Mama Drama

"Welcome to the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival (February). For this month, we focus on back to basics. Participants will share advices - either the best breastfeeding advice they received OR/AND the best breastfeeding advice they can give to new moms. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of carnival entries."

All throughout my pregnancy I knew that I wanted to nurse Julian for a long time. My mind was made up about nursing because I knew all the health benefits for myself and that there was not a SUPERFOOD on this earth that I could give Julian that would compare with my own breastmilk. It was a no-brainer!

Breastfeeding has certainly brought it's share of challenges to me and to our family, however it has also brought us a lot of JOY! Today as I was cradling my little wiggle-worm and nursing him...I thought of all the hugs that I would have missed out on if I wasn't nursing him. It's hard to keep up with my little boy who is always on the move...but I get the special privilege of having extended time holding him up against me and cuddling with him several times a day and even at night.

As a participant in the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival:

One challenge I had in the early months of nursing was being able to wear the right clothing and being able to nurse with ease in public. One of the most simple suggestions that a friend gave me ended up being some of the best advice. Here it is: TARGET nursing tanks and breastpads. This simple wardrobe change allowed me to be able to nurse him discreetly in public and always have my torso covered. It eliminated having to take off a shirt as well as a bra. Why didn't I think of that?? Now I just lift my shirt up and unsnap one side of the tank and we're ready to go!

My 2 best words of advice for women who are breastfeeding would be:

1. Be patient with yourself AND your baby. You are both learning something new and it may not flow perfectly the first time. For me anyway, it took a LOT of practice, patience, and persistence.

2. Surround yourself with your BREAST-friends. These are the family and friends that encourage and support your decision to breastfeed. They are your cheerleaders when you have a cracked nipple. They are your support group when you are criticized by un-informed extended family members. It is Kelly-mom. It is all the breastfeeding blogs. It's your LC. My BREAST-friends have been out of this world amazing and have helped me push through tough times and make it to 8 months of breastfeeding and counting.

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Check out these other supportive and encouraging breastfeeding posts:

First Time Mama Drama

2012-01-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

Things that are on my mommy radar:

1. Sleeping at night: Julian is now 7 months old and just this week has shown us that he is capable of only waking up 2 times at night. I know many of you are wondering if you read that last sentence correctly. Yes...ONLY waking up 2 times a night. For us, that is a miracle. Even just a couple of weeks ago, he was waking and crying sometimes up to 6 times a night!! Sure, I've probably made my share of mistakes in precipitating this matter, but as a first time mom I didn't (and still don't) have all the answers. I have a lot of shoulda-coulda-wouldas, but I'm done dwelling on those now. It's a new dawn and a new day. We're proud of Julian's accomplishments in regard to sleeping this week and continue to hope and pray that it just keeps getting better.

2. Food: We've found a winner: Banana Puree! He LOVES it! Finally, something he will devour! We are also so thrilled that our doctor is completely on board with using breastmilk as his primary source of nutrition for now if that's what we want and just supplementing his diet with fruits and veggies as Julian shows interest. Our doctor made it clear that introducing fruits and vegetables is just to create Julian's palette for different tastes but his only nutritional requirement is breastmilk. He said eventually we can replace a feeding with an avocado since it has healthy fat in it that baby needs. The doctor supported not giving Julian grains yet as well. It felt good to know we're on the right track and I'm no longer worried or wondering if there's something different I should be doing.

3. Germs: OK, so how dangerous are germs? I can't spend my whole day cleaning and wiping down Julian's toys that he drops. When you think about it there's a lot of nasty yuck on the ground...but really do I have to wipe down everything everytime? Is it just a wive's tale that the germs will build up his immune system or am I just being naive?

4. Babyproofing: OMG, this has recently become such a battle! We knew our house wasn't babyproofed, but I am just shocked at the things Julian manages to find! Shoes, papers, cords, dvds, wii controllers, remotes, phones, magazines, vases,...and the list goes on! If it's not meant for him, you can bet that's the first thing he'll migrate towards. I am finding myself saying "nonono", but all the while realizing it's my fault for setting him up. You should see some of the makeshift babyproofing gadgets we've come up with! Why does he love crawling into the bathroom of all rooms? Why does he like hiding behind the couch? Why does he insist on kicking the papasan chair over? Why does he seem to enjoy hanging out right at the corners of shelves, tv stands, cabinets, etc? I could make an entire post on this topic...which I plan on doing soon...including all the hilarious pictures of Julian getting into places he shouldn't be.

Here's a pic of our sweet boy trying to scoot underneath the couch at a playdate with his cousin.

Who would have thought I could be a "lactivist"?

2012-01-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought that I would become a "lactivist"? How is it that something that I really didn't give much thought about my entire life could be such a hot topic for me now? I guess because prior to having a baby and being a nursing mom I didn't pay much attention to the way that each mother chose to feed her baby. I think I remember times as a child that I witnessed women nursing in public and got the nervous giggles...because I was a child and thought it was funny to see part of a boob I guess. Thankfully once I became an adult, I matured beyond that and ceased to find humor in seeing a baby being fed. Now that I have taken a ride on the motherhood rollercoaster, I have a whole new perspective on the issue and am blown away by our society's views and often ignorance on breastfeeding. Case in point...the recent Target Scandal. And reading the almost 800 comments, mostly negative and hateful, towards breastfeeding mothers.

Here's how I see it: The way a mother chooses to feed her baby is her own decision and thankfully we have a legal right to nurse in public or I'm sure places would be kicking us out left and right. I personally would LOVE to always have a private place when I'm in public to nurse but unfortunately that is typically not the case. I have found back corners of restaurants, back hallways of businesses, have sat in my car on numerous occasions, and have made all sorts of curtains/shields on airplanes thanks to whoever sits by me. Of course, I think it's a good idea to cover yourself as much as possible; I am a modest woman. However, I do realize that sometimes it's hard to wear a nursing cover with a fidgety baby like my own. I just want people to know that as much as they don't want to see a nursing woman in public, I don't want them looking at me anyway....so wouldn't the world be a more peaceful place if people would mind their own business and not look! That would benefit us all!

So, does it make me a "lactivist" because I want to be able to feed my baby when he's hungry despite where we are? I wouldn't think so...but it seems I've had to become one. There are too many nay-sayers out there and this is a cause worth fighting for. It's hard enough to make the decision to breastfeed without all the negativity from people who should not have a say in the matter and women need support, encouragement, and praise for making a healthy choice for their babies.

Here's my sweet boy after being nursed to sleep on a flight. I'm sure the same people who are annoyed that I nursed in public would have also been annoyed to hear him cry the whole flight had I not nursed him. Thankfully, God has blessed me on every flight with a pro-breastfeeding person to sit by...how blessed am I!!

Dear Julian...

2011-12-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, 6 month old Julian! You are such a little handful! Your energy and spunk amaze me! Did I mention how gosh darn adorable you are? Everytime I look at you, I think to myself, "WOW, you couldn't be any cuter!" What amazes me the most is your personality. You are a very funny guy. You like making the silliest noises and imitating me all the time. You love to laugh. You actually crack up at me all the time...like the real belly laughter. You have the brightest smile and you definitely make your presence known in a room....or building. People are drawn to you and I really think you are going to shine LIGHT into people's lives throughout your lifetime. You are passionate and you love life. You love getting into everything and don't want to miss a thing...which is why it can be hard to contain you and to get you to sleep. While this wears Mommy out sometimes, I don't want you to lose your zeal.

I am praying that you'll be a passionate lover of Jesus all your days and you'll bring His light to dark places. I'm praying that you will be a great influencer for Christ and lives will change because of the HOPE that you can show people.

Love you, precious boy!

Food, Glorious Food.

2011-12-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

When Julian was just about 6 months old, we introduced him to "solid food". We wanted to exclusively breastfeed him for 6 months as the AAP recommends and then start building his food repertoire. We first introduced him to an avocado. I mashed it up and mixed it with breastmilk until it was a puree consistency and fed it to him with a spoon. In this first experience, Julian had no idea what to do with the food in his mouth. His tongue immediately pushed it back out upon several of the offers and the other times the puree just kind of floated around in there before being drooled out. I decided he maybe wasn't totally ready for solids yet, but that we could keep trying a little each day just for fun and to give him the practice of moving food around in his mouth. Since then we've tried purees of the following: more avocado, peas, squash, carrots, and bananas. He has made some progress. He no longer demonstrates tongue thrust and he opens his mouth to receive the food more frequently. However, he just hasn't seemed too interested in spoon feeding and only eats a few offers before leaning back/closing lips/playing with whatever he can reach. Our best experience with purees was with the bananas (I'm guessing because they are sweeter). Another technique I used was giving him food that he could hold and manipulate on his own without me doing any of the work (other than supervising and guiding). I gave him large pieces of banana and avocado and also some mashed up banana and avocado to play with. The goal was to let him explore independently and let the feeding experience be more baby-led. It was fun although not much "eating" happened. Today was our most successful experience so far. I cut up slices of apples and let him hold them and suck on them himself. He LOVED it and sucked on them for several minutes. Then to combine textures and tastes, I smeared avocado puree on the apples for him to lick and suck. To my surprise, he liked it too. Then I was able to give him mashed up avocado bites on a spoon in between his apple sucks. Once again, he readily accepted. We are having so much fun playing with our food!!

Breast Success.

2011-12-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I wrote about my woes with breastfeeding. Julian wasn't nursing well and I was so exhausted from pumping all the time. Since then there's been a HUGE turn-around! On October 31, upon Ross's and my return from our nightmarish trip to Boston, Julian readily accepted my breast when I offered it to him. It was the best welcome home gift I could have ever asked for! From that moment on, he began nursing. What?? Who ever heard of a 5 month old, go back to the breast after being bottle-fed most of his life. It's like he knew exactly what I needed. Even though we had just returned from Boston, we were leaving the very next day to fly to St. Louis to see my dad in the hospital. While we were in Boston, he was in a work accident, was electrocuted with 7200 watts of electricity, and although, badly burned, survived. Julian, my family, and I were basically living in the waiting room of the Burn Unit in the hospital waiting on updates from doctors and nurses on how he was doing. It would have been a nightmare trying to pump in the hospital, keep bottles sanitized, and keep milk refrigerated and Julian must have known that I needed him. He nursed the whole trip! I felt such a sense of accomplishment...not that I did anything special for this to happen, but just accomplished that I didn't give up. And I felt sooo proud, and still feel so proud, of Julian every time he nuzzles up to me to eat. There is such a payoff now. Before, breastfeeding was like a thorn in my side but now it brings me so much joy. I have a renewed passion for breastfeeding and a renewed confidence to nurse in public. On all of our trips home to Illinois, I get some sort of criticism about breastfeeding. From, "Ewww" + gagging face and noises to "Just give him some formula". But it just fuels my fire to keep doing it. I am loving this poem from Peaceful Parenting....Breastfeeding to the tune of Dr. Suess. (Author Unknown)

Would you nurse him in the park?

Would you nurse him in the dark?

Would you nurse him with a Boppy?

And when your boobs are feeling floppy?

I would nurse him in the park,

I would nurse him in the dark.

I’d nurse with or without a Boppy.

Floppy boobs will never stop me!

Can you nurse with your seat belt on?

Can you nurse from dusk till dawn?

Though he may pinch me, bite me, pull,

I will nurse him 'till he’s full.

Can you nurse and make some soup?

Can you nurse and feed the group?

It makes him healthy strong and smart,

Momma’s milk is the right start!

Would you nurse him at the game?

Would you nurse him in the rain?

In front of those who dare complain?

I would nurse him at the game.

I would nurse him in the rain.

As for those who protest lactation,

I have the perfect explanation:

Momma’s milk is tailor made

It’s the perfect food, you need no aid.

Some may scoff and some may wriggle,

Avert their eyes or even giggle.

To those who can be cruel and rude,

Remind them breast’s the perfect food!

I would never scoff or giggle,

Roll my eyes or even wiggle!

I would not be so crass or crude,

I KNOW that this milk’s the perfect food!

Making just the amount that we need

Perfect temp for every feed.

There’s no compare to milk from breast -

It's real baby food! No contest.

Those sweet nursing smiles are oh so sweet,

Momma’s milk is such a treat.

Human milk just can’t be beat.

Oh, I will nurse, in any case,

On the street or in your face.

I will not let my baby cry,

I’ll meet his needs, I’ll always try.

It’s not about what’s good for you,

It’s for my babies, through and through.

I will nurse him in my home,

I will nurse him when I roam.

Leave me be lads and ma’am.

I will nurse him, MOM I AM.

Haha..here we are in the hospital with our first battle with breastfeeding. Julian was in the deepest sleep and could not be woken up to eat. Here we are trying skin to skin and syringe feeding...because I felt so pressured to feed the baby! I had pumped some colostrum to feed him and the nurses backed off about giving him formula or sugar-water.

EP-ing: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

2011-10-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

EP-ing, a term I wish I didn't even know, stands for "Exclusive Pumping". My Medela Pump In Style Advanced was at one time my best friend. When my baby wasn't latching when we were still in the hospital and I didn't want to be accused of starving my child, I was able to pump some of my liquid gold and give it to Julian in a syringe. When one of my nipples became so cracked and the open wound made it unbearable to nurse, the pump made it possible for me to still express milk and keep up with giving Julian my milk. But on the other hand, all that drama has made Julian prefer the bottle to the breast from the beginning of his life and making it a battle between him and I from day one. I would LOVE nothing more than to be able to nurse this child for as long as my milk is flowing, but it's just near impossible to nurse him! Sometimes he'll nurse in the middle of the night and sometimes if I've been home with him all day he'll be patient enough for the breast, but the vast majority of the time, he will just refuse by arching his back, crying, head butting me, hitting me, and doing whatever he can to try to escape me. So, the pump, although a double-edged sword, has allowed me to keep giving my baby breast-milk.

Now, let's just talk about the picture I shared above. It is sooo not like this. Unless you wear button down shirts and bras with holes in the front...this is not how it looks! Also, are you really going to just sit out in the living room with your shirt wide open and suction cups sucking milk from your body and your stomach that has just birthed a baby out there for all the world to see? I guess if it's just you and the baby maybe so, but it seemed like for me, there was always someone in and out of my house, which puts me back in a bedroom alone with my pump. Sob story, sorry.

We're 4 1/2 months into this mothering thing and I'm so glad he's gotten the food that nature has intended for him. I am just wondering how much more of this I can take!!! I feel sooo tied down to this pump. It makes it so hard to just relax because I'm always trying to squeeze in pumping session and making sure I have enough milk ready to go for him. That noise, and if you've ever pumped, you know what I'm talking about, just makes me cringe. Hauling around that stupid bag , washing the flanges a bajillion times a day, and then having to wash bottles as well, is sucking the life out of me. (no pun intended).

So are there any other moms out there who also have this dilemma. Anyone else out there pumping in silence? Well, I just wanna say, that we're in this together...if you exist. And I'm still not giving up! When I think I can't hook myself up to that darn machine one more time...I just do it and then again and again, because what's the alternative? I am not ready to deprive my baby of the best source of nutrition out there. Knowing that I willingly stopped giving Julian all the enzymes and antibodies that fight off infection is just not something I can let myself do right now. So, I'll keep pumping away and be thankful that I am able to give my baby the health benefits of breastmilk. Just look at this healthy boy! :)

Cry It Out...no more.

2011-10-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

After 2 sleepless weeks of trying to get Julian to Cry It Out. I am reverting to our more peaceful previous approach. Maybe I'll be waking up to feed him more, but at least he won't be damaging his vocal folds from crying for hours. Julian, Mommy's num nums are back. Here's my new inspiration:

Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Friday Favorites

2011-09-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

1. "She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future." Proverbs 31:25

A friend shared this with me today and I was very blessed by it. There are so many times in mommyhood when I'm feeling lots of anxiety, but I am working to find a positive confession each day even when I'm not totally feeling it. This verse is what I'm striving for.

2. Coos and goos.

Even though Julian has a runny nose, cough, and fever for the first time today, he has been singing a sweet and tired tune all day. I love this little man.

3. My sister.

She is the ultimate servant and has helped me in countless ways the past 4 months without a grumble. I do not deserve her, but I am so blessed by her and thankful for her presence here in Dallas. This week she babysat Julian for me on Wednesday. Then she stayed all night because I wanted her to watch a tv show with me but we weren't able to start it until super late (courtesy of Julian). Then she helped Ross and I in the wee hours of the morning, when Julian decided to cry from 4am-6am. It doesn't end there...she ended up staying most of Thursday with me even though she needed to prepare for her friend coming into town because I was in a total funk and she just knew I needed a companion. She did my laundry, my dishes, and washed Julian's bottles numerous times.

4. Cookie dough.

When all else fails: pre-made cookie dough. Probably not the best choice, but it met a need for me yesterday.

The Accidental Parent

2011-09-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

I recently read a book by "The Baby Whisperer" since we're struggling a little in the sleep department. Julian was taking some long stretches while sleeping in his swing, but sadly he is going to outgrow it soon! We decided we have to just draw the line and make him sleep in his crib. My sister-in-law has had some success with this book and had found lots of helpful tips in it. The main idea I got from the book, though, is that I'm a victim of "accidental parenting". When I told Ross, his response was "Oops, I'm a parent". Very funny... My interpretation of our parenting was more like "Trial and Error Parenting" or "Instinctual Parenting", but, no, it's "accidental" meaning we do what works for us in the moment.

He slept better in my arms as a newborn, so I let him.
He slept more peacefully in his swing, so I let him.
He likes a bottle to soothe himself to sleep, so I give it to him.

However, now I have a baby that sleeps for short stretches in the night and wakes up frequently only to want to eat and even then stays awake for hours because he's not able to soothe himself back to sleep.

All that to say, we are undergoing a modified "baby bootcamp" right now. It would be waaaayyyy to much for us to follow this book's total philosophy. Even though the idea of having a baby who sleeps from 11pm to 7am and who takes two 1 1/2 hour naps a day and a little "hour catnap" in the evening sounds super tempting. I just don't know if it's realistic for us and I don't want to just totally pull out the rug from under Julian all at once. We are starting with just getting him to sleep in his crib at night and during naps. When he wakes up we can rock him and shush him, but ultimately he has to go back in the crib. I'll let you know how things go after a week of this.

Who would have thought this little nugget could be such a handful??

Every good and perfect gift is from above!

2011-09-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

The wild ride of life as Julian's mommy continues. At 14 weeks (just over 3 months), he is doing so many wonderful things! He just started rolling over from tummy to back and from back to tummy. He is starting to support his head, neck, and trunk while sitting up on his own, too. Of course we have to prop him quite a bit, but he is constantly showing us in new ways how strong he is! I included a sweet little video of one of his first times rolling from tummy to back.

My biggest challenge (second to breastfeeding), is sleeping, well, the lack-there-of. I am really hoping he starts sleeping for longer stretches soon. I have been so tired, dirty, unproductive, and crabby which lead me to having not-so-good feelings. However, I am hopeful. I can see that he changes every day and this is just something else that I know will come to pass. Last night, I let him sleep in his swing (after trying to keep him in his crib for the past couple of weeks) and he slept until 4:50 am. It was beautiful and I am so thankful to God for that gift!

I started back to work 2 full days a week and so far I think I'm going to like it. I felt a little guilty the first day of work because I enjoyed being away from home and from Julian. I am realizing though that work may provide me with the balance I need to be a good mommy too. Every one is different and I think each mom just has to find what works for her family. For the time being, working part time is what works for us. It totally helps me knowing that he is with his Mimi, who would go to the ends of the earth for him, when he's not with me, too. What a blessing!

Well, so much for "me" time, it's time to tidy up the house a bit before baby stirs from his nap. :)

Dear Julian...

2011-08-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Julian,

Tomorrow you will be 10 weeks old. You are a 2 month old now...not a newborn! You bring me so much joy every day with your sweet little hands and feet, your giant smile, and your baby blue eyes. Your coos and goos just melt my heart.

You wake up each morning with a sweet smile on your face. Even though I'm usually exhausted, you just light up the room with your joy. I can't help but love on you.

You are starting to get interested in your activity mat and are able to even occupy yourself for a bit playing with your hanging animals. You are just learning to grasp objects and I can tell you are working really hard to gain more hand-eye coordination. You are really into your hands now and you have been drooling so much! Surely you aren't teething yet...right??

Even though you don't like tummy time for too long, you are soooo good at it! You can hold your head up so high for so long. I am so proud of how strong you are.

You have the most gorgeous long eyelashes. They are a nice complement to your big shining baby blues. Your doctor even called you "handsome" and "a flirt". I was so glad she got to see what a sweet personality you have.

I like to call you "Curious George" sometimes because you are so curious about your environment. You like to face outwards when we hold you so you can see the world. I can tell you are studying everything around you by the way you look at things so carefully.

You have a beautiful voice. Daddy and I love having "conversations" with you. The back and forth noise making is so fun. We've also caught you singing along with me when I'm singing. You are very good!

I am excited to see how you'll change over the next month and feel so blessed that you are developing so wonderfully. I can't believe how fast it's all going!! I'll love you forever and ever and you'll always be my baby boy.

Love,

Mommy

Baby Bounce Basics: some babies bounce, my baby sleeps

2011-07-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today I mustered up the courage to take Julian on an outing to the mall. I needed a little exercise and we both needed a new environment. We ventured to the mall and they just so happened to have a baby class happening in the mall library. Of course, we decided to join in.

I first noticed all of the strollers parked outside the library. Is this ok? I felt a little exposed just leaving my stroller and babies goodies out in the hallway of the mall, but it seemed like it was the thing to do. Silly mommy didn't bring a purse or diaper bag inside and so I just left everything in the basket under the stroller and covered it up. Then I parked my stroller alongside the other 25 strollers and picked up my sweet boy to go inside.

Sweet little boy had a nice surprise for me in his diaper though...and on his onesie...and in the carseat. I thought it probably wasn't good manners to bring my poopy pants boy into the library, so we loaded back up in the stroller and found the nearest bathroom. We cleaned ourselves up (for the most part) and headed back to the library.

Just then my sweetness remembered he was hungry. Never fear...super-mommy had the bottle ready to go and I carried my little bugger and his bottle into the library where songs had already begun and a woman was handing out scarves and egg-shakers. Hmmm...where is my third arm when I need it?

Baby boy and I sat in the back row and started our bottle. It started getting pretty loud with the music playing, mommies singing, and kids yelling. It didn't seem to bother my baby at all. He just sucked down his bottle and then fell right asleep. It just didn't seem right to wake him up so I just sat there and took a mental note of all the songs so I could try to learn them all for the next week. I was surprised that we weren't the youngest there. There were several babies that looked about Julian's age or younger. In fact, there was one 3 week old there. I made sure to tell that mommy "way to go!".

Even though my little bug didn't participate the same way the others did, I felt like it was a success. We got out of the house. We dealt with everything that came our way. And I had a good time. Even though Julian slept for the most part, he was so laid back and enjoyed his experience. Maybe he'll even stay awake next time! So proud of this boy!

Sing a song of.....how's that go again???

2011-07-20T16:04:00.001-07:00

I love to sing. Mostly in my car and in the shower...but I love to sing. I've always dreamed of all the great songs I'd be able to sing to Julian from Christian songs that are rich with Biblical truths to Broadway showtunes to popular radio hits. But now that he's here, when it comes time to sing a lullaby my mind goes BLANK!! What is going on??? I sit down in the rocker to soothe my baby to sleep and the only songs that come to mind are soooo strange like "On the Good Ship Lollipop" and "The Ants Go Marching". What's the deal? Has anyone else experienced this wierd phenomenon?

Dear Julian...

2011-07-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Julian,
Today you are 6 weeks and 1 day old. You are such a sweet boy and mommy loves you. I am completely shocked at how time has flown by since you were born. I can't believe how big you are already and how you change each and every day. I love how you make such good eye contact with me and I love the way your little lips look when you smile. I love how you make little ooo's and ahh's and grunts to talk to me. I am so proud of all your accomplishments. You have a strong neck and you make great efforts to hold your head up all the time. When I lay you on your tummy you can turn your head from side to side and lift your neck up. You are so social. When we talk to you, you turn your head and look at our faces. You even look back and forth between two people who are talking. For the last few weeks, you've been pretty fussy in the evenings, but I can tell you are starting to grow out of that. Last night you only fussed for about an hour and were soothed by sucking, shushing, swaying, swaddling, and being on your side. I'm always thankful when we find things that can soothe you. You really enjoy being outside. Someday you'll have to tell me why. Is it because of the heat? Or do you like the noises the cicadas make? Or do you just like looking up at the sky and at the trees? Soon it will be cooler and I'll let you stay outside longer, I promise. You are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to your daddy and me and we are so thankful and blessed that God has allowed us to bring you into this world and raise you. You are our little angel baby.

Love,
Mommy

Our Birth Story

2011-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

On June 4th, the very next day after my last posting, my water began leaking. At first I wasn't certain if that's what it was but as it continued throughout the day I became more confident that was what was happening. We waited and waited for contractions to come and nothing at all was happening. We decided not to call the doctor yet, as we didn't want to be "on the clock". Hospitals will tell you that you have to have a baby within 18-24 hours of your water breaking. So we kept waiting. We went on walks in our neighborhood, walked stairs, experimented with acupressure and nipple stimulation with the pump. Still I felt nothing except an occasional gush of water. We went to bed that night feeling a bit nervous, but we prayed about it and felt a peace about staying at home.

The next morning at 9 am when contractions still hadn't started I called the on-call doctor to see what she thought. Of course she wanted me to come in right away even though she thought I had just started leaking that morning. I still didn't want to go in to the hospital and decided to go get professional acupressure and a massage done instead. When I left the acupressure session, I had a missed call from the on-call doctor urging me to call her. When I did, she kept reinforcing the risk of infection and the need to "get labor going". She knew I wanted to go natural and said there were other options besides pitocin. I was still not happy about the options she gave me as I knew they would potentially have the same effect as pitocin. I asked about naturally inducing with a foley-catheter but she didn't agree to it due to the "infection risk"....I know I'm not a doctor, but wouldn't the risk be the same as the other options which also involved sticking things inside me?? Anyway, I kept waiting and we got all the bags ready to go and my family and Ross basically had to push me out the door at 4 pm (20 hours since my water began leaking).

Once at the hospital, they put me in a "temporary room" which became my "permanent room" as soon as they determined my water had indeed broken. So, there I was...at the hospital and not happy about it at all. Still no contractions and I already felt pressured and controlled by nurses and doctors. The doctors decided I needed to be induced and I was given the option of a cervical gel called prepodil which is supposed to stimulate contractions and ripen the cervix. It was promptly inserted and I was told I would have to lay in bed for 2 hours with fetal monitors strapped on. Within an hour, small contractions began. So little I could barely feel them but I could see them on the monitoring screen. 2 hours passed and I was dying to get out of the bed and get moving, however the nurse informed us that Julian's heart rate was dropping every time I had a contraction. We asked if we could try sitting up to alter the position and see if that helped. She said that would only make things worse and made me stay on the bed longer. Every time the nurse came back to check on me we pleaded our case to be able to sit up right next to the bed while still strapped to the monitors. We just really felt that they needed to let us at least TRY something else besides laying there uncomfortably on the bed. Finally, she agreed, but made sure we knew it was not going to help anything. So we got a birth ball and got me set up next to the bed where all my attachments could still reach the machines. An hour later, lo and behold, Julian's heartrate was doing just fine with each contraction! The nurse commented that we were right about trying the new position and that baby liked it! Hooray, now we were given the go ahead to get off of the continuous monitors and walk around as we please.

Ross and I began walking the halls and timing the contractions. They would sneak up on me slowly and I would feel tightening in my lower back. At the peak of the contraction I was pretty uncomfortable but then it would start to subside and I could walk and talk and laugh again. This went on for a few hours. Contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Around 10 pm, my friend Jenny showed up to help us. At first, I thought she was there too early and that she would get bored....but things really started picking up then. My contractions were getting stronger and my moaning was getting louder. I was no longer able to walk during the contractions as they would stop me in my tracks and I had to hold on to the rails on the wall or lean back against the wall. But once it subsided I could walk and talk again. Contractions were about 3 minutes apart.

At some point, I went back into the room...I don't remember why probably to go to the bathroom or something but that's when things started getting ugly. I had to get hooked up to fluids which made it difficult to get around. Going to the bathroom was a 2 person job. I needed someone to hold the bag of fluid out of my way while I got my pants on and off. And at this point, contractions were coming faster and when they would catch me in a less than optimal position such as sitting on the toilet I was in major pain. I was doing my best to try to find positions that would relieve any of the pain.

There was a rail in the bathroom that I found to be a good height for me to hold onto while squatting. Then I got the bed in a position where I could get on my knees and lean forward. It also helped to hold onto Ross's shoulders like we were dancing (kind of) and have him hold me up while Jenny massaged my lower back. This was ultimately the best position. But after several contractions in each of these positions I was needing something different.

Thus begins the hydrotherapy phase. I got in the shower and Ross sprayed hot water on my lower back. It felt wonderful. I am still in the worst pain of my life, but it did provide some relief as I was crying and starting to feel like I couldn't continue any longer. Contractions were 1 minute apart and lasting 1 minute.

When the hydrotherapy wasn't helping any more we decided to change positions but before we could find another one another contraction came and then another and another. I am not clothed at this point...having been in the shower just prior. Somehow my pants were missing too. And then I ended up on the floor. Things are starting to get hazy now. I am now in a different reality. And what do you know, it was time for another "check". yippee. Everyone thought I had to be getting close to transition. Even the nurse had the delivery table out and ready to go. But everyone's faces dropped to the ground when we found out I was only at 6cm dilated. Each contraction was bringing me to the ground in pain and there was hardly any time in between to rest. I had been laboring for about 14 hours and it was probably 9 am or so (remember I got to the hospital at 4 pm the evening prior).

I'll try to zip thru the next 10 hours...
Drugs were given...epidural was given...I was able to rest for awhile...and finally after 6 more hours, it was time to push!

After about a half hour, the nurse informed me that she has seen someone push for 4 hours before and not to worry about how long it was taking. Haha, little did she know that her shift would end before I ever delivered. Julian took 4 hours to make his way all the way down. Seriously, every contraction he would move millimeters if even that. And just when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, out he came. All the pain I was in just melted away as they put him in my arms. He was slimy and purply-colored. His face was red and blotchy and his skin was so wrinkly, but nonetheless, perfect. His little lips were curled up and his cry sounded like "hoo-aa, hoo-aa". The sweetest noise I had ever heard. Soon after being placed on my chest, he found his thumb and stopped crying. Absolutely precious. The whole hospital experience still haunts us, and even though we didn't have the drug-free birth that we had hoped for, we feel like having a vaginal delivery was a success. And certainly our ultimate goal was a healthy boy, so we were so blessed. Julian was a trooper and did so great the whole labor and delivery!

Julian Ross Barry-born on June 6th at 8:18pm, 7 lbs 10 oz, 20 1/2 inches long, sweet, cuddly, new, precious, wonderful. Praise the Lord!

The 40-week update

2011-06-03T17:23:00.001-07:00

Here I am, 40 weeks pregnant and still waiting for our little guy. I have to say the past 9 months have flown by! About a week ago people started asking me more increasingly, "Now when is your due date again?" and sending me emails and texts asking "Have you had the baby yet?" So far, I'm ok with all that and I know everyone is just excited for us and to meet the baby. It's not going to change the fact that no matter what I know his due date is June 5th and have that day looming over my head. It's crazy how I just assumed for some reason all throughout pregnancy that I would have him early and maybe even miss the last week of school. But that day has come and gone and here I am.

Although I know that cervix dilation is really a non-predictive measure, I still eagerly jump up on the doctor's table each week to hear what, if any, changes have taken place since the week prior. As of this Wednesday I was still about 1 cm dilated...which like I said, really means nothing as some women can linger at 3 cm for weeks and some women go from 1 to 10 within hours. My cervix is approximately 50% thinned out and baby Julian's head is engaged in my pelvis. It's crazy to think that my doctor has been able to touch his head!

I still have not had any true labor contractions and to date no lower back pain. In the evenings it seems I am feeling more pressure down there and Braxton Hicks contractions come more frequently. For that reason, every evening lately I've been thinking...tonight could be the night! And I wouldn't be surprised if I wake up having true labor contractions...but every morning I wake up feeling normal and another day pursues.

Ross and I are extremely excited. We've read our Bradley workbook, packed our bags, and gone over a plethora of different scenarios of what we think it might be like when it really does happen. We like acting out different birthing positions and coming up with hypothetical texts that we can send to people announcing that we're in labor. We're silly like that.

There is a lot of uncertainty about WHEN baby will arrive, but other than that, I feel ready. Not that I feel like I'm equipped to be the perfect mom or that I'll even know how to do anything "right". But what I do know is that I'm well supported by friends, family, and most of all my loving husband and that is one fact that I know with all my heart. Ross has been the ultimate husband to me and already has shown how awesome of a daddy he is going to be. I have grown even more and more in love with Ross over the past 9+ months. It's amazing how this pregnancy has brought out even more shining qualities in him when he was already so wonderful.

Enough for now...I have to get ready for a date with my hubby.

Faith like a Child

2010-09-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

How often have we been told to have the faith of a child...always trusting the Lord and taking Him at His word? And doesn't the Bible tell us "Don't be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. Tell him your needs and thank Him for what he's done"? And still I find myself being tenderly reminded by God on a daily basis what this actually looks and sounds like. That's right...the Lord has placed a special student in my class to ever so gently show me certain areas in myself that need some work. This student is eager to be open about his faith, full of compassion, quick to pray in times of trouble, and never ungrateful or forgetful of the things God has given us. Before each mealtime and snacktime, he never fails to thank God for providing us with our food. When another student gets hurt or becomes upset, this little guy is always first on the scene to extend a prayer of healing and comfort. Just the other day, in one of my not so graceful moments, I backed into a tiny guy, knocking him over and into a wall, before he even had a chance to squeal, the prayerful child immediately petitioned to the Lord to make the fallen child feel better. I am so encouraged by this little guy's fervant faith and I thank God for His creative ways of teaching me lessons.

The power of the spoken word

2010-09-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

In Ross's and my family we believe in the power of the spoken word and therefore try as much as possible to always speak positively about ourselves, one another, and our current situation. I try to incorporate this value into my classroom as well by speaking many positive statements over my students. Each student has unique qualities that God has put inside of them and I believe it's my job to help them shine. Often children with learning differences experience so much negativity throughout their lives, even if it's not intentional. Academics, language, social situations, and even sports can be hard for them. In my class, I always like to remind the kids that they are special the way they are and then highlight the things they are good at. Last week we read the book "I Like Me" by Nancy Carlson. It's about a little pig that loves being herself. She loves her curly tail, her round tummy, and her tiny feet. When the world tries to bring her down, she picks herself up and when something is hard for her she tries and tries again. This little piggy is the image of high self-esteem. Last week, we talked all about what makes each of us unique from our looks (eye color, hair color, height)to the things we like to do (drawing, building, playing sports) and we talked about liking ourselves for who we are. I was encouraged yesterday, when I read a quote on facebook from a student of mine from last year. He said to his mom, "I love you Mommy, and I love me because my body is awesome!" Way to go, G, you speak it!

Summer Lovin'

2010-09-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

Let's revisit summer 2010...

Ross and I were blessed to be able to celebrate with 4 different couples on their wedding days. I'm going to take some time to honor these sweet couples!

Jeff and Brittani Allen
Ross and I grew up in the same hometown as Jeff. Jeff and I were buds since elementary school and Ross and Jeff were bandmates in multiple bands in highschool. The Allens were married in their St. Louis area church where Jeff is the worship director. The wedding and reception to follow were lovely. One of the unique touches I enjoyed was the "cookie bar" at the reception in which you could load up on a variety of home baked cookies and take them home in little chinese take out boxes. It was fun to spend some time with some of my best friends from way back when.

Ben and Kimberly Schlarman
Ben was Ross's college roommate in Allen Hall at U of I for 2 years. Ross and I were able to spend some time earlier this summer hanging out with Ben and Kim at their pad in the Chicago area. Ben and Kim were married in the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. You can see some of the cool art in the background, but what you don't see are the caves, slides, and other forms of "urban art" that we got to experience that evening. What a cool place to have a wedding!

Randy and Lauren Cochran
Ross met Randy sometime last year here in Dallas and they enjoy playing music together in a band called "Bangarang". Randy and Lauren are absolutely precious! They were married in Longview, TX (her hometown) under an oaktree. It was REALLY hot out that day, but the wedding and reception was just perfect! The Cochrans had their own barista serving made-to-order espresso drinks the entire night!

Jay and Christine Geyer
We met J and C while attending college at U of I. We loved hanging out with them in college and have continued hanging out with them post-college. A couple of years ago we took a trip with them to Washington and did some serious backpacking through Washington National Park and Mt. Rainier. The Geyers were married in a sweet little chapel in the Chicago area and we celebrated afterwards at a golf country club. It was so fun to see a bunch of our friends from college again.

Oh, how I love wedding season! Who will be next???

A is for Alvin.

2010-09-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

Two full weeks of school completed already! Holy smokes, time flies when you're having fun. Have I told you yet that I love my job? I liked my job last year, however I had all the stresses that come in your first year of working. Even the small things were stressors for me just for the fact that EVERYTHING was new and unfamiliar to me. Now that I at least have some idea of how things work at my school, I feel more comfortable and I can do my job more efficiently. I was pleasantly surprised the first week when 4:30 pm rolled around and I was actually ready to go home for the day.....when last year I ended up staying at work until 7 or 8 pm several nights the first couple of weeks!

My 6 little boys are precious as can be and I can tell there are going to be some good preschool quotes coming your way soon. Here are just a few so far:

One student has informed me that sometimes he gets swatted with the "correction paddle" but that I don't need to worry about that. Another one has told me "I am feeling cross". I am loving the vocabulary these kids are using! I also love that when I introduced our "letter of the day" and asked if anyone could think of any words that start with the sound /a/ the only word we could come up with was "Alvin". One little guy entered the room on the first day of school crying and repeatedly saying at the top of his lungs, "I don't like school!!!" and 6 hours later when I announced that our day was finished and it was time for our backpacks, his eyes opened up as wide as could be and he form tackled me with a hug and yelled "I LOVE school!!!" It's going to be a fun year. :)

Welcome to my Pre-Primary classroom!

2010-08-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hello blogging world! How I've missed you! I took a little summer hiatus, but now I'm back! It's been a very fun and busy summer and I have lots to blog about but what's on my mind tonight is my classroom. I want to give you a little tour! I've finished setting up my room just in time for Parent Orientation tomorrow evening.

Here's a photo of my circle area. This is where all the action happens. As you can see, we have our extremely LONG schedule (made exclusively with my best friend Boardmaker) to provide the kiddos with predictibility. They function so much better just knowing what's coming next. They certainly don't like surprises, so anything special or "different" will always be designated on the visual schedule.

Here is my reading nook. I just LOVE this little white picket fence that sections off this area and makes it more secluded. My kiddos will also use this area to take "breaks" if they become dysregulated or overwhelmed. I have a little basket of sensory items to help calm them including stuffed animal, fidgets, skin brushes, lap pads, etc. I hope to eventually round out this area with a bean bag, body pillow, and a listening center.

Here is my tree, the highlight of my summer! My sweet husband Ross freehand painted this fabulous mural for me. Even more recently he has added little wood boards to look like a ladder climbing to the top. It's so precious! It really makes my wall easier to look at all day long and ties the room together so nicely.

Here you can see all my cabinets and the cute little cubbies. Also, note the country cottage inspired valances. Another new addition for this year. I have Ross's grandma to thank for these creations. They seriously make the room look like a whole new place! I love them!

So far I have 6 kids enrolled for this year...once again ALL boys. I'm very excited to be able to work with them and see them grow from little acorns into Oak trees! Tomorrow is our Parent Orientation and I'll get to meet all of the parents for the first time. I'm a little nervous as I know they'll be looking me up and down and wondering if I'm capable of teaching their little ones and if they can entrust them to my care. I am just praying that they will see my heart and know that it's my passion to work with them and I'll do all I can to help them succeed.

Kids say the Darndest Things

2010-04-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

With the school year winding down, I'm beginning to think how much I'm going to miss my little class. Sure I've had my moments where I've wished it all away and felt totally ready to be done with this year, but really in the grand scheme of things I've learned so much from my little guys this year. This was my first class ever and I'll always remember them. It's actually going to be really hard for me to see them move on to Core K since I feel so connected to them. Now, I know you've all seen or heard of the Bill Cosby show, "Kid's say the darndest things" and it's totally true. I wish that I had kept a daily journal of the funny things my boys have uttered this year because I just can't remember them all. So, in an attempt to remember some of them I'll start sharing more of them on here so I'll always have them in my archives. Here are a couple from last week that were particularly hilarious:

1. I gotta get someone to fix my cough! I gotta get an archaeologist!

2. Me: _ was a hard worker today! Child: Yeah, and __ was a soft worker!

And lastly, a conversation I'm not too proud of, but nonetheless it's pretty funny coming from a 5 year old....

3. Multiple kids: Mrs. Barry! Mrs. Barry! Me: Wait a second, There's only one of me! Child: Why did you say there's only one of you? Me: Well, there's only one Mrs. Barry. I wish there were two, but there is only one. Do you think we should have two Mrs. Barry's? Child: Yeah, I wish there was a good Mrs. Barry.

And then I got a hug. I think (and hope) he was joking. :)

Last week, we took our 3rd field trip of the year and I brought them to the Frontiers of Flight Museum over by Love Field. It was totally awesome and I will be sure to bring my class back every year. We took a 15-20 minute guided tour of some helicopters, airplanes, satellites, and even got to get inside a real Southwest Airplane and get in the cockpit (well, 1/2 of an airplane anyway). Then we played in the coolest little play area that had a bunch of kid airplanes to climb in and a big bounce house. It was great! We have one field trip left to take this year. Any suggestions for something easy, not too big, not too expensive, and not too over-stimulating?

Giveaway!!

2010-03-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,
As April is nearing, I'd like to ask you to revisit my recent post about "3ELove" and consider pledging your vote for the Pepsi grant. Actual daily voting will begin April 1st. I would LOVE to have as many people as possible pledge their vote prior to April and to motivate you I'd like to have a GIVEAWAY!!

If you leave a comment on my 3E Love post (or this post) you will earn 1 (one) entry into the giveaway drawing.

If you follow the provided link and pledge your daily vote and tell me that you pledged your vote, you will earn 1 (one) entry.

If you share this link http://www.vote3elove.com on either your facebook, twitter, or blog and tell me about it you will earn 1 (one) entry for each place you share the link.

All in all you could have up to 5 entries in the giveaway drawing. So please pledge your vote now and comment on my post by Wednesday at the latest!!

By pledging to vote, you are doing your part in starting the conversation about the social acceptance of people with disabilities! So, thank you for your involvement!

Run for a Purpose

2010-03-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today Ross and I ran in the "Run for a Purpose" 5K in Mckinney. Our friend, Lindsey, was the race director and volunteers with the "Rexanna Foundation".

I ran the race in 32:36, which means a 10:33 mile pace. It's an improvement and I'm shooting to cut off another 30 seconds to a minute in my next 5K.

More baby shower!

2010-03-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

For some reason I couldn't get these pics to post in the other post. So, 2 blogs in one day, lucky you! :)

The diaper cake-who would have thought, edible diapers, mmm!

Lindsey and Melissa sampling some of the strawberry cupcake goodness. Aren't they precious?

All the preggos at the shower. My friend, Jane @lifeontherowlandranch (black v-neck shirt) is on her 7th! Keep this super-mommy in your prayers as she is due any day. I look up to this woman and her husband so much. Isn't she gorgeous?

And finally, a pic of all the hostesses with Chelsea.

Baby Baby!

2010-03-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I celebrated and honored my dear friend Chelsea (@paisleyleather) and her baby on-the-way, Laila. I met Chelsea about 2 years ago when Ross and I joined a young marrieds small group at our church. I knew from the start that I would love Chelsea as she is so relational, cheerful, and heartfelt. Time spent with Chelsea is always delightful and I'm blessed to have her in my life. Chelsea and her husband Trevor will be first time parents very soon (but hopefully not TOO soon) and I know that Laila is so blessed to be their child. Please pray for Chelsea as she is about 33 weeks along and little Laila is quite excited to make her way into the world. Chelsea is currently biding her time on bedrest. Here are some pictures from the shower!

Hanging from the mantle is a homemade banner that Crystal made. It made for perfect shower decor and will go well in Laila's pink and green paisley nursery.

The shower's theme was pink and green cowgirl as Chelsea is a cowgirl at heart and coaches the equestrian team at SMU. Each cupcake has a cowboy hat label stamped with an L. Cupcakes/labels/cupcake tower-all prepared by Alison Sykes-AMAZING! The same woman who made Melissa's cake one year ago. (See my post "Rock-a-bye-Baby Shower")

Me with the precious Mommy 2 B.

Me with another hostess, Lindsey V. @lifeintexas

3E Love

2010-03-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Embrace Diversity.
Educate your Community.
Empower Each Other.
Love Life.

This was Annie's slogan and the way she lived out each day. Annie was a friend I met in college at University of Illinois. She was an entrepreneur seeking to change the perspective that society has on people with disabilities. Annie was innovative. She came up with the idea to replace the traditional "handicapped" symbol that you see in parking lots and on license plates with the "wheelchair heart symbol" in which the wheel is in the shape of a heart. This symbol was first tattooed to Annie's shoulder and now is worn by people all over who want to show that a disability is not something to be ashamed of or to hide. Annie's "Symbol of Acceptance" replaces what society deems negative with a positive emblem to be worn with pride. Although the symbol hasn't officially replaced the international disability symbol, it can be found on t-shirts, bags, buttons, stickers, and tattoos.

Annie passed away in January 2009, but her passion and zeal in advocating for people with disabilities did not. Her brother, Stevie, continued to pursue Annie's dream of spreading 3ELove and its symbol. Currently, one of 3ELove's goals is "Project Everywhere". This project's first aim is to spread the wheelchair heart logo ("Symbol of Acceptance") to every zipcode in the USA and then beyond! The idea of spreading the symbol is to facilitate conversations with people. What kind of conversations, you ask? Examples: Talk about what the symbol means to you. Talk about the civil rights of people with disabilities. Talk about breaking down the barriers in society (both physical barriers and social barriers) Talk about what it means to see past the outward appearance of a disability and get to know the actual person! And so much more...

Maybe after reading this blog you feel like getting involved in the social project. Glad you asked, because I have a simple way that you can help advance the vision. Visit this website and sign up to vote for a grant from Pepsi. This grant money will give 3ELove some financial support to spread the symbol of acceptance throughout the world. Please consider pledging your vote for this cause and let's see how society's perspective on disability might change! It would mean so much to me and to the entire 3ELove community.

To learn some more about my friend Stevie and 3ELove follow this link to one of my blogs "A trip to say goodbye" from last May and then follow the links provided there.

Sooo sore from Squats!

2010-03-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to start gearing up for the Beach to Bay Relay in Corpus Christi on May 15th. Ross and I will be joining a few our our Southwest friends to form a marathon relay team.. The 6 of us will each run about 4.5 miles to complete the relay. I haven't formulated my goal time yet, but I just know I want to improve my speed. I'm thinking about an 11 minute mile pace goal, but I'm not dead set yet. I'm sure after talking it over with Ross he will encourage me to shoot for just over 10 minutes...so we'll see.

This week I'm trying to run 4 days and complete a cardio/bodysculpt DVD 2 days. Yesterday I completed level one of the DVD "Biggest Loser-Cardio Max" and OMG I am feeling it today. I actually woke up in the night and said "Oh, my buns!" and Ross thought I said "Oh my, God!" and was like "What's wrong??!!" It's a good burn I suppose, but I'm a wimp when it comes to pain tolerance. I probably did 500 or more squats throughout the 25 minute workout. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it again tomorrow...but I will try. Today I'm hopefully going to go for a run and work out some of the soreness.

Spring has Sprung!!

2010-03-15T09:49:00.001-07:00

I'm so happy. Today begins my official Spring Break Week! So far, I slept in, checked email (nothing there), went on a run, read some blogs, and ate a piece of cheese... I'm taking things slow...don't want to get worn out on my first day of break or anything..haha.

Anyway, what a beautiful weekend we had here in Dallas! Ross and I have spent a lot of time indoors watching movies (Up in the Air and Food, Inc.), so it felt really nice to be outdoors a lot of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we moseyed on over to the Greenville St. Patty's Day parade. We just caught the tail-end but really that was sufficient. We met up with Southwest friends and walked all the way down Greenville to Dyer St. Bar for one drink and then over to Desperados Mexican Restaurant for lunch. At that point, we were all pretty zonked from walking in the sun and wind all morning and I took a nap the rest of the afternoon. That evening Ross and I watched an hour and a half of Barbie and the 3 musketeers with our niece. Trust me it's SOOOO hard to say "No" to someone this precious.

On Sunday, we got up early and got a Pearl Latte at the Pearl Cup...my fave!! Then we watched runners just past mile 10 at the Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon. Every race that I run I am so motivated by the crowd's cheers. It really means so much to a runner and it helps keeps us going. So even though I didn't get in gear enough to run in the race, I wanted to go cheer. I knew a handful of people that would be running and tried to figure out what time they would be running by mile 10. Even with thousands and thousands of runners passing by me, I found all three people I was looking for! It was pretty exciting. Ross and I cheered for hundreds of runners we didn't even know and I loved it. Runners would run out of their way to give us high fives and say thank you. We got told so many times how awesome we were and how thankful they were to have us cheering. People who run are so positive and I love it. It's a great crowd to be in. I'm planning to run the race next year...already registered, yikes!

After cheering for an hour or so, we drove over to church and walked around uptown for awhile before church began at 11:15. It was a fun little morning. We spent the afternoon watching Casino Royale and all the special features (one of Ross's favorite things about movies..).

All in all it was a fun weekend spent with my sweet sweet husband. I am so blessed to have him by my side and to do life together. He is the best.

Awesome and Not

2010-03-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

I'm trying something new that I saw in someone's blog recently...

Awesome: My class made it through our dress rehearsal/video taping for Spring Program! We've been practicing for over a month and tomorrow is our big day! No more practicing!!!!
Not: Today was the first day with the stage lights turned on and the majority of the class was either turned around staring at his shadows or holding his hands over his eyes and yelling "Ms. Barry!!!! When are the lights going to get turned off!!!" throughout the entire 6 minute performance (which we had to do 2 times through)

Awesome: Warmer weather and wearing short sleeves!!!
Not: Inside recess today due to wet grass and mud means cranky-wild boys!

Awesome: A late birthday present from a friend! Wine, chocolate, bubble bath, and scented candle!
Not: Flights are sold out for this weekend from Dallas to St. Louis so we can't make it home to visit my family

Awesome: Just got Food, Inc. in the mail!
Not: I'll probably be really grossed out and scared to eat food unless I know where it came from.

Thoughts from a slow girl... :(

2010-03-04T17:49:00.001-08:00

I just got an email from the Cowtown 10K with all my stats from the race last weekend. It was kind of cool, but it just got me thinking how SLOW I've become in the past couple of years! I didn't help that sometimes they refer to the "gun time" instead of the "chip time" when I started the race 15 minutes late! (Couldn't find the starting line...oops)

How has this happened!!?? Well, I'm pretty sure it can be narrowed down to weight gain and lack of consistent training...yep, I'd say that's the culprit. Anyway, now I'm just embarrassed that my stats are up on the world wide web for anyone to see. I've actually added over 2 minutes to my mile time in about 2 years. I didn't know that was possible, but apparently I did it.

Now my mission is to find another 10K in the next couple of months and make it a goal to beat my time from the Cowtown. Anyone know of a good 10K in the area? I'm desperate to beat this time so I don't have it lingering over my head any longer.

Fun February

2010-03-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

I've realized that I post about once or twice a month. Is that a big no-no as a blogger? I don't really know what the appropriate amount of blogging is. Is it just supposed to be consistent? Well, if that's the case I guess I should meet my February quota...wait February is over, you say??? Argh. Well, I will dedicate this post to the second half of February, since it was a wonderful whirlwind.

Ross and I were able to host 3 sets of visitors in February. Ross's roommate from college and his fiance from Chicago visited us for a weekend. We were able to hangout in downtown Dallas and visit the Nasher Sculpture Garden, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Crow museum of Asian Art. We hit up all of our favorite restaurants and coffee shop, The Pearl Cup. Can you say yummmm? :) If you frequent the Pearl Cup, don't you just love the vibe there? So chill, funky, and artsy all wrapped into one! The Pearl Latte is to die for! It's apparently a special/secret recipe and if you haven't tried it yet, you absolutely must!

One of the sculptures in the Nasher garden: "Walking to the Sky"

Mid-month we were graced with a visit from our friend Guillaume from Paris. This is Ross's buddy he met while studying abroad. We ate 3 full meals of Mexican while Guillaume was here and had a "Crepe Party" in honor of his French-ness. We had a blast showing him Texas. He was only upset that we didn't make it to a shooting range so he could fire a gun. He felt that would be the ultimate Texas experience.

Guillaume and Ross making crepes for the party.

This past weekend, my lovely sister flew in for a short weekend to visit us and run in the Cowtown 10K with us. We also had a blast even though we were sore and exhausted for most of the visit. Besides the experience of running 6.2 miles with my sis, the other highlight was having her come to school with me on Friday. It was so fun having her there to meet my students and get to know them. She LOVED them and thought they were so sweet and adorable. Obviously, they had her fooled. Only kidding!!! I think they are precious too.

Our other exciting news from February is that we started a small group/bible study at our house for young married couples at our church. We've been a part of a small group/bible study for the past couple of years and our group recently decided to split up into 3 groups in order to accommodate the growing number of young married couples in our church. So, Ross and I decided that we could take a group. We were sad at first to disband our group that we had grown to love so much, but we are excited for this new venture. Both Ross and I felt led to do this in order to reach out and connect with other couples at our church who may not feel as connected to the body. We were blessed so much with rich and genuine friendships by being able to be in a couple's small group and hope that we can provide that opportunity for other couples who are looking to connect with others in the church and work on their marriages at the same time.

And, there it is...the month of February all rolled into one blog. How'd ya like that?

Prayer in School

2010-02-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Since Ross and I were in Illinois for Christmas we missed the white Christmas in Dallas, but little did I know we would have a White Valentine's Weekend!! And yes...I am starting the weekend early because I was just informed that our school is cancelled for tomorrow, yippee!! No school Friday and no school Monday for Presidents Day!

I just want to share a cute little story about something that happened at school today that just made my week. :)

Today at school we showed our parents how much we love them by having a "We Love our Parents Party". Strange name for a party, I know, but I didn't come up with it...it was school-wide. The kids and I had been preparing crafts and snacks for this party all week. We had the picture frames painted, the Valentine Hearts made, , our special song was perfected, and the sugar cookies were all ready to be iced. All we had to do now was pass the time until 2:00 when the parents were supposed to show up. I decided about an hour after lunch that we needed to take a little quiet/rest time so we wouldn't be too restless for the party. As we all cuddled up together (my 5 little boys and I) for a rest, one student asked if he could say a prayer for all of us. Of course, I said "that would be a great idea". And he proceeded: "Dear Lord Jesus, Thank you for my mommy and daddy and for letting them come to my school for the party, Amen.". And as simple as that was, it was the most precious and unexpected thing! All of the students got quiet (very unusual) and listened. Then another student said can I pray now? Then he bowed his head, and said some prayers under his breath and ended with a resounding AMEN! (As you are reading this...remember that I don't teach at a Christian school.) Then each of the students asked for their turn...however the rest of the "prayers" started with "Once upon a time..." and ended up being about Scooby Doo and Mario and Sonic. Nonetheless, they all just made my day! How precious are my little preschoolers??

Have a wonderful WHITE weekend!

The big things in life.

2010-01-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

Hello bloggers. Once again it's been awhile to say the least, but I'm trying and that counts for something.

This has been a pretty crazy 2 weeks for me and my family. We started off our 2nd week of the new year with a bang at church with our Annual Corporate Fast. Since Ross and I have moved to Dallas this has always been a cherished time as we attempt to start the new year off on the right foot, evaluate our lives, and get things in order. The word for the week at Trinity Church was EMPOWERED. How awesome is that. We don't want to live mundane lives and call ourselves "Christians" just because we go to church. In the days of the early church, people didn't even call themselves Christians but they were called that by the people who saw them live their lives. It was apparent that those in the early church were followers of Christ...not because they attended church...but because their lives were empowered as they lived out the gospel. Throughout this week we started thinking about what it means to "tear down the walls" of the church and actually BE the church. Anyway, God is showing us some things about himself that are changing us...but that's for another blog another day.

Moving on to Saturday, the last full day of our fast. I woke up around 7 am because I planned to go serve at a place that helps women who have been victims of human-trafficking. I was going to be giving facials, pedicures, and manicures to these women who have been rescued, however God had a different plan in store for me that day. I woke up and was totally sick with a bad head cold among other issues. Shortly after waking I got a call from my mom explaining that my dad had just had a heart attack but was currently stabilized and waiting to be taken by an ambulance to another hospital. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This type of thing happens to other people...not to my dad. The word "stabilized" just kept ringing in my ears. I decided to forgo the mani/pedi giving and stay at home where I could be on the phone with family members and hear each update as they received word from the doctors. I was able to find a flight home that evening which left me in Dallas and away from my family for the remainder of the morning and afternon which turned out to be the best situation. I was able to start interceding for my dad's physical health, emotional state, and spiritual state. I was able to get healing over the head cold and pray for God to use me once I got home. It was an amazing time of prayer and God gave me such peace that my dad was going to be ok and that he was going to use this incident for his glory. As I departed Dallas, I felt totally empowered to whatever it was God had in store for me in Illinois.

There is so much more to this story, but to keep things short...when I got to the hospital I was able to talk with my dad about God's plan and speak faith over all the fear he was dealing with. For the first time in my life, I prayed outloud with my dad and laid hands on him. I am so thrilled at the way God is moving in my family's life. I can see that God is softening my dad's heart to Him and that he truly does have a plan for my dad's life. I am just clinging to the verse that says that 'your entire household will be saved' (paraphrase).

Thank you Lord for moving mountains and for upholding all your promises. "Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find"

This experience (with the help of my Aunt Jan) helped to remind me that there are Big things in life and there are small things in life. This was obviously a "big thing" and after you experience the "big things" you can start to see how the "small things" aren't really all that 'big' afterall. I just love finding pieces of wisdom when you least expect it. :)

Keep praying for my dad! For God to continue softening his heart both physically and spiritually and for my dad to be free of any fears and anxiety from this experience.

Pondering races for the new year.

2009-12-23T06:03:00.000-08:00

It may be just a little early to start talking about new year goals, but a little planning never hurt anyone, so, yes, I am already thinking about what races I want to accomplish in the coming year. I know that I would like to do a 10K this year, since I've never raced that distance before. Additionally I would like to do a spring half-marathon and a couple 5K's. The big question for me is this: Is this the year to complete my lifetime goal of running a full marathon? Hmmm. Now that is something to ponder. Such a big decision and lifestyle of running. I know it takes a lot of dedication to complete a half and to double that distance is pretty gutsy. Is that really something I could do? For now, I think I'm going to go about my training for the 10K and the half, just to see how that goes and if the training becomes too much to handle with my job.

Any suggestions for some fun races?

I am thinking about the Cowtown in Fort Worth for the 10K. Ross has run the Cowtown 5K for the past 2 years with his corporate team. This year his supervisor has the idea that we should round up a team to run the 10K and actually try to win it. I, of course, won't be contributing to the winning result, however I can still be a part of the team.

As for the Half, I am conflicted. The Rock n Roll marathon is in Dallas on March 14, which is SO exciting and I've always wanted to do a Rock n Roll race, however it's the same time as my spring break from school and I really wanted Ross to take me to San Diego for a few days. (We won a 2 night stay at a Hilton in San Diego at his Southwest Holiday party and it expires in April). So, we'll see how that works out. There's always the Go! St. Louis half-marathon in April. That was the race that I first completed 13.1 and will always hold a special place in my heart, however do I really want to do it again? Maybe if my little sis would join me...hint hint.

I've also debated trying a triathlon at some point in my life. I don't know though...swimming is hard and bikes scare me. It would take a lot of convincing for me to attempt this feat. It may be just the thing to prevent the monotony of training. I tend to get so sick of running after training for a big race. Any tips?

In closing, I want to share my favorite Christmas song of the day: The First Noel sung by David Archuleta. Wow. If the birth of Christ alone, hasn't gotten you into the Christmas spirit, this should help. (disclaimer: Jesus really is the only reason for the season, however David may just help you remember that.)

And breathe...

2009-12-22T15:13:00.001-08:00

Wow, has it been an eternity since I've posted!? Time really flies!

Well, I've made it half-way through my first year of being a teacher. A few things changed over the past semester. I took a hiatus from two things that I love: blogging and running. When things started getting busy at work, I had to cut some things from my life and those seemed like the only negotiable pasttimes to cut out. However, I am hoping that during the second semester of this school year, the newness of everything won't be so overwhelming and I'll be able to reincorporate both running and blogging into my life. :)

In other news: Christmas is in 3 days! Holy cow! I am so excited. This has been the longest duration of time that I have been away from the homeland (Illinois). Ross and I are flying up north tomorrow night. We'll be spending part of the time with my family in Carrollton and good ol' Nebo and part of the time with his family in Hardin and up on "the hill" at his farm. I am sure this will be a very special Christmas full of fun new memories. I am looking forward to hanging out the morning and afternoon of Christmas Eve with my Pohlman family. Everyone will gather in my parents home and eat a delicious potluck brunch. My favorite is the egg casserole that my aunt Jan brings each year. Buttery deliciousness. :) Christmas Day we will travel over to Pike County to have Christmas dinner (lunch) with my Grandma Sue. I am so happy that Ross's parents are going to join us as well. Then I am guessing that the evening of Christmas day will be spent with Ross's grandparents in Hardin and with Stacy, Jonathan, and Ani when they arrive by car sometime that evening.

I am positive that the highlight of my trip to Illinois will be the time spent with my beautiful sister, Dana. She just arrived back to the states from Italy only yesterday! We have so much to catch up on since we had limited communication over the past several months. I am really looking forward to some late night talks that we are known for having.

I hope that you all have a very blessed Christmas vacation!

A sigh of relief

2009-10-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

This Friday I had my first round of Parent/Teacher conferences. I about made myself sick the couple of nights prior just thinking about them and stressing over them. Not only am I responsible for updating the parents on their child's speech and language status and progress, but also their math, reading, behavior, organization, and social skills! I was very nervous to say the least. I basically would just lay in bed praying at night for the Lord to cast out all these negative thoughts and help me to just dwell in Him to get my head to stop reeling. I know that He was definitely looking out for me because everything went pretty smoothly on Friday. I was happy with how things went and know that I will be even better in our January conferences now that I know what to expect and I hopefully won't be as nervous.

Next week we have our first field trip and I'm SO excited! We are going to Owen's Spring Creek Farm in Richardson for a little pumpkin picking, hayrides, and petting zoo action. I LOVE fall and everything that comes with it...except for all the dreary rain days we've had lately. Pumpkins, colored leaves, fresh cool air...mmmmm. Anyway, I think my little nuggets will have a fun time there. I can't wait to take them. :)

Today Ross and I slept in and laid in bed all morning, then went and got Krispy Kreme and coffee and sat out by the pool to soak up some much needed Vitamin D and C. It was amazing. I just LOVE living with my best friend. Today we have a few little errands and tasks to do, but right now he is practicing WICKED (the musical) songs on the piano for me. If you don't know, it's my all-time favorite musical and I enjoy singing the songs all the time. If Ross can learn these songs how much more fun will it be to sing them!! My mom sent me this piano book in the mail today...I think with the intention that I would be able to play the songs. (It said "easy piano" on the front of the book). I guess "easy" is still too hard for me, but I can still practice and in the meantime let Ross learn them. Singing is more fun for me anyway.

Hope you all have a fun filled Fall day!

Ah Ah Ah Ah Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive.

2009-10-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

That's right, I'm alive. I just survived what may or may not have been the swine flu, but definitely the worst flu I've ever had. I woke up Saturday feeling a little off. I couldn't quite pin it at first...a mild headache and my body just felt a little different. But within a couple hours of being awake, I knew what was happening. The flu was in me and slowly multiplying. Of course, I thought I could fight it off with Vitamin C, Airborne, and green tea, but by that evening I realized it was only getting worse. We canceled all evening and dinner plans, I continued popping vitamins and herbal supplements but to no avail I ended up in bed very early. Sunday got worse and I spent the whole day in bed. Then Monday I succombed to the fact I probably had the flu or something else bad and realized I needed "the drug". So I looked up PrimaCare locations/protocol on the internet. I have heard of these clinics and have always seen them around but never thought I would use one. I actually hate going to the doctor, and therefore don't have a primary care physician. Anyway, I needed some urgent care, since "the drug" is supposed to be taken within 48-72 hours and I was pushing it. So, I checked-in online and showed up to this facility. I watched "Hook" for an hour before getting called back to find out I have Type A flu OR h1n1 since they are indistinguishible with the test I was given. However they are treated the same way, so no big deal I guess. It wasn't until midday Tuesday that my fever finally ceased and I started improving at all. I had a fever over 102 for over 2 days and totally felt like I was continuously being run over by a truck. Well, praise the Lord that all things come to pass, and I can say I survived the flu! After taking 3 days off from work, I was able to return to my little bundles of joy today! I was actually terrified to go back. I didn't think I would be able to handle my class, but the Lord never gives us more than we can handle, and I only had 4 kiddos today. (Thanks again, Lord). So we made it through the day and tomorrow is Friday!!!! And I can tolerate most anything on Fridays just knowing that the end is near. :)

Lowkey weekend...just what I like.

2009-09-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

Work is getting progressively better for me. I still feel overwhelmed most every day, but I think that's just part of being a first year teacher. I am being stretched so much, but it's a good thing. I feel like I'm developing some nice qualities that would perhaps never have emerged without being put to the test. Here are a few for example: patience, endurance, functioning on less energy, and more. So, I'm happy to be challenged if it means changing me for the better. I hope I'm not giving the wrong impression that my job is just a huge hardship. I am loving it! I love being a teacher and an SLP all rolled up in one and I wouldn't have it any other way. Oak Hill is so great. I love the work environment, the supportive staff, the parents, and my kids. I am so blessed!

Ross and I started off the weekend by eating Mexican at Matt's Rancho Martinez in Lakewood with Molly and Andy. The queso was soooo delish!! We'll definitely have to dine there more once Molly and Andy get settled in their new home in Lakewood. It was so nice to just sit back and have a margarita and enjoy life.

Then on Saturday, Ross and I dog and house-sat for the Parker's while they went to Austin for a wedding. We watched a TON of The Office DVR's and almost got caught up to Season 6...just a few more episodes. Ross and I used to be big Office fans and got Molly and Andy hooked, but then we kinda dropped off and didn't watch any of Season 5. Luckily for us, M and A DVR'd the whole season, so yesterday was the perfect opportunity to get caught up. :) I loved just chillaxing with Ross, Bailey, and Boots all day.

The only downer to the weekend is that my hubby is under the weather. Poor guy has been fighting off the flu bug all week, but it's been a bugger to get rid of. I am just praying against any flu bugs taking residence in me and for total healing in Ross. Please keep him in your prayers that he will be fully well for work tomorrow.

To end on a positive note...Ross and I think we're going to be able to take the Italy trip to visit my sister afterall! More details later, but we're hoping and praying it will all work out. For those of you who don't know, my sister is studying abroad in Florence, Italy this semester and Ross and I would LOVE to be able to go visit her. What an awesome opportunity to travel abroad when you know someone who is living there and who can show you around! I miss her so much, but honestly we're staying connected pretty well due to the technology of email, facebook, and skyping! Skyping is amazing because we can actually SEE and TALK to each other. We totally should have thought about this before! I actually feel like we're talking to each other more while she's in Italy than when she was just in Illinois!

Anyway, enough for today. I hope everyone is doing well! Have a great Sunday.

It rained and then it poured.

2009-09-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was a rough one for me. My kids were crazy at school and I was experiencing a lot of self-doubt (once again). I fell asleep early on Friday night out of pure exhaustion, but had high hopes of getting a lot accomplished on Saturday. I started Saturday off with a 4 mile run in the rain with Molly then went to our favorite place "Legal Grounds" in Lakewood. I did this to get my mind off of my job for awhile. That afternoon I decided to go work at school. I hadn't had time to make my lesson plans for the following week yet and I had a ton of materials to prepare. Just as I was about to be done, I decided to laminate some of the things I had made. I heated the machine up and then placed my things in to be laminated, but instead of everything coming out the back, it managed to curl back up inside the machine. I panicked. I had already messed the machine up once before and I was so embarrassed. I also was so upset that I was causing the "laminator fixer lady" extra work to be done on a Monday morning. Could I feel any less out of control right now? I freaked out, cried, and felt like I could never show my face at school again. (OK, looking back on this now, it seems quite extreme, but I'm just relaying how I actually felt at the time) Then I decided I would call the "laminator fixer lady" on Sunday but I was SOOO nervous. I didn't want to disappoint her and sever a relationship with her. (back story: she had advised me previously not to use the machine after my first mishap). At this point I am so deep in stress and feeling blue that I couldn't even go to church on Sunday. Then I ended up working at my school cleaning all day Sunday with Ross's help and organization skills. (he is truly amazing). Finally, I get in touch with "Laminator fixer lady" and she had grace on me! I mean, she was firm...but gracious. And I could tell that things were going to be ok. All my stress about that situation was suddenly lifted off of my shoulders. She was merciful and kind and everything else wonderful that I needed right then. Things were starting to look up. Today is Monday and I am thanking God for a really wonderful day. My kids had a great day despite being cooped inside all day with the rain. It was the first day for one student not to shrill "I need a break" "I'm mad" or "It's too loud" or escape the classroom and another student pooped in the potty for the first time EVER. I was on cloud 9! Then to ice the cake, I got home around 8 pm to find a package from my mother. She got me a "first day of school" present that she had forgotton to give to me. It couldn't have arrived on a more perfect day. A new purse! Seriously, how do mom's know these things? I just had a breakdown this weekend because my nasty purse was falling apart and had holes all over causing me to lose things. (Ok, let's be honest, the breakdown was more because I was just stressed and irritable...but the purse just happened to be what I blamed my anger on).
So, it's still rainy and wet outside and I know full well that tomorrow my kids might scream and poop their pants, but God is good and shows us his mercy and kindness continually. Something He's teaching me in this new season, is that I've got to keep praising Him in the storm instead of questioning Him all the time. I know He's teaching me in this whole process and I need to draw closer to Him instead of trying to isolate myself. Thank you Lord for you patience and keep working on me. I know I have a lot to learn!

Finally!

2009-09-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

What a long and eventful weekend! I am so thankful for this Labor Day weekend this year. I don't think I've ever been as appreciative of this holiday as I am this year. When you are in the working world, it has a whole new meaning! This Labor Day weekend has been quite eventful for us!

We started it off with a bang with a party at our apartment with our small group from church. Almost everyone was able to come which made a total of 12 people. We had a blast drinking wine and eating snacks and catching up with each other after a few month hiatus from our small group meetings. It was so fun to see everyone all together again and to have people in our apartment with our new furniture!

Then we woke up early Saturday morning and went to Canton with our besties Molly and Andy. It was a long and hot day, but I'm glad I got to visit the notorious Canton flea market. It was pretty overwhelming....especially at the point we got separated from the Parkers and realized none of us had phone reception. It was somewhat of a nightmare, but we managed to find each other again eventually.

Saturday night Ross and I had dinner plans with some new friends, Marissa and Andrew. They both went to grad school with me and now Marissa and I work together at Oak Hill. They took us out for an AMAZING dinner at Al Biernat's...number ONE steakhouse in Dallas. We were definitely blessed and are so happy to have some new friends. Marissa has been such a great connection to have at Oak Hill. She's the one I've been able to turn to with any question I've had and has been so helpful!

Then Sunday, we had church, rested in the afternoon, and then went out to Rowlett to have pizza and watch a movie with Stace, Jonathan, and Ani. I of course fell asleep during the movie and then we spent the night there.

Today has been a great day of catching up on laundry, ironing, RUNNING, and getting some sun. Yes, that's right, I FINALLY was able to get out on a run this morning and it was WONDERFUL! It had been WAY too long. I am still not giving up on my goal of running the 1/2 in December. I'm just gonna have to get my butt in gear pretty fast and push myself extra hard to be ready in time.

I also got to skype with my sister in Italia today! We got an old webcam from Ross's parents and set it all up just in time to catch my sister at an internet cafe before it closed. It was so wonderful to see her face. Skype-ing is so much better than talking on the phone. It's like you are just chatting face to face. It really makes the world seem so much smaller. I mean, we're 7 hours time difference apart and across a whole ocean from each other and there we were just chatting like no big thing. Skype is going to make this separation from her not so bad afterall. She looked beautiful and not homesick at all. I'm so happy that she's doing well. She had her first Italian language class today and learned to say "My name is....". haha. She is going to come home speaking fluently, I just know it! I am really hoping Ross and I can go visit her sometime in November! Praying for God's provision and favor on that one. :)

Tomorrow is back to the daily grind. I hope I have some fun stories to share. :)

Teacher's are special.

2009-09-04T14:34:00.001-07:00

My favorite conversation this week with one of my students:

Child: Mrs. Barry?
Me: Yes.
Child: Why don't my mommy and daddy use gloves when they wipe my bottom and you do?
Me: Well, mommies and daddies are just special, that's why. (How do you answer that?)
Child: Well...I think teachers are special too.

This is why I LOVE working with kids. :)

Kind of like having your first child...

2009-09-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

After talking about my first week and a half to my friend Melissa, who just had her first baby this summer, she said the way I described my experiences at becoming a teacher sounds just like her experience at becoming a mother. I found this kind of funny. Let me explain. My degree is in Speech Pathology but I was hired to be a full day teacher for preschoolers. All of my prior experiences were being with clients 2 hours max but now I am responsible for my "clients" for an entire day. So, when someone asks me..."How did they do today?"...it's hard to describe with a simple "good" or "bad". You see, in 6 and a 1/2 hours kids aren't only good or bad or somewhere in the middle. They really just flow along the spectrum from good to bad the entire day. It might start out rough and then get better and then get worse and then get better again. There is always laughter at some point, tears at some point, hugging at some point, and yelling at some point. So, when you ask me how my day was....it's hard to answer that. I could say "good" because all in all, we made it through the day and good things happened. Or I could say "crazy" because there's always a couple points in the day when I am at my wit's end and have total sensory overload and just close my eyes and take deep breaths until my kids start asking "Mi Bawwy...you sweeping?" I also described to Melissa how my expectations are really changing. I imagined all these kids being so motivated to learn from me and that they would magically sit down when I asked them to and walk in a line from place to place. But this week, I decided my one goal would be to teach them to stand in a line and if I'm really good, get them to walk in a line. If I can achieve that in a week, I will feel fully successful. Anyway, I am learning so much from my kids each day and I feel so blessed to be where I am. After last week, I didn't know if I could handle another, but already I am seeing the kids change and learn so much! The routines I've created for them are starting to work and the rules and structure I've put in place for them are really starting to make a difference. I barely had to raise my voice today or put anyone in time out! I consider this a major success. Now, I know I can't get too excited about this...there are still 2 days left in the week and I know I very may well have a crazy day tomorrow, but I am ok with that. I am just taking each day as a learning experience for myself and giving myself grace for the things I haven't accomplished yet. A girl's gotta have a learning curve right?

Ready for Week 2

2009-08-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, last week pretty much knocked me on my bottom, but it's not gonna keep me down! I'm feeling rested tonight and ready for week 2 of being a professional. Lots of things in my lifestyle have changed in the past week. No time for blogging, no time for running, not even much time for eating. I was so blessed this summer to be able to relax and do all kinds of leisure activities, but it was such a drastic change from what this past week has been. I've really enjoyed meeting all my kiddos and their parents. I still trust that this is the position in which God placed me. I'm just really starting to understand what life has been like for Ross the past two years in which evenings and weekends are so precious.

I hope to blog more soon when all the beginning of the school year madness calms down a bit, but for now I need to go spend these last few hours of this weekend with my husband! ;)

blog slacking.

2009-08-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, I know it's been awhile and I even have good posting material...I've just been so overwhelmed and exhausted the past 2 weeks. Have no fear though...my blogs will return. In the meantime, please say a prayer for me as I'm starting my first job.

I hope you are all doing well and for those of you in in-services this week...I feel your pain. Keep hanging in there...I know it will all be worth it when we start seeing our little kiddos!

We all float on okay.

2009-08-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well, my final days of summer are wrapping up. I start my first job on Monday morning bright and early! The first week of work is spent doing staff development type work...going through school procedures and policies, trainings, meetings, etc. Since it's my first time working there, I'm actually looking forward to learning more about the ins and the outs of the school. I've mentioned before that I've been working on my room a bunch and I promise there will be pictures soon. It's really coming along nicely, I just want it to be completely finished before I share the pics.

This week I was really starting to feel overwhelmed. I started doubting myself and felt incompetent at teaching these kids. I started to feel pressure of making sure my kids progress and succeed and I began to really stress. Praise God though because soon after all these negative thoughts started flowing, He reminded me that not only did He place me in this position, but I can do all things through Him....with an emphasis on THROUGH HIM. He reminded me that's it not all about ME and I just need to lean on Him and trust Him. Where I am weak, He is STRONG! So, thank you Lord for convicting me of getting wrapped up in my world and forgive me for forgetting that You have brought me to this place and prepared me for this.

He has blessed me so much through this process of finding a job. And just recently, He reaffirmed that Oak Hill is where He has called me by bringing my good friend Taylor to work right across the hall from me in the half-day pre-primary program! I am so thankful to be working so closely with another SLP! Taylor and I worked together for the past year in a preschool for kiddos with autism, so we have a lot of the same clinical experience and techniques. It will be so great to have her there with me.

Ross and I leave tomorrow afternoon for a wedding in Champaign/Urbana, IL. The town of our alma-mater. We are so excited to be visiting our campus for the first time since we graduated 2 years ago. Ross will be playing the drums with the band during the ceremony, so I'm very excited to hear him do that. He used to play drums in college, but since we've moved to TX he's mainly been mastering the bass. Another bonus is that we get to stay with one of my dear friends who also just got married, so I'm excited to catch up with her.

I hope all of your summers are wrapping up nicely as well and that you have a beautiful end of week and weekend. :)

Dragging my feet.

2009-08-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

I mentioned awhile back that I have started running again and lately my runs have been few and far between. I really am trying, but I have a lazy summer mentality going on and if I don't make plans to meet someone, then I either don't go at all or I run a measly couple of miles at a seriously SLOW pace with several breaks. It's kind of pathetic. I'm not sure what the problem is. In the past I've been able to get really excited about whatever my goal happens to be and I'm able to use that as prime motivation. But this time, I feel like I'm just dragging my feet. Anyway, I really think this week is going to be different. I started off today with a really nice 3 mile run followed by a 3 mile walk and it felt good. I have plans to run 2 more times and swim 2 times this week with Molly and then a 6 AM Saturday morning run planned with Robyn (because that's what time mom's run on weekends...CRAZY :). Anyway, if all that works out I'll have about 12-15 miles under my belt for the week. Here is a link to my training log that I try to keep up with at Runner's World. It has several of my workouts for the past couple of years.

http://traininglog.runnersworld.com/profiles/2b6b1d447e3d4f6a9d9a4e85234fa9ab

As you can see, it's pretty pathetic considering I've been trying to build up mileage this summer. But anyway, I thought it would be good for me to share that with you in hopes of motivating myself to improve my mileage (since there's a chance someone could be checking in on me). If you are a runner (or swimmer/walker/biker) and you like tracking your progress over time, this training log is a great tool. You can find it at the Runner's World website which is also one of my favorite magazines and websites. There's so many tips and motivational stories and articles. I really enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone who likes being active.

Hope you all started the week off to a good step and I hope to hear from you and your blogs soon!

Sisters. Sisters.

2009-07-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

...there were never such devoted sisters.

This past week I've had the pleasure of hosting my little sister, Dana, here in Dallas. It was so nice to have her down here for a solid week. Since we're both on summer vacation we were able to just spend each day relaxing and doing whatever we wanted.

Dana and I have become best friends over the past few years. We talked about how it's so crazy that most of our lives we spent either fighting or ignoring each other. We shared a room and a bed growing up...so we were always close...physically...which led to a lot of bonding but also a lot of arguing over space and privacy. Then I went off to college and she started high school and we both had our own lives going on, and sadly, left each other out of them. We think that in the past few years we've both matured a lot and come to realize what an amazing bond we have through being sisters and sharing so many experiences growing up that no one really can understand but us. It's nice to finally be able to talk to each other and talk about our lives growing up and discover how each of us processed different experiences that we had.

We kept busy the entire week with fun activities. We saw 4 movies!!! (Two in the theater and two at home. ) Of course, we saw "My sister's keeper" and cried through the whole thing. We had both read the book as well so we were both thrown a loop by the movie's ending. It was a good movie, however extremely sad. The book was definitely better, but I think they did a great job with the movie. We also saw The Proposal (and Ross was able to join us for this one). It was a fun and lighthearted movie. Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock, one of the Golden girls, and Oscar from The Office had me rolling with laughter at several points. Then at home we saw Gran Torino (amazing, but lots of bad language) and Crash (a great movie bringing up issues of racial stereotypes and racism). They are both 2 of my favorite movies and I would definitely recommend them.

The other big event that took place while Dana was here was THE YARDSALE! So, Ross and I decided that we wanted to have a yardsale with our friends Molly and Andy a while back to get rid of a little junk we had and a LOT of stuff they had. We were also able to sell a lot of Ross' parents and sister's things as well. A lot of work went into it, but overall I had a great time. It was so fun to make deals with people and finally at the end of the day let people fill up an entire bag for $1. I was surprised how busy we were! There were people at the sale non-stop from 6:45 am until just past 3pm!! Finally, we packed up the remaining items into a few boxes and bags and took it all to GoodWill. The sale was definitely a success. We got rid of a ton of stuff and made some extra cash.

This trip was extra special because Dana is going to be studying abroad in Italy in the Fall. She leaves September 1st and this was our 2nd to last visit with each other before she leaves. The next time she visits though is just a short visit for the Hillsong United concert in August. The same week I start work and just 5 days before she leaves for Italia. I don't even want to think about how much I'm going to miss her and how sad our goodbye will be. Ross always gets a little nervous and sensitive towards my feelings on the days that Dana and I have to say goodbye because Dana and I both get pretty teary-eyed. When I was getting ready to depart for Dallas after our wedding , people had to pull us apart. We were both bawling like crazy and wouldn't let go of each other. Then I cried the entire plane ride to Dallas and poor poor Ross had to sit there and console his new wife. I can only imagine what people were thinking. I was wearing this little tanktop that said "Just Married" and here I am crying my eyes out on a plane to Dallas. Pretty comical picture now that I think back on it, but at the time it was really not funny.

I am so blessed to have a sister that's also my best friend and I feel like God just keeps bringing us closer and closer to each other and for that I'm so thankful.

Deep in the Heart of Texas.

2009-07-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend we traveled with our good friends Molly and Andy to Molly's hometown of Katy, TX to stay and visit with her parents. We had a sweet time of fun and fellowship and were so blessed by the Paulsen/Parker clan. One of the highlights of the trip for me was spending time loving on the dogs. Meet (from left to right) Bailey, Jonah, and Boots. Boots and Bailey belong to Molly and Andy and Jonah belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Paulsen. They were with us every minute of the trip and I enjoyed bonding with them as you can see in the pictures.

What's really on my mind to blog about is running...or lack thereof. It's officially been over a week since I put my feet to the beat and I'm so frustrated with myself. However, that frustration didn't get me out of the door once again this morning. What I need is determination...and that is hard to come by in the morning for me. I don't mind waking up, fixing Ross lunch, making good strong coffee, reading, computer time, etc...it's just the part where my body has to move and I have to sweat and my heart rate has to increase...that my mind just can't get in the mood for. Summers in TX are hard for running (IMO). My sister in IL just went for a mid-afternoon run yesterday and it was a mere 75 degrees out. How unfair is that? Well...it's time to stop basking in my pity party and get some determination. Tomorrow morning I will set out to run and I will keep going. There is talk of a 10K at the end of August now...so I have to get ready for that. Maybe I just need to wake up earlier...we all know that JOY comes in the morning!

Come on feel the Illi-NOISE.

2009-07-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

I spent the beginning of this week in my home state of Illinois. All of my family from Florida was visiting and so I felt it was a good opportunity to see as much family as possible in one visit. My cousins are a bit older than me and all have children and it's fun to see them all growing up. When I was younger I LOVED spending time with my cousins. I absolutely adored them and clung onto them every time we were together. I looked up to them like they hung the moon. Of course I still love spending time with them...I'm just not as clingy I suppose. However, I feel like now the roles are reversed with their kids. Now I'm the big cool cousin to them. My cousin Rob lives in Naples, FL with his wife Terry and their 4 kids (Brett, Kacie, Brian, and Courtney) and my cousin Ellen also lives in Naples with her son Bobby. You can see them all (minus Courtney) in the picture below posing with Abe Lincoln's family.

We all spent Monday in the state capital, Springfield and toured the new-ish Lincoln museum. It is very cool if you ever get a chance to visit. We saw his tomb as well. That night I drove back with them to Pittsfield and and after winning a game of dominoes (family tradition) I spent the night with my grandma at her farm.

On Tuesday, my grandma's best friend's husband, Don took me and a few others on a backroad tour of Pike County in his big truck. It was so fun to see all the land our family and Don's family owns. It is so lush and filled with green trees and crops and creeks. Something I've always loved about Illinois is seeing the lush green grass juxtaposed to the striking blue sky and cotton ball white clouds. The land there is SO beautiful. We also drove through the villages of Pearl and Nebo where my family originated, however the population there is dwindling so much and hardly anyone lives there now. It's really crazy to see an empty town. That evening we drove up to Mt. Sterling to visit some more cousins that I don't see that often either. My cousin Joanna and her husband Toby live there with their 2 sons, Jesse and Tanner (wild boys, but they don't make kids any cuter than them!). Jo and Toby own a hunting outfitters there. If you don't know, this area is world renowned for the massive amounts of deer. Toby is an entrepreneur with many enterprises. He does all kind of hunting/fishing and his newest endeavor is Aerial Bowfishing. Look it up sometime...it's the craziest thing I've ever seen. I also got to see Jo's brother, Cole and their parents, John and Cookie.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I love spending time with my family. They are awesome.

In the foyer of the Lincoln Museum. (Bobby, Brian, Kacie, and Brett)

Bobby rubbing Abe's nose for luck.

Bobby and Courtney-little angels born only 8 days apart.

My grandma's barn overlooking the farm. This is the most beautful land you'll ever see.

Fried Brains.

2009-07-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

In the midst of furniture shopping, I thought it would be a good idea to post our current couch and chair on craigslist. I put the price just a little higher than I figured we'd get just to see what would happen. I really thought it would take awhile to sell them and if all else failed I was going to put them in our upcoming yardsale on the 25th. However, people seemed to be very interested in them. I had several emails inquiring about them, but I ended up selling to the first responder and she came by and picked up the goods today. Well, the story doesn't just end there. What I didn't take into account when trying to sell the old furniture was that our new couch won't be here for 8-10 weeks!!!! So, our living room is now EMPTY! And it will remain that way for about 2 months!! I obviously wasn't thinking clearly. In 2 months, we'll definitely have a furniture unveiling party for you all to attend....but in the meantime...DANCE PARTY at the Barrys!! We should totally buy a black light or a strobe light and a disco ball and have raves every weekend for the next 8-10 weeks. Who's in?

In other news, I've been working like a mad-woman over at my school to clean out my classroom. It's a total disaster and I have very high aspirations for what I want my classroom to be. Right now I'm cleaning out cabinets of randomness and trying to make sense of the whole place! I seriously have a ton of work to do, but I am so blessed to have an amazing husband who has offered to go help me out this weekend! I can't wait until I can post pictures of the finished product! School starts August 24th and staff training begins the week prior. I definitely have my work cut out for me in the mean time. (If I would show you a picture, you would understand, but I think I'll save the 'before' pictures to enhance the wow-factor later.

Lastly, as promised, I will update you on my running. This week I ran 3 days with Molly. We found a cooler route along White Rock Lake which is definitely helping and we're going at 7:30 instead of any later which seems to be helping as well. Right now we running between 3 and 4 miles with no intention of increasing our mileage too much for awhile. We're also deciding if we want to run a 1/2 marathon or not and if so should we do it in November (DRC 1/2) or December (White Rock Marathon). Any suggestions?

Divine Design

2009-06-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Ross and I are in the process of making a couple big purchases. We decided a few months ago that we would put any gift money that I received from graduation towards a new couch a chair. The past couple of weeks we've been furniture hunting on the weekends and this weekend we finally found some things in which we approved. The furniture we currently have was kindly donated to us by someone who was getting rid of it. It was a little dirty and worn, but after using a little elbow grease we were able to get it into an acceptable state to use. We were very blessed by it and therefore didn't have to buy a couch and chair right when we got married. But we both had decided that it was about time to get something a little nicer and newer. After searching Rooms to Go, Ashley Furniture, and several other furniture stores and consignment shops, we finally found a couch we were happy with at Crate and Barrel. But before we finalized on it we wanted to find a chair. On our way home from church on Sunday, I spotted a beautiful chair out of the corner of my eye at Pottery Barn on Knox St. I had Ross pull the car over and we ran inside to check it out. It just so happened that the floor model of the chair was for sale. I was so excited so I ran (on foot) over to C & B and got a swatch of the couch that we liked. I was SO disappointed when I realized that they didn't match! So we thought it wasn't meant to be and went home. Then last night Ross had the brilliant idea that we should change our perspective on the couch since we really liked the chair. It was so comfortable and adorable. So today I went back to C & B to see what other color swatches they had of the couch model we liked...and lo and behold...there were a few more options. I was so excited and ran (on foot) back over to PB to see if the chair was still there and if the colors went together. I was so happy to see the chair still sitting in the window and the colors looked beautiful together. So I grabbed a saleswoman and made the deal! I'm so excited that we're going to have some fun splashes of color in our living room now! You can see pictures of our purchases below.

God is with us...FEAR NOT!

2009-06-24T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm on the downhill slide of Vacation Bible School at our church. This week I've been hanging out with 40 three and four year olds from 9-1:30 at Crocodile Dock. The title of my post comes from the daily Bible point that we teach the kiddos. Whenever the hear the Bible point of the day...they scream "FEAR NOT". So those words are ingrained in my head for sure. It's been an adrenaline rush for me each day! I strongly believe that I am working with the best age group! Yes, the preschoolers can be wild at times, but they are so darn cute and sweet! There's nothing better than loving on little kids, teaching them, and getting them excited about God. My main job is to lead the snack shack and crafts for the preschool kiddos. That may sound like a boring job, but it's really cool because I get to incorporate the daily Bible story into the craft or snack. It gives the kids the repetition they need in a variety of contexts so it really sticks with them. When I'm not leading I still get to hang out with the kids during arrival and dismissal times when they sing songs and worship. I am a big fan of kid songs and these VBS songs are actually really good, so it's fun for me to get the songs stuck in my head (and just ask Ross--they are definitely stuck). :)

And they call the thing Rodeo!

2009-06-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the chance to experience my first Texan Rodeo! Ross got some tickets through a Southwest promotion and we took our friends Molly and Andy with us to the World Famous Mesquite Rodeo. We had a great time watching bareback riding, steer wrestling and roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. I also learned of something called Mutton Bustin' which might be the cutest and funniest thing I've ever seen. You can see the picture below, but little kids are able to ride these huge sheep kind of like bull riding except with sheep that don't buck or spin. These cowboys open the gate and the sheep darts out carrying a little child on its back. The kid holds on for dear life and usually falls off face first into the mud after about 3 seconds. It is totally hilarious. Another neat part of the rodeo is the cowgirl trick riders. In this event these cowgirls ride really fast on their horses and do all sorts of acrobatic tricks and stunts. It's really exciting. I had a great time with Ross and the Parkers and definitely feel like all I need now is a cowboy hat and boots to feel like a true Texan. And because Ross and I wanted to keep the feeling going, we watched 8 seconds this evening. For those of you who don't know, it's the true story of Lane Frost, a world champion bullrider. It wouldn't win any awards for best movie, but it's a good story. Just make sure you have a box of kleenex handy!

Here you can see the kid face first in the mud. So funny!

Steer wrestling.

My favorite-bull riding. :)

Soakin' up the sun.

2009-06-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

We just returned on Monday evening from the Barry family vacation in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, Alabama. This trip is a tradition for Ross's family, however this was my first time being a part of it. Gulf Shores holds many memories for the Barrys. This is the spot where his sister Stacy met her husband Jonathan about 8 years ago and this is the spot that they found out they were pregnant with their first child, Anika! It was fun for me to go to a place that Ross and his family hold so dear to their hearts. In the past, they've always stayed at a resort called Perdido Beach however with our growing family we needed to rent a condo to house all of us. So we stayed in a condo a few miles down the beach from Perdido. We basically spent our days soaking up the sun, reading, and playing in the sand and our evenings just hanging out together. As you can see below, I enjoyed reading "Dear John", a novel by Nicholas Sparks and hanging out with my 4 year old niece, Anika. She is the funniest and sweetest little girl and I love spending time with her! She and I watched "Annie" and "Sound of Music" on the 12 hour drive there and then sang the songs together the entire trip. If you know me, you know that I enjoyed every minute of that!

Ani running from the waves.

Ross made a little chair for us to sit in and let the waves hit us.
(It wasn't too long after this that he buried me from neck to ankles in sand.)

All the "kids". :)
(Ross, me, Stacy, Ani, Jonathan)

Now that Ross's and my "major" summer trips are completed, it's back to everyday life. For Ross that means back to work and for me....well that's yet to be determined. :) There's really not a "typical" day for me this summer as my life seems to be pretty random and unscheduled so far. However, I am LOVING summer vacation! Today I am going to visit a church in Flowermound to get some ideas for our church's vacation Bible School, Crocodile Rock. I'm helping out with the preschoolers and with decorating. We're going to take some pictures of how this church has everything set up and get some ideas from them and I believe they are going to let us have some of their props when they are finished with them, definitely a blessing!

I hope you are all enjoying the week! Much Love!

The city that doesn't sleep.

2009-06-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, Ross and I returned from a weekend in the Big Apple! On Thursday afternoon, Ross and I flew to New York and met Mom, Dana, and Grandma Sue there. This was my second time and Ross's first time there. So what was so fun for me (besides experiencing it all myself) was to see Ross taking it all in for the first time.

We started our trip by taking a cab to our hotel which was located in the heart of Times Square and being on the 43rd floor looked right out onto all the bright lights and action. It is NOT an over-exaggeration to say the city never sleeps! The lights are totally bright the whole night and there is a continuous flow of people (of all ages) trekking the streets. It was not unusual to see a baby or toddler in a stroller or a couple of 85 year old women strolling the streets past midnight.

Ross and I taking in the sights of Times Square.

On Friday, we planned to take a city bus tour, so we could see all the parts of the city and hear some commentary on it, however it was in the low 60s/high 50s and raining the entire day! We didn't have much of a tour, but we sure did try. By the afternoon we were totally soaked and frozen! Ross and I couldn't stop laughing about it though because we knew how crazy we were for sitting on the top of a moving bus in the wind and cold rain. We made a stop in Little Italy to eat some lunch and then rode to the WTC site which sadly looked the same to me as when I viewed it in 2004. After making it back to the hotel, we changed clothes and headed out to see a musical called "Guys and Dolls". It's a love story about some New York gamblers and their "dolls" set in the late 1940s. It was a fun musical and we had a lot of laughs. Lauren Graham (from the Gilmore Girls) played Miss Adelaide, one of the main characters in the show. The original cast included Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando.

A memorial for the fallen heroes at St. Paul's chapel behind the WTC site. This place served as a refuge for the firefighters and rescue workers during the WTC tragedy.

On Saturday, we took a Subway to Central Park and had brunch in the famous Tavern on the Green. This place is written about in many Danielle Steele novels apparently (says my mother) and is frequented by many celebrities and big wigs. It is the highest grossing restaurant in the United States. That afternoon we saw "West Side Story". A Romeo and Juliet-esque performance set in New York in the 1950s. It's about the tragic love story between Tony (an anglo) and Maria (a recent immigrant from Puerto Rico). That night, Ross, Dana and I, took the subway back to Chinatown for some Dim Sim!! We found a restaurant called Shanghai Cuisine, that was well known for their amazing soup dumplings (seen in the picture below). So amazing and for a very good price! I loved Chinatown. :) After exploring there for awhile, we made our way back to Times Square to walk around and then just sat outside amidst all the action and took in the sights for awhile.

My lovely sister Dana and I outside of Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Yummy dumplings from Shanghai Cuisine.

The billboard for one of the shows we saw.

On Sunday, we toured the NBC studios (very cool) and went to the Top of the Rock to view the city (amazing view). Then we hit up some NY shopping before hailing a cab to the airport for our departure. I also realized mid-morning I had lost my phone...wonderful! After retracing my steps, brainstrorming, searching the hotel room and having the hotel staff search the room as well I just knew it had fallen out of my purse and was gone! Miraculously, as I was boarding the plane, out of nowhere God, in his perfect timing, totally put a vision in my head of where it was and I immediately called my sister, who had not left for her flight yet, and she was able to find it! So praise the Lord for that!

Overall, New York is a fun and action packed place to visit. So many types of wonderful food to choose from (which is often my main concern) and tons of shows from which to choose! (I have to say on my next trip I have to see Billy Elliot!!!! I was overruled this time). So much to do that we probably didn't make it to half of the attractions and restaurants that were on my mental agenda. I think it's a great place to go for a short visit though because we were totally exhausted by Sunday! It's a city where you are on the go the entire time you're awake. The fast lifestyle is fun for me to experience for short periods of time, but I know I could never keep that going for long. That being said, I'm already planning my next trip there (in theory).

Let's get it started!

2009-06-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Since I've had some extra time on my hands this past couple of weeks I've been thinking about running again. Running is something that's on my mind quite a bit, however I'm not always acting on those thoughts. I have decided to get serious about it again though. About half-way through May I started jogging every few days just to get back into the swing of things. I'm still actually working out the kinks...the older and more out of shape you are, the harder it is to make a comeback! This really supports the notion that you need to ALWAYS stay active! Anyway, I am pushing past these setbacks. I definitely feel slower now, but I am not claiming that. I will push myself to get faster and stronger and I will be able to run an acceptable pace again!

One thing I've always loved about running is having a partner. I've had several partners in my day and I love bonding with people over our runs. It's a very social activity for me. Even though some runs it's difficult to talk...when it's super hot or cold or when you're pushing the pace, but there's always time for talking afterwards when we're walking or stretching.

This week my partner has been Molly. She has been great because she is very headstrong. When she sets her mind to something she will make it happen. For example, we had planned to run this morning however it was raining this morning so we cancelled. Molly, however, calls me at 2:00 and is ready to meet up for our run. Some might have said it was too hot, but Molly pushed me to do it anyway and it was well worth it. I think Molly is going to be a good summer running partner! :)

My current goal is to build a good base in the next couple of months. Really get consistent about running 4 or 5 times a week, work on getting my strength back, and improving my pace. Then around mid-August I'm going to get serious and start a solid training program for a 1/2 marathon in December. My last 1/2 wasn't that impressive and my training was extremely lacking, so I am ready for a comeback race.

I will try to occasionally keep you all updated with how things are going as a way to hold myself accountable and keep myself motivated. The race I'm thinking about is the White Rock 1/2 Marathon (runtherock.com). If any of you are planning on running that race let me know and we can do some long runs together later on!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it!

2009-05-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today I'm feeling so excited I could pee my pants! I'm not even joking. It's one of those feelings where you have a lot of nervous energy boiling inside your body and your body is kind of shaky and you notice that you're just smiling out of nowhere. Maybe no one else is like that, but that's how I get when I'm excited about something. Today was a "staff planning day" at my new school and although I didn't really "plan" anything, I was just excited to be there. I was able to meet several of my future co-workers and get to talk with some of the ladies with whom I'll be working closely. It wasn't my first visit to the school, but it's starting to feel real to me that I'm going to be having my own classroom and students very soon! When I think about making themes and lesson plans and activities I just get the goosebumps!!! In my head all day I had ideas just flowing of materials I want to have in my room, lessons and concepts I'm excited to teach and other classroom planning things! I really should start writing it all down. I honestly think I could sit down and write out lesson plans for the whole year the way I'm feeling...maybe I should!

Summertime...and the livin' is easy!

2009-05-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Shortly after my family left to head to Illinois, I decided I needed to go there as well. Since my hubby and I are so blessed by his employment with Southwest Airlines, I can jump on a SW plane at any off peak time and do that! My sister, Dana, found out she had a couple days off from summer school, so we made the most of that opportunity to spend time together. I flew into St. Louis on Thursday morning and stayed with my family until Saturday. During that time, Dana and I layed outside on the grass (no fire ants in Illinois, only biting gnats), attempted to do gymnastics in our backyard, and went to a baby shower for one of her best friends, Rebecca. It's a blessing everytime that I can spend time with Dana. She is the best sister anyone could ask for and a wonderful and beautiful woman of God. She spurs me on and keeps me accountible! How awesome is that?!

Then I came home to Dallas to spend Memorial weekend with my sweet hubby. We spent Monday on Lake Ray Hubbard on his Dad's newly purchased boat. We had a blast soaking up the sun!

Rebecca and Dana

Super Ross

Feeling like we're on a vacation in our own backyard!

See how the flowers of the field grow...

2009-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Following my graduation ceremony, my mom and Grandma Sue stayed with me for a few more days. We had a lovely time during their visit. Ross had to work during the days, so the ladies were able to spend time doing lady things! One of our days was spent at the Dallas Arboretum. It was an absolutely gorgeous day...perfect weather and beautiful sights. My mother and grandmother both love flowers and gardens. And they both seem to know A LOT about the flowers! I was surprised that they seemed to know about each flower and how it is best grown (in the direct sun or in the shade, what time of year, etc). I couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowers. The colors were just amazing! We also ate lunch at the DeGolyer tea room there. We sat outside and overlooked the gardens and the lake. My grandma is a HUGE fan of tea rooms and has been to tons, so I was pleased that this one met her standards. :) Another one of our days was spent with Ross's mother, sister, and our niece. We drove out to have lunch and shop at some little stores in Rockwall. Following the shopping, we went to a little cute tea room where we chose several types of loose leaf teas and then had them served to us in little teapots. It was very enjoyable and I would definitely return...especially since one of my graduation gifts was a little teapot! It's so fun to try new teas! :)

Carole and Sue at the Arboretum.

School's out for summer...School's out FOREVER!

2009-05-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

I graduated! Here's proof:
Video of me getting my diploma!

This weekend was my official Commencement ceremony! I had a wonderful weekend and was honored in so many ways. First of all, I was blessed to have my family from Illinois be here with me. My parents, 2 grandmothers, and sister traveled all the way from Illinois to see me graduate and spend the weekend with me. This was not an easy task! My Grandma Joan has only flown one other time in her life and doesn't travel that often, so she was brave enough to get on a plane with my parents and spend a weekend in Dallas! My sister had to skip a required class and miss an assignment because her flight got canceled and she had to speed to the airport at a last minutes notice to catch a different flight! Everyone made sacrifices in order to honor me and I feel very blessed! My mom and Grandma Sue are world travelers and are ladies of leisure since they are both retired...so I'm not sure if they sacrificed anything to be at my graduation...but they have certainly sacrificed hard earned dollars to put me through 6 years of college and countless hours of supporting me at events and activities over the last 24 years of my life. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for my family's endless support of me.

I am also blessed to have such loving and supportive in-laws. Ross's mom hosted a graduation brunch for me at her home in Rowlett, TX. It was absolutely wonderful! So after graduation I was able to spend a relaxing afternoon with my family. Also in attendance were Ross' sister and her husband (Stacy and Jonathan), my niece (Anika), Stacy's in-laws (Jack and Elizabeth Reaves) and the Schiebers (Laura, Chad, Wyatt, Henry, and Frances). So, I felt very special and honored that so many people could spend the day with me!

Me and my sweet Grandma Sue: This is the coolest grandma on Earth!

Me and my sweet hubby: Could I even get through a day without him? I think not!

On the top of the world

2009-05-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

I think my recent posts give the impression that I am always having a "girl's night". This really isn't the case though!! Up until the last few months most of our "hang outs" have been in the classroom! It's only recently that we've had the free time and felt the urgency to spend a lot of time together before parting ways. Last Thursday, we all decided to go out for drinks and desserts at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Reunion Tower. We were spinning around the city of Dallas at 560 feet up in the air! It was a pretty neat experience, not to mention how delicious the desserts and appetizers were! Here are some pictures.

Kelsey and I: Kelsey is very outgoing, social, and always speaks her mind. She has a great smile and strong personality that can light up a room. She is very stylish and always wears fun outfits and bright colors. I am blessed to have her as a friend!

All the girls: We're all so unique and different from each other. I think that's why we make such a great group! Look out working world!

Molly and I: Molly is such a thoughtful and genuine woman. She is so relational and wears her heart on her sleeve! I love this girl!

Molly and I admiring all the wine! :)

Rock-a-bye Baby Shower

2009-05-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Argh, I forgot to blog about the baby shower I helped host last weekend! Last weekend several women and I had a couples baby shower for our dear friends Joseph and Melissa Moore from church. I had never thrown a shower before so it was a little shocking for me to help with a true-life Texas baby shower. I am learning every day how true the saying "Everything is bigger in Texas" is! Luckily, several of the other women involved knew how to throw a Texan style shower, so I was mostly just taking directions and doing what I was asked. Melissa is the worship leader and Joseph is the sound engineer at our church. They are both incredibly gifted and talented as musicians, so clearly this child will be a rockstar...hence the theme ROCK-a-bye baby! Everything was inspired by music and rock n roll!

Check out these pics!!

The cake was strawberry cake with buttercream filling on the bottom layer and Mexican chocolate and Vanilla Bean on the top layer. Looked totally amazing and tasted delicious! Believe it or not it was made by two of our hostesses! (I helped by making those tissue flowers at the base, haha)

These are the centerpieces we had on each table. Some of the others said "My mom rocks...me to sleep" and "Party at my crib, 2 am, BYOB".

The sweet couple and the baby boy in utero.

We catered from Tin Star and served everyone fajitas, beans, rice, chips and all the fixins. We played one game called "He will/She will" and then while the girls watched Melissa open gifts, the men played Rock Band. At the end of the night I was exhausted, but it was well worth it because we were able to honor and bless Mel, Joe and their baby. They felt so loved and were so thankful. Now I can't wait til the little guy arrives!!!

A trip to say goodbye

2009-05-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

"A Symbol of Acceptance"

Today I spent the day with my friend, Steve, and some of his buddies. I met Steve during my undergrad at University of Illinois when he hired me as a "personal assistant" or "PA" my junior year of college. Steve lived at a place on campus called Beckwith Hall, a fully accessible housing option created for students with significant physical disabilities. Beckwith hires people, like me, to provide assistance to the students living there with any of their daily living activities. Beckwith provides a place for people with disabilities to learn how to be independent. It's a great transition for students who had previously lived at home and not had experience with living independently. Beckwith helps these students gain experience with living independently by having them hire, train, and manage their own personal assistants. It also provides around the clock workers to help with meal times and any other random needs that the residents might have.

The majority of my time working there was spent with Steve. We became great friends and I learned a ton about Disability awareness, acceptance, advocacy...and much more. Through Steve, I also met his sister Annie, who also had SMA and lived at Beckwith. Annie and Stevie were a dynamic duo. They were both had such vibrant personalities, were full of life, and could always make me laugh. Both were really passionate about whatever they did and both had entrepreneurial spirits. One of the projects they started while we were in school was "Rock for Research". This project brought bands together for benefit concerts for disability related causes. They had just started this endeavor when I started hanging out with them and so I was able to take some part in promoting the concerts. The two of them spearheaded so many projects that promoted disability awareness and empowerment. Both of them are natural leaders and role models and I was blessed to have them in my life.

This past January, Annie passed away from a medical complication. The news was abrubt and extremely shocking. Although I hadn't seen Annie in a couple of years, I had followed her through blogs, facebook, and her 3Elove (see website below) project. She was a woman with a big heart and a mission to change the world. My life will forever be impacted by the way she lived.

After Annie's passing, her brother and some friends decided to take a month long roadtrip to remember Annie and embody some of the things she valued (having a free spirit, stepping out in boldness, trying new things, overcoming challenges, loving life, etc.) They are calling it "A Trip to Say Goodbye" (see website below).

One of their stops was Dallas, so I got to spend today with Steve and all the guys at the Arboretum. We had a picnic, toured the DeGolyer mansion, took pictures with the gardens, and sprinkled some of Annie's ashes (I think illegally, but who's gonna know...except for you).

It was a fun time seeing Steve, catching up with one another, and recounting old memories. I realized how quickly time passes and yet how naturally you can fall back into a friendship. Steve and I hadn't seen each other in almost 3 years, but after hanging out I felt like we hadn't missed a beat. Seeing him reminded me of my passion of disability awareness and spurred me on to get active in my community to educate people about disabilities and encouraging people to live life to the fullest.

Check out these websites:
3elove.com
atriptosaygoodbye.com
annehopkinsfoundation.org

Me and Steve at the Dallas Arboretum.

And now, what you've all been waiting for.....

2009-05-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Today I am happy to announce that I officially have a job secured! I signed my contract this morning, so I feel comfortable sharing my great news with everyone. I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers for me during this process. The job I'm taking is at Oak Hill Academy. It's a private, non-profit school for children who are at-risk or have been diagnosed with learning differences. I will be the core teacher and SLP for all the preschoolers. I really feel that I'm just walking into the plans that God has for me and I've really felt him closing and opening doors for me in the job searching process. I am so thankful for how He has blessed me with this job and for making it so clear to me that this is where I need to be!

Yesterday was a big day for me as well. I had my "graduation check-out" meeting with all the Communication Disorder graduates and my program director. She helped us go through all of our licensure forms to make sure we fill them out correctly and then signed off on all our forms and files to say that we are ready to be official Speech Language Pathologists! Very exciting and surreal! Afterwards, my group of girlfriends and I went out for lunch at the Twisted Root in Deep Ellum. It was so fun to hang out together and try a new place. These are the girls that I began this adventure with and the ones with which I'm ending. I LOVE these girls and will miss them as we part ways, however I'm hoping that we can all stay in touch and have reunions at the annual TSHA conventions!

Birthday Fun

2009-05-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post! ;) I keep waiting for something really interesting to happen, but then I remembered that my blog can just be about everyday life. And everyday life doesn't have to be blow-you-out-of-the water exciting to be interesting or special. In fact, good things happen everyday and it's good to find the golden nugget that each day brings.

Today is Ross's Birthday!!! He turned 24. :) We had a great weekend of celebrating in different ways. On Friday, we went out to Rowlett to spend the night at his parents' home. I attended a Women's conference at Stacy's church (Church in the City) and Ross hung out with his dad. The next day we had lunch at a little Italian Cafe called Palio's with all the family and then headed home.

At the last minute Ross and I decided to have a party to celebrate his birthday and me being done with school so we invited all of our small group and a few others over. We were so blessed that so many people were able to come since it was so last minute. We seriously have the best friends. They are all so thoughtful and genuine. We had about 13 people over to our apartment and we made Sangria which was a huge hit! It was our first time making it, but it was totally refreshing and delicious.

On Sunday, we had church and then saw the matinee of X-men Origins: Wolverine which we both enjoyed. Then we had dinner at Cowboy Chicken (one of our sweet spots) with Monty, Melanie, and Abram and then hung out at their place while working on centerpieces for Melissa and Joseph's baby shower.

We definitely had a fun filled birthday weekend with friends and family. As we dive into another week, I pray that I can cherish the nuggets of joy that God puts in our life each day and treasure our everyday life!

Spring has Sprung!

2009-04-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I decided to give my blog a make-over. As much as I loved the previous background, I felt it was a little formal and dark for my current vibe. I've chosen this colorful and spring look to match the season and my attitude.

The school year is wrapping up. I've finished all my major papers and projects. I'm getting forms signed off by my advisors and all signs are pointing to GO! I'm closing up shop on my grad school adventures, and I must say I'm a little nostalgic. The past 2 years have been a wonderful here at UT-D. I've had some really neat clinical experiences in a variety of settings. I've had some great teachers, professors, and advisors. I've met some amazing friends and I've learned a lot. Don't get me wrong...I'm totally ready for my first job. I just am very blessed by the experience that God led me into.

Coming to UT-D was a risk for me. I was not familiar with the program at all and I knew no one who had been there. (Remember, I'm from Illinois.) My University of Illinois was looking just fine to me, however I couldn't stay there because it just wasn't an option for Ross and I as we were getting married and finding the right job for him. The only thing that UT-D had going for itself in my mind was that Ross's sister lived in Dallas and she had good things to say about it. Of course, I was still a skeptic in my head because how could anything top the U of I program??? I was comfortable there...I knew what to expect...I knew my teachers...I was established there as being a good student and a good clinician. Now I had to leave that behind and start from scratch?? Well, I can say confidently that UT-D has exceeded all my expectations. It was different than I expected but in a good way. I won't say that I didn't experience stress...however I know that the stress I had here was SO minimal to what I would have had in Illinois. When I left U of I, I was able to start over. No more competition with myself and others. I was free to be myself and UTD really fit my personality. Let me explain...Speech Pathology majors are typically very Type A personality. Overachievers, highstrung, super organized, and on top of everything. Now I have some characteristics of Type A in that I like my work to be complete and done well....however I am meant to be laid back. UTD has a large enough program that I just felt like I could be myself and not conform to what every other girl was doing. I have even found several girls here who are like myself which has been so great! In conclusion, I could not have imagined a better grad school experience and I am so thankful that God brought Ross and I here. He really works in mysterious ways and I could go on and on about all that He's orchestrated in our lives by bringing us here, but that's for another blog and another day.

Jo's Baby Bump

2009-04-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Jo didn't like her baby bump to be touched.

She tried to resist.

But finally she gave in and let me. :)

Pictures from my STL weekend.

2009-04-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Dana and I about to finish the 5K

Excited to have medals!

A great side shot of Jo opening the gift from me.

All the loose ends

2009-04-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

As the phrase goes, I'm in the process of tying up all the loose ends when it comes to graduating. Next week is my official last class of school EVER. How crazy is that?? I have 2 final loose ends to tie up and one of which I am currently working on (can't you tell?). I have a 15-25 page paper to write that is due Wednesday and a "take-home" final that will be distributed on Wednesday and then I'm officially DONE! So far I've written 1 page on my paper and I keep getting distracted on it mostly because I keep thinking about an unofficial job offer. I can't help but get excited when I think that I might really have my dream job. :) Like I said though, it's all unofficial so I need to stay somewhat grounded for a couple more weeks. In due time, I will be able to share all about it with you.

In other news, I'm excited for this weekend. Ross and I are actually staying in town for a change!! No flying for this girl. I am staying in Dallas. :) I am hanging out with all my grad schools girls on Saturday night for a wine and cheese party (my favorite!) and then Sunday night is a special Family Night at our church that Ross and I are both helping out with. So, it looks like we have a fun weekend in store for us and I wish the same for all of you! By the way, ya'll are invited to our church Sunday night for Seeds Family Worship @ 6. Here's the link to a youtube video of last year's service: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_DnETPLobo

A movie and a message

2009-04-23T06:13:00.001-07:00

WARNING: reading this blog may ruin the ending of a movie if you have not seen it!!!

That being said....Ross and I really like to rent movies. This week we rented 2 movies and I got to pick BOTH of them out. :) I chose 7 Pounds with Will Smith and Marley and Me with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. Today I'll give you a simple review of 7 Pounds, but like I said I'm not going to censor the ending or anything so if you plan on seeing the movie then wait to read my post.

The beginning of the movie is a little confusing. After a few scenes, I caught on that it was shooting 2 different time frames, because Will was happy and carefree in some of the scenes and then totally depressed and haunted in the others. But even when I figured that out, it still took me awhile to figure out what on earth was going on! I liked the fact that it wasn't predictable from the start though and it made me think. This movie was pretty entertaining, however the ending was haunting and I don't agree with the message it sent.

WARNING: movie spoiler ahead.

So, we find out by the end, that Will Smith's wife and 6 others had died in a car accident that he had caused. He feels guilty and in order to redeem himself he wants to tremendously bless 7 other individuals who are "good people" and need a miracle. The first message I believe this sends is that an individual can "play God". Will Smith first judges these people by watching them and getting to know them to see if they "deserve" a miracle. I realize that with the gifts he was giving he wanted to make sure he chose just the right people, however I'm glad that when God decided to send Jesus to die for my sins he didn't put a footnote in the contract that said "*only for those who have deserved it". No way! God knows that on our own NONE of us deserve the gift of grace because NONE of us can measure up to his standards. HOWEVER, when Jesus died on the cross, HE took ALL of our screw ups onto Himself! Grace is a gift that God freely gives to us and it's not something that we could EVER deserve by being a "good person".

The second part of the movie that I disliked is that it ended with Will Smith's freakish suicide and plan to donate his organs to specific people who need them. This to me is another example of "playing God". In my opinion, suicide is taking your own life into your hands and saying that it's your own life to take. Well, no, God gave us life and it's not our own just to throw away when we feel like it! I feel like the message given in this movie is that if your life is worthless to you then just kill yourself so someone else can benefit from it. I really hope people don't see this movie and say "Oh wow, what a selfless thing to do!" I really think quite the opposite of that. I think it's totally selfish of him. He is saying that he has the power to take life and to give life and it really just draws all the attention to him-so not so selfless in my opinion.

Lastly, I felt like Will Smith was trying to earn his forgiveness for the deaths of 7 people by doing "good deeds" which I already mentioned earlier why I don't believe that's possible.

In conclusion, people, we cannot earn forgiveness by being a "good person". Good deeds don't cover up all the ways that we fall short of His glory. We cannot attain righteousness without HIM. But, it's all good, because that's why Jesus died for all of our sins! We were guilty of the crime, but He stood in our place and took the punishment for us! He paid the debt for us that we could never repay on our own at no cost to us. When we give Him Lordship over our lives, we are saying that we are dead to ourselves and give Him the throne to reign. We are no longer the "King" of our lives, but He is! Thank you Jesus for saving me and for pardoning my sins. Thank you for your redeeming love that just keeps on giving! And thank you for guiding me each day, forgiving me of my screw ups, and helping me to get back on the right path time and time again.

Please give me some feedback and let me know what you thought about the movie. :)

Running with endurance...

2009-04-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend I participated in the Go! St. Louis 5K run with my sister. It was far from my best performance, however it was so fun to run with Dana. It was our first race that we've done together. I was very proud of us for running the whole thing since neither of us had been training for it. It took a lot of positive speaking and encouraging each other, but we made it through without walking. We were supposed to be running with our cousin Kate, but the poor girl came down with strep throat among other things and could barely hold her head up let alone run! She had been the one who had been training hard for the race, so I'm hoping she can find a race in the next few weeks so she can reap the accomplishment for what she has been sowing the past few months! You can do it, Kate!!!

Sorry no pictures for this post! I'm too tired to upload anything tonight, but hopefully I'll get some up soon from the race and from my friend, Joanna's baby shower. Peace out for tonight, ya'll!

It is finished!

2009-04-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

I'd like to officially announce that as of Tuesday, April 14th, 2009, I have passed my national examination to be certified in Speech-Language Pathology! No more testing for me!!! Praise the Lord for giving me the endurance to get through those grueling months of studying before the exam and the grace for the areas I didn't have enough time to study!! I am so relieved to have these results because after taking the exam I felt totally defeated. It was definitely the most challenging exam I've ever taken. The hardest part though was waiting a month to get the results. So, I just want to encourage all of you girls who are taking the exam next weekend. It's going to be hard, but you know more than you think! The questions are tricky but go with your gut instinct. I would also advise you not to get too hung up on any particular problem because the test took me the entire allotted time. It's important to keep chugging along and make sure you have filled in every bubble before the proctor says "pencils down". Lastly, most likely you will feel like you did horrible after the exam (like I said, it's hard and you will see questions and ask yourself, "Am I in the right testing room because this doesn't look like anything I've seen before??!!"), however try to relax and not fret about the results. Most likely, you'll find that you did better than you thought and remember you just have to pass it, no need for flying colors!! Good Luck to anyone who is testing next weekend and remember to get plenty of sleep the night before and rest your mind the evening before (it's not gonna help to cram last minute!!).

Also, I would like to announce that I made a successful dinner for 4 last night! As most of you know, I am a little challenged when it comes to the kitchen. I wasn't raised like many of my girlfriends to cook so it doesn't come naturally for me. My sweet mommy spoiled me just enough that I didn't have to help cook which turned out to be a blessing and a curse. Anyway, I got motivated by some of my girlfriends who are little Martha Stewarts (Molly and Kelsey particularly) to try to cook a meal instead of getting it catered once again. Molly gave me a recipe for "Poppyseed Chicken Casserole" and walked me through each step in preparing it. I will admit I almost gave up about halfway into the process. Seriously, I was yelling at Ross to get on the phone and order a pizza, but he just encouraged me to keep working at it. Alas, it turned out and was actually delicious! You can ask the Ayers' if you don't believe me. They even took seconds! I was delighted! I forgot to take a picture, but I served the casserole, a cranberry spring mix salad, and crescent rolls. I might even try it again sometime, but not for awhile. Cooking is exhausting!!! :)

I am so excited for this weekend! I'm flying to St. Louis again and this time I get to see my sisky-wisky, my cousin Kate, and our moms. Kate, Dana, and I are running in the Go! St. Louis 5K on Saturday! I will update you on that after the weekend!!

Every morning is Easter morning!

2009-04-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ross and I had a very non-traditional Easter this year, however it was absolutely wonderful. The thing is, we realize that Easter isn't about just one day to remember Christ's resurrection. It's about celebrating Jesus every single day of our lives.

We started off the weekend with "Good Friday". Ross had the day off from work and so we invited his family down to our neck of the woods for a picnic. It was a beautiful day and we were able to sit out by our lake and have wine and cheese, strawberries, and Cadbury Eggs-a Barry family favorite.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early (5am) and flew to St. Louis for a Cardinals game with our dear friends Molly and Andy. The Parkers are an amazing couple that we've become friends with here in Dallas. I met Molly through grad school in my first semester and we've been buds since. Ross and I really click so well with Molly and Andy and God has really blessed us by putting them in our lives. So, we flew to St. Louis and showed the Parker's some of the highlights of the city (the Arch and Delmar Blvd) before heading to the game. The day was beautiful and the Cards dominated the game 11-2. We were even able to see a Pujol's grand slam! It was awesome! After the game we ate dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory and had a drink at Morgan St. Brewery and Pub. We were exhausted from being up so early and ended the night pretty early around 10pm. The next day we woke up at 6am and flew back to Dallas. Since we weren't back in time for church, Ross and I caught the tail end of the service online as Pastor Joe was really bringing the message home and then we napped. After that, we headed back out to Andy and Molly's for an Easter dinner as Molly had offered to cook us a Pot Roast! Isn't she amazing!! So we spent the evening fellowshipping over food and having an "Office" marathon! How fun!

Molly and I at the Cards game (notice her Astro's shirt-boo!)

Molly prepared pot roast, carrots, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and sopapilla cheesecake! This girl rocks!

Can you describe yourself in 3 words?

2009-04-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big event for me. I had my first job interview ever! In my opinion, I think I did pretty well and they (4 interviewers at once) seemed to like me. I was nervous beforehand, but surprisingly once I started talking I felt pretty relaxed and just tried to focus on "selling myself". I felt a little weird talking about myself for 45 minutes, but hopefully they got a good feel for who I am. I was able to go on a mini-tour of the school and it was really cute. It wasn't as large as the school where I completed my internship which I thought was a nice feature. All of the ladies who interviewed me (principal, lead SLP, counselor, and SpEd director) were friendly and seemed like they would be nice to work with. I will find out their decision early next week.

As a Speech Pathologist, I have several possible work settings to choose from: schools, hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers, home health, private clinics, and more. We also can work with people across the lifespan (birth to death). My particular area of interest right now is in Pre-K aged children which is one reason I'm leaning towards a school setting. Public Schools offer a program called "PPCD" or "preschool program for children with disabilities" and that's currently one of the settings in which I'd like to work. In this type of setting the SLP collaborates with the General and Special Education teacher to teach the class. It's kind of a co-teaching experience. Some of the time I would teach the class and other times the teacher would teach the class. In this set-up I am able to target goals in a group setting as well as individually during "center time". I love that the SLP in this position is able to be fully integrated in the classroom setting because this provides optimal generalization for the child since they are learning in their natural/classroom environment as opposed to pulling them out of the classroom.

Ross and I have an exciting weekend ahead of us. Having a little picnic with his family today, church tonight, and going to the Cards game with the Parker's tomorrow. I wish you all a wonderful Easter Weekend! He is Risen...let's celebrate!!

Girls Gone Wild

2009-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had a fun weekend getaway with some girls from grad school We went down to Austin for a TSHA convention (Texas Speech and Hearing Association). I drove down with my dear friend, Molly, and we stayed at our friend, Kristen's parents' house. They were very generous and hospitable!
Even though I ended up losing my voice on the first day of the convention, we still had a fun time. My first semester of grad school, I was in a practicum called Early CLASS. In this practicum were 8 graduate student-clinicians. We met from 8:45 until about noon 5 days a week for this intense and challenging experience. During this time we all became very close and these girls ended up being my closest friends throughout grad school. After that practicum, we all kind of went our separate ways and pursued our own specific areas of interest, but it's always fun when we're able to reunite. This weekend was special because a few of us were able to spend some time together outside of school. We've all been pretty stressed from school, testing, and job hunting and it felt really good just to get away from Dallas for a couple of nights.
Contrary to the name of this post, we weren't really wild. By the time evening rolled around each night, we were completely exhausted from being up at 6 am, listening to speakers all day, and talking to all the exhibitors. However, we still had a good time going out to dinner and just being together.
Now, I know my family is probably interested if I got a job or not. The answer is no, however I handed out my resume to a few places and talked (as best I could with a vocal pathology) to a couple of school districts. I still need to do some researching and networking in the job search. But do not fear....the market for my field is amazing! The outlook for jobs in Speech Language Pathology is expected to increase by 11% nationwide and 30% in Texas until 2016. So, I'm feeling pretty confident about finding a job, it's just a matter of finding the place thats a good fit for me. :)

Me, Kristen, Karin, Morgan, and Molly enjoying some Mexican Martini's. Kristen's parents were so generous to buy us all dinner.

Eating dinner at the Iron Cactus-we were so exhausted from the long day and my vocal folds were so mad at me for abusing them by trying to talk all day over all the loud noise! ;)

Tested and Approved!

2009-03-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

Great news, folks! I received word today that I passed my Speech Pathology Comprehensive Exam! I have been tested and approved and it feels good! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me and a special thanks to Ross for being SOOO supportive and understanding in this crazy time. He had to put up with a lot in the past couple of months. For example: coming home to a house strewn with books, binders, looseleaf paper, highlighters, pens, etc, all because I can't sit in one place and so I had about 5 different study areas in our 800 square foot apartment and refused to clean up any of the areas for fear I would lose my place. I was a little bit crazy at times, but we all got through it, praise the Lord!!

So much to do!

2009-03-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

Ani doing pushups with her Uncle Rossy.Sweet Anika on our trip to Colorado.

Silly Anika in October 2005-about 7 months old.

Today I've been working tirelessly on this big presentation I have to give next Wednesday in my "Seminar in Autism" class. My presentation is on "The Social Use of Language in High-Functioning ASD and Asperger Syndrome". It's coming along better than I thought, but still taking me a long time. I'm aiming to make it about an hour long and I really hope it doesn't end up longer than that! I am pretty sure my voice will be cracking and my whole body will be shaking the whole time, so the shorter the better! It's wierd but even if I tell myself there's no reason to be nervous, I just get all funny when talking in front of a class. At least I'm good at laughing at myself. That always lightens the mood a bit.

This weekend we'll be celebrating my amazing niece's 4th birthday. It doesn't seem possible that she's already 4! I remember when I found out Stacy was pregnant and trying to teach Anika to walk when she visited Illinois just like it was yesterday! Ross and I are driving out to Rowlett tonight and spending the night at his parents' house. I'm looking forward to relaxing with my hubby and playing with my Ani-girl. I hope it doesn't keep raining tonight because the guys are going to be putting up a swingset to surprise Anika. Hopefully it all goes well and she can play on it tomorrow.

In addition to finishing my presentation and celebrating Ani's birth, I also need to perfect my resume and make a cover letter. That's right...I need to apply to some jobs! Next weekend is "TxSHA" or the Texas Speech and Hearing Association annual convention in Austin. There will be tons of booths of employers and I'm hoping to hand out my resume to a few of them since I really haven't done any looking for jobs yet. It's so hard in a big city like Dallas to know what all is out there. I'm hoping that the convention gives me some ideas of places I'd like to work. I had intentions of brushing up on my interview skills before going, but since I've kind of run out of time, it looks like I'll be winging that too (if a interview even comes up, that is). So, please keep me in your prayers for next weekend and I'll let you know what comes of it! :)

welcome

2009-03-25T19:06:00.001-07:00

Hello and welcome. This is the Barry family blog.

I've been wanting to create a blog for some time now, however, due to the stresses of grad school I had to put that dream on hold.

As many of you know, I recently took 2 major tests, Comps and Praxis. The comprehensive exam or "comps" are what I have to pass in order to graduate from UTD with my master's in Communication Disorders. It consists of 4 essay questions covering 4 areas: Child Speech, Child Language, Adult Speech, and Adult Language. The other exam is called the "Praxis". It is a test that measures my specific knowledge about Speech and Hearing Science. It is part of my certification process in becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist. Now, although I don't know my results yet, these tests are finished and I can move on to more important things such as creating this blog!

Tonight, I will keep it short as I need to fold laundry and do some dishes, but I look forward to blogging and keeping in touch with all of you!

Eventually I hope this blog can be cute, entertaining, and informative....thus far it's pretty blah, so any tips are appreciated!

Mama Drama

Links to other Milk Mama Diaries...

Patience and Breast-friends.

First Time Mama Drama

Who would have thought I could be a "lactivist"?

Dear Julian...

Food, Glorious Food.

Breast Success.

EP-ing: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Cry It Out...no more.

Friday Favorites

The Accidental Parent

Every good and perfect gift is from above!

Dear Julian...

Baby Bounce Basics: some babies bounce, my baby sleeps

Sing a song of.....how's that go again???

Dear Julian...

Our Birth Story

The 40-week update

Faith like a Child

The power of the spoken word

Summer Lovin'

A is for Alvin.

Welcome to my Pre-Primary classroom!

Kids say the Darndest Things

1. I gotta get someone to fix my cough! I gotta get an archaeologist!

2. Me: ___ was a hard worker today! Child: Yeah, and ____ was a soft worker!

Giveaway!!

Run for a Purpose

More baby shower!

Baby Baby!

3E Love

Sooo sore from Squats!

Spring has Sprung!!

Awesome and Not

Thoughts from a slow girl... :(

Fun February

Prayer in School

The big things in life.

Pondering races for the new year.

And breathe...

A sigh of relief

Ah Ah Ah Ah Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive.

Lowkey weekend...just what I like.

It rained and then it poured.

Finally!

Teacher's are special.

Kind of like having your first child...

Ready for Week 2

blog slacking.

We all float on okay.

Dragging my feet.

Sisters. Sisters.

Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Come on feel the Illi-NOISE.

Fried Brains.

Divine Design

God is with us...FEAR NOT!

And they call the thing Rodeo!

Soakin' up the sun.

The city that doesn't sleep.

Let's get it started!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it!

Summertime...and the livin' is easy!

See how the flowers of the field grow...

School's out for summer...School's out FOREVER!

On the top of the world

Rock-a-bye Baby Shower

A trip to say goodbye

And now, what you've all been waiting for.....

Birthday Fun

Spring has Sprung!

Jo's Baby Bump

Pictures from my STL weekend.

All the loose ends

A movie and a message

Running with endurance...

It is finished!

Every morning is Easter morning!

Can you describe yourself in 3 words?

2. Me: _ was a hard worker today! Child: Yeah, and __ was a soft worker!