PT= Physical Terrorists

Welp, I'm still unable to go into extension or flexion fully. Physical Therapy helps temporarily, like the day that I go---but the next morning its back to how it was. Last week I was actually able to touch the tip of my finger to my shoulder! But----now I can't do it anymore. Back to square one.
See?

Naturally I should be able to touch my shoulder easily.

I absolutely hate going to PT because it is one of the most painful things ever! The nicest, little old lady in the world is capable of putting me through some intense pain. She has even made me cry a couple of times! She has me hold a weight with my bad arm, holds my shoulder, and pushes in my elbow and holds it there--OWWWW. The worst is flexion. She has me lie down for this. I flex my arm as much as I can, and then she uses all of her strength to force my arm as far is it can, while I squirm and pretty much try to get her off of my arm. lol. Oh man, it hurts SO BAD! I feel like the muscles in my arm are all going to rip apart when she does that. After I leave the physical terrorists, my arm hurts like hell for the next hour, but after that I feels a little better for the rest of the day. So I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, right? lol.

I found this picture taken a while ago. It pretty much expresses how I feel about going to visit the physical terrorists today.

This is straight up the cutest dog I have ever seen. He just melts my heart!


Especially when compared to this guy:
Ugh. I have such an ugly "baby." I think his eyes are looking slightly crooked in this picture too.

Samantha and Ethel

In case you're interested...
Samantha and Ethel are two African female lions that I have been able to watch at the Honolulu Zoo.

They were 24 years old and were so sickly looking the last few weeks! One had lost the function of its hind legs, and both of them had forms of arthritis. They were so sick, that they were put down yesterday morning, and brought up to BYUH within a few hours. Let me tell you, skeletalizing a lion is SO MUCH WORK, especially two lions---and especially if you're as scrawny and little as me with a bad arm! It is so hard to lift any part of a lion, even its paws! We had to separate the lion into portions: the torso, and then the head and the legs. The torsos had to be done in the same day, since they wouldn't fit into the freezer. And I plan on doing the head and legs of one lion tomorrow. The head is the worse part--and I won't go into details why. Its just a lot of work, and a lot a lot a lot a lot of GROSSNESS.

A lot of work for minimum wage pay, dontcha think?

SO COLD!

Ok, I know this may sound weird since we live in Hawaii, but it has been freezing over here! No joke.

This picture is quite the exaggeration, but the weather has been weird lately.It has been rainy, cloudy, and windy the majority of the last few months. I have been wearing the same stuff that I wore back home for the holidays: sweaters, jackets, pants... whats going on? Last night I was wearing a t shirt and jeans, and came out of the testing center to find myself in a really windy and cold storm! It was weird to be shivering as I walked across campus to the car--in Hawaii???

Lets hope this weather shapes up soon!

Today I love...

I want I want!
There is something about bright colored shoes that I just love.

Lately

Hell week/s have ended. For now anyway. I have survived and conquered! And I bet you can imagine what Friday meant to me...I swear every day I just keep telling myself:

" __ days until friday, __ days until friday.."  To push me through the day. 

So we made sure to have a good weekend. We're a bit low on funds at the moment, so we decided to eat dinner at costco---yummmm...who can beat a delicious meal for 2 for under $5? And then we went to the dollar theatre off of Nimitz hwy. We bought tickets for Frost/Nixon, but we had about an hour and a half to the movie. So we decided to walk down to the Aloha tower marketplace, which neither of us has ever been too. It was a lot of fun! They had some cute shops, a marine museum, and a pier to walk down with a pretty reef to look at right along side of it. There were actually a lot of fish swimming around, which surprised me, since it was in such a industrial/commercial area. So we enjoyed the evening there, and then saw our movie, which turned out to be great! I loved it. I thought the movie was filmed so well--you see both sides of the story. It was surprisingly accurate to the real interviews. If you haven't seen it, you should!

Saturday, I was at the zoo, which I love doing by the way. The only part that sucks is that I have to leave Hauula at 6:00, and wake up at 5:30. eek. And I have to park about a mile from the zoo since everything is metered parking. But working there is so awesome. I start the day by cleaning cages of animals in quarantine, and feeding them. Then I measure out the meds for the sick animals for the week, and calculate concentrations of each. (Biochemistry actually came in handy.....what?!) After that, we usually go on rounds with the head vet. Thats the best part, because we get to visit all of the animals in the zoo. Today I fed the meerkats, checked up on 2 lions, 3 sunbears, a white rhino, a komodo dragon, and a bunch of birds. After that, sometimes we are able to watch necropsies, and the head vet quizzes us to find out the cause of death, which I love doing. Anyway, being at the zoo is awesome! The vet might have to put down a lion this week, which means I will have the gross pleasure of skeletalizing it this week. Can I put "Skeletalizing a lion" on my resume? That sounds pretty cool.

Oh an Valentines day was last weekend, huh? I worked at the zoo for the first half of the day. After that, we just had a nice day together and I enjoyed an awesome dinner at the Cheesecake factory. We took some cheesecake to go and watched a movie and ate it at home. It was a nice day. Anyway, thats whats going on for now. I admit, my blogging has been slacking, and they haven't been as interesting. This should change soon. Hopefully this week won't be so busy. Have a great Sunday tomorrow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONNIE!!!

Today is Seth's grandmother's birthday.  Barbara Parma is the most wonderful grandmother, and mother to all in Seth's family, and has been so welcoming and wonderful to me since I have been introduced into the Kressin family! I absolutely love visiting her and Grandpa Parma. Have a great birthday Nonnie--we love you and wish you the best! Have fun in Palm Springs!!

Sorry...

Oh man I have been a complete blogger failure this week. I've learned that school has taken over MY LIFE and I haven't even touched the computer much this week. A typical day starts with 6-8 am lab work, class until 5 or 6 pm, studying, tests until 9 or 10 pm, and then more lab work. I plan to just veg out tomorrow and hang out with Seth, since I haven't seen him AT ALL this week! (He has been so nice in making dinner for me when I get home from my long days..which is the best thing to come home to after a long day). Next week is even worse, so check back next weekend, when I will have time to do some blogging!

And have a great 3 day weekend and Valentines day! I will be sure to tell you what we did for the weekend. What are you doing for the holiday?

Trials

I haven't been able to get the lesson that we had in Relief Society today out of my head.

It was on trials, and how they are there to help us learn and grow from them. I've heard this lesson a million times, but today it seemed significant for some reason. I've been really emotionally brought down from all of the bad things that happen in this world lately. It has really affected me and makes me just feel awful inside to learn about the world that we live in. Especially since I live in a fairly mormon community, and go to BYUH, I think sometimes and am [gratefully] protected from facing the reality that this world is truly full of all sorts of awful things. I guess just lately I have been affected by the reality of this world at this time, and it has been hard for me to deal with.

Though this lesson was mainly on how you personally grow from trials, my thoughts were on other people. I absolutely HATE how bad things happen to good people. I can't stand it, and it really is hard to watch people who you love, or even people that you don't know, go through hard times, and I just wish that there was something I could do to take away the pain and make things better. I always think my trials are hard, and how stressed I am all of the time, and blah blah blah. And then I can just turn to the news and find out how insignificant my trials are. I really have a smooth life compared to others in this world. My life is just fine, how selfish am I to focus my prayers on my trials? Basically what I realized from the lesson today, is that I need to do my best to help others through their hard times.

Sometimes you don't know people are going through hard times. Thats why it is so important to treat them as if they are, because a kind act, or even a smile and hug, can be what they really need at the moment. Especially at this time in the world, I feel like people need to look out for each other, and could use support from others, to help them get through these hard times.

With all of the terrorism, hate, betrayal, and disrespect in our world, people need each other to get through these times
I hate hearing how bad things happen to good people, who were just living their lives as well as they could. They don't deserve it. And I personally hope I can do SOMETHING---ANYTHING, to help out anyone in need. This lesson really helped me realize this today.

If any of you are going through tough times in your lives, Heavenly Father can help you through it. I know you've probably heard that before, but its true. I think his healing and comforting powers are what we need to get through this lifetime. There is nothing like it. I heard this quote that talked about how being a member of the Church doesn't mean that bad things won't happen to you, but it helps you get through them. I think thats why prayer is so amazing. The ability to open your heart to Heavenly Father and tell him how hard things are, and how you need his strength, will allow him to give you the comfort and strength you need to get through hard times. My favorite scripture actually talks about how Christ will bring you peace, and how it is not worldly peace, but an eternal peace. Isn't that so true?

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today. Thanks to the Relief Society teacher for teaching that today.

Mouse attack

ahahahahaha!

I am laughing just thinking about this.

Kelly, Seth's cousin moved out here to Hawaii, and we had just gotten back from looking at cars for him downtown. I was bringing in some stuff, so I walked into our house last behind Seth and Kelly. As I was walking in, I saw this THING scurry out from under the shelf! I thought it was a huge cockroach, and just pointed at it and said some random noise [oohhhmyygggogogppsppopssssh!], and realized it was a MOUSE! Kelly was right in front of me..

ahahahahah (this is too funny)...

...he saw the mouse, right as it started to charge right at him. He screamed the highest, weirdest scream I have ever heard as the mouse ran over his foot...

ahahahahahahahhhhaaaa

...and jumped higher than any human being has ever jumped before, and started tip-toeing really high across the room.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

It was the funniest thing I have ever seen, and I can't stop laughing. 

**and for those of you who know Kelly, don't worry, he knows I'm posting this**