My Week at a Glance

This past week has been rather enjoyable for me. A week ago, my brother celebrated his birthday :) He had a party, and I made a cake. His favourite kind of cake is Black Forest Cake, so I agreed to make one. I had never made a Black Forest Cake before. Do you think that I made a trial cake before the party? Nope. I sure didn't. I still think it turned out okay. What do you think?

This was my first time ever piping on a cake with a star tip. I was fairly happy :)

I also went for a walk in the beautiful Brandon Hills with my 2 roommates. It's about a 10 minute drive out of Brandon, and the scenery is just amazing. The fresh country air was wonderfully refreshing, too. Here are some photos that I took.

So, that's how my week went. I hope that yours was just as enjoyable :)

Back into the Swing of Things

It has been a long time since I have posted. I know that. I have had no motivation to write a blog post for a long time. I still have not motivation to write this. However, I am anyways, hoping that someone out there will enjoy reading this :)

I had a lovely summer. At the end of May and beginning on June, I went to Pennsylvania to visit my sister Cheryl, brother-in-law Andy, and niece Elyse. I had so much fun and the 12 days that I was there went by very quickly for me. I wanted to stay longer, but so it goes.

The next exciting thing of the summer happened in July - when Cheryl and Elyse came to Manitoba to visit :) Those 10 days also went by in a flash. Before I knew it, they were heading home, and I am almost counting the days until they come again; hopefully sooner rather than later!

August started out with the long weekend and our annual family trip to Clear Lake. The weather was exceptionally wonderful, and we enjoyed a few days of relaxation. It was absolutely wonderful :)

I have also attended my fair share of weddings this summer. Since May I have been to 6, and I have 2 more coming up in October. After that I think I may be finished with weddings this year - that is unless someone surprises me with an engagement!

Now it is September (crazy!!) and I am back at school, trying to get back into this routine. Right now we have not started too many things, so it's not an insane schedule yet, but I know that soon it will pick up and the few months before Christmas will fly by.

I will leave you with a picture - hope you enjoy :)

Summer

Okay, technically it isn't actually summer yet, but with the weather that we've been having, it may as well be! I don't know about all of you, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather that we have been blessed with for the past week or so. I have spent a lot of time outside, and I'm trying to really take advantage of this weather while it lasts!

I am on my summer break, and this makes me quite happy :) I finished my clinical rotation last week Thursday, and I've been basically hanging around at home since then. I have picked up 1 shift, and have picked up 3 more for next week. My rotation really only starts on June 25, but this is okay because I have plans before that...

On May 30, I am leaving to go to Pennsylvania for 12 days. I get to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece! I am really quite excited and am eagerly anticipating this trip - only 12 days away!

That's about all that I have to share in terms of excitement. Hopefully I will do a picture post soon. I just have to choose my pictures :)

Enjoy the rest of your week!

DONE!

Yes, I am indeed done for this year :) Well...basically. I am done the in-classroom stuff. I wrote my last exam yesterday (okay, my only exam...) and now I have about a week off before I do my 3 week clinical at Boundary Trails Health Centre. I am excited to be done, however yesterday I was feeling quite bored. My mom told me that I could study...you can imagine my response to that! ;)

Although the countdown until the end of my exams has finished, there is another countdown that can be started! In 45 days, I leave for Pennsylvania to go visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece! I am quite excited for this. It will be a wonderful time of hanging out, and hopefully for me, lots of babysitting ;)

Oh, I also have one other exciting thing to share! Remember my last post (if you don't, just scroll down) about being a winner? Well, I'm a winner again! Yesterday, Heather and I got coffee from Tim's, and I won a donut :) That made me excited!

Happy Friday!

Winner :)

I won.

Oh, you thought I meant with Roll Up the Rim, didn't you?? ;) Well, I actually have won twice during that wonderful contest (1 coffee, and 1 donut), but I am actually referring to something else.

A few months ago, my family and I went to Del Rios Family Restaurant. It is a Mexican-Mennonite-Canadian restaurant in Winkler, MB. The food is really quite delicious. Anyways, our server gave us little cards to fill out, rating the service, food, etc. that we had received. On these cards, it mentioned that there was a prize that could be won for filling out the short survey. The prize? A $50 gift certificate for Del Rios. I like entering contests, so I filled out about 3 of these surveys. It was at this point that my family told me to stop filling them out. I decided to listen to them, and dropped my 3 surveys in the drop box.

This week, when I was checking my email, I saw that there was a message in my Junk Folder. I decided to see what it was. I opened up the folder, and saw that it was a message from someone named Abe Fehr, and it had an attachment. I was a little sceptical, but then I looked at the message line, and it read: "You have WON with Del Rio's Restaurant! Please open for details". (Now just let me clarify, I do realize that here "Rio's" is spelled with an apostrophe. I did double check, and really there should not be an apostrophe. I do believe it is a mistake. Moving on...) I knew that a title like that could not be made up, so I decided to open the email. I was quite pleased to read that from filling out that survey, I had won a prize! I did not win the grand prize of $50 at Del Rios, but I won a runner up prize of a free dessert! I'm really very happy about this :) All I have to do is print out the email, and give it to the server the next time that I'm at Del Rios! YUM :) Let me tell you, that email sure made my week!

Just an update to the countdown: 11 days until my last exam :)

It's Countdown Time!

If you follow my blog at all, you know that I love countdowns. I find them quite exciting :) It is again time for a countdown. Yay :) The countdown is to the end of the school year. My last exam is on April 14. Yes, that's right. April 14. That means that there are 19 days until I am done classes for this year. Done. Done third year. That means getting ready to start my last year...yikes! How about a bit of summer first ;)

After I am done classes, I get a week off, and then I do have a 3 week practicum at Boundary Trails Health Centre. I am excited for this for a few reasons:

1. I get to live at home :)

2. It's just practicum; no sitting in classes or writing tests

3. It's only 3 weeks long :)

That's what's happening in my life for the next few weeks.

On another note, I absolutely LOVE the spring weather that we're having. It is absolutely lovely, and it makes me smile almost every day :)

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

I am not a good liar. It's true. I'm bad at bluffing, I have a terrible poker face, etc. The list could go on. Why should I lie about this, then? Don't know what I'm getting at? Keep reading :)

This is me. If you didn't know that already, that's really too bad.

This is my mug of truth. I bought it at my aunt's garage sale. When I was about 10 :) I knew that it spoke the truth, and kept it for the day that I could use it proudly.

Now, you may be thinking, "There's no proof that you're an aunt! How can you claim to be the World's Greatest Aunt if you have no proof?!"

I assure you, I have proof :) I am more than happy to share it with you. Presenting my beautiful niece, Elyse.

Pretty sure that this is where I'm telling her how much I love her :)

She makes me smile :)

I made sure that she spent quality time with me every single day. I loved snuggle time! I loved spoiling her by holding her tons and tons! I can't wait to see her again...

And she can't wait to see the World's Greatest Aunt again either :)

Patience is a Virtue

I know, I know. It's been a while. I have a post formulating in my head - I just need to get a few pictures, and then I'll post.

A Beautiful Day

It is February, and it was gorgeous today! I realize that I am a few days late with this statement, but I am excited nonetheless. I find that January often goes by so slowly. I am usually quite happy when January is over. Maybe it's because February often feels short, and then comes March, and that means spring! Winter is my least favourite season, so when spring is on the way, I get excited :)

I am in the midst of a course right now, and I have very mixed feelings about it. I guess, actually, I'm not really in the midst of it right now. Well...our final exam for it is on Monday evening. It was an intense 4 week course, and it's ending Monday night. The material that this course covered was heavy. A lot of it didn't make sense to me when we first started, and I struggled with understanding a lot of it. I am happy that I will have this course behind me. On the other hand, this course has the best teacher ever. Seriously. I love our instructor, and so I am incredibly sad that we are done this course because it means that we are done having her as a teacher. She will not teach us any more courses. Today, as I was sitting in my apartment attempting to study, I was thinking about that, and it kind of hit home that I am getting very close to being done. As excited as I am for that, it scares me! Being a student means that I don't have to understand everything that is going on. I don't have to call the scary doctors all of the time, and I don't have to know the answers to people's questions right when they ask them. In about a year and a half, I won't be a student anymore. Yikes.

In 15 days, I get to start Reading Week. Yay! I am excited for some time off, and I am also quite excited to meet my niece for the very first time :) I have decided that she will love me. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece are coming out to see us and I am so, so excited! I think it will be an absolutely wonderful week!

Back to the books I go! Time to learn more about spinal cord injuries, head injuries, orthopedic injuries, burns........

Right Now

• I am trying to motivate myself to study. As interesting as ECG (or EKG, it's interchangeable) rhythm strips can be, they are also quite confusing. Let me reword that. They are confusing for me at this point. I understand that as I practice more and more, it will become easier. For now, it is not easy, therefore it is hard to get motivated to look at these strips and try to figure out whether I'm looking at a sinus rhythm with 2 premature ventricular complexes or whether it's really an atrial flutter. Okay, that was a bad example. I can tell between those two, but other than that...
• I just took buns out of the oven. This is the second time that I have baked buns this week. They are just so good that I had to make another batch :) My batches are quite small (I only make 12 at a time because we're only 2 people) but we have enjoyed them so much that I decided to quickly make another batch. They smell so good, and I think that I will enjoy one shortly. I got the recipe from the cookbook Simply in Season. It is a wonderful cookbook.
• Speaking of Simply in Season, I made supper using a recipe from that book. I made Potato Soup, and it was really good! I didn't have all of the ingredients that were suggested, so I just tweaked the recipe a little. It was still very yummy :)
• I think that with my bun, I will enjoy a little frozen yogurt. This week at The Real Canadian Superstore Chapman's Frozen Yogurt is on sale for $3.99. This alone is an incredible sale, but paired with the $5.00 voucher I have to use on any Chapman's product, it is too good to pass up. In case you haven't realized, that means that I pay $0.00. Yes, that is what the total came to for our 2L pail Cappuccino with Chocolate Espresso Flake Frozen Yogurt. Yum.
• I should get back to learning. Maybe this break has refreshed my mind enough to continue studying with vigor! Wait a minute...it's late. Almost bedtime.
• Maybe this break has refreshed my mind enough to make a good decision to go to bed soon :) Good night.

Happy New Year :)

2011.

Wow.

I haven't posted for a very long time - sorry. I was meaning to post sooner, but like many other times, it just did not happen.

I have been on Christmas break for the past 2 1/2 weeks. It has gone by sooooo fast!!! I wish that it would continue on for another few weeks, but so it goes :) I have had a lovely time with friends and family and have thoroughly enjoyed my time off. I also was able to pick up some shifts at work, so my bank account is now thanking me ;)

I realize that 2011 just started, but the number (2011) makes me a little excited. I graduate in 2012. That means next year!!! That is so soon, and very exciting for me :) I know I still have a year and a half yet, but thinking about how fast 2010 went, that time will be upon me before I know it!

Unfortunately for all of you, I have no pictures to post today. Maybe soon, though.

In the meantime, Happy New Year! All the best in 2011!