Virginia Needs

This is a fun tag, and since I haven't posted in awhile I thought I would do it.

Go to Google and type in your name followed by "needs." Here are my top 10 results:

1. Virginia needs a moratorium on the death penalty. (Doesn't everybody?)
2. Miss Virginia needs some stealthy goalie pads. (For my ninja fighting, if you didn't already guess).
3. Virginia needs more charter schools.
4. Virginia needs to ditch unwieldy two-year budget process. (Did Anthony write this one?)
5. Virginia needs a signature wine
6. Virginia needs this fighting democrat.
7. Virginia needs assessment.
6. Virginia needs to avoid the siren song of a gross receipts tax. (no problem. I think I can do that)
8. Virginia needs power. (MWAHAHAHAHA!!!)
9. Virginia needs more spring rain.
10. Virginia needs to stop it. (You stop it.)

A Well Earned Break

This semester is finally and officially Over!!!! I can't stress enough how difficult it has been. I am still a little shell-shocked and I can't believe it has only been four months. It felt like MUCH longer.

Anthony passed his crazy difficult class!!!! It was a little close, but he made it. Now he only has one more semester of academic classes before he has a year of clinicals. He absorbs practical learning like a sponge, so it will be a big relief for both of us once he actually gets in there and starts doing things. We just found out that his classes over the summer are going to be online so he won't have to drive down to Tampa every week. Yea!!!! His semester ends in the middle of July, so between then and the beginning of fall semester in August we'll be apartment hunting and he will be job hunting.

As for me, I am done with classes! I won't have to set foot in another classroom or listen to another lecture for the rest of my life (unless I decide to go back to school much, much, much later from now). All I have left are two internships. My first one I am doing over the summer at Children's Home Society in Gainesville. I will be a case worker for their in-home program so I will make home visits and do parent coaching, counseling, and case managment for families that have been referred from the abuse hotline. The neat thing about it is that it is a voluntary program, so the majority of the clients I will have will actually want help. If they didn't, they would quit! (It's not court mandated or anything). My supervisor also runs the adoptions program and since she knows that's what I am really interested in, she said she would throw me some of their cases too. I am excited, but since I will still be working part-time in addition to this I will basically be working 46 hours a week. After this semester though, I know I can get through anything :)

So, in 2 days we will be on our way to the Bahamas in our first real vacation since our honeymoon! Ironically, right as we are getting ready for working all weekend and packing our realtor called us to say someone wants to look at the house. This is the FIRST person ever and it had to be this weekend. So, not only did I spend all day cleaning, tomorrow when we are trying to sleep so we can stay up 36 hours to work and then drive to Cape Canaveral to get on the cruise ship we will have to get up and sleep in our car for a few hours while someone looks at our house. I just keep telling myself it is all going to be worth it. Maybe they will want to make an offer? Maybe? :)

A light at the end of the tunnel

This gruelling semester is almost over people!!!! Only three more actual class meetings left in my entire formal schooling career! As a reward for making it through alive (which has been challenging to say the least) Ant and I are going on our first cruise! The week after school ends we will be in the Bahamas, baby!

Real women sweat

A lot of people assume that I am the type of gal that is constantly cold and doesn't sweat, just perspires gracefully. Nothing could be farther from the truth!! I am almost always hot and I have to use man-deodorant (like old spice) because girl stuff just doesn't cut it. I also sweat like a champ, both from nervousness and exertion.

To illustrate: on Wednesday I went to the gym to work out and spent a good amount of time there. When I got home, Anthony looked up from the couch, confused and said, "Is it raining?" No. I just sweat like a man.

Moving On

It is official, our house is on the market! We have had a whirlwind month getting everything ready, painted, and fixed up and now the challenge is to keep it clean for potential buyers. We are trying to be optimistic without getting our hopes up (now how do you do that exactly?). We are definitely moving in August, but we are hoping that we won't have to end up renting. Even though we are losing money, we both figure it will go a long way towards our peace of mind to not have to worry about it. Here are the pictures that will be in our listing so far. Eventually it will have our upstairs bathroom that we completely remodeled ourselves and are very proud of :)

Perfect Example

I came across a perfect example of how I've been feeling lately with school/intership:

Yep. Confidence seriously compromised by reality :)

I took the plunge!

I've been thinking about selling Pampered Chef for a few weeks now and today I took the plunge! I am officially a consultant(doesn't that sound funny?). So, I am going to be having an Open House at our place on March 5th and you are all invited!!!

I was kind of nervous about having an open house, because I don't want anyone to feel like this is going to be a get together where I try to strong-arm you into buying something. (If you know me at all, you know I am NOT that person:) It is more like a get-together/celebration of my new fun hobby! We are going to have good food, games, and lots of visiting. I'm thinking about having a mexican fiesta theme complete with sombreros...

So, if you want to have some fun, visit, and eat good food, then let me know. It is going to be on March 5th at 6PM.

Evil Sickness

So, we've been cursed by the plague at our house. I was in-bed-want-to-die sick for about two weeks and am going on my third week of lingering cough/stuffiness. Ant just started to get sick at the beginning of this week and I feel so guilty!!! I've been trying to be very accomodating and I even cooked dinner twice this week :)

Life update
Me:
I've been suffering through school and practicum with my sickness, and I haven't been seeing too many clients since I don't want to spread my germs. It is nice to feel like I am moving towards being done with classes, but I have started to get overwhelmed with insecurity. After getting some critque from one of my professors, I just started to wish I had chosen a profession that wasn't so personal. I bet insurance agents don't have to spend large amounts of time trying to be self aware and improve interpersonal skills. It's exhausting. Anthony assures me that I'll feel much better when I don't have someone offering me critque on everything I do, telling me what I should have said and making me feel stupid (not in a mean way, but still).

I don't know if I blogged about this before, but a few months ago I got called as a Relief Society teacher. I was genuinely excited about the calling, but I still find myself nervous the day of. I'm working on it, and I don't feel like I'm bad or anything. I just have issues being center of attention of a large group. In addition, I just got set apart with a Stake calling!! I sort of thought only older, more experienced people got stake callings but I was sorely mistaken. I am the new Stake assistant music specialist. Cool, huh?

Ant:
Ant is studying REALLY hard for one of his classes. Seriously, it takes up quite a bit of his time and I am proud of him but also worried with him. His teacher has never taught this class before and doesn't really know what he is doing. He started out being too lenient and now has swung to the other end of the spectrum and has ridiculous expectations. All prayers for him to pass would be appreciated :)

So that's us. We're still working on selling our house and crossing our fingers to move to Tampa in the beginning of May. If not, we will stick around in Gainesville at least until August until Ant starts clinicals. Know anyone who needs a condo? :)

30 Day Shred Results

I finally finished my 30 day shred by Jillian Michaels! I took a little bit longer than 30 days... Sometimes it was just too much to do the exact same workout for the ninth time! I definitely like circuit training. It gives you more workout for your time, which is a good thing for me lately. Not much really changed measurement wise, but Anthony says he can definitely tell a difference in my muscle definition. Official results: Lost 1 inch off of my waist and 1 inch off of my hips. Body fat percentage went from 22.3% to 20.3%.

Next project: Making the Cut by Jillian Michaels. This is 30 day shred on steriods, with lots of circuit training mixed with high intensity interval training. I'll keep you posted on how this one goes :)

Weird Wildlife

Anthony came and got me today while I was working out so I could see this strange animal off our back porch: An albino squirrel!!! In the wild!! Here it is trying to "hide" from Anthony in a tree. Doesn't work so well when you are pure white with red eyes.

So here is a tally of all of the animals that have lived in or visited the Lagana Zoo: a ball python, a cat, three mother stray cats with their five kittens, a crazed opossum, a ferret, two stubbornly cute miniature dachshunds, a maltese-spitz mix, a 60 pound basset hound, and now an albino squirrel.

My new favorite pictures

My oh-so-talented sister took these pictures of my parents over the christmas break and they are my new favorite pictures :) I mean, I want to frame them and put them on my bedstand kind of pictures! I love this picture of my dad, I think it is one of the best ones he's taken in awhile. I just love my parents. Aren't they cute?

Back to School

This week was our first week back to school and it went pretty well. I feel a little strange going to class since I only have two classes (my last ones ever!!!!!) and all of my classmates have more. It feels like I am coming in the middle of something when I show up on Thursday afternoon having had two days off :)

Ant went to his first class of the semester on Tuesday and his first comment to me is that it is going to be hard! The class is pathophysiology and on the first day they went over 30 pages of the textbook, so he knows that it is going to be intense. I am proud to say that he has made himself a study schedule and has already locked himself away in our office for hours to try to catch up for next week. Who knew I would ever see that happen?

I started my practicum at Shands and even though I don't want to jinx myself by saying this, I love it!!! The people I will be working with are wonderful and helpful and the patients are great. I hope by the end of this I will have a better feeling of what exactly I want to do when I grow up :)