Dr. Laura "Life of a Med Student"

Amusing

2008-11-03T13:59:00.003-06:00

I will update on neuro later, and there are pictures from the homecoming game up on facebook. For now check this out. Roll Tide 9-0!

What happens when you google Auburn National Championship?
http://www.gooogie.co.uk/?gid=275715&hl=en&meta=o&q=Auburn%20National%20

Yea Alabama

2008-10-18T18:46:00.005-06:00

Ok so I'm actually 3 for 3 with the last few weeks, so yay for that. In other news my time on surgery is over (woohoo). I have to say I did really enjoy the actual surgery part and getting to suture people and all that but the hours are horrendous and you have no life so...no to surgery, mark it off the list.

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week, test Wed, R off and then test Friday. I was pretty worthless this week other than studying although I did get in some good walking/jogging because the weather has been amazing. It rained a tad bit yesterday so it was cool this morning and great weather to walk in my sweatpants and long sleeves.

Today I went to watch Anthony bowl, he is bowling the correct way now and getting much better. Then I went out to mom's after a trip to the store and we made a cookie cake and cheese dip to take over to Michael's to watch the game. The game was...marvelous the 1st half our passing was so pretty to watch. 2nd half, idk what happens to us but we need to figure it out. Also I cannot stand the CBS commentators, they apparently hate UA and love to be seen because several times throughout the game the camera is on them instead of the game. I hate hearing the crowd cheering about something when all I can see are the stupid commentators.

Let's see, other then that....I start neurology on Monday which will have much better hours (8-5ish at the worst) so even if it's not good I won't be there 14 hours a day again woohoo.

Below is my nephew who is cute as a button giving me his rendition of the fight song. I would say for someone who turned 4 in May he has got it down pretty good. He is all decked out in his bama shirt and spidey pj pants, a true bama fan. He also likes to repeat that Bear Bryant used to be the coach but Nick Saban is the coach now and that's a funny name. Watch and enjoy! Oh and ROLL TIDE 7-0!!!

Surgery is over...

2008-10-10T11:00:00.002-06:00

How about I'm posting twice in two weeks, I'd say that's pretty awesome of me. Yesterday was a pretty cool day. For starters it was my last day of clinic work on surgery, which translates into my last day of waking up at insane early hours (i.e 3:30ish) to be at the hospital at insanely early hours (i.e 4:15ish). I was writing one of my notes around 5 yesterday morning and some intern/resident/attending walked by me to get a chart and then stopped and said, you must be on surgery no one else is here at this awful hour in the morning. To which I replied I sure am but it's my last day so I'm pretty excited about that.

I was hoping to have no surgeries yesterday like I did Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday I went into work at 5 am wrote my notes, and was back home by 7 because we had no surgeries and my extremely nice intern told us to go study there was nothing else for us to do.

Yesterday though there was a surgery so I had to go in on it. I was not excited because it was a CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) and they take FOREVER, and from past student experiences you can't see anything and you just stand there for at least 6 hours. Not seeing anything is generally a problem for me because I'm a good 3/4 foot shorter than most of the surgeons and they tend to put the table at their level because...well they are doing the surgeries. But anyway, the Dr was great. They made sure I had a stool, I had a perfect view in the 2nd assist position. So I got to stitch up the hole in the leg where they harvested the saphenous vein. I held a beating heart, got to use the blower to blow the blood out of the coronary arteries so the surgeon could see, and cut strings after he sutured the vessels to the heart. The let me hold scissors in the chest cavity mere millimeters from the heart...so cool. Watching the heart beat and feeling it beat, also very cool. The surgeon was so nice too he let me ask question chatted with me about Mobile, UA, football, he sang part of the fight song and said his dad was a music major up there in the 30s and helped with some of the music for the fight song and other things. We chatted about my high school and the good ole Semmes area, so he basically talked to me more than the resident and told me I did well after the surgery. So cool surgery with a cool surgeon was a great last day for my clinical surgery experience.

Today we had our oral test (as in spoken for some of you lol). We sat in a room, well hallway because the power was off in the office building so we were not allowed to go up the stairs. However our course director who is one of the most eccentric amazing people in the world that will make you smile no matter what day you are having because he is so out there yet so brilliant did sneak past the security guard and up to his 7th floor office to get our case stems for the exam; he's just that bad a. So the exam was one of us with one of the attendings given a stem like 65 yo female with abdominal pain for 3 days...and go. So we had to go through what all we would do and they would respond with good or now their BP is 80/30 instead of 110/70 woops. I think I did fine, even though I did have one patient code because I put in IVs before securing an airway, BUT in my defense I did say put in two large bore IVs WHILE someone else is but got cut off with patient is coding on the table what did you miss? After that she said I did well and it was my second trauma one, the first one I did fine on and I killed the acute abdomen stem so yay. Not that any of the trauma cases are realistic in the sense that they are for what one person would do but in the trauma room there are a bajillion people running around doing stuff all at once...a total adrenaline rush.

After the test I hung around a bit and then headed to the mall to buy some VS stuff for Heather's lingerie shower tonight, I thought I was going to be good and not spend a lot, but that didn't happen because I had to buy me some stuff too.

This weekend I am off, and then off next week except for a test Wed at 9 and Fri at 9 so I'm extremely pumped about catching up on sleep. In Dad news, he seems to be feeling better and has an appointment with the neurologist soon so hopefully he'll get some better news.

That's pretty much it for now I guess. Happy Friday everyone!

Update

2008-10-01T18:52:00.003-06:00

Ok so Rachel keeps reminding me it has now been months since I have posted. My life has become the life of a very old person for the most part. I loved my time on pediatrics, and I mean LOVED it. I have been on surgery for the last 6 weeks (almost) and while the surgeries can be extremely cool the life sucks, correction is nonexistent. While on trauma and general I was at the hospital by no later than 4:30 am and left around 6 every day. Most of the day was spent doing nothing for long periods of time interrupted by some scut work for the residents and then every now and then getting to scrub in. The gist of surgery is to find out if they are eating, pooping and walking (if possible) and then move them along. I do enjoy the fact that I have now seen brain not in a bucket but in the head (pretty nifty how they de-scalp to reveal it), I can stitch or staple up a laceration, and identify a hernia with the best of them. However, I have had zero time to study and am pretty much exhausted everyday to the point of not being able to stay awake for my 9 o clock shows. Needless to say I will be excited at the end of my 7th week of surgery because week 8 is tests and I will not be working. After surgery I'll be on neurology for 4 with single digit hour work days and then psych for another 4, and apparently wearing a skirt on the psych rotation is a bad idea. I will have to say I'm pretty set on peds right now because my two weeks of peds surgery has been soooo much better than the other weeks on surgery mainly because I get to see kids.

So back to the being old. I have turned 24 in the past three months of nonposting. Also happy 25th to Rach, 26th (21st) to Alex, AND then my niece is now 12. TWELVE, she is now the age I was when she was born. Ashley had her first school dance last Friday and there is talk of a boy...they grow up so fast it's crazy.

I have a wedding to be in on November 15th which will make me the final of me heather w and heather to get married. Heather W the first, to be married is also now pregnant, congrats to her. All this makes me feel very behind the curve, but oh well.

Dad has been having bad back problems and went to the spine doc on Monday for some bad news. They told him there was nothing they could do to relieve the pain and his only option at all is surgery. The surgery they want to do is not a pretty one for the surgery and for recovery. So his goal right now is to try and get to retirement (another 4 years) if at all possible so he doesn't lose about 100,000 in his retirement. He really can't stand upright currently so he's going to try and get a second opinion or find someone that will at least give him an epidural, which these would not.

Let's see otherwise ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!

Seeing if I sink or swim...

2008-07-03T21:03:00.005-06:00

So I haven't posted in forever and a lot has happened since then but basically I took my step 1 of the boards and hated it. I had my white coat ceremony on the 28th of June and a little reception at my house afterwards that went well. Oh Michael and Jennifer bought a house and had a house warming the weekend before my white coat.

Ok so now that you're all caught up this week I started rotations. I have peds first and my first part of peds is the newborn nursery. So I have now done exams on several newborns, written discharges, progress notes, and prescriptions (I can't sign them though). I saw a C-section two days ago and the next time I'll get to carry the baby from the table to the nurses to clean it off without any stops because I dropped him/her hopefully. It's kind of tiring even though I'm on probably the easiest rotation I will have but it's stressful and tiring and Brandon left yesterday so that didn't help the situation very much.

Tomorrow is the 4th and I'm off (woohoo) so we're all going down to the bay for food and fireworks. This will be our 3rd week of cooking for a family event and we're all a little exhausted with that but we should still have good food tomorrow.

I'm not going to say I will post regularly but I will try and rachel will continue to annoy me to post it seems to work. Happy 4th everyone.

18

2008-04-14T19:09:00.003-06:00

I have 18, EIGHTEEN days of class left. Actually that is counting weekends but yeah how surreal is that. In a measly 18 days I will be done with my 2nd year of medical school and be two months away from seeing real patients and no longer sitting in classrooms but working in the hospitals how cool/scary is that? We have 6 tests left in these 18 days and honestly I could care less about any of them but I'm working on that and trying to make myself study. It's chilly this week for some reason but still very sunny and gorgeous and not conducive weather at all to studying.
Also in there that means I will be moving up my move to either early may or mid may if an apartment is available and all the while studying at least 6 hours a day but I love being busy and having a schedule made out for different subjects to do different days and all that will keep me on track. AND Rachel is coming down so I get to have at least an hour or so off to go to Spot.
In other news I haven't been doing much except taking tests and what not. Oh after all my electrical issues, which I don't think I posted about but everyone that reads this heard about already anyway AL power is paying my 70.00 for my new 59.99 router and Comcast took 10.00 off my bill for the week without net. No other electrical issues *knock on wood* just yet and things seem to be running ok now that I have it all fixed, maybe I should just stay here but eh idk we'll see.

Extra hour

2008-03-07T15:26:00.005-06:00

This week has been pretty exhausting. I had a midterm on Wednesday for my stupid ethics pass/fail class that tries to be all important. The class is ridiculous and I had a real test on Thursday for neuroscience so I had to spend time to studying for that test instead of my actual important test and I'm not even sure I really passed the pass/fail test (they also give us papers to write and require community service for the class). Anyway then Thursday after my neuro test I had my first thinking bad of a nurse moment. I've always said I wouldn't be one of those doctors (and I probably won't) but on my way out of the parking lot after neuro (having been up since 5, up the night before studying and taking one of those tests you either did really well on or really sucked on but don't really know which) this little blonde girl in a pair of the Victoria secret line pink pants with pink written on the butt with her big sunglasses on decides to stay in my lane of the parking lot and walk extremely slowly and obliviously to me to her nursing building to which I voiced my opinion of effing nursing student.

Now...deep breath...I haven't been angry and all for the entire time since the last update. I did have spring break last week and got to go shopping for new clothes (yay for new sizes) with mom. We went on Tuesday and then she called me Wed morning and said, we went the wrong day everything is 40% off of the sale price from yesterday. So....we went back and if they had the same things from the day before re-bought it and then got some new stuff. So I got several new dresses (one is in the pic below), shirts, pants, some capris and a new pair of shoes!

Other then that I didn't do much of anything over spring break except rest and start studying for my neuro test (I can't wait for a break when I don't have to study for an upcoming test). Oh and I have decided Wednesdays are my favorite TV nights because I get to watch ANTM and then the gauntlet (while Rach and I comment).

I've been walking to class some this week we're having spells of warm gorgeous weather and I'm extremely ready for it to be here to stay. It also saves me a few gallons of gas when I get to walk and that is marvelous considering how ridiculous the gas prices are at the moment and just continuing to climb.

We have caduceus tomorrow, so I have my hair appointment at 3 and my dress has been altered. It's at the exploreum though and there are free appetizers and beverages so that should be fun.

Dad's birthday is Sunday, he'll be 58. So we're having a big lunch (not that we don't just about every Sunday anyway) Sunday and I have to figure out what I'm getting him. I guess that's all for now. There are more pictures of my new clothes in my web album if you'd like to see.

Addition to the last post...

2008-02-24T20:10:00.001-06:00

I should have posted this with the last ones but I forgot they were on my camera. That's the chicken parm on top already in individual servings. The bottom is the penne bake (it'll make 8 servings), the shrimp Alfredo on the back burner (6 servings) and the peanut butter fudge that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet.

2008-02-24T19:18:00.003-06:00

Rachel reminded it's time for my monthly post, so here we go. On the weight loss front, as of a couple days ago (but officially today) I have entered the 120s at 129! Yay for that, I think I'ma try to hold at 125 if I get there. Other than that I have just been going to school for the most part. Next week is spring break.

As far as school goes things have been well. I finished up pathology finally on Friday although I won't know my grade for a while because they have to send the final off to be graded and it won't be back probably for another 2 weeks or so. After spring break I have 2 months left of school...how weird is that! Then a month before the boards and then I'll be on rotations, it's going by so fast Lord help the patients when we all get on rotations.

Caduceus is on March 8th (the day before Dad's bday) and I will probably be dateless but that's alright I was last year too and still had fun. I'm wearing a royal blue shimmery dress that I'll post more pictures or after the seamstress finishes taking about 4 inches off so I don't break my neck. Steven may still come down but I haven't heard from him too much lately so we'll see.

Ashley has "try outs" this Tuesday for spring ball so we've been practicing pitching, my knees are no where near as good as they used to be, but then again I wasn't a catcher either. She's doing really well actually for not practicing on her on so maybe she'll get on a decent team this year with a coach that knows what they're doing.

Oh I made my frozen dinners for March during the last two days. I made a penne bake, goulash, turkey Shepard's pie, pork chops w/ grape and fig chutney, chicken Parmesan, cheesy tomato fish bake, fish chowder (w/ shrimp), shrimp Alfredo, and some peanut butter chocolate fudge (not real fudge but still). That I think should give me a dinner for just about all of March which is exciting except I'm running out of Tupperware now.

I finally got all my taxes turned in and should get my money back in about 2 weeks from last Friday. After I pay the CPA 150 (I'll do it myself next year) I should still have 1050 in returns so that's not bad. I've also been trying to figure out how bad in debt I will be when I get out of school and if I take out 3000 this year and next year just as a slush in case of emergency I will be at 77,000 total for 8 years of school...not too bad. Now mom had brought up at one point them paying for my undergrad which was about 16500 but then kinda acted like maybe not the other day, but w/e I never planned on them paying any of it anyway. Either way that's not awful considering if I didn't join the air force it would be at least 120,000 for just med school and I would probably have no Roth IRA started and no nest egg for future down payment or trips or anything. I figure if I keep saving like I am now I should have a decent amount in both of those when I get out. I also put my statement ending balance on the last credit card I have with a balance on it last week. My goal is to keep it under 300 now.

I'm sure lots of other stuff has happened, but probably not too interesting considering I wake up, work out, go to school, study/watch select TV (yay for a new challenge and new ANTM) sleep and repeat. I will try to update again before a month but I make no promises. The pictures below are from some Sunday lunches in the last 3 weeks and practicing with Ash today after lunch.

It's been a while

2008-01-15T20:56:00.001-06:00

So I haven't posted in I don't know how long, too long according to my very few readers, but here goes. For the last...2-3 weeks I have had the most energy I ever remember having before. I have been getting up early enough to work out and study some before school, being productive most of the day after I get home from school and repeating. Things have been going well; two Sundays ago I did a ton of cooking and made my own frozen meals that should last give me dinner through February. I made some salsa chicken, tuna noodle casserole, a penne bake, turkey sloppy joe stuff, some fish and chicken cordon bleu wraps. Thus far everything has tasted great but I have only been eating the portions I didn't freeze but by the end of this week I'll get to the frozen stuff.
In respects to the eating better and working out I am officially 1.5 pounds away from the goal weight I've wanted to be for...at least 8 years. I have never been this close, the closest has been 5 pounds away. So that is pretty exciting. I'm saving the Kohls gift cards I got for Christmas so when I get there or a little under there, which should put me a size down from now, I can buy some new clothes!!
Yesterday was a slight set back because I had an emotional eating binge and ate a ton of jelly beans (most of you already know why) and I missed my workout this morning. BUT I went to the gym this afternoon and had some of my fish with sauteed veggies in salsa and some canned carrots and squash, so much food and so good. It's amazing how much you really can have without it being bad for you.
School, is school we've been back in for a while and our first test is this Friday. We'll see how it goes. I was doing really well keeping up if not being ahead but last night I didn't get anything done and I've been less than productive today but I should be ok.
Other than that not too much has been going on; just trying to keep with my schedule. I'm planning on a trip to ttown in early February as long as I'm decently not behind in path b/c I have a test soon after the planned trip. Then our caduceus ball is March 9th. Steven is probably going to come down to be my date so that should be fun.
I'm sure a ton of other stuff has happened since then but that's all I've got for now. I know I say this every time but I'll try and keep this up a little better maybe at least once a week.
Rach just keep harassing me about it :)

Apathetic...

2007-12-08T18:26:00.001-06:00

Well I have, in my mind at least, finished up for this semester. I still have a pass/fail class final next Wednesday and a presentation on Tuesday I have not started on but that will all get taken care of. I did well on my last few tests for the semester and ended up with a B in micro and I still have a B in path, but it runs until Feb (17 hour class btw) so we'll see.

Instead of studying for my tests like I should have I put up my Christmas decorations, lights outside, and made my wreath! Pictures of all of this will be coming soon. I also helped decorate our tree at Mom and Dad's. Dad for some reason decided to go by himself to buy the tree this year (which has never happened before) and we have a slight Charlie Brown tree, probably the smallest tree we've had ever in the nice big dining room, but he tried and I love him so it's ok.

Today I went to the Semmes Christmas parade (for those that don't know I went to high school in Semmes, very much the sticks). It was a good parade, the kids caught lots of candy, necklaces, stuffed animals, etc. However, it was definitely a Semmes Christmas parade, there were many trucks and flatbed trailers, a few boats, a John Deer, many horses (some even painted for the season, and it ended with....the Sheriff truck pulling a flat bed of...prisoners orange jump suits and all! Fun times, the pictures are classic. I'm putting some on here but you should go check out the rest on my web albums.

Alex, Marg and I are having our Christmas dinner on Thursday (yay!); I'm also going to the kids Christmas parties on Thursday. I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.
I guess that's all for now, I'll leave you with some lovely pictures.

I know, I'm horrible at keeping up with this thing...

2007-11-13T19:34:00.001-06:00

It has been forever since my last post but basically my life since then has involved school, studying, not studying but thinking that I should be, and then hanging out with the fam, Alex and Marg. School is going alright, the last test block was not that great but eh I'll do better on the next one. We don't have anymore tests until after Thanksgiving which is exciting but sadly getting closer and closer.

I have now done 2 history and physicals on actual patients which is very interesting because I really don't know what I'm doing but that's how you learn right? That's what they tell us anyway.

Alex and I volunteered at the Boys and Girls club around Halloween for their haunted house. We got to make our room all scary and be crazy pathologists...fun times and it knocked out our required hours for FOD.

The med school Halloween party was the weekend before Halloween and twas much fun. Alex was part of Kiss, Margaret was Lizzy Borden.

I have plans to at some point eat at Spot with Kelly and Rach during the break. I'm back on my diet or at least trying to be just in case I am heading to a place where I will get to wear a bathing suit soon.

Mom and dad are currently in NC for some conference dad had to go to. They have just been traveling all over lately. The stopped in Chattanooga on their way up there, also went to Grandfather Mt, the Biltmore and now are in Raleigh. Apparently downtown Raleigh is not the best place to be because there are lots of peddlers out and while dad was outside the hotel smoking a cab driver pulled up and asked him if he needed a girl, lol, classic. They'll be back on Friday (8 days away which was astounding to mom who has never been away for longer than 7 days before) after a stop in SC to see a family cemetery.

Dad, Michael, Jennifer, Ashley and I are going up to the game this weekend and hopefully the good Tide will show up unlike last weekend and we will get to see a good game.

Other than that I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas break, trying to make it through school. I will try to keep this up; I know I say that every time but well I'll try again lol. Oh and has anyone seen the show I want to look like a high school cheerleader again? I want to go on that show, and then what not to wear. There are lots of new pictures up on my web albums if you haven't looked lately (Halloween, the Bama Homecoming game, the fair, Fl State game, etc).

Roll Tide...

2007-09-28T08:11:00.002-06:00

I'm currently sitting in class and this man is on slide...6 of 74 for his first PowerPoint lecture and he's got two at least to get through in the next 2 hours and 50 minutes (fun times). Yeah I'm about to start working on my spider solitaire skills because I'm bored already but I thought I'd post first. As of Monday I now have short hair again, and as of Tuesday I decided I liked it lol. The girl didn't really realize that my hair doesn't like to do anything but be straight and she blow dried it and put product in it...I told her it wouldn't hold (and it didn't but w/e). At one point though she was like this is how you get it to hold volume blow dry it with this product, do you have some of this product? I just told her yes because she would have been appalled had I told her my blow dryer blew up about a month and a half ago and I haven't bought a new one yet.

I do like my hair though it's much easier to deal with now, there are pics up on my web album which I don't really like cause it has the product in it but I'll put my new license picture up I got renewed on Wednesday because I like it.

My second test block went well and I currently have an A and a solid B in my two classes so yay for that. This weekend I'm going to the FL St. game with most of the men in my family. Dad, Michael, Anthony and I are going so it should be an interesting trip. Next weekend I'm headed to homecoming so I get Crimson Tide football two weekends in a row. Dad, Mom and I are going to that game. If we get up there in time we'll go to city cafe woohoo for lunch but he wants to try and see the bonfire and then we're probably crashing on LeeAnn's floor in B'Ham Friday night.

My house is still a wreck because of the great flood but I should be able to move furniture back in soon. I guess that's about it for now. I'm headed out after class today to Jacksonville so Roll Tide!!

What a day...

2007-09-21T16:31:00.001-06:00

So I get up and go to the gym this morning (5th day in a row, woohoo lol). I get home and walk in to a soapy smell and then realize I can hear the washer running. I put a load of clothes in the washer before I left for the gym (1.5 hours ago). So I had one of those heart dropping moments where several bad words run through your head as I walk to the back of the house. Then my heart drops more when I notice the color differentiation in the carpet where the water has made its way into the 2 back rooms in my house. There was at least 0.5-1" of water standing in the two rooms. Yesterday the washer man came to fix it because it wasn't spinning the water out and either he didn't reattach the hose to the washer or he didn't do it well because water had been running out of there the whole time I was gone.

So of course I call dad and he came to fix it and suck up the water with a shop vac since I had to study seeing as I had a test at 1 today. So yeah he took out a good 12 gallons of water and that was after most of it ran out the back of the house under the siding. Fun times....

I still did fine on my test which is good and now I get to study for the weekend (except for a break to watch the Bama game) and through the next week for my test on Wednesday.

I guess I should study for now, there are some new pictures up on web albums if you'd like to take a look.

I know, I know...

2007-09-13T18:25:00.001-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that I have not posted in a month...so here we go. School has been going pretty well, the first test block was not bad and went much better then any test block last semester. I am currently on call for autopsy so I have my scrubs and tennies in the car and my cool beeper waiting on my pager to tell me to report to the morgue ASAP. Life pretty much revolves around school now and trying to figure out how not to do school work and still do okay.
I am now officially 23 and I feel very old because I learned that my brain has stopped growing. Let's see so much has happened in a month. Margaret and I meet every morning at 7 to study before class and on Saturdays.
Ashley has started playing fall ball and has her first game this weekend. She'll be 11 soon which is so surreal. Rach had her birthday yesterday along with my mom's unbirthday. Margaret and Alex also had bdays recently.
For my bday I got a new camera which I definitely need so dad can have his old one back. Alex got me tourgasm (yay for Dane Cook), Marg got me a great mat and magnets.
OH I got a raise on my stipend so I now get 1600 dollars a month to go to school that they pay for and in July it goes up to 1900 which is very exciting.
We will actually be working on patients soon taking H & Ps which scares me to death.
Last but not least the Tide is doing well so far. I watched the first game at Michael's and then the second at mom and dad's with chili and football helmet jello. Our running game is looking spectacular but JP has got to step it up, start seeing all his open men and not over throwing the guys open in the red zone. I guess that's it for now and yes I will try to keep it up. Oh yeah I joined a gym this morning so maybe I can keep that up too.

Back to school, back to school...

2007-08-12T20:15:00.001-06:00

Okay so I haven't posted in...forever, I'm sorry. I was kind of in lock down for the most of July and since then I've just been a blob. I really don't know where to start with this because it has been so long since I posted last but for those of you (no one) who didn't know I am home from COT. I really had a lot of fun at my training but I'm also very glad to be home. I was a member of Kilo flight, learned how to march, salute, iron, all sorts of stuff. I didn't lose weight like I wanted to but I do think I toned up a bit but that's all gone know thanks to the blob like state I've been in since I got out of COT. All of my pictures are on facebook and my web albums (link on the left) so you should take a look if you haven't. I did enjoy wearing camo and combat boots especially once I got good at shining my boots and they looked all snazzy. The 'rents and kids came to my graduation there was a fly over and everything which was very cool.

Let's see, since then I have done lazy stuff. I did finally get around to cleaning some tonight and the plan is to get up early and clean more in the morning since I'm used to the getting up early thing now. I did go to Chuck E Cheese for the last day of the kids summer and went with the 'rents over to Ocean Springs MS to the Walter Anderson Museum. Alex and I hit up the orientation party Friday night which twas much more fun then we thought it would be. Yesterday I went to the beach with Kelly and Caitlin who I have not seen in a while. I got a little sun but not too much. We also went to the outlets and the new mall at the E Sho' as Kelly calls it. I bought a really cute dress from white house black market that I shouldn't have bought but it was on sale (still too expensive but w/e). I also got a cute Tee from Old Navy that is a baseball tee style and says Alabama (180 proof) moonshine.
Today I went to church and then lunch with fam. Mom got me a smoker, because she usually buys me anything she gets her for the kitchen, that Emeril makes. It's cast iron and goes in the oven so I'm kinda excited about that.

Other then that, I have done nothing. I talk online, watch TV and get ready to start back to school tomorrow. For Alex and Margaret, here we go...one more year! To those of you that watch the Hills, don't forget to watch tomorrow!! I should be more on top of things with this blog now as I will need study breaks starting tomorrow around noon.

COT bound

2007-07-02T09:52:00.001-06:00

Well I'm headed off to boot camp, or as everyone that has been through actual boot camp likes to call it baby boot camp/boot camp at the Ritz. Yes it won't be like real boot camp but it's still a boot camp for me so whatever. I'm leaving in about an hour and I'm kinda excited/nervous/scared but I think I'll be okay. I'm fairly athletic even if I am out of shape they can get me back into shape. I haven't been pushed since I played sports in high school so I'm kinda looking forward to that.

In other news I've basically been doing a lot of nothing. Just hanging out and being a blob (also a little excited about not being a blob for the next month). I saw Fantastic 4 with Alex on Saturday and it was pretty good, there will more then likely be another one of those coming eventually. After the movie we went down to the bay and made a drag shrimping, ate a lot of food and shot an enormous amount of fireworks. No one was burned this year and no lives were threatened like last year when one of the big ones fell over and started shooting at me and Kim (fun times).

Sunday we went to church and then had lunch with the fam. Again an enormous amount of food as always, it was really good though. Mom got me a card that plays I will survive when you open it and the males at the table (Daddy Michael) discussed how easy I was going to have it compared to real boot camp. When discussing not to lock my knees while standing in formation because I'll pass out Michael said, "But if you do see if they can tape it or something so I can watch it." I love you too Michael. Dad says I'll be fine, Michael says I'm puny and might make it...puny is not something I would really consider myself lol but we'll see. I said all my good byes to the fam. Hopefully we get off base privileges quickly so I can also go see Kim before she leaves for Maryland.

I guess I should load up the car now. I will have my phone during non-duty hours and will probably have internet in a week-ish. I'll be through with COT on August 3rd and then back to school on the 13th. I'll try to keep everyone posted and actually update this thing when I get the net. Otherwise, I hope y'all have a great July...and maybe I'll be all in shape next time I see you lol. The pictures are from this weekend and there are more in my web albums if you'd like to see them.

A 6 hour tour

2007-06-23T00:41:00.000-06:00

Today Alex, Margaret and I left on our road trip to Waco Texas to go see a show (The Queers...it's punk rock). We left Mobile around 11 (about an hour before schedule) and headed out on I 10. We were making really good time because...well Roxy (as we named my car today) doesn't like to go slow. Lunch was had at Subway in some part of Louisiana near Baton Rouge; we played the license plate game (and are 2 shy of half the states); listened to some music and were having a great time. Then when we FINALLY made it out of Louisiana, which we never thought we were going to do we made a little pit stop at the Texas Welcome Center for potty breaks, caffeine and a map. This particular welcome center has a little walkway out back over a wetland and we walked out there taking pictures, having fun. Took some pictures in the Texas state cut out thing outside and then made the comment we were making really good time as I reached in my purse for the keys. Then the words, "If I have my keys" come out of my mouth.

Now Alex and Margaret, knowing this little joke has been played in a different version at our end of the year party thought I was joking until I looked up with, according to Margaret, your little blue eyes getting huge. I was.not.joking! We searched every where for my keys. Through every trash can, under every bush/pamphlet holder/vending machine. I even went back to the bathroom to make sure they didn't some how in the process of using the bathroom get hung on my underwear or something and I was just not very observant. I had a run in with a police man who would not let me out to search on the walkway again because Alex was out there but we'll get to him later. We searched and searched for a long time...called our mother's in the process of course and then AAA.

AAA said they were on it and I could get a key made for my car and they'd call back with-in 5-10 minutes....30 minutes later, no call. So I call back, and they of course have no record of my previous call. So again I gave them all the info and they were "on it" for the 2nd time. In the meantime previously mentioned police man comes over and chats and is very nice and seems like he will be good to have around while we wait for AAA to be roadside assistance-y. I also started calling local locksmiths from the phone book page Alex so ingeniously had them copy before the welcome centered closed.

One guy took only cash, which we did not have enough of. Another was out on a call and the guy AAA finally found was 400. No thank you, so I gave them the numbers of the people I had called and they got in touch with them. Guy that was on a call, said it would be 50 (AAA covers the first 60) and he'd be there in 30 minutes. Well...then he calls and says it'll be 160 because of the type of car I have, but at this point I did not care it was I think 7:30 by now and we had been there since 5ish. He came, took my trunk lock, and left to go make the key.

Since we could get in the car now, with the alarm going off, we got our stuff and sat on the sidewalk talking to the police man who was watching out for us cause he was great, studying and calling respective parents. Locksmith comes back, oh and I forgot...he's in pajama pants...tries the key...it unlocks the car without making the alarm go off but he can't program it. SOooo he leaves to make a new key and says he'll be right back. AAA then calls me about 20 minutes later saying the PJ locksmith isn't coming back tonight he can't make the key and he'll do it in the morning...it's now probably 8:45-9ish. I say a few select words to Alex while the AAA lady is on the phone...kinda like he says he's not efiing coming back what the F*** are we gonna do? Well I pretty much hang up on AAA lady and say I'll call her back when she was telling me they could tow the car somewhere.

PJ man comes back because he left some of his things in my car and says he can do it in the morning if the Honda place is open and it'll be the 160 for today, but being the nice guy he is, he won't charge me for tonight and he leaves. We spend the next minutes debating on whether to call the cash locksmith, get the tow or what. There are no Cabs in Orange Texas, there is a rental place but it wasn't open, my spare key is in Mobile, it's getting darker by the minute and my phone is dying. So Officer amazing tells us he can get a cop to come and take us to a hotel in Orange TX. He also calls and gets the number for the Honda place from the police station (of course they're not open for anything but sales on Saturday) and he's just in general the nicest guy we could have ever asked for at this moment in time.

Since the Honda place will not be open to get my car fixed, and there are no Cabs to take us to the rental place or wherever the next day from the hotel we were a little perplexed as to what to do. We were going to get a rental and have mom and dad overnight the key to us in Waco...but then do overnight people deliver on Sunday and will the key actually get there. So through all this lovely debate and thoughts of hold effing **** how did I lose my keys and what are we going to do Mom informs me they're just driving the key out. This was around 10:30. So...my parents get out of bed and head to my house to get the spare key. AND they have to climb in the window at my house because the only key I have is now with my car key and who knows where that is.

Back at the welcome center, I get Matt to look up the number for a hotel in Orange to make sure they have rooms and in the process Officer Amazing informs us that they have...WIRELESS!!! So I get the old lappy out and am connected on the side of the road in Orange Texas at 10:30 at night. We find a hotel and reserve two rooms (since my parents will be here in oh...5ish hours). Then a very cute police man comes to take us to our hotel. Alex in the front and Marg and I in the back of the cop car. So now, it's 2:05 in the morning we're at the Quality Inn in Orange Texas and my parents are probably somewhere past New Orleans (after climbing in and out the window of my house to get my key) and my car is at the Welcome Center...Exit 880 about 2 seconds into Texas.

Sooo...moral of the story for today. Don't either drop your keys in the wetlands or have them picked up by a kid when you put them down for a picture at the Welcome Center in Texas. Never, ever listen to a locksmith in pajama pants when he tells you that he can make a key that will start your car. AAA is not all that helpful nor do they really care that we never had our problem solved and could be dead at Exit 880 and floating in the wetlands officer Amazing, Cute Police man, and people at the Quality Inn are our new best friends; my parents are amazing; and road trips are always full of surprises.

Through out this Margaret fell off the railing (very funny), we took a lot of good pictures which you should go see in my web albums (click on the link on the left) or see them on facebook, and we can all still laugh about it...not counting my parents who aren't here yet. I'm sure I left lots of stuff out even though this post is extremely long, but it's 2:10 and I need to go shower to get the 6ish hour layer of grime/Off/sweat off of me. Alex and Marg can fill in forgotten bits in the comments...go look at the pictures...and Good night (until my parents get here, what a day)!

Happy Father's Day

2007-06-17T17:19:00.001-06:00

So today is Father's day. Michael and I split a new stereo for Dad's truck since his CD player was out. I'm actually quite jealous of it because he can just stick his flash drive in the front of it and play all of his songs and he has a remote too. We had lunch out at the rent's after church and got to try out the new furniture and watch the new TV. There are pics of those up in my web albums...click on the side bar link to see them.

In honor of Father's day I'd just like to say I have the best dad in the world and I'm very thankful for him everyday. He's always been there for me. From sitting outside in a parking lot with a shot gun because some guys were following me and my friend when we were driving to a restaurant to taking me fishing, coming to pretty much every game I've ever played, or just giving support even when I was doing some stupid stuff. Not to mention his gumbo/seafood lol. So yeah, Happy father's day to daddy even though he doesn't read this.

In other news, I busted my ear drum swimming with the kids and have had a cold for about a week now. I haven't been working out or running because of the sickness but I'm going to have to suck it up and start doing it again because I have two weeks left as of tomorrow. Michael seems to be doing a little better, we still don't know what's going to happen with him and Jennifer he's currently not kicked out but we don't really know. Oh and the picture at the bottom is me and Austin playing some Volleyball today.

Prayer

2007-06-02T11:59:00.000-06:00

Hi y'all, if you're of the praying persuasion please keep my family in mind. Michael's family in particular. He seems to fallen off the non-addict horse again. Jennifer has kicked him out until he gets in a program or some help, which I think is best. The kids are seeing all of their fights and everything and Anthony was crying and asking her if he was going to see his daddy ever again. They've been through so much already I don't know how they're going to do with this again especially if they end up living back with mom and dad. It's all really rough on mom and dad too, dad especially so y'all just keep them in mind. You'd think he would realize eventually and that maybe the whole prison time would have helped but he just has that personality/disease of not being able to say no. Hopefully it will get better soon but I have a feeling it's just going to get worse at least for a while first.

Memorial Weekend

2007-05-29T18:09:00.001-06:00

First of all before I get to the memorial weekend, I am still here and will be here until July thanks to slow moving paperwork. But I do have my official orders for COT on 2 July 2007, and must report to Maxwell air force base that day between 1300 and 1800 hours, fun times. Until then I will hopefully be getting into shape. I have so many left overs right now that I just can't let go to waste so I will start eating better when they are gone and the working out will start June 1st.

Saturday we went to the Bay for a memorial day/me being commissioned thing. Twas much fun. We rode the jet ski, swam with the kids ate soooo much food and generally had a good time. One bad moment was when I had to help with the refueling the jet ski and Michael managed to pour gas on both of us...I had to shower and change out of my bathing suit it was burning so bad but other then that it was a good day.

Sunday was church. Dad being the sentimental fool he is had talked to the preacher about my getting commissioned and having officer training so he had dad stand up and announce all this to the church (and of course me too), mom cried...it was a great. I did get to stand up with my dad though as a member of the military so that was cool. They had one of the kids (who has an amazing voice) sing the star spangled banner acapella and then we did the pledge, it was pretty moving.
Oh and I don't think I've posted about this but last Thursday I had dinner with Kelly and Rach at Kelly's apartment. It is an amazingly cute place downtown and we had a ton of fun. I need to hang out with Kelly more often and Rach whenever you're here or if we get out to Texas this summer. Okay that was really long, so I'll quit. Here are some pics from memorial weekend and me being sworn in and signing my life away and all.

Officially a 2nd Lt

2007-05-23T15:11:00.001-06:00

Okay so I got commissioned today and I am officially a 2nd Lt in the air force...kinda scary. My recruiter still doesn't know if we'll be going to COT on Tuesday or in July, hopefully on Tuesday even though I'm no where near in shape enough but I am under weight so that'll be good enough. I figure I won't be in shape enough for them anyway and maybe they can finally get my lazy butt on a schedule I can keep up when I get home.

Mom and Dad went to my commissioning and dad took pictures of my swearing in and signing my life away so I'll post those whenever he uploads them. They took to lunch at Zea's which was very good, as always. Tomorrow I'm going to be cleaning and trying to work out some so I'll go ahead and get sore now so I won't be too sore when I get there.

I have to be in Montgomery by about lunch time on Tuesday (if I go to this COT). We're doing something down at the bay on Saturday for memorial day/me going off to COT party. Monday will be my last day of laziness and then we'll see what happens on Tuesday.

I guess I should go run now, even though I'm stuffed to the brim. Blah. Oh and two great quotes from my dad at lunch.
Talking about the bay--I hope it calms down soon it's rough as a cob out there.
Talking about a pelican that got stuck in the gill net.
Me: Did he try to bite you?
Dad: Well he would've if I hadn't thrown a rain coat over his head.

Summer...

2007-05-20T17:18:00.001-06:00

So for the last few days I have been fairly bored. I haven't been working out like I should be considering I may be going to officer training soon and really I haven't been doing much of anything but being a bum. I have however enjoyed my bum like state and not having to think about anything. This week should be okay though; I'm tutoring tomorrow at some point. Thursday I have to take Ashley to a pool party. I'm going to start running again tomorrow and maybe my diet. I have no food in the house right now though that's good for me and don't feel like going to get any for a week so maybe we'll just go with the working out.
I went to Jacie's wedding yesterday and it was very pretty...and depressing as most weddings are. They're a really great couple though and it was a good wedding mom and I enjoyed going, and I'm really happy for Jacie, Matt is a great guy.
Ashley had her last softball game last Thursday, she pitched the whole game and had 5 or 6 strike outs. I was really proud of her, they lost the game but she did an excellent job. She's really coming around and hopefully I'll get to work with her some more on it this summer.
I did clean the house some, but eventually this week I have to organize all the stuff from last year to pass on to my first year next year but I am not looking forward to that. Alright now I'm going to go back to watching TV and being a blob. The pictures are from Ashley's last game.

I miss high school...classes

2007-05-16T20:48:00.000-06:00

So today I had a busy day...well busy for being a summer bum. I went to Austin's 2K graduation this morning, he did a good job in his program. I stayed for play day which was a work out in itself. Keeping up with that 3 year old is a job let me just tell you lol. It was really hot, but we had fun. I came home later and ran and then walked with Matt for a while. I tutored a sophomore in high school tonight in chemistry...I miss high school so much. I'm pretty sure I had to learn more this past year then I did in every year combined in high school. She is really nice though, as are her parents. So I'm going to help her again Sunday and Monday because she has an exam Tuesday. Thankfully I actually remember some of what we were doing tonight so that's good, and good old engineering and being able to figure out how to use and equation. So that was my day, and now I'm watching the real world finale and then going to bed lol. The pictures are from Austin's play day.

Laura Osburn MD/4

2007-05-14T14:22:00.001-06:00

Okay folks sorry I haven't posted in forever things got a little hectic with finals and then I became a vegetable. I am officially a quarter MD!! How exciting is that...and scary? I now know just enough information to do some damage, but oh well. I can give a physical, except for certain parts that I dread performing at some point next year and I know lots of random facts that I can spit out even though they don't really mean much of anything to anybody else. I am extremely happy that this semester is over and I get a break. Although during my break I have to lose 4 inches off my waist and get in shape; I have...oh...16 days left to do that lol, not going to happen.
I am suppose to go to officer training on the 30th, if my recruiter gets on the ball because I really don't want to go to the one in mid June. If I get into the one in 16 days then I can go out to San Antonio for 2 weeks in July and get active duty pay for another 45 days, which would be awesome.
Since the last post a ton of stuff has happened. I finished my first year of med school; saw Paula Deen (it was so much fun); Austin turns 3 (today actually) and his party was Saturday; Mother's day was yesterday...things have just been kinda crazy.
Oh we had our end of the year party that twas much fun, yay for Margaret driving and getting to spend time with them before they leave. Mom loved the South Alabama Medicine mom shirt I got her for mother's day and we had a ton of food. Umm, I should be able to keep up with this thing now that I'm out of school. Ashley's last softball game is tonight so I'll be at that. Otherwise I need to clean my filthy house and make sure I stick to the slim fast and running/swimming/walking/trying not to die at officer training. Oh and I got a new phone...nothing special, but the face plate stays on without any help from my favorite tape. That is all for now, sorry about the big gap. Here are some pictures to get you caught up.

A creation I made when craving sweets one night...it was yummo!

Update

2007-04-29T16:17:00.001-06:00

Now I'm about to go watch a movie at Alex's yay for that and then eventually type a transcript that should have been done a while ago...and study for that final on Friday. But yay for being done with at least classes for the first semester of med school!

More to come

2007-04-29T13:20:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted in a while but I will update tonight, promise. Hope everyone is having a good finals week!

A-Day

2007-04-21T20:34:00.000-06:00

I'm on location...on Kim's couch. We're exhausted at 9:35 at night and sadly I probably could have gone to bed around 6:30 (when I got this old I don't know). Today was A-Day, the largest A-Day ever; the stadium was completely packed and they had to close the gates during the 2nd quarter. They were expecting 50,000 as an estimate I don't think the 93,000ish that showed up was planned on. I stayed with Kim last night, we went to dinner at Jalapenos with K-Co and had a ton of fun. I don't think I stopped laughing the entire dinner. Besides the fact our table was in the center of hell, because of the door opening and sun reflecting off cars it was a lot fun.

This morning Kim had class, which is just insane, and I was suppose to study. I did not study lol, oh well I'll get to that tomorrow. I parked down at the rec pool since there was also a triathlon this morning and most of the roads were closed; I decided I'd just walk to get my exercise for the day. We tried to watch two players from last year put their foot prints in the cement at Denny chimes but they decided to move the band in front of us so we couldn't see, oh well. We met up with K-Co and went to the stadium, it took us forever to find seats because the sabanation was in full attendance but K-Co did good and found us 3 seats. The game went well (yes I know it wasn't a real game but whatever). Saban probably came to a realization of how crazy we bama fans are when looking around to so the 93,000 there in full force doing the wave and all for a scrimmage.

There were many great quotes during the game involving balls, bastards, and skimpy dresses. We went to a guys apartment afterward for some amazing burgers and to just hang out. I played some DS and pokemon on the gameboy with two kids that for some reason were present at this gathering. Then for dessert Kim and I went Chick-fil-A for a shake, which was very good and my first from there. I'm sure much more happened this weekend, oh apparently my brake lights have stopped working so that's exciting. I guess that's all for now, roll tide, 133 more days till kick off! I'll put some pictures up from the game, the rest will be on facebook if you'd like to see.

Road Trip

2007-04-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is A-day, ROLL TIDE! I'm very excited; hopefully tonight I'll catch dinner with Kim and K-Co which should be tons o' fun. I may bum Kim's ACT card for tomorrow so I can go to the gym and try and not gain another 3 pounds this weekend lol. I went jogging this morning and the blister on my foot have grown enormously. I know the picture is gross but I just felt compelled to post it, so there ya go. I'm still deciding if I'm going to class to day or not; leaning more toward not but we'll see. Alright I gotta pay some bills and pack for now. ROLL TIDE!!

Laura's Day Off Cont.

2007-04-19T16:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I went to the place where a kid can be a kid today. I hadn't been to Chuck E Cheese in a while, and yeah Rach I remember when it was Show Biz too (I think I still have some tokens from back then). We played some skee ball and I got him a lot of tickets on that. It seemed a lot cleaner in there and more open then I remember the last time we were there so that was cool. The pizza was oh so good, I love their pizza!

After we used up most of our tokens and he got his prizes for the tickets we drove over to Fairhope to pick up our books and tickets for the Paula Deen thing on May 1st. The tickets look like sticks of butter, and it should be fun. Mom, Ashley, Jennifer and I are all going so we'll see how it goes.

Since I ate half of a large pizza today I decided to go jog this afternoon. I did about 2 miles jogging and walked another 2; my left foot is now covered in blisters and extremely mad at me but oh well. I won't be starting my diet this weekend since I'm going to ttown, but I will start back on Monday and try to work out everyday this weekend so I can get back to that too. Class tomorrow...if we have it I may be skipping, probably skipping at least the 2nd lecture so I can make it ttown in time for dinner at 6 but we'll see. ROLL TIDE.

Laura's Day Off

2007-04-19T09:34:00.000-06:00

So I got up and got dressed to jump rope and go run this morning when mom called. The kids are on spring break this week and Anthony apparently wants to go to Chuckie Cheese. Which means instead of running I'm going to play some skee ball and eat some pizza...next week, I'll get back on track next week (I hope, I need to). I'll get some pictures today to catch up my P365 and I'll keep you posted on my lovely day off at chuckie cheese lol.

OCD

2007-04-10T21:42:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I should update. Mostly I have been studying, thinking about studying, and doing whatever I can find to put off studying (which is what I'm doing now). We had a histo test on Monday and our final is Friday. If I can just pass this class I will be ecstatic. This is not at all like me, but I have not been focused this semester and that doesn't really work well with medical school. So hopefully things will be alright, I think they will.

Easter was this past weekend and mom and I went shopping for dresses on the Thursday before. I got 4 dresses, all on sale of course, and actually liked them all when I got home and tried them on again. I picked the most formal one for Easter which was actually hard to find because most of them were summery sun dress styles. I am excited about wearing all the other ones the next few weeks to church though.
Easter Dress!
As part of my procrastinating I have been going OCD on lots of things lately. After doing laundry yesterday I decided to color code and organize my closet. Tonight the kitchen grey things/pantry were the victim. I was going to work on the fridge too but I decided that could wait until tomorrow since I have to read some histo tonight before I go to bed.

I haven't been doing too well on my slim fast but I have been exercising here lately. Alex and I went walking this afternoon with Rudy which twas much fun. I am going to have to buy new jeans soon which is good but also sad because I hate shopping for jeans. Hopefully though I will keep losing before I end up getting them. 5.5 more to go to my goal so I should be able to do that before May or at the beginning of May.

Against the MANY warnings of my professors I decided to go get some precancerous cells yesterday because it has been rainy and I need a tan. On the form I filled out before where they ask you your hair and eye color to see how many minutes you should start with there was a question I found very amusing. Have you ever been diagnosed with skin cancer? Then out to the side it said if Yes, don't tan. I laughed out loud, and the little girl working the register looked at me very oddly but I thought it was hilarious.

I guess that's about it for now. I have been talking to a new guy, so we'll see how that goes if he's not a murderer and all. Either way still exciting and new. Other then that, I'll leave you with some pictures from Easter for project 365. And I'm out, to go study some histo :(.
Mom made plenty for at least 10, for the 3 of us. I love my parents.
Opening my Easter basket which was filled with healthy and tasty things. Humming bird cake decorated for Easter and the Strawberry fluff, YUM!

"He's rubbed his meat and spanked his pomegranate"

2007-04-02T12:06:00.000-06:00

Okay so I'm updating in class because I haven't updated in a while and my professor decided to give our quiz at the end of the hour instead of the beginning so I'm protesting by not listening (not that I would anyway but you know whatever). I had a physio test on Friday that was...not horrible but not great. I thought I did better then I did considering I actually studied for this thing. The class average on the test was a 71 (which is failing, 73 is a C), there were no As and 13 Bs. I fell slightly above average (still passing but not by much), so yeah finding out the class average made me feel much better. The overall average for the class right now is a 77 with a 92 being the highest and a 49 being the lowest; supposedly these profs don't give out "A"s and I now believe that.

This weekend I was suppose to hit the books and start studying for histo, which is a week from today (don't freak out Margaret we will be okay). Instead of hitting the books I watched a lot of lifetime movies and finally cleaned the house up from studying for the physio test. I got to meet Alex's mom and her midget at dinner at the macaroni grill, which was very fun.

Oh and we went out Friday night, and while playing erotic photo hunt were told by some random guy that just appeared behind us that we did not have to go far to see that. Had he been cute it might have been nice, but since he was not, and if I were to bring him home he may meet the other end of a shotgun he was really just annoying.

So now I'm sitting here listening to the man read his slides and waiting to take my quiz. It's sad that I study more for these 10 question quizzes then I did for whole tests in undergrad. I even studied while walking at the park last night; until I realized I was about the only one left and it was really pretty dark. At least Alex would have known where to find my body if I was abducted and murdered.
We have a memorial for the families of the bodies we had in gross this afternoon, so I'm all dressed (except for my flip flops, I'll change into heels before we go).

Oh and around 2 o'clock this morning I woke up to scratching coming from either the walls or under the house. So either I have mice in the walls, cats or dogs under the house, or it's like Black Christmas and someone is crawling around in my walls waiting to kill me. Hopefully it's the second but we'll see.
The title is a quote from iron chef last night, and here's some pictures from Zea's where we went to eat after the test, a picture of the 3 of us on yearbook picture day, and some pictures alex had of the ball. Maybe that will get me close to caught up on P365.

I'm tired of school

2007-03-26T21:22:00.000-06:00

I have a physio test on Friday and right now I'm just sitting in the recliner staring at the TV. I'm so tired of school...blah. I have a dinner tomorrow so I made the éclair early and I actually made individual éclairs this time instead of the big ring. I hope they taste alright I haven't tried them but I think they look really cute.
I'm sure some stuff has happened since the last time I posted but I'm drawing a blank right now so I'll try and update tomorrow when my mind is working. Oh, but the Hills was great tonight and if she takes him back and moves in with him it is going to be bad. That's all for now I guess.

P365, Spring around my house!

2007-03-22T10:19:00.000-06:00

Spring is here and I have tons of stuff blooming so I thought I'd do a little P365 with them, so here ya go.

...

2007-03-21T21:35:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a while, I apologize. Kim and I made it back safe and sound from DC...it was close but we made it. Matt told me while I was up there that they had the TV I had decided I was getting on sale at Kmart and since we no longer have Kmart in Mobile I picked it up in Ttown. After getting my way too expensive TV from Kmart I had dinner with Steven and Kim at Olive Garden, yum! I checked out the TV at Steven's to make sure it would at least turn on and then headed back to Mobile. Matt came over and set the TV up when I got home and I absolutely love it! I've always had the 19" but now I've got 32" and it's just great. I also have been lent a Home theater system so I have surround sound and a new DVD player which is all very exciting.

Let's see, Wednesday and Thursday I didn't do much of anything during spring break. Friday I was the designated baby sitter because the kids had a teacher work day or something like that. We went down to the bay, and then to the park (I am too old to play hide and seek). Ashley went shopping that night with mom for a pageant dress and Anthony and I just chilled at the house. I made him some medium rare steak...that he ate with ketchup, but at least he's learning to do the whole mid rare thing now we just have to get him off the ketchup.

Saturday was Ashley opening day for softball. She actually got to pitch some the first game and did fairly well I was very proud of her. She hasn't been able to pitch anymore because a coach's daughter also pitches but she is doing quite well this year so that's good.

School started back Monday, and I started back on my diet, thank goodness I am back down to where I was before turning into a sloth for 3 weeks. So I am 5 pounds away from being in a "normal" weight range for my height and 10 away from the all time goal, yay for that.

Today was the longest day ever and...just one of those days. I had class, meeting with the air force guy to sign my life away, physiology lab and then had to go get Ashley from school and take her to pageant practice. On my way to get Ashley somehow my phone charger blew a fuse to I had to replace that when I picked her up so my radio would work. I typed transcripts while I watched the funniest thing I've ever seen, tons of little girls trying to do criss-crosses on a stage to the beat of circus music, it was great. Then I came home, there was a wreck on old shell and people trying to get in from the right lane they knew ended (I didn't let them in). Anyway...it was just a long day.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend and getting some rest, I'm just exhausted since I started back exercising and all. Sorry this was long, I'm sure I left a lot out but oh well it probably wasn't that interesting anyway. Consider the pictures below my update to P365.

Kim and I on the metro. It's spring!!

escalator to the metro. Scenery in DC. Anthony with his mid rare steak.

Spongebob monopoly. The new TV!!!

Spring Break

2007-03-12T06:48:00.000-06:00

Well, last night we hung around with Joe at his house. He made us this amazing dessert that I will have to try out sometime; it was a banana flambe...really good maybe the next dinner I make it will try and make an appearance. I tried to study (tried being the operative word, I got through like 1.5 pages) while we watched "How I met your mother". I really like that show I may have to find it when I get back to Mobile so I can finish up the episodes; I still don't know how he met their mother. Anyway...today, we are going to catch the metro to China Town for lunch which sounds very travely and exciting. Then we're headed for more metro/bus catching adventures to get out to Rockville MD for Kim's interview (good luck Kim). I will try and find a park or somewhere cool to sit and try to study some more while she's in there charming the school board.
Tonight we're having dinner with one of her friends either in DC or Baltimore, not sure about any details yet but should be much fun. Tomorrow we fly out at I think, 2ish so yeah fun times. Hopefully we'll get some pictures today. I hope everyone who is on spring break is having a good one and those that aren't, had a good weekend and start to their week!

On site

2007-03-11T17:11:00.000-06:00

I'm in DC! So Kim and I left this morning around 9:30 and we did extremely well getting to the airport, getting all our bags checked and boarding the plane. Only trouble was Kim having to get swabbed and all, but other then that we did well (except for missing breakfast). We flew into Baltimore around 2ish our time and made it to Joe's with no problems.

All the houses are so cute up here, no yards or anything but still very cute. I had an amazing chili cheese dog...I'm still hungry but it was a good dog. Now we're just chillin' and honestly I could fall asleep right here at 7:15 but we'll see if we go out tonight or what.

So yay for road trips and getting to get out of Alabama for a bit. I'll keep you posted and add some pictures eventually.

Firsts

2007-03-06T17:03:00.000-06:00

So since banana pudding and spaghetti are apparently Matt's favorites I was making them for dinner Thursday, but since we switched the dinner from tonight to Thursday because of the movie tonight Alex was not going to get extra banana pudding since she's leaving Wednesday. That was a long sentence; anyway so I went ahead and made the banana pudding tonight. I made little single serving ones for each of us to eat on the way to the movie or in the movie so Alex could have some and then made the rest into a smaller regular one Thursday. This is my first banana pudding but mom's are always amazing and it's not hard so I'm assuming it's going to be good. You know what assuming gets you though, but it looks pretty; it's my P365 for today.
my first banana pudding!

Russian Leather...

2007-03-06T11:31:00.000-06:00

Right now I'm sitting in class not taking notes because he uploaded a power point that we can't edit but decided to just go right on with his lecture anyway. It's hard enough to pay attention when I can take notes on the power point but when I can't...there's no use. So I decided I'd post here instead. In the earlier lecture when I could take notes we were talking about the olfactory system and my professor was naming off smells like rose, perfume,..,Russian leather. This man has made so many porn and perverted references this semester it's beginning to get annoying. We've had some deep throat and some masturbation he's all over the place.

I've been doing some deep cleaning of the house as of yesterday and that has been lots of fun. I've also been very bad on my diet and going out way too much here lately; so after I get back from Maryland with Kim I'm going to take care of that. For now though, I'm going to a movie with Alex, Margaret and Matt tonight and then lunch with Rach and Kelly Thursday. Cooking Thursday night for Matt and dad's birthday is Friday. I maybe going with Heather and Heather some where tomorrow we'll see.

I know I'm slipping on P365 but we just had a test so eh. Here's some photos from the studying though.

For those that don't know...

2007-02-28T13:59:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while things have been a little crazy down here. For those of you who did not see it on facebook or have not been informed by myself or someone else I broke up with Robert...oh I guess technically the break-up started on the 15th. So yeah, I have now been engaged before but hey that's better then married before. He went back to Moundville this morning after a very long and drawn out process and things are looking up. I plan on cleaning and getting everything back in order since his stuff is now gone and studying a lot this weekend. I just wanted to say thank you to all of those who helped me through this wonderful time and got to listen to me talk about the same stuff over and over, at least it's all over now.

Other then that I've been sucking at school and hanging out an old friend a little bit here lately. Hopefully things will turn around now that I've finally made the decision to end things. There's a plan for everyone, you just never really know what it is; God's funny sense of humor I guess.

I also finally finished my air force application this afternoon and should have everything finalized for that tomorrow so that's one thing off the list. I will get caught back up on P365 soon I promise.

Caduceus

2007-02-24T16:03:00.000-06:00

Last night was our med school ball. Alex, Margaret, Michelle (Alex's friend) and I all got dressed up and went downtown to the Ezell house. It was a ton of fun, and something I really needed right now. We went out to eat at Peking before (mainly because everywhere else was packed) but it was good. The hostess told us we should sit up front so everybody could see us, and then we got lots of comments on our pretty dresses which is always fun.

The ball was great, not really a dance and the band sucked but we just sat and around and talked and had some food (cheese ball..yum!) and drink. It was an amazing release to ride in the car with the windows down and sing with the girls. Too much fun! I'm posting a couple of pictures here but there are more on facebook and photobucket.

P.S. my hair is still curly from last night when I took the 60ish bobby pins out of it. It'll probably take about 3 washes to get all this lovely smelling hairspray out.

Picture Update

2007-02-23T16:34:00.000-06:00

So I went to Belk and got a purse for tonight, and while looking very confused about which eye shadow I should get the girl was like do you want me to do it? Yes, please so I got my hair did this morning, my make-up did after my horrible physiology test and then I went to the bank so mom could see my dress. Since she got to see, the rest of you can too I guess. Hopefully there will be many more pictures from tonight but for now here's the dress and a close up on my hair.

Never ending week

2007-02-23T11:02:00.000-06:00

This week is never going to end. I have a test at 1 and should be studying but I just paid 45.00 + tip to get my hair done for the ball tonight so I thought that called for a picture. Here's the results of gettin' my hair did! I like it...there's a small hole in the atmosphere keeping it there but whatever using hair spray once a year is not too bad.

Being a sheep, baaa

2007-02-21T07:44:00.000-06:00

Since I've been tagged by two people I should continue this meme, thanks Pete and Kim.

Guilt	What’s Yours?	Explain Yourself!
Culinary	Slim Fast	I’ve become a walking commercial according to Robert and my fam. A shake for breakfast, lunch, and a sensible dinner. The shakes are good though.
Literary	Scripts	Besides random internet surfing all I get to read these days are transcripts. Before med school I loved Dean Koontz and stuff like that.
Audiovisual	Veronica Mars	I gotta go with Kim on this one. I am addicted and God bless Alex who keeps me up to date with her DVR!
Musical	Infection	I don’t remember who sings it but since Alex introduced me I listen to this all the time.
Celebrity	Orlando Bloom	Really only because his arms looked so good in Elizabeth town. sigh

So there's that, yay for being tagged by others though (thanks for the PR).

So I've been very unmotivated as of late and hopefully I can change that today, even though I got up 1.5 later then I was suppose to. I need to get through some of my literary guilt from above today (at least oh 6 more scripts today). I've got to finish up my air force application, and by finish up I mean do over 3/4 of it and get some transcipts sent off so it should be a fun day.

I finally got back and did some exercising yesterday since I have done nothing after I got a cold a few weeks ago. I went to the park with the kids and tried to help Ashley with some softball skills. Silly me I forgot she's 10 and doesn't really know how to pitch so of course I squat down to catch up for her; first pitch in the dirt and up into my lip. No bleeding and I should have taken a picture yesterday because the swelling is almost gone oh well.

Once I got back from the park to do anything to avoid reading the scripts I should have read yesterday I jogged up to the bank and walked back. I only got through 2 scripts yesterday on my day off but I did get some exercise AND didn't have to run my heat at all so thank goodness for that (the bills were WAY too high last month).

I'm suppose to tag people to do the meme, but since I'm pretty sure I only have limited readers I'll go with Alex, Margaret and Rachel. I guess you'll have to do them on Myspace but it can be done.

The Crewe

2007-02-17T11:18:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had a public health test and a physiology quiz; the quiz didn't go too well (okay just not great) and who knows about the test. After that Margaret, the fam, and I went to the parade. It was loads of fun. We had signs because we knew people on 5 of the floats and we had the KIDS! Ashley left with tons of stuffed animals and Anthony got a lot of stuff (including a bag of milky ways). I think we all left with plenty of beads and cups, it was a great parade. The getting there and parking was a little stressful but other then that all fun. The pictures are my 365 for the last couple of days I know that's kind of cheating but eh oh well.

Oh and Jim and LeeAnn are here, it was such perfect timing right after I got home and Margaret was driving off they pulled up. We went out and had a fun tour of some apartments while Jim tried to figure out where he used to live down here. It was lots of fun and I got to cook regular food this morning when I made pancakes so yay for that.

So Cold

2007-02-15T16:11:00.000-06:00

Okay so for the past, well a while, I've been thinking about joining the air force. I know, I know crazy but still I think it would be fun. I get that I might be stationed in Greenland or somewhere but I could also get stationed in Italy or Germany or Australia so we'll just see I guess. Anyway, the point it I have decided to do the air force thing, let them pay for my med school and I'll owe them 3 years after residency. It's only 3 years if I absolutely hate it and if I don't then eh maybe I can retire early.

Since I decided to join I had to go to make physical this morning. I told him I could go today but then he never called me back so I thought I wasn't going and was going to get to have valentine's day with Robert, BUT he called during my last class and off I went last night. I stayed in a hotel in Montgomery and got up at 4 this morning. I was on base by 5:10 and from there it was...well a physical. I got to have a medical exam, give blood, give a urine sample do some orthopedic and neurological exercises and weigh in. Thanks to good ol' slim fast I was 5 pounds under my max weight and for those keeping track (even if no one is I've lost almost 18 pounds since Jan 4 so yay for that).

The only problem I had today was the urine sample; I didn't want to drink a lot of water this morning and be over my weight and I though I would be okay anyway with the whole peeing thing. I was wrong it took me on my 3rd time (of being watched to give a sample) before I could fill half the stupid cup. Before the 3rd chance I drink from the water fountain for about 10 minutes straight, and then had to stop on the way home (almost twice) because I had to go so much.

So it was a busy 24 hours and now I have to clean and study because I have a quiz and test tomorrow and Jim and LeeAnn should be here tomorrow night. Oh Robert had some candy and a card for me yesterday (I think we're going to go out to eat tonight) and then dad got me a dozen roses and some cheesecake from Fresh Market (yummm).

I will post pictures for project 365 soon, sorry about that. I wish I had taken my camera with me last night to take a picture of the back sign at 5:04 am this morning and 21 degrees. Fun, fun.

I must be productive

2007-02-12T12:59:00.000-06:00

Project 365 for Saturday, me and Alex at Mardi Gras in our normal spot.

Saturday's parade was not very good; they didn't throw a lot and we kind of got surrounded but it was fun nonetheless. Alex got very good at using the claw and Robert used his tallness to get her some pretty beads off a lamp post with the claw. So maybe next weekend will be good and next Monday night (I'm kind of Mardi Gras-ed out right now).
I watched Anthony bowl that morning and he is doing really well. He gets to bowl in the state sometime in March so that should be fun.

Sunday I did pretty much nothing except go to church and eat at mom's. I did take some pictures of her many daffodils though and what she says is the best picture ever taken of the house. So that is my project 365 for yesterday.

I have got to start being productive this week because Jim and LeeAnn are coming down this weekend. I have a test Friday and then one next Friday, so I turned down a Mardi Gras ball tonight to be productive...hopefully that will happen but probably not.

Oh and Robert's present came in the mail today...I'm excited (don't gag Kim). I guess I'll pay attention...or play spider solitaire now.

Hey Mr. Throw me some beads!

2007-02-09T21:42:00.000-06:00

Tonight was great! Alex, Margaret and I went to the parade (order of the Incas), caught it 3 times again. This was Margaret's first parade experience so that was fun. We got lots o' beads and way more moon pies tonight. I even got handed some beats by a cute smiling army man!

Tomorrow night there are 2 parades and we're going; Robert has promised no matter what he is going with me, so there's our tall guy! Woohoo, I like this Mardi Gras while I'm older and not worrying about med school at all, just woooing and catching beads...OH I caught a sword tonight too that we used later (once I realized the power of my sword :) ) to get stuff we couldn't reach over the barricade.

Alex didn't get hit in the eye tonight but she did get pelted with a bag of bubble gum thanks to the man with the sign and his stupid kids that molested me and the girl next to me on the barricade. Maybe tomorrow she won't get hurt.

Stop the Starwars

2007-02-09T12:56:00.000-06:00

Project 365: Local Tastes Better
Okay I saw this on my lunch break going home so I had to bring my camera back with me to take a picture on the way back. There are about 5-6 Starbucks opening up around the area at this time. These people are protesting the one closest to campus because there are 2 local coffee shops about .2-.5 miles away from this one.

Personally I like Satori better because they serve alcohol as well as real food and coffee...and really great cookies for cheap (and it's a record store), but that's just me. I thought the protest was cool either way though. Support local it tastes better!

The Loot

2007-02-09T07:51:00.000-06:00

Pelican float on last night's order of the polka dots parade.

Last night I went to the parade with Alex, twas MUCH fun. We did really well for two short girls at the women's parade. We need to recruit a tall male or two for tonight and tomorrow, so we're going to work on that. We caught the parade 3 times (only half once) but still very good nonetheless.
The first time there was a group of drunk parents with their children that spread out on both sides of us...no good. You have to try and stay away from the kids, I don't like to take stuff from them (even though Alex had no issues with it).
The second go around a dropped a bag of kisses (didn't know what it was at the time) and when I went to get it off the ground a woman put her foot on them...if only I could eat them, I would have shown her a foot is not going to stop me. Alex stole and Ernie purse off the ground from someone (over the age of 16), and ended up giving it away to a woman that would not leave us alone while waiting for the parade to come around the 3rd time...it didn't work.
The 3rd time the people in front of us moved so I was able to straddle the barricade and catch stuff better or knock it down for Alex behind me (sorry about your eye Alex!). So we did well and had fun doing nothing medical school related all day.
I have a quiz in 2 hours that I haven't studied for at all..except for the 3-5 transcripts I typed for it, *sigh* I guess I should study.
Project 365 for yesterday and the day before, the Loot from Mardi Gras for yesterday and my daffodils starting to come up for Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Kim

2007-02-08T15:56:00.000-06:00

Today I was a bum. I went to no classes, I did type a transcript but other then that I didn't do anything. Alex and I went to the park to throw the softball around because it was gorgeous outside. Tonight we're going to a parade (even though there's a quiz tomorrow in histology). Hopefully I will be okay, I swear I've typed so many stupid transcripts this time.
Anyway, I will update after the parade with my pictures for today and yesterday but for now I just wanted to say happy birthday Kim!

Same old same old

2007-02-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

Today was my sad day because I had an 8 o'clock class today. It's the most boring class in the world except we had an interesting conversation this morning that brought back some good memories. George was saying something about a rooster...I'm not sure why I think it was on our break and he was surfing the net. Anyway, then I brought up how my old neighbors in ttown had a rooster in a shopping buggy outside for a while. Eventually we had to call animal control because it kept crowing in the mornings and waking Jennifer up. I still remember looking out the window to watch animal control the day they came; good times, good times with the crappy neighbors.

Other then that public health was a bust today, I did win 1 game of spider solitaire though so yay for that. Oh and I learned how to figure out percents and some more easy subtraction problems.

I skipped histo lab today because it's pointless when we all get in there and try to get on the same server. All I see on my wonderful virtual microscope is data missing. I did go to physiology for the case study which was kind of interesting I like heart block stuff and ECGs.

My two boys were back tonight for tutoring. I wrote the first two pages in the books I'm making them and then let them draw the pictures for those pages after they read it to me. I'm hoping Robert will draw some great covers for them. They seemed really excited about it. After that I took the dry erase board back to mom and dad's and surprise dad had made dinner for me (a healthy one so yay for that).
Other then that I just typed once I got home and was going to finish the rest of it in the morning but people (well one person) started hinting about late transcripts so I finished the stupid thing and posted it 4 minutes before the deadline...yusss.
Alright good night.

Project 365 picture is of my crappy computer battery for this stupid $2000 Toshiba they made me buy that has stopped working. 20 or so out of the 74 of us have already had the same problem and 1 guy has already been through 2. Stupid crappy parts.

Flux=Force*Permeability

2007-02-05T21:17:00.000-06:00

Mondays are always my long day at school; histology, physiology, and fundamentals of doctoring...there until 5, blah. Histo was not bad today except I get to hear it all again when I type it (which I should be doing now, but I have to watch the Hills). Physiology was awful and my title is a spawn from that horrible class, she must have written that on every other slide today. Fundamentals is always bad, I just am not a fan of that class at all. Alex and I had a plan to leave at the break today but thank goodness she let us out early (for the first time ever) so we didn't have to be sneaky.

After class I went to Alex's to get caught up on my VMars which I love and House. I was not a big fan of this episode of House but I still like the show; I don't like people trying to change people just because they don't think they are the way they should be. You can't do anything about people really, they are who they are.

Alex tried her dress on for us and it was gorgeous. I'm so excited about the ball, and my dress...and my shoes...getting my hair done, pretty much just getting to dress up. I am not a girly girl, I love my sweat pants and T-shirts but every now and then you gotta get all dressed up for fun.

Since I've been sick I cheated on my slim fast yesterday but today I'm back on track; still haven't started working out again though. Maybe once I can breath I will start working out again. My picture for today is me being back on track. Other then that I'm watching the Hills, and Spencer is about to get busted (yay).

I think tomorrow after tutoring Robert and I are going to get a movie so that'll be fun. I guess I'll type some transcripts too so I can go to the grocery store, and clean because I have house guests coming soon!

Starting Over

2007-02-04T16:06:00.000-06:00

I have tried to do this before and was doing okay until my LJ just kicked me off, so now I'm going to try one over here.

I guess I should do a little intro since this is my first post so here goes. My name is Laura (if you didn't figure that out from the title you should probably just stop reading now). I'm 22, a recent graduate from The University of Alabama in chemical engineering and am now a 1st year med student at the univeristy of south alabama. I love to cook, which is why I have to work out (even though I don't really love that). My life is pretty straightforward most of the time and slightly boring, so I thought I'd try this again to give me something to do while I'm in class. I've got a boyfriend named Robert who moved to mobile with me, a great family and some pretty awesome friends; I guess that's about it.

This past weekend has not been the best, I did horrible on my physiology test on Friday, the same day I started coming down with a cold. Most of my weekend has been spent on the couch being sick and typing transcripts (I've got to pay the bills somehow). Hopefully the next week will be a little better.

Kim and Pete were doing project 365 which interests me so I'm going to try and do that to; so the first installation of my project 331 is at the top of my post today. It's the view from my hammock of the cherry trees in my back yard