So..what do you think??

Can you guess what kind of weather we are having...AGAIN!

Well, it you can't guess already, it has been snowing here again. By now it has stopped, but this morning it was snowing. For a while it was really big flakes too! I think they were about the size of a dime. Luckily, I had a break at that time this morning and Bailey and I got coffee and sat in the second story of the union just watching it. It was beautiful. Every time it snows here, Ryan and Ihave tried to get good pictures of campus before all the snow was trampled and melted and since I had an 8:00 today, I was able to. Here are some pics I took of that.




Then when I got home, Ryan and I took Raider to the park and lakd next to our house to run around. I was able to take him off his leash since he has been listening prety well to let him chase the birds and frolick in the snow. He did both, but at one point he did a little too much frolicking and not enough looking at the ground. He was chasing the geese(which he never does) and right as he came to a drainage trench that ran into the lake, he wasn't looking I guess. Next thing, he is standing in water up to his belly giving me this pathetic "I don't know what to do" look. It was adorable and hilarious. It was no problem getting him out since I had on my water boots, but we had to go back inside pretty quick so that he wouldn't get sick. For some reason, I didn't think to take many pictures at the park of Raider; not even a pic of him in the water with that face. We are driving out now to take him to another park, so I might have some different pics again later.

Surviving my first round of tests...

Yup that is right, it is the week of the tests for me. Lucky for me, since all my classes are on MWF, they all didn't decide to give tests on the same day! Even though I am not having fun studying for them, it is nice to have one week of tests and then a nice calmer three weeks. Friday I have a mythology test, which I am a little worried about. It is just a humanities though and not a required course for my degree. Biochem on the other hand was Monday. It looks like I am going to be stuck in a rut again this semester like I was last semester with C's on all my tests. I did have one 86 last semester, but this year started off with a 74. I guess I will have to work harder.
Nothing else really great going on. School, work, school, work...etc... As soon as I have better and more excited things to say I will get them up. Until then, I thought it would be fun to leave with an older picture. I found several while I was digging in my closet.

Old times...

Do you guys remember this picture. Even though it is pretty dated now, I still love it! I think the next time we are all together we HAVE to do a retake! Miss you guys!

As I sit eating pineapple....

I figured if I was going to take a break from studying, it might as well be to inform everyone what is going on with us... Work and school are exhausting me and Ryan's classes are wearing him down too. I stay on campus usually from 8:00A until 5:00P Monday and Wednesday. Than I try to cook, clean the dishes and study. Tonight is no different. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have been supervising, so I get to work about noon and stay until eight. On fridays I haev class until noon, then I go to wrok. So, basicly, I feel like I have no free time. Saturday I go to work at 3:00 and then Sunday I am there at 12:00 again. Yuck. I love supervising, but I though working less days would be better for me, but right now it seems so rushed. Do you think stress or just rush? Ryan has been reading a lot lately. His classes are reading intensive and since it hurts his eyes to read from the computer, he has been having to print out a majority of his material. Yesterday he spent half the day just trying to fix his new printer and it still isn't working right.

The squirrel has been taunting the dogs again. This afternoon it was just sitting in our tree making weird noises, while the dogs sat at the window fussing. It can get really annoying when I am studying though. Raider hasn't learned any new tricks. I am still working on getting him to "sing".

The weather is finally warming up and getting comfy....oh but wait....yup...another artic front for us??? Snow???!! Yeah. They are talking about another front this coming week and possibly snow again. I am getting used to driving in it now, so that is good. We didn't get as much snow here last weekend as they were projecting. It was mostly ice and sleet that made everything slushy druing the day and then icy at night. Raider still had fun playing in it.
Time to get back to studying and other school work!

It's rare that you see someone who is truly stupid...

(by Ryan)

Every now and then you see people do something that's dumb, but tonight we saw someone who is just plain stupid. The roads are mostly thawed out, but there are still some icy spots here and there. We were sitting at a red light on the feeder for the loop, and two cars coming through the intersection side by side slid into one another, just kind of rubbed the sides of their cars a bit, not a real major accident or anything. So the guy in the middle lane pulls over to a parking lot that was on the right side of the road, but the guy in the other car decides to just stop in the left lane while traffic is still going through, instead of pulling off the road where it's safe. He sits there for a minute or so, then turns his lights completely OFF (it's completely dark outside so now nobody can see his car sitting there in the middle of the road), gets out of the car, and walks around into the center lane of traffic to look at the damage to his car! We were so tempted to roll the window down and tell him to get off the road or turn his hazard lights on or something. I just didn't know somebody could be so stupid. He did the exact OPPOSITE of everything you're supposed to do when you have a fender bender. I wish I had a video camera for moments like this.

I will post some more pictures tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to get some good pictures of the snow before it statrs to melt. Of course, there is always a chance that I could get more pictures on Monday when we have a chance of snow AGAIN!!! Enjoy the pics for now.
Sorry Mom, I did take some pictures while I was driving extremely slow to work today. This is one that I snapped in my car driving by. It is the Animal Sciences building.


Our large tree...

We have a large tree and then this weird bush/tree in our backyard. So far we have not had any limbs fall from the large tree, luckily, but this bush has pretty much had it I think.



This was taken yesterday from the 6th floor. Since it has been snowing and sleeting off and on now, I am sure it was even more white today, but I did not go up on floors today when I was supervising! :)

This pircture is just really awesome.


This is icicles hanging off of our house. Ryan actually has icicles hanging to the ground off of his car now. It looks like it is frozen to the ground!

We're Okay!

I don't have much time right now to write since I am leaving exceptionally early for work, but I just want you guys to know that we are great so far! We have not fallen on the snow or ice....at least not yet. I HAVE to be at work today, so I am leaving early to get there. If it is really bad then I have a backup plan in case I need help getting to work. Anyhow, We are staying in as much as possible. Love you guys!

We're Okay!

I don't have much time right now to write since I am leaving exceptionally early for work, but I just want you guys to know that we are great so far! We have not fallen on the snow or ice....at least not yet. I HAVE to be at work today, so I am leaving early to get there. If it is really bad then I have a backup plan in case I need help getting to work. Anyhow, We are staying in as much as possible. Love you guys!

Waiting, Waiting and Waiting

Yes, once again this weekend we are expecting more cold!!! Therefore, I am waiting to see if we are going to have school tomorrow. Either way I am not going to me 8:00 since it is so early and liley to be yucky on the roads that early. The news is saying that we could get from 4 to 12 inches of snow, the most they have had here in ten years. This could be interesting! Oh, Ryan and I went to the grocery store to get a couple of things just in case the power goes out and the store was out of EVERYTHING!!! I have never seen something so weird. No bananas, no bread, no tuna, no water, no batteries.....nothing. Luckily we have a lot of stuff here to eat and if worse comes to worse, we figure we can just take some of the food out of the frig and put it on the snow for a while!! hehe Unfortunately, I WILL HAVE to go to work all weekend. They actually are putting their put down and if any employee calls in because of the weather, then they will be written up. As a supervisor now, I can only be written up twice before I am terminated so I will be at work!! :) If I need someone to come get me in a 4WD then all I have to do is call work and they have someone in charge of just that. So, that makes it better. Tomorrow at work I am late tray and then on Saturday and Sunday I am supervising! Woo Hoo!! Lots of hours and more pay! Of course, (Mom you will know what I am talking about) not everyone at work is happy that I am supervising so much. There is one certain person at work that everytime my boss puts out a new schedule out, then she is in a HORRIBLE mood. She claims she is not getting enough hours, when in fact she has 10 hours of overtime this week!!! Grrrr. Anyway, I am going to bed now. I plan on waking up to a snow filled yard taht Raider can prance around in so I need some rest. Night.

Waiting, Waiting and Waiting

Awesome Movie

Ryan and I have watched several movies lately in hopes of seeng a really good one, but have been disappointed. Last night we finally got a great one to watch. You have got to see The Illusionist. It is a movie that is interesting during, but leaves you thinking about it once it is over. Fantastic! I wish that we could find more movies this good.
A funny thing happend just as we were starting the movie however. Star jumped up on Ryan's chest to give him kisses. As soon as she did, there was projectile vomit all over Ryan's chest. It was really gross, but also sooo funny since she has peed on his chest before! The peeing on the chest was when she was a puppy though.
Grey's Anatomy just won a Golden Globe for Best Drama! Wooo Hooo!!! Or should I say "Seriously!"
Oh and I forgot to write on Saturday that my loan money finally came in Saturday. I must have been preoccupied with something else......hmmm.. Anyway, I am super excited now because I get to spend a good chuck of it on five textbooks and one computer programn! (little sarcasm there. I am in that kind of mood tonight)
Ryan is feeling a lot better too. He must have gotten a little bit of whip lash. I have given him three neck rubs plus a back rub just since his fall. Our driveway was mostly melted today, but still slick in places. Tomorrow it should all be gone. Of course, now the forecast is takling about snow on Wednesday possibly. Here are a couple of pics that we took around town Saturday and Sunday.

A recap of our day

-Ryan and I wake up
- De-ice my car for about thirty minutes
-Drive to get new wiper blades
- Ryan drops me off at work
- Get to work, start making fruit plates
- Call from Ryan (he has NEVER called me at work)
- Start crying since I know it has to be bad
- Ryan has fallen on the ice in the driveway and hit heaad first on the way down
- Freak out some more
- Realize I don't have a car to drive home
- Borrow Meagan's car
- Drive home
- Ryan sitting on the chair
-Stay home the rest of the day to keep on eye on things


Does that sound eventful? I knew AS SOON as they said I had a phone call that something was wrong. I have worked there for a year and two months and never received a call from Ryan except on my cell. Luckily, his head was not as bad as I was thinking it would be. I mean since I found Dad when he hit his head, I was sure I was going to come home to blood and throwing up. Ryan was very lucky mostly since he did hit his head first and he does not have any symptomns of problems. He was wearing a snookie at the time so I am thinking that cushioned the fall more than we thought. Anyway, just in case Mom didn't call everyone just wanted to clue you all in on our day.

School has started and of course with it, all the stresses and frustrations have already filtered their way back inot my routines. For starters, I started working out on Tuesday. Yeah!! Sue-I bought a step for aerobics and I have been doing Mrs. Linda's routines and I feel great! Really really sore now, but my energy and drive is fantastic. For me, when I start exercising more, my body craves healthier food too, so it all jsut goes hand and hand and works out. So, while I have tight shoulders from doing arm weights, I am also tense since my loan money has not come in yet! School has started already!! I have talked to the financial aid twice already and they assure me that I won't be dropped from my classes because they can see on the system that I will receive it, but the actual funds have not made it to the college yet. My response was "So am I just not supposed to do my school work and assignments until I get my money to buy my books!?" Grrr. So right now my anger release is the exercising. Seems to be working most of the time. It does not help however in shortening the time in which I will get my money(one to two more weeks).

Other than that stuff, I got the biochem teacher that I really wanted to have. That is fantasttic! Every student in the class was excited and cheering when he walked into the room to teach this semester.

Since all my class are on MWF, that means that I have Tuesday and Thursday to do homework, clean, relax, go to work early, or maybe even volunteer. Service hours look really great on my application for my internship so I might try to rack up some hours while I can. I still am not sure where I am doing my internship so getting hours definietly would hlep if I decide to pick the out of town ones.

A new pet!

Well, it looks like Star and Raider have their own pet to play with now or maybe I should say an animal that plays with them! Lately, we have had a bunch of squireels wonder onto our fence. Now Ryan and I have realized that they are actually taunting Raider and Star. Just now there was a squirrel on the fance and as soon as I let the dogs outside, it jumped to the next fence to where the dogs couldn't see it. Once raider and Star thought it was gone, the squirrel ran super fast across our fence and jumped onto the tree in our backyard. It is so funny! The dogs go crazy! Plus it leaves them with their heads cocked looking up at the tree all afternoon.

I never wrote that I got to supervise by myslef. Last Thursday I was all by myself and it was great! I did have a couple of questions, but since every other supervisor was off, I was able to call them for questions. Everything ran smoothly though and that is most important. On the next schedule I am super three times and then I go in a couple of other days at twelve thirty and get more hours while working less days! Fantastic!

Just now as I am writing the squirrel made another appearance! I am going to video tape them sometime for you guys.

School starts on Wednesday. I am actually really excited right now! My classes are only on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays so I have Tuesday and thursdays to work and do homework. I think that is what I am looking foward to the most. Also, I was really scared this semester because I have to take the second biochem with the harder teacher. Well saturday when my friend went to buy the book, they told her that they had to return the books they had and order new ones since Tech switched teachers! Woo Hoo!! That means I will have the same teacher I had last semester for the first biochem this semester for the second biochem. yeah! I will have to write about my other classes later since I really don't know exactly what to expect from them.

Hope you guys have a great week. Sue, have a safe flight today! Gotta go now, the squirrel is back!

Dee..I am pretty sure I got you beat today on weird things to do when it is cold out. Ryan and I defrosted our two mini friges. We are going to have a little garage sale on Saturday(since I am off) and get rid of one of the mini friges. The other one is our "bar" frig that we want to hang on to. So, I was out in about thirty degree weather chipping out ice and pouring hot water in them. I am soo happy that we finally did it. Our bar frig had popsicles in it and when they unplugged it to fix the carpet in September, they melted all in it. It was really gross and I finally took care of that.
Ryan and I used "Foxy" tonight to make some awesome mashed potatoes. (Foxy is our mixer) Ryan said they were the best ever since they still had little chunks in it, but were still creamy and whipped too. Oh and Ryan did not make a mess when he was whipping them since we had a splash guard. Finally!
For those of you who have not seen our mixer, here she is...

These are the Czech glasses that Aunt Mary told "Santa" that Ryan and I liked them. Aunt Mary had actually put them away in the back without us knowing when we told her we liked them so that we could buy them. I thought that was really sweet. It was a great surprise too.



This is a truck that passed Ryan and I on the way home. Makes you laugh right?

Number 2

After we finished opening gifts and relaxing with my family on Christmas Eve, we drove to see Ryan's side of the family. I got to see his grandma, aunts and uncles. Of course, we played chicken foot too since that is his famiy's favorite game. Once we left, I was planning on calling Christi and having her watch Talledega nights with me, Ryan, Sue, and Justin, but I fell asleep about ten o'clock! Sue and Mom went to midnight mass but I decided to get some sleep and make sure I didn't get a relapse of my cold.
Christmas Day I went to Grandma's with mom. Ryan joined us later after we ate awesome shrimp. To me, grandma's felt different this year. I don't exactly know why, but it was weird. I still had fun seeing everyone though. Ryan and I spend that night playing games with Ryan's parents-poker, chicken foot and Taboo.
While I was at home, I got to spend some much needed time with Christi too. I miss her a lot and there was a lot to catch up on. We went out to eat one night in Houston. Then the next night we ate at DQ and visited some old high school friends. Of course thre isn't oo much you can do in our little town, so we pretty much sat around then.

Christmas Recap

Alright, so our whole trip home started with a long 12 hour drive home Friday. It was nice taking a different route, but never again. Ryan decided to take interstate all the way to Houston and it was my fault for not saying no. We got to see new scenery though.
Then on Saturday we spent the day with Ryan's sister and his nieces at his parent's house. We got great gifts there...one of which was an awesome red Artisan Kitchenaid mixer!!! Ryan was laughing at me because I named it Foxy!!

Helping Lance and Garrett open their new toy...


Sunday was our family Christmas with Amanda, Billy, Sue, Justin and the boys. Tons of fun there! Lance and Garrett are so adorable. Dad was taking his yearly nap on the recliner, snoring and Garrett started mimicing him!! Hilarious! Lance decided to tickle him to get him to stop. I guess that the kids job to pester dad while he is napping has been passed onto the grandkids now. Ryan and I got good gifts there too. Santa brought us pjs and these awesome glasses that we had picked out at Aunt Mary's. They are a contemporary cczech crystal champagne glass. I will post a picture of them. We each got 6!! Wow...I guess I should use them for toasting New Year's tonight. Ryan also got me a new cell phone which I have been needing terribly. I have a razor!! We are going to leave in a little while and go to the mall so I am going to see if I can get a new skin for it maybe. Oh and Garrett and Lance got a tickle me Elmo from santa too. Garrett was trying to pick it up everytime it would fall on his back to laugh and Lance was tackling Elmo!
I will stop there. I will have to do a part two like Dee did.
Lance tackling Elmo.


All of us in our new PJ's.

I need an opinion...

I know it might be hard to see since it is night, but I just wondered if you guys saw anything funny about this tree.

just to say I am alive!

So I know I have a lot I need to write and post on here, but for now I will just give a quick recap of today important happenings. For starters, we did make it home ok tonight. After stopping to see Oma and Opa we made it home about six thirty. We left our heater on 70 when we left just in case we had a cold front come through while we were gone, but when we got home our house was reading in at 56 degrees! Basicly we are under a snow advisory without our heater working. The repair man just made it here to work on the problem. We are thinking he was watching the exciting Tech game too and that is what too him so long to answer the call. Which, by the way, I hope at least some of you got to see clips of our game tonight. We came back from a 7 to 38 deficit to win in overtime. It is a bowl game record for largest comeback to win. In the first half of the game Ryan and I were both ready to just turn off the tv and throw the remote into the fire. Luckily we didn't and were able to see the fantastic second half. I will stop there and finish unpaking. More to come tomorrow and the following days.....

Getting ready for our trip

It appears that I am better or getting better. Finally!! I can't believe that Christmas is so close. I have not started packing yet for home, so that means that I will be doing it all tonight in a rush. I did get some clothes washed though since I had to call in to work yesturday. Too bad I didn't wait and get sicker today so that I could have come home a day earlier. Anyway, I was worse yesturday and after having a while day at home sitting on my rear and taking meds, I am great. Hopefully it stays this way! I will have to bring my meds home though just to make sure I don't need them or to make sure Ryan doesn't need them. Gotta fix lunch so that I can get to work and train.

Got any home remedies?

So, it is 6:45 right now and I have been up since 4:00 with my stuffy nose and sore throat. I have tried all kinds of juices, medicines and bath soaks to get rid of this cold, but none of it is helping! I have been trying to get sleep and rest to get over it, but I can't sleep because I can't breathe and my throat hurts so bad. Once the day gets started, about mid afternoon, I feel fine, then at night it starts all over. Bsicly, does anyone have any ideas that I have not tried yet? I want to fell better before our big trip home, but it is not looking good since I work all day today, Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully you guys have more ideas! Thanks!

Oh and we had lots of blowing wind and sounded like freezing rain last night. I thought that it was going to break my window!

I survived!!

That's right I survived finals without a mental breakdown and I was able to pass all of my classes!! Woo Hoo!! I have been really busy the past couple of days now trying to catch up on my sleep. Plus, Wednesday night a couple of the girls went out for a drink to celebrate the end of biochem. Ryan came with me too and we had a lot of fun. Last night I had friends over here for our Christmas party. Several people couldn't come that I would have liked to be here, but it was still a ton of fun with the girls that were able to make it. We had plenty of food, lots of drinks and games. Ryan was downstairs for a while with us and I think he even had a good time with a bunch of girls! He showed us how to take a Root Beer slammer. I am sure they are really good, but my friends were not impressed by it. I will post a picture of us taking them when Jordan sends them to me.

Only a week more until Ryan and I drive home! Yeah. I have a lot to do now in this next week and I will have less time actually since I wil be training on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 8:00. It is going to be challenging but well worth it when I get to see the family!

new furniture

i got tired of our old pawn shop coffee table that i refinished, so i decided to build a coffee table and matching end tables. i just got done with the last of the clear polyurethane today, and i'll start staining the end tables sometime later this week, but i figured i'd put a picture of the coffee table on here.

Anyone in the mood for a mental breakdown??

I think I am headed straight for one today! Last night I studied biochem with some friends and then came home and stayed up until two thirty studying for my stats final that was today. Well, as I have said before my teacher is a complete moron and was not even there for the final! We were supposed to be able to start the test at ten thirty, but there was all kind of confusion waiting for him to get there and then after about fifteen minutes lost, the other teacher decided to give us the exam....since they wre all the same anyway. Needless to say our teacher neveer even showed up plus there was problems on the test that didn't even have enough information to solve it the way they wanted to sovled. So, I guessed probably on about fifty percent of the test or maybe a little bit more. One of my friends and I are going to complain about the teacher and the class to the head of the math department if we do not pass the class. It was a simple and easy A class, but he refused to answer easy questions that were pertinant to our success.

Now though I am studying for biochem again. I just found out that I am upset with this teacher too! He did not use the book to teach Fatty acid synthesis, he just made power points for it. That would be fine except that he just put the chemical structure and did not even give words to explain the process! I am so frustrated right now with teachers that I feel like my head is going to explode!!

Did I mention I can't wait for tomorrow to be over with!? Even more I can't wait to drive home and see everyone oh and to make goodies with Sue! :) Hopefully Mom will be able to help too and Dad won't get too grumpy with the dirty dishes!

I hope you guys are having a fantastic Tuesday! Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I will be able to post a cheery and christmas-y note! This is just what is going on right now with me. I know you have all been here. Can I hear some of your final horror stories?

What's new with you?

I have nothing too new going on here. Just a bunch of studying. I had today off and I know I spent pretty much all of it reading and studying, but I just can't figure out what else I did. My house shows no proof of me having a day to rest and clean. I hate that! Ryan and I did try to make some new sugar cookies we saw on tv last night. We will have to bake them tomorrow though since the dough took a while tonight. I guess since I have nothing else new I thought someone else might have bigger and better things to say! I will have something to say noce I take my finals and see the final grade. I am not sure if it will be something good to say or really bad though!

I have to say I am jealous of Sue for being finished with all of this. Oh and I am looking foward to Friday. All of my friends from work are comning over for a Christmas party. It will be tons of fun. Plus, I get to have the house decorated fantasticly! One of my friends might actually come over that day before and help decorate more!! hehe We both love Christmas!

Just can't wait anymore...

I just wanted to let everyone know that after waiting for about five long months for my promotion at work...I finally am going to be trained this month to supervise!!! I won't be able to supervise all the time, but when I do it will be for more hours in a day(8) and then less days since I will be getting more hours. Plus I get a pay raise!!! Again!! Not too much of an increase, but enough to make me stop grumbling. MOre good news....I will be home for Christmas! My boss was able to work out the schedule to where I will be home for a week. Better get ready Mom....Raider, Taco AND Daisy in the house....that could be fun! :) Anyway, I need to rest so that I can study tomorrow. Night!

While I am running out the door...

Ryan and I are on our way out but I figured while he is finishing his video game, I could say hi. I am still surviving the cold here. If you can believe it, we still have snow and ice in some places here from Thursday. Actually yesturday Ryan had to push me out of a parking spot that had ice about an inch thick where I parked. I thought it was pretty funny....payback from Thursday when he got us stuck maybe? Anyway, I will try and post some pics from the weekend with mom and dad. I had fun with them even if it was a quick trip. Oh and I have two finals tomorrow too. Definitely won't be up all night studying, but until a good hour. Post again later.

Snow Storm

Well the snow started last night around 11:00, and when we woke up this morning at about 7:00 it was still coming down pretty heavy. It snowed pretty steady until about noon, then stopped for a while, and Ann just called me and said it's starting to snow some more on campus. We took Raider for a walk this morning, he just loves the cold for some reason. It was REALLY cold this morning. It was about 13 degrees with a wind chill of about -5 or so. We could see traffic on Indiana Avenue from our front yard so we figured the ice on the roads would be melted down from all the cars, so we went out for a drive to get some pictures, and the roads were still really icy. We got to the light at 50th street and traffic was stopped, and when we tried to go again, my car just slid down into the curb and we were stuck there for about 30 minutes until the police drove by and helped us. There was an SUV in front of us that was stuck and a couple cars behind us. After they pushed us out, it took about an hour to get back home. We were only about 2 miles from the house, but since the roads were so icy, we had to stay in the center of the road and make left turns only to avoid sliding down the slope towards the gutter again. We literally had to drive halfway around the southwest side of town just to stay on roads that were in decent enough shape for us to drive on and make left-hand turns. Here are some pictures, I'm sure Ann will make some CD's and bring them home for at the end of December to show everyone.

Snow!!!!

Lightning Storm

(by Ryan)

Tonight we decorated the house a bit, put up some lights outside, and about an hour or so after we got done a lightning storm came through that lasted about 30 minutes or so. I stood by the sliding door of my bedroom with my camera to get some short video clips of the lightning, and decided to step outside on the balcony to pick up some of the sound. There were a couple pretty good flashes and you could hear the thunder and everything, and then this one lightning bolt struck pretty close and was REALLY bright. The video doesn't do it much justice. We were able to pause the video and watch it in small increments, and we were able to pause it during the strike, and one frame right after and the whole area we live in was so well lit you'd think it was recorded in the middle of the day. I still see the lightning strike in pretty good detail when I close my eyes and I took this video about 30 minutes ago. There are some buildings across an empty lot in front of our house, they're probably 200 feet or so away from where I was recording, and the 3 other video clips I got you could clearly see the lightning strike several miles behind those buildings, but this one clip you can actually see the lightning bolt in FRONT of them. What's strange is that the sound doesn't come until a second or two after the strike. I guess we'll go out in the morning and check to see if it really did strike in that field right across the road, but I'm thinking it has to be some sort of optical illusion. I just can't think of any other way you can explain the lightning bolt appearing in front of those buildings. Those of you who have been to our house know how close they are. I uploaded the video to YouTube, I'll try to post it in this message, but if for some reason it won't play you can just go to this link to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMsgkFXMGu8




ok i was finally able to isolate the frames showing the lightning strike and then the flash of light afterwards and make jpegs out of them.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I got into a baking mood this morning. I made these cute little cookies, an apple pie and almost made a pecan. But I decided that it could save that for another day when I need some sugar!! Yesterday I also made pumpkin bread for Ryan and I.


Ryan and I had our first Thanksgiving by ourselves yesterday. It was nice. I missed the family, but it was different just to cook for us and then relax before I went to work. Once it came time to go to work, I really regreted that I had switched with Danielle to work on Thanksgiving. It would have been nice just to take a nap with Ryan. He was sleeping with Star when I left. I cooked a big lunch for us though-Turkey, Mom's sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and cresent rolls. It was really great, so great that Ryan actually ate leftovers today!!! That NEVER happens. Ryan wasn't too happy that I made him take a shower and get dressed to eat lunch with me, but I wanted to take some pictures.

Thanksgiving Blues

This is a picture from Saturday night. Lauren had a party at her apartment with all the girls.

As you all know, Ryan and I will be spending Thanksgiving here at home. Thankfully we will be able to see his family this weekend when we drive to Stamford though. I can't decide if I want to try to cook a turkey or just buy this turkey meatloaf thing I have bought before. Plus as of right now we havn't finalized our plans. We have invites to go to a work friend's house, Jordan's house because her fiance has to work, or just cook here for Ryan and I. I do have a menu planned though for whereever we go!! I have to work at night so for lunch Ryan and I plan on making green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing(from a package) and then somekind of pie. I am not sure how much Ryan is going to eat of the sweet potatoes, but those are a favorite of mine since mom always makes them! :) I hope everyone else has a great Thanksgiving and I can't wait until Christmas!! I still won't be able to see some of you, but at least I will be able to drive home.

Ryan and I have started Raider on a "diet". First plan-take him to the lake or for a walk everyday. Second-weight loss food. Third-read the book I got today at the vet!!! The book is about you and your pet losing weight and staying healthy together. It was free and the recetionist insisted I take more than one. So, I took one for Taco too!! hehe Mom already knows about it.

About the lake-Star loves going!! There are so many geese and ducks out right now and Star will run up and down the shore chasing, barking, and hoping in the air to try to catch them. It is soo funny. We have a video to show, but I haven't uploaded it yet. Yesturday their undersides were completely covered in mud and yuck from playing by the lake. I felt bad though because every two feet they got stickers in their paws. Ryan and I ended up carrying them.

This is when Star was running after them.

Chunky Butt

Yup....my dog is a chunky butt. He weights 20 lbs!!! When we got him fixed this summer he was only weighing 14. That is a lot of weight in a little amount of time. I might actually take him to the vet to get his nails trimmed and other things soon and aske them how I can bring his weight down. He is really cute chunky, but I want him to be around for a long time and all that fat isn't going to help him with that. He can still jump though....onto the bed, into my lap as I am studying, just about anywhere. That is good news!

I hurt myself last night at work. Our carts that I have to push are pure stainless steel and really heavy. Several of them need new wheels or just need to be replaced, but the hospital won't do it. Anyway, I had one of the bad carts last night and when I tried to back up to let a patient by, it would not budge. Finally with a hard pull, it suddenly moved and rolled right over my foot; not the wheel. The cart caught me foot underneath it, flexed! Since I couldn't keep my balance then because it kept on rolling, I fell down to the ground and stopped it with my body!! It sounds pretty bad and funny, but luckily it really only hurt my ankle. I made a report about it just in case I have problems in the future with it, but now it is fine still.

Finally cold weather!

Well, as the title says, we finally have some cold weather. Yesturday with the high winds, the news was saying it felt like it was in the single digits! I was able to wear my fabulous new jacket that the Quala and Randy sent me early for Christmas. Just about all the girls in my classes yesturday loved it! Last night we had our fireplace going as Ryan and Allison were watching tv and I was studying for a test today. ( still not ready for it) I have come to a stopping point this semester where I just don't want to do anymore school work. I have to force myself to study and to do my assignments it seems. Usually I do better when I study with a friend, so I have been trying to do that a lot lately.

I was off yesturday so we went to Target. They have puppy winter clothes in their dollar spot. There are cute reindeer costumes and snowmen outfits, but the cutest I saw was snow jackets for the dogs. Needless to say....I bought one and hence the following picture. Star has one too that matches but was too stubborn to take a picture. There wasn't any booties to match though! ;(

A really great movie...

I am sure all of you are going to think it is a grown up movie that I love so much. The truth is though...I love Cars!! Ryan and I finally watched it and it is soo cute! Not only is it a little cute movie for kids, but it has adult humor in it to. I only hope that Disney and Pixar can keep making movies like it for my kids someday! Ok...I really have to go to bed. It is One thirty and I know I am going to be up this late or later tomorrow night too!! Have a great weekend everyone!

New Roommate

It's official....Ryan and I are going to have a new roommate in January. His sister, Allison, will be moving up here to go to PT school at Tech. It will be nice to have cheaper rent! :) She was here this weekend to meet with an advisor and brought some clothes and shoes with her to put in the closet. So, that pretty much made it official. It also made for a busy weekend. Since last Sunday was Ryan's birthday and my friend's birthday, I promised her I would go out with her on Friday( the 3) wherever she wanted to go. It turned out to be a lot of fun! A lot of us girls went out together and met up with another friend, her boyfriend and her parents! They were so much fun though. Her dad was out on the dancefloor with us shaking his booty! Plus, it is fantastic going out when you are 21!! I was pretty tired for the game then on Saturday, but made it there and then to work.

I also have been studying for a biochem test while all of that was going on. I was off yesturday and spent a good protion of the day studying. I thought I knew it all, but he put exactly what he told us not to study on the test. Therefore, I am not looking foward to seeing that grade tomorrow!

Ryan had big plans for today too....a root canal! About a week or two ago one of his fillings fell out. Turns out that there was still more dcaying tooth under the filling and caused it to pop off. At least that is waht I think. Anyway, he went today to get the root canal done, but they actually had to just pull the tooth. According to the doctor, the decay was all the way down to his jaw bone. It is really cool though because the doctor put small bone particals down in the hole that will heal and form into his jaw bone to fix the part they had to remove. Once that is all healed and set(a couple of months) then he will be able to get Ryan a permenant tooth. I was pretty amazed. I am sure Ryan could explain it better, but he will probably come on the blog and fix this before you all read it anyway.

Other than that stuff, we have a messy house, no food and I don't have time to do anything about it! :) Just kidding...we are great!