Hygiene Kits

This morning at 11:02am (don't you love modern technology that can tell you the exact moment you received a phone call?) I got a phone call from a member of our Relief Society Presidency. She told me that the Kansas City metro was going to have about 1000 refugees from Louisiana beginning this afternoon and they were collecting hygiene kits this week to hand out to those who ran from the hurricane (i'm so out of touch I didn't know they evacuated because of a hurricane). I made a list and decided to go to the store Tuesday and get a few things to add. Then the Bishop announced in church that we were only supposed to get our hygiene kits together but we were not asked at this time to donate anything.

This was news to me. Not the part about not donating our kits, but that we were supposed to have hygiene kits in our 72 hour kit at home ready to go at a moments notice. Obviously we don't have all our ducks in a row, but we are working on it. I knew we should have things like deoderant and toothbrush/toothpaste I just didn't realize there was a hygiene kit we were supposed to have. Sometimes I feel so behind.

Anyway, in RS today we were told that they were collecting hygiene kits and the Bishop had been fed misinformation about collecting the kits. I am going to go Tuesday (because that is when I get money) and get stuff not only to donate but also for us. Then we will have Water, tuna fish, a first aid kit, and a hygeine kit in our incomplete 72 hour kits. I really should get cracking on those, huh?

My Stephen King Affair

I realized it has been at least a week since I have blogged. That got me wondering what actually has caused the lapse. Was it because I didn't have anything to blog about? No, because Will and I have had many adventures over the past few days. Maybe my days have been so full of life before my last semester I have totally forgotten? No because I have commented on my friends blogs and kept up to date on reading them. The answer must be that I have been so obsessed with Stephen King that I have not taken time to do anything else. King has this Dark Tower series that has seven books. I started reading them when I was in college the first time (around 1997 or so) and was totally hooked. I cannot recall when my love affair with Stephen King actually began, but it must have been in late high school because anything creepy used to totally freak me out and I wouldn't watch or read anything like that. Actually, that isn't true. I used to read Christopher Pike when I was a kid, so I guess creepy things were interesting to me. I went through a phase where if I hadn't read or seen it already, and it was creepy, I wouldn't watch or read it. Silly I know, but it's true.

Somehow, in my college years, I got over that fear. It must have been a combination of dorm life and Rhia. Rhia and I went to see The Blair Witch Project together in the movie theaters. Remember that? It gave me a headache but I was freaked out until the end. The end left me cold. Anyway, I digress. So, I became obsessed with these books, The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The first book, The Gunslinger, was published in 1978 for the first time. However, King had been working on it since his college days. It's an interesting story of how he found these books and characters and wrote them over a span of at least four decades. I borrowed the books from good ole' SFA's library one at a time and devoured them. The first four books had been published by then, and I read them all. I also bought them as I found them at the book store. I am pretty sure I bought the first three books used. I had to wait, with the rest of the world, until 2003 to read the fifth book, but after that, King finished them right in a row and the seventh and final book was published in 2004.

Sorry the story ended up being so long. The point is that I have begun reading these books again and Matt is right, I am obsessed. He has called me an addict at least three times since I started reading the books again. I am halfway through the third book, The Waste Land. If anyone out there is a Stephen King fan and has not read these books, I highly recommend them, but the recommendation comes with a few warnings:
1. These books are addictive
2. There is plenty of bad language, so if you don't like bad language, don't read them
3. There is also lots of blood, guts, and gore (which I really like), so be warned.
4. These books are highly disturbing (as Stephen King can be) and I have had one huge nightmare so far. Oh, and they really arn't for Sunday reading (which probably means I shouldn't read them at all, but let's face it, i'm not that strong)

School starts again Tuesday and then I cannot be quite as obsessed as I would like to be, but we all have our trials, right?

I just found a website for these books. It is http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/
Check it out.

Our Omaha Vacation

Since very few of you are interested in a play by play of The Ware Family trip to Omaha, NE that happened over Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I'll give it to you anyway, but in numbered format to make it easier to skip over.

1. We got up out of bed, got dressed, went to the gas station, and got on the road.

OK, for real now. The condensed, numbered Omaha vacation:
1. Drove to Omaha. Stopped outside of Nebraska City where William entertained himself in some cars at the gas station.
2. Had lunch with Suzzanne and walked around the Old Market for a while.

3. Went to dinner at The Amazing Pizza Machine where we had pizza, played games, and had way too much fun.
4. Wednesday morning. We sat around until 1pm or so and watched TV/ Movies and took naps. It was awsome. Oh, and William Discovered the joy of the guitar. He was playing and singing for us. It was awsome!

5. We went to Target with Suzzanne so she could get her new glasses (which took waaaay too long) and then went to visit our friend Shawn Harwood. She is so pregnant she's going to pop any day. It was great to see her and visit for a bit. Her son was so cute.

6. We were going to have dinner at this place that we had seen on the TV show Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives. It looked fabulous but was closed. Turns out it is only open for breakfast and lunch. We will have to check it out some other time.

7. We ate at a Mexican restaurant in the Old Market and then went to the Gene Lahey (sp?) mall and sat enjoyed the outdoors for a few minutes.

8. After it began to get dark, we decided to go back to Suzzanne's house where she made chocolate mayonnaise cupcakes to celebrate my dad's 65th birthday. See previous post for pictures from that event.

9. Thursday morning were un-tearful farewell's as Suzzanne was going off to work. It was the last time we will see her until she gets back from graduate school in a little over a year. We had a great time in Omaha and will miss our great friend Suzzanne.

Happy 65th Birthday Dad

For those of you who don't know, my dad died on August 17, 2005. A few days ago we...... what do you do when you remember somebody's death day. You don't really celebrate, but I can't think of a better word. You get the point. ANYWHOO, yesterday was my dad's birthday. August 20th. He would have been 65 years old. Matt, Will, and I were in Omaha visiting our friend Suzzanne who is moving to Nottingham, England in four short weeks for a full year to go to grad school. In honor of my dad's birthday, Suzzanne made cupcakes. She made chocolate mayonnaise cupcakes (totally awsome) and orange cream cheese frosting. It was a perfect celebration. Dad's favorite color was orange and one of his favorite people, besides me, was Suzzanne. I miss my dad, but he would have appreciated the celebration!

Family

In our little group of friends we talk about the family we choose rather than the family you are born into. I love the family I was born into

and I love the family I choose.

I even love the family I married into,

but sometimes I just want to leave it all behind and live on a deserted island just me and my husband and my beautiful son for a couple of weeks. Doesn't that sound great?

I love my family, but they sure do drive me crazy. Why can't everyone be exactly the way I want them to be all the time? Why can't I be the way I want to be all the time?

School

I cannot believe it, but yet again I pulled off a semester with all A's. Even though I just finished my final yesterday, my grades are already posted. I have a 4.0 for the semester but a 3.51 overall. That got me thinking, I really wish I could go back and re-do some of my earlier classes where I didn't get A's because it would be really cool to have a 4.0 overall, or something close. It took me 30years to decide school was important enough to really try hard in and to get good grades. Oh well. At least we know I am ok at nursing and that I made the right second career choice. I guess we can't all get things right the first time, huh?

Breaking Dawn

I don't want to give anything away for those who have not finished it yet, like my friend Michelle. I just wanted to say HOLY FREAKING GOODNESS! I was wonderful and made me happy in so many ways. Plus, I read it in 22 hours. I would have finished sooner but I had to study for my final and then take my final this morning. I am happy and content for now. I cannot wait for the movie!

I Heart the Olympics

I know that many people in my life have said that the Olympics are stuipd and they won't be watching them. I am not one of those people. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS! I missed the opening ceremonies, but at least you can watch pieces of them online. I have been obcessed with Michael Phelps and his goal of 8 Olympic gold medals in this Olympics. He is looking good to make his goal. Last night he tied some record of nine medals (maybe?).

I watched the men's gymnastics team last night. They were not even supposed to be medal contenders and I watched them win the bronze medal. It was amazing! I loved their joy at being at the games and how excited they were when they realized they had medaled. None of those guys had even competed at the Olympics before. Good Job Guys!

Watching the Olympics makes me proud to be an American. It reminds me of how blessed our country is to have such wealth and prosperity. It also helps me gain a greater appreciation of other nations in this world and reminds me how similar we all are. GO TEAM USA!

Percy Jackson

For those of you who don't know, there are these books about a boy named Percy Jackson. He is a half-god, half-mortal and he has way cool adventures. When I say god I mean the Greek gods like Zeus, Hades, etc. Our friend Dave gave Matt the first three books in paperback for his birthday. While Matt was reading Breaking Dawn and I was pretending to care about my leadership class, I picked up the first Percy Jackson book and was hooked. I just finished the third one a few minutes ago - yes I finished my studying for my test first. There is a fourth book out and I want it.

I am trying to hard to wait until Friday to read Breaking Dawn that I have gotten wrapped up and obsessed with these Percy Jackson books. I never said I was normal. Is being totally addicted to books normal? I can't imagine that it is, but so many of my friends are book obsessed too. So, once everyone bounces back from the let down of finishing Breaking Dawn, I recommend that you check out these Percy Jackson books. They are a quick read, highly entertaining, and only mildly addictive (there is no major love story to get obsessed over and there is no wishing for someone to be a vampire, which totally freaked me out for a while).

On a similar note Matt and I got our friend Michelle to read the Twillight books. I'm very proud of Michelle for trying out these books. Michelle hates vampires and has been adamantly against these books for quite a while. Curiosity got the better of her and we loaned her Twilight on Wednesday. She finished it Friday and is now on to New Moon. Hooray for another addicted friend, especially one who hasn't read Breaking Dawn yet.

Check out http://www.percyjacksonbooks.com

The Internet is the Devil

I just realized that it is 10:30pm and I sat down to check my e-mail before doing some more studying at 9:45pm. The internet is a lovely tool, but it draws you in and before you know it, bedtime is here and you didn't get more done. Bad internet, Bad Emily. That is all.

The Internet at home, School, Stephanie Meyer and other unrelated things

I think Matt must have gotten seriously tired of not having the internet at home because we now have the internet at home. We had Comcast cable with internet, phone, and cable and decided to cancel that to get the iPhones. We have enjoyed the internet on our phones very much, but I cannot submit stuff for school or open school documents and print them from the phone. One day Matt was talking about getting AT&T internet at home and the next thing I knew, he was ordering it and the modem came in the mail. My life is richer because of the internet at home. Thank you Matt.

School...I know you guys are tired of hearing about school, but it is driving me crazy. First of all, I did get an A in pediatrics this summer, so that is great. Leadership, which still has two weeks left, is driving me crazy. I really like the instructor but i'm not a huge fan of her teaching methods. She has decided that instead of lecturing with power point every day for four hours (because we all know how hideous that would be) she is going to have guest speakers and stuff and we can read the material on the tests at home in our spare time. WHAT? I was very upset when she announced this on Thursday after our first test. So what do we do today for four hours, you ask. We had a power point presentation on Preceptorship and Mentoring. It was lovely but NONE of the information will be on our test. For those who don't know, preceptoring is when a nurse joins a new facility and is assigned a more experienced nurse to show them the ropes. Our second test was tomorrow (Tuesday) but she moved it to Wednesday because we haven't had enough time between Thursday last week and this week to even look at the new material.

On to Stephanie Meyer. Everyone knows that I love her writing and would love to live in her ward so we could be best friends, just like I know we would. However, due to the overwhelming amount of homework (that I should be doing now instead of blogging) I have not yet even opened her new book, Breaking Dawn. Matt is reading it now and telling me how gory it is and how much he likes it. I would appreciate it if everyone else who has finished it would keep the information to themselves. If that isn't possible, please at least put a spoiler disclaimer on your blog to let me know I shouldn't read it until I have finished the book. I am not even going to pick up the book until after my Leadership final on Friday August 15th.

Other junk: Will has this rash. It is receeding now, but it was all over his body. The doctor said it was just viral, but don't you think it would have gone away by now? I think it was viral and is now heat rash. Poor baby gets so red when he goes outside it isn't funny. It doesn't help that it has been 99 degrees with a heat index of 105-110 because of the stinking crappy humidity (those that live in DFW do not get to comment on our much cooler weather than you).

My lawn is out of control. I have got to mow it, but it's so freaking hot I keep putting it off. The weathermen are saying it is going to be int eh 80's Thursday and Friday. If I don't get eaten by the lawn before then, I guess I can attack it Thursday. Really, I just don't want too. However, soon it will be taller than Will if i'm not careful.

Speaking of Will height, when we took him to the doctor, they said he is 2 feet 11 inches. He is over half my height (i'm only 5'4"). My son is a giant. We went to a three year old birthday party yesterday and one of the boys got upset because Will took what he was playing with. I apologized to the boy and said that he is much younger than him and didn't understand. The 3 year old looked at me and said "but he's bigger than me", which he was. I said "yes, but he's still younger." My son is a giant.

That is all the stuff I can bore you with right now. Leadership is calling.