Independent

My husband left Sunday for a week long trip to Georgia. He has been gone overnight, but never a week. I found myself teary eyed when he left. My family and friends all say how much of a "strong" woman I am. I did not know how dependant on my husband I was until he left. Mom was right you don't miss your water until your well runs dry. I am ok with managing the house and getting the boys ready for school. The problem I have is the fact that my security is gone. I could fall asleep with my husband home in a heartbeat. I am so restless now. I hear every crack and squeak. I thought Bruno would be help. I was wrong. I guess he views me the same way I view my husband.

I needed a short term fix to my problem. I called my niece, who goes to college locally and still lives at home. I asked her to come spend a week with us. To my surprise she said yes. I still do not have the security I would if my husband were here, but I feel better with another adult-like person in the house.

I began my blog for English 2 talking about my dog Bruno. I guess it only right to end the tem with Bruno. My mother-n-law bought Bruno a toy. This toy reminds you of the little squirrel on Sponge Bob Square pants, Sandy. This toy is the deflated version. It has a little squeaker in the head and one in the tail. I just knew he would hate it. He already has a favorite toy. It’s a plastic squeaker bone. I was wrong. He loves this darn squirrel. He sleeps with it, plays with it and even takes it to his dog bowl to eat.
The way I found out this is his new “favorite” toy, was when he went ballistic in his cage. My husband and I thought he had to go potty. Once again wrong. When I opened the door to the cage, Bruno sprinted for the toy. He grabbed it, and this next part had me astounded. Bruno ran back in the cage. Normally it is a big deal putting Bruno in the cage. Not this time, Bruno went back in the cage by himself. The squirrel and Bruno slept all night long. Bruno has really devoted a lot of time to this toy. It has been about two weeks now and the two are still inseparable. I am very happy Bruno has found something to make him as happy as he makes me.

Football

I am writing about football, because I simply do not understand it. My son turned six on 8/30/10. Levi loves football. I live in a house full of males, even the dog watches football! I have tried and tried to get interested and cannot seem to keep focused. I have no clue what is going on. My husband travels a lot for his job, so I was tasked with the responsibility of planning a football party. Why me? My kids tell me all the time that it is simple…they don’t understand. Planning the party was not so bad. I mean all I had to do was buy stuff with football logos right. The problem I am having with this whole football thing is the fact that now my 6 year old wants to play football. That disturbs me. I watch them play in my back yard, and there is no way I can allow him to play against other kids. I am not a big fan of contact sports. Their dad says it is because I am a softy, and that is where my inspiration to be a nurse comes from. That may be true, however I still do understand foot ball. I feel fear comes from not knowing. The way I plan to educate myself is to learn the game. I must sit through excruciating hours of FOOTBALL!

Watching the game and learning it will help me accept the fact that there are rules in place that protect my children, especially my baby. I may be overreacting, but I am me. And since I cannot change me, I will embrace my fear and move forward they best way I know how… by educating myself. 

The Loss of a Loved One

Losing a person you care about can be a very tragic ordeal. I have lost both my parents. You never get over it, just through it. I have learned that life is not always fair. August 31, 2010 marks the 31st year of marriage for my parents. I talk about them often in the present because I feel they are still with me in spirit. I am still quite young and did not expect my parents to pass away so soon. I have also learned to expect the unexpected. My siblings call me the strong one. Strength is measured in many different ways. I can perform well under stress, especially if that stress is dealing with a loved one. I asked my mom for some of her strength before she passed away. I think she gave me some (smile). I mentioned in a previous post that my dog Bruno comforts me. He gives me strength. When dealing with death it is easy to fall into a place where you feel no one understands. It may seem that sometimes those closest to you do not care. I have found that reading and allowing myself time to cry helps me deal with the stress of loss.
I have two children who are young, however they are old enough to know loss. The loss they experience may not be at the magnitude of an adult, but who am I to measure. It hurts the worse when they ask about them. I find it hard sometimes to answer them because I am still trying to find answers myself. I feel writing in this blog also helps. I have learned to take life one day at a time and to appreciate the things I cannot replace.

Heat Stroke

This weekend I had a heat stroke. It was a very scary experience. I was at the beach with my family. We live in Florida. It was extremely hot, but worse than that it was humid. I did not know that heat could cause all the problems I had. I was drinking water, however I was on a decongestant. When on a decongestant, dehydration can occur more quickly. I went from feeling fine to being passed out. I have two boys ages 5 and 8. They were present,and very upset obviously. Thank goodness my husband was there, and the fact that he works in the heat helped him to help me. He immediately grab hand fulls of ice and stuffed them down my shirt. He continued to talk to me the entire time. I could hear his voice, but it was fading in and out. When I woke up I was more alert, but very dizzy. The ambulance arrived about 5 minutes after this incident happened. The fact that I had help, and loved ones there with me saved my life. I was rushed to the emergency room. While in the ambulance the literally forced the IV fluid in me. I was released from the hospital the same day. I feel much better now. When I was first released I was very weak, and still had dizzy spells. I still have sensitivity to the sun, but for the most part I am back to normal. The fact that a person can be lively and alert in one momemt, and passed out the next moment made me feel I had to share my story.

How School Has Influenced My Life?

I was very reluctant to come back to school. It has been over 10 years since I called myself a student. I have two small children and I really want them to succeed in life. I was always raised to lead by example. I started college right out of high school. I did not take it serious at all. I have always been a good student. I think the fact that I was away from home and did not have my parents watching over me gave me the frame of mind “I can do what I want”. I later moved back home after the first semester. I was failing horribly. If parting was a class I would have aced it…lol. I had a really good roommate, however she was not help. My roommate was worse than I was. I eventually dropped out of college. That was one of the biggest regrets of my life. I got married, had children, and a dog. I was not content.

I decided to go back to college after talking to a co-worker. She had similar experiences in her life and wanted more out of life. We agreed to go back to school. I did a lot of research. I knew with the jobs that my husband and I have, there is no way I could go to a traditional school. I did not know a lot about online schools, that is, until a Kaplan representative came to my place of employment. I was able to ask millions of questions. I came home talked it over with my family, and know I am a successful Kaplan student! The best part about going back to school is I am finishing what I started!

Citing

When you write papers, you might be tempted to plagiarize to try to cover up the fact that almost all of your paper came directly from sources or that you relied heavily on the internet for your research. Your professors will not be fooled by this tactic.Part of your job as a researcher and writer is to organize, and recast your information in your own form. If you find yourself doing such things as using the same source for several paragraphs in a row or failing even to provide your own topic sentences for paragraphs, you are obviously not doing your job as a thinking writer. Do not fall back on the excuse that you might as well just copy it exactly as it appeared because you “like the way it was written.” The context for your writing is different from the context of the original. The reason you use sources in the first place is to simplify and summarize information and weave it into the pattern of your own ideas, and your pattern of ideas will develop as you write and do your research.

The information that you research is there to help support your topic, and write a paper that is factual and from your own view point. The purpose of the paper is defeated if all the ideas belong to someone else.