Just Blah.

My mood lately has been blah.  I have been feeling down with all the things going on with my dad.  It is scary to see someone you love have problems.  Of course those problems started in 2009 when he was diagnosed but lately these are problems that we have never encountered.  He was in SVT on Thursday and had a heart rate of 150 which is REALLY high and he had to take some medicine to make it come down.  He has felt really sluggish lately and it shows in his personality which scares me. So all I have felt lately is blah.  I have a test today and don't prepared because I feel like I am in a fog. Well just a small update on why I have been MIA and have not been a sassy pants lately. TaTa!

DA BEARS

Today is one of my favorite days of the year, other than my birthday and Christmas, it is the first day of the Bears season.  I LOVE Bears football.  It marks that Fall is coming- my favorite season of the year.  I have never been to a Bears game in person but I try to watch every game I can.  I know that I will be going to a bears game sometime in my life at Solider Field.  Well I better get back to watching the game, I feel so distracted trying to type this.

Exciting News!

My parents have had their up for sale for about a month now and they got an offer this week on it.  The people offered with a contingency on Thursday and on Sunday they wrote a contract on their house! So they officially have a move in day on September 8th! Hip Hip Hooray! They also got a new car, on friday.  They got a Red Chevy Equinox and it is so stinking cute!  They traded in both of their cars for it. YAY for good news for my parents!

Veg?

This whole week, I have eaten as a vegetarian.  Meat has really been grossing me out lately.  I am not sure what it is.  I think it is the aspect of preparing it but gosh I don't want anything to do with it.  I  hope this is just a phase I am going through because I don't think Dustin would like every meal with no meat.  I am pretty sure he would kill me to eat meat, ew okay that's gross.  No zombie action here!

"Coming up on the rear"

This past weekend Dustin and I went on our first ever Float trip to Huzzah River. We left Friday morning and met at the Walmart on 6th street with everyone. Everyone consisted of Tonya, Micah, Denise, Nick, Tammy, Brandon, Andrew, Nikki, Andrew, Vanessa, Anne and Mike.  There was 14 of us! Everyone has gone canoeing except Tammy.  We were the newbies on the trip.  When we arrived we went to "check in" and pay for our camping part.  Dustin and I already paid for the canoe part earlier in the month.  They had a cute "store" and Dustin and I invested in koozies on a necklace type thing.  After messing around there we decided to go to our camping spots and set up.  We set up quickly so we could go sit in the River.

There is a couple of us lounging around! Thank god for Tonya she took alot of pictures! I always forget and am glad someone does it!! On the trip Dustin and I brought Miller 64's and Bud Light Lime.  If you know me , I am not a drinker nor am I a beer drinker.  But what better place to start to try to drink beer? Right?  

D and I lounging on a raft.  We were out there all day. 

Dustin showing his boobies.  He won the award for smallest boobies! Thank god I didn't!!

Dustin after a few drinks! Happy boy :)

 Tonya and Micah bought food for everyone and we split the cost.  For friday night dinner was hobo pies and then we brought our own chips and snacks to share. 

There is the Playboy someone whipped out.  We made our own dinner.  Well Nikki help me make my hobo pie and pretty much cooked it for me! Thanks Nikki! We sat out at the fire and drank apple pie and some beers! We headed to bed ready for the day of canoeing!

Wakey Wakey Eggs and Bakey! We woke up and Micah made us breakfast. We had egg, bacon, CHEESE, bagels.  They were pretty delish! We than made our own PBJ for the day.  I packed 4 for us.

Our picture together before the day of fun! I didn't bring a hat or bandanna, so Nikki let me borrow one of hers.  Now that I think of it, I hope I gave it back?  We were going 6 miles on Huzzah and then 4 miles on Meramac.   Like I said Dustin and I have never canoed and everyone told us we would probably flip!  I would like everyone to know we DID NOT flip! YAY us!  We did get spun around and stuck at times but that's ok.  We had alot of fun and I drank a little no ALOT to much.  I drank a handful of beers and got sick of it.  So thank you Tonya, for a few of your drinks, Tammy for your cherry vodka and Nikki for a Mikes hard Lemonade! My favorite saying for the day was " Coming up on the rear."  Tonya and I decided to switch when our canoes got close.  So I was with Micah for a while and she was with Dustin.  She wasn't feeling it with Dustin, so we switched back! We got back to the campsite and I was a hott mess.  Thanks Dustin for taking care of me.  Dustin has never seen me drunk and he thought it was hilarious, but thank god he loves me enough to hold me hair while I did some puking!!  Mike provided me a puke bucket and helped Dustin with me! When it was time to get up and get our stuff packed up I was puking still.  I did help but was a hott mess most of the day.  He bought me a blue G2, my favorite! And let me sleep.  We stopped at the Huddle House on the way back and I got a waffle with no butter, no syrup, no whipped cream- Plain Jane please! It was good and thank god I kept it down.  I slept the whole way home after that! So I leave you with some fun pictures! Thanks Tonya and Micah for including us!!

Dustin Brooks jumping off a little cliff.

Dustin Brooks and Andrew Calvin don't do it!

Show those muscles!!

Bachelorette Buzz

If you know me at all or even a little, you know I love the Bachelor/Bachelorette.  I have watched every season and adore it.  Since this season of the Bachelorette just ended I can give a recap of what I thought.

Oh don't mind if I added this little perfection into my blog. If you don't know that's Sean.  He was eliminated before the Finale.  I would say that I was a Sean fan throughout the season but I realized that Sean would be better matched with a different girl.  So I hope that Sean is the next Bachelor, PLEASE! I know I am speaking for all of America :)
I also liked Arie.  I am so glad Emily told him that he wasn't the one for her before he got on one knee to propose to her.  I always feel so bad when the girl says no.  So I respect that Emily did it beforehand! Kuddos Emily!

Jef with one F.  I wasn't the biggest fan of him but as it got closer, I knew he was the one for Emily. His hometown date, I LOVED him.  I didn't expect it at all.  Jef and Emily are meant to be together.
Look at those 2! CUTE :)

Elodie Powell, RN to come :)

My last semester of school starts in 23 days!  I can't believe the summer has gone by so fast but better yet, I can't believe it is my last semester.  I have been working towards becoming a RN for ever(it seems like).  What I am really nervous about is getting to boards.  Nclex is definitely not the easiest thing to accomplish.  Yet I am more nervous about working on my floor as a RN.  I know people will expect me to just know things that I probably wont know.  I do not want to disappoint anyone, by any means.  So nurseys be nice to me, because I wont know everything in the RN role.  I am excited to be in the nurse role and not just the tech.  I love always doing something and in labor you are a busy bee.  EEKKK so excited! Well this is just a short post about me being so stinking excited!

Our sweet baby, Jeffery

I've been MIA again lately.  I am sorry about being the worst blogger ever! I have been busy with life and I am not even in school.  I will apologize ahead of time when I start my LAST semester of Nursing school, I will be MIA for sure.  My last post was about our sweet baby boy Jeffery being sick and I will write about him again for this blog.
After his first vet visit, Jefferey wasn't getting better so I took him to the vet again.  They prescribed him another antibiotic, food stimulant, and a nausea shot.  He had been on the antibiotic and didn't seem like it was helping. So Dustin and I looked up online how to get him to eat because he wasn't eating at ALL. So the 12th I had started syringe feeding him.  He was taking it at-least.  I started with 2 syringes 3 times a day, then ended up doing 3 syringes 3 times a day.  That Sunday night the 15th, when I was syringe feeding him at like 10 o'clock, he started to get on his side with all his paws in the air.  I freaked out and Dustin texted Kevin and Kevin said we needed to get Jeffery to the Emergency Vet Clinic.  We sped there and he was of course running a fever.  We waited for the doctor to come for what seemed like forever.  She came in and did an assessment on him, his heart was beating fast and she felt a "mass" in his abdomen.  At that point, I was a HOTT mess.  The doctor wanted to do an X-ray of his abdomen and they did.  She came back and said the "mass" was actually his kidney.  So at this point she wanted to check his blood work to see what his potassium level was.  She thought the potassium level was going to be low and they were going to have to keep him overnight to hydrate him with IV fluids and start him on IV antibiotic.  We had to ask how much it was going to cost.  It was expensive but Dustin and I agreed to do it.  We would do anything for Jeffery!! He had become one of our "kids."  They did the blood work and asked us to come back in the Exam Room.  Which i had a feeling something "more" was going on with Jeffery.  She said that his potassium level was within normal range but his albumin was low and globulin was high.  This suggested a disease called FIP, so she checked his eyes and could see buildup of plaque.  Which also leads to FIP, as well as an enlarged organ, fast heart rate, and the seizure he had at home.  She said FIP was not curable and we had to put him down.  At this point I was crying, and couldn't stop.  We decided we weren't going to do it that night and have Kevin do it the next night.  It was a hard night and I couldn't imagine my life with my sweet baby!  Kevin came to our house later that evening and gave our sweet baby to heaven.  Before Kevin go to our house, Dustin had dug a hole and made a box for Jeffery.  So after we buried Jeffery and went to menards to buy a tree to plant above, so we could always remember him.  I sure do miss him but I am glad he is out of his misery and he won't be forgotten. :(

MEOW

You could say at my house I have a mini zoo.  I have hyper, pain in the bootay dog and three cats.  Before Dustin and I were dating, I had zero interest in cats.  I thought dogs were better and cats were just lame.  Dustin brought his first cat home to his parents- Jeffrey.

This is Jeffrey doing what he is best at-Sleeping.

Dustin used to work for the APL as a driver to get animals from other counties or something of that sort.  While working there he had become such an animal freak and wanted to bring lots of animals home.  One of the Doctors recommended Jeffrey because he is laid back, can't you tell.  When he brought him to his parents I was a little sketchy about him but I LOVE him.  He has been such a good cat. I mean look at that sweet face.

He also gained Riley while working there.  Instead when he was picking up animals some lady gave Dustin some sad story about how she couldn't take care of her and needed to find a good home for her and of course Dustin said ME ME ME.  He brought Riley home.

She is the biznatch of the house.  She rules the house-or at least she thinks so.  She will let you know when she wants pet and when she wants left alone.  She usually is the friendliest at 615-9 in the morning and 9-12 at night.  All the rest of the times, leave her alone.

Then we got our third cat.  Dustin was not working at the APL at the time, the third cat was all me.  We went to the APL wanting an orange cat but feel in love with this black cat.  Dustin wasn't totally into picking her but I was! So we adopted her and she is glued to my hip.  She is very sassy and very  playful.  She will just start running around the house for no reason. 

Well this post was supposed to be all about Jeffrey but thought it would be unfair to not introduce my other kitties. Well ever since we got back from vacation-2 weeks ago today- Jeffrey hasn't been himself.  It started off with a running nose and now he has goopy eyes, he sounds super congested, not eating (rare for him), and laying in one spot.  So I finally decided to take him to the vet since it hadn't cleared up and sure enough he has an Upper Respiratory Infection and was started on antibiotics and eye ointment.  Hopefully he will be him self and eating non-stop :)

House Hunting

My life lately has consisted of house hunting.  No, not for me-for my parents.  It is a very bittersweet search.  My mom doesn't want to move out of her house now but under the circumstances it is going to be the best idea.  There is no new news on my dad but we want my dad to be included on this new search of the house.  My parents have found 2 houses they really like, and guess what?! They are both less than a mile away from me! I find this great! I love to have my parents close, then I can bug them whenever I please. :)  I hope it will give me an excuse to walk with Benny to the house instead of driving.

My parents have been cleaning and getting ready to put their house on the market.  It had been hard for my mom because they houses they are looking at are smaller than their home now so she will be getting rid of a lot. So be thinking of my parents through this hectic time.

PCB 2012

You all (my one reader, my dad) have probably been wondering where I have been in blog world.  I have been on vacation.  Well like 2 weeks ago, I am really late on blogging about my vacation.  First of all this was my first trip to Florida and it wouldn't have happened without the Powells.  I want to thank Deena and Randy for taking us on this wonderful getaway.  Dustin and I would not have been able to afford a trip and they made it happen!
Warning: There will be a lot of pictures in this blog!
I'll start with the trip there.  Randy was the driver the whole trip. Poor guy.  We took a Yukon XL which seats 7 uncomfortably, and 6 comfortably.  I have terrible motion sickness so Dustin and I sat in the front back seat part and poor Jordan(daddy long legs) had to seat in the back with Meg.  Sorry Jordan, if my stomach didn't suck you would have had the front ones.  I came prepared and took Dramamine before our trip and again half way through.  I also had pepto in my purse for emergencies.  We drove for about 10 hours arriving in Birmingham, AL.  I thought it was such a cute city, and had great shopping.  The traffic sucked major and we got kind of lost getting to the hotel- that was hidden back behind restaurants with the smallest sign. We went for dinner at Chik-fil-a, which was delish for sure and then we went sight seeing.  They had a great outdoor mall area with restaurants and a great view.

This was the view from the outdoor mall.  It was super pretty.
After sight seeing, we came back to the hotel and we all got ready for bed.  We weren't leaving for PCB until 10 am the next day.  I woke up at 7:30 of course and jumped in the shower before anyone else and then woke d up to get ready and go get breakfast.  We got breakfast and it was time to hit the road. We arrived to the rental house at about 3, and boy was I happy.  

This is the cute house we stayed in.

We of course toured the house and gosh was it cute.  I loved it.  The first floor had a master bedroom and then two other bedrooms-with all their own bathrooms.  The second floor was the kitchen and living room with a half bath- with a big balcony.  The third  floor was the master bedroom with the best view of the ocean.  I told Dustin "Gosh I wish we rented this so we could get this top bedroom" and he responded with "I'll joke with my parents and say it's ours."  We both laughed and wished we had that room.  We both went running downstairs-like little kids who just went to the candy shop- and D said to this parents "We call that room"  and Deena said she was glad we liked it because it was our room. AGH I was so stinking excited and grateful.  They def gave us the best room in the house!

                          

                       Our awesome view- even if it was rainy.                   Our cute room.

After deciding rooms and unpacking the car, we needed to plan meals for the week.  Then D and I went to the grocery store with Randy and Deena, while Jordan and Megan went to the beach.  We came back and ate dinner and then Deena insisted D and I go to the beach while they cleaned up.  I was so excited. My first beach experience. 

The ocean the first night was so beautiful.  I had to touch the water and play with the sand while Dustin made fun of me for being such a little kid.  I loved it.  I determined through out the week that I could be a beach bum.

I had to be a child and write in the sand, duh! This of course was the first thing I wrote.  The heart kept washing away. Oh well. 

D and I on the beach.

Then after being out there for a while we started walking back to the house.
The next day was spent on the beach of course.  I wanted to go out at like 830 but Dustin said we needed to wait a little bit longer.  We got coffee and sat on our balcony. D pointed out a dead owl of the edge.

I didn't even know owls would want to live in Florida with the hot weather.  He giggled at me and I thought this wasn't funny that an owl died.  After we drank our coffee, we went downstairs to see if anyone was awake.  Randy and Deena were and Dustin told them about the dead owl and after Randy looked over the edge- he started laughing.  It was a joke and it was actually a fake owl, you better believe I heard about it the whole week.

We got in our suits and head to the beach. I had to take a picture everyday with D and I in our suits except we only did 3 days. 

There was a lot of seaweed from the storm and LOTS of jelly fish.  I was afraid to get in the water because of all of them.

I had to get a classis beach photo.  I had never taken this type of picture, so i felt totally awkward.  Oh well.  We spent most of the day on the beach and can't really recall anything from the day, except jellyfish.  That night we decided to stop at this go kart place after yanking Randy and Deena's arms off to try and convince them to go as well.  They agreed and we waited in line.  We got in our go karts and god it was so fun.  It was a three story wrap around "race track" and the go karts were actually fast.  Randy won and he wouldn't let it go.  But they had an awesome time.

The next day happened to be our one year anniversary of being married.  It was so cute that it happen to be while we were on vacation.  Dustin woke me up to this-

SAY WHAT? Breakfast in bed.  Dang I am one lucky gal.  I have a pretty good hubby.....sometimes. JK!  I was very shocked by how cute he was being.  We ended up eating this meal outside on the balcony, I didn't want to be the clutz that I am and spill syrup on the bed. Then it was out to the beach we went.  I had to of course get another suit picture.

Dustin wore the same trunks even though they weren't the only pair he brought.  Today we matched because we were both wearing Fox suits.

Deena and I were jumping waves, I was more concerned with my bottoms falling off-I had to hold on to them with each wave. (Deena told us no pictures of her in her swimsuit on facebook, this isn't facebook :))

 We went in early at like 3 to get ready for dinner.  We went to Margaritaville.  I had never been to one and it was cute.  We got to our table after waiting for an hour. 

D and I waiting.  This turned out to be super cute, I thought.

Meg and I got a picture together before dinner.

  We finally got seated. We all ordered and then Megan got up to go talk to the waitress about "putting onions on hamburger" sneaky little thing.  Then in like 2 minutes the balloon maker came by to make us a lovely balloon hat because Megan told the waitress it was our one year.

Here is our awkward picture. I look like a weigh 500 lbs, excuse that.

We walked around the shopping area after dinner.

This is my attempt of surfing, I look totally awk!

D being silly.

We then decided to go back to the go kart place with everyone this time.  We got the slowest go kart this time so d wanted to hit everyone going by us.  There was a "no bump rule" and I didn't want to get kicked out, of course he thought it was hilarious.

Next day was rainy off and on but we of course spent the morning drinking coffee on our balcony.  There was two flags up most of yesterday and today but that didn't stop us from getting the water. :)

Today was spent looking for cool seashells and anything else we could find.  Dustin found a starfish(alive) and a FULL sand dollar.  He has awesome eyes.

Meg and I with both the water treasures he found.  LOVE it!

The next couple days are a blur so I'll just put pictures up.  I had a great time! 

Dustin and I on the scooter.  We loved riding on the scooter.  D of course stated he wanted one when we got home.

Driving around town on the scooter.

D was obsessed with this saying while on the trip.

Deena trying to text, so she hid under the towel.

Showing of my cute FOX fanny pack :)  It was locked on this hanger thing but i managed to get it on still locked up.

D and Jordan had to return the scooters and it was raining bad so they decided to cover up with trash bags. What silly boys!

boys being boys!

Megan bought me this hat!  D was throwing a fit saying I didn't need it so her and Jordy went back and got it for me! Thanks Meg, I love it!

The trip was awesome but I was happy to come back to my baby, Benny!  He was so happy to see me(and dustin, I guess).  He spent the week with my family. Thanks for putting up with him, I know he is a handful!!! I was glad to see my kitties when I got home to.  They meowed alot.  I missed my parents too, I know I am lame!