A Post of Nothing (Actually, this is called procrastination)

Well, it's finals week of IP4. By Friday, I'll technically be a VM2!! Except I still have one block to go before summer. I should be studying but I've allowed myself ten minutes to chill. So I should be cleaning, but... Big news: I got a job at Tractor Supply Co. We'll see how it goes. I am excited to have some spending money-- top on my list is a new pair of boots. Apparently I walk funny? and the outer heel of my current pair is about a half inch shorter than the inside heel. They hurt my feet so it's time for a new pair. After that, I want to get Sadie into some herding lessons. I am looking forward to this! IP5 is supposed to be fabulous. I planted a HUGE garden! Just kidding. It is in the flower bed in front of my house, so it is probably ten feet by three feet? Maybe bigger than that. In it, I planted: Lavender Chives Oregano Parsley Cilantro Basil Strawberries Sugar snap peas Spinach Lettuce Cantaloupe Zucchini Yellow pear tomatoes Celebrity tomatoes Bonnie bell peppers Purple Beauty peppers And Russian giant sunflowers, three other smaller ones, gloriosa daisies, and African daises. Obviously I have to trellis a lot of these guys to get them to fit. I hope I get at least some yummies!! I am trying to be better about cleaning. So far so good, but I start organization projects and things go downhill fast. Also, I have a terrible time keeping up with laundry. I am on week 5 of Couch to 5k for the second time. I decided to re-run this week because I wasn't happy with my preformance last week. I am so tired right now, so I might just take a power nap. The weather has been crummy and it has rained for what seems like days, but the sun is bright and shiny and the windows are open and a breeze is playin through the house. So nice!!

Too little, too late

So... January 22nd, 2012... that was the last time I posted.

Sorry to all those who've mentioned my lack of attentiveness.

Who would have thought-- vet school is hard work! Actually, vet school hasn't been that unbearable. I still have time to go home, goof off, watch 7 episodes of How I Met Your Mother in a row, train dogs, and do school. As long as I avoid housework, I've got plenty of time.

So, highlights-- I finished IP3, the "hell block." I broke my A-B streak that I've been maintaining since 4th grade. Oh well. It's very liberating. C=DVM.

I took my (well, my brother's) FANTABULOUS Border Collie, Janie, to our first rally trial since 2006. Walked in the ring, scored a 95+/100 and took second place!!!!! This dog is truly amazing. We didn't score as well on the second day, because Janie was over-zealous for two stations and we had to repeat them. We scored 93/100. If we hadn't repeated those two stations, we would have had a 99/100. She was so happy to be back. We've got more trials lined up this summer. I'm planning to get as many titles as financially possible this year.

PS-- if you don't know what rally is, look it up. It is a great dog sport that anyone and any dog can do.

I went to the SAVMA symposium in Indiana. The symposium was fun, but the best parts were the Shedd Aquarium, where we got to see belugas and Altantic dolphins. And I got snotted on by a baby beluga. Legit.

I also went to the Indianapolis Zoo, where I got to see a walrus and and seals. I got a picture of me standing next to the seals. Dr. Seals, get it?

Then, over Spring Break, Stacy took me, Amanda, and Bree to the Smoky Mountains. That was truly a life experience. I haven't seen true mountains, just the Ozarks, so I was amazed. We hiked and saw two young black bears. The next day, we went horseback riding-- that was my first time back in the saddle since the accident, so I was of course a little nervous but ended up having a great time. My horse, Tim, was a "good ol' mountain pony," as per the guide. Tim was, in fact, not a pony, but a huge draft cross. After the trail ride, we chowed down on some amazing giant cupcakes. Good times.

I've decided to become a runner. I am finishing up week three of Couch to 5k. I am severely disgusted with myself about my lack of fitness. I was confident I could run a mile-- not so. I am walk/running three miles every other day. I am shooting for a 5k in June.

Back at the ranch, we are smack in the middle of kidding season. So many babies abound! This year, our name theme is country song titles. Teri is going more contemporary, while I am sticking with classic country songs. So far I think we are keeping most/all of the does.

If you aren't a fan already, please "like" our farm page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Eriphos-Farm/110900439012266.

If you aren't my friend, feel free to add me ;-)

Until next time, hopefully sooner than 3 months, stay safe and happy Spring!

Weekend Woes

It's Sunday night and the weekend is over and all I really want to know is why Mondays are necessary. I believe I would be much more productive if every weekend was a three day weekend. That leaves one day for relaxing or having "me" time, one day for life things, and one day for studying.

Instead, I get Friday afternoons for me time, Saturdays for life things and studying, and Sunday for studying.

And then things happen, like water heaters stop working and friends have awesome Visible Horse hoedowns, and my weekend turns into Friday-Saturday-Sunday "me" time, and Sunday night cram-cram-cram.

This weekend was worse: by the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, I was more or less dead and couldn't bear the thought of studying ANYMORE. So I rented the The Help, bought a pizza, and kicked back. Honor and Gonzo ate half of said pizza.

Friday was a very laid-back "me" time. I cleaned a little. I groomed the dogs. I discoved Netflix. OMG. My life will never be the same. I feel as though I was mis-using the internet my whole life.

On Saturday, I was up bright and early for another palpation lab at the dairy. I seriously love cows. They rock. I got to ultrasound one and I wasn't very good at it.

Sometimes I almost choke up when I am doing something I love and realize that this will be my career. Someone is going to PAY me to do something I enjoy doing, and I will be considered the expert. This isn't some summer job that I like, this is my LIFE. Eeee!

I did some laundry a bit of shopping and then it was time (we're still on Saturday) for an Evelyn-Stacy-Melissa-Bree-Amanda-Tora get-together!! We all brought a dish (I brought Mexican Chicken) and Amanda brought her Visible Horse and it was one of the funniest nights I've had in a long, long time. I got home after midnight and crashed into bed.

This morning, I got up and was determined to fix my hot water heater. I am not a plumber. I don't have time to deal with it, either, so that is a little inconvienent but that is there are showers at school.

I started studying about noon and now it is almost 8 and I am no where near ready for the quiz tomorrow. Oy vey. I need another day!!!

Food for thought

You know the worst part about being sick? Being someone who LOVES food.

I can't SMELL the food. I can't TASTE the food. I can hadly even SWALLOW the food. And yet life must go on, I still have to study, and I am still hungry. Very annoying. I made hamburgers yesterday using my super-duper fabulous-yummy hamburger recipe and I can't taste them at all. Hot tea and Southern Comfort is all it is for me.

My first large animal anatomy exam is tomorrow and I am tired of studying for it. I should really look over the lecture material some more, but I don't want to. Bleh. I will, soon.

I finally have my house allllll clean! I'm super happy about it. I really did not realize how stressful a messy house is. If you know me in person, you will know that I am domestically disabled. I have lived in clutter my whole life. But once I finally have everything unpacked and put away... woah. I don't have to worry about losing something, or making time to find something. It's fab. So. Clean your house.

The best thing about vet school so far (well, after The Awesome People) is all the superb symposiums. I'm going to the SAVMA (Student American Vet Med Association) symposium in March. The Food Animal symposium in April. The MVMA (MO vet med) symposium the end of the month. The AABP (bovine practitioners) symposium in Montreal. I'm sure the VBMA (vet med business assoc.) and the AASRP (small ruminant practitioners) have symposiums sometime. Lucky for me, most of them have free registration! So I'm just responsible for gas and hotel and networking, networking, networking. I want a fabulous job when I graduate so I can pay off all these darn loans.

My notecard FB page is finally up: Check it out! Like it! Share with your friends!

And my random thought for the day: I could really be more productive if the internet did not exist. However, then there would be no Google and I have no idea how I would pass vet school. So it should stay. But really... who knew there could be so many amazing distractions? Facebook, of course, takes a chunk of time. But then someone introduced me to Pandora... internet radio? That I control? Yes please! And then an evil person (not really, I love her to death) introduced me to Pinterest. Gah.

And then there are my favorite forums. I love forums. They are informative, stupid, dramatic, helpful and just plain awesome. Horse City, The Goat Spot, MyLamb, Student Doctor... now Hoegger Farmyard and Backyardherds. So much nonsense to sort, so little time. But seriously. Everytime I log in to one of them, I learn something. What I like most about them is that the information there is real-life, from real people. I am learning a ton from books and clinicians. Obviously they are professionals (or written by them) but there is something to be said about actual life-or-death, this-is-my-livelihood experience. I have to be careful about what I post, of course, since I don't want to be sued for malpractice or practicing without a license (that would suck), but I do enjoy offering some help.

I don't want to give up my forums, so I am trying to justify them. So far my plan is to allow myself one hour each day for searching around on all the forums. Some days I don't even touch that link. Some days I spend way too much time on them. But I'm learning!

And then, because I am on a health-diet kick (just like every January) I was introduced to Livestrong.com to log my calories, and Fitocracy to log my exercise. So. Much. Internet.

So I'm off to drag myself away from the iPad and do some book studying. After I check my school email. And my personal email. And facebook. And my Backyardherds post. And then Facebook again.

Sick day, long weekend edition

I should be studying, as always. But it is a long weekend, so I could even be cleaning or doing something constructive. Or working on cards (more on that in a minute). I could even load up the dogs and go hiking.

But I am sick, and thus, am allowing myself a sick day. It includes snuggling under the covers with the dogs and drinking lots of hot tea.

Hopefully I will be all better by tomorrow and Zach and Becca can come over. We'll see.

So it's been a month since I last posted. Semester One ended well with three B's and one A. Now we are on a block schedule, so we've got six more weeks of large animal anatomy, GI phys, microanatomy, nutrition, and developmental anatomy. Actually, large animal and developmental continue to next block. So far, so good-- I've gotten an A on one quiz and a B on one test. Our first LA anatomy test is Tuesday. Eep.

Christmas break was fun and much appreciated. I slept and slept and slept and honestly didn't get much done. Oh well. I made all my Christmas gifts-- I gave my mom a woven sunflower rug, Zach and Dad got knitted sock hats made from a WWII pattern given out by the Red Cross, and Teri got a blingy necklace for showing next summer. I got a scarf from Bec, iTunes card and a funny plaque from Zach (the plaque says "My windows aren't dirty-- that's my dog's nose art!" So true for the front window. Honor is a master artist), and a Bucket Head from Mom and Dad. It's a top for a 5 gallon bucket that turns the bucket into a shopvac!!! Awesome. They also got me some gardening tools and an omelet skillet so I can omelet to my heart's content. Christmas at the Seals' netted me all sorts of household goodies and some new clothes.

I've almost got the duplex unpacked and organized. Only took me five months, which is probably a record I wil never break.

I needed some type of income-producer, so I've started making and selling photo notecards with photos of our animals. I'm working on a Facebook page for them, but it's not quite done yet. You can hop over if you want, but I'm not taking orders until I officially publish the page. Please disregard the captions on the photos albums-- the prices are incorrect nd the collections are being rearranged. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reflections-of-Eriphos-Farm/217720578309348. Hopefully I'll be ready in a few days.

We've had our first lamb born at home-- a very Doper-looking Dorper cross ewe named Lucille. She's out of Dorothy and Amos. Her big sister, Stella, should be due any day. Baby goats won't arrive until March or April. Boo.

That concludes this episode of the random ramblings. When I come up with something interesting to post, I'll be back!

Helloooo Friday!!!

You are so close, yet so far away. Gah. It's only Wednesday.

Not much of an update, but I am procrastinating. I don't WANT to study (or cram, at this point) for my micro practical. Or my anatomy exams.

I just finished physiology. PRAISE JESUS.

I have no idea if I got a B or a C in that class. I had a 79.93 going into the final. I needed a 96/120 to get a B. I didn't check my score.

Now it's just a written Micro exam, a practical Micro exam, a written Anatomy exam, and a practical Anatomy exam.

So a little tip for anyone planning to take part in a professional program-- don't let grades rule your life. Have a life outside of school. Have fun. Watch that television show. Read a fiction novel. Take your dogs to the park every day.

My extracurriculars are varied and numerous because I get bored easily and am easily distracted... probably didn't know that ;-)

I usually have a book I read for a chapter or two before I fall asleep. That is my constant, every day "fun" or "me" time.

I also take dog training classes with at least one of my dogs at all times, so that means I have class one or two nights a week. SO much fun and definitely gets my mind off school.

I tend to have some crafty project going all the time.

If I don't go home on a particular weekend, I make sure to plan time to take the dogs to one of the two (insert shameless advertisement here-->) FANTASTIC MO State Parks nearby-- Rock Bridge Memorial or Finger Lakes. Both preserve and interpret the best of Missouri's natural landscapes and cultural landmarks and provide recreation for all ;-p. Seriously, they are fabulous parks and I enjoy taking a few hours on Sunday afternoons to get out and play.

And above all, I find time to go HOME. Home home. Bourbon home. I was pretty scared coming into vet school because it was a rare, rare weekend when I didn't go home during undergrad. I decided to try coming home every third weekend at first. In reality, I was going home every other weekend, and then there was a stretch where I was home EVERY weekend!! The noble Jeepie just doesn't get good gas mileage (its ONLY fault!) and finances and time just couldn't support that habit. Turns out, sometimes it's six weeks before I get to go home! It drives me crazy, but I'm okay with it. I know that I will get to go home eventually.

Well. This post was sort of (okay, really) random and you can probably tell I am tired and want to just be done with this week. So I'm off to study and perhaps have lunch (at 9:38).

Well now.

So my last post was from six days into vet school, and I am just now posting, six days from the end of the first semester.

Vet school takes a lot of time.

I should be in bed right now... I am. What I mean to say is that I should be asleep. I have a Phsyiology exam tomorrow (today, actually, since it is now 12 AM) at 7:20 AM. But I am not tired, yet.

This semester has been, without a doubt, the most fun school time I have ever had. I love it here. I hate Columbia, more or less, but I absolutely love vet school. Sure, there are times when I am really tired and stressed and really wonder WHY I thought this was a good idea, but I can't bring myself to even remotely dislike school. It's fab.

At this point in my life, I have one A and three B's in my classes and I am thrilled. Although I love school, it is hard, and I am struggling a bit to keep my grades at B's or higher. Ah well. C=DVM, remember??

On the home front: I'm not sure. I don't get to go home a lot, but I try to keep up with the news. The Goatherdess Mother gets stressed, I'm sure, when I'm not there (I'm just so darn NECESSARY!) so we are cutting back little by little. We've yet again re-worked our goat goals, so as to create a herd that is just all but self-sufficient. We have a few great big does and are planning to go from there. We are done buying does, any replacements will be off the farm.

I miss being home SO MUCH. I read my The Boer Goat or Countryside and let me tell you, it makes me homesick. It's hard to be a good Goatherdess when I am stuck in a duplex on a snippet of land in the middle of the "suburbs."

But, this is an means to an end. I just have three and a half more years and I will be well on my way to purchasing my little bit o' heaven in The Middle of Nowhere, MO.

As far as my life now: I get up at 5:30 or 6:00 or 6:30 or 7:00 or whenever I can drag myself from bed. If I am up early, I workout or run a bit. If I am not, I take a world-record-challenging shower, feed/medicate the dogs, grab my books, and I'm out the door. I study for a bit before class, have class/lab, come home, walk dogs, head back to school, meet Stacy, study, rush home, fall into bed.

Notice there is NO TIME for cleaning. Or laundry. Or dishes. Stuff just piles up and up and up and up and up and up and up and it is just frightening. I usually try to do dishes as I go, or at very least rinse them very well. Friday nights are my "clean EVERYTHING and do mountains of laundry" nights. Sometimes I get to go home on the weekends, more often I don't. Sad sad.

Well, a wave of sleepiness just came crashing over me. I have my Phys test tomorrow, anatomy lab for awhile, then I can come back to the duplevision and nap for awhil before cleaning. Then it's finals week and then CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!!!

Wahoo!

Adios, drive safe, and check back more often-- I'm going to try, try, try to post more often.