Trick or treating in the dorms!

It has been a crazy week. For the first time in college, I had a little panic attack over this paper I'm writing. I'll post more soon about that!

On Thursday night there was trick or treating in the dorms! We decorated our doors and dressed up for it. At 11pm the night before, my friends and I decided to be rock, paper, and scissors. Here is the finished project!

This is our decorated door!

Anyone is welcome to bring their kids to the dorms! We all stood by our doors and handed out candy! So from 6-8 the dorms were packed full of people! A lot of the faculty and staff bring their kids. There were a lot of people from church too. It was so much fun!!! The comments on our costumes were hilarious. Once, my friend who was the rock went back in the room so people thought my friend and I were just school supplies...haha yeah cause that's really cool to do!! 

It was a ton of fun! And since we participated in this, we get a free room check! Once a week we have room check where they see if we cleaned the sink, microwave, refrigerator, and floors. We also have to take all the trash out and wash all the dishes. Now we have a free week! 

After trick or treating was done we decided to go to the snack bar in the student center for some food. And yes, we definitely did wear our costumes. I'm sure we were the coolest people there...haha actually we made people laugh so it was worth it!

An update is coming soon! Hope you're having a good weekend!

How did I forget?!

I forgot something very important. On October 6th, my port turned 2 years old! Two years ago the port was surgically placed inside my chest.

My port is on the right side of my chest (opposite of my heart). You can actually see the tubing that goes from my port to my neck and then to my heart. You can see it right under the skin.

The port is attached and tied to the muscle in my chest. When not accessed, nothing is hanging out of the port. It's all under the skin which means that when it's not accessed I can shower like normal! No glad and seal like I had to do with my PICC line. I know you're glad that I shower. To access my port, you use a special 1 inch needle. My mom and I had to go through training to be able to access the port at home by ourselves. Obviously this is taken very seriously since we are putting a 1 inch needle in my chest, that connects to my heart and has to be completely sterile. This procedure is not taken lightly. Knowing how to access my port has allowed me to do IVs at home. It is also helpful when in the hospital or Nevada because my veins are terrible and have been used so much. 

There is one problem. Sometimes in the hospital the nurse will come in and say, "oh we can't access ports here. We aren't trained to do that". So they don't use it. Then they proceed to try to find my veins. Well it's so much fun to get stuck so usually I make my veins act stubborn. I like for them to stick me 3-8 times. Just kidding. But really?! The nurses in the ER can't access my port? "But my mom accesses it from home," I say. That doesn't matter apparently. So I get a normal IV in my arms. That is until they go through 2 nurses and a total of 5 sticks. I told you I like to cause trouble. Then it's like magic! Somehow, someone figured out how to access a port within the past 10 minutes! So then I get my port accessed and all is well.

My port has been through a lot! It's been to Nevada, Brazil, Florida, and many other places. Sometimes it gets accessed every day which I'm sure is traumatic to it! Bless its heart. 

It's a weird thought that a piece of metal is just hanging out in my chest and that we stab it with a needle and then immediately have IV access! I love my little port. I love showing it to people and see them freaking out because you can see it and the tube that runs to my neck. 

Here is a picture that I got off of google. This is what the port looks like!

It's weird that at some time the port will have to come out. I'll probably have separation anxiety or something. So happy 2nd birthday to my port! I hope we have many more years together. 

"Accomplishments"

Since surgery I have "accomplished" several things.

• I have watched 5 seasons of Gilmore Girls. I'm halfway through season 6.
• Have you heard of the game Bubble blast? If you haven't, I'm warning you. DON'T get it. You will be so addicted. I may or may not have beat all 76 levels in a matter of days...I'm working on getting all gold stars on each level
• I started playing Hanging With Friends along with Words With Friends. I'm considering quitting school because it's so stressful to keep up with all 15 of my games. I'm telling you, you are not stressed out until FIFTEEN people are waiting for you to play in their hangman and scrabble game. 
• I have almost finished all my school work from the 2 weeks that I was gone. Blah, blah blah, blah blah. Obviously the previous 3 accomplishments are more important. 
• I have spent more time at home than in the dorms. Why is this an accomplishment? What college kid do you know that gets to live in the dorms AND at home. Yeah maybe I shouldn't be bragging about this one. I'm working on never coming home again. It's harder than you think. Especially since I live 8 minutes from college. 
• I have graduated from wearing nothing but sweats to wearing real clothes again! I may or may not be still stuff my pants with kleenexs so they don't rub again my incisions and (the little bit of) swelling that I still have. You would have thought that 4 and a half weeks after surgery that the swelling would be completely gone. But I don't like to be normal as I'm sure you know by now.
• I got my first curfew violation at college! Yes, freshmen have curfew at Oklahoma Christian. There are no boys allowed past the lobby unless it's open dorm night(which is once a month). That means that for 3 hours, boys ARE allowed in our rooms. But there are strict rules. All boys must check in at the desk and give their IDs and the room number they're going to. Doors must be open and lights must be on. Every 30 minutes a lady with a clipboard comes around checking each room and writing something on her paper. She probably doesn't really write anything. So anyway, curfew on week nights is midnight. Friday it's 1am, and Saturday it's 12:30am. They come in your room every night to see if you're there. If you won't be spending the night in your room you have to sign out online and give them the exact address you are going to and why. So last weekend I decided to stay at home because I was getting sick with fever, body aches, headache and all that fun stuff. I signed out Friday night so that's great. Saturday night comes and I completely forget to sign out. Of course I don't know that till I wake up Sunday morning and have a million missed calls from my hall director and this scary voicemail. They didn't know where I was all night. Of course, I freaked out and called her and she didn't answer. I was feeling terrible and was so scared about what would happen to me. I didn't get ahold of her till I was back in the dorms Sunday night. My RA(who checks to see if we are there) said, "I felt so bad because I know you weren't doing anything bad because that's not you! I knew you were sick and at home but we didn't have anything official." She is so sweet. It's weird because she is from Brazil and knows everyone we do down there! I went to talk to my hall director and set up a meeting for the next day. I had to read the rules and initial by each of them. Then, it went in my "file". Why is this an accomplishment? I don't break rules. If you know me, you know that! Which is why it's really funny that I got a curfew violation before all my friends. There was an orange paper on my door when I got back to the dorms to make sure that I knew I had a violation. Good times.
• I have become an official college student! I wait till the last minute to do homework since hanging out with friends is more fun.

These are all of the "accomplishments" that I can think of at the moment! As you can tell, I have been VERY busy lately...just kidding. I am loving college and everything! I better go. I have 10 games to play and another Gilmore Girls episode to watch. Oh yeah, and write a paper that's due next Friday. 

Whole Foods

Last week Whole Foods opened in Oklahoma City! I went on the day it opened and it was great! When I'm at the clinic in Nevada we go to Whole Foods all the time. They have a great soup and salad bar. 

I always have to get dessert...

I'm so glad that I can now go to Whole Foods at home and not just in Nevada. 

This weekend I stayed at home because I wasn't feeling well and yesterday I went to the after hours clinic. I have a sinus infection so I started antibiotics for that. I'm starting to feel a little better. I'm back in the dorms until Wednesday when our fall break starts. Fall break couldn't have come at a better time since I'm sick. 

I have loved reading your comments about your favorite songs! Keep that up if you think of more!!

Encouraging Songs

There are so many songs that are so encouraging to me. I love being able to worship God through music. These songs have brought me so much peace in the hospital or whenever I'm really sick. When I listen to these if I'm in the hospital, it reminds me what is important and that God is in control. It's very peaceful in the midst of the chaos. When I listen to these songs when I'm not in the hospital or really sick, it reminds me that God brought me through those hard times. It's so encouraging.

I thought that I would share some of the songs with you! On my ipod I have a playlist called "Encouraging". I love having all those songs in one playlist. 

I'll put the name of the song and then the artist after it. The ones that are bold are songs that are really encouraging me at the moment.

These are more upbeat songs. 

• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing-Jadon Lavik
• Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)-Casting Crowns
• Courageous-Casting Crowns
• I Will Sing of My Redeemer- Selah and Barlow Girl
• Strong Enough to Save- Tenth Avenue North
• All I Need-Bethany Dillon

These are some of my favorites. They are very powerful and really make me thing.

• Allelujah- The Museum 
• Carry Me- Audrey Assad
• I Lift My Hands- Chris Tomlin
• I Will Rise- Chris Tomlin
• You are Good- Nicole Normand
• You Love Me Anyway- Sidewalk Prophets
• I'm Still Yours- Kutless
• While I'm Waiting- John Waller
• Before the Throne- not sure who it's by
• He Is- Michael W. Smith
• Lord, I Need You- Chris Tomlin
• Praise You in This Storm- Casting Crowns
• Your Hands- JJ Heller
• Before the Morning- Josh Wilson
• In Better Hands- Natalie Grant
• In Christ Alone- Brian Littrell
• Mighty to Save- Laura Story
• Fall Apart- Josh Wilson
• Healing Rain- Michael W. Smith
• Healing is in Your Hands- Christy Nockels
• Yours-Steven Curtis Chapman

I hope that these songs encourage you too! I would love to know some of your favorite songs. If you have some please comment on this post and list them there so that others can see them too! 

Update and Pictures

Yesterday I had my post op appointment. Everything looks good! I'm still swollen but hopefully that will go down soon. I've been going to school this week (1 class a day) but I'm still staying at home. I'm planning on going back to the dorms this weekend. 

Here are some pictures from the past week.

 Today some flowers were delivered to my house! They are gorgeous!! 

My "recovery" table by the couch. 

My dog loves having me home

This is where I walk everyday since I've had surgery. That's my house behind those trees.  I walk down the street and back a couple of times.

My brother has been working on our fort

Just some trees in our backyard!

"Surgery Brain"

Something really funny happened today...

Today I got to go to my English class! I got there early to talk to the teacher. On my way in, I gave a thank you note to the secretary of the department. She is so sweet and sent me a package in the mail with candy, a card, and a beautiful notepad. This morning before leaving my house I wrote her a thank you note and put in my bag.

My teacher and I were done talking and as we were walking to the classroom, the secretary stopped me and said in the sweetest voice,
"Victoria I think you gave me the wrong card. This one is blank."

I started laughing and so did all of us! Apparently I took a blank card to her and left her card at home...

I told her today was the first day that I've gotten out of the house and well you know, I'm just a little out of it.

She and my teacher said they will give me 2 more weeks to let everything slide by because of my "surgery brain". So for 2 more weeks I can get by with anything!!

We all had a good laugh! I'm still laughing. Maybe next time I'm remember to take her a thank you note with words on it!!