May Break Continued

Saturday

The dogs had not been walked since the last time I was home in March. 

They were jumping with joy when we pulled their leashes out.

It was a gorgeous day.

We even let them get in the lake

Penny barking at one of her buddies

cool down swim

No lazy day by the pool is complete without pineapple salsa!

...and a bubble gun!

Sunday

For Mother's day, my Mom and I went to my Grandmother's for breakfast.

This was followed by going to see the movie Something Borrowed. It has been one of my favorite books for the last several years. I'm not quite sure it works in a movie form because you come away from the movie wondering what the moral of the story is. BUT, you will get several laughs out of it. John Krasinski stole the show with perfect comic relief. 

Starting from the back left: My Uncle Gib, My Mother
Front left: My Aunt Laura, My Uncle Gary

My parents undertook a big project and finished it up right before I got home for the break.

I give you the new countertops and appliances in the kitchen:

 After the movie, we cooked out burgers =)

Monday

Monday had finally rolled around and my first stop of the day was the dentist.

I am happy to report that I had ZERO cavities and my gums are looking good. I was able to catch up with everyone around the office because I hadn't seen them in SO long!

I zoomed home and loaded the car up to head to Houston.

I left around 4 PM with the intention of getting there a little bit early to try and surprise Lance in the parking lot at his school. I guess I'm a speed demon and I ended up being at Buc-ee's pretty early...so I spent some time in there looking around.

the HUGE bathroom

 Okay, I arrived in Houston at the parking lot I thought I would find Lance's truck. FAILED. I pulled in about 3 times and there was a creepy guy staring at me and I was almost sure he was going to come over to my car and force me to pay him to park my car there. I gave up and decided to wait for him near his apartment. The time finally came when he was done with his last final of the semester. I gots to sees my boyfriend for the first time in almost 2 months! We went out to two different bars that night with some of his law school buddies. It was nice to let loose a little bit after a long semester...for both of us.

Tuesday

This was the best lazy day anyone could ask for. We literally laid around all day watching movies...but this is allowed because it was the day after his finals after all.

Wednesday

We had every intention of being productive. We even got to the point where we had our running clothes on. Well, Lance did anyway. I slipped out of the room for 5 seconds and he had crawled under the covers and started napping. hahahaha! We did eventually leave the apartment and went to Buffalo Wild Wings where he dominated at the trivia game there. No big deal, but I became the hunting hero on a shooting game. 

This man, my friends, is a genius!

Buffalo Wild Wings

Lance winning!

Thursday

We decided on going to see Lincoln Lawyer. Not usually my cup of tea, but there was nothing else out in my opinion that looked appealing. I was completely wrong about this movie. I really liked it!

Lance's MEDIUM slurpee

Friday

I woke up at the BUTT CRACK of dawn. I had barely slept an hour because I made the mistake of having Starbucks the night before.

No sleep + saying bye to Lance + driving 4 hours= super sad Rachel

Not the best of mornings, but I survived. I hate goodbyes...I'm a broken record.

The reason I got up so early to head home:

hair appointment

I know, it's totally lame. I tried several weeks ago to change my appointment, but my girl was all booked up and I wouldn't have another chance until August. I would have 4 inch roots by then. Whoa, when did I become THAT girl. Forgive me.

I spent a chunk of time today updating my calendar for the summer. I have my syllabus for one of my classes and my calendar already looks stressful. =(

This is just for one class....I'm taking 5. blah

quarter nurse

Monday

I spent the day watching 6 hours worth of Patho lectures. This helped reinforce all of the reading I did in the book. I felt that I knew enough of the material by the end of the day.

watching an Endocrine lecture

I was startled by a bang at the door and ran downstairs. I received my fourth book for next semester!

I've got a feeling this class will be a tuffy 

I did take my normal break and went for a stroll. 

Tuesday

I had planned on waking up at 8, but decided on 9 AM. I had some breakfast and then began reading over my study guide for my Patho final. I was bored out of my mind after a little over an hour of that and headed up to school. Stesha, Sandy, and I had a study session together right before the exam. The exam seemed a little bit harder than the last, but I was sure I scored high enough to keep my A in the class. Stesha and I were in the mood for Sushi Love and headed on over there. I tried a lunch special: hibachi steak. It was super cheap and super good!

To put off studying for another hour, I went for a walk.

The honeysuckle smell so sweet and wonderful. I feel like I'm in Hawaii anytime I'm around them. 

I had the absolute hardest time studying for my last final that would be the next day. I might have put in a total of 45 minutes of studying that night. Honestly, I thought I could do well on the exam just by using my common sense. Fundamentals is a class that isn't all about memorizing the "facts". It is more of an application of ALL the things we have learned over the past 4 months. A lot of the material is permanently pressed in my brain because of the application of it. We use a big chunk of what we have learned in our lab or clinical site. There are always a lot of questions about "What would be the MOST/LEAST appropriate thing to say when _______". I always try to put myself in the role of the patient. Now if I was sitting in the hospital/clinic, what words would I expect to come out of my nurse's mouth? ....and that's it. That is how I answer questions like that. If I read an answer choice and I feel like I would be offended if someone said that to me, that would not be something appropriate. You get it?

Now, not all of the questions are that simple. There are always the ones like "What would you do FIRST"? "What is the highest priority"? Then it gets tricky.

Wednesday

To tell you the truth, the test was brutal. I got through it, but it was hard.

After the exam, I printed out some papers for my clinical site this summer. I didn't know my exact assignment, but I knew I would be at Duke Hospital. Score!!

Stesha and I had been planning on having lunch at Ruth's Chris to celebrate being done. Little did we know that they don't do lunch. We decided on Hibachi, but it didn't open until 11:30 so we waited in the parking lot for 10 minutes. I noticed some geese and happened to have some stale goldfish from our road trip a couple of weeks ago. I fed them.

hibachi

We had a couple of hours to kill before our tour of the Duke Lemur Center. We watched Paranormal Activity and I enjoyed it. It gave me a couple of scares.

2:30 rolled around and we went on the Lemur Tour.

momma and baby

After the lemurs, I made a stop at Target. I needed some kitty litter and litter box liners before I headed out of town.

Thursday

It was Cinco de Mayo. Not only that, it was Alley cat's 14th birthday.

I've had her since I was around 10 years old and in the 4th grade.

I had slept in and then went for a walk.

I finished up packing and cleaned my townhouse once again. I want it to be clean when I return.

I was bored out of my mind and decided to go ahead and leave. I stopped by The Duck Shop to buy some Duke gear. I followed that with a trip to a bookstore to find a nice read for the plane ride back.

I arrived at the airport almost 3 hours before my flight. I took my time, but still had an hour and half before boarding once I was in the terminal.

I bought a pasta salad and a sandwich to eat. The sandwich was disgustingly soggy so all I had was the pasta salad.

I found a pic of an airedale in the SkyMall magazine and it made me miss my dogs more =(

The plane ride was smooth and I got almost 100 pages read in my new book. We landed and I walked out to be greeted by my Mom. I spotted my luggage, grabbed it, and we headed to the car. I got to see my Dad and gave him a hug. We grabbed dinner on the way home. I walked in the door and got to see my precious doggys. 

Friday

The day started out with me getting my bridesmaid dress altered. This was followed by dress shopping. My Mom and I grabbed lunch and then headed home. My parents and I headed to the lake for them to fish and for me to kayak.

We then got in the pool.

I was able to catch up with Chelsie, Angela, and Trinity tonight. I helped Chelsie pick out some of her outfits for her engagement pics that are tomorrow. 

I received my specific clinical placement for the summer today. I'll be on a women's oncology unit. I'm thrilled!!!

I am happy to report that I made three "A"s and one "B+" this semester. 

I'm 1/4 of a nurse and couldn't be happier.

Loop of Procrastination

I've been in the habit of going to bed way too late and then getting up way too late.

After laying in bed studying for an hour, I realized I hadn't framed the flowers I received a month ago.

I wanted to smack myself when I waited too long to press the ones Lance got me back in January. 

So here I am trying to study and all I can think about is framing the flowers I pressed.

I realized I needed to go buy a frame.

...and while I was out I would need to pick up food...

...but before I could eat I needed to run...

Thus began the "loop of procrastination"

the run

The weather was beautiful (but isn't it always on a day you have to study?).

I followed through with my plans.

I give you my first attempt at framing pressed flowers:

...and as I mentioned about an hour ago

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD!