Monday, March 31, 2008

The Trip Home

Hello everybody!

I'm back and finally updating my blog. I had a good trip home. Bear was great in the car. He did a lot of sleeping and that was about it. It was great seeing my fam and Mel but it went too fast. Thank you, Brian and Steve and Erin for letting me stay with you. Bri, sorry about the rug. If you ever decide you want another one, just let me know and I'll send you some money. Bear had a great time with Sadie and Kaya. He and Sadie did a lot of "face wrestling". It was really cute. If they were in the same room, they just wouldn't stop.

Kaya and Bear had their fun too, but Kaya definitely let Bear know who's boss in her house. Let's just say it was very entertaining to watch. I'm sure everyone who was at Steve n Erin's can agree with me. Saturday night was fun. Jenn n the fam, Brenda, Mom n Dad, and Mel came over to Steve n Erin's and we hung out. That was really cool of you two to have us all over the day after you moved. I know how stressful it is, so it's much appreciated. Very nice house, BTW! Here's a few pics to enjoy:

Bear and Sadie


Sadie and Bear face wrestling


They're pooped after wrestling


Bear and Kaya


Steve and Erin's house

Easter was good too. Again, I wish I could have had more time at the hotel to hang with my nieces and nephews. It was a lot of fun and a big thanks to Mom and everyone else who made the delicious food. It was hard to leave that day. (My attempt at making that paragraph look "Eastery")

The girls in their flower girl dresses for
Steve and Erin's wedding. Aren't they adorable!

Talia, Brooklyn, and JJ


Annika and Aaron - Happy Birthday!



Sage and Emma


So I've been busy since I came back. This past weekend I attended a training here in the cities for a new swallowing treatment modality. It's called VitalStim and it involves placing electrodes on different parts of the neck and face to stimulate the muscles used in swallowing. There have been great results, with improvements seen in swallowing with just one treatment. It was a very intense and interesting training, but somewhat overwhelming. I am excited but a little nervous about starting to use it. This weekend I'll be going to a tracheostomy conference in Duluth. It's 3 hrs. Fri night and 3 hrs. Sat morn so I'll be back home by the afternoon on Sat.
Today we got about 5 inches of snow and it's still coming down. It's wet, heavy snow, but the temps this week should be 40-50 so it won't stick around long. But I'm just read for it to be done snowing!! C'mon spring.

Snow as of 6:30 this eve, still coming down now.



We got all new windows put in today. Pretty sweet. I'll post some pics of those later.


And last but not least, North Carolina is rockin it! They've played so well in the tourney, what a time to step it up. And they're so fun to watch too; they run the court so well. Danny Green has been awesome, and Lawson and Hansbrough were key in the L'ville game. The first Final 4 with all #1 seeds, how crazy! My bracket is busted, but that's ok cuz UNC's still in it and that's more important anyway. Go Heels!!


Peace out. BTW, congrats to Big Face and her new baby! I think you'll appreciate that, Justin.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Going Home

So, I'm heading home to good ol' B-town tomorrow, provided this pending winter storm doesn't dump 6 inches of snow on us. But, if it's around 32-33 degrees, maybe the roads will just be wet and not slippery. Plus, with all the traffic on this Easter weekend, the roads will be well traveled and hopefully clear. I got all my (and Bear's) stuff ready to go and I'm hoping to just work a 1/2 day so I can get on the road earlier. Bear will be spending the morning at doggie day camp at the Petsmart PetsHotel so he can run around with some other pups and waste some energy before the long ride. I got the Muttpack all loaded up and ready to go:



I will break it down for you now:





All his food for the weekend on the left, ball on the right.







Poop bags top left, rawhides top right.
Nylabones bottom left(he's crazy about
those), milkbones and Greenies bottom right.






Treat bag with dog food on top, frisbees and 'little man' toy on
bottom.





These things are pretty sweet! Then I just fold it up, zip it, and throw it in the Element!

So, March Madness has officially started! I'm stoked. Let me just say this, nothing angers me more than to have to cheer for Duke, but thank the Lord that they won tonight. I would have been in the hurtbag had they lost, I have them in the Championship game vs. UNC! Anyway, go Heels tomorrow evening!
So here's a random pic:

This is a plant my BFF Melissa gave to me for my b-day 3(?) years ago. And I've managed to keep it alive this whole time! I'm so proud of myself. Good pick on the plant, Mel. You picked one I couldn't kill. I love plants, they add so much life and color to your house.
Ok, best be going. Going to watch some Crime Scene 360. We've never seen it, but it's on after our fave show The First 48. If you haven't seen it, you gotta check it out!
Ok, peace out homies.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Updates

Well, Bear went on to destroy a few more things around the house, not to mention knocking over a speaker in the process. But he was great the last couple of days, no destruction. And he's been really good on his walks. I took him to the dog park 2 days last week. He had a blast but I think he was itching to get into those ponds. But it was a sloppy, slushy mess out there. He was bouncing around in the trees and leaping over logs. It was cute. Like always, here's a random pic of the pup:




Somebody's butt stinks...oh, I bet it's mine.











I've been enjoying my new IPod on my walks with Mr. Bear. It's great...I love it and it's green! Check it out:




It's sweet cuz if you created your own mixes or have an album you can't get the artwork for, you can upload your own pics as the album artwork.




Tonight we enjoyed a delish ribeye on the grill. We have a butcher shop about a mile from our house. It's attached to a Mobil station, so after we dropped off my car to get an oil change, we headed over to Von Hanson's and bought us some meat. Justin marinated the steaks and we had those, plus tinfoil 'tatoes and corn on the cob. It was yummy and made me wish it was summer right now. There will be much more grilling in the future. I know Justin would grill 365 days a year if he could.

So I conned a "superstore" today. You know the silverware tray from the dishrack that Bear chewed up? Well, I took back the dishrack and told them mine never came with one. No questions asked and we have a new one now. Yay.

I'm heading home to Bis this weekend for a little Easter vacay. Should be a good time and an interesting car ride with the dog. But I'm excited for him to meet Kaya and Sadie, my brothers' dogs. Here's a pic of Kaya (when she was much smaller!!), don't have one of Sadie :(


I will take more pics when I'm at home and post them later. I'm excited to see my fam as well. I haven't seen them since Christmas! Will post pics of the nieces and nephews and the fam too.

UNC vs. Clemson in the ACC championship tomorrow at 12!!
GO TARHEELS!!

We're chilling on the couch right now with Bearcifer. Love weekends, staying up late, not working in the morning. Sorry this post is not that interesting, but deal with it. If you're reading it, you must not have anything better to do anyway.

Palabra, folks. And watch out for the feline mexicaids.

Monday, March 10, 2008

A Day of Destruction

So Mr. Bear gets to be out roaming around the house all day when Justin and I are at work. The first two weeks he was out full time he was a pretty good pup. The only thing he'd do was sleep on the upstairs couches (these are supposed to be off-limits to him all the time). Then he started in with the destruction slowly. Brownies from my mom one week, some pictures from the fridge another week, then the plastic silverware holder from the dishrack. But today tops it all. It was Bear's day of destruction. I'll run you through what I discovered when I came home from work today.

Plastic silverware holder from dishrack #2 (no, we obviously didn't learn from the first incident):



The DVR remote from downstairs:



Long live Jerry! Even Big Bear couldn't bring him down. Just a chip is all he sustained, so we managed to salvage our collector's item.



This used to be a turtle. With 4 legs and a head. A momento from our honeymoon in the Riviera Maya. Now, as you can see, it is a blob. No head, no legs. Chewed off by the dog. Damn labs.



Needless to say, I was not a happy camper upon my arrival home. It was all I could do put that anger behind me and take him for a walk. But I pulled through, and surprisingly enough, so did Bear. I still love him, and here's one reason why:


Peace out.


Saturday, March 8, 2008

I'm Almost Official!

So, as of February 29th, I officially finished my clinical fellow year (CFY). This is a 9-month period after you graduate where you work under a supervisor and they do observations of you during your evaluations and treatment sessions. My supervisor, Karin, was awesome and she works at Richfield Health Center as well (she's the facility rehab coordinator for all the therapies, PT/OT/ST). It was so great to have an on-site supervisor so any questions I had she was right there to answer and help with the more difficult/complex patients. So now I'm done and am in the process of applying for my certificate of clinical competence (CCC) through ASHA (American Speech-Language and Hearing Association). It's somewhat of a time consuming process - I had to get an official transcript from UND, fill out an application, send a verification form to the CSD director at UND for him to fill out and send back to me, and then get it all together and send in. But it's well worth it, cuz when I get my CCC, I get a $2 raise! So, I'm really looking forward to that. It's also nice to feel like I'm not a student anymore. These past 9 months have gone by so fast. Sometimes it's weird to think I have a real job. Anyway, yay.



GO NORTH CAROLINA! I am so pumped up for the game tonight. They're going to go into
Cameron Indoor Stadium and kick some butt. Ellington needs to be on tonight and I'm hoping Lawson's 100% as well. Psycho T doesn't even need mentioning - I predict another double/double tonight. I think the key is UNC needs to get out on their shooters, or they'll kill us with the 3s. But I have faith, like usual, and can't wait to watch!!! I kinda want to punch Paulus in the face. And Singler too for that matter. Paulus cuz he's good, Singler cuz he's ugly.




Tomorrow Justin and I are going to a Wild game. He got tickets - center ice, 6 rows up - for working late one night on that virus problem. So I'm stoked, Justin could take it or leave it but I think he'll have fun too. I'll let you know how it was.



Mr. Bear had a lot of fun last night. We had some friends over to make supper - cajun shrimp alfredo - which was delish!! Anyway, they brought their 3 yr. old chocolate lab Hutch over, and he and Bear played a lot. I leave you with this pic of the two pups.


Edit: North Carolina wins!!! 76-68!! Good work. My MVP: Danny Green He's just gotten so much better this year. ACC reg. season champs and #1 seed for the tourney!


Tuesday, March 4, 2008

My First Post!!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! I am a first-time blogger, so don't get your hopes up too high for this. But with the help of my hubby, we are gonna pimp this blog, so get ready for that. Justin's showing me pretty much everything there is to know about blogging (he's a pro/'puter geek), so it'll get much better. I will sadly admit that his geekery is rubbing off on me. Unfortunately, Justin is hard at work tonight, trying to de-virus the computers at his work. Big Bear is sleeping next to me, crashed out after two 45 min walks today and attempting to eat my yogurt (and lid) tonight. He was a good boy out in the house today, no Menards ad shredding to be had. However, I think the couch sleeping will continue unfortunately. Otherwise, things are good here.



Nice win tonight UNC! (90-77 vs. Fla. St)






I will leave you with a pic of the sweet puppah...



Edit: The results of the poll are skewed, as some people decided they could vote twice, Justin. Folks, if we aren't going to play fair, then I guess I'll have to stop posting polls.