Yeah, it's a few days late, but I was in the truck with Brad over the holiday so I wasn't able to say it sooner. It was a pretty uneventful thanksgiving this year, which is ok really considering how busy I’ve been lately. I enjoyed having a little holiday vacation, but now it’s back to the grindstone. I thought I would share my school/work schedule with everybody so they know what the heck I’m talking about.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – I get up at 6:10, leave for work at 6:40 and arrive to work at 7:20. I then leave work to go to class from 9:30 to 10:20 then come back to work until 5:00. I then read, do homework, workout etc until 7:00pm when my next class starts (except for Fridays, I get to go home at 5). I get out around 9 or sometimes later and then get home around 10:00pm.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get up and go to work at the same time, but I go to class from 8:00 until 9:15 and then work until 5:00pm. On Thursdays I have a lab that starts at 5:30pm and gets out between 8:30 and 9:00pm so I get home a little before 10:00pm. I usually spend Tuesdays catching up on reading/homework and once in awhile some tv. :o)
In case anyone is interested, my final tests start next week – Dec. 7, 9, 10, 14 and 16. Then I am home free for a month! Woo Hoo!!
Here’s a funny thanksgiving story for you:
I hosted thanksgiving at our house a couple of years ago because my mother-in-law and grandmother in-law were going to be out of town, I offered to cook for the rest of the family – father-in-law, sister in-law her two girls, Brad, Bo and myself. The night before, my sister-in-law and I went to the store to pick up some last minute items while Brad and his dad hooked up the new tv. We arrived home and loaded our hands full of grocery bags and headed into the house. I opened the door and stepped up to go into the house and my foot slipped. I started to fall face first and had no way of breaking my fall because my hands were loaded with grocery bags. I landed right on my nose on top of the groceries causing a bag of broccoli to explode open. So there I was, lying on a bunch of grocery bags on the living room floor laughing, unable to move because the grocery bags have my arms pinned down. Brad’s dad saw the whole thing and through his laughter, kindly picked me up off the floor and asked if I was ok. The whole thing was rather amusing really, I am laughing about it even as I type. At least I didn't burn the turkey!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Catching up
Sorry that it has been so long since my last post, but a lot has happened since then. My stepmom passed away unexpectedly and I went to Montana for a few days.
It’s been a whirlwind since I’ve been home and I’m really looking forward to the holiday break, but unfortunately, I will be spending most of it catching up on reading and writing a paper. I’ll be going out in the truck with Brad, so at least I’ll have company. :o)
It’s hard to believe that November is almost over with! This month has been a blur, and I’m sure next month will be similar considering the first two weeks will be full of studying and tests. Yay! Not!!
But alas, the semester is coming to an end and I am happy about that. Next semester will be light, but I’ll be studying for the MCAT so that will fill up my evenings. I am hoping to also get back on track with my exercising schedule. I tell myself that after my last final I am going to start going the gym to work out ever night, or at least three nights a week. There is no reason for me not to continue this when the spring semester starts, so I am hoping to keep it up for awhile. Life usually gets in the way, but this is my plan/goal. I could get up at 5am to workout, which would probably be better for my schedule, but I’m not a morning person.
Before I forget, I want to tell my family that it was really good to see everyone and to catch up, and hopefully we can do it soon under better circumstances. Cousins – stay out of trouble!
I will post again soon, but now it’s time for food! I’m starving!
Ciao!
It’s been a whirlwind since I’ve been home and I’m really looking forward to the holiday break, but unfortunately, I will be spending most of it catching up on reading and writing a paper. I’ll be going out in the truck with Brad, so at least I’ll have company. :o)
It’s hard to believe that November is almost over with! This month has been a blur, and I’m sure next month will be similar considering the first two weeks will be full of studying and tests. Yay! Not!!
But alas, the semester is coming to an end and I am happy about that. Next semester will be light, but I’ll be studying for the MCAT so that will fill up my evenings. I am hoping to also get back on track with my exercising schedule. I tell myself that after my last final I am going to start going the gym to work out ever night, or at least three nights a week. There is no reason for me not to continue this when the spring semester starts, so I am hoping to keep it up for awhile. Life usually gets in the way, but this is my plan/goal. I could get up at 5am to workout, which would probably be better for my schedule, but I’m not a morning person.
Before I forget, I want to tell my family that it was really good to see everyone and to catch up, and hopefully we can do it soon under better circumstances. Cousins – stay out of trouble!
I will post again soon, but now it’s time for food! I’m starving!
Ciao!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Adventures in Trucking
Some of you may or may not know that my husband is a truck driver. Currently he is hauling hay into various feedlots and dairies around Kansas. This past Friday he was supposed to pick up a load from western Kansas and take it to eastern Kansas and then come home. Well, the guy he was getting the hay from was busy trying to harvest his Milo crop and said that he didn’t have time to load Brad Friday, to come out Saturday morning and he would load him then. Not really happy about the whole situation, we got up at a bright and early 6:30 and hit the road by 7:30. The place we had to load the hay was not quite an hour away and we had to be there by 8:30 – so far so good.
Along the way we encountered many a stupid motorist, believing they were the only vehicle on the two lane highway and thus not bothering to follow highway etiquette or law. Or maybe someone put a sign on the front bumper that said, “I’m cruising at 71 mph, so please pull out in front of me and only go 65 so I have to hit my brakes to avoid driving a huge semi through the back end of your fancy Escalade. “
Another instance - as we were in the process of passing a vehicle, another happy motorist traveling on a side road decided to look left to make sure he didn’t turn in front of anyone, but decided he didn’t need to look at oncoming traffic from the right. He then made a right turn onto the highway only to see us coming straight at him. He was kind enough to pull over to the shoulder before we rudely collided with his front bumper, though. Who knew that an 18-wheeler was invisible on the highway? (It wasn’t as bad as it sounds as there was plenty of time for him to get over, but his ignorance still floors me.)
A short while later Brad noticed a state trooper following behind us and as we entered town, he turned on his lights. Now, you see, tickets come in threes for Brad, and he is notorious for getting tickets. It doesn’t matter what he is doing, where he is at, or where is going. It never fails that he gets three tickets a year. A few months ago he got one for passing in a “no passing zone”, even though he was in the process of passing and almost around the vehicle before he came into the zone, he still got a ticket.
One down, two to go.
So it was no surprise when the trooper pulled him over Saturday morning for speeding. Now I preface this with the fact that Brad had the cruise set at 70, and the speed limit was 65. The usual talk of license and registration ensued along with the inspection of the truck. This time however, there was a problem - a tire on the trailer was flat. This meant that we had to find a place in this really small town to fix the tire, or pay $400 for a service truck to drive to our location and fix it before the trooper would let us continue on our merry way. So we followed the trooper through town trying to find a place that would fix the tire and thankfully we found one. In the meantime, Brad called K, the guy we were getting the hay from, and told him we would be a little late. K said that he wasn’t really going to be able to load us today anyway because he was busy in the field and his hired hand was not at work yet. What? Are you kidding me?!
About an hour later (this guy was verrrry slooooow) we had a fixed tire and, the best news of the day, no ticket! The trooper was a pretty cool guy and sat and talked to Brad the whole time the tire was being fixed and decided that since we had such a time with the tire that he would not give Brad a ticket. He said that Brad was doing about 71 all the way up to town, but once we hit the outskirts, he sped up to 76. Not sure if the cruise was out of whack, or if Brad had cancelled the cruise and stepped on the accelerator at this point. None the less, Brad was not getting a ticket and we were very happy!
K called Brad and said that his hired hand finally showed up and could load us today… more good news! A half hour later we were finally at the hay pile, but as we pulled up, Brad noticed that the field didn’t quite look like the one his boss, S, had described. A phone call to S confirms that this is a different field. Brad then talks to the guy who is loading the trailer, J, and asked if there was another field at the different location and J said there was, but that hay didn’t belong to K. Hmmm, ok, weird. This piece of information prompts J to call K and Brad to call S and somehow lead to a weird three way phone call with Brad holding two phones, one to each ear, relaying information. It was quite funny to watch. After some discussion it was determined that S was mistaken on the location and we were going to load the hay at our current location – fine, no problem right? Wrong. When J was almost done loading the trailer, S calls Brad and said that he figured out the location of the hay he wanted. Doh! Well, by this time the trailer was already full and it would have been pointless to unload it, move to the other field and reload it, so we kept the hay that was on the trailer and headed home.
Who says trucking’s boring?
Along the way we encountered many a stupid motorist, believing they were the only vehicle on the two lane highway and thus not bothering to follow highway etiquette or law. Or maybe someone put a sign on the front bumper that said, “I’m cruising at 71 mph, so please pull out in front of me and only go 65 so I have to hit my brakes to avoid driving a huge semi through the back end of your fancy Escalade. “
Another instance - as we were in the process of passing a vehicle, another happy motorist traveling on a side road decided to look left to make sure he didn’t turn in front of anyone, but decided he didn’t need to look at oncoming traffic from the right. He then made a right turn onto the highway only to see us coming straight at him. He was kind enough to pull over to the shoulder before we rudely collided with his front bumper, though. Who knew that an 18-wheeler was invisible on the highway? (It wasn’t as bad as it sounds as there was plenty of time for him to get over, but his ignorance still floors me.)
A short while later Brad noticed a state trooper following behind us and as we entered town, he turned on his lights. Now, you see, tickets come in threes for Brad, and he is notorious for getting tickets. It doesn’t matter what he is doing, where he is at, or where is going. It never fails that he gets three tickets a year. A few months ago he got one for passing in a “no passing zone”, even though he was in the process of passing and almost around the vehicle before he came into the zone, he still got a ticket.
One down, two to go.
So it was no surprise when the trooper pulled him over Saturday morning for speeding. Now I preface this with the fact that Brad had the cruise set at 70, and the speed limit was 65. The usual talk of license and registration ensued along with the inspection of the truck. This time however, there was a problem - a tire on the trailer was flat. This meant that we had to find a place in this really small town to fix the tire, or pay $400 for a service truck to drive to our location and fix it before the trooper would let us continue on our merry way. So we followed the trooper through town trying to find a place that would fix the tire and thankfully we found one. In the meantime, Brad called K, the guy we were getting the hay from, and told him we would be a little late. K said that he wasn’t really going to be able to load us today anyway because he was busy in the field and his hired hand was not at work yet. What? Are you kidding me?!
About an hour later (this guy was verrrry slooooow) we had a fixed tire and, the best news of the day, no ticket! The trooper was a pretty cool guy and sat and talked to Brad the whole time the tire was being fixed and decided that since we had such a time with the tire that he would not give Brad a ticket. He said that Brad was doing about 71 all the way up to town, but once we hit the outskirts, he sped up to 76. Not sure if the cruise was out of whack, or if Brad had cancelled the cruise and stepped on the accelerator at this point. None the less, Brad was not getting a ticket and we were very happy!
K called Brad and said that his hired hand finally showed up and could load us today… more good news! A half hour later we were finally at the hay pile, but as we pulled up, Brad noticed that the field didn’t quite look like the one his boss, S, had described. A phone call to S confirms that this is a different field. Brad then talks to the guy who is loading the trailer, J, and asked if there was another field at the different location and J said there was, but that hay didn’t belong to K. Hmmm, ok, weird. This piece of information prompts J to call K and Brad to call S and somehow lead to a weird three way phone call with Brad holding two phones, one to each ear, relaying information. It was quite funny to watch. After some discussion it was determined that S was mistaken on the location and we were going to load the hay at our current location – fine, no problem right? Wrong. When J was almost done loading the trailer, S calls Brad and said that he figured out the location of the hay he wanted. Doh! Well, by this time the trailer was already full and it would have been pointless to unload it, move to the other field and reload it, so we kept the hay that was on the trailer and headed home.
Who says trucking’s boring?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Another Surgery
I had the pleasure of watching another open heart surgery -this time it was a bypass surgery. Here is an explanation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_artery_bypass_surgery, compliments of Wikipedia. I have to admit the valve replacement surgery was pretty awesome compared to this one. Don't get me wrong, open heart surgery is pretty amazing, but there is a different level of "awe." The valve replacement (I put a picture up to give some perspective) seemed to be a little more extensive and time consuming because the valve had to be sewn all the way around the base to the heart, 48 stitches to be exact.
The bypass surgery consisted of veins being removed from the leg and then sewn onto the heart before the area of blockage and after to “bypass” the blockage and allow blood to get through.
During a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), the chest is opened to visualize the heart (A). A heart-lung machine takes over the function of the heart during the procedure. A portion of the saphenous vein of the leg is removed (B). This vessel is used to bypass a blockage of the coronary artery. It is attached from the aorta past the point of blockage (C). Another option is to bypass a blockage with the mammary artery (D). The bypass increases blood flow to the area served by the coronary artery (E). (Illustration by Argosy.)
It was amazing at how the surgeons made this look so simple. I know that years of performing this procedure is the reason for this, but it was still pretty impressive to watch.
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