Yes folks - that is right.  It has been exactly a year since I went running pell mell into the ocean on my very first day on the beach during spring break - only to get knocked over by a wave and come hobbling out with a broken foot.
One year, two surgeries, multiple months of being in a cast and on crutches, and several more of physical therapy and I am almost back to where I was! 
Hard to believe it has been a year.
This year I will be celebrating by spending the whole day at school and work.  That should be relatively safe.

So happy anniversary to me - I am off to prepare for a presentation that I am giving in class today!

I didn't get many pictures today, but here are a few of my favorites...

Good food, great time spent with family....now it is time to buckle back down and do some schoolwork.

A little update for those of you following along...

I talked to my professor on Tuesday morning before class - long story short, I am not going to drop it, but take an incomplete and finish the work over the summer.  He was extremely kind and gracious and so I will continue to go to class to get the information, but basically the work is deferred until later.  This way I don't lose money or the time that I have invested in the class....

It actually could not have turned out better, and I am grateful.

So there you have it.  The next seven weeks will still be tough, but my stress level has decreased dramatically.

Whew.

Off to work on a paper/presentation and to read for a test! 

It is hard to admit it - I have been doing my best to stay on top of this full time work/15 hour class load, but it has finally gotten the best of me.  Yesterday I hit the wall - it is either continue in the way that I have and lose my mind, or cut back on something...so I made the decision to drop one of my classes [preceded by much weeping and gnashing of teeth ]. 
It is hard to admit that I cannot do it all.  Hard to not look at this as failure.  Tomorrow I am going to go and talk to the professor of the class that I am planning to drop.  I am praying and hoping that when I speak with him, that he will perhaps let me finish the class and take an incomplete which would mean that I could continue to sit in the class and get the information, but be able to defer anymore of the assignments until later.  If you think about it, pray for favor and that this will work out - it is the only way that I see being able to complete this semester.
So there you go.  I am off to study...

Okay - this will make you laugh.  I decided that I am going to try to see if I can hit that magic 100,000 xanga credits for free lifetime Xanga.  How cool would that be?  Unfortunately I am only at 3,500 so far, so Wen and I were talking about it last night and she suggested doing the surveys that xanga suggests.  If you complete a survey, you get 2,000 credits.  Pretty good deal, right?  Right. 
The catch however, is that you have to MAKE IT THROUGH the survey without them kicking you out - telling you that you don't qualify, etc.  I had tried before, and had gotten kicked out [apparently they don't want my opinion], so we decided to give it a go together.
Apparently Wendy is magic because the very first survey I got all of the way through.  It was a fairly straightforward survey about my [the households] chocolate milk drinking habits. 
Thinking that one was easy, I decided to do another - this time it was about vacuum cleaners.
Seriously...these are two of the questions on the survey...

Now we'd like you to do something a little different and imagine that these vacuum brands were to come to life as people. Which phrase best describes how close you would feel to each as a person? (Select one answer for each vacuum brand.)

[Ummmm - are you serious?  What are these people smoking?]
Here is the next one... 

Again, please imagine that these vacuum brands were to come to life as people. Which of the following statements best describes how you would feel about each brand if it came to life as a person? Would that person be…? (Please select one answer for each brand)

How crazy is that?  It made me laugh hard.
So I spent 20 minutes on this stupid vacuum quiz and the jerks took all of my answers and then kicked me out without giving me the points.  So not cool.  There has to be a better way.

In other news - I spent an evening with my parents earlier this week and they were watching my brother Ben's three girls - plus my sister and her family were over, so I had ALL of my neices in the same place.  How glad was I that I had thought to bring my camera with me?  I totally made all of them sit with me so I could get pictures.

The first one with just Hadassah and I.  How nummy is she?

Add Bethany and Addison...

Then Tabitha got there and we had the whole group...Bethany thought it would be hysterical to make a face.  What a goober.

The 'good' shot of the whole group...Addison's hands are in front of her face, but it was the best we could do...

That was pretty much it - they were done...

Tabitha and Bethany love to ham it up for the camera though - they thought it would be great to pretend to be sleeping?  Okay.  It looks more to me like they are in pain, but whatever.

One last shot of the silly girls.  Have I mentioned how much I love my family? 

It is spring break and I am sitting in the library doing research and writing papers.
What is wrong with this picture?
My hair looks pretty good today though - I am always amazed at how a good hair day can help my attitude about life in general.
I could really use a Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic about now.  And a corn dog.  And some tater tots.

My iPod is on random and this song just came on that I have never heard before [thank you my brothers for loading your crap music onto MY iPod] - I kid you not, the name of the song is 'Smoke Two Joints'.  Any guesses what the song is about?  First one to guess right gets the prize.
So this paper that I am working on right now is for my child psych class - the assignment called for each of us to watch a childrens movie that began with either our first initial or last initial.  Yeah - my choices were limited to 'H' and 'K'....and I don't know if you have ever thought about it [I don't know why you would, because I never had before either], but there are hardly ANY childrens movies that start with those letters. 
I finally landed on 'Happy Feet'...have watched the movie and now need to write the paper about the messages in the movie [yeah - this is funky music day on the iPod - 'Drop it like it's hot' just came on...sheesh - I should be in a nightclub with this music]. 
It really isn't that big of a deal.  First, list the messages that you got out of the movie.  Second, summarize the movie and talk about some of the messages.  Third, describe IN EXACTLY FOUR PARAGRAPHS [yes - he actually says that in the syllabus] each of the three research studies that you are relating to the specific movie messages.  Fourth, conclude.  Fifth - throw all of my sources into easybib.com and have it spit out the bibliography for me.  DONE.  This will be all done and wrapped up today.  That is a good thing.
Sometimes I really do like to be productive - and I know that everything that I do now is that much less stress towards the end of the semester - but right now?  At this moment?  I am having a little bit of a pity party for myself.  Feeling sorry for me yet? 
[Moving on in song to Evanescence 'Snow White Queen' - this was actually my choice]
At any rate - I am just blathering now...I really don't have anything to say and need to get back to writing...
One more random thing before I leave...it is almost a year since Spring Break last year - you know - the trip where I broke my foot?  [Still wouldn't change a thing - would do it again in a heartbeat even if I knew that I would break my foot]  Anyway - I was going through pictures the other day and realized that I had never posted this one.  It makes me laugh big every time.  We were on our way home and had stopped to look at the battleship - this sign was in the parking lot.

I couldn't help it - I turned to Aundrea and asked, 'Do you think that is a caution sign, or a sexual preference?'  Bahahahahaha.  Sorry if that is a bit off color for some of you...I thought I was pretty clever...

Walking out after class tonight - talking with Wendy and Flo...not paying attention and dragging my feet from being so freaking tired...next thing I know, I have tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fallen flat on the ground again.
Sheesh.
What is my problem?
Bring on the bubble wrap [and a band-aid and antibiotic ointment for my scrapes please ]

It's like the school decided to give me a little present by announcing an 'iclement weather' day and cancelling school.  I know that I need to spend this time actually studying, but for now?  I'm going back to bed!

Walking from the parking lot at school to my first class this morning, I had a 24oz styrofoam cup of coffee in my left hand, my 40 pound bookbag slung over my right shoulder and had pulled out my cell phone to call a friend before class.
Normally this kind of multi-tasking is not a problem.  I am quite good at doing more than one thing at once actually...

So there I am completely minding my own business and not really paying attention to where I was placing my feet when the next thing I know, I am ON. THE. GROUND.  It took a good couple of seconds for me to realize that I had just stepped on a patch of ice and had literally flown into the air Charlie Brown style and landed right on my tailbone.

Ouch.  That's going to leave a mark.

[side note here: I will have you
know that despite landing on my backside, I didn't spill one drop of
coffee, and my cell phone remained intact...whew]

Is it just me, or do other people hurt themselves in random, silly ways as well?
I obviously need to be in a perpetual safety bubble - and I have to be honest - I am a little concerned for myself as I get older.  If I am this clumsy and accident prone at my current age, what am I going to be like at 60 and 70?  I apparently better start hitting the calcium supplements to start beefing up my bone density.

Sheesh.

I am happy to report though - I don't think anything is broken...just bruised,
Perhaps all of the preceding accidents in my life have taught me to fall well?