Update

Ohmygosh! I've been so busy! I haven't had much time to update my blog or do Music Mondays or anything! Whew!

First of all, as you can see by my last post, I graduated! Yay! I came down to my parent's house in Madison since I was graduating in Jackson and I've been staying here for the past week because my baby sister graduates tomorrow! Yay! She's graduating from high school. My mom's side of the family has been staying at our house, too. Three extra people (my grandmother, great-grandmother, and uncle) doesn't seem like a lot of extra but when you don't have any extra beds in the house...it's definitely plenty! LOL.

I took the Hurst Review Mon-Thurs of this week. It's basically a refresher course to help me get the ball rollin' to study for my boards. Thing is, I haven't even applied to take boards yet! Whoops! I wanted to wait until after I was out of school and then I forgot! Oh, well, I do have plenty of time. See, I decided to stay in Oxford for the summer. My lease doesn't run out until the end of July anyway, and I don't have a job down here in Jackson yet, so it makes no sense to move down here just yet.

I WILL be moving the end of July though.

I haven't quite wrapped my mind around moving back in with my parents quite yet. I am happy that I moving down here----it seems like I'm making the next step in my life, ya know? But I have been on my own and doing things my own way for 3 years now...it might be difficult in going back. Plus, my sister isn't moving out yet, so we'll be sharing a bathroom, and THIS has the potential to get ugly. I am NOT looking forward to packing up all of my crap again. I always hate doing that. And moving all of my clothes into a smaller closet. Ugh. But, on the bright side...my parents will be paying for food, rent, etc. This means that all of the money I'll be making (at the job in some hospital I WILL find) can go toward paying off my student loans (which are a-plentiful). Whoo-hoo.

So. I have been quite busy lately going to Hurst, dealing with the family being in, etc. I have missed you guys, though. Thankfully, I will be headed back to Oxford the day after Memorial Day. Looking forward to some peace and quiet and sleeping late. :)

Finished

The day has finally come.... I graduated Nursing School! Yay! When I started this journey 4 years ago, I didn't think it would ever come. And yet, here I am. I couldn't have made it here without Jesus and my Daddy backing me up. Honestly, those are the two that pushed me through.



This is my ENTIRE family that came in for my Pinning! So thankful to have them here!



My gorgeous Diploma! Yay!


So now that school is finished, all I have left is to take (and PASS!) the NCLEX. That's the test that licenses me to practice Nursing. After that....have to find a job and start my real life.

Wish me luck!!

I dreamed a dream of times gone by...

UHM. Glee tonight was simply AMAZING. This show just keeps getting better and better. And I laugh and cry every single show. Crazy.

But... tonight was a special episode. Because two of my favorite people, Idina Menzel and Lea Michele, sang a beautiful duet. I love "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, and these two ladies certainly did it justice. Their voices together were PERFECT. I am such a nerd for this show.






In other news, I am graduating Friday! Yay! Can't believe I'm going to be a college graduate. I'm actually the first person on my mother's side of the family to finish my Bachelor's. My entire family is coming in to see and I'm very excited.

But first, I have to go shopping for a dress tomorrow. I should be excited but I hate shopping now that I've gained so much weight (damn you, nursing school!). But whatever. I really should go to bed now.


And just for a little funny entertainment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnW4bWaMPq0

When did the sun stop shining?

I've never heard this song before now but I'm obsessed with the lyrics now.

"Once Upon a Time" by Idina Menzel



All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put us back together again.
We huffed and we puffed,
And we blew this house down.
We tried. Yeah, we tried.

The sticks and the stones were breakin my bones,
And the names that were said kinda hurt us.
Riddle me this and riddle me that.
What went wrong? What went wrong?

When did the sun stop shining?
When did we turn into two divided?
I guess we will never really know why,
But I remember once upon a time.

Sometimes I wish upon a star
To give you a reason to give me your heart.
Rock-a-bye baby, you rocked me goodbye.
Tell me why. Tell me why.

When did the sun stop shining?
When did we turn into two divided?
I guess we will never really know why,
But I remember once upon a time.

All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put us back together again.
We huffed and we puffed,
And we blew this house down.
We tried, yeah, oh, we tried...
Oh, you know we tried...

When did the sun stop shining?
When did we turn into two divided?
I guess we will never really know why,
But I remember, yeah, I remember.

When did the sun, when did the sun stop shining?
When did we turn into two divided?
I guess we will never really know why,
But I remember once upon a time.
Once upon a time...

yeah.

I know.. this is getting out of hand. But isn't this the CUTEST baby you've ever seen?



ADORABLE.

This is Walker Nathaniel Diggs...son of Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs. Love them.

He's about 8 mos old here.

For RACHEL

Oh, RACH (her blog) needs new reading material so here I am...writing. I aim to please. :)

What have I been doing lately? Well today was the first day that I've gotten to sleep in for about 2 weeks I think. And I slept until 1:30. It was pretty great, I'm not gonna lie.

My Idina Menzel obsession has now officially lasted for more than a week.

Isn't she GORGEOUS??? I have such a girl-crush on her. Well, I really just wanna be BFF with her. And make her sing for me. Oh, and her husband, the equally gorgeous TAYE DIGGS can sing too. :)

YUMMY.

What else? Oh, most of you know already that I am now officially finished with nursing school. PRAISE JESUS! I didn't think it would ever end. Now, I have to pass the NCLEX and find a job. Whoo-hoo!


Uhhhmmm... Oh, I got to hang out with this cutie yesterday morning...

He's ADORABLE, huh? His name is Landon Miles, and I totally picked out his middle name. :) He is the second son of two of my favorite people, Robert and Michelle (her blog).

Their first son, Aedan Padraig (Paddy), is my best buddy. We hang a lot :)


My future is pretty "up-in-the-air" right now. I am just hanging out until something happens, I guess. I trust God has a plan...


OH! Since Rachel needs something to read, I'm gonna list some actual books to read.

1)House of Night Series by P.C. and Kristin Cast
2)The Host by Stephenie Meyer
3)The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers

There's a bit to get you started. :)

Music Monday: GLEE edition!

So, recently I started watching the show "Glee". It's seriously AMAZING. I mean, nothing can top Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice for me, but this one may even tie with them. So, to show my love, I am dedicating this week's MUSIC MONDAY to just this show. Yay!





1) Defying Gravity Uhm, DUH. It's number one. I loved this song way before I knew about Glee and I love it even more with Lea Michele/Rachel and Chris Colfer/Kurt singing it.

2) Don't Rain On My Parade Lea Michele is awesome. She rules. And this song is so gorgeous. And I totally cried when she sang this at Sectionals (on the show)!

3) Don't Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl Mashup I can't decide if I love this mashup so much because of the storyline surrounding when they sung it on the show or because I love both of these songs so much. Either way...it's good. Listen.

4) Don't Stop Believing At first, all I could think was "You don't mess with freakin' Journey". BUT. This is really good. Love it.

5) Maybe This Time As you can see, I have a thing for showtunes.

6) Smile (Charlie Chaplin) Beautiful song. Beautiful voices.

7) Borderline/Open Your Heart Two of Madonna's greatest thrust together to make music LOVE.

8) Hello, Goodbye C'mon. It's the Beatles. And they do a great job.

9) Hello (feat. Jonathan Groff) So Jonathan Groff is Lea Michele's real-life gay bestie. I need a gay bestie that can sing like him. It'd be so awesome. Oh, and their voices melt together wonderfully.

10) Alone When Kristin Chenoweth sings, I listen. And I weep. :)

11) Somebody to Love It's Queen's song, but they did a damn good job. Who knew Cory Monteith/Finn had such a high-pitched voice?

12) Taking Chances See, Kara DioGuardi wrote this. And Celine Dion sings it. and Lea Michele re-did it. It has everybody that I love involved.

13) On My Own I honestly had never heard this song before Glee. Which is sad, because it's from one of the longest-running Broadway shows ever, "Les Miserables". I desperately need to see this now.

14) I Could Have Danced All Night My Fair Lady :)

15) Like a Virgin I would include this song on every list I ever made no matter who sung it. :)

Please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch this show. If you even remotely like comedy and music, then you'll love it.

Test Tomorrow

Dear Lord,

I thank you so much for all you've given me. I am very blessed with family and friends. But I have another favor to ask. PLEASE let me pass this test tomorrow. I know that only praying isn't enough, but you've seen me study my BUTT off this week and I would really like for that hard work to pay off. So PLEASE keep me in mind from about 9AM-12PM (central standard time) tomorrow. I could really use the support.

While I'm at it, I pray for world peace too.

AMEN.

Meg

my worst, my own worst enemy

So if you haven't noticed already... I have this thing for MUSIC. Not really any particular type of music... as long as it's good, I'll like it. And I like to think of certain songs as the soundtrack to my life. As I talked about in Monday's post.. I have recently gotten Idina Menzel's pop album I Stand and I LOVE IT. One of her songs in particular feels like I wrote it. It's called My Own Worst Enemy.



In the roses in the spring
I remember, there was a time I wasn't afraid of anything
with the lilacs and the rain one day you went away
I remember, I forgot everything

My mother's always trying to tell me how to be grateful, how to beleive
My father's always trying to say "baby you're beautiful, in everyway"
My lover's always got me in his arms trying to protect me, keep me from harm
so why do I always have to be my worst, my own worst enemy?
Enemy, oh

In the shadows in the grace in the lonely there is a place
where we can all hide away
but in the windows of the soul there is nowhere we can go
if we keep running, running from our destiny.

My mother's always trying to tell me how to be grateful, how to believe
My father's always trying to say "baby you're beautiful, in everyway"
My lover's always got me in his arms trying to protect me, keep me from harm
so why do I always have to be my worst, my own worst enemy?
oh, my worst, my own worst enemy
my worst, my own worst enemy

You say I walk on water, you say I walk on the moon
But it's never enough no it's never enough, no it's never enough
You say I'm only human, it's all in my head
But it's never enough, no it's never enough, no it's never enough
One day I'll find my alibi

My mother's always trying to tell me how to be grateful, how to believe
My father's always trying to say "baby you're beautiful, baby your..."
My lover's always got me in his arms trying to protect me, keep me from harm
so why do I always have to be my worst, my worst enemy?
my worst, my worst enemy
I wasn't afraid, no I wasn't afraid
My worst, my own worst enemy
My worst, my own worst enemy
Oh, My worst, my own worst
Oh, My worst, my own worst
Oh, My worst, my own worst


Ooooh I love it so. Oh! Here's some more random for you today... lately I have realized I really want a flip cam. In particular... THIS flip cam...



DON'T YOU LOVE IT?

See the thing is, I doubt I would use the flip cam a whole lot. But I want one anyway. To pretend like my life is cool and important enough that I need this cool little cam to pull out at a moment's notice. :)

I should be studying right now. I know, I know, "MEG! You've already failed this test TWICE. Get a move on the studying already!!!"

I'm going, I'm going.

I'm trying to remember if there are any other random tidbits of life I wanted to share....

Oh, it's starting to get really hot down here in the 'Sip (that's slang for MISSISSIPPI for all you Yanks). It's moved right on past the "it's really nice out" stage and straight into the "I need a fan in my pants" stage. Seriously, you can't understand until you've lived it.

Ok. Guess I'll go do some study questions. Would you like an example of what I study all day? Here's one...

During a mass disaster drill simulating a terrorist attack, the nurse must triage numerous severely ill persons. The client who should receive care first is:

a) cyanotic and not breathing
b) gasping for breath and conscious
c) apneic and has an apical rate of 50
d) having a seizure and is incontinent of urine



and the answer is...B. Gotta get the ones that are the worst but can actually be saved to help during disasters. Know how I remember these things? I relate everything I've learned in nursing school back to an episode of either Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, or House. SHUT UP. It helps me remember. And this particular question relates to the "Holy Mother of Destruction" epi. HAHA!

Ok, for real this time, I'm going to study. :)

Music Monday! :)

Oooh I picked out some good ones this week! Prepare yourself! :)




1. Better to Have Loved by Idina Menzel Um, it's IDINA FREAKIN' MENZEL. Have you heard her before? OMFG. She's got one of the most amazing voices that this generation has ever heard. She's a Tony Award Winning Broadway STAR. And this song is so beautiful. Love the lyrics (which she co-wrote!) Better to have loved than never loved at all, better to have dreamed than never taken the fall, better to held you and let you in than never to have touched your skin

2. Hiding My Heart Away by Brandi Carlile I have expressed my love for her before. Love this song so much.

3. Leaving Town Alive by Bethany Joy Lenz She is/was a cast member of One Tree Hill and she sang on the show pretty frequently. I love this one particular lyric from this song...Life is for the living, the forgiving, and for leaving town alive. I believe that sums up my whole life.

4. White Horse by Taylor Swift Ok, I know she's not the most amazing vocalist. But her songwriting skills more than make up for where she's lacking. This whole song tells the story of every small town girl in America.

5. My Sweet Song by Toby Lightman This song is on the P.S. I Love You soundtrack (I'm a HUGE soundtrack junkie). I'd never heard of her before this song but I love how bluesy it is.

6. Different Stars by Trespassers William Cannot for the life of me remember how I first heard of this band. It might have been Grey's Anatomy, but I'm not sure. But then my old friend Kaleigh gave me their cd and I was instantly in LOVE. This one is slow and soft and pretty.

7. Don't Forget Me by Way Out West This song I did definitely hear on Grey's. It sounds similar to the one above, but it's been one of my favorites for years. It's another one of those songs that I just want to sit and watch the rain fall while listening.

8. Love Ridden by Fiona Apple Although she is most well-known for "Criminal", this one is even better. Another one of those slow, cool songs you just sway to.

9. Say Yes by Elliot Smith Nothing really special about this song, it's just fun to listen to.

10. Postcards from Italy by Beirut This guy's voice is pretty strange but I love it. The musicality of this song is what gets me.

11. My Body is a Cage by Arcade Fire Who doesn't love Arcade Fire?? Fun Fact: Stephenie Meyer recommended listening to this song while reading her newest novel "The Host". If you've read it then you totally understand. ;)

12. The Funeral by Band of Horses Can't help singing this song every time I hear it. Even though I don't really know the words....

13. Gone by Matt Nathanson I KNOW I've shared my crush on this guy with you all. Of his many songs that I adore, this is one of my favorites. Love the line...Gone, let it wash away all the best I had, I'm gone and when I disappear, don't expect me back

14. Frozen by Madonna I don't really know why but I was almost attracted to this certain Madonna song. Love the deep, soulful feel. Love the video, too.

15. When the Stars Go Blue by Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SONG. I just wanna belt it when I hear it. This guy's voice is freakin' smooth, too. So cool.


And stay tuned..next week's Music Monday is GLEE THEMED!!! :)