Horn of Gondor

 Okay, so my blog has nothing to do with the horn of Gondor. I was going to type in a title, and this popped up. I'm assuming Gary used it for his photo editing he's been into lately. :)

Just a few blogging updates and such. The crazy week was over, and the following week (last week), I had the same amount of hours posted, which was fine. I called in sick one of the days, although last week seemed to be a sick week. Gary even came home early Thursday and Gary doesn't come home sick. Not sure what hit us, but I'm slowly becoming human again. Of course I had no fever, because I would be on my death bed if I had a fever (low body temperature thing. My average is around 96-97). And although sick, I was getting only a few hours of sleep each night which made me even worse. Sick and insomnia-not a good match. Luckily last night I was able to sleep about 6 hours.

School as usual is going well. I fell about a month behind back in October, but caught up this month. This was because after months of disease processes and other human body functions, this last course was on medicolegal ethics. It was 2 chapters. I read through them in a day and perfected the test. There, now I'm all caught up. I will be done with this program in April and I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully from there I can take the exams to become certified. When that happens, I'm on to higher education. A few other things I'm looking to get certified in on the side (it would better help me get a job in health care) is phlebotomy and my BLS (Basic Life Support) card. BLS comes with other certifications like CPR, first aid, etc. Through the AHA (American Heart Association), you take the BLS and CPR courses online (takes like an hour or two), then go to the nearest location to do a quick hands on training. From there, you're certified. It can take just a few hours and the cost is around $40. My next day off is tomorrow, so it's something to think about. As for phlebotomy, programs can be expensive, but our local community college offers classes for way cheaper. I think it's normally around a 6-8 week program. Although my goal isn't to become a phlebotomist, it can be very helpful to be certified if I want to get my foot in the door.

Anyway, new topic. A new grocery center opened up near us (we've been getting a lot of these lately) called Valley Produce Market. Gary decided to try it out one night while I was at work. I guess it's a mix of Middle Eastern foods and Mexican foods. He said there is a big variety of different fruits, meats, etc. So he brought home the most delicious mangoes, oranges and grapes. I'm about to go check it out myself in a few and get more foods. I didn't think I'd like mangoes so much. YUM!! I guess I assumed they'd be more like watermelon and other melons (yuck). But nope, they are fantastic.

 Anyway, time to go grocery shopping! Then I get to enjoy a day off tomorrow. Yay!

 BTW, this weather is amazing. I LOVE it. It doesn't seem like it was actually snowing a couple of weeks ago. It's been in the mid to upper 70's. I heard from a source, however, it's considered the "January Thaw", which will last a week or two, then drop back down cold again. I am enjoying it while it lasts, though (and so is Dexter!). Speaking of the cat, we caught him limping the other day. He's been limping for a few days and we noticed it to be his front right leg. He'll jump up on things, play and is super hyper still, so we're just keeping an eye on it for now. Nothing's broken, that's for sure. Dexter likes to stick his paws under the door when we're in the bathroom or whatever (when there's a closed door), and I think when I opened it I may have hurt him, maybe twisted or sprained it.

Okay, that's all. Time to head out! I may even take a stroll later to enjoy this beautiful weather. Bye!