What's new?

I haven't posted in awhile because I couldn't really think of anything new or exciting going on that I could talk about, so I thought that I would just update on the little, boring things going on:)

Anthony and I had a good spring break. We didn't really do anything special because Anthony had to work most of the week, but we did go to St. Augustine. We walked around on the Beach and in the Historic District. Plus, we got to eat some homemade fudge. Yum!!! My friend Laura says she goes to St. Augustine just for the fudge. We also went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum that, quite frankly, grossed me out. There were way too many things there made out of human hair and body parts. Although, there were a lot of cool things on display too.

School is going well for the both of us. Anthony is ready to be finished for this semester, and so am I. I have a few big projects coming up so I am a little stressed about them. Anthony's Grandfather passed away last week, so he hasn't done clinical hours for awhile and has to make them up in the next few weeks. Basically that means that I am not going to see him very much. We've been waiting to hear from USF if he got into their Nurse Practitioner program, and by waiting I mean anxiously checking the mail every single day! They just emailed us to say that their committee is taking longer than usual this semester but that we should know by April 11. April 11!! The semseter starts May 12!!! You would think we could get some more advanced notice.

The dogs and our cat have been passing around tapeworms to each other (lovely, I know) so I have been playing vet for the past week or so. Our cat communicated to us that she was sick by going #2 on our bed and #1 on one of our living room chairs. The chair is still outside getting multiple fabric cleaning treatments. My dogs just came back from my parent's house where my brother noticed that they had worms too! So now I am off to the pet supply store to get loads of medicine for everybody. Sigh.

That's about it for us. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Fishing Victory!

Saturday Anthony fished in a fishing tournament in Steinhatchee. He had been looking forward to it for awhile, and I was glad that he was going to be having some fun. He called me at work Saturday night to tell me that he won one of competitions at the tournament for having the biggest trout!!! On top of that, his prize for winning was $600!!! I knew that fishing hobby would pay off:) He split the cash with his fishing partner and now he has more money to spend on his saltwater aquarium. I wish my hobbies could be so lucrative!

20 YEARS AGO

20 Years ago: I was two years old :) I don't remember much, but I am pretty sure I was an awesome toddler. I had to wear special shoes because I was pigeon-toed, and my little brother had just been born, so our family was pretty busy.

15 Years ago: I was seven years old and I had recently moved from Tallahasse because my mom had just married my dad (not my biological father, but still my dad). I walked to and from school everyday with my brothers and sister because we lived down the street from the elementary and middle school. I was CONSTANTLY reading all of the time, sometimes even while I was walking down the hallways in school. One teacher would always joke that he couldn't recognize me without a book in my hand.

10 Years ago: I was twelve years old and in sixth grade at Lincoln Middle School. I was in a pre-IB program, so all of my friends were serious nerds, including me. Everyone was pretty competitive as far as grades go, and I was especially competitive with one of the boys in my class. I thought that one girl named Tracy was a good friend, but I found out years later that she secretly hated me because she always tried to get better grades than me and never did. Weird, huh?

5 Years ago: I was 17 years old and a junior in high school. My parents bought me and my brother a car to share: a 1990 Lincoln Continental. The thing was a boat! Not only was it a gas guzzler, but it seemed like it was breaking down every other day. I had to keep power steering fluid in the car and fill it up everyday or else the power steering would go out and I could not turn the steering wheel, even if I was putting my entire weight into it. When it finally broke down for good, we tried to give it away to people who fix up cars and give them to needy people but even they didn't want it!

3 Years ago: I was 19 years old and I had just meet Anthony. I was on cloud nine! We saw each other everyday and I am sure we were pretty sickening. We weren't officially dating until Anthony threw me a surprise birthday party at his house and had invited all of my friends and coordinated with everyone. I was so impressed, that I just had to start dating him exclusively.

1 Year ago: I was 21 and had been married for a little over 1 year. I was a senior at the University of Florida, working on my BS in Psychology. We just got our first puppy for christmas and she was sooo cute!!! We told my parents that it was their "grandpuppy".

Yesterday: I slept all day because I worked the night before. I am working part time as a secretary at a children's hospital and I work the night shift every single weekend. Blah. The upside is that I have a lot of time for school work, but the downside is that I have worked almost every single Friday and Saturday for a year and a half.

Today: I'm working until 7:30 in the morning, going home to sleep, getting up, going back to work at 7:00 PM.

Tomorrow: I'm going to take a 2 hour nap after getting home from work and then go to church. After that, another nap and then Anthony and I are going to my parent's house for Sunday family dinner. And then: YEA for spring break!!!!!

I tag: Gabrielle & Claudia

My Cross-stitching hobby

I don't know if many people know this, but one of my main hobbies is to cross-stitch! I know it seems like something an older person would be into, but I find it soothing. It also helps that my mom owns a cross-stitching store :) Here are pictures of a few of the pieces that I have done. It is really rewarding to make something so beautiful and to have it in your family.
I was just thinking how nice it would be to have pictures of all of the ones I have done. Once I get real pictures of everything, I will keep updating. Look at the side of my page for what I am currently working on. If you are interesting in getting into cross-stitching, let me know its lots of fun!!! In fact, I am sitting here looking at my schoolwork thinking, "when is the next time I can sit down and cross-stitch?"

Brownie's Puppy Graduation

I've been taking Brownie to a puppy training class at petsmart for the last two months. She is pretty scared of other people and dogs, so we mainly wanted her to go so that she could get more socialized.
Last Friday they had their last class and graduation! Everyone in the class took their dogs around the store "passing off" different things that they were supposed to learn: walking nicely on a leash, heeling, coming when called, stay, sitting for greetings, and one trick. Brownie didn't so too well with the tests because she gets so nervous around other people that she gets REALLY distracted. We paid money for the class, though, so we got to graduate :)
The actual graduation was soooo cute!! They had caps and gowns for most of the dogs (they didn't have one small enough for Brownie) and they had us line up in the training ring. The instructor then got on the intercom and announced:"Let me present the graduating class of 2008" and then she said their names as we walked around the store to the graduation song. Afterwards all of the dogs got doggie ice cream and we had a little party. The other dogs got bored with the ice cream, but not Brownie! She just assumed "more for me" and started eating from everyones. That's my little piglet.

Training my dogs

One of my favorite things to do is to teach my dogs new tricks. The other day I decided to try and video tape them doing their tricks. Of course, once the camera was on, they didn't really want to cooperate. OR so I thought! This is a video of me trying to get Brownie (our brown dog who is still a puppy) to do the few tricks she knows. I about died when I saw this video on the computer and noticed the obedient dog in the background...

My real birthday

I bought my birthday presents ahead of time, so yesterday was my real-life birthday. It was really nice! Anthony and I happened to be up late Sunday night so we got to enjoy my time and date birthday at 12:16 am. Unfortunately I still had to go to school (On my birthday!!!). I had my community counseling and case management class and the day's topic was insurance. I know, real interesting. Luckily, I brought chocolate for everyone so the class was pretty enjoyable. After class my family and I went out to dinner and had fun talking and visiting. Of course, the staff sung happy birthday to me and I got to eat a FREE ice cream sundae. Doesn't it taste better when its free?
I discovered that buying birthday presents ahead of time really isn't the best idea for me. I think that it will be great, but then when my actual day comes, I want a present then too! So, after dinner Anthony and I went to wal-mart and bought Dance Dance Revolution. (I've been thinking about getting it for awhile). It is a video game where you coordinate your "dance moves" with music and directions on the video screen. It even has a workout mode, so its good for me right? All in all, this has been one of the best birthdays I've had.

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!

Anthony has never been the best present-picker-outer, so I went shopping for my birthday present today and had great success!! I wanted a nice necklace that I could wear all of the time and after looking at all of the stores at the mall I found this aquamarine one that I liked. By chance there happened to be a beautiful aquamarine ring on sale, so I just had to get it. You only turn 22 once right? These are the best pictures I could find online that looks like them.

Happy Parents

Our good friends Laura and Stephen had their first baby last Friday and we got to visit them today! (See baby shower post...same baby:) Their baby is soooooooo cute and I got lots of cuddling time with him. Hopefully Auntie Virginia will get to spoil him rotten every chance I get.

They are one of the first of my friends my age to have a baby and I can't believe how grown up it makes me feel. All of a sudden having children is not just something older people do, and frankly that idea blows my mind. I guess I always imagined that being a parent automatically made you mature and all-knowing and truly realizing that it is a learning process for all involved gives me hope for the future. Maybe one day I can do this parent thing and it won't be as terrifying as I always thought it would be.

Mrs. Grumpypants

Have ever had just one of those days? Today was one of those days for me. It started out innocent enough, but in the morning when I got the dogs out of the kennel I realized that Brownie has diarrhea and it was all over her! (Anthony had already gotten up and gone to work, but never takes care of the dogs in the morning...) SO, I put the puppies right into the bath. In addition to that mess, Brownie also needed her anal glands expressed. Enough said.

After that, I just couldn't shake that irritated feeling. The laundry needed to be done and put away and the dishes needed to be done as well. I finally just said that I didn't care and left for school. Of course, it was raining all day today. A lot. And I left my umbrella at home. When I got to class I wanted to strangle some of my classmates. Sometimes they can be pretty inconsiderate for counselors-in-training. Coming home from class I got stuck in rainy traffic and had to really suppress the urge to just put on the gas and run straight into the back of a car. Who puts on their brake so much!!? So now I am at home stewing, trying to think of what can make me feel better. Maybe shoe shopping?

Why do I have dogs again?

Tonight I was at my parents' house and Anthony came home from work to find this.... Now, the dogs are usually in their kennels, but I wanted to give them a little bit of room to play in so I put up a baby gate by our front door. There is a baby gate in front of our guest bathroom but apparently Brownie learned how to knock it down (Brownie is ALWAYS the instigator and Bitsy is the follower). Luckily I got out of cleaning this one up, usually that is my job. Still, I don't know if I have seen them be so destructive before. Anyone want a dog?

Food for Thought

Yesterday I stayed behind class with a classmate of mine to talk to one of our professors. My classmate, Laura, was talking to her about what a hard time she was having doing substance- abuse counseling. She said that it was really difficult not to tell her clients to "just stop being stupid!" In my head I was agreeing with her, and honestly I really don't know if I would ever want to do substance-abuse counseling. My professor gave us some good advice that I thought was pretty profound.

First, she said that you can't get away from substance-abuse counseling because it affects so many different populations and is a factor in so many different mental health issues. Then she said that no one chooses to be addicted. No one chooses to lead dangerous and miserable lives. The deep down true reasons that they have for doing what they do may seem ridiculous to us, but to them in the here and now they are very real. If we take the "Dr. Phil" stance and just tell them they are wrong and need to straighten up, in their mind we will automatically be put in the category of everyone else who has told them what they already know. Until we as counselors can put aside our own mindset and viewpoint and truly understand their reality, we will be 100% ineffective. I just thought that that was great advice and I wanted to make sure that I would remember it.