Recap of Last Week

Hello all!

I have some time before I have to do anything or go anywhere so I have decided to write the blog that I had promised before. First, I will let you know about my first snow day of the year!

As you can see from the pictures, we got about 2 inches of snow. The first thing Elizabeth and I did was build a mini snowman right outside of our dorm. We also made him a snowdog for company. ;) After building the snowman and having a small snow ball fight with Emily, we headed over to Ryan and Marc's room for breakfast. Ryan made us all waffles! They were wonderful! After breakfast we decided to go to Willow Springs Park and go sledding. You may be wondering how we went sledding. Two words: tote lids. We figured that would be a little bit easier to come by than stealing trays from main meal. We only found one good hill to sled down. A lot of the snow had melted. (There are videos of all of us sledding on Elizabeth's blog. Just click "The Roomie's Blog" under Awesome blogs and you will find them on the top right of her blog. Check them out. They are hilarious.) After sledding, we went to Walmart to get some food to make a warm lunch. Ryan, again, made a fabulous meal for us. After eating, we watched Good Luck Chuck. It was pretty funny. After a while, Elizabeth and I helped Ryan and Marc rearrange their room. It wasn't as hard and I thought it would be and it looks great! The rest of the night was pretty typical, dinner, t.v., then sleep. It was a pretty good day.

I know some of you are wondering...aren't you in east Tennessee for school? How's school? Well, I have finished my first week and a half here. I have attended all my classes, except my Genetics lab due to the snow day. So far, I like most of my classes. Chemistry (both general and organic) is finally making sense to me. I took my first Organic quiz today, and I'm sure that I aced it. Humanities is interesting as usual. My ethics class is going to be fun. I get to keep a journal, and so far I have written so much in it for only having attended 3 classes. The only class that might be a little bit of a challenge is Genetics. I love the topic, after all I thought about being a geneticist when I was younger, but the teacher is a little hard to understand. My book will become my best friend this semester.

Well, that's all for now. I should have an update pretty soon on a job opportunity that I have had and some extra curricular activities. Hope all of you have an excellent night! Stay warm! ;)

A Better Blog

Alrighty! So I thought my next blog was going to be about my first week of school, but I have something more exciting to write about. SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Elizabeth and I woke up at about 6:40. We looked outside and saw a wonderful blanket of snow (there will be pictures later. I promise. Elizabeth is going to try to upload some pictures, so check "The Roomie's blog".) on the ground. I then hopped in the shower. When I came out of the bathroom, Elizabeth informed me that ALL CLASSES ARE CANCELED!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! I still have to go to my APS job at the Student Health Clinic, because nursing clinics and such are still open, but maybe I can get out early. I am soooo excited. I am currently thinking what to do with my day. I think I might try the Lunch Break Yoga, depending on my knee. I will probably also go and play out in the snow for a little while. It is supposed to keep snowing until about 10 this morning. I'm just very excited because these snow days don't happen very often here in east Tennessee. I guess that there is enough snow and ice to keep people from getting on campus. Well, I am off to work. I will probably post again to talk about what I did today. I do know that Ryan is fixing his roommate, my roommate, and me waffles for breakfast this morning! :) Have a wonderful snowy/wintery day! ;)

Christmas Break Part 3

Alrighty. I thought it would be at least a week before I would post again, but I know a lot of people have wondered about my current away messages today, so I decided to give you guys an update.

Yesterday, I was at a doctor's office, job shadowing a breast surgeon. We went to the second patient's room. The doctor had been talking with the patient. All of a sudden I felt dizzy and my stomach began to hurt really bad. I figured that I could just sit in the chair in the room and be fine, but I never made it to the chair. I blacked out before I got there. They brought me to another room and gave me some crackers and a Sprite. I still didn't think that everything we right. Mom came to the office and we saw the overflow doctor for my primary care doctor (thank God it was in the same building). Well, a whole lot of talk happened and she decided to run some blood work (some for the symptoms then and some to compare with the blood work that I had done to check for JRA) and have an EKG. Well, getting all of that done wasn't too bad, but anyway, I had to wait until today to figure out what the results were.

Today, I received a phone call. The doctor had called my mom and then I got a hold of her. She told both of us that I should go and see my primary care doctor as soon as I can. She said my white blood count was elevated and that my EKG came back showing that my heart rate was slow with a little bit of irregular rhythm and that I needed to be on antibiotics for a bacteria infection of the GI tract. So, of course, I went to go see my doctor.
So, I went to Dr. Owens. She was very confused of the whole situation, so I retold my story. She said not to take the antibiotics because it could possibly do worse. She also said that the elevated white blood cell count, lower blood pressure, and the EKG results were related to the blacking out. She called it a vasovagal episode (a.k.a. fainting). My body just freaked out a little bit. So everything was ok relating to my incident yesterday.

So...that seems like everything is perfect again...but of course...you're wondering about my knee(s). Well, Dr. Owens also informed me that my rheumatologist failed to tell me that I have JRA. They aren't changing any medication or anything since my current pills are working fine. She just suggested to try and become healthier and walk as less as possible (ha! yea right). She also told me I should really think about what I am planning to do in the future in regards to my career. Apparently I need a "low stress environment". I know...you're thinking what I'm thinking...Jillian, low stress? yea right. I'm kinda taking that as lightly for right now, but it's still something I will have to think about.

Well. That has been what's going on for the past couple of days. Everything is going ok. Just pray that nothing else happens! Blog later! :)

Christmas Break Part 2

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!

Let's see. I left off talking about before Christmas, so I'll tell you how my Christmas went. We had a small Christmas, but it was very nice! One of my favorite things that I got for Christmas was my new Venus (in pink) phone. It came at a great time, because I spilled punch on my other phone and two of the numbers began to stick. It's wonderful. I got a lot of great things to bring back to the dorm with me, like a real tool kit (to replace my dinky one), a cook book, and a shopping bag (so I can help save the environment! ;)). I also got the Colby Calliat CD, which I love, and I bought two CDs I had been wanting with the iTunes card I got (Thanks Ken and Christy!).
From my grandmother and Uncle Wayne, I received several gift cards, which I have used almost all of them, since we didn't have Christmas lists this year. It was very nice being able to spend time with family and having a small Christmas. It wasn't hectic.

The days after Christmas were filled with shopping and preparing for the New Year. Christie and I had a major shopping day at Opry Mills and then at Cool Springs when Mom got off work. Since then, I have been to Opry Mills twice more, once with Ryan and the other with Christie again (for the VS semi-annual sale !!!!) After Christmas we also got to celebrate with a good friend, Aaron, who treated us out to P.F.Changs. We had a wonderful dinner and had a lot of fun. It's great to see him when he and I are both home. :)

New Years. We did a few things for New Years. On Sunday, my family and I went to the Melting Pot to have an early New Years dinner because Dad had to work both New Years' Eve and New Years' Day. It was again, one of the best meals ever (that wasn't made by one of my family members ;)) It was absolutely wonderful. I suggest that everyone save up some money and got there at least once or guys, save about $15 take out your girl to dinner and then take her to Melting Pot for the chocolate fondue for dessert! It is awesome! Anyway, moving on...New Years' Eve Christie and I had a party, which consisted of mostly her friends. We had a great time. We played pool, ate delicious snacks, played Pit and Battle of the Sexes, watched a movie, and of course bring in the New Year, even though we kinda missed the ball drop. ;) After every one left on New Years' Day, we went to Ate Glad and Uncle Prom's house for a brunch. We got to spend some time with them and see Nittie and baby Norah, who is absolutely adorable might I add. (See pics of her by clicking "A Mommy's Blog" on my links.) We had fun.

The rest of this week has been cleaning up the house and just chilling. I have one more week here at home until I go back to ETSU to start my spring semester. (Then, yes, I will be back for the long weekend for MLK weekend.) Right now I don't really have any plans other than watching the playoff game today. Tomorrow, I will be job shadowing Dr. Lawson, a breast surgeon. I'm pretty excited!

Well. That's all for now. I think that there will be one more part to my break that I will post later. ;)