Bored

So, this whole stuck in bed thing is getting pretty old. I am feeling a lot better, but my leg definitely still hurts. I was really looking forward to taking a shower today (yes, do the math...I feel disgusting), but I have to wait until my mom can come and supervise...lovely!

Anyway, I've been working on wedding stuff and and reading a new book (The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke by Suze Orman - highly recommended, even if your not broke), but my attention span only lasts so long. So, for your reading pleasure (and my sanity), a distraction, compliments of Morgan.....

Welcome to the 2009 edition of getting to know your family and friends (better late than never)!

1. What is your occupation right now?
Speech-Language Pathologist.
2. What color are your socks right now?
Light blue lotion socks, compliments of Jon.
3. What are you listening to right now?
Dogs barking outside me window.
4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Potato soup from Blue Baker for lunch.
5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes, though Jon says I ride the clutch.
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Jon; he called to check on me and give me good news!
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
One of my best and oldest friends :)
8. How old are you today?
25 years, 2 months, and 25 days.
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
College football.
10. What is your favorite drink?
Non-Alcoholic: Cranberry Juice; Alcoholic: Margarita!
11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Yes; went a little overboard with the SunIn in middle school!! Never again, though!
12. Favorite food?
Queso from Matt's El Rancho...Thank You Morgan!!!
13. What is the last movie you watched?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail...in preparation for Spamalot.
14. Favorite day of the year? D
efinitely Christmas Day.
15. How do you vent anger?
Unfortunately, I stew. And sometimes cry.
16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Baby dolls.
17. What is your favorite season?
Winter.
18. Cherries or Blueberries?
Not in love with either, really. How about Raspberries!!
19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
Blog back, maybe....
20. Who is the most likely to respond?
I would say Morgan, but she already did this thing!
21. Who is least likely to respond?
Well, considering I'm not tagging anyone....who knows!
22. Living arrangements?
By myself!!! But, not for much longer. :)
23. When was the last time you cried?
On Monday, when they told me they had to do the more extensive surgery on my knee.
24. What is on the floor of your closet?
Neatly organized shoes, luggage, and storage bins.
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are this sending to?
Morgan
26. What did you do last night?
Talked to Stephanie, watched TV, and stayed up until 3am playing solitaire on my iPodTouch
27. What are you most afraid of?
Roaches....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
Cheese....everything is better with cheese!
29. Favorite dog breed?
Boston Terriers, but French and English Bulldogs come in a close second and third.
30. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday...best TV night.
31. How many states have you lived in?
Two...Kansas and Texas.
32. Diamonds or pearls?
Definitely diamonds!!! Sorry Jon...
33. What is your favorite flower?
Gerber Daisies, Tulips, and Roses.

There, that was a nice break!

Digital Scrap Booking

I'm sure like many of you out there, I love to scrapbook. I've been scrap booking since I was a senior in high school, when we were given a year-long assignment to compile a scrapbook of all the significant things we experienced during our last year in grade school. Though it was my fist scrapbook, I can honestly say it is the best one I've ever made and I still have it. In that book are 9/11 newspaper clippings, my college acceptance letters, concert ticket stubs, and a whole slew of other mementos.

Though I love scrap booking and could spend days at a time doing it, the one huge downside is that it is SO expensive. When you're in the midst of creating a book, you never realize how much every little trip to Hobby Lobby for paper, and special scissors, and adornments, and stamps, and stickers, and pens costs. And don't forget the price of printing your pictures. By the time I'm finished, I could have easily spent $150 to $200 dollars.

So, given that I was in school and money was tight, I took a hiatus from scrap booking. That was the case, until I found.....Shutterfly!

Shutterfly is an on-line photo management sight that allows you to create tons of neat things with your pictures. You can create cards, magnets, mouse pads, calendars, coffee mugs, Christmas ornaments, and best of all....Digital Scrapbooks!

The digital scrap booking feature is awesome! It allows you to choose your photos, choose your layouts, choose your backgrounds, choose your fonts, and add all sorts of embellishments. The best thing is that once you create your book on-line, you can have it printed and delivered. A typical 8x8 book (the ones I always make) will run you anywhere from $25 to $80 bucks, depending on the number of pages you have. Now, that may seem kind of expensive, but considering that includes all of your photo processing, professional printing and binding, and delivery, it's a deal you can't beat. Plus, Shutterfly sends out TONS of coupons!

I've made four books so far from trips Jon and I have taken. I'm working on my 5th book, which is a favorite family recipe book. Surprisingly, Jon likes to help design the books too, so we've resolved to create a book after every trip we take.

For anyone interested, here is the latest coupon: Simply choose 20 photos to create your photo book and enjoy 20% off. Offer ends March 10, 2009. Promo code: BOOKSANDPRINTS

Recovering!

So, my surgery today went well. However, we will definitely be postponing our wedding dance lessons until May. Rats...

I've been having knee pain and intermittent swelling since the day after Thanksgiving. Though no obvious, pinpoint, injury occurred, I am hypothesizing that I hut my knee either hula hooping on the Wii or in my step aerobics class. I think for my pride's sake, I'll go with the later explanation.

Anyway, I went in today so the surgeon could perform and arthroscopic debridement of my knee. Though I had no explicit tears, my MRI did show some plica (or junk as my physical therapist likes to call it) irritating my knee cap, which my surgeon would remove. The surgeon said that I might also have a ligament pulling my knee cap off center, and if that was the case he would have to perform a lateral release. I prayed and prayed that this would not be the case, but unfortunately, it was.

The recovery from a lateral release is much longer than a basic debridement. I'll be swollen and hobbling around (possibly on crutches) for 3-4 weeks and won't be completely healed for 3 months! And, it is apparently much more painful (though I'm sure the pain pills are skewing my perception of that at the moment!).

But, the silver lining on all of this is...

a) that the problem is fixed.

b) that the problem wasn't too serious.

c) that I'll be all healed for the wedding and the honeymoon!

d) that I got to spend more time with Jon and test drive his husband skills! (And don't worry, they're good!)

I'll be stuck in bed through Wednesday and will hopefully be back to work on Thursday!

The Length of Lent...

As the liturgical season of Lent is quickly approaching, I am reminded of a funny story.

But first, a little background. Growing up, I was blessed with a strong (not radical) religious education. I went to Catholic school for three years and had parents who taught our religious education classes in addition to educating us in our faith at home. Attending religious education classes all throughout primary school was never really a chore and I feel very blessed to have parents who made faith education a priority. I believe it was my strong religious education base that made keeping my faith throughout college much easier, and for this I am very grateful.

So, when my mom asked me to teach religious education with her at our church last year, I agreed. Now, last year we had a very smart and outgoing group of 4th grade girls and all of our lessons were relatively easy to teach and explain. This year, however, it's taking a lot more effort and repetition for the information to sink in, which makes for some pretty funny stories.

Case in point:

A few weeks ago, we were studying the liturgical seasons of the church. We have a very active group of girls this year, one of which loves to answer every question, even though she rarely has the answer. I'll call this little girl Holly.

Me: Alright, who knows what the next liturgical season is?
Holly (jumping out of her chair): I do I do!!!
Me: Ok, Holly, what is the next liturgical season?
Holly (obviously reading from the book): LENT!
Me: Good! Ok, now, tell me about lent.
Holly: Um, I don't know....
Me: Ok, how long is lent?
Holly: 6 days!!!
Me: No. Lent is 40 days long. Can you tell me why lent is 40 days long?
Holly: Um, I don't know....
Me: Ok, Lent is 40 days long because that's how long Jesus was in the.....
Holly: WAR!

Now, I know I shouldn't laugh when they get a question wrong, but this one was just too funny and both my mom and I busted out laughing! At least Holly's enthusiastic!

Under the Knife

So, tomorrow I go under the knife for knee surgery. It's an outpatient procedure, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll be stuck in bed for three days, so look forward to many blog updates!

Wedding Update

Here's the wedding update as of today, February 4th, 2009.....156 days and counting!

Because I like making lists, and the list would be far too long of the things I have already accomplished in wedding land, here is the list of what's left to do, wedding wise....

1. Confirm types of cake with our cute cake lady.
2. Solidify music selections for the ceremony.
3. Book hair and make up appointments for Bridal Portraits and Wedding Day.
4. Pick out specific reception songs.
5. Confirm floral order.
6. Give list of desired foods to country club.
7. Determine transportation arrangements for wedding weekend.
8. Officially sign up for dancing lessons.
9. Have wedding dress altered.
10. Complete Catholic marriage preparation requirements.
11. Order custom color M&M's.
12. Find a place to live!

Ok, I think that completes the list of things I need to do in a semi-soon fashion.

In other news, our honeymoon is completely booked and I am super excited!!! Besides all the romantic junk, we are going ziplining in the rainforest!!! Very excited, if you couldn't tell.

My Version Of A Not So Great Day

Let me preface this post by saying that I know I have it easy. Every day at work I am reminded that I am healthy, I have clothes on my back, I have a job that provides me with a comfortable lifestyle, I have a family that loves me and cares about me, and that I typically never go without. This is usually in stark contrast to quite a few of my patients, who are obviously sick, may be out of work, might not have a family that cares about them, and may have needed many of the basic things in life.

I'm not complaining; just venting on the disappointment of today.

Today I got the e-mail I've been dreading. The e-mail was from the Journal of School Health and it informed me that my research manuscript had not been chosen for inclusion in the journal. For those of you who don't know, I spent a huge amount of time and energy in graduate school and 17 months after graduate school completing and preparing for submission my master's thesis on What High School Student's Know About Traumatic Brain Injury and Implications for Brain Injury Awareness Education.

I am disappointed my manuscript was not accepted for several reasons: 1) I devoted a solid 6 months of my life to surveying 336 students for my research project; all of it now for nothing. 2) I spent 17 months staring at my computer trying to figure out how to convey information about my study in print; all of it now for nothing. And 3) I am now no longer as passionate about brain injury as I once was, which is by far the most disappointing fact of them all.

Like I said, I'm not complaining; I could be far worse off. Even more than the disappointment, I think I am finally coming to terms with the fact that we all become jaded at some point in our lives. I'm disappointed that I spent all of that time working on my research, not that people won't get to see the research I did or understand why brain injury education is so important. That is jaded.

But, the good news is that now I'm passionate about other things...