i wanna go all over the world

okay so i came to announce that we only have two days to go until we leave to go skiing, but i forgot that i had made a little ticker thing!! glad you're all informed even without my updates...WAHOO!!

i would like to announce that my husband, christopher edward slaten, received a score of 350/350 on his dean vaughn medical terminology exam!!! he studied tirelessly, reviewed endlessly, and laughed constantly. this method of learning 350 medical terms is hilarious. for example. you have a prefix or suffix - like "-emesis" - and then, rather than just having what it means, it has a column of what it sounds like - in this case, "hey missus!" (you know, like "mrs.") - and then a little visual that helps you remember what it means - "see the belhop yelling at the woman "HEY MISSUS!" who is vomiting on the carpet in the lobby!" - and then what it actually means - "vomit". and EVERY one of them ended with an exclamation point. all 350 of them!!! but the really best part about it is that their classes were spent watching cartoons of the visuals, so they would actually show a cartoon man shouting at the lady vomiting. BWAH! some of them were TOTALLY out there, but he remembered it every time. and he made a freaking 100. dang boy. you're amazing!!! mad props to ya, man. mad props. oh and that picture isn't from the dean vaughn course. i looked for one, but couldn't find one. so this one is just a lady handing a very stunned chris his award for making a 100. yep.

in other news, diane is leaving. i can't believe she's actually leaving. for those of you who don't know who diane is, she's one of the other secretaries here - she's been here the longest, is the funnest (funnest?) and definitely the one who does the most work and gets the most done. i really don't know what i'm going to do without her! i don't WANT a new girl. i want her. *hmph*

in more other news, i just thought about making oatmeal raisin cookies for our trip. HOORAY! it's the recipe on the under-side of the quaker oats lid, and they are SO GOOD. i mean, stupid good. i've probably posted about them before...a few months ago, i knew the recipe by heart b/c i was making them so often.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans

-Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats, raisins, and pecans; mix well.
-Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
-Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown.
-Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

the original recipe calls for a whole cup of raisins and no nuts, but i don't like a real raisiny cookie and i love pecans, so i cut back on raisins and added the nuts!! MAKE THEM! they're awesome.

in still more news, gillian welch and david rawlings are driving me crazy - they're in my head singing "i wanna go all over the world, and start livin' free..." that's the only line in know from the song and it's going around in my head over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again....BAH! listen to it here (scroll down and listen to "dear someone") and join in my suffering...it's a SUPER song. it's just enough. gillian!! ENOUGH!!!

i must go file. blast the filing!!!