my car wreck

yes, that is what my car looked like after some guy decided to lock up his brakes for some unknown reason. he told the cops that someone cut him off in ongoing traffic through a green light, but the witnesses say that he's lying. this is the story from my point of view:

I was coming home from Applebee's and was getting off the interstate when someone driving a van decided to stop instead of continue onto the road. well, i guess he thought i got too close for comfort behind him so he decided to follow me after i passed them. a car was slowing down to get into the turning lane in front of me so im guessing he saw this as an opportunity to get in front of me. this is where he locked his brakes up and i rear-ended him. 2 people in a van pulled up near the wreck to see if we were ok since the guy i hit decided that he would rather take photos of mine and his skid marks and my license plate(?) with his knock off razr phone than see if i was ok (im sure you can guess that he did this on purpose?). one of the witnesses called the cops while the other one came over to me to see if i was ok. i couldnt get my car door open so i just sat in my car until my parents got there. an ambulance came and asked me if i was alright. i told them that i was just a little shaken up. two police officers showed up 5 minutes later and took everyones statements. they told my family and i what the guy had told them (see the first thing i told you) and that they pretty much figured he was lying considering he had 15 feet of skid marks. another great thing about this guy was that he had about 5 kids and a wife in the car with him and the witness that talked to me until my parents got there said that when he went over there to check on all of them, none of them were in seatbelts and about 3 of the kids needed to be in carseats. i dont know what the police did about that but they told us to call our insurance company asap and have them deal with it. my mom took a bunch of pictures and one cop even told her to take video of how long the skid marks were. lets just say that after being 19 for not even a day, im not sure i want to find out how the rest of my time being 19 will turn out haha. here are some more pictures of the accident:

the back of my car. notice the skid marks (sorry these may be blurry...my hands were shaking because it was so cold!

his skid marks are on the right, mine are on the left

this is the guys gross van...there was dirt all over the road. the cops said it came from underneath is van! also, notice the stare im getting from the kid in the back of the van...yep i got those same stares from everyone who was in that car when the dad was planning to slam on his brakes...because obviously he knew about half a mile before it happened that someone was going to cut him off...hmm? i find that very odd, dont u?

hello :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME TOMORROW :)

ready for the holidays!!!

i don't know about you guys, but i am definitely ready for this holiday season to get here. this friday is my last day before thanksgiving break. i dont go the whole week next week and i cannot wait to sleep in and be lazy! well, maybe not that lazy...i will have to write a paper for english class, clean my room, and most important of all....celebrate my 19th birthday! :)


nothing new has really happened since my last post. one thing that was exciting was that i got to pick up my PDA for school today (no, it was NOT free....we had to pay for it.) im not completely sure why we get them (nursing school students only!), but i think it will have things on there that will help us study and what not. i don't know but as soon as i know, ill let you guys know!!


hmmmm.......OH! we're definitely going to paint my room red for my birthday and christmas and my grandma (mom's mom) bought me a new memory foam mattress pad which i absolutely cant wait to put on my bed and be comfy!


a little update on the bridal shower im throwing for my sister:
`ive decided to have it May 30, 2009...i will still send out invitations way later but this is just a heads up.
`ive got games, prizes, and a few little extra things that will hopefully keep everyone entertained throughout the whole bridal shower...
`im so excited to throw this shower for my sis..she's been so great to me and i really want to show her how much i appreciate everything shes done for me. plus i want to see if she can top everything i do when its my turn to get married and she becomes MY maid of honor ;) just kidding...


well i think thats it...im going to try to find some pictures to post but terry deleted a lot of things in an attempt to "clean up" haha....


here's what i found:

Katelyn and me at my high school graduation...

...this is Jay Bruce, my future husband :) Terry and I had AMAZING seats at my very first MLB game...i dont think this was a zoomed in picture!...

...and this is a picture of Terry and I on the ferry crossing the river to go to the Reds game....BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15 days...........

UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

im so excited!! my last year as a teenager!! lol

and something to be even MORE excited about...

MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!!!!
and she asked ME to be her MAID OF HONOR!!! im so excited!!!

im planning a bridal shower at my house for terry's side of the family and my mom's side of them family. im thinking we might have it sometime in May since katelyn and curt are getting married June 27th! i cannot wait!!!!!!

on another note, i scheduled for spring semester classes last week (i was allowed priority scheduling because im a nursing student....). here's my schedule:

CHM 204 (Chemistry) MW from 2-3:15

ENG 102 (English) MWF from 12-12:50

SOC 200 (Sociology) MWF from 10-10:50

BSC 228 (Physiology) TR from 11-12:15

BSC 228 Lab R from 1-3:50

SFT 235 (Safety) TR from 4-5:15

my safety class is an international elective. i have to take 6 hours of electives within 4 years of college....i think im going to take some courses over the summer to help me get through it. there are some insanely hard courses...ill need all the help can get.

baaaaaaad news

i know i havent posted anything lately...life's been pretty hectic. my friends were in a bad car accident monday morning around 1am. i was notified around 2:30am and then couldn't sleep...i copied an email i sent to my aunt cathy and im going to paste it here so u can read the extent of my friends' injuries:

I have been awake since 2:30am when I got the call about matt being in a car accident. little did I know that it was worse than I ever imagined. here's the lowdown on matt and his friends [yes, two of his friends, justin and greg (brothers) were in the accident also].

-matt has a bruise on his forehead in the shape of a steering wheel, a broken nose, swollen/busted lips, multiple fractures in his ankle, and he has difficulty with his right arm. mainly all of his pain is on his right side. his doctor has him on bedrest and he's not too happy about it.
-greg got the worst of it all simply bc he did not have on his seatbelt. greg went through the windshield (I'm not sure if his whole body went through or just his upper body). he still has glass in his head, scratches all over his face, stitches in his nose and lip, deep gashes near his jugular (any closer toit and he would have probably died), gashes on his arms, a broken collarbone, a dislocated elbow, 25 stitches on his forearm, 2 broken ribs, and a partially punctured lung. he gets morphine every 30-40 minutes lol.
-justin was in the backseat with a seatbelt on so he wasn't as bad as matt and greg. he has a seatbelt burn on his chest and stomach area, but a little later in the day, he started complaining of pain in his intestinal area so they had to do a ct scan on him.

this is a very difficult time for both the barriteau and the brooks families...matts parents don't know yet bc no one wants them to worry before his dads surgery...

sorry this is so long but I thought u might want to know what was going on.

love, alex

Matt is my ex-boyfriend. his dad is the one who has carcinoid cancer and he is having surgery on everything but his liver tomorrow (wednesday) and they dont want matt's parents to worry before the surgery so theyre waiting to tell them afterwards. they are in louisiana for the surgery...

prayer works wonders, and everyone needs it right now. if u dont mind, could u please keep these people in ur thoughts and prayers? thank you.

-alex

ps - my eye is healing really well...i was supposed to go to the doctor yesterday but didnt get around to it. just a check-in though, nothing major. i should be able to wear contacts now but i want to get it checked first.

bad, then good, news :)

bad news: my left eye had beed botherting me on tuesday and wednesday, so yesterday morning (wednesday), i decided to take my contacts out and wear my glasses to school. well, when i tried to take my left one out, i had a few problems (nothing out of the ordinary since i have long (fake) nails again). after i got my righ contact out with hardly any problems, i realized that i couldnt find my left contact. it fell out somewhere and is no where to be found. anywho, after blindly looking for it for about 15 minutes, i gave up, but i realized that i had a weird feeling in my left eye. it felt like there was a hair on my eyeball and i couldnt get it to go way. i decided to ignore it and put my glasses on and went to school. as i was walking to my class, i called my mom and told her about what had happened this morning with my contacts. she asked me if i wanted to come to the hospital and see if she could see anything in my eye, but i told her that i was ok and that i could always ask my friend rachel to check it if needed. well, after anatomy class i call my mom and tell her that im coming to let her check out my eye. i told her that when i looked in the bathroom mirror, i saw a scratch or something above my iris. she looked at it and said that i was right about the scratch. she called the eye doctor at walmart to see if i could come in and let the doctor take a look. so i go to the doctor and he tells me that i have a corneal ulcer and it could potentiall be serious.....meaning i would have to get a cornea transplan! (here's some information on it - http://www.stlukeseye.com/conditions/CornealUlcer.asp). just a little background on me and my contacts: i sleep in them and i dont take them out for about 2-3 months. i DO NOT recommend doing that. BACK TO THE STORY! so in order to treat my eye, the doctor dilated my eye (and its still not completely back to normal - almost 32 hours later) and prescribed me Vigamox (heavy-duty eyedrops) and gave me the following instructions:

-one drop every 15 minutes for 2 hours,

-one drop every hour for 2 hours,

-one drop every 2-3 hours

and since my eye was dilated, and i couldnt see without my glasses, i had to walk around walmart AND campus looking like this:

no i was not happy looking like this...more like embarassed. i got many stares and i kept my head down a lot when walking...luckily i was past the one-drop-every-15-minutes phase and only had to put on drop in in my math class.

i went back to the doctor today (thursday) to have a little checkup to make sure my eye was healing ok and the doctor said everything seemed to be healing ok and that i had a pretty serious ulcer...more serious than most. now, if that doesnt scare me, idk what will. but i was told that my ulcer should heal just fine but would leave a scar on my cornea. good think about the position of the ulcer is that i cant see it so my vision shouldnt be impaired. i go back monday to see when i will be able to wear contacts again (which im not sure if i really want to haha).

ok, ok, enough bad news. time for the good news!!!

today started out ok. i had a psychology exam this morning. let me tell u a little bit about the lady who (tries to) teach our class...i believe she is a grad student but looks as though she should be ready to retire and every day that she comes into the classroom (which is only tuesdays and thursdays), she complains about having so much homework and not getting enough sleep and blah blah blah...and what makes it worse is that she doesnt really know how to teach (that is why i didnt call her my teacher or my professor earlier in the paragraph). so ANYWAYS, we had our exam today and she gave us a "study guide" (i wouldnt really call it that since everything on the test was NOT on the study guide) so im sure i didnt do so well on that exam.

BUT! i also had an anatomy lab midterm today (i LOVE anatomy, but i could do without the lab) and im almost positive i got every single answer right!!!! there were 25 questions + two bonus...i cant wait until next week to figure out what i got!! so theres my bad and good news :)

now for just some random news thats been going on the past couple of days:

-last weekend i went to hibachi with my friend mark and tried sushi for first time (technically the second but the first time was at a buffet so i dont really count that one) and i actually like it!

-i got a 90% on my second anatomy exam...the class average was a 68.5%

-we finally picked a book for our iTEAMS group. we chose Perspectives and i cant wait to read it! we read the first chapter and it seems like it's going to be a good read.

-ummm its been pretty warm the past couple of days and its supposed to feel like summer for a few days..

i guess thats all...this has been a very long, but much needed, post!

ttyl!!!

PICTURES!!!

aww :)












the room where we sang and worshipped at the retreat in Parchment Valley








barn art...odd looking picture of the last supper (everyone looked weird lol)








donating blood...yum! lol












i look so relaxed but i was actually in a little bit of pain because the lady placed the needle wrong...we're thinking she maybe nicked the bottom of my vein and i bled out the whole time i was donating blood...










this is me on maybe the second week of college :)





























isnt she adorable?!































tossing katelyn at the marshall game!






















my arm only 1-2 days after donating blood (bruise is barely visible in the picture but in real life it was yucky!)




























my arm after about a week...its even worse in person and its only gonna get uglier :-\

stress = unhappiness :(

pain :(

so i found out why my arm was hurting so badly...

i have a hematoma from where the lady who took my blood made me bleed out of my vein into my muscle..? i believe thats what a hematoma is...hold on, i'll google it.

According to virtualtrials.com/dictionary, a hematoma is:

(noun) : a mass of usu. clotted blood that forms in a tissue, organ, or body space as a result of a broken blood vessel

so yea...sounds painful? it is...i can't straighten my arm the whole 180 degrees (well i can but it hurts..) and bending isnt as easy as it used to be either...

mom said i would have a bruise that will make me look like a druggie...oh joy!

oh well, it should go away within a week or two...

today's the day

this is going to be a short blog because i dont have much to talk about except for the fact that my ex-boyfriend's dad is in Louisiana right now and he's about to find out if his cancer is terminal or not...

John Barriteau (my ex's dad) has cancer known as Carcinoid Syndrome. it is mainly in his appendiz and liver. he's been developing this for about 2 years now. Here are some links to information about it:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/carcinoid-syndrome/DS00690
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/000347.htm
http://www.carcinoid.com/index.jsp

i think my ex boyfriends sister, Megan Stevens, had buttons made, but im not exactly sure. i do know that they want to spread the word about this type of cancer because it is extremely rare!

-----------------------------------------------------

OK so i just found out that my ex's dad is having surgery on everything except his liver (earlier they said he would have to have a liver transplant but im not sure if thats still in affect or not).

ALSO TODAY - i gave blood for the second time in my life....and now i am 2 for 2 on almost passing out lol
i did better today because i didnt throw up unlike my first time which was about 2 Aprils ago. my bag filled up within 10 minutes (which is pretty fast) and i ended up getting sick.
this time though, my bag took longer to fill up and i also had a cup of coke on hand for me to sip on. when they were all done taking my blood i sat up and felt very hot (which means im likely to pass out, throw up, or both...) so they took me to the recovery station and i had held an ice pack to my chest for about 10 minutes. then i ate a small slice of pizza and a bag of cookies and felt better...now im eating a small bag of pretzels while my arm is KILLING ME!! ill have to upload the pictures of my eventful day later because i am in the library at school...ttyl!!

Info on Classes Cancelled + my weekend retreat with BCM

yes, thats right! classes at Marshall are cancelled due to another power outage. there are power lines on fire in a manhole and a firetruck had to come (http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/29255984.html)

i have four classes on mondays and made it through 2 of them but as i went to my third class at noon, i walked into Corbly and found flood lights on and only the emergency lights on. then a professor said that he heard power was out all over campus. it was the same buildings that were without power on friday. the only buildings that had power were Old Main, Drinko Library, and Harless because they have backup generators.

-----------------------------------------------------------

This past weekend i went to Parchment Valley in Ripley, WV with MU BCM and multiple other BCM groups from various colleges and universities such as WVU, University of Charleston, Fairmont, Concord..i cant remember the others but there were about 8 groups all together. i was very proud of myself because i tried my best to not be shy and put myself out there. we played kickball and i made new friends and it was so much fun. the music group The Escape (from Michigan) played for us for the weekend..theyre really good! the food at the retreat wasnt that great but it was better than nothing! both nights i think i fell asleep first and woke up last haha typical me! on the last night we had a campfire then sunday morning katelyn, curt, maggie, and i all left right after breakfast so we could go to church at home..

and im sorry if this blog didnt really flow or make sense!

NO SCHOOL!!

thats right...today (September 19) Marshall University students do not have classes today due to a power outage caused by a rat. yes, a RAT! and i LOVE that rat haha.

anywho, this weekend im going on a retreat with BCM. we're going to Parchment Valley in Beckley, WV and im VERY excited. ive only been on one retreat in my life and i think that was in middle school..so that was a LONG time ago!

mom went out of town on wednesday. i dont remember where she went, but she comes home today!!! ive missed her!

OH YEAH!! tuesday was my first iTEAMS meeting with my group and we quickly found out that this year would be very different from last year. see, last year BCM had a different pastor but he retired this year and now we have someone new. and the new pastor (his name is adam...ill get back to u on his last name later..im thinking its goodwin??) thinks we should pick out own book to read as a group instead of everyone read the same book first semester like the old pastor liked...SOOOO i go to our first group meeting and only 3 out of seven (no including the leader) showed up (everyone who didnt show up had a very good reasons though). we made a list of some of the books we are considering and here is the list:

Searching: For God Knows What- Donald Miller
Blue Like Jazz- Donald Miller
And The Bride Wore White- Dannah Gresh
Perspectives- Colin Creel (i like this one)
Wired- Louis Giglio (and this one)
A Woman After God's Own Heart- Elizabeth George

and here are some i found online that i thought might be good:

Searching for God in a Bottomless Purse: On Faith by Karen Lee-Thorp
Overcoming the Seven Deadly Emotions by Michelle Borquez
Girl Perfect by Jennifer Strickland
Developing the D. I. V. A. in You: Divinely Inspired Virtuous Asset by Terri Smith-Little

if u know of any books that would be good for a small group of girls, could u let me know? that'd be great!!!

but i have to go pack for the retreat!

later!!!!

end of the 3rd week...

today wasnt too bad..considering it's only 11:30am.

i had my first anatomy test today (actually it was the first part of two parts) and i think i did pretty well. i was confident on most of the questions and i finished within 20 minutes...

some things that happened this week:
-the milton flea market burned down wednesday (pictures from herald-dispatch.com: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x451924999/Gallery-Milton-Flea-Market) that was one of my favorite places to buy my "designer" purses like COACH and D&B (Dolce & Gabbana) and now its gone :(
-i found out what iTEAMS group im in wednesday at BCM. iTEAMS are a group of people (separated by gender) who are all: a) part of BCM, b) love God, and c) want to grow more spiritually. everyone in the group holds each one accountable and help people with their struggles. now that doesnt mean they are limited to just BCM people. iTEAMS are encouraged to spread the word and love of God on campus. my group meets Tuesdays @ 7 :)
-(this hasnt happened yet but...) Marshall plays Memphis this saturday at 7pm. hopefully we will advance our record to 2-1 :) GO HERD!

well now i need to go to English class....ill talk to everyone later :)!

end of the second week of college :)

today was the end of my second week of being a college freshman....but i must not look like it. yesterday my mom calls me around 8:30am to see if i had left for school yet. i told her that i was about to leave and she said, "well i need u to go to trevor's school, pick him up, and take him to spring hill for TAG (Talented and Gifted) because he missed the bus that is supposed to take him there." so i get in my car, drive to geneva kent, pick up trev, and we make our way to spring hill. i had to walk him in and make sure they knew why he was there and he went where he needed to be. so we walk into the main office and tell the secretary our dilemma and she helps us by trying to find trevor's teacher. while she is doing this, trevor and i are standing outside the office and 2 women are sitting in chairs near the door. one looks at trevor (he had his safety patrol belt on) and asked him if he was a patrol and he said yes. then she turns to ME and asks me if he's my ONLY ONE (yes, meaning my only CHILD! do i really look that old?! haha) and i said "oh. no hes my brother." and then she tried to cover up her mistake and say "oh well i was about to say..u dont look that old!"

pretty funny, huh? i laughed as soon as i was out of the school..

but anywho, back to the college subject...

im pretty sure i need tyler to come home asap....i need help in chemistry and he seems to be the only one advanced enough in the science field (i mean, hello? he majored in physics!). so im going to write him a letter telling him to get his butt home so i can get atleast a B in that class :)

well, i think thats all ive got for today.....nothing major happened today or since i last blogge (except the story i just told u hehe)...

OH! im thinking about painting my room a nice, pretty shade of red and hanging black and white posters of audrey hepburn and marilyn monroe up on my walls! what do u think? good idea? bad? tell me what u think! (please?)

first blog :)

i know i havent blogged in FOREVER (since probably feb or march!) so i decided that im going to at least blog once a week and keep everyone updated on me as i go through college.

right now im in my second week of college and i absolutely LOVE it...
my first day wasnt the greatest though. ill tell u all about it!

ok well school started on august 25th, and earlier that week i had been feeling a little nervous and had almost no appetite (and as most of u know, thats highly unlike me. i eat 24/7). anywho, monday morning rolls around and i wake up around 6:30 and feel sick to my stomach. i go into the bathroom and my mom asks me whats wrong and i just break down and start bawling my eyes out. i was having a meltdown!! my mom calmed me down after about 5 or 6 minutes and told me to go take some Tums (yuck!) for my stomach and lay back down. i was fine for about 30 minutes. then right before my parents left to take trev to school and go to work, i puked. yep, thats right. my nerves got to me and i lost it. after that big ordeal, i finally decided to go get a shower and get ready for what i thought was going to be the scariest thing i would ever have to go through.

turns out college is AWESOME!!! i absolutely love it... here are the classes im taking
-human anatomy on MWF + a lab every thursday
-uni 101 (a stupid college course everyone is required to take) on MW
-chemistry on TTh
-psychology on TTh
-math on MW
-english on MWF
total hours: 17!

no too bad...plus the only class i really dont care for is chemistry...i believe my chem teacher has been in the chem lab a little too long (if u know what i mean)...

well i guess i better head to math now...ill post something either later today or later on in the week!

xoxo