Why I Need to Shave My Head

I would just like to start this by saying that I am a very vain person. 

I'm sure everyone is, in their own way.

But I'm a little worse than most.

So what I am about to write about: I am desperately scared of doing. 

But I'm doing it anyway.

I have joined a team for St. Baldrick's and in eight short days, I am shaving my head.

This, will all be gone

Guys, I'm scared.

Things I am scared of:

That my head is lumpy.

That my face is too round to make bald look cute.

That I have literally spent my entire life saying, "I am trying to grow out my hair" and now my hair is the longest it has been in a really long time and soon it will be gone.

That my husband won't think I'm as pretty.

That I will freak out my patient's parents.

That the kids I babysit will rub my head and think I look weird.

That I will miss my hair so much that I will lose sight of the bigger picture, making myself even more vain than I originally acknowledged myself to be.

But, there it is, the bigger picture I mentioned? 

Here's a secret.

I'm also excited.

Things I am excited about:

Getting rid of the split ends that probably take over half my hair.

Starting fresh.

Duck fuzz.

Trying out all the cute short hair styles I like, but haven't wanted to do because "I am trying to grow out my hair"

Helping kids who have cancer.

That right  there is why I need to shave my head. 

Because kids still get cancer.

And that really sucks.

And I may not be the person who cures cancer, but I can help by raising money and by joining these amazing kids in showing the world that bald is beautiful.

My fundraising goal is $300. Thanks to some really awesome family and friends, I am almost halfway there at $140. I will be making up the difference of whatever I don't raise so that I will reach my goal of $300, but if you want to help out too, I won't complain. :)

Let's kick cancer's ass.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/650686/2013

Holy smokes, yet again I let time get away from me. I will try to stay more on top of things. In the meantime, I recap of what has happened since the last time I posted (almost a year ago! Eeps!)
 

We bought a house!

 Even thought it has been almost a year, we are taking our sweet time filling it up with furniture and other treasures. We are never moving again, so we have plenty of time.

We became furparents again. This is Cleo, a now two and a half year old rescued English bulldog. We love her probably more than most children are loved by their parents. It's a bit ridiculous (as I type, she is taking a nap on my lap, snoring crazy loud. Yes, I said on my lap, even though she is about 50 pounds).

I have continued working in the pediatric ICU. It's a job of very extreme emotions, there really is no middle ground. On good days, I love it and on bad days I hate it. This is really difficult to explain and I doubt anyone who doesn't work with sick kids can understand what I mean, but it is what it is. 

I am also enrolled in Vanderbilt University's Nurse Practitioner program, studying to be a primary pediatric nurse practitioner. I am just finishing up the spring semester and once that is complete I will be 1/3 of the way through my program and expect to graduate in August 2014. 

Additional things that have been going on: 

• I have been devouring books lately. Actually devouring them. It is very good for the brain cells and I have been learning a lot. I am always open to recommendations and will give anything a try.
• I am getting back into volunteering. So far, most of what I have done has been with the bulldog rescue group we got Cleo from. I have also been looking into helping with Special Olympics, Best Buddies, and an equine therapy group close to our house. Topics I am really interested in are animals, people with special needs, gay rights, women's rights and sex trafficking. Anyone who knows of groups or events that need volunteers in the St. Louis area, feel free to send me information.
• I have been cooking- a lot. I never thought of myself as overly domestic, but I love cooking. 

Some examples:

 Homemade bread

Vegetarian enchiladas

That's the last year in a nutshell. Pretty much everything is an ongoing process, just taking small steps in multiple areas of our lives to grow both as individuals and as a couple. 

Until next time, much love

Graduation= Time for Blogging

Oh my goodness, I have been quite neglectful of this little corner of the internet! Life has been quite the whirlwind. Since my last blog post, I have continued my life of school and work. I have not ever written about my (relatively) new job, only about my old job that I was unhappy at. My new job is working in the pediatric intensive care unit at one of the children's hospitals in my lovely little city. I have been there since October as a nurse's assistant and I love it with my entire heart. It is a very emotional place to work and the bad days are incredibly hard, but the good days are oh so good. Fortunately, I have been offered to stay on after I graduate, which leads me to the next busy part of my life...

Graduation! I graduate from nursing school in two days! I am both very excited and a little in shock. It doesn't seem real to me yet. However, I am not done yet, as I have been accepted to grad school at Vanderbilt! I had completely given up on being accepted, but I was! I will be studying to be a pediatric nurse practitioner through their long distance program, so I will stay in St. Louis and will not have to relocate. This is a good thing as the hubs and I have been moving up in the grown up world...

We are buying a house! We began looking at the point when I thought I would not get into nursing school. The area where we live is a tad expensive, but we were willing to spend a little more money on a house if it was nice enough that we would (hopefully) never move again. Then I was accepted to school and we freaked out a little bit about money. Then we continued looking at cheaper house and we ended up finding one that not only did we love best, but was also the cheapest! We are incredibly superstitious however, and I will post pictures after the last bit of paperwork has been signed and it is 100%, officially ours.

Other things that I have done in my absence:

I wear cute happy scrubs like this to work. Sometimes I ask Mark if my scrubs match. He always responds the same way, "You work with children. They don't care if they match. They just like Hello Kitty."

 In February we adopted a furbaby! This is our little Cambria. She makes our lives so much better. She is incredibly playful and silly. She likes watching hockey with her dad and chewing on her mom's toes.

I added another tattoo to my every growing body canvas. This one means the most to me, as it is entirely dedicated to my husband. He always gets me red roses, with one yellow one (it's hard to tell, but the top rose is yellow). I included our wedding anniversary as well. 

Ii will do my best to update more frequently from now on. I have many exciting adventures coming up, so I will try to keep up to date.

Currently Reading: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Chinese Food, Field Trips and Building Houses

This has really been a spectacular week, there's no other way of describing it. On Sunday, the hubster and I were about as stereotypical a newly married couple as you can get and ordered Chinese takeout. It was delicious

I also went on not one, but two field trips this week. You would be amazed as the giddiness of senior nursing students when they get to go on field trips. On Monday we went to the State Public Health Lab and Capitol Building.

On Tuesday we went to the Holocaust Museum. I don't have pictures from there, but it was an incredible experience to talk to a Holocaust survivor and hear his account firsthand.

Thursday night I road tripped down with a friend to Joplin, MO to help with Extreme Makeover Home Edition, who is building 7 houses in 7 days there to restore the community after the tornadoes there. It was an incredible, eye-opening sight to go there and see the amount of devestation that is still there now.

A Perfect Fall Day

Yesterday the husband and I spent a perfect fall day at our little getaway.


First we hiked up the Centennial Trail.

Then we went on a boat ride with our parents' friends. There were replicas of the Nina and Pinta in Grafton.

 We watched the sun set on the water and drank wine and ate hummus and I had to pee off the side of the boat which was a most interesting experience (and I apologize for no pictures to document it!).

Family Dinner Wonderfulness

I like using words that aren't real.

I have no pictures to go along with this little post, just some happy, hopeful ramblings. I played hooky from work tonight to go out to eat with my parents and husband. I haven't seen my parents in over a month, so this was a very good thing. There shouldn't be too many repercussions of calling off work because... I'm quitting! I have been so unhappy there for so long and I kept telling myself that staying there is the safe thing to do. However, it is no longer the safe thing to do. Why, do you ask? I'd be glad to tell you. In addition to being a full time employee and work anywhere from 40-60 hours a week, I am a full time nursing student. That means spending two days a week in class (about 12 hours) and two days a week at clinical, doing what I do at work without getting paid (about 16 hours). Because I not only work full time but work full time nights, I have not been sleeping. And by not sleeping, I really mean not sleeping. It's becoming completely unhealthy and my boss is unwilling to work around my schedule, so I am quitting. I had a couple of interviews in the past month or so that I am waiting to hear back on, but I have decided to go ahead and put in my two weeks before hearing back from them. I know that it's a risky move in this economy, but I feel that nothing good ever comes from not taking risks. I also make enough money from babysitting job to hold us over until I get something else.

Anyway, I have been extremely happy since coming to this decision in the wee hours of Monday morning (when I wasn't sleeping). I have literally been smiling all the time, cheerful and friendly, and just generally more hopeful and in good spirits. While it's a risky move, I definitely feel that it is the most positive decision I have made in quite a long time.

I can't wait to see my husband more and read more good books. Currently reading: Freedom Writers' Diary

The End to a Perfect Summer

My summer began in the best way possible: by marrying my best friend

I experimented with some paintings

I spent time with my best friends in my favorite place

Now I am back to the daily hustle and bustle of being a full time student, a full time employee and a full time wife. The social life is being put on hold; the countdown to finishing undergrad has begun!

XOXO

Currently Reading: Curiouser and Curiouser: Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy