Training the brain

Hey Friends!

It's Monday that means I'm on week two of my EMT class. Now the fun stuff is going to start happening. I have an exam on Friday and I'm already feeling unprepared. Saturday I had this amazing spurt of energy after my workout so I cleaned the house for 3 hours then sat down with my pumpkin spice latte and studied for 3 hours. WOOP! WOOP! The problem is, I only read the first two chapters and I am supposed to have chapter 3 read by tonight. Oh well. By that time by brain started to shut down. It was done, I was done. Yesterday I was ready to conquer chapter 3, I sat down (without a latte) and read and it was over quickly. I reached for my work book and looked at question 1, something about lifting...what? I don't remember that! Then I realized I read the wrong chapter. Dang it! Not a bad thing, because I have to read it by Wednesday. My brain was shutting down again. So I called up a friend and we pounded the pavement for an hour and I returned refreshed and ready to go. I didn't do anything. I showered, went and got note cards and a latte then headed back and started my note cards. Chapter 3 never got read.

Here's where I need your help. Do any of you have any tricks on training my brain to absorb some info. Seriously, I'm trying to figure out how not to rely on my lattes to study. Do I need to eat some brain food? I slept a lot this weekend and that helped but I'm getting dull headaches in the afternoon. I've been pounding the water...still not helping. Now I'm reaching out for some suggestions/guidance. I don't want to feel defeated because I think I'm smart enough...I think?

Let me know your ideas.

Thanks and have a great day!

Pointless

This really is a pointless blog because I can't think of something EXCEPTIONALLY exciting to write about. Here are the random things that just crossed my mind.

1. The weather: it snowed, it thawed, it snowed, it's icy
2. Free things: I got my tire fixed yesterday, it was free. They put it back on and rotated all of them..free. I love free!
3. Sleep: I'm still really tired. Sissy (not Sissy-Poo) told me it's because my brain has to function longer. So, I fell asleep at 8:30 last night.
4. Diet: Doing better, then I made cookies for Lane and his friends
5. Motivation: have none
6. Search and Rescue: missing it!
7. EMT: got 100% on my Advanced CPR training...I missed one question, fixed it then got 100%
8. Working out: Only took yesterday off and I'm very excited for training tomorrow!
9. Lane: still loves me even after I yelled at him the other night.
10. House: a total mess...I am not looking forward to cleaning it this weekend. It must be done!

So, that was random and might have put you to sleep. I just felt compelled to post something today.

Have a fabulous Friday!!

I slept!

Lane is still working that stupid night shift and it's slowly killing me. Not really but kinda. By the time I get to bed an hour later his alarm keeps going off. He hits snooze for soooo long. I'm talking hours. I try to get his butt out of bed and he just says "yeah, I need to get up." Then he starts snoring again. I finally had it Monday night. I was downright PISSED because he wouldn't wake up. Then I am awake trying making sure he's awake. I swore to myself, I was going to sleep in the guest room. Ohhhh I was grumpy! He finally got out of bed at 5:30. Mind you, he's supposed to be there at midnight. That gave me 1/2 hour to get some sleep before my alarm went off. When I got home last night he was still awake and I was so tired could just go right to sleep. I told him how it made me mad he wasn't waking up. I think he got the picture because he left at 1:00am this morning and I didn't hear anything! YES! A beautiful night sleep! I told him how grateful I was this morning. Then I asked the usual questions:
Did you have a good night? -yeah
What did you do? -Cleaned the shop or worked on the dump truck
How did feeding go? -good, I'm on my second load right now
Did you have any babies? -yes, we had 2 sets of twins!

Yep! Two sets of twins born and that brings a total of 4 sets of twins on the farm. That's a lot of twins! I can't wait to go and see them. Lane said when he was strawing yesterday, Ricky Bobby was bucking and kicking and running around. Lane said "he just wants to go fast!"

Oh, another day at the farm...I love it!

Now, I'm feeling good and ready to work then go to class tonight. Bring it on!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Wowza...this is going to be tough!

Yesterday when I woke up singing "First day of school! First day of school!" I picked out a nicer shirt that I would usually wear and made my hair look semi presentable. (Then I went to the gym and ruined any chance of looking fly.) All day I was fighting nerves and excitement in preparation for my class to start. The challenging part was around 3:00, I started to crash. I was super tired, how am I supposed to make it until 10pm trying to learn?!

Then it started snowing and I had a new found faith that winter was here. (That's random but very important.)

Let's get to the good stuff...I want to tell you about my first day of school. For those of you who didn't read my previous post, I am taking a huge leap into the world in hopes of becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Crazy right? I think so! I show up and definitely felt a little rusty because I got lost on campus. Haha! This campus has 5 buildings and I couldn't find mine. Silly me. When I finally found the correct building I walked into the class room and it has a funky smell. I don't really know what it is but we're in the lab section where they work with radioactive materials. Just when I thought I'd have a break from my job, there's the trifoil.

Moving forward, on the desk was the stack of joy that we get to study throughout the class. One VERY THICK text book, one work book, a CPR mask, and a blood pressure cuff. The cuff is not in the picture because it's at home. The book was intimidating enough then I got the syllabus. Friends, for the next 5 months my life is going to be busy. I am going to learn how to balance everything. I can't forget my health, my job, and more importantly Lane.

The key to this class is to stay on top of all the reading and practice, practice, practice! I'm have to be present for 90% of the lectures but have 100% of the workbook completed. All exams, I have to get a 70% or higher.

Here's some highlights during the lecture:
*We were told, we better like touching people and if you don't, this is the wrong profession
*There are children enrolled. One of the DOB's was 1991!
*One of our teachers is the county coroner, he shared some interesting stories
*He also shared this video going over the stages of death and dying
*Our pop quiz questions for candy (PQQC) included:
-how many stages are there for birth
-systolic and diastolic blood pressure
-stoke stuff
*How H1N1 isn't bad but still considered a communicable disease (watch out sissy-poo!)

Overall, it was an interesting class. We went a little after 10 but it seems that's how it'll be some nights. Wednesday we'll be taking our advanced CPR training then moving forward from there.

Tonight, I only have to read around 40 pages. Not bad, not bad! As the course progresses, I'll be happy to share with you the bloody stuff but I probably won't. I don't want to lose any of my readers.

Until next time, have a safe and happy Tuesday!

Here comes....

RICKY BOBBY!

This sweet boy is the product of one of my MOST FAVORITE cows at the farm, Nadeen. I know it's not your typical spelling of Nadeen but if you say it with a southern accent it sounds better to draw out the "e."
Anyways...Ricky Bobby is super cute and I'll try to get another photo of him. This is right after Lane brought him in and gave him his colostrum pill then stuck him under the lamp to warm up. Lane said Nadeen would look at him and moo then lick Ricky then look back at Lane and moo again. She's one proud mamma!!

I just don't know how they do it!

My Sunday's are dedicated to house work, laundry, grocery shopping and cooking. Often I find myself doing 10 things at once wondering if Lane even knows that I have scrubbed toilets every week and he hasn't. I think, this boy would be lost without me. He'd have no clean clothes, good food to eat or not have to worry about vacuuming. This is when I can get a little crabby so I say to myself "chose your battles." Lane isn't the person who walks in the house and says "wow, it sure looks clean in here." He does thank me for dinner so that's a plus. I started laundry on Saturday this past weekend and did cleaning intermittently between watching X-Men 2. It was yesterday that I really had a rude awakening. I was off to clean the cat box, laundry was going, the grocery list was made and Lane was at work. All of a sudden I thought of every single one of my friends that have children. There I was, secretly hating life because of all the chores I had, but I don't have one thing...kids running around needing supervision, making a tornado after you just cleaned up the last one. Doubling your laundry, crying, fighting, and Lord knows everything else they do.

Please forgive me friends for failing to give you more support. So for all of my friends with children and all other mothers of the world....

MORE POWER TO YOU!!!
Keep up the good work!!
I think you are all amazing!

And as an added bonus, maybe some day you can point your finger at me and say "see, I told you so!"

Have a great Monday!

This Michael doesn't wear a glove, he wears a jacket!

Sadly we all know that death happens. Today I'm going to talk about death at the farm but how it can bring new life.

Sometimes when a cow is calving bad things happen. A few days ago a cow was giving birth but was having lots of trouble. The calf was HUGE and coming out backwards. This is not good! In most cases, this is when the human steps in and helps by pulling the calf. It needs to be a quick process because the cows sack has broken and the calf can't breathe. In this case they were unable to get the calf out in time so it passed away. It's gone to the land of green grass and no predators.

Now what happens to the cow if her baby dies? There are two options, sell the cow because no one really wants to feed a cow that doesn't produce any profit for another year. Or they can adopt another calf onto said cow. Adoption only happens if 1. there are twins 2. the cow dies leaving an orphan calf 3. the cow doesn't accept it's baby. Luckily twins were born this past weekend and they are real cuties. Here's a picture of Bud and Rhoda.

When the other twins were born, I was really sad when they tried to adopt Louise to another cow but it didn't work. That was good!! Back to Bud and Rhoda, because that cow lost her baby Bud and Rhoda have to be separated. Bud was the chosen one to be adopted onto the cow. Now here is the adoption process for a cow:
~It costs nothing! All free!
~You must remove the hide from the dead calf
~Then you create what we call a "jacket" and tie it onto the selected calf
~Because of the scent from the jacket, the cow should believe this is her baby
I must admit, calves with jackets are super cute. It's gross thinking about it but yet it's a good way to keep a cow. So Bud is now sporting a jacket and so far so good. However, I had to change Bud's name to Michael. Check out this picture and think about why I changed his name.

Get it? Bud Michael was born black but the calf that died was white. Now the cow must be confused because she don't know if her baby is black or white!

*Side note: sorry his jacket is nasty...the hair is falling off. Lane just said "Michael's designer jacket is showing a little wear." HA!

My see-food-eat-food relationship

Hi Friends!

I need to talk to you about something that's been really hard for me. I've been eating a lot! I know it may seem like strange that this is a problem but trust me when I say IT IS! This summer, before going to work at Busch, I was at my lowest weight I have been in ages. I had worked so hard and had the correct mindset on being successful in my journey to losing more weight and being physically fit. Then something happened. I got thrown off the wagon and headed straight back to where I was before starting losing weight. I gained 10 pounds! Totally unacceptable in my eyes along with my trainers eyes. I'm devastated that I can't gain control over my eating. My problem is I know that I shouldn't eat such delicious items but my stomach takes over and tells me my life would be much better if I ate the ice cream.

When it comes to the regulation of body weight there are five critical control factors.
1. Physical Activity
2. Food and Calories
3. Record Keeping
4. Stimulus Control
5. Support

Here's how I put the five critical control factors into play:
1. Physical Activity: I work out/try to work out a total of 6 times a week so that's good!
2. Food and Calories: I know how much calories I should have in one day (if you're a woman and you want to maintain your weight you here's the math: your current weight x 11= how many calories you can eat a day.) When it comes to food, it's all about balancing the pyramid.
3. Record Keeping: I'm about 70/30 on this. I try to keep my journal current but I really struggle during the weekend.
4. STIMULUS CONTROL! This is the one that makes me falter and ruins my life. As I mentioned above, I know that I'm eating poorly but I just struggle stopping.
5. Support: I have support all around. My friends help keep me accountable and Lane does a good job telling me "no we can't go get ice cream."

Doesn't it seem ridiculously easy to maintain weight with proper dedication? I think so. I know what to do, no excuses. Seriously, no excuses from this girl. I've been bad at tracking my food and what I've decided to eat. It makes me depressed that when I can't control myself. Then when depressed, I emotionally eat. It's a vicious cycle. Here's my fear: I start school on Monday. I will not have time to run home after to work and grab dinner before going to class at 6. So, I must be fully prepared and pack dinners to take with me. This does not give me the right to eat crap or fall deeper into my bad food habits. What I'm hoping is that I gain confidence to stay strong with proper eating and thus my body will be more willing to lose the pounds. Also, all this weight makes me more tired. I need to clean out the tired toxins and move forward so my precious brain can absorb all the knowledge that is to come.

I don't know if I can promise I won't eat ice cream or have a soda but I really want to stop this madness. Ugh...how unfortunate that I let this happen. I have no one to blame but myself. So it's time to dust myself off, dust off the wagon and get back on. Like the Little Engine That Could, I'd better start saying over and over "I KNOW I CAN! I KNOW I CAN!" More importantly, I had better start loving myself again.

Introducing...

Magic Man Cal

This beautiful baby bull was born quite a few days ago but Lane failed to realized who he belonged to...Connie! YAY! I'm so happy for Connie and her ability to produce a bull this year. Here's to hoping Cal is big and strong and passes the test so he doesn't get cut. Ouch!

Confession: I've said all of this

Hey ladies! One of my friends showed this to me at the gym last night. HYSTERICAL! I feel bad now for my trainer because I've said most of this....I owe her lots of aspirin.

Weight Loss Problems

Hi! I'm addicted to Pinterest...like feeding my veins addicted. I've stumbled across the following quotes and have found them to be straight and to the point.

This is how I feel about working out and weight loss:

RIGHT NOW THE GYM IS PACKED! For those who have made the resolution to get healthy good for you! For those who aren't that serious, stop taking my parking spot.

I do this weekly, keep double checking the scale and it never changes. Thus with a heavy sigh, the stupid scale is correct.

Pinterest food section. Enough said!

This is a daily struggle for me.
Working on this one right now with someone who keeps cutting me down.

I really do this all the time but I know the truth: CALORIES IN vs. CALORIES OUT

Dang you father for baking such yummy food and making me want to bake that food as well.

To my fantastic 4 who help me say "WTF did I get myself into?" then continue to help me remember that I loved the workout when finished.

I'm convinced my wagon has only 3 wheels so it's hard to stay on. Just sayin'

This has happened way too often but the thought of wearing "limited material" underrooooos to the gym freaks me out. I just have to come to terms with the tight wedge that happens when squatting.


What are your weight loss problems?
Ice cream?
The invisible chain that holds you down on the couch?

We all have them and we can laugh about them. Let's try to make one of our weight loss problems go away this year? Sound like a plan?

Let me know how it goes! I'm cheering for you!

The babies are coming...in full force!

I've made to January 9th without having to say goodbye to Lane in the night time. This uncommon weather that most of the US is experiencing has been a slight blessing for Lane and I. Usually this time of year is so cold you get snotcicles if you're outside for more than 20.3 seconds. Due to this extreme cold, Lane is REQUIRED to stay at the farm all night to tend to the babies that are born. He usually has 5 minutes from time the calf is dropped (aka birthed) to get it in the barn under the heat lamp before it freezes to the ground and goes to the land of green grass and no predators. This year has been completely different. There have been roughly 50 calves born already and there hasn't been any need to stay at the farm during the night. I was told that Sunday night brought 5 calves! That's a lot in one night and then I knew the time had come. Lanes new work hours are 11pm until 8 or 9am. Ugh... before he left last night, I made sure that Carlos the 9mm was close by. I'm prepared for any a-hole who might think it's a good idea to enter my house uninvited. So from now until boss man says, Lane will be pulling some long hours and I'll be missing him MUCHO!

On the other hand, I can't wait for my cows to have their babies. Abby has calved and this year she had twins! Thelma and Louise. They are super cute little heifers that just love running and jumping. The two pictures I have of the twins aren't very good so I need to go take some more. Sad to say we think Beyonce lost her calf. She was really sick when she got back from the mountains and she's still trying to get better. I guess we'll find out some time soon....

I promise to entertain you with more baby pictures as they come along.

Have a great Tuesday!

Dealing with the situation Pheobe style

Fact: When it comes to the show Friends, I can basically relate to all the episodes.
Fact: I watch Friends every night with Lane before going to bed.
Fact: Throughout the day I find things that make me laugh and remind me of the show.
Fact: My dad's favorite episode is the one where Joey puts on his resume that he can drink a gallon of milk in 15 seconds and the proceeds to show Pheobe.

Now for all my Friends lovers out there, see if this will remind you of a specific episode...


On Sunday morning I hear that annoying sound. The one that won't stop until you do something about it. My problem is I heard it when I was still sleeping. Thus I could just ignore it, I shut doors and that helped a bit. Eventually I took care of the situation. I unplugged the stinkin' smoke detector from the wall then proceeded up stairs. Took out the faulty (aka dead) battery and threw it in the trash. Then set the detector on the stairs in hopes of reminding me to get another battery. Within 1 minute it started chirping again. I laughed, thought of Pheobe and marched that sucker right into the garage where I can no longer here it chirp.

Now I just have to remember to get a battery or the poor people who stay down stairs won't have anything to tell them the house is on fire! I hope that never happens.

Random post I know, but I laughed when it was happening. Best part about the day? After I took care of that, I got ready to go to the stock yards to pick up a cow with Lane, upon heading out the door I fell down the stairs. Fantastic!

2012 is going to be WILD

Happy Friday Friends!

I am still coming to terms that we've finally reach the year that the Mayan calendar ends. Here's a plus if this does happen...all debt will be wiped away and forgotten. Haha!

*Side note: I don't believe that the world will end because the Mayans said so. I'm a firm believer that the world will end when God says so!*

Now what does 2012 have in store for me? I've decided to do the unthinkable, I'm going back to school. Wait, wait before you say "you fool, you're always bitching about your student loans. Why would you go back to school?" My choice to go back to school has nothing to do with earning a degree or diving further into debt. It happens that the class I'm taking is offered through the local Technical College and it's one semester. I know you're in suspense on what the heck I'm doing, well I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to become and EMT. WOOHOO! Let me break this down a little more on why I've decided to do this. I am now a faithful member of Search and Rescue and I have enjoyed everything we've done so far. SAR is constantly looking for EMTs to be apart of the team because as a volunteer organization, not everyone responds to our code red call outs. The first few meetings I attended our lead EMT talked about how the tech school offers the EMT course. I was interested however there was NO WAY I would pay to take the class. That's when my fear of being in further debt took over my aspiration to become an EMT. After a few months and with one other woman interested in participating in the course, the sheriff's office decided to pay for the class. SAWEEETTTT!

No turning back now, I'm enrolled in the class. Here are things that have crossed my mind:

~NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES...love them (I am bummed the MSU bookstore has failed me and discontinued carrying left-handed notebooks)
~Can I balance a full time job and school?
~Good bye social life
~Classes will be long: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6-10pm
~What about my workout schedule?
~Am I smart enough to remember all the arteries?
~What about cooking dinner for Lane Frost?

After I'm finished with the class I am required to be a member of SAR for at least one full year. Not a problem.

I would like to say this, I'm not quitting my job after I become an EMT. I love my job! However, I do work for a company contracted by the government and most of you are aware of the budget crisis that keeps going and going and going...that plays a major roll in my job. If they cut our funding adios working. As an added benefit, having my EMT license will allow me to having something to fall back on if necessary.

On January 23rd I will step foot back on campus sporting my Timbuk2 back pack full of new pens and note cards. I'm hoping for a fresh mind that is ready to learn and absorb all the information that is to come. Wish me luck!

Other reasons 2012 is going to be wild:
~One of my dear friends is getting married and I'm super excited to be apart of her BIG day
~Many of my other friends are also tying the knot...YAY!!!!
~New house=garden
~Signing up for more races
~Getting out of cc debt
~Lane Frost is going to be 30!!
~Sissy-poo is graduating college...FINALLY!

Here's to the new year and many new adventures!

Epic Fail

I was reading a friends blog this morning and I thought it was interesting how it talked about last years goals and if they were accomplished. Then I remembered that I blogged about a random idea I had for my 2011 resolution. You can read about it here. Let me summarize what happened when it came to living on beans and rice. I didn't. I do however believe I made smarter choices about not traveling as much and trying to live within my means. I've been able to double my credit card payments so that's helpful. Now that 2012 is here, I think I'll carry on this money saving attitude because it's going to be a big year. I'd love it if I could pay my card off this year. I've dedicated my tax return (if I get one) to put towards my card. Once that's paid off, the only debt I'll have is student loans. Those aren't going to vanish anytime soon so I'll accept them but push hard to get them paid off quickly. Let me tell you this, saving money is not my 2012 resolution. I've been bad with money all my life so this needs to be a lifestyle change. I will carry this throughout my years and pass on some good money management tips to the children. (Once they come along.)

The real question is do I have a resolution for 2012? Not really, I'm just going to keep on trucking and make some small goals I'd like to reach.

BBBBUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT I am hoping for one thing in 2012..........

A RING