Bragging Just a Bit

So I am going to brag just a bit about myself. I finally remembered to check my grades to see how I did this semester. This really means nothing to anyone else, but I am pretty proud of myself. After a year of graduate school at Tech to get my teaching certificate and two years of graduate school at Mizzou to graduate with a Master of Education in Health Education and Promotion, I have a 4.0 in grad school. WOOHOO!!! Like I said it is really pointless because it doesn't really help me get a job or anything, but it is a personal goal for myself and I am so glad I accomplished it. Honestly neither of my grad programs were that difficult but they did require some discipline and I usually did pretty good and even did most of the required readings (my motivation class was definitely the exception to this). So enough bragging. I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend!

Cards vs Cubs

On Thursday, Tara, Shane, Borts, Jen, Drew, Erin, Clyde & I all loaded up and headed east to St Louis to watch the Cardinals play the Cubs. All in all it was a great game. I personally could have cared less about who won. Tara & Borts are both Cards fans and Drew is a diehard Cubs fan. The Cards had already won the series, but were going for the sweep--which they achieved. It was nice to get out of Columbia and do something as a group. It was my first time to be in Busch Stadium. I must say it has nothing on The Ballpark at Arlington. Maybe I am a little biased being from Texas, but The Ballpark at Arlington is BEAUTIFUL. We took advantage of the buy one get one free coupons and ended up with seats in right field. The first few innings were a little rough as the sun was directly in my eyesight, but it eventually went behind the stadium. Here are a few pics from the game.

Tara & I before the game

The group before the game.

The veiw from our seats.

The scoreboard

Water & Keyboards Don't Mix

If you only knew how long it truly took me to type this post. Yesterday I was doing something in the living room and my computer was sitting in the floor, well I got up to walk to the kitchen and kicked over a glass of water I forgot was sitting there..right onto the keyboard of my laptop. So I quickly dumped the water out of the keyboard, sucked out as much as I could and everything seemed to be fine. I was so relieved! Not so much when I got home from the Cards-Cubs game. I decided to check a few things online before I went to bed. That when I discovered the problem, the left side of the keyboard where I spilt the water was perfectly fine, the right side not so much. Here is what it looks like when you type:

I never rea;lized I used the ;letter po spo much in everyday typing\. Thank gpoopness I have teh Cpompo;lete Care POrpotectipon with De;ll;.\ They wi;ll; repo;lace it fpor free )(we;l;l my warranty cpovers it)(.\ It is being shiopoped tpo the Depoopt as spoopn as I get the bpox\. Spo that means I wi;l;l be abpout a week withpout a cpompouter :L)( but it has tpo be better than fixing every sing;le sentence that I typoe\.

Translated: I never realized I used the letter o so much in everyday typing. Thank goodness I have the Complete Care Protection with Dell. They will replace it for free (well my warranty covers it). It is being shipped to the Depot as soon as I get the box. So that means I will be about a week without a computer :( but it has to be better than fixing every single sentence that I type.

The Cards game was fun, but that will have to be a later post when I don't have to do so much editing!

***UPDATE as of 2 pm*** So I got off the computer, ate some lunch, picked it back up around 2, and I start typing and realize that everything is back to normal. This is pure craziness, the rest of the computer must have dried out. However, I still think my computer is going to make a visit to the Dell Depot just to make sure everything is ok!

The Damage

If you haven't read the post that follows this, you should probably start there. From the pictures you can see how LUCKY I was. I definitely had a guardian angel watching over me. Pretty amazing that this is all that happened to my car considering that I hitt the cement barrier.

Well That Made for an Interesting Trip

WOW is all I can say at this point. I waited around all afternoon to go to the baseball game then head to Emily & Kyle's house to stay the night and catch my flight at 7:55 in the morning for Texas. Baseball game starts at 6:30, at 5:30 the Heavens open up and pour on Columbia. I look at the radar, solid storms back to the west all the way to Kansas, all moving east, softball has been postponed, so I call Emily and tell her I think I am headed that way. Obviously they aren't going to play baseball, especially since it's not a conference game. She says ok be careful. So I head east. It downpours all the way to about Lake St. Louis and Emily texts me that it is all black out her back door and to be careful. I call her and tell her I am finally not in downpours that it has cleared up, but I am driving directly into what she sees, but should be at her house in about 20 to 30 minutes. Well about 5-10 minutes later it has really gotten heavy and I am trying to stay out of the massive puddles. Apparently I hit one directly. All I remember is that I began to fishtail and I tried to steer out of it and that I was headed head first for the cement median, when I believe my tires finally caught and I begin to do circles. I kept waiting to hit the median, which I finally did, somewhere on the backside of my car and as I spun around I saw sparks and finally got turned the right direction and begin coasting down the interstate, but I have no brakes--can't stop, can't accelerate and I am shaking like crazy. I finally came to a stop at mile marker 229.0. I'm pretty sure this all started back around mile marker 228 or so. (I have never been so happy to have mile markers every .2 miles) I immediately call my sister and tell her I've wrecked my car and they are going to have to come get me. Then I call the motorist assistance number (that I just happened to see on a sign on the way here....I never remember it, but for some reason *55 was in my head--THANK GOODNESS) and tell the highway patrolman where I am and that I am in the left lane and can't go anywhere. At this point on I-70 it's 4 lanes wide and I am stuck on the very inside lane, where there isn't much of a median, so I am half in the median very close to the cement divider and half in the left lane (AKA the fast lane). Not really a comfortable feeling. After talking to the highway patrolman I called my mom. (Just a side note: Emily & Mom didn't really help my nerves much, I think I was still in shock that it had happened and they both freaked when I told them what happened...STAYING CALM would have been better in that situation).

So I sit and wait. The motorist assistant guy comes up behind me and asks me if I need help. I am like yes I need to be towed. In my head I am thinking yes I need your help, holy cow, do you think I sit in the middle of a lane on I-70 for fun? Obviously I haven't gotten out of the car and I think my whole back end is smashed in and that my tires are ruined, etc. I thought I hit the median HARD. (Later I realize that my brakes were locked and that's why I couldn't stop, go, and that I thought I was riding on my rims---pretty sure I am definitely going to need new brake pads as well). The guy asks me if I can get my car in neutral because if I can get it into neutral he can push me off the interstate. Not going to lie this freaks me out a little...being pushed off the interstate doesn't sound like fun. So I start my car back up and it does go into netural. So he tells me he is going to push me to the next exit and there is a gas station there. When he says he is going to push me over there...he wasn't lying. We went across 4 lanes of traffic a lot faster than I would have liked to. Along I-70 the motorist assistance trucks have the big flashing construction arrows on the top of their trucks, thankfully people follow instructions and go around them. I was scared to death he was going to get rearended and send me flying down the interstate. As we begin to exit the thought that I don't have brakes begins to go through my head. (I didn't have any earlier because they were locked--they released when I put my car in park, but I didn't realize this until later.) The exit is a downhill curve, I become concerned because I look in my rearview mirror and he isn't pushing me. I push as hard as I can on my brakes and begin to slow THANK GOODNESS!! I get to the bottom of the hill in the right turn lane and there are no cars coming, so I turn right, go across to the left turn lane, the light turns green as I get to and thankfully no cars are coming so I make it safely into a parking spot at the gas station.

At this point I get out and start walking around my car and can find NOTHING wrong with my car. No wonder the guy thought I was an idiot sitting on the side of the road. I tell him that I hit the median but can't find anything wrong with my car. So he gets out his flashlight and we walk around the car looking for something. I knew I had seen sparks so we decided that I must have hit one of my tires and the hubcap caused sparks. I turned off my car and then started it back up and no warning lights come on, so he thought I would be able to drive it. He gives me the number for the tow truck in case I need it. I tell him I am going to wait on my sister and brother-in-law to get there and will make a decision then. I tell him thanks so much and he goes on his way.

So I sit and wait for Emily & Kyle, who are having to creep along because the storm has now reached where they are and they can't see. They get to the gas station and we begin looking at the rear end of my car. Emily finds a scratch on the bumper and then we realize that the bottom half of my receiver hitch is all scratched up. It is black and the bottom half of it was all silverish-brown and it looked like mud on it rather than scratches. This is where the sparks come from. My car was running fine and I finally made it to their house. The trip that usually takes me around 2 hours, took over 3 to get here. I knew it would take more time because of the rain, but didn't really plan on spending part of it doing circles, sitting on the interstate and being pushed off the highway by a pickup.

Thankfully I am fine and amazingly so is my car. I guess I just actually brushed the median as I was spinning around. I either did 2 or 3 360s, I am not really sure, but I am pretty sure I did 3. The whole time I just kept waiting to hit the median and roll over onto the west board traffic or be shot across all the east bound traffic. I definitely had an angel watching over me.

Just a side note---this is now the 2nd time I have hydroplaned and spun around on the interstate. My senior year of high school, me and four other friends were coming back from a wedding in Snyder and around Lubbock--which floods like crazy--we hydroplaned (we were in Elaine's 4 Runner) were thrown off the road into the median, hit ruts where another car had run off the road which thre us back onto the highway, spun around and stopped across the two lanes of I-27. Pure craziness. Both times I have somehow dodged all the cars going around me. In fact tonight I do not remember seeing a single car go around me.

I am so thankful that I am safe and that my car made it through ok.

Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to the greatest Mom in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!

You have truly made me who I am today. Thanks so much!!

Celebrate Good Times

WOOHOO...tonight is my last graduate class EVER! I am just a tad bit excited. I finished my paper on Sunday and got everything printed out yesterday at work. We will definitely be going to celebrate tonight after class. And it's Cinco de Mayo! :) Finals are next week, but I don't have any so that is a plus. Graduation is technically next Friday but I am not walking. I didn't walk in undergrad and I don't really want to walk for grad school, so I am opting out again. My parents were just here a month ago and Dad is coming up at the end of June to help me move so I decided to let them save money and not force them for another trip. Also...I'm flying home early next Saturday to go find a place to live in Amarillo. My parents have scoped out a few places but wanted me to come look and decide on one myself. It will be another short trip, land in Amarillo around noon on Saturday and flying back mid-afternoon on Monday.

Last night was the ROARS for the athletes. It recognized their athletic and academic achievements as a whole. It was a semi-formal event so a few of us got all dressed up and attended it....I must say we are one good looking group.

Melissa, Tara, Shane & I at the ROARS.

Annie, Me & Pip....two of my "little people" from the volleyball team. I will miss these two next year!