Buddy

Meet Buddy, my mom's new dog!

He is the bigger (weighing in at 85 pounds - 20 pounds more than Indy), calmer Indy. He's 3.5 years old and came from a great home where the family was sad to see him go, but they just discovered that one of the kids is allergic to dogs. So my mom, Indy and I drove up to Forest Lake to meet him, and we took him home with us. I think Indy's energy kinda freaked him out a bit, but they got along pretty well. He is going to make a great companion for my mom. And hopefully he and Indy develop a good friendship. :)

Welcome to the family, Buddy!

Before & After: Desk

Remember that desk I got on Freecycle? Well, I am proud to say that it is has a whole new look. After some sanding, wood filler, one coat of oil primer, two coats of Antique White latex paint and some new brushed bronze hardware, the desk looks great! And I paid way less than I would have on a brand new desk - about $35 total! Love it.

Without further ado...

BEFORE

AFTER

 

I still have a few touch-ups to do, and I'm thinking of getting some glass or plexi-glass to go on top, but overall I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?

Up next: paint a little shelf I got at Valu Thrift (for about $1) to match and hang it on the wall. Sadly, I must do some school work first. This project might have to wait a bit...

*Thanks to the bloggers at Young House Love for the great tutorials and examples about painting furniture!

Give your pets a squeeze

Here's Indy supervising us as we hung the Christmas lights last weekend. This was last Saturday.

A week ago today, last Sunday, Indy had a seizure. It was so sad to see her so vulnerable and scared as she lost control of her body for about 5 minutes. Fortunately, I recognized the signs of the seizure pretty quickly (since Taffy, my childhood dog, had seizures when she was alive). So we just tried to make sure she was safe as she was going through it and we tried to calm her down by petting her and talking to her.

She made it through it and then slept for pretty much the rest of the night. The next day, I took her in to the vet, where she had blood drawn to check to see if she had any liver, kidney or other infections. Thankfully, she doesn't have any crazy infections. But the vet did say that Indy probably has Epilepsy. She may or may not have more seizures during her lifetime - we will just wait and see (and keep our fingers crossed that she will not have anymore!). They don't recommend meds right now. They say that the side effects of the meds are really not worth it unless she is really having a lot of seizures (like multiple seizures per month). So we will just wait and see what happens and hope for the best.

We love this dog. She is pretty much the greatest ever. We let her sleep in our bed for a couple nights in a row after this incident. And just about every day Eric or I tell her to not have anymore seizures.

Right now, she is curled up between us on the futon while the Vikings game is on. Life is good. And Indy is back to normal - earlier she stole half of my Twizzler, chewed off the end of a spool of thread, happily played with an empty 20-oz bottle of coke, intimidated a squirrel in the backyard and pranced around with a bone in her mouth.

So tonight give your pets a hug and an extra treat! What would we do without them?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Where have I been? Well, we had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving here at our house with my mom and brother. We brined a turkey and made stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm..... It all turned out pretty great, especially the cheesecake.

Then last weekend, we started decorating our house for Christmas a bit. We had a ton of icicle lights left over from our wedding reception, so we decided to get out the ladder and put them up on our house. Neither of us had ever hung lights before, but we were eager to make our house look good. Look at this guy - he's ready:

Action shot:

And the final product:

What do you think? 

Victorville

Tomorrow, Eric and I are signing a bunch of papers to finish the process of refinancing and adding me to our mortgage. Part of that process involves having a list of all the addresses that we've lived at over the past 10 years. Seriously? That is a big feat. I could find some address by sorting through old emails. But one address in particular was difficult to find - my address during my short stint in Americorps. I really had no idea what my address was - it was forever ago and not a super pleasant memory.

So I decided to hop on Google maps and search for a high school in Victorville, CA. Luckily, I recognized the name Silverado High School and the street view definitely helped me recognize that corner in the high desert with the Hostess Wonderbread store on the corner - that was where we turned into our "neighborhood"!

So, I clicked along the route and turned onto Aster Rd. (definitely remembered it once I saw that name, but would not have remembered it all on my own). So this picture shows my little home in Victorville. We were in a duplex that butted up to another duplex, so it was a quasi-four-plex. Ours is the far one that can't really see, but there is a nice, big red truck sitting outside of it.


View Larger Map

Funny thing is: I still don't know the exact address, but I can at least say it was on Aster Rd and it started with 133 and was 5 digits long. :)

It's crazy to me that I lived there for about 8 months. The rent was so cheap - 4 of us in a 2-bedroom for only about $160 each/month. No wonder I was okay living off $700/month stipend! Yikes...what a crazy time in my life.

The thing I remembered most as I was clicking along that google street view: all the runs I used to go on with some friends along those dirt roads. Those were some good times. We would try to talk while running, which was hard because it's the high desert, so the air is thinner. And some of our neighbors had dogs, horses, chickens, etc. So I would greet the animals as I ran by.

Oh Victorville, I wonder how you're doing today...

Freecycle

Have you heard of Freecycle? If not, you must check it out. I have been part of this group for a few months now, but I've never gotten anything or given anything away just yet. I've mostly been a silent observer who sees things and then other people would always snatch them up before I could even write an inquiry email.

Until today!

This morning, I changed my membership info so that I receive emails for every post instead of one email per day. With the one-a-day thing, I was missing out. After changing my info, I received an email about a desk, wrote an email back to the poster about the size of it. Within about an hour, I received all the info and a picture:

So, tonight, I will be the proud owner of this beautiful desk (cat not included).

I'm excited to turn this thing into a beauty and use it for sewing, crafts, etc.

Now, I'm getting excited about posting some things that we need to give away soon. At the top of the list are 2 tvs and 1 tv stand. Any takers?

Kid yoga

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I had to find an image to go with a new blog post by the director of the Center for Spirituality & Healing today. It's about yoga's growing popularity with kiddos.

This is perhaps the best photo I've ever found for work-related stuff. My babies will do yoga with me just so I can try to snap pictures like this. Maybe I should start doing yoga again...NOT because I am currently expecting! Just to prepare for the future, people!

(Picture source: istock.com)

Where in the world?

Happy belated Halloween from the Stones (Carmen, Waldo and Indy the Italian soccer playing dog)!

Here is Waldo getting ready to go out. He quickly discovered that bar patrons were not yelling F%$# you! at him. No no. They were yelling "Found him!" as in they found Waldo. It was a little confusing for poor Waldo at first.

Here is Carmen before heading out and accidentally leaving her sunglasses in a bar bathroom. Oops... You may recognize the hat from my high tea shower last summer. I removed the flowers that were glued on and stapled on this old black nylon lovely black band.

While we were out, we ran into Cookie Monster. Are you not impressed with my cousin John and his homemade costume! All made with some Walmart blankets, staples and some styrofoam balls. Amazing.

We also ran into Carrie. Cousin Jess takes her Halloween costumes very seriously. She has been the Chiquita Banana Lady and Mrs. Butterworth, among other amazing characters.

Maracas!!!!

Here is Finley practicing for her new band. This was pre-puking episodes.

Highs and lows

This has been a busy week! Here are my highs and lows:

Highs:

• Giving my presentation in class on Thursday - felt so good to get that over with, and the prof said I did a great job!
• Baby-sitting Finley last night and watching her play the maracas (video to be posted later)
• Turning in my two patient reports, which brings my practicum to a close
• Meeting an old co-worker (Deborah) for lunch on Monday and catching up with her
• Going out for Halloween last weekend as Carmen Sandiego with Eric as Waldo - we were a hit (pictures to be posted later).
  

Lows:

• Working all day Wednesday and half day Thursday on school and practicum assignments - being holed up in the basement and staring at a computer screen and lots of papers was no fun
• Driving to campus Thursday to give my presentation and realizing as I got to my exit for campus that I forgot my jump drive with my presentation on it at home. Had to drive back for it and get to class 20 mins late. Luckily, my professor is super nice - no big deal, just stressful at the time!
• Getting puked on by Finley and then watching her puke on her mom about 30 minutes later. Poor gal! Turns out she has an ear infection. :(

What were your highs and lows of the week?

*Little-known fact: In my friend Emily's family, it is a tradition to share your highs and lows of the year every New Year's Eve. True story. I even got to participate with the whole fam when I visited them in college. Her brother would come up with one high/low for each month. :) I think it's a great thing to ponder year-round.

Multiple personalities

If you've visited my blog several times this week, you may have noticed my experimentation with different blog backgrounds. I may or may not stick with this one. Stay tuned... Hope it's not driving you crazy!

Thursday's thrills

Here are things that have made today thrilling:













1. I got to observe a couple of the deaf/hard-of-hearing classrooms at Como Park Elementary today. Aside from the kids being adorable with their cochlear implants and ASL use, the most fun was getting to watch them rehearse their dance to "Thriller" in the gym. That's right, a bunch of deaf/hard-of-hearing elementary school kids are dancing to "Thriller" and performing it for parents, etc. tomorrow (with the help of a local dance troupe that choreographed it and dances alongside the kiddos to help them stay with it). It was hysterical and so cute. What a way to start the day!
















2. Listening to The Swell Season on my ipod. The two musicians from "Once" formed a new group, and their new album rocks. I've been listening to it at work. Love it.





















3. Just knowing that I get to go home and watch the Thursday night lineup on NBC of Community, Parks & Rec, The Office and 30 Rock.

What makes this Thursday thrilling for you?

29

What a great day!

Today, I had one class (on voice therapy), and then I went to lunch with Karin and Jemma. Then we went to IKEA, where I bought some picture frames for wedding pics.

Then I came home to find these lovely flowers, along with some new songs on my ipod and news that Eric and I will be taking dance lessons. Eric continues to be an AMAZING gift-giver. Love my husbo! (pretty sure he hates when I say husbo instead of husband... :))

Then Mom stopped by with a cute briefcase/pursey bag that I can use for work/school/practicum, and we got to visit for a bit. After that, Eric and I went to Pazzaluna downtown St. Paul, where we got some delicious food. And they had a great bday special going on: you get to take your age off a bottle of wine, so we got to subtract $29 from any bottle of wine. Awesome! PS Did you know that you can take the bottle of wine home with you if you haven't finished it? Learned something new tonight!

On top of all that, I got to log in to email/facebook and check voicemail, and there were tons of nice messages. I feel very lucky today and just happy that I have so many lovely people in my life. I am in a really good place in my life and just had a great day. Thanks!

Forgetful McGee

Today, I forgot:
1. my keys
2. to put on deoderant

It's a good thing that:
1. I have a nice husband who told me to just call him when class is out, and he will meet me at home.
2. it's cold in my office so hopefully I'm not stinkin' up the place.

At least I'm not as forgetful as:
1. my dad, who had a heck of a week last week, as he missed his high school reunion and a doctor's appointment by one day. Poor Dad...

Fish tacos

I did some homework today and am now homeworked out. What to do? Well....I'm going to Trader Joe's to get supplies to make Fish Tacos. Yum! I found this recipe and am going to try it out. Perhaps I'll update later with a thumbs up or thumbs down...


UPDATE: This recipe was pretty easy, but had a lot of little parts to it. It turned out to be pretty tasty. So if you are in the mood to putz around the kitchen a bit, then go for it!

Here is the finished product.
















Here is the delicious salsa that went in the tacos. It had oranges, avocado, red onion, lime juice and honey.















Here is evidence that it was edible - and pretty good (albeit a bit oniony).

Stroke survivors = inspiration

Today was the last day of the Intensive Aphasia Program - my clinical practicum placement for this semester. It was a really good experience - kind of like a summer camp, where everyone comes together everyday for three weeks and works really hard and even meets others like themselves, and then it's suddenly over. So, I just feel the need to process it and write a bit about it here.

Anyway, the program is for stroke survivors with Aphasia (a language disorder involving production and/or comprehension of language). It is one of about 5-10 in the country, so I feel pretty lucky to have been able to participate in it.

Participants (some of whom came from out of state) came to the clinic every weekday for three weeks and had one hour of individual speech therapy, one hour of therapy at a computer with language programs, 30 minutes of social time and one hour of therapy in a group or in pairs. Each student clinician (like me!) was paired with a speech-language pathologist (SLP), and we were in charge of two patients. My SLP and I would trade off patients - I'd see Patient #1 one day and then we'd switch the next day.

Patient #1 is really young (under 40) and had a stroke about 1.5 years ago. He was really good at getting his point across and even making jokes, even though he mostly communicated using one- to two-word utterances. Patient #2 is just a few years older than my dad, and he had a stroke about a year ago. At first glance/listen, he really didn't seem impaired at all. He has recovered really well and just has some word blocks here and there. We are doing post-treatment evaluations next week, so I'm really looking forward to seeing if either of them made gains at all. The average gains made for the past 7 years of the program has been about 12% improvement on a standardized test. We'll see where my patients fall next week...

So today, Patient #2 (who had kind of been grumpy about some therapy tasks, and I never really knew if he was happy to be there or not) thanked us all for the entire group of stroke survivors and told us that all the survivors had chatted that morning about how they all feel like they've improved during the past three weeks. Then they all clapped and thanked us for our help - it was nice and warm and fuzzy. Then some of the survivors shared some of their stories about the challenges of going to the grocery store or a restaurant and having to communicate with others who don't know about their stroke. It was really sad to hear about how hard it is sometimes and how rude some people can be to them. But it was also really encouraging to hear them talk about what they do to cope and how determined they are to get better. What an emotional morning - it was really touching.

I'm still undecided on what I want to do after I graduate in May. I have really enjoyed working with adults this semester, but I also kind of miss working with kids. I think ideally, I'd love to work in a hospital or clinic where I could work with both adults and kids, but I know the medical setting is hard to get into. And right now many hospitals are on a hiring freeze and may even be cutting staff. So, we'll see....

Maybe I can fit in some more observations at different sites to help me figure it out.

After doing this practicum, I am now inspired to read more about stroke survivors, especially biographies, such as:

• My Stroke of Luck by Kirk Douglas
• My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolt Taylor (Eric is currently reading this cause strokes now interest him a lot too - what a supportive husband)

Another good read (and movie) that I've already read: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

A week of cold weather

This is what happens at our house when it's cold for about a week and winter seems as though it has already arrived even though it's only the first week of October:

Go Twins!

Yay Twins! What an amazing game tonight! 12 innings and some really awesome plays! Kent Hrbek (my childhood hero) said this may have been one of the best games he's ever watched.

Eric and I had a good time watching the game with Eric's dad at his parents' house in Woodbury - they have cable. We don't. We will need to find different TVs to watch the upcoming games - maybe a sports bar one night, a friend's house another night? Tomorrow, I think I have to just check mlb.com while doing some homework. But this weekend, bring it on!

Anyway.... Let's hope they can keep up the momentum in New York this week!

Ode to Finley

Look at this face.

I love this girl.

This was taken after we got back from our honeymoon and gave Finley her French gift - a bib that says "C'est quand qu'on mange? J'ai faim!" In English: "When do we eat? I'm hungry!"

She looks pretty serious about her food here too. :)

Hope to hang out soon, Finney! I'll miss you this Thursday!

Here's a haiku for my niece:

Finley, you are cute.
Your head-bangs, giggles and snorts
Melt my heart. Love you!

Beautiful gals

I got to visit Karin and Jemma tonight (and also saw new Daddy John for a few minutes too). They are all looking great. Karin is so laid back and just seems like she's doing great. She said she's pretty tired, but look at this pic - doesn't she look fabulous?

I'm so happy for them and had such a nice time meeting my new little friend (who has tons of cute black hair!). Hope the rest of the hospital stay goes well, and looking forward to seeing you all at home soon!

Jemma Kay Pecchia

Welcome to the world, Jemma!

My friends Karin and John had a baby girl yesterday morning, and I can't wait to go visit them and meet her. Here is a pic I borrowed from Facebook (until I get to take my own pics).

Congrats, new parents!

Desktop pic

I love this picture. It's my current desktop pic at work.

When Eric and I began browsing around online looking for a photographer and getting ideas about what we liked, we found a guy who had taken some wedding pics of a couple, and their puppy was in some of them. I remember seeing one or two where the dog was in focus and the couple was hanging in the back, and I LOVED it!

I'm so happy that Danielle was able to capture this one just perfectly.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #8: Final entry

Yesterday, we slept in and then went to the Supermarche to buy some souvenirs, watches (we finally got watches!) and towels to cushion the wine we're bringing home with us in our suitcases. Then, we headed to the Gouffre de Promeyssac (a big cave with stalagmites and stalactites). It was pretty cool - our second cave we've visited together - the first one being in South Dakota last year. They didn't allow photos - sorry!

After relaxing a bit at home and cleaning up the house to get ready for our departure, we headed into Le Bugue for dinner at Le Restaurant Abrevoir (see pic below).


























It was located on Grand Rue in Le Bugue in this little hidden area of quaint streets and homes and a few shops. The food was AMAZING, even though I forgot the French dictionary that we had been trying to bring with us to restaurants to translate some of the menu options...

So, we ended up ordering some things we weren't sure of. And by we, I mean Eric. His meal was the big question mark. We knew it was "Rognons de veau" in a mustard sauce. Veau means veal, and I assumed "rognons" meant "little pieces" or something like that. In reality, he had veal kidneys in a mustard sauce! (We looked up "rognons" when we got home.) I tasted one, and it just tasted like smokey meat. Eric wasn't too upset about it at all - he just kind of wondered why all the pieces were a bit round and exactly the same size. :) Oops...

I had duck with cherry chutney and potatoes. It was so tasty - best meal I had the whole time in France. For an appetizer, we had risotto with asparagus and a cream sauce - that was sooooo good, but it really killed my poor sensitive stomach later, and unfortunately, we didn't have any Pepto-Bismol... That's all I want to say about that.

Today, Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to our sweet little cottage and LeBugue. Here are a few more pics of Le Bugue and our cottage.


















































We headed out of town around 10 am and drove to Perigeux, a larger city about 40 km away. There, we wandered around the Centre Ville (downtown) and the market and enjoyed listening to a band (with members of all ages) play different tunes (lots of Sinatra and old classics). We bought a pretty tablecloth for my mom as a "thank you" for watching Indy for these 10 days.

Then we had a little lunch outside (pizza and cokes) in a cute little square where there were about 3 different restaurants all with tables outside. This interesting gentleman came over to the area and opened up this machine in which you insert this paper and then turn a crank and it plays songs, which he then sang along to. That was fun - he sang that one song from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack about "les escaliers."

After that, we headed to Brive, and I have to say that I am very proud of my stick handling skills that I've developed during the past 5 days. The first day, I accidentally started in 3rd gear and I couldn't find reverse (until Eric helped us figure out you had push down). Well, today I had to drive around Perigeux and Brive, both cities that are busier than Le Bugue and have lots of hills and pedestrians and crazy drivers that do U-turns whenever and wherever they want. Well, we finally pull into the area where the Avis car rental place is, and there are hardly any parking spots on the street (and there is no parking lot). I successfully parallel parked while reversing up hill. When I got into the space, I shouted "I rock!" I feel much more confident in my stick skills now. However, some of those hilly back road, somewhat mountainous windy roads where you have to slow way down and then turn sharply and then step on it to get up the hill - those still freak me out a bit. I'd still avoid those if possible.

Anyway, now we're relaxing at our hotel across from the Gare (train station) in Brive. (We were really as close to the train station as you could get. This pic is the view of the train station from our hotel room window. We didn't want to have trouble getting there on time that early in the morning.:))

We leave for Paris CDG airport at about 6 am tomorrow.

* * * * * * * *

That was our last journal entry! That final night, we wandered around Brive for a while and then had dinner at the restaurant attached to our hotel. And we tried escargots for an appetizer! It was actually quite tasty - lots of oil and garlic and a bit of a seaweed after-taste, but I give it two thumbs up!

The next day, we travelled for about 24 hours straight and arrived home safely. My mom and Indy greeted us at the airport. :)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #7:

Today, we slept in again and then drove to Montbazillac, a little town south of Bergerac. There, we tasted some wine (Montbazillac is one of the most well-known vineyards of the region), bought 4 bottles to take home and then grabbed lunch at a little restaurant. The woman who worked at the Maison du Tourisme et du Vin (House of Tourism and Wine) was the nicest woman ever - she didn't speak much English so I was forced to really try to speak a lot of French and explain things if I couldn't think of the exact French word. I really enjoyed talking with her!


Then, we toured the Chateau (there are pretty much chateaus in every town) and took in some of the beautiful scenery (are you sensing some common themes of our trip yet?). The town is at the top of a hill, and it overlooks many rows of grapevines, rolling hills, sunflowers, etc.














Next, we decided to take a walk - the Maison du Tourisme et du Vin gave us a map and directions in French for a walk that took us right through some vineyards, next to some cute country homes and through some woods. It was HOT, but we had no idea until we got home that it was about 95 degrees! Knowing that makes me feel better for taking the short cut back to the car early. :)

Here are some pictures from our walk...

















































After our long day out in the heat, we headed to the Supermarket and bought dinner and some other snacks. We just ate a dinner of steak kabobs and salad (and bread and cheese, of course). Now, we're relaxing and drinking some Belgian beer (Leffe).

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Honeymoon journal #6:

Today, we slept in again until about 9:30. After a quick breakfast, we went to Castelnaud - a little village that sits along the Dordogne River and has a huge castle from the Middle Ages that sits atop the hill. The whole town is basically nestled into the side of a hill.

So, since I've killed the engine in our car a few times while climbing the windy hills (this happened on our drive to Sarlat...), I was too scared to drive up the road to the castle. Instead, we parked down below near the river and then walked up to the castle. It ended up being a great decision because the side streets were tiny and about as wide as a small European car, and they were made with little stones.

It was fun to hike up those roads and see the little houses and yards and gardens of the locals. The castle itself was very cool and gave us some nice views of the area.



















Taking in the views of the Dordogne River and the surrounding countryside














Eric standing in front of the Dordogne River and the village of Beynac



After our castle tour, we sat by the river and ate lunch. Then we drove a few km to the Jardins de Marqueyssac - which were considered overhanging gardens because they, too, were situated up on a cliff. They were impressive! Definitely worth the money and the trip! We got a good workout hiking around the gardens (it was more like a park), and then we were rewarded with spectacular views of the area, the river, surrounding villages, etc.

Here are some pictures from the gardens...










































































Then it was time to drive back to our house - we took a different route so I could avoid some of the crazy steep hills on the way home. :) We hung out at home (our cottage) for an hour or so and then headed into Le Bugue to find dinner. At 6:30, we were turned away from a restaurant because they don't start serving until 7 pm. So we wandered down the street and went into a shop that sold foie gras and wine. The shop worker was so nice - when he found out we hadn't ever had foie gras, he offered us a sample on some bread. Then when we asked if there are any specific wines that are good with it, he opened up a bottle and poured us samples of that! We tried foie gras de canard (duck) and d'oie (goose) and a white wine called Rosette to go with it. We ended up buying some foie gras and 2 bottles of wine. We were able to communicate completely in French - although I know my language skills aren't as good as they used to be.

Then it was time for dinner at Oscar Brasserie. We got to sit on a patio overlooking the Vezere River. The food was ok (this was the night I accidentally ordered a hamburger, and I thought I was going to get some type of steak...oops), but it was just nice to eat out and have such a lovely view. Plus, the whole meal only cost 27 Euros, and we got an appetizer, entrees, 1/4L of wine, coffee and dessert! We love it here!

Now, we're just home at the cottage relaxing and drinking some of the wine we bought.