Love, Heather

Recipes!

2011-10-08T18:22:00.002-05:00

Please share some recipes to some of your favorite dishes!

Love, Heather

His Voice Brings Comfort

2011-08-05T21:24:00.000-05:00

Last night, I received my first phone call from my husband!! He's been in Iraq for two and half months now. It felt so good to hear his voice. We've skyped a lot since he's left despite how terrible his internet can be. Usually his roommate is still sleeping at 6am when we skype. Therefore, he puts on headphones and I talk to him while he types back. There's been a couple of times that his roommate was up or out doing something that he's gotten to talk too. Regardless, I felt like his voice was different. He even said the same to me. I guess skype, with a terrible internet connection, just isn't the same. It caught me off guard and made me a little sad that my own husband's voice seemed kind of foreign to me. But then it made me all the more thankful to be hearing it over the phone. It's amazing the things that I took for granted everyday that are now a cherished luxury.

Love, Heather

Confessions

2011-07-11T23:51:00.000-05:00

1. I frequently type "Iraq" into google and click the "news" tab.
2. My poor husband is exhausted from constant work and therefore, he oversleeps through our "skype time" sometimes. This immediately induces number 1.
3. I tear up when I see that every casualty is from Ft. Hood even though I know that they're all that's left in Iraq. And even if there is another unit not from Ft. Hood, they will be gone soon.
4. As we slowly pull out of Iraq, I get anxious about the amount of soldiers not backing up my husband.
5. I dread the thought that Iraq might ask the US to stay and keep me from my husband longer.
6. I'm heartbroken as they close down all of the things that my husband actually likes about Iraq such as the pool and, soon, the PX.
7. I broke down when I learned of the first casaulties from Zack's brigade.
8. I pray for my husband's safety, health, and happiness everyday.
9. When I have a bad day or things get hard, I wish Zack were here to give me a hug and tell me that everything is going to be okay.
10. I would wait 5 years for my husband to come home without a second thought.

Love, Heather

Baby You're Never Alone

2011-06-28T12:14:00.000-05:00

[I have this framed in my office. It says "Not Alone"]

Never Alone - Lady Antebellum

May the angels protect you, trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
May you always have plenty, the glass never empty
And know in your belly, you're never alone

May your tears come from laughing, you find friends worth having
As every year passes, they mean more than gold
May you win and stay humble, smile more than grumble
And know when you stumble, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

Well, I have to be honest, as much as I wanted
I'm not gonna promise that cold winds won't blow
So when hard times have found you and your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

May the angels protect you, trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
So when hard times have found you and your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly, this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

Love, Heather

Ingredients of a Wife

2011-06-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

What are some of the qualities of a good wife? I may have only been married for 2 and a half months before my hubby deployed but I think of this year as a way to tweak some skills. One of those skills that needs a lot of tweaking is cooking! I love baking and I'm very capable of following instructions. My list of recipes is short. Therefore, I've made a goal to learn one new recipe a week while Zack is deployed. This Thursday will be 4 weeks so I'm still on track as of now.

Homemade Meatballs

I love meatballs. I love spaghetti and meatballs...I love meatball sandwiches...I love meatballs by themselves! However, I got the idea to make them from an email from The Nest (sequel to The Knot). I learned to switch over to other sources. These weren't bad, but I've had some really great meatballs and these just didn't compare. I will definitely be trying a new recipe!

Moroccan Carrots

This recipe was also from The Nest. It involves a lemon-based sauce over the carrots with hints of honey and cumin. I dipped the carrots in the sauce first and I had to try 5 pieces before I decided to nix the sauce and just eat cooked carrots. I love the taste of carrots and lemony carrots was kind of a weird flavor. However, I'm so used to eating raw carrots that it was a nice reminder that I should add cooked carrots into my meals too.

Baked Ziti

Thanks to Kate for commenting on my last post and directing me towards some of her favorite recipes on her blog! This baked ziti is amazing! This is another one of my favs so when I saw it on her blog (today), I decided to go to the store to get the ingredients. I made it with all fat free cheeses, wheat pasta (Barilla plus), and the recipe already calls for Italian turkey sausage. Zack and I enjoyed the baked ziti at an Italian restaurant in Copperas Cove and this is a less sinful way to indulge in some delicious pasta.

Madison

In an unrelated topic, this is my adorable dog bumming out at my parent's house over the weekend.

Decor

A wife is also in charge of beautifying the house. I love this excuse because I love shopping for decor. These are my new candles. One of my end tables needed a little something extra. Over the next year, I'd like to replace some of my decor on a budget. I'll be a regular at Hobby Lobby (and I refuse to buy anything for less than 50% off!).

Love, Heather

Consider Me a Regular

2011-06-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

[March 12, 2011]

Zack deployed almost 2 weeks ago. I've been posting various pictures on facebook to show Zack what all is going on. Well I realize that a lot of my friends may not necessarily care about things such as the frog that Madison likes to play with/torment got squished today. I figured posting all of that here would be more appropriate and less annoying to my facebook friends.

For starters, I got a new haircut yesterday. Everyone who has ever worked on my hair tells me I have twice as much hair as the average person. Having really long hair in the summer is almost unbearable unless I wear it up everyday. I realized also that I hadn't gotten my haircut since Christmas time. I had been planning on getting it cut for the past...ohh...3 months now? The best part is that I went to a new place and it was only $30! I feel like I have been getting ripped off for the better portion of my life by hairstylists.

I told myself that when Zack deployed, I would start trying lots of new recipes so I can pretty much be Betty Crocker when he comes home. I found a couple of recipes on one website and I think I might have to venture to a new one. On Sunday, I made some meatballs cooked in tomato sauce. The only thing I changed up was that I excluded the veal because my grocery store doesn't sell it. Well they came out kind of bland. They weren't bad, but they weren't exactly show-stopping either. Fast forward to tonight and I decided to try some Moroccan Carrots. I boiled the carrots and mixed the sauce but after I strained the carrots, I decided to dip one in the sauce and try it before pouring it over all of them. I probably tried 5 or 6 of them before I decided that it probably wasn't for me. It had a very lemony taste. I could see it served in a restaurant somewhere but once again, it wasn't for me. So now I'm eating a big bowl of carrots for dinner lol. I think I'm just going to start surfing the Food Network website from now on. The reviews and ratings are really helpful on that site.

Well that's about all for today. Lots to do before bed. If you have any wonderful dinner, lunch, or breakfast recipes, feel free to share!

Love, Heather

The "D Word"

2011-05-11T00:32:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorites from the wedding - that "trying not to laugh" face is a classic :)

I promised I would be updating more soon and the time has come. I took my last final of the semester today. I will be graduating from nursing school in exactly one year. Zack and I are still doing the long-distance thing since we got married. He is deploying very soon so since my nursing school is 2 hours away from Ft. Hood, it was not logical to move in together with a deployment starting only a couple of months after we got married.

First off, I want to say that I'm positive that I've found my dream profession. We had a couple of people drop out this semester because they felt like nursing school consumed their entire lives and it might not be what they want to do. It's true that nursing school consumes your life. Sometimes it's stressful to pack up and go see Zack (which I always do, regardless of the stress). These past few months have involved traveling most weekends to see Zack, putting together an entire wedding by myself in March, surviving nursing school, learning how to be married, and preparing for a deployment. I figure that once Zack is deployed, I'll appreciate that nursing school consumes all of my time. I even got elected for vice president of my class (because, you know, I don't have enough going on). I'm really excited about all the activities involved with being an officer and I am so thankful for all of my wonderful classmates, who I consider to be good friends.

So now back to Zack. I mentioned he would be deploying very soon. The down side is that we still only have a 6 day span as to the exact day that he will deploy. The up side is that since I'm done with finals, I can spend every possible moment with him until he deploys. Preparing for a deployment has definitely been a roller coaster. First, I let the wedding consume all of my concerns and purposely pushed the deployment out of my head. After the wedding, I focused on the fact that I needed to finish strong for this semester in nursing school. Unfortunately this method has resulted in random bursts of bawling with little warning. Now, however, I'm just so happy to be with him that I'm feeling better. I know this deployment will be rough. A year away from my husband is completely incomprehensible to me. Honestly, I can't imagine a man more worth it though. And on the bright side, we have so many amazing things to look forward to when he comes home! The game plan is as follows: I graduate from nursing school and become an RN during the same month he comes home, we will finally get to move in together :), we're going to Vegas again because we absolutely loved it, and we're going to get a new puppy. I'm so glad that I have an amazing husband and so much to look forward to!

Love, Heather

Honeymoon in Paris (Sort Of)

2011-03-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

I've always wanted to go to Paris and Zack studied abroad in Europe one summer so he's always wanted to go back. Since we first discussed getting married, we always said we would go to Paris for our honeymoon. Well, our flight and hotel was budgeted with the wedding so we decided to stay stateside. We debated on a few ideas but I'm not the kind of girl that likes to just lay on a beach. We decided to go to Las Vegas and stay at the Paris hotel. Brilliant, right? Zack had never been to Vegas and I hadn't been since I was 16 so my previous visits didn't count.

We stayed in the Red Room at Paris which was really cute!

We gambled for the first time (Zack likes Star Wars)

I actually won a little money on video poker

We went to the coke store and tried 16 different Coke products from around the world!

I won a good amount of money playing War. Yes, the card game War! I play with Zack all the time so you can imagine my excitement when I realized they had War tables in the casinos!

Getting a picture with a Michael Jackson impersonater was a trip goal for me and I managed to find two

We found out lions are like giant puppies (MGM)

We drank giant drinks (hey, it's Vegas)

We went up the Eiffel Tower in true Paris fashion

It was a total blast! We also saw the Amazing Johnathan, Criss Angel, and David Copperfield. Criss Angel is surprisingly charismatic and not creepy like he is in his TV show. His show was really high energy and we both really liked it. Our last night we went to see David Copperfield. Where do I begin? Well let's start with how he appeared on the stage. There was a box with a white film that they lit from behind so you could see through it. They then turned it 360 degrees. In the blink of an eye, a silhouette appears and it's David Copperfield on a motorcycle. He put audience members along the back of the stage and 2 audience members on their hands and knees holding metal poles in place. He put a sheet over them and pulled it off 5 seconds later to reveal a car. A car. I think I sat in my seat with my jaw hanging open the entire show. I highly recommend it! Anyways, we did tons in Vegas so I'll wrap it up with those shows.

Love, Heather

I'm a married woman! :)

2011-03-22T00:59:00.000-05:00

So happy :)

Love, Heather
xo

Remember me?

2011-03-05T01:33:00.000-06:00

I haven't updated in forever! Nursing school sort of took over my life. However, I will be blogging again because my handsome Zachary will be deploying pretty soon so I want to keep him updated as much as possible! This will be a short post but I wanted to include the MOST important news...

I'M GETTING MARRIED NEXT SATURDAY!! :)

Love, Heather

Hospitals' Influence on Breastfeeding

2010-09-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that I would post on my senior seminar topic literally months ago and I'm just now getting around to it. Infant and gestational nutrition just so happen to be the most fascinating topics to study, in my opinion. I was originally going to just write about breastfeeding benefits in general but another girl in my class picked that topic. I decided to go with a subtopic, and something that I firmly believe is a problem. However, now that I am in nursing school (and already overwhelmed by it all), I hope I can successfully promote breastfeeding. P.S. I wrote this paper in a pretty short amount of time due to nursing applications, entrance exams, and regular class exams. I am aware that it is one of the worst papers I have ever written as far as wording. That is all.

The World Health Organization recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for six months ¹. Breastfeeding has endless benefits including sensory and cognitive development¹. It is also important for immunity to many diseases and deficiencies. Despite the number of benefits, many women choose not to breastfeed. In an effort to discover why some women choose not to breastfeed exclusively, studies have been conducted and found that hospitals may play a role in the decision to not breastfeed.

The reason for such a big push to breastfeed is all of the benefits to both the infant and the mother. The skin-to-skin contact encourages bonding between the two as well as reduces infant crying ². Breastfeeding also has numerous immunological effects. It has been shown to reduce the risk of respiratory disease, asthma and wheeze, diarrhea, atopic disease, and gastrointestinal illness ². While the infant is consuming breast milk, the mother’s immunities are passed on to the infant. The infant will no longer have these immunities when it stops drinking the breast milk. Recent findings have also shown that breastfeeding can guard against diabetes and obesity ². Increased cognitive development and intelligence have been shown to increase due to breastfeeding as well ². For the mother, breastfeeding can reduce the risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer and ovarian cancers ². It also has emotional benefits for the mother. Some of the benefits include attachment, relaxation, decreased perceived stress, and a decrease in

negative moods ².

Table 1.

All of these benefits have a direct link to exclusive breastfeeding and influence each mother individually.

One factor that influences a woman’s decision in regards to breastfeeding is the receipt of a commercial hospital discharge pack. These discharge packs typically include free formula or coupons for formula and are endorsed by the formula companies. One study assessed the relationship between these discharge packs and exclusive breastfeeding ³. A survey with 3,895 respondents was analyzed. Of the respondents, 66.8% claimed to have received a commercial hospital discharge pack from the hospital they where they delivered ³. Further investigation concluded that women who received a commercial hospital discharge pack were more likely to exclusively breastfeed for less amount of time than those who did not receive a commercial hospital discharge pack ³.

Table 2.

It should be noted in Table 2 that almost 70% of all respondents were given commercial hospital discharge packs. Among those who received the discharge packs, there was a negative correlation with elongated exclusive breastfeeding. For those respondents that did not receive commercial hospital discharge packs, there was a positive correlation with elongated exclusive breastfeeding. The conclusion is that mixed messages are being sent through the verbal instruction for breastfeeding and the physical example by means of commercial hospital discharge packs ³.

While reports demonstrate the negative relationship between commercial hospital discharge packs and breastfeeding, hospitals still continue to distribute the discharge packs regularly. Despite 88% of hospital facilities reporting that they initiated breastfeeding instruction to mothers, many actions contradict those teachings ⁴. These unfavorable procedures include 65% of facilities directing mothers to regulate length of breastfeeding and 45% of facilities providing pacifiers to full-term, healthy infants ⁴. Even more disturbing, 41% of breastfed infants in the hospital are given formula ⁴. In regards to the commercial hospital discharge pack study mentioned, 70% of hospitals distribute these packs while 93% give them out to at least some mothers ⁴. Table 3 gives some recommendations as to how to improve the quality of breastfeeding care in hospitals.

Table 3.

The study provides these recommendations based on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which is the “gold standard” for breastfeeding care in hospitals ⁴. The improvement of hospital breastfeeding practices could help with the elongation of breastfeeding.

Hospitals have enough influence to inhibit a mother’s decision to elongate breastfeeding but they also have the ability to successfully promote breastfeeding through counseling. Insufficient lactation is reported to be the most common reason why mothers have difficulties breastfeeding within the first few months after delivery ⁵. Under normal, healthy conditions of the mother, breast milk is satisfactory, in both quality and quantity, for the needs of a growing infant ⁵. Sakha reports that a mother’s inadequate knowledge of breastfeeding is the main reason for believing they have insufficient lactation. In the study, proper training resulted in weight gain of 85.7% of the 63 infants.

Table 4.

A separate study showed that 94% of the mothers who participated in breastfeeding training decided to exclusively breastfeed till their infant was four months old ⁵. The studies exemplify that proper breastfeeding training resulted in more breastfeeding success as well as a longer duration.

The conclusion is that the majority of hospitals contribute to breastfeeding in a negative way. Despite the numerous benefits of breastfeeding, such as immunological benefits, hospitals still widely use commercial hospital discharge packs that typically include formula or coupons for formula. Studies have shown a negative correlation between elongation of breastfeeding and commercial hospital discharge packs. Regardless of the current negative impact on breastfeeding, hospitals have the potential to promote breastfeeding and the elongation of its duration. A survey of pediatricians showed that 55% of its respondents were in support of the elimination of hospital gifts bags ⁶. The avocation for the removal of commercial hospital discharge packs and the establishment of correct breastfeeding training by health care professionals and patients may help expand the instance of elongated breastfeeding to six months.

References

World Health Organization. Exclusive breastfeeding. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/exclusive_breastfeeding/en/
Sloan, S., Sneddon, H., Stewart, M., & Iwaniec, D. (2006). Breast is best? Reasons why mothers decide to breastfeed or bottlefeed their babies and factors influencing the duration of breastfeeding. Child Care in Practice, 12(3), pg. 283-297.
Rosenberg, K., Eastham, C., Kasenhagen, L., & Sandoval, A. (2008). Marketing infant formula through hospitals: the impact of commercial hospital discharge packs on breastfeeding. Research and Practice, 98(2), pg. 290-296.
Bartick, M., Stuebe, A., Shealy, K., Walker, M., & Grummer-Strawn, L. (2009). Closing the quality gap: promoting evidence-based breastfeeding care in the hospital. Pediatrics, 124(4), pg. 793-801.
Sakha, K. (2009). The Role of the proper breastfeeding training in promoting lactation. Iranian Journal of Pediatrics, 19(4), pg. 354-358.
Revai, K., & Huston, R. (2009). Hospital distribution of formula discharge bags: opinions of Texas pediatricians. Breastfeeding Medicine, 4(3), pg. 157-160.

Nursing

2010-08-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

Today was orientation for nursing school. Let me break it down.

Textbooks and lab pack. Panic attack? Yes.

All of the free crap we got so we would endorse/buy various company's stuff. Bonus: chocolate was included.

Now it's time for a poll! I can't decide on a stethoscope color.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Littmann-Gallery/stethoscope/classic-II/se/

Ceil Blue or Pearl Pink?

Love, Heather

Remember Me?!

2010-08-14T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Even though for once I have actually had spare time to update, it never seems to cross my mind. I moved to a one bedroom apartment. It's the first time that I've lived by myself but Madison is definitely making it easy. I never really feel lonely. The two good friends that I have left in town (at least until they graduate) live literally seconds from me so I'm happy with my current situation. I would much rather be with Zack but I like to look at the positives. We're getting married in a little less than 7 months and withing a month or two after the wedding, he's going to deploy. At that point I will have one more year of nursing school. He'll probably get back 2 months before I graduate because it's a shorter deployment. So, it's kind of like not living together before marriage and then he's deploying. This way I don't have to blame nursing school.

I'm officially registered for my first nursing classes and have a big portion of wedding planning done. In September, I'm going wedding dress shopping and will hopefully find a dress! I hope I find a dress at the first shop. I'm not the kind of girl who wants to try on every dress in the state. Forget that. We upgraded to a bigger room at our venue. Our old room (which, by the way, was unique and gorgeous) held max 100 guests. My parents added a bunch of people which sent our guest list up to 140 and we still felt like we couldn't invite everyone that we wanted to. The new room is still unique, although not the the extent as the other room. It has vaulted ceilings, windows from floor-to-ceiling on 3 walls, a wrap-around terrace, and holds a whopping 250 guests so we definitely won't have any problems. Our anniversary was this past week and we had a little date night.

Zack got me some beautiful roses! He didn't know that the pink ones will actually be one of the flowers we use in the wedding!

He has limited bakewear so I made him Funfetti cookies (which I didn't even know existed)

Some kid was selling 1st Cav cookies. So cute!

Well I think that's pretty much my life right now. I'm living by myself, attempting to plan a wedding, and starting nursing school in two weeks.

Love, Heather

Gift Ideas

2010-07-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

So, I have an anniversary fast approaching. I'm in real need of gift ideas. I've already done things like a scrapbook, Xbox 360, BluRay, bread club, and a couple of other things. I'm kind of stumped. I can't think of anything that he "needs" so I'm trying to think of something that he'll like.

Love, Heather

Operation Stay Out of ER: failed.

2010-07-08T16:02:00.000-05:00

As I previously mentioned, I went to the ER a couple of weeks ago and was diagnosed with pancreatitis. The following week I had the honor of being poked and prodded to figure out what caused it. No results yet. I went straight from Houston to Ft. Hood to spend the four-day weekend with Zack and celebrate Independence Day. I had so much fun being a lazy butt with him! We are also in a random little pocket of space where the street before us says, "Leaving Copperas Cove" and the street after us says "Entering Copperas Cove". So technically we decided we were allowed to shoot off fireworks. It didn't really matter, everyone in the area was shooting them off and it was AWESOME! Where I grew up, fireworks were banned in '99 so it had been a long time since I had seen a neighborhood all out enjoying fireworks.

Literally right after we come inside I start feeling a little off. A little upper abdomen cramping and slightly nauseous. I decided to eat a peanut butter sandwich because I'm hypoglycemic so I get sick when my blood sugar levels get low. It got a little worse. I went to look for my perscription meds from when I was in the ER and I had left them in College Station. Stupid stupid stupid. I had Zack drive me from Ft. Hood to College Station at 11 pm (it's a two hour drive and Zack is not a night person so this was like torture). We had to pull over three times and by the time we got to College Station, I was in unbearable pain. I took my nausea medication and hydrocodone and it did nothing.

So then I had Zack drive me to the ER. I had to wait a long time to get an IV and then went through an awful 5 minutes of the ER nurse digging in my hand to get blood. Zack could barely watch him, he said it hurt him just to look. Finally the nurse tried another spot and the blood finally flowed. TORTURE ISN'T NECESSARY! Just try another spot! They gave me nausea mediciation and morphine. The morphine did nothing for the immense pain so they double the dose to bring it down to a manageable pain. I was drugged out of my mind. I wasn't coherent, I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I couldn't so much as roll over. For the weak-stomached, I'll say I "lost my dinner" at least 8 times that morning.

Here's the kicker: my lipase levels were normal. They had no reason to believe that it was pancreatitis. The doctor thinks it may have been an unrelated stomach bug! How can one girl be so lucky?

Operation Stay Out of ER: failed.

Love, Heather

(Almost) MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

2010-07-03T00:36:00.000-05:00

1. Tell us about your dream job… one that you could do regardless of pay.

Nurse. I'm attending nursing school in the fall and I can honestly say from volunteering at hospitals and being around them that it is truly what I want to do. I'm actually dying to start my classes!

2. What is your most prized material possession (kids and pets don’t count!)?

I would have said Madison (my dog) because I still think she's the best gift I've ever gotten even though I got my dream car (that I would have never bought for myself, EVER) for graduation. With her excluded then I would say my engagement ring. There's nothing better than a symbol of eternal love from your soul mate.

3. What has been your favorite duty station and why?

I'm going to obviously have to say Ft. Hood because that's the only place he's been stationed. Granted, I went to Ft. Lee twice while he was there for 4 months and I definitely like Ft. Hood better. However, I liked Ft. Lee for temporary because we got to go to D.C. and Hershey, PA! I like Ft. Hood because we're both from Texas so it's close to our families, I still attend nursing school in College Station, and Tex-Mex (duh).

4. What is your least favorite household chore?

Laundry! Uugghh! I hate hate hate folding clothes. I'm notorious for leaving clothes in the dryer and resetting the timer for 10 minutes before grabbing one shirt out and doing it again the next day. I don't mind doing anything other than laundry.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to a teenager today (not specifically a MilTeen), what would it be?

If I had to give advice to any teenager then without a doubt it would be my old best friend's little sister. She committed suicide 2 weeks after turning 15 in late 2007 and I would give anything to go back and tell her that everything gets better and falls into place. I would give anything.

Love, Heather

Satan's Mistress

2010-07-02T23:40:00.000-05:00

Aanndd...I'm back! I have a good excuse for not posting in a while. Last Tuesday, June 22nd, I had the honor of driving myself to the ER for the first time. I spent four hours Monday night losing my dinner and feeling this awful pain in my upper abdomen. The ER doctor claimed it was my gall bladder from poking and prodding to see where the pain was coming from. I would describe it as a severe pain that feels like your gall bladder (and maybe pancreas) is twisting up while being doused in acid. Sharp pain + almost a severe cramping feeling + burning = Heather in the ER. Well turns out it was pancreatitis and by 5:30am, someone finally gave me morphine and nausea medication to put me out of my misery.

There have been few occasions in my life where I've had to have blood drawn. I've never donated blood (I know, I seem like an awful person) but it's not because I'm afraid of needles. Shots are no biggie. You can give me shots all day long. Drawing blood? No way. Genetics blessed me with very small veins that don't bleed easily. I literally stop bleeding right after the needle is pulled out and sometimes while the needle is still in! The ER nurse originally dug around in my arm because she could get IV fluids through but couldn't get blood out. That hurt. I mean, I was moaning and tossing in pain but I still noticed what she was doing. She told me she needed to stick me again and drew blood from my hand. I didn't even notice that one (given the other pain). I wish she had just done that and not dug around because I ended up with a huge black bruise. The hand bruised a little.

That Thursday, I went to my primary physician in Houston and was stuck two more times to draw blood (my doctor's nurse is the BEST at drawing blood but let's face it, it's hard to get me to bleed). Fast forward to this past Tuesday and I went to see a gastrointestinal specialist to see what caused the pancreatitis. He decided to order an array of tests so he could confidently tell me that he had no idea what caused my pancreatitis. He sent me down the hall to have blood drawn to check my triglyceride levels. Please note the picture at the top of the page. This woman was Satan's mistress. She was worse than the ER nurse. She got 3/4 of the vile of blood and then started stabbing around to try to get me to bleed more. SO. MUCH. PAIN. My mom was in the doorway cringing. Finally, she stabbed so hard that I actually flinched away and ripped the needle out of my arm and managed to get blood all over my arm, the chair, and her glove (but not the vile). She then stabbed around in the second hole and couldn't get anything so she told me I needed to be referred to their main location to try again. I decided to go home instead.

Wednesday, I went across Houston to another office for a CAT scan. No one mentioned the IV. Thankfully, this guy knew what he was doing and managed to find an unbruised spot on one of my two arms and insert the needle with ease.

So, the summary of my two weeks is this: I was in the worst pain and had to go to the ER at 4:30am for 3 hours. I lived off of water and sprite for 3 days. I then had to deal with slowly easing the awful tightness of my empty stomach with bland food. I was stuck 7 times, with 7 needles, within 7 days. I've been walking around looking like a heroin addict with bruises all over my arms.

Love, Heather

Summer Madness

2010-06-20T23:56:00.001-05:00

[Messing around with Zack's gear! (SO heavy!)]

I'm back in College Station after the 100000th trip in the past couple of months. I haven't spent a weekend in College Station since graduation and I was gone for the majority of two weeks before that. I've made a lot of trips to Houston for wedding necessities and getting stuff done for nursing school. This past weekend, I received my physical at my doctor's office and got CPR certified. I was the only person in the CPR class that wasn't already a health care professional. One lady was like "I've been taking this class every two years since 1968" and I'm like "Uhhh...I'm a nursing student?" haha. The good news is that I'm a drug and TB test away from being ready to register for nursing classes. Yay!

This weekend, Zack and I are attending a friend's wedding. Next weekend, I may be going back up to Ft. Hood for 4th of July fun (to be determined). He's supposed to leave on either the 11th or 14th to go to New York for two weeks. I have no idea why but I'm sure it's nothing really worth the trip. Both him and my parents will be over on the east side of the country for my birthday. Luckily, I have my lovely best friend/roommate/maid of honor to celebrate with so I'm excited! Since I've been out of town so much, I haven't been able to spend time with her that much. She will only be my roommate for about a month more (after 3 years!) so we will be having some quality girl time in July for sure.

[Carrie & I on my birthday two years ago]

Love, Heather

I Hate Long Distance

2010-06-13T02:11:00.000-05:00

I love Fort Hood. I will admit, however, that it really doesn't have much to do with the place. Fort Hood contains two things: 1. Zack 2. Our home.

Zack and I met in February 2008 when I was actually dating his friend. We (his friend and I) dated very briefly and are all still really good friends (we're going to his wedding the weekend after next!). Needless to say, I hardly looked at Zack at the time. We re-met (the one I actually count because I remember it fully) in June 2008. We then started the dating scene in July. Since that time, we were inseparable and he was always with me. Let's face it, his apartment was nothing more than a glorified shower and closet.

That all changed on October 31st last year. We had never spent so much as a full week apart before and then he was sent out-of-state for about 6 months for BOLC. Now long distance is becoming more of the norm. And let me tell you, I'm not happy about that! I love coming up here and visiting him. I absolutely love the home we rent. I wish I could live here when he deploys next year. However, the nursing school at Central Texas College says you must take Intro to Nursing (which isn't offered at Texas A&M, Blinn College, or Lone Star College - all of the places that I've taken classes) and it is only offered during the summer and online. Basically, if you aren't attending the college then you wouldn't know this. Well that eliminates living in Fort Hood.

What that does mean is I will be living in College Station for another 2 years, making it 6 years total. It's a 2 hour drive at most so I realize that things could be a lot worse. I would just rather be here in a 3 bedroom home with my fiance and a yard for Madison than in College Station, in a 1 bedroom apartment.

Ok, I'm going to stop complaining now. I got into a really good program and my brother will be beginning college this fall in College Station, so I'm happy to be around to help him with that.

In an unrelated topic, tonight I indulged in some adult beverages with Zack (which doesn't go with the wedding diet). What does Heather do when she indulges in such beverages? I did the dishes, made pancakes, set up the guest bedroom and am writing a blog. I guess I've found the secret to get me to be productive!

Love, Heather

The Engagement and Nursing School

2010-06-08T13:44:00.003-05:00

Time for some much needed updates! I left off with my graduation from Texas A&M. Little did I know, at my graduation dinner while I was in the bathroom, Zack asked my parents for permission to marry me. On May 20th, we were at home in Copperas Cove when Zack called me into the bedroom from the office. He started talking about how cool his on-post "easy-tag" thing was (the express lane tag) and by the time he started talking about a microchip, I turned and walked back into the office lol. He followed me in there and took my diet coke from me! He said I had to stand up and give him a hug to get it back so when I did, he started saying all of these sweet things and dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes!! After we called everyone, we went down to the trusty Walmart to buy my favorite champagne and there was a really neat lightning storm off in the distance.

Less than two weeks later, I got my acceptance letter into Blinn nursing school. I had a week and a half to respond with my intent but I had also applied to a school in Waco. Zack and I discussed it and decided that even if I got into the school in Waco, he was already locked into a year-long lease in Copperas Cove so we wouldn't be able to live together in Temple. Furthermore, by the time his lease is up, he'll be deploying for my second year of nursing school anyways. So it looks like we'll be doing long distance for a little while longer. Remind me to thank Central Texas College for their ridiculous entrance requirement.

On Friday, I booked a wedding venue. Woo hoo! We're set to get married on March 12, 2011 in The Woodlands, TX. We're getting married at a beautiful resort and also at a beautiful price. They even took 10% off of our food and beverage minimum for Zack being in the military. They also said that if for some reason Zack's deployment gets pushed ahead too far or he has to do that training before he leaves, then we can move the date to any available Saturday at no extra charge. Thank goodness! We have to make sure the groom is there!!

Since all of this craziness has happened, I've just been doing stuff for the wedding and nursing school. I had to go renew my tetanus shot (which has been no good since 2002 - oops!) and order a background check. Soon I get to go to the hospital and take a drug and TB test. I'm still trying to find a CPR class before the one scheduled on July 17th because I like to get stuff done early. I also signed a lease on a 1 bedroom/1 study apartment. I'm dreading moving in late July. Moving is one of my least favorite things to do. Did I also mention that I currently live on the third floor and own most of the furniture in this apartment?? One of my top things on my to-do list is to engage in some belated spring cleaning. When I have to move, I am much more willing to throw a lot of stuff away. Anyways, I have a little dog that needs some attention.

Love, Heather

Just Wanted To Share

2010-06-07T20:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who left sweet comments on my last post. My mom forwarded me an email and I wanted to share. I don't want this post to be political, I was just touched that unrewarded kindness still existed for some. I remember watching the news all day and crying when this happened so I was glad to get to read a "happy-ending" type story. I have cleaning to do but I'll be sure to post some updates later!

The doctor had his TV on in his office when the news of the military base shootings at Ft. Hood , TX came on. The husband of one of his employees was stationed there. He called her into his office and as he told her what had happened, she got a text message from her husband saying, "I am okay." Her cell phone rang right after she read the message. It was an ER nurse,” I’m the one who just sent you a text, not your husband. I thought it would be comforting but I was mistaken in doing so. I am sorry to tell you this, but your husband has been shot 4 times and he is in surgery."

The soldier's wife left Southern Clinic in Dothan, AL and drove all night to Ft.Hood. When she arrived, she found out her husband was out of surgery and would be OK. She rushed to his room and found that he already had visitors there to comfort him.

He was just waking up and found his wife and the visitors by his side. The nurse took this picture.

What? No news crews and cameras? This is how people with class respond and pay respect to those in uniform. I sent my cousin in Fayetteville , N.C. (Retired from Special Forces) that picture of George W. visiting the wounded at Ft. Hood . I got this reply:

What is even better is the fact George W. Bush heard about Fort Hood, got in his car without any escort, apparently they did not have time to react, and drove to Fort Hood. He was stopped at the gate and the guard could not believe who he had just stopped. Bush only asks for directions to the hospital then drove on. The gate guard called that "The President is on Fort Hood and driving to the hospital."

The base went bananas looking for Obama. When they found it was Bush, they immediately offered escort. Bush simply told them no escort, just let him visit the wounded and the dependents of the dead. He stayed at Fort Hood for over six hours, and was finally asked to leave by a message from the White House.

Obama flew in days later, held a "photo" session in a gym, and did not even go to the hospital.

All this I picked up from two soldiers here who happened to be at Fort Hood when it happened. This Bush/Obama/Ft.Hood story is something that should be sent to every voter in the US . Those who wanted "change" certainly got it.

So Much To Say!

2010-06-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in forever. Here's the major recaps:

May 14th - graduated from Texas A&M University

May 20th - got engaged!!!!

June 2nd - got accepted into my top choice for nursing schools!!

June 4th - (will) put down a deposit for a wedding venue

I just can't handle all of the excitement!

Love, Heather

Savings!

2010-05-16T17:10:00.001-05:00

Check out my last blog with graduation pictures too!

Lately I've been scouring Craigslist since Zack just moved in to our duplex. Both he and I have always lived in apartments so things such a washers, dryers, and lawn mowers were either not needed or provided. I found some great deals so I wanted to share.

I have a 40" Sony Bravia mounted on the wall of my apartment right now. We decided that it would be used as a living room TV. Zack wanted to find a 37" TV to last until I move in and then it can be used in the bedroom. Well plans changed...

I found this 46" Sony Bravia on Craigslist for $500. It is currently being sold at $1300.

Another necessity is the washer and dryer. These boys can get stinky so this one was pretty vital. I once again turned to Craigslist. I swear I was on Craigslist for everyday for a month for all of this stuff.

We got this set for $350. One is Whirlpool and the other is Maytag. They are a year old and are around $500-600 a piece. Bonus: they came with hoses and the guys delivered them and then helped set them up.

Part of our wish list was a fenced-in backyard for Madison. Although it was obviously neglected and needs some watering, Madison loves it so far. I looked through Craigslist for a lawn mower and ended up finding a mower/edger combination for sale.

A girl in College Station bought these a year ago and used them a couple of times before she decided to just hire a lawn service. They were $135 together. The mower sells for $200 and the edger for $100. We really hadn't even thought about getting an edger but now that we have one, we're really glad we do for around the fence and neatly edging in the front.

Love, Heather

I Did It!

2010-05-13T12:49:00.000-05:00

Well bloggers, I am officially graduating from Texas A&M University tomorrow with a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science.

Gig 'em!

Love, Heather

Heather Who?

2010-05-05T17:03:00.000-05:00

Is it bad that when I read my title I can't help thinking "Heather World Health Organization"? Anyways, I love this picture. It's kind of funny how similar it is to my picture from two posts ago. I guess I've been feeling like this for multiple things!

As has been the normal fashion for a little while now, I will be going M.I.A. again. I'm in the process of writing an 8-10 page paper about how hospitals negatively affect a woman's choice to breastfeed for my senior seminar class. While I'm interested in the topic (I should be since I came up with it), I really feel like 5 pages would be suffice to prove my point. I may just have 3 full-page data charts/tables. That's the one plus to writing papers in a science field!

Hopefully I will finish this paper within the next couple of hours so I can study. My Nutrition & Physiological Chemistry (which is an exaggerated name for biochemistry in the form of a mandatory nutrition class) final is on Friday which won't be as bad. I then get to study for my old friend, biochemistry. This friend would be the one thing that keeps me from graduating next Friday. However I'm in a pretty solid position in that as long as I get a 42%, I'll pass. With that being said, the lowest grade on the last test was a 15 and 30% of the class failed the test which is average for all of his tests. My final is on Monday at 8am. All of our other tests are at 7:15pm so I'm used to using the whole day to review. On Monday I'll probably have to wake up at 4am just to be able to skim over a couple of things. The one positive to all of this is that once I finish that awful biochemistry final, I should then be done at Texas A&M forever.

Therefore, I will be a hermit for the next 5 days (I only have THAT much time to study??) and I would not be surprised if none of yall even remembered who I was by the time I'm done with all of this mess. I must now go and be productive.

Love, Heather

Finally Found It!

2010-05-02T01:27:00.004-05:00

Front door

The housing nightmare is officially over! A deposit is down for a new-build on a new street in Copperas Cove! We even met a neighbor who gave us a run-down of everyone on the street and the back entrance to Ft. Hood. We drove up on Friday with plans of putting down a deposit on a duplex in Harker Heights. It was decent but was missing a couple of things like a fenced-in yard. I saw another place online and received an email saying I could go by and see it that day. We decided to grab the Harker Height duplex's key so it couldn't be rented and headed over to see the Copperas Cove place. This place literally had it all. Right down to the linen closet and new carpet smell. Perfect.

Living room/Front door

The little details throughout the place are really pretty too.

Kitchen

Master. A ceiling fan is an absolute must for me! I go crazy without the noise.

Yard! The most important feature for our little baby, Madison.

Overall, we both love it. We love the location and we're planning on not having to move for our entire duration at Ft. Hood. I'm so excited to have this whole process over with. We pick up the keys on Monday. After making the deposit, we decided to try El Chico's since I saw it off the highway. We both loved the queso and the rest of the food was decent. Best of all, we got free sopapillas for being new customers! Talk about a good day, right? To any of the ladies from Ft. Hood, if you ever feel the need for El Chico's or any other TexMex, please don't hesitate to call me!

Love, Heather

Housing Hell

2010-04-29T18:50:00.004-05:00

This picture represents how I've been feeling all week. The nightmare of finding housing has gotten worse and worse. Let's begin from our second trip to Ft. Hood on Tuesday.

Tuesday

A management company emailed me three properties that allowed pets upon approval. I'm confident that anyone that lays eyes on my 15 lb fluff ball will approve her instantly. Zack had left the day before to go visit his parents in San Antonio so I told him to call and check up on when the properties would be ready to be viewed. At 11:30am he told me that two of the properties would be ready to be viewed at 2pm and he was heading that way. I had a test at 12:45pm and then immediately drove the 2 hours to Ft. Hood afterwards.

When we arrived, we viewed one of the places but the property off of Clear Creek, the gem, had the key checked out by maintenance. We had to wait for the key, have the office lady look up my email to prove that the manager told me pets were allowed, and wait on the manager to verify her own words. They told us that we could not drive a couple of streets (less than 2 minutes) away to view the property because it was 30 minutes till close. We considered putting in an application and fee just to hold the place so we could view it. We ended up deciding to drive back up the next morning and view it. Stupid stupid stupid! We drove to the place, peeked through the windows, and loooooved it! Looking back, we should have turned right around and put in an application. We drove around the neighborhood, stopped at a gas station, and drove to Temple by the time the management place closed at 5:30pm. I knew we could have made it easily. Grr.

Wednesday

To save on gas, we left my car at the Hampton Inn and Zack drove back to College Station. [Thank you Hampton Inn for unknowingly watching over my car!] The next morning we arrived at 10am and apparently someone had been staking out the place when they opened at 8:30am. They had the key to our favorite place, held it till 1:30pm while we waited on pins and needles to get a call to see if it was available or leased. Well of course they leased it.

Thursday

We were going to wait for the 3rd property to open up because it was identical to the other Harker Heights property, same price, and some nicer accessories. Why not? Well I decided let's not risk it and just put in an application tomorrow morning on the 2nd place. The manager of rental company sent me an email saying the tenants of the 3rd place that we were going to wait for decided not to move. She then told me that the 2nd property was not pet friendly. What. The. Hell. How many times do I have to tell this place to look up that damn email they sent me? So now our backup options are apparently not options and Zack needs to move in by the end of next week.

We have an appointment with a place in Copperas Cove on Saturday that looks nice but I've noticed a trend of companies using pictures from 5 years ago when the property was newer. We'll just have to see. If it looks pretty good, I can guarentee you that we'll lease it on the spot just to be done with all of this.

This whole process is hell!!

Love, Heather

Fort Hood Update

2010-04-24T18:51:00.001-05:00

It appears that I've been a bad blogger again. So here is what has been going on:

Last Wednesday

Zack graduated from Army Logistics University in Ft. Lee! I'm so proud of him! That also meant that he was finally Texas-bound after 6 months. He then spent a couple of nights in Georgia with his old Texas A&M roommate, Matt, who is at Ft. Benning and about to start Ranger School. He then went to San Antonio to see his family because he was banned from College Station until I finished my test.

Monday

I had my biochemistry test. It was the last one before the final and I'm really hoping that I did good. I also had a nervous breakdown on Saturday night. I called Zack and cried/hyperventilated and claimed that I couldn't do this anymore and that I was going to fail. Oh man. The amount of mechanisms and pathways really sent me over the edge. Apparently my two friends cried that night as well. However, when I got home from my hellish test, my dearest Zachary was waiting for me! It was wonderful.

Friday

We drove up to Ft. Hood yesterday to look for housing. It was a complete nightmare. We saw some townhome-type places in "4plexes" for good prices so we thought those would be a good idea since they were similar to his old place in College Station. This one place had the neighbor out front, screaming in a muumuu. The place reeked of smoke and actually made me sick. To top it all off, the rooms were tiny. Heck, it was all pretty small. We saw a bunch of awful places and decided to really up our budget and pay a little out of pocket to NOT have to live in some of those areas. We're now looking at a couple of really nice duplexes in South Killeen, Harker Heights, and Copperas Cove. We're going up on Thursday or Friday to hopefully find one and if not we also have an appointment on Saturday. Cross your fingers! Zack wants to move in next week.

My dad also emailed some of my brother's high school senior pictures. I can't believe he's about to enter college! Where did the last 4 years go? Anyways, I wanted to share my favorite: Jason and the cuda.

Love, Heather

My First Blog Award!

2010-04-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

This is my very first award! I'm excited! Mrs. Muffins has kindly given me this warm and fuzzy Blog Hug Award.

The rules for this award are:
One: Tell us about a memorable hug you’ve had. It can be a person, pet, whatever…
Two: “Hug” at least one other blogger or as many as you like.

Although I love daily hugs with my dog Madison, one particular hug with Zack sticks out in my mind. All last summer I had been dreading Zack having to leave for BOLC and living out of state for 6 months. When he left in October, I knew I had to adjust quickly and wait for the 24 hours that I got to see him during Thanksgiving. A couple of weekends after he left for Ft. Sill, I was taking my dog out and was quite irritated with her selective hearing. I huffily came marching around the side of the building and looked down the sidewalk to see Zack standing there. I thought I was dreaming. I walked up to him, not believing that he was actually there. I thought, "oh boy, now I've really lost my mind". Then he gave me the biggest, best hug and it finally sank in that he was really there.

Now to pass on the hugs!

Carrie, this means you have to actually write a blog!

Bonnie, I'm passing on a hug for all of the great cleaning/buying tips! You're fabulous!

Mrs. P, I can't think of any other blogger who deserves a hug more.

Love, Heather

Why I Hate Wood Floors

2010-04-15T18:41:00.001-05:00

As usual, as I'm preparing to disappear for days, I feel the uncontrollable need to clean. The OCD person in me really comes out when I need to start studying. I just can't do it if my room isn't clean. With that being said, I just spent two hours vacuuming, dusting, wiping down, cleaning baseboards (they were embarrassment at this point), and mopping my room, bathroom, and hallway to my bathroom by hand. Why you ask? Because I got a little too carried away and broke my mop awhile ago and have yet to buy a new one. The product of my cleaning is a clean room/bathroom and a rant. I'm going to list why I am not a fan of wood floors.

Disclaimer: I realize wood floors are very popular and truly are beautiful so please don't think I'm trying to offend anyone. Plus, you'll see why I REALLY hate mine in a minute.

Why I Hate My Wood Floors

1. They are always dusty

2. They seriously become dusty within a day of cleaning them

3. Running a vacuum over carpet is quicker and easier than sweeping and mopping everything (ESPECIALLY since I had a Swiffer and had to use like 10 refills per clean)

4. The "current" of air flow leads straight to my room, meaning all dust, hair, EVERYTHING comes this way

5. I have a roommate so I can't control the cleanliness of everything

6. The laundry room is also near my room. Yay lint.

7. The feeling of getting crap on your feet if it's been more than a day since cleaning

8. It hurts my knees to get on the ground and play with my dog

9. The lack of carpet underneath the doors means no insulation and a lack of barrier for noise. I might as well study with my door open.

Now here is where everyone goes "oooh...that's why she hates her's"...

10. When we signed a lease to this apartment we thought they would be laminate like in the kitchen at our last apartment. Wrong...they're VINYL!

11. Vinyl scuffs easily and it takes a lot of elbow grease to get them out

12. Vinyl is much easier to damage

13. The flooring wasn't even installed properly so there are some gaps in between "boards" that collects dust and the flooring itself isn't even level.

14. Upon move-in I noted that there were a couple of "boards" in my room that lifted and my bed was unknowingly put on one of those "boards". The vinyl "board" warped and cracked.

Take Home Message

I would never recommend vinyl flooring to anyone. I'm not a fan of wood (and the like) flooring in general for my home. I think it looks gorgeous in any other home- just so long as I'm not the one maintaining it.

That's all for my rant.

Love, Heather

Bittersweet

2010-04-15T16:02:00.001-05:00

I am in the midst of chaos right now. I took a TEAS nursing entrance exam today and memorized a two-page essay because I wanted it to be really strong. And yes, I was the only freak who actually did this. I am thankful that the woman mentioned the topic last summer and I wrote it down! Tomorrow I get to leave at 6am to drive to Waco, TX and retake the HESI since this particular college requires that you take it at their campus. Can we say money ploy? To top it all off, I have a major biochemistry test on Monday that I'm already about a week behind in studying for. Obviously I want to get into nursing school but I kind of need to graduate too. Y'all can expect me to be MIA for a few days.

Monday night when I get home from my biochemistry test (oh lovely night tests), Zack will be there waiting for me! I banned him from College Station until then because I wouldn't study if he was around haha. As much as I am dreading this test, I'm so excited to see Zack! He will be a Texas resident again after 6 long months. And might I add that Madison is going to freak out when she sees him!

Speaking of Madison...

She managed to get under the covers a couple of days ago...

...and literally tuck herself in! I still haven't figured out how she did it!

Love, Heather

Top 2 Tuesday...Beauty Secrets

2010-04-13T22:14:00.000-05:00

This is my first "Top 2 Tuesdays"! Yay! So this week is top 2 beauty secrets. My "beauty secrets" are not that elaborate so I'm curious as to what other people's top 2 beauty secrets are. I'll go ahead and list the two that I like the most.

1. Olay Regenerist Microdermabrasion & Peel System

These little gems are my life-saver, particularly in the winter. The derma-crystals exfoliate and then you apply the activator serum on top of the derma-crystals to act as a mini-peel. It helps exfoliate dry winter skin and makes your face feel really smooth. I want to buy some of the regenerating serum too. I'm completely sold on any Regenerist product.

2. Pond's Cold Cream

I use this to take off my eye makeup every night. There is nothing that this stuff can't take off. I've also heard it's good for your skin in general, particularly for moisturizing. I've used it on my face several times and even Zack commented on how soft my face felt! (BIG deal for such an unobservant male) Note to self: use this again before Zack moves back to Texas on Monday!

And there you have it. I don't feel like the cold cream is much of a "secret" at all but I hope all of the ladies out there will discover the amazing Regenerist line.

P.S. Don't forget to share some of your secrets!

Love, Heather

How I Almost Died

2010-04-13T02:30:00.001-05:00

Well here I am at a ridiculous hour of the night, which actually is pretty normal for my insomniac self. I forced myself asleep by 8pm because I had the most painful headache I've ever had. Before that, Zack told me to go lay down because my vision was spotty and I could barely read the email my professor sent me. Now let's recap as to how this came about:

A certain evil man, Matt, owns a place of torture, The Body Lab - Crossfit. Today I walk in and do my warm up (no biggie- hurdles, foot work, shuttles) and walk over to Krista (because the evil man is busy talking) to find out what the workout of the day is. At that point I got to hop right on the machine and do a 500m row as fast as I can. I pushed through the end and was thinking "man...that hurt but it really worked a lot of muscles". Usually our workouts are short and high intensity (the Crossfit way) so I'm thinking that wasn't too bad at all.

Then Krista says, "Go ahead and rest for a few minutes before you move on." Whaaaat? I look over at two buff, military-looking guys struggling with something called Karen. The name sends shivers down my spine. I watched as the two men squatted until they touched a medicine ball below them on the ground and then exploded up and threw another medicine ball "over the paint" which was probably 10 ft up the wall. They called time after 8-9 minutes. Luckily, I got to enjoy the same experience with two other men. I did 100 of these babies (after a 500m row) and was the first one done. Ok so I beat one guy who only did 75 but the other guy technically did 150. I called time and collapsed on the ground. I almost died. Every bit of me ached. As I've already said, I really suffered later this evening.

The way the Body Lab works is there are blocks of 2 hours of open gym time. This staggers the amount of people there quite nicely, actually. The problem: the moment you walk in the door you can usually find about 5 very in-shape men sprawled out on the floor looking like they are about to keel over. You're typically not too optimistic at this point. There is really no way to physically torture Matt, but I'll have to find some way of repaying him for killing me everyday.

In an unrelated note, I like putting a picture in every blog so I'll post one from the lake years ago because I love the lake house and find the lake calming.

Love, Heather

Flashback Friday

2010-04-09T15:58:00.001-05:00

October 08 - Airshow with the Us Air Force Thunderbirds in Fort Worth. VIP Breitling tent!

July 07 - A puppy Madison and I on my birthday! She was the cutest furball!

Love, Heather

Friday Fill-Ins

2010-04-09T00:25:00.000-05:00

1. In 1992, I was enjoying Winnie the Pooh on VHS.
2. My heart melts when I hear/see a baby's laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you have it.
4. With Zack is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me that they are germinating...all over my car.
6. The never-ending diet that just keeps going on.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cuddling up with Madison and getting some sleep, Saturday my plans include Chilifest and Sunday, I want to actually get some studying done and watch the season premiere of Army Wives!

Love, Heather

I Wish I Could Walk

2010-04-07T21:28:00.000-05:00

So from my last post on Monday, my muscles were aching. By Tuesday morning, oh. my. gosh. I can't even remember the last time I've experienced so much pain from soreness. I figured my arms and legs would be sore since they ached the day before and I also figured my abs would follow suit from the ab workout. Well...follow suit was an understatement. To top it all off, I felt like my latissimus dorsi muscles were going to kill me. Yesterday I wanted a raised toilet more than ever before and to top it off, the Body Lab has me drinking about a gallon of water a day. Ahhh! I tried to do the workout the trainer told me to do (and pretty much fell on my face during the first push up I was so stiff) in hopes that it would loosen me up but it really didn't.

I was in an almost equal amount of pain today until I went to my workout. Sprints. Ugh. I haven't done sprints since I was in high school...and it showed. BUT I'm staying positive because I know it's just a matter of me getting back into shape. I do however miss fatty/sugary foods.

Today is Zack's birthday by the way! Happy 26th birthday Zack!! He finishes up in Virginia in exactly one week and then finally moves back to Texas. Needless to say, I'm beyond excited. I'm not excited, however, that tonight Zack began throwing around the "d word". Granted a different brigade is deploying relatively soon but if Zack gets to Ft. Hood and they switch him that brigade...that would be awful.

Love, Heather

Ow.

2010-04-06T00:19:00.000-05:00

I started my program today. It began with a mandatory nutrition class and then I had my first workout. Even though I am a nutrition major and can tell you just about anything about nutrition on a molecular level, Texas A&M doesn't teach you how to apply it. Sorry A&M profs, time to face the facts. The nutrition is based on the Zone diet and it involves eating every 3 hours which is AWESOME because I'm hypoglycemic! The workout kicked my butt. My arms and legs have been in pain since I left the gym and I have a feeling that my abs will join the party tomorrow. I LOVE it!! Sure soreness hurts, but it feels like success if that makes any sense. It means I had a productive workout.

Basically workouts at the Body Lab are what my mom's trainer would describe as "burn out" exercises. Burn out days are intense and push you to your max. The Body Lab believes that the length of your workout doesn't matter, the intensity does. So if I can do the same thing you do in half the time, the results are better. Maybe I'll get back to:

Ok so maybe I won't look like a high school volleyball player but maybe I'll get close! The sad thing is I thought I was downright obese in high school. Anyways, I'm going to be in severe pain tomorrow but I'm really excited about this whole process!

Love, Heather

Time For a Change

2010-04-04T21:27:00.003-05:00

It's official. I'm a brunette. I'm excited and slightly nervous for Zack to see it in person.

I went home to Houston for Easter to spend it with my parents and grandparents. It was fun but they're on a Quick Weight Loss diet that's high protein and little/no carbs. That means we ate grilled chicken and veggies/salad all weekend. No Easter candy =(

On Wednesday night I texted my friend of 3 years, Matt, and asked about a certain place to train because Matt ran CrossFit A&M for many years with a friend and then began his own business based on CrossFit. Needless to say, he's a professional on the subject but I was under the impression that he was only training semi/professional athletes these days. Well he went off about "trainers" and even worse, gyms. It was a nice long tangent until he suggested I join his place.

Well I met with him and I start tomorrow. The Body Lab (his business) is an invitation/referral only business that combines nutrition, training, and accountability as it's main objectives. I'm very excited and very nervous! He's going to absolutely kill me but he guarantees that you will either gain or lose 20 lb in the first month (athletes would want to gain muscle weight- obviously I will be in the losing category). Tomorrow I take the mandatory nutrition class and then have my first workout where they assess my abilities and what needs to be rehabbed (shoulders and knees from 12 years of volleyball!). I'll definitely be posting tomorrow and ~~bitching about~~ describing how it went.

Love, Heather

My Baby Turned 3!

2010-03-31T19:45:00.005-05:00

It's true! My little Madison turned 3 years old today. Where have the last 3 years gone? I still remember when I first laid eyes on her. I'm sure there are some who think I'm silly but she's my baby! I'm a little sad that Zack couldn't be here to celebrate this year but they'll have all kinds of fun when he gets back in LESS THAN A MONTH.

So I ordered a dog cake mix online in the carob flavor (dog-safe chocolate) since my dog apparently has a thing for chocolate since she ate more than half of a Cadbury egg last year while I was at my birthday dinner. Anyways the mix had "nutrition facts" that were super adorable.

And she loved it! The frosting is a yogurt mix so I added some of her yogurt drop treats and a chicken biscuit to top it off.

She also got a DogPedic bed which is tempurpedic-esque. Madison has hip dysplasia so it's SUPPOSED to help. Really, there's only a thin layer of tempurpedic and the rest is regular foam. Then again, with her being so small, it would be the equivalent to my tempurpedic mattress topper. Oh and the Easter bunny is also new from the Dollar Tree. When she was a puppy she looooved Dollar Tree toys because she liked to rip them apart because they were so cheap. The bunny will probably die when we go home tomorrow and she plays with my mom's cockapoo but hey, it was a dollar!
I'm a midnight celebrater so most of these pictures are from last night. Next up: Zack turns 26 on April 7th! We miss you Zack!

Unmotivated Monday

2010-03-29T14:45:00.005-05:00

After reading a very motivating new blog, all I really want to do is clean out my closet and go to garage sales. Unfortunately I have biochemistry in less than an hour and a half and should really be reading for my quiz. So instead, I will do neither and just ask a random question of the day.

Question:
What is one thing you cannot go a day without? This could be an activity, a food/drink or anything that comes to mind.

Love, Heather
xo

Makeover

2010-03-27T16:32:00.002-05:00

Everyone has really cute blogs and I decided that I needed to follow suit. Thanks to everyone who shared their opinions in the last blog. In response: my parents' reason is because that's what my grandparents believe and that was just how they were raised. I care very much about what my parents think, and would never make such a big decision without discussing it with them.

Speaking of my parents, they just started Quick Weight Loss. They know a man who lost 40 lb in two months. There have been a few other friends with massive results in short amounts of time. Being a nutrition major, I'm a little concerned about how fast people are losing weight. You're really only supposed to lose 2 lb a week. I would also like to lose weight but I'm not sure if I'll be joining them or not. I'm an impatient person so the thought of how quick it works is tempting.

While on the topic of losing weight and health, I would like to share this new little gem that I have discovered. Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats.While I was at a Super Target with my mom some lady was handing out samples of some low sodium ham on this bread. It is SO good. I like it better than regular bread AND it's only 100 calories for both slices. I recommend it to everyone!

Love, Heather
xo

Living Together

2010-03-26T15:40:00.002-05:00

A very relevant and immediate topic in my life has to do with marriage, living together, and if the two have to come in a pair.

Zack is planning on proposing by the end of the summer. It could be as early as next month or as late as July (yes Zack, you did let that one slip!). He won't give me a hint because he wants me to be totally surprised. (The only reason why I wanted at least a month time range is so I wouldn't be caught in sweat pants!)

I am applying to nursing schools but there is really only one option in the Fort Hood area right now. I need to take Intro to Nursing this summer so I would have to apply in the spring. What I WANT is to move in with Zack after my apartment lease is up in July. I planned on finding a part time job in Killeen and retaking a couple of classes to make A's for my nursing application.

Here is the problem to my beautiful plan: my family is very firm about not living together before marriage. In MY opinion, I would never live with a boyfriend. However, I feel like once you are engaged you have already committed for the long run so in my mind, I feel like you should be able to live together when you're engaged if you so choose. My parents don't know my plan and it won't even be mentioned until after a ring is on my finger. Zack feels like it should be based on what I want to do as a 22 year old woman but I feel like it's a strong family belief that would be wrong for me to ignore. My parents pay for my housing so to move to Killeen, rent a one bedroom, and have to pay all utilities by myself would be very expensive. It may also be only 5 months before we get married so I would have to break my lease or pay extra for a shorter one. Finally, I would probably still "live" over with Zack even if I had my own place. All in all, I feel it is most beneficial to just move in together.

What are your views on living together before marriage? What would you do in my situation and if you did want to move in together, how would you go about informing your parents of your decision?

Love, Heather
xo

My View On The Bachelor

2010-03-23T14:36:00.002-05:00

In my attempt to become a better blogger, I'm going to venture off onto a much talked about subject. Warning ladies: you may not like what I have to say! Now pictured above is the The Bachelor's Jake and Vienna. If you feel the need to vomit, go right ahead. It's a mutual feeling. Now I get that no one likes Vienna. I was a Tenley fan myself. Jake kept saying "Vienna is just here for me" but if she can't get along with girls then I'd be concerned about all of my girl friends and maybe even family.

Now onto my actual point. I'm not buying into Jake. Everyone drools over the guy and talks about how he is the perfect guy. Well obviously they always pick attractive people for The Bachelor, females included (I guess to some people Vienna would be attractive). Personality-wise, he seems so FAKE to me. Has anyone noticed how he likes to lovingly stare in every girls' eyes? And gives them all the meaningful laugh, even when it's awkward. Ok so Jake obviously knows he's on national TV and has to be that certain guy. Every guy knows what a girl wants: that mushy, loving, understanding and overall sensitive guy. He KNOWS that's what the contestants and America want to see. Every girl on there is there to get wooed and swept away to get married so he knew that he didn't have the type of girls who are turned off by the instant clinging. That loving "I'm going to marry this love of my life" look that he gives to Vienna (whenever being filmed) like every 10 seconds? Go watch the season again, he gave it every other girl too.

Now from what I understand, Jake is a bad boy. He wants to be famous, rides a motorcycle, and has overall been the "wild" type. You didn't really think that he was the guy that he portrayed when he rode up on his motorcycle right? Come on, ladies. If he were actually that guy, he would have chosen Tenley. Hands down. He chose Vienna because she's more blunt and wild and more like who he REALLY is. Of course, he also chose Vienna because she gives it up really easily (thus the lack of "physical" attraction for Tenley- he wanted sex).

That just about sums up my soap box. I see Jake as extremely fake, Vienna as incredibly annoying, and Tenley as entirely too sincere to be associated with either of them.

Love, Heather
xo

Another Trip to Virginia!

2010-03-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

I am so pale that I actually reflect sunlight. Time for a tan?

On Saturday I got back from my second and final trip to Ft. Lee, VA. I would like to begin by telling how I almost DIED on the plane rides. I've never had issues with planes but my trips to Virginia have been a different story, maybe because I've never been on one of the smaller airplanes (3 seats wide, 2 on one side of the aisle and 1 on the other). On all of the flights I experienced a few periods of turbulence lasting as long as 20 minutes. I hate when the pilot can't even keep the plane straight and you feel that free-fall feeling from the plane dropping down in the turbulence. NOT A FAN! Now on the flight back the captain began with the normal speech before takeoff: "It's a beautiful day to be flying in most of the country however there are some storms in Houston. We'll be hitting some pretty rough air but it seems that planes apparently have been making it through it. We'll just have to find a way through it. There will be some bumps but I'll let you know before we get to the rough air". Umm...so he seemed surprised that planes weren't just dropping out of the sky in Houston. It really gave me something to look forward to for 3 hours. When we were 30 minutes out I started intently reading the SkyMall magazine to distract myself from the turbulence and it really did help. As we were flying low and about to land the air got WORSE. We were being pushed from side to side and the plane wouldn't stay straight. 2 seconds before landing the plane took a final jerk to the left side, the pilot recovered and boom we landed. So that was pretty scary but I wasn't freaking out because I think I had already accepted my death by this point. Anyways, I'm on the ground and alive now.

VIRGINIA!
Well technically Pennsylvania too. Saturday, the day after I arrived, we drove the 4 hour drive to Hershey, PA! The most delicious place on earth! (I think they technically call it the SWEETEST place on earth but both apply). We ate in Zooka Cafe inside of Hershey and then went to the CHOCOLATE LAB!
We learned about all of the different types of chocolate and how they are made.

We had to wear hairnets and aprons. It was soo much fun, don't let Zack's face fool you! He was just being silly.

The end product! We made tulips out of chocolate! It was just as delicious as it was fun and pretty.

We also went through the museum. I have a ton of pictures from the trip posted on my facebook if you want to seem them all. I had no idea that Hershey has made just about everything over the years including MULCH and TOILET SOAP!

We then of course purchased some souvenirs.

Ok no we didn't actually buy the 5 lb bar of chocolate but it was necessary to get a picture of!

The rest of the week was more focused on spending time with each other. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for St. Patrick's Day with his friends and it just so happened to be kareoke night. We also had some date nights so it was overall a really amazing trip (minus the plane rides of course). I can't wait for Zack to be back in Texas in roughly a month!

Love, Heather
xo

The Age Old Question

2010-03-10T22:00:00.001-06:00

I'm making my hair appointment for April and the big question is...
Blonde or brunette?

I've always had highlights. I was brunette for a year and half (thus the picture) and went back to blonde literally a month or two before I met Zack. I was thinking of switching back to brunette. What do you think?

Love, Heather
xo

And the worst blogger of the year goes to....

2010-03-06T12:54:00.000-06:00

Me! And it's only the beginning of March!

January:
Zack left for Ft. Lee on the 2nd. I began applying to nursing schools. I also started my last semester at Texas A&M. I made at least 6 copies of my schedule for my boss (student worker job) because she kept losing them and even when she didn't, she could never manage to figure out my schedule. She put so much stress on me that I would go home worn out. She also sent me nasty text messages all of the time. I think she's taking her issues from her home life out on me. Madison was, however, the joy in my life.

February:
I took my first biochemistry 411 (second class) exam and felt like I had gotten man-handled. I called Zack when I left and cried. I studied 40 hours and I felt so unprepared while taking it. I was worried that I did so bad that I would have to drop the class and not be able to graduate in time. Well I passed...barely. I went to Virginia for Valentine's Day weekend to see Zack. We went to Washington DC. A week and a half later I quit my job. Yay! Best decision I've ever made. Since then I've been driving around Texas and on the phone all day with nursing schools. Surprisingly, my life isn't less busy at all, I just actually have the time to put forth for the nursing application process. Oh and it also snowed in Texas!

Valentine's Day before Red Lobster

Seeing snow before leaving for Washington DC

Zack was cleaning the snow off the car before we left
and he threw a snowball at the windshield! Haha silly.

He made me a Mickey Mouse pancake.

The boys at Supreme Court.

Madison and I in the snow. She loved it!

So those are the major highlights of the last couple of months. I have another biochemistry test on Monday and I'm hoping I can pull a good grade so I can have some breathing room. Zack comes back to Texas middle of April so that's just over a month! Then we get to begin the process of looking for somewhere to live in Ft. Hood. HOPEFULLY I'll update sometime before 2-3 months have gone by ;)

Love, Heather
xo

The End of Another Year

2009-12-30T23:35:00.000-06:00

I have been a horrible blogger and haven't posted anything in over a month. I'll try to skim through everything that has happened. Zack came into College Station for a whopping 24 hours the Saturday after Thanksgiving but I took what I could get! I was super busy with my last round of tests and finals. I made it through all of them and next semester I will be taking my last 3 classes with a total of a measely 7 hours. If one of the classes wasn't Biochem II I would be pretty excited.

Zack has been back in Texas for the past 2 weeks and I've gotten to spend a good amount of that time with him. It's nice to have him home and I'll definitely miss him. Since he'll be in Virginia there won't be anymore surprise drive-in visits =( However, I AM excited to go up and visit him. We're planning on making a trip to the Hershey's factory because I LOVE Hershey's chocolate. Anyways, Zack leaves on Saturday so I'll probably update sometime around then with a 2010-themed post!

Love, Heather
xo

Flashback Friday

2009-11-20T23:44:00.000-06:00

This picture was from when I first met Zack. It was before our first date even! We went kayaking with friends and they "coincidentally" paired us in a kayak. So sneaky! We had issues with going straight haha but I mastered the "Tokyo drift" move.

So it's been awhile since I've updated! Last Friday I took my dog, Madison, out to go potty. She developed this nasty little habit last year of sniffing around for half an hour before going to the bathroom, knowing I would have to wait for her to go. Needless to say I was a little frustrated with her selective hearing and I walked around the corner and saw......Zack walking down the sidewalk! It took a couple seconds to process and then I couldn't believe that I wasn't dreaming! Apparently he knew he was going to get that Friday off and applied for a pass when he first got to Ft. Sill and had been keeping it from me as a surprise! I feel like I don't even need to say it but obviously I had the best weekend and couldn't stop smiling the whole time.

The timing was lucky because Zack has been in the field all week doing various things such as land nav and shooting. He didn't get service where he was so I talked to him once for about 15 minutes this week. I'm a little impressed at how patient I was and how much the lack of talking to him didn't affect me. Granted, I don't know if I could last much longer but one week wasn't an issue. Tomorrow he's going to charge up his new laptop that he bought while he was here and we should be having our first skype date. I'm excited =)

Love, Heather
xo

Kris Brown Broke My Heart

2009-11-10T15:49:00.000-06:00

After last week and my last post I decided that I needed a more upbeat blog. I just found out that I will be seeing Zack over Thanksgiving! =) =) I'm still doing Thanksgiving with my parents and will drive back to College Station Saturday morning to see him and he'll leave Sunday morning. I'll take what I can get! I decided that I'll make the pie in a jar maybe this weekend and send it off instead of just giving them to him. I want to see how they work out in the mail and see if I need to change anything to make it go smoother.

I chose this picture of Zack and I because it is from the Texans game that I took him to. I couldn't believe after listening to the announcers this past weekend that we've only beat the Colts once. That just shows how many times we've choked in about the last minute because the games are always close. When we got in field goal range I was like yes! Overtime! We can do this! I never doubt Kris Brown because he NEVER misses. And what did he do? Missed. UNBELIEVABLE! I just wanted to share that heartbreak because I'm still stunned. I wouldn't be stunned by us losing, I'm just stunned by Kris Brown. However, I went to my brother's game this weekend and my brother's varsity football team is going into the playoffs so congratulations little bro!

Love, Heather
xoxo

A Day of Mourning

2009-11-05T20:52:00.000-06:00

Today has been an awful day. I received phone calls from both my mom and grandma while I was in genetics lab and decided to listen to the voicemail from my grandma (particularly because she barely even knows how to use her cell phone and yet called me). After talking to my mom I learned of the shooting at Ft. Hood. Since then I've been crying just about all evening. My worst nightmare has always been that something horrible would happen while Zack was still in the US, and therefore supposedly safe. All I can say is thank God that Zack didn't graduate on time and thank God he's at BOLC II in Oklahoma. It tears me apart to think of the poor men and women, who sacrifice everything to defend us, be gunned with no form of defense. And by one of their own. How absolutely terrifying. To top if all off, despite their situation, these HEROES went straight into action to help those who were wounded. I'm praying for EVERYONE at Ft. Hood and all of the friends and families of those affected.

Zack goes to Ft. Hood in May/June and now I'm concerned about his safety not only during his deployment, but also while at his home in Texas. I'm glad the major survived. I truely want him to have to live with this everyday and feel the pain of his unbelievable betrayal. How dare him.

Love, Heather
xo

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

I wish I could be out enjoying the festivities but instead I'm reading about carbohydrates, glycosaminoglycans, and glycoproteins for my biochemistry test Monday.

Madison is in the spirit though! She showed off her little Cinderella outfit.Posing, naturally.Miss VogueShe didn't care for the "gloves"
Love, Heather
xo

BOLC & school

2009-10-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well Zack officially moved out of his apartment on Saturday and has been in San Antonio getting stuff done at his parent's house ever since. He will be back in town in t-minus 2 hours! Yay! I get to see him for a couple more days while he finishes cleaning his apartment, turning in the keys, and turning in his National Guard stuff. Then he's going to head up to Dallas to see his brother and sister-in-law until he leaves for Oklahoma for BOLC II. I'll be counting down the days till Christmas even more than I normally would.

Thankfully and unfortunately school will be kicking my butt the whole time. I say thankfully because it'll keep me busy and make the time go by faster, but I say unfortunately because well...getting your butt kicked by school just isn't that fun. I have a genetics test tomorrow, a biochemistry test Monday, and a minerals test on Tuesday. I hate that I have to study the majority of the last couple days that he's here. Arg!

I will unfortunately being studying through Halloween weekend as well but if you'd like to come by and see Madison's adorable Cinderella costume then you're welcome to!

When I see him today that beard and most of his hair will be gone!

Love, Heather
xo

Saturday Is For Baking

2009-10-19T02:05:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a wonderful, lazy day with Zack. We slept/napped a good portion of the day. We ate Antonio's because Zack wanted pizza and Antonio's is THE College Station pizza. I figured that he needed one last dose of Antonio's before he left College Station for good. We also went to McDonald's, picked up a couple of $1 cokes in an attempt to win a million dollars, and rented Monsters vs. Aliens from RedBox. When we got back I baked and then we watched the movie. It was adorable by the way!

First I made an Oreo cheesecake for my honey to chow down on before he leaves next weekend.

Then I made my favorite: chipless cookies! I don't know anyone else who likes chipless cookies but my homemade chipless cookies are my absolute favorite! I added chocolate chips to the rest of the batch for Zack. He loves his chocolate chip.

Finally, I had to share this adorable picture of Madison cuddling with her teddy.

I also went to Target today and bought new curtains with Carrie. I'm very happy with my choice! Tomorrow I plan on going shopping and just maybe getting a Halloween costume. I also need to go grocery shopping and finish Zack's scrapbook. I can't believe I only get him for this last week! I suppose I'll be nice and let him hog the tv to watch the Military, History, and Discovery channel all week ;)

Love, Heather
xo

Flashback Friday

2009-10-16T17:41:00.000-05:00

I don't remember who I originally saw post a Flashback Friday post but I'm using the idea!

This picture is from an A&M football game on Halloween weekend in 2007. This was the original start of the IPL (Intelligent Person's League). We still haven't figured out how to produce our reverse microwave....

Love, Heather
xo

Oh Reality.

2009-10-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

Last night was Zack and his roommate's going away party. His roommate is moving out tomorrow, Zack is moving out the weekend after this one. Reality is starting to set in. I'm going to miss him.

Halloween last year.
He'll be in Oklahoma for Halloween this year =(

Love, Heather
xo

One Test Down....

2009-10-01T11:41:00.001-05:00

...A ton to go. I just finished my genetics test. I think it went pretty good but it made my brain hurt. There's too many little factors that you have to take into consideration when trying to do a genetics-related problem. Hopefully I pulled an A! Now if I can just do that well in Biochemistry next Wednesday...

The picture above was taken this past December when it snowed in College Station. Yes, you heard me. It snowed in College Station. Last week was a tease with temperatures in the 60s. I'm ready for it to be cold so I can bundle up in cute, comfy clothes. This summer was brutal with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees for at least half of its duration. I'm over the heat. I even contemplated if I wanted to stay in Texas if the heat makes me so miserable. Then I quickly realized that I couldn't live without Tex-Mex and quickly dismissed the thought.

Miss Madi Padi in her "winter coat"

Love, Heather
xo

The Bright Side

2009-09-28T11:54:00.000-05:00

Things that make me happy:
1. Zack
2. My doggy, Madison
3. Queso - particularly from Pappasitos
4. Fun adventures/trips with Zack
5. My family
6. Looking down and seeing my Aggie ring
7. Cooking/baking new things
8. Dance parties with Carrie
9. Picture puzzle nights with Carrie
10. Lazy, rainy days
11. Getting enough sleep
12. Having new blog followers

Love, Heather
xo

She Stuck in My Elevator

2009-09-17T01:14:00.000-05:00

So my lovely roommate facebook IM'd me (yes, she was in her room like 20 feet away) and said that I needed to post more and "follow" blogs. Since that time I have played solitaire for a ridiculous amount of time and listened to the songs from the CD that Carrie made me- thus the title. I also opened up my YouCam on my laptop and started playing with the different settings out of boredom. The result is the picture you see above. I thought that setting made me look like I have a grill so I figured that I would share! =) You can also see Zack sleeping in the background haha!

I also found webcam pictures from this summer. Zack made me promise that I wouldn't post the ones of him on facebook so I'm going to post them here!

I had to end with the one that I thought was the funniest of Zack!

P.S. Officially ONE day until I get my Aggie ring! Whoop!

Love, Heather
xo

Joyously Sing for the Ring!

2009-09-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

One week down! As I start my second week of classes, I feel like it has already been a month. My classes start at nine everyday and going to bed at midnight is usually my goal. That doesn't always happen so I have long days with not as much sleep as I'd like!

Zack, my boyfriend, leaves in one month. For those who don't know (even though Carrie is probably the only one who will read this and she already knows) Zack is in the Army. He's going to BOLC II until Christmas. He then gets two weeks off and then goes to BOLC III for four months. He's basically going to be gone all of my senior year. Luckily, he will be here for.....

RING DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eleven days until I get my Aggie ring and I am SO excited!! I have to wake up super early to try and get the earliest time so that my parents can come in and leave in time for my brother's varsity football game. What that means is that the ring dunk is TBA... I plan on going to the Chicken, dunking my ring in a chugger, and then slowly consuming my beverage at a leisurely pace. =) Zack is going to dunk too (since he never did) and we're doing it when my parents come back up. Bottom line: I'm stoked!!!!

Love, Heather
xo

New Kid on the Blog

2009-08-26T16:14:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging, fully anticipating that no one will actually want to read this. However, my roommate has a blog so I stole the idea from her. I'd like to have somewhere that I can write things down and share my experiences. I also don't actually like to work so it would be a good time to update. =)

Next Monday class will start again. I'm dreading biochemistry but excited to be a senior. I fear that my class load will take some joy out of my senior year but I'm here to get a degree and that is what's important. I still haven't organized old papers, cleaned out trash from my binder, or refilled my bag with usable writing utensils yet.

Tonight I will clean and prepare my bag and room for class. During this process, I may just play some sad music to mourn the loss of another summer. I'm sorry my first blog wasn't more eventful.

Love, Heather
xo