Study + Prayers + Tutor = CHEM CLEP PASSED!!!!!

I did it!! I'm so excited I can't even stand it. I finally passed the dreaded Chemistry CLEP exam and am so thankful for it. It wasn't even as bad as I thought it was going to be. I can actually feel the weight off my shoulders. I'm trying to decided if I passed because I studied for about 3 months or because I met with an awesome tutor 3 times or because EVERYONE was praying so hard for me. But who cares why???? I PASSED!!

Me before test -pulled an all-nighter studying

(caught an hour and half of sleep on the floor in the office)

Me after test

(Still looking rough...but excited!)

Clapping

Been a busy weekend. Brittany's b-day was this past week so we all went to Outback last night to celebrate. Today we went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It was good. Not as good as the first, but good.

Today when we were in the movie theater I experienced 2 of my pet peeves.
1. Lots of noise in the theater. I understand that we were in a "kids" movie, so a little noise isn't so bad. The occasional shake of the candy box, slurp of the drink, or in todays case a loud burp by a little boy :) .... all that I can handle. In fact I expect and to be honest my Hot Tamale candy can rattle a bit in the box at times. But this CONSTANT crinkling of the popcorn bag I CAN'T STAND. Ok Mom's and Dad's out there...if your kid isn't quite old enough to sit still through the whole movie then don't bring them. And please, only allow them to reach into the popcorn bag every few minutes or so...not every second.

2. But my #1 movie theater pet peeve of all time is ....drumroll... when people clap at the end of the movie. I mean, seriously, what is that??? Who are you clapping for??? The producers, photographers, directors, writers, actors? Well guess what? THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU!! I (a co-audience member) am the only one that can hear you and your clapping isn't doing anything for me. I didn't help make the movie, I only paid $8 to go see it. So please, if you really really appreciated a movie don't clap. Instead, write a letter to the editor, or maybe focus on the family, or Pixar, Disney, whoever, to tell them how much you liked it.

Click on image to enlarge

Ok. I'm off my soapbox. :) I'll do a more positive post next time, I promise.

Bethany's Plans

Here are my plans for the near future

1. Study like crazy and pass my Chemistry test on May 21. (please pray hard...really need to make this happen)

2. Start eating healthy again, exercise daily (I'm at about 3-4 times a week now), and lose 10 pounds.

3. I really want to do an in-depth Bible study of some sort. I may just do a read through the bible plan with my friend, or I might look at doing some David Jeremiah stuff. Either way, I don't feel like my Bible Study time right now is cutting it. I'm craving more. Erin does a Bible Study every week with some friends and gets a lot out of it. What do I do during that time? Get together with Pabst, go to the gym, and watch American Idol... :)

4. Start a cleaning business while I'm in school. Erin and I made this door hangers (below) which I will deliver to the nicer neighborhoods in Murfreesboro. I plan on under-cutting the competition as far as prices are concerned. This is a much better alternative than waiting tables in my estimation. I obviously blacked out my phone number and email address in case there are any pervs or weirdos that visit the blog.

Naples Vacation

A week ago Erin and I and Erin and Nate Pabst all left work early and headed to the airport to catch a plane to Naples Florida. (FYI - to avoid confusion I will refer to Erin (girl) as "Pabst" from now on) Several months ago we had found a really cheap flight to Naples, and since Pabst's parents live there thought it would be a great place for a quick vacation. I could go on and on and on about Pabst's family. Her mom and Paul are such amazing people who opened their home and lives to us. They were so generous and showed us a great time. Thank you!! Paul's family (extended) was amazing as well. Altogether it was an awesome time. Here is a rundown of events (sorry its so long):

Thursday

We arrive late that night and head to Paul and Debbie's condo and just chat and get ready for bed.

Friday

Busy day. Debbie fixes us an amazing brunch and we head out to see the cute city of Naples. Really neat Italian influenced architecture and shops. Then we go get lunch at a little restaurant called Riverwalk which looks out over the water (Thanks for treating us to lunch Debbie)

That afternoon we head out to the beach and cookout on the beach for dinner. We had an exciting battle with a racoon which you'll have to ask Erin about. :) We then headed back to the condo where we enjoyed the rest of the evening just goofin' off. It was fun!

Saturday

We got up Saturday morning and Debbie, Erin, Pabst, Nate, and I headed off to Ft. Myers (about 20 minutes away) to see the beach.

It was really cool because it was a very crowded place... people everywhere. There were also pelicans all over the place that would let you get right up next to them.

We then played putt-putt golf where we all got extremely sun-burned.

That afternoon we went to the pool at the condo and just goofed off.

For dinner we went to the best pizza place I've ever been to. Paul's sister and her husband and daughter came with all of us to. The restaurant, ZaZa's, is owned and operated by Joe DiMaggio's nephew who is one of the top chefs in the world. In fact, he was the chef for the Rat Pack. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, Marco (paul's brother-in-law) is really good friends with him and they brought out soo many things for us to eat. We had 3 exotic types of pizza (one had lamb and curry and feta cheese :)), we had spicy calamari, amazing bread, and cheesecake, and tiramisu, and canolis. Thanks to the Bazelgette's and Bronzini's for showing us a good time and treating us to dinner. Erin, Nate, Pabst, and I went back home and stayed up way too late... til about 4 am just laughing about the nights events and enjoying vacation.

Sunday

Sunday was our rest day. We got up early and went to the beach until about 3:30. We mostly rested at the beach but we also swam in the ocean and made some sand art :)

Nila and Emily came with us too. We then headed home to get cleaned up for church which was at 5 p.m. Paul and Debbie started a new church in Naples and have grown from 10 to 60 people in 6 months. Paul is such a biblically grounded man of God and Debbie is such a wonderful pastor's wife with such a caring heart. They meet in Marco's art gallery (check out his amazing work at http://www.marcobronzini.com/). Paul and Marco met years ago when they both attended the Royal Academy for Art in London. It was really neat to go there because the people are so on-fire and Erin, Pabst, and I led the music. It was very impromptu but I really feel God used it because the people expressed how appreciative they were and how worshipful it was. The whole crew then headed over to Marco and Nila's house where their ENTIRE family greeted us and we had a wonderful dinner and time of fun. And since Pabst knows DAvid Cook from American Idol really well, she was a big hit with her cousin Rebecca who is a HUGE David Cook fan :) I can honestly say that I have never seen a family who gets along and builds one another up like this family... and thats something given how close I am to my family. But, Paul's family would never make fun of a poor ugly child's snaggle-tooth :)

Finally a Post

I know it has been forever since I have posted... I really do apologize. Many of you expressed that you were tired of seeing the last NCAA post, so I'm giving you an update. A lot has happened, so I'll just give you a brief rundown of events.

1. Erin spent 15 days straight in Ft. Worth, TX for the United Methodist General Conference which occurs every 4 years. He was there from end of April to beginning of May. They bring in about 3000 delegates from the UM convention and they debate and vote on the church's stance on issues for the next 4 years. Erin was not a delegate of course (he's Baptist :) but he was there to set up the networks for 3000 people, organize the internet cafe's, and troubleshoot problems as they come.

One of the major issues they voted on was whether the methodists would continue to regard homosexuality as a practice "incompatible with Christian teaching". Now, I would think this would be a no-brainer (especially if you look in the Bible, its pretty cut and dry) but apparently there was a lot of debate about the issue. I'm glad to report that in the end they voted to retain the original language of their beliefs: that homosexuality IS incompatible with Christian teaching.





Family...If you decide to comment on this please remember that Erin works for the agency and some of his coworkers read this blog.







2. I had planned on continuing to work with my company through the end of May. We had an adjusted schedule worked out so that I could continue shadowing at a dental office as well as work and get a new person trained to take over. I would also be taking on more classes during the night hours to help out the company. Unfortunately during the first week of May I was pulled from the class I was teaching and told that they would no longer be able to hold their end of the bargain as far as the schedule was concerned and so I told them that my last day would be 2 weeks from that day. At first I was surprised that they reneged on the deal but then I remembered the structure of the company. I had a boss (we'll call him R). R was supposed to be over the entire Nashville account (which included 3 locations). However, R actually has no authority. Anything R says, his superior undermines. So, R will make a decision and she (his boss) will go against it. He has to run EVERYTHING by him and she micromanages him to a ridiculous degree. The problem is that micromanaging is a problem all the way from the top (also most of the people in power are women with a chip on their shoulder). So I found out that R had agreed to our schedule but his boss had not. When she heard about it, she acknowledged that it would be beneficial to the company for me to work an adjusted schedule but that it would be "unfair to the other people in the company if I got to work an adjusted schedule for a few weeks" and that since I was "friends with R" she wouldn't allow it. This is coming from the same woman who took complaints from the other women in the company who said that I was only liked by my boss because I was "skinny and pretty". They would also complain to the boss if I finished my tasks for the day (efficiently) and they had not. So, I would get their tasks piled onto me. Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! When did the workplace become socialist too? Good riddance.





3. My friend Jessica finished her graduate program. We all went to her graduation in Chattanooga. It was a lot of fun to celebrate her big day with her.

Brittany, Jessica (the graduate), Bethany

Mmm...Ben and Jerry's. I mean, Bethany and Brittany

Jessica and Scott

In Case You Were Wondering

In case any of you were wondering, this is how Erin feels about the Men's NCAA Championship Game and its winners.

Enough Said.

In Honor Of Travis

If you look at Travis's comment to my last post, you will understand what he is referencing. Thomas Beatie (in above picture) is man who used to be a woman. He had the trans-gender surgery to become a man but kept some of the "female parts". He then married a woman and when his wife was unable to conceive he had invetro fertilization and is now a pregant man. Weird and gross, and in general, perverted, huh? Anyway, that is what Travis was referring to. And though I appreciate the veiled compliment, I take some offense. I mean, I know I was one of the world's ugliest children. However, I wasn't THAT bad was I??? ...... Don't answer that :)

NEVER CHEAT ON YOUR STYLIST

I'm a firm believer that once you find a great stylist, you should never, under any circumstances, cheat on him/her. Seriously. I did it once and I'll never do it again. Here's why I love my stylist (Steven Fields - http://www.jsfieldsandco.com/):

1. He's not overpriced (in fact I think he's underpriced, but don't tell him that)
2. He tells me "no" when I have a bad hair idea. I came in with ideas of the cut I wanted. It was a short straight bob. He said "This won't work for you. I know 3 things about you: 1.) you won't get up every morning and straighten it. 2.) You won't get your hair cut every 6 weeks like you're supposed to and 3.) You want to be able to pull it back into a ponytail." Most stylist just do what you tell them to make a buck. Not Steven, he knows my hair and what works best for it and more importantly he knows me and the things that are important to me.
3. He gives me a versatile haircut - one that looks good curly and straight and one that will grow out well.
4. He's my friend and has done much more for me over the years than just cut my hair.

Okay, so I'm going to cut short my tribute to Steven so that I can get back to studying but just know he's the best! He's got a great team too. Christina and Phyllis and the rest of the folks there know all the clients by name and make the business's success a team effort.

~ Your faithful client, Bethany

New 'Do

I am embarrassed, but not surprised, to report that it had been almost a year since getting my hair cut. My hair was long, shaggy, and generally dead. So, it was definitely time.

Here's my new do...curly. I'll post one of it straight later. Its a great cut because I can literally wake up and it looks like this already, without any styling. AWESOME.

Baby Calvin is Here! Aunt and Uncle Times Two!

Shawn and Jill were due April 17th so we were surpised when we got the news yesterday that Jill's water had broken and they were at the hospital. After a several nervous hours when Jill was only dilated 2 cm and Calvin's heart rate was irregular, we thought Jill was going to have to have a C-Section. We were all praying like crazy that his heart rate would even out and that she would be able to have him naturally. Well, God is good, because Calvin was born, perfectly healthy and precious. When I talked to Shawn, he was bragging the whole time about how awesome Jill was during delivery and how proud he was of Calvin. They are going to be great parents. I love him very much already and am so sad that I don't get to go visit him anytime soon :(

Here's a pic of Shawn (dad) and my Aunt Susan...apparently Jill didn't want any pictures taken of her 'cause I don't have a single one :)

And just to prove that I am Aunt to the cutest 2 kids in the world, here is a picture of Zion in her Easter dress.... love this girl :)

Easter Dinner

We decided to have some friends over who didn't have any family in town for Easter dinner. After dinner we just talked and played a few games. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately we forgot only took 1 picture: the table before everyone got here. We got to know a new couple in our sunday school class and are really looking forward to becoming better acquainted with them. Everyone brought a side dish and I made the following:

• Ham - my first attempt at Ham and glaze and I must say it was delicious! Although I'm getting little tired of it. This is my 3rd day in a row eating the 10 lb ham's left-overs.


• Pineapple-Cheese Casserole - always a hit


• Fresh Strawberry Pie w/ homemade crust


• Kentucky Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie w/ homemade crust

Erin took the left-over pies and coffee cake (made for sunday school brunch) to work the next day. Better the IT guys devour them instead of me and my thighs :)

Easter Worship

This was a great Easter. I must admit that Satan was pulling a number over on me Saturday. I was in a horrible mood, didn't want to go to church, and for some reason Satan was having a hayday with my attitude. But, Saturday night I made a decision that I wouldn't be that way, to stop complaining, and live with a grateful heart.... how can you NOT be grateful when really thinking about what Easter means. It turned out to be a wonderful Easter.

Erin, myself, Erin P and Nate all sang or played in all 3 services so we carpooled in together at 7AM!!! Early. The worship in the service was amazing and even though we did the same service all three times, worshipping never got stale, old, or boring.

Mom, I don't remember all the songs but know we sang:
You Saved the Day (choir and soloist)
Jesus Saves (choir)
He's Alive, Alive, Alive Halleluiah
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Easter Reminder

Erin had a friend/business associate of his over for dinner. This friend is from India and practices Hindu. He is such a wonderful person and we had interesting discussions about the differences in religion, culture, politics, sports, etc between America and India. I was explaining to him about how America celebrates mostly Christian holidays with Christmas being the biggest and Thanksgiving the next. But he pointed out that this didn't make sense: "Shouldn't EAster be your biggest holiday?" After I explained the differences between secular and spiritual celebrations of these holidays I realized that sometimes even Christians put Easter lower on the scale of celebrations. But, EASTER is what makes Christianity real, its OUR HOPE! It took someone of another faith to really make this hit home with me. So, this year, I really focused on remembering the sacrifice and most importantly the VICTORY that Christ had over the grave.... all for our sake. Praise the Lord.

Game Night Part Deux

I love game nights. So, every time Jessica comes into town from Chattanooga, we invite the gang over and have a girls game night and dinner. I love these nights because I ROCK at Scrabble and like to prove my vocabulary and polysyllabic prowess to anyone who will play with me :) If you've seen the post from last game night you will remember that I had a controversial win last time because of my use of the world "si" which is part of the melodic scale and is sometimes used instead of "ti". (a.k.a. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do). Anyway, I came this time ready to conquer.... and guess what? I DID!! (sorry Brit, Jennie, and Jess). They gave me such a hard time about my word choice last time, but look at the PROPER noun they used below...totally illegal game play. But, no hard feelings. :)

I did not win Scattergories, so it wasn't a totally successful night. But, we always have a blast together and I'm so glad that God has blessed me with such wonderful friends that have remained close since college. We even forgive one of us for being a liberal (don't worry I'm NOT the liberal one)... but mainly its okay because she's a liberal in TN and we know her vote won't really make a difference anyway :)

The Gals -- we're a strange conglomeration of girls -- but we make a good team.

We still think fingers and noses are funny.... hmmmm.

I passed!

This book and I have gotten to know each other really well over the past few weeks. Today I finished step 1 on my journey towards dental school. I passed the Biology CLEP test!!! It is a scaled score test with scores ranging from 20 to 80. It is pass/fail and you have to get a 50+ to pass. I got a 60. I didn't like cutting it so close but unfortunately I didn't use the best study materials. I only used the Biology CLEP study guide and figured that would be enough. Lets just say that I almost panicked when I went in there and the material was much more in depth. But, fortunately I was at least able to make educated guesses on the majority of the questions. I'm glad its over. This test got me 16 hours of credit. I have a lot to do before I can even apply to dental school. If ONE thing doesn't go as planned then my dental school plans and hopes and dreams will not work out. Please pray for God's timing on this one. Erin and I want to make sure that we are following God's will, not our own. Here's whats left to do.

1. Now - Pass another CLEP test. This one is MUCH harder. It is for 16 hours of Chemistry 1 and 2 credit. I only get ONE shot at this. If I don't pass then I don't get another shot and am done.


2. May - Possibly shadowing a dentist friend of ours in his office. Need to have experience in a dental office so that I can discuss that in my interview with UT.


3. June - Begin summer classes. I will be taking Organic Chemistry I and Physics I


4. July - Next summer session. Organic Chem II and Physics II


5. July - August - Take the DAT. I can take it up to 3 times.


6. August - Fall term begins. Microbiology, Comparative Anatomy, Biochemistry, and possibly Histology


7. November 30 - Application due to UT Memphis


8. December - Finish pre-req classes

Uggh! Pray for me!

A New Direction

Recently Erin and I have been praying and thinking about my future. We laugh at how many jobs I have had in my lifetime but it is actually becoming an issue for me. I do not like the field I am in. It is as simple as that. I grew up wanting to be a Doctor. That is all that I ever wanted. But, when I went to school, my lack of maturity, circumstances, expectations of how my life would turn out, etc intimidated me and I took the easy way out. I got a business degree because it was easy, cheap, and what everyone does when they don't know what else to do. Not exactly the best way to make decisions about your future.

So, Erin and I began listing the things I have liked and enjoyed in my previous positions or hobbies. This is what we came up with.

1. I enjoy being with people
2. I want ownership and to be my own boss
3. I like to choose who I work with, to be able to pick my own staff. At cj, I was fortunate enough to be able to assist in choosing some of the new hires that I would be working with. This makes for a great cohesive team, where everyones strengths complement the group. Less nit-picky too.
4. I like for my work ethic and my income to be directly related. I want to be able to control how much I make by how hard I work. In my previous and current positions, now matter how hard I work, I am not rewarded for my efforts.
5. I LOVE to be on my feet
6. I like science and healthcare. I read physiology books and medical manuals and journals for fun.
7. I want a flexible schedule so that I can be a mom one day
8. I like preventative care. I think people should take care of themselves before there is ever a problem. It is much easier to do regular maintenance and prevent a problem than to fix one. Plus, I think that America as a whole is over-medicated.

From this list Erin and I came up with a few career possibilites: M.D., Dentist, Chiropractor. We ruled out M.D. right away because of the cost of school, the length of school, and the fact that I don't want to treat colds, flu, and hypochondriacs. I would rather be a surgeon and I would be in school till I was 90 :). Also, I have more and more issues with our healthcare system. We are over-medicated, over-charged, and if universal healthcare comes into play I want to be as far away from general medical practice as possible.

We ruled out Chiropractic care next. Although I have found relief from Chiropractic care and used to work for a Chiropractor, I am not passionate enough about it to make it my profession. I have done some research on the science. I believe in the methods but not neccessarily in the philosophies of Chiropractic. Plus, it is more likely to be influenced by a slow economy than any other type of healthcare.

We then evaluated dentistry. It seems like the perfect fit. We could pay cash for school if we stick to the same strict budget we're on now. We could also save enough to give us a good start on beginning a practice once I'm out of school. Dental school is only 4 years long. I have pretty teeth (heheh). A large part of a dentist's work is preventative care. I love people. I could own my own practice. I'd be on my feet. We feel God's leading in this direction and until he tells us no or closes a door, we will pursue this.

Manning Fans

I've got to admit that leading up to the fact, I was very uninterested in the Superbowl. I was first pulling for the Titans to make it to the big game. They of course did not. Then it was the Cowboys...well Jessica Simpson and her pink Jersey ruined that for us. We are NFC fans but we could not root for the Patriots. Tom Brady is a man-whore (pardon my language). So, we decided to pull for Brett Favre thinking they could definitely beat the Giants. I mean, come on, the Giants were the LAST wild card pick and everyone knows that Eli isn't as good as his older brother, right? I had basically chocked this up as a worthless superbowl and figured Brady and his cheating coach would take it home this year.

Well we were definitely proven wrong. It turned out to be one of the best Superbowl games I've ever seen. Erin was glad to see Burress catch the winning pass for a touchdown. After all, Burress gave Erin most of his points on his fantasy league this year! What a great game. Considering the fact we live in UT country, we are Manning fans. It was very good to see Eli win a superbowl and get MVP and not have to be under the shadow of his older brother anymore.

We also had fun going over to Brittany and Scott's for their annual superbowl party. We had a good time. Here are a few pics.

Birthday Fun!

Erin and I's birthdays are very close together. Mine is January 23 and his is February 2nd (groundhog's day).

My birthday was on a Wednesday this year (bleck!) and I had to work. Nothing too exciting happened at work except for the fact that I had more friends call, email, or text my birthday wishes than I ever have before! We had decided not to do presents this year for our birthdays because we got everything we wanted for Christmas and we would rather write an extra check towards the Dave Ramsey plan than receive a present. So I wasn't really expecting anything. After work I went to the gym and worked out and when I came in the house it was perfectly clean, something delicious was cooking, and there was a fire in the fireplace! Turns out Erin had taken a half day off work to clean the house for me and cook me a fantastic dinner of Candied Glazed Lamp Chops and my favorite bleu cheese chopped salad. Yummy! I also had roses and a sweet card waiting for me. It was a great birthday.

Erin's birthday was on a Saturday which gave it a little more flexibility. I got up early that morning and a Monkey Bread (or Pull-Apart) coffee cake, Juice, and a Quiche waiting for breakfast. I even put 28 candles in the Monkey Bread for him to blow out :) We spent the day just doing fun stuff: went for a walk, threw the football, etc. Then that night Hale and Andi, Nate and Erin P, and Erin and I went to Macaroni Grill (we had a gift card!) and ice skating. Ice skating was a blast; probably more funny than anything!

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday cards and gifts. We appreciate and love you all!

LOST is back!!!

Tonight was one of the most exciting nights in a long time. That is right folks; LOST is back!!! If you have never watched the show LOST, you need to go to Blockbuster and rent the 1st three seasons, lock yourself in your house until you've watched them, and then start watching this season. It is definitely the best show on TV.

To celebrate the occasion, we had a LOST get-together. The Metcalfs and the Pabsts came over and we watched the season premiere. It was awesome. I just know this season is going to be good. I have some theories but I won't bore you with them now.

Here are some pictures from our LOST themed get-together:

The Spread

Game Night

The roommates: Jessica, Bethany, Erin

Jess is in town, so of course all the girls got together. Jessica is staying in "her bedroom" here at our house but we all got together this time at Brittany and Scott's house. Erin and Scott wanted to watch some game that was on and the girls wanted to play games. So, we all headed over there, cooked dinner and played Scattergories and Scrabble. I scored a controversial win with the 2 letter word "si". Being the Scrabble champion that I am, I know that the 2 letter words are important. Si is part of the melodic scale, a substitute for "ti". Its in the scrabble dictionary, look it up. The girls weren't too happy. But, we had a great time as always. Brittany is definitely the most creative speller...she provides the fun, the rest of us provide the vocab :)


Serious about Games

Microwave

In yet another home improvement project, Erin installed an over-the-stove microwave for me today! I love it. Now we can get the microwave off of the cart and put the toaster oven there so that it is off of the counter. I was definitely needing more counter space. Yay! I love having a handy husband :)

A Quick Hi!

Just wanted to say hello to you all who are wanting an update. It has been busy since the new year began. Erin and I enjoyed a great new year, came back home, and got right back into the grind. We may sound old and boring but the highlight of the new year so far is the fact that we had Stanley Steemer come and clean our carpets and they are so pretty and clean. We are excited.

I also emceed a pageant this past weekend. Erin (mine) and our friends Nate and Erin came to watch. I think they were entertained although peeved that they had to miss the first playoff game of the season. It was so fun to get back into the pageant scene...especially through Joe's pageant. I got to see some old friends and wear some gorgeous gowns from Stevens (J.S. Fields and Co). Plus the 2 girls who were crowned are wonderful. Congrats Amy and Rebekah!

Erin Pabst and I are also helping each other with New Year's Resolutions. I have decided to re-join choir at church and Erin decided to join a gym. So, we are working out together and she's making sure I actually show up for choir. Its great because we are neighbors now and we can carpool. We were proud of ourselves yesterday because we even jogged three miles on our off-day at Brentwood high waiting for choir practice to start....talk about dedication!