I’m super famous now…check it out.  This is the Aquatic Therapy Magazine.  Me and my girl Lisa are on the bottom participating in some Bad Ragaz!  I am in the red swim suit. You can see us better in the second photo. We are at Sanibel Island in Ft. Myers, Florida.  This is so funny that I am on the magazine cover!  I do feel special though!

So, to make the long story short…I didn’t get the full time job!  Can you say Bummed?  Well I was incredibly bummed. So much so, that I maybe even shed a tiny tear.  But…EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!

I talked to Sara today.  Sara is the lady I interviewed with for the part time job. She said their decision was really tough.  So tough in fact that the only deciding factor is that the girl they hired isn’t going to school until after I go.  She will be with them longer.  She encouraged me to reapply for another full time job when it opens because they think I would be great for the job.  This made me feel a lot better.  In the meantime, I am going to take the part time job.  And when I say part time, I mean like 2 -4 days a month, on Saturday or Sundays. This at least can get me in and give me an advantage for when school starts.

I can look at this two ways.  I can be pissed.  Which I was at first.  Or I can be forever grateful that I have an AWESOME God who knows that there is something better in store for me.  I choose the latter.  I have to stay at Carrabba’s which I hate…but…I don’t have to worry about the cost of gas, I don’t have to worry about paying childcare and I can be at home during the day with Boston. (I am beginning to think this is God’s place for me now anyway.  I can’t get a day job to save my life!!!!! ) The tech job was also on the respiratory disease and cardiac wing of the new hospital…and to be quiet honest, I don’t know if I could take hearing all the vomiting and suction coming from the digestive disease hall!

Maybe this is a blessing in disquise.  I just have to trust God and know that the plans he has for me are not know by me yet. 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” - Jeremiah 29:11

It is times like this that I am thankful for my relationship with God.  If I weren’t a Christian, there is no telling how I would handle all the rejections!  Or it is also possible that I could get a job, but it would be a job outside of my spiritual gifts and a job that I absolutely hated. This is all I have to hold to.  This is what gives me encouragement and hope.  My trust has to be in the Lord, my Savior… or else it is highly possible I will go crazy! 

Consequences of Combat Frisbee!!!

Summer is here, at least if feels like summer and most of our afternoons and nights are spent running around the cul-de-sac, riding bikes, playing with slip n slides, or tossing the frisbee.  Last night was no different, except we experienced a trauma!! 

The Ladies of the “sac” had just finished up with a jewelery party at the Boulangie’s and were convening to our homes.  The kids were outside eating chalk (Boston), playing frisbee (Kiser and Brian) and riding big wheels (Blake, Brody & Gabrielle).  The sun was almost gone below the horizon when from a distance came a horrifying scream.  Kiser came walking up the driveway with blood dripping from his mouth.  Josh and I tried not to panic, but naturally we were a little concerned!! 

Apparently, Brian had tossed the frisbee to Kiser, who in the fading light…missed. He missed right into his mouth.  The blood…came from the two front teeth.  One was knocked out and the other was knocked VERY loose.  Kiser isn’t sure, but he thinks he swallowed the tooth! 

Talk about drama!!  Kiser, with his puffed lip was screaming and crying, as he rightfully should, but he was also concerned that the tooth fairy would not visit for a swallowed tooth.  We had to reassure him the the tooth fairy had a tummy scanner, b/c kids everywhere swallowed teeth every once in a while. That made him feel a little better.  We were unable to convince him to go ahead and pull the other tooth, which is BAareLY hanging on.  He assured us he would pull it today, when his gums were less sore. 

Poor Kid. 

PECAN CRUSTED FISH FILETS

• 1 cup finely chopped pecans (not ground!)
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon mild
• 1 lb fish filets (I used Mahi-Mahi)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• lemon wedges

1. Mix pecans, bread crumbs and lemon peel.  Beat egg and milk with whisk in separate bowl.

2. Cut fish into 4 servings.  Sprinkle both sides of fish with S & P. Coat fish with egg mixture, then coat with pecan mixture, pressing pecans slightly into fish so they will hold.

3. Heat oil in skillet (non-stick) over medium heat.  Add fish and reduce heart to medium-low.  Cook 6-10 minutes, turning once with a large spatula. 

NOW…Don’t think I created this fabulous dish own my own.  I stole the idea from Mrs. Betty.  Betty Crocker, that is.  I served it with some saucy asparagus and wild grain rice. 

Scrumptious!!

We stay so busy, but I have to say, that I absolutely love every minute of it.  This week…lets see.  Wednesday was “Little League” day at the River Dogs, so we all went, along with about 2000 other kids to watch the River Dog’s baseball game.  It was a great time.  Cold…but a great time.  The kids got to walk the field and one of my unified athletes actually got to throw the first pitch.  Fun, Fun!!! This is Kiser and a few of the boys he plays ball with.  Don’t they just look so cute!

We have also been deligently working on Boston’s room.  I painted a few canvases with the Boston logos…Celtics, Sox, Bruins, Patriots…and have been tirelessly working on the “green monster” score board wall.  I will definately post pictures once we are done…right now though, it is just messy.  Josh has also been working on a toy box for Boston.  It is going to look great.  Thank goodness he has had some help from the wee one though.

 

And I don’t know if you guys understand the competitiveness of the Bruins and Montreal Canadians hockey…but they are rivals and ironically enough, our neighbor Jeff is a Canadians (HABS) fan.  It’s the playoffs and the Habs beat the Bruins in the first round and have moved on to LOOSE to the Flyers. This makes Josh very happy as you can imagine!  Jeff and Josh are always playing practical jokes on each other, so take a look at the picture Josh took last night to email to Jeff at work!!  It is priceless.  It says…Go Flyers, Habs stink!

This coming Tuesday, I finally have interview number two at MUSC for the full time PT tech.  I can not wait!!  It means a 40 hour work week and nights and weekends home with my boys.  Wish me luck!!  Maybe, just finally maybe we are catching a break. 

Ok, so the NBA playoffs have begun, the first round is almost over and the Celtics should be through, right? 

I just want to say that the NBA in general is dumb.  No one tries to defend their own bastket, it is just about who can outscore the other.  Who can make the coolest fade away shots or the loudest dunks!  BUT….the playoffs can be a little different.  They are actually fun to watch.  And to beat all…another Boston team is in the run for the title!

 I know you must think…BANDWAGON FAN!  But let me tell you this…I am by default a fan of anything that comes out of New England.  My husband says so.  I compromise for the sake of our marriage :)  Not really.  Josh’s devotion is a bit contagious, and it is finally in this year, 2008, that CELTICS fans finally have something to yell about. 

This post was basically to say that for the love of the game and competition, I hope the Celtics smear the Atlanta Hawks and humiliate them on their own court to end the first round.  Does this sound a bit competitive?  Yes, it is and I am not usually this way, but when a player on the opposing team talks smack about a BOSTON fan…we have to speak back. 

May the Mighty Irish Dominate the court!!

GO CELTICS!!

Let me just start by saying…To all of you that know me on a personal level, you know that I have knocked this part time job with Mt. Pleasant Parks and Rec for the last month b/c it has been…shall we say…a HUGE HASSEL!  I have loved the concept and idea from the beginning.  Working with kids with disabilities completely changes how you see your life and the world you live in.  It is an amazing opportunity to change or influence a life and to step into, if just for a moment, the life of a child or parent who struggles with finding a way to fit into main stream America as much as they can.   

So we have started our softball season.  Not too many athletes have turned up, but it has never been a huge turnout for any of the “Unified” sports.  They are trying to grow, which is why I was brought on board.  This Saturday was our first game and I have been pretty successful at booking teams to play us. We have to rely on little league baseball and softball teams to volunteer to play us since there isn’t a large enough group of unified athletes with disabilities to form more than one team per age group. 

This Saturday, however, I had to do a little begging of my Carrabba Micos to play our older team.  Ok…I really didn’t have to beg, but I did have to ask, and ask again with a sweeter smile and then remind several times.  No big deal right?  WRONG!!!!!  Let me explain something to all of you who have never been lucky enough to work in the food industry.  Servers/Bartenders work late, stay out all night and sleep until it is time to work the next day.  I’m not kidding.  Especially those who are just in school and have no other responsibilities, such as kids or day jobs.  Asking young adults to get up early on Saturday morning and make a 30 minute drive to play some softball with a few kids with disabilities is asking a lot.  Don’t get me wrong, I respect most of the people I work with, but I was very cautious of who I was asking this huge favor of.  Friday night, I reminded again and told them to please not make a fool of me.  If they didn’t show, we couldn’t play.

Saturday morning…I was shocked.  To my disbelief, I had more Carrabba employees there than unified athletes.  We had the BEST time.  And I actually think the athletes with disabilities kicked Carrabba’s butt!!  Joking aside, my heart was touched.  I saw a different side to these “friends” of mine and I owe big time favors.  If any of you read this…Thanks so much for giving of yourself for the happiness of some well deserving kids.  This is what makes our town great.  I can look at my job with Carrabba’s completely differently knowing that people there really do care more about others than themselves.  

Not only was I grateful, but so were the kids.  From what I understand there was a little smack talking going around, some unidentified distractions and a little man (Kiser) thrown on the Carrabba’s team for a little twist.  This too was a great opportunity for Kiser to see and understand that everyone is different and just being different is OK!! Learning that NORMAL is a relative term is not something they teach in 1st grade.  What a great lesson for people to learn instead of ASS -U- ME ing that b/c people have disabilities they can’t fit in or play sports.  Our differences is what makes us special, no matter what the ABILITY or disability. It is about the person first!!!

If you have never volunteered or worked with kids with disabilities…try it out.  If you live in the Charleston area and are looking for a great time and a life changing experience, check us out.  www.townofmountpleasant.com.  Look for the unified sports.  If you are somewhere else, find your parks and rec and consider volunteering.  It will rock your world. 

 

 

Downtown Charleston is soooo beautiful. If you have never been, you should consider checking it out. These pictures were taken at the Battery, right on the water front.  They are only a small glimpse of what makes this town so appealing. 

This is actually a wading pool.  It is broken, but usually there is water running from the pineapple and gathers in a pool at it’s base.  It is absolutely breathtaking. 

So I have to tell you…I am stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!!!! I love pictures, more than the average person and I love to put these pictures in a scrapbook for the kids.  I have spent LOTS of time and money making these books for Kiser and Boston that is has turned into a passion….okay, maybe an obsession for me.  I love the therapeutic benefits it gives me.  ANYWAY.  My digital camera was full. FULL?  Yes, full, with 550 pictures ranging from January to April.  Four months of our lives stuck on a little memory card.  Dangerous?!?!  Well, not for most, but for me, VERY!! 

Friday afternoon I decided I would save all the pictures from my memory card to a disk so that I could free up the room on my camera.  Even if I don’t print the pictures, I still like to keep them.  On this memory card with 550 pictures, there was also 3 videos.  I have a seperate disk for all the videos, so I simply right clicked on the videos and saved them to my desktop so that I could move them later.  I highlighted all 550 pictures and was going to save them all at once to the disk in my computer.  After I highlighted, I realized I had not deleted the videos off the memory card (I didn’t want them on the picture disk) so I right clicked…delete…ARe you sure you wish to delete ALL files?  I clicked YES…like a MORON!!! I actually deleted all 550 (four months) of my pictures.  Within moments of doing this I began hysterically crying.  I had no idea what I could do to salvage these lost months of my kids life.  And what about my scrapbook????? How was I going to make up for four months of lost memories????  I felt like I was going to be sick.

So, I called Vanessa…thanks girl for letting me cry uncontrollably into the phone.  You must have thought I was going off the deep end!! 

Long story short…I found this program on the Internet to recover such mistakes.  It is called card recovery.  The website is www.cardrecovery.com in case anyone else is as careless as myself!!  I was able to find all my deleted pictures. The only drawback is you have to buy the program.  It’s $40, but boy was it worth it.  So now it is permanently on my desktop for any other crazy mistakes I feel like making.   

Just to see how important these pics were, take a look at what I would have lost.