Category Archives: Family

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My day with Rob Bell

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It has taken me a while to write this blog because Rob Bell is so controversial. This will not be about his controversy or a debate about him. If you have no idea what I am speaking about google him and you will be enlightened within seconds.

I was first introduced to Rob Bell (he is one of the people who I always refer to with both names, just like my best friend Meg Barry) back in 2003. My church showed his first Nooma video, Rain during service. It was ten minutes long and so interesting and good that I probably fell in love with him right then and there. He would eventually release another 23 Nooma’s for the series. I would be in two different small groups that did a study on some of the films. His first Everything is Spiritual tour was in 2006 and I went to it. I will never forget it was at Mississippi Nights on the landing. He had this gigantic white board that he talked and wrote all over. I looked around and the workers were totally enthralled in what he was saying and listened to every word. Afterwards my friend Dianne and I went up  and asked him to sign our copies of his first book, Velvet Elvis. He looked at my book and said this is one of those illegal copies I heard about, but have never seen. I could have died right there and crawled into the floor if it were possible. I had gotten the book from a Crossings, a Christian website so after that all of his books have come from Amazon. Only I would have an illegal copy and then ask Rob Bell to sign it.

Once podcasts became available I started downloading his sermons and burning to CD’s to listen in my car. If he wasn’t speaking that week, I listened anyway. It’s how I heard about Ed Dobson. I do believe he was a retired preacher that guest spoke. He also had been battling ALS for eight years at the time. He was still doing well and had a lot of mobility. He spoke about it one week and I remember burning a copy and sending it to my friends husband who has since passed from ALS. I just looked Ed up and discovered he passed away 12/26/2015 and lived with ALS for 15 years. This makes me sad as I never did meet him but I remember the year he attempted to live as Jesus did. It’s crazy to think of burning CD’s to listen to as now I can just load them in my phone and listen to them via my radio. Technology has really gone crazy in the last twenty years.

Rob swears he came to St. Louis last year but if he did I missed it. All of the other times he has been out on speaking tours they have been too far away. This year however, I discovered he was going to be in Tulsa Oklahoma at the same time Emily was going to be in Norman Oklahoma for Physical Therapy clinical’s. So I googled how close they were and informed her I would come visit her while she was there because I would miss her. She said nice try, you just want to see Rob Bell. Busted! The night before the event I made the mistake of googling him because it had been a while. The controversy surrounding him was now off the charts. It seems as if  Love Wins was just the beginning. I hadn’t really followed him much after he left Mars Hills, after all he wasn’t preaching so I had no CD’s to make. Anyway I started questioning if I should even go the next day. I mean I might get sucked in and come out a horrible person or something. However I paid a hundred dollars for this eight-hour event so I was going simply because of that. I did the math wrong in my head and left too late from Emily’s to make it on time. It was an hour and forty-five minute from her place to the event. I showed up ten minutes late but he had just started. I of course had to run to the bathroom because I had drunk 24 ounces of coffee on the way over. His venue was Cains and looked like it would be the perfect place for country line dancing. It very much reminded me of Mississippi Nights ten years ago in Saint Louis only this time the chairs were in a square with him in the middle. It was how Mars Hill was set up. (I visited his church back in 2009 on the way home from Niagara Falls.) I quickly realized I was glad I had come.

The day was about his book How to be Here and he said a lot of people leave and quit their jobs. That at some point every one will have their ah ha moment and he then said you’re welcome. Well I couldn’t imagine quitting my job because I love it. I have also tried to leave at least three times and I got a big fat NO from God. No he didn’t speak to me but other things happened that were directly related and I knew I needed to stay right where I was. So in October I will be on Women’s Health for sixteen years. I am not sure where the time went. The day came and went and I never had that moment until the next day when I was driving home trying to take in everything I heard the day before. Hello, my moment was ten minutes in when I knew I made the right decision to show up. Rob Bell was still the Rob Bell I remembered from the videos and the sermons. And yes he has said some crazy off the wall stuff but don’t you think people said the same thing about Jesus back in his day. No I am not saying Rob Bell is Jesus (look I am crazy but not that crazy) and I am not saying if he is right or wrong, I am just simply pointing out that some of the same stuff said about Rob, may have been said about Jesus. There is one thing he said that really made me think and still has me freaked out. He said to the people who believe in Left Behind, he does not. He feels that Jesus already came back when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. that he was supposed to return in the disciples lifetime and that would be his way of doing it. I was like wait a minute, you mean I have no hope of Jesus returning now and saving me from this crap known as the mess of the world we created. That sucks. But I have also had an issue with Left Behind theory anyway. Why would the people who rejected him who are still living get a second chance to accept him when everyone else who died were already sent to hell. Talk about unfair. However it just shows how little anyone really knows about what is to come. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. Maybe he is a whack a doodle sent by the devil, maybe he’s a great speaker sent by God.

One last thing and then I’m going to stop typing. He spoke a little bit about what happened after Love Wins came out. It was weird while he was talking I could feel his pain. I feel this is most likely because I never realized what it might have been like for him when the Christian community (many who were close friends) just cut him off and acted like he no longer existed. He said churches would contact him stating they had written seven page papers about why his book was wrong. There were actually people picketing him and I got the feeling (just my feeling) that he was pretty much run out of the town we grew up in. And no matter who you are, how close you are to God that has to hurt! My own church never mentioned his name again after the book came out. I spoke to him after the talk and had my picture taken with him. I told him I did not bring a book because of what happened the last time. He cracked up laughing. We discussed his leaving the church and he says it seems like so long ago and he’s glad to be gone. I bet he is because the longer you are in a church the more and more things you tend to find wrong. Everyone criticizes everyone and it just gets stupid. I am sure he is more happy just going around meeting people and talking in this environment. How did Jesus interact with people? In a building with rules and religion? Nope out in the crowds. Again Rob Bell is not Jesus it’s just interesting the parallel. I swear if anyone publishes something saying I called Rob Bell the next Jesus I will lose my mind. Oh wait I lost it years ago.

 

Mole Moral ~ I’m glad I listened to my gut and went. Rob Bell no longer calls himself a pastor as he does not have a “church” with a set group of members. It was thought provoking eight hours.

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The most expensive bladder infection!

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imageIt’s been a while since I have written much. A week or two ago I was going to finally write about my dog but then I added up what I spent and I became so angry again that I couldn’t do it. However, its been a week since then and I’ve had some time to reflect.

I originally took my dog to the vet on a Monday because she wasn’t able to jump up on the couch and started having trouble walking up the steps. The vet did an X-ray and saw an area around T-12 on her spine that was losing density. She had never seen that before and it was concerning to her, so she sent it out to have a specialist look at it. There was a good possibility it was cancer.

I should have called on Thursday to see if it had been read but I’m going to be real here and say I was afraid they were going to tell me it was cancer and she only had a week or two left. By the time Sunday came she could barely stand up and was screaming and crying in the way dogs do. So I load her up in the car and take her to VSS. They come out to get her and she jumps out of the car and starts walking around. They charge me a hundred bucks for different pain medicine and told me to get the x-ray read. I did not know at this time that they were the ones who were suppose to be reading it.

Monday arrives and the dog won’t even put her back leg down and by this time she is only getting up two or three times a day to potty and that is it. I call the vet and inform them she’s coming in. Now somewhere between the time I called and arrived VSS finally took a look at the x-ray. Now isn’t that convenient. They feel she has a bladder infection that seeded to her T-12 vertebral plate. Say what? My vet had never heard of this and because the dog was in such bad shape I had them keep her there overnight. They ran some tests and finally got a urine sample and sure enough Moonie had a bladder infection. The craziest thing is Moonie never acted like she had one. She never peed in the house, asked to go out a million times or anything. Just one day she couldn’t jump up on the couch.

I pick her up on Tuesday because the guy at the desk couldn’t take her whining anymore. They had to take her out of the cage she was in and put her in the extra exam room so she would be quiet. I naively thought after a day or two of antibiotics she would be back to her old self. She came home on codeine, gabepentin, augmentin, vetprofen, and pepcid. I was giving her stuff four times a day. She was on more medicine than half of the patients at my work. After about a week we switched out her codeine for tramadol and she took a second round of antibiotics. She finally got off everything this past Sunday and so far she can do everything except jump up on the furniture.

I realized over the past week that it isn’t really the obscene amount of money we spent to get her almost back to baseline. Although it does make me crazy because I am a money nazi. It’s the fact of how VSS acted and my vet. My vet should have followed up with them on Thursday. I should have called and asked but like I said I was afraid it was cancer. Is this how VSS would treat their mothers, grandmothers, or their own dog. I highly doubt they would mess around and wait an entire week until their dog is in so much pain she can’t even get up to go to the bathroom. However, I know if it was their dog, someone would have looked at it immediately. Often at work I remind myself to treat each patient as if she were a family member. It makes a huge difference with that mindset.

Now that I am calm, I plan to send VSS a letter and my approach will be more about how much needless suffering and pain my dog endured due to their incompetence rather than the money. Because in the big picture money is money that isn’t going with me when I die. Compassion and lack of it may be accounted for in Heaven.

Mole Moral ~ Only a mole dog gets a bladder infection that makes it impossible for her to walk!

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Cruise Notes Episode 3

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These cruise notes are taking me longer than expected. My life is insane and every time I go on vacation all chaos breaks loose when I return. This vacation was no different except my computer did not blow up. I say it’s because I now own a Mac and not a Window’s product. I really should just shut up before my Mac blows up! After all what are the chances of getting a virus on a Mac? Slim to none but I did in fact get one.

Ok back to the cruise. We visited Nassau on Monday and Kayla and I swam with the stingrays. That was pretty cool! I did ask about their stingers and they said different types are poisonous and the ones we were with were not. Plus they clip their stinger which I had issues with because that isn’t exactly nature. I purposely did not swim with dolphins because I read upsetting things about that but made sure I read nothing on stingrays. I probably should now that it is over. I also forgot I was wearing my Fitbit HR and fried that. It wasn’t kidding when it said it’s not waterproof. I let it dry out for five days and still nothing, so I bought a new one the day after I returned. What can I say, I’m an addict to the stats.

Two days later we were suppose to stop at half-moon cay. At six am the captain of the ship comes over the loudspeaker and announces that due to the waves we would not be able to stop. It was too dangerous to board the tender boats to go over to the island. Not five minutes later the perky cruise director (Professor Bing Bong) comes on and repeats it. Except for once, he wasn’t so cheerful that I wanted to slap him. Kayla and I were pretty disappointed as we were suppose to go snorkeling but its a risk one takes when they vacation with Shleprock. (To read about my nickname click on Shleprock). So later on in the day he is out on the pool deck and I announce to Kayla I’m going to go talk to him about how often this happens. Imagine my surprise when I find this picture on her phone after we got back.

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He informs me that this island gets cancelled about 20% of the time but it’s the first time it’s happened to him personally. I think he was rather new to his role but that’s just me trying to defend I’m not bad luck. So we spent four days on the cruise ship which was rather relaxing but also disappointing. I was refunded the money for our snorkeling which I promptly spent on pictures. I found out at dinner via Rose and Laney that two people were scheduled to get married on the island that day and they were unable to get married on the ship because it was in international waters and therefore would be invalid. That made me realize that missing snorkeling wasn’t so bad. I mean we can do another cruise at a later date and snorkel. But getting thirty people together on another cruise for a wedding probably is not feasible.

Mole moral~ Four days on a cruise ship wasn’t exactly what we planned, however we are blessed in being able to afford to go on a cruise and it was a good mother/daughter time.

 

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Cruise Notes Episode 2

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Everyone knows a cruise is all about the food and what better thing to write about than the people we had dinner with. The first night it was just Kayla and I and two sisters who were from Oklahoma. I thought that was really interesting since that is where Emily is currently for PT clinical’s. One was a teacher and the other was finishing up school. They both had red hair so that made them cool. I can only remember Anna’s name. They were also a little shy so not too much talking went on that first night. It was the second night when the party started. First Laney and Jessica showed up and then a couple whose names I cannot remember or where they were from. He would be the only dude at the table. The life of the party arrived next Rose and her x-sister in law Florence. That is really how she introduced them. Apparently Florence was married to Rose’s brother for thirty years until he became stupid and they remained friends. Florence was from Detroit and Rose lives in Jacksonville. Now Laney said she was from Missouri too but probably no one ever heard of it, Moberly. I said yes I knew where that was as the friend I got my beagle from (way back a hundred years ago) had cousins from there. Actually Brian had even been hunting up there. Such a small world. Laney also said her entire life people would call her Lanny. Well that immediately made me think of Lanny Donoho who founded and ran Big Stuf camp for around twenty-five years. (Camp is six weeks away!) Laney reminded me and Kayla so much of Allyson except for she’s about two foot taller! But they have the same hair cut, similar glasses, and mannerisms. She really was a lot of fun and combined with Rose the two of them talked and entertained the table the entire time. It was a blast for Kayla and I who don’t always talk much but listen to everything. Cruise with Steve

One lucky dude at a table with 9 good-looking women.

Our waiter was wonderful. His name was Phillip but I cannot remember where he was from. He really enjoyed the nightly performances the waiters put on for us. He was all smiles and really got into the singing and dancing. Just watching him was pure joy.

Rose was probably the best of everyone. She reminded me so much of my mom, crazy and fun all in one. She quickly noticed there was a table of hot young guys two tables over. She decided she was going over there to talk to them and have their picture taken. She found out they had just graduated from high school and were a baseball team. This was their farewell trip before they all went off to different colleges. They loved having their picture taken and ended up hanging out with her quite a bit in the casino. We asked them to take our picture and the one guy let Kayla know the other thought she was beautiful. After that I did notice the guys looked our way quite a bit.

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The food was pretty good especially when the last desert of the cruise was my favorite. Lime sherbet and baked Alaska! I have loved that since I was a little kid and the best story involves me in middle school. We had just come back from ice cream and my mom decided to drive through Dave Montgomery (I had a huge crush on him from 4-8 grade) subdivision. He just happened to be outside and I panicked and jumped in the floor board and dropped the ice-cream.  I cannot not remember if I had baked alaska  before. I had always wanted to make it but was too afraid. If you don’t do the meringue correctly the ice-cream melts and it’s a big disaster. It was really good. The sisters always thought it was fish! They tried it as well. That was the night everyone had either two or three deserts.

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My husband asked me every night if we had steak and lobster. The answer was no, although if we wanted to cough up another twenty bucks we could. I did throw high fat, low carb out the window for the week and jumped back on program when I got home. There was soft serve ice-cream available 24/7 and there was no way I was skipping that opportunity.

 

Mole moral~ Never pass up good food on a cruise! One week eating like a crazy person will not kill you. I’m still alive so I’m living proof.

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Cruise Notes Episode 1

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CruiseKayla and I had a really good time on our cruise. I decided rather than trying to jam the entire week into a single blog, I would do short little ones. I decided I would start with the professional picture sitting. This was on Tuesday night after dinner. The cruise had all of these areas set up to have pictures done. As we were walking by the all white one, the guy asked us if we wanted pictures done. I said sure why not and then remembered we have not had family pictures done since Allyson was 18 months old. First thing he told me was to relax. OMG I quickly realized I was as tense as if he was personally touching me or hugging me. So I tried to relax a bit and he continued to work with me.

The best part was this picture.

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He asked me if I could sit on the floor. I wanted to say dude I ran a marathon less than two months ago but I said sure. So we sit and instantly become so stiff it isn’t even funny. He then tells me to stick my chin out more. Well he mimics what I was doing and I die laughing. I mean it was insane but I did finally relax. Then another gal walks by and bumps his butt on accident. He asked her why she was pinching his butt. We were all dying. It was so much fun.

The next day Kayla and I picked out the ones we liked and actually he was behind the cash register. He instantly remembered me and gave me the stiff neck look from the day before. I told him the photos were awesome and he agreed especially this oneCruise 2

and he talked me into ordering a 16×20 canvas which was ready the next day. It turned out really nice and now I just have to have it framed. I certainly spent more money on pictures than I did anything else but I am glad I did.

 

Mole Moral ~ It’s much cheaper to have ugly children! Ha

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Mama Mole’s Birthday

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Birthday’s and Christmas’s are always interesting around the Mole house because one never knows what Brian is going to come up with as a gift. This year my birthday fell on Mothers day so anyone who is thinking it’s a double score would be wrong. Brian tells me every year “you are not my mother” and doesn’t even get me a card most years. I have many people share with me either their own father said that to their mother or their husbands say it to them so at least I am not alone.

Brian and Allyson had planned to go to our property on Saturday to plant the persimmon trees Brian received from Indiana this past week. Side note, he decided to plant these next to the plot he and Johnny (his best friend and co-owner of the property) tilled up and planted to feed animals. These trees fruit attract even more critters. Talk about a cheating way to shoot a deer. He denies that it is cheating so I call unfair advantage or something. On Thursday Brian was informed he would have to work Saturday which messed up all the plans. I assured him he and Allyson could still go on Sunday, it was ok a little alone time isn’t a bad way to spend a birthday and mothers day.

I slept in on Sunday and woke up around 8:30. Brian had left for the lake an hour before and woke me up two or three times asking me stupid questions. I played on my phone for about thirty minutes before I ventured out into the kitchen to see what my present was this year.

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Let me do a little explaining and start with the gift bag. It’s a known fact we never have the correct paper or bags for the occasion so we usually use whatever we find first. I asked him about the Diet Dr. Pepper because he knew I gave up sugar and fake sugar a week ago. He says well I thought you could have a couple of glasses to which I said and go through withdrawal again, no thanks. This week is national healthcare week and the unit is celebrating all weeks so my co-workers will enjoy it. I have eaten all the bread and butter pickles three different times before he could get any. So he bought me them. They are really good but have some sugar in them so I told him I can only eat two or three a day instead of the entire jar in two days. (Not a bad thing, really). I asked him to buy sunflower seeds so we could plant them. Well I discovered I could grow the dwarf ones in flowerpots so that sent me to The Home Depot around noon. I picked out six nice sized pots and said oh heck no they aren’t staying this ugly neutral color. I whipped out my paint and am painting them. I think it’s going to take six coats of paint before the base coat looks right. Then I plan to decorate each one. I am considering one to say The Moles and then the other five done in ways that describe each of us. I haven’t decided of sure. So that two dollar gift is turning into a fifty dollar project. I am sure everyone is thinking forget that stuff what is the cigar all about it. Back when Kayla and I visited Missouri State and ate at Lambert’s cafe my meal came with a cigar. It has been laying around the house ever since. Anytime I work day shift (as in leave the house at six in the morning) Brian will find some bizarre obscure object and put it in my lunch box when I am not looking. Here are some example of stuff I have found in my lunch, a small pumpkin, a hair bow, a lighter, an eraser, and Kayla’s inhaler among other things. So I was not surprised at all to find a cigar in my birthday present.

We had a fantastic dinner the night before with Brian making the steak and I making stuffed mushrooms. Of course Allyson didn’t like any of it, stating it was all too fancy. I had strawberries and cream for dessert. It was really tasty. Brian said “you are eating like it’s your birhtday”. To which I replied, “it is tomorrow and that’s close enough.”

 

Mole Moral ~ Sometimes the best gifts come stuffed in a Christmas bag or your lunch box.

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Physical Therapy VS Nursing

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This past Friday was Emily’s white coat ceremony for Physical Therapy School.

“This is a ritual in physical therapy school that marks the student’s transition for the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences. this landmark ceremony involves a formal ‘robing’ or ‘cloaking’ of second year students in white coats, signifying their transition for the basic science and academic portion of their education to their clinical studies. Students receiving white coats in today’s ceremony have successfully completed foundational coursework, lab practical examinations and comprehensive examinations covering basic sciences, physical therapy management, research, and professionalism in anticipation of their upcoming clinical experiences in physical therapy practice settings across the nation. Every student in todays ceremony strives to embody the core values of Rockhurst University and the physical teary profession, including altruism, compassion and caring, integrity, excellence, professional duty, social responsibility, and active acceptance of responsibility for the diverse roles of a physical therapist (accountability).” Rockhurst University

I am not sure what I expected at the ceremony but it certainly wasn’t to be a blubbering mess. I found myself tearful on several occasions. Firstly, it reminded me of all those years ago (1986) when I received my cap from Debbie Dutton (a third year Deaconess student). I didn’t know any nurses who could have capped me but I picked her because I admired her so much and I could barely speak to her. I was very shy back then. This was a huge deal as well and after that we had to wear these crazy caps to clinical’s.

They had a speaker who had graduated from the physical therapy program twenty years ago. She was fantastic and when she spoke about how nervous she was when she first started clinical’s because she was going to be in charge of real patients and what if she missed something or killed someone. And it was at the moment i realized two things. Firstly, physical therapy is way more closely to nursing than I ever realized and secondly, new nurses also feel this way. Here lately at work we have had a fair amount of new nurses start on our floor. This caused me to remember my very first day of orientation which I have shared with some of the girls over the years. Anyway I was working at Deaconess on the renal, ENT, and GU floor. We walked into our patients room who had a laryngectomy and had a laryngectomy tube. This is similar to a trach but bigger. He happened to cough right as we walked in and out flew his tube and landed on the floor. I was thinking what the hell had I gotten myself into but my preceptor walked over and picked it up off the floor, rinsed it, stuck the obdurator back in and shoved it back in his neck as if it happened all the time. Later I would realize that was the only time that ever happened in the two years I worked there. Had my preceptor flipped out, I might have ended up a totally different nurse. So clinical instructors and preceptors are very important in shaping a future nurse or physical therapist. I do not precept new nurses because it makes me nervous and I do things my way which isn’t the best way to instruct new people. I am however a resource and will answer any question or show anyone how to do anything.

Next they did the blessing of the hands which I thought was wonderful and really wished nurses did this. Each student took oil and wrote the letters P on the palm of one hand and T on the other hand. It must have been super oily because the look on their faces was hysterical.

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And after it was over I began to reflect on physical therapy because as a nurse they have always been a pain in our neck. They always call “can I work with your patient in room x”. I want to say don’t call me just do it but I am sure they are taught this way. They always seem to get the biggest patients up all by themselves and then they leave. It always takes five nurses to get them back to bed. If you don’t believe me and need a good laugh please click to view this PT vs Nursing. Emily and I watched it together a year or so ago and were laughing so hard we could barely breath. I really never recognized that they  also have a healing touch. That they can seriously injure a patient just like a nurse. That they have to be mental therapists just like nurses because you just can’t teach a patient to walk again without learning a whole lot about his background and what kind of environment he comes from.

 

Mole moral ~ Perhaps those physical therapists with their gait belts permanently attached to them aren’t so bad after all. If they would only put the patients back to bed, life would be well PERFECT!

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Visiting UCM

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Friday morning kayla and I got out of bed at 5:30 and 5:55 to drive up to Warrensburg to visit University of Central Missouri. I will not lie, I had never even heard of it. Back when Kayla was deciding where to apply I had went to the State Board of Nursing site to see which school had the highest pass rate for nursing boards. At one time it was Missouri State but UCM was at the top with 97% so I said apply there too.

This was an individual visit as we had missed the campus visit day because of work conflict schedules. It was really nice and very individualized. A current student took us on a walking tour of the campus and in and out of the building. I must say the library is huge! The campus is smaller than Missouri State and they don’t have near the amount of stadiums and fields but that was ok. After that we met with a lady who went over what credits would transfer in. All of Kayla’s will except two classes that were like how to survive college. She was very happy to see that Kayla had not taken all of her pre requisites for nursing because that would count against her. She has mostly finished the general education stuff. This was the first school that didn’t give us the you need to have a 3.75 GPA to be even considered for the nursing program so it was nice seeing you. They said they have found that GPA does not really determine who would make the best nurse. Obviously because I had a 3.4 in high school with a 24 on the ACT and I am a rockstar nurse. They base admission on grades, a personal interview, extracurricular activities and volunteer work. I was so happy to hear this as I always thought admission based on GPA alone was unfair. There are many nurses that I have encountered over the years that were rockstar but not straight A students.

The mascot is a mule and his name is Mo. I found this hysterical since my husband is often called Mo by his friends and golf buddies. When we first got information from this place he immedialty yelled “jackass” and every time we mention it he yells “jackass!” Our household is so mature. In his defense, on the way to his brothers house, a guy has two donkeys that can be seen from the street. He never misses his chance to yell “jackass”. So Kayla needs to choose between a bear or a mule within the next week. It’s time to sign up for housing before she ends up living in her car for the year.

Also, food is Kayla’s life and she found out they were moving Chick-fil-A to the basement and getting rid of Burger King and putting in a Steak N Shake were Chick-fil-A was. I thought she might sign the papers right then and there. The campus has three Starbucks and either one or two Einsteins Bagels. Who could go wrong with those food options, not counting the smorgasbord in the university cafeteria.

 

Mole moral ~ If Kayla does indeed choose UCM and becomes a nurse her father will probably always call her the “jackass nurse”!

 

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Hitching a ride

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Yesterday I had the house to myself as Kayla was at work and Brian and Allyson were at the property hunting turkey. So what better thing to do than catch up on Fear Thy Neighbor on DVR. The episode that stuck out the most was the guy that moved in next to a crazy cat lady. She did a lot of cat rescue and had actually purchased a house down the street for the cats only. The feud builds and builds and the guy buys pit bulls that are mean as heck and leaves them chained up outside making them even meaner. She always got up at 4 to go to the other house to feed her cats and one morning he let his dogs out and they trapped her between the houses. She screamed for twenty minutes right outside his window until they finally killed her. It was horrific so I decided I better walk my killer dog to keep her calm. I usually manage to walk her once a week because she annoys the heck out of me. She attempts to pee everywhere and sniff and I just want to walk and get it finished. So I take her on a new route and a mile away from the house she stops and starts eating grass.

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She wouldn’t move and kept on eating grass and then puked and ate more grass. I had to call Brian to see if he and Allyson were on their way home from the property because there was no way I was going to get her to walk back. Yep I thought about carrying her but fifty pounds for a mile is too much like a biggest loser challenge and I wasn’t making enough money. He said he was about fifteen minutes away so I sat and waited for him. While she kept up with the eating the grass. He arrived and told me it was too hot for her black self to be walking. I said oh nice try, we are in the shade and its a nice breeze. He took us both home and then I left again to run two miles straight without walking before I killed the dog.

Mole moral~Pay someone to walk the killer fat fry who doesn’t mind stopping every twenty seconds and taking at least thirty minutes to walk a mile!

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Our visit to Missouri State

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Last night Kayla and I headed to Springfield to attend a campus visit at Missouri State. Neither one of us is a morning person so it was best to go down the night before rather than leaving at 5:30 in the morning. When I visited Rockhurst with Emily the entire thing was structured with scheduled activities. This was laid back. It started with me parking in the wrong spot but I didn’t get a ticket. Next up Kayla wasn’t on the expected list even though she received the reminder email. I thought here we go typical Mole craziness. After that things went smoothly. We started by taking a campus tour on a bus. That was a little overwhelming and at first we thought the campus was huge. We quickly discovered its a big square easily walkable. We then went on the dorm tours. The normal freshman dorm rooms with the community showers were way bigger than the Rockhurst rooms. We then visited the six person suite. It has three separate bedrooms each with a door and a lock. It also has a community living room and a small fridge. We visited the four person suites and liked it the best. It had two different rooms with locked doors, a bathroom and a kitchen with a full-sized fridge and microwave. Amazingly we did not pick the most expensive place to live. The four person suites are located by the dining hall and one doesn’t have to even go outside to eat. I told Kayla forget the freshman fifteen she will gain the sophomore seventy! Each dorm has its own laundry room and the laundry is FREE. As in no quarters are needed. I told Kayla there is no reason to bring her laundry home for me to do! You can also check on-line to see which washers are in use and if yours are finished. I would have never imagined such high-tech all those years ago when I went to nursing school.

The school also has buses that not only drive you around campus, but will also take you downtown and back. Kayla liked this feature and said she could save her gas for coming home from time to time. We went to admission, housing and financial aid lecture. When they posted that it was 16,000 a YEAR to attend, I almost fell out of my chair. This included housing and 19 meals a week. After all a girl has to eat!  Rockhurst was 16,000 a SEMESTER.

It was 12:30 and Kayla and I were ready to leave. We weren’t even a mile from school when she realized she forgot to have me take her picture with the bear. So we turned around and went back and snapped a photo. It was a great campus and if she decides to go there I will be thrilled. After all it’s where I wanted to go. She still wants to visit University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg and then decide for sure. However we are going to set up her portal and schedule the time for her classes and apply to the dorm. She has to go get a meningitis shot and finish up her hep a shot series on Monday. She said to me but I had meningitis. I said that was viral meningitis and the shot is for bacterial. As soon as she found out she would receive it in her arm she was fine with it. She has yet to get over the steroid shot in her butt when she had a major asthma attack.

 

Mole moral~One more campus visit and then Kayla is that much closer to going away to college and some freedom from her old Mole parents! We are both excited for her future.