My Life Lately

Hey girls!

It has been such a busy month! Christmas & New Years were wonderful! Of course, it all flew by, but I made a lot of great memories! It is always so great to spend time with my family, and see so many friends, and people I only get the chance to see once a year! This Christmas was different, because its been an interesting year, and so it was just quite different within the family, but none the less, it was fabulous!

I've greatly missed having Porch Time with my mom every night with our diet sundrops! When it was too cold, we would sit in the living room, and look out the bay window while the tree was lit. That room can always make me smile at Christmas Time! You can look out and see the whole neighborhood, its absolutely beautiful! I also really miss my brother and sister, we all have a good time, its so hard being home for a month, and then coming back to reality.
However, it is so wonderful to be back, and be with all of my MC sisters, and all of my friends! I just love it!

Project Santa was so much fun this year! Okay, so I did lose a guy in a trailer park, and I did drive (and destroy) a Chrysler T&C Minivan, annnd okay, I still want to turn back time every day and videotape the whole event! Overall, it was a huge success!

I started working on December 9th, and at 8am everyday, we all met at the church and got to work. I mainly did toy shopping, and met some wonderful children! It was truly a blessing to get to meet so many great children!

Finally, the day came! It was Christmas Eve! I got to the church around 7:00am. I was helping put together toy boxes for families, and it was a lot of fun! K and I bought tons of toys, and I was able to find tons of Transformers on sale, which was so great, because kids really wanted those!

Then, I got to take 5 children into "Santas Toy Room" and let them pick out every toy they wanted! They were so adorable, accept for the one that asked me for a gun...sorry kid, we cant win em all!

Well, lets get to the goods...around noon, I was pulled aside by one of the head honchos, and get asked to drive a van.
...yes, me, drive a van!
Apparently my grandfather and father were out of the room...because I'm a horrible driver! Regardless, I mean its for the kids, I couldn't say no, so I said yes!

The route I got was outstanding! Im still smiling about it to this day!

See, normally, theres an adult (yes I am 21, and my oldest cousin is 25, but I mean like a REAL adult) that has to go with us!
Well, not this time baby!
It was me, and my cousins C, A (who played our Santa), T, and C's friend D! Also, my little sister came too, so we pretty much had the perfect route! It was a dream come true!

Well, while A was putting on his Santa gear, pulling back all of his blond hair, about to freak out because of the heat, haha, T and I were walking out to load our boxes into our, what I thought at the time was a 20 passenger van..fully loaded, van
...only to find out that it was a Town and Country Mini Van...burgundy!
Cute, real cute!

I couldnt help but ask myself, and those around me,
...Should I commit social suicide now, or later?

It came time to pull out, and GOODNESS, I could NOT see once we all loaded into the van, because theres at least 7 toy boxes filled to the brim!
This just made me smile, because we were going to get each child what they wanted for Christmas (or die trying!)

When we went to pull out of the church parking lot...everyone was yelling profanity, or cheering me on for either almost pummeling them with my van, or just the mere fact that I was driving a van! I had my hazards on so everyone would get the hell outta my way! Hello...im on a mission!

All of the sudden, everyone was waving goodbye, and yelling HO HO HO (its a tradition when each van leaves) I had my window down, and of course never miss a chance to socialize, so started yelling "Merrrry Christmas to ya!"-in a Santa voice! Bahaha! Right as I hit the "Merrrr...CLANK! My van hit the pavement, because I totally forgot to pull out sideways, and so, well, Happy and merry, there went my front bumper! Okay, not quite, but poor Santa hit his head on the window...at the time he was trying to memorize names, and so it was like "Adam, Destiny, "DAMNIT!" I don't think the last one was a name, more of a panicked insult toward his favorite cousin! oops, or lets be honest, he was probably just really upset about the mini-van situation too, just a mild case of displaced anger!

Well, we got a little turned around, because we didn't have our GPS, so we had to whip the van around a good 3 times...each time people at the church waved...geez I guarantee no keys will be thrown my way again haha!

Well, we got to all of the houses, and the children were just absolutely precious! The parents were just hitting hard times, although some of them didn't care, most did! They were extremely sweet, and I feel like a better person having met each one of them! A was so funny as Santa, after each house he would look at the kids and say something funny like "Remember to SHARE"

The last house was really dark when I pulled in. I turned the van off, and at each door I should mention that I got elected, along with C's friend D, to go knock and say "Project Santa Ho Ho Ho!"

Well this particular address must have been written wrong, because I heard a lady inside yelling:
"BILL, I told your dead ass not to be comin round these parts again...you lazy, cheatin' SOB, ill sic Big Daddy on you!

Umm, what?! I thought I was hearin things...seeing my life flash before my eyes, trying to remember how fast I could run a mile...I stood, stunned for a second, wondering really who the heck "Big Daddy" was and how big of a rifle he had...then I yelled:
"RETREAT, GET THE HELL IN THE VAN, WERE GONNA DIIIIIE!"

Right as I get in the van, I rolled up the windows as "big daddy" ran outside. Big Daddy is a 200 pound Rottweiler! I tried to start the van but all I heard was "ERRRRRRRK", "ERRRRRRRK
HAHAHA! My vans battery died...what timing, what karma, what the heck was going on?!

Well, here comes my cousin T to the front seat thinking its because "im a girl, and have no idea what im doing...he smashed my poor innocent head against the window, and tried to start the van himself...Big Daddy still clawing the van...aka my face!
Thank goodness for the window! I was screaming, the van was shaking, and T couldn't get it to start either...OBVIOUSLY! I got brave after I said I quick prayer to live, and decided to crack the window...I yelled to the fool who let this huge monster out that "IM NOT"BILL" I IM WITH PROJECT S-S-SANTA!"
She was like,
"Oh im sorry...I didn't think Bill had gotten his license back yet!"
......I wont even comment on this!

She kept fighting with "Big Daddy" trying to get him inside, and finally she did.

Well the house we were looking for was right across the street, so I ran over with D and first asked if they had jumper cables, because our rented burgundy van died in a crazy woman's driveway!
All of the sudden, a 400 pound, shirtless man comes to the door and says "Whats the problem"
Well...now I had 2...him, & my dead van that was keeping me trapped in hell! AHHH!

My cousin then yelled,
"You idiot, we have help on the way!"
...I just felt so great! haha!
With my pride at bay, I went back to the van, locked the doors, and we made it back to the church!

It was so much fun, we will never ever forget it! I am signing up this week to become a voulenteer with Make A Wish, because non-profits, and charity work seem to make me smile, so I hope this will be a taste of something like Project Santa with the great people, and the feeling I get from being so happy all the time!

Also, 2 weeks ago, after Santa and my wonderful grandparents shelled out some Christmas Cheer, I finally got my headshots made! I used a wonderful photographer out of Chapel Hill! My agent gave me her name, and it turns out that her children work with my agency as well! It was so much fun, and I couldnt have met nicer people! Here are 2 shots that i've been using so far! Its a whole new world to me! I've been printing out the headshots at a photo studio, and then cutting and stapeling my resume to the back of the picture! Its a whole new industry, and I am loving every minute of it!







Next, I need some advice, actually, I just need to post this to get it off my chest...literally!

So, a week before I got out for Christmas Break, I noticed this pain in my right breast, and of course, because I AM a serious hypocondriac, I just thought I better not mention it, and it would go away.

Well, 3 weeks into break, the pain was in the same spot, and hadnt changed, just gotten a bit worse. I finally broke down and told my mother, and she of course made me see a doctor. I loved the doctor I saw, just your standard OB/GYN, she was Irish, and we spent like 30 minutes talkingabout her son that works in news, and she gave me lots of pointers on how to get into news haha! Gotta love her! Then, we finally got to the appointment, and she felt a lump. I could honestly kindof feel one too, so obviously its probably stress, or a cyst. She ordered me to have an ultrasound. When I got to the ultrasound, the lady promptly told me she had a sick child at home, so we had to hurry. Whatever, I just wanted it done. She said she didnt feel anything, and the ultrasound didnt show anything, but she didnt take an ultra sound of the whole thing, just one section, which I am sure is thorough enough, but I still wanted the pain to go away. The doctor said that he wanted to order me an MRI if I was still in pain in 2 weeks.

Its been 7 weeks now, and I am still in pain in the same spot. My nurse that I originally saw called me 2 days ago and she said she saw the ultrasound, but thought I should pass on the MRI and go straight to a breast surgeon at Duke, somewhere other than our little hospital.

Dont get me wrong, im not scared or anything, I just hate I even said anything! I feel so guilty, because its probably absolutely nothing, and here I am going to see a breast surgeon. To be honest, every step I have taken has been a doctors order, but still, I hate making stupid stuff a big deal!

I am making an appointment with a surgeon soon, although I guess they will just feel around as well, and maybe they can tell if its nothing. I know its probably just a stress thing, or maybe a cyst, I just hate that I feel like its turned into such an ordeal.

What do y'all think? MRI, or breast surgeon, or both?

Have a great Friday!