Okay so this may end up being the most boring blog entry you have ever read. I don’t really have all that much to say, but I felt like posting something….

School has been pretty busy, but also fun and interesting. It is different in a lot of ways from my other degree in that it is so hands on and practical. That was always something that bothered me about my business degree. So much of it seemed like stuff that somebody just made up to sound good, but no one would end up using for real in the business world. This is totally diferrent, since everything we learn almost immediately gets put into practice in our labs. Plus there is the obvious benefit of getting to work with adorable dogs & cats, which no business degree could ever compete with:)

Next week, my large animal clinic lab starts which should be pretty interesting. I am not sure if I should be excited or not. I have never worked with anything bigger than a dog and have only been around large animals a little bit. This girl is definitely a city girl! (Although I would love to live in the country someday, with a ton of dogs, my two kittys, and maybe a horse or two. But make that out in the country near a big city so I can go shopping.) Anyways… my large animal lab should be interesting at least.

Today I took my first A&P (anatomy & physiology) quiz. I didn’t do too bad, but the cool thing is that for each quiz you actually take two quizzes & then you get the best grade out of the two. I have decided that it is definitely the class I will probably have to study the most for, but at least I know plenty of people who have taken A&P that I can ask for help from (hi Dad, Ben, & Sari!). So even though it is probably going to be a hard class (and I still have to take A&P 2), in the grand scheme of things I don’t think it will be that bad since it helps me get closer to my goal of being a vet tech.

Something other than school….

L.A.M.B. has some of its fall line of clothes out. (Okay I know the guys reading my blog could care less, but you have to figure if you read my blog & know me that I like clothes and this is by far my favorite clothing line even if I can’t afford it.) I just have to say that this coat is very cool, even if it is really overpriced. I also really like these sweatpants in the black. I already have that L.A.M.B. sweatshirt that Ben got me for my birthday and I wear it constantly. It is probably the most comfortable piece of clothing that I own, so I figure those sweatpants have to be pretty nice. Although once again, they are pretty expensive….

Someday in my spare time (anotherwards in two years, since that is how long it will take for me to get my vet tech degree), I am going to try to make my own version of some of the L.A.M.B. clothes and other clothes that I really like. For now I am going to stick with patterns for the most part though since I don’t have the time to figure out my own way of making stuff.

Oh, I don’t know if anyone else will care besides my dad, but tonight Ben & I saw a really pretty looking german shepherd that was sitting in a car with its head hanging out the window. Someday I would really love to have a germand shepherd again… On a side note, I tried to look up Kittie’s family line (Kittie was my dog, thank my dad for the name:) but couldn’t find much on the internet. I do think that it would be pretty cool to someday get a puppy from her family line though.

Two last things that will probably only make sense to the people that they are addressed to.
The first - Hi Mel & Jes! (edited to fix spelling, sorry about that Jes:) Sorry there is no picture of Pounce & Axel, but it seemed like too much work.
The second - I want the black mouse back, Ben ;)

When I got home today the house was messier than when I left (and yes Ben was gone also). So who was the culprit (or culprits I should say)? Pounce and Axel had opened one of the cupboards and emptied it of napkins and tupperware containers so that one of them could sleep in there. Plus the placemats on the table were no longer on the table. The pillows on the couch were not on the couch and the dish towel was laying on the floor. I think they had a fun morning! So after I straightened up their little mess, they both wanted to climb up on my lap and cuddle a bunch. I think that they are missing me a little, but hopefully being nocturnal they will get better naps (since I often wake them up when I am home to play with them).

Today I got the first vaccine in a series of three for school. It is an amazing vaccine that technically could save my life (or anyone else who works in the field of veterinary medicine), but that doesn’t mean that I like having a long needle stuck in my arm. The vaccine great, the needle not so much so….

Tonight I saw the biggest bug that I have ever seen in my life. It was bigger than my hand and at first was slightly fascinating until it moved and I proceeded to get a little freaked out. I didn’t even know that bugs could be that big!

The highlight of my week…. getting a lunch box. (Okay not really… but it will be nice to have one.) Probably the real highlight would be getting through the week and realizing that so far I really like vet tech school.

I miss my sewing machine a little bit, but I don’t think I am going to get to be creative for awhile since I have quite a bit of homework. At least the homework is pretty interesting and fascinating!

So I probably should be asleep right now, but honestly I am not very tired! Besides I really wanted to write about the first couple days of my life as a vet tech student.

First off I am on the search for the perfect bag. Since my bag that I was planning on using as a book bag didn’t turn out to work that well, I now need a different book bag. The problem is that I have a very specific ideal in mind, including size, shape, non-backpack, messenger bag with no flap, comfy strap, lots of pockets on the outside. Hmm, like the bag I made! So the search continues since honestly I don’t think my sewing machine could handle the amount of layers and thickness of material that I would need in order to carry these really heavy books around in.

The first two days of school have gone pretty good. I am enjoying my classes and looking forward to working with the animals that we have at school. The dogs are all around the 30-40lb range, so not very large, and also seem pretty calm and nice. The cats also seem pretty nice and friendly. Overall, probably better than a real clinic setting (it doesn’t seem like we will see many bad behavior problems like I did at the shelter). It should be pretty nice though, because in order to learn everything it is going to be easier than trying to learn on crazy hyper dogs and attitude cats:) Of course, you still have to be just as cautious and aware when you are working with them. It may not matter whether the dog is hyper or not during the exam, but let me tell you that it is easier to get a calm dog out of a kennel than a hyper one. (Don’t get me wrong, I love hyper dogs and cats with attitudes!)

I have Anatomy & Physiology this semester which will probably be my most challenging class. It is actually human anatomy & physiology, but animals and humans are actually very similar. Luckily, the vet tech students do not participate in the human cadaver labs (icky!!!!), we get our own labs during those working on animals instead. (Sorry if that is tmi for some people!)

This has to be the first time in my life that I have actually found the textbook reading assignments to be interesting. Tonight Ben & I went to a bookstore and hung out while I studied a little. I kept reading him little things out of my textbook, because some of it is so fascinating to me. (I am one lucky girl, he listens even though it probably isn’t quite so interesting to him.) Anyways I think that is probably a pretty good sign for the rest of the semester.

The rest of this week… homework and more homework. This weekend, what of course but more homework and maybe a little bit of sewing. I want to use up some of my scraps for things like fabric bookmarks and wrap headbands. Plus I think my stethoscope needs a little pouch of its own (don’t you think so:).

So tomorrow I start school and I can hardly believe it. It seems a little crazy that the summer has flown by so quickly and that I am going to school. At the same time it is exciting to think about getting to work with animals and do something I really enjoy.

So in anticipation of school and everything, I have been doing stuff to get ready. Including making myself a new book bag, which was completely an experiment to begin with. I didn’t have a pattern, just a design idea in my head that I wanted to try. I wanted a messenger type bag without a flap (those get in the way all too often). So I went and bought some fabric and this is what happened…

Pounce helping me think through the design & letting me know what he thinks of my choice of fabric. Hmm… he kind of matches!

The outside of my new bag. It is a black on black pattern with two front snap pockets.

The inside of the bag has a leopard print pattern. There is a zipper pocket & an open pocket.

A picture with the two fabrics showing.

So what do you think? Personally, I love the look of the bag. The bummer part of the whole thing is that while the bag turned out it really doesn’t support heavy textbooks. So, if you could see my textbooks you would see that it obviously isn’t going to work to carry those around. Still I can probably use it for other things. I don’t know if I would try making one of these again, even though it turned out pretty good it was a lot of work to put together. Using a pattern would be much much easier! Although part of the fun is in making your very own!

Axel’s birthday is today, so he is now a 1 year old kitty. In celebration of Axel’s birthday here are two pictures that my dad took of Axel when my parents were visiting. Normally Axel does not sit still for pictures, he likes to run around a lot. I guess he was in a good mood or something though this day, because these pictures are very cute.

Now I think I need to go lay down for awhile. I am not feeling great, and I didn’t even eat the cookies that gave me a migraine last night. Augh! The last thing I need to do is get sick right before school starts. That would not be very cool.

I feel slightly overwhelmed right now. School starts in less than a week and I don’t quite feel ready. I feel like I have so much stuff to get done before then, plus I have that first day of school apprehension… Like when I was supposed to take drivers ed and I didn’t want to go because I was so nervous. I tried really hard to convince my mom to let me stay home, I even told her I didn’t care if I never learned how to drive, but she made me go anyways. Which was probably pretty smart of her, since I now enjoy driving and would miss being able to. Anyways, I think that is kind of how I feel right now. So even though I am nervous & saying all this doesn’t help very much, I will go to school on the first day and probably even enjoy it because that is just the way I am.

If you are my sister do not read this yet, wait until you get home otherwise the surprise will be ruined for you…

This past week has been fairly busy since my parents were down visiting. On Saturday we took a trip to the zoo, which as you can imagine I love to go to. Ben & I have gone to this zoo once before when we were still dating, so it was fun to go back again. We paid a little extra money to see the dolphin show and a couple other things also. I don’t think I have ever seen a dolphin show before, and it was totally worth it. Dolphins really are amazing creatures! My other favorite part of the zoo was all the big cats of course and the wolves. We actually didn’t take our camera along because we didn’t want to have to think about taking pictures, which was nice since we got to just enjoy seeing the animals.

Other highlights of the week included just hanging out with my parents, having a picnic dinner at their camper (they stayed at a campground near us), watching Pounce & Axel soak up all the attention that they were getting from my dad especially, having my mom around to give my sewing tips & spending time sewing with her, playing a game of uno (which I won of course, oh yeah I am VERY competitive when it comes to card/board games:), pizza for dinner at least 3 times (maybe more than that?), and going out to eat at Famous Dave’s (if you know me well, you are probably like huh, I thought she didn’t eat meat? yep, I had mac & cheese off the kids menu thanks to the recommendation from my vegetarian sister! How my parents managed to have two kids who became vegetarians I will never know:)

Other things I have been up to include making a dress and two purses. The dress I made out of the Paris print fabric that I bought a while back. I used a pattern that I slightly adjusted to fit me better, and I absolutely love the results! I think I may wear it to my brother-in-law and his fiancee’s wedding with a cardigan over top (since I am almost always cold!). It really is better than any dress I could find in a store since it is unique and custom fitted to me. (Have I mentioned yet that I love being able to sew?!) Here are pics of the dress (now I just need some shoes to go with it… I know honey I already have a lot of shoes, but don’t you think I need some new ones to go with my new dress? :)

I have also made two new purses, but neither are for me since I have enough purses to last me awhile (or at least until I find some more fabric that I can’t live without). The first purse I made was for my sister. She commented that she liked the bags I made previously so I thought I would make her one for her very own. I used a tan fabric with palm trees on the outside and a contrasting blue fabric on the inside. I also experimented by making her a matching little pouch to put things in and a matching wallet. The pouch and wallet were my first attempts at making such things so hopefully they will work for her. I just made them up as I went along so I didn’t quite know what to expect until I finished. Here are pics of her new purse…

This summer my parents have a girl from Bulgaria staying with them, so I also wanted to make her a purse. It was a little trickier making a bag for someone I have never met, but my mom went to the fabric store with me and helped pick out some fabric. The outside is a solid black, but the inside has a pink floral print. I was pretty happy with the results and might have to make myself a smaller bag using this same fabric. Hopefully she will like it too!

As you can tell I have been pretty busy although all of it has been pretty fun! Next on my list of things to do is make myself some wrap headbands. I have been really into wearing them lately (yesterday I bought another one from Ann Taylor) and figure I can just use fabric scraps to make myself some more. Oh and I have another dress I want to make and some cropped pants that I have material for, and at some point I would like to make myself a messenger bag to carry my books in… I guess I am going to be busy!

Yesterday it was almost like Pounce was a kitten again. All he wanted to do all day was plop down in someone’s lap (which meant mine since I was the one home) and cuddle. It meant I didn’t get as much done as I wanted (although I did still get stuff done), but it was worth it. It used to be that you could not sit on the floor or sit down hardly anywhere without him crawling up and sitting on you. He doesn’t do that much anymore, but yesterday when I would sit down he would come find me and sit on my lap.

When Pounce and Axel haven’t been taking up my attention, I have been getting stuff done so that when school starts I won’t have too much to do. I got my coveralls and boots yesterday and tried them on. They fit! Well for the most part anyway, which is a good thing. The boots are really weird to walk in and almost feel too big, but I think that just might be because they are weird:) The coveralls are plenty roomy and should make it so that I can layer sweatshirt & such underneath so I don’t freeze in the winter outside. I would take a picture, but I think you should just believe me that I look pretty funny and a little out of my element in them.

Here is a pic of a top I made the other day. The bummer is that even though it turned out super cute hanging on a hanger, I don’t really like at all how it fits me.

I think though that I can probably make some adjustments to it and salvage it so that it does fit me better. Luckily it is too big, rather than too small. Besides purses/curtains/pillows (which all don’t really count since those things are easy to make without a pattern), it was the first thing I made without a pattern. I got some basic tutorial directions online that gave me the idea of how to make the top, but I actually didn’t even follow them that closely as I wanted my top to be a little different. If I can manage to salvage it, I may even make one or two similar tops (with totally different fabric of course) since it does make a pretty nice summery top.

It has been so hot lately that I don’t venture outside very often. However, when I do go out to my car or walk outside this is what I see.

It helps a little to block the neighbors yard and brighten up the parking area. I don’t know if someone purposely planted them (I would assume so), but they were there last year and grew back this year. Anyways I think they are very pretty flowers, and I wish I knew what they were called. It makes me look forward to hopefully having a yard someday, I think if I did I would definitely try to add some pretty stuff like this.

I cannot believe how quickly fall and school is approaching. While I am somewhat looking forward to school starting, I am not so looking forward to summer ending. It is by far my favorite season!