Saturday, May 18, 2013
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The Craziness Known As My Life |
Starting with Human Nutrition, I absolutely love this class - call me a nerd, call me weird, I don't care! On my lunch break this Tuesday (Rachel out of the house - what??? I will get more into this a little later), I couldn't think of anything I wanted, not to mention we really couldn't afford for me to be eating out at the time, so I decided to head into McDonald's to read my nutrition book and sip on a Sprite...mistake! Firstly, there were some pretty grubby looking teenagers there snickering at me in my scrubs (to whom I was halfway tempted to approach and politely say "Oh hey, you know I'm going to be the one trying to bring your sorry patootie back to life when your lungs crap out and decide that the human they are attached to filling them with tar isn't worth the trouble anymore, right?"...but unfortunately I just didn't have it in me). So I sat down by a seemingly sweet old man, got into reading my book, and about a sentence or two in, he started talking to me about nutrition...and how he got a doctorate degree overseas...and how smoking doesn't cause cancer....and how doctors these days just go by the book and take no initiative...all the while he was gumming his wrap, occasionally getting a halfway decent chomp in with his few remaining teeth. Needless to say, I got a grand total of about a paragraph read that day :) He was sweet though! Anywho, Nutrition seems to be going well - just lots of reading! I'm cruising right through though.
Microsoft Applications is about the same story: It is moretheless creating flyers and taking "Snips" of your computer screen and uploading them onto the school platform to show that you know how to perform basic computer functions of navigation, creating files/folders, etc. Pretty painless! I am also flying through this class, working on it whenever I have a free minute and alternating with Nutrition (although I definitely prefer doing the Nutrition reading versus these For Dummies 101 computer exercises!)
Now for the most exciting tidbit: I have a new job!!!!! I work out of the house now, which has been really great for me! Another AF wife who I have been in contact with through Facebook let me know that the medical office she works at was hiring another receptionist...I was thinking, heck, why not? I've worked as essentially a receptionist in the law environment, how much harder could it be in a medical environment? A lot. That is the answer. See, receptionist, to me, is the lady who answers the phones, chews her gum obnoxiously and maybe schedules appointments here and there. However, out of the four to five of us working at the front of this medical office, we are ALL always running around, checking in and out patients for their appointments, scheduling appointments, cancelling appointments, calling to remind about appointments, filing doctor notes, literally EVERYTHING that needs to be done in a medical office that doesn't involve drugs, analyzing urine/other unpleasant bodily fluids, and seeing the patient! It is absolutely crazy - most days we don't even have time to go to the bathroom. I am loving every minute of it, though. I feel so much more fulfilled by this job versus my other with medical transcription, and even though I typically can barely make it from walking through the front door to the couch most days when I get home from work, I'm finding that having more on my plate helps me to better prioritize and get things done a heck of a lot more efficiently - there is absolutely no time for procrastination!
As for Hubs and I, we make it work (somehow) with just our one working vehicle. He gets home from work around 8 a.m., I leave the same minute he gets home and have arranged to shift my hours from 8:30 to 5:30 and end up rolling into the clinic parking lot right on time. We have been hanging out with the wife I mentioned above (A) and her husband quite a bit lately - actually last weekend and we were just out with them last night. We seem to really click well. We have a ton in common and can really relate to one another, which is great. It's always so nice to have somebody to talk to who you know really understands you! We have been exploring wildlife preserves, Hubs got himself a small fishing boat (he is always out on some pond now!), and I've been trying to keep up with work, school, and stuff around the house, which keeps me busy 99.9% of the time!
So there is my big update. I'm not going to make any promises on when you will be hearing back from me as I am planning to enroll in possibly 3-4 classes versus the 2 I am in now for the fall semester (meaning ZERO free time), but now being in this medical office environment makes my desire to become a physician assistant that much stronger, and I am willing to work like crazy to get there! I hope you are all doing well - I apologize to those who have sent me e-mails and received no response, but I am sure you can understand. If you miss hearing from me (and don't mind all of my crazy cat lady photos of Grizz), be sure to follow me on Instagram - I post on there almost daily! God bless and have a wonderful, relaxing weekend everyone!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
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Tell-All Tuesday: Makeup Bag Favorites |
THIS
is my makeup bag.
Once upon a time, he started out as a toiletry bag for travelling - meant to hold shampoo, hair brushes, face wash, etc., and at one time, yes, that was what this bag was used for. Until my actual makeup bag started becoming smaller and smaller and smaller. When I had finally had it with not being able to zip my makeup bag and gotten sick of just using a large gallon-sized Ziploc bag (not accumulating more products simply wasn't an option), I decided to dump everything into this bad boy. Now, here I am a few years later, and at times, I can't even get this bag to zip closed - I have that much makeup (you can never have too much!) So since it has been a while since I've shared a few of my favorite go-to products with you, I wanted to pull a few chosen items out of my bag and show them off. These are products I find myself using every time I do my makeup - they are absolute essentials!
Victoria's Secret Illuminating Face Powder in Fixation
The pictures unfortunately don't do this product justice. You know those gorgeous girls who always look like they are glowing? The ones who look like they are wearing nothing but their bare skin and maybe a coat of mascara, yet they still look absolutely radiant? This is their secret. Illuminating powder is a silky smooth highlighter that is used to attract light toward certain areas of your face, for example your cheek bones, helping to accentuate the structure of your face, all the while giving you that healthy glow. Even if I am just planning to throw on some quick mascara and head out to the grocery store, I always use a little bit of this on the top of my cheek bones - it works wonders!
Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara
If you follow me on Instagram, there is a pretty good chance that you have seen me bring up this product before and with good reason. As you can probably tell from the picture, this is just a sample mascara and I have already absolutely fallen in love with it. The brush is a bit larger when compared with the bristles you typically find at the end of your mascara wand, making clumps practically impossible. This is most definitely my mascara of choice at the current time!
Elf Eyebrow Kit
I've always been pretty big on Elf products simply because of their price (some of them are definite hits while some of them I use once, remove and then toss into the garbage can), but I had heard a lot about this product from Rachel Talbott through one of her favorites videos on YouTube and decided to check it out. Those of us with dark brows know all too well what it feels like to appear like there are chunks of your brows missing - every tiny little brow hair can turn unruly and make you look like a mad scientist. Or this guy.
While I typically stick with using just a small angled brush loaded with an eye shadow color a shade lighter than my natural brow color, I was finding that this simply wasn't lasting me all day. This duo is great because the darker side is a gel, which makes shaping your brows easy, and the left is a powder/shadow, which easily sticks to the gel, making for long lasting wear and minimal fallout. Very easy to blend and great for just about any shade of dark hair!
Mary Kay Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20
Living in the Sunshine State, SPF is a must regardless of what time of the year it happens to be. For the rest of the world, with summer right around the corner, the last thing you want to be slapping on your face is a thick, creamy foundation, let alone something without sun blocking properties. I know a lot of people are hesitant to purchase Mary Kay products, but if you can find a rep who you trust (if you can't, let me know, my sister is a wonderful MK lady!), ask them for a sample of this product. It provides you with just enough coverage to even things out, provides moisture and protects your face from the sun's harmful rays, preventing early signs of aging and possibly even more damaging long-term consequences of too much sun exposure. Perfect summertime product!
What products are you loving right now? Post below or tag me in a picture on Instagram!
Monday, April 22, 2013
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My Life Really Isn't That Interesting |
So, I lit some candles (it was a cloudy-type day), bundled up in a hoodie and sweatpants (it was like 65 out...that is cold for here, guys!), and read the entire day away - it was heavenly!
The only other thing I really accomplished on Saturday was painting my toenails. And let me tell you, they are cuuuuute! I am thinking of doing a picture tutorial on them (if anyone has any interest in something like that), so keep an eye out for it!
I have a little bit of perfecting to do, but all in all, obviously you can tell he is a fishy and obviously you can tell he is cute...and on my toe... and blowing bubbles :) So toot!
Although it wasn't technically the weekend, I received the school bag that my sister ordered for me on Thursday afternoon and was so excited. By Tavi totes are created by hand by women in Cambodia to help them break the vicious cycle of poverty. These women are business owners and 100% of the price of the bags go back into bettering their business. Talk about making more than just a fashion statement!
The pictures don't do the fabric justice - it is absolutely beautiful...extremely intricate and simply gorgeous! Needless to say, I am super pumped to start school - I haven't officially begun a countdown yet, but I do know that it is getting close! I am planning to go sink $300 into my stupid books (oh how that pains me to say!) Friday and wait forever to meet with a financial aid adviser to be sure that everything is squared away for my classes beginning on the seventh. In other news, my sister is coming to visit me in mid July and I couldn't be more excited! Hubby just recently purchased his plane ticket to fly up to Nebraska and visit his parents/go to their annual family reunion during the same time (prior to knowing Em was coming down here), and who would have thought things would work out so perfectly - now I don't have to stay here all alone! Yayyyy! Happy Monday everyone and have a great week!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Declaring Residency as a Military Spouse/Financial Aid Help |
I wanted to try to find an example of actual US military orders, but apparently you aren't allowed to make copies of them (same with your military ID), so let's scratch the idea!
Your military significant other's orders are crucial in declaring residency in the state in which you reside. Without them and proof of your marriage, you may be subjected to paying thousands more for "out-of-state" tuition costs, which who wants to do that even if you are lucky enough to have landed full-ride scholarships and financial aid?
As far as non-military folk are concerned, you are a resident of whichever state your driver's license is from. For example, mine is South Dakota even though we have lived in Florida for over a year and purchased and have been residing in a house here. But as an active military member (or dependent) in most states, you are not required to get your DL renewed once it expires - I couldn't honestly tell you why. A funny example is Hubby's mother's driver's license. I believe it was over 20 years old as of a couple of years ago when Hubby's father retired from the Air Force. Since he was retiring from the service, she was going to have to go through the hassle of getting it renewed some place. This isn't to say that you can't renew your license in a state in which you were assigned, though. By all means, you can if you choose but for the purpose of this post, I am going to assume you have not. Without a driver's license or changed license plates (which similarly to the DL, in most states you also can keep your plates from the same state as your license so long as the tags are up to date), it's pretty darn tootin' hard to prove to skeptical financial aid officers that you are a resident somewhere, especially when they have no clue what military regulations are and are not.
So where do you go from here? You've applied for financial aid through FAFSA, maybe even have some MyCAA funds left but this out-of-state tuition deficit is really kicking your butt. As a military spouse, all you are required to provide the financial aid office with is a copy of your spouse's orders (with you listed as a dependent) to your current location and your military ID. After that, you qualify for resident tuition. To sum it up, the things you need to take with you to the financial aid office are:
1. A copy of your spouse's official orders with you listed as a dependent.
2. Your military ID.
3. A certified copy of your marriage certificate (just in case and/or if you are not named in the orders).
I know it seems kind of like duh, but a lot of financial aid offices are awful when it comes to basic knowledge of how things operate for military spouses - active duty members they are typically alright with but when it comes to dealing with spouses, it's best if you take charge to be sure they aren't somehow messing things up for you. So if you are starting your college journey like me or are already a year or so in, I hope this information serves you well and helps make the enrollment process a little less stressful (ha!) ;-P
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It's a Cheat Day |
Now, onto post numero uno...the personal post. I woke up yesterday morning not to my annoying marimba alarm going off on my phone, but to Grizzly rooting around in his litter box. Really? Realllyyyyy?? is all I could think. I got out of bed with a grunt of oh-no-you-di'iiint-girlfran and threw Grizzly (it was more of a gentle toss...) out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. The nerve of this cat, right? Rooting around in his litter box when I was trying to sleep! All in a huff, I grabbed my phone and checked the time. 7:27 a.m. .... wait, WHAT??? I specifically remembered setting it to go off at 7:07! I swiped my way to my alarms to find that I had made the mistake of scrolling a tad too far, setting the alarm for 7:07 p.m. rather than a.m. Greaaaaat - I was running late for orientation. I was already in a panic because the afternoon prior I had received an automated message from the school informing me that all late students would be SHUT out and forced to reschedule, and none of the other dates would work for me due to my work schedule. So after taking what felt like either the worlds fastest or most hectic (or both) shower, I hunted down Grizzly, gave him a huggy and opened a can of his favorite Fancy Feast as a peace offering. Of course he accepted.
After wasting some time harassing Diezel (my new favorite past time) and watching Hubby cuddle him after he got home from work
(
) ...so tooot! :)
) ...so tooot! :)
I was finally ready to hit the road for my 30 minute drive to campus. Of course I was late by a couple of minutes (I raced past a stopped greyhound bus that was picking someone up to try to make it on time...pretty sure that's illegal!). However, I arrived before the orientation instructor did, so I was golden ;) There were only a few other people there, none of which seemed too enthusiastic about being at a less than entertaining orientation on their Friday morning. And then there was me. So happy and overjoyed to even be there that I would smile at every lame-o joke the woman doing orientation would fire off and willingly pretend to fall for all of her spring-loaded ask-me-more questions. To give you an even clearer picture, I had only had one cup of coffee that morning...it was pure excitement keeping me with a pulse!
After the orientation had ended, I met up with the admissions counselor (after waiting a good half an hour for my name to be called) and verified that I was indeed a military spouse and we were assigned here, for which I was awarded a pink slip that would allow my admission into the test taking area. The night before I had studied like a madman - on the practice tests I had taken online, my weak point was reading comprehension, so I spent until 12:00 a.m. or so reading about NASA and women's rights protesters and Sacagajuwea (how the hell do you spell her name????) and, well, you get the picture. It took me 2:49:00 to complete the 3-section test consisting of 30 questions in the categories of reading comprehension, writing and math. I felt like that one old person going back to college in a class full of little brand new baby high school graduates. It was awful. To make things even more awkward, a large group of high schoolers came in and began testing when I was about 3/4 of the way through the test. Man O man did they STINK. LITERALLY! I don't know if all high schoolers have a stench to them (although I do recall some real stinkers in my high school), but sweet baby Jesus were they ripe! All the more motivation for me to cruise through the math portion even faster...not to mention the test proctor hovering around my desk like a flipping vulture (grr).
After simplifying my last polynomial, I was redirected to the screen showing me what my scores were. I was overtaken with panic - were my scores high enough? Was I going to have to take some Reading for Dummies 101 class and be the only one whose native language is English in said class??? The proctor printed out the sheet with my scores on them and recommended classes and went over them with me.
Her first comment: "Wow, you got a perfect score in writing!" came as kind of a surprise to me. I oftentimes take grammar/writing portions of tests too lightly as it's something I am constantly around on-the-job all day, every day. She went on to tell me that I had scored well in math and "college ready" in reading...although I was a little embarrassed about only scoring about 6 points above the cut-off for "college ready."
Next stop: Academic adviser's office! After waiting what felt like at least an hour, my name was finally called and I was paired up with a woman who gave me a highlighter color-coded list of classes (I love her!), showing me which prerequisite classes I would need to accomplish prior to applying to their nursing program. She explained the process of applying, what my grades needed to look like, etc., and then asked me if I wanted to look into summer school. I figured, heck, why not get some of the easy mumbo-jumbo out of the way during the summer during a condensed, quicker version of the course so I am able to devote my undivided attention to classes like College Algebra and A&P + Lab? I was initially thinking of trying to get Composition out of the way, but the adviser quickly steered me away from that idea, telling me that regardless of if you are taking the condensed class or not, you would still be required to write a 15 page paper at the end, you would just have less time if you took the summer school route. No thank you!
I decided on Human Nutrition and some dumb computer class that all graduates are required to take...the books for which are well over $300 and you can't find them used anywhere. Awesome blossom, folks! :) I'm definitely not complaining, though, because if all I end up having to pay for out of pocket after the help of the remainder of my MyCAA funds is the books, I will be one happy girl.
Sounds like a pretty exciting day, right? It got even better...and I really mean it. I. made. a. FRIEND! I had been in contact with another wife who I met through the MacDill Spouses page on Facebook for quite some time, but our schedules never seemed to line up to allow us to meet up. Our husbands even work on the same aircraft and had met...we just hadn't yet. Well, yesterday evening we met them at Applebee's and had a wonderful evening. We got along really well and she seems like someone I would definitely enjoy hanging out with on a more regular basis (our schedules allowing ;-P).
So there you have it, folks. This weekend has been going fabulously. I am planning on having our old neighbors' daughter, Alex, over today to help me make some doggy biscuits for Diezel (since he can't have grain and his are over $8 a bag!), and Hubby is going to go golfing with her dad. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend - be safe and have fun! :)
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