Long, Sunday Update!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since I've last written much of anything, so here goes...

In the midst of the whole Mimi hospital debacle, a blizzard moved in on our area. It shut everything down for a couple of days, and I ended up getting two-and-a-half snow days out of the deal! My cousins who live right by the college were gracious enough to open up their home to me for the "duration", so that I didn't have to be cooped up alone in my dorm room, where I probably would've gone stir crazy and froze to death. I only say that I would've froze, because the power ended up going off on that Monday night, and there wouldn't have been any way to really stay warm besides blankets and lots of layers, but my cousins had a wood-burning stove in their house that kept us nice and warm all night! It really was fun staying over at their house, and it turned what could have been an unpleasant experience into a pleasantly memorable couple of days. Thank heavens, the electricity was only out for about twelve hours, which wasn't bad at all. (I still have the 35 horrendous days of the ice storm burned into my memory, so this was nothing for me.) At home, my parents lost power for the better part of the week, although it could have been longer had they not realized that they were the only people on this side of the electric system who were without power. Also, my parents and brother-in-law, Scotty, made multiple calls to the electric company nicely asking them to send a crew out to fix the issue, which was only a downed line. Thankfully, by the end of the week, the lights were back on, although they never really went out, because everyone was on generator power. We are all hoping that that will be the last of the major winter precipitation for the season!

We have also acquired a new "pet" in a bottle calf that my dad named Buckles. (Not really sure where that name came from, but where does any pet name really come from?) In a tragic turn of events, Buckles' mom died, so he's an orphan calf. It always breaks my heart to see that happen, and I inevitably grow attached to the calf and am sad when we usually sell it. It doesn't help that I think a newborn calf is almost as cute as a newborn baby! We had another cow that lost her calf during the blizzard, and we tried to pair her up with Buckles to solve a few problems at once. Had this worked, it would have been great, so that the cow and Buckles could progress “normally”, but no such luck. Buckles was already accustomed to the bottle, and didn’t really know what to do with the cow. Oh well, it was worth a shot!

For those of you who have been following the story, Mimi is continuing to heal, although she is still in the hospital. Last week, she was transferred to a different hospital in town where she has been undergoing serious physical/occupational therapy. She spends the better part of the weekdays in therapy, but absolutely LOVES it! She has finally returned to wearing her normal clothes, as opposed to a hospital gown, which has helped her much more! She is finally able to get herself out of bed, although she usually waits until the nursing staff is there, so that she doesn’t overextend herself. There is a family meeting scheduled for some time this week, so we’ll find out more then.

Speaking of Mimi, she will be celebrating a milestone birthday a week from tomorrow…she will be turning 95! Holy moly, that’s quite the accomplishment!!! We are so very excited for this!

I guess while I’m on the topic of birthdays, I could maybe mention another important birthday that is next week. It’s no one important, it’s only MY BIRTHDAY!!!! (:  I’m sure you know how much I love my birthday and being able to share my birthday week with Mimi. I don’t really know what I’ll be doing for any part of my birthday celebrations, as everything in the next few weeks is contingent on Mimi’s progress. I’m sure we’ll celebrate somehow, so I’m really not too concerned!

This next week is my last week of school before spring break, and it will be much-needed! This week will be full of all kinds of tests and such, but it won’t be anything I can’t handle, I know. My current roommate, Kristynn will be getting married next weekend, so I will be going to that, also. I should probably get her gift already, but I honestly have no idea what to get her, even though they have four different registries. I think I’ll chalk it up to the fact that I’m not as enthusiastic about this wedding, for various reasons, the biggest reason being that I don’t really feel like she is ready for marriage like Carissa was. I hope that I’m wrong, but honestly, that’s what I think…such is life.

The last couple of days has been busy enough for one week, but has been loads of fun, nonetheless. Friday was punctuated by a trip to OKC with my parents for an awards luncheon. Because I am part of an honor society on my campus, I was nominated for this award back in October, and I had to fill out this extensive scholarship application that was somewhat frustrating at the time. I wasn’t all that excited about going to this luncheon, but knew that it would be much better if I went than otherwise. Earlier in the week, I talked to a couple of other PLC girls from the other campuses and found out that they’d be at the luncheon also, so I started looking forward to it a little bit more. When we arrived at the luncheon, my parents and I scanned through the program, expecting to see what you normally see at events like this—an introduction, lunch, a long-winded keynote speaker, and presentation of the awards. Well, imagine our surprise when we read that our keynote speaker was none other than Oklahoma guitar wonder, Edgar Cruz!!! We have been fans of his for quite some time, and I saw him as inspiration when I used to play guitar more often. I have included a video of him playing, just so you have an idea of the caliber of his talent. In the future, I would love to have more keynote speakers like him, because most of his time was spent playing for us, as opposed to actually speaking. He would talk a little bit, here and there, and it was interesting when he did, but he mostly played for us, and we particularly enjoyed it!

Earlier during last week, I received an email and a letter from OSU telling me that I had received a scholarship from there just because I was a recipient of this award. That was exciting to me, since I am currently on the market for scholarships of almost any form. So, everyone there (there were about forty of us) received a medal and plaque recognizing our achievement. These awards were given to us by our respective college presidents. After they finished handing out these awards, they told us that there were some scholarships that would be awarded that had something to do with the form we filled out last semester. They told us that the awards would be given at the bronze, silver, and gold levels. I really didn’t feel like I had the qualifications necessary to receive any of the awards, so I sort of tuned the emcee out during that part. Well, imagine my surprise when he announced that I was a recipient of one of the silver-level scholarships!!! The college president and I walked up to the podium to accept the award, and we were both so excited! Then, they announced that the other two NOC girls were also recipients of the same scholarship! The president was absolutely ecstatic about how well our campuses were represented in the scholarship winnings, as were we! It made a good moment much better that the three of us could share in our identical winnings!!! By the time it was all said and done, I ended up with about $2000 in scholarship money! What a blessing!!!!! Even better, afterward, my parents and I got to talk to Edgar Cruz personally when we bought some of his CDs, which he signed for us! He is quite the personable guy, which makes it that much easier to appreciate his music. He even remembered the time that he visited our church back in the late 80s…how cool is that!

Yesterday, Liz and I went on a shopping trip to OKC. It seems funny to think about how big of a deal that used to be when I was little, but how commonplace it is now. We were on a quest to find dresses to wear for various upcoming events, like Mimi’s birthday party, our NOC graduation, weddings, etc. We got to the mall around 11:30 AM, and were leaving around 1:15, which really wasn’t too bad, considering the fact that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was at the mall because it was raining on a Saturday. Really, everything about our trip went perfectly. We got a close parking spot at the mall, we both found dresses fairly quickly, and said dresses fit perfectly! We decided to treat ourselves to a later lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, which was packed with people at 1:30. Amazingly enough, we were seated instantly! (I think it had more to do with us being a party of 2, but we were excited!) Our lunch was great, and we completed it (of course) by splitting a slice of Hershey’s Chocolate cheesecake! We left feeling stuffed and on the verge of sleepiness…cue the iPods with some good pump-up music! All in all, it was a great day, and I’m so blessed to have someone like Liz to do these things with!

Lastly, I’ll go on the record of saying that I already hate Daylight Savings Time, and I still think that it’s ridiculous that Mass starts at 7:45 AM. I especially hate going to Mass on DST Sunday. I really had a bad attitude this morning, but it improved by leaps and bounds when I saw that our favorite “Rent-A-Priest”, Fr. Phil Creider, was there! He really is one of my favorite priests, mostly because I love his homilies. He used to be a chaplain on a Navy ship during the Gulf War, so he has quite the perspective on things. I, and everyone else in our congregation, respond very well to him, and it’s amazing to feel the optimism that floats through the church after the Masses he officiates…kind of uncanny how much better everyone feels after his Masses. (I’ll refrain from stating the obvious…those of you who are familiar with the situation probably know what I’m talking about.)

After Mass, my parents and I went up to visit with Mimi, since Sunday is her day off from therapy. We sat with her for a few hours, until after she ate lunch. She looks so much more like Mimi than what she did two weeks ago. She has regained that sparkle in her eyes, and liveliness within her spirit. When we came home, my dad made a pot of shrimp chili, a recipe that I should share with you at some point in life. We all napped intermittently, I unsuccessfully tried to finish my Diff Eq homework, and settled for studying for our upcoming test. I tried working on my FAFSA for this coming year, but hit a roadblock in finding the necessary information, so I’ll try again tomorrow. All in due time, I suppose. I finally got registered for my OGET, which is the first of many tests that I will have to take to gain my teaching certification. I am already dreading the day I take it, because the test will be in Stillwater, and will begin at 7:15. Yuck. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. It will be worth it in the long run, but still, yuck. Maybe I’ll just stay the night there before so that it won’t be such an early morning. We’ll see, but it makes me happy that this is the first real sign that I am on the path to beginning my teaching career!!!

All in all, the last few weeks have gone well, and I am very, very blessed in all respects! I know it might sound a little hokey to some, but never fail to recognize how richly you are blessed in your everyday life…it helps to put things in better perspective during any trial you face!!! I’ll end my ramblings here, with the hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!!!!