give me a high-five cuz i just nailed day 1

Here i go with another one of my ‘challenges'.

E he he.
Sounding similar, but not limited to:

This time: one month of no television. ZERO. ZIP. ZINCH. SQUAT.

So from 5/25 – 6/25 there is a possibility that i will be the most productive person you know.

EVEN IF IT KIIILLLLLLLLSS.

itchy itchy itchy

My nose itches.

Ok i lie. but i'm babysitting two awesome little sleeping boys and need something to do.

Am i grossing you out?
Good. that makes me happy.


HEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOO



Anyone got any blogging suggestions...i'm plum out of ideas. plum i say!
In case i didn't make it obvious....

well now you do

Did you know that certain songs can make my eyes turn red?

i seeee you froto bagginnnns

I think it mostly has to do with the mood it puts me in. or when i feel passionately about something. like this song does, for example.

Did you know that if you wear a ring in the summer, you get one free? in only days!

 ----------------------------->>>>>>

Did you know that the jacket i'm wearing in the above photos is named Jack? for lumberjack. and jacket.

Did you know that i spend my summers swinging on this baby, which i snitched from a pile of wood last year in woodshop?

Did you know that i snitch things?

Did you know i'm an official college graduate as of yesterday at approx 7:30pm?

Did you know? huh, huh?

Well.

Now you do.

i missed you bloggy-poo II

A continuation of this, like i promised. even though you may not really care. that's ok. you don't have to read it all. there's something in it for everyone ;)

Wednesday, May 9th - interview!

In order to get a spot as a student at UMC hospital, i had to be interviewed to make sure my work ethic and personality would qualify me to work there. gahhh scary right? actually, it really wasn't.

It was a group interview with me, lucy "luz/luce", and 5 OT's (two of which had been instructors at school so they already knew us)

Lucythebrilliantmindedgenius: [i'm serious, she's been on wheel-of-fortune and everything!] she also plays soccer, is a 4.0gpa student, was a flight attendant, is an aesthetician, owns her own spa party business, speaks mandarin, is half chinese/half filipino, drives a stick.....it goes on guys, i'm not kidding. she's also one of my best friends! because she is just plain brilliant!

At first the interview was pretty formal: introduction, handout a list of discussion questions, lucy and i alternate answering them making sure we have good posture and good use of our words/etiquette, inserting appropriate humor in the right spots.....you know how it goes.

I was sorta being a goof though and knew it wasn't really possible to "blow it" since in my head it was only a 'pretend' interview. i'm still a student afterall. so i joked. for example "how do you know when you are too stressed...?" me-"well, if i start kicking people. or biting. then i know i've probably had enough..." "bahaha..." they don't know how much truth there really is to that statement though. just sayin.

Once the whole atmosphere lightened up, the rest of the interview was very conversational and chatty. it was actually pretty fun. until luce and i realized how much doggone WORK it's gonna be to work at umc. i'm a little intimidated....and usually i don't get intimidated by these things. but this'll be intense.

It was funny though because the both of us showed up in nice pants, a bright blue shirt, and a black overthingy. we matched perfectly. one of the OTs commented on it and asked if we purposely dressed up the same so that we would come into the interview as 'equals' haha. it was perfect.

The scariest part was almost not getting my resume done in time. cherrie, oh, grandma cherrie. she's a career coach. i really could've used her expertise in writing my resume, but she was too busy being out of town and having fun vacation time. i'm glad. but cherrie, oh cherrie! 

I asked dina for help, and she's so awesome she let me borrow her resume to use as a template/example. so it worked out ok. i even got 100% cotton resume paper. that's pretty legit. but more expensive than legit, in my humble opinion.

I start june 4th. two weeks off? i can handle that:)

Friday, May 11th - final presentation

Ope! ari! this was my pinterest project i mentioned! :) I took pictures for ya.

sue & thom's

lucy patoosi's

erika's animal project [left]

 

mine:) well, what made it to the table anyway

i made these babies! if only i could show you in person. darn.

 Mine had to do with recyclable things, or anything around the house, that could be transformed into something used in occupational therapy - school-district based.

Saturday, May 12th - the stolen photo shoot

Stolen? ohhh yes. it was amanda's wedding day and off ash & i go to pose for j and his flawless camera ON SET of amanda's photo session 100 feet away. but hey, we got some good pics from it;)

we mighta felt a tad awkward.....buuut

....the posing overruled the awkwardness

uuughh she's beeaautifulll....see what i mean by 'crop' aria?

model in another life.

ohhh ash. you're good at this =)

love it :]

 Monday, May 14th - car accident

Yep.



So yea. i was occupied with stuff. all good stuff though. probably more than you wanted to know. and then some!! which is why i didn't blog. am i forgiven now? ;]

unsticky tape, thanks for the reminder

A little piece of paper was dangling off my wall today. when i turned it over to look at it, i read two bold headings "when you feel the Spirit" and "when you don't have the Spirit."

I have this creepily-good memory. i looked at this forgotten little white sheet of paper, and remembered the time i decided to put it up on my wall. it was several years ago by now. i was really struggling to discern how the Spirit works, and how to recognize it in my life. i was also struggling to find certain personal answers at the time, feeling quite down on myself.

My sister amy remembered receiving some bulleted points from a church class, so she typed it out really quickly and printed me a copy.

I remember reading it and feeling like some of the words were speaking right to me. i can't tell you which ones made me feel that way anymore, but it impressed me enough to hang this little white sheet of paper on my wall.

I felt really impressed to share it with you today, and im just now getting to chance to actually do it.

Here's what it says:

When you feel the Spirit

1. You feel happy, calm, and clear-minded.
2. You feel generous.
3. Nobody can offend you.
4. You wouldn't mind everybody seeing what you're doing.
5. You are eager to be with people and want to make them happy.
6. You are glad when others succeed.
7. You are glad to be a missionary, to attend your meetings, and bring souls unto Christ.
8. You feel like praying.
9. You follow the mission rules; you wish you could keep all the Lord's commandments.
10. You feel in control -- you don't overeat or sleep too much; you follow the A.M. schedule. you don't feel uncontrollable passions or desires. you have a Locked Heart.
11. You think about the Savior often and lovingly; you want to know Him better
12. You feel confident and are glad to be alive

When you don't have the Spirit

1. You feel unhappy, depressed, confused, and frustrated
2. You feel possessive, self-centered, or resentful of demands made on you by your companion or others
3. You are easily offended
4. You become secretive and evasive
5. You avoid people; you are critical of your companion, other missionaries and church leaders
6. You envy or resent the successes of others
7. You don't want to go out and do missionary work, attend meetings or sacrament meetings. you wish you had another calling or calling at all
8. You don't want to pray
9. You find the mission rules and the commandments bothersome, restricting, or senseless
10. You feel emotions and appetites so strongly that you fear you cannot control them -- hate, jealousy, anger, lust, hunger, fatigue
11. You hardly ever think of the Savior, He seems irrelevant to your life, or worse, part of a confusing system that seems to work against you
12. You get discouraged easily and wonder if life is really worth it

So how do i keep Spirit in my life?

"By careful practice, through the application of correct principles, and by being sensitive to the feelings that come"

Richard G Scott

i missed you bloggy-poo

So the week i disappeared, i was just filling my life with so many blazenly productive and adventure-filled events i can hardly stand it:)

Here's a briefing of the those 9ish days of my life:

Thursday, May 3th - Special Olympics

Let's start here. since i'm in the school district i had the opportunity to attend special olympics for the elementary schools. dina and i went early to cheyenne high school to save a spot in the shade. apparently, last year the kids all died from the heat and the teachers were 11 water bottles short. this year we were lucky enough to have overcast weather with a nice breeze. i got the wear shorts and a nice [duke] blue shirt to represent our school....mtn view e.s.

I can't take pictures of anyone for privacy reasons, but they all did so good! last year i was told that the kids were cranky and super sensitive to the gun shots that started the races. this year, they were all clapping and cheering along for their classmates. *remember - these kids all have some sort of disability, most of them have autism....so this was so fun to see everyone participating*

They did a spear-type-thing throw, softball throw, 50m run, long jump. i was in charge of calling out the kids' names to make sure they made it to their event on time...i fit the part really well! it was a super big job! my voice even carried over all the noise of the crowd and i looked like i knew what i was doing and stuff. it went smoothly, all the teachers had their roles (watching the kids on the bleachers, walking them to the events, fetching them water from afar, making sure they don't get lost, taking pictures at the finish line...

I love my job.

Saturday, May 5th - da wedding #1

Lauren Dudley...now Storer

the beautiful bride. love her dress! and her.

I only add this because no one ever told me my hair looks
this GOOD from the back. ow ow. oh yeah, Lauren's pretty too;)

Her dad is bishop in my family ward. their family is great. i've known them since...i was a beehive (so 8ish years). i remember that because i always thought lil miss sportsy-spiritual-awesome lauren was the ideal person to look up to. so i did. and it was a good choice on my part.

Her wedding was absolutely beautiful. she was married in the Las Vegas temple, then broke away from the typical mormon reception held in church buildings and had it at a beautiful home across from the Provident Living Community garden.

pinata cake. i was sure they were foolin me.
they were. they had a real cake. it looks cool though

With permission, i snuck some pictures with some wonderful friends of mine:

Sis Herzog. my best friend

the boys. losers. :)

Amanda. i chased her down for this picture. i'm glad i did too.

mr daunte. spiffy lil guy aint e?

mama! <3

dance flawr! i didn't catch the bouquet though. darn.

We thought this tree in the corner was cool. the tree of death or something.
i cringe because there was a bug. flying bug.

So yeah, lot's of pictures. i'm so excited for lauren. her parent's couldn't have been more ready for one of their children to get married. i'm glad it was her. and i'm glad it was with a great guy like anthony.

Sunday, May 6th - ZYSC

Ohhh yes. been lookin forward to this day. why? because i got to play the organ! jk. sorta. but in case you were wondering, hymn #139, 192, 86. perfect. some person loved my organ skills so much that he made a point to tell me afterwards. super nice of him to go through that trouble. great testimony meeting too! so many people wanted to bear their testimonies that there were lines of people. it was a good change from the sometimes awkward silences where absolutely no one will admit to getting up. i didn't bear mine though....i promised i would next time.

But it's actually because this was the day of Zion's Youth Symphony and Chorus concert at the Smith Center, newly opened in march. woot woot. i wasn't in it. i'm too old, and too not-in-touch with my flute skills. and they have enough floutists. and i wouldn't have been able to committ my time to them. and $?? who am i kidding. and i sorely miss it.

But it was nice to just watch and take it all in from a new angle. especially because i played this very program in the symphony last year, so i could see the music in my head and feel the story behind every note.

The singers were wonderful.

There was a great turn-out. well duh. it's the smith center we're talking about here people. [i honestly don't get what all the hubbub is about it, but at least now i can say i was there].

However, i didn't get to be an usher after all or get to go behind the scenes or just have the one-up of telling people i ushered at the smith center.

Yeah. the truth comes out. i didn't care about the service part of ushering, i just wanted to glory!;)

But it was cool, because i got to go with my family, and my best friend.

It was great that our conniving minds plotted the capture of this picture even though cameras were big no-no's.

Muahahahahahahahaha.

Truth is, this was after the performance. so it was okayed. by me. muaha ha.

See the connivingness in our faces? i approve.

Music like this makes me smile. good job everyone who was in it! my mom helped a lot with putting things together for it, so in a way, i still felt involved in the symphony through her. that's what's been keeping me sane. that little bit of connection i have left.

I was so ready to jump on stage and just hang out and be like "hey guys. what's up. can i lean over your shoulder and follow along to the music. you know, just to prove to everybody else that i'm as important as all yall are being in a symphony and all." life, however, prods me in a different direction. but i still love the experience of it all...

Can't wait til the Saints & Pioneers program this year! them skouson boys outta get a million dollar high-five....just a suggestion.

Monday, May 7th - baseball CBI

CBI - community based instruction; like a field trip for a couple classes at mtn view e.s.

To make this as concise as possible, this was the main agenda:

• meet at school
• walk to the bus station [public buses, mind you]
• take the bus
• walk to next bus station
• take the bus
• arrive at cashman fields for baseball game [about 1.5 hours later]
• eat lunch first in a huge cement room specifically set-up for the special needs classes
• clean ketchup off everyone
• walk up a path to claim our seats on the bleachers
• sing to some cartoon tunes [spongebob, mickey mouse...]
• eat candy
• notice that a baseball game appears to be taking place
• eat more candy
• take two more buses to arrive back at school [totaling a 4-hour event]

The longest part was walking from one public bus station to the next, making sure no one gets lost or run over by traffic, and either reassuring the kids that everything will be fine and that no one in the bus will actually hurt them -- though they looked crazy enough to -- or warning the kids from getting to comfortable with the strangers.

One of my boys with MR was a little TOO social. there was one person on the bus eating a piece of sweaty, greasy orange cheese, and he asked for a piece. which the person then ripped off a chunk from the corner and handed him a piece. he ate it. i saw him today, one week later so i guess he didn't die from eating a random sweaty chunk of bus-passenger cheese.

LV 51s vs. SLC bees

we left too soon to know who won, but 51s were ahead

This was my first experience riding public transportation. let me just say. avoid it. at. all. costs. it's filled with rude, impatient crazies. even the bus driver! at first i thought he was alright because he looked like merlin the wizard with his awesome white beard, but when the bus got a little overloaded with people he tripped and became a very profanity-filled angry guy with no love for these little kids.

I heard many nasty things throughout the day about when we were going to get off, how slow we were, that the kids were too noisy, that we should go rot in .....many mean things. kids even got shoved around. definitely not the best experience. but i think the kids were mostly ignorant of these details. with their autism, MR, anxiety issues, behavioral issues, limited awareness, etc there were more important things to do. like gnaw on seat rails, eat stranger's cheese, trying not to freak out at the amount of people in one place, and trying to stay seated long enough to make it to the next stop.

Last year a girl got lost. i kept a close eye on her this year for everyone's sake.

There were 14 kids, and 9 adults [including me and a parent that came along]. every time we stepped off the bus we did a quick head count to make sure no one got left behind. it was a busy day for us adults. one kid, Carmelo (sh don't tell anyone i said his name), was acting up at the end. he was probably tired and the shock of doing something new was wearing off. so he ran away while the rest of the group was waiting at the bus stop. three teachers had to chase him down, including Michelle.

It would have been a whole new adventure if they didn't get him in time and missed the bus. i almost looked forward to it....jk. it wouldn't have been good for the adullllts responsible. i'm not an aduuullt yet though since i'm still a student. won't be for another few months...until i take the OT board exam. then i'll have a real job and actually be held accountable for stuff....like losing students on a cbi.

Being a student is cool. i get to learn lots of stuff and meet amazing people like this fabulous lady. once again, no pictures allowed of the classes, but that didn't stop me from getting one with dina.

after the wind, walking, bus-riding, and child-chasing.
i'd say we look awesome. lol

[today is 5/16/12] -- & tomorrow is my LAST DAY guys. at least in the school district!! where oh where did the time go? i actually feel ready to manage my own therapy sessions [even on the fly] and adjust to situations that require quick thinking and flexibility. i actually feel ready to take on this job if i were to work in the school district. it is a great feeling! i didn't know what to expect from fieldwork, but now i feel like the last 8 weeks have been huge strides in my occupational therapy repetoire.

 

I'm so grateful that dina dedicated so much of her talent, knowledge, time, and experience to help me get grounded in my career. she has become such a good friend to me! i'll miss mama dina!! not to mention the kids i've been working with! i've developed a genuine concern for them and now i won't be able to see them progress and grow and learn. especially after seeing some of these kiddos learn and improve so much since i started seeing them in march! *sigh* but umc hospital calls. that's where i'll go starting june 4th.

 

Getting sidetracked.

 

Anywho, this post is just part 1 of my adventure-filled week. there's still so much i must tell you. including an awesome pretend-play photo shoot jamison did of me and ash on mtn charleston. the pictures turned out really good. especially if i'm cropped out of them.....ash is absolutely beautiful in the pictures. so stay tuned. :)

cars should never kiss

Because when they do...this happens.

I giving myself like an hour's worth of break time before doing homework, so it's the perfect time to share a cute little story about how mom and i got in a car accident yesterday.

I was done with clinicals at herr e.s., mom picked me up. "can we go to the bank today?" "sure, i have some checks to deposit..." yada yada yada.

We were driving down the middle lane on hollywood towards a red light on lake mead (i could literally touch to temple with a 100-ft pole from where we were. well. almost).

5 to 7 buses lined the lane to the right of us, all stopped in a row at the red light.

Suddenly, a car emerged from behind one of the buses at about 10 mph driving right at us. they didn't even ease out from behind the bus to see if anyone was in the middle lane....they just, WENT. trying to turn left. mom hit the brakes, so we were probably going 30 mph when we collided.

quick attempt to explain story to dad. we're on top, they're making
the left turn around the bus. not. our. fault.

Everything happened in slow motion. I saw the car come out from behind the bus, mom gasped and stomped on the brakes, the lady in the car mouthed a word (with great articulation by the way), and i just stared at it all happening right before me.

My brain conjured several thoughts all at once. "what the heck is this lady doing? it wasn't our fault!who would drive out into the street when a humongous schoolbus is blocking the view? it wasn't our fault! is mom going to have time to stop? uhh nope, i guess not. we're hitting this baby. k brace myself. it wasn't mom's fault!"

CRASH!!

Mom did good, she turned the car just enough so it wasn't a dead on collision. she was really shaken up though, mostly because she knew i was on the passenger's side. but i was fine. i felt indifferent and emotionless the whole time when i suppose i should have felt scared or something.

There were no immediate injuries. back hurts and little for both me and mom, but the longest part was waiting in the midday sun in a dirt lot across the street for almost 2 hours waiting for the police, then completing the police report.

The people seemed nice enough....too nice in my opinion. i even mentioned this to mom while we waited. why were they making such an effort to be friendly and buddy-buddy? well, we found out soon enough.

Talking to the insurance company at home, we found out the they called their insurance company right away and reported that the accident was our fault.

According to their story, we ran a stop sign.

Okay, now i'm stressed. they totally and completely and blatantly lied!! I took pictures of the cars and where we were, no stop sign in sight! didn't they see me with the camera??? wouldn't that intimidate them to not make such an obvious lie!!

I'm a huge softy towards people; i have to work really hard at it if i want to see someone as an enemy. but these people! how can anyone be so rude and obnoxious.

Mom and i are okay. but now there's a huge dilemma with whether or not their insurance will pay up. they might decide they don't want to. uggh. what's the deal? we just want to keep this clean and get it over with. accidents happen. but now? now we have to tear through this prickly situation. thanks a lot guys. i knew you seemed too nice for your own good.

I have no hard feelings. i just want a working car.

And a million dollars.

That's all, nothing too perposterous.

pinterest...

....introduced to me by ari not too long ago! which is great, because now i can drool over these bracelets.

Source: honestlywtf.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Rachel on Pinterest

                                                      

Source: media-cache2.pinterest.com via Dinah on Pinterest

   

Source: wanelo.com via Brittaney on Pinterest

Source: wanelo.com via Jordan on Pinterest

Aren't they kinda cute? & i'm not even that big on jewelry! the last one's my favorite.

I wonder if i can make the first two styles...hmm i'll give it a try. i've done that braid before so it shouldn't be too hard, eh?

Alrighty! that is all for now folks. i suppose this post is more for my own selfish purposes.:)

Thanks for the pinterest intro Ari!! i use it quite often....including a project coming up for school. :]

the classics of my day

Remember these?

When i think about the classic old-time children's stories....i'd have to say these are the ones that come to mind as being my favorites. corduroy...well, i guess it's an okay one. the story was actually kinda dull to me, but the memory behind it is what makes it special. all the other ones are just plain good. 

I love reminiscing. :)