Love Is....

Love Is....

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Rock, Paper, Scissors

A few photos I snuck in with my phone....
Day 4:  Today was not a structured lecture day like the past few days but rather a more practical approach.  This was a great way to conclude a great week at AIB.  We were given photos of various real life situations around the country and we were asked to work in our groups to see how we would handle these situations.  This was an excellent way to hear lots of different perspectives as we presented to the whole class.

Later we were asked to challenge our neighbor (Heath for me), to best of three in Rock, Paper, Scissors.  We had several ties until he finally advanced.  He actually advanced through several rounds with other members of our class.  At the end, all the winners went to the front to play a game.  They were sent into the room next door to do an inspection and  find "violations" which were written on the back of several different business card.  They were each given a "tool" to use for this inspection.  For each "violation" they found, they got a dollar.  Heath won $3 and took the game overall!  Watch out world, we are going to have one heck of a bean plant!  Team Stateline!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Support Team

Day 3:  Great day at conference and then dinner with Davey.  Dave, a fellow teammate from Stateline, is also in Kansas this week for a conference so he met Heath and I for supper.  We went to Texas Roadhouse which is a stellar choice!


As we were leaving for supper, my roomies were cooking.  It was then that I realized  how much I am going to miss them and our house on the hill here in Manhattan.  They are awesome!  Here's to my AWESOME roomies!  :)


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

AIB Food Safety Conference

Day 2:  Today was another great day at the AIB Food Safety Conference!  It is an excellent run and organized conference with 35-40 people representing all parts of the food industry from all over the United States.  I was much more well rested today and not falling asleep in the front row like I was yesterday.  (I was lucky to even be sitting in that classroom yesterday!)  Heath was also right there beside me in the class as well.  It was so fun taking notes and discussing with each other ways to implement these new strategies to meet and exceed sanitation requirements for our plant.  

Well, it was definitely early to bed tonight, but before I did that, I made it by Best Buy to purchase my camera.  All said and done, I ended up with that Canon EOS T3i that I had been thinking about with a case, an extra lens, a new memory card, and a free Shutterfly scrapbook!  I am so excited to begin this new journey of photojournalism.  I am currently researching website options and I have it down between a couple, still trying to decide which one will best suit my needs.  If you all have any ideas, please feel free to let me know.  I have been talking about this Wild at Heart website for a while and I'm working on making it become a reality!  YAY!  :)  I'll have to post a picture of the new camera soon!


Monday, January 28, 2013

E.R.

So....Monday started really early.  Now, Heath and I have been through quite a bit together in the short amount of time that I have known him.  This story that I am about to tell you will prove to you even more the depth of our relationship.

We went to Jimmy John's for supper last night and then we were just relaxing when Heath said that his stomach was really starting to hurt.  Turns out that he then started throwing up.  Well, a little history on this little situation.  He hasn't done that for 10 years and he said that last time this happened he ended up in the E.R.  So, of course, I sort of start freaking out seeing as I do not handle throwing up well at all!  I called his mom immediately (11:15 pm at this point which is only 10:15 pm in Nebraska) and she kind of walked me through it and said that if I could convince him to go to the hospital right now that it would save me from having to either drag his passed out body down the stairs or having the ambulance come to the scene.

He tested his blood sugar level and at this point it had dropped to 55.  Now, normal is between 80-120 and pass out range is around 40 so he was definitely low.  We were lucky that it was that high since we had just eaten, but since he threw it up, it was rapidly dropping.  At this point in the night he usually has had another snack since dinner to regulate things.  Somehow, I convinced him that we needed to make a visit to the hospital...then, I also suddenly realized that even after living here in Manhattan for the past 6 months, I had no idea where the hospital was located.  (I mean seriously!  I have been so blessed to be healthy!  Praises!)  So at this point, he has his shoes on and is ready to go with his trash can down the stairs and into my car.  I have never seen him like this before, it was awful.  I get him in the car and I also get in and get my hands free phone deal all hooked up since Manhattan is a "hands-free" city.  The only thing that I can think of at this point is to call my roommate Shannon!  Now, she is totally sleeping at this point because she has class tomorrow, but that doesn't even cross my mind at this point in this whole ordeal.  She is completely incoherent when I first called, but after she heard the urgency in my voice, she pulled it together.  She is walking me through it and I finally see the hospital but tell her not to leave me on the phone by myself.  Kindly placating me, she sits on the phone with me until I reach the emergency door much to my relief.  At least I had gotten him there, the rest was up to them.

We get him all checked in and the IV started with his sugar.  Long story short, we were there over 4 hours and I kept checking in with his mom, every so sweetly waking her up every few hours with the updates...LOL!  She had a women's Bible study the next morning.  While Heath was sleeping, I would slip out of the hospital and check on Briggs, go for a drive, or mindlessly drive around the city.  At one point, I ended up in the Vet school parking lot talking to my mom on the phone.

Turns out, I did not like any of the doctors or nurses.  For one, the nurses made him walk all over the hospital filling out paperwork and then they poked him several times before they could get him to bleed.  The doctor was very arrogant and conceded.  I was not impressed at all, but in all fairness, they fixed him.  Another reason I didn't like this whole situation other than the obvious was they put him in a midget bed.  He is 6'5" and his feet hung over the edge of the bed at least 12 inches.  He was sorer from that bed than he was from all the poking, etc.

You be the judge:


By about 3:30 am or so, they send us home.  I get him back to his hotel room and get him all settled in bed and reiterated his discharge instructions knowing full well, he was not listening.  I went back home for a few short hours to shower, sleep, and eat before the first day of our food safety conference at AIB.

I called him at 5 am and then again at 7 am because they wanted to make sure that his blood sugar levels were not dropping and that he was out of the danger zone.  He was fine.  I stopped by on my way to the conference and he was just really sore.  I kept texting him and calling him on my breaks all day at the conference to make sure that he was going to make it.  I stopped by at lunch and made sure he had everything that he needed.  Slowly but surely, he was starting to be alive again!  PRAISES!  THANK YOU LORD for helping me!

I had KLOVE on in the car that night and just remember singing something about a rough evening, but joy comes in the morning!  I clung tight to these words!  :)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Rainy Sunday

Heath made it late last night!  We met Melissa and Mikaela at Crest View for church this morning.  This is the place that Melissa and I have been enjoying all semester.  We just feel really at home there and once we went there, the search was over.  Their worship is awesome with their band and several singers, the preacher has great, down to earth messages, and the people make it a small town kind of feel.

When church was over, we headed to Best Buy to look at DSLR cameras.  I'm ready to make the big step and invest in a "big fancy" camera because my point-and-shoot has been in the shop for the third time now.  I want to be able to do some manual focusing and really learn how to use different lenses and apertures instead of just letting the automatic camera do everything for me.  I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of information we received at Best Buy.  This guy helped us for like 30 minutes and he had me hold both Nikons and Canons to compare how they felt.  After doing lots of online research and getting people's advice, I was pretty settled on a Nikon until I held them and that is what sold me on the Canon.  I have a conversation scheduled with Heath's brother's friend tonight to discuss various details, but right now I am leaning towards the Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  It is awesome!  I am going to do some price shopping tonight to see if I can find it cheaper anywhere, but Best Buy offers a "bundle" deal that includes and extra lens, memory card, bag, and also a warranty.  The local warranty will be nice.  By local I mean Cheyenne, Wyoming, but that is only like 80 miles.


The rest of today has been pretty lazy considering the weather, drizzly and overcast.  It is kind of nice because tomorrow Heath and I start the food safety conference for work.  We will be at AIB (America's Institute for Baking) nationwide headquarters right here in Manhattan Monday through Thursday of this week before we head back and I get all settled into my new home!  :)

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Beautiful Saturday

Today is the day the Lord hast made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Psalm 118:24

That is exactly how I feel today!  This morning I had an eye exam and they said that everything looks good, no changes in my prescription!  Praises!  I was able to also get new lenses for my glasses as they were actually too strong.  I have an eye coverage insurance plan which helped me out alot.  The even better part is that they put my new lenses in my old frames and fitted me all today!

I went for a 18.5 mile bike ride with Brian around the entire town of Manhattan.  It was really beautiful!  We continued with the new part of Linear Trail I found the other day.  It was about 55* and sunny and quite breezy, making for an added challenge!


After the bike, I went for a walk with Mikaela, Melissa, Briggs, and Dalton (Mikaela's red healer).  I took them up the big hill and through the beautiful neighborhoods which have treated me well for the past 6 months.  It was a nice walk and the dogs got to run off leash for a while at the park!

As I am writing, I am anticipating Heath's arrival to Manhattan.  We have a food safety conference for work starting Monday and continuing through Thursday of this week.  I just received the call!  He is in town!  I am going to go meet him now!  :)

Friday, January 25, 2013

Friday Night with the Girls

This is my second to last Friday night in town here.  I am very pleased to say that we carried on our tradition.  We were comfortable!  It got kind of crazy as we invited Melissa over and then decided to go to the grocery store to buy lots of yummy calories.  Shannon was in the mood for cookie dough placed into very chocolaty brownies with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on top.  It was a phenomenal idea.  I had a $20 gift card to Dillon's from my wonderful Mama who sent it during finals week!  What a great gift, food!

So, we loaded up all three dogs and all of us, in our sweats, and headed to Dillon's.  We did accomplish just about everything at Dillon's until we got back into the pickup and I realized that I had forgotten what I initially needed at the store to finish up my beef and bean stew.  LOL!  So we finished up at Aldi's.

We ate supper, baked, I painted my toes, we put in a movie that we didn't watch because we were all chatting and catching up on life as we currently know it.  It was so much fun and I will definitely miss these times with my roomies.

In case you were wondering, Shannon's desired dessert turned out awesome!  She is a great chef if I don't say so myself.  My stew was really good too.  I am trying to eat up what I have here in my freezer so I do not have to tote it back to Nebraska.  I just started putting stuff in the crock pot.  What an amazing invention!

  • Nebraska beef, hamburger to be exact
  • Nebraska Great Northern beans
  • Spices recommended by Shannon
  • Yellow garden squash that I froze last season-sauteed in olive oil with parmesan
  • Shredded zucchini that I also froze last season
  • Frozen corn (store bought)-I did finish it off so it is out of the freezer!  One less thing to take home!
  • Fresh spinach
  • Fresh garlic
  • Parmesan
  • Diced tomatoes (from a can, yuck)
  • Tomato juice (from a can)
  • Chicken broth (also from a can)
I served it with awesome cast iron skillet jalapeno corn bread that Shannon made and shared with us!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

306

Last night the house on the hill was quite a site to see.  The girls of 306 and myself were all home as well as my good buddy Nick.  Nick, Shannon, and I were all on the couch waiting for Miss Hanna to help us with the TV since neither of us are capable of making the DVD player work and it was time for a little Duck Commander.  So, when Hanna walked downstairs and saw us all sitting there, she simple took a look at that DVD player and said, "Well guys, typically it helps to plug it in, power is good!"  Wow, 4 veterinary students needed to watch a movie.  So, we began our hunting movie with the dogs resting beside us.  Beau, our boxer mix, is 99.9% love and needs attention 100% of the time.  Oh, and he loves men.  He was awkwardly belly crawling into Nick's lap, hoping that this would be acceptable.  Nick being the nice guy he is, helped him the rest of the way up onto the couch.  Now little Miss Maggie, our little 8 pound 13 year old terrier, has had an extremely hard week and is recovering from 2 major surgeries.  She is all curled up in her bed next to Shannon.  And, well, that leaves Briggs.  He of course is a little large for the couch with 3 people and 2 dogs already on it.  Turns out he had helped himself to 2 bowls of Beau's food today and 1 yesterday accounting for about 3 days worth of meals for this little "brunch" he decided to have.  I know exactly when it happened too.  I went out for a long bike ride and forgot to put the food up so it was like a free buffet for him.  I'm pretty sure he regretted it last night as he was lying miserably on the floor....LOL!


Shortly after we were all settled in watching Duck Commander, Hanna came down frantically looking for her keys to her car that she had just gotten out of a couple hours before.  She was trying to get to the gym after some searching resorted to her spare key until she got outside and almost in her car when she realized that she remembered where her normal key was hiding!



This is just one small example of all the things I will miss about Manhattan!  :)

P.S.  Don't judge!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Linear Trail

Today, I discovered 10 more miles of my favorite trail in Manhattan.  It was so incredibly gorgeous today, I couldn't help but take out road bike on a tour!  Instead of taking my traditional/typical running route down Colorado over to Linear and turn left....I turned right.  This is the part of the trail that Heath and I just briefly discovered over Christmas break by accident during a walk.  Until that point, I have been running and biking in Manhattan for the last 6 months and did not even know the trail continued in that direction.  Linear Trail is the same trail that I ran my honorary Monument Half Marathon (when I couldn't get back to Nebraska to run the real thing due to school).

As I started exploring, I realized just how awesome this trail really is.  It literally wraps around the edge of town.  You can access it in so many different places.  This part gravel part concrete trail takes you through tree groves, various parts of town, winds you by the Kansas River, and over railroad tracks.  You also have the serene peace of viewing farmland along the same trail.  It is an excellent combination, especially since I can hop on in only three quarters of a mile from the house.  Here is a link:  http://www.traillink.com/trail/manhattan-linear-park-trail.aspx.

Theses are just a few pictures I snapped with my phone along the trail so that I could share with you the simplistic beauty we are surrounded by each day.  Don't forget to take the time to enjoy it....alone, with God, with a spouse, with a best friend, with a sibling, JUST ENJOY IT!


I am so thankful to have the time to enjoy these simple beauties in life again.  My main goal in life is to live a simple life and be happy.  That's it, nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, just SiMPliCiTY!

Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give THANKS to Him and PRAISE His name.  For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. ~Psalm 100:3-5

Monday, January 21, 2013

Roomies!

Monday=back to school with my roomies!  They didn't have school today so we went shopping!  So fun to do with girls....it's been a long time since I have done this.  Oh, we also had ice cream at Orange Leaf too!


Nick took me out for my birthday at the new Texas Roadhouse followed by an exchange of photography inspiration.  He had taken tons of wildlife shots which were beautiful and I shared my water fowl shots!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Return to Kansas

So, I actually headed back to Kansas today.  It was extremely hard for me to pry myself away from the pure joy of Western Nebraska and all the wonderful things that Briggs and I were doing there, but it was time.  Time to face the reality of returning my computer and tidying up the details surrounding my departure from vet school.



Briggsy and I made the 8.5 hour drive back which somehow seemed alot longer this time than most.  I am so very thankful to be headed back to Nebraska soon.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I'm Back!

Hi All,

For those of you wondering where I have been the last 5 weeks, let me catch you up!  I will be back dating some of my blog posts so that I can get you caught up on my life.  I really look forward to sharing where life has taken me these past 5 months since my vet school venture.  I will wrap up my Race Season 2012 with some pictures and stories as well.

Please feel free to comment, email, Facebook, text, call, or whatever you would like!  I would love hearing from you and where you are in your life.  I also need some encouragement to start writing and taking photos again, something I have lost interest in over the past few months.  It's time!

I'm Back!!