He's of the colour of the nutmeg. And of the heat of the ginger.... he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I AM STILL HERE

I haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Just the normal stuff that keeps me busy. My Coding Certification Prep class is actually going pretty well so far. I also got to Job Service and took speed typing, medical terminology, and medical spelling tests that I did well on. I am waiting to hear from them to see if I got the job or not now.

Last Sunday, the girls and I went to the pig farmer's home. They recently had a batch of piglets and the girls wanted to see them.

My mom and dad came over a few days this week and cleaned up the yard. Well, my dad did pretty much all of the cleaning. Most of the junk is gone, everything has a temporary place, and dad even cut down some small trees and branches that really opened up the yard. It is so nice to drive into my yard and see how clean it is. I wanted to clean up the yard for the last 4 years and it finally got done. There is a few more things to do, but that will come in time.

Nichole and Vanessa Moller have been visiting us quite often. It is nice cause the girls like to see them and they are fun to be around. I really like the adult conversations too! Today, Vanessa and I went into Devils Lake, and when we got back, she lightened my hair and cut it. It's short, but I think it looks nice. It is one of those clean "scruffy" cuts that you can do almost anything with. She even left it long enough so I can still put it in a ponytail.

My mom is still waiting to hear from the doctors in Fargo about surgery on her bulged disk. I guess her case needs to go in front of a board, the board examines her case to see how bad it is, then they will decide if they need to do the surgery right away, or place her on a waiting list. I hope she can get in right away. The disk really bothers a lot. Today, she went into town and got some different meds. Hopefully, these ones will work better than the ones she has tried before and she will be able to go back to work next week.

I had to call and make dentist appointments for the girls. When I was brushing Jessie's teeth a week ago, I noticed two small holes in some bottom teeth. I am thinking they may be cavities. Problem is, I am having a tough time finding a dentist close to us that accepts medical assistance. If anything, I may have to skip using the medical assistance and have Darren help me pay out-of-pocket for the expense. I am still calling around though. I haven't given up hope yet.

Tomorrow we don't have much planned. Vanessa will probably come over after work to hang out for a while before going home. Sunday, Darren is coming to get stuff out of the garage and to spend a little time with the girls. I am glad that he is coming because it has been almost 4 weeks since the girls have seen him.

Friday, May 23, 2008

ANOTHER CLASS AND ANOTHER SURGERY

I cannot remember if I posted this or not, but my instructor for Medical Billing & Coding said that I did such a good job in the Billy & Coding class, that she advised me to take the Billing & Coding Certification Prep class. I completed this class with an A at graduation, so I decided to pick up the class. It only goes until the end of July. So far, it has been really tough. Thank goodness I have an instructor that doesn't mind me emailing her with questions. Hopefully, things will begin to "click" mid-way through the class, and I will have a decent grade when I finish.

My poor mother. She just returned to work a couple of months ago, after recovering from her surgery in November. Two weeks ago, she started have deep pain in her shoulder. She took every type of pain reliever available and nothing was working. She saw her doctor, got an injection and some serious pain meds, and went to physical therapy. Still there was no change in pain. Her physical therapist said she had classic symptoms of a bulged disk in the neck. So, yesterday she went for an MRI, and today she was told that it is, in fact, a bulged disk in her neck. She stopped physical therapy because that only made the pain worse. There is nothing that will really help her now, except for surgery. She wants to have the disc replaced instead of fused. There is a doctor in Fargo that has replaced this type of thing before. In fact, the first person to have this surgery is actually a co-worker at the hospital where my mother works, and she and her surgery were featured on the WDAZ news channel a while back. We don't know when she will have surgery. Thank goodness she still has some sick time left, because she will not be able to work right now. She is going to start on heavy doses of oral steroids. The steroids will not take away the pain, but it will calm the pain down to a tolerable level so that she might be able to work until surgery.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Today, Cassidy wanted to go visit our neighbors who raise elk. The neighbors were not busy so we went over to visit. The girls got a kick looking at the elk. They are a lot larger up close than I thought they would be. They are like horses with antlers.

The neighbors have two little boys who play with the girls very well. The four kids got bored when the elk didn't come up to the fence as soon as they wanted them too. Eventually, they all wandered back to the yard to play. It was nice being able to let the kids play as Breanne and I talked and caught up on things. Grant even introduced Cassidy to a game he made up called Pillow Fish. It is quite an interesting game. They basically whack the heck out of each other with these extremely large, overstuffed fish that are, in fact, pillows. They are comfortable...if I you can handle laying your head on a huge realistic looking fish.

We were visiting for about 3 hours, when all the kids started getting hungry. Jessie also started to get a little crabby, so it was a good time to go. After we got back to our house and had a quick supper, Cassidy wanted to go for a horse ride. So, I saddled up my horse, threw the girls on her back, and we walked about a mile or so. Cassidy's hands were starting to get cold, so we came back. it was actually a nice end to a good day.

Tomorrow is full of action. The girls have a Health Tracks screening at 10:15 am. Then I need to see my Career Options case manager. She is going to take me out to get some nice clothing for my job interview. Then I need to go to Job Service and take my tests for my job interview.

Gunnar, Grant, and Cassidy



Jessie's new thing is making silly faces.





Grant, Cassidy, and Gunnar



Friday, May 16, 2008

PICS AND STUFF

Howdy, folks!

Thank you to everyone who have congratulated me on graduation, and sent me cards and stuff. I am pretty proud of myself as well. Thank You cards are in the works, please give me a little time to get them out.

Props out to Mike, who finally got the graduation pictures to me. More accurately, I took a CD up to the paper and he burned them for me so he didn't have to email all of them. There was 21 keepers out of the original 97. I posted just a few of them.

Two days ago, I applied for 3 more medical transcription jobs and reapplied at Johnson's Clinic in Rugby. I was shocked when Altru Clinic-Lake Region called me today and setup an interview for Wednesday. I am pretty nervous about it. I have to go to Job Service and take typing, spelling, and medical vocabulary tests. I don't know if you can really "fail" those tests, but I am still scared about it. I would prefer to work in Rugby and Johnson's because it is closer and I can get the girls in Head Start there. However, I am not going to be too choosy because I really need this job.

There still has been no word about our dog. Since we have not seen him for over two weeks, it is fair to say that someone picked him up or worse....R.I.P. We all really miss him a lot.

The girls and I took our cat to the vet on Monday. She had an ungodly large adrenal gland tumor behind her right front leg. The vet removed the entire gland because of the tumors size. We brought her home Wednesday and she is going good.

We are getting excited about the foal that should be born in July. Next month, I am going to have to get out in the yard, walk the pasture and straighten the fence, and then run an electric fence low to the ground to make sure the foal stays in the fence.


The graduating class of Williston State 2008

Aunty Lynnette and Cassidy

Me with two other girls from the medical transcription class. It was nice to meet them outside of a chatroom.

Me shaking the Dean's hand.
My supportive family. L to R: Cassidy, Me, my mother, my father, lil' Jessie, my sister Lynnette, and my brother Mike.

Monday, May 12, 2008

MOST BUSY WEEKEND EVER!

Wow, what a weekend!

We left for Williston around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday afternoon. Amazingly we arrived a half an hour before graduation rehearsal and had time to check into our hotel rooms and drop off stuff before heading to the college. After rehearsal, we jaunted over to the Super Wal-Mart where we picked up food to eat and a few odd things before going back to the hotel. After we all had something to eat, we went swimming. While the girls and I were swimming, my sister and mother ran to JC Penny's and did some shopping. The girls and I were in the pool for 2 hours before we decided to get out, take a bath, and get some sleep. I had finished bathing the girls and got myself dressed when Roger Stout, a friend of the family, showed up at the hotel to wish me congratulations on graduation. He took me out around town on his motorcycle for 2 and a half hours, bought be ice cream at Dairy Queen, and had some coffee before returning to the hotel at 10:45 p.m.

The next day, we were all up by 7 a.m. Mom and my sister went out on a coffee run for everyone while I got the girls ready. When they came back, we all went up for the hotels continental breakfast...which was pretty measly. Then, we raced back to the rooms and the grownups got dressed and put makeup on and took off for the college.

The graduation ceremony went very fast. The Student Address was pretty good. It was a speech put together not by the traditional, " As you go forth, when you leave here today....what you have learned...yada yada yada..." but by popular movie quotes that actually made sense together. I don't know how long it took that person to do that, but I am sure he spent more time on the speech than his finals. My brother also has his nice camera with him, so he took all of my photos. I think he took around 97 pictures, but I am sure only 10 will be keepers. When I get them from Mike, I will post them. I ran to the bookstore before we left the college. I bought a coffee cup, a T-shirt, and a really cool hooded sweatshirt. It was a very cute, small campus, and I would have loved to be on campus for classes if I didn't have children. I almost regret not being able to do the whole campus life thing.

We went back to the hotel, packed up our things, and went to the Pizza Hut two blocks from the hotel to eat before leaving for home. I was surprised by a fist full of graduation cards (Mike's card screaming Celebration by KC and the Sunshine Band is the LOUDEST musical card I have heard), and a couple gifts consisting of a matching coffee cup to the one I bought (mom thought I needed a pair) and a really nice green fleece zip up from my sister. After our fill of pizza and pasta, we said by to my dad who was headed off to check out a load he had to pick up, and then to my brother and sister who were headed to Dickinson for my brothers annual ND Newspaper award thingy.

We got home somewhere around 6. It was a long dull ride since we were driving in the rain the entire way home. After the rush of the weekend, I was glad to get home.

Now, it is time to spruce up the ole cover letter and resume and start applying for jobs.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

FOR MY MOM

My mother requested a pic of the pony with short hair. Here is it. The hair was as long as the braids. The tail was long and flowed around the hooves.....now it has quite the bobbed tail.
 


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