so by Saturday I was extremely sore. Not a promising start to the weekend. However, despite the yucky weather and long days, it was actually enjoyable to be at a horse show again. I would have preferred to be showing, but luckily I was kept very busy so I didn't have time to think about Brutus. I showed him at Copper Creek quite a few times last year, so there were lots of memories with him at the showgrounds. I remember showing him there 3 or 4 years ago back when we were doing 1st level. He was a naughty pony back then. Then last year we made our 3rd level recognized debut there. We also scored our 1st ever "10" (well our only 10!) We qualified for regionals at 3rd level, had our first show season where I wasn't scared of him for even a second, and won every single class we entered at Copper Creek last year. I was hoping to make our PSG debut there this spring. Man I miss that horse.
Anyways, Saturday night after the show, Jake and I went to a party of a friend of a friend. We watched Tangled which I have wanted to see for a while now and played Nerz. The movie was really cute, especially since it had a horse, Maximus! While super fun, the late night didn't make the 5AM wake-up easy the following day. Sunday night was spent with more friends, Rex and Christine. While Christine's Chicken Tortilla soup was delicious, I have to say the best part of the night was sitting in front of the fire at Grand Traverse Pie Co. eating pie, chatting, and getting strange looks from the other customers. And I learned that apparently my love life involves my future husband riding a horse to my apartment to profess his love for me. Hey, who could complain about that?!
After working 36 hours in 3 days, along with hanging out with friends late 2 of the nights, most of Monday was spent sleeping. I slept in until 1 PM! I don't ever recall sleeping in that late! But it was really nice to have a relaxing day after the busy weekend. Today's been spent cleaning, since that was something that desperately needed to be done after this past weekend as well. Something about horse shows makes my apartment and car look like a tornado just passed through.
I went to ride Bingo, my friend Christine's horse, again this morning. She's adorable and while a little naughty today, nothing too bad considering it was cold and we rode outside. Christine leaves for Ghana this Friday, so for 1 month, I'll get to ride Bingo pretty much as often as I have time for. I'm looking forward to it! She's a fun little mare.
In vet school news, we got information on how to get our ID card to access the vet school building. I also need to go get my picture taken for the vet school and order a lab coat. Fun stuff! This vet school thing is getting closer!
Sorry this post has been a bit jumbled, but I kind of feel that's how my life is right now. Lots of little pieces that somehow come together to make up my life. I think this is probably because I'm a little lost right now. No longer in undergrad, but not yet starting vet school.
As one last random piece of information, I've been working through "Discipleship Essentials" with my mentor from Church, Kerri. This week's lesson dealt with "Being a disciple." The author states, "Being a disciple is one who responds in faith and obedience to the gracious call to follow Jesus Christ. Being a disciple is a lifelong process of dying to self while allowing Jesus Christ to come alive in us." Along with the memory verse for the week, Luke 9:23-24, ("Then He said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.'") this made me realize this journey is going to take a while (ok, a lifetime!) and requires me to make an effort every single day to deny my selfish desires and ask God to show me what he has in mind for me. After all, He knows me better than I know myself, so I'm sure whatever he has in store for me is better than I could imagine (1 Cor 2:9!)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent working at the Copper Creek horse show. Friday was scorching hot and a lot of the work done was manual labor, so by Saturday I was extremely sore. Not a promising start to the weekend. However, despite the yucky weather and long days, it was actually enjoyable to be at a horse show again. I would have preferred to be showing, but luckily I was kept very busy so I didn't have time to think about Brutus. I showed him at Copper Creek quite a few times last year, so there were lots of memories with him at the showgrounds. I remember showing him there 3 or 4 years ago back when we were doing 1st level. He was a naughty pony back then. Then last year we made our 3rd level recognized debut there. We also scored our 1st ever "10" (well our only 10!) We qualified for regionals at 3rd level, had our first show season where I wasn't scared of him for even a second, and won every single class we entered at Copper Creek last year. I was hoping to make our PSG debut there this spring. Man I miss that horse.
Anyways, Saturday night after the show, Jake and I went to a party of a friend of a friend. We watched Tangled which I have wanted to see for a while now and played Nerz. The movie was really cute, especially since it had a horse, Maximus! While super fun, the late night didn't make the 5AM wake-up easy the following day. Sunday night was spent with more friends, Rex and Christine. While Christine's Chicken Tortilla soup was delicious, I have to say the best part of the night was sitting in front of the fire at Grand Traverse Pie Co. eating pie, chatting, and getting strange looks from the other customers. And I learned that apparently my love life involves my future husband riding a horse to my apartment to profess his love for me. Hey, who could complain about that?!
After working 36 hours in 3 days, along with hanging out with friends late 2 of the nights, most of Monday was spent sleeping. I slept in until 1 PM! I don't ever recall sleeping in that late! But it was really nice to have a relaxing day after the busy weekend. Today's been spent cleaning, since that was something that desperately needed to be done after this past weekend as well. Something about horse shows makes my apartment and car look like a tornado just passed through.
I went to ride Bingo, my friend Christine's horse, again this morning. She's adorable and while a little naughty today, nothing too bad considering it was cold and we rode outside. Christine leaves for Ghana this Friday, so for 1 month, I'll get to ride Bingo pretty much as often as I have time for. I'm looking forward to it! She's a fun little mare.
In vet school news, we got information on how to get our ID card to access the vet school building. I also need to go get my picture taken for the vet school and order a lab coat. Fun stuff! This vet school thing is getting closer!
Sorry this post has been a bit jumbled, but I kind of feel that's how my life is right now. Lots of little pieces that somehow come together to make up my life. I think this is probably because I'm a little lost right now. No longer in undergrad, but not yet starting vet school.
As one last random piece of information, I've been working through "Discipleship Essentials" with my mentor from Church, Kerri. This week's lesson dealt with "Being a disciple." The author states, "Being a disciple is one who responds in faith and obedience to the gracious call to follow Jesus Christ. Being a disciple is a lifelong process of dying to self while allowing Jesus Christ to come alive in us." Along with the memory verse for the week, Luke 9:23-24, ("Then He said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.'") this made me realize this journey is going to take a while (ok, a lifetime!) and requires me to make an effort every single day to deny my selfish desires and ask God to show me what he has in mind for me. After all, He knows me better than I know myself, so I'm sure whatever he has in store for me is better than I could imagine (1 Cor 2:9!)
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Summer Goal: Enjoy Life
So yesterday I had an interview on campus for a job with the vet school, talking to incoming freshmen about the pre-vet program at MSU. Campus was eerily quiet. I arrived early, so I sat on a bench outside, enjoying the warm weather and scenery. There were beautiful flowers everywhere and they smelled amazing. I couldn't help but think I better enjoy this peace and quiet now, because once vet school starts I bet I won't have a spare second.
The interview went well. One of the questions was, "Many incoming freshmen don't understand why they have to take general requirements. What would your response to them be?" I answered, "Well I was one of them 4 years ago..." I did end up adding a little bit more to my response and luckily both interviewers laughed! I guess I didn't mess up the interview too badly though, because today I was offered the job! :)
I'll be talking to freshmen at AOPs this summer about MSU and preparing for vet school. I'm so excited! I think it will be a great opportunity for me to meet more professors/staff at the vet school and overall transition to vet school life. I think it will be good for me, too, since I tend to be more of a reserved person. I'll be forced to be open with these incoming students. I can't wait to talk to them about all the reasons I love MSU and hopefully help them transition to college life!
Well, off to the barn for me now. My friend Christine has generously allowed me to ride her pony a little bit this summer!
The interview went well. One of the questions was, "Many incoming freshmen don't understand why they have to take general requirements. What would your response to them be?" I answered, "Well I was one of them 4 years ago..." I did end up adding a little bit more to my response and luckily both interviewers laughed! I guess I didn't mess up the interview too badly though, because today I was offered the job! :)
I'll be talking to freshmen at AOPs this summer about MSU and preparing for vet school. I'm so excited! I think it will be a great opportunity for me to meet more professors/staff at the vet school and overall transition to vet school life. I think it will be good for me, too, since I tend to be more of a reserved person. I'll be forced to be open with these incoming students. I can't wait to talk to them about all the reasons I love MSU and hopefully help them transition to college life!
Well, off to the barn for me now. My friend Christine has generously allowed me to ride her pony a little bit this summer!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
When one door closes, another opens...
... or so I hope. Graduation was Saturday. I still can't believe it's over. An entire chapter of my life has come to a close. Next year will be strange, since I'll be staying at MSU for Vet school, while a lot of my friends move away to start the next chapter of their lives. So many memories on campus...
I still remember the day I moved in Freshman year!
And walking on the frozen Red Cedar.
Ice skating at Munn.
Moving into my 1st apartment. And then my 2nd.
All those late nights studying (or procrastinating) in Chem.
Racing the rolly-chairs in 136 instead of studying.
Seeing if an orange would bounce (ok, you're right, Jake!)
Thai kitchen with lab-mates.
Dressage game days. (Raspberry Mango Juice!!!) And clinics.
Playing frisbee in the middle of the night.
Sleepovers in friends' dorms.
Taking a self-defense class with my roommate freshman year. It was in the study lounge and we had to scream whenever we punched the dummy. Haha. We got all sorts of looks.
Hot tub nights.
Dressage club nationals 2010. Squid with her blankey. Grilling. Winning the game day, even if it meant being attacked by George in order to win.
Pre-ride stretches with Carrie.
Building a snowman with my roommate and hearing a little girl get so excited about it once we had gone inside.
Grey's nights. Which of course included manicures.
MSU IDA shows 2009, 2010, and 2011. So much work, but everyone pulled together to get it done. So proud of my girls!
Building a snowman out of mashed potatoes and veggies on a cafeteria tray. (Sorry dish people!)
Making a christmas chain for our dorm room freshman year. But we didn't have colored paper, so we drew all over the chain links instead.
Raising chickens for an ANS class. And then killing them. :( And eating them.
Dressage club scavenger hunt. And the bus driver who refused to take a picture with us.
So many memories. It will be odd to walk around campus next year and not be with the people who were with me when those memoreis were made. I'm grateful for my time here and the wonderful people I've met along the way. Many of you have impacted me greatly. I've found so many great friends these past 4 years, and am worried about not having the same solid friendships develop during vet school. I definitely need to continue to be open and trust the Lord will provide me with great friends to share my life with.
So, I guess I'll leave you some lyrics from one of my favorite songs (lyrics I need to remember!):
I still remember the day I moved in Freshman year!
And walking on the frozen Red Cedar.
Ice skating at Munn.
Moving into my 1st apartment. And then my 2nd.
All those late nights studying (or procrastinating) in Chem.
Racing the rolly-chairs in 136 instead of studying.
Seeing if an orange would bounce (ok, you're right, Jake!)
Thai kitchen with lab-mates.
Dressage game days. (Raspberry Mango Juice!!!) And clinics.
Playing frisbee in the middle of the night.
Sleepovers in friends' dorms.
Taking a self-defense class with my roommate freshman year. It was in the study lounge and we had to scream whenever we punched the dummy. Haha. We got all sorts of looks.
Hot tub nights.
Dressage club nationals 2010. Squid with her blankey. Grilling. Winning the game day, even if it meant being attacked by George in order to win.
Pre-ride stretches with Carrie.
Building a snowman with my roommate and hearing a little girl get so excited about it once we had gone inside.
Grey's nights. Which of course included manicures.
MSU IDA shows 2009, 2010, and 2011. So much work, but everyone pulled together to get it done. So proud of my girls!
Building a snowman out of mashed potatoes and veggies on a cafeteria tray. (Sorry dish people!)
Making a christmas chain for our dorm room freshman year. But we didn't have colored paper, so we drew all over the chain links instead.
Raising chickens for an ANS class. And then killing them. :( And eating them.
Dressage club scavenger hunt. And the bus driver who refused to take a picture with us.
So many memories. It will be odd to walk around campus next year and not be with the people who were with me when those memoreis were made. I'm grateful for my time here and the wonderful people I've met along the way. Many of you have impacted me greatly. I've found so many great friends these past 4 years, and am worried about not having the same solid friendships develop during vet school. I definitely need to continue to be open and trust the Lord will provide me with great friends to share my life with.
So, I guess I'll leave you some lyrics from one of my favorite songs (lyrics I need to remember!):
Be strong in the Lord and,
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
...Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray,
These are the words I would say.
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
...Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray,
These are the words I would say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)