Best and mostly timely blogger ever!

Ya..
About that...
I got so busy!!!!

Summer ended and school started and everything went nuts.

So instead of  trying to catch you up, here is a synopsis:
school
workout
people visiting :)
sleep
dogs
cats
food
weight loss

So that's what's up in my life. Trying really hard not to get behind in my classes because we have at least 2, but sometimes 3, tests every week and somehow through factors beyond my control all of my weekends are getting taken up!

But with really fun things. Like Mike coming to spend our 4 year anniversary with me, getting a picture taken with us and the animals, going into St. Louis on Sat night to celebrate the anniversary. And going home to babysit my little, baby brother and the dogs. And seeing Mike again.

It's so very stressful to be me.

I did help farrow (farrow = pigs giving birth) some gilts (gilts = first time pig mommies) in the middle of the night. The experience was amazing because I had never dealt much with pigs and especially momma pigs. It was so neat to see them dry off, get their first meal, and start running around like crazy piglets. Even some of the littlest little bitties got up and got going pretty fast.

My friends and I are having a weight loss competition which is a great way to keep ourselves motivated. We all weigh in once a week and the person with the highest percentage at the end gets a Dicks gift card which will be paid for by $10 from each loser :) It is a fun way to encourage each other and keep ourselves healthy as school starts to get real busy. I have been using the myfitnesspal.com app which I HIGHLY recommend. So easy to use, lets you follow your friends and has a barcode counter for easy nutrition fact counting. People who have logged with weight watchers and myfitnesspal say that the food amounts are very similar. I just like keeping track of my food and workouts together.

So enough bout me for now. Everyone is marrying, getting engaged, and having babies. Congrats to everyone!

Symposium

I really have been uber busy, ask anyone.

But it's no excuse!

I spent this whole past weekend at an absolutely stellar research conference in Colorado. Because I am too lazy to type in full paragraphs, I'll break it down in bullet form then give ya some pics I stole from a class mate :-)

• food was AMAZING. We had like 3 snack breaks a day with coffee, water, juice, candy bars, chips, ice cream, or at least 3 of the above at every break
• Free breakfast - 'nuff said
• Free drinks in the evening
• Awesome BBQ where I got to hear Temple Grandin speak for the second time. She is amazing and so bad-ass for lack of a better work. Google her. I linked the advertisements for her movie and her book (I own a signed copy).
  
• There was free beer.
• We got $15 to go out on the town and had a blast.
• When moving from bar to bar, one person yelled "M-I-Z" and everyone else yelled "Z-O-U"
• Saw my cousin who lives in Colorado and met her dog!
• So many presentations about seriously cool research projects
• Presented my poster, did not feel like a moron, dressed like a grown up
• Dressed like a grown-up all weekend
• Loooooong bus rides both ways
• Not much sleep
• Stayed up too late, got up too early, was happy
• Hiked in Rocky Mountain National park - 8.5 miles. 
• For the first time ever, I was the one climbing the big rocks first and was one of the faster hikers. Big change from Outdoor Adventure Club
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  



Beautiful lake!



Look I'm teeny tiny



Climbing to the edge to get a better pic

 My new roomie moved in and she is awesome! She brought a little bitty dog, but the pup is awfully cute and causes no trouble at all. She is also scared of my cat and my cat is very aware and may or may not chase her for fun. Mean...but funny.

I cannot wait to go to VET and get to know all the first years.

Also cannot wait for my man and I to celebrate 4 amazing years together in a month. It both seems like we've been together forever and like time is passing way to quick. Harvey turned 3 this past month, everything is going too quick!

I have month full of awesome, oh and school is starting too, with a batch of new classes and an insane test schedule. At least 2 every week, sometimes 3. But some days... I get out at 1 pm. In fact, most days I get out then :-)

Life is good and the mountains were beautiful and I am happy.

...and then they do this...

This is what they do....

Summer, so close!

Only 3 finals and no classes stand between me and summer!

My best friend since elementary school came this past weekend which was so awesome! She finally got to see where I live, meet my friends, go out dancing, and generally enjoy being together which we haven't gotten to do in a long time. I really missed that kid.

My boyfriend has been super amazing, per usual, but this time it involved sending me gorgeous flowers during a really busy week. They are so gorgeous! They are some style of lily with pinks, oranges, and yellows. It's been more than a week and they haven't even started to droop. I have gotten so much enjoyment out of these, they make our kitchen so bright and sunny!

Speaking of summer, I have been having fun despite still having class. I have been boating with the family, laying by the pool, getting blood from dogs, and generally really enjoying this whole block. It is seriously 105° in Missouri but I choose to embrace the heat and try to enjoy the sunlight.

The dogs are still deeply enjoying each others company. To give you a little snapshot into my life, I share the following description of approximately 4:30pm everyday, about half an hour before dinner for dogs:

Dynia - loud yawn with half whine, sad puppy eyes, run frantically to the food bowl.
Myself and my roommate - "it is not dinner time"
Both dogs hear the word dinner
Harvey and Dynia - cock head to the side, wiggle tail/nub, do half dance towards the food bowl
Harvey - jump on top of my roommate's notes and curl up with his face near to hers to be in the best possible location for the dinner announcement.

5:00pm:
Roommate or myself - "are you a hungry puppy?"
Both dogs - frantic jumping , running to bowl and back, wagging tail/nub, ears perked up
Humans - "tell me!"
Both dogs - quiet whine with frantic running
Humans "tell me louder!"
Both dogs - "obnoxious bark"
Harvey then dashes upstairs and Dynia runs to her food bowl.

And that repeats.....Every evening....
At least they are smart crazies.

I am so happy to be finally done with classes, even if we do have 3 finals left. It just gives me hope that the summer is coming. Even though I will be working in the lab pretty much full time, at least there won't be studying and homework and my evenings will actually belong to me. I really can't wait for all the fun trips we have planned for VRSP (the research program I'm doing). I will get to go camping and go on a float trip which will involve just enough learning to make feel productive while I float down the river while drinking. It's hard being a research scholar ;-) 

On a more serious note, I am really learning a lot in research. Even if I wasn't learning anything about inflammation and Sepsis because I haven't really started the lab work on my project, just going into the ICU a couple times a week makes me feel like a part of the hospital and keeps me up to date on what is going on. I also get to meet a lot of clinicians and look at numerous patients to get a feel for the cases and what kind of problems are common in the intensive care unit.

The summer is trying to drag me in, my brain keeps telling me to study for my finals, but my summer brain keeps telling me that there are so many books I want to read. Just wait summer brain, all in due time.

One of friends is fostering kittens for the humane society. There a 3 kittens with a combined weight of 4.5 lbs. If you are too poor for cable, I suggest kitten fostering. Food, litter, and toys are all paid for. All you gotta do is keep them from electrocuting themselves, feed them, and let them entertain themselves and you. Absolutely crazy and hilarious. I will try to post a video of them later.

Go enjoy your summer you lucky ducks, I'll be joining you soon!

Clicker Training

I've also started clicker training Harvey.
You use a clicker to "mark" the good behaviors. For instance I am teaching H to touch a measuring cup with his nose.
The clicker is one similar to the ones shown here:




You know how long it takes to get a treat out of your pocket or how long it takes to say "Good dog"? Well that time makes it hard to get a dog to know exactly what you think is awesome. Since the dog learns to associate the clicker with a treat, the click tells that dog that they did a good job. The sound is an immediate signal that the exact thing you wanted was the right thing to do. '

I am teaching H the command "Touch" because it can lead to other fun tricks and I can put the cup different places and get him to go away from me to "Touch". One of my friends is very into dog training of all kinds and she wants to show me how to teach him scent discrimination. This would teach him to pick out the object that I touched specifically, pretty cool huh?

Thought I'd share a little about my non vet school life. It's not all studying haha!

Summer got real.

So my lazy summer gets a little busier when you cram lots of fun things into it.
Easy classes still have tests and when you spend your weekends visiting your family, going to weddings, and hanging with your boyfriend.

But the busier I am, the more productive I am - which bodes well for the days ahead.

Saturday I will be driving to Kansas City to celebrate my not-so-little brother's 21st birthday!!! Finally he is legal and we are going to the Power and Light district to party with the world's most fun parents :-)
But next week I have 3 tests, a paper, and a presentation.

My bf left today after an amazing 10 day visit. I told him it is kind of like someone giving you a sneak preview of a movie. When he stays for a weekend, it's like seeing a few minutes of the movie and you can remember the whole time that it's only a preview. But with ten days it is like someone let me watch the whole first half hour, you get a little sucked in and you start to forget that you don't get to see the ending. It was so fun having here though. I gotta say, he is a top notch wedding date. Friendly, fun, and he dances. He asked me to dance for almost every slow song; spun me,  dipped me, couldn't ask for a better partner.

The Harv-man is here for good! He and my roommate's dog are so happy to see each other that they can't even stand it. H may be out of shape, but he won't be for long with all this playing. Plus I get to take him to the park and we are going to start taking longer walks in the morning. Good for me, good for him and hopefully the exercise will keep him from barking in his kennel.

I think I will keep getting up early to study and hopefully get ahead so I am not dying with all my stuff next week. I obviously won't be studying Saturday night ;-) At least this block I get out around 2 or 3 instead of 5 or 6pm.

I just got an email saying that - as long as Dr. VRSP says I have room in my research schedule - I get to go help out with the VET program this summer. For those of you have been reading my blog, that is the program where the 1st years go and get to know each other at the lake. I wrote about it here, here, and here. It was an amazing bonding experience and I feel so lucky to get to be a part of it this year! Hopefully. If it all works out.

Well off to get some laundry done. I really think that during V school you should get to take time off from housework stuff... just sayin.