Thursday, July 31, 2008

From way back in September.

I've been trying to post this picture for awhile now and the computer wouldn't let me. So I finally got it up today. These are pictures from our trip to Maine. This one was taken at a gas station where we stopped to fill up and get directions. The water came right up to the road. There was water everywhere. And the houses looked really old and the towns were very quaint. It was beautiful. It'd be nice to go there in the summer, but I don't think I'd like it in the winter very much. But it's a beautiful place!These were taken on the ride home. I think they're somewhere in New York or Pennsylvania. If it was taken in Pennsylvania it was somewhere near Scranton. A place that lives in infamy now. :)
The drive to Maine is a pretty one, but a long one. We made the trip back in September and it's now July. Well, August first is tomorrow so it's almost August. In an hour and 32 minutes it will be August. You get the idea. And like I said, I haven't been able to load them up since then. Or since January when I started this blog. But now you can see what I saw.
Okay, now I'm really going to bed.

I made all this stuff and posted it in my esty shop awhile ago.

But I never posted any pictures of it on here. I finished all this stuff right before I left for Texas.I haven't posted a picture for the last 3 posts and my blog is looking kinda drab. Plus, it's to show I have been doing some sewing, even if it was just a tiny bit!

End of the work week!

Today was better. This morning I was feeling rather discouraged at work, but after lunch we got back on schedule and stayed on schedule. And the office manager was a lot easier to approach and ask questions today. Some people may have a hard time believing this, but I do try to keep the number of questions to a minimum. She was able to show me how to make up lab cases and I just feel like I was able to keep on top of things a little bit better. And best of all, it's Thursday and I have the next 3 days off! Yay! I honestly don't know what I'd do if I had to work 5 days a week like a normal person. If I had been at this office for awhile, it probably wouldn't be a big deal, but when I'm someplace new, I just can't wait for that time off! I'm totally spoiled rotten. 3 day weekends are a big part of my 'strongly considering' dental hygiene school because a lot of the offices around here are only open 4 days a week. I don't know if it's like that everywhere, but I do know you get most holidays and evenings and weekends off whereas if you become a nurse you have to work evenings, weekends, and rotate on holidays.

So I'm not so sure if I'll get a chance to work on all those projects this weekend, which is a bummer because I'd really like to get something finished before my friend goes back to school. :( Hopefully I'll figure something out! My idea shouldn't be too complicated, and if I can make it work I'll take some pics and post them up here.

I have an orthodontist appointment tomorrow and while I enjoy everyone over at that office, I'm anticipating a very sore mouth, which I don't enjoy. Braces are a trial, let me tell you.

I had a great talk with Pam tonight. I called her up because after being at this office for a week, I am really homesick for my old office. And so is Pam from what she said. She was laid off almost 3 weeks ago and is now working with the doctor we both worked with together at Dr. B's office. I really miss working with them. I know I would get frustrated after a long day or sometimes I wouldn't have the best attitude, but honestly, there was one point in my job where I just LOVED being there. I enjoyed the work, the patients, the doctors, my co-workers...and now I'm beginning to think that it was maybe a blessing that I was let go when I was. I was the first to go, but so far 2 others have been let go, one hygienist who is part-time is not allowed to increase her hours, and quite a few people there are worried that they won't have a job pretty soon. I'm glad I don't have to watch that. I hope I'm not breaking some kind of law by saying all this here. Anyway, it's weird, because I never saw any of this coming, and neither did anyone else. I hope they can pull out of this slump. Dr. B really just needs another associate to come in and that would help so much! I think once school starts I may stop in to see Pam and Dr. H at their office and see how they're doing. I'd like to see them both again!

Okay, I need to go work out and take a shower because I have to be out the door by 8:45 to make it to my appointment on time. Here's to a busy day tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Day...something

So this is day something...3 maybe... of 'eating healthy(er)' (ignore my misspelling there. :P). Do I feel better? Not noticeably. Do I look thinner. Not noticeably. Do I weigh less? No idea. I won't use the scale unless I can tell I've really lost weight. If not, I generally get very depressed and have to go take a nap or eat chocolate (which really helps when you have gained weight, right? wrong?) or something. I'm not off sugar completely. I'm trying to be very careful about measuring portions and counting carbs and adding veggies and fruit into my diet. I have cut most wheat products out of my diet. Even my cheerios have been replaced with gluten-free cereal which is very $$$. Well, not super expensive, but more expensive than regular cereals.
Even though I haven't noticed a big difference, I am still hoping to continue eating healthier by eating fresh fruits and vegetables, less sugar, and as little gluten as I can possibly manage. After all, it's only been about 3 days.

Work is...stressing me out. I haven't really been trained on where things are and the materials used at this office and on the procedures we do, so if I can't find something I have to go bother our office manager. She can work the front and back and seems to know pretty much everything about the office. The only problem is, I'm a tad worried that I'm annoying her. I know that she is doing a lot of work and that it's easy to lose your place if you are interrupted, so I try not to bother her if at all possible, but sometimes I just have to ask her a question and then I feel like I'm really interrupting her from something important. It's frustrating. And there is still so much about the place I need to know. Grrr....I hate these transition periods! I'm sorry, I mean I strongly dislike these transition periods!

I have a bunch of ideas for projects I'd like to work on. Maybe this weekend I'll make a dent in some of them. Hopefully! But for now, I should probably go take a walk on the treadmill. Until later then. :)

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Time to try again???

Lately, I have been really tired. I mean REALLY tired. I could probably take a nap during the day and go to bed early and get up at 9 in the morning and still complain that I'm tired. So I'm doing what I know helps. Taking vitamins. I stopped taking them back in the spring when I was trying the MMS and I've only been taking them sporadically. So I'm going to start taking them regularly. Another thing I've been having trouble with is stomach pains. I think I need to try being gluten free again. My last attempt lasted what? A week? Hopefully this attempt will be lasting. I know that my body has an antibody response whether I notice it or not, and I would probably be doing myself a favor to start learning how to live with a gluten allergy. I can't work and go to school and be this tired. The world doesn't need a sleepy driver. Plus, I feel like right now I just don't have the energy to do things I enjoy or want to do. I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining. I'm just trying to find a way to be healthy. And who knows? Maybe I'll learn to cook through the whole process. I guess I can cook, but I want to cook healthy foods. I think I may try to follow a protocol for a diabetic diet too because I really want to drop a few (okay, a lot of) pounds and try to control my blood sugar and stuff. Better to do it while I'm younger I guess. Right? So there may be some blog posts about this if I am able to do it. If anyone wants to look at a gluten-free help site check out

http://www.celiac.com/
.

So far every website I've checked for diabetic diets recommends that you talk to a nutritionist. I don't have one, but I have a nutrition course so maybe this will help to motivate me to finish it!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Just one more picture...


It was so sunny today and I had on sunglasses, so I didn't really get a chance to actually see my pictures until I had loaded them onto the computer. I just took as many as I could and figured I'd see what I got once I got home. After going back and looking at them, I think this is one of my favorites. If you click on it you can see it a little better.

On the Burnside Bridge.

My brother and sister.This is their "hey! Act like I'm not actually standing back here taking your picture, guys'' pose.
This is their silly pose. Actually they look like this all the time. Okay, not really.
Adam showing his dominance by giving Holly a 'noogie'.
They love each other. :) Aww!
I told them to smile nicely and they did.

A visit to Antietam Battlefield

Why are battlefields such peaceful places? The ones I've been to are kept up beautifully and are so quiet. I can't imagine the awful things that happened there when it's so peaceful like it was today.I took a whole bunch of pictures. Over a 100 actually, but I'm only posting 10 here.
This was one of many statues. A whole bunch of the statues are obylisks. I'm know I didn't spell that right so sorry about that. Anyway, I heard that the obylisk is a masonic symbol. So I'm wondering if maybe we took a low plane ride over the battlefield we might notice some kind of pattern made up by the statues and find a National Treasure??? Don't worry, I'm just kidding. :P
This was the Poffinberger farm.
It was kinda hot outside, but breezy. It was such a beautiful day!
I think Mom and Dad pulled off on the side of the road so I could take this one. They did that for me a lot actually. :)
I think that if I ever do move away from here, I will miss seeing the mountains.
Dad asked me to take this one.
This was on the way to see the Burnside Bridge. I have other pictures from that and I'll post them later!
I think this was on the way back from the bridge.
And this was the last one I took. I figured I ought to get a picture of one of the many cannons that were in the park.

I bet if we went back in the fall it would be really pretty!

Happy Birthday Holly!

Holly turned 14 on Monday. She requested Oreo pies for her birthday instead of a cake. The little deviant!But they were good so no one minded.
Here she is snuffing out her candles with her fingers. I was never able to do that. She is hardcore (that's my new favorite word, ha ha)!

Happy Birthday Holly! I hope this new year is amazing!

Monday, July 21, 2008

New World Son

This CD is really good. I usually take awhile to really warm up to a band or CD, but I liked this one immediately and so did my siblings. I think they are new. They have a different sound which I what I think made me like them. They're not really pop-y or hard rock. And they're not country or rap either. They're more blues-y rockish. I liked them. We heard the CD at Bible study last week when Tim played it for us. If you check out Jacqueline's blog you can see what the result was!

I better go, we're getting ready to celebrate Holly's 14th!

A new American citizen!

Who knew that Hallmark actually sells cards on becoming a citizen? You learn something new every day! Congrats Sarah! We're so happy for you! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you.
Jacqueline made a yummy cake using a recipe found from Pioneer Woman's blog.
It was a hit with everyone!

July 18th, Adam's birthday.

Here is a picture of the cookie cake with cookie dough ice cream that we froze. It was REALLY hard. It was also really good. :) This picture is really bad!"So I'm 18 today...not a kid anymore." Don't worry, it just gets better from here out, Adam! Take it from a 19 year old. :)
Isn't he cute?
Matt and Tasha Landry were down from Ohio visiting Matt and Jacqueline. They came over to have cake with us. It was great seeing them again. It's nice knowing too that if we ever make it to Ohio, we already know people there! They are a neat couple. :)
Becky and Andy came down too with Jonathan. They were showing their house. We are hoping and praying that God will bring them (and us for our house too) the perfect buyers for their house. I'm sure it will be a great relief for them to not have to worry about the house down here.

(Credit goes to Holly because this is her picture, not mine. Mine was not as good as this one so she kindly agreed to let me use this one here!)
We ended up playing dutch blitz till what? 10:00? Maybe later. Our Matt is very good at this game. He whipped us on the first round. On the second round we divided into teams with a guy and a girl on each team and the girls would play each other on one round and the guys would play each other on the other round. Andy and I were on a team and we won! I don't win often. I think I generally play games because someone has to be the loser and it's usually me. It was nice to win for once.

It was a really nice weekend. I didn't get any pictures of Aunt Liz's visit, but we enjoyed seeing her and Kola (her Shiba Inu [it's a dog]). It's nice to have at least one aunt nearby after having them all so far away for most of our lives. I only wish we could visit with her more.

What technology does to a family.

In one corner we have Adam and Holly with their guitars (at least one is electric). In the other corner we have Mom and Dad on the macs. I don't have a computer or a guitar so I just take pictures.For some reason, this reminds me of the line in the song from Napoleon Dynamite right at the end where Kip is singing to LaFawnduh. That line that goes "Yes, I love technology..."
I seriously need a photography course! The quality of these pictures is awful! :)

Tea party with my sisters

When you are younger you take your family for granted. Yes, I know this is the kind of thing your parents tell you and you immediately dismiss from your memory, but at least in my situation, it's true. When you get a little bit older you realize that your siblings can be some of the closest friends you will ever have. I mean, you've lived together for so long and have been mean and friendly, sad and scared together, asked for forgiveness and forgiven each other...you definitely have a strong bond.

I am grateful for my sisters. They are lovely girls and I'm proud to be related to them. As mentioned in the paragraph above, we've had our moments where we haven't gotten along, but I'm grateful that we have been able to get through those times and still be close.Holly hadn't been to Shaharazades before so Jacqueline and I took her there in honor of her birthday. Her birthday is actually today but we took her there a couple of weeks ago.
I can't believe how much she has grown up. She is 14 now. Adam is 18...I feel so old. It's weird!
I liked our tea cups!
If you order the tea service they bring you a tray with sandwiches (and if you're lucky their Indian pizza...I'm sure that's not what it's called, but I'm not sure what else to call it. It's definitely not Pizza Hut.), scones, cookies and quiche. It's a very pretty set up. They also bring you a pot of tea of your choosing. They have so many different teas to choose from. I think you practically need a course on teas to know what you're ordering!
I love being with my sisters. I hope we always stay close even though we're getting older. Lives change. People move and get married and have kids, start school, etc., and their worlds are changed forever. I hope that if our relationships change though, it is only because they are getting stronger.

I love you guys!

Happy Birthday Mom~

I know this all happened back on June 30th, but I didn't get a chance to really blog about it till now. So lets go back in time 3 weeks to my Mom's birthday. :) Here she is. 50 years young. :) She does look young doesn't she? I hope I look as good as my mom when I'm 50. There she is with her candy cake that Dad came up with and I put together.

My mom is one of the most important people in my life. She is has basically spent her whole married life taking care of her family. She's not just my mom, she's my friend. And my psychologist, ha ha. I say that because I'm always going to her to get advice or to think things through. She's a pretty amazing person!

I love you, Mom!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Happy Birthday Adam!

Where has the time gone? Adam turned 18 today. It seems so weird that now 3 of us are "adults." Holly will be 14 on Monday. Somehow, I sometimes find myself shocked that we are getting older. That probably sounds funny, but I'm going to be 20 this year and Jacqueline just turned 22. Everyone is starting to move out of that kid/teenager age. I guess it's exciting. It's different from what I'm used to. I think I like being an "adult" better than being a minor. I get to drive. :) I hope Adam has a great year and enjoys his new age.

Today Matt and Tasha Landry came down from Ohio to visit Matt and Jacqueline. Becky and Andy also came down to show their house and they are all staying down here overnight. It's nice to have people down here with us.  We played 2 games of dutch blitz where we split into teams and switched off on different rounds and that was fun. We ate a super-frozen home-made chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake in honor of Adam's 18th. All in all, it's been a really nice day.

I finished my first full week at my new job. By day three I was starting to enjoy myself! I think that maybe I missed being an assistant.  Hmm...whodavthunkit? Ha ha! I'm still considering doing dental hygiene if my neck can take it (thank God for chiropractic!), even though scraping teeth isn't my favorite thing in the world. Flipping burgers probably wouldn't be my favorite thing in the world either but our economy isn't stable and cleaning teeth pays a whole lot more than I would probably make starting off at another job and for only 2 years of schooling too. I just am thinking maybe it would be wise to not completely rule it out. I wouldn't want to work in WV though. I'm sorry, but our teeth stereotypes are just too true in too many situations. Don't take this the wrong way, because there are lots of people here with great teeth. But then you also have a pretty fair group that have calculus out the wazoo and it's just nasty trying to clean them out. I'd try to go somewhere where the teeth are generally a little bit cleaner. :D It's still something I'm mulling over.

Well, anyway, I have pictures from tonight and this weekend is just beginning! Aunt Liz is supposed to come down tomorrow and then on Sunday we are heading over to John and Sarah's to attend a citizenship party! Our dear friend Sarah was sworn in today after a lengthy, tedious process and we feel that it calls for a celebration! Hopefully I will have a post put together soon. And I also have pictures from Mom's birthday that I'd like to put up soon. I got a little behind when I went to Texas, but I have this week off work (my new doctor is going out of town for a week so I have off!) so I should have plenty of time to catch up!

Good night. :)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Day 3 at the new job...

I actually enjoyed myself today.  It was much smoother.  I think it helped that Dana was there and I really like the podiatrist that was working in the other end of the office.  He was a sweet old guy.  The other podiatrist was nice too, but had a filthy mouth.  :(  All in all, I feel like I'm finally starting to figure out what I need to do for most of the procedures.  We've done more crown preps and inserts in 3 days than I probably assisted with in 3 months at the old office.  
I am looking forward to the weekend tomorrow though.  Holly and Adam are having birthdays on Friday and Monday, we have a citizenship party to go to on Sunday!!! And Matt and Tasha are supposed to come down one of those days and Aunt Liz is coming down too on Saturday.  I think sometime next week a few of us may go bowling too for Adam and Holly's birthdays.  I have next week off because my doctor will be on vacation, so luckily I will be able to join in the festivities!

You know what else I'm looking forward to?  My chiropractor appointment tomorrow.  My back hurts!  Okay, I'm done whining. 

That's all for now. :)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

New job woes...

Yes, I've only been there 2 days and woe is me. I feel SO slow! Everyone has been very kind to me and I like them all. No one has made me feel bad. It is more of a personal thing I guess. I can't stand being new and not knowing what I'm doing and slowing people down. Now when I've been someplace for a while and someone new has come on and needed help it never bothered me at all to stop what I was doing and help them, even if it did slow me down a bit and I'd be there late. Probably because I know how awful it feels to be the newest person in a place. I'm very lucky that my new doctor and co-workers are patient folks who have been great these past couple of days. Maybe in a few weeks I'll look back at this post and breathe a sigh of relief because I'll be more comfortable there. Or at least, I hope so!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bye bye Texas! (Alternate title would just be "Cloud Post")

I didn't take any pictures of the airport. And I didn't take any pictures of the ride to or from the airports. Just of clouds...
And with just a little changing of the light I think this same picture goes from looking a little like snow to looking a little like a desert. Or just a cloud. I don't know. What do you think?

When we first took off, the light was just beautiful. Everything was misty and golden. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to turn my camera on just then. But even if I had taken a picture of what I saw, I'm sure it wouldn't do the scene justice. You would have had to be there.


You get a totally different view of clouds when you are looking down on them instead of up at them. I think I kind of prefer looking down on them, but at the same time, I prefer being on the ground too. So I guess if I take pictures then I can enjoy the view from down here. :)

God's creation is just amazing. Even something as simple as water up in the sky just makes me appreciate the artistry of our Creator. And it's an ever changing work of art.
So I'm sorry that this post is just a bunch of pictures of clouds, but somehow when I see things like this or the ocean or the mountains or just some beautiful landscape I am reminded that God created all of this and turned it over to us to subdue and explore and it is just amazing to me.
It's not a view I get to see every day. Not at this angle anyway. :)

Day 6 in Texas~ Monday

Monday...our last full day in Texas. I wasn't feeling so well so I didn't take as many pictures and I wish I had. This was a photo taken at yet another Texas shop in the Barton Springs mall. We had already been there once before to watch fireworks, but we hadn't gone inside it. We saw a tee shirt that was really funny and I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was a shirt with how to talk in Texas. There were all sorts of symbols on the shirt and under each symbol was it's translation. One symbol was of Texas and underneath it said 'Heaven.' One was of California and it said 'Hell'. One was of a cowboy hat and it said 'Toupe.' One was a rattlesnake and it said 'stew' or 'dinner' or something. There were cowboy boots and it said 'formal wear.' But the one I thought was the funniest was the one of a neck tie and it said '???' under it. It was cute. You'd probably have to see it to know what I'm talking about. For some reason I'm a little bit foggy as to what we did the rest of the afternoon. We got a late start that morning and didn't end up leaving the mall until around 2 pm. We went to some guitar shops so Adam could look around and Cheryl and I looked at some thrift shops and ended up in a new age bookstore. We didn't know it was one at first but all that was in there pretty much were books on zen and taoism and yoga stuff (I really enjoy yoga, but I don't get into all the fluffy stuff). And it smelled so strongly of incense that Cheryl claimed she could still smell it on her clothes later that day. It was kinda funny. After we figured it out we decided there wasn't anything very interesting in there and left. We got home and had lunch and chilled for a bit and then we packed up to head for the Radisson hotel. Cheryl was teaching a class there and we were going to hang out at the Highland mall for awhile while she was teaching and then maybe listen to some of her class. Before we got there though we stopped at the office Cheryl works at so she could print some papers off before class. She has a very nice office.
Here name is even on the door!
We made it to the Radisson a little bit early and helped Cheryl set up and then Adam and I left for the Highland mall. I remembered to take a picture this time, just so you guys can see what we saw. The Forever 21 was not as good as the last time I was there, Jacqueline. There was a kinda cool shop with stuff from India and I got a wrap skirt there. They had a lot of neat stuff in there, but as with any India store, it had some new age-y stuff going on that I don't care for. And Adam stopped downstairs at one of those booths to get Frozbertis embroidered on his hat. It looks very nice.
When we had shopped till we were ready to drop (I was pretty tired that day for some reason and was ready to just hang out for awhile), we walked back to the Radisson and I waited in their lobby/living room and read The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's an Agatha Christie book. I saw the movie when Andy and Becky lent it to us and I was impressed at how closely the movie follows the book. They are almost exactly the same which I thought was pretty cool.
Adam had a little more energy and watched Cheryl teach for awhile. I understand she did an excellent job! We had a late lunch that day so we stopped and picked up dinner on the way home which was close to 10 pm. We got back to Cheryl's house and we started packing for the next day. Yes, I do procrastinate. :) Then we had dinner and put Cars on for awhile. I went to bed around midnight, and Adam and Cheryl stayed up a little later than that to finish watching Cars which I heard was really good! I'll have to check it out sometime though because I was too tired to finish it. Becca tells me that this is because I have lyme disease...Jacqueline says so too. I say it might be, or it might also be that I knew we had to get up at 4:30 am to get to the airport for our flight that left at 6:45 am!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Day 5~ Sunday

Bannockburn Baptist Church. We went there for church that morning. They have a pretty campus there. The pastor taught out of Philippians chapter 4:6-14 (I am pretty sure on that). It was about how God commands us not to be anxious and to cast our cares upon him. Also to be careful about what we put into our minds. A good message for 2 people who hate flying! It was a good message for people who actually like flying too. :)And we stopped by the Capitol. I got a few shots that I liked.


If you stand inside in the center of the room and look up, this is what you see. The domed ceiling.
Apparently they ran out of space upstairs in the capitol so they built underneath it. There are a couple of levels underneath the building that are fairly new. It's nice down there. This is the courtyard that sits below ground level and opens up to the grounds above.
There is a gift shop underground there too where you could find stuff like this:
You sure don't see stuff like this in West Virginia.

I told Cheryl this magnetic sticker was for her. She told me she was not hardcore Texan. Uh huh...okay...sure. :)
Here's something else you don't see in WV. Like I said, there are lonestars and texas shapes everywhere. May sound totally unpatriotic of me, but I don't even know what the WV symbols look like. Do we have any? I'm not native to WV anyway, so hopefully it doesn't really make a difference that I don't know what they are. :) I've been to Charleston, but never up to the capitol building so I don't know how well they have it decorated, but I still bet it isn't quite like what you see in Austin.
So after we left the capitol we got lunch and then we went bowling. I haven't (or hadn't) bowled since I was what? 8? It's been a long time.
Adam won the first 2 games. I forgot to mention that the last time I played (11 or 12 years ago?) we had the ramps out on the sides of the bowling lane so you couldn't actually get a gutter ball. We didn't use that this time. And there was this ramp thing you could just put the bowling ball on and push it and if you position it right, you could get a strike. I'm pretty sure it was only meant for little kids so we didn't use it this time either. It was hard. I dropped the bowling ball behind me one time when I tried to roll it. That was kinda embarrassing. And funny. We all got a laugh out of it.
Cheryl did very well and came in 2nd all three times. She gave me some pointers on how not to roll the ball. I kept rolling it sideways and getting gutter balls.
Then a miraculous thing happened and I got a strike. It took 3 games but it finally happened. I somehow won that game. My first scores were really low so it came as a surprise that I eventually started hitting more pins.
We have plans for another game next time we all see each other again. If anyone wants to get in on the fun, let us know! The more the merrier!
And I couldn't stop without saying a word about this place. It's the best grocery store ever. I guess it's kind of like a giant health food store that isn't super expensive. You can find a lot of healthier foods here. I love this place. I don't know if other people get excited about grocery stores, but this one is definitely worth paying a visit. It makes me happy. :) We stopped and rented some TV shows and ate our Delta Blues ice cream that night. Delta Blues is a blueberry pie ice cream. It was really good. I wish I took a picture of it. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back next year and get a picture of it. That sounds like a good plan to me.