It can only get better from here

I'm so glad that we have these great memories of over the top frilly floral dresses and overalls. Remember the days when planning what you wore for family pictures was a thing?

I forgot how much I love it

Today we went to a BYU Men's Rugby match and it. was. awesome. As soon we walked past the players warming up my heart leapt inside my chest. I could literally feel the joy spread through my body as I thought about everything rugby. I had this weird urge to scrum, ruck, tackle, and work in a way that is only possible in a rugby match. In that split second moment I missed the constantly sore muscles, the multicolored bruises that turned my legs and arms in to a colorful collage, the feel of cleats on my feet and knee length socks up my legs, but most of all, I missed playing with my team. You see, when you're life sort of depends on your teammates you get real close real fast. It's the battle, the physical struggle with your teammates by your side that makes it all worth it.

Since I'm feeling particularly nostalgic tonight...
See the excitement of winning a State Championship,
A little bit of the body damage
Recognize that we were a family
Feel my excitement,
See another win
And know that rugby gets pretty epic

To say that I loved playing rugby in high school would be an understatement. It was my life from January to mid-May. It occupied my thoughts, weekdays, weekends, and even dreams. It ended on a high note and I would not trade the memories I have from my experiences for anything. I'm glad that I will forever be a West Linn Renegade and I love that I can still enjoy rugby by watching others play. I'm already looking forward to the day that I get to tell my children I played rugby in high school. I cannot wait to see their faces.

For two other takes on the days festivities please view these two blogs. And yes, we are all in the library writing blogs instead of doing out homework. NBD. Amanda! and Alyssa! (and make Liss Biss send you an invite to her blog because she explains our daily activities way better than I do. I guess that's because she wants to be a teacher or something.)

Sort of gross but kind of awesome

This semester I'm in a microbiology lab that is pretty much a joke. It's scheduled for a 2 hour block every Thursday morning from 8-10 a.m. but I am literally out of the classroom by 8:35a.m. at the latest. Basically the class consists of us turning in our assignments from the previous week while the T.A. tells us in a monotone voice about the experiment we'll be doing, we do the experiment (which usually consists of swabbing something, spreading it on an agar plate and putting it in the cupboard so we can see the growth on it next week), write down what's on the board, and then leave.

I guess you could say they're trying to teach us that microbes are everywhere and after the nasty things I've seen in the past 10 weeks, I believe them. Thanks BYU for turning us all into germaphobes.
Here are the results from last week's lab...
This is the growth that shows from a swab of my own throat after one week.


It's sort of sick right? Well believe me, I can tell you about some pretty disgusting things. I kind of guess that's going to be the story of my life for the rest of my life/career as a nurse. At least that's what I tell myself so I'm not surprised when I see something particularly awful. And to tell you the truth, it doesn't really bother me.

Now everyone go wash your hands because they are filthy and full of microbes!

Date night with Harold

It's taken a while but Alyssa and I have finally figured out that to be together and to be productive on school work we need to be in library. We've made the Monday-night-until-midnight thing a weekly tradition and on the way home this Monday I suggested that we spend another night in the library to get even more school work completed. Because of various other activities and obligations we didn't get an opportunity to hang in the HBLL until Friday night after our ward talent show in the WILK. When that hour and a half of awkward talent sharing was over (side note: my roommate won the talent show because she made a peanut butter and jam sandwich on a pogo-stick! I promise you just read that right. We were all amazed and it was definitely the best, and most marketable talent) we walked into the most empty library I have EVER seen. I know I've only been here for two years but seriously it was SO empty. There were literally three other people on the whole third floor with Alyssa and me and that includes the man running the carpet cleaner. Of course I had to get some pictures.









After about two productive hours I lost my focus and things went downhill from there. By this point in the evening we were both freezing due to the blowing fans that were drying the carpets and losing our minds a little bit because we were the last two survivors in the whole wide world of academics.
We made a little video on Liss Biss's computer that may surface a some point but for now it's just fun for us to laugh at. I even did a little dancing! hahaha. I guess the moral of this story is that you shouldn't expect to get things done in an empty library without peers to pressure you into being quiet and productive. I crossed two of about a million school assignments off my list but I enjoyed myself and that's what really matters, right?

Another reason Thursday is my favorite

The day started with Lucky Charms...
and ended with green Rice Krispie Treats...with my two favorite roommates. Thank you St. Patrick for giving me a reason to celebrate.

Having second thoughts

Suddenly the late night walk home from the library seems like it could be a brush with death. Here's to hoping I don't get struck by lightening tonight.

Don't forget the Mexican spices

Mexican food is the most delicious food ever. I'm pretty sure I would eat it all day errr day if I didn't know how bad it was for my body. But don't worry friends, it doesn't keep me away from it too much. There is a very real possibility that I was born craving a quesedilla as rumor has it all my mother would eat while pregnant was Taco Bell, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess it is because of my positive association with everything Mexican. Here's just a little list of happy moments and Mexican food.

-The first day of school trips to Garcia's in Tempe
-Exploding a bag of Taco Bell hot sauce in my eye on the way home from Garcia's
-Numerous trips to Mexico-The best meal ever when Mom and Dad were out of town
-Jazz choir trips where we ate Mexican food because I insisted.-Jose and Maria making us the most delicious food in Rocky Point-STREET MEAT!-Quesedilla parties in the dorms-And the continuing tradition of Chevy's chips and salsa.

That's it. Hands down, Mexican food is delicious and it and it makes me happy. Now, I'm gonna go make myself a quesedilla.

Eye of the tiger

You know that point in a movie when the inspirational song starts to play and the main character goes through some major change/makes a giant step toward their ultimate goal? Think Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Legally Blonde, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Nacho Libre, Rocky, Step Up 1, 2, and 3, and pretty much any sports movie where a girl has something to prove.

Anyway, that was my life yesterday. Not that I really had anything to prove to anyone but there were a million things that needed to be done and I made it happen. I left the house by 6:45 a.m., studied in the library for an hour, went to 5 hours of work, spent two more hours in the library, then two and a half hours in class, went to the MOA to analyze a piece of art, took a test, and then made my way home for a quick dinner around 8:30 p.m. By 9:15 p.m. Alyssa and I were on our way back up to the library where we stayed until the music played us out at 11:45 p.m. At home, I started my nursing assignment, got ready for bed and pulled the covers up to my chin knowing that I had accomplished everything I needed to for the day to be over.

Moral of the story:
If my life had a soundtrack, it would be awesome.

Thinking of Thanksgiving

I know it's not November or anything but sometimes I just want to be grateful. Well actually, I can't really help but be grateful for about a million different things right now.

1. It has not snowed in the past week.

2. I have an awesome job where I can do homework while "working"

3. I have enough money to pay the bills

4. I am lucky enough to be in a nursing program that I love

5. I have legs that work (Which is a really big one for me because as I sort of slipped out of the shower this morning and had this image of me falling on the edge of the tub and breaking my femur. Weird thing is that I regularly having visions of me falling and breaking a limb. I think I'm paranoid that I won't be able to get around with a bum leg) Long story short, I'm glad I can walk.

The list goes on and on but there's just a little teaser for now. Life is great.

One Split Second

Today in nursing lab we got to play with those doppler machines to listen to pulses, more specifically the brachial, popliteal, and pedal pulses. Pure amazement is what I felt when I heard that whooshing sound of my blood running through my arteries. For a split second it made me think about someday hearing the heartbeat of a baby in-utero be it mine or someonelse's. It sort of creeped me out.