awaiting

i've thought about not blogging anymore. and not using webshots. just facebooking. but i don't really do that. we'll see what happens in the new year. right now i'm sick. a girl at work was nice enough to stay and let me leave early last night. now i have all weekend off to get better. too bad i'm too sick to do anything else. maybe tomorrow. but that gives me time to catch up on my past. we had a really nice christmas this year. mom, although sick herself, was well enough to enjoy it this year and had put her magic mom touch on everything. i was the last to leave this year. dad and i went out orb hunting after dark and found a few bright guys out. i had a lovely bday the week before out with the girls in the family. we went to the salon for haircuts and out to lunch. then mom and i went to see the descendants. it was a pretty good movie. i have some great news. gareth got a job. it's a writing job with a two year training program. not sure the name of the company. it starts the end of january. very exciting. i decided to sign up for the math drug dosage class this semester. it's just eight weeks and doesn't start until the end of january too. it's online. i hope it's not too hard. my brothers and i got a snowboarding trip for christmas. we're going next week. it should be awesome if i'm not sick. i haven't gone since i broke my back. hope i can still keep up with the guys. i got to go horseback riding a couple months ago. the same girl at work has a horse and she let me ride. i hadn't ridden in ten years but it was like i'd never stopped. just like riding a bicycle. i got money to buy some riding supplies for christmas and hope to start taking lessons soon. an exciting year ahead.

awhile

my blog has tried desperately to not let me log in but twenty minutes (and a few months) later here i am. it really hasn't been a fun few months but there's been some highlights i'll try and remember. i've been officially full time for some time now. and i'm on my way to an a in chemistry. all i need is a b on my final next week (which i should be studying for right now...). gareth still hasn't found a job. he's getting ready to be off unemployment so that's pretty scary. but having the place paid for makes that a little easier. i'm looking forward to having some free time after this class is over. not sure yet if i'm going to sign up for one next semester. i had a real problem with my lab teacher this semester. she was pretty terrible so i gave her a bad review. she read said review and started giving me really bad grades. so i had to go to the dean. got my grades reevaluated. didn't get much better of a score but at least it was fair. everyone here has stayed healthy with no major incidents. kitt even stopped peeing as much since i got her a plug in pheromone diffuser. probably the biggest event we've had was my brother's annual fund raiser. i'd actually found a cat the day before and brought it in to work. it was microchipped and we found the owner who was so grateful she gave me and my clinic's rescue a reward. i spend my reward on raffle tickets for the fund raiser so it went to helping more animals. yay. i'm really looking forward to enrolling in the vet tech program next year. not sure how that's going to work yet money-wise with going to school full time but i should at least be able to get loans. i've been working on getting caught up with my pics but i've only gotten to the point of when i last wrote. i had thanksgiving off and will have christmas off this year. it's the first time i've had them both off since i can remember. makes up for having to work both last year. hopefully i'll have more time soon to write and post pics.

balance

my weeks have been quite busy lately. this chemistry is taking up most of my time now when i'm home. the first week we had 3 online quizzes due, a total of 86 questions, with most having 4-6 parts each. this past week was just one 20 question quiz but also our first actual lab that requires a prelab write up and post lab discussion. we had our first test yesterday too. it turned out to not be nearly as difficult as the quizzes so hopefully all my overstudying got me a good grade. it's just a lot of work and a lot to learn. i'm having a hard time balancing working full time and all the time class requires. i should find out soon if i'm actually full time at work. part of me hopes i am and part of me hopes they drop my hours when it comes to the 90 days where they have to start giving me benefits for my full time hours. i've said i want to be full time and i've worked the hours every week so it's up to them at this point whether they want to have me on or not. in the midsts of all this i ended up bringing home a puppy over the holiday weekend. i'd been in contact with a client at work for a few weeks who had a family member who had puppies she was trying to place. it didn't work out due to me not having the time to care for a puppy and colby not really liking her. it was sad to give her up though even after only having her a couple of days. she was super cute. we watched rio that weekend with her asleep on my stomach. the movie was entirely too silly. we also saw company men a couple weeks ago. it kinda hit home for gareth who's been unemployed for a while now. he had an interview a few weeks ago. a former coworker of his dad's gave him a recommendation but he didn't get the job. he's thinking of taking a technical writing certification program. i hope he finds something before his unemployment runs out in a couple of months. he's been stressed too but it's the opposite stress from what i've had so it's hard to sympathize with eachother. we wish we could help with the other's stresses. maybe balance the load a little. colby's had a mild skin infection for the past week. i brought him in to work over the weekend and had a skin scrape done to make sure it wasn't something picked up from the puppy. it's just allergies or sensitive skin we think from all the rain and resulting mold or blooms. it requires me to bring him to work to give him medicated baths every few days. today should be his last. he's scratching a lot less now and off the benedryl. poor pup. alright. i should go do something with my day off besides blogging and chemistry. perhaps i'll head outside.

quickly

things got even crazier outside. hurricane irene passed by last night. just a lot of wind and rain here but i'm glad we weren't on the coast for it. then there was the earthquake earlier this week. we all felt that. nothing even got knocked down here but in louisa at my brother and sister's houses a lot did. everyone's ok though. just shook up. literally. gareth thought the dryer had fallen on it's side and colby burst into the laundry room when he opened the door ready to attack. haha. my first day at class was great... we didn't have labs the first week and i didn't know so i showed up for nothing. my actual first class wasn't so great. we dove right into scientific notations, coefficients and significant numbers. i had a hard time keeping up in class but was able to go over the lesson online after and catch up. i honestly don't remember anything from this class a decade ago. hence the d. we watched a few netflix this week. just go with it wasn't so good. rango was weird but pretty visually stunning. i'm sitting in front of our frence doors now watching the clouds pass by quickly above. it's turning out to be a nice and sunny (be it windy) day out.

alright

i've been feeling discontent lately. especially after catching up with the daily coyote blog. she's spending the summer up on a mountain with her "family" of animals. i've been missing the great outdoors. it's been nice to spend my free mornings sitting in the yard having coffee with colby. and evenings if i'm home before dark playing outside with my boys. but we haven't gone anywhere since we've been here except places indoors. hopefully as it cools off we'll make more plans to be outside. i wish i'd started a garden when we moved in but it would have been hard to establish and thrive in the horrible heat we had. we've had some bad storms here lately. even a crazy swirling cloud above us after i got home the other day. i was awaken by lightning striking close by the other night and actually setting car alarms off. crazy stuff. indoors we've had some problems with our cable lately. we're thinking of getting rid of it all together. since signing up for netflix we realize we don't watch much of anything especially on cable anymore. i start chemistry class tomorrow. not really looking forward to having a busier schedule but i'll be alright.

animals

not too much going on this week. i worked a lot the beginning of the week so now i don't go in until three pm. kinda makes for a long day but worth it for a short shift. we got to see the movies we wanted last weekend. cowboys and aliens took itself a little too serious but was still fun. rise of the planet of the apes was enjoyable but you could tell james franco didn't really enjoy making it. blue valentine was good but not as emotional was we'd expected. we saw some old friends from r'mond last night. they moved to nova this summer too. nice to know someone in the area. we had a nice dinner with them. colby got his monthly super deluxe bath yesterday. i brought home a bandana from work for him. kitt's still having her urination issues. i've tried a new litter box and litter and nothing's really helping. the foil didn't keep her away for long. it's frustrating. i'm glad we put the plastic down so she didn't ruin the carpet here. oh animals.

time

more busy weeks for me. i don't know where the time goes. i'm lying on my stomach on the floor downstairs now. trying to stretch my back out. i'm constantly surprised at how physically and mentally difficult my new job is. i'm either on my feet or on the phone with my head cocked to the side. the mental part is not only working in a sometimes stressful and most of the time quite busy environment but also constantly learning how to do my job. i like it and i think i'm doing a good job. but it's pretty exhausting. i'm off today. yay. we just signed up for netflix so we're going to sit down and watch blue valentine today. i signed up for the chemistry class today. it was kinda a mess having to get transcripts sent and everything. but now i'm on my way. i went home this past weekend. it was my mom's bday and my brother's surprise 30th bday party. it was nice to see my family and some of my brother's old friends. we saw captain america a few weeks ago when it came out. it was really good. we want to see cowboys and aliens and the rise of the planet of the apes. too bad there's not enough time to do everything in my spare time. but i like to keep busy. so maybe we'll get to go.