Stephanie's Family, Friends...Life

The new address....

Check out my new blog at

http://benandstephanie.blogspot.com

I'm Baaaack!!!

Long time since I have visited my own site. I am sure that absence has been noted by the family as I have been told by many of you that I need to update my blog. So here I am several months later doing just that.
There is no sense in me filling in all of those lost months on blogger with type, so I have decided to start fresh.
As you all probably, or should know by now, Ben and I are now engaged!!!!! The wedding plans have already begun and hopefully a set date will be announced shortly. But until then, I promise to try and keep a more updated Blog...but then again it has been so long that perhaps everyone has stopped reading this anyway... If anyone is out there: Stay tuned for an interesting glimpse into the wedding plans for Ben and I!!!

Well Deserved Vacation

As some of you may have already heard, for Ben's 21st birthday we are going to Cancun in July. I believe that looking forward to some type of vacation is about all that is getting me through this last week of school. But even a little more exciting than that is I will be able to go out to LA to visit Jeff and Anna-Marie and Sebastian once school is out. Mom won me tickets out to LA for 5 days through a radio station, so I am so excited to be able to see the family again.
I haven't planned anything yet because I have been so busy, but I plan on looking at flights and such once everything cools down.
Hopefully I will be able to finally relax once school is out. But then again I have to find a real job, and insurance, and...

Overwhelmed...

It is coming to the very end of my last week of school and things have gone slightly down hill.
Today is Thursday. The plan was to work on my photo project yesterday, which I did only after Koda decided to have a nice long 5 minute seizure. Then today I had to wake up early to begin making my "cultural comfort food" which was only 1 part of my 4 part final for my intercultural class. The other parts were completed last night (a 6 page paper and a 3 page paper). So I woke up in plenty of time and began making Gobs. I had let Jake outside and unbeknownst to me he decided to romp around in the flower beds thus covering his paws in mud. So when I let him back in he trooped mud throughout the family room. So inbetween making gobs I had to scrub the carpet and then proceed to thoroughly clean Jake's feet.
And if that wasn't stress enough I had to pay a bill online and checked my email to find out that my online class had the final assignments due yesterday instead of the weekend. My fault, I didn't check.
So I had to go mount my photographs onto Bristol board, take them up to Kinko's and get the book bound and now here I am at the computer catching up on my online projects.
When it rains, it pours.
Just for future reference, I would not recommend taking 25 credit hours in one semester. But then again, who would be crazy enough to do that in the first place...

One Exam Down, One to Go (Plus several projects)!!

Well, I completed my first exam of my last week of school. It is hard to say how it went. I think that I did okay, but then again I may be off track...we'll find out once the grades are posted. Now I am on to studying for my Physics exam and completing my four part project for my intercultural class and my photo project. Not to mention I have my online classes to finish. I am crossing my fingers to pull off all A's again, but I will just be happy as long as I keep my Summa Cum Laude honors!!!

Less than a week until graduation!!!!!!! YEAH!!

Work in Progress

Today I spent 7 hours straight working in the photo lab. Ben was a trooper by hanging out that entire time studying in the classroom while I was in the lab working away. I was trying to get through as many of my pictures from the visit from the California family as I could. I am not really sure exactly how many individual frames I printed, but I do know that my total amount of prints I have drying on the racks as we speak is 26. I will go back tomorrow afternoon to retrieve and flatten them.
So far the pictures look awesome, and I am quite excited to show them to Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry and everyone else. The few that I had done from the past week were highly approved of by the grandparents last night.

So stay tuned because soon I will have them ready to go!!!

One week and counting!!

One week from tomorrow I will be walking across the stage at graduation shaking my fist at the school dignitaries (just kidding). In all seriousness I am looking forward to the end of finals, the end of homework, and the end of organized group work.
This past week I had a group project where I got stuck with the organization of the materials and a big chunk of the work. Well of course one person failed to email me any of their information thus making our group presentation notebook look very unprofessional. But at least that is over with. The majority of our presentation went fine and hopefully I will get an "A."
For the rest of my undergraduate college career I have exams. First thing Monday morning I have my Humanities in the Western Tradition exam which is sure to be a royal pain as it is comprehensive over the entire semester. Now that may not seem too bad, but the entire course is based on just about everything. The history of humankind. We blazed through early Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Plato, Aristotle, the Renaissance, Hellenic period, Greek culture, and as if that isn't enough already there is over at least 20 more topics we covered.
I have my Physics exam on Friday along with my presentation of my final photo project. On Thursday I have my 4-part intercultural communications project. So all in all I have a busy busy week, but everything will be topped off by graduation!!!!

Koda Update

As many of you know, Koda has been a little under the weather. With his seizures getting worse and his post-ictal stage also getting worse, the Vet decided to retest his phenobarbitol levels. Well, this vet is not the one I normally go to. He seemed nice enough but was really wishy-washy about the medications and whether or not to put him on a new medication. So finally after Koda had three seizures within a half an hour then less than a week later having three more seizures within an hour and a half, I put my foot down. I flat out told the Vet I wanted to try this new medication called Potassium Bromide. So the vet says he will figure out a level and get back to me. In the meantime, Koda has another seizure and the vet finally calls a few days later to give me the dosage levels.
Dad goes and picks up the new medication. The vet prescribes 3cc twice a day. We inquired as to whether or not he would be putting Koda on a loading dose and he said no that with Koda being on Phenobarbitol already, there was no need for a loading dose. So over the past week and a half, Koda has been getting 3cc twice a day as ordered plus his regular 1.5 grains of phenobarbitol twice a day.
As the week progressed Koda started acting "drunk" and he developed allergy symptoms. I had called the vet once to report his lethargic state and his "drunken stumbling." By now my old vet is back and I am able to speak with her. She says that having these symptoms is normal.
Well, Koda continues to get worse to the point where he doesn't even get up without someone dragging him up. He would act like a wet noodle, a very heavy wet noodle, when I would try and get him to stand.
So we called the vet back. She says to bring him in (of course because they get more money that way) and they would look him over. Well low and behold, we find a reason for his drunken, lethargic state. Remember that 3cc twice a day dosage? That is actually a loading dose that dogs are only supposed to get for the first two or three days of being on the medication. A dog his size is only supposed to have 1cc twice a day. End result, the vet almost killed my dog. In the online references mom read, an overdose of Potassium Bromide can be fatal.
Funny thing is, we still had to pay for the vet visit.
I'll keep you posted on the "drunken dog's" progress.

Photos still to come

I worked all morning in the photo lab today. Though that may sound like a lot, it really takes a long time to print photographs so I only got about 6 done. But despite the long process the photographs are turning out wonderfully. I am so excited for everyone to see them. I have circled the photos I would like to print on the contact sheets wihich adds up to quite a lot. But I suppose it is better to have many pictures to choose from than not enough. I hope to post more digital pictures soon as well.

Today I picked up my graduation tickets.....and my medal. I get to wear a medal to graduation for graduating with Summa Cum Laude Honors!!!!! I was very excited. So excited in fact, that the lady that was distributing the tickets laughed at me (it was quite humorous how excited I was).

Only one week from Sunday and I will be a college graduate!!!

The Photoshoot

I was so happy when the my family asked me to "officially" take pictures of Caleb and Sebastian today. So here are a few of the many that I took. It was really hard to chose which ones to post right now, but be sure to keep checking back because I will be posting more as I edit them. Overall I took well over 200 pictures today alone with both my digital and film camera. I filled up the 175 spaces on my compactflash card and went through I believe 2 and a half rolls of film. On Friday I took even more pictures. So I probably will end up with about 300 pictures if not more of the boys...at least you can say I was thorough. :)

So here are some of the pictures, hope you enjoy!!!