A Few Things

Still sick. I woke up determined to go to observation today. I got up at 6, took a shower, got dressed, did my make up, and felt awful. I knew I would need to go to the doctor, but if I went to observation, I wouldn't have an opportunity to do so. I have class at 6 tonight.

So I called in sick.

Made a doctor's appointment.

Got into pajamas.

And fell asleep again for a few hours with wet hair.

(Not advised.)

Now it's almost time for my appointment. I tried to eat some lunch, but my appetite is really messed up. My stomach knows it's hungry, but my mouth doesn't want to eat anything. I wish I had an IV.

I also wish that doctors still came to your house, with a pocket watch and a black bag. You could just lay in bed, and the doctor would come and see you. Except that in the days when doctors did that, they would also do things such as drain your blood, stick leeches on you, stick cold rags on you and turn to your family members and tell them, "I'm afraid I've done all I can do. Now we must wait."

So yeah... maybe I'm glad doctors know more now. I got a leech on my foot once (from playing in a creek) and it was a scarring experience. No more leeches for me.

I am thankful to have so many friends call me or send me messages saying "get well"!! Carolyn brought me some soup yesterday which was really sweet. I have been eating it all since she brough it. Thank you, Carolyn! And last night, Austin surprised me by showing up at my door. He actually scared my roommate who was on her way out. I didn't think Austin had time to see me, but he came over anyways, and brough me a bunch of flowers. They look like purple daisies, but they probably have a different name. He got a little card thing too to put with it. He said they had "Get Well Soon" cards but he found one that said "For My Teacher" and thought it was way funnier. So I have a teacher card attached to my flowers. :)

Another thing that is making me feel much better is my Rooibos tea that I bought the other day. It reminds me of England. I first had it when I was babysitting for some little British children down the street - their house was freezing, so naturally I made myself some tea to keep warm. The only kind they had was called "African Redbush Tea", which I later found out is the same as "Rooibos". I made myself a cup, and loved it - it's great for you, similar to green tea and full of antioxidants. It's also naturally caffeine free. It became my babysitting ritual whenever I would look after those kids. I would put them to sleep, go downstairs and make myself a cup of redbush tea. The cup I'm drinking now is the first cup I've had in a long time. It brings back memories. My mom is in love with the stuff, too. I highly recommend it for all you tea lovers out there.

Well, Carolyn is coming to pick me up in five minutes so I should put some shoes on and get a bag ready.

More later,
Katie

Sick Day

I am convinced that I was meant to live in Jane Austen's time. I absolutely adore period films like Pride and Prejudice (the 6 hour BBC one is way more accurate), Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Wives and Daughters (not Jane Austen), etc. I have been watching Sense and Sensibility today since I am sick. It is terribly romantic and beautiful. In my freshman and sophomore years of high school, my class studied Pride & Prejudice. I fell in love with the book, and I got to visit many of the places where the movie was filmed. Actually, the new Pride & Prejudice was filmed at my favorite house in England: Chatsworth. We used to go there almost every year when we lived there.







Gorgeous, no?

The one good thing about period films is that there is generally no cussing and no raunchy parts. I also love the language they use - it is so proper and elegant! I love their clothes and hair. I think I could definitely live back then. Although, I would probably be really poor. And since I have no brothers, some random cousin or someone would inherit my house. Yeah, I'd be poor. I always relate my family to the Bennett family - they had five girls, too. But this means that I would be Jane. I don't really like Jane that much. She was supposed to be the prettiest, which is good I guess, but I don't like her personality.

As I said earlier, I am sick. I'm pretty sure that I have a sinus infection, since I have had about five million in my life, and am pretty used to them. However, the doctor didn't give me anything that is actually helping. He gave me some decongestant, which also happens to be a stimulant. This isn't so great since it is keeping me from sleeping well. Yesterday was no good - I felt absolutely awful all day long. Austin came by last night and brought me some chicken soup. He is so sweet! Poor guy, it's his busy week this week. He has a bunch of interviews and informationals, as well as two tests. I know he must be worn out. Anyways, I am feeling a little better today. I can actually sit up and my fever is going away. I had about 100-101 for the whole of yesterday. Now it's down to 99.2. It's been hovering about 99-99.5 for the past few hours. The medicine the doctor gave me isn't working that well. I need antibiotics. Oh well... hopefully tomorrow I'll feel well enough to go to observation. I am missing a day today, but it's better than getting the children sick and feeling miserable all day. It just sucks because I'll have to make up a day of observation on a Friday or Monday. :-/

Enough about being sick!

So... Spring Break is coming up. Carolyn and I will be home for the week, and Austin is going on "Man Trip", where he will drive around Texas with his buddies and camp, hike etc. Austin wants to take me to the rodeo later in the week, but I'm not sure how that'll work out since I don't have my own car. It would be so much fun, though! I hope it works out. Spring Break will be awesome. I can't wait to have a week to relax and recover from this busy semester. It is wearing me out!

Well, I need to go lay down now. I am tired and achey.

I hope you guys are having a great week!

-Katie

Spending Some Time With The Old Me

Wow.

I mean really, wow.

I have been trying to find something to do with my time tonight, and after exhausting all of my usual websites (facebook, email, other people's blogs), I typed in the address to the blog I had from November 11, 2003 - March 8, 2007.

Yep, I decided to dig the xanga blog out of the grave for a little while.

The most recent entries on that website were boring, so I decided to look up what I wrote on February 17 in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Then I just started reading random stuff.

I really can't believe not only what I wrote, but how much I wrote. I would write a phenomenal amount of stuff at a time, sometimes multiple times each day. I was probably a better writer, too, to be honest. I was still taking English classes.

Here are some things that I found:

A post about my No Shave November experience (picture included)

Quite a few posts mentioning 80's dance parties... apparently I liked them a lot

Found out the exact day my old roommates and I made up KXAN (September 13, 2005)

Posts about the frustration of having curly hair (I had not yet found the magical solution that I use now)

I realized that I am/was really weird

A post about my last day with my high school friends before coming to college

A post written the day I got baptized

A post about my last day in high school

A post about how our "Leavers Ball" (like a formal for seniors in high school) cost $54,000. Good freakin grief!!!!!! Wow high school was another world.

Posts about people I don't even remember... I have been sitting here thinking, "Who's Amy?" after reading about a party I went to at her house, and how we danced for hours in her living room. But seriously, who on earth is Amy?

OH WAIT!!!!!!! Oh I got it. She was in my class. It was her birthday party.

I was reminded of how incredibly difficult high school was for me

A post about the trip my sister, my dad and I took to Barcelona when we were like 18 and 16. Remember that, Carolyn? We walked around the city on our own the entire day? That feels like a lifetime ago.

Lots of those quiz things that were really popular when we were younger

I realized how immature I was

I also realized how I haven't changed much about some things

A post about the time I bought the pair of jeans that I was wearing today (if that makes any sense)

A post that simply said, "Today, I saw the pheasant." Carolyn, do you know what that means?

Apparently I was obsessed with chocolate cake for a while. I still love it, but it isn't my #1 passion like it used to me, I guess.

I have read about things that I was praying about in my life back then, and just think about how God has answered those prayers in completely amazing ways



I have spent about 2 or more hours just reading some of my old posts. Memories are just flooding back as I remember what my life used to be like, and how much it has changed. My stomach now has a knot in it, because I long to go back and relive those memories. I haven't been to England in about a year and a half, which is so strange to me. I have already forgotten so many things about living there.

I decided that I am going to try to get my old blog printed off and bound into a book, just in case xanga ever deletes all their accounts. I want my children to be able to read it. It wasn't a diary because nothing I wrote was secretive, but it certainly helps anyone reading it to see what I was like back then.

If you care to read my old blog, you can go here. It might make for an enjoyable read, but maybe not.

Spending some time with the old me has made me realize how blessed I am and how much I love life. God is good. He has proved Himself over and over again as faithful, loving and true. Even though things have changed over the years, and that is evident in my blog, the one thing that has always been constant is my King. And for that I am truly thankful.

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful weekend. I certainly have, but now it's time to get some sleep.

Goodnight.

Where You Should Put Your Trash

I don't appreciate the fact that I have seen some large cockroaches scurrying across the ground. AT NIGHT. That just freaks me out! I don't really care too much if I see one in broad daylight, since I can see it from a distance and avoid it at all costs. However, in the dark, it's hard to spot those little guys. Sometimes the moon shines just enough to see one run right in front of you, really fast. I saw one tonight as I was walking to my car after church, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to get both of my feet OFF the ground, pronto. I made it to my car and shuddered. This is probably the only bad thing about the Spring time.

Speaking of Spring time - I think it could be here! Or here for a little bit, at least. It has been absolutely gorgeous outside recently. I wore a SKIRT yesterday for the first time in a while, and flip-flops have been my shoe of choice over the past few days. Soon, I will be having picnics in Academic plaza for lunch. I should suggest this to my methods section. They have been frequenting the Chicken for lunches recently, probably because of the beer (they like to fill up before our second set of classes), so maybe they won't be so keen on the idea. However, I bet Lauren and Ali would have a picnic with me! :)

Whoop, I just put some links in my post! I am so technological haha!

I tend to think of Glad ForceFlex garbage bags as completely indestructible. Does anyone else have this mindset? My roommate and I actually buy them, partly because they seem fun and cool - the yuppie thing to do with your trash - and partly because they are actually pretty strong. Maybe it's the commercials, but I have this notion that if you put a knife pointy-side down in the bag, it will simply bounce back into the bulk of the bag. Nothing's gonna break that sucker. I know it's going to break eventually, because it's made of thin plastic, but I still can't shake the surface belief that nothing can harm the physical being of a Glad ForceFlex garbage bag. It's the Superman of garbage bags. I really do believe that.

Well, I'm tired and I need to relax. See you guys on the flip side.

-Katie

Things Like Wet Arms Do Not Make My Day

Every time I check my blog I am faced with a clock in a trash can, and it's beginning to freak me out. The interesting thing is that the clock has an electrical cord with a plug attached to it. I don't think I've ever seen a clock that you plug into the wall. And it's weird that it never occured to me how weird that was until now.

So, yesterday in class we were taught how to determine the readability of a piece of writing, ie. what grade level it is. There is actually a funtion on Microsoft Word that will do this automatically. I had a little fun this afternoon playing with some different things, and figuring out the grade of children that would be able to read them. I checked a portion of my blog, and it determined that it had a readability level of 4.7. Does that shock anyone? I write like a 4th grader! Well, I guess when I really think about it, it makes sense. I am more mathematically inclined. I use short words. I frequently have to ask people "what does that mean?" if they use a particularly long word. I am not that smart when it comes to English.

Tonight I figured out how to make a chocolate sauce from scratch. It worked, and the sauce looked so rich and amazing that I decided to pour it on top of some Homemade Vanilla Blue Bell. The hot sauce drizzled nicely over the cold ice cream and then decided to harden. I expected the sauce to act very much like Hershey's syrup, but no. I had globs of chocolate frozen to my spoon, and my dreams of mixing the sauce into my ice cream to make it chocolatey were crashed. It'll be a long time before I make that sauce again.

There are a few things in life that are really annoying. Like paper towel dispensers that you have to reach UP to use. You've just washed your hands and they are dripping with water and in need of some nice brown paper towels to absorb it all. You look around the bathroom for the paper towel dispenser and -oh- there it is! Above your head. So you reeeeeeaaaach up very slowly to press the lever down, but it's too late - there's water running all the way down your arms towards your armpits. Your sleeves get so wet that you might as well forget the towels and wipe your hands on your shirt. It's crazy that the paper towel dispenser installing people didn't figure gravity into the picture.

I'm sure this lady is really starting to feel the water soaking her sleeve right about now.

Tomorrow night I am going to the Corps of Cadets Association Banquet. Austin is singing at the banquet with Aggieland Orchestra, so I get to be his date. I have to dress up real fancy, so that's exciting. I don't get to put on a dress very often! I am excited to be able to go. I can't wait to hear him sing. He has a wonderful voice but is so humble about it. He just refuses to admit to being awesome! :)

Well, I'm getting bored of sitting in front of my computer. I have done a lot of my homework so I'm going to watch a movie or something.

I hope you all enjoy your Friday nights!

-Katie

P.S. I know it looks like I might be making fun of people who use wheelchairs, but I promise I'm not. These pictures were just the only ones I could find of people reaching to get a paper towel.

Wasting Time

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to amuse myself for hours on end... without leaving my house. I am without a car today because Carolyn already left to go to Dallas. I have been stuck at home pretty much all day. Yet I haven't become bored quite yet. Where does all my time go?

Let's see....

I took a nap for 2 hours (and got interrupted by a phone call).

I ate lunch (I love salsa turkey).

I took a shower (and shaved for the first time in a while).

I got dressed (it took me a while to decide what to wear).

I put on a little makeup and did my hair (yay curly hair).

I folded my laundry (I wash my towels a lot).

I talked on the phone with Austin for about 3 mintues (Juarez applications are out!).

I had fun trying on a bunch of outfits I made up out of items from my closet (I came up with some cute stuff).

I packed a little (socks, underwear, a pair of jeans).

I danced to the music on my iPod (I don't care what you say, I don't care what you heard, the word "love" - ha - luv is a verb!).

I tried on my rainboots (they are always adorable).

I played with a flashing ice cube that Austin gave me (oooh! Pretty green light!).

I checked my email and facebook (no new wall posts or messages).

I put some more clothes in the wash (I might want to pack some for this weekend).

I danced some more (I'm not ashamed to let you know... I want this light in me to show...).

Now I'm blogging (to pass the time).

...And that's pretty much it.

I am a genius at wasting time. I bet I could win an award, because I can spend hours on end doing absolutely nothing. It's not that I waste time all the time, but when I really don't have any pressing engagements, I will do one of my many time wasting activities. Most of the activities I start don't get finished. Like the packing.

Hot chocolate sounds really good right about now. And some ice cream. Maybe some hot chocolate with ice cream on top! What a wonderful idea. I'm going to do it.

I went to a meeting this morning for student teaching. I had thought about student teaching in Denton, and that way I can live at home and not pay rent for a semester. Not only that, but I can come home at the end of the day and have my meals cooked for me. That sounds GREAT right about now. At the meeting, they told us a list of districts that we could student teach in if we didn't want to teach in Bryan or College Station. Sadly, Denton wasn't listed as one of them. I called my mom to tell her, and she asked about Frisco, which was actually one of the districts listed. I had thought that Frisco was too far to drive every day, but my dad drives to Plano every day without a problem. I am starting to get a little excited about this student teaching stuff. I think Frisco has nice schools. I am going to do some research and figure out which school I would like to go to.

But thinking about student teaching also makes me sad, because I haven't got a clue where Austin is going to be. He graduates in August and has been applying for jobs recently. He is applying to pretty much anywhere - including Canada. How exciting would it be to work there!?! However, I don't know what I do would do with myself if he moved to Canada. Oh, gosh. It makes me sad just thinking about it!

Well, I have been looking at the Frisco ISD website for the past few minutes, researching different middles schools. I might go do that for a little while. Plus, that hot chocolate sounds amazing right now.

-Katie