Holidays

This holiday season was a very difficult one for myself and my family. This was our very first Christmas without our grandpa, who we always had dinner and dessert and spent the majority of the day with him and our grandma. It was also the very first time I had been in the house since his death. We all made it through the day okay and had a good dinner prepared by my grandma.

The day after Christmas we lost our oldest dog, Snitch a black lab, who was a very loving and calm dog. This was the first time we had an animal die at home. It was a difficult day for everybody and it certainly was not fun to have to go to work, especially when working in customer service and having to put on a happy face. Our Siberian Husky, Demon is starting to get back to his normal attitude, as he was with Snitch all the time. He has since decided that he is an inside dog and that he must sleep inside the house. Not too big of a deal, right? Well, he likes to howl at 2:30 in the morning, which makes for a very long day after being up with him all night. My hope is that he will start to sleep all through the night before I go back to school on the 18th.

College Life

I have decided that high school is much easier! I have found out that college is MUCH different. I find that all of the major assignments due in each course are due on the same week. I have two mid-term exams that I need to prepare for and the very much dreaded task of speeches will start very soon. UGH! I think I now know why people procrastinate! Everything is put aside when I have a grinning dog that wants kisses when I walk in the door (Demon, of course!) :). I think the main reason why he gives me that big smile is because he knows he has done something wrong (for example, he has tried to eat the cats through the sliding glass door and is continually taking branches of the tree....and no they don't need a hair cut, Demon!). Oh and those "conversations" he has with me! He has become very vocal and tells me all about his mornings, although I think he leaves out the bad stuff on purpose!

Holding On

The past two weeks have been testing me, both through school and personally. I think I am getting a hang of college and starting to know what each professor wants from me, although sometimes I'm not so sure. I am doing well in all of my classes, which is a plus :). Last week I had my first math exam and received a 95% (only missing one question). This week I had a history exam and my studies class had the first exam. I was more concerned about memorizing all of the vocabulary words for history, however, I think I did really well. I also had to compare and contrast Mesopotamia and Egypt. I already have 10 extra bonus points I will get on my exam for 1. attending class every week and receiving a "code word" and 2. working in class with my group and analyzing Aristotle. For my studies class our exam was based on defining skills, Internal Locus of Control, External Locus of Control, critical thinking, problem solving, rote memorization, motivation, goals, long-term goals, and short-term goals.

I am glad school has been keeping me busy after the death of my grandfather. He died on 9/11/10, which is already a weird day remembering what you were doing on 9/11/01. We knew it was coming after his diagnosis of kidney failure and many hospital stays, but death isn't easy. The funeral was difficult and seeing the flag given to my uncle made it all the more real. It was weird to have our aunt and her family as well as my uncle and his family around without my grandpa and without it being a holiday and people are out on the streets acting like it's just a normal day when inside of you it is anything but ordinary. It's difficult to me because just last year my great-grandmother died. My grandpa was only 77 years old. It makes you wonder why some people are blessed with a long life and some are not.

 My next English paper I will be writing is about a favorite photograph and I have decided to write one of me with my grandpa. I know this will be a good thing for me because it will help me to remember all of the memorable things that I and my family did with him. 

Calvin Gets a Bath

Whitney's cat, Calvin had to be given a bath last weekend because I found him on the trashcan covered in mud. Not exactly what Jordann, Mom, and I wanted to be doing on a Saturday morning! Surprisingly he wasn't as bad as we initially thought, but he still held up a fight. He smelled like dog shampoo for about a week, as we didn't have any cat shampoo on hand. I don't think he really appreciated that!

It is safe to say that he has recovered and that he is up to his normal no good! (He is on top of the bird cage.)

I Want to Help Too!

A picture is worth a thousand words....but this one I'm not really sure where to start! All I know is that Jordann was filling up the holes in the yard with the wheelbarrow when I turned around and found this:

Yes, he knows he is cute and uses it to his advantage! Just like when Mom was trying to get a picture of Whitney and Demon together. The best one I could find is this one:

I don't know what was going on in that head of his at that time, but what we do know is that he seems to think Whitney is quite tasty (notice the tongue)!

My First Week

I am happy to report that I made it through my first week of college without troubles! I am taking five courses this semester: Communications, English, Math, History, and Studies. It is quite a load but I feel confident that I will be able to make it through the semester. I know it's going to be hard, I can already tell! I feel very fortunate that I have all good teachers and I feel like they will be very helpful.

I was a little concerned going into my Communications class but everything has turned out really well and surprisingly I can actually talk for myself and hold conversations! Who ever knew!!!! English and Math are going to start of pretty simple but they are going to get more difficult as the course moves to harder areas. My History class is Western Civilizations the only thing I am concerned about with this class is the amount of reading and then doing the research paper. My Studies class I feel is going to be extremely helpful and I feel like I will get a lot out of this class.

Jordann and Whitney are not too thrilled that I come in and out all day and so this doesn't give them much time to goof off! Megan doesn't start school until September 20 so she gets to see what it's like having to watch them for a full day without mom or me. I think it's a good experience for her! Mom is doing her internship this semester at a harbor school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She is home on Tuesday's and Thursday's. As you can tell, this has put a damper into Jordann and Whitney's parade!

Volunteering

I finished my volunteering at the local hospital for the summer. This was my last year as a Junior Volunteer and I am happy to say that I enjoyed the experience and will be grateful that I had the opportunity to volunteer at a hospital that was a small community hospital.

Some of the things I learned while volunteering was

• Never walk into a patients room asking "How are you"....instead you give them your name and a hello.
• Being a volunteer you sometimes will get the less exciting jobs...i.e. copy work, cleaning waiting rooms, and taking blood samples to the lab.
• Learn how to not have feelings (crazy, I know!). This was one thing that I had to learn and was most difficult for me.
• I came into this experience in 2009 thinking that I had to have a strong stomach. However, one of the things that I learned is that there is nothing scary when you work in physical therapy, medical records, and education. This was a good thing too because there were some days that I didn't feel like I was in the right mind frame to be in the ER.
• My last month, I worked mostly in the ER as the ER greeter. One thing I learned is that many patients and families are going to be sad and angry, depending on how they deal with stress. I learned to deal with people yelling at me and crying at me. I also had to learn how to quickly put on gloves and hold a bag for patients....not exactly the fun times! The hardest part, though, was having to volunteer with the workers in the ER. The hardest part was having to be talked to like you were a toddler. I am so glad that I have my mom's attitude and just let it role off of me!
• You also get to know a lot of fun people who are there, whether as a patient or for a family member. There were so many people that I met and had a few conversations with that left me feeling good about the volunteering that I was doing.