Without Wax

Serious Baby

2010-03-30T00:06:00.000-05:00

This is just too funny/cute not to post!

So What Are Your Plans?

2010-02-18T22:01:00.003-06:00

"So what are your plans?"

This seems to be the question I've been getting lately, along with, "Where are you going to school?" Although they see like pretty straight forward questions, the answers are anything but. At this exact moment, I'm not in classes [although I will be in a few weeks at good ole ICC]. But I'm looking into programs at other schools for this fall.

As for my plans, well let's just say plans change, especially when you're me.

I've wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. A few years ago, I was at my aunt and uncle's house and started reading a book my aunt had called "Baby ER." After reading that, all I wanted to do was be a Neonatologist. It was a perfect fit, I knew I wanted to work in an intensive care unit and I absolutely love babies. A lot of people commented saying it would be so hard to see babies that small, that sick, and to see them die. But I had a different mindset. I knew that those would be hard, but saving just one baby would make it all worth it. So Neonatologist it was. I was accepted into Saint Louis University with a major in Biology/Pre-Medicine and I started shadowing a few different types of physicians just to make sure I liked the hopsital environment. Shadowing the physicians confirmed some of what I already knew, I wanted to work with kids and stay away from adults [as patients] at all costs, but I also found a new love in the form of the Pediatric Intesive Care Unit. This made me want to work harder and do my best so that I could finally be doing what I loved.

Well, as it seems to always be with me, things didn't pan out quite how I'd hoped. I loved SLU, don't get me wrong, but ever since the day I unpacked freshman year, things just weren't clicking. I had a great group of friends who I love dearly, was pretty involved in a great organization on campus, and loved the SLU community, but I still looked forward to going home and dreaded going back when the weekend was up. To this day, I don't know why I felt like that. I think it may have been a combination of missing family birthdays/get togethers, being away from friends that had all been through an experience that bonded us in a way that no one else understood, and just plain homesickness. Whatever it was, it disappeared as soon as I packed up my room junior year. Now that I was home, all I wanted was to go back to SLU.

Now that I've been home for a little over a year, I've had a lot of time to think about what I want to do with my life, and I'm pretty sure I want to be Super Woman, because that's the only way I'm going to be able to accomplish all of this. My first love is and always will be medicine and ultimately I think I will end up doing something in healthcare. What that will be, I'm still not sure. I've tossed around the options of being an Athletic Trainer or Physical Therapist quite a bit lately and have been looking into some schools with those programs. Of course, SLU has fantastic PT and AT programs so I may very well end up there again. Medical school has still been on my mind as well, and although it would take more time for me to get there now, I'm more than ready to accept it as a challenge and do whatever it takes to get there.

Bucket List [Updated]

2010-02-12T22:05:00.004-06:00

I'm sitting here, watching the Opening Ceremonies with some friends at SLU, and Biji starts thinking of ways that she can be part of the Olympic Experience. After much consideration and brainstorming, we still haven't figured out how she's going to accomplish this but it did bring up another topic, Bucket Lists. I made one after I saw the movie, The Bucket List, but I have absolutely no idea where it's at now. I started a new one tonight thought and will share after a few of you share a couple things you have on your Bucket List.

UPDATE:

My Bucket List so far...[I'm still thinking of things that I can actually do now]

Attend the Winter Olympic Games
Attend the Summer Olympic Games
Attend a Women’s World Cup
Attend a Men’s World Cup
Watch the sunrise on every continent
Watch the sunset on every continent
See the Northern Lights
Attend a Cubs game
Attend the Super Bowl
Put feet in Pacific Ocean
Put feet in Atlantic Ocean
Go on the LOST tour in Hawaii
Attend a movie premier
Write a book

Let's Try This Again...

2010-02-11T22:37:00.002-06:00

As you can tell, I have a new look for my blog! I debated on revamping this one or just starting over. There's not a whole lot on this one, content wise, but knowing me, I would delete this one and then later I would need something, so a new look it was. Give me a few days to get it how I want it, but I should start posting a little more regularly. I have a few ideas that will keep me posting even when there's not a lot going on in my life!

Wake Up the Echoes

2009-09-10T19:12:00.003-05:00

"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky…Notre Dame will rise again."

Okay, it may not be October yet and the skies haven't been blue-gray, they've been a wonderful shade of baby blue and yes, we're only one game into the season but I've never been so excited about Notre Dame Football!

Here's a video that pretty much sums up how I feel this season is going to go!

GO IRISH!

*If anyone can tell me who said the first part of the quote at the top, and what it was about, you get 10 points!

Tent-camping at Turkey Run

2009-08-10T22:16:00.005-05:00

I apologize Aubrey for only posting two of the promised three posts! I didn't want to overwhelm you ;-)

The past few weeks my mom kept bringing the idea of going camping up but I completely disregarded it [as would you if you knew my mother] because she only went on one camp-out with me when I was in Girl Scouts because she had to sleep in a cabin and she couldn't shower in the morning. Well low and behold, we went tent- camping [as my mom refers to it] this past Thursday-Friday at Turkey Run in Indiana.

The Wednesday before this, was when I went to St. Louis for the WPS game. The game didn't start until 7 and then we had pictures after, had to drive home, and make a Steak N Shake run for the people at my house so I didn't even get home until 1:30 Thursday morning. I ~~slept~~ napped until 4:45 and we were on the road by 6. Once we picked out a campsite, we pitched this monster of a tent.
This picture doesn't do it justice. It's a 10 person [grown men] and it can fit three queen size beds. It's a good thing we got it though because there were 8 of us. After we got settled, we started tried to start a fire for lunch. Turns out Zach isn't that great with fires we want him to start. Eventually the smoke turned into flames and we were able to eat.

After lunch, we went canoeing. Let me just start out by saying that~~my family~~ everyone completely underestimates my abilitles. Things started out a bit rough but once we got the right groups of people it all worked out. It was a gorgeous day for it!

We all came back to the campsite after that excursion. My mom went to shower [yes, probably the only reason she was able to make it these two days], I napped, and the other 6 went to the pool. That night consisted of washers, food, and fun!

The next morning we were awake [too early in my opinion, I'm on vacation, remember?] and had breakfast and headed to the state park to hike. I wish I would've taken my camera because it was gorgeous!! We went back to the campsite, had lunch, played washers [Melissa and I are STILL unbeaten! Any takers??] and packed up to head home.

It was a great two days with perfect weather and I'm so glad I was able to go!

Sorry about the strikethrough...I thought I did it right but aparently I didn't!

WPS

2009-08-07T21:59:00.005-05:00

As most of you know, I'm a bit of a soccer fanatic, to say the least. As much as I love men's soccer, I was growing up and playing when Mia Hamm and the '91ers were at their peak and have been following the Women's National Team ever since. After the WUSA failed because of lack of money, the National Team has been the only women's soccer that's ever on, until this year. The Women's Professional Soccer league started up this year with 7 teams [8 next year with Philadephia] and it's been awesome to have multiple games on every week! I had been trying to go to games all season but most of them are on Sunday's or during the week so I was unable to go because of babysitting. On July 26th, I was able to attend my first game, and it was definitely worth all the trouble it took to get there! Zach and I drove up that morning and met Caitlin, Hannah, and Maeve at Chuck's Southern Comfort Cafe which I highly recommend if you like barbeque and live in the Chicago area! We had time to kill after lunch so we all headed to Caitlin's to hang out for a little bit. We all parted ways and Zach and I headed to Toyota Park for the game which was Chicago Red Stars vs. Washington Freedom. Toyota Park is such a cool stadium. The fact that it was built for the Chicago Fire and used for other things and not vice versa makes it all the better in my book. We had amazing seats for the game and it was a great game, even though Chicago lost, meaning they were out of the hunt for a playoff spot.

I was able to go, a mere week and a half later, to another game this past Wednesday in St. Louis. This time it was Saint Louis Athletica vs. Chicago Red Stars. Kayla, Brittany and I drove down and picked up Sarah for this game. We had front row and almost dead center seats. I had a minor dilema though. After much deliberation, I've concluded that Chicago is going to be "my team". The only problem with this game was that my absolute FAVORITE player, Hope Solo, plays for St. Louis. I ended up wearing a Red Stars shirt but cheered for Athletica because it was in St. Louis and Hope plays for them, but don't worry Chicago...I'm working on the loyal fan thing. After the game, we had the incredible oppotunity to get our picture taken with the 4 Gold Medalists who played in the game, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Lindsay Tarpley and Lori Chalupny, except Tarpley wasn't in the picture then because she tore her ACL in practice and didn't play. As I mentioned before, Hope Solo, is my favorite player in ALL of soccer, yes even more than Becks, so I was rather excited! Here are some pictures from the game...and the one with us and the players will be scanned in as soon as I get it in the mail!They walked down to the field, through the bleachers!

Saint Louis

Chicago

Final score

Catch up

2009-08-07T21:49:00.003-05:00

After a brief hiatus, I am back to the blogging world, at least until I run out of things to blog about! For my loyal readers, I know there's been a void in your lives without new posts to read, and for that I apologize ;-) Ya'll are in for a treat though because there will be three, yes THREE, new post tonight! And yes, I said ya'll!

This summer has definitely been a good one! I've been babysitting for two little boys, E [7 years old] and J [5 years old] every day. Some of the days have been long, but it's been so much fun. We've had very few stay at home days, in fact I think we've only had two days where we didn't leave their house at all. Between pools, parks, camps, we haven't had time to just sit around!

What have you been up to this summer?

Not Me! Monday-Stellan Style!

2009-03-30T10:56:00.002-05:00

This week Not Me! Monday is going to be Stellan Style. Stellan is still in the hospital and it doesn't look like things are going like they wanted them to. Please continue to pray for Stellan, this family and the doctors that are working on him!

I did not constantly check my Twitter every 5 minutes to see if MckMama had posted a new update about Stellan and then decide to just turn the phone alerts on so I now get her updates sent directly to my phone.

I have not been praying constantly for the healing of this sweet baby boy.

I have not had to charge my phone numerous times a day sometimes because I have been checking Twitter and MckMama's blog to see if there were any updates.

I have not been trying to think of a creative way to display Stellan's name to send to MckMama but I haven't come up with anything yet! *Caitlin, I realllly think you should take a picture of Stellan's name somewhere in Ireland and send it to her!*

I have not been telling everyone about Stellan and his story and asking them to pray for his healing.

That's it for Not Me! Monday-Stellan Style!! I hope you all continue to pray for him with me!

Prayers for Stellan

2009-03-24T21:58:00.003-05:00

I promise to post an actual post about what's going on in my life soon but right now, I feel this is much more important.
One of the blogs that I have on my iGoogle to make sure I don't miss a new post is MckMama's blog. When MckMama was pregnant with Stellan, aka MckMuffin [that beautiful baby boy in the picture above] she was told that he had SVT [Supra Ventricular Tachycardia] and that he would not live. Long story short, he was born, perfectly healthy on October 19th of last year. You can read his story by clicking on the MckMiracle button on my sidebar or by going to MckMama's blog. A few days ago, MckMama took Stellan into the the ER because he was having some problems breathing and was really fussy. He ended up being admitted and was later diagnosed with SVT again. I ask that you please pray for Stellan and his family. I do not know them personally, but after following her blog for so long I feel like I do. There is also another website that someone created, Praying for Stellan, where you can go and leave comments or even a post if you feel so inclined.

Not Me! Monday

2009-03-02T07:45:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not consume massive amounts of Diet Coke this week after I told myself I was going to stop drinking soda all together.

I did not go see the Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Experience with my little brother, little sister and her two friends. I am 20 years old! Even if I did go, I would not have actually enjoyed it by any means!

I am not actually considering going on the MckCruise. It's way expensive and I don't know anyone that would actually go with me, but hey, isn't that what it's for, to meet people who read MckMama's blog?!

I did not find out that I am terrified of the dark this week. I mean, I just moved everything into the basement, painted it, borrowed my uncles bed [thanks Mark!] and set it up down there to find out it scares me half to death.

I'm sure there was a lot more that I did not do this week but I'm going to leave it at that! What did you not do this week?!

I'm baaaack!

2009-02-07T19:08:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I never really went anywhere but I haven't posted in quite awhile. Instead of posting about everything that's gone on since then, I'm just going to start with what's going on now. Otherwise it would be about 20 individual posts or one EXTREMELY long post and I'm sure you don't want to read it as much as I don't want to type it all out. I may post some random pictures sometime though, but don't hold your breath!

Not much has been going on here in Peoria these past couple of weeks, but that changed on Wednesday, February 4th when Parker made his way into the world exactly one month before he was due! He is the son of Brittany [Feucht] and James. I grew up with Brittany and we always used to call each other our cousin. But anyways, I'm so excited he's here and that he's healthy!

Freedom of Choice Act

2009-01-15T21:07:00.002-06:00

I'm going to actually update my blog soon [I was going to catch up today but the boys' school got canceled so I babysat them today and I will be doing that tomorrow...so maybe this weekend at the earliest, but possibly not until after the March for Life] but this is something I feel very strongly about and wanted to get it out there now...

...and that is the Freedom Of Choice Act that Obama plans to sign as soon as he gets in office. I feel very strongly against this. If you dont know about the FOCA than I must encourage you to read about what it means. Also there is a petition out that you can sign if you oppose it. Thank you!

Not Me! Monday

2008-12-14T22:35:00.004-06:00

I was not up for 38 hours straight between Thursday and Saturday and then proceed to sleep for 13 hours the next day.

It did not take me 40 minutes to get the mall [usually a 5-10 minute drive] because they closed 64-40 on Saturday morning, a few days early because of the storm that hit Sunday night. If I had any sense, I would have checked the news to make sure it was open.

I did not pay for $3 of the March for Life trip in quarters because they didn't have change for a $20.

My team in Pro-Life Jeopardy did not do amazingly awesome and beat the team with the law student and the Jesuit scholastic on it!

I did not get extremely excited when I heard that Sarah Palin might be going to the March for Life this year. Even if she did happen to be there, there's no way I would get to see her. Still, I got really excited!

I'm sure there was more that I did not do this week, but I can't think of any more! What did you not do this week?

Lets Say Thanks!

2008-12-08T14:01:00.002-06:00

This widget will be at the bottom of my blog, so please take advantage of it!!

Not Me! Monday

2008-12-07T22:40:00.003-06:00

It's that time of ~~year~~ week again!

I did not download 18 *NSYNC songs Sunday. I mean, no one listens to them anymore so why bother downloading them?

I did not for .354 seconds contemplate going to the bathroom in my sink last night after some girl threw up in the hall. Even if I did, I did not justify it by telling myself that if I walked out into the hall and saw it, then I would throw up too, therefore making an even bigger mess. Luckily maintenance came and cleaned it up before I could even think such thoughts!

My room does not still smell like smoke from the bonfire that I went to on Friday night!

I did not get upset when Barbara Walters did not interview Sarah Palin for the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 and then just turn the TV off as soon as she named Barak Obama as Number 1.

I did not go to the Galleria 3 times this week for Christmas shopping. That would've been a bad idea as well as very time consuming!

I did not mention my blog to almost everyone I had a conversation with this week.

I did not stay up a lot later than I should have because I was playing a budget game meant for middle schooler's.

That's all for this week!

Pepe picked my nose once...

2008-12-06T15:33:00.005-06:00

Last night a group of us from Students for Life went to Forest Park for a hayrack ride and bonfire. It was a ton of fun! We went on a short ride through the park and then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores [we put the marshmallow in between two chocolate chip cookies!] Later, Caitlin, Hannah and I went rolling down a hill! Like I said, tons of fun! Here are a few pictures from the night.

*Oh, and Pepe never picked my nose. Nor was he at the bonfire. He picked Caitlin's nose on the March for Life. Just clearing that up!

The past few weekends in Peoria...

2008-12-03T18:56:00.005-06:00

I figured you would like to read something other than my Not Me! Monday posts! So I'm going to fill you in on what I've been up to!

A few weekends ago, I was in Peoria for Maine's [my little cousin] 3rd birthday party. Here are some pictures from it:
And then I was home November 25-30 for Thanksgiving Break. I hardly had any down time! Tuesday night, I met Elizabeth, Sarah N., Jewel, and Brittany at Olive Garden for dinner. It was nice to be able to hang out with them, I haven't seen them in quite awhile! That night I stayed at Melissa's because I went with her and her mom to the hospital on Wednesday for some tests. On Wednesday afternoon, I went over to my grandma's with Luc, Lexie, Zach, Abby, Austin and Ashley and played games! We played 2 games of Bunco and a game of Golf [the card game] The younger kids helped grandma decorate her tree earlier. That night I took Lexie and Nichole to see Twilight. For Thanksgiving on Thursday, we went to my Uncle Rick and Aunt Wilma's house. My cousin, Sean, who now lives in Detroit, and my Uncle Bob, who lives in Canada were both there and it was nice to see them, along with my other aunts, uncles and cousins! Friday was super busy! We took Abby, Austin and Ashley to the Santa Claus Parade [longest running holiday parade in the United States!] and then we met Kristi and Grandma at Avanti's for lunch. Abby, Austin and Ashley came over afterwards and went with us to get our Christmas tree and helped set it up while Zach and I went to the AT&T store to look at iPhones! That night, I babysat Evan and Jacob and then to of their cousins, Ben and Gabe, yes...4 boys...all around the same age. It was busy but so much fun! Saturday I went to a basketball game in Brimfield and then to American with Melissa. She ended up buying an awesome video camera. That night I babysat Parker and Brock. It was nice seeing them too...I couldn't believe how much bigger they had gotten! I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

Not Me! Monday

2008-12-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

I did not contemplate [along with everyone in my car] e-mailing my professors to tell them that there was too much snow and that the conditions were too bad to drive in, so that I could stay in Peoria for another day/night.

I did not get extremely excited when Notre Dame got a first down in the third quarter. It's not like that was their first first down of the game or anything.

I did not use my old ATM card to scrape the ice off of my window on Friday night because I didn't have a scrapper in my car.

I did not bring my dress back to school in case I go to the APO formal but forget my shoes.

I did not go see Twilight for the third time this week.

What did you NOT do this week?

Not Me! Monday

2008-11-23T16:30:00.005-06:00

I did not see Twilight twice already. Nope, that would be a waste of money.

I did not buy a box of 24 waffles but only eat two, and then have to throw the rest away because I don't have a freezer.

I did not sleep in until 1 in the afternoon yesterday. That would be completely irresponsible of me considering all the homework I had to do.

I did not offer to help bring the Billiken back to it's rightful home in front of West Pine Gym.

I did not just throw away a pumpkin that had been rotting in my room for weeks. Nope, that would be absolutely disgusting!

I did not say "Bonjour" to someone instead of "Hello" because I had been doing French homework all day!

I have not had "Bella's Lullaby" on repeat all day because I absolutely love it!

I did not play Guitar Hero for over an hour today, that would be a complete waste of time!

For more Not Me! Monday posts, head on over to mckmama's blog!

Her story is my story

2008-11-19T02:34:00.007-06:00

Eduardo Verastegui* wants YOU to donate [or at least consider] to the Pregnant and Parenting Student Assistance Scholarship!

Okay, okay, so I stole [borrowed...] this idea [and I think it's the same picture...] from Sarah while she was making the March for Life slideshow, but I think it is a very effective technique! I mean, who would say no to that face?!?

What's this I hear?? You don't know what the Pregnant and Parenting Student Assistance Scholaship is? Well, since you asked, let me enlighten you!

Students for Life at Saint Louis University is working towards endowing this scholarship based on the idea that no student should ever have to choose between having a child and having an education. This scholarship will provide valuable resources so that students facing the unexpected challenges of pregnancy and parenting can stay on track toward earning a degree. The student will be able to use the scholarship to help with tuition, books, childcare, prenatal care, etc. For more information, you can click here.

I encourage you to pray about contributing to this scholarship, whether it be with your prayers and/or monetary donation. Thanks!

Oh, and if anyone can correctly guess where I got the title from and/or what it's talking about....kudos to you!

*[if you haven't seen Bella, you should, you will have no idea who he is ]
**That was taken directly from the Students for Life website, but they said it so perfectly, that I didn't want to re-phrase it!

Not Me! Monday

2008-11-17T22:12:00.003-06:00

I did not wake up early and drive back to St. Louis this morning because I wanted to stay home and sleep in my bed one more night.

I did not get into a yelling match with my brother and Corey about how the media misconstrued just about everything that Sarah Palin said. Nope, not me. The election's over and it doesn't matter anymore, right? [Wrong...this bother's me to no end!]

I did not look into transferring to the University of Alaska-Anchorage simply because Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska.

I did not get threatened with an ...or else... if I don't stay in St. Louis this weekend.

Okay, so these aren't very good one's buuut it's my first week [well second, but I didn't publish the first one because they were even worse than these!] If you want to read more, or get the button so you can make your own, head on over to mckmama's blog!

Gene & Colleen's Wedding!

2008-11-07T15:31:00.012-06:00

This whole, posting things months after they happen seems to be a trend here. Gene and Colleen's wedding was the next day [Saturday] after I had dinner with President Bush. I was going to post this soon, but with the POTUS one, the Stellan update, and the Election guideline post, I didn't want my [very few] readers to start expecting posts all the time!

I guess I should give you a little background on who Gene and Colleen are...Gene is the older brother of Hannah [one of my friends I met here at SLU]. He was also the president of Students for Life when I was a freshman. Colleen was the vice president of Students for Life that same year and Caitlin, Hannah and I [along with a bunch of other people] stayed at her house last year when we were in Washington, D.C. for the March for Life.

So anyways, on October 4th, I attended my first non family, Catholic wedding ever. I'm pretty sure it was the first Catholic wedding that I've been to that was mass as well.

I absolutely loved the colors that she had, and the church was beautiful!

After the wedding, Caitlin and I stayed and took pictures of the families/wedding parties [Caitlin was also taking pictures like it was her job during the wedding!] Then after that was done, we took them to the one hour photo at Walgreens and put them in a picture album so that they could see pictures of their wedding right away. We had a few bumps in the road, but managed to get to the reception and seated before the wedding party was annouced and came in!

The reception was a little different than recepctions that I'm used to! I had a blast though! Congrats Gene and Colleen!

New Election Guidlines!

2008-11-01T16:01:00.001-05:00

I found this when I was looking at the blog of a lady who was organizing the prayer vigil for Stellan and MckMama. I found it very amusing!

Pray for Stellan!

2008-10-29T00:21:00.003-05:00

UPDATE!
Baby Stellan is here!! His APGARS scores were both 9 and the NICU team could find nothing wrong with him!! Again, if you want more information or to follow the rest of the updates, head over to mckmamas blog, the link is below!

..............................................................................................................

I don't know how many people will read this in time [or at all! haha] but tomorrow [well today I guess] at 9:30 CST, baby Stellan will be making his arrival into the world! If you don't know his story, please go check out his mom, mckmama's blog. You can also click on the "Praying for mck mama and Stellan" picture on the right hand side of my blog. Please keep Stellan and his family in your prayers tonight and tomorrow!

POTUS

2008-10-27T00:23:00.005-05:00

A little background before I get to the main part of this post...

Students for Life at SLU has started a scholarship, the Pregnant and Parenting Assistance Scholarship, for SLU students who are, as the title states, either pregnant or parenting. As of right now, once the scholarship becomes endowed, we will be able to give one student $1000 each year. That money can be used towards tuition, books, childcare, prenatal care, etc. The more money we get, the more we can give. One way that we have been raising money to become endowed is through Run for Their Lives which is a 5k run/walk we have hosted the past two years in the spring. On October 10th we had a kick-off event for members, friends of Students for Life, and people in the community who support us.

On to my story...one of the many people we invited was one of our amazing supports/sponsors for the Run. After he received our invitation, he called Caitlin [a member in SFL] and told her about an event on Friday, October 3rd at Hunter Farms. It was a fundraiser for Kenny Hulshof who is the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri and the keynot speaker was going to be the President...of the United States. He had purchased two tables [$10,000/table or $1,000/plate] but was only able to fill one and offered us 10 tickets for the mere price of $75/plate. I was one of the lucky 10 that was able to attend the event.Our group

We pulled up to Hunter Farms, and let me just say, it was gorgeous! I would absolutely love to live somewhere like this! Tons of open space, trees, ponds/lakes...beautiful. After they checked us in and we went through security we mingled among the "Who's Who of St. Louis Republicans" basically [some guests included Mr. and Mrs. Schnuck's and Tim Drury...] Everyone seemed to know each other and we felt a little out of place, so we talked to each other :-) I took a few bathroom breaks, well anytime anyone had to go to the bathroom I went with them so I could rest my feet..the heels hurt so bad and it didn't help that the grass was soft and I kept sinking! The bathroom was cool though. There were pictures of both President Bush's as well as other people who had attended past events here.

After the cocktail hour, we were ushered inside the pavilion for dinner and there a little band of older men playing patriotic songs [which I loved!].

The food wasn't all that great, it would've been better had it been at least warm, but at events like these, I guess you aren't really paying for great food.

The guys in our group, Matt, Kevin and Steve

They cleared the tables and then, what we had been waiting for..."Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States." I think I got chills when the announcer said that! Everyone was standing, cheering, clapping, waving, whistling it was amazing. When he walked to the podium,he was waving at friends not at people, he casually strolled to the podium. There were no teleprompters. No press to address. No media to misconstrue. No audio or video to limit his free speech.

Some quotes from his speech...
*Someone shouted “4 more years,” upon which Bush replied with, “4 more years and I will be a single man.”
*“Living in the white house is like living in a museum…Laura is always telling me not to put my coffee on the Jefferson table. And keep your feet off of the Grant sofa.”
*To Senator Aiken, “Oh did we leave you behind on Air Force One?”
“…oops.” [I believe Senator Aiken was also in DC that morning with President Bush and Kenny Hulshof but had to take a commercial plane to St. Louis]
* “You have a PhD. That’s Condi. And then you have a C-student. That’s me. But look who is President!”
*“One risk is that you lose and make a lousy candidate…
…the other is that you win and make a lousy President.”
* He also talked about how when you become President, you put the portrait of a past President who you have been most infuenced by and he said it was a difficult choice between Abraham Lincoln and 41 [his father]. But he said that while Abraham Lincoln hangs on the wall, 41 hangs in his heart.

We got to see a very different side of President Bush, the person and not the President, that not many get to see and it was truly an honor.

Cliff jumping video

2008-09-23T16:47:00.000-05:00

As promised...here's the video of my jump or fall or belly flop...whatever you would like to call it!

*Okay, well I've tried and tried to upload this video, but it's just not working so I'm going to put a link to it on Youtube!

Cliff jumping

Women's National Team

2008-08-13T01:34:00.000-05:00

So as many of you know, I am kind of a fan of the US Women's National Team [soccer]. Just a little bit :-) I'm one of "those people" who gets up at 3 in the morning to see them play. After last years 3rd place finish in the Women's World Cup, I was looking forward to seeing them play in the Olympics. Leading up to the Summer Games, three players were injured [Leslie Osborne tore her ACL, Cat Whitehill tore her ACL, and Abby Wambach broke two bones in her leg] After Abby broke her leg in the game before the Olympics, many people gave up on them saying that their Gold medal dreams were gone and that there was no way they were going to do anything. In the first game against Norway, it looked like those people may have been right. They weren't playing their game and Norway scored twice in the first 4 minutes of the game. But, they didn't score the rest of the game either, but neither did the US. They beat Japan in their next game, 1-0. This morning they played New Zealand. There were many scenario's where the US could win the group or get second in their group which means they would move on. There were also many where the US would get third and would only move on if they were one of the two third place teams to move on. The game couldn't have gone better. Heather O'Reilly scored in 40 seconds [yes, that's an Olympic record!] and then A-Rod, Tarpley and Hucles went on to score as well resulting in a 4-0 win. This win meant that the US would move on, but it gets better. Japan ended up beating Norway 5-1 which meant that even though Norway beat the US, the US won the group because of goal differential. This probably isn't every exciting for any of you reading this, but I was ecstatic. All of the people who doubted this team after the injuries they suffered are hopefully re-thinking what they previously said :-)Congratulations ladies and bring on Canada!

Lake of the Ozarks

2008-08-13T01:16:00.001-05:00

In the previous post, I talked about how I went on vacation to the Ozarks with my friend and her family. Instead of telling you every little detail, I'll just post pictures [courtesy of Melissa because I haven't loaded mine on here yet but they're pretty much the same] and tell you a few stories :-)

Melissa, Nichole, Shelbi, me and Mitch on the giant hot dog

All of us on their aunt's boat!

Our pyramid! I started on the blue one by myself then Mitch jumped on and then when we were ready Melissa jumped on...all while the boat was moving!

Okay, so the next few pictures have a little story behind them. On the last full day we were down there, we were just tubing and swimming and stuff and they saw some people cliff jumping and so we decided to go do it. We made sure it was deep enough with the distance thing on the boat and then we climbed up. I'm not sure how or why but I originally got voted to go first. I don't know what I was thinking, but I did [10 minutes later...and I'm not exagerrating we have it on tape] Melissa kept telling up to jump out but in a pencil jump and keep our legs together and point our toes. Even after hearing this and picturing how to jump, I ended up just jumping out in a sky dive sort of jump arms and legs flailing. I don't remember jumping or anything. Just the pain of hitting the water. I'm pretty sure I got a concussion, I got the wind knocked out of me, chipped my tooth and my mouth was all cut up. It hurt. I climbed back up to do it again but then I remembered the pain and decided against it. Even though it hurt, it was fun! As soon as I get the video, I'll post it on here.

All of use getting ready to jump off the cliff

This is the cliff [but not me jumping..that will be added when I get my pictures uploaded.]

Fourth of July

2008-08-13T01:03:00.000-05:00

This is over a month overdue, but keeping with the unspoken theme of my blog, better late than never!

This Fourth of July was spent in my home away from home, St. Louis. I went on vacation that next week with my friend, Melissa and her family and instead of driving all the way to the Ozarks on Saturday morning, we were just going to go down Friday, stay with her grandma in Collinsville and see the fireworks in St. Louis. Well instead, Melissa, me, Nichole [Melissa's sister] and Shelbi [Nichole's friend] drove down Thursday night [well technically I think it was Friday because we left around midnight] and got there early that morning. We went to Six Flags all day on the 4th then went downtown St. Louis for the fireworks. It was so cool because we sat behind the Arch, so all of the fireworks were und

er it and let me just say, they were a *little* better than Peoria's :-)

Me [I look like a giant], Melissa and Shelbi

Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew

2008-06-19T22:49:00.000-05:00

Again, a little late on this post, well actually I kind of forgot about this and thanks to Aubrey reminding me, people who read this will have some new posts to read!

On June 10th, the Chicago Fire were in town playing the Columbus Crew at Shea Stadium. The Sinclair's had some extra tickets so they invited me to go, thanks Sinclair's! I was so excited! The last MLS game I went to [well the only one before this one] was the Chicago Fire vs. DC United back when they were still playing at Soldier Field, and they lost despite an awesome comeback in the second half.

This game ended up going into overtime and the Chicago Fire winning :-) I really wanted to see penalty kicks, but I guess it's for the better that they won during overtime, although they ended up scoring the winning goal on a penalty kick :-)

[this is right before the game winning penalty kick]

The boys of summer...

2008-06-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

So this summer I am babysitting two boys, Evan [6 years old] and Jacob [4 years old]. This week I watched them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but it was mainly just Jacob because Evan's in a summer day camp at Bradley. On Monday Lexie came back out to their house with me after I dropped Evan off and we decided a new hairstyle was needed on him :-)

Jacob & Lexie

One day I brought Jacob over to my house for a little bit after dropping Evan off at dat camp because he likes seeing Pele and stuff. Well my mom was crushing cans so Jacob and I went out to help for a little bit and he loved it! Then a couple days later, both of the boys were here before Vacation Bible School and Jacob wanted to crush some more cans so he and Evan went out and finished crushing what we had left and searched the house for more [they found two more in Luc's garbage can]. I wish I had pictures of them doing this because it was so funny to watch!

No one is older than a high school senior, and no one is younger than a college freshman....

2008-05-29T15:37:00.000-05:00

This is a little late, but better late than never!

I can't believe Zach graduated. Not that I didn't think he couldn't do it, but that it was so soon. It's been two years since I was sitting in those chairs and it doesn't feel like it's been that long! Time is flying by!

My mom went super early to stand in line to make sure we got seats that had some kind of back support. My dad, Grandma Triplett, Luc and Lexie went a little later and then I went up with Zach. Everyone in my family was already inside and the line was SUPER long, so luckily I saw the Zagardo's and they let me stand with them! Thanks!

Even with 50 more students graduating, they still managed to keep the ceremony to about an hour which was good because every other year that I've been to Richwoods graduation, it's been extremely hot, but it wasn't too bad this year. It got a little warm towards the end though.

Overall, the speeches were pretty good, and Mr. Meisinger and Mr. Schoch even joined in when they threw their hats off since it was "graduation" as well!

Here are some more pictures from afterwards...

Me, Zach, Lexie and Lucas

Emily, Greg, Brinnie, Jessie, Zach and Jeff

Peoria

2008-05-13T13:21:00.000-05:00

I've been home for about 4 days now and I already feel like I'm out of things to do. I'm not, but I feel like it, especially during the day. Usually I have classes or homework to do or I'm taking a nap, but I've been getting more than enough sleep and I don't have any classes to go to. I think I'm going to start on my reading list today [or tomorrow] and I guess I could clean the house for my mom. Any ideas?

We'll get 'em next time

2008-05-05T11:31:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a long post again, because I did quite a bit this weekend!

Friday, Elizabeth and Sarah got here and we got food at WalMart then just came back here and made it/hung out.

Saturday, we woke up somewhat early and went to the zoo. It was a little chilly and some rain, but nothing we couldn't handle! Afterwards, we got lunch then came back here to look for places to watch the US Women's National team's [soccer] game against Australia. Well, not many bars/restaurants in STL have Fox Soccer Channel but we managed to find one [The Dubliner] and they set us up in our own little room and everything because the Cubs/Cardinals game was going on and the Kentucky Derby but they wanted us to be able to watch the games still. What a game it was!! Two own goals and a coronary later, Angela Hucles ended up scoring the winning goal with seconds left, and an AMAZING goal it was! We went to the Galleria after just to walk around. We ended up just coming back here and hanging out in the lounge after that.

Sunday we slept in a little because we were exhausted. We went to Laclede's for lunch because Elizabeth made friends with the bartender the day before when we were trying to see if they had FSC. Then we went downtown early afternoon to hang out before the game. We went up in the arch and I was a little scared at first, but it was awesome!!

Emily got hungry so we went to Morgan Street Brewery so she could get a burger. We got a little more than we expected. It's kind of a long story but the main point of it, was that we think they kicked this group of people out because they left the brother inside by himself [we think he may have had Autism or another developmentally disease] and he had had a beer or two and must have said something to someone. Well the bouncer guy called the police and they ended up arresting at least two of the three people [the mom, and her two sons] because they wouldn't pay for their food because they hadn't eaten any of it yet because they got kicked out. Well this turned into a 6 police car + a paddywagon...for three people who wouldn't pay their bill. It was quite the attraction though! People that were in the horse drawn carriage rides and stuff were taking pictures and everything. I hope their day turned out okay though.

This post is already extremely long, but I still haven't talked about the game, so I apologize. The game was awesome though! Our seats were, well the very top row, but we had a great view of the field! The Cardinals unfortunately came out on top but as the title of this says, we'll get 'em next time! I did get a few comments about my shirt, but I'm sure it was all in good fun ;-)

So much for trusting weather.com

2008-05-02T15:23:00.000-05:00

I've come to realize that weather.com isn't always accurate. Usually it's a degree or two off, sometimes is just partly cloudy when there's supposed to be no clear sky at all. Today though, I think I've lost all trust. We were supposed to have SEVERE thunderstorms and wind and lots of rain [I was excited because it's good cleaning weather...otherwise I just want to go outside and enjoy it] well as you can see from the picture posted below, it's not storming, it's not even rainy [or really cloudy for that matter] it's sunny and there are a few clouds in the sky. Don't get me wrong, I love this weather, I was just prepared for something else. Oh well, I'm off to enjoy it now!

It looks funny because I took this out my window, and there was a screen there.

Frost Advisory

2008-04-28T23:58:00.000-05:00

It's going to be April 30th tomorrow and there's a frost advisory tonight. Seriously? And to make it worse, they turned the heat off in our building a week or so ago because it was so warm. Basically, I'm going to be an ice cube in the morning. Let's just hope it doesn't make me any sicker.

Another busy weekend...

2008-04-28T22:38:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was again, busy.

Chartwell's [the source of all food on this wonderful campus] is doing a fundraiser of sorts for student organizations on campus. Your group can be put into a rotation at Chaifetz Arena and work a concession stand if you have enough people, or just a little stand [Dippin Dots, Budweiser, etc.] and then your organization gets 10% of the profits made, but you're guaranteed $100 at least. So Friday night a bunch of us from Students for Life worked the Barry Manilow concert. Let me just say, it was an interesting crowd. We were able to watch parts of the concert when it wasn't busy and Barry is quite the performer! We don't know how much we made yet but from 3 of the 4 registers, we made close to $2000, so we at least made $200! Not too shabby!

Saturday was Spring Fever which was a carnival and concert this year. Usually it's just a concert, but since the Arena just opened, SAB decided to utilize that and make it huge. I headed to the carnival around 1:30 with Biji and Hannah L. Some of Biji's friends from St. Louis College of Pharmacy met us there too. For the carnival being organized [for the most part] by students, it was great. There were 5 or 6 rides and then quite a few booths by student organizations as a way for them to make some money. Students for Life had the funnel cake stand as always. I worked the last shift and guess what?! We ran out of batter. Now usually that's a bad thing, which I guess it is, but usually we don't sell that many so this time it was a good thing! After cleanup was done, we headed inside to the concert. There were 5 bands/artists: Tyler Hilton, Chingy, The Starting Line, Jo Dee Messina, and Augustana. Quite the lineup, huh? The theme was Rock, Rap and Rawhide if that helps. Overall it wasn't bad, just extremely long [it started at 6 and it ended at 12:15] and loud at times.

Sunday I went to the mall with Hannah L. and Biji because they needed to get a couple things and I wanted to get off campus for a little while. Of course, I didn't find anything I liked, but that's probably for the better. Well, I did find a few skirts at GAP but I decided to just wait until I go home to get them. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch which was delicious! Afterwards I took a nap because I was reallllllly tired. When I woke up, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus [and still do] I don't know what happened during that nap! My heads been killing me, and I pretty sure I have a double ear infection, sore throat, and it's hurting to breathe again. So I've been taking ibuprofen and drinking lots of water and sleeping but it doesn't seem to be helping. I felt a little better earlier today and thought it was going away, but no such luck. But that's probably a good sign so hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling better!

That's all for now...and it was a long post. I'll have a lot to post about next weekend [nothing exciting or blog worthy seems to happen during the week] because Sarah and Elizabeth are coming down for a couple days! Annnd the much anticipated Cubs/Cardinals game on Sunday! Can't wait!

And please continue to pray for the Smith family. Angie posted a slideshow of pictures of the family during her pregnancy and of Audrey. The background music is a song she wrote with her husband, Todd, of Selah. She also just posted a link for a video, they were interviewed for. She explains it on her blog. Yes, it's long [over 22 minutes] but well worth it!

I'm Like Dusty Pineapples

2008-04-22T23:42:00.000-05:00

My life since I posted last has been, well, busy.

Saturday morning I was up at 6 A.M. for Special Olympics. I was really excited for it, but already exhausted so I was hoping it would go well. We got to the high school where it was taking place at 7:30 and just sat around until about 9 when Opening Ceremonies started. Then we were supposed to be paired up with a buddy. Well because of the weather, not many athletes from the first group we were paired with showed up, so they didn't have enough athletes for us so we were given two other groups. Those didn't have enough either. I was a little upset because I was looking forward to being a buddy and now, I wasn't going to get to do it. Eventually, we were paired up with a group that was late. I was paired with Robert. He was 45 years old and high functioning. We hung out with Caitlin and her buddy, Harry all day. Robert and Harry's group had to leave early, so we started walking around and hanging out with other people and their buddies. I ended up with Kathleen, Megan and Brendan. Brendan had a little bit of time before his next event, so Megan and I went with him to one of the hallways and raced cars down it and had a lot of fun! After Brendan's last event, we said our goodbyes and headed back to SLU.

As soon as I got back, I changed clothes and headed to my bed. I was able to get an hour and a half in before Relay for Life. As always, I had a ton of fun. Relay is one of my favorite events at SLU. It's so awesome to see the campus come together for such a great cause. Everyone from my team was gone by 3 A.M. or so but some girls from Students for Life were there with their floor so I was able to stay until 6 with them.

Sunday night, I watched a movie, "Sweet Nothing in My Ear" for Sign Language. It's about a family with a hearing father and a deaf mother and a boy who was born hearing but is now completely deaf and their struggles in deciding whether or not they want him to receive a cochlear implant or not. In class on Monday, we spent the whole time discussing the movie and different perspectives on CI's. This discussion amongst other things lead me to the dilemma of possibly changing my major, again. I would really like to go into Speech Pathology or become a teacher for the deaf. But this would prolong my schooling even longer, and I would probably end up transferring etc. So I may be adding Communication Science Disorders as a minor instead of completely changing my major although, who knows what I'll have decided by Fall semester!

Hello

2008-04-19T00:04:00.000-05:00

Seeing as I spend a great deal of time at my computer, whether it be doing homework or talking to friends online, I thought I would go ahead and start a blog! There's not too much going on that I really need to write about to everyone, but oh well! I hope I don't bore you too much!

I also want to encourage you to read the story of Audrey Caroline. Please keep the Smith family in your prayers this week and especially on Sunday when they are having the memorial service for Audrey.