I'm good enough, I'm smart enough...

So, I have been doing some thinking lately.

I feel like too often I focus on the negative things in life. I feel like I have been dwelling too much on negative feelings or events and looking back more than looking forward. So I want to make a change. 

I want to try to focus on the positive things and the future.

One of my professors in grad school frequently mentions that we can "add that to your affirmation journal." My friends and I always laugh when he brings that up.

But really, why not jot down things that you feel you did well today? Why not keep a running list of things you like about yourself or what you did? I think that could actually be really beneficial, especially if you're learning a new skill or training in a new job or feeling bad about something or feeling unclear about where you're heading or if you're a speech-language pathology grad student who feels like our scope of practice is way too big to really have a handle on everything and is potentially freaking out about whether she will be a good clinician and how will she ever pass her comprehensive exam in April?

Anyway, yes, I have a lot going on in my life right now, and I think I sometimes have so many thoughts running around in my head that I have a hard time focusing on the here and now. The present. And I'd like to be more present. So, I'm going to try to write some posts every week about some of my personal weekly accomplishments/affirmations or things that I did well. Maybe you would like to do the same?

This week's positives/accomplishments/affirmations:

• Got some reading done for class
• Had a fabulous time hanging out with fellow SLP gals at a jewelry party last night
• Felt better on Day 2 of my new practicum
• Had lunch with mom yesterday
• Went to a yoga class 
• Starting a class tomorrow on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (maybe that will give me more strategies on being present and positive and stress-free, too!)
  

Day 1

The first day of a practicum placement is always interesting. I'm there and have some knowledge, but mostly feel like I have absolutely no idea what to do. Today was no different. I started my final practicum of graduate school at a skilled nursing facility with patients in transitional care and long-term care. Do I talk with the patients or just observe what my supervisor is doing? Is it okay for me to help this nice lady cut her waffles or do I watch her try to do it? When do we try to assess their level of functioning and when do we step in to just make their lives easier? How do I respond to the woman who is not our patient but clearly needs some assistance with some private bathroom needs?

I was a little intimidated at first. And I felt like I was the visitor and the old folks were there on display for me to look at while my supervisor explained their diagnosis and goals. I tried to smile at them and my supervisor tried to include them in the conversation too (she didn't treat them like they were invisible or anything). It was just a little awkward since I'd never been in a setting like that unless I was visiting a relative. It's not natural to me.

Working with old people seems sooooo different than working with young people.Yet not so different. Like when some of the ladies need help opening their butter packets or getting a glass of juice to their mouth during breakfast. Not so different from the kids eating breakfast at school. I think once I get to know the patients better, it will be more natural and easy to interact.

The range of abilities is what surprised me today. There are patients in all stages of dementia, some who had a stroke, some who had both, some feisty ones with quick wit, others who didn't talk much but who seemed genuinely happy to just have you there next to them.

I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing at all......just yet. But hey, just today I learned some new things - medical acronyms, dysphagia dietary levels, some people's names. So hopefully by the end of the semester, I will learn a lot and feel like I have a handle on how to assess and treat these lovely older folks.

la la la!

Yesterday was Finley's 1st birthday party. Here are some of the pics I took with my phone. (Apparently as I get older, I take more and more after my dad - my camera batteries died as soon as I turned it on. So I had to use my camera on my phone.) They didn't turn out too bad!

Here's Finley while we all sang to her:

















Here's Finley and her proud parents:

















Here's Finn pondering her delicious cupcake:

















Here's Papa and Finley hanging out. She loved waving to him. She showed off this new trick all day!

















Here's Finley and me with the birthday present I made her. It's a tribute to her love of the book Moo Baa Lalala!


















Happy birthday, Finney! You are so fun to watch as you master your walking skills and practice your cute looks that will undoubtedly get you out of trouble countless times as you grow up. Who could discipline you when you're smiling and shrugging at them? Not me.

Finley Valentine

Happy 1st birthday to my beautiful, sweet, funny, sassy, smart niece Finley. I am so happy to have you in my life, and I can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you next weekend.

Here's a look back at some of the fun moments that Finley and I shared during the first year of her life (which flew by for this auntie.....I can only imagine how fast it must have gone by for Stacy and Taylor).

And of course, how could we do a year in review without this video?

New Years in Colorado

After experiencing the snow storm's effects on the roads and hearing stories about the rest of the country's roads (specifically Nebraska's), Eric and I decided to by last-minute tickets to fly to Colorado instead of driving. Best decision ever. We got to spend a whole week in Colorado, which meant that we were able to have a more relaxing trip rather than rushing around to fit everything in.

We spent time in Greeley (where Sam and Bob live), Windsor (meeting other MN friends for dinner!), Denver (mostly just passing through), Silverthorne and Breckenridge. We had a really great time and have been talking ever since about how we would love to live in Colorado. There have been lots of "someday" and "maybe" and "in a few years" thrown around in conversations during the past few days. Don't worry, Minnesota peeps. Nothing is set. And we wouldn't move for a few years (that is IF we were to move). Eric and I just like to talk about this stuff and imagine how it could be to live so close to the mountains and so many fun outdoorsy things. Plus, wouldn't Indy love it?

Some high points:

Snowboarding in Breckenridge: Eric and I both snowboarded all day, and I feel like I did really well, thanks to some awesome coaching by Bob. He was our mentor. Since coming home, I've been checking Craigslist for snowboards. :)

Dress shopping with Sam: Sam and Bob got engaged a couple weeks before Christmas. So Emily and I got to go look at wedding dresses with Sam. She looked beautiful in all of them. I am so excited for her and Bob!

Snowshoeing in Montezuma: We went snowshoeing on a trail just outside of this tiny little town (with a good sense of humor). It was a great day - toward the end, the snow was really coming down!

 

 
New Year's Eve: We drove up to the ski house in Silverthorne that Sam and Bob rent with a group of people. Bob made Chili, Em and I made spinach-artichoke dip, and we got to feast on other people's great apps too. Most of the evening was spent playing an intense (and my new favorite) game of Dominos (the Mexican Train game) and having a few drinks. As midnight approached, we were all getting tired, but we decided to follow Emily's family tradition of sharing our highs and lows of the year. We had bought a couple bottles of champagne, but we didn't have glasses. So we decided to just open one bottle and pass it around. Rules: take a sip and share one of your highs or lows of the year. We did several rounds of this (not to the point of crazy drunkenness - it was more about the sharing time than the consuming of adult beverages) and then at midnight instead of clinking glasses, we all fist bumped. :) It was perfect. Perfectly funny and fitting.

And in case you're interested, here are my highs and lows of the year:

Highs:

• August 22, our wedding day
• Honeymoon in France
• Getting my internship at Children's Hospital in St. Paul
  

Lows:

• Indy's seizure (this was Eric's, but I'm stealing it cause it was mine too)
• A health insurance fiasco that has since been solved (it's now my first high of 2010!)

All in all, it was a fantastic week of relaxation, catch-up time with friends and a great start to the new year. I hope this year brings just as many highs and not too many lows. 2009 was a pretty awesome year for me. I hope 2010 is awesomer (which I realize is not a word, but I like it).

Christmas week recap

I'm feeling like I've fallen behind on this whole blogging thing. So here is a quick recap of our week o' Christmas fesitivities:

In-law dinner: We had my dad & Beth, the Stones, Ritchies, the Harrises (not official in-laws, but family friends) and Stacy, Taylor and Finley over to our house for dinner the night before Christmas Eve. It was so nice to have people over in our festively decorated house! 

Christmas Eve: We hit up two parties - one on each side of the fam. The roads weren't too bad at that point, so we were able to drive from St. Paul to Bloomington to Roseville and back to St. Paul without too much trouble. And I got to see this cute little gal for a bit until her mom got sick and had to go home early.

Christmas Morning: It snowed a lot the night before, and it was still snowing that morning. So Dad, Beth and Eric had to push my car to get it unstuck from all the deep snow in the street that had yet to be plowed. We made it out after getting stuck twice and slowly but surely made the drive to my mom's house. We saw a car turned around on the freeway at one point, so that was a little scary, but my grandma driving skills got us there in one piece. Indy and Buddy got to tear apart exchange gifts, too. :) 

One of the best gifts/outfits of the day: Eric with his new toolbelt

Christmas Evening: We got home to discover that the plow finally came through, so we couldn't get in our driveway. Eric, Dad and Rob shoveled the driveway, then I went out to help with the sidewalks, and Jeff came out later too. It was so warm out (like in the 30s) that we weren't wearing jackets - just hats and gloves. It was such hard work - the snow was melty so it was like shoveling slush. And then there were huge iceberg-sized snow chunks left over from the plow. Whew! We earned out delicious Christmas meal made by Dad and Beth - a roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, bread, wine. Mmmmm....

After that we made a house out of a big cardboard box for Miss Finley, who LOVED it! Alyse needs to post pics, cause I didn't take any with my cam. I was too busy adding pipe cleaner swastikas snowflakes to the outside of the house. Auntie Alyse made pretty pipe cleaner flowers. You'll be happy to know that the "house" is still in our guestroom.

Other holiday events:

• Pizza party and casino night with some of the G fam (not pictured)
  
  
• Ice skating in Rice Park with Stacy, Alyse and the boys (and Finley too)!

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?