Since I had a big post on here bemoaning the fact that Peggy Sue had a giant tumor and wondering what I should do about it, I thought that I should let everyone know that I did have her put to sleep over winter break. For the reasons previously discussed, I decided that it was in her best interests to let her go. Unfortunately, it set me back about $130, which I was really not expecting. My brother kept telling me that he could come up with quite a few significantly cheaper options for bringing about her demise, but I opted to not take him up on those.

I was sad and it was stressful, but I’m doing okay now. Warren was nice enough to go with me, and I made him call the vet in the first place to set up the appointment because I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She was a great little friend, and I will always recommend rats as pets because they are wonderful. If my future kids ever want to have pets, I will definitely push them to get rats over gerbils or hamsters or guinea pigs or something because I’ve tried them all and Peggy Sue was definitely the best. I got the movie Ratatouille for Christmas, so now I have something to remind me of her (and they really did do a good job of portraying rats accurately).

I did take pictures on Monday, and I tried to post them here, but seeing as how I am new to WordPress I was bested by the technology. I attempted again tonight to get the pictures up, but for some reason I couldn’t get the thumbnails into my blog. If you click on the links below, I believe that it should take you to the pictues. Plus, the titles tell a story anyway, so I guess it’s good to read them all in order.

We have had more snow and I think the grand total for the weekend storm was 13 inches. We had at least 4 or 5 more inches last night and we are getting more tonight. School was cancelled again today and it is really getting pretty ridiculous around here. Classes in Pullman were cancelled today for the first time in 40 YEARS!! I hear tell that the governor is going to declare a state of emergency in Eastern Washington. This is the biggest storm in over a decade. Of course this would happen the winter after I first move here. I have more pictures, but they aren’t on my computer yet so I’ll add them later.

My car on Saturday after sitting outside for the 4 hours that I was at school

What things looked like Sunday morning before I left for church

Yup… that is a ruler. In this picture I believe it was at 8 inches, but the max I saw earlier was 8.5

This is what things looked like from the back porch of my apartment Monday morning

This is what all of the parking lots look like right now (and have looked like for a while)

This is a somewhat blurry picture of the street where I almost got my car stuck Monday afternoon

All for the sake of taking pretty snow pictures

Does that make me a devoted photographer?

Yes, I admit it… I totally fell off the band wagon. Yet again! It is so hard to remember to post to my blog when I barely have time to get all of my homework done. But lucky for me, today was a snow day. A snow day! In Eastern Washington! Imagine that. On Saturday at 11 when I went into school, there was no snow falling and most of the snow on the sidewalks and streets was completely gone (but we really haven’t been snow free since the end of November). Anyhow, when I glanced out the window at 12, it had started snowing and it snowed continuously for the next 32 hours or so, resulting in 8.5 inches at my apartment! And that was on a surface that had been completely bare Saturday morning. It seemed like a lot of snow to me, but I’m from the west side, so I just assumed that the natives knew how to deal with it better than I. But nope, last night I got 3 txt messages and 3 emails telling me that school was cancelled for today. I find this slightly ironic since it is not currently snowing and last night I was out driving around a mere 45 minutes before I found out school was cancelled. All of this means that even though school is cancelled, I don’t feel the least bit scared about driving around today to get things done. I love free days! I’m sure that I will find some way to fill the time. And in case you were wondering, they are forecasting snow through Saturday. They might be forecasting for longer than that, but that is as far as the little calendar on Weather Underground goes out.

If my adventures take me out and about today, I may post some pictures later. You’ll just have to check back.

… has a tumor. A big fatty tumor. Most likely in one of her mammary glands. It has been growing for awhile and every time I come home I try convince myself that it isn’t there. I can no longer do that seeing as how it is roughly the size of her head. *tear* I think that I need to get her put to sleep. *tear* I feel so bad making her live like that, but I also feel so bad making her die. *tear*

So, one of the not-so-fun things that I am going to have to do this break is see what I can do for Peggy Sue. I could try to have the vet remove it, but rats are predisposed to get mammary tumors and she has already lived beyond her normal life expectancy. So who is to say that I wouldn’t pay lots of money to have it removed, only to have another tumor grow in its place. And being a poor college student, I don’t have lots of money to spend on my rat anyway. Plus, she is living with my siblings since I can’t have pets at my apartment, so I’m not sure I would feel okay about them trying to nurse her back to health. Not that I don’t trust them, I just wouldn’t want to make them have to do that, and I would really want to do it myself. So I don’t know what will happen, but it makes me sad… =’(.

Diaphoresis. Syncope. APAP. Ataxia. Bruxism. DIC. Coryza. Epistaxis. Alopecia. ARDS. Entropion. Extropion. Egophony. Tactile fremitus.

The list goes on and on. What does the list consist of? Words and conditions that I had NO idea existed before I started nursing school. Would you like a translation? Okay, in order…:

Sweating. Fainting. Acetaminophen (Advil). Uncoordinated gait. Grinding teeth. Dissemenated Intravascular Coagulation. A runny nose. A bloody nose. Balding. Acute Respiratory distress syndrome. The last four I won’t bother to translate cause they can’t really be done in only one or two words. You could look them up here if you really wanted to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html. It has been my lifesaver this semester!

As I was driving home yesterday I was thinking about the sheer amount of knowledge that I have acquired in the last semester. Four months… that’s it. But I learned soooooooooooooooo much. And the scariest thing — yet terribly exciting at the same time — is that I am 1/4 of the way to being a real life RN! At first that seemed daunting, but the fact that I have already learned so much makes me feel confident that I will be more than adequately prepared by the time I graduate. As evidenced by the above example and the fact that I have EASILY learned upwards of 250 new words this semester. On that note, it really is like learning a new language. We have lots of fun quizzing each other with the most random words we can think of. We also have lots of fun being hypochondriacal and diagnosing ourselves with every new disease, condition, or syndrome that we come across in class. And the most fun (for me) is when I use one of these words in normal conversation with normal people. So consider yourself warned!

And just as a side note, I went to the store the other night to buy a first aid/emergency kit for my car since I do a lot more driving than in the past and through more treacherous conditions. I knew instantly that I was going into the correct profession when I went into raptures at the sight of the first aid kits and the extensive selection of first aid related products. I’m an idiot, I know. But I’m happy, and that’s all that matters, right?

As I was driving through the mountains today on my way from Spokane to Seattle, this song came up on my iPod playlist:

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

And blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

CHORUS: Every blessing You pour out I’ll
Turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s “all as it should be”
Blessed be Your name

And blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
I will bless Your name

Admittedly, I have been having a bit of a problem lately with blessing the Lord. He is being so faithful to show me that no matter what is going on in my life, I can rejoice in the fact of knowing Him. Still, it is hard. I was so convicted by the line that said, “Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise.” Wow. Do I do that? Do I really remember to praise the Lord for everything good? Do I look for blessings in the hard times? Am I willing to stop my complaining and belly aching to see the many ways in which the Lord has blessed me? It gave me something to think about for a good long while.

Oh wait. I know. That is part of a Christmas song, but I really and truly feel that way about THIS time of the year. And as much as I love Christmas, once autumn comes, I know that Christmas will be waiting right around the corner. If I ever get married, it is definitely going to be in the fall. (I don’t have too many things that I HAVE to have for my wedding, but that is one that I will be very insistent upon). Anyhow… the point of this post? I went and played in the park today, taking lots of pictures in the process. And I am posting those here for your enjoyment. The colors in Spokane this fall are exquisite and it makes me so happy! Everything is so bright and vibrant. I’m not sure if this is typical, seeing as how this is my first fall here… but I am rejoicing in the beauty of it all nevertheless!

One of the girls that I know through a Bible study at ICN is engaged. She was going to have her other friend do the engagement pictures, but they HAD to be done this weekend and the schedules were just not working. So somehow I got volunteered to do it. It was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. NOTHING like working at JC Penny Portrait Studio back in the day. I didn’t have stupid company policy telling me what poses were and were not appropriate and docking me points on my photography because I didn’t have the happy couple oohing and aahhing over a fake flower. Anyhow, enough of that. I’m glad to have moved on . I don’t have any pictures of them to post, but maybe I can get some of them in the future. We went to the same park where I took these pictures, and I think that we got some really good ones. I’m excited. I have found my calling if I ever end up flunking out of nursing school…hehehe, just kidding!

As for my life… I’m hanging in there. I just finished my first round of nursing midterms and I am happy to be done with them. As one of my friends pointed out, we are now 1/8 of the way done with nursing school! I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing… =). I have met so many wonderful people and I am really grateful for the wonderful friendships that I already have. It’s hard to believe that I have only been here 2 months when I stop and think about how well I know people already and how much they mean to me. I am attending two Bible studies, one through ICN and one done by my friend from ICN which have both been wonderful and challenging at the same time. I am attending a new church tomorrow with one of my friends, and that excites me! One of these days I imagine that I should post about my classes and my clinical experiences and what not, but not now. I really do apologize that I haven’t blogged in 2 months. But I thought nobody read it but my mom, and I talk to her on the phone so she already knows all of this stuff! Needless to say, I finally did get internet in my apartment after driving to a sketchy looking part of town to track down the UPS warehouse and my modem. But it has been working like a charm ever since. Anyway, I should go be productive (which at this point in time may merely consist of reading The Golden Compass as I have been doing homework all day). I promise to not be so long in posting in the future!

So here I am in Spokane. I wish I had all the time in the world to do a post the right way, but I only have a couple of minutes so this will have to be quick. The reason I only have a couple of minutes is because I am not technically using my Internet. I went driving around downtown Spokane tonight in search of a wireless signal that I could, uhhhhh, “borrow”. My modem was supposed to be delivered today, but I was at orientation the entire day and the stupid UPS guy didn’t leave it with my apartment manager but instead just took it home with him and said that he would be back “sometime” tomorrow. Which means that I get to stay home ALL day tomorrow, until my modem comes, that is. So hopefully I can get wireless hooked up in my apartment tomorrow. But for now I am sitting in my car in downtown, and feeling like I am going to get in trouble at any minute.

I am having a blast here, though. Nursing school is going to be grand and I am SUPER excited. I have already met some really neat, really nice people. Actually, to be honest, EVERYONE I have met so far has been really neat and really nice. I’m beginning to think there aren’t any mean people in nursing school. The weather in Spokane has been wonderful… around 95 degrees every day. I am beginning to re-appreciate the value of air conditioning. As it allows me to get cool at night and when I want to be, and that means that I enjoy the warm temperatures that much more. Tomorrow I don’t have anything that I have to be doing, so I’m gonna unpack some more while I wait for the UPS guy, get my Internet hooked up, and go spend about $700 or so on books/scrubs/other random things for this semester. I will post again once I get my own Internet… and I will definitely post pics of my apartment. But that will have to wait for now. Hopefully I will be back soon!

That was my day yesterday. A LOT of things went wrong, including, but not limited to:

-Having to spend 45 minutes on the phone with various offices at both WSU and UW to try and figure out why there was a hold on my account which made it so that WSU couldn’t process my financial aid. I know that school doesn’t start for a month still, but it is really stressing me out to not have any idea of what my expected contribution is or whether or not I’ll need loans. Goodness, I put down the deposit on an apartment that I *think* works with my budget, but I don’t know for sure cause I haven’t seen the actual budget.

-Realizing that the hold on my account was because I was *TOO* efficient and had UW send my official transcripts to WSU before my degree had posted. So basically, WSU had paperwork from me saying that I had a previous degree and therefore I should be coded as one kind of student, but the transcript from UW made it look like that wasn’t the case.

-Being immensely angry that neither UW nor WSU let me know what was going on! If I hadn’t caught this by simply being on top of things, I shudder to think how long this would have gone on.

-Worrying that there might still be problems even after resending the transcript with my degree on it (which ended up costing me $20, $10 the first time and $10 the second time).

-Intense levels of stress and angst surrounding my general home life as we are all in a state of upheaval due to my parents’ impending move.

-Traffic coming home from work.

-Realizing that I may or may not have killed my sister’s bird by not giving it water. I really don’t remember whether or not he had water, but I guess it is my fault since I was the only one home for the last couple of weeks. This stupid bird lived to the ripe old age of 11 (as a zebra finch) and then I go and kill it by not giving it water. I feel great.

-Frustrations in general over the fact that while everyone tries to understand, not many people do completely understand what it is like to be a PK. No, it does not boil down simply to the fact that now my parents get to live in a big, beautiful house.

Like I said, there were a lot more stresses. But I’m actually having a pretty okay day today and I don’t want to make it bad by reliving all of the badness of yesterday. In the good news department:

-I came home from work yesterday and bawled for like 15 minutes. Now I know this doesn’t sound like a good thing, but sometimes just crying makes everything better. For me, it’s almost as if I haven’t actually processed the things that are making me upset until I get it all out by crying. Of course, I can’t prompt the crying myself, it has to be something totally stupid to bring it on, but it is nice once you can get it out of your system.

-I got an email today from B&N telling me that they shipped my Harry Potter book! I am super excited and plan on scheduling as much time as possible to read it this weekend. I have read a number of articles that say that everything makes sense at the end. This makes me happy as I had horrible visions of Rowling just killing everybody off and leaving the story without any ending whatsoever.

-It may be hard for me to get much reading in this weekend, though, as I have a lot of cool things planned. Friday night and Saturday I am going with Warren to the boy scout camp that he used to work at out on the peninsula. This trip involves a drive by (if not over) the brand new Tacoma Narrows bridge, which looks incredibly cool. (I think that Warren’s love of bridges may be starting to rub off on me, although in my defense, I have always found bridges to be pretty cool).

-Since we only have SS and AM service on Sunday, we are going to have a BBQ after church and then go canoeing on the lake! This has been in the works for seriously like a year, and it is finally happening. I am excited.

The change? My parents are moving to San Francisco sometime soon. Ambiguous, I know. But that is the best they can give me. Maybe the middle of September? Apparently when the pastor changes were announced in May or so, that wasn’t the end of it. So Monday night (while I was still at home and not down at camp) I got a call from my mom saying that they were in Olympia and had decided to come home for the night. I should have been tipped off right there, but no. So they came waltzing in at 10 pm, made small talk for awhile, and then told me that they didn’t just randomly decide to come home. They wanted to tell me in person that they were going to be moving down to Richmond.

AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sorry. I just needed to get that out. Now don’t get me wrong, I am WAY less upset about this move than the last time we moved, mainly because I was already planning on moving away from my parents in August. But I wasn’t planning on MOVING to Spokane, as in to live there solidly for the next 2 years. I was planning to live there for the school months and then come back home (home being Seattle) for the breaks. But now what do I do? Where is my home? Is my home where my parents are? I’m not so sure. And if my home isn’t where my parents are, and home is truly Seattle, what will I do in terms of (a) Seeing my parents and (b) Living in Seattle over the breaks??? Like I said, it really is not THAT complicated but it is frustrating, especially since this came falling out of the clear blue sky. I really feel bad for my mom, though. I am moving to Spokane, and she will move away and leave Lindsey and Alex in Seattle to go to UW. Hopefully she can find some way to entertain herself. So yah, if you have a spare prayer, you can think of our family. Wanna know the rest?

Bro. Bob and Sis. Cheryl to Portland
Bro. Bill and Sis. Lori to Medford
My dad and mom to Richmond/San Fran
Bro. Larry and Sis. Rachel to Seattle

Yay! What fun.