... And Senior Year has started

Wow - talk about time flying. You always hear people saying that - but it really is true!!! Imagine that. I remember packing up our house in Arizona - and loading up to drive across the country to Virginia - and then move into my college dorm three weeks later. Talk about change. I hated every minute of it. I was totally freaked out to go to college - and dreaded the fact that my friends would be thousands of miles away. 
Now here I am - a senior in college - and trying to soak up everything about my last year of college - ever. It's crazy to think that something I hate would transform into something I will miss so much. Now let my clarify - I definitely won't miss huge reading assignments and lame papers - but seeing my friends every day and the soccer games and the chapels that we complain about... but secretly miss during the summer - it's coming to an end.
Let me try to brighten this up a bit and tell you all the AWESOME stuff I have already done in my first week back at school!!
  1. I got to watch an open heart surgery :-)
  2. Made cookies with Doobie, Colette, Alyssa, and Brie :-)
  3. Soccer game :-DDDD
  4. I get to work in the Nursing Sim Lab this year... and try to help the Sophomores not cry as they prepare for check-offs.
  5. Bike rides... where you think you  might die - but then you don't.
  6. Friends can come over to my house for dinner :-)
  7. The Rising - formerly 747
Well that's all I have for now - but I definitely know more is to come!


Oh by the way - we have moved to Marion, IN - if you didn't know that. This is the town where my mom grew up - and where my school is. It is actually pretty sweet that we live here now - we're really close to Nate and Amy... and this town has more amenities than any other town we've lived in!!! No more 45 minute drives to Wal-mart! whoop whoop!


Pics from the cruise :-)

A nice quiet beach in Cozumel

You know how you want to pose when the 70 million cruise photographers take your picture???

THIS is how you want to pose :-)

*Sorry*

Just a little dolled up for formal night

It's show time

The Newest Royal Caribbean Ship - Oasis of the Seas.

Made our ship look like a little toy ship

Amy was trying to imitate the traditional dress of one of the parties that was on our ship for a wedding - I'd say she did a swell job.

Cruise and the Like

So for my mom's 50th birthday - the girls (sans Staci ): ) and plus Gma and Gpa went on a cruise out of Tampa and went to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Now I know most women don't want to share their age... and I'm not sure if my mom is in this group or not - but when people asked why we were going on this cruise... the answer would always be "For my mom's 50th birthday." I know we could have said "For my mom's birthday..." or even "Just b/c we felt like blowing a ton of $$$$." But we always included her age. 50. sorry Bob - I won't say 50 anymore.
Now you might be wondering why the boys (Dad, Kenneth, Nate, and Jon) did not go on this trip with us to celebrate mom's 50th birthday. whoops. Well they had their own little adventure planned. They decided that a canoeing trip to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota was more up their alley. Ok - I have no idea why they felt like that was a better course of action. You could be on a boat that YOU have to carry.... ORRRR you could be on a much nicer, bigger, CLEANER boat/ship that carries you. So they had their "fun" trip, while we had ours :-)
For those of you who have never been on a cruise - I will give a little rundown of why cruising is the way to vacation.
   1. It is all inclusive - food, activities, hotel... it is all included in the price - pretty economical if you ask me.
   2. It is FFFFUUUUNNNNN. There is a reason why Carnival Cruise Lines are called "Fun Ships." They want you to have fun. end of story.
   3. They make sure you don't starve. You have ample opportunity to attend several "feedings" throughout the day. We coined the term "feedings"... b/c you just feel like you are planning your days around when you eat. You may think this is a bad thing.... but just order a salad if you want to be healthy. And don't worry... they have a gym.
   4. The weather will almost 100% of the time be perfect. When you are out in the ocean - with the crystal blue waters - you can't help but feel like you are on vacation.
    So we spent our time in port doing some snorkeling - and just browsing the shops. Not too much to go in to there - but it was always amazing to see the clear blue water and think... why don't they have water like this in Indiana???
So that was our vacation - but the true story begins now. On our way back from FloRida - we stopped in Tennessee somewhere - I have no clue where - but we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner and then went to a gas station to fill up before we continued our journey. So while we were getting our gas we hear "Someone call 911!" And this is where the action begins. So as my mom is walking over to see what the deal is (she's a Dr. if anyone doesn't know that...) she waves me over - and Amy is already approaching the scene. As I come over to see what is going on, I think to myself... "Oh man, I really hope we don't need to do CPR b/c I don't have my face mask with me..." 
     But it was ok b/c we came upon a little old lady (97 to be exact) laying on the ground near the tire of another car, bleeding from the back of her head. She had gotten out of her car to chase (I'm using that word very liberally here) her son's dog that had gotten out of the car. She had stumbled, fallen, and was now bleeding from her head. Amy ran inside to get some towels and make sure someone was calling an ambulance as my mom was restraining the woman from getting up and reassuring her that we would take care of her. While all of this is going on - I realize that a long time fantasy of mine is about to come true. Back during my summers working as a lifeguard, I would wonder what I would do if someone would be running on the pool deck, fall, and crack their head open - how would I help them??? I determined that I would take my shirt off (yes like in Twilight... but I came up with this way before that movie came out) and use it to stop the bleeding. 
     So I'm standing there - and realize that I could do this!! I take my shirt off (I had a cami on - so it wasn't inappropriate) and hand it to my mom to use on her head. It was awesome. Amy ran out with a BUNCH of horrible brown paper towels and realized it wasn't needed. She later looked at me and realized I wasn't wearing my shirt... but in fact it was controlling the lady's bleeding. :-) seriously it was awesome. But during that time, the gas station attendant (who had no medical background whatsoever) was talking to the dispatcher and was unable to answer any questions, so Amy took the phone and handled it from there. The lady seemed to be ok, except that she was bleeding - and the ambulance took her to the hospital (along with my shirt) to sew her up and make sure she had no internal bleeding. We were thankful that no one ended up needing CPR (b/c we had just eaten a big dinner at Cracker Barrel *those were Amy's words...) and that she seemed to be doing ok when she left.
     We were able to leave after that. We drove away and were working on calming ourselves after that little adrenaline rush - and mom asked me about my shirt. I said, "It's ok... it was a fairly cheap Target shirt... and I got some blackberry sauce on it at dinner."

The End