Just Bethany :)

• Writing.  I am quickly falling in love with the Journalism business.  My work with the school paper has been so much fun, and I am meeting a lot of new people which is always a good thing.  My Journalism teachers are absolutely wonderful…they make learning about writing, fun.  Which, I think is something not many people can do.
• My life.  It seems like I was a bit disconnected with my family (distant family to be exact) for a long time.  It was really my fault, but, I am reconnected and am proud to be a part of my family.
• My social life.  I have never considered myself to be a social butterfly, but recently things have been picking up.  I like it.
• Staying busy.  I am always doing something.  Going to this game or that game, writing about this article or that article.
• My big secret.  I can’t wait to be able to write about it!!
• And, in the last 24 hours a certain hockey blogger who shall remain nameless.

I added an entire page devoted to quotes on my site.  But, I wanted to add this one on here so it would get the attention it deserved.  My teacher put it up…and I loved it!!

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

Thomas Mann

 

**Please read this post  remembering that I am on a lot of medication at the moment.**

Day three and I am already having issues.  Not with school really, but the last couple of days I have been having issues with swallowing and a sore throat.  This morning I woke up with difficulty breathing, so I woke my mom up.  I couldn’t stop crying, and when I get like that, I don’t take questions very easily.  I’m sure I was rude to her on more than one occasion.  Neither of us knew what to do, and we finally decided I should go to the hospital.  I put on some comfy clothes and off we went.  Luckily, the Emergency Room wasn’t too full and I was helped immediately.  I was supposed to get a shot of cortizone, but luckily right before the nurse stuck me, the doctor came in, and said “Hey, just feed it through the IV.”  I only got stuck once, but the nurse had difficulty getting the vein.  She dug around until she FINALLY got it.  Then the doctor wanted to do a cat scan.  So, off I went.  They put me in a wheelchair, which really bothered me because I could walk, I was fine to walk.  But, no.  My head went into the cat scan and they pulled me out.  Then they put this dye in me.  The dye made me warm all over, and they took another one.  The cat scan technician noticed that one side was worse than the other.  But, the doctor said he didn’t see anything on the cat scan.  Weird.  I ran into a woman from work, and she said that I looked awful, which made me feel GREAT.  I ended up having an inflamed roof of my mouth, and a uvula that was filling with fluid.  The uvula filling with fluid is what was causing me to have issues breathing and swallowing.  The doctor told me to take antibiotics, pain pills, and benadry.  I went home and went back to bed.  I was determined not to miss school, so I woke up and got a shower, and off I went.  I made it through my first class, and there is about an hour and a half between my first and second class.  I sat in a building lounging on the bench, and playing on my computer.  I began getting dizzy and lightheaded.  I immediately called my mom, and bless her heart, she came and got me.  I went home, seriously regretting my decision to go to school.  I took another pain pill, and fell asleep.  I don’t know what I am going to do about school tomorrow.  I have an 8 o’clock class, and it’s math…I guess we will see how it goes and what I decide.  I will keep you posted.

I have had a HUGE week, and some things I can talk about, and other things I can’t talk about.  But, suffice to say, it has been probably the best week of my life.  On Tuesday I received an anonymous e-mail with a bit of scoop on the Blue Jackets.  I sent a portion of it to my friend at the Dispatch, Aaron Portzline.  Portzline picked up the story, and found out it was true.  He even gave me credit on the blog for the story.

That’s not where my story ends.

The story has been picked up by just about every media outlet.  I haven’t been given credit on breaking the story on every single one, but on some I have.  Like The Hockey News, and The New York Times.

This week also means that I have  started working on the school paper.  I’m covering sports, obviously.  There is some more HUGE news that will be coming out in the next couple of weeks but, until then, I will keep it on the down low.

It started out like any other day.  I woke up a little late, and headed to work.  I had to go on an order about 30 - 40 minutes away, and I had decided to make a day out of it, and just relax on my way home.  After I dropped the order off, I picked up some lunch at Chipotle, and then stopped at the pet store to get my little turtle some feeder fish as a special treat.  As I was checking out of the pet store, fish in hand, I received a phone call, it was my mom she had run out of gas.  I told her I was on my way, but it would be a while.  I drove home and ran into some traffic, so I called my friends little sister, and had her go ahead and get the gas for me.  I met her and got the gas and then went to rescue my mom.  We had a bit of trouble getting the cap off, but finally got it open and gave her car a drink.

I thought yes, I can go home and relax.  I hopped in my car, to follow my mom to the gas station, but, as I sat in my car, waiting for my mom to go, I noticed she wasn’t moving.  Then, another phone call, it was her, “It won’t start.”  I tried to stay happy, I mean, she just needs a jump right?  Then, we both realized neither of us had jumper cables.  We phoned AAA and anxiously waited in the air conditioning of my car, and munched on my Chipotle.  Luckily, Chris, the AAA guy, came very quickly and we thought we would be out of there in no time.  That wasn’t the case.  The car wouldn’t take the jump, so we had to get a tow, luckily, I have the AAA Gold membership, that allows for an up to 100 miles tow.  We waited close to an hour and a half for a tow truck, and he finally came.

That was it I thought.  It couldn’t get much worse.  We picked up and headed for the car dealership.  Mom held the fish, as we made our way to the dealership.  We dropped off the car, and headed back to the car.  I had put the fish in the passenger seat, because it was in the shade.  When mom opened the car door, I said “Mom, watch the fish.”  I guess she didn’t hear me because she got hopped in the car and I hear a *POP* and the look of death came on my face and I said, “OH NO!!”  Mom quickly got up, and we looked at the fish, they were all there and all alive, but their oxygen was gone.   I ran to the nearest gas station, and grabbed a cup and dumped the fishies in there.

Mom and I stopped at McDonalds for a snack, and then went to the bank, and were able to make it home.  This entire adventure took about FIVE hours…and while may not seem like a lot, it was a crazy day, and one I do not want to live again.

I actually got this recipe from here…but I have kind of tweaked it a bit.

Ingredients

1 (7.5) oz can Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (I always get a four pack because we go through these so fast)

¼ cup Splenda ~ I always use a little more

3 tsp Cinnamom

40 mini-Marshmallows

*Preheat oven 400*

1. Spray 10 wells of a 12 hole muffin pan with butter flavor cooking spray.
2. Separate and flatten each biscuit into a 4-inch circle.
3. In a small bowl combine splenda, & cinnamon.
4. Dip each biscuit into mixture.
5. Place 4 marshmallows in the center of biscuit and bring the edges up to form a ball.
6. Place in the muffin tin seam side down.
7. Spray with spray butter and then sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon/splenda mixture.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes
9. After getting out of oven, spray again with spray butter.
10. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

These are absolutely delicious and SO easy to make…and they only have 60 calories!!  My mom and I are both doing Weight Watchers right now, so if you are too, these suckers are only 1 point!!

I have never posted a recipe up on my blog but figure I should because I made something so delicious this weekend!! It’s called a tomato toss and it is absolutely delicious, of course everything is to taste, depending on what you like so play around with it.

Cherry Tomatoes (I ended up using an entire package) ~ You want to cut them into quarters so they’re bite sized.

Whole Kernel Corn ~ I used about a half a cup

Green Olives ~ I cut them up into little pieces

Red Onion ~ Quarter of a cup

Black Beans ~ Half Cup

Fresh Cilantro ~ This is totally to taste, I probably used two tablespoons or so…make sure you chop it up very thin.

Sea Salt ~ Teaspoon, not too much more than that because the chips typically have salt.

Olive Oil ~ Teaspoon

Balsamic Vinegar ~ Tablespoon

Juice of a medium lemon

Combine it all into a bowl and let it sit for about an hour or so. It is soooo good. I didn’t take a picture of it, but I will tonight when I make it and stick it up here.

Kelsie got baptized on Sunday, it was a beautiful ceremony, even though I wasn’t really sure what was going on.  It was my first time at a Catholic baptism, and only my second time in a Catholic church.  All in all it was a great and I was glad that I had the opportunity to be there.  Here’s a recent picture of my little cutie!!

Mothers Day is a really special day!!  I’m pretty lucky because I have a lot of ‘moms’ that have done so much for me!!

Thank mom for all you do for me, thanks for always being there and supporting me.  I know there is no way I would be able to do school without you pushing me to do better.  You have set a great example for me, and I’m thankful that I have you in my life.  You’re honestly my best friend, and I am so lucky to have you as a mom.

Aunt Debbie, if you read this (which you probably will because I”m going to tell you to go on my blog when I come over for dinner lol) thank you for always encouraging me!!  You were always there to support me when things were rough with my family and you have always been there for me.  Thank you for helping me with my writing, and encouraging me to pursue my dream.  I appreciate all you do for my family.  I hope I can be half the Aunt you are to my little niece.

I have other ‘moms’ in my life too, but these two deserve the biggest shou tout because they have to put up with me, day in and day out.

I hate feeling disconnected.  My grandparents live in Pikeville, KY, there is no cell phone service down there, and you can forget about finding wi-fi.  I don’t like going down there because I feel alone.  I like being able to check the news, google things, play on the computer and talk to my friends, you can’t do that without a cell phone or the internet!!  So, I don’t go down.  At some point my mom will force me to…but she hasn’t succeeded just yet.