30 before 30

I have decided that as my 29th Birthday is rapidly approaching that I would like to make my last year of my twenties an exciting one. I don't want to look back in another ten years and realized I still hadn't gotten around to doing a lot of things that I have always wanted to do. I know some people who have done this. I think it would be best to give myself more than one year, but I don't have more than one year. Oh well, a co-worker told me yesterday that even if you accomplish half of the things on the list it will be a great year. This is true but I am going to try to accomplish all of them. I have a lot of other things on the bucket list in my head but I tried to pick things that weren't too expensive and fairly easily accomplished. I decided to write it down and share it with anybody in the blogosphere who might be paying attention so that I might have a little accountability. So without further ado, here is the list....

1. Get my Scuba diving certification
2. Take a sewing class
3. Learn Calligraphy
4. Go to an NFL game
5. Go to an NBA game
6. Visit a new city
7. Visit a new state
8. Surprise somebody (really surprise them, in a big way)
9. Learn to play Tennis
10. Ride in a hot air balloon
11. Ride on a motorcycle (yes, I am totally afraid of them. I don't want to go my whole life without ever having even tried)
12. Send out Christmas Cards
13. Find a yummy Christmas creation to give as a gift to friends each year (You all know those people who give you the same thing they make every year, but it is so good you look forward to it. I wanna be one of those people.)
14. Take a pole dancing class (just for fun and exercise, people, I'm not looking for a new career.)
15. Dance in the Rain
16. Help my mom open her etsy store
17. Host a dinner party
18. Read five of Time's Top 100 Novels that I haven't read yet
19. Re-decorate my bedroom.
20. Write letters to friends in cursive. (My grandmother did this, and who doesn't love getting a random letter from a friend.)
21. Donate blood once a quarter.
22. Go white water rafting
23. Couch to 5K (everybody knows I'm not a runner, and I hate it, but I wish I was, and wish I could learn to like it.)
24. Attend church more often. (I know thats subjective, but I'll know if I'm doing it.)
25. Take a spur of the moment road trip with friends.
26. Create a vegetable garden.
27. Help a stranger in need.
28. Learn to make a very southern meal.
29. Go to Mt. Cheaha and go hiking. (I did this a lot as a kid, but haven't in forever.)
30. Allow friends and family help me come up with something else. (I have an old friend a fellow blogger who I read who did this. I thought it was a good idea. Thanks Kate if you read this.)

Rebuilding Alabama

I don't know how many people this blog will reach due to the fact that I haven't written on here in forever! I decided though that it was worth a try.

I have always been proud to be an Alabamian. I remember thinking as a small child that Alabama was the center of the world and that everyone who didn't live here wanted to. As I grew I realized that a great deal of the world saw us all as a bunch of back woods hicks, who are all poor, and uneducated. I have taken great pride as I grew introducing people around the world to what great things Alabama has to offer and most importantly what great people Alabama has to offer. We have definitely educated the world on that fact in the past couple of weeks. I have never been more proud of Alabama. Many people have given and received unimaginable acts of kindness and love. Also, people from all over the world have reached out to help us. (including people like Japan who are still recovering from their own natural disaster) This restores my faith in humanity, and continues to bring tears to my eyes on a daily basis.

From the beginning my biggest fear in all this is that even in our own communities life would go back to normal and these people would be forgotten. My goal is to help to make sure they are not forgotten and that they will continue to need help for a long time to come. I have been fortunate enough to have some free time to help. I have been to some of these recovery centers, and it is amazing what these people are doing. Massive amounts of donations are coming in on a daily basis. Some of these centers have way more donations than they can handle. This made me begin to think about ways to help in the future, especially since many of the immediate essentials are taken care of. I was listening to Leland Live on the radio the other day, (they have done a fabulous job of helping get the word out about needs of the communities affected) and a man came on talking about setting up a website for collecting books and money to give the the 15 schools affected by these storms. I wanted to help them for many reasons. 1. I love to read and thought about the joy I felt getting a new book from the library as a child. 2. I thought about these children going back to school in a few short months. They may feel like things are starting to get back to normal and then might have a crushing realization that their school is not the same and doesn't have things they need. 3. At some point we have to stop focusing on these immediate essentials (food, water, and clothing) and begin to focus on rebuilding. Not merely putting things back to normal, but turning this all around and making things better for our children.

I have put out flyers like crazy, and posted on facebook like crazy, and have not had much response. I have started to question why? I am worried that it is because people are already forgetting. I hope that it is more that people think, "these people don't have a roof they don't need books." I understand that response, so I thought I would tell you my reasons for doing so maybe you might change your mind. They may not need books right now, but they will. When will you start focusing on rebuilding? I hope it's now.

Much love to everyone out there doing anything they can to help. All help is much appreciated and needed! Oh and check out the website if you want to help http://www.alabamaschoolrelief.com/ , or email me at lac982@aol.com.

I don't understand some people!

Today I went back over the the house with my inspector. We were checking to see that all the repairs had been done, so we would be all set for closing. I paid the inspector another $200 really just for my peace of mind to know that all of the repairs had been done. I told my real estate agent so many times I was going back over there. I was assured that all the repairs had been done. Unfortunately come to find out in the inspection that the foundation supports that I were to have been replaced had not been. I was soooo mad! We are supposed to close on Friday. Well after a quick phone call to my real estate agent, I was promised that it would be done by Friday morning. My sweet inspector then told me he would come back by and check it out for me. So hopefully it is all done, and we can still close Friday. I am learning so many lessons here, mainly not to trust anyone! Sad isn't it!
Ok, so if you need a home inspector. Jim Waddell is the greatest! He is soooooo thorough, and helpful. He is will A.B. Home Inspectors if you need someone!

Just for you Casey!

I have been a total blog slacker! I know, I know... sooo sorry. I ran into my cousin Casey last weekend, and she completely called me out on it. So I made an October resolution that I will start to blog again. I really hope I can start to keep up with it again. I enjoyed it so much while I was doing it, and was very surprised how many people cared to read it. So, here we go!



Things have been so busy in my life lately. The thing that is keeping me the absolute busiest is that I am in the process of buying a house. I am very excited. It is a cute little bity house in Homewood, that is just perfect for me. I was not letting myself get excited because I know that contracts can easily fall through, it something doesn't go right. I have finally gotten through the inspection and repairs, and mortgage approval. I am scheduled to close a week from today, and can't wait.



My family thought it was really funny to watch me go through this process. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a nurse through and through. I am not in any way shape or form a business person. I am not good at being firm and demanding. I had a few things that showed up on my inspection that I wanted to have the seller repair. Of course as in any business deal they tried to get me to give in any not have all of it repaired and to help pay for some of the repairs. I finally to my real estate agent that I was not afraid to walk away from the deal and that in order for me not to walk they had to make all the repairs. Haha! What a joke. I went directly to my Dad's office and told him I was "mean, scary, and demanding". He laughed at me and said, "I'm sure you were!" Oh well! I may not be mean and scary, but I was able to get the point across. They agreed to repair everything! So now we are just waiting on closing!



I am starting to get anxious though, because it is an older house. It was built in the 1940's, and there is a lot I would like to do. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient, and have fun with my very first house! Everyone is welcome to come visit! I was going to post a picture with this, but it is not working. I will post one later, I promise. I will keep you all updated on this adventure!

Reverting to Childhood!

Since I am officially back home. I had to decide what to do about a place to live. I am still trying to save money so eventually I can buy a house. Saving money tends to be difficult when I was taking a month or so off in between travel assignments. My sweet mother, of course, offered for me to live with her. I didn't want to take her up on that offer for many reasons. I have sponged off her too many times, I want her to have her own life without taking care of me, and she and I can get kind of cramped at her house. My Dad also offered for me to live with him, and to his surprise I took him up on the offer.
My Dad and Stepmother have a little bit bigger of a house, with an extra bedroom downstairs. It has a private attached bath and closet, so I really have my own space. I also am living with my step brothers (when they are in town, they have had a very busy summer). I have had so much fun living with this part of my family, and getting to spend more time with all of them. I have not lived with my Dad since I was 15, so it has been really fun.
My Dad seems to be enjoying it too. He has made me laugh because he keeps telling me "have I told you I'm glad you are living with me?". They have all really made me feel welcome. I am trying to do my best to help around the house, so I don't wear out my welcome too quickly.
I have also started my new job (more about that to come later), and my Dad has been so sweet. I still have not been feeling well so he has been trying to take care of me. Since I have been back to working 12 hour shifts he has had dinner prepared for me when I come home from work. He better be careful or I may never leave.
Sorry it has been so long since I posted, but I am going to do better keeping updating my blog!

I am so sick of this!

I finally decided to vent about this. I am going to go ahead and put a disclaimer, that this is a long story, and will therefore make for a long post, and more than likely a pretty boring post, but as I said before I really need to vent. This all started about 5 months ago when I was in Shreveport. Anyone who knows me knows that I often struggle with fatigue. One day, though, I woke up from an average night sleep, and was exhausted. I was so tired I felt like I could barely move. I had no other symptoms but some aches and pains. I decided to go see a doctor to make sure it wasn't anything that needed treating. The doctor I saw there was very nice and decided to draw some lab work. I started feeling better in a few days, and then I got extremely busy trying to finish up my assignment in Shreveport. I never heard from the Dr. about the lab work, so I truthfully just forgot about it.
I came home spent some time with my family and then took off again to Iowa. After I had been gone about a week, my Mom got a letter in the mail informing me that I had some abnormal labs, and that they had been trying to contact me. This was a complete fabrication. I would have noticed someone calling me from a Shreveport area code. I finally get the nurse to call me back and she informs me that I need to come back in. Well I told her that would be difficult considering I was in Iowa! She told me that the labs that were abnormal were my Blood Sugar was low, my TSH was high (which means you could have hypothyroidism), and my ANA was positive (which is a test for autoimmune disorders). At that point I didn't know what to do because the Dr. who had drawn that labs was in Louisiana, I was in Iowa, and my general practitioner was in Alabama.
I called my general practitioner who requested me to fax the labs to her. I called the Dr. in Shreveport and requested she fax the results and she said she would do it right away. We went a week with me calling every day and them saying they would send them, only to find out they hadn't. Turns out they weren't sending them, because they didn't have a release (You've got to love HIPPA), but they failed to call me to inform me they couldn't send them. Once the labs got to my General practitioner, she said that it was nothing that was such a big deal that we couldn't wait 8 weeks for me to get back into town and redraw labs. I was very relieved, but as you can imagine continued to be slightly stressed out and concerned.
Over the 8 weeks that I was in Iowa. I continued to be achy, I had a generalized rash, and continued to have periods of fatigue, and just feel over all crappy! I then randomly took my temperature one night when I was at work, and it was 99.5! hmm, that's weird. I continued to take it, and it kept staying in the 99's. It lasted for 3.5 weeks. After I finally got home I had an appointment with my general practitioner. She ran more labs, and now it was time to wait again.
After 4 days I got a call back from my doctor. She told me that my TSH was still elevated, and that I needed to get started on Synthroid (a medication for hypothyroidism). As we were on the phone she realized that my reheumatology panel (a lab that can help us to figure out about an autoimmune disorder) had not come back and that she would call the lab and call me right back. I never heard from her, over the next 4 business days we called and harassed everyone in her office until we got them to call in the Synthroid to my pharmacy. Nobody new anything about the labs. I finally get a call from someone in the office who proceeds to tell me that the outside lab who was supposed to run the rheum panel had in fact run something entirely wrong! It was a lab for Syphilis! Thanks, that's really helpful! At this point I lost it. I was so frustrated. I then had to go back to the doctors office to let them draw more blood, so they could send it back to the lab. Everyone kept telling me, well we aren't going to charge you for the lab work. I thought, "Well I should hope not! It's not my fault someone is incompetent. " So, this is where I am now. I am waiting for this lab to come back. I still feel like crap, I have started to run a fever again, my joints and back hurt sooo badly, and I am so exhausted I could sleep all day. Hopefully I will hear back from my doctor early this week. I could find out a number of things. It could be all this is just caused by my thyroid, and I need to give the synthroid some time to work, or I might need to go see a rheumatologist, or it could be something else entirely.
Well, Thank you for listening to my rant! As you can tell nothing has gone right throughout all of this. I just hope we find out what is making me feel this way! Yuck! I just want to have more energy, and not be hurting, so I can't truly enjoy being home with my friends and family.

Crazy Week!

I have been home in Alabama for a week today. I have been so busy it feels like I have been home a month. My drive home was quite an adventure. It took me 13 hours of absolute boredom. I spent most of my time talking on the cell (I know, I hate people that do that too!) or jamming out to some tunes. I got close to Memphis and the sky fell. It was raining so hard I could barely see the road. I didn't know if I should stop or keep going to try to out run it. I called my Dad and told him where I was and got him to look up the radar on the Internet. It was not reassuring when he said "oh, crap you are in the middle of it". I said "Dad, am I going to get blown away by a tornado", and his response was "I hope not!" We decided together that I should keep going and luckily I out ran it. I also want everyone to know that I have a new found love for Corridor X. For those of you who don't know that is a newer highway that runs from Jasper to Birmingham. It keeps you from stopping at a ton of red lights. It also is nearly deserted, and flat. So you can absolutely fly. It helped me to cut an hour off of my trip. woohoo! I have had so much fun this week being home and getting to spend time with my family or friends.
Another thing I have had going on this week, is I had an interview at Brookwood Hospital. I have been saying my prayers that God would make whatever I was supposed to do work out. As I have talked about before I didn't know if I wanted to continue traveling or not, so I let God make the decision for me and went with what worked. I got the call this morning from Brookwood saying that I got the job. I am excited. It is a PACU night shift position. For those of you not in the medical profession this stands for Post Anesthesia Care Unit, or what the used to refer to as the recovery room. It sounds like a very interesting job, and the other people that work there seem very nice. It should be a great adventure. I very happy to stay home, and settle down a bit.
We also had Father's Day this week. I was so glad that I could be home, and actually be with my Dad on Father's Day. My Dad, Stepmother, and I all went to the lake. I haven't been to the lake in almost a year, which is a record for me. I have missed it soooo much. Overall we had a great weekend. We lazed around, took boat rides, got some sun, and grilled out. Very relaxing, and my Dad seemed to really enjoy it even though it has been so hot. Since I have been home it has been at least 97 degrees, very humid, and the heat index has been about 108 degrees. It can really drag you down, but I am glad because it finally feels like summer to me. Everyone try to stay cool, and have a great week!