Remembering the day that change America forever

Ten years ago a group of terrorist set out to change the America forever, they succeeded not in putting terror into every Americans heart but by causing a tremendous amount of nationalism. It's hard to believe that it has been ten years since September 11, 2001. I remember exactly what I did that day as if it was yesterday and my heart still shatters at the pictures of the burning towers. It's amazing to look back and see how much people came together and showed pride in their country. Flags were everywhere and everyone had pride in their country and many we're ready to go to war to pay back the lives we had lost on sad September day. It's amazing how God can show light through so much chaos. Now that 10 years have past many of those people who wanted to send off our troops now are against them. While you may not agree with having the troops overseas remember they are just doing their duty, we should support them in every way possible because if you're not willing to stand behind them feel free to stand in front of them. Today I hope people will take some time, whether it be an hour or even just a few minutes to stop and think about those who lost their lives on 9/11 and everyday since then fighting overseas. I hope people will always remember those lives so that they may not have been taken in vain. Heres to the civilians, the policemen, the firefighters, our service members, and their families who lost their lives due to the acts on 9/11 or in the war that there followed, you will never be forgotten. I am sad I never got the chance to see the twin towers in real life, it would have been something that i would have wanted to have seen. May God Bless America! Land of the free and Home of the brave! Red, White, and Blue: colors that never run!

While this picture is incredibly sad it's one that we can never forget because this moment is one that changed america forever.

This picture is iconic and I feel was crucial to the beginning of healing as a nation.

I know, I know....

Ok I'm not going to make any promises anymore, because obviously I have an inability to post every week.

Anyway...
thing that have consumed my time other than blogging:
quilting
Shark Week
Running
being forced to watch hours of TV as part of family bonding.


so lets start with the quilt. I decided last summer I wanted to make a quilt to use on my bed in college rather than the comforter I bought before my freshman year. So i bought fabric but never did anything with it as I had no time during the school year nor the space to do it. So halfway through this summer I decided I would do this and so most of my days the last few weeks and some nights have been filled with countless hours of sewing and redesigning and running to the fabric store when things don't turn out as planned. I still am not finished but I need to be by Monday so i can take it to a quilt shop and have it quilted.

Shark week. I watched two episodes last year and because I have been working on my quilt  I didn't have a chance to watch any episodes live(normal time) So i tivoed all of shark week I mean 40 hours of sharks. I have about 16 hours left to watch but i'm learning so much. Like for example the beaches I grew up going to is  25 miles from the Great White shark hot spot of North America. However there has only been 6 attacks in the beach area that I go to often none being deadly. I also learned that sharks have extra senses that allow them to feel changes in water like you splashing in the water, and that they have the ability to sense electrical impulses like your heart beating and maybe even muscle contractions. and theres a tribe in Africa that uses coconuts on a stick like a rattle to call sharks. It is all really intriguing if you get a chance watch it next year. But the saddest part of it is on average 4 people die from shark attacks globally and yet we kill 40 million in the same amount of time a lot of time just for their fins. It is one of the saddest things. We invade their space and a lot of time shark attacks are just a cause of mistaken identity. Did you know more people are killed by ostriches than sharks each year? yeah, I'm more scared of ostriches than sharks.

Running: I changed my running program because I just wasn't progressing fast enough to make a 5k in october so i found that a running store in my area had a training program for the 10 weeks before a 5k and that's exactly where I am so it was perfect. I have taken 1:40 off my mile in the last week. It's still slow but slow and ready wins the race? or at least finishes it. Oh and I finally bought a pair of real running shoes. It's amazing to have the right shoes to run in.

Forced TV bonding. It sounds bad. but it actually isn't I mean I probably won't stay caught up on these shows once I go back to school but its a way to spend time with my family and that's all that really matters isn't it?

Other things I have a new love for a website called pinterest where you pin things you like on the internet but i don't do a whole lot of pinning really i just look at other peoples pins and repin them but its so interesting the ideas you come up with to do things. It's definitely a creativity stimuli which makes me want to do 400 million projects that I won't have time to do starting two weeks from now. I also have been playing some video games, I guess there isn't much to say about that except i learned that if i'm tired and want to take a nap playing video games for the same amount of time has the same effect as a nap except i don't wake up with the groggy nap headache.

I think thats it for this post. I have a few ideas for another post so maybe another post later tonight or tomorrow, but don't hold your breath because we all know i'm bad at the consistency of blogginh

I'm Sorry.

I first have to start out with an apology. I'm sorry that I broke my promise about posting once a week. I got caught up with preparing to go to Europe, then didn't have internet in Europe and then completely forgot I had a blog afterwards. So from here on out I solemnly swear I will post once a week. 

Now that I got that out of the way, I know have to figure out what I want to talk about. Writing blogs are a lot harder than they sound. A couple topics pop into my head so i'm just going to go with one. 

So as I mentioned in my apology I went to Europe, I actually went on a cruise through the mediterranean. (I will blog about it, when Its not after midnight.) I met a girl on this cruise and we became friends. She posted a video of her playing the piano and singing. I don't know what it was about it but I just instantly wanted to know how to play the piano. I remember as a kid it seemed like everyone I knew had to learn to play the piano. But my parents never made me learn to play and now I regret it. I mentioned at the very beginning of my blog that I am trying to learn the guitar. It's easy for me to learn the chords but strumming seems to be really hard for some reason. I guess the other part of it is between school and all the other things i maybe practice one time a week for 20 minutes. So I need to make a commitment to practice more and maybe even take a few lessons if i'm serious about learning to play the guitar. But now i'm not sure that I really want to learn the guitar. I've always been intrigued by percussion, but I don't think I'm capable of doing one beat with my left hand, a different with my right and move my feet at the same time. I have looked into the cajon, its a percussion instrument that you sit on and play i don't really know that much about it other than it seems easy to play, google it if you want more information. But I really want to learn the piano, I found a really sick keyboard that lights up and teaches you how to play and you can upload song files to it to learn more songs. But the problem is I still haven't learned to play guitar so I feel like I need to learn one instrument before I try to learn another. If you have any information or suggestions on learning how to play an instrument, feel free to comment and give me input. Until then I'll keep attempting to play the guitar.

A Final Farewell

So in all my years of raising and showing livestock and rabbits, I rarely got attached to them. I cried over my first few animals which is kind of expected in junior livestock, but It was a rare occasion where I ended up crying when I sold my animals. There were a few exceptions Oliver, my first real "show steer", he was soft and had a lot of hair, but it wasn't his looks that made him different than all the others it was his demeanor. I had some pretty crazy steers, ones that needed to be shown will nose bugs, ones that kicked at you when you went into their pens, but Oliver wasn't like that he was like a giant teddy bear. I could walk up to him and pet him and comb him. When we we're at long shows I used to lay down in the shaving near his head and it would seem as though he was trying to hug me with his head. When I would show him he knew exactly where to place his legs so that I wouldn't have to move them but a little. He was the only steer that I won with. He won Reserve Supreme Champion at our county fair (second place out of all the steers.) I didn't cry when I put Oliver on the truck because I knew that was what he was raised for the whole time but a few days later the day that he was harvested I woke and just knew that it was the day and cried and was upset for days. One of my best friends had just left me forever, I guess somewhere between the countless hours I spent with him he stopped becoming a market project and became a pet. I will never forget him because he was the only steer that meant anything to me.

Now I'm sure Oliver's story seems pointless as it was in the past but I promise I will get to the point in the end.

I started raising rabbits because I had a teacher who saw an opportunity to get me to try something new. When I did and went to my first show after only a few weeks of practicing and beat everyone I was competing with who had been practicing for months, my teacher realized that showing rabbits came naturally to me. I bought a rabbit and unfortunately within a week she got out and my dog got to her. I got a pair of rabbits and the dog unfortunately got to another one, well we had a third rabbit and she unfortunately broke her spine. That's when we stopped naming the does Juliet (it's bad luck I swear don't name a pair of animals Romeo and Juliet). I got another rabbit and then we ended up with a bunch of rabbits people had bought as projects and then neglected. During my freshman year my teacher ended up leaving our school for personal reasons but I managed to stay in touch with her for sometime after wards. She gave me a  satin Doe and her daughter a doe that was only a month or two old. I ended up with a lot of rabbits but the Doe's daughter I think i originally named her Cutie Pie.( I wasn't really clever with names of rabbits) Satins are unbelievably soft and silky and come in many different colors. Actually most Satins shown in Santa Clara County junior livestock (4-H & FFA) originally came from my satins. I also somehow increased the amounts of rabbits shown in FFA in SCC. Anyway CP was my baby she would cuddle up under my chin at shows, she did really well show wise, and she was the perfect showmanship rabbit. Well she was the only rabbit I grew attached to. I made a decision I would never sell her. When I went to college I sold almost all my tack, and all my rabbits with the exception of CP, Muffin (californian I originally inherited), and Romeo (the first buck I got). I had kept Muffin and Romeo in the case that I wanted to show a meat pen in the future I would have rabbits. Romeo passed at some point while I was away at college, leaving just Muffin and CP. In my years at school my rabbits simply didn't get the care and loving as when I was home. Well, I went down to feed the animals at the barn yesterday (it was in the high 80s, thats hot for rabbits) and I see CP barely moving and I though heat exhaustion (common cause of death in rabbits over the summer) and misted her with cool water and wrapped her ears in wet cotton (I couldn't find a towel) I finished feeding and when she still didn't look better I took her into the house to cool her off. I realized that it wasn't heat exhaustion and that she has lost a lot of weight and wasn't eating and drinking. I put her on some towels and in a 4 hour period she hadn't pooped or peed. I knew she was coming to the end. I spent about an hour last night holding her and talking to her and pretty much saying my good-byes I made sure she was comfortable and left her. When I went to check on her this morning she had passed on as I had expected. While I never really planned on showing her again anyway and I hadn't really spent anytime with her in the recent times I've been back. I regret not spending more time with her recently and I now will never be able to just hold my soft silky friend and pet her and tell her amount what ever was upsetting me. She was the best comforter, I could cry and pet her and she would just listen.

I guess the point of this was just simply you may think that an animal is just there for one purpose and they nose their way into your heart. I guess also pet's are like members of your family sometimes and it can hurt to lose them. There are a lot of people who buy animals as a gift for someone only to neglect them later an animal is a big commitment and think before you buy. There's many animals who are in shelters that were neglected and now need a loving home, and remember to also support your local animal shelter. The Humane Society of the United States asks for a lot of donations but your local animal shelter rarely sees a penny of that money. Treat your pets with the respect they deserve.

So maybe it's not insomnia...

I always thought I had insomnia because I can't fall asleep at night from time to time, but I thought about it some more and realized that the reason I stay up is because I like it not because I'm not tired. There's something about being up all night and going to sleep as the sun is rising. So it's not a matter of insomnia it's a matter of me not fitting into society's perception of normal sleep patterns. I'm perfectly content staying up until the sun rises and sleep until noon. I guess it's a good thing I plan on working the night shift, since my brain already functions like this. Plus I have the hardest time waking up early in the morning no matter what time I go to sleep.

Raining in June

Yeah, you read the title right. It says June, as in the month where summer starts. The month you spend a ton of time outdoors putting on sunscreen and sitting by the pool or go to a waterpark. The one with the barbecues and picnics. Not here in Northern California, right now its the one with the rain and jackets and blankets and hot tea. I tried to get a picture of it raining but unfortunately I wasn't able to catch on but I did manage to capture some of the overcast skies.

This is our 200+ year old oak tree. Notice the lack of clear skies expected in June.

This is the view of the hills from our backyard. 

This is the view from the Front yard. Notice the huge dark rain cloud looming over.

While there's some benefits to rain such as we're no longer in a draught and the fact that I love rain in general. There's also a huge downside. I also love summer and the heat and all the summer related things. Plus all the rain is ruining the hay crops which causing it to be more expensive to own livestock. Hopefully there's a increase in heat soon or I will not know how to handle Arizona in august. 

Oh I probably should include these are not good examples of my photography as these we're taken off my iPhone and is no where near as good of quality as my camera.

Ramblings about Music and Faith.

It always amazes me when I see celebrities talk about their faith as if they we're just talking to someone in their small group. It's not too often you see this happen these days, especially when media is filled with sex, drugs, alcohol, cussing, and everything in between. I guess that might be why I listen to country more than pop, rap, or hip hop. Yeah country music talks about drinking, and there's some songs that if you read between the lines you can figure out what their leading to if you know what I mean. But country music goes where other genres don't. It talks about God, dying, love, small towns, dreams, and even talks about that boy that betrayed you. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it shows a form of raw emotion that most other genres fail to include.

    The other day I was watching recent American Idol winner, Scotty McCreery's home visit and he just flat out said "I had a God moment." It amazed me as those are words I see coming out my own mouth along with many of my christian friends. He then went on to explain and I felt like I was in small group with him not watching him on youtube. Seeing celebrities express their faith and love for God, makes me want to support them more and actually pay to listen to their music even if it isn't  "christian" music. When their are celebrities who aren't afraid to share their faith to millions even if it can hurt their career, why should I be afraid to share the gospel to my non-christian friends.

    After realizing that I feel more likely to financially support artists who share their faith, i decided I shouldn't limit it to music and that i should be more aware of companies that are christian and buy more from them, or companies in general that have good values, or give to a good cause.

I saw this video after I originally posted this post, But this is what I'm talking about Celebrities not afraid too talk about faith.

5 pounds and 5ks

So after my last post I put some thought into it and decided I want to run a 5k. I looked into it and found one in October this gives me about 4 months to train for it and money goes towards women's cancer research, which is something that hits close to home. My late '"nanny" (grandmother) was a breast cancer survivor and cancer runs in my family. So I decided I would make this commitment for her and for myself.  For me to get up off the couch and do something this summer.

In addition to committing to a 5k, I started a new diet program last week. I wasn't going to blog about it because what if i don't end up succeeding but if I can't admit to it then how can i expect myself to live by it. It's not just another fad diet, it's one of those doctor supervised diet. Well, anyway I lost 5 pounds which a lot of it was probably water weight but pounds are pounds.

Until next time i'm just gonna keep running and counting my proteins and carbs.

Sitting Around in the Summer

As a nursing student, student leader, and just in general college aged girl my schedule during the school year was so fast paced and crammed with so many items to be done, that I rarely had a minute where I had nothing to do. So I decided when I got home I would sit back and relax for a while. But where does the sitting around end and the start making the most of my summer begin? I thought that maybe I would wait until it warmed up and started feeling like summer, but with the recent weather being cold and rainy, I'm starting wonder if it will ever warm up. Maybe I'll wait until everyone else is done with school for the summer, but wait I don't have many friends that are coming home this summer, so that won't work. I guess I need to find an initiative to get up and go and soon because i'm wasting my summer away.

Commitment, Cameras, and Care Plans.

I debated long and hard over starting a blog and by long I mean I thought about it at the beginning of this past semester and wanted to be sure that I was ready to commit to this. I know it may not seem like a commitment, but to me it is. I couldn't even finish the 30 day facebook photo challenge how am I supposed to say that I will for sure go through with this for who knows how long. But I decided to commit to this. I can't guarantee i'll be able to post every day or even every couple days, but I do promise to post at least once a week.

So I guess someone might be curious as to why the name "From Cameras to Care Plans"? I have two major passions in life: photography and nursing. Cameras are as critical to photography as care plans are to nursing. I'm not going to write only about those things but there's a good chance there will be an emphasis in those subjects. As to why it says "from" and "to" if I had a choice and money would never be a problem I would just travel the world and take pictures of everything, but I have to be realistic and have a career that will actually be able to support me, so I chose nursing. I guess another reason might be because I  fell in love with photography before I ever had the idea that nursing was for me. I also love cooking and baking and I'm trying to learn how to play an instrument (currently guitar, but i've always been intrigued by percussion). Just a few more possible places you might see this blog go.

A Formal Introduction

I hate when your with a friend and you meet someone your friend knows and you have to go out of your way to have a formal introduction. So rather than be asked or leave those out there wondering who I am I figured I would introduce myself.

My name is Sara. It is not pronounced as you have probably pronounced it your whole life in a matter of Ser-uh. It is pronounced in a different way more of a Sar-uh. I guess you could call it a strong "A" sound. I guess the pronunciation of my name probably doesn't really matter in the internet world. It matters in real world where I have developed a system of correcting someone once and if it is missed I don't correct again until asked. Lately in the clinical setting my nurse preceptors don't even ask my name they just look at my name tag and assume it is said traditionally.

Anyway back to the introduction. I grew up in a small town in northern California. It has two stoplights and not much else going for it. I moved to Phoenix, Arizona to attend a private Christian university with a guaranteed spot in the nursing program. When I first started there I had no idea what it meant to be a Christian and shortly after attending school there I gave my life to God and was baptized. I started the Nursing program this last spring and can successfully say I passed my first level of Nursing school. I have two years left in the program and know that the road in front of me is a hard one.