famous last words: visitor

This weekend was an eventful one to say the least. After a stressful week, my older brother came in town for the OU vs TCU game. I think this was my first time having a full game-day experience outside of being a cheerleader. It was a blast!

We got up around 10am and headed to campus corner for breakfast and then went home to change and headed right back to campus corner. It was fun, yet exhausting. Just being in a large crowd for hours is exhausting to me, but I was still a blast.

As for the game itself, it was great! I am not sure if I will go to the last home game and, if I don't, I am content with this game being my last game to attend as a student at OU. 

Photo from Flickr.

Since my brother was here, I didn't do as much homework as planned, but I don't regret it. I got ahead in this class enough so I just have 6 points left after this assignment and then I will have completed the course. I am very thankful that all of the extra credit was available since it motivated me to work ahead to stay on top of my work despite all of the times I have been sick this semester.

famous last words: coming to a close

This week has been like my previous few weeks. I had to take two trips to the doctor's office and still no complete answers as to why my body is giving me issues. But, I am overall feeling a lot better. I don't have fever and can eat and all that jazz, so it's a start!

I am really proud of myself for staying on top of this class and my other classes this past week. I tried to picture all of my due dates being a few days earlier than they really are just to make some wiggle-room in case I end up getting sick. With that in my mind, I think I may complete this course by next week which is pretty exciting! 

On the bright side, there were lots of exciting moments that happened over the last week. I got to dress up as a grandpa while TAing Human Anatomy lab which was very entertaining. Our whole team made up members from The Princess Bride, but I actually have never seen the movie. Regardless, it was fun getting to dress up for Halloween at work. Most importantly, the Houston Astros WON the World Series for the first time ever which is freaking AMAZING! It still has not sunk in for me. My family got to go to the parade on Friday and the picture were unreal. I am so happy for my city! Also, OU beat OSU (even though it was a very stressful game)! 

Here is a photo of the anatomy lab crew dressed up as The Princess Bride for Halloween. 

famous last words: can't catch a break

After being sick for a whole week, I decided to workout on Monday of this week and, to say the least, it was not a good idea. Working out on top of the weather change led me to have a fever and cold symptoms Wednesday night. Of course, my family was coming up for homecoming on Thursday night which made me want to get better ASAP. 

(Photo by me from the OU Ring Ceremony)

We went to the ring ceremony which was awesome! It was the biggest one yet and President Boren and Bob Stoops were both there which was also awesome. Besides not feeling 100% and holding back coughs the whole time, it was a great ceremony.

Friday, I woke up with an ear ache so I went to a urgent care clinic and found out that I actually have ear infections in both ears as well as a sinus infection. This scared me because I actually just got tubes in my ears after my first semester of freshman year and a sinus procedure which were supposed to prevent both of these things from happening. 

Now, I am having to take 6 different pills to get my body healthy again that make me very loopy and tired. It's making it very difficult to finish pending assignments and study for my exam on Halloween.

On the bright side, my mom made some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup and they were fine with just hanging out and watching the Astros all weekend. 

I'm just hoping that this settles down so I can complete all of my assignments in this class this week as I am so close to the finish line!

famous last words: back on track

After a long week of being sick, I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I thought that I had the stomach flu, but I ended up actually having an intestinal bacteria that gave me flu0like symptoms. I think the worst part, besides having to be wheeled into the doctor's office to get bags of fluid pumped into me, was not being able to take anything for pain or fever. I have a 102 fever and was in constant pain that was not allowing me to sleep for almost 2 days. It was miserable. I finally started to gain some energy back on Thursday of this week and I am hoping it keeps climbing. I still have not had enough energy to workout which is not fun because I love to work out.

I am doing as much extra credit tonight as I can in order to get myself ahead again. I really want to finish this course early so I am not stressed beyond what I need to be during those final weeks of the semester when professors all assign final projects/assignments. If I keep on top of all the extra credit and regular assignments, I think it is still in reach.

On another note, tonight I got to host a kick-off event for homecoming week that was very successful! I am on the Class of 2018 Council and our event was Glow Wild and it keeps getting better and better each year. I got to be the photographer for the night which is always my favorite job because I get to bring new people together and also capture long friendships in the moment. On top of that, there was AMAZING food like corn dogs, funnel cake fries, nachos, oreo churros, and more that I wish I could've tried without getting full.

This is a picture that was taken on my camera after cleaning up our event. In the picture is the OU Class Council.

famous last words: practicing to relax

This week my goal has been to focus on relaxing more. I tend to just go-go-go on the regular and begin to feel anxious anytime I have time to relax or am trying to take a study break. I know that this is not healthy and I want to start making changes to decrease the amount of stress I feel.

What I found this week is that I need to literally plan what I am going to do to relax and for how long. It seemed silly at first, but it worked wonders this past week. I planned either a show to watch or made dinner plans for 4 days this week which is 4 more than I usual do during the week.

I ended up going to dinner once and I planned to watch 1-2 episodes of "This is Us" each other night. This is Us is a show on Hulu that I just started. I really enjoy it because they are just long enough to destress and they keep me engaged more than any other show I have watched. 

(Photo from WikiMedia).

One way I have been making sure that I don't just get stuck watching the show is I make goals. For example, I may have to read a chapter of my physics book before I can watch an episode. Depending on when I finish and how tired I am, I would watch either 1 or 2 episodes. I even fell asleep during an episode one night which I haven't done in forever!

I am hoping to continue this trend until I finish this show. After I finish this show, I hope I can find another one that is just as good...but that may be difficult because this show is off the charts! If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to send them my way! 

famous last words: home sweet home!

After a hectic week of exams, I was able to take a breather (kinda) and drive home to Houston. I got to leave on Thursday after my last exam of the week which was nice since it's never fun to drive seven and a half hours home on a Friday only to turn around and do it again on Sunday. That extra day makes a huge difference! 

As usual, when I got home, I was greeted at the door with an immeasurable amount of canine kisses that immediately put me at ease. There's just something about dogs that truly makes me forget about every stress in the world. It's amazing!

The actual reasoning for my visit to come home was the fact the Texas Woman's University was hosting an open house for both their graduate and undergraduate programs. My dream is to attend their Doctor of Physical Therapy program in the fall of 2018.

With my goal being to turn in my PT application by Monday, September 25th, I think this was a great decision. Once I got there, we got lots of important information and I have the opportunity to ask a few last minute questions that I wanted to clear up before submitting my application. The faculty, staff, and students were all so helpful and I couldn't be more excited to see what happens in the upcoming months!

(Photo by WikiMedia.)

On top of the open house, being home came with yummy, home-cooked meals, staying in my pajamas all day, and having my mom around to read over my final tweaks in my application essays. Although I know returning home after graduating is not going to be the most exciting thing for me, times like this really make me appreciate it all.

I love my family and am thankful they always know how to help me relax when the college life does what it does best!

famous last words: just make it through

This week was a rough week. On top of Hurricane Harvey this past week, Hurricane Irma, Jose, and Katia are all doing damage on my roommate's hometown, Florida. With this news also came the news of her father having stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma which has spread to his liver. Luckily, her father come in town to surprise her and gets to stay for a week since all of the airports in Florida are closed. 

Being one that gets sick easily from stressors, I have been sick since Thursday night and have never had it this bad. I went to the doctor thinking it might be strep or mono, but it's just another stress bug I have given myself. 

I am working on relaxing which has been extremely hard given the fact that I missed class on Friday (which I never do), had to miss my Class Council retreat on Saturday, and have a Physics 2 exam on Wednesday coming up. Not to mention the fact this it is my sweet boyfriend's birthday today and I wish I could have the energy to celebrate him, but I really don't. He understands and has been helping me relax, but I still want to shower him with birthday fun as I LOVE to celebrate other people.

At this point, I am trying my best to just make it through Wednesday because my family and my boyfriend's family get in Thursday. I can't wait to celebrate the stress lessening this weekend with all of my loved ones!

(Photo by Wikimedia)

famous last words: hurricane harvery

Being from Houston, this week was extremely difficult to focus on school. I spent most of my time in class checking up on family and reading FaceBook posts from all of the neighbors with pictures and videos that were heartbreaking.

My family was under mandatory evacuation for three days and went to stay with friends. My older brother's car was completely underwater, but he was okay as he lives on the third floor of his apartment complex. By the grace of God, our house was fine, but the rest of the neighborhood was not in the same condition. I wanted so badly to go home and help, but my parents told me to stay as they are still draining water from areas and evacuation states are constantly changing. 

It breaks my heart to see the damage that has been done to my hometown, but it also made me love my hometown more than ever. The city is coming together to help one another in ways that I have never seen and I think this storm has turned into a blessing in disguise. 

This natural disaster has also made me question many things that I once thought were good. I did not look up additional information, but so many have been posting about the fact that Red Cross is not the place to donate to as the money is not seen again. That saddened me as their primary function is to help those affected by natural disasters. Luckily, other amazing figures have opened up donation pages with the promise of helping. I also have been hearing a lot about a large church run by a man named Joel that I grew up watching. I have mixed feelings about what that man's intentions were as I hear and can understand both sides of people's arguments. I think that everyone is just under so much tress as no one saw this coming due to the fact that the hurricane increased in strength as it drew near. 

Overall, I am just thankful that my family is safe and my city is Houston strong!

(Photo by WikiMedia.)