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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

  1. One of my guilty pleasures is eating icing straight out of the can. Disgusting, I know.
  2. Ironically enough, I also have a fear of being overweight.
  3. I have an embarrassingly huge phobia of needles and shots.
  4. I have a hard time telling people no.
  5. I have been blogging since July and I just figured out that pressing the compose button allows me to do bullets and numbers and change the size of the font. I am computer illiterate.
  6. I am beginning to develop an odd addiction to re run crime dramas. Law and Order, NCIS, Burn Notice, Psyche, Monk, CSI, Without A Trace, Cold Case. I watch them even if I've already seen the episode. Weird, I know.
  7. I havn't skipped any classes yet.
  8. I enjoy listening to books on tape. I am currently halfway through the first Twilight book. Thanks Ally!
  9. My family has 100s of rabbits in the garage. My dad raises them as a hobby. That statement is neither a joke or an exaggeration.
  10. I'm going to be spending June and July in Uganda working with the organization Empower A Child! You can check out their website here.
Obviously, I'm extremely excited about this opportunity, and I ask that you would start praying for me now. I promise to write more on this later, but I have two papers I need to get started on. I just wanted to share my exciting news and ask for your prayers for this exciting journey.

Also, just in case you keep up with my blog, this is the big news and the secret exciting opportunity I've been talking about, just in case you didn't catch that.

Spending the summer in Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!,
Jenna

Lessons Learned at a Hospital

Today was my second fieldwork day at the hospital. I love going to the hospital. I love the patients, I love the treatments, I love the activity, but most of all, I love seeing the patients get better.

After these observations, I know I am going to love what I am going to do when I grow up.

Anyways, God taught me a cool lesson today.

Most of the patients at the hospital are really nice old people, like grandmas and grandpas, but there is this younger individual who has Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a really rare disease effecting only 1 in 100,000 people. You can read more about it here.

Anyways, to summarize Guillain-Barré Syndrome it is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. Patients begin to lose feeling in their limbs and trunk. Eventually, the patient is completely paralyzed. This loss of function can occur over hours, days, or weeks.

Our particular patient went from a fully functional adult to completely paralyzed in 4 hours. My therapist said a lot of patients as bad as him die from their symptoms. This happened to him over 5 months ago and he has been in the hospital doing rehab ever since he reached a stable condition.

Today, when we went to therapy with this patient, he had something he was really excited about showing us. He gathered us over, had us lift up his hands and showed us how he is now able to move his two pinkies and right thumb literally a centimeter, if that.

This guy lost his total independence in a matter of four hours. He had a life and a job and a family and everything changed in a matter of 4 hours. He has been working so hard for the last 5 months, all for some centimeter movements in 3 fingers. 5 months.

If you could have seen the look on this guy's face, you would have thought it had just won the lottery. Over a centimeter. Incredible.

I sit here and whine about how my life is hard and school is boring and God takes to long to answer my prayer requests, and then when He does answer them, I don't do enough to appreciate them.

This patient sits in the hospital and works is but off for 5 months for a centimeter. And then he is overjoyed at his progress, instead of getting frustrated that things aren't moving faster.

I am such a brat.

Admiring the determination of the human spirit,
Jenna

Monday, January 26, 2009

Quiz Results

Normally, I'm not into quizzes, but I have two papers to write, and I am doing my best to put them off for as long as possible. I got this from Pam, you can check out her blog here. You can also take the quiz for yourself here.

I'm posting my results because this quiz is the most interesting thing that has happened in my life over the last couple of days. Also, its depressing how accurate the results are.

Here it goes:

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

* Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
* Share fun times with me.
* Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
* Let me know that I am important and special to you.
* Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

* Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
* Reassure me often that you love me.
* Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

* being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
* knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
* being generous, caring, and warm
* being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
* being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

* not being able to say no
* having low self-esteem
* feeling drained from overdoing for others
* not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
* criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
* being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tune in to them
* working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

* are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
* try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
* are outwardly compliant
* are popular or try to be popular with other children
* act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
* are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

* are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
* are often playful with their children
* wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
* can become fiercely protective

That's all

Wishing my life was more interesting at the moment,
Jenna

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Music Selections

A few updates before we get down to business:

1. I've gone through two weeks of school without skipping a class. I'm seeing how long I can go. I'm pretty proud of myself.

2. I'm also keeping up with my Bible readings on You Version. Hopefully, this year I will actually finish the Bible.

3. Maybe you remember me asking you to pray for something cool that I am trying to do over the summer. I got word today that my application for said cool thing has made it through almost the entire process. It is simply awaiting final approval from the head person in charge of said cool thing. So again, pray for the application process, and that everything would work out the way God wants it to. Also, pray for my patience, because I have none, and waiting for that e-mail is going to drive me crazy!

If I get accepted, I'll let you in on what "cool thing" is. Although most of you already know because I'm terrible at keeping secrets.

Finally, the reason for today's post. Over the summer, I bought an older version of the iPod on eBay. I also thankfully bought a warranty from squaretrade.com, which I highly recommend if your electronics don't come with warranties. They should pay me for that advertisement.

Anyways, older iPod broke, and Square Trade said it wouldn't be cost efficient to repair my iPod. Additionally, they didn't have any more iPods in my version, so Tuesday I got a refurbished 5th generation 80 GB iPod for only the cost of shipping. I transfered the collection from the old iPod to the new one, and I have right at 4,000 songs, which leaves me with plenty of room for more.

So today, I am allowing you to recommend songs to add to my collection. You can recommend one song or many. I promise to download and listen to all of them at least once. Most unique song, overall best song, and best collection of songs will be awarded.

Expanding my Musical Pallet,
Jenna

Monday, January 19, 2009

Weekend in Review

The highlight of this weekend was hanging out with Shelby and Kelsey on Saturday. We redecorated Shelby's guest bedroom so that she can turn it into a mini salon. Shelby is extremely good at what she does, so if you ever need something done to your hair, you should give her a call. Seriously. Shelby can make anyone look good, so if you're interested, let me know.

I realized this weekend how much I love decorating/painting. I also reorganized my bathroom, and as nerdy as it sounds, I had a blast. If you ever need something reorganized, let me know. I think in my next life, I'll be a decorator or a home organizer or something.

I also realized this weekend how much I love Shelby and Kelsey. They are simply fabulous girls and I can't wait until we get old and our kids can have play dates together.

Saturday night we went to The Tap Room in San Marcos. Good food. Good drinks. And cheap. It's my new favorite hang out place in San Marcos. Ask me about it and I'll take you sometime.

Tomorrow I have my first fieldwork of the semester. I'm a wee bit nervous.

Hoping everyone enjoyed MLK day, sorry this was so boring,
Jenna

Friday, January 16, 2009

Last First Week of School

This week, I started back to school, for the very last time. I survived, but barely. Here are some random thoughts and reflections from the week:

• First of all, I honestly don’t know how I am going to survive the real world. The past couple of semesters, I've only had to go to school 3 days a week. This week, I had to go all 5 days, and it was exhausting! Plus, I didn't even go all day on Monday, Tuesday, or Friday. If I had my way, I would have the college life, without the classes, forever.

• While we are talking about this semester, we can talk about how difficult it is going to be for me to keep my resolutions. I thought the break would give me a better attitude about school, but no such luck. I hate school just as much as I did at the end of last semester. Doing well is going to be difficult, not because of lack of intelligence, but because of lack of motivation.

• Another thing making my resolutions difficult is the amount of boredom that some of the classes produces. And by some, I mean most. In one class, we watch a video tape of a woman reading notes about ethics, and then we have class discussions about it. You'd think that would be the worst, but it isn't. On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, we go over how to do documentation. We have gone over abbreviations, if right/left should go before or after the body part, when to use the word "of", and how to use hyphens. We go over the rules of proper documentation, which is a complete waste because every job site has their own rules for how documentation should be done, which you can learn when you get said job. It is the most ridiculous waste of time class I've ever taken, which is saying something because I've taken scuba diving, water aerobics, and a class in the 9th grade called "Teen Leadership" which consisted of watching inspirational movies and writing colorful notes for my friends.

• I did a terrible job of spending responsibly on my credit card this past month. I swear I'll do better in January.

• It's been brought to my attention that some clarifications need to be made from my last blog. I won't be skinny dipping with anyone of the male persona. Additionally, it is much to cold for skinny dipping, so it will be moved to May/June/July's list.

• Today I bought a bunch of fruits and vegetables at the store. I'm going to try to start eating healthier. It will probably last until the next trip to the store, but I'll try for now.

• In other news, I can no longer go to San Diego with FBCgt because of some incorrect information on spring break dates I received from my mom. I am REALLY disappointed about not being able to go. The good news is that instead I'll be able to go visit David on his "Go and See" weekend for Mission Year. I'm looking to go from Thursday, March 5thish to Tuesday, March 10thish. I did a little research and the cost for one person to fly and stay in a hotel by themselves is about $350. So, who wants to go with me? Obviously, the price goes down if we drive or split a hotel, which I'm all for. Let me know if you want to go. Seriously.

• I'm starting to get sick. I'm also going out every night this weekend. I know this is a bad combination. I'm crossing my fingers I'll make it.

• Today, when I went to the store, a woman was eating grapes out the bag. Not just one bag, but multiple bags. Like she was testing the bags or something. In case you're wondering, this is not socially acceptable. I had to get green grapes instead of purple. I'm still a little bitter about this.

• Haley took Bella to the dog park this week and she humped a girl dog. She has never humped anything before, ever, but for some reason, she found it appropriate to hump a girl dog. This means our dog is at the very least bisexual. I don't know how I feel about this.

Wishing Bella liked boys,
Jenna

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Things to Do Before I Die-January Edition

As promised, today is the day we pick out what thing I am going to complete for January. The bad news is, my list has over 150 things on it. I realized today that it is simply too long to type up, so here is the game plan:

Every month, I am going to list things that I think could be completed in the month. Then, you read them, and if you want to do something on the list with me, you let me know, and we will work something out.

Obviously, this plan depends on you a lot, so I really hope you won't let me down. I don't care who you are, how well I know you, or how long its been since we have talked, if you're willing to complete something with me, I'll entertain the idea.

With that being said, here's the stuff I think I could complete in January:

1. Ride in a hot air balloon
2. Play a round of golf
3. Sword fight someone
4. Ride a horse
5. Go skinny dipping
6. Ride on a train
7. Go to a rap concert and be the only white people there
8. Eat caviar
9. Sing karaoke by myself
10. Hit on a boy with a cheesy pick up line
11. Learn to tap dance
12. Go to a horse race
13. Play tackle football
14. Tour Texas stadium
15. Shoot a gun

And there you go. Let me know if you want to do one with me.

Completing Life's Goals,
Jenna