11 Things 2011 Has Taught Me

In no particular order of importance

11. It takes the IRS years to pick up on ID fraud on tax returns (3 years to be exact)
10. While it's hard, I can survive an entire year  physically separated from a loved one
9. I loved my car, Maxwell, more than I knew I did. I miss my car every single day.
8. My parents love me enough to let me live rent free at home during this transition year
7. Working full time and going to school was a lot harder than I anticipated.
6. I now understand why pneumonia kills elderly people. It kicked my trash, and I'm only 20.
5. Getting wisdom teeth removed hurts, but the fear of a dry socket is worse.
4. I loved Disney as a child, this year has made me realize that I still love Disney as an adult.
3. Being rejected from nursing school twice was difficult. Tasting the bitter makes me desperate for the sweet.
2. Preparing six different nursing school applications is really stressful. Hopefully I'm accepted to at least one!
1. 2011 taught me a lot about myself. I feel more confident in myself, but also have learned a lot about my weaknesses and short comings.

I'm excited to see what 2012 has in store for me!

Happy New Year!
~Courtney

Disney Trivia Anyone?

I got this super cool idea from a fellow Disney College Program blogger.
I'll type my question in blue, and type the answer in white underneath. Just highlight the middle line and voila! Answers appear!

Here's some Disney trivia for you!!

From Disney's Treasure Planet, what does B.E.N stand for?
Bio Electronic Navigator
As the most powerful sorcerer in the world, Jafar turns himself into what to fight Aladdin?
A Cobra
By when must the Beast be loved in order to return to a prince?
His 21st birthday
Which appendage of Woody's becomes unstitched in Toy Story 2?
Right Arm
How many unbirthdays does each person have a year?
364
How much did Tangled cost to produce?
$260 million
Who puts the glad in gladiator?
Hercules
In which park can you find a Pinocchio doll in the It's a Small World ride?
Tokyo Disneyland
When does Rapunzel's day typically start?
7 am
In Bambi, what do the animals call being in love?
Twitterpated
How many days until Leslie and I check in to the Walt Disney World College Program?
Exactly 10!


I'm so excited to start this adventure with Leslie Loo!  I just need to write my nursing essays and finish packing.  I'm trying to eliminate stuff off my packing list, but it's all pretty important, that's how it ended up on my list in the first place after all.

Hope you enjoyed the Disney trivia!
~Courtney

{Christmas!}

Christmas was interesting this year.

First off, It didn't feel like Christmas to me until around 9 pm Christmas Eve when my entire family sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together on the way home from Grandparents Griffin.

Then we had church at 9 am Christmas morning, so I saw presents lying around the tree while eating  my breakfast, but we didn't even venture into that room until after church. 

This was the first year where my mom did not photograph every single present we got before, during and after opening it. I was okay with it, though I think it would have been funny to capture my excitement when opening this beast of a suitcase.

It's huge (I used my tennis shoes for size reference) and I was thrilled.  It has the 360 degree spinner wheels and will be perfect for my upcoming move. (2 weeks from yesterday!) 

We also didn't keep up on our advent book this year. We usually read one door a day and read two on Christmas Eve. We ended up reading the whole book Christmas Eve and calling it good.

Other than that, I got some awesome presents and enjoyed watching Cars 2 and Psych episodes with my family.

Here's the gift I was most surprised about.

The most beautiful, shimmery Fossil purse EVER. I saw it at Fashion Place Mall with my mom last week and fell in love with it. It's a nice sized purse that will be great for work and play in Disney World. I was planning on a very small blue Mud purse as my play bag, and a bigger bag as my work bag, but now I think I'll just stick with this one.  When we saw it I told my mom I loved it, but did not need it. You can imagine my shriek when I opened the box to find it nestled along with it's matching mini wallet. 

Now, here's the most amazing present of this year.  Take a look at the following picture I borrowed from Google.

 This is my favorite painting. Period. It's of Joseph and Mary on their journey to Bethlehem. If you can't tell, Mary is very much 'with child', and Joseph looks absolutely exhausted. 

I know I haven't mentioned this on the blog yet, but I have a very, very good friend serving a mission in Houston TX. He asked me a few months ago what my favorite church related painting was, and I answered with the above painting. 

 I opened my Christmas present from him a day early and almost cried when I pulled this leather scripture case out of the box.

These pictures don't do this case justice. It's absolutely amazing. I can't stop staring at it. It's simply stunning.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas!

loves to you all
~Courtney

Christmas Eve

It Went Well

The angio went well. I had some serious nausea that lead to a few vomiting episodes. I actually hurled in front of my super attractive radiologist/ surgeon. So embarrassing. Apparently Zofran doesn't help me when it comes to nausea. My nurse eventually tried Phenergan on me and the nausea magically disappeared.
That was the biggest problem during my stay. If you can't keep food down, they won't let you leave the hospital. I was desperate to leave as soon as humanly possible, so conquering the nausea was the most important obstacle.
I had a sore throat beforehand, so when I woke up from the general anestesia my throat felt like sandpaper. The anesthesiologist promised he'd be gentle with the intubation tube, but he wasn't very successful. My throat is definitely my number one complaint. It hurts. It hurrrts!
Lastly, I seem to have acquired a new lump in the back of my skull. It's likely the glue the dr. Embolized the blood vessel with. It's annoying, not really painful.
I was discharged with Tylenol as my pain med, which means a lot in the scheme of things. Kathy, my favorite nurse practitioner, calls me her star patient.
I'm grateful it went well. The whole thing got embolized, so now it looks like I'll be having an angio every few years now to check on it.

Now... On to having my wisdom teeth removed. Yippee.
~Courtney

Phew!

Today I told my manager, Eileen about my upcoming adventure.

I was sooooo worried she'd be super upset or angry.

Quite the opposite. She hugged me, and told me how excited she was for me.

I can officially cross that off my large to do list now. Hurrah!

Tomorrow I cross off another thing on my list...

Angiogram.

at 7:30 AM no less.

I'm just ready for these to be done and over with.

It's just another thing on my list.

~Courtney

Finals are Over!

Glory, glory hallelujah!  Glory, glory hallelujah!

When I walked out of that classroom today, and heard that big heavy door slam shut behind me, I just had to sigh with relief.

I am done with school for the next 6 months.  And hopefully, I'll be starting nursing school then.

I felt so confident about both tests. It is such a good feeling!  Knowing I put it all out there and tried my absolute best leaves me with a good feeling in the pit of my stomach. That stupid worried knot has officially gone and now I can focus on the other super important things that need to be done in the next 26 days.

Now... on to nursing applications!  Boy there are many.  USU is my #1 pick for school, but all the other applications I'm doing are equally important. Applications are going to Snow, DATC, CEU, Dixie, of course USU, and possibly BATC and Westminster (though I know very, very well I do not have that kind of money).

I have USU, DATC and Snow's applications already. Dixie and CEU's come out January 1st.
Now that finals are over, I can start writing essays for each application and get my transcripts sent over.

When my mom came to pick me up today after my final, something was said along the lines of "now you can relax." I laughed.  I have a lot to do in the next 26 days. Today I will relax. Tomorrow the work begins.

Loves to you all
~Courtney

New Glasses!

After years and years of plain, simple frames, I have finally traded up in the glasses world.

When the thick frame style started, I was a little skeptical. They eventually grew on me, but year after year I decided to keep getting contacts and stick with the thin metal frames. (our insurance let you get one or the other)

At the beginning of the year I decided I did want new glasses, and it took me 11 months to follow through.

Introducing......  My new Prada frames!

I love them so!
Though my ears really hurt after wearing them for a few hours.  My lenses are very, very thick, which makes them very, very heavy.  I had to have the part that goes over the ears tightened quite a bit so they will stay on.  That pressure really hurts my ears.  Not to mention the sides are 100 times bigger than my original glasses so they push out my ears more.

The one thing that really makes me sad is my lenses stick out in the front of the frames because they are so thick.

I guess I'm the only one who really notices, but come on, isn't it obvious?

Overall, I love my new frames!  I actually take my contacts out during the day time now!

~Courtney