My Saturdays

First of all, I've been checking the ChipIn page multiple times a waking hour and I'm speechless by how much was donated in one day - almost 50%. ALMOST HALF. IN ONE DAY. Can you believe that? And my vet school friends have been so generous on top of that. I know they don't have money, but the little that they have to spare, they gave to Shy. It sounds very silly, but I can't wait to go to work today and see her, and tell her what you all have done for her. Obviously, I know she can't understand me... but I wish she did. She is such a sweet, loving lady and deserves a great family - Are you out there future family???

KJ and I work every Saturday at the animal hospital (and occasionally during the week if they need a hand and we don't have class (okay, lets be honest - we skip class to help). I thought I would hate working every Saturday - I used to sleep in when KJ would go to work and I'd have the entire morning to myself. But at work, I get to apply what I'm learning in school every Saturday. I get to play "Puppy Doc" for four hours and practice what I'll eventually be doing. KJ and I have been getting more responsibility and opportunities to "practice" vet med - if we are free, we get to handle suture removals, nail trims, x-rays, etc. I think we make a pretty good team. Which is nice, because we'll be working very closely together for the next 30 some years!

After work and lunch today, we'll be headed to the library to begin the studying extravaganza. Did the administration not realize that February 6th is Superbowl Sunday? Did they not realize that I am about to marry the biggest Steelers fan on the planet? I'm sure if they had, our exam schedule would be far different - who doesn't love Superbowl Sunday? Football, food, beer... Puppy Bowl VII. Unfortunately, we have our Small animal surgery exam on Monday, Radiology on Wednesday, and Cardio on Thursday. Kind of a tough week, but it looks like this will be the worst one all semester. It doesn't even compare to the multiple 4+ exam weeks of years past! I guess we also have our take home Nutrition exam to do (which is pretty simple) and we had our take home Swine exam due yesterday. We also have a Large animal surgery quiz due and our requests for 4th year rotations due Monday... I've done everything except take the exams, but there are people in our class freaking out about it all. Its really not THAT bad, but they complain and that is why our class has the reputation that it does. Unfortunately, the ones that bitch and moan vocalize their opinions, while the rest of us just sit quietly... I know that this is part of what Facebook is for, but it gets tiring to see people complain about EVERYTHING :)

Anyway, keep up the donations! And passing along the link (you all are fabulous for doing that too!). And if you or someone you know are looking for a wonderful dog to become part of your family, please let me know. She's ready and waiting for you.

Overwhelmed!

You, blogger friends, are AMAZING! We are 20% of the way to our goal for Shy's surgery and it is all because of you! I still have to give my own donation, and KJ donated this morning - he handed me his debit card and gave me an amount, but the message on the ChipIn page is actually from him (he is a wonderful, wonderful man). I'm so full of love and happiness that I can't sit still, I just want to do good deeds for everyone today. And I will. I'm on my way out the door to the gym to meet up with friends (still have to run those 5 pesky miles today... I have 10 planned for Sunday) and I will see where the day takes me!

Generosity

Here I am, sitting in Radiology lab/class. In between classes just now, I checked the blogs that I love reading daily (Two Pitties in the City, for one) and A posted about Shy again and created a button on their blog that directly links to Shy's ChipIn page for her cataract surgery. Before I knew it, I had 7 donations totalling just about a hundred dollars - from my mom, and 6 people that I have never met. To my mom and those 6 people - Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I know I am sitting in class right now, but I can't stop my eyes from welling up with tears, I'm actually on the verge of sobbing. I can't even fathom the generosity of people - strangers - that I don't know, but share our same love for animals and are willing to share their hard earned dollars with Shy - to help a dog that they have never met, except through pictures and videos.

Shoot, my nose is running now... this could get embarassing as I sit here sniffling...

Thank you A - thank you for all of your help to get us this far - to get Shy in the minds and hearts of the online community. I can't thank you enough for you generosity and your presence in the blogging community. I never realized what an awesome community that bloggers form - we all have our own lives, but it is so amazing to see into the lives of other people and for those same people to give their time and money for such a great lady - sweet sweet Shy shy :)

Link to Pitties in the City and Shy's post.

Shy's ChipIn Page

More later... I AM in class after all :)

The Great Midwest Blizzard of 2011...

... was awesome! We didn't get nearly the same amount of snow as my parents did, up near Chicago (only 12 inches here) - but the ice and thundersnow combination was enough to historically close the University of Illinois - for the fourth time in 30 years. What did we do? I fed the animal at the normal time (6:15), slept again until 9, then woke up and worked on our now take-home nutrition exam (Bless you Dr. P). Rewind to Tuesday at 3 (nutrition class). Dr. P walks in and announces that he has good news... and good news. The first? No class that day - the storm had already started and conditions were getting nasty to drive in (class also goes till 5, so sometimes it is dark when we leave class on Tuesdays/Thursdays). The second - he would be giving his first ever take home exam. Granted, Dr. P's exams are pretty basic and simple to begin with - this class is kind of goofy because we already took nutrition first year... and this class is very similar to that one. I think he recognizes that most of our classes can be incredibly difficult and tries to make his easier on us - and in turn, we adore him. If I get a 100% on the exam, I get an A in the class (apparently equine nutrition didn't go so hot for me) - and 100% is completely doable, I just have three questions that I'm not completely sure about, so those need to be looked up still.
Continuing on with snow day - KJ woke up at 11:30 (boy, he must have been tired!) and we snow-suited up and took the pups on a chilly walk outside. The pups didn't love it, but we had fun and made snow angels in the front yard. Our dogs are big babies - they even had their winter coats on. We shoveled for a little bit (even though most of it had been done by the nice old neighbor's snow blower - our neighbor is great) then watched movies and ordered chinese food and hung out in the living room until late last night. Overall - very good snow day. Bad diet day - but I have a 5 mile run to get me going at some point today. With the weather at 0 degrees, I think I'll stick to the treadmill...

Marathon Madness and Pony Love

I registered for the Illinois Marathon this weekend. If that wasn't enough, I also decided to sign up for the 5k iChallenge because I'm crazy. The iChallenge is new this year - it involves running a 5k the Friday night before the marathon (or half-marathon) and then running your race Saturday morning. You get extra medals/shirts for doing it - plus bragging rights and pride. I'm all over this - I'll just run an easy 5k as a mini warm up for the actual marathon. Is this crazy to do before my very first marathon? Maybe. But its a challenge (like the marathon isn't enough of a challenge???) and it is a new opportunity, so I'd like to do my part to support this because it really is a cool idea. This is my third year participating in the Illinois marathon/half-marathon madness - this is the third year and I've done the half the past two years, so I am very excited for this race. I'd like to say I just want to finish (which I do), but it is very difficult not to set a goal time. I operate completely on goal times and goal distances... it makes long runs sometimes not as much fun just because I am so focused on mileage and time goals... I am trying to be better. I think 4:30 will be my goal time and if I am completely off, then at least I WILL finish. I plan on ordering my PaceTat, because those are just fantastic. If you have never heard of it, here is the link: PaceTat.
I did my 9 mile run on Friday on the treadmill... I watched Sex and the City and Say Yes to the Dress... I get a little bored on the treadmill during longer runs, but once I get into a show, time sort of flies (sort of). I have a 10 mile run planned for this Friday or sometime this weekend - although I hear an ice/snow storm is supposed to hit and they are predicting 12 inches of snow, so I may be repeating my treadmill run instead of running outside.

I've been horseback riding Tuesday mornings this semester as well. I am lucky enough to 1. have a fiance whose family has horses, 2. have a fiance whose family has their own awesome indoor arena, 3. eventually live in the house 1/2 mile down the road from said indoor arena and horses (moving May 2012), and 4. eventually live in the house 1/2 mile down the road that also comes with a 4 stall barn for horses of our own.

It is a rough life sometimes, but I deal with it.

I've always loved horses (from afar since I was so involved with swimming my entire life). My closest encounter with horses was my annual hour long trail ride on my birthday and the occasional trail ride on vacations (my family really likes horses too). We just grew up in the suburbs where horses aren't easily accessible. I grew up with walls plastered with Horse Illustrated breed centerfolds and tons of Breyer horses and Grand Champion horses and My Little Ponies... the list goes on and on. Now, to have horses at my fingertips is almost too good to be true! Plus, their horses are very well trained since many are used for carts and combined driving. They only have Haflingers, which is a really neat breed and a great sized pony/horse (they are considered draft ponies, but their horses range in height from 13 hands up to about 15, so they technically have ponies and horses). Anyway, its all fantastic and I'm excited to get more involved in riding and horses once we graduate!

As for school... its still school. We still have class, I start surgery in a few weeks again, and are a little disinterested with the classes. Swine ends on Friday and we start Ruminant again, so I can't say it will get better (interest wise) for me, but we'll see :)

Shy

Since I rarely blog (I've been trying to be better) and I have all of a handful of readers (thank you readers!), I haven't shared my Shy story. She is a beautiful, wonderfully sweet pit bull that was relinquished to the animal hospital 4 months ago. She's been living at the KJ's mom's animal hospital all this time and she really needs a home - there is no quality of life with spending all of your time in a kennel... here is her tale: Shy's story at Two Pitties in the City. If anyone sees this or knows of a rescue/foster/forever home for her, please let me know :) or pass on her story if you can. She is near Urbana, IL - but I will drive her to where she needs to go. If I didn't have cats or a sometimes temperamental (but perfect for us) pit bull of my own, I would take her in a second. Thanks guys. Hope everyone's 2011 is going great! More to come!