Rent-to-Own??

My roommate and I do everything together. Sometimes it feels like whatever I do, Tae does and whatever Tae does, I do. This semester, we took that to a whole new level. If you don't know by now, I have had some weird, medical mystery problem all semester (since the very beginning of September) which included lung pain, breathing problems, chest pain in general, heart pain, heart spasms, and eventually seizures of some kind. It was rough every day for 13 1/2 weeks but I'm feeling so much better since this past Wednesday (no thanks due to a very special ward fast last week) but not after visiting many many doctors, get all sorts of tests done, and visiting the ER on some occasions. Of course, just as I am starting to feel better, that special connection I have with my roommate decides to kick in. On Monday, she sends me a TEXT MESSAGE saying she is in the hospital because they think she has appendicitis! Sure enough, that's what it was and she had an emergency appendectomy to remove her highly inflammed appendix, which doctors said probably would have burst if she did not get it out right then. So Tae was admitted to the hospital for a few days, but her troubles didn't end there. We returned, yet again, to the ER just a few days later due to Tae's inability to breath normally. The nurses recognized us. Some even knew me by name! We sure know their names!! (Nyree, Rick, Jeremy, Melissa, Jared, Megan...) When I told my aunt Carolyn, also a nurse, that we were back in the ER, she recommended we just start paying rent there, since it would probably be cheaper than all the co-pays we are paying. Considering our history, I'm beginning to think it might be a smart idea...

This is me and Tae and our collection of hospital bracelets that we have made in the last 4-5 weeks. We're tied with the ER bracelets (pink/red) but she's got that OR blue one.

I'll teach my baby the right limericks.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Is that even accurate? As much as I want to be home for Thanksgiving for many reasons, I am spending my Thanksgiving here with my Aunt Ruth in Kaysville Utah. It's been very fun. The whole house is bubbling with excitement for my older cousin Alex to come home from his mission to France on Monday. But even beside that, it's been fun chilling with this other side of my family. However, they make me question my childhood and the fun little limericks I've learned. Joking around in the kitchen this morning, my aunt was found chasing my 17 year old cousin Tony(dressed up as a hick) around the house. Being the top shot putter in the state, and the star of the football team, Tony is...well....healthy. So this whole scene was highly entertaining. and somehow, it led to this:

Ruth: Sticks and stones...

Tony: Mom, sticks and stones may dent my fat but words will never hurt me.

hahaha um...not exactly what I learned. but I'll take it.

So it seems word has gotten around my recent health problems and the pain that I have been having. Of course, most people who read this blog have never actually seen an attack, but its safe to say that it is very VERY painful and pretty much unbearable (Although after having numerous everyday for well over 10 weeks, I'm developing some sort of tolerance)
ANYWHO! The whole point is, last night I saw a lady who is expecting a baby any day. She was at my aunt's house for Thanksgiving and towards the end of dinner she was experiencing some very painful contractions that brought her to tears, and as terrible as this is, the words that went through my head were "That's IT?! That's a contraction!? SO EASY! Bring on the baby!!!" haha. oh boy.

The hardest hard-core fans you've ever seen!

So if I haven't already mention in every post for the last 2 months, this year my friends and I had front row seats to every home football game. Rain, shine, or occasionally snow we were there for every minute. As the home season is now complete, I thought I would give you a glimpse of the last three games of the season.....

We started out with a very subtle face painting and a little bit of hair dying.

Then we moved to a more dramatic face paint, split blue and white hair dying. Please take note of the fingernails.

The final was pretty dang hot!


This shot was the point out the MOST AMAZING FAKE EYELASHES IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. Long and glittery. Totally realistic.

The last game of the season was supposed to be three roommates with a B. Y. U. on each face. Unfortunately, a certain roommate who shall remain nameless (but for the point of the story we shall call her Rachel K. no no, R. Kendrick) decided to back out so we had to do some rethinking very quickly. Unfortunately Tae didn't have time to get to the white background (we didn't want to be late for the last game!!) so I look like a mime all by myself ha ha. Then again, she did dye her hair blue...

How sad...last game. :(
P.S. I have no idea why my hair looks so ridiculously red...

Second Coming?

Here's a recent text message conversation between me and my older brother.

Me: did you hear about Obama's grandma dying today?
Eric: Yup, just saw it. Bummer, huh?
Me: Yeah, sad. It'll help him at the polls though, that stinks.
Eric: That's what I meant by bummer, haha. Dang it! He didn't need that.
Me: I know! Ugh. I just keep reminding myself everything happens for a reason.
Eric: Yeah, I keep telling myself. Ripening for destruction.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Get ready!

Friends Call Me Speed.

Brownie points if you can name the movie the title of the post is in. Seriously, BIG brownie points, since its basically my favorite movie in the world ha ha.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I took a 40 question midterm today. And I did it in 9 minutes. yes. 9. As in, one minute less than 10. As in still in the single digits. As in only using 2 hands. As in enter testing center at 5:48 and leave at 5:57.

And did I mention I got a 95, which is only one missed question? ha ha ha.

I'll answer to "Speed" from now on. Or "Queen" will do.

synchronized swimming!

My ward talent shows never turn up online. ha ha. This is hilarious!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f86qKQJg3Z8

What now?!

For the past 2 1/2 weeks, I have had exam after exam and quiz after quiz without any sort of break. This morning with my finish of my Anatomy Lab Midterm (yikes!!! I could tell you about it, but then I'd have to kill. In addition to getting a zero) I have officially completed those 2 1/2 weeks. Sure, I've got quizzes I should get ready for, and I always have homework that I can do, but still. No midnight music. No hard core stressing at least for a little bit. I don't know what to do with my life now!

I'm not dead!!

It's been so long, let me introduce myself. Hi, my name is Melissa. I'm a 5'6" beautiful brunette who enjoys laughing, movies and long walks on the beach. I know some of you think that after I came out here to college for my sophomore year, I dropped off the face of the earth and died. Good news, although I have had some seriously close calls, I'm still alive!! Breathing in and out (RR:14--little nursing talk for ya!). Heart beating (PR varies depending on how close I am to an episode). And now, I have no excuse and its time to update on my life!! School is ridiculously hard and wearing me thin, but I'm trying so hard to stay on top. Even if that means that pretty much every night I get to hear the lovely midnight music at the library. There's nothing that makes you want to leave the library as quickly as possible more than elevator music loud enough to make your body shake. I just keep reminding myself that people have gone through nursing school many many times before and they are still alive so I can do it! ha ha

This is an exciting week. Although I have a ridiculous amount of exams/quizzes, I'm super happy because Dad and Scott are here! And yesterday Erin and Justin came down to visit too! It has been so much fun, even though I haven't gotten any studying done. Good thing I was anticipating that. ha ha. Dad left tonight, but it was still so fun to have him here. Scott's here until Tuesday at midnight so I've got plenty of time left with him. Yay!!Yup. I love my family :)

This is pretty much my favorite picture ever with my favorite people ever!

I think this is such a cute picture of the 3 friends!

Ok, well the pictures below are from last week. We had Homecoming week and part of the Homecoming hoop-la is True Blue football! Let me paint a picture for you: Helaman Fields, completely COVERED with bright blue foam, and several hundreds of people. It was amazing. We played flag football, had "foam fights", played volleyball, and slid down the hill on our stomachs. Tae and I even had some sort of sumo wrestler fight. Definitely got some pretty interesting looks from that one. It was so slick and so much fun! Somehow, I got dye in places that I didn't even know COULD be dyed and I'm not even kidding, I still have blue in my hair and on my stomach. Ha ha. It was so much fun though!

Clint, Tae, Me and Josh

Pretty much the most amazing picture of the two most amazing roommates ever! :)

Wanna Lose Weight?!

So while looking up some information for my nutrition class, I came across this site: www.aboutcabbagesoupdiet.com. Interested? I mean, doesn't cabbage soup diet just sound so marvelous? It gets even better. This is the information posted on the home page.

The Soup Diet is based on a fat-burning soup that contains negligible calories. The more soup you eat the more weight you should lose. It allows people to eat as much Cabbage Soup as they want each day, which should sound appealing to dieters. After all, dieters love to hear that they can eat unlimited amounts of food and still lose weight fast.

The Diet relies on eating strange and bizarre combinations of food that nearly force you to starve each day. Dieters are allowed all the water and cabbage soup they want, plus a very restricted set of other foods.

A running myth suggests that this diet originated at any number of hospitals, but thus far, no medical facilities have claimed it as their own. Consensus is that the diet is effective for temporarily losing a few pounds. However, this is not a very nutritionally sound plan and certainly not one to live on.

Emphasis added. Yeah, this seems like a real winner of a diet, eh? If I was a medical facility, I wouldn't claim it as my own either.

BYU FOOTBALL BABY!!

So I have the most amazing roommate. Wanna know why? She was able to score our group of friends south endzone, front row tickets for the ENTIRE season. Shall I repeat for all those who think they are cool because they had front row tickets for one game (cough cough Erin)? I have FRONT ROW TICKETS for the ENTIRE 2008 SEASON!! Yay bab-ay!!

Bekah came to visit and got to help Cosmo crowd surf! See her?
Look at the concerned look on her face ha

roommates-Tae, Melissa, and Rachel

Front Row!!

you wish you looked this good.

So I've moved into Provo and today I finished my last step to my nursing prep. I went and got drug tested, got my box of nursing supplies that were shipped to my aunt's house, and went scrub shopping. Look how stylish these suckas are. The one on the right is my BYU nursing uniform (notice the BYU blue) and the one on the left is just for kicks. It was deciding between this one and the one with the little teddy bears waving that just seems to be practically a staple for nurses. But then again, if I was to ever purchase those, I would never be able to show my face in public, which kinda defeats the purpose.

oh no...

My family mocks me. They mock me for lots of different reasons, but this week, the mocking is about my packing. Eric and I fly to Provo Thursday morning. However, I have already started to pack, which is apparently cause for mocking. But the thing is, I know myself and I know that I have a LOT of stuff to pack. So go ahead, mock me for starting early to try and find a way to stuff everything in my suitcase and trying to make it under 50 lbs. I don't mind. I know I'll find some way later down the road to mock you :)
But to be totally honest, I probably deserve to be mocked for all of the stuff I have to try and fit in 2 suitcases, both under 50 pounds! Yikes!

New Look

I finally got my act together. It's taken a while, but I finally installed Photoshop 6 on my new laptop, transferred over my scrapbooking kits, sat down to do some actual scrapbooking, and voila! A new look for the blog!! Let me know what you think! Any suggestions for changes?
And for the record, I know it is a little crooked at the top. But I cant figure out how to change it and I'm too lazy to keep trying. Maybe some day I'll figure it out.....if you know how to do it, let me know!

Shopping List

There is usually a variety of things on people's shopping lists, but here's a list of the things that I need purchase:

-Stethoscope
-Blood Pressure Cuff
-Hemostat
-Bandage Scissors
-Reflex Hammer
-Watch
-Retractable Tape Measure
-White Lab Coat
-Otoscope--whatever that is!
-Two name tags
-NursingPatch
and most random of all: tuning fork. Any ideas what I might need that for!?

And On A Serious Note...

This summer seems like it has flown by so fast, and I don't know where it went. It probably vanished somewhere between working 2 months straight, and watching every episode of Alias. One way or another, Eric and I fly out to school in 2 weeks. The more I think about it, the more nervous I am about this year. I'm not sure I'll be able to take complete care of myself. Grocery shopping, cooking, paying for things on my own....things that I've thought I'd be able to do, but the more I think about it the more freaked out I get. And then obviously there is the most important matter of school. My schedule is a killer, which I knew it would be, but I'm not sure I will be able to handle it. I didn't get to choose my schedule, the Nursing Program pretty much chose it for me and it's quite a challenge: Microbiology 221, Microbiology 222, New Testament, Nutrition, Anatomy, and Nursing 294. Now to you, especially those no longer in school, this may not seem like a lot, but to me it seems like suicide. But most likely, this semester/year is just preparing me for how the rest of my college years will be so I guess I should just get used to this feeling of insecurity and never being ready.

And the Award goes to....

So my job as a Clover Patch Camp counselor finished on Friday.  I wish I could say that I am sad, but we all know what happens to liars. Just kidding. I am a little sad to see my new friends leave. I'm not sad to be done changing the diapers/showering adult males. I'm not sad that I no longer have to chop up my campers food into miniscule pieces and then out of habit, accidently do it to my own food. No, I'm not sad about that, but I am a wee bit sad that my international friends are gone. No matter the drama they stirred up or how annoying they were. I will never  see them again. (Score!) 

To celebrate the end of the camp, we had a banquet on Friday night, where we all got dolled up, had real food, got awards, and reflected on pictures from the summer. We also took approximately 100000^1000 pictures. As much fun as taking pictures was, the distribution of awards was my favorite part of the night. However,  I am not sure how I feel about the award I got. Should I take it personally that I got the award "The Biggest Chatterbox"? Or should I be excited that I didn't get a more offensive award, like "Most Likely to Appear on Jerry Springer"? I suppose that award does fit, since I am a big fan of talking and telling stories. My specialties are the stories that end when my friends say "and then did you find $100 on the ground?". Yes. I am proud to have gotten the Biggest Chatterbox award rather than the "Most Likely to Pop Up on YouTube" award that I thought I was for sure going to get thanks to my stupidity on the swings (if you haven't seen that yet, you are totally missing out. Get to my facebook pronto! It will be worth it!) So here's to the Biggest Chatterbox, and not Most Likely to Get Arrested! Cheers!

This Town Ain't Big Enough

When I chose my job, I based a lot of it on the fact that I was going to be so close to home. It only takes three minutes; five if there is bumper to bumper traffic. However, One thing I didn't factor in to this decision is the chances of bumping into my fellow counselors! I work with only 2 other Americans: one from Clifton Park and one from Michigan. From there, it breaks down like this:
1 from Kazakhstan
1 from Korea
1 from Poland
4 from Scotland
5 from Wales/England
5 from Russia.
Therefore, these people really cant GO anywhere when we don't work on the weekends. There has not been a single weekend when I haven't run into them walking down the street from Dollar General, or checking their email at the library, or walking down Scotch Bush to a yard sale like 10 miles away! Now don't get me wrong, I love these people who think Walmart is heaven and Stewarts (aka "The Shop") is practically the most amazing thing on earth. I love them, but in the famous words of Woody the Cowboy, "this town ain't big enough for the [24] of us."

What Erin Would Do.

Erin Brooksby Wilson has kindly pointed out to me on this very night, that it has been a long time since I have posted a blog. I feel the need to remind that I work from Sunday at 11 am until Friday at 3 (that includes nights) at an isolated camp in the woods, so my blogging time is often very limited. But here are some quick updates:

-Eric got home last Wednesday!! it has been so nice to have him home...even though he steals my car.....
-My birthday was Monday! woot woot!! 19!! That has to be the most boring age ever. There is nothing exciting. Although, it probably won't be as bad as 15. now THAT sucked.
-I hate work. Just kidding, I like it, but dang it's a lot of time/not enough money! I am scared to figure out how much money I get paid per hour because I know its going to be a number that will make me want to stick my head through a wall because of all the work I do. 3 more weeks.....
-For the record, my brother has been home for a week and a half now and we have not yet had a full family dinner. That's 90% my fault, but I prefer to blame Scott, who ran off and decided to get a job at SPAC when he is only 16. Who does that?!?! Gosh, when I was 16, all I wanted to do was date on a Saturday night, not work a concert! kids these days.
-I have 6-8 weeks to get myself fingerprinted, get a federal and state background check, and a drug screening for the nursing program. That should be fun. Not.
-Our trip to Salem at the beginning of August sounds like it is going to be a short one. That sucks. Big time. Everyone else only wants to be there 4 days or something like that. I know you would think 4 days in a town 10 miles across would be more than enough, but I think 4 WEEKS sounds about right. Too bad I am seriously outnumbered.
-And oh yes, I am still single. This is getting ridiculous now. SOMEONE FIX THAT FOR ME!

That's probably it. My life is truly not that exciting. That's the REAL reason I haven't blogged yet. Forget this whole "no time" thing. That's just a cover. Which I plan on using until I have something totally brilliant happen to me which I will immediately blog. Because that's what Erin would do.

I'M GOING TO BE A NURSE!!

"Congratulations! Your application for entrance to the Nursing program at BYU has been reviewed and the College of Nursing Acceptance Committee has voted to grant you acceptance to the program for Fall 2008"

Well, today was the day that I have been looking forward to for months and months. But the waiting is now over and I am pleased to announce that I have been accepted to BYU School of Nursing! Although I don't know the exact number of applicants, the most recent number I heard was around 400. We were going for 45 spots. It's such a relief to get that burden off my shoulders!! And now I am so excited that I know what I am going to be doing with my life :)

Digital Scrapbooking!

So these are my first attempts at digital scrapbooking, following in the steps of my mother. They are a little bit rough, but everyone has to start somewhere! The two pages with me and my roommate go together and they were the first ones I did. For the record, my mother didn't help with ANY of these! woohoo!

testing

This is just a test to see if Erin Brooksby Wilson will truly read my blog. ha ha :)

Big Day!

So its not even 1:30 in the morning, but I am so excited because today is a big day. In one month from today, Eric comes home!! and in 2 months from today, Eric, Scott and I (and possibly mom) are going to go to Salem!!
It's an exciting day :)

Sick!

I hate being sick. It's the worst ever, and now I have the weirdest sickness I've ever had. Monday night my throat started to hurt and it killed to swallow/talk. It was worse when I woke up the next morning and I felt like I had strep, so I went to the doctor to be tested, but turns out I didn't have strep but rather some sort of viral thing. So Tuesday was strep throat day, Wednesday was killer migraine that makes you want to kill yourself, Thursday was sneezing, coughing, wheezing day, Friday was combination of it all and today seems to be another day of wheezing and coughing so much that you have to lie down before you pass out. Fun, eh?!

APPLIED!

I have FINALLY finished my application to the nursing program!! It has been a long journey, but it's done now! Here is a little sum up of my application:

-Impromptu Essay. Go in at 7:45 am and have 50 minutes to write a complete essay from the topics presented. My options: death, integrity in nursing, or someone I am grateful for. I wrote about how I cope with death and how that will help with nursing.
-Polished Essay. I started writing the one page essay in February. Combined, it took about 5 hours to get a rough draft of my essay about experiences that have helped contribute to nursing. Then my parents and I took about 4 hours disecting every sentence until it was perfect.
-Became certified in CPR and Adult First Aid. Had to get front and back copy of my cards.
-Service List. Had to think of EVERY bit of service that I have done in the past 5 years. Not an easy task.
-Resume. Trying to make yourself look impressive on a piece of paper is not always easy.
-Fill out form after form of personal information, right to a background check, etc etc. It took forever.
-Letters of recommendation. Had to get two people to fill out forms for recommendation and had them mail it back to me because it needed to be in to the Advisement Center no earlier than May 12, and no later than May 30. what a pain.

BUT ITS FINISHED!! now I just have to sit around and wait. I'll probably find out one month from tomorrow...............

not dead!

I cant believe it has really almost been a full month since I have posted on my blog. oops. I said I would update it and so I will. Of course, I'm really not sure that anybody really checks this, so maybe no one even noticed. That's my vote.
No fears though! I am alive and happy. It's good to be home. I have really enjoyed being home with my family and my friends, although I really have not seen too many friends, which is really kinda sad. But it's ok, they get out of school really late for the most part.
I got a job! I am going to start working at Clover Patch Camp in the beginning of June. It's a camp for mentally and physically handicapped children and adults. It will definitely not be a pretty job, but it will be a really good experience for me, and will look good on my application to the nursing program! :) It could be brutal though. I start work Sunday and 11 and go until Friday at 3. I only work 8 weeks of the summer though, so that is nice. But I have to stay overnight and only get 2 hours off a day. I don't know all the little technical points of the job, like when I can come home and when I have to stay, but hopefully all of these things will sort out in time!
Finally, my application is almost finished! I have my package with the letters and forms ready to be mailed tomorrow, and I have the essay written out ready to be edited, and my resume ready to be emailed in. It should be done hopefully by the end of this week! then it's just the wait...

Battle with Luggage!

I have been so busy the past couple of days packing and cleaning the dorm. I have been shocked. How can so much stuff fit into a room that is so tiny?! I couldn't believe it when I ran out of places to store things! The worst part is, I am flying home, and of course, the 2 suitcases I am allowed to bring home cannot be more than 50 pounds. That sounds do-able. But trust me, it's not. 4 months of summer weather for an 18 year old girl takes a lot! So all of yesterday I was trying hard to try and get everything in, but keeping it under 50 lbs. We were putting stuff in, and taking other stuff out, prioritizing what i really need, etc. I was using a scale from a girl across the hall, but it was really old and I didn't trust it when it said both were under 50. So we rolled both the suitcases to the Richards Building Gym. ha ha. We rolled into the exercise room and used that scale. Of course, both were over 50 lbs, so i had to take stuff out, and then I realized the pants and shoes I was wearing I wanted to take home with me, so I took off my pants and shoes and walked back in Trevan's shorts and bare feet! we definitely got some crazy looks! Fun times... (for the record, Both of my suitcases are 49.4 pounds now :)

Cries of a Mediocre Student

Freshman year at BYU is now over! I am definitely excited, because it sure has been a long year.... But I would have to say that I overall enjoyed it. I have a handful of friends that I will miss this summer, but I will enjoy living with/taking classes with/catching up with next year. Especially the Fab 13. We are just a group of friends that kinda started with 4 of us at the beginning of the year, and by the end of this semester we had a group of 13! I love them all!
So academically the year was alright too. Most of my grades were fine, and I have the typical freshman attitude about them: yeah, they were good, but they could have been better. But I learned lots and thats what matters, right? Finals are over, and I have officially survived. But I have to say the grade I am most proud of, ironically, is my Bio-Organic Chem final exam. 73!! This may sound like it is a cry of a mediocre student, but I am so excited for that 73! I do not recommend Chem 285 to anyone, and especially from my professor, but the world (minus Peru?) is safe now, since he will be serving a mission in Peru and won't be teaching.That class nearly killed me this year: hours and hours of studying, missing out on girl's nights, and then going to the exam and thinking that had I known NOTHING was going to be on the exam that I studied, I would not have wasted that time! But still, working hard on quizzes, homeworks and still studying paid off.
I got a 73 on the final! and the average was 55! It may sound retarded, but three cheers for a 73!!! :)