Maybe, just maybe

Today started out rather early for me, I was up, showered, hair fixed and out the door by 7:10 this morning. Why so early, you ask? Well one of my dad's employees has a son with cancer and he had to go to OKC for some tests today, his mom doesn't drive so my dad asked if I would be able to drive them down there. With my current employment status, I couldn't really say no and I am pretty familiar with the OU Children's Hospital where his appointments were. It is the same hospital my niece Kathryn had surgery and spent about a week at 4 years ago or so. I was impressed with the hospital back when Kathryn was there, today was no different.

As I spent some time on the oncology and blood disorders floor today, I got to see some really cute kids and hear the stories of why they were there. One girl was 4 and she was diagnosed with lukemia 2 months ago. Another girl was 2 years old, yes I said 2 YEARS OLD and weighed 12 lbs. and she has some rare disorder that only 24 other people have been diagnosed with. Her mom found out when she was pregnant with her that she was going to have problems and the doctor suggested she think about terminating her pregnancy, she said that was never an option for her, God gave her that special little girl for a reason. As I listened to her story I couldn't help but to tear up. They sent the girl home when she was 6 days old, with hospice and told her parents to just take her home and love her. The doctors didn't expect her to live long but she is now 2 and her mom is still loving her! Another little boy who was 14 months old had another disorder, that I don't remember all the characteristics of but its something he will get to live with forever and he was just adorable with big brown eyes and gelled hair.

So with all these stories, and my love for kids, I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe I need to be working in a childrens hospital or somehow with children that have possibly life threatening ailments. To see these little kids who are so sick, but yet so happy and strong just makes any little issue in my normal day seem so trivial. Yes at times it would definitely be heart breaking, but I believe you can learn so much from these kids and their families. I haven't yet figured out what I can do that won't require me to go back to school and be able to work with these kids so if you have any ideas I'm definitely open to suggestions, thoughts, and reflections on this post.

200!!!

So I have been bowling on a league for 5 years I guess now. Since I started bowling I have tried to do one thing, bowl a 200 game. I have come close, I have had up to a 191 but I have always fallen short of that 200. Tonight my first game was a 122, with an average of 131 that just wasn't good enough and I didn't bowl a strike until the tenth frame of my first game. Typically that is not a good sign, that means I will probably struggle the rest of the night, but tonight was different. We started the second game and I bowled alright the first couple of frames then I got a double (2 strikes in a row) then the next frame was ah then I got a turkey (3 strikes in a row). By this time, I'm doing the math and making a joke about getting a 200, so it gets to the 10th frame I get 9 pins, I pick up my spare and Gina said Nikki do you know what your score is right now? With one ball left to bowl I'm sitting at a 191, this means I need 9 pins to get a 200, I was getting a little nervous, but didn't let it get to me. I get up throw my last ball and I knock down 9 pins, so the game ended at an even 200! Finally after 5 years I got my 200, I guess I'm raising the bar a little and the goal is to get at least one more by the end of the season!

A scary thing that really happens

Upon occasion I like to watch the National Geographic Channel, its rather informative and sometimes quite interesting. Tonight there was a show on called Locked Up Abroad, it was about a lady who traveled from England to Ecuador to try to help a friend who was in Ecuador get his visa and all his paper work straight to go back to England and try to work things out with his wife. At least it was something to that effect. So it turned out the guy made up this story about wanting to go back to England and took a bag apart and filled the lining with drugs and when the lady went to get on her plane to go back home she got charged with drug trafficking and possession. That's just to sum up the hour long story I just watched about it.

It seems that you hear about these things happening to single women traveling to foreign countries from time to time. Maybe some of them know whats going on, but most of the time these women claim to have no idea what is happening to them when they are taken in by the police. After watching Brokedown Palace and shows like Locked up Abroad or even hearing about it on the news, its something I remember every time I travel to a foreign country. Of course I'm very cautious of not letting my luggage out of my site. But the story of the girl who went from Australia to Bali to go surfing who claimed the luggage handlers had put the drugs in her bag makes it even a scarier thought. Those are people you should be able to trust with your bags, not people you should worry about tampering with them.

So as a single female who travels to foreign countries alone, as I watch these shows I think what if something like that ever happened to me. The way these women are treated in countries where at times they can't even speak the language, it is just a terrifying thought to try to even fathom what they go through and how strong they have to be. I don't know that I could be as strong as they are, I mean I guess if you are put in the situation you just have to deal with it and rely on a strength much bigger than yourself. But spending years and years locked up in a jail in a country that's not your own, that doesn't speak your language, that you aren't familiar with the laws its just scary, I hope and pray no one I know would ever have to endure that.

Are the Lady Bugs coming back???

As I was sitting here watching TV tonight a bug was flying around my light, I thought it was a moth until it landed, turns out it was a lady bug. This takes me back to my freshman year of college, when our dorm became overtaken by lady bugs. These weren't your typical red lady bugs with black spots, they were more of an orange color with no spots and they were EVERYWHERE.

I had a friend that lived upstairs from me and Renana, one day she came running downstairs and into our room yelling Nikki help! help! I said "Sarah whats wrong?" she said "the lady bugs have taken over my room." I thought she was over exaggerating because she had a tendency of doing that at times, so I went upstairs and opened her door, and this time she wasn't lying. These stupid lady bugs were everywhere the light fixture was complete filled with them, they were all over the closet doors flying through the air and on her bed. It was pretty disgusting, from that day forward I have never looked at lady bugs the same way. She was scared to go in her room so I went downstairs and did the only thing I could think to do, I got the vacuum and just started sucking them all up. We continued to see these lady bugs throughout the spring and they really were all over campus, just not as bad as they were in Sarah's room that day.

So with that little flash back I'm now thinking, its Feb. and freezing outside, should there really be lady bugs out this time of year? I find it a little odd, but I would rather find a random lady bug flying around than say a scorpion in crawling across the floor which is another little creature we occasionally get to see out at my house.

Apparently I'm a Sailboat?!?!

Tonight was the Super Bowl, and oh what a great game it was... Ok so I didn't watch it hardly at all there were other things that had me side tracked such as being a sailboat. As with every year, at least as long as I can remember, I have either attended or had a Super Bowl party, well this year was no different. The Kaelber's had a Super Bowl reunion of sorts for our old small group that used to meet at their house on Sunday nights. Well the last time we all got together there were only a couple of children, but my how things changed quickly! Tonight there were 8 children ages 4 and under there, it was a definitely a good time. So with that said I'm sure you wondering what the whole sailboat thing is about. I was sitting in the floor playing with a couple of the babies, when along comes a couple of the other children. The oldest at the party sits on top of me and said Nikki you are a sailboat we are going sailing, she then goes on to say we need to get more friends on the boat. So before long I somehow had 7 children I believe sitting on top of me and apparently I was a sailboat, we went and visited some island and as children disappeared apparently that meant they jumped off the boat to go swimming. Oh how I love the imaginations of little kids, you never know what they are going to say or come up with it's just great!

Smooth Face

When I went to visit Dalene in Korea back in March I was told to "pack lightly". This isn't an easy feat when you are going to a foreign country for two weeks, or for me when I'm going anywhere really. I really haven't been able to figure out how people pack in two suitcases to go live abroad for an entire year but anyway... In my attempt to pack lightly, Dalene said don't worry about bringing shampoo, conditioner, face wash, etc. because I could just use hers. So great that was one thing I didn't have to worry about taking, well when I get there I use her face wash and it was amazing. I mean really I fell in love with this stuff, didn't over dry my skin my face was clean feeling I just loved it. So we walked down the street to It's Skin and I bought a tube to take home with me, well during my stay there I think I went back to the store a time or two to buy some gifts for other people, each time they gave me samples. I love free stuff, well I never really looked at the stuff until today, when I decided I should really use these little samples. So not being able to read the entire label, didn't stop me. So I washed my face with the sample face wash tonight and used some of the sample moisturizer, then I began to wonder are these whitening formulas? Because in Korea, they like to whiten their skin. But the fact is my face is incredible smooth feeling right now so even if it is the whitening stuff I don't really care because my face feels amazing!

2 weeks and going strong

Today marks the beginning of my 3rd week without drinking Dr.Pepper, for those of you who know don't me, that's a pretty big thing for me. But the best thing is there has only been one or two days that I have really craved a Dr.Pepper, so I'm feeling pretty good about this no pop thing. I did this my freshman year of college and made it three months, I'm hoping to surpass that this time. In those three months changing nothing in my diet or exercise, I lost 5 lbs. I hoping to have the same thing happen again this time or even more than 5 lbs. would be just fine with me.
I do have to admit, I still drink tea and the occasional coffee so I still get my Caffeine, but there have been quite a few days I have gone without either of those. Maybe I will begin to like to drink water through all of this.