I passed!!!

I cannot believe it either because that exam was sooooooooooooo frickin hard! I took the 4 full hours to answer all of the questions - I think I had 6 minutes to spare. I thought for sure I failed it. My heart was beating out of my chest when I hit enter and had to wait 60 seconds for the results. When it said "Congratulations" I thought well they don't say that if you failed.....so that means I passed! OMG I can't believe it. I thought I was going to pass out from the excitement, and my entire body was shaking from head to toe! I can have my life back, and now I can write those 3 letters next to my name! I am now PMP Certified (Project Management Professional). Woohoo!!!!

Oh and I still have my cold, but my adrenaline kicked in....and the Claritin and Dayquil helped too.

Timing Couldn't be Worse

for a damn head cold!! Ugh. I felt it coming on last night, but I was hoping my sore throat was just caused by drainage from my tears over Kelly dog. Nope - woke up with the telltale signs of an actual cold - sore throat, crappy feeling. My exam is Monday afternoon - I'm planning on studying hard this weekend, but now I get to feel like shit doing so. I will have to see how I feel on Monday morning because if my nose is running I will have to move the exam - they don't let you take anything into the exam room - no kleenex, no cough drops, no nothing. Plus I don't want to get anyone else sick. I just got back from Kroger and stocked up on Airborne. I'm hoping I can turn this into a minor cold.

This also now means my surgery scheduled for Thursday could be in jeopardy - may have to move that out too, which could result in a 6 week delay trying to get on my doctor's surgery calendar. I will see how I feel on Monday and call the doctor's office and see what they say.

I haven't been sick in a year and 5 months - why this week? I'm so pissed.

Goodbye to my sweet Kelly girl

Got the news today that my favorite dog Kelly is going to Rainbow Bridge (aka pet heaven) tomorrow. She's a 12 year old black Lab whom I used to take on walks along with her brother all over our neighborhood. Their owners (my friends) moved to Boston at the end of last summer. Kelly has the fatty tumors that Labs get and I guess one of them is getting really bad and causing her pain. Today they are celebrating her last day - as I type this they are on the front porch having a birthday party for her. Earlier today they took her to the dog bakery, to the dog park, and to the dog wash. She is the most lovable, sweetest dog I have ever known and I have been bawling my eyes out all afternoon. She gave and received so much love in her 12 years. Although I said goodbye to her last August when we went on our very last walk before they moved, and I knew I would never see her again, my heart is sad. My friend Ann (Kelly's owner) is being so brave for her 3 children - creating happy memories today. I want to do something for the family. Does anyone have any ideas?

Studying is going well

Yes I know, I've fallen off the face of the earth when it comes to my blogs. Thanks to Good Eggs for the kick in the pants. The good news is that studying has been going well the last couple of weeks. I did have a panic attack about 3 weeks ago regarding trying to retain all of this information. I had been taking sample 200 question exams and I passed a couple, but also failed a few which sent me into panic mode. Turns out I just wasn't ready to start taking the entire 200 question exam. My PMP coach talked me off the ledge, and we came up with a study strategy that is working very well for me. I have since re-focused on reviewing individual chapters and taking the sample exams pertinent to that chapter. I've also found that creating my own flash cards has been a great study tool. Just the act of writing them out has resulted in many light bulbs going off. I am going to move the exam out one week to April 26th, but I'll be ready by then. That is 2 weeks away and I have my study plan mapped out every day until then. I also have 2 more group study sessions the next two Wednesdays, and the coach we have for those sessions is an awesome teacher. I'd actually love to work for him someday - highly intelligent and he actually makes project management fun!

Okay enough about that boring PMP stuff. Unfortunately there really isn't anything exciting to talk about. Hubby was home this weekend and we had a great weekend together. We are trying to figure out where to go on vacation this summer. We want to go to Italy, but it will depend on airfare prices.

We got all moved into our new building for Backyard Soaps, and the new space is absolutely amazing. It's so nice for our staff to have room to work and move! The new retail store looks great too - it's not as crowded as our other one was. I need to post some pictures, but unfortunately my camera sucks at indoor pictures. Our new, professionally done wholesale catalog arrived as well and is already resulting in new orders! Yippeee.

Kitties are all doing well; Pachi and Rascal got their spring lion-cut hair cuts, and they've all enjoyed a few forays outside (with full supervision of course). Today Tarzan fixed the cat tree that my 20 pounder Guido had smashed to pieces, so he can now enjoy his perch on high.

Oh and I'm having surgery on the 29th, a laparoscopy to check for endometriosis. May as well rule that out before we decide what to do next.