I've slacked...again

Man, with my addiction to facebook, I forget that I have this blog. I really want to keep a running blog though and be able to really track all our fun activities so this is my goal for this next year. Tim and I are only a few short months from graduating (me in 6 months and Tim in 9) so these next several months will be BUSY ones for us and there will be lots to talk about I'm sure.

This month, Seth and I had a great opportunity as Seth was chosen by his band director to go to UGA for a band festival. Once there, Seth auditioned for placement in one of 9 bands. He spent the rest of the weekend in rehearsals and practices, learning the songs.

 Waiting to Audition with over 100 other percussionists

Seth was placed in the #4 band so really good overall. Truth of the matter was that of all the bands, he was put in the best one from a percussionist standpoint. The conductor for his band had chosen some great songs that really allowed the various percussion instruments to really be heard and perform. Had he been in any of the #1-3 bands, the percussion sections were really not heard over the rest of the instruments or their parts were not very good.

On the last day, we spent some time driving around taking pictures of Seth proudly sporting his MSU shirt on the UGA campus. January 2, MSU faces UGA in the Outback Bowl so we made sure to show our MSU pride as much as we could this weekend!  GO GREEN!

This was a great opportunity for Seth and he learned so much. Up until this point he's told me that he wants to do marching band in high school but he's now saying that he wants to stay in the actual band and join a percussion ensemble. He  learned this weekend that he'll have more opportunities to play more instruments in the percussion section than he would if he was in drum line. Either way, I think that high school is going to be a great experience for him with his percussion skills.

Gearing up for our last 6 months in Georgia!

It's hard to believe that we are now just 6 1/2 months away from my graduation! The beginning quarters seemed to take us forever to get through but it sure is flying now. We have decided that we want to practice in Brighton, MI and have recently purchased our domain name. Now to finalize it and buy the actual DBA when we are home sometime in January. We have found a realtor who is going to help us with choosing a location and negotiations and have found a coaching company who is going to help us with getting up and running and being successful. Let the fun begin!

Thank God that quarter is OVER!

What a long quarter at school we had! Outpatient clinic proved to be 'not nice' to me and I really struggled with my advisor, scheduling and just getting my numbers. We only have to get 20 adjustments in this quarter, which doesn't sound too hard, but with scheduling conflicts, class issues and patient's non compliance, it was really a struggle. My advisor and I tend to butt heads pretty bad, and what I thought would be a great learning experience with her , has turned into complete hell! My patients, despite their lack of compliance and their skipping appointments were great. I met an amazing older gentleman who really changed so many things in my life! He ended up having to have a major spinal stenosis surgery and so I won't be seeing him as my patient due to his recovery time. I managed to get my very last adjustment at 6:45pm or so on Friday night and officially finished up the 10th quarter clinic requirements. Thank goodness!!!!

Tim took OSCE this quarter and had to retake Full Spine and Radiology, but completed both of them and will be joining me in outpatient clinic when we get back to school in July.

We both passed all our classes and I'm HAPPY to say "I'M DONE WITH DR. FOX!!!!" I don't think I've passed any of his classes with higher than a 72%, but I passed, and I'm DONE!! Next quarter should be a pretty good one for me and hopefully one I'll enjoy. Tim still has a few rough quarters ahead, but he's motivated and ready.

While we are here in Michigan for break, we are going to spend some time trying to narrow down where we want to practice. We've really struggled between staying near Detroit or going to the west side of the state (Muskegon area) but I'll write about that in a different blog. For now, we are planning on staying near Detroit and so have a TON of planning to do. Graduation is only a year away!!!!!!

So, we've done it again. We got a new dog. Today Tim and I went to Whole Foods and they were doing pet adoption outside. I talked him into going over to look and we found a couple dogs that we fell in love with. I swear we spent an hour or more looking at the dogs, talking about which one we liked and how we could make it work. We are needing to get rid of the cats since we aren't supposed to have them here anyways and they are starting to reek havoc, so talked about maybe 'swapping' the cats for a new dog. By 'swap' I mean that we have to convince the girls to get rid of their cats and get a dog instead. Anyways, Tim came home, picked up the girls and went back. They didn't like the one that I fell in love with, but they found a dog that they loved. We are now the owners of a great part shephard (possibly part pit) dog that is currently named Jake. Being we have a Jacob that we call Jake, we need to change the name though. We are sort of thinking right now about calling him Kobi.

Anyways, he really is doing great with the kids and even with Rex. He sits and shakes on command. He retrieves toys and drops them when told to drop them. When he starts to get too rough while playing, you say "gentle" and immediately walks away and goes and lays down. From what we understand, his owners had to move out of the country for work and couldn't take him. The people were marathon runners so the dog loves to run.

Here's a couple pictures of him.

Friday Funny ~*~4/1/11~*~

My youth from high school is probably one of the funniest people I know! Today's Friday Funny is one of his cartoons. If you aren't already a friend of his, you need to add Dik LaPine on Facebook! He'll keep you laughing!

April Fools Prank

Mikayla can be quite the drama queen and prankster so with April Fools Day here, I knew she'd come up with something to fool her teachers. She didn't disappoint!!! She came home from school and was cracking up. Apparently she talked her friend Omega into helping her with her trick. Mikayla worked up some fake tears and Omega went up to the teacher and said "Did you hear Mikayla is moving back to Michigan over break??" The teacher called Mikayla up and said "Are you really moving back to Michigan?" and Mikayla answered that she was. The teacher said "Over spring break????" (which started today) and Mikayla started to nod her head then said "NO! APRIL FOOLS" and blew a loud air horn that she'd been hiding behind her back.

She takes after her father....I swear!!!! ;)

Katelyn-The Artist

Last week Katelyn went to a birthday party at It's this great place where they teach you how to paint a preselected picture. For adults, you bring in your own drinks, from pop to wine to whatever you want. Pretty fun place! Katelyn had a blast and created this masterpiece that is hanging proudly in our hallway. I can't wait to sign the other kids up for a class to see what they come up with as well.

You call this "Spring Break"??

Our quarter at school ended last Friday and after a horribly stressful quarter, I was really looking forward to the break. Here is it Friday night, a whole week later, and we start back to school in just 2 short days. It has been cold and rainy all week so there's been no hiking, no long walks, no relaxing outside in the sun! I had planned on doing a garage sale this weekend but the weather has been so nasty that I haven't been able to set it up, especially being that I can't actually use the garage and have to do a 'yard sale' instead. Tim and I start back early Monday morning....and the kids get the week off for THEIR spring break! Looking at the forecast, they get warmer weather and more sunshine that we did. I guess that's a good thing because they can be outside and run off the extra energy. I'm just NOT ready to go back to school yet and really wish we could have another week. My house hasn't gotten spring cleaned like I hoped, I haven't done the reading I had wanted to do and I haven't gotten to sleep in a single day. Seriously...this is spring break??? I guess this is what spring break is like as a mom of 5.

Tuesday Tantrum

I'm in a pretty goofy mood today so it's hard to find something to throw a tantrum about. HOWEVER, mornings always rank top on the list! Getting up at 5:15 so that I can get myself ready, in order to get the kids up at 6:15 and get them dressed and hair done so that they can be eating breakfast when I have to race out the door at 6:30 to get to class by 7, is making me C~R~A~Z~Y! I hear so many students complain about their 7am classes, then hear that they got up at 6;45 and raced to class. No getting up at the butt crack of dawn, with only 3-4 hours of sleep because they were up all night studying for the exams they have later in the day. They just get themselves up and race to school. I need a coffee, but that would entail leaving 10 minutes earlier than I already do so that I can swing by Caribou on the way in. No breakfast or coffee until I've already been in class for 2 hours. Today, no lunch until almost 3:00 because I go to class from 7-9, 9-11 and 11-1 in class than have a patient to see from 1-3. Yes, I'm complaining. That's what Tuesdays are for!

And the weather! UGH! It has been so cold here in Georgia this year. We had the snow and ice in January that kept us out of school for an entire week because it never got about freezing and the ice couldn't melt. We expected, and embrassed, this weather in Michigan, but this is the south! It's not "supposed" to do this here! I'm so ready for some 55 & 60 degree days!

And stupid people! I have to say that stupid people who continue to make stupid decisions over and over and over irritate me. But stupid people who make the SAME stupid decisions over and over and over make me freaking want to hit something! I hate watching people make the same mistakes, being hurt by the same people and then opening themselves back up to those same people time and time again and then say "Things have changed" or "I've grown since then. It won't happen again"....only to sit and watch it happen again! When will these stupid people ever learn????

Friday Funnies ~*~1/28/11~*~

Another Jacob funny! The kids keeps us laughing almost all the time!

This week, Tim's dad was not feeling well and his blood pressure was pretty low. Jacob came over and gave him a hug and papa (Tim's dad) immediately lit up. When you realize the energy field that the heart gives off, it makes perfect sense that Jacob's heart sort of 'jump started' papa's heart. Anyways, Papa lit up, got his energy back and was fine. He said "Jacob, you gave me energy! to which Jacob then ran from person to person in the kitchen, arms outstretched for a hug, saying "Do you want energy too?" We couldn't help but stand and laugh because it was so cute and innocent.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tantrum

I hate that I am so stressed this quarter! I hate that we had a week off of school because Georgia isn't prepared for ice, despite getting it every year since I've moved here 3 years ago. The ice shut down half the state for an entire week so we didn't go back to school after our winter break. Due to that, the teachers were told by administration that they needed to give assignments, readings, etc to get us 'caught up' and not lose all that class time. Truth of the matter is that many of the teachers only lost an hour or time as it's either an hour or class, or they always let out so early anyways. I have my OSCE test (it's a competancy test to show that I'm ready for outpatient clinic) and am stressed enough about that as it is. Add to that, that we lost that week of review classes for the test and all the work that the teachers piled on us. They should move the test to week 5 but are insisting on keeping it week 4, despite requests by the students. So, for the next couple of weeks I'll be living a stressed life! The week after OSCE, we start midterms, followed by the physiology board retake I have and then finals. ARGH!!!! Why in the world did I do this to myself???

Not Me Monday ~*~1-24-11~*~

Well, Monday is here. Where in the world did this weekend go?? It seems that the weekends go 100x faster than the other days of the week. I did not forget to write a single blog since the "Resolutions" type post I posted over a week ago! I didn't forget all about this being here and let the stresses of my life overtake me to where I never even gave it a single thought. So, I did not break the only 'Non-Resolution' I set for myself.

I did not get frustrated this morning that I was going to be late for school, AGAIN! I have not been in school for a full week and been late EVERY single day!

I did not just about freak out when I realized that this professor starts class exactly on time and that I had missed his quiz! I didn't almost burst into tears and decide to throw in the towel.


I did not secretly hope that the lady at the bus stop wouldn't show up this morning so I didn't have to hear her deep smokers voice, hear her gruff laugh and do my typical morning eye roll as she carry's all her 4th grader daughters stuff for her so she doesn't have to do it herself. And I for sure didn't do the eye roll, just as planned. ;)


I did not decide that a chocolate Hershey bar and a Diet Coke would make the perfect breakfast for my overstressed morning. What better way to decrease stress than CHOCOLATE???

Resolutions

So, I hate resolutions. In my attempts at having tried to be Super Mom, I've been known to make all sorts of outlandish promises to myself, all of which fall by the wayside, usually within a week. I've tried Fly Lady and promised to be a better domestic engineer, but failed horribly! Who has the time to scrub their sink every night before bed? My husband has other ideas for that time. ;) I've made a resolution that I was going to read the Bible through in a year, but when I get to Leviticus, it got too tedious and, honestly, boring. And the geneologies...OY VEY! Yeah, that didn't last long. I've resolved to be a better wife, only to throw that out the window a couple days later when, for the MILLIONTH time, I had to pick up his dirty underwear or put his plates in the sink. I promised to be a better mom, which never lasted long either. And then there are the diet and weight loss resolutions. That usually works really good for about a week, then someone has a birthday, chocolate cake is presented and that's the end of that!

So, this year I am making a resolution to stop making resolutions!! I'm pretty sure this is one I can succeed at! Instead, I'm going to work to simply be the best me I can be. I'm going to be real and honest, tell people what I think and not be ashamed of my cellulite and stretch marks! I'm going to not beat myself up for the extra piece of candy or brownie. I'm going to work hard in school and put my best foot forward, but not going to stress out over it or be disappointed and angry at myself for my grades. I'm going to not worry about dishes in the sink, floors that may need to be vacuumed or laundry that is piling up. Instead, we will live by the 5 second rule! As long as the floors are clean enough that food can stay on it for 5 seconds and still be eaten, I'll be happy!

And the last one is I'm going to work harder at this blog. I started it to let normal moms know that it's ok to not be Supermom and that they are perfectly fine with snotty nose kids, unmade beds and bread, not made from scratch! In attempting to accomplish this, I think I may have gone over board. In my attempt to NOT be Supermom, I failed at being Supermom. :) I didn't maintain the perfect blog. Definitely an epic fail. But the lesson is the same...I'm NOT supermom and I won't pretend to be! I'm real, I'm down to earth and I'm NORMAL! ;) I hope you will again join me on this crazy ride of motherhood and womanhood!