Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pumpkins and Disney Movies

There comes a time when every 22 year old woman needs to go back to her childhood. For me, that was this weekend! I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather (no Haunted Palouse), so I went to my friend Teresa's house and carved a pumpkin! I named him Leonard. He is quite scary, if I do say so myself, and is guarding my door. The thing I forgot, however, is how messy it is to carve a pumpkin. Yes- I am a girl. :) I was so grossed out that I couldn't seperate the seeds from all of the goo. While we carved pumpkins we watched Hocus Pocus. Remember that wonderful movie from 1993? It stars a Bette Midler and freaky SJP.

After being totally unproductive Saturday morning I went to hang out with Cherise. We then proceeded to torment her understanding boyfriend Matt with not one but TWO Disney movies! We watched The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. It was splendid. I like to pretend I am a Disney princess, and no one can stop me :) I have to say, though, that Matt is crazy wise. He puts up with me like a little-older sister (I am older, but shorter!). I can tell him everything that am worried about concerning a certain subject and he can ALWAYS tells me what will happen.

This week I will be enjoying a FANTASTIC half-gallon of cookie dough ice-cream. Feel free to ask me why. On top of that, it is getting cold at night in Pullman. Really cold. I just have to keep telling myself that this is the last winter here.

Coming Up This Weekend:
- Dress up dinner at St. Tommy's on Halloween
- Kayleen's Knitting Party ( I don't know how to knit, but I will learn. My family has always said I need a hobby, and what better hobby than knitting!)

Remember the Communion of Saints this coming weekend!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Another Week

What a difference a week makes! I am feeling so much better this week. The Remicade worked like a charm! I felt good enough to go down to the TC with Cherise and help my sister get ready for her first homecoming dance! She wore a beautiful emerald green dress that went to her knees and we put her hair into a messy bun. It was amazing to be apart of that moment for my sister. She even said thank you! For those of you who know my sister you know that this is quite unusual. Cherise and I then spent the evening catching up on homework and watching Baby Momma. I have a confession to make: even though I totally disagree with her politics, I have an itty bitty girl crush on Tina Fey. The first step is to admit is, isn't it?!

There isn't much to report as far as classes go. This is probably a good thing, though! I have now decided that I need to focus on my body as much as I have been focusing on my mind. I bought an exercise ball at Target before I left the TC so I can get into a better exercise habit. Today was lower body and tomorrow is arms! Growing up I was always involved in some sort of activity after school that kept me in shape. I tried everything: ballet, softball, gymnastics, jazz, and cheerleading. Since high school I haven't been as dedicated to exercise, but I am going to change that! I know that when I start work I am going to need a way to work off the stress of busy season. Maybe I'll just bring my exercise ball to work. It would be perfect for the audit room!

Speaking of accounting, I will start taking the CPA exam in six months. How scary is that?! I'm not to worried- yet! I am sure the stress will pile on as the date gets closer. I just can't wait to get to Seattle and start working. The further I get into my Master's the more I realize how much I LOVE accounting. Weird, huh? I miss all of my EY kiddos- therefore, I am coming to visit over Halloween weekend! Shari and I will be making the trip over the mountains, so get ready everyone!

This weekend should be a great one. Haunted Palouse is Friday. Everyone from St. Tommy's might even dress up. I think the theme may be celebrities if we can get Mike and Pat to dress up as the Olsen twins. The sad thing is that Andrea won't be there:( I did get to talk to her tonight and she is having a great time working as a volunteer in the Bronx. I only wish I was in a financial position to go and visit her! While Andrea won't be there, guess who might be?!! Gordon!!! Ok- just a little excited. He reads this, though, so I have to try and act cool. Am I doing a good job?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Not feeling so well...

Well- my ulcerative colitis decided it would make itself known this past week. Yay! It is a severe form of IBS that I was diagnosed with in high school. I basically had ulcers in my colon. Yuck. No gross details, but you can imagine what this causes. I have been on an IV medication and an immune suppressant (my immune system is what causes the inflammation which then forms the ulcers) that has gotten rid of the ulcers, but if I'm not careful I'll still feel the inflammation. My doctor down in the Tri-Cities has been trying to get me off of the immune suppressant for three years. I understand why he wants me to, but every time I try I get sick. This summer right before the internship my doctor told me that we should try going off the immune suppressant and try the highest dose possible of the IV medication. I said why not, and it worked for seven weeks the first session (I get IVs every eight weeks) but only six weeks this time. So, I haven't been feeling so hot the past ten days, but I get my IV on Friday!! I also said enough is enough and went back on the immune suppressant. It will take awhile to build back up,though. As long as we check blood work regularly I should be ok being back on it. The worst part about this is that I wasn't able to go on the Search retreat :( I was really looking forward to it, but I had to do what was best.


It's been hard, but I am trying to find God in this situation. I feel that it is really humbling me. I've had long periods of time where I have been completely fine and don't even think about this disease. Right when I get to that point God says, "Oh wait! I'm not going to let you forget." I have made great strides- when I was first diagnosed and was REALLY sick I didn't know if I would be able to go away to college. Now I am in grad school! I hope that God can use me to help those with chronic illnesses to see that He is there and that He is the one that helps us get through it. We can never lose faith that there will be better times, and can never lose faith that there will be a cure. I don't want pity, but I decided to talk about this since it is what I am dealing with right now. I've got my heating pad, Powerade, and soup- a girls best friends!


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

5 Books That Have Changed My Life

Given the fact that I am an accountant, and therefore NOT creative, I have decided to try searching for blog prompts! I am sure all of you will be happy that you won't always be bored by reading the details of my mundane life in every post. But- don't think you get off that easy. I will still give you updates =)

Today's prompt is "5 books that changed your life are..."
  1. The Bible- the Living Word of God, how can you get more lift changing than that?

  2. Cry, The Beloved Country- a wonderful story about an Anglican priest in South Africa and his stuggles to save his son.

  3. Three Cups of Tea- the true story of a man working for peace in Pakistan by building schools for young girls.

  4. Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte's masterpiece. Love and mystery at its greatest.

  5. My Sister's Keeper- A young girl born to save her sister- can she save her one last time?

These books have all influenced the way I think about God and love. Love comes in many forms, and God shows us His love in many forms. Most of all, His love is why I don't lose faith in humanity. A number of these books have shown me that people are capable of making great strides in the world. It reminds me of a saying that goes, "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." Also, things are not always what they seem on the outside. People are complicated, and the world is complicated. We can only try to grasp ounces of understanding. Finally, I have to say that Wuthering Heights is the only novel from the Gothic genre that didn't depress me! What a wonderful, complicated love story.


Sunday, October 5, 2008

Lazy Sunday

Hello all! Yes- I know I am terrible about posting regularly. I will try to fix this situation, starting now :)

This past week was interesting. First, a bunch of us were pretty frustrated in our Master's classes this week because our professor gave us a mid-term project that doesn't make ANY sense. Our case is on Boston Chicken and was written for strategy analysis. However, we are supposed to do accounting, financial, ratio and forecast analysis along with strategy. What really made us mad was the proposed 24 month cash flow part, but we don't have to do that anymore. Yes! I have to say that I love my team. It is great to have a team where everyone knows what they are doing and they all pull their weight.

On Thursday was Women's Group and the VP debate. Our discussion at WG was about a parable in Matthew where a vineyard owner hires workers to produce fruit in the vineyard. He sends servants to check in on them (they hadn't been producing fruit), and the workers kill all of the servants. However, the owner still has faith and keeps sending servants. Finally, he sends his only son. Jesus then asks the Jewish leaders what they think the owner will do. Jesus tells them that the owner will remove the old workers and find ones that do produce good fruit.Do you see where this is going?? God is the owner, we are the workers, the servants are the prophets of the Old Testament and the son is Jesus. I am continually amazed at what a wonderful teacher Jesus was. We all need to be workers in the vineyard and work produce good fruit. The fantastic thing is, though, that God loves us unconditionally and will never lose faith.

My thoughts on the VP debate: Sarah Palin did better than I thought she would. I think she did answer the questions before going onto another topic. I really agree with her position that government needs to get out of the way. Government is too big. I did get the feeling that Biden was stumping...he said before that he doesn't think Barak Obama is qualified to be president. Now he is running with him?! Joe Biden doesn't make me as upset as Obama does.Oh well. All I can hope for is that people truly search their hearts and look at the issues. And if Barak Obama wins I hope Congress will keep him in check. His ideas are SO wrong for this country. Universal heath care, abortion, millions of social programs?!I just can't think about it. I am for everyone having healthcare and taking care of the poor, but the private sector is more efficient at doing that.The worst part about it all is that people think he is the new messiah. No politician is going to change the world so drastically. And, he IS NOT the messiah. We had a gentleman from the Spokane Dioceses come and speak at Friday Night Dinner about faithful citizenship. I really enjoyed his talk and it helped us look at the election and the issues from a Catholic perspective. Now, there is no way that they would tell us how to vote, but he did show us how to make our decisions with our faith in mind.

Finally, I had some girl time this weekend! I watched Sex and the City with Cherise Friday night and then Greta came down from Spokane yesterday and we went to dinner, did our nails, and watched a movie called I'm with Lucy. It was adorable! Highly recommend it.

That's all for now!