BLAST FROM THE PAST

Ok, so this picture makes me laugh to the point of wetting my pants every single time I look at it...every single time.

Here is the deal....I graduated in 1992. This was one of my Senior pictures. The photographer told me to make a sexy face. See the above? Is that sexy or what?

The jacket. I wonder if I thought I was Olivia Newton-John getting ready to meet up with John Travolta and sing "You're The One That I Want." Ha! In my dreams!

And the hair...I wonder exactly how much Rave Extra Strength 4 it took me to create such a masterpiece. Notice that my hair is so high, the photographer didn't even get the entire "wave" in the frame. Getting ready for this picture must have reduced the ozone layer by at least 25%, if not more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY8nRfEnWtc

MY JEEP WAS MEAN TO ME

I have been studying all day. I am tired. Ok, when I say studying, I mean kind of studying and mostly surfing the Internet. In an attempt to keep the studying to a minimum, I decided to tell you what my Jeep did to me last week.

I stopped at a gas station for an icee. I don't know how many of you know this, but I am an icee/slushie/slurpie addict. I love them, really love them. I was on my way to run some errands and decided on a whim to pull into the gas station and get one.

I got out of the Jeep, hit the lock button on the keychain, and headed in. I happily came out carrying my icee and noticed that the back window of the Jeep was open. How odd. I assumed that I must have hit the "open back window" button instead of the lock button.

Still holding my drink, I went over and attempted to shut the window. Ok, now don't laugh...when I tried to shut the window, I somehow shut my head in it! And I mean HARD! It really, really hurt.

With tears in my eyes, I tried to act like everything was ok and just hoped that no one was watching. I got in the Jeep a little dizzy and then peeked through one eye into the mirror. I thought my head was going to be gashed open and I would need stitches. I was scared to look. I did though--no blood.

Then, my nursing training kicked in and I started asking my OWN self questions to see if I had a concussion. "What year is it? Do you know where you are? Who is the president?" After I assessed myself and concluded that I could drive, I continued on.

I drove to Target. I pulled into the parking lot. In the parking lot was an exact replica of my Jeep. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, how odd to see an exact replica of my Jeep. I don't see many." I parked away from that Jeep so I wouldn't get confused on the way out. I told myself, "Self, do not think that is your Jeep when you leave Target. It is parked there. You are parked here."

Do you see where this is going? I left Target, went to MY Jeep and pressed the unlock button on the keychain, so that I could put my bags in the back. Nothing. I pressed again. Nothing. So I decided to go stand by the driver's door and press the unlock button to see if would open. I went right up to the window, went to push the keychain, and noticed a man sleeping in the front seat of MY Jeep, with his foot propped up on MY steering wheel.

It was then that I realized my error. I literally ran away from the man as if he was trying to chase me. He didn't even wake up. I found my Jeep, got in, and then laughed for about 10 minutes before I could drive.

I am going to blame this seriously air headed experience on the fact that I probably did sustain a slight concussion from slamming my head in the window earlier that day. I mean, that is the only reasonable explanation, right?

THIS IS JEOPARDY!

Will and I are very competitive with each other. We both have Type A personalities which can sometimes be a bad thing. We get very serious with competition, even if it is just a game of thumb war while we wait in line or for food at restaurants. I never win that one, because I don't have a gunther thumb like he does. We are also competitive at tennis even though I have no idea how to play it and always, always, always end up hitting the ball over the fence, which makes Will laugh and makes me mad.

On the rare occasion that we are home at the same time at 7:30pm during the week, we tune in to Jeopardy and compete against each other so fiercely you would think we were playing for real money. How nerdy and sad is that?

His strength categories are Sports, duh, and History. Mine are Health and the Sciences. Neither one of us are strong in literature and we usually always say either Edgar Allan Po or Shakespeare as answers to those. Oh, and anytime a question is asked about a queen, we both always say Queen Elizabeth. My fallbacks for rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates and Will's fallback for anything to do with Italy is Rome.

We do have 1 rule. You can not call out the answer until the question has been fully read. If you do, you do not get the point. Will has lost many points by not adhering to this rule. He begs and pleads when he messes that one up, but I do not give in. Rules are rules.

We usually argue about who said the answer first and whether points should be awarded for getting the question partially right. For example, last night an answer was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Well, I yelled out, "That bunny movie!" Will wouldn't give it to me. I tried to argue him down...he wouldn't give. I still won overall though.

We both want so badly to win, that our answers are sometimes so funny that we can't recover from laughing in time to hear the next one. Last night, one of the questions was to name a real person who had been killed by gunfire in 1937 or something like that and I yelled out John Wayne! Ha!

Will makes up words that are not even in the English language or any language for that matter. He wants to win so badly and if he doesn't know the answer he will yell out something like, "Wiglam"! I think he does that on purpose to make me laugh to try to get an advantage on the next question.

I look forward to the next game, where I shall beat him....again!

THE STORY BEHIND WEB

Will has wanted a lab for a while now. A lot of time has passed since we lost our lab, Trey. It was very hard on both of us, but especially for Will. He grew up with dogs and has a real passion for them.

We celebrated our 15th anniversary in November and I started thinking then about trying to surprise Will with a puppy. I wasn't feeling well and time passed on to Christmas. That's when I began seriously searching.

I talked to so many people, I couldn't even tell you how many. People either wanted too much money, didn't have the right color (he wanted black), or wouldn't have a puppy for sale until the spring. I searched hard. It took a lot of time and it was difficult trying to keep Will unaware of what I was doing.

I posted an ad on craigslist and got a few responses, but then I saw an ad posted by someone else that was called LabMations! That intrigued me, as I figured a Dalmatian mixed with a lab would make for a big dog, which Will would like. I also have always liked the idea of having a big dog around the house. I knew that Will wouldn't care that the dog wasn't pure bred. He really loves all dogs, all animals, for that matter.

So, I contacted the poster. Her name is Megan and she is also a nursing student and also wants to do pediatric nursing! Oh, and she also drives a Jeep! How crazy is that?! We were meant to meet!

After some e-mails back and forth, it was explained to me that Megan has two Dalmatians who were supposed to breed, however, her lab got to the Dalmatian first! That resulted in her so-named "designer dogs". (See Web's parents in the pictures above.)

I decided that I did want to pursue getting one of her 9 puppies and asked Megan to pick out the biggest male for us. We live two hours from each other so we arranged to meet halfway which worked out great.

My intention was to go get the dog and just carry him inside and hand him to Will and really surprise him. However, I had to tell him because it was just too difficult to come up with a reason I would be leaving somewhere without him on a Saturday. Y'all know we do everything together when he isn't working or I'm not at school....been that way since August 1992.

So, I got out the computer and told him I had a late anniversary present for him. I handed the computer to him and on it was a picture of his new puppy. He said things like, "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" He was really shocked. Of course, we both got all teary because we are sappy that way.

After I told him about the puppy and all of the people I had talked to trying to find him a dog, he said, "His name is going to be Web, because you found him on the Internet." I tried to convince him to think on it overnight, but he had his mind made up. Web it was.

And, so, here we are with Web right now who spends his days eating, playing, sleeping, sleeping, and sleeping. Bailey loves him and is so excited to have a friend. I am sure the two of them will bring us many adventures, just like Trey and Belle did (see my old post--"The adventures of Trey and Belle").

Wish us luck as we begin our journey with this little pup who already loves to chew everything in site. Also, he moos like a cow. He really does. He will be sleeping and all of a sudden we will hear a "moo" and know that he is up.

Oh, one last thing, Willis has already learned to whine just like Web and also say, "Wanna go outside Pup?" Between Willis, Bailey, and Web, we are sure to get a laugh a minute.

MEET OUR NEW PUPPY

His name is Web. Will named him. I wanted to name him Baxter.(Don't laugh) I'll post more pictures and info about him later.

PROMISE KEPT FROM 12/3 BLOG

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I actually stayed up past midnight for this New Year's! I was so proud. I usually fall asleep waaaay before the ball drops. This year we watched the fireworks at Jax Landing and really enjoyed it.

Have you made your New Year's Resolution? I think I have. My resolution is to take at least 30 minutes out of each day to do something that requires no thought--something quiet and still. Is that a selfish resolution? Probably so.

But, I think it will be a good one for me. 2008 brought a lot of stress between studying, going to clinicals, waiting on William to get home and then waiting some more, forgetting to eat dinner, waking up at 4am to get ready to head to the hospital, spending hours in my vehicle driving to school and the health facilities, and the worst thing of all....giving up my coffee! I just thought of another resolution....add coffee back into my life. :-)

I hope 2009 is a good one for all of you! If you made a resolution, leave me a comment, I'd love to hear it. We can challenge each other to stick to them.