When it rains.....it pours.

This morning was one of the most horrible mornings I've ever had. In fact, I can't seem to think of a time when I had a MORE horrible morning. So I follow hubby out the front door at around 7:30 am, me for class at 8:00 am and him for a full day of clinicals. Our windshields are covered with ice so I start my car, then proceed to get out of the car to scrape some ice. Hubby has just finished his and pulled out of the driveway and turned the corner when I realize something that brings up all kinds of horrors from the depth of my soul. I LOCKED THE KEYS IN THE CAR!!!.....IT'S RUNNING.......MY PHONE AND MOST OF MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS ARE ALSO IN THE CAR.....THE HOUSE IS LOCKED..........I'M TRAPPED, ALONE, STUCK, UP THE CREEK W/O A PADDLE....you get the idea. To make matters worse I had an exam in 2 short hours and I should be at school studying for it! I had no idea what to do. I knocked on the door of the only neighbor I know and she doesn't answer. Ok now what? I wait patiently for a neighbor to descend their driveway so I can stop them and beg to use a phone...no one comes out. Now what? Bust out the window...(ok I wasn't quite thinking rationally I just wanted IN my car). I am unable to bust the window, even after hurling a brick into it as hard as I can, let's just hope I never get trapped INSIDE my car. Now what? Walk to the local elementary school and beg to use their phone, 10 minute walk in the freezing cold...everyone looking at me weird, decide to forego school and walk additional 5 minutes to walgreens, ask clerk to use phone and phonebook, can't call hubby because phone won't dial long distance and I have no earthly idea where he did his clinicals today...call locksmith who says wait at walgreens until technician calls back, then walk back home to meet technician. Get the call, but technician is already waiting at my house! Run/walk like hell back home in cold temperature out of breath and chest sore from cold air.....Meet technician who opens my car door in like 5 seconds and I pay him 90.00, YES NINETY dollars! I made it to school by 9:35, missed two classes and didn't get breakfast or my morning coffee or any time to study for test at 10, which by the way I DID NOT do well on. *sigh* It was raining when I finally left class at 12 and can you imagine I didn't have an umbrella? Of course I didn't because it wasn't raining when I left. When I finally make it to my car after walking in the cold rain, I turn on the ignition and a weird light comes on from the dashboard, one I've never even seen. I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with the car running for an hour this morning. What can I say? When it rains, it pours. I can only hope tomarrow will be better.

Wordless Wednesday-Odds and Ends

21 things about my sister Janice

I've seen these on lots of other blogs so I thought I would do one for Janice. Janice is my little sister, and she has Down Syndrome.

1.Janice was born June 9, 1985 at McDill Air force base, FL, only 11 short months after me.

2.She was diagnosed shortly after birth with Down Syndrome, but she has a rare type of Down Syndrome called Translocation Down Syndrome. This type only accounts for 3-5% of cases of Down syndrome. It happens when part of one of the number 21 chromosomes attaches to another random chromosome so she doesn't have 47 chromosomes, only 46, but she has the DNA material for 3 number 21 chromosomes since one is attached at another location in addition to the typical 2. Since sometimes this type of Down's can be inherited, both my parents had their DNA tested, but none of them carry the gene, so Janice is extra special.

3. Janice walked when she was 3 years old and I still remember her wobbly first steps and my parents clapping and "Yay-ing" for her.

4. Janice started school before me even though I'm older. I was so jealous :)

5. Janice wasn't completely potty trained until around age 4, my mom had tons of help from her wonderful teachers at her preschool.

6. Janice had her tonsils and adenoids removed when she was 7 years old. When she came home and my dad asked her if she wanted Apple juice, she said "no no no no no no no .........WATER!" In this little squeaky voice, to this day we still laugh about it.

7. One Halloween when my mother was working nights, Janice dressed up as a clown and my dad was left with the job of doing her clown makeup....it turned out horrendous and we love looking at the photos of the "clown from hell" as we affectionately called her that year.

8. I adored doing Janice's hair when we were little and I'm pretty sure she loved having me do it :)

9. I slept in the same bed with Janice even though we had our own rooms from before I can remember until around age 10. I was extremely scared at night and I felt Janice was unharmable by the boogieman and the like because she was special.

10. We also took baths and showers together all the time as kids and I really enjoyed washing her hair.

11. Janice LOVES pasta and pretty much eating in general, if she doesn't get her lunch right at 11:30, she's not happy.

12. Sometimes my mom dressed us alike at kids.

13. Janice has competed in the Special Olympics in running and won lots of medals.

14. Janice graduated high school in 2005 and was able to walk across the stage with a cap and gown just like everyone else. My dad cried.

15. Janice was a bell ringer in my wedding. I created this part especially for her. She rang a bell right after the flower girls walked down the aisle and right before me. She loved her job and took it very seriously.

16. Janice LOVES the transformers and refers to herself as "Queen Optimus Prime"

17. Janice also loves Disney Princesses.

18. Janice gets on the Internet on a daily basis to look at the transformers web site.

19. She is extremely good at video games and can beat me.

20. Janice LOVES to draw and write and if she sees something on TV she wants, she'll write my dad a note and leave it on the fridge for him.

21. Anytime I talk to her on the phone she asks me if I'm having a baby...LOL. She says that when I do have one, it must be a girl. When she finally gets to be an aunt someday, she'll be one happy girl.

22. I'm adding one more because I forgot it above. Janice got her name from my mom's favorite model on "The price is right". Her middle name is Kristina, and if I have a girl someday, her middle name will also be Kristina in honor of her aunt.

Grains of Gratitude

This is my first attempt at a grains of gratitude post. I got the idea from several other blogs I've been reading, but the main idea is to post things you are grateful for from the last week. I will be posting one every Sunday.

1.Grateful I didn't have to work last week because I needed the whole off to study for a test on Friday. Even though I LOVE my job at St. Jude's Children's research hospital, it is nice to have a week off.

2.Grateful my test on Friday wasn't too hard. I think all my studying paid off and I'm pretty sure I got at least a B on the test.

3.Grateful that me and Will got to spend a wonderful weekend in Tunica at the Sheraton Hotel with my mom, dad, Janice, Kelly, and her boyfriend LT. It was Kelly's 21st birthday and I'm just really grateful I got to see everyone.

4.Grateful I got to have a fun afternoon shopping with Kelly at the outlet mall near the Tunica casinos. We haven't been able to shop together for a while and we got to take advantage of some wonderful sales.

5.Grateful my dad was able to bring me some German foods from the commissary on Ft. Campbell. I am unable to get items such as potato balls and German vinegar here in Memphis.

My 1st Montage-I love it!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Just call me cat woman

I got initiated into Kappa Psi, the pharmaceutical fraternity that I've been pledging all last semester, this past Friday, and on Sunday we had our Jersey night. Jersey night consists of getting all the new brothers together for some food and music, then our big brother presents us with a jersey with the Kappa Psi letters on it and our new nickname on the back. The catch is we don't know our nickname until we get called up in front of everyone and our big brother explains in....did I mention in front of everyone? LOL so it's my turn and my big brother April tells everyone that I have 4 cats and they each have their own facebook page haha and she thought that was a bit excessive, so my nickname is "Cat Woman". I wanted to die because I'm really sensitive about people thinking I'm weird because we have 4 cats and I was afraid my nickname would be cat lady or something, but cat lady would have been way worse LOL. Here are some pics.

2008 Buddy Walk!!

So I've heard about the buddy walk through several posts from Big Blueberry Eyes. It's a annual walk for Down Syndrome support and awareness and they are done all over the country. I figured they'd have one here in Memphis and I was right! I searched on the website and there is one here on October 19 of this year and I'm definitely going to walk in it. Of course I'll get my husband and some of my close friends to walk, but since I'm in pharmacy school and our ASP chapter frequently does things like this, for example we've done walks for diabetes, heart disease, and leukemia in the past, I figured I would try to get their support as well and get a real team going. I'm super excited about it and I hope to be able to raise some money! I would love to get my sister Janice down here to walk as well, but I don't know how well that will work. I want our team to be in her honor though, any ideas on a name?

http://www.buddywalk.org/

http://www.utasp.org/

Jefferson

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Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Our little boy Jefferson, our first kitty who started our love for siamese. He's a 1 year old Lynx point siamese.

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Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

My little Madison, almost 7 months old. She's a blue point Siamese.

Hair cut from H, E double hockey sticks

So I had a pretty decent day today. After class, me and my girlfriends went to a Thai place down town and I made the mistake of ordering something I don't usually get. When it arrived, I'm sure everyone could see the look of disappointment on my face, I just couldn't hide it. I politely told the waitress that it wasn't what I was expecting and she let me get something else and didn't even charge me for the meal they took back, I was very impressed and I'll definitely go back again. Then we had our Kappa Psi initiation which was a very interesting experience to say the least. Lastly we went to see "27 Dresses" which was a pretty cute movie. Kind of made me miss being a bride, but in reality I don't think I want to plan another wedding my entire life. When I got home, hubby greeted me at the door and I was shocked at what I saw. He cut his own hair, and it wasn't pretty. You see, we have one of those clipper sets and it works great when he wants it all one length, but today I guess he tried to just take a little off the sides, and it just looks so blunt, and it makes him look like he has a "bowl cut". I hate it and he won't do anything about it! I told him I wouldn't be seen in public with him like that. We also got our new mattress today so I'll let everyone know how that goes. I'll end on a good note, I sent Janice a card in the mail and my dad called to let me know she got it. He said when my mom gave it to her she said "FOR ME?" Apparently she loved it so that made me feel pretty good.

Stephanie's PSA

My public service announcement for today is BE CAREFUL WITH PSEUDOEPHEDRINE! LOL I had to learn this the hard way. I took a Claritin D this morning before school because my allergies have been acting up and I've been waking up with a horrible congested head and nose. I did NOT take note that it was the controlled-release kind. I also had my morning cup of coffee which contained CAFFEINE. The "D" ingredient in Claritin D is pseudoephedrine(PSU) which is an amazing decongestant. But it should NOT be mixed with caffeine or any other stimulant as side effects can occur. You also should start off with a small dose until your body is used to it, something else I did NOT do because the controlled-release type contains a fairly high dose of PSU. Well after my first class I got up to use the restroom and I almost fainted, and it happened all day. I've been feeling really weird all day too and not able to think clearly, I wasn't even able to do simple calculations earlier! Take home message: just be careful with it, don't be like me! Start off with a small dose and avoid caffeine.

We're getting a new bed

I've had our current mattress since I was about 14 and my parents graciously let us take it when I got married, but it's seen better days. The middle metal bar on the frame broke the other night and down went the bed, well half of it. So now the bed is laying at an angle with half at the right level and the other half on the ground, and we slept on it like that last night! LOL We wanted to just replace the bed frame, but the way the frame fits our headboard, it just wasn't going to work unless we bought a 130 dollar frame, so we decided to just get a whole new mattress and boxsprings, which we needed anyway. So our new mattress will be here Friday and until then we'll be sleeping on the old mattress on the floor. LOL

Back in School

So I've just finished my first week of school back after Christmas break. So far I've really loved it! I'm taken continuation classes of pharmacology and medicinal chemistry, also pharmaceutics 2 and 3 and an Over the counter drug class. I'll also be doing a compounding lab this semester where I'll actually make real drugs and get to bring them home! I'm really excited about that. Our first order of business of the new semester was getting certified to give immunizations. I passed with flying colors! It really wasn't that bad, 2 days were spent listening to lectures about any and everything you'd ever want to know about immunizations for every age group, and the last day was spent actually giving and receiving shots with a partner. Of course we used normal saline in the syringes. When I gave my partner her shots, it felt so naturally and I did perfect on the first try. I think I am going to volunteer to give flu shots in October during the Boo Flu clinic. I have my Kappa Psi initiation coming up next weekend and my first test on Jan. 25. I also got my new camera in the mail, so photos will be posted as I get the hang of my new toy. That's all for now.

Planning ahead for the big 1 year anniversary

So me and hubby will be married one whole year on June 1. I know that's 5 months away, but we've already been planning on how we're going to celebrate. As of now we're going to take a small trip to Chattanooga, TN, one of our favorite places to go, and go on a hot-air balloon ride! We're adventurous people, so we thought it'd be cool to do something extreme together on each of our anniversaries. When we run out of things to do I guess we'll start over! While we're in Chattanooga, we're going to ask our favorite photographer ever, Barry Aslinger, to take some pictures of us. I want to get yearly pics taken to put in my albums. He's the same photographer that did our engagement and wedding photos, both of which came out fantastic. Well going to bed now, first day of class tomorrow.

Unending I

Unending I
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Under a bridge, Kodak Easyshare

Dayna

Dayna
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Windy day. Taken with Kodak Easyshare

St. Augustine Church I

St. Augustine Church I
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Very proud of this! Taken with Kodak Easyshare

Twins

Twins
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Really neat pic taken with Kodak Easyshare.

Rings

Rings
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Close up of our wedding rings shortly after we were married.

Sunny Isles

Sunny Isles
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

The beach me and my husband spent our honeymoon on. Kodak Easy share C643

Mad kitty

mad kitty
Originally uploaded by stephanie.turner84

Maddie after a bath, taken with Kodak Easyshare C643

Resolutions and a New Hobby

Since this is my first post for the new year, I'd like to cover my New Year's resolutions. First of all I want to lose 10-15 pounds which shouldn't be too overly hard, but nonetheless not every enjoyable. I've been drinking a slimfast shake for breakfast, eating a lean cuisine for lunch and having a low calorie snack in the afternoon followed by a sensible dinner. Another resolution I'd really like to keep is keeping my house cleaner. I did really well when we first moved in, but since I started working and going to school it's been tough, but I figure where there's a Will, there's a way (no pun intended) because I did get quite a lot of "encouragement" from my husband Will. I also want to look my very best everyday. With going to school and working, it's all to easy for me to just roll out of bed, throw on scrubs, throw my hair in a heap on my head and go to school, but I want to look my best. That's all I can think of now, so I'll go into my new or rather revisited hobby. I've always enjoyed taking pictures of people, things, places, anything really. It makes me feel all good inside to be able to capture a moment forever. I have a point-and-shoot digital camera that has been very kind to me and I've gotten tons of great photos with it, but it's time for me to move on, to an SLR digital camera that is. I've chosen the Canon digital Rebel XTi with the 17-85mm standard Zoom lens. I'm more than excited to be purchasing this camera. I've done extensive research on this camera, and based on where I'm at in the hobby of photography, I believe this is the perfect camera for me to really jump in. Some day I'd to upgrade to a true professional level camera, and possibly take photographs as a fun side job. The thought of taking pictures for someone's wedding or portraits of a newborn baby really excite me. We'll see what the future holds for me. I'd love to be a full-time pharmacist and part-time photographer!