Summer Reading!

I recently got a job as a nanny, where we go to the library one day and I read a TON of children books. That is all I do basically, oh and change diapers.... But when the kidos are asleep I can do almost what ever I want (well after tidying the front room and play room). Since I am done with school I thought maybe I could start reading some books out of my own free will and choice, not because I am going to be tested on it. Having just finished my first book of the summer yesterday, I decided to read more of, if not all, of the books on our bookshelf that I have not read or have started but never finished. So here is my list:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
The Wrong Stuff by Phil Scott
Supersonic Saints Compiled by John Bythway
Famous First Flights That Changed History by Lowell Thomas and Lowell Thomas Jr.
The Flyers by Noah Adam

It isn't too long but I already started a new one today, but then decided not to finish it because it was about this women who is trying to decided whether or not to leave her husband... I guess I should have read the back before I got it...

Blogs!

This is just an FYI post... I have a craft blog and a rant blog. Feel free to follow if you wish. I have also updated my craft blog recently!

Cheers!

Inadequacies

For the last couple of weeks I have been feeling inadequate in everything. I started listing to B about all of them. I will list a few here; I could list forever, but let’s not make me look horrible!

This I do not do on a regular basis which, make me feel inadequate:

Dishes

Laundry

Dusting

General tidying

Cleaning the bathroom

Cleaning up after dinner

Folding laundry

Cooking

Exercising

Active participation in activities

B tried to help me feel better by telling me about all that I really do. It didn’t help much. So then he tried to compare me, like I have been doing, to others, but of course that didn’t work.

Then we went to church, and I was able to see a lot the people I have been comparing myself to and it made me feel like I needed to make all these changes to fit in with the ‘crowd’. But WHY do I have to change? Why do I feel like I need to make all kinds of changes? What is so wrong with me not being perfect?

NOTHING!

Absolutely nothing!

I do a lot, and my good friend pointed it out to me. We became friends my sophomore year of college when we lived on the same floor. She was the only one who was honest and truly a friend as my boyfriend was breaking up with me and started to hang out with, and eventually was dating her.  We fell out of contact for a while, I was finding myself and started going back to church, and she was finding herself. It wasn’t until after I was married did we really get in to contact with one another again.

She came over the other day, we were supposed to sew a dress, but just ended up talking. We started talking about friends and how we have friends and then those who we are ‘friends’ with but we can’t stand them, but they are friends with our good friends so we put up with it.

Then she says this, “You know why we are still friends? It is because you didn’t change.” She went on to explain, how on the floor I was the one people went to for help, whether homework or other and how I still do things like that. How I am always willing to help others, and how my craft stash, has a ton of projects for me, but how I am always working on something for someone else.

Little did she know that is what I needed. I needed someone to tell me everything that I know. I don’t need to become one of those women who have immaculate house, has two kids with a bun in the oven, or the perfect body. I do the best that I can. I have been working so that B can go to school full time, and so that we will be able afford it. I might to have the perfect house or everything that some of the others might have, but I am happy, and that is what matters.

25 by 25 revisit!

Well, it has been 4 months since I posted my 25 by 25 list. I thought I would take a moment to reflect on it and maybe change a few things to be more realistic!

25 by 25

1. Lose 50 lbs--well this semester was harsh and I am back to where I was when I started, but I am still going to do it!
2. Graduate--DONE!!
3. Finish 4 of the 12 knitting/crocheting projects I have started... um... ya...
4. Publish a research paper--I don't know if this is possible, but I will try. Not being in school is going to make it harder...
5. Go 10 days with out spending any money-- I need to track this one, I am sure I have done it though...
6. Go on a date with Brody once a month (4/12)--This one is easy!
7. Read my scriptures more regularly
8. Run a 5K in 30 minutes (in Nov I did one in 46 mins, March 47...)
9. Work out 3 times a week for 10 weeks straight--I am really good at working out once a week...
10. Attend the temple 10 times (1/10)--I need to be more committed to this and my scriptures
11. Have 100% visiting teach for the year (5/12)
12. Organize and keep organized my office--work in progress...
13. Take a box to Goodwill monthly (0/12)--um... We decided to have a garage sale instead...
14. Save $1500 (have $1500 in savings)
15. Deep clean the kitchen bi-monthly (0/6)--I hate cleaning the kitchen, but I love to bake...
16. Dust monthly (it is so dusty in Pullman!!) 
17. Finish Tree of Life afghan
18. Make a habit of getting up and out of bed for the day with the first alarm
19. Have a baby/get pregnant
20. Ski a Black slope (currently a moderate blue skier)
21. Put pictures in our picture frames--This one is going well! I only have 5 left!
22. Finish our wedding/honeymoon/anniversaries scrapbook
23. Keep the living/family room clean for a month--On the 7 of June this is done!
24. Keep a weekly journal--I should probably get a journal...
25. Kiss and tell Brody I love him, and a reason why DAILY--A lot harder than it sounds

Well, honestly I thought I would have completed more... But I have realigned my priorities and maybe in the next 4 months will cross off more!!

I thought it would be nice to post a post on what it is I have been doing with my life for my last 6 years in school... Then I realized I hadn't really done much, but some of the stuff I have done in my last semester is interesting, to me at least.

All students who want to graduate from WSU with a BS in Material Science and Engineering MUST complete a Senior Thesis project. We get to chose and advisor, a project, and then are let loose to figure it out on our own. I choose to work for my current advisor, and he asked if I was interesting in participating in the new big thing with Magnesium. Now, you all think Magnesium (Mg) is a highly volatile metal, and well it is. I caught some on fire, which is actually hard to do when it is solid....

My research goal was to increase the ductility, or to make it more malleable. I did not achieve that goal. It is the big new thing people want to replace Aluminum with Mg because it will decrease weight, and save fuel, and use consumers money! It is really hard to improve the ductility of Mg, which why it is the bug deal it is.

I though I would include some of the images and tell you about them. I like to talk about what I do, but it is a specific thing and I have a hard time explain it.

This image above is the internal structure of the as-received magnesium specimen I was working with. The different colors correspond to different grains, kind of like the grains in a piece of wood. The colors also signify which way the grain is oriented.

 This image is of one of the specimens after I completed my experiment. You can see that it looks very different from the previous one. There are different grains but they are all oriented the same way, and the grains are a lot smaller here. The orientation of this piece is good and bad. My experiment failed to do what I had planned but interesting phenomena was recorded, and new things about magnesium was learned.

Punishment...

Our cat has a problem... A peeing problem... She likes to pee on towels. Now, she will only pee on them in a box/basket/crate, but nonetheless she pees on them! Lucky for her they have been our old towels not not our nice bath towels. This will be the last time she pees on anything! I was cleaning, and moving some of my business stuff around, and unknowingly left a bag next to the crate of towels... Yesterday, I discovered she had on it! So as punishment, she is not allowed to sleep on our bed for a week, her favorite spot to hide away. And we put her outside for a bit. As an indoor cat, this must have been torture. Brody was kind enough to record her moment of agony in the tree... We do love our cat, but I can not stand cat pee!

*I am not sure why there is two, but it would not work unless there are two... Pick one!

The Games Doctors Play...

Oh it is great to know what has been plaguing my since mid February! But before I give the final diagnosis, here is what has been happening!

About a week before my period in February, I was nauseated all the time, crazy super fatigued, and peeing all the time! So after a few negative home pregnancy test, and now being a few days late we went in thinking either I was pregnant or had mono. The doctor drew blood for the mono test, and tested urine. NOTHING. Not pregnant, no mono. So she told me to drink more fluids and reduce my stress levels? Not quite sure how to reduce my stress levels as a graduating engineering student... But, intaking more fluids seemed to help.

That is until, mid-March, when the same thing started again, but with a few different symptoms, I now had a pain in my lower back on the right side, and was having problems holding my pee. I would go at a moments notice. It was horrible! So back in I went. No blood draw, just urine this time. No UTI, not pregnant. So she does a physical exam and concludes that I am 4 week pregnant, and orders an Ultra sound to confirm. Have the ultra sound, and the tech asks why my doctor order an Ultra Sound, if I wasn't pregnant... And she told us, we were not pregnant, no ectopic pregnancy, nothing wrong, including no large cysts! So my doctor calls the next day to tell me this and that, I had somehow consumed enough fluids to enlarge my bladder at some point, and then had some how stop intaking the amount of fluids to keep the bladder enlarged, therefore shrinking my bladder and dropping my uterus into my badder... I never believed this...

Then last Saturday my lowerback pain started again... I just took some drugs and called it good, until Monday after grocery shopping and I couldn't walk! So first thing Monday I walked into the student health centers urgent care, asking to be seen A.S.A.P! They got me right in and the doctor I saw, said I didn't drop my uterus, and that I see a specialist. She thought I had urge incontinence--in other words: not being able to control urges to pee... Not to keen on that over night I forgot how to control my urges to pee, I scheduled an appointment to see the specialist the next day.

The appointment went like a breeze, peed in the cup. He said there was a little bit of an indication of a UTI. So he did a physical exam to check, well, I am not sure what. Then he concludes, possible UTI and possible kidney stone. So he gives me some antibiotics, and tells me to come back in a week.

Well it has been a week, and I have also been seeing a Chiropractor, I believe in more than one cause. The pain is mostly gone. It flares up every so often, but drinking lots of fluids helps.

Wednesday, I went in for my follow up... He said the antibiotics cleared up the infection, but was concerned about the pain. So he scheduled a CT. I went in today for it, and also had a follow-up with the specialist. His conclusion: Nothing... That is right, NOTHING! He did say that I might have another ovarian cyst, but couldn't really tell from all the other "garply-gook" (Yes! he did say 'garply-gook' as he showed me the CT and pointed to things...)

We are not to excited to see all the bills from this, and really hope that what ever was wrong is gone! I also hope it is not a cyst because that was a completely horrendous experience, that I hope to never encounter again!