Ship Day

Nathan made it through ship day!  Our cold remedies worked!  Of course I forgot to bring my camera so that I could have real pictures of him, but at least I've got a horrible camera phone to capture the moment! (sad face)

He very seriously swore in with everyone else

was welcomed into the 1% of American's that can serve their country by this army guy.

He thanked them for their service and for being good enough people in the first place to even be considered for the military.

Then we took ugly photos of ourselves. 

And I made him do one by himself

After saying goodbye I walked out the door with my visitor badge still on so I had to awkwardly go back inside and hand it over so I could get my drivers license back.  I actually saw someone else do that  right before me and thought to myself, "Oh, how embarrassing,"  That made it a little bit more embarrassing because I knew better and I still forgot. 

He called me at just about every opportunity he could before he actually got on base so with every lay-over and bus ride that happened last night I don't really feel like he's gone yet.  I will probably start to notice more when I my sink doesn't magically clean the dishes when I'm gone anymore, I actually have to do laundry again and their isn't someone to tell me I'm silly when I sing and dance "I'm sexy and I know it," for every hour of the day. 

AND!  I got a call this afternoon with him telling me his address, not to send packages and that he loves me, the end.  I wasn't expecting this phone call till much later so this is very exciting!  So, for all you family and friends, here's his address:

AB Sinex Nathan T

320 TRS-FLT 300 Dorm B2

1320 Truemper Street Unit 364024

Lackland AFB, TX 78236-6430

Wasabi and Other Cold Remedies

When the date for Nathan to leave for boot camp got closer and closer, he got sicker and sicker.  We tried the natural remedies, the steroid-like ones and the very strange in the hopes that he would get better. If he couldn't get better he would have to have someone else take his place on ship day and start the process to get into the Air Force again.  That would take another 4 to 6 months to get into boot-camp again!  This cast of characters is only some of the remedies we tried. 

We had given up on just hot showers, soup and Nyquil to make this cold relinquish and decided to pull out the big guns with a Neti Pot.  Neither of us had used one before so it was kinda fun/gross to try it out.

See what I mean about gross?  You have to breathe through your mouth while running this through your nostrils so not only does it look funny, but it sounds funny too.

We think that it was very effective, but because we were trying so many different things, we don't really know if it worked well or not.  I love his face in this one... hehe, he's loving it.

So after clearing his nostrils with the Neti Pot, he still had some congestion that was making him sound funny... so he grabbed some Wasabi that we had left over from a sushi night.  He figured something spicy would just fry all the snot outta his head.

It didn't really help all that much.

One nostril cleared.... and the rest was just really funny photos!  teehee, I like it when he eats wasabi

He was a little clearer after that... we ran out of tissues so Nathan started toting around a roll of toilet paper.

Being sick sure isn't fun, but when your Nathan it is kinda funny.

P.S. Yes he is now gone to boot camp and I could be posting these very flattering photos to only have him return from boot-camp to find that his wife had a hay day with her blog posts, but I got permission to post them before he left.  And after he said yes, I told him that I love him and he's the best.

Quarter Horse

This week's lab was the horses.  They are such beautiful creatures.  I have never ridden one, but I have stuck my hand up their butts for class.  

I have this list of things to do before I die, and one of them is to ride a horse.  My wonderful husband has tried many a time to make it happen, but it never pulls through.  I think that fate doesn't want me to ride a horse.  When I was little I had the opportunity to ride some horses with a group of friends from church and my mom just plum forgot to take me.  When we realized that I had missed this (apparently once in a lifetime) opportunity, she felt so bad for me that she gave me a few quarters to ride the horse in front of a store we often went to.  She never let me or my brother ride it before so it should have been a great treat.  

source here

I was the saddest child riding a plastic horse.  But I guess I forgave her because the only reason that I know that story is because she told it to me when I was older... she still felt bad about it.  She may have set me up for a lifetime with an unfulfilled goal, but I think that I can surpass this great obstacle!  I'm in the College of Agriculture after all! 

So back to the lab.  Someone else got to do the teaching on this one (she's the expert) and I got to take attendance and show the students where the bathroom was.  The students learned about the different markings on a horse.  The white spot on this one is called a star.

And because the horses here are softies, everyone got to say hello. 

Then our horse expert showed the different gates (like the beats when their feat hit the ground as they walk or run).

 This horse has colorful wraps around his legs to help show the different gates as he circles our expert.

One day I am going to ride a horse.  Might be after I ride an elephant, camel and ostrich, but I will ride one someday (and not another plastic one).

Tour of the OSU Dairy

I am a TA (teacher's assistant) for OSU's intro to animal science class.  My job is to teach the labs that correspond to the area of agriculture that they are learning about that week.  Lots of students from different backgrounds take this class to fulfill their science requirement so we have people that grew up on farms and then people like me that have only read about them in books (until coming to OSU).  I love teaching these labs!  I get to show the students all the different animal facilities we have on campus and teach them about some of the basics of agriculture.  It's like I'm a tour guide... and I LOVE tours.  I also love telling people how cows have four stomachs and watching their faces squish up in contemplation.  I love telling them about animal welfare and clearing up questions they have about the different industries.  Basically, I have fallen in love with the agricultural world and want everyone else to know about my new world view.

This week we got to go to the OSU Dairy.   I just finished taking a course all about dairies so I was supper excited about teaching this particular lab.

Cows love to suck on things and this Holstein calve is loving sucking on my finger... there was a LOT of slobber left on my hand when she was done... it grossed out my students. 

This is a sweet little Jersey calve.  

The cows stay in these little huts for the first 2 weeks of their life while they build up their immune systems and then they get to move up with the other cows after those two weeks. 

This face makes me want to have a Dairy of my own.

I wana COW!  I'm sure my landlord would love a cow living in his basement apartment. 

Did you know that most dairies have Holstein and Jersey cattle because the Holsteins produce a high volume of milk and the Jerseys produce milk with high fat and protein content?  Together, they make the best milk.

If I had been on the ball I would have taken pictures of the milking parlor and the older girls who actually get milked, but I was so distracted by the babies I forgot.

Blue Dancers

I'm inspired by Edgar Degas, Blue Dancers.  I love this piece and couldn't help, but try my hand at it today while I was listening to my Kindle read to me from Walden's Nature for one of my classes.  Sometimes it's nice to take a break from all the science and doodle.

Paper Flower

I love to craft.  I love to craft and I love to blog stalk.  These two things lead to me seeing tons of fun things I want to try and having a folder on my desktop that is filled with craft and art inspiration... well, not as much as there used to be because my computer crashed a while back and I didn't think to back up those things... but that's another story. I saw this on one of the many blogs I read and right away decided I had to make it...  this is partly because it was so cute, but also cuz I had a really bad book that I didn't know what to do with.  Honestly, it was bad.  So bad I'm going to provide you with that link to the amazon review.  Just read the first one, it be funny.  Here's how I did it.

You will need:
A book that can have the pages torn out
a piece of cardboard (I used a cereal box)
coffee or tea
and an exacto knife
craft glue

First, make up the tea or coffee (to age the pages) and let it cool ( I used a tea I wont drink cuz it tastes nasty)
Then, trace down the middle of the book with the exacto knife to remove the pages

Get a good stack of em

Then dip the pages into the tea

Then place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350F

I also sprinkled a little hot cocoa on some of them to distress them a little more....
Pull the pages out of the oven once they are completely dry

See how the pages look like they are from a really good, well used book, instead of the one my husband got for free, walking into the college library one day, that he read the first few pages of and then left to rot on our bookshelf.  On top of that I felt like I couldn't give it to Goodwill, because they have a whole book shelf with this book on it in Corvallis.  It was not a hit with the college students, we love free stuff, but some free stuff is just not lovable.

Anyway.  Roll the paper and glue to that piece of cardboard you were inspired to cut a hole in because I forgot to tell you to do that.
NOTE: You will want to make the hole bigger then your fist, mine wasn't very big and that caused a little bit if a problem when putting the pieces together.
ANOTHER NOTE: Layer the rolled tubes like they are dancers that have to have a window to look through.  I dunno how else to say that.  It will help it to look fuller and lay better if you can understand what I meant by that.

Then allow it to dry and, tada! you're done!  Then you can hang it on your wall!

Social Dancing

I LOVE to dance!  It is how I escape the world for a little while, because when I'm dancing, my biggest care is knowing the steps or being able to follow my lead and that is something easily fixed with a little hard work.  Your probably asking yourself why am I telling you my philosophy on dance?  I'll tell you why, because last night I finally started social dancing again!  Friends have been asking me lately why I don't go anymore and I couldn't think of a single reason why.  I guess I got lazy?  So I decided to ditch the homework last night and go social dance for the first time in forever.  I forgot how much fun it is to dance without and instructor or choreographer and just make it up as you go.  Plus!  I got to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time!

But I will always love performing in front of a crowd.  I like to think that it is in my blood to want to entertain, after all, my mother was my favorite actress. 

Piggies

I just got back from the OSU swine center and I totally stink of pig (shouldn't have worn my wool scarf... that thing soaks up smells!).  But stinking is totally worth playing with the baby pigs!

The look on my students faces, when I told them that there were babies and they they could hold them was like telling a bunch of kids that santa had come early and brought them everything they could have asked for.  Their faces lit up!

Of course I couldn't let the students have all the fun.  I had to hold some babies too.

One of my students thought this pig was so cute... until she peed on him... and kept peeing... hardyharhar, that was funny.

I love da pigs! 

Love,

B