Sports and Dreams...

This weekend was filled with lots of sports. Lots. 

Friday the girls in the program and I had to work the concession stand at the baseball game. It was a SUPER long and tiring day. 6 hours of standing on our feet and dealing with rude people. But, we did manage to raise some money for our upcoming conference trip to Atlanta.

Whitney and I snuck away to take a picture with Rebel!

 Saturday we had front row seats to the basketball game! And we beat LSU by 36 points. It was a great game.

Sorry for the awful pictures of basically nothing.

Then, as soon as the basketball game was over, we headed to the baseball game. It was our opening weekend, and I love baseball. It was so cold, but we still had a good time.

 We didn't sit in the student section this time, because Evan's parents came into town for the weekend. We had great seats thanks to some friends who make sizeable donations and let us sit with them.

 AND we were on the "Row of Champions!" Every game they pick one row to win free chik-fil-a sandwiches. Nice!



And lastly... This weekend I had some HUGE decisions to make. Monday I had to turn in my choices for my fall and spring placements for next year. (I know, its super early). I thought A LOT about TONS of different options.

We are required to do a school setting and a medical setting. For the spring semester , you do the setting that you  eventually want to work in. I still really am not exactly sure which I prefer, but I am leaning toward eventually working in a medical setting. Therefore, I am doing a school system for the fall and medical setting for the spring.

Hopefully I will be doing my school semester at Lafayette Lower Elementary. I worked there in undergrad and LOVED that school. I established a great relationship with one of the teachers there, and I would love to be back around her!

In the spring, I will hopefully be at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. I am very  nervous about this. I have NO experience in this setting and I will be doing a lot of intense medical treatment. Stroke patients, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients, swallow studies, etc...

But I am also very excited. I can't wait to get out of my comfort zone and hopefully fall in love with this setting. I know I will see and learn so much.

 

I found this picture of Pinterest and it pretty much sums up how I feel about my spring semester.





Special thanks to the family members who sat at the kitchen table with me and listened to me contemplate for hours! You guys are the best!

Catch up!

School, clinic, and working has kept me so busy lately! I hate that I haven't had time to document all of the great things that have happened lately. So this post is going to be a short version of the latest events...

2 Year Anniversary!

On February 4th, Evan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Part of me can't believe it has been that long, and the other part of me feels like it has just always been this way... like we've just always been together. :-)

This year our anniversary was on a Saturday which was such a blessing. We NEVER get to spend time together during the week due to our busy schedules, so it was nice to spend the whole day together.

It was a low key day. I  made a poster with 8 envelopes for him to open throughout the day. Some were gifts, some were activities. He really enjoyed it!

I also attempted to make the same dinner that I made for our 1 year anniversary. This year I didn't accidentally set the oven on broil and ruin the bread/almost ruin the main course. Much better the second time around...

Our day

Anniversary Dinner

Champagne flutes

And then came Valentine's Day...

We actually celebrated the weekend before in Memphis since we knew I would be out of town on the 14th.

We had sushi Friday night, went shopping Saturday and then went to dinner Saturday night. Evan surprised me with reservations at The Majestic in downtown Memphis.

Evan had given me my gift earlier in the week. He just couldn't wait and it was raining that week and he thought I might need it...

I came home and he asked me if I had any extra hangers in my closet. When I went to look, I found this!

So sweet and thoughtful! And he did this all by himself. No hints from me.


And finally... today.


Tuesday/Wednesday I went to Jackson to represent the University of Mississippi's SLP graduate program. I and 3 other girls ( 1 from MUW, 1 from Jackson State, and 1 from Southern Miss) spent the day at the Capitol. We promoted awareness for the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology.

Currently, a bill has been proposed to offer loan forgiveness to SLPs who will agree to work in a public school in MS for 3 years after graduation. If it passes, this will be a great option for a lot of people.

Today we met and spent time with the lobbyist who is lobbying for our bill. I had a great experience and will be watching the status of this bill closely!

Amy

I've got a pocket full of Sunshine!

This week I started seeing my clients for the semester. It was great to see my client from last semester, and my adult stuttering client and I had a good session. It is a totally different dynamic working with someone who is basically my age. But I must admit, I do enjoy it. The sessions are much less structured and we are beginning to form a good professional and friendly relationship.

I also started my "internship" at Sunshine Nursing Home. Monday was my first day there, but I decided not to blog about it until today. I didn't want to judge everything by my first day. I was expecting to either love or hate the nursing home setting. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Overall, it was just kind of mediocre. It is not an area of the speech pathology field that I am immediatley drawn to... I liked it, but I didn't love it. And that's okay. Not everyone likes the same things. I can say that I do not see this being part of my career as a speech-language pathologist. But never say never!

I am still so thankful for the opportunity to intern there. I have seen and done a lot of new and interesting therapy. I have seen and done swallowing therapy for the first time. And I really enjoyed that!

I enjoy talking to the residents and listening to their stories about their lives. So far I have met "Elvis's first girlfriend" and a retired engineer who loves Oxford (among many others). I know by the end of the semester all of the residents will be special to me. 

And... the Couch to 5k is still going! It is still so hard to stay motivated. I am SO tired at the end of the day. I literally drag myself to the gym yawning, fighting back those voices telling me "just do it tomorrow, Amy..." But I know it will be worth it.

This pretty much sums up my "running" right now.