It’s the weekend! I love weekends, since it means getting to spend more time with Ben. This weekend I have ballet on Saturday, plus a gardening class on Sunday. The city here offers garden plots through the park district during the spring/summer (I think a lot of cities actually tend to have this). So I am signed up for a garden plot this summer, hence why I am taking the gardening class. Hopefully it will help a little since I know absolutely nothing about gardening. (I am also planning on reading up a little about gardening before I start my own little garden.) We also have to go shopping for a sewing machine this weekend, since my first sewing class is on Thursday. So it should be a fun, but probably a little busy, weekend.

This was my first full week of work as a vet assistant and so far so good. I have to admit that I felt a little nervous going into the job, since it is all a lot to learn and I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to learn it all. However, yesterday was probably the hardest day as far as learning stuff and I did okay. There were a couple things I just wasn’t sure I would be able to handle, but I think that I have proved to myself that I am able to handle those things and do a good job at them. (And for someone who can’t stand to watch her own blood being taken, it is amazing I can draw blood from an animal and do fine:) It is pretty cool to feel like I have finally found something I enjoy doing and want to continue doing. Of course any job is going to have its hard days, but when you can go to work most days and feel like you can’t believe you are getting paid to do something this cool, well I think that is probably the best way to feel about a job.

So what to read now? I have been reading this series of mystery books by an author that has quite a few books published. (This is always a good thing when I find good authors who have a lot of books, since I go through books so quickly.) So why do I need something new to read? Well apparently the author forgot what she wrote in the closing of the second book, because in the beginning/middle of the third book she majorly contradicted herself! I don’t mind little mess ups in books, but big mess ups can really throw a story off and make it less enjoyable (especially if the books are only somewhat okay to begin with). So if anyone has any good suggestions for fiction books that I might enjoy, email me or leave suggestions in the comments. I really love mystery books, but they have to be pure mystery books and not the kind that are on the verge of horror. Unfortunately for me, Agatha Christie only wrote about 80 books and short stories in her lifetime.

Today was a long and busy day so I am pretty tired tonight, but it was still a good day. Work went pretty well today, it seems to just fly by every day. I am really enjoying everything that I am learning and getting to do. Today for the first time, I learned how to draw blood from a cat. I actually managed to stick the needle into the vein on my first shot (which according to my co-workers is pretty impressive). Yes, I was definitely nervous about drawing the blood, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. Honestly, holding the animal down while the other person draws the blood is the hard part:)

I have been getting up early the past couple of days for work. Since well, probably my freshman year of college I have not really been a morning person (I lived on a floor in the dorms that wasn’t very conducive to people going to be early and getting up early). For awhile now I have wanted to switch my schedule back to being more of a morning person, however I find it hard to convince myself to get up when I don’t really have to. So getting up early for work has been nice and I am hoping to continue that schedule on the days I have off. Tomorrow is one of those days, so I guess I will see how that goes…

Ben emailed me a link to an article earlier called “Troublemakers - What pit bulls can teach us about profiling.” It is by Malcolm Gladwell who wrote the books Tipping Point and Blink. I have read Blink and it was definitely an interesting read. If you have some free time read the article, it is definitely interesting. I love the last line and you will just have to read it to know what the last line is:).

Right now I am listening to a really interesting On Point show about animal personality. It is just interesting to think about how much of an animals behavior is based on environment, instincts, or even personality. Sure maybe we anthropomorphize our animals sometimes, but at the same time perhaps not all animal behavior that we think of as personality is just us humans ascribing human behavior to animals. Anyways if you are interested in the topic of animal personality at all, I would recommend it for an interesting listen.

Today was a pretty good day at work. It was only my 2nd day on the job and I learned how to administer IV fluids. I actually gave IV fluids to two dogs and stuck the needle in! One of the girls I work with offered to let me try to give a vaccination also, but I figured I would watch and try next time. Administering the IV was actually easier than I thought it would be, although I am a little nervous about the idea of giving vaccines and taking blood. I am sure it will come with time and practice. I really enjoyed my day, it flew by and I could hardly believe it was over when I was done. I think I am going to like my job… I feel like I am getting to do something really great.

Well it is time for dinner, so I am going to go enjoy the homemade pizza that Ben made:)

Yes, we finally found a couch today! After shopping for a couch for several weeks, we finally found one that fit all of our criteria. We had found a very similar couch at a different store that we loved, but it just wasn’t long enough. So we kept searching and were thinking about settling for something less than perfect when we found this couch.

So a little about the couch… It is 91″ long from end to end, so it is long enough for Ben or I to take a nap on or just lay and read. That was a really big selling point for us, since a lot of the couches we found were a lot shorter than that. The floor model of the couch had a microfiber material on it (in brown no less, icky!), and we didn’t really want a microfiber material. So the salesperson gave us probably around 100 swatches of fabric to look at in a variety of colors and types of materials. We picked a tan/neutral color, that was the same color as the couch we had really liked but was too short. (I thought about red, since I really like red couches. However, I just didn’t feel brave enough to get it in red without first seeing the whole couch in that color. Red fabrics can tend to look totally different when covering a whole couch, than it looks just on a pillow or swatch. Maybe someday:) It was also in a polyester/cotton blend material, which we really liked the feel of better than microfiber or pure cotton. We had the option of getting the throw pillows that it comes with in a different color than the couch (for the same price), but I decided to just go with the same color as the couch and I can add my own throw pillows in different colors after I finish taking my sewing class.

The only downside to the whole thing… We have to wait 8-10 weeks to get it. Since it was a special order, they don’t have any sitting in a warehouse. Oh well, it is worth the wait for the perfect couch.

I found a picture of what I think is the same couch (although I am not totally positive). Ignore the purple fabric and imagine it in a tan color. The picture and the look of two cushions makes it look short, but it is actually really on the long side. I personally really like the look of just two cushions versus three. As soon as we get the couch, I will definitely post some pictures of it sitting in our living room so you can see how it looks.

Hmm… so my Dad informed me that my blog looked different than what I described to him. I told him that I had a cool black and white background, and when he went to look at it he was like, I don’t see any black just a white background. Well, Ben made a screen shot of it so I could email it to my Dad to see if what I was seeing was different from what my Dad was seeing. Turns out that it was! Apparently my cool black and white background works in firefox (it works on Ben’s work computer and our home computer), but when you open my blog in internet explorer you get a boring white background…. Bummer, and I thought I had been really smart and got this cool background and everything. So I think now I will have to ask my husband how to make it work in both. Maybe it is a google blogspot thing though and not really fixable?…. Oh well! Enjoy my simple white background, those of you who use ie (and for those of us who use firefox, well you know how cool that black & white background is:)!

Today was my first day of work as a vet assistant at the humane society. While I am pretty tired out, it was still a great day. I learned all sorts of stuff (so much my brain is practically bursting). Anyways, I learned how to give out meds and other treatments, give check-ups (check weight, temperature, listen to lungs & heart, check eyes, ears, mouth, make notes of any issues or treatment needed), how to run a couple of lab tests, and a variety of things I can’t think of right now. I watched some IV fluid treatments and blood being taken. Eventually I will learn how to do these and how to give vaccinations. It is all pretty fascinating stuff to learn. The day itself was pretty busy and full. There is an epidemic of kennel cough going through the shelter right now, so about half of the dogs are isolated and onhold right now (not able to be adopted). This unfortunately happens in shelters since there are so many animals all in one place. Fortunately, all of the sick dogs were separated from the healthy dogs today, so hopefully it will stop spreading. Anyways, it meant that we were pretty busy in the lab dealing with treatments and checkups today (I guess it isn’t normally that busy).

Of course, it was only my first day, so it is difficult to predict if I will like the job or not… although, I do think that if today is an indicator I will probably really like working there. It is great to learn all of this stuff, plus I love getting to work with all the animals! I do think I am going to have to lift weights though for my arms (laugh all you want Mom!). Some of those dogs are huge and weigh more than me! :)

Tonight I am going to relax, hang out with Ben, and give attention-starved Pounce some playtime and attention;)

I am pretty proud of myself! If you haven’t already noticed, I changed the background and colors on my blog from one of the templates Google blogger offers to a little more unique design. The reason I am proud of myself, is that I actually figured out how to use the template to customize it to my own design. Pretty cool if I say so myself!

I found a pair of scrubs yesterday after about 2 hours of shopping for them. I ended up having to go to a couple places (instead of just the one place I thought would have ones that I liked). It took me awhile, but eventually I found a pair in my size that are in the style I like. I was going to get two pairs, but finding the one set was hard enough, so I am going to wait a couple of weeks and try again.

Tonight I have ballet and then early to bed for me! It should be interesting to have to get up in the morning at a normal time:) I am looking forward to it though and will probably post a little tomorrow about my first day of work (if there is much to tell).