Surgery is Done!

Because of a huge blessing, I got to have my surgery yesterday. The morning started with a very important article of clothing turned inside out, but thankfully I figured it out before I left for the surgical center and could've been really embarrassed. Then my mom got confused in the parking structure so we got a little stuck in an awkward position but were able to finagle our way out. For those of you who know of my parking ramp tragedies, I now know where I get it from.
Everything went smooth with the paper work and all that....which that part isn't really hard, you just have to sign your name like 83 times. Then they pretty much called me back as soon as I was done with that. I was really parched and starving by this point since I couldn't eat or drink anything for forever before the surgery.
I change into the hospital gown and lay back on the table and then comes time for the IV. I don't mind needles, but I just can't stand IVs. Getting blood drawn is worse, but Ivs are right up there. Apparantly, I have really small veins. They told me like 30 times that my veins were really small, just like me. I was like, ok, ok, just get it in there and stop poking me! First they tried my left had, no go. So the lady got another lady cause they couldn't even see my little veins and so then they put some numbing stuff in my right hand and then tried the iv there and it didn't work. Then they went for my right elbow pit and that one worked. I was done being poked!!!!
They rolled me on back to the surgery room and had me change beds and then put this mask over me and told me to take three deep breaths. I did and whatever I breathed burned my throat, but they said think of a good dream and I was gone. It was like the best nap ever! I felt so rested afterwards. I'm pretty sure I even dreamed, but I can't remember. It was something about ballet though because they were talking to me about ballet before I breathed in the burning stuff.
My mom said the surgery was only about 25 minutes long. It's pretty exciting because he said it wasn't as bad as it looked on the MRI so that's great news!!! I guess there was some stuff floating around in there that they cleaned out and then they trimmed up the not so great part of the labrum.
Kinda like IVs, anesthesia is not my favorite thing. I don't know how long I was still out after surgery, but it was about 2.5 after the surgery that I was able to leave. He had told my mom I would be ready in about 45 min...haha. I was pretty sleepy when I woke up, so they let me sleep a little while longer. Then I started shaking uncontrollably which is pretty embarrassing and I asked them if it was normal and would just stop at some point. They said that it was normal. Then they helped me get dressed and try to eat somethng, but then I almost threw up. They gave me some anti-nausea stuff and then I perked right up. This time I really remember everything. When I had my wisdom teeth out, I barely remember any of that day, but I remember everything from when I woke up til I went to bed at night.
I'm doing really well now. Using crutches for two weeks. They gave me some pretty powerful pain medicine that I took yesterday. But today I took just some normal pain medicine stuff because my leg hurts, but it's not near as bad as it was during Snow Queen so it really feels pretty great. It more feels like a sore muscle and I can't really lift my leg without my hands. Hopefully I'll be healed soon and back to normal activity!! Thanks for everyone who prayed. It's amazing to see God in control of all of this and the surgery couldn't have gone any better. I am so thankful.
Meow is probably the most helpful in my recovery process. She likes to come sit with me. This is the day of surgery. She missed me all morning :)

In Michigan, what??? A miracle

Many of you have probably figured out that I made a random trip up to Michigan. Not really so random, but unexpected. I've been having hip trouble so I haven't been able to dance since Christmas, so we decided I should come back home to get it all figured out. Pt, massage and rest were not making it any better so there was a more significant problem.
I've been very thankful that the doctors, surgeons and nurses have all been really working with me to get all of this done quickly so I can get back to Mississippi. It's been really nice. It turns out I have a labral tear and so they will need to do arthroscopic surgery on it. I was supposed to have that tomorrow (Wednesday). They scheduled it even though I hadn't seen the surgeon (until today, Tuesday) because they knew I wanted to get in quickly and the surgeon leaves out of town on Thursday. So, it was the only day.
I meet with the surgeon today, and that's a whole story in and of itself, and I leave thinking I'm all set to have the surgery tomorrow. But then I get a call from the surgical center and they say that I can have the surgery but they don't accept my insurance because they are out of network, so I would have to pay A TON of extra money. Or the other option would be to wait until the surgeon gets back and have it on March 9 at a different location, which would set me back almost 3 more weeks.
I mentioned on the phone to the lady that I actually lived out of state and that's why they had tried to squeeze me in so quickly...which is why she didn't get my insurance info earlier to be able to look into sooner than the day before. I talked with my parents and then called the lady back to see exactly how much extra it would cost to have it tomorrow.
Here's the miracle. When I called back, she said that she had talked to her manager and they decided they were going to treat me as if I was an in network place.  So, they are going to accept what my insurance would pay, write off the part they didn't pay and I am just responsible for my part. So instead of having to wait three more weeks, I get to have the surgery tomorrow with the same surgeon and for the same price I would have paid if I had waited. Basically, instead of having to pay 50% for having it tomorrow, they are only going to have me pay 20% which is what I would have paid if I had it in three weeks.
I am sooooo blessed and so thankful!!!!!!!!!
In the meantime, I'm hanging out with my sister and my niece, who now looks like a chia pet because her hair grows straight up...hence her new nickname, Chia!

Christmas Thoughts

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone!!!
It's been a super great break so far that consists mostly of holding my new, baby niece. It's crazy how you can love someone so much and all she does is lay there. Well, she's opened her eyes a few times, but she mostly sleeps. But the other morning when I was holding her I was just looking at her and it started me thinking about things.
Here's this little person, little girl, and she doesn't give a care at all what she looks like, what she's wearing or anything like that. She's part asian and part white, but it doesn't matter to her. She's 7lbs, 18.5 inches long but her size doesn't matter. She's 7 days old, She's a person. All she wants is to be held, to be loved and cared for. What would it look like if we loved and cared for people just because of who they are. We love this new child in our family just because she is, because she exists and she's a precious gift. Because God ordained her to be a part of our family. She hasn't done anything to deserve our love and, in fact, she's pretty much incapable of doing anything, yet we love her. What if we treated all people like that? Loving them for who they are. What if we lived like that, knowing we are loved by God and not so concerned with appearance and what people think and loving other people because God loves us completely.

Having her here has also helped me realize the magnitude of what Jesus came and did for us. We're trying to protect this little baby, washing out hands before holding her, keeping her in a warm room, monitoring the amount of people who come, having nice clean diapers and good cleaning stuff, keeping the dogs and cats away. Jesus didn't have any of that. He was born in a stable, with animals and hay for a bed. This baby can't do anything for herself, she's completely vulnerable and innocent, so was Jesus. It just amazes and overwhelms me the position he put himself in...the extent he went to for us. That Mary was given the responsibility to care for and raise her savior, the Savior of the world! The One who spoke this world into being came to us in obedience to the Father as a tiny, helpless baby. He went through life as we know it and lived perfectly so he could save us because he loves us. He loves us for us, just because we are, because he created us. We are his children and he loves us fully and completely even when we have done nothing to deserve his love, just because we are.

MS Snowfall

I didn't think I'd have the opportunity to get back on here before the couple of weeks were up. And yes, it is 8:30 and I'm about to go to bed because Ms Tracey so kindly blessed us with a day off of ballet after having a performance and such yesterday. So, I have taken full advantage of the rest we were supposed to take since we didn't have ballet tonight.  I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you of some little excitement in our house the other morning.
A strange thing happened for us this time of the year. All of my roommates and I got ready and were leaving the house at approximately the same time, I think yesterday...Tuesday??? No wait, yesterday was Wednesday. But, I really can't remember, I think it was yesterday. Yeah, cause we had a performance.
It's about 7:30 in the morning, you know, when most people go to work?
Anyways, I'm about about to leave when all of the sudden Rebecca yells, "IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!" and if only you were hearing me tell the story rather than read it, I could do her voice for you. Next thing I hear is some screaming and everyone rushing to the door trying to unlock it as fast as possible...we have three locks, so it's not the most simple thing to undo. But sure enough, they get the door open and go running outside and I of course follow. It was fun. Oh so many things happened in that moment, there was some crying, some dancing, some trying to catch the snow. But, I have to say that the best part was the neighbors....
Remember, I said it was like prime time for leaving for work. Yep, they were all lined up in their cars trying to turn off of our street. I look over and they are just staring at us like, "what is wrong with these people" and I just start laughing. Unfortunately, I was one of those people who had to leave for work so I couldn't stay to enjoy the overwhelming delight from the snow fall. My roommates (from Florida and North Carolina) say it was a blizzard, but my roommate (from Indiana) and I say it was a few flurries...we know better :) It was neat though because we don't really get snow here, so it really is quite a special moment even if it didn't stick or never does.

"Andrew Ludwig" I'm Pretty Sure He's My Cousin

Monday, I go to the doctor because I have this weird hip thing going on where my muscle on the inside of my hip pops over my hip bone to the other side when I do certain movements. It feels quite strange, not normal and painful and I have to do this weird twisty thing with my leg to get it off my hip bone and back into place.
So I'm sitting there in this large waiting room of like 100 people...no joke...and I'm just sitting there with a book out and my phone. This lady (nurse I guess) starts walking around this huge waiting room and calls out my name. Before I have a chance to gather all of my things, she starts bookin' it to another room that's behind this glass door and you have to push a special button to get in and all that. So, I try to hurry as fast as I can cause she's like on a mission to get me to this other room except I can't catch up cause she was already on the move before I even stood up. Plus, my hip is injured so it's quite hurting to walk.
Thankfully, I made it into the room before the door shut and this waiting room only had like ten people in it. One by one they start calling people in until it's only me and one other LADY left.
The nurse comes out and calls "Andrew Ludwig"
I look around, yep, it's only the other lady and I, so I stand up.
The nurse says "Is that you?"
I said, "Uh, yeah, I guess so"
She was like "oh, ok, well come on back"
"Alrighty"
Then she was like "Is that really your first name? What is your first name?"
"Well, it's Andrea, but that's ok"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I read your paper wrong"
I just wonder what the other lady in the room thought when I stood up to "Andrew"
See, the problem is that I just really have very bad handwriting and so I'm sure it looked like Andrew. But no worries, it's all straightened out now, they know I'm a girl and have a girl name. And the good news is that my hip will be ok.
On a side note, I made a taco salad for dinner and I'm so stuffed. It always happens when I make taco salads and I don't understand why they always get so huge. It doesn't happen when I make any other salad, only taco salads. I even had to garbage disposal some of it and I still feel like Thanksgiving full.
Well, we're in full blown Snow Queen mode now...sorta, just lots of stuff going on. So, you may not hear from me til Christmas break.

Yep, I was the Turkey

Have I ever mentioned before that it's always interesting here? Pretty much, never a dull moment. Well, I just wanted to send a quick note because I am getting up at 4am to drive home for Thanksgiving!!!! I'm so excited that I get to go home tomorrow, I think everyone knows it. It's just gonna be a great time and this is, in fact, the longest I have ever not been at home, and I made it.
So, at Beagle Bagel, I work with people...go figure. And one person thought she would get me a gift, some massive feather earrings. Of course I had to wear them and so I wore them the day she got them for me and I was trying to make use of them another time. So, I had this brilliant idea for today. Most people have already jumped ahead to Christmas, like the bagel shop is already all decorated and all that, so I thought we should do something for Thanksgiving. I'm really looking forward to it since I get to go home, btw. She had gotten some earrings for other co-workers too, so we decided to dress up for Thanksgiving at work today.
A couple of people came as Indian Princesses, one of the regular customers came as a pilgrim and I was the turkey. Yep, I did my hair all turkey-like and wore my feather earrings and greeted every customer with a gobble...well, ok the last part isn't true. I think the idea kinda kerplunked because we had an unusually low tip day, but that coulda been coincidence. I mean, it was a brilliant idea, maybe just not received quite the way I anticipated. I had asked my boss if I could have a beak, but she said no. That must've been the problem.
Anyways, it was a great day and now I gotta go finish packing at get to bed so I can get up to drive in a couple of hours. We have a full car and it's gonna be a great time! I can't wait to see my family and my cute, little, cuddly kitty named Meow and have some good food and shopping and on and on and on.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!! There are so many things to be Thankful for, more than we could ever even know probably :)

One of Those People

I thought it was appropriate to write a brief update before heading home for the holidays (as in Thanksgiving for a very brief period of time then I'll be back here). Anyways, I'm having a super nice, quiet, relaxing day today and enjoying every second of it. So, I'm gonna write here and then be productive...or just off the computer. Pandora's asked me twice now if I'm still listening or if it's playing to an empty room, I'm definitely still here. But, I haven't been sitting on the computer, it's been playing while I've been doing things.
On with the story... or normal happenings of my life. The past couple of months I've been feeling sick to my stomach, most days. So, recently, I started experimenting with food things to see if I could figure out what was going on. Every time I heard of someone having to go gluten free, I always prayed that it wouldn't happen to me. I didn't want to be one of those people because it didn't sound like any fun. Of course, I didn't want to experiment, so I started with lactose. I didn't have milk for like a week and nothing really changed. Then one night I ate a boat load of dairy stuff (probably not the best idea) and I told my roommate I might get really sick at night, but no worries, I knew what I was doing. Thankfully and unthankfully I didn't get really sick. That meant it was time to try the next thing....dun dun dun....GLUTEN.
No!!! I didn't want this to be it, but I dove in. I haven't been having gluten for over two weeks and I've only felt sick one day out of this. I think I might have discovered my problem. Which is good and not good at the same time, but it will be all right. It appears, I just may be one of those people. I've been wanting to try having gluten and see if I feel sick. I'm trying to find a good day to try it out, but so far I haven't found a "good day" to purposefully make myself feel sick (If I'm really allergic to that). Who would ever CHOOSE to be sick?
Anyways, I'm thankful cause I'm learning it's not so bad. Other than the bread tasting like you're eating handfuls of sand, you actually get some nice, special treatment. I was visiting my sister in Texas and we were starving, but they just had normal tortilla chips, but they made me special blue corn chips, it was so nice. Then last night, I went to Biaggis for a birthday party and you know how they give bread for the whole table?? Well, I got to have a plate all to myself. Then I also got my own menu and my meal came with these green noodles. Anyways, I don't really know if that's what I have or not, but the great thing is that I am not feeling sick anymore!!! I'm so thankful.

Are You Sure it's Not Plugged In???

I've been asked recently what has happened to my blog. So far, it's fallen to the bottom of the priority list, but I shall try to revive it. Sarah Kearns, this is for you. I'm most certain many eventful things have happened so far since I've been back here in Mississippi. But, I'll just have to tell you of the most recent happenings. We could call it a series of unfortunate events, but that might be too dramatic. So, I'll just tell you the story.
The first owners of this house thought it would be a great idea to install a security system in this house. I don't blame them in the least for wanting to do that. The next owners decided not to continue with the alarm system and just stick with the good ol' locks and deadbolts and we've followed in that pattern. The system is supposed to be disabled and it had been all of last year. Occasionally, being in the downstairs room last year, the keypad would beep at me, but not very often. For over a year (plus however many years the other people lived here before us) nothing has happened with that alarm system.
Well, one morning last week, the alarm system decided it was going to practice going off. Suddenly, at 5:30 in the morning, we hear the loudest, piercing, screeching noise we've ever heard in our lives. I have no idea what's going on cause as we all know, I don't do well in the early morning. The alarm system is "disabled" and so the only other option is fire alarm. I tell my roommate Emilie to get up, (or she would say I was yelling), and then I fling open Paige's door and tell her to get up and go downstairs. The noise box is right outside our bedroom door. So, then we all run downstairs and into Rebecca's room and she's still laying in bed, so I throw her her blanket and tell her to put it on cause I thought we might need to all go outside if it was a fire. Of course, I'm sure I was much more frantic than I am expressing here...
I look all over for a fire and don't find one, so I head upstairs to see where the noise is coming from because surely it can't be from the disabled alarm system. But, by golly, it is. I get on the phone with the company of the system, but it finally stopped going off. I spend some time with the lady trying to figure out the issue. She tells me to look for these different kind of boxes and I eventually find them. I was supposed to unplug a battery, but the battery was already on the ground and the cords are by the ceiling. So she tells me that the alarm shouldn't be going off, and I was like, I understand that, that's why I'm calling you because it is going off and it shouldn't be and I need your help to figure out why this is happening. Anyways, I did everything she said to that I could figure out and she was like, well, call back if it happens again.
8:30am, we're all getting ready for ballet and here comes the loudest siren ever, AGAIN! So, I get on the phone, explain the whole thing all over again. She tells me to look for this little box, either in the basement...we don't have one, in the laundry room...we don't have one, in a closet...it's not in there. I end up being on the phone with her for 40 min and then I was like, "well, I have to go because we have a performance right now, so I'll have to call you back when we're done."
3:00 No more alarm, but I call back because I do not want the thing to go off again. Unfortunately, this is now the 3rd different person I am talking to, so I go over the whole thing again. She tells me that I should unattatch the cords that go to the box where the siren was going off. "You want me to pull them out of the ceiling???" Well, maybe the other end where it connects. "I can't do that, I'll get electrocuted because they're in like the motherboard and I can't cut the wire" I can't figure it out, so just call again if it goes off again because there's no reason it should be going off.
6am following morning. The siren goes off for a third time. I'm quite exhausted by now. So, I give a call again and go over the whole thing. He asks if I've checked this and that and I say yes yes yes. Same questions every time with the same answers. Well, finally he suggests that it could be plugged in in the attic. Ding ding ding!!! I forgot we even had an attic because I've never been up there. But, it's 6 in the morning and who knows what's up there. I was afraid of finding cockroaches or spiders or something. Thankfully, there was nothing of that sort in there. I found where it was plugged in and was like bingo!...but not that easy. It wasn't just plugged in to the outlet, it was screwed in. I climb down the ladder, downstairs, grab a screwdriver, head back up and unscrew and unplug it. Finally done, or so I thought. I climb down the attic ladder and close it all up, only to look up and see that the I left the attic light on. I pull the attic door thing back down, climb up, switch off the light, climb back down and close everything up.
The best new is, that so far we've gone for a week without it going off again. Why it never went off for several years and all the sudden went off 3 times in 2 days at crazy early hours of the morning, we will never know. But, I think we're all good for now. My ears have returned to normal and our house is at peace once again.
I will be doing my best to try and share more of the happenings here in MS because it's always an adventure.
Andrea

Back again

Well, my blog has ker-plunked. Seriously badly. At the beginning of the year (last fall) I thought it was too good to be true how well I was keeping up with it. So, this is more typical, but I am going to attempt to return to my untypical ways of updating it regularly and see how well that goes.

The second semester of ballet was like a ballet marathon...especially towards the end. It was really good and fun, but it didn't leave much time for computer. Plus my computer is old and so it takes like 20 min to load a page (remember the old AOL dial-up? that's what it feels like) so most of the time I just give up and don't get on. But yeah, lots of great times in the ballet world. We had lots of performances at nursing homes and churches. We had our recital, which was great and tons of fun!!! Then a few of us went to Birmingham to help run a workshop there and then we had our own workshop at Ballet Magnificat! in July. This is the workshop I went to that got me to stay in Mississippi in the first place. I met some great people again this year and had a great experience, especially with the creative worships and Bible studies. So Mid-July I got to come home.

I've been home in Michigan for about 4 weeks now and time seems to be flying by. I've gotten to see a few people and re-connect with them and have spent a lot of my time with my family which has been so good. This past week, I got to teach dance at an arts camp and I loved it. I had a group of 10 girls and then a group with 6 boys and 8 girls. I've spent quite a bit of time in Traverse City jet skiing, wakeboarding, boating, tubing, laying out on the beach, swimming...you know, the normal camping things. Haha, in our air conditioned trailer with a shower and washer and dryer and cable.

I only have three left and they are pretty well packed with some fun stuff and not so fun stuff, but necessary. The fun stuff being, hanging out with my sisters, my brother's birthday, Traverse City with my faves, and that sort of thing. The not so fun part is that I have to get my wisdom teeth out next week. I'll try to post something about that. One of my friends is taking me, so we'll see what she has to say about what I say or do. Could be interesting.

Oh yeah! I am also 25 now. Guess what I got for my birthday...that's right, POINTE SHOES!!!! Not exactly what I want, but absolutely what I need, so I am very thankful. I mean, I do want them........

Anyways, I s'pose that's good for now. Gonna go hang out with Jessy now before she moves to Oklahoma. I should be around again sometime in these next few weeks before I head back to MS. Maybe even with pics, I'm just currently on my mom's computer with none of my pics because it's just so much faster than mine. So when I have time and patience, I will upload some. Ok, for real, bye.

Indoor Tobaganning Disaster

Right when I got back from Christmas break, I got to have a sleep over with my faves!!! It was so great to see them for more than a couple of hours. We got to see each other lots and did tons of fun things together. First, we met up and headed downtown to go ice skating. We had gone once before when they were in like 5th or 6th grade and so we figured we were due for a do-over. The first time we went, it was a new experience for several of the girls, quite hilarious. Even though they have a little more experience now, it was still quite humorous.
I would take them individually by the hand and skate around as fast as I could and they would freak out. It was pretty funny and thankfully no one fell and we didn't run into anyone while we did that. Now, for the rest of the time...as you can see there were a few falls, but nothing that would cause for serious injury, thankfully. We also all skated in a line and we would have to break apart to avoid running over the fallen skaters. You know, when you go to Rosa parks and it only costs a dollar total to skate and rent skates, let's just say you don't encounter the most experienced skaters.

After the ice skating episode, we took a family photo by the giant christmas tree. It just so happened that Andrew, Emma's brother, was walking by at the exact moment, so we didn't have to ask a stranger to take the awkward family photo. That's always a little strange. Look, don't we smile pretty???? In this particular photo, the correct answer is no, haha.

Then we headed to Biggby to get a warm up before we went and got our nails done...a new experience for some. I have pictures of that, but they are less than thrilling because we're just sitting there either sticking out our hands or feet. But, since several of us are doing pointe, we were like, "Uh NO! Please don't scrape off the callouses, I actually want them and need them. I know it's weird, just please leave them there!!!!" Oh, well, actually my sister said I needed to post a picture of my toenails because "it's something I would do" so I guess I'll do that. I apologized to the lady who did mine for them being so ugly, but she didn't mind...except I'm sure she said something to her co-workers that I couldn't understand. So yes, this is what they look like from pointe and in case you're wondering, they do hurt.


From there we went to our final destination, the Carlson's where we would spend the night...after getting chinese food and heading to walgreens while we waited for chinese where Jessica got her groove on going through the aisles. Jessica had brought a mummy sleeping bag...I think she was the only one out of all of us to bring a sleeping bag. And somehow we had the brilliant idea to go tobaganning down the staircase. It started out great where Pants was inside the sleeping bag and Emma, in her sleeper, dragged behind. Then we did it with Pants on the outside, but she was wearing shorts and didn't slide and just got a rug burn so she let go. Then I made a tunnel for Emma to go under. Then, it happened. Both Aubrye and Emma went inside the sleeping bag together. They sat down and pushed off. They got going so fast that they one of their feet went through the wall!!!!!!!! Thankfully, Mrs Carlson was very cool about it and just laughed and said it wasn't the first time it had happened. It really was so funny and the girls couldn't stop laughing when they were trying to tell her what happened. I have it on video and I'll try and upload it, but here's a picture in case it doesn't work. It is on my facebook. 
We just spent the rest of the evening enjoying each others' company. We played some dance game, did the traditional grape monkey face, exchanged gifts, watched movies...and I slept. There was a funny joke during the gift giving part because I got them a mug with pictures from the summer on it and last year I did a calendar. So I took a picture of them with their gifts and they were like "Oh, this has to be a good one because who knows when it will show up again. You never know what gift it might appear on and you don't want it to come back and bite you".
But, really, I don't always get them picture presents. But, they said they liked getting them. We'll see what next year turns out as. I had such a good time with them though. I really love them a lot and miss them tons when I'm here. It's hard that they're all in high school and doing various things and I'm not there to be at their dance or see their recitals or be at church with them. But it's cool cause we get to talk on the phone and text and facebook and we have a super fun time when we do get to see each other. I heard they are planning a trip to Issimippi and I have a sneaky suspicion that might be somewhere close to Mississippi!!!!!!!!

From dancing queen to hair queen.

A while back I posted some pictures about practicing hair for an upcoming production. We had that production right before we left for Christmas break. I was put in charge of the group of kids who all had to have their hair done similar to pippi longstocking and it was quite a trip to get them all changed from ringlet curly heads to braids sticking out. But, we managed each time. I was thankful for some of my fellow classmates who would assist me in changing all of them.

I was a Russian dancer, so once the ballet started, I would get my braids in and costume on and then I would head down to the green room and start working on getting all of the kids ready. Haha, it was funny cause many of them would request me and I was like, I'll do whoever is ready. Apparently, I was good at making it nice and tight without hurting them too bad. We had to braid it around wire which made it challenging. I don't really actually know what I'm doing with hair, but I just experiment and it often turns out. Haha, it's funny because I've become the hair/nail person here. It's good because I enjoy doing it, it's fun!
     One day, Bria and Chandler spent the day with me. We went to watch my roommates and friends perform at a nursing home. Then we went over to their house and made christmas shaped brownies to share with our dressing room. It was much more challenging than I thought, but here's the end results.
 I guess you can't really see them all that well, but everyone liked them. We shared them with the other upstairs dressing room too, which was all of my class and all of the trainees.

Me and Bethany as Russian Dancers

My roommates and I getting ready for the show.

This is my buddy, Bethany. We have a super great time together. She's really not that much shorter than me, but she looks like it in this picture, haha. Actually, we discovered that when we sit down side by side, she's a couple of inches taller than me. But then when we stand up, my legs make up the difference. So either she has really short legs or mine are really long or her body is long and my is short, or some sort of combination of the 4.
Christmas dream was cool, though. Some cool stuff happened that challenged all of us and it makes me really excited for this next semester. It's gonna be stellar!

Here's me with all of my roommates! We wanted to get a picture all in costume, but that didn't work out. Also, when Paige's face wasn't all black. She was a fly in the first act and so it isn't the prettiest make up ever, but at least we have a picture all together. I can't wait for all of them to be back from Christmas break!!!!! But it was really fun to be able to perform and be on stage with them. I always go watch their performances when I can, but this time we all got to dance. I very much enjoyed getting to be with them for devotions, too. I just love them all very much!!!! This week was a super great one for our house, just lots of sweet time together and good talks. I can't wait to all be in the house again and to be able to spend this next semester growing closer, becoming better friends, and deepening our relationships with each other. They're awesome girls and I am so blessed to be able to live with each one of them.

Christmas Spirit

When Squirt and got back from Thanksgiving, we were determined to get a Christmas tree. The idea of getting one/decorating before Thanksgiving was strongly vetoed, but we wanted to get one quickly after because we only had a couple of weeks to enjoy it. Unfortunately, all the roommates were not available to pick it out, so Squirt and I jumped in the car and drove off to find one...and we had no idea where. We just started driving around. Eventually we called Rachel I think and then our friend Erin and we were able to locate a place that had trees...home depot. People do it differently here, you don't go march into the woods with your saw and cut it down. You just go buy one.

So, we did. We pulled out like 30 different trees and finally decided on one. We picked the two most indecisive people to do this job, but Squirt did well. I don't think I did because I didn't have much of an opinion but I should've had more, but it worked. The tree is super. The nice home depot man put the stand on it for us and loaded it into my car and everything. Then we went to target to pick out lights cause Squirt's mom had already gotten us some ornaments. But we also went to Michael's and got a few more.

We got home and I carried the tree in and we took the wrapping stuff on it (this is a real tree we're talking about). Squirt noticed that it was crooked, so then we worked to get it upright. This is a picture of Squirt frustrated because we put the lights on the tree and they didn't look right so we took them off. Then we put them on again, but they looked bad so we took them off. We put them on a third time and they stayed on but we adjusted them to look just right. Can we say perfectionistic at all???? Both of us, not just her :)

Then came the ornaments. I never knew I could be so particular about the placement of the ornaments, but if they're out of place to too close together they just don't look right. I can even tell you the number of times we readjusted the ornaments. But it looked so pretty when it was done. We had a great time. We were jammin to some Christmas music, it was super.

Ok, but then, we really needed to get the pine needles cleaned up because it was not such a good idea to leave them on the floor. We can't find the vacuum, but then end locating it and I start vacuuming and nothing is coming up. So, I UNPLUG IT, smart I know, and flip it over to try and diagnose the problem, haha, yeah right. Well, actually I did. I saw my dad do this before, but there was a lot of stuff wrapped around the turny thing with the brushes on it. So, I got scissors and started cutting that off. I got it all and then we noticed that the belt was broken...when you don't have a spare, that is not a quick fix.

So, we call our friends at the wheatley estates..."hi do you have a vacuum?" Uh yeah. "great can we borrow it, we need it pronto" Sure. "Ok, we'll be there in one minute" and we drove over to their house and got the vacuum. It was very important to have the needles vacuumed up before roommates got home. Thankfully the Wheatley estates saved us. We got the vacuum, brought it inside, vacuumed all the needles, returned the vacuum and made it back before our roommates got home.



Finished!!!! Somehow I was elected as the tree-waterer. I failed miserably at first and I'm pretty certain my roommate, Taralah bailed me out on occasion. I know my other roommates reminded me also. We must've picked out a hearty tree though cause I'm back from two weeks of no watering and it's still very much alive. The pine needles are still on and soft and don't fall off when I touch the branch. I tried watering it, but I'm not sure if it will do any good anymore, but we'll see. We're allowed to keep our tree up longer since we missed out on two weeks of tree-seeing enjoyment :)

Merry Christmas from the Short House.

Fasting from Fast Food

Yep, that's right. I think no more fast food in my life for a while. I never really eat it, but the week of Christmas Dream, we were trying not to buy groceries and stuff cause we were all heading home. So, after the shows my roommates would be hungry and so we would want to go somewhere. They basically dared me to eat something. I think we went to taco bell once and chick fil a. Really, I don't think I've had taco bell very much at all. I remember it a few times growing up, but it was not a restaurant we frequented. So, I had that. Then at chick fil a they ordered for me cause apparently there's some stuff that was good. And it was, I just don't normally have it. I don't think Michigan even has chick fil as. I wonder if there are fast food places Michigan has that Mississippi doesn't??? Anyone know?

Well, today, I just got back and didn't feel like going to the store because it was such a long drive and I was hungry so I just went to Wendy's. It's just not super. I'm, thankfully, not sick or anything, but I definitely don't feel stellar. I allowed myself to have a pop as a treat (cause I rarely have it due to the badness for the bones) and I barely drank any of it cause I didn't like it. Haha, I couldn't even eat all of what I got cause it was too much...I'm not even sure the word. So, yeah, I will be retiring fast food from the menu for quite some time.

Let's just say, I am looking forward to grocery shopping. Actually, I love grocery shopping. I hope when I get married and have kids I still enjoy it as much as I do now. I like to spend a couple of hours in the store...I don't necessarily buy more than I need, I just enjoy looking. Weird, I know, but there are so many options, it's great! I took the day off of work to get re-settled back in to Mississippi. So now I can have plenty of time in the grocery store before ballet.

It's been long enough

Ok, I think another blog update is in order. I learned, when I was home for the holiday, that my blog is quite entertaining. But, just to assure all of you readers, I just write what really happens and what comes to mind. So, here goes it...
Before I left to come home for Christmas and such, we had quite drastic weather changes. One day, was quite a windy day and so they set off the tornado alarm cause I guess one was sighted in our town or something. I always forget if those are warnings or watches. All I know is that the siren goes off tons of times in GR and we never do anything about it. Ok, ok, one time we got woken up to go into the basement, but that's it. Tornadoes are not quite so common here, so my roommates were a little more of the panicked variety. We don't have a basement here, so my bathroom is the "safest" place to hide.

There was also one day when it got really cold and it "snowed". I forgot that people here get very excited about the snow. They were all telling me, "I bet it's gonna snow today!" "Did you hear we might get snow" "Aren't you so excited that it's going to snow" Haha, I just looked at them and was like, oh right, this is an exciting thing, I forgot. So then I would try to be excited. I was at work and they were like, LOOK! It's snowing. If I hadn't have looked at that particular moment, I would've missed it. I don't think our weather man would even report it. Maybe "a few flurries" if we were lucky.  Haha, but it was fun, they enjoyed it.

Yeah, and then before I left it was in the 50s. I drove back tonight and it's 40 something, so I'm thinking it's still staying warmish, but I don't really know. I haven't stayed up to date on the MS weather. As a matter of fact, someone asked me what the weather/driving conditions were going to be like on my way home and I had no idea. I just knew I had to drive today, so it didn't really matter what I would encounter cause I had to drive.

My joints tell me when the weather changes, so the drastic changes are kinda weird. But everything definitely likes the warmer weather, so hopefully it will stay warmish. I experienced enough frigidness and snow when I was in GR so I'm ready for a southern winter. Not a wanna-be northern winter :)

Creatures' Greetings

Did you know there are different animals and things that live here in Mississippi than Grand Rapids???? It's true. Sometimes, they show up in places you don't want them to. I came home from work at the bagel shop the other day and this was on my bedroom wall...


I texted this picture to my friend and her child determined it was a wall lizard.
"Ahhh, there's a lizard on my wall in my bedroom!"
My kids would love to help you.
"I wish they were here"
My son says it's a wall lizard
"Does he have a suggestion on how to remove it without touching it?"
Do you have a butterfly net?

"No, I didn't happen to bring one with me. I have a cup or a bowl or a broom. I'm guessing the creature would like to live so I'm thinking more of the catch and release method than the smack and flush."
He suggests holding a trash bag under the lizard and then gently nudge it with the broom.
"Ok, he may just have to live on my wall til after ballet tonight when a roommate is home to help me. If he's gone by then, I'll assume he found a way outside...oh wait, then maybe he'll climb on me when I'm sleeping, EEEWWWWW! Well, I'll try it by myself. Thanks for the suggestion. I hope it doesn't jump on me."
"Will it bite me if it touches me????"
Probably not. If you grab it and hold onto it, then it might bite. But just brushing against you shouldn't make it bite you. It won't hurt if it does bite and lizards aren't venemous.
"ok, I'll try and get it then. I most definitely will not be grabbing onto it, so it should be good. If it fals it will land in my bed. I sure hope I get it."
You can use a towel or something between it and your hand. It's worth a try. If it disappears you's know it's still somewhere in your room.
"yeah, that's the scary part. I don't want it somewhere in my room, I'd rather him just stick to the wall...it'd help if I wasn't so short., grrr"
12 minutes later...
"I win! He fell off the wall and started climbing on my bike and then I trapped him in the bathroom and chased him around for a while and directed him into a bag. Now he's in the bag outside, he hasn't come out yet so I'm just leaving him there and he'll come out eventually. *Shudder* I did not like that"
Way to go! 

I went to ballet and he was still in the bag. So, I left him there. When I got back from ballet, I was talking to the same person on the phone. I reached out my hand to grab the doorknob to get inside and there was a huge spider right about where I was going to reach! I did not have so much mercy on the ginormous spider. Then there was a spider crawling on my floor!!!! You have to understand, all spiders are gross, but these are especially unpleasing to look at or crawl on your floor for that matter.

Thanksgiving

Plans were all set. I was heading to North Carolina with my roommate. We were leaving at 5am, I believe. That is very early. Since I had been on the morning shift all week, I was used to being up around that time so we decided that I would be the first driver. We get into Squirt's car and I start backing out, we've got 14 hours ahead of us. I look at her car and there is no input for an ipod. No big deal, we'll just use some CDs. Just kidding, no CD slot either and I most certainly didn't bring tapes because I don't think my car has a tape player. But that wasn't too much of an issue, we could use the radio or just not listen to anything and talk.
I got over the no music thing very quickly and easily. We start going and I'm driving on the freeway and go to set the car on cruise control...there isn't one. So now we've got 14 hours of pushing the gas pedal.
It ended up working out just fine. Out of 28 hours of driving, we spent about 30 minutes listening to music (both of our ipods have speakers).
Now, of course, this is Squirt and I, so we didn't really know where we'd be passing through or anything. But eventually we got to Lexington, South Carolina. I texted my friend from Alaska because she used to go to school there and just said that I was thinking of her cause I was driving through there and eating my halfway treat :) She immediately called me and was like, I'M HERE!!!! I haven't seen her since being in her wedding and no plans to fly up to Alaska, so we were able to have lunch on the way back home and that was really nice.
The break in North Carolina was great. I got to meet my roommates' family and that was very enjoyable. It was fun to see where she grew up and to meet a lot of the people she loves and cares about and talks about. We especially had a great time hanging out with her little sister, Katie. I also got to meet some of her friends. We had Thanksgiving meal at her Grandma's and they basically have the same types of things we have in the north. We mostly just hung out with the family and that was really fun!
On the way home, we mostly just talked the whole time. Squirt slept some, but I couldn't really sleep. I rested a bit, but sleep was not my friend that day. So we talked and talked and talked and it was super great. Then she sang to me...I will always love you. Haha, she's very funny.

The Long Awaited....

UPDATE! After getting such a nice compliment on how well I was doing on updating my blog from my friend, Becca Willis, I seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. It's been nearly a month since I've posted (since "losing my mind" doesn't really count). But, no worries, I'm still here. We're almost through November and you have no idea what's been going on. So, I am here to inform you of all the recent happenings so you will experience withdrawal no more.

Ok, let's take a brief visit back to October. I asked all of you to pray because I was working at 6am every day. Well, we all know how Andrea does on a lack of sleep, so low and behold, I got sick. I spent the next two weeks sick and working at 6am, but I still did ballet. I've requested to not be on the 6am shift anymore, but so far that wish has not been granted, so a few adjustments may need to be made when I return after the holidays. Yes, so the sickness and early morning working kinda got the best of me the first two weeks of November. But, never fear, a little sleep and health is restored to me.

Me and my buddy, Bethany

Hair clinic - I was the dummy

Chanbriandrebeff plus friends

Ballet has been going well. I am still very much enjoying it. Everything is still good, nothing is broken. I do have a couple more aches than when I started, but that goes with the territory. Someday my body will be fully restored and I am looking forward to that. Feel free to continue to pray for my body, specifically for my shins if you think about it. We are having a great time though. We have such a good group of girls in our companies. We all went out to eat last week and had tons of fun! All of our dances are coming together nicely, also. It's very fun to be dancing and learning choreography!!!! Some of us are going to do a Christmas performance in a nearby city so we had to learn how to do have for some little kids coming with us. I have become the hair guru at ballet. It's fun cause I get to try lots of things on peoples' hair and that's enjoyable. Apparently, hair and nails are my thing. I always just liked to mess around with that stuff on myself, but other people are enjoying having me do it for them too and that's very fun for me! 

Guess what's in the present?

Some of you have been asking, but I will not be coming home for Thanksgiving this year. It's too short of a break to make the trip all by myself and so I was never planning on being able to come back for Thanksgiving. I will be going to North Carolina with one of my roommates, so that should be fun. I'm sure it will be different being in the south, but I'm excited to go with her and meet her family. I did make it back home for a very short weekend and I was able to bring my friend, Rachel, with me. (And Daniel, but he lives there so it wasn't anything new for him). We had a great time, but we were there less than 48 hours. I was able to introduce Rachel to Robinettes and a few people we were able to surprise because no one knew I was coming. I came back for a couple of birthday surprises. I will be home for Christmas which is a longer break and so I am looking forward to catching up with more of you then! The video of the surprise is posted on my facebook so you should check it out!

Losing my Mind!

I was thinking this was no big deal, just life. But things keep happening, so I have to write to you about it because I really don't know what's going on in my head. Well, for one thing, I must have poorly slow reflexes because I have to take some pills every day...like calcium and stuff...and there are about 11 per day that I take. I always, almost without fail, eat one of them from off the ground. I drop at least one per day and I don't know how I manage to do that every day. One time I dropped the entire bottle on the ground and they scattered every where all over the kitchen.
In addition to eating pills off the ground, I am losing things!!!!!! The problem is that they aren't actually lost, but I swear they disappear while I'm looking and then suddenly reappear when I don't need them anymore. This first started when I bought castor oil (for my legs, I'm not having digestive issues). I had it and some other things and I could find everything but the castor oil. I kept looking and looking and finally broke down and bought new stuff since I figured I must've thrown it out. The day after I opened the new one, I found the original, lost one.
I bought some clear nailpolish at target the other day and I painted my nails and used it. I was going on a trip and wanted to bring it with me (that same day I used it) and it was no where to be found. I searched all over my room cause I had just used it ten minutes ago and I gave up and left without it.
So, I went on a trip this weekend and I brought my face wash. Except, I went over to someone elses' house after ballet to shower because we were leaving right from there. So, I used my face wash at her house and then I could not find it the whole rest of the trip. I figured I just left it at her house. WRONG, I opened up my bag to unpack it and there it was, right in my bag the whole time. I had been using hers all weekend cause mine was missing when it really wasn't, I just didn't know that.
My cell phone charger is still MIA, but I am confident it will also re-appear when I least expect it.

What's Shakin' at the Beagle Bagel

I thought my "funny" things from working at beagle bagel were going to be coming from customers, but for the most part, it's been from people I work with. They are all trying to convince me that I am not white. They're like, "you can't be that color and be a white person, you have to be something else" and so I say, "nope I'm as white as they come, sorry" and they say, "I don't believe you, you have to be hispanic or something, but you're not white." Ummm, last time I checked, I most definitely was white. It's all good natured teasing so it's funny. Someday, maybe, they'll believe me.
This week was a bit hard. I got plenty of hours in, but I got called at 6:15am one morning saying someone had quit and I needed to go in if I could. I needed hours, so I went. Then I was asked to work at 6am the next day. Usually, I can plan better if I know ahead of time, but I'm really supposed to be a lunch person.
If you think of it, pray for me this week because I am on the schedule at 6am every day this week and that will be extremely difficult for me especially because I don't get home from ballet until 8 or 8:15pm and I need to go to bed by 8 or 8:30 to be ok to get up that early. But, I can't go to bed right after ballet so I'm unsure what I'm going to do. Hopefully it's just like this this week until they hire someone new.

MYB Debut

I have to figure out where I last left off. It's been a little while and I'm sure lots of things have happened. I can assure you that last week I was not able to be in three places at once so I ended up performing...since that was the required thing, and I really wanted to. We had a fun time, but it was a little weird because only part of the senior company got to perform and so it was different not having everyone there. But we had a good time. The performance went well and it felt really good to be dancing on a stage again. Here are a couple of pictures from our evening...

My friend, Bethany, putting in my hairpiece into my favorite hairstyle ever - the slicked back bun. Please note the greenery growing out of my ear. PS - Bethany and I are the same age, such a wonderful friend.

Most of MYB senior company with our teacher, Ms Tracey, and our red lipstick. I know, I don't need to point it out because it's kind of obvious.

Me with Bria and Chandler, just hanging out and waiting backstage, I'M the white one...can't you tell.

Massage train!!!!!!! I know, super flattering picture of myself, but I thought the overall picture was cute.

Look at what I can do!!!!

We really are very focused when it's necessary, but other than that, we really enjoy each others company and have a great time together. It was really fun to perform and I am so blessed to be a part of this group. It's such a wonderful group of girls of all ages and I'm so glad I was invited to join the company!!! God was really with us in this performance because one of my friends had a three ring binder prong go through her foot the night before and was not able to walk Saturday morning, but she was able to do the performance. My shin hurt, but not to the point where I couldn't do stuff and he was working in other ways too. It was just a fun time to share the stage with these girls and see what can happen when you trust God. One of my roommates and a few of my friends were also in a different dance so it was really fun to be able to watch them do their dance. I'm so thankful for this opportunity.