Catching up!

So it's been a very long time since I've been on here! Sorry. It has been crazy busy but not too eventful. When I left Fort Smith, I had one week where I could run home and visit with the family (run home, yeah right it's a 6 and 1/2 hour drive). I had a short and sweet visit with everyone. I had to unpack winter clothes and repack clothes for the warmer Houston weather. Then I headed down to Houston to begin my last clinical. I am living with my friend Mandy who was my first college roommate. She's from Houston and has a house with an extra room, perfect for me. I've somewhat gotten used to the Houston traffic, although I still don't like it. It's sooo unpredictable. My last clinical is over half way over now, I just started my 6th week. All of my class mates, and myself, are impatiently counting down the days until graduation (even though we still have summer classes after that....dumb). But still, we're that much closer. I am enjoying this clinical because I get to work with kiddos, well actually more like babies. I am working with ECI aka early childhood intervention which provides therapy services including speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, nutritionist, and social work to children who are birth to 3 yr olds. We go to the child's home and work with the family, so we really get a feel of the child's home environment. I will say I love the kiddos, they are all so darn cute, but I don't like some of the places we have to go......ghetto. But overall, I'm enjoying it. Chris has been able to come down and visit a couple of times and I just returned from Easter weekend in Fort Smith. We have had terrible luck with delayed flights, let's just say we now count on arriving a day later than expected. This is extremely frustrating considering the lack of time we have together these days. But we're making it. Thank goodness for free mobile to mobile minutes and unlimited texting! That's about it to sum up a few months. I'll post Easter pics as soon as Chris decides to send them to me.....so it may not happen, but I'll try :-)

Same ol' same ol'

Well sorry it's been a few weeks since my last post. Not alot of exciting things have been going on, just daily life. Arkansas is going good, I'm still enjoying it. As a matter of fact I am enjoying a nice cozy day being lazy by the fire instead of working due to the ice storm that just blew through here. Sometimes you actually look forward to those days, and I definitely was. Not that I don't like my clinical but I have been gone the past 2 weekends and haven't had alot of down time. Two weekends ago Chris and I went to Oklahoma City to meet my mom for a short visit and to see some of my family that I haven't seen in forever. It was definitely a short and sweet visit. Last weekend I went to Tulsa to visit Lindsey, that crazy kid. And Chris had a "man weekend" planned at the cabin with his dad and uncle but sadly that was cut short and he had to come home early because he got the stomach bug......Yuck! Anyway, like I said before......same ol' same ol!

Christmas......come and gone : (

This year it seems like Christmas just flew by. I know every year it goes by too fast, but this year in particular it wasn't long enough for me. Between a ski trip, moving out of my home in amarillo (yes I am homeless for the next 8 months), getting ready for Christmas, and moving to Fort Smith I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, especially since this all happened in the span of 3 weeks. So now I am in Fort Smith living with Chris and his parents and have just completed my first week of another clinical. I am in an inpatient rehab setting this time which deals with patients who must recieve several hours of therapy a day and usually stay there for around 4 weeks. Well I just wanted to drop in a quick note and wish everyone a Happy New Year even though I'm a little late. Here's some pics from Christmas.

My nephew Shelton and I playing with his pillow.

Ashley and Shelton, she was tickling him and he was just giggling like crazy! It's so cute!

Celebrating Dad's Birthday and Christmas all in one night. Ashley, Ty, Shelton, Dad, and me

Mom and me on Christmas Eve

Courtney and me waiting to play Chinese Christmas

Allison and me Christmas morning

Allison, Aunt Christie, and Courtney fixing to go eat Christmas dinner!

Mom hula hooping on the wii

Aunt Christie's turn

I was racing the wii people!

Christmas with mom. Taylon, Ashley, Shelton, Ty, Mom, Rusty, and Me.

The cutest little shepherd!

Tonight I went to my little cousin Easton's first Christmas program. He was one of the shepherds. It was absolutely precious. I'm definitely glad I got to witness this event, it was alot of laughs.

Isn't he adorable! Little sister Elliot was there to watch the show! And so were cousins Payton and Kalynn Trevela and Elliot waiting for the program to start.
Make sure to turn the sound up to get the full effect!

Hittin the slopes!

As soon as finals were out what better place to head than the mountains! Lindsey and I decided to take a ski trip with Bridgett and Bethany who are in the class below us. Bridgett is from Colorado and was kind enough to let us crash at her place. The first day on the mountain wasn't too bad. We went to Loveland Ski Resort which is near Breckenridge and Keystone. We got a hotel room that night since Bridgett's house was almost 2 hours away. However, a winter storm was coming in. It started snowing late afternoon and by the time we woke up the next day they had gotten 11 inches of snow. It was also really dang cold with the wind blowing and all. Needless to say we decided not to ski the second day and instead to go back to Bridgett's house. That night the temperature hit a record low of -17. Holy geez! Then the next day we went to Eldora to ski and it was a tropical heat wave of -2. I have never skied with that many clothes on in my life! Maybe I should stick to spring skiing!

First day on the slopes and we were pumped about it! Bridgett got her board stuck so being the good friend that I am I was trying to help her out! Bethany and I at the Dam Brewery in Silverthorne, CO. Bridgett and typical Lindsey What we awoke to on the second day. Bridgett and Bethany, they decided to ski the second day. Lindsey and I Group shot Me and Lindsey freezing our buns off on the lift! Bridgett and I waiting on Bethany...... Ohhh, here she comes....ha ha! I love this pic. The beautiful view from the lift.......pretty sure I need to live in the mountains.

Christmas Poncho

Every year the faculty from our school has a dinner for the 3rd year class. Being the goofy bunch that we are, we decided to have a tacky Christmas sweater party. The day before the party Lindsey, Caroline, and I decided to go to the thrift stores to find some good stuff. Lindsey and I found our outfits at the first place we went, but we made a second stop so Caroline could find something as funny as ours. We walked in the door and immediately saw something Christmas-y. It was hanging on the end of a rack so we walked over to check it out. It was a Christmas "poncho" and it would be perfect. We left the store without thinking anything else about it. The next day Lindsey and I and some of our other classmates arrived at the party before Josh and Caroline did. The first thing we hear when Caroline walks in the door was, "Is that a tree skirt?"........Oh my gosh, it was! Neither Lindsey, Caroline, or me had any idea. Ha Ha! I can't believe we didn't notice, I mean it totally looked like a tree skirt. Wow!

My awesomely tacky t-shirt dress!

Here is the "poncho" in all it's glory! How did we not notice it was a tree skirt?

After stuffing our faces everyone gathered around for white elephant christmas gifts!


Me, Susan, and Jodie

Caroline (notice the poncho), Stephanie, and Me

Erin and I trying to spread some Christmas cheer even though she had ditched her tacky sweater already.

Yee Haw!

After Thanksgiving, we decided to throw a going away party for our friends Becca and Erin and the little ones, Ava and Tal. They are the wives of a couple of our classmates and the kiddos. Jake and Becca moved back to Salt Lake City and Matt, Erin, Ava, and Tal moved back to Kentucky. Although Matt and Jake will return in May to finish school, their families will not be coming back with them this time since it will only be for 8 weeks. We were all very sad to see them go. Our class and their families have become quite close over the past 2 and a half years and it is weird to know that it will be coming to an end soon. It's kind of bitter sweet for us because we are happy to be finishing school finally but sad that we will all be moving on and not able to see each other as often. I guess that's just part of life. Oh, back to the party........Kat was the party planner and came up with the idea to have a western themed party so they would remember Texas. It was quite amusing I must say.

Surprise.......Erin thought it was just a surprise party for Becca's Birthday so she yelled surprise too......we had to tell her it was her party too!

Here's your sign!

Group shot....how did all these people fit in my kitchen?

Long's hat cracked me up all night.....he reminded me of Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon!

Ohhh my, That's all I have to say! She was the greeter for the night....Scary!

Jodie and I chatting after stuffing our faces with yummy food.

Ava was the cutest little cowgirl!