It's Valentine's Day!!

So, here's the story:

My fiancé is the best. Really. This morning, I got a message from him to "come downstairs", presumably so I could let him in my apartment building. I walked downstairs to find him with breakfast and flowers and another bag...all for me.

My roses. :)
This picture doesn't do them justice!

Random facts

I felt like sharing some random facts today. Enjoy!

• The risk for heart attack is the highest on Mondays.
• It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 muscles to frown.
• A square inch of human skin contains about 20 feet of blood vessels.
• Humans shed about 1.5 pounds of skin per year. By the age of 70, the average human has shed 105 pounds of skin.
• If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
• The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Chili!

I got creative today and made chili for the first time. I didn't have a recipe (I couldn't find one I liked) so I made my own. I thought I'd share it with you so that perhaps you can enjoy it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 2 cans of navy beans
• 2 cans of kidney beans (I used one light and one dark)
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• Oregano -- probably about 2 teaspoons
• Basil -- probably about 2 teaspoons
• Garlic powder (I didn't have any garlic on hand) -- probably about 2 cloves worth
• Cayenne pepper -- to taste

These things I know to be true

These are things I was reminded of this weekend while at work:

• There is no cure for stupidity.
• Laziness is contagious.
• When the support in a home is underwhelming, the patient generally has something wrong with them.
• When the support in a home is overwhelming, it's generally an over reaction.
• Those who don't need to go to the hospital will have several family members at the home and several functioning vehicles in the driveway.
• People refuse to vomit in the bag or bucket provided to them.
• If you touch me again, you will meet your friends: the police.
• If you refuse to do what I tell you, you will also meet your friends: the police.
• Telling me that you take a "water pill", a "sugar pill" and a "high blood pill" doesn't help me. I need to know names.
• Showing me the pills without the pill bottle is not helpful either.
• You also need to tell me all of the medicines that you take.
• I won't intentionally kill you; however, you might kill yourself if you take off your seat belts.

117. :-)

Thoughts on my classes...

So, prior to coming back to school, I laid out my course schedule for my final semester of undergraduate study and promised to let you know how I thought the semester would go. As I am halfway through the fourth week of the semester, I thought it was time to fulfill that promise.

Child and adolescent psychology -- this class, so far, is really fun! I am learning a lot about development throughout childhood...both psychological and physical. This class is a fair amount of work, but nothing I wouldn't expect for a 4000-level capstone course. We have to write a paper based on a 12-hour volunteer experience. Last week, I completed all 12 hours of my volunteering which was a huge thing to get completed seeing as I expect this semester to get very busy with both school work and finishing all the wedding stuff.

Health and fitness -- oh...my...goodness. This class is ridiculously boring. I feel like the know-it-all in there. The instructor tries to elicit responses from the class...and nobody answers but me. (I do give them a fair chance to respond before I chime in.) Jon suggested that I talk to him and see if he'll give me the final exam and not have to go to class anymore. (Nice thought, but it likely won't work.) To be fair, if I didn't have my medical background, I would not find this class as easy.

Principles of learning -- this is quite the interesting class. I have learned a lot about conditioning and the learning process for different things, both conscious and unconscious. We have our first exam in this class next Tuesday...so hopefully that will turn out well.

State and local government -- I am not particularly enjoying this class. I, and most of my classmates, feel like our instructor gives an unreasonable amount of work for the course. We have sheets to turn in every day at the beginning of class and sometimes are given sheets to do during class (during lecture...no specific time to do it) as well as at least a quiz a week. It's a little crazy, I feel. I have had 3000- and 4000- level classes that require less work. She is also a terrible lecturer. It's not like she's new at it either -- but she is pretty bad and difficult to listen to.

US and Canadian geography -- this has been an informative class. My instructor is has a plethora of degrees and a wealth of knowledge to share with us on a variety of subjects. I am really learning a lot and he genuinely wants us to learn about the things he is trying to teach us.

One thing I have learned over the last few weeks is that if I have any children, I will be either a terrible mother or a really good one. I will be so overprotective (as in, "oh my goodness...they're not ______ properly") or just apathetic (as in, "meh, they'll outgrow it") with their developmental and physical changes. If this happens (the "having kids" part), we shall see if I'm overprotective, apathetic...or somewhere in the middle.