catching up - hurricane irene - state board practical exam

despite everything going on, i still needed to practice for my state board practical exam.  this was the last exam that i needed to complete and pass before i can get my license for nail technician.  the thing that i was most worried about was the nail sculpt(well and the polish - base, 2 coats of colour, top coat no mistakes in 10minutes or less).  we have 20minutes to do a nail sculpt with 1.5 grids in length and with odorless acrylic which takes longer to set up and longer to file and shape because it creates a very rubbery and thick inhibition layer on it.  now my nail sculpting isn't bad, or ever was, but given the time and materials...it was smart to practice.

[nail sculpt practice- just using white powder to save the natural that was needed at state board]

and while practicing we had the outer bands of hurricane irene come through:

[these were all taken 5minutes apart in the same spot and no photo editing.  my point was to try to capture the rotation in the clouds that was happening.  we were lucky that all we had was a lot of wind and rain.]

hurricane irene had no effect on my testing date or time, which was a relief.  on the 29th at 6am, my mum and i headed to richmond, va to the testing hotel.  i actually saw one of the other girls that i went to school with there which made me really happy!  there were about 13 or 15 of us testing, and i walked out of the testing room with a smile on my face and that says A  LOT for me.  i am such a nervous test taker.  i had forgotten how bad i get.  but lady fingers came through with me and came out looking pretty good.  now i just wait until i get that letter in the mail letting me know how i did.  keep your fingers crossed!

[bad photo of lady fingers in the parking lot after state boards.  i was excited okay.]

catching up - lake erie, pa and allegheny college bound

i really didn't mean to go this long without an update.  i've had several posts started in my head, but it's been very hard to get any one done.  i'm technically off today and tomorrow and this is on my list of to-do's, so here we go!


since i last shared, heather was here and was staying with us until she had to go to her scheduled move-in at allegheny college in pennsylvania.  we were able to do a good amount of things except for hit up an amusement park(next year!) while she was here and getting back up do D.C.,  but i think just getting out of new mexico was good enough for her. the entire time she was with us she was so excited about the move-in and setting up her side of her dorm room.  jeremi on the other hand, was not as excited.  this was a little harder for him because he hated the idea of leaving his little sister all alone in a place he had never even been too, but she needed it.


at 6am on the 8.25.2011 jeremi, heather, mum, dad, cosette, and myself all piled in to a huge truck loaded to the brim to get heather to college.  the drive wasn't bad, but then again i kept nodding off every other hour. this was only the second time for me being in pennsylvania, and not in a big city atmosphere.  the last time i was there was for a day trip to go to philadelphia to visit the mutter museum, get a steakandcheese, and come back home.  this time we were on the western side of the state, and it was beautifully green and rolling hills.  we stopped in her college town of meadville to check it out first and then to erie, pa which was maybe 35minutes northwest from meadville to stay the night and to see lake erie.


once in erie, my parents immediately started toward lake erie.  as you can tell in my blog, my family are big lake people.  we have our few that we make it to yearly, so to go to one of the great lakes was really exciting.  what was even more exciting(to me) was that it wasn't like a lake.  it was more like the ocean.  you can't see across it, there are waves, beaches, dunes, beach grass, shells, and seagulls!  i think what made me so happy was that i have always wanted to take cosette to the ocean to see what she would do.  she's only ever been on desert sand.  cosette seemed to really enjoy it!  she would run all the way out and back again away from the water.  that is until she saw seagulls.  she apparently hates seagulls.  we spent a good 2 hours there just walking the beach which was nice, and all we needed.  

[a lighthouse on lake erie]

[one of the beaches]

[cosette]

[pawprint]

[my feet and her pawprints]

[attack!]

[me at lake erie]

we stayed the night in erie, and then friday we were back off to meadville to get heather settled in.  we didn't really have a lot of time to spend with her there because she already had a group meeting to attend and a picnic so it was a quick move-in, trip to the store for essentials that she couldn't bring along and back for huge hugs and good luck wishes.

[heather's dorm door with warm welcomes]

[her laptop case - jealous.]

[jem and heather before the goodbye for a little while]

we left her happy and excited, though a little anxious and nervous(who wouldn't be?).  i hope that she is finally settled in and that her first week of classes are going well <3