The Middle of Nowhere

We are in The Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina visiting Spencer's PGGPs.  (The parental great-grandparents)  Life is slower here, but for some reason, I've been non-stop on the go since we arrived.  Maybe it's all the fresh fruit I'm picking or the dishes I've been baking?  Pictures and recipes will be forthcoming.  Tomorrow we are going into "town," which means a drive through the curvy and nausea-inducing mountainous roads.  I love being up here, but I'm not a fan of the carsickness I feel each and every time we drive anywhere.  

Spencer is having the best time- this morning she was playing with her Great-Gran and she turned to me and said "This is SO much fun! SO fun!"  We are staying here for the next week and half and I need some great fruit recipes.  Anyone have a particular favorite?  They have apples, peaches, blueberries and and raspberries.  I made a raspberry crisp last night and a peach cobbler tonight, so I need some ideas about what to make for tomorrow.  I was thinking about making an apple pie, but that seems a tad ambitious for someone of my limited baking caliber, ha! 

Win $100 and Lilith Fair

I am giving away a $100 Visa gift card!  Want to win it?  Of course you do!  Just read all about my adventures at Lilith Fair and you will get the chance to win the $100 Visa gift card from BlogHer. Click HERE.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

My baby brother Matthew

 (December 1991)

 Today was the day we took him to college.

He's going to be a freshman at Christopher Newport University, which is in the Newport News/Virginia Beach/Williamsburg area of Virginia. Since I knew that having Spencer and me there when they were trying to move everything in would be a DEE-saster, we left a few hours earlier than then and visited some of my friends in the area.

Our first stop was to see my friend Jenny, who just had her own baby Matthew two weeks ago.  I was so mad at myself because I forgot my camera, but trust me, he's a cute little guy.  He was born a few weeks early, so he's he very tiny, but I got to hold him and smell that sweet baby smell!  Spencer was actually really good around him- I thought she'd want to hold him and "play" with him, but she was more interested in playing with Jenny than Matthew, haha! She did give him a little kiss on the cheek and wanted to tickle his feet, but otherwise, she only had eyes for Jenny.  It was so nice to see Jenny and her precious little one. We stayed there for about an hour before heading off to our next destination- Casa Toni!

We went to see my friend Stephie at her parent's house and enjoyed an afternoon of swimming in their pool and eating lunch.  It was great to see her family again and Spence had a blast swimming.  They made us a lovely spread for lunch and it felt just like old times back in college.  Spencer had so much fun playing with Dylan, Steph's 6 year old nephew, and I think she has a little crush on him because she keeps on talking about him, haha! Hopefully we'll get down there one more time before the summer is over and when we can spend a little longer than a few hours.

Steph's parents only live a few minutes from CNU, so it didn't take us very long to get there- which was good, because Spence had had her fill of being in the car.  I found my brother's new dorm and as we walked to his room memories were flooding my mind of being in college.  Everyone looked so excited and for a few seconds I was jealous of them.  But then I snapped out of it and put on my happy face- because I really am happy for my brother.  I hope and pray that these next four years are as wonderful for him as my college years were for me.

 (Can you believe that's how my mom dressed us for Easter?  I thought I'd post this uber-embarrassing picture of me, circa 1993, so Matthew doesn't get mad at me for just showing his funny, but cute, pictures.)

It was mad chaos in his room- boxes, crates, trash, you name it, and it was in that tiny 12x10 room.  I helped do a few things, unpacked his clothes, hung up some things on the walls, and tried to organize his DVD collection- but it became pretty apparent that the less people in the room the better, so I figured we should say our goodbyes. I didn't cry, even though I wanted to.  I knew Matt wouldn't want me to cry because it would set off my mom's overactive waterworks (she was a tad emotional), so I bit my cheek, gave him a hug, and told him I loved him. Then, when no one could see, I let a few tears escape in the elevator.

Spencer slept for the entire hour and half ride back to Richmond and we finally got home around seven.  It was a long emotional day, but certainly one that I'll remember forever.  We said hello to new baby Matthew and waved goodbye to my own always-will-be-a-baby-to-me Matthew.

The Next Picasso, Matisse, or Klimt?

Spencer has been really interested in drawing lately, so she's been making many a masterpiece. And then yesterday she churned out this work of art and said that it was a picture of me!

I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty good for a just-turned three year old. And she did it all by herself, I didn't even see what she was drawing until she'd finished it. I asked her what that big black thing on top of my head was, and she looked me like I was pretty dumb before informing me "it's Mommy's hair bow!"

Surprise

This week's challenge on I Heart Faces is surprise pictures. Sara might kill me for posting this picture, but I think it's pretty cute.  I love how they are both looking at the same thing, but with different looks of surprise on their faces. 

Car Talk

A few weeks ago I was in the Virginia Beach area for a baby shower for one of my college friends, Jenny.  On the way home I watched as the car beside me sped up and moved into my lane in front of me.  That's when I saw this:

And the car stayed in front of me for almost the entire drive back to Richmond.  I've never driven more carefully in my life. 

A Triumphant Tale of Two Cities

Friday could have possibly been the longest day of my life.  It was the day I had to take the TEAS Test, which is the exam you have to take to get in to almost any nursing school. Because of some scheduling problems due to the class I'm currently taking, it turned out that the only school in the entire state of Virginia that could proctor the exam on the days I could take it, was in Wytheville.  Wytheville.  Otherwise known as, four hours and twenty minutes from where I live; 260 miles.

Do you see it?  There's little Wytheville all the way out in the boonies of western Virginia. Don't be fooled by the big dot, it's a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. My testing appointment was at 1pm, and I didn't want to take any chances on being tardy, so I woke up bright and early at 6am and left home at 7am.  There's just something wrong about having to drive four hours and twenty minutes to take a three hour and 45 minute test and then turning right around and driving home again.  But that's what I did.

It was a good thing that I left so early, because there was a ton of traffic and I didn't get to Wytheville until 12:15pm.  By the time I parked, found the testing center, and signed in, it was almost time for the test to begin. There was no down time or time to think about anything- which was probably a good thing, because I most likely would have started to stress out. 

And then the test began and the next three hours and some odd minutes are a blur.  I guess it was a good blur, because I ended up doing much better than I thought I would do.  The scores are based off of the National percentile and my overall results placed me in the 91% National percentile.  And then they break it down into subject areas- Science, Math, English, and Reading and give you your percentile ranking in those subject areas.  They have to do it this way because many nursing programs won't accept applicants that receive below a 50% in any subject, even if they got perfect scores on everything else and their overall NP is 85%.  I wasn't really worried about that happening to me, but I still get apprehensive about any test that involves math (especially tests that won't let you use a calculator!).  So I can't even begin to explain how shocked I was when I read that I was in the 99% for math.  I did a double take when I saw the results because there was no way that could be possible.  I don't do math- numbers and I don't get along, especially when those numbers are attached to shapes and adjoining letters and other weird symbols.

I walked backed to my car with my results in hand and I actually wondered if my brain chemistry/neuronal synapse direction firing (I totally made up the aforementioned term) had changed.  When I told my mom, she thought there must have been some glitch in the computer scoring system.  When I told me dad, he said "you're joking? right? No, seriously, you're joking?" 

But it really did feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders- this test has just been looming over and taunting me for months now.  I almost fell back into my old buy myself something nice when I do well on a test pattern, when I saw the huge billboard for the Wytheville Outlet Mall Featuring 36 Stores, but resisted the temptation and kept right on going.  Finally, after a total 9 hours and 20 minutes of driving, plus 3 hours and 45 minutes of test taking, I got home at 9pm. 

My body hurt all over when I woke up this morning and my brain was begging me for a vacaction day.
But as my luck would have it, my physiology final is on Monday and I have a lot of studying that needs to get done.  I do see the light at the end of the tunnel though; I also see a really long, long, long nap.

More Than Good Enough

Me, Sarah McLachlan, and the bestie, Sara (no "h") And yep, that is the real Sarah McLachlan with her arms around us!

I will be doing a whole lengthy post over here in the next few days, so stay tuned for all the juicy details!

Surfacing

Come and check out what I will be doing tomorrow! Well, it's 1am, so I guess that would be today, but I'm talking about "guess what I'm doing on Tuesday."  You can read all about it here!  But before you click on over, maybe you can guess what I will be doing by the title of this post.  One more clue... I hope it's Good Enough!