1. Last year ended well (I love saying it that way, even if it was just last week..), as I spent it over at Gina's house. However, we spent the evening sans my parents and Tevis. My parents had plans to attend a card party in Enid, and Tevis had to work. Gina and I spent much of the evening keeping Emily company while she was feeding Cole, which was perfectly fine with us, because we were able to just sit and chat at leisure. Midnight came, and we all enjoyed some sparkling grape juice, courtesy of Scotty. Hooray for 2012!
2. I ended up spending the night at Gina's on Saturday night, as I randomly fell asleep in her recliner, and she wasn't going to make me leave. When I woke up on Sunday morning, Wyatt decided to play his new Wii, and he let me join him. To shed some light on the subject, I have never owned a game console of any sort, as my parents (mostly my dad) were vehemently against them. With that being so, I have very little experience playing on any of the game consoles, and I pretty much have no talent playing on any of them. In recent years, I have discovered that I have decent abilities in Rock Band, but that is the extent of my talent. (I usually sing on Rock Band...the one that takes the least amount of coordination.) Playing Super Mario Bros. with Wyatt did not go well at all. I'm pretty sure I had no idea how to use the controls, and I kept dying on the game. Finally, we ended up playing Wii Sports, and that went much better for me. My best sport was boxing, which actually made me feel the burn after a couple of rounds.
3. Sunday night was also pretty great, as we had a family game night. I, for one, love playing games, be it board games, card games, or trivia games. It's probably part of my competitive nature, but I also love the way it brings a group of people together. (The exception to that is Monopoly, but that is a story for another day.) Wyatt got a Bingo set for Christmas (I think), so we started by playing Bingo, which was a kid-friendly game, since the three older boys know their numbers. After about four rousing rounds of Bingo, we decided to move on to another game. We were going to play Scattergories, a family favorite, but Gina forgot it at her house, so we decided on Bunco, which is a dice game. I got a Bunco set last year after playing it at a YAB meeting and loving it. At first, I was afraid that it wasn't going to quite work out, but after a few rounds, everyone settled in, and we had a great time! We played two games, which lasted until 11:30 that night. The boys even played for a little bit, although they eventually left to watch a movie/fall asleep.
4. In a baby update, Cole is doing just great! When he left the hospital, he had dropped to 9 lbs. 8 oz., but at his check-up last week, he had gained all of his weight back, plus some, weighing in at 10 lbs. 5 oz. Emily has lovingly dubbed him Coleman, like the lunchbox, because he is always packing away food. He is starting to become more alert to his surroundings, as he stays awake longer now. He can also hold his head up quite well. Everything is going great!
5. On a related note, Andy has grown quite fond of Cole. Whenever Andy sees Cole, he usually pats him or gives him kisses, ever so delicately. Andy sometimes refers to him as "Baby", but he is starting to call him by name, although it sounds like "Dole". Andy is very attentive to Cole's needs, as on Sunday night, my mom was holding Cole for a while and he was starting to get hungry. My mom said something about Cole being hungry, so Andy found Emily to tell her that. Andy lovingly watches over him, although he is a little bit standoffish at times. I just find it interesting to see how Andy has reacted to Cole.
6. For what it was worth, I did eat my black-eyed peas on Sunday. I ate plenty of them, so I figured that good luck should be mine for the taking this year...or not. My mom had made a cold salad out of black-eyed peas, which I had every intention of sharing with you all in the form of a recipe. This was one of my favorite cold salads, although my mom doesn't make it too often. Well, needless to say, I will NOT be sharing the recipe or enjoying the salad for quite some time in the forseeable future, as I fell extremely ill last night. I will spare you the gory details, but I have a newfound distaste for black-eyed pea salad. I'm fairly certain that I fell prey to a strain of stomach flu or just regular flu, I'm not sure which, but it was unpleasant. I felt like death warmed over, and I had a horrible night's sleep, which probably had something to do with my sleeping on the couch. I woke up this morning still feeling pretty miserable, but after taking some Emetrol (anti-nausea) and sleeping for the remainder of the morning, I started feeling better. Around noon, I finally brought myself to having some toast, chicken broth, and Gatorade. That went well, so I had some more broth a while later, although my appetite still isn't quite back. I have to keep reminding myself to drink fluids, as water is starting to taste bad to me.
7. I am not the only one in my family to catch this bug, as Cody, Andy, Wyatt, Jeremy, and Gina all had some form of illness, although Gina's was fairly mild. My mom came home from work feeling achy, so I hope that illness is not in her future. I hate being sick, and I especially hate it when my family members are sick, so I hope that we are all on the mend very soon!
8. I probably haven't mentioned this, but Wyatt will be attending Pioneer starting this semester. It is one of those things that was coming eventually, but it just happened sooner than we anticipated. Everything is alright, it is just that everything will work out much easier for him to go to school there than at Garber. Wyatt will now partake in the customary fare for country kids like me, my sisters, and our neighbors, and will begin riding two buses to get to school, instead of having Gina take him to school. I think that he will do just fine, as he is pretty adaptable, and he started riding a bus after school last semester. Unfortunately, he had to miss his first day because of illness. Oh well, such is life...it is better for him to stay home than to go to school and be miserable and have to come home early. Thankfully, Cody and Kyle don't go back to school until tomorrow, but I think they have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, because their doctor was still on vacation, as were his PAs, and apparently every other doctor in the greater Enid area. (Emily even tried getting them in at the Urgent Care clinic, but no dice there.)
9. I hope I start feeling better by Friday, because I will have to start moving some of my things back by then. I should start getting my things together, but I am trying to prolong the inevitable. I have really grown accustomed to staying at home and not having to live a nomadic life. I could just stay in town on the weekends, but, let's be honest, there is nothing keeping me there, because there is only so much to do in my dorm, Carissa is never there on the weekends, anyone I would want to see in town (aka Tevis) usually works all weekend, and my family is only twenty-five minutes away. It is worth it to come home on the weekends. Oh well, soon it will be back to the grind for another sixteen weeks.
10. Although I will describe it in more detail next week, I will give you an overview of my schedule. I am enrolled in twelve hours of classes, thanks to my fifteen hours of concurrent classes, and a full-ride for four semesters! However, that is where the excitement stops, as my classes are Biology (I've been told that my teacher is one of the hardest teachers, but she is also my PLC sponsor, so maybe it's all hype from people who weren't willing to actually work for a good grade in a class.) Then, there's my Calc I class, which really has me nervous, being that it is ITV. For the hundredth time, (Don't expect it to be the last time I say it, either) Who in their right mind offers a math class over ITV?! History, that would be fairly easy; Comp, that would be alright; some form of class that only involves discussion/Powerpoint slides, no problem, but Math? Really? I know that I am a Math major, but still, I am having qualms about this. Hopefully my fears will be disproven, and I will emerge successful...we shall see. My last class is a speech class. I have heard an overwhelming amount of negative things about the teacher, so I suppose I could try to switch classes if it gets to be that unbearable, but I will try to stay the course and go in with an open mind. Besides, I think you all know that I have no problem talking in front of people, so this shouldn't be so bad.
Here's hoping that everyone has a healthy first week of 2012!!! Also, get your flu shots!!! As soon as I am on the mend, I will be getting a flu shot.
Why not throw another class in there this semester to get it out of the way, maybe something that you've always wanted to learn about but that isn't in your program of study? I always had one class that was just for fun, every semester of college. I loved learning about other things that were interesting that I might otherwise have missed. It's probably not too late to add something. Just a thought.
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