Happy Spring!

Well hello again! I know it's been forever since my last update but this past month has been a little hectic. I think most of you know by now that on the way back from CA, my mom got sick. She was diagnosed with viral meningitis which caused another condition, Bell's Palsy to occur. She's doing much better now, not perfect, but much improved, so as you can imagine, it's been a little tough with that and school.
As for spring break, it was AWESOME! California was beautiful (no surprise there) and it was great spending time with my family, even though it wasn't much time. I'm really sorry to everyone that I wasn't able to visit. The trip was short and last minute and I really only had time for family. The road trip back wasn't too bad. Hades did amazing. He pretty much slept the entire time. It took us 3 days, getting on the road at about 4 am and driving straight until 9ish p.m. Our only stop was in Texas, to get my mom checked out. Totally worth it for the cutest puppy ever. I absolutely LOVE having him here. It's nice to just look over at his cuteness when I'm studying.
Well, since I've been back it's been non-stop exams. The first three weeks back were tough, lots of studying, and not a whole lot else. This past week was much nicer. Just one paper to do, so I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep. On Tuesday, I was supposed to do a mare palpation (a mare is a female horse). We were supposed to do a rectal, but it was cancelled so unfortunately I won't be sending that picture back to everyone like I wanted. But we did take some silly pictures of ourselves that I'll post when I get them. Thursday though was super fun. In physiology lab, we got to palpate the rumen of a cow. You may have heard of these fistulated cows, or "cows with windows". The window is just over the rumen, which is on the left side of the abdomen. Basically the window serves as a plug, and so we unplugged it, and put our arm inside to feel different anatomical structures within the rumen. It was the coolest feeling. I won't get into too much detail, because I'm sure most of you already think I'm weird for enjoying this, but if you want the total scoop, just let me know. After that, my friend Keri, showed Nikita and I how to milk cows. The school has machines that do a lot of the work, but we still needed to hand milk a little to make sure the milk looked normal. It was a lot of fun. Pictures from all my cow fun will be coming soon.
Before spring break, in my goat lab, we got to work with the "kids" (baby goats). They were so cute! We dewormed them, put on an ear tattoo, castrated a few males, and trimmed feet.
Well I think that's most of the update for now, I'll post a bunch of pictures and add as I go. I'll post some more stuff later, so I don't overwhelm you all at once.

Me holding the cutest little baby goat.



Here I'm doing an ear tattoo.



Me and my handsome dad at the Redondo Beach Pier.



Just a gorgeous shot of the pier. I miss the beach.



Partying it up with the family at Naja's. That's my brother Dan, godfather Hector and aunt Cindy. Cousin Terra and uncle Jim in the background.



Cuddling with my godson Sean and little Tyson. Isn't Sean getting big?!



Driving through downtown, Los Angeles. This is for you non-Californians.



Hades thinks he's human. And look at those ears!



There was pretty much zero visibility driving through this snow storm in Arizona. Good thing we had an explorer.



Once we got past the Arizona storm, this is what the rest of the drive looked like. Clear skies, and lots of flat land.



I know what you're thinking, I'm a total nerd, and my hair looks crazy, but hey, aren't Hades and I cute?



This is what Hades did all three days.



So, when I got back to NC, I was called in to watch a foal that was sick. It's part of the Equine Emergency Team that I'm on. I just had to sit with the foal for 4 hours, make sure it wasn't trying to move around too much, and every hour help with treatments. It was a cool experience and a very cute foal. Isn't that pillow case awesome?



Last but not least, in lab, we worked with the pigs a little. We didn't do too much hands on stuff this time, but they were still cute in a pig kind of way.



I'll be back soon with more updates! Oh and Happy Birthday to little Sean and my friend Nikki!