You're only as old as you feel

I have now safely reached the ripe old age of 19. Ok, so it's not really a ripe old age, but it does sound a lot older than 18. I didn't really do anything special for my birthday. My brother ended up having to have surgery Friday night, so he was still in the hospital on Saturday. His incision is really cool looking. And my family is starting to realize just how handy it is having a "medical professional" around. I was able to explain the purpose of the steri strip, and how it will just come off on it's own. :) I felt bad for him. I have never seen anyone be so pale from pain. Jessica was teasing him that now that he knows somewhat what it's like to have a baby, all he needs to experience the full effect is to be woken up every two hours by a crying baby.
So, to celebrate my day on Saturday, I was going to sleep in, because I was the only one at home, but Elise called me at 9:30 and woke me up, so I just got up. I then read the whole newspaper, and made myself a huge chocolate chip pancake. I got several phone calls, including one from 5 of the Les Miserableser's (can you figure out what that word is?) who sang to me. Elise came over, and reassured me that my room looks great (no, it's still not done yet) and gave me some books. She forgot to make me promise to not read them until Summer finals are over, and I've read one of them, and am working my way through the next.
Then I packed up and headed to the pool with Wendi and Luke. I sat in the sun and read my book for a few hours before repacking up and heading home. We had my favorite supper: HA chicken (don't ask- it's a family thing), party potatoes, salad, and corn on the cob. I'm not a big fan of cake, so I made myself an apple pie. And I had to rescue my pie and my birthday cookies from my mom who tried to take them to the Schick's tonight. *Gasp*
I have to admit, I was very relieved that nothing mischievous happened this weekend. I was kind of expecting something, mostly cause I know that I would have deserved it. But, hurray! Nothing happened.
This week is going to be insane. If you think about, you can mail me card that says something like: "Sorry you have no life. I hope you get it back soon." :)
Oh, and in case you're wondering where my title came from, it's a quote I am often heard saying at work when one of the residents complains about their age.

Birthday Presents

I got my first birthday present today. As soon as I walked into lab this morning, dripping wet because it was dumping buckets outside, Amanda hands me this huge box wrapped up bubble wrap. Don't ask what's up with the bubble wrap; Amanda says it cheaper, more fun, and its water proof. The water proof part is certainly good for today. So I open up this big box. And inside I find the most random arrangement of items, all of which have some meaning. To start with the list:
1. Tide to Go pen and Shout wipes- Amanda always carries these with her in case she, or anyone else would have a reason to use them. Sadly, they were used several times over the course of microbiology.
2. Jolly Rancher and Reece's Peanut Butter cups because I really like these and I used to bring them for everyone in micro.
3. Diet Pepsi, because I am in love with it and drink it every single day.
4. Gum, because I am always chewing gum, and always have a large supply on hand to hand out to everyone who needs it.
5. Starburts, because she wanted me to give her some. :)
6. Cool colored straws because she thought they were cool.
7. A rubber, glow in the dark snake because she read my post about not seeing a snake all summer. I have know seen a snake this summer.
And last but not least:
8. A birthday card that sings "You are my Sunshine" when you open it, because she always calls me her sunshine. That's amazing because she see's me at 8 am everyday. (I am not usually what most people call a sunshine at that time of day.)

So, that was my first birthday present. It was fun, and very creative. Thank you Amanda!!! I'm scared about some of my other ones. Kate and Amanda have been laughing all week about what Kate got me. I'm getting nervous.

Camping

This weekend was great. I had the privilege of not only going camping one night, but two nights in one weekend. Friday night after work I headed over to Kristen's to camp out with a bunch of other people. Our "camping" actually ended up being 7 people crammed on a trampoline. People kept leaving though. By 2 am, there were only 4 of us left, by sunrise, there was Emily and I, and by 6 am, I was the lone survivor. Not a whole lot sleeping went on. I think I slept somewhere between the hours of 3 am and 5 am. We made breakfast, and I got home long before I normally get up.
I also got to camp out last night (Sunday night). It was about the hottest night of year, but oh well. We headed out to Wiegand lake after the church picnic. The rest of the young group came for a while and we sang and at lots and lots of smores and marshmallows. Brad had his 4-wheeler out there, and he had a trusting/dumb moment and let Laura and I ride it. During the short amount of time we were actually going somewhere, it was fun. Just out of curiosity, how many times can you kill a 4-wheeler before you ruin the engine? It must be a lot, cause I think we killed at least 50 times before Brad came to rescue us.
During our camping, Amy and I had a flashback of the trip to Apple River when we got stuck, er....I mean had the privilege of rooming with Haley and Michelle. They argued all last night. I videotaped about 5 minutes of our conversation, and I can't wait to listen to it again in about 5 years. :)
Oh, and just so you all know, I had a victory Thursday night. I drove to Morton after class to rollerblade (it rained, so I didn't get to go anyway). I got off I-55, ended up in a different part of Morton than I'm usually in, and I actually managed to get out of Morton without getting lost!!! Maybe I'm the only one who gets lost in that town, but I get very turned around. Anyway, that was a happy moment in my week.

Wow

I just realized something amazing.

I haven't seen a snake all summer!!!

That makes me very happy!

Indiana

I decided that I am getting pretty good at packing. All these weekend trips have me finishing in 5 minutes with less clothes every time (although the shoe count seems to be climbing). This time my weekend away was to Indiana for my cousin's graduation. We were going to leave around 10 am, but in typical Schick fashion, it ended up being more like 11. So we drove the 3 hours out to Indianapolis with 3 kids in the back seat, me trying to study, and Uncle Ted informing us how many miles to Indy every sign we went past. "200 miles to Indy." A few minutes later: "190 miles to Indy." And so on.
We dropped him off at A. Sandy's and then headed to our hotel. It was a great hotel. Very nice, and us 4 girls had our own room. Being with a 14, 13, and 12 year old for a long time is interesting. They made fun of everything I did, said, wore, and every thought I verbalized. We shopped at a huge mall, sadly for only 45 minutes. Supper was at U. Dan's. It was great to see all my cousins that I rarely see.
Back at our hotel, we watched Princess Diaries, and ate lots of food, and stayed up way to late. The mattresses were great, but somehow Jamie took up more than her share of the bed. Sunday was a long day. I didn't know anyone, I needed to study, and I wanted to take a nap. I got to do both on the way home.
Anyway, that was my weekend. Hope all yours were great too!

July 4th

Well, the 4th of July has come and gone. Have you ever noticed that as you get older, things just aren't as fun and exciting as they were when you were little? For me, the 4th of July was always an incredibly exciting day. We would have family things, swim, light off fireworks, and I just had tons of fun. But as I get older, I just don't have as much fun as I used to. Ok, enough rambling. And I admit that I did have fun this July 4th. It was a crazy day, but fun. We had the Pfaffmann family over for lunch. Hamburgers, baked beans, potatoes, watermelon were on the menu and everyone ate until we were stuffed. Yum! Anyways, then we were all full and sat around for a long time, and some certain people napped. Yep, we were an exciting bunch.

In the afternoon Elise and I headed over to Katelyn's for the cookout. We showed up way before everyone else. It was fun though. We teased Linda about not having watermelon and discussed how un-patriotic it is not to have watermelon on the 4th of July. Then people finally started showing up. Some people anyway. I will comment that one person who I know will read this post wasn't there, and I had to make an emergency phone call to discover the reason for the disappearing act. After supper, some people played kittenball. It was lots of fun, even though my team only got about 3 runs the whole game. Then there were fire crackers to be lit off. Pretty sure an entire bottle of hairspray was used up in the process.

Hopefully in a few minutes, I'll be heading off to the Roecker Interior to pick out paint for my room. Scary. My mom is coming with me. Just to let you all know, my spontaneity is being slightly regretted. After I spent 7 straight hours cleaning out, stripping wallpaper, and wiping down walls, I was informed that before painting, I need to sand, re-wipe down, and prime my walls. That was quit unexpected information I wish I would have known before. Oh well. So now my room is a disaster, with all the furniture you can imagine shoved in my closet, and plastic covering most of the furniture that didn't fit. And sleeping on a bed that is in the middle of a room feels weird.

Yes, I know I am spontaneous

Yep, I am. Anyone that knows me even reasonably well can agree with this. And in my spontaneous/random moments, I usually jump in headfirst, and plunge full force until my goal is complete. So what is the point of posting about this you might ask? Mostly because yesterday I shocked my family and friends. Here's the story.

For months I have contemplated re-doing my room. I have mentioned it to my mom, and about year ago, had everything picked out for it. But then I got busy, and didn't mention it anymore. Well, last night, Wendi and I were in Walmart, and I came up with this insanely spontaneous idea that I am going to re-do my room. So followed by an amazed, mouth-hanging open sister, I tromped to the isle where the bedspreads are located, picked one out, and proceed to paint section to get paint samples. All this time being followed around by a little sister who complained "You said all you needed was Pepsi and hangers."

I then returned home with my purchases, shocked my mother, and looked through a Pottery Barn magazine to get ideas for decorating. I found the perfect one, figured out how to make it and design it to match my taste and my newly re-done room.

All that in a span of about 2 hours. Talk about spontaneous.