Amanda’s blog

   I hate spiders. I always have and always will. I inherited this from my father who is the king of arachnophobia. When a spider made it into our house there was a crisis becuase my mom and my little brothers are almost as bad me and Daddy. I do have to say that even though Dad was just as grossed out as we were, he was the one that alway ended up killing it.

      It doesn't matter if  it is a small spider, a non poisonous spider, it doesn't even have to be a spider technically, if it looks like  spider I will freak out. I almost got in a wreck one time becuase I looked over and there was one right by my face on the window, on the inside! My dad, my brother and my very girly cousin was with me at the time. As you can imagine we were in a predicament. My dad finally made me pull over becuase I was weaving off the road trying to get away from the nasty thing. We sat in the car fighting over who was going to kill it when it disappeared. Then I really freaked out. My brother and cousin who were in the back seat were on top of each other trying to get away form my side of the car. I ended up climbing in the passsenger seat where my dad was. Being the great dad he is, he bravely took the driver's seat and we arrived to Starbucks safely. As I said before I really hate spiders.

     The real story here takes place when I first moved up here to go to nursing school. It was in the fall, just when it was starting to get cold. I was the only one who rode in my car, becuase my now husband was away at college as well.  The passenger seat never got used, I would just through my books into the seat and rarely even opened the passenger door. One night after clinicals I opened the passenger door to throw my books in and dropped something onto the floor. I reached down to get it and stuck my hand right into.... a spider web! A spiderweb in my car! I jerked my hand back and screamed, jumping aroung making sure the web's inhabitant wasn't on me. My fellow classmates and the hospital employees in the parking lot probably thought I was crazy. I really did not want to get in my car. I looked around for a stick, which are very hard to find in a parking lot. I finally found something long enough to keep me at a safe distance and tore down the web. I was still freaked out, but I had no choice but to drive becuase I didn't know anyone up here well enough to call to come get me. When you are trying to make new friends, you probably don't want to call them at 8:00pm and say "Can you come get me, there was a spider web in my car and I am too scared to drive now." So I bravely drove home.

     The next day there was no sign of spiderweb or spider. I called my boyfriend to let him know, because I was so relieved. Well, my relief didn't last long because the day after that, I am driving to school and just happened to glance over and there was an even bigger web wove under my dash board. The nerve of the creature! I tried to remain calm, scooted away from the dashboard and drove on. When I got to school, I smashed at the dashboard with a stick this time, scraping every hint of web away. Now he would have to be gone. Yeah right.The next day, I am not even kidding, the next day, when I got out of class there was a new, bigger, stronger web glistening in the sun under my dash board mocking me. I felt like screaming. I might have, I really didn't care about the people in the parking lot, becuase they already thought I was crazy by this time. I don't even know how I got rid of the web this time, but I did it with determination. It was alot harder to tear down this time, it was made of some strong stuff. I still kept my distance, but I got rid of the web.

     A few days went by and my boyfriend came up to visit me. We took my car, I wasn't even thinking about the spider by this time, and we went on a nice date. When we got back to the house, he looked at me, and said "Why don't you get out, I'll get out in a minute." I was like "What, why?" He wouldn't tell me why, but he finally got out and walked me to the door, then went back to the car. I followed him, and guess what he was looking at. A spider web under my dashboard, and this time the ugly little creature was out! I wasn't even near the web, but I yelled and got the chills. He turned around and laughed at me and said "I knew you would freak out, that's why I didn't tell you."  I replied, "I was seating in the passenger's seat and that nasty little thing was inches away from my legs, how can I not freak out. Just kill it!" Yuck. But he just turned and looked at me and said "Kill it?But this is a golden orb spider, they are so amazing, they build one the strongest webs in the world.(Tell me about it, that's what I thought) I can't kill it."  I told him I didn't care if the thing was made of gold I wanted him dead and out my car.  So then Casey tried to catch it, and guess what... it got away! It escaped up into my dash. I was so freaked out. Casey finally gave in and sulkenly went into the house and got some bug spray and sprayed all up in my dash. When he was tearing the web down, he said he couldn't believe how strong it was. I couldn't believe that the spider built it four times in my car.

     The next day, although my car was undrivable becuase of all the bug spray fumes, there was no sign of my "little friend" as Casey called it. Casey left and I had to drive my car, I had no choice. I cautiously inspected my car for any "golden orb" webs. I kept my eyes open every day, every time I got in my car for a week, still no sign of the indestructible spider. Two weeks, no sign, three weeks, no sign. After a month, I was finally comvinced the golden spider was gone. It was actually pretty sad. The first week I would look down and expect to see a new glistening web there under my dash, but it was empty,eerie almost. I didn't want him back, but I had to admit he was a determined little fellow, and I had developed small morsel of respect for him now that he was gone. But, again I say not enough respect to want another spider in my car, golden or not.

When Casey was a freshmen, (before I knew him) he bought himself a bearded dragon. She was only about as big as his hand when he first got her and know she is about a foot long. When I first stated dating Casey I thought she was pretty cool. Growing up I had all kinds of animals but my mom would never let us have any kind of reptile or amphibian. Anyways, now that we are married, I have decided that me and "Hungy"(that's it's name) were not meant to live in the same house. It is the stupidest and most helpless animal I have ever seen. And the worst part is that Caset caters to it's every need. One might say that I am jealous of this creature, but I think it goes beyond that. First of all, when Casey left for college, Hungy was left in the care of Casey's mother. She is a very busy woman, and Hungy was neglected. She was in pretty bad shape when Casey got her back,(soon after we were married) and for a few days I felt really sorry for her. She has seizures and stuff becuase she was so deficient in calcium for so long. Then Casey wanted to buy her a special light, then she had to have a new cage, then she had to have calcium supplements,  then she had to be in the house!!! As much as we spend on the stupid little beast I could have my horse up here. He spends so much time fussing with that stupid lizzard. He gives her baths, he rearranges her cage, he buys these climbing things for her cage, (like she cares what they look like). It's never ending. Then what we were feeding her was no longer good enough. He decided that she needed to be eating more bugs in her diet. So he ordered like 1000 superworms. Their name describes them well. They are huge, and guess where they are staying!!! In my house under the lizzard cage. Talk about frustration. These things are nasty and big and I just don't like the fact that there are bugs in my house on purpose. But "they can't live in temperaturs above 70 degress" he says. I think that's bologne, but I can't seem to break the spell the stupid lizzard has over him. I really don't like competing with a lizzard. LOL. The other day I casually asked, of course not meaning anything by it, "So when do bearded dragons die anyways?" I don't think she is going to be leaving us any time soon, unfortunately. She will probably outlive me and then it will just be her and Casey. Ughhh!!!! I don't know why I let it bother me so much, but it does. Oh, and now he has decided that he is going to breed the superworms so that he doesn't have to order any more. I have to admit that it is pretty cool how they change. You have to put them in a dark, quiet place, and they turn into beetles. Isn't that the weirdest thing? Worms that turn into beetles when they get stressed out. First they are white beetles, then they turn red and then they turn black.  So I guess it was pretty cool to see them transform like that, until I leanred that they beetles have to stay in the house too!!!!

We are still trying to move into our new house, and I don't think I am ever going to run out of boxes to unpack. Anyways yesturday I was unpacking one that I had packed our nativity in. When I say nativity I mean one ceramic piece with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, but it's the only Christmasy thing we have, and I wanted to make sure we had something to decorate with this Christmas. Well, the package must have gotten handled roughly during the move becuase Joseph's head had broken off. Like I said this is the only Christmas decoration I have so I set it on the couch, so I could glue his head back on when I unpacked the glue., wherever it was.

When Casey came home from work, Joseph and his head were still on the couch. Casey just laughed and asked me what had happened to poor Joseph. Then he proceeded to put the head in different places within the nativity scene:on Mary's shoulder, on the ground, on his staff. It was rather funny, but I told him to stop becuase it seemed sacrilegious. Once again we are very easily amused.

The whole incident reminded me of my dad when my brother and I were little kids. I would play with my barbies and my brother had his GI Joes. He had one whose arm always fell off. We would be playing and GI Joe' s arm from the elbow down would just opo off. I thought it was cool becuase my babrbie got to be the nurse an dput his arm back on. My brother was not amused, becuase it was to the point that the arm just wouldn't stay on. My dad being the goofball that he is, decided that he would take care of the arm situation. He took GI Joe's arm and put it in the front pocket of his pants so that the fingers looked like the were reaching over the top of the pocket .We thought it was the funniest thing. One time mom called for dad to come help her with something. He nonchalantly went up to her took at the arm and asked "Do you need a hand?" It was so corny but we thought it was so funny. He kept that arm in is pocket for I don't know how long and would pull it out when one of us needed something. Something so corny and simple, but I will remember it forever. 

We are still trying to move into our new house, and I don't think I am ever going to run out of boxes to unpack. Anyways yesturday I was unpacking one that I had packed our nativity in. When I say nativity I mean one ceramic piece with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, but it's the only Christmasy thing we have, and I wanted to make sure we had something to decorate with this Christmas. Well, the package must have gotten handled roughly during the move becuase Joseph's head had broken off. Like I said this is the only Christmas decoration I have so I set it on the couch, so I could glue his head back on when I unpacked the glue., wherever it was.

When Casey came home from work, Joseph and his head were still on the couch. Casey just laughed and asked me what had happened to poor Joseph. Then he proceeded to put the head in different places within the nativity scene:on Mary's shoulder, on the ground, on his staff. It was rather funny, but I told him to stop becuase it seemed sacrilegious. Once again we are very easily amused.

The whole incident reminded me of my dad when my brother and I were little kids. I would play with my barbies and my brother had his GI Joes. He had one whose arm always fell off. We would be playing and GI Joe' s arm from the elbow down would just opo off. I thought it was cool becuase my babrbie got to be the nurse an dput his arm back on. My brother was not amused, becuase it was to the point that the arm just wouldn't stay on. My dad being the goofball that he is, decided that he would take care of the arm situation. He took GI Joe's arm and put it in the front pocket of his pants so that the fingers looked like the were reaching over the top of the pocket .We thought it was the funniest thing. One time mom called for dad to come help her with something. He nonchalantly went up to her took at the arm and asked "Do you need a hand?" It was so corny but we thought it was so funny. He kept that arm in is pocket for I don't know how long and would pull it out when one of us needed something. Something so corny and simple, but I will remember it forever. 

     It looks like the creepy old house sold. The inspector came Saturday,and we are supposed to be out by the 28th. Talk about short notice. Of course we have to be out the same week I have finals. The people Casey works with offered to come help us move this weekend, but I think we have alot more stuff than they think. We have alot more stuff than I thought we did. When we first started packing, Casey and I both were overwhelmed at how much stuff we had accumulated, and we've only been married for four months. At home, down south with my parents, our garage is infamous. I think my dad tries to "clean it out" atleast once a year, but somehow it magically fills back up by the same time next year. I remember that anytime we would be expecting company, one of parents would frantically yell "Is the garage closed?" Closing the garage took priority over cleaning the bathroom. Anyways, I used to wonder why there was so much in the garage, and why we had so much stuff. Well, they have been married twenty one years; at the rate Casey and I are going, we are going to fill up a football stadium by the time we reach our tweny-first anniversary. It's ridiculous really. No one needs to have that much stuff. For example, the garage - during the annual "cleaning out" of the garage, my brothers and I would find toys and clothes that we didn't even know we had, or that we thought had been thrown away or lost. It was a very exciting time... for us. It created another obstacle for getting rid of anything for my parents, because we didn't want our "new" toys to be sold or thrown away. The point is we didn't even know we had that stuff, so obviously we didn't really need any of it. So I have decided that we are going to have to make some alterations, so we quit accumulating stuff. Rule # 1 : Casey can no longer go dumpster diving. That's as far as I have gotten, but I think that it's a good start. LOL  

   I hope all you enjoyed your Easter.We had a very good Easter, an interesting one, but a good one. Dad said I should write about it, so I will. Casey and I have realized that just how much God has really been providing for us, and we are very thankful, but sometimes we really feel like moochers. This Sunday was a perfect example.

      Of course the day started out with us going to church. Casey's brother asked him to teach his Sunday School class, so we went there instead of where we normally go. The class meets at Ryan's every Sunday morning for breakfast, and then do their lesson. Casey's brother knows that we don't make very much money, not enough to eat out alot anyway, so when we got there, he paid for both our meals. Which was really sweet, and the food was really good. Casey did a really good job, and it was nice to be in a class with adults, because normaly we are teaching the youth at our church.

       After church, we went to his mom's house for Sunday dinner. There were a bunch of people there. Not only Casey's family, but my sister-in -in law's family, three family friend's and their spouses and kids, and my mother-in-law's best friend and her kids and their families. It was nice, but I felt left out, becuase I didn't have my family there, and I missed them alot. Anyways after dinner, we did the easter egg hunts. There was one for the little kids, but there was also one for the adults. Everyone who wanted to participate in it had to put in five dollars, and the winner won all the money. Well, we didn't have ten dollars,and weren't going to be able to participate, but then Casey's stepdad paid for us to play. There were about 160 eggs, and some of them had numbers on them. At the end of the hunt, the numbers were called out and whoever had the last number called, won the money. Guess what; Casey and I won! It was really exciting.

     After the hunt, Casey was talking to his stepdad, and found out that they had thrown away their computer. A few tornadoes hit a few weeks ago, and everything electrical in their house got affected. Come to find out the only thing wrong with it was the power something. (I don't know what its called, but the point is that there was only one thing wrong with it.) They just bought all new stuff and didn't want to mess with it, so they threw it away. Casey decided that he wanted it, so he jumped in my car to go get it. I jumped in with him and asked him where it was. I cringed when he told me it was in "the dumpster." Let me explain why "the dumpster" is something to cringe about. Casey's stepdad is a taxidermist, and they have a dumpster on the far end of their property for him to throw all the guts and stuff from the animals he woks on. That is why I cringed. Not just trash, not rotting food, but animal guts and parts and yuck! I was like "You've got to be kidding me. You are going to dig that thing out of the dumpster." He couldn't understand why I wasn't excited;all he could say was that it was atleast a $500.00 computer, and that Ron said he could have it, and that desktops are better than laptops. As we got of of the car, the smell of dead animals hit us in the face. Put it this way, there are usually about fifteen voltures that hang out around this thing, and Casey was about to open it, dig this computer out of it, then put it in MY car! I just waited as he dug around. Then he turned around and excitedly told me that it was on some boxes, not even touching the guts. I didn't see what he was so excited about, because when he finally pulled it out and set it in front of me, I gagged becuase the stinch was still all over it. I said "I can't believe you are going to put that thing in my car." In which he replied "Babe, this thing cost 500 dollars and I know I can fix it. Isn't it so exciting!" Ughhh. I forgot to mention that as he had half of his body in the gut filled dumpster that everyone at the house started leaving and slowed down as they passed us. I just smiled and waved, as they looked past me and saw my husband hanging out of a dumpster. Now everyone thinks that we are dumpster divers;great,moochers and dumpster divers. Well, he did in fact put that thing in my car, all the while telling me that the guts and other parts were on the very bottom of the dumpster, and the computer was setting on a piece of cardboard on top of all of it. This did not make me feel any better.

    We got back to the house, and then Casey saw their old TV. Of course he asked what they were going to do with it, and what was wrong with it, and that ended up in my car as well. We finally headed home; I drug Casey away before he started taking furniture, and we started discussing how much we had blessed that day. Then Casey said, "I've realized that we tend to live off of other people lately." It was really sad, but we had, especially that day. Calculating it all together, including the breakfast, the money, his stepdad paying for us to hunt, the TV and computer, we had mooched almost $1100.00. LOL, we had to laugh. I didn't laugh when we got home opened my trunk though. The smell was awful. Casey said, "Remember, $500.00!" All I could say is "Yeah it smells like $500.00; get that thing out of my car." He sprayed it with febreeze and left it outside to air out. The good thing is, when he called the company, it has a a lifetime guarentee, and we are going to get the part it needs for free.(Add $40.00 to that moocher total) And the TV is a cheap part too. I guess I got a little more excited about that, but I'll be more excited when my trunk stops smelling like dead animals.

This weekend consisted mostly of studying for a big test I had on Monday, but we did manage to squeeze some fun in on Saturday. We were going to the beach, but it was foggy all day. I didn't know that was possible, but it was 4:30pm' before the sun even came out. Anyways, by that time it was too late to get ready and go to the beach, so we started looking around for something to do.Someone stole our paddles so taking the canoe out was not an option. There is this peddle boat that has been in the front yard since we moved in. I don't know how long it has been out there, but it was full of black and green water and there were leaves all over it. Casey decided it would be fun to clean it out and take it in the lake. I wasn't to sure about it; the algae that was growing in the seats and the dark, murky water in the back of it made me a little hesitant. But there wasn't anything else to do, so I started helping Casey clean it up. It was too heavy with all the water in it, for us to flip it over, so we scooped out the water with a bucket. On the side of the boat, throught the algae, I read the word "Aquatoy." When most of the water was out of it we flipped it on its side. It was still to heavy for us to drag to the backyard; we figured out there was water inside the plastic bottom of it too.Casey found a plug on the bottom, so we drained it, then we drug it to the backyard. It was still heavy, so Casey had to pull it and I had to push it from behind. I had to push really hard, so I would wait for him to get a little ahead then I would run and give it a shove. The first time I did this, Casey wasn't paying attention, and just happened to stop pulling right when I went to push. Well, as I went to push, the boat stopped of course, and I went tumbling into the back of it. I didn't fall all the way in, but it was still really funny. We finally got it on the water, and we both got in. Let me stop here to clarify, what I meant by peddle boat. I meant that both of us had to peddle (like on a bike) to move this thing, and we steered by moving this lever that moved a rotar ( I think that's what it's called) that was on the back of the boat. Well, we hadn't been peddling too long, when we realized that we were going in circles. So Casey moved the lever up to make the rotar turn the other direction. We peddled some more, still making a circle to the right. Casey pushed the lever down, we still went in a right circle. We were going in circles, but we were gradually getting farther and farther away from the dock, and ever time we would peddle we would go into a right circle and farther out into the water. This whole time Casey is moving the lever trying to figure out how to make this thing go straight. It was so funny, becuase we would think we had it figured out, and then we would peddle and still be going in circles. It was starting to get dark, so our goal was now just to try and get back to the dock. So Casey found a paddle in the back, and he had to paddle backwards while we peddled forward to make us go straight. This was very hard for him, because he was having to go frontwards with is feet, and backwards with his arm simultaneously.  Then the top of the paddle came off, and started floating, rather quickly behind us.We peddled backwards and then forwards and finally brought my side up to the paddle. I was able to grab it, and we started again towards the dock. We manuevered the "aquatoy" by going backwards, Casey using the paddle, then forward some, and we were finally back at the dock. When Casey got out, and looked at the boat, he said " Oh my gosh, you have to come look at this." I looked at the back of the boat where he was talking about, and we both laughed. The rotar wasn't even in the water. I guess that water was in the bottom of it for a reason. It needed a little bit of weight for the rotar to be able to steer in the water. Our weight wasn't enough. We had to laugh about it, we had fought with it out there for atleast 45 minutes, and it was something as simple as that. Atleast we know what to do next time.  

 Going to the movies now days can be so expensive. I think the price for a movie ticket here is almost nine dollars a person, and for some reason the value of popcorn and coke inflates as soon as you walk through the door of a theatre. You could go out to eat with how much money you spend on refreshments at the movies.Where I live there is this movie theatre that shows movies for a dollar. They are movies that are out of the normal threatres by now, but most of them aren't out on video yet, so it is still pretty cool. I have been dying to see that movie "Enchanted," and it has recently started playing at this movie theatre. Plus I just found out that on Tuesdays all shows are only 50 cents. As newlyweds, we are on a tight budget, and cannot afford to go to the "real" movies as much as we would like, but we decided we could handle 50 cents a ticket, so we decided to go last night. Before we left, we decided that it would be nice to have some popcorn, but unfortuantly popcorn and drinks are the same price as they are at the normal theatre, and that wouold defeat the purpose of us going to a cheap movie. So we decided to pop it ourselves and hide it in my purse. As a wedding gift, his brother gave us this popcorn air popper and you can buy butter just like they put on the popcorn at the movies at Walmart for a dollar. So we popped the popcorn and put it in a big gallon ziplock bag. It fit snugly, but perfectly in my purse. Well, then we decided that we were going to be really thirsty, but we haven't been grocery shopping in a really long time, so all we had was water at the house, and that would never do of course. Who wants to drink water with popcorn? Yuck, not me. Casey was fine with it, but I, well, I wanted a soda with my popcorn. So we stopped at the jiffy store and I bought a can of soda for 69 cents. We finally got to the theatre, and when we got out of the car, we both had to laugh at each other. Here I had this purse, full of popcorn, that crunched everytime I walked. I had it zipped, but it was so fat, becuase of the fluffy popcorn inside. And Casey had his jacket on with two bulges coming out of his chest and side, because he had a bottle of water in one side and a can of soda in the other. It was funny, but it was worth it. The movie was so cute, the popcorn was really good, we had drinks, and all just for $1.69, and the memory will forever be priceless.  

     A friend of mine gave me one of those bulb kits for Christmas; the kind that comes with everything and has step- by- step directions. She knows me well, because I kill everything green I ever touch, so she made sure it was a very low maintance, easy to grow plant. I think they are called Narciscus flowers. They are named after the guy that fell in love with himself according to mythology,when he seen his reflection in a pond of water. A week or so a go, Casey and I planted it, and it has taken off ever since, Anyways, since Casey and I are not allowed to have pets, we don't have cable or internet, and are on a budget, we are easily amused at how fast this thing has grown. It has already bloomed clusters of beautiful white flowers. Casey even started taking pictures of it, to see if it was really growing as fast as we thought. Like I said, we are very easily amused. We put it outside during the day, then bring it in when the sun goes down. A few days ago, we forgot, and it was starting to get cold. Casey went outside to "rescue" it,(he is very attached) and he couldn't find it. When he did, the pot was flipped over, and every single bulb was pulled out and thrown across the yard. We think a racoon did it, but I couldn't even pull them up without having Casey hold the pot down and using alot of force. The look on Casey's face was sorta comical; he was so upset about our little plant. He said he was going to stay up and shoot the critter, lol, he was so upset. Well, we planted them back as best as we could, packing new dirt around the roots. The stem and flowers were wilting, so we propped it up against something. The next day the plant was perky and even had a new bud on it. Like I said, very easy to grow and obviously hard to kill.

I know this is really going to make me sound like a dork, but I am so excited because today I did my very first IV bolus. Not on a real person, but it was still awesome. Here at my school we have simlation labs that we have to go to. There are set scenarios, and they have dummies that are like real people, they breath, have pulses etc. We can asses the dummies, take pulses, give shots, insert catheters, and today we learned how to calculate IV meds, and how to give them. The instructor picked me, out of 5 people to be the one to do it, and I was so nervous. Even though it is a dummie, it is still nerve racking, because if you calculate something wrong, or don't give the med at a certain rate you can kill someone. That is why they have us practice in simulation lab first. Anyways, I did it, and it was so exciting, and I actually did everything right.

In SIM lab, they split us up in two groups of three, but today I was in a seperate group with just one other person. We split up the responsibilties between us.One person does the initial assessment and the meds, one person contacts the lab, pharmacy, doctor, or whoever the team may need to get information from. (This person actaully has a head set and talks to these different people, who is played by our instructor in another room, who is watching us.) Another person is the primary nurse, who delegates different duties to everyone else, and makes sure a complete assessment is done, and that the patients needs are met. Our instructor is also the voice of the patient( the only thing they dont do is talk), she answers our questions and talks to us through an overhead speaker. It's prett cool. We are in a room that is set up like a hospital, complete with beds, curtains, med carts, all the works. The other set of students are in a confernce room watching us live on a TV. That part is intimidating, but it's really fun.

Anyways, sorry if this was boring, but I was excited about it.