My new friend, Kristi

For the past few weeks I have been listening to the autobiography of Kristin Chenoweth read by the author.  I listen to it in the car.  I am in my car a lot so over the past few weeks we have spent a ton of time together and I have learned a lot from her.

Tonight, as I was watching the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I noticed all sorts of technical parts of the performance that Kristin talks about in her book.  At one point a question popped into my head about the singing and I thought, "who is my singer friend I could ask?".  I had to laugh at myself when I realized I was thinking of my new friend Kristi. :)

Just so we are clear, I am aware that Kristin Chenoweth and I are not really friends. :)  But there are some parts of her book that I wanted to share with you.

At one point she decides she needs to hire a personal trainer.  Her trainers philosophy makes a lot of sense.  He says that every woman needs to love their body the way it is because if you don't love it why would you want to invest the time and energy required to make it stronger.  There is always room for improvement but when those changes are prompted by love for ourselves then we won't sabotage ourselves or set our self up for failure.  It makes a lot of sense.

She talks about when she went through some confusing and frustrating parts of her life she held onto the fact that God is in control of her life.  She says at one point that if she believed that God was in control of her life when she won then she had to accept that He was also aware of when she lost and even though it didn't make sense to her He was in control.  I don't know if you remember but I wrote excitedly about a graduate student assistant position I got this past semester.  It is a position you have to reapply for each semester.  I didn't get it for the spring semester.  I was heartbroken mostly because I thought that this position was an answer to my prayers.  I struggled financially through the beginning of my first semester and when I got that job I thought that God had led me to my answer.  I was glad for the reminder in this passage that if I trust that God is in control when things go right then I need to do the same when they seem to go wrong.  For now I am trying to have faith that a window to open after this door has "shut".

My favorite part is when she talks about the list of questions she has for God when she gets to the next life.  It is a fantastic list full of several things I would love to know as well.  When she poses her final question it resonates with me so much that is makes me tear up.  She simply asks "Heavenly Father, are you proud of me?"

Thanks for the lessons Kristi!  Love ya BFF!  he he

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

This morning my dad called and said he had an extra ticket to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and would I like to come with him.  I didn't know much about this group but it was a free ticket and I was available so I said yes!  My most recent exposure to them was in an award winning video my friend Charlotte made and posted on her blog.  It is fantastic!  You should check it out.  Anyways, I figured if her video was any indication of how cool this group was then I would have a great time.

When we got there we had "gold" parking and got to park right outside the front door!  Dad had put in a request for tickets at work and got them so we got parking passes and seats in the company suite.  It was SWEET!  The first thing I noticed in the suite was the free beverages.

All the Diet Coke I could drink!  Yum!

The view was awesome!  The seats were fantastic!  There were fireworks, lasers and pyrotechnics... it rocked!

I got really excited when they played "Charlotte's song".  I do have to say it was pretty impressive live but I thought the singing was better in Charlotte's video. :)

It was an experience I will treasure.  I had so much fun.  Thank you dad!  Thank you Systemware!

All I want for Christmas

I visited with Santa and told him I wanted an all expense paid scholarship for graduate school... :)

Christmas is a stressful time of year for me.  So much to do with a deadline looming.  This season was made merrier for me by the most thoughtful gifts given to me by dear friends and family.  I wanted to share some of my favorites with you here.

My friend, Erika, always gives me the most quirky and unique gifts.  This year she gave me a calendar made out of Bubble Wrap.

How cool is that?!  I LOVE it!  Thanks Erika!

My brother made me a stable to go with the Willow Tree nativity that I have collected as gifts from my parents over the past few Christmas'.  He went into the woods on my parents land, cut down the best tree, hauled it back to the shop and crafted a stable from the wood.

It smells so good, like fresh wood.  It is the perfect size.  It is so wonderfully rustic.  I love it!  Thank you Jake!

I got a whole list of other great gifts.  If you don't see your gift listed here it is not because I didn't love it, I just don't want to make others jealous because of all the love that was poured out upon me this holiday season.  Thank you to everyone for the gifts and love I have received this season.  I love you all and hope you had a wonderful holiday.

End of the first Semester

As my first semester in grad school was coming to an end I was faced with several projects.  One of them was a huge, two part project, that involved analyzing a child's language sample.  It was very complex.  My partner and I worked on the first half for 4 hours one night.  The next night we tried to start on the second half but hit a wall.  We set it aside until the end of the week when we hoped a new book my friend had ordered would come and help us figure it out.  Through out the week, as we overheard other students saying they had asked the teacher about specific sentences, we would jot down the sentence and the code to go with it on a pink sticky note.

The end of the week finally came, bringing with it the new book so we got together again to finish the project.  The new book was little help so we turned to the sticky note for our answers.

One big problem...

the pink sticky note had been left at home.

Thankfully my friend (we'll call her Molly) had someone (we'll call him Cody) at her place that could read the note to us over the phone.  

Molly dialed the number and explained to Cody where the note was and that she needed him to read to her exactly what it said.

Here is the conversation that followed:

Molly: It probably won't make sense and it might be hard to read but I just need you to read exactly what it says.

Cody: OK, I can't read it.

Molly:  I know it is hard to read but I really need you to read it to me.  Just try really hard.

Cody:  Molly, I CAN'T READ IT.

Molly: I know it is really messy and hard to decipher but I really need it.  Maybe you could spell it to me or something.  Please just try.

Cody: I CAN'T READ IT.

Finally, after much frustration, Molly finally realized that since she and Cody both had iPhones he could take a picture and send it to her.

When the picture finally came through this is what we saw...

In case you can't see it, the first sentence on our trusty pink sticky note is "I can't read it".

We laughed until we cried.  Poor Cody tried so hard to tell us what it said. :)  I think Molly apologized later.

Just goes to prove that being a speech student doesn't make you immune to communication problems.

Thanksgiving Day Football in the country

I came home from running to the Dollar General for last minute Thanksgiving dinner stuff, the only store in Honey Grove...although as Aunt Sue pointed out at least they have a store... but I digress.  Ok, so I came back from the store and was told I had to go look out back at the "Goal" my brothers had created.  I was told it had fallen on Adam, but he was still alive and it also fell on a chair but it broke.  I walked out the back door and found this.

Yes, that is a trampoline AND picnic tables turned on their sides.  There were all sorts of rules like, if the ball goes over the chalk line it is out, if it goes between the legs of the chair it is in.  Most of the balls ended up in the chicken coop or next to the pond... which is also out of bounds.

Here is the whole gang "warming" their hands from the heat coming off of the spinning ball.  Awesome goal guys!  Adam, I'm glad it didn't kill you.

I got a job, I got a job, I got a job hey hey hey hey!

In case you missed it, I got a job!  It is technically a "Graduate Student Assistantship" position (which is hard to get and thus an honor...but I don't want to brag... ) but it pays real money!  The kind that will pay bills!  Can you tell I am a little excited about this new development?  Ok, here is the scoop.  I am working at the Denton State Supported Living Center (used to be called the Denton State School).  Here is a blip about it from their website:
Denton State School's doors opened in July, 1960, and within 1 year had approximately 1,700 residents. The majority of the residents were children and young adults with mild to moderate mental retardation. The school was designed to be a community within it's self. It had its own infirmary, beauty shop, education buildings, therapy departments, and four dormitories. The dormitories have since been converted to 40 apartments. Located on 200 wooded acres south of Denton, It is the largest of the 11 state schools in Texas and home to more than 650 individuals with severe and profound mental retardation. 

All of the residents there now are adults, many of which have been there their whole lives.  The few I have come into contact with have seemed very happy there.  I am working in the communication department and will eventually be working with the residents there to help them communicate whether by speaking or using some other augmentative device.  For now, because I have not completed the required training, I am not allowed contact with the residents to I am helping with the grunt work around the office.  Mostly I have become very familiar with the new shipment of communication devices recently delivered.  I get to open the box, plug in the device, make sure it works, then engrave it with an ID number before packing it all back up and putting it on the shelf.  So, for now, the picture of my work there is this...

Why did we keep...

I am way behind in my blogging.  It really slowed me down when the free internet I was piggy backing on decided to go password protected and didn't tell me the password.  So rude!  Anyways, that is my excuse on to the posting.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to figure out how to come up with the money to pay my bills.  I looked around and decided I have a bunch of "stuff" that other people might want so I cleaned out everything that I owned that I thought might be of some value, mom did the same, and we posted a big digital garage sale on ebay, amazon, and half.com.  One of the easiest things to list was the DVDs so we listed a bunch of those. Later that evening, I was in the kitchen when mom yelled out from the bedroom

"Hey, Hope!  Why did we keep someone like you?!"


Ummmmm,


"what?" I responded hoping this was some sort of weird joke I wasn't getting and not my mother regretting having me as part of her family.  She repeated "Why did we keep someone like you?!" and I thought about it for a minute.  Just before I went off the deep end of despair I realized she was referring to the DVD Someone like you.  With a sigh of relief I yelled back, "I like that DVD!" followed by "you'll never guess what I thought you said!"

After retelling the story from my end we laughed until there were tears in our eyes.  Aubrey came in and I told her the story which just got the giggles going again.

Someone like you is a funny movie all about the new cow theory.  It makes me laugh but from now on I will giggle when I think of this movie because of the glitch in communication I had with my mother and the split second that I doubted I was wanted in my family.  :)

Mom, I know you're glad you kept someone like me around to share this story with the blog world.  Love ya!

RIP

My midterm week of stress ended with a death.  My oldest and dearest fish died.

I have had her for 5 years.  My beloved Beulah has been with me for 3 apartments, 6 roommates, and over 60 aquarium water changes.  I had a stressful week (huge understatement) with 3 major tests in one week.  I eat to deal with stress and I'm afraid when I eat I think my fish would like to eat.  So I ate. I fed my fish.  I ate.  I fed my fish.  I learned the hard way that fish, when they eat too much, can become constipated and die.  She had grown quite large from my years of stress relief eating.  I was kind of stuck for a min when I realized she had died.  I was afraid if I flushed her down the toilet she would clog it.  I ended up taking her down to the bushes at the end of my apartments.  I tried to throw her into the bushes but she stuck in the net and plopped onto the cement slab directly in front of my feet.  I didn't want to touch her to pick her up and throw her again so I left her there.  In case you are wondering, you can see her dead body from my front door.  I just make it a point to NOT look over there.  It is too painful...and gross.  Farewell Beulah.  You will be missed.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

A big "Thank You!" to everyone who tried so hard to help me find a copy of Brown Bear, Brown, Bear to use with my client this week.  I ended up making my own copy and then 10 min before my session began a classmate of mine showed me a hidden copy of the book on a bookshelf I had not looked at.  In the end I got the book that I needed.  I wanted to say thanks to all of you because I felt so loved.  Thanks guys!

Side effects of TV

I am happy to report that I am feeling better.  I watched a lot of TV last week.  I watched every episode of Leverage and several seasons of Hells Kitchen.   In leverage the computer guy, Hardison, is always drinking orange soda.

In every episode of Hell's Kitchen they cook steak.  For most of the week I was so sick that the only things I really ate were cup o soup, popsicles and scrambled eggs because they were easy on my throat.  I didn't have much of an appetite because the pain medications they gave me made my stomach queasy.  As the week came to an end, and my appetite began to return, I found myself craving Steak and Orange Soda. :)

Allie and I went to Texas Road House to get a steak and then I stopped by Target and picked up an Orange soda.  I wish I could report that they were everything I dreamed they would be.  I think my taste buds might still be sick because both brands of orange soda that I tasted were terrible and the steak tasted like dog food.  I KNOW that the food at Texas Roadhouse ROCKS and EVERY orange soda cannot taste like vitamins with a funky metallic aftertaste soooooooo I am left with no other conclusion but that my taste buds are not right.

I watched another episode of Leverage last night and found myself once again craving orange soda.  So here I am stuck in a hard spot.  My brain thinks it really wants some orange soda but my taste buds remember how not refreshing it was last time... maybe I will try some Sunny Delight.

The lengths I will go for popsicles...

First to answer the question on everyone's mind; Yes, I am STILL sick.  Ok, I know it has only been 3 days but the hours stretch on for days when I am missing class and seeing clients.  Thankfully I have a great supervisor that has willingly taken over my clients for me and a wonderful friend who has been recording all the classes that I have missed.

So, I had planned to stay home sick today, which I managed to do for 1/2 the day by sleeping in until noon, but Mom was spending the day with Lauren and they tempted me into coming down with popsicles.  After getting up at noon, showering, dressing and then driving down I got there by about 2:30pm.  We watched a movie, chatted, and of course I ate popsicles.... lot's of popsicles.  Mom and Lauren had to leave at 5pm so that is when I headed for home.  In the end I spent about the same amount of time in the car as I did hanging with my fam.  It was totally worth it.  I loved seeing them and did I mention the popsicles?  I loved the popsicles.  My throat loved the popsicles.  So, Mom and Lauren... thanks for the popsicles and a great afternoon.  I felt loved.

Still Sick

This morning I woke up sicker then yesterday.  Oh, so not well.  I slept for 4 or 5 hours and then dragged myself to the student health center.  I don't have a cold.  I don't have the flu.  I have a viral infection that is causing blisters to form on the back of my throat.  Yes, it hurts as bad as it sounds. I left the clinic with several different types of pain killers and instructions to stay home in bed for the next day or two.  Lots of fluids.  No milk products.  No ice cream.  I need some popsicles.

Sick

Yesterday I had the sniffles and today it has turned into a full blown cold.  I thought it was just a head cold because for most of the day I felt, as Amy so aptly described it, as if I were drowning in my own head; headache, sore throat, runny nose, occasional cough, etc.  But this evening my cough has increased and it is a deep hacking cough so I guess I have a head and chest cold.  What ever you want to call it, I don't like it.  I have already taken some Airborn and the Tylenol Cold that Allie gave me has helped a little.  Hopefully I will be able to sleep tonight.  Last night that wasn't so easy to do.  I just want to be well again.

The end (hopefully) of the Bed Saga

My parents came tonight.  My dad brought with him all sorts of tools and stuff to whip my bed into shape.  Before he did anything to it he asked me for a flashlight and crawled underneath to get a look at what was going on.  I should have taken a picture of it but I didn't.  Anyways, while he was looking under the hood of my bed he said "I see the problem".  Evidently my bed is warped.  I blame that on Denton.  Anyways, the sides were evidently bowing out so Dad created this device to pull the sides in together.

It involved a wire hanger, some extra bed parts and some ribbon.  He and mom both jumped on it after it was fixed so it should be all fixed.  Hooray!  I get to sleep in my own bed tonight!

While I had them here I managed to get them to help me with a couple other projects.  Mom and I unpacked all my decoration stuff and put it on my shelves.

Yes, the E is backwards.  Mom did that. She said it is to remind me you don't ALWAYS have to be perfect.  I love it!

We also finally got around to hanging pictures on the walls.

 I don't know if you read in my earlier post that I was avoiding putting them up.  If I didn't decorate then I could pretend that this is not really where I live.  I was in denial. :)

Dad put up the room divider curtains that I purchased at Ikea a while ago.

Aren't they awesome!  I absolutely love them!  Thanks Dad!  You have to come see them to truly appreciate how great they are... open invitation to come visit. :)

My apartment is now my home.  My things are on the wall.  My bed is sleep-able.  My house smells like Mom's herbal muscle rub, and I can still smell Dad on his hanky that he left with me.  For right now, in this moment, I am at peace.

Bags

My eyes feel like there is sand in them.  My head feels like it is in an ever tightening vice.  There are bags under my eyes.  In case you have not guessed my bed was naughty again all last night.  The rest of the boards popped out on that side one at a time about an hour apart.  I was left huddled against the wall, hoping the boards on that side of the bed would stay in place.  Finally, at 5am, I got up to use the restroom and decided to sleep somewhere else.  I am in a 500 sq ft apartment so there are not a lot of options for sleeping places besides my bed so I ended up on my love seat.

I know what you are thinking.  No, it is not bigger then it looks in the picture.  Yes, I had a hard time sleeping there.  Mom asked if I would like Dad to come fix my bed to which I replied that if that was at all a possibility it would be a dream come true!  For now the dreaming is going to have to wait until we can get our schedules to match.  In the mean time I will be thinking short short thoughts as I compact myself onto my love seat.

My bed is rebelling

I'm pretty sure my bed does not like living in Denton.  I NEVER had a problem with it when I was living in Richardson.  I even moved it around in my room a couple of times and not a single problem.  Ever since I moved here it has given me nothing but trouble.  What other conclusion could there be except that my bed is rebelling because of the move?

Do you see those slats hanging down from the bottom of the bed?  They are not supposed to be hanging out like that.  They are supposed to be neatly tucked up under the bed holding the mattress in place.  Last night, while I was sleeping, they decided they were going to hang out again, even thought I had previously told them NOT to.  So now, as I am putting off going to bed, I am stuck trying to decide what punishment is appropriate for a rebellious bed that insists on hanging out even after I have given it strict orders not to.  Any suggestions?  Anyone have an old, well behaved, bed they'd like to trade for my rebellious teenage bed?

Good night.  I hope YOU have a well behaved bed that will steadfastly stay right where it is supposed to be so that you can get a good nights rest.  I'm going to have another stern talking to with my naughty bed before I climb onto the not hanging out side and try to get some sleep.

Texas Mobile

I pulled into my parents driveway to find this...

I don't know if you can see it but there is a motor hanging in the middle of two cars that have been lifted off the ground.  I asked my dad if he was trying to make a mobile.  He said he was having trouble getting it to rotate AND play music.  Adam said he was going to hang it over his son's crib.  Charlie will love it!  Welcome to Texas, Ya'll!

My Shirt Came!!!

My Chili's shirt came today!

I was surprised when I opened the UPS envelope to find this...

They shrunk my shirt down into this little chili shaped package.  The shirt literally crunched and crackled when I opened it.  I am definitely going to have to wash it before I try to wear it.  Guess what! It came with this cool coupon too!

Anybody want to meet for some chips and queso?  It's on me!  :)

Swimming

Last night I went down the to "pohl recreation center" here on campus to check it out.  It's amazing!  You walk in the front door and see this...

There were tons of people there because they were having some big start of the semester party.  I still got a chance to look around a bit.  Here are a couple more pictures of this fantastic facility.

There is this great walking/jogging track all the way around the top of the building.  From there you get a great view of all the exercise equipment.

There are TV's on each exercise machine!  It's enough to make me consider more then just the forced exercise UNT has provided me with. :)  Ok, on to the reason why I went to the pohl recreation center to begin with....

I went to check out the pool and try to loosen up my knee.  With all the walking my knees have been killing me.  I have been careful with them and finally got the right one feeling better but the left one has been a bit stubborn.  I thought it would help if I used it in a less stressful situation.  This pool rocks!  It has a swirling vortex, a lazy river for floating, underwater seating, and a huge hot tub.  I walked around in the water for a bit, swam some laps and then ended up in the hot tub where i was able to do some stretches.  My knee was still sore last night but this morning it was feeling much better.   Thanks pohl recreation center!

Blue Day

I have been struggling with all the changes that have happened in my life over the past month.  I've moved to a new town.  I am in a new apartment.  I left my roommates.  I left my job and the kids I love.  I am going to school now and it has pretty much consumed my schedule.  I am still not sure how I am going to pay for things.  I have enough put aside to make it maybe one more month and then what?  There is really no time in my schedule for a job.  I've tried to get a loan but was denied.  I kept thinking that once I made it through all the change that I would settle in and I would feel better.  Perhaps that will still be the case but for now I just feel so lost and alone.

I am in denial that this new apartment is my home now.  I have not put my pictures on the wall.   I have tried 3 times now to go buy groceries for the cupboards.  Tonight I finally got groceries and I discovered that even my Target is different.  You know how when you go out of town you can go into a Walmart anywhere and it is just like you are at home?  They are all the same.  I went to Target this evening expecting that small comfort of home only to walk into some strange new layout.  It was just wrong.  The cheese was back on the back wall where the frozen stuff belongs and the school supplies were in the back corner where the bikes belong and the candy was in the bread isle.  I feel like I have stepped through the looking glass.  Everything is topsy turvy.

My stupid phone is not working right.  It seems it was only able to recover from getting wet once.  I have gone to the ATT store twice now to replace it and both times left without getting something new because I am trying to conserve my resources but it is driving me crazy.  It is my lifeline to my people and it is on the fritz.

I'm homesick.  I just want to go home and unfortunately my "home" does not exist anymore.

Where are some Ruby Slippers when you need them?

The Blessings of Institute

Ok, in a few of my prior posts I have complained just a little bit about the walking required for my grad school classes.  :)   I want to explain a bit about that and then I will get to the title of this entry.

When I finally decided that I was going to move to Denton my mom and I spent 2 different fun filled days here looking around for an apartment.  The very last one we saw was this perfect apartment.  It's location was unbelievable.

As you can see from the map above my apartment is RIGHT next to the Speech and Hearing building.  At the time that we were searching for an apartment I was under the impression that all of my classes would be in that building so it was PERFECT!  Unfortunately our class group is larger then usual and will not fit in any of the class rooms in that building so the Dean had to scramble to find classrooms that would fit us.  The problem with the last minute scramble is that the classrooms are not necessarily in the most convenient places.

This is the walk I made several times last week, the one I have been complaining about.  I know it is good for me, and thankfully the weather hasn't been too bad.  It is beautiful today.  I am looking forward to cooler weather but not rainy days.   Today brought with it a whole new set of classrooms to get to and believe it or not they are even further away then last weeks class room.

I am not in the best physical condition so I approach long distance walking like the tortoise, slow and steady.  I gave myself an hour so I could stop and rest if needed.  I needed to leave for class at 11:30am.  At about 10am it occurred to me that I had not yet signed up for Institute.  When I got on to the website to sign up I remembered where the institute was located...

TaDa!  Hoorah!  *chorus of angels singing*  Hallelujah!  OK, so If you attend institute you get to park in the lot for free all semester!  Hooray!  Needless to say I signed up for Institute class right then.  Maybe, later in the semester, I will do the long walk but it is nice to have this shorter walk option.  Especially for bad weather days and because my last class on monday night doesn't get out until 8:30pm I am counting my blessings.  So, I parked there today and who knows, maybe it will turn into a missionary opportunity... "Free Close parking!  You just have to attend a bible study class once a week!" :)

Which brings me to the title of this blog entry.  I know there are other, spiritual, blessings of institute but for me, today, I am thankful for the immediate blessing of free parking close to my classrooms.

DePeche Mode

Last night I went with some of my favorite people to an outdoor DePeche Mode concert.  When we purchased the tickets, 4 months ago, we thought we were crazy to be planning to go to an outdoor concert in August in Texas but we lucked out.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL!  There was a slight breeze and the lawn was all in shade and the temperature was in the low 90s.  It was delightful!

My favorite part of the evening was the waiting time.  We got to the stadium around 7pm, when they opened the gates.  We got prime seating right in the middle and then spent the next hour or so chatting and enjoying the night air.

The concert itself was just ok.  The crowd was fabulous to watch and hanging with my friends was a blast.  It was a lovely evening.

A day spent with the family

This morning I went and met up with my family at Adam and Vicky's apartment to help them move.  Charlie was out of sorts.  I think he could sense that his normally orderly "world" was now all in boxes.  He was happiest when his dad was holding him but he did have a few happy moments with his soon coming cousin... Special K.  Let me explain.  Lauren and Stephen are expecting a baby in November and they have decided not to find out the gender until birth day.  They have names picked out for each gender and both names start with K so I refer to my upcoming niece/nephew as Special K.  

Here Lauren is holding Charlie sitting on top of Special K. :)  You can just barely see the smile peeking out on Charlie's face.  It should be interesting to see what kind of friends these future cousins will ultimately be.

Aaron and Samantha wanted to help with the moving.  They picked up everything small enough for them to carry and took it out to the van.  They were very cute.  When they ran out of things to move the found the bag of Cheetos that Aubrey had brought with the leftovers from her party from the night before.  Samantha's favorite thing to do with them was to feed them to Dad, or Poppy as she calls him.

When Lauren and I were finished giving emotional support with the moving we decided to get some lunch at Chili's.  Guess what?!  Ok, I don't know if you know but once a year Chili's dedicates a month to celebrate me and this is that month!!  See...

Ok, so technically the proceeds go to St. Jude but still... I like getting all the Hope stuff.  The picture above is of 6 different coasters that when placed together make this Hope chili.  We had the best waitress I think I've ever had at Chili's.  We had a stack of coasters with the letter E on them on our table and when Lauren asked about the other letters our waitress went around the whole restaurant looking for the remaining pieces of the puzzle.  She found them all!  She was great and we made sure to tell her manager how great she was.  It was nice having lunch with Lauren.  Thanks for lunch Lauren!

So that was my day spent with my family.  They are pretty great.

Grandma Betty

Our sweet Grandma Betty passed peacefully in her sleep last night.  Her infectious smile is now bringing joy to those on the other side.  We will miss her loving presence in our lives.  Love you Grandma Betty!  God be with you til we meet again.

Not any easier

I think they made the path to my class twice or even three times as long today!  Halfway there I started questioning whether I was going to make it.  Thankfully there is this nice low steel parking fence thing in the shade where I was able to sit and collect myself before continuing on.  In case you were wondering, I did make it to class AND back again.  I was dripping with sweat by the time I made it to my desk in class but I SURVIVED!!!  So, I'm thinking that I was delusional in thinking this was going to get easier the more I did it... at least right away.  I'm thinking this is going to get harder over the next few weeks but THEN it should get better.  In theory... my body will get used to the walking and perhaps it will even get lighter which would also help relieve some of the "discomfort".  (believe me, I use that term lightly)  I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow brings with it more hot, sweaty, walking.  Wish me luck.

walked and walked and walked and walked

I spent the day with Allie yesterday.  We got ALL my errands done.  We walked all over IKEA and Target and Office Max AND Walmart.  I'm kicking myself for not bringing my knee brace.  It would have really helped.  Meet my knees new best friends...

Between these two bottles I am moving slowly about today.  I have class this afternoon but I am feeling pretty confident about the walk.  I did it monday and it wasn't that bad so I'm ready to conquer it again.

Last night Rachael came over and helped me fix some things around my apartment (including my bed...a whole other story).  We had some excitement while she was here.  We were taking my bed a part to figure out what the problem was when we heard a big BANG from the kitchen and then ALL the power in the apartment went off!  We soon discovered that this metal sign that I had hanging over the stove in the kitchen...

had fallen down behind my electric stove, fell across the 2 prongs of the plug, and shorted out my entire apartment.  After many frantic phone calls (including one to my dad) and several hours of fretting, it was finally discovered that the master fuse had been tripped and had to be reset.  Did you even know there was a master fuse?  I didn't.  Mine is located next to my electric meter so if this ever happens again remind me so I can just fix it myself.

So, Rachael helped me get my bed back together AND put my curtains up.  I LOVE my curtains!  Thank you Rachael!   You can kind of see them behind the bottles posted above.  They are so cute!

Ok, well I am off to class.  Wish me luck with my hike across campus.  Me and those pioneer children.  We are all about the walking and walking and walking....

Orientation

Today was orientation for grad school.  My stomach was all tied up in knots.  What if I didn't make any friends?  What if it was all over my head?  What if I stuck out like a sore thumb?  The one thing I didn't have to stress over was the commute.  My front door literally opens out to the parking lot of my school building.

I nervously made my way across the parking lot and was so excited to actually see a couple of faces I recognized from UTD undergrad.  Instant friends!  Hooray!

We toured the building and then were informed that because of the size of our class that was admitted this fall that all of our classes will be in other buildings around campus.  The only problem is there is no closer parking then the Speech Language Hearing (SLH) building so "Hello Forced Exercise!".

So Day One of the walking went ok.  Don't get me wrong, it was hot and hard and my knees were a little uncertain as to when I had lost my mind to expect them to do so much but as I finally made it back to my  front door I felt such a rush and a sense of accomplishment.  I can do this!  As I am molding my brain into a world class SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) I will also finally be able to sculpt my body into something I will be happier with.  Bring it on!