Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving

Howdy!
Well this Thanksgiving Break was very busy, but amazing! I had a great time with family and catching up with friends. :)

Here is my family on Thanksgiving. I made them take a picture because we haven't had a family photo together for a while. It took sometime to get a good picture b/c Mom either closed her eyes or Jeff and Dad wouldn't smile.

I love my family- they are a great blessing in my life.


Friday I got to go Black Friday Shopping for the second year with Jill! It was a fun adventure because this year we went shopping down in Tucson. I got lots of good stuff, mostly from Kohls. I would have pictures but its all kinda down in the valley. Although here is a picture of me in my new hat (I'm a hat girl. :) ) and Jill looking at the ads.


I got lots of new clothes- exciting news was none of them were XL, yay!! :) I also was able to get some cute stuff for my Christmas collection. I decided after seeing Jill's amazing Christmas collections that I was going to start my own. I have started collecting western ornaments for a western tree in my future apartment/house (when I'm on my own) and western Santas. I got the cutest Cowboy Santa at Hobby Lobby. Yay!

Saturday I was able to get some new jeans- 3 in total with 2 being Wranglers totaling a whole $27 bucks! Heck ya! Then I took photos for my photography portfolio and hung out with my buddies Cole and Cameron. It was a blast.

Sunday I finally got to relax and enjoy watching the movie "Fred Claus" with my family.

This weekend went way too fast, but I technically only have like six days of actual classes left so I'll be home soon, and this time for a month. :)

Sorry for the short update, but I got get going on studies and my portfolio.

Keep Hanging On!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Hobbies (Crafts) and Update

Howdy Folks!

Well for this blog post I wanted to share a quick update and also my latest hobbies/crafty/artistic side. :)

Things are going better each day since surgery. Today marks two weeks since the surgery. Tuesday I was finally able to take off the bandages. They are healing well except the one where my Jackson Pratt Drain was. There's still a hole and it hurts. Also my skin is very ripped up and irritated from the tape of the bandages. Hopefully it will be back to normal soon. Here's a picture of after I took off the bandages (it's not gross):

As you can see nothing too bad. I doubt I'll even be able to tell I have scars.


Now for better things to talk about!!!

Ever since I was little I always liked doing art and craft projects. I remember I was enrolled in an after school craft class in elementary. Well in junior high and high school I really wasn't able to be as crafty because of being busy with sports or marching band.

My main two hobbies are: Photography and Scrapbooking. Well after today I was able to add a third! I now know how to Cross Stitch! Yes I know it's not hard, but still. Today I was telling my roomie that I was sick of watching movies and wanted to do something. I still have to take it easy so I can't hike, work out, etc like I want so I'm kinda limited on activities. I told her I wish I had my scrapbook stuff b/c I could of finished so many pages. Well she came out and showed me her talent of cross stitching/embroidery. She said it was very easy, fun, and best of all-cheap! So the two of us went to Joann's and picked me up a couple patterns.

I decided that since I already made a calendar for each of my parents with my photo work (more about that in a bit) that I would cross stitch a towel/table cloth type thing for my grandma. Tonight I was able to finish the first corner. I worked on it from 4:30 this afternoon to about 11:30pm. -Yeah, I know I don't have a life. Here's what the first corner looks like:

You can't really tell from the picture but its a raccoon- he's gray and black with blue eyes. :)

Personally, I think he turned out pretty cute.

Now as for my other two hobbies, this past year I've really been able to work on them and get better. Over the summer is when I really worked on my scrapbooking. I discovered new ways to make the pages more exciting by using ribbon, cut outs, jewels and other things. Before I just used stickers and the pictures. I think my pages are now more fun to look at. My biggest project is my PBR Scrapbook. Here are a few pages from it:



As for my Photography, I've improved immensely I think. I owe that to my photography class and photography professor. This semester I decided to have a fun class and I always love taking pictures so I figured photography was the way to go. I love this class! I have learned so much to improve my photography. I've discovered that my strongest point is scenics. Here are some of my favorites that I took this semester:






I can't wait for the Winter Break so I can go shopping at Hobby Lobby and get more stuff to expand my hobbies. I want a relaxing break where I can just enjoy myself and what I like to do, and scrapbooking, photography, and cross stitching will be included in that.

I wonder what else I can learn to do?!

I hope you enjoyed this post- it was a little different for a change. :)

Keep Holding On!






Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sorry For The Hold Up!

Howdy Folks!
Sorry for the hold up, and not updating for a very, very, long time! Then again, I don't think anyone really reads this. But oh well.

Quick Update:

This past summer I was busy working two jobs. In the mornings from about 6am til about 11:30 am I worked at the Holiday Hound House (Dog Kennel). I love that place. There's just something about dogs that can really make your day. The best day was when we had a family of 10, yes I said 10, Mastiffs!!! Omg, I was in love!! My other job was back at Client Focus from 1pm til 7pm. It was really long, tiring, and back with a boss that seemed to hate my guts. Though I did get to meet some neat new people that made me stay sane.

I'm back at NAU. I swear, will I ever graduate? Actually...if everything plays out right, meaning I pass all my classes and get the classes I need, I should graduate a year from this Dec! Woohoo!! Yes I know I am way beyond all my friends, but slow and steady still wins the race. Plus with the economy right now, I'm not in the biggest rush. Plus, I'll still have another year til I'll probably have a job at a Zoo. I wanted to get my certification as a Vet Asst. after graduation. I found an amazing program that I can do from home and they set you up with a job right afterwards. I figured this will add an extra twist to my resume.

Just recently I had to have my first ever surgery and it was to get my gallbladder removed. For the past months have had the worst attacks late at night. I would wake up with my chest hurting so it was hard to breath, my back and shoulders killed, and my stomach felt like it was expanding and going to explode! At first we thought it was because of a medication that I was switched on, but then it happened again one night after I got my old meds back. Two nights later I went to the ER because I still hurt from the recent attack.

The Flagstaff hospital really is amazing. I went into the ER at about 10:30pm and was in a room at 11pm. I had great nurses and the ER doctor was nice. We took an ultra sound and we saw a couple stones. The following day I was set up for a more detailed ultra sound to look at my gallbladder and then a meeting with the surgeon on Tuesday.

My Dad came up Monday night so he could go with me to meet the surgeon. My surgeon was Dr. Huang and he was really nice! He seemed very experience and was really great about answering all my questions. He said it was best to get my gallbladder out because I'm young and healthy. We met with his nurse Tony and my surgery was set up for that Friday!

Thursday night my Mom came up so she could be here with me and take care of me afterwards. The surgery was out patient so I was able to be home Friday afternoon. Surprisingly, I was actually pretty calm the night before and the morning of the surgery. And this is ME we are talking about!! Of course that all changed once we got to the hospital. But I had amazing nurses that helped to prep me and then Dr. Huang, the anesthesiologist, and head nurse that were going to be in the OR came to see me and told me everything that would happen and answered questions.

My surgery was right on time at 11:30am, all I remember was going in, getting on the table and then they put a mask on me and I heard "We'll see you after the surgery.." and then next thing I know I was waking up to hearing "You're in recovery." "Marie this Dr. Huang, your surgery was a success and I gave your mom some stones." - I asked him if I could keep a couple of them. Haha.

Some of my stones- this is only 1/20th of what was inside me!

I guess I was out by 12:30pm which was really quick. The recovery nurses were great specially nice I was in a lot more pain then I expected to be in. I did good and I was out of the hospital at about 2:30-3pm.

Last weekend it was all just laying down, trying to walk and then a little more distance each day, and emptying my Jackson Pratt Drain. Yeah I had a drain in me that collected fluids that I had to monitor. I had it removed this past Tuesday and I will say right now I do not recommend nor do I ever want to go through that again. My body when into immediate shock. There was like 2 feet of tubing inside of me and when he was pulling it out I swear it felt like all my organs were moving. I wasn't laying down, but sitting up and had no meds to num it.

My bandages and Jackson Pratt Drain

I've been doing well. I kinda did too much this week and my body wasn't scared to tell me. I never knew that it would take so much time and it would hurt so much. But I'm getting better each day. I'm so grateful for everyone that helped me through this and who continue to help support me through this. Tuesday I get to take my bandages off which will be nice cause the tape is driving me nuts.

Other then that not much else is going on with me. Just recovering. Oh and Kody Lostroh won the PBR 2009 World Champ!!! I'm so happy and proud of him!! He's amazing and totally deserved it this year. :)

Kody and I in 2008. He was so nice that he hopped the fence so I could get a picture with him!

Thanks for reading, and keep holding on!