my new hair cut...

self-portrait...

self-portrait, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

my parents and I went cross country skiing today up to Nickel Plate Nordic center. It was clear, blue skies, a little wind, fresh snow, and freshly groomed trails - the best! so enjoy this batch of photos....

rach and cha cha

rach and cha cha, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

christmas eve pics- click on this one for more!

perfect shot.....

perfect shot....., originally uploaded by KeeganS.

This is my dad and uncle Bruce on christmas day- we had dinner with the fam in Twsassin (can't spell that). Cick on pic for more on my flickr account.

the list

Okay so I had to get this out on paper (then onto xanga) it was driving me nuts (if anyone thinks of anymore let me know!)

Snow: 1. Very quiet- almost makes no sound at all. When it snows it's like it's the quietest it's ever been.
Rain: 1.. Loud- I can hear it from inside my house. The sound makes one pull the covers over one's head, go back to bed and do nothing all day.
Snow: 2. Makes pretty white fluffy stuff that kids makes snowballs out of and make snow angels.
Rain: 2. Makes big puddles that kids and kids alike can jump in. Sometimes cars make puddles splash nto pedestrians. Makes the grass green and plants lush.
Snow: 3. Always takes us by surprise every year- only comes in winter months sometimes sooner than expected but always unexpected.
Rain. 3. We expect it every year throughout the year.
Snow 4. Requires trucks to drop sand and plow snow to clear the roads. Causes lots of accidents- ppl here don't know how to drive in this stuff.
Rain: 4. Sometimes people hydroplane - visibility is limited when it's raining and dark.
Snow; 5. ppl get excited/scared/happy when it snows!
Rain: 5. Ppl sigh, feel depressed or nothing at all when it rains (again)
SNow: 6. Can stop a game of soccer/football.
Rain: 6. "Rain or shine" doesn't stop most sports- the muddier the better:)
Snow: 7. PPl talk about it more
Rain: 7. Pple grow tired and weary of talking about it- b/c it always rains anyways- nothing new...
Snow: 8. harder to ride a bicycle in
Rain 8. Unpleasant but possible to cycle in the rain (I did it for 3 years living in Victoria)
Snow 9. We always remember the day/week it first snowed that year.
Rain 9. Where does it start or end?
Snow 10. need good snow tires for it
Rain 10. All-seasons will do
Snow 11. usually doesn't affect your house
Rain 11. Can flood your basement.
Snow 12. Causes many heart attacks of older people (and those out of shape) shovelling snow.
Rain 11. Helps alleve many allergy symptoms and better for asthma sufferers.

Similarities:

1. Both need "slippery when wet" signs in stores
2. require waterproof jackets and umbrellas
3. makes us run- fast!
4. Requires the top up on the convertable
5. end up as a puddle
6. get your car wet
7. affect flying and driving coditions
8. affect radio reception
9. require windshield wipers and defrost in your car
10. Can evoke more poetry and/or lyrics (case in point: the wheels in my head are turning right now and it's been snowing...)

going back in time...

I am sitting here at my parents house and I found some older (few months) pictures from thanksgiving this year, and from my grandma's birthday this summer.In a couple of the pics I have a walking stick (not a cane) due to an injury I had from all the hiking I did this summer (putting too much weight on my left leg). Who knows what kind of shape I will be in for hiking next season- for now I will be cross country sking:)

Me, my cousin Vanessa and my sister Rachel


The Suttie girls

my sister rachel

jennica likes the high scores...

jennica likes the high scores..., originally uploaded by KeeganS.

Jennica and I spent monday afternoon in vancouver- we shopped, went to Granville island, had dinnner on commercial drive, and went to a poetry slam where we were randomly selected to be one of the five judges (we were asked to judged poetry!? It was a fun day for sure...

partying with the stars

000_0600, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

I went to our young adults christmas dinner. It was fun- I sat with a table full of guys - and our table won this dvd game called "scene it" it was awesome I think I made a name for myself with my performance (being able to name that actor, or crazy movie facts...)

hmmm what didn't I do today?

wrote my last final, registered online for next semester, made christmas cards from starbucks cups and sleeves, painted an Anne gettes painting black (been meaning to do that for a while), made a birthday card for Donie my sponsored child from India, did the dishes- twice, watched season 2 disk 3 for Lost on dvd, made chocolate chip cookies, watched dora the explorer with zave......oh and just finished watching pirates of the carribean 2:) Oh and I did some e-mailing too. ok time for bed now...

the trees with lights!

the tree (minus the lights)

the tree (minus the lights), originally uploaded by KeeganS.

I decided to decorate my room with christmas cheer (seeing as I will be spending most of my time here studying for finals!)

Click on the pic to see a few more...

my study time

okay so I decided to take pictures of myself studying, therefor I must be procrastinating even more! But, alas by wed the 13th I will be done. IN the meantime I am getting through the psych content, immigrant issues, homelessness, ect the list goes on and on. On a positive note: I got a really good mark on my debate in my ethics class, and my situational transitions paper on homelessness and the elderly I got a pretty decent mark. So I am encouraged to do well on my finals! BTW I don't normally study on my bed- it's just for the self timer on my camera- I prefer the desk!

christmas staff party at the Copper Room

000_0563, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

Click on this photo for more....I had so much fun- I got Michele to come with me (so Damien stayed home to put Z to bed). I think that all moms deserve a night out with one of their good friends and sometimes I forget that Michele doesn't have many chances to hang out people outside of the house (I live with her and Damien but I am thinking that maybe I need to take Michele out more often). At the Harrison Hotsprings Hotel at the Copper Room we have a nice buffet- I had lobster for the first time, ate amazing food (lots of seafood, mini potatoes, salads, chicken, and yummy lemon deserts!). I got home at a decent hour as I have to be up at 5 am for work tomorrow am. I am glad I got Michele to come with me tonight. Oh- and I work at a nursing home for those of you who didn't know- I work on the weekends and I love it!

my muffins

Zave
One of my orange cranberry muffins- I am a kitchen diva now!

My snow day

Today I got all ready for school- and checked my e-mail- and realized school is cancelled today:( So- I was all ready to go so I decided to have some breakfast and go for a nice walk in the snow and pick up some ingredients for my 2nd batch of cranberry orange muffins. So I did. And here are the pictures to prove it. I will add of pic of the beautiful muffins later (they are my latest masterpiece).


My house (isn't it pretty?"
(the slough by my house)

My personality: the test

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverant, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're qutie the storyteller! You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist.

What's Your Personality Type?

care group girls night(click on pic for more flickr pics)

perfect:), originally uploaded by KeeganS.

we decided to take a break from our study on purity to watch sleeping beauty. We all brought our fav snacks, this girl Amanada french braided my hair (I haven't had one done since I was 13- a looonnng time ago as I am 27 now....)

girls night out at the Olive Garden

jaime, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

our second annual trek to this restaurant- driving as far as Hope and Chillwack to Langley to get there- waiting for a table at least 45 minutes- this year was amazing like last year (minus the waiter was not very good but we had lots of fun anyways). It's good to take a break with the girls I study with everyday (and have been with them for over 2 years in nursing school now). So- can't wait for next year:) Click on this pic to see the rest of the photos on my flickr account!

This is the boy I love!

He is nearly two- and he makes a great roomie!! I love you Z you make me smile, dance, and do crazy things. I can't wait for your birthday coming up soon!! So I live with two of my best friends (married) and their 23 month old son- Z. Here are some of the amazing things I love about living here: After studying in my room I hear the doorknob jiggling- it's Z and once again he's managed to open the child safety thing on my door knob....so in he comes saying "De-Dee" which is my name (Keegi to his parents). He climbs onto my bed and jumps for a bit- sometimes I give him airplane rides (remember getting those when we were kids?). The I put on Feist's song "Mushaboom" and we dance and laugh at ourselves in the mirror. Sometimes he comes and sits on my lab while I am working on the computer (but he really just wants to push the buttons). Living with my friends and their son is one of the greatest things I could have done- where else can I be a kid again- playing with play dough, dancing to silly songs, and going to the park to actually play! These are just some of the things I love about living here. Below are some pics I took of Z in my room. I like to try my hats on him- he is very photogenic:) Don't you just love the elmo slippers??!

homelessness

today we spent an entire day tackling the issues of homelessness in my class(from a health care perpective) we saw a dvd premier about street nursing in downtown east side van. It was an amazing presentation- anyways after my first class today I jsut had to write this poem- basically my thoughts, responses to and a bit of looking back on what most caught my attention in looking at the life of a homeless person now- keep in mind I am not an english major or anything- just a nursing student that feels that I can make a difference in this world somehow- so here it is:

Today I learned more about you,
how much that sandwich I gave you really meant.
You walked miles all day long
just to get some morsels of food.
From the sisters at the church
you waited in line for 2 hours to get some soup.
The coffee and the dougnut were another few miles away.
You take so many footsteps
Time is spent on fulfilling your physical needs
to survive.
There's no time to think about other things.
what's important is your next meal,
where you'll lay your head tonight.
But really, is good going to fix this?
A job?
I don't have the ability to break
the cycle of poverty for you.
You've seen and experienced things
I've never been exposed to,
prostituting yourself and the jerk refuses to pay,
trading sex for a place to sleep.
Now, circumstance after circumstance in your life
here you are.
Who can help you- is it the government?
Do they really understand though?
You say you don't have a job because you don't have the education,
that you don't have the education because you don't have the money
and don't have the money because you don't have the job.
What can I do?

Letters to God

enjoying the sights of vancouver

enjoying the sights of vancouver, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

thanksgiving in the cabin (minus me the photographer

thanksgiving in the cabin (minus me the photographer, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

click on this one to see more!

pictures from manning park

000_0497, originally uploaded by KeeganS.

taken thanksgiving weekend. I love my family:)

click on it to see more picture from my flickr account

My thanksgiving weekend...

The lastest adventures in nursing

I have been studying about drug and alcohol addictions for my latest class. One interesing tidbit of info I found was that caffeine (a stimulant) is metabolized by the liver and metabolism is increased in those who smoke tobacco- but get this: dependence and tolerance sometimes develop with it and when you ingest large doses of caffeine you can develop delirium, and rare cases of suicide have been noted with high caffeine consumption... (from my Fortinash Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing text).!! So, all you caffeine consumers out there (coffee, tea, chocolate, sodas, ect) beware.

I am currently working on a paper on homelessness in the elderly population- I am learning about the cycle of poverty- maybe I am being led into a whole different area of nursing than in the hospital..... but I am really enjoying my home care nursing practicum right now- the nurses are great, good atmosphere, and so far all the clients have been wonderful:)

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall season. Hope to hear from you all soon! Comments please people:)

Callie's wedding: the video

some family pics from the wedding

me and dad chillaxin

This is me on the beach in Anacortes today:) My new profile pic