If I were a zoo animal, what would I be?

I love asking my 4 yr. old nephew questions because I know I'll get an honest response. The other day when I asked him what color my hair was, it turned out to be a lot harder question than I had anticipated. I was expecting him to simply respond either blonde or brown, but this time he really had to think about it.


"Ummmm........" he paused, furrowing his eyebrows and giving it deep consideration before finally responding, "brown with white stripes."


Sweet. Brown with white stripes. Good to know. Now I can't get this image out of my head every time I think about my hair.

Praise to the Man

“Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we'll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain.” ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Grad School Here I Come

It's official - I'm going to PA school! I received my first acceptance letter from DeSales University and I am so excited! It's such a relief to know that I am officially starting grad school next summer. I have been invited to another interview in Mesa (at A.T. Still University/Arizona School of Health Sciences) in a couple weeks and I am still waiting to hear back from several other universities. I'm hoping I only get accepted to 1 or 2 programs so I don't have to deal with the drama of deciding where to go (I think we all know how I tend to struggle with indecision.)

I flew out to Philadelphia for my interview at DeSales two weeks ago and I absolutely loved it there. The school is about an hour north of Philadelphia (near Allentown.) The region is blanketed with trees in all of their autumnal splendor and the winding country roads are dotted with charming old houses and quaint little towns. I was very impressed with the university, but there are definitely some advantages and disadvantages:

PROS:

• Amazing scores on the National Certification Exams (100% First-Time Pass Rate over the last 6 yrs. (99% overall); scored first in the nation 13 of the last 15 years.)
• They offered to arrange international rotations for me!
• There are a lot of Hispanics in the area so I would get to use my spanish.
• They have a unique integrated curriculum and are one of the few schools to provide rotations and patient experience throughout the first year.
• All of the clinical sites are within 20 minutes so I wouldn't have to relocate.
• Affordable housing & tuition (comparatively speaking.)
• The dance department is in the same building as the PA program and I might be able to take a class or two.
• NO THESIS!!!

CONS:

• No Cadaver Lab (I realize that I can learn Anatomy from a book... But seriously, dissecting cadavers is pretty much my favorite thing to do. This could very well be a deal-breaker for me.)
• No Singles Branch (There is a small singles branch in another stake about an hour away. Everyone I met seemed really cool (and a lot of them were in grad school), but I think it would be hard to meet people and get involved living so far away.)

A Portrait of Neurosis: Part 1

My first few years of college I actually attempted to cook for one.

Then I went on a mission and when I came home all I remembered how to make were microwave brownies and no bakes. Somehow I couldn't remember what normal people eat. As a result, I was forced to establish new eating patterns.

Unfortunately, this is what evolved.

I go to the store every couple weeks and buy things in bulk. Then I go home and spend hours washing everything and putting it in little Ziploc bags. I never eat meals, I just snack throughout the day. The menu this month consists of the following:

• Blueberries
• Edamame
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Grapefruit
• Snow Peas
• Cucumbers
• Carrots
• Plain Almonds
• Baked Tostitos w/ Fresh Salsa
• All Natural Fruit Leather
• Sugar-free Chocolate Pudding
• 1 small can v8
• 2 bottles of flavored water

I know what you are thinking, and yes, I did measure my blueberries with a measuring cup and count my baked Tostitos (14). When it came to the grape tomatoes, however, I just threw them into the bag haphazardly.

Now I realize that this does not constitute a balanced diet. But hey, who needs grains and dairy products? Don't Jello Pudding and Tostitos count? The Jello is sugar-free and the Tostitos are baked - that should count for something.

Additionally, I will sometimes prepare a simple main course in the evenings (depending on how busy I am with school/work.) This usually consists of something such as fish, baked chicken, or a particular kind of salad that I will eat obsessively for several months before developing a sudden revulsion to it, at which point I subsequently refuse to eat it for years. The food items I am currently (and indefinitely) intolerant to include the following:

• Oriental Mandarin Chicken Salad
• Cod or Salmon
• Baked Chicken
• Chicken and Rice (or Noodle) Soup (a former breakfast item)
• Snow Peas (pending)
• Carrots (pending)
• etc. (I could go on, but I'll stop here.)

I'm not exactly sure if my eating patterns are a symptom of my own neurotic tendencies or the result of being single for entirely too long.

I am going to blame it on being single.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank Ziploc for supporting my habits and aiding me in my quest to destroy the environment one baggie at a time.

Heaven

This morning my 3 yr. old nephew announced that he had a dream about daddy last night. He reports that daddy is in heaven, that he's happy, and that he's doing "heaven work."

A Good Old-Fashioned Family Tree

My sister gave my mother a framed picture of our family tree for Mother's Day. She was really excited.

"Oh look," she exclaimed, "now I can see how your father and I are related!"

What?!!!

All I can say is disturbing. Extremely disturbing.

No wonder it has taken me such a long time to post on my blog. The blogging receptor in my brain is probably damaged due to inbreeding and unable to respond to the hormone blog-inephrine.

This explains a lot.

There are some things you could go your whole life without knowing.

I wish this had been one of those things.

Woe

When I came home from Chile I thought my gastrointestinal woes were over. Not so. I have had 3 episodes of the stomach flu in less than 3 months! At least there are some pros to being sick on American soil:

1. I don't have to fill the tank every time I flush.
2. I have yet to throw up in a leaky ziplock on a bus.

What more can a girl ask for?