A Fillon Christmas

My parents and my brother got to go up to Ohio to visit with my sister and her family for Christmas. I am so jealous that they got to have so much fun with them, while I am on my third night shift in a row :( Luckily, my brother took pictures of christmas morning, so I got to see my niece and nephew open our gifts. Here is my nephew Savino opening the present we got him, a toy steering wheel with lots of buttons and noise makers. According to my mom, the toy went over great! Look at those curls!!! Here is my niece opening some of her gifts. My dad looks like he raked it in in the stocking department :) That looks supremely comfortable. Apparently the dogs think so too. I would like to proudly point out that Savino is still holding our present!

Rudolph got a little lost

Ant came home from fishing today with these pictures! They are cropped, so they might be kind of blurry, but it's not fish you see in the water. It's a deer! Anthony said that at first the deer was much more offshore, neck deep in the water and once it saw them it moved to land. How crazy is that?

A Lagana Christmas

Here are some pictures from the Lagana Christmas we had with Anthony's family on Saturday. We usually just focus more on getting presents for the kids and it is so much fun to see them so excited!

The twins got a play-doh ice cream shop set. It looked so fun, I wanted to play with it!
Anthony's mom
Now, I don't remember if Dallas is giving Grampa a gift in this picture, or getting one but either way he was just excited to be touching presents!
This is Nevada posing with a play castle we got for her. She is so cute! She definitely has the Lagana-pose-for-pictures gene. Even in the middle of playing with a toy if she hears that someone is taking a picture, she instantly looks up with a big camera smile. Almost every year Anthony gets a t-shirt with some kind of attitude phrase. Some of the past years included things like "My mommy thinks I'm special" and "When God made me, he was just showing off". I'm laughing because of how perfect my gift was: a booklight! Someone must know what an excessive reader I am.

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home!!! We had a lot of fun hanging out with family and visiting friends, but we are definitely happy to be back home. The dogs were with my parents, so we weren't worried about them, but our cat was home alone. We think she peed on some stuff while we were away just to teach us a lesson...

So here is a picture of the beach from our oceanfront room at the Hilton:

And since the camera was out...
As soon as we got to the hotel, we were hungry so we got back in the car and went to a seafood restaurant I had looked up online. Ant vaguely remembered going there when he used to live in Merritt Island, but I was just excited to eat all of the seafood. The restaurant had a large wall of reef aquariums that they used as dividers between the booths, so Ant was really excited to look at all of them while we ate. I ended up getting a seafood sampler of crab, shrimp, scallops, and rock shrimp and Anthony got a surf and turf with steak and rock shrimp. We couldn't finish it all, but it was sooooo good!
I know that you can't really see me in this picture, but I wanted to show you all of my food!

We spent the next three days with Anthony's family. We went to the zoo with our twin niece and nephew and I know everyone says this about their kids, but I really think that they are the smartest and most articulate 4 1/2 years olds I have ever seen! We had a family christmas with everyone who could come with all of the traditional holiday food and presents. I'll post pictures later when my father-in-law emails me his. Our camera battery died after the first day :( I'll have to make sure to recharge it for christmas with my parents and brothers tomorrow!

Has it really been three years?

Today is Anthony and my three year anniversary!! Can you believe it's been three years already? Time has really just flown by :) Last night I was thinking over the past three years and how our marriage has changed. There are times when I watch chick flicks or read romantic novels that I feel sad that we don't have that new couple shine anymore, but now that I really think about it I wouldn't want to go back. There were definitely growing pains the first year :)

I think that I've also learned to let go of things. Before, I used to get so upset over small things because I thought that there must be some deeper meaning behind (like Anthony didn't respect me) and then I would get upset that I had to endure whatever it was for eternity! Now, I've discovered that Anthony is a guy, and there almost never is a deeper meaning. (Sorry guys, but you know it's true) Stuff I used to get so upset about, now I just shake my head, sometimes laugh, and say "oh well".

Anyways, we are off to Cocoa Beach for our anniversary + christmas with the in-laws. I'll be sure to post pictures later!

Bargain Shopping

I know I haven't posted about any of my great coupon deals lately, so I thought I would share this one. Since we are going out of town tomorrow I didn't go regular grocery shopping and just went around getting the highlights. I paid $7 for all of this!!! I got 6 boxes of cereal and 15 protein bars from CVS for $4.25 and I got the shirt from Kohls for $2.75 after I used a $10 coupon I got last week from Christmas shopping. How fun! Cereal and protein bars are things that we go through like water around this house, so I was really excited to get a deal on both of them in the same week. The shirt I got just because I had the coupon :) I didn't get anything more fun and exciting because I need to build up more professional clothes I can wear at Shands next semester.

In other news, today is day two of my new 30 day workout. I am trying out Jillian Michaels (the trainer from The Biggest Loser) 30 Day Shred DVD. I've heard so much about it and I was talking about it with a friend of mine from work and we both got so excited that we decided to do it together! I know, I'm probably crazy for starting a new program right before the holidays but my family isn't really into big christmas dinners and such so the holidays for me just means time to do what I want (i.e., new workouts :)

Anyways, I'm really excited about it! I even took "before" pictures, measurements, and everything. It's kind of funny, but I ended up being so proud of the before pictures after I saw them. Technically, they're not really "before" pictures since I have been working out and lifting weights for awhile but I can't wait to see what they look like in a month. I'll keep you posted!

We made it

The end of another semester is upon us!!!!

Anthony did really well in his first semester of graduate school, and let me tell you, he was really excited/relieved when he got his grades back :) Thankfully he will still only have to drive down to Tampa once a week next semester so that is a blessing. We're going to have to start working on getting our place ready to sell and I'm really not looking forward to that.

I had a good semester as well. It was busy!!! It really was the most work-intensive semester yet. Multiple 12 page papers+presentations+practicum interviews+tests= no social life. However, I am so excited to be done! This was it, it's all downhill from here. I have my last two classes next semester and then it is on with internships and real life. Scary, but cool at the same time. I love to fantasize about graduation. This time next year I get to add all sorts of initials after my name so I will be Virginia Lagana, MHS, CRC, RMHI. (Translation: Master Health Science, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Registered Mental Health Intern) Cool!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ant and I had a great Thanksgiving! We went down to Tampa together on Wednesday because Ant still had class scheduled. We decided to make a little trip of it and spent the night in a hotel. The next day we got up early and went to the Museum of Science and Industry before going to my Aunt and Uncle's house for family dinner. It was really fun and there were so many hands-on exhibits that I have to admit I felt a little ADD, spending a few seconds at each one before going on to the next thing with buttons and knobs to press :)

The best part of the museum was a natural disaster area that among other things had a booth you could stand in and feel 80 mph winds! Anthony thought it was fun, but I was scared and wanted to get out. I got to pretend to be a firewoman:
There was also a "parts of you" exhibit that had everything to do with the body and development. It started out from the womb (they even had a pregnancy sympathy suit you could try on) and went through adolescence and stds! Ant and I did a hearing test in a little booth, did an eye exam, played health Hollywood Squares, and tried to drive a car simulator while wearing drunk goggles. The last thing we did was watch an IMAX movie about extreme sports. It was so cool, but after 45 minutes we both walked out of there a little bit nauseous. There were a lot of crashing waves and looking-down-a-huge-mountain shots. Here's Ant right before the movie started
After the museum, dinner with the family was great! It is so much fun to get to catch up on everyone's lives. My Aunt and Uncle live on Tampa Bay, so Anthony caught a good number of fish while everyone else watched football. Go figure.

New Adventure

I had my practicum interview today and I am officially placed! I've been looking around for awhile since I decided not to do substance abuse counseling and I found a place that seemed perfect for me. It was a spot at Shands in the Pediatric Pulmonary clinic where I would be counseling children with chronic illnesses (like cystic fibrosis) and their families. Since I've worked at the Children's hospital for so long, it seemed like a great way to combine my experiences there with counseling. I get to attend clinics, rounds, and various other things and I finally get to do one-on-one counseling sessions! I'm excited, but it is also a little scary :)

The best part is that I get to be excited about my placement for the next month and a half before I actually have to start the work :)

Playing with Play-doh

Lately school has been all about the kids! Last Thursday and Friday I volunteered at a Child Advocacy Center conference here in Gainesville. I traded setting up video and audio equipment and introducing the speakers for being able to attend without paying the $85 registration fee. Awesome!!! I learned a lot about kids in therapy, especially about how they typically disclose things like abuse and the different risk factors to consider when you are working with children. I was definitely shell-shocked after two full days. I was nauseous/wanted to cry all day after hearing about some of the terrible things that people will do to kids. But, I guess it is necessary to know those things and to be prepared if it ever happens to one of my clients.

Today in class I had the most fun I have ever had in school! We had a woman who is a graduate of my program and a certified clay therapist (!) lecture us on play therapy. We got to practice playing with the play-doh and making different shapes like this snail:
Mine didn't look so good... He was slightly overweight and lopsided. We also got to make snotty-booger man with snot hanging out of his nose and into his mouth. I wish I had gotten a picture of all of us, professor included, playing with the play-doh! As we were doing it, the guest speaker was giving us examples of what she would do with a client. For example, one girl was getting aggravated with her snail not rolling out properly. The speaker pointed out that if she were a client, it would be a perfect opportunity to discuss what she is feeling and to identify it (frustration) and talk about what she does when she feels that way. So cool!

Quirky Tag

I've been tagged! And we all know I can't pass up a tag :) Here are my 6 unspectacular quirks:

1) I can't stand getting water on my face!! Even in the shower I avoid the water getting on my face when at all possible and I only barely tolerate it when it is unavoidable. I also hold my breath in the shower when the water gets anywhere near my nose. I know it is pretty unlikely that I will drown in the shower, but try telling my brain that. It won't believe you.

2) I have a difficult time remembering to lock doors. Car doors, house doors, you name it. My parents never locked our house doors growing up so I just never got into the habit. Anthony had to really work on getting me used to locking things, especially when I was alone in the house. I am much better at it now, but I still have to remind myself every time to make sure I locked everything.

3) I can't open bags or boxes neatly to save my life! They always end up ripped open or the bag opening goes all down the side of the bag. It cracks Anthony up every time he goes to get a snack or something because he can always tell who opened it. Sometimes he just starts laughing, finds me and shows it to me saying, "I wonder who opened this one?". I stick by my claim that I just happen to always get the boxes and bags that are difficult or have extra glue or something!

4) I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome which we won't go into details about (I know, gross!) but among other things it means that whenever I get excited or nervous about something I spend a good amount of time in the bathroom before or after. It has gotten to the point that after my third trip to the bathroom, Anthony will ask me what I am nervous about.

5) I make funny sighing noises in my sleep. I didn't know I did this until Ant told me, but apparently I make a high pitched sigh like when you are exhausted and plop down on the couch at the end of the day. Hopefully I don't do it too much, but I think just once or twice a night. At least it's better than snoring, right?

6) Whenever I wear socks, the lines have to be directly across my toes. My mom tells me that I used to be very difficult about his and would pitch a fit until my socks were on "correctly". I wouldn't say that I pitch a fit now :), but I am definitely uncomfortable until I can get somewhere and fix it.

Now for my tags! I tag: Gabrielle, Tiana, Happy, Rachel, Dana, & Christy
Here are the rules: 1.Link to the person who tagged you and comment in the comment section on their original "quirk" post 2.Mention the rules on your blog 3.Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you 4.Tag 6 bloggers (or more!) by linking to them 5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Racism

Seriously people. I know that this election has stirred up a lot of controversy and emotions and I would like to just let this go, but I really can't. I've heard some disturbing things, all the more disturbing because some it comes from members of my church about the new president. Say what you want about him, in fact I would welcome someone's justified criticism of his policies but there is no place for racism in the year 2008.

I think that it is horrific to say that you don't like this president because his name makes him sounds like a "terrorist" or that he only got elected because "black people" went out and blindly voted without consideration of the issues. This is an affront to muslims, many of which share similar names to one famous terrorist through no fault of their own. Charles Manson commited horrible crimes, does that mean we should be wary of all people called Charles? It also is an insult to African American voters everywhere. They have brains, thoughts, and logic just like you do.

Here is a quote I found on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website and I wholeheartedly agree with it: "How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations. President Spencer W. Kimball stated the Church’s position well: “We do wish that there would be no racial prejudice. … Racial prejudice is of the devil. … There is no place for it in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 236–37).