{gettin crafty}

it's been a crafty sort of wednesday!  the rain and cold is gross (i would know... ian and i went running in it this morning... (i'll pause here so you can let our dedication sink in... ok... it wasn't the furthest of runs, so pause can be over...)) SO i got crafty (more on this later)! 

FIRST, myself and some others are going to be doing relay for life in honor of our friend, ryan.  we want to raise as much money as possible for the american cancer society to find a cure to cancer.  so first off, if you want to just support our team, here's our site! relay for life- eku communication disorders  

SECOND, back to the getting crafty... i've decided to raise money by selling hair accessories!  these are all the ones i've made so far... if you want one, they're $5 each and since most of the people that read this are in richmond or lexington, i can meet you somewhere if you want one.  if you're further away and want it shipped, i'll have to add some $ on for shipping (it's for charity ppl!)  

so if you want one, leave a comment with a description and i'll save it for you :)  otherwise, it'll be up for grabs at either the walk or at some later point when i get a good idea on how to sell them :)

thanks friends!

p.s. the quarter is just for a broad idea of how big it is... none are huge, but if you want a big one, i can make you one!
-all clips are either alligator clips (most) or bobby pins (just this one and the twisted fabric one from the same fabric)

{craaaazy}

so, raise your hand if you're a blog slacker... oh... that's me.

well, life's crazy, sometimes things get pushed to the back burner, and the past few days, that's been the blog.

let's talk about this weekend, shall we?

i'll begin with friday.  if you're not a uk fan, you can't read this blog (jokes, but if you're not, time to start considering it...) friday was the fight for the elite 8 against the dreaded osu.  being from columbus, i was raised in buckeye country, but i am not, i repeat, i am NOT a buckeye.  my parents went to ou, so i was raised a bobcat.  osu came into this tournament ranked #1 and picked by many to win the tournament.

funny how the rankings have worked out this march madness!

i love my boys and they did an amazing job.  the game was so exciting, and the cats pulled it out!  i've never been more nervous watching uk basketball

love me some jorts... way to take down sullinger

saturday was ian's birthday!  he's 25... a quarter of a century old :)  i woke up early to bake a pecan pie... my first attempt at one.  i was pretty happy how it turned out!

artsy close-up shot...

i think it turned out ok!

 the day was spent walking around joseph beth's and watching march madness... not a bad way to spend a day!  we finished the night with some super awesome midnight bowling!  i'm terrible, but ian proved he can be good at everything... the boy bowled 5 strikes in a row... birthday luck ;)

please ignore my score... he broke 200!

me and the birthday boy!

sunday was a great church service at southland all about the woman who used her expensive perfume on jesus before his death.  it was a really interesting perspective about worshipping lavishly and the beauty of jesus' love for people... then off to nicholasville for a birthday lunch with ian's family.  the food was amazing and it was so fun to hang out and watch kansas get taken down by little ol VCU!  craaaazy!

THEN off to pazzo's to watch the UK vs UNC game with friends.  heeeeeeecky yes!  guess who's going to the final 4!  first time since '98, and my first time to witness anything like this since being a uk fan.  campus was NUTS.  people EVERYWHERE!  we hung out around euclid and woodland for a while... it was great.  couches burnt, people went nuts, horns everywhere, cheering endlessly... i love being a wildcat!

talk about a great weekend... one of the best ones i've had in a long, long time :)

{the art of procrastination}

while the title may seem to focus on procrastination.... nayyyy i tell you!  it's about ART!

ok, maybe a little bit about procrastination.

sooo while on facebook one day (procrastination #1), i noticed a friend posted a video about water marbling for your nails.  i thought, hmmm, that's interesting!  later, she posted a picture of her super cool nails!  i showed a few girls in the workroom, and it was decided, we should do this (procrastination #2).

tuesday was the day.  with a large break and feeling all fanciful because of the spring air, the lovely ms. andrea and i brought about 10 bottles of nail polish, set ourselves up in the workroom, and got busy.

my fellow procrastinator


it took us a few tries, lots of tape and nail polish remover, and a few good laughs about how horrible our fingers looked at first.... BUT:

kinda cool, right!?!?!?  we decided this is not the last of our marbling... more colors, more combinations, it's fine- we're super cool.

add to that that yesterday was BEAUTIFUL outside.  warm, sunny, slight breeze... i was in love.  if it could stay like that every day, i would be in heaven!  

add more to that that i got out of class and had a homemade, delicious dinner made for me by the boy!  steak, veggies and rice.  soooo good.  and the cherry on top was a walk around lexington because summer nights are the most amazing thing ever.

today i went to observe a modified barium swallow study and daaaaang it was cool!  i was impressed with how much i've learned in class and could actually apply to what i was watching!  i had to wait... oh... 2 hours? to observe it, but i guess that's life in a hospital!

it's been a great few days :)

{if you don't laugh, you'll cry}

how true is that with my car... i love my car dearly... i blog about my car frequently.  i consider all of this like a rental house... it's where you learn how to do things in hopes that when you have a real house of your own, you're more self-sufficient.  i keep trying to convince myself of this with brownie.  surely, the next car will NOT have these problems.

the most recent?

water.  in the trunk.  everywhere.

i've been smelling some water, but just figured it was because i left a window cracked during the storm the other day.  and when i mean cracked, i mean a slight, slight crack, so i was confused why it still smelled like water.

imagine this, but worse (in the heat of the moment, the last thing i wanted to do was grab my camera and take a picture... )  it was wet, dirty, muddy... disgusting basically

the boyfriend came to the rescue with some caulk, so hopefully brownie is fixed, and if not, more investigative work is to follow...

on a happier note, i finally saw the king's speech!

i loved it!  it was such a good depiction of the kind of speech therapist i want to be... especially since it was fluency!  i've loved working with my fluency client and being able to see the change in him, and made me so excited for the future (or at least one of the potential futures!).  i would love to become a fluency specialist and help people realize that they are more than their stutter.  if you haven't seen it, i HIGHLY recommend it.  it will definitely be one of the movies i buy when it comes out on dvd.

{keepin busy}

uk's spring break is always an interesting week for me...

because i live in lex, the city kinda dies when everyone leaves.  i've found ways to keep myself busy... i've had a project to finish and school keeps me pretty busy, but i've had to be creative this weekend especially.

one way is hanging out with my 2 favorite kids.  they're hilarious and adorable and sweet, and they just melt my heart

sweetest, happiest boy EVER

my munchkin... note the hair in a ponytail... that thing was bribed into existence by a back rub.  isn't she cute!?

kids are my favorite, and these 2... goodness.  saturday we had a dance party, played with princesses and trains, watched some basketball and laughed a TON.  i love their innocence and joy of simple things... it's contagious and just makes my soul happy!

add to the happiness... UK's going to the sweet 16 (thanks ashley!  i got super excited there for a minute and forgot my numbers ;))!  i cannot WAIT to play osu, and i sincerely hope we kill them.  i may be from columbus, but i'm not a buckeye.  the cats played hard and beat west virginia who knocked us out of the tournament last year.  winning is always good (unless you're charlie sheen, and then #winning is actually losing...)

finally, the boy is coming home tonight!  i'm excited to hang out and hear all about spring break :)

p.s.  i'm making and selling hair accessories and coffee cozies to raise money for the american cancer society's relay for life... if anyone has a connection to a craft store or has fabric, buttons, beads, ribbon, etc lying around, mind letting me know? thanks!

enjoy this beautiful weather and the rest of your weekend :)

{st patrick's day}

happy st. patrick's day, all!


hope you wore your green so you didn't get pinched!


in honor of the day (and b/c i had time to be crafty yesterday) i made a fun little hair thing... sadly,  i don't know how often i can get away with wearing a clover in my hair...

today was a super good day... #1. therapy finally went well!  it's been a rough few weeks... i needed a good session.
#2. the weather was PERFECT!  it could stay like this every day and i'd be ok with it.  cool enough i don't sweat my bum off, but warm enough i can wear a t shirt and shorts!  sunny with a few clouds and a light breeze.  heaven.
#3.  MARCH MADNESS!  maybe my favorite part of the year.  it's awesome
morehead took down louisville poor louisville and UK squeaked by with a win over princeton.  not pretty, but a win is a win!
#4. fayette county is off school tomorrow, which means i get to sleep in!!!!  i don't have to set an alarm or wake up at 6... how awesome is that!?


now off to watch more lovely basketball... here's to hoping my bracket holds up!

{small things}

how often do i miss the small things in life?

wednesdays are my free days... i go to work and then i'm done for the day.  i came home today, went for a run (first run in a while...), made some breakfast
*side note*  breakfast= amazing

peppermint mocha coffee, amish friendship bread, strawberries and scrambled eggs w/cilantro and hot sauce!

and then sat down to do some reading.

¹ Praise the LORD, my soul;
   all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, my soul,
   and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
   and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
   and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things 
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.


psalm 103:1-5


those verses made me think.  how often am i thankful for small gifts?

how often am i thankful for the sunrise i see on my way to work?  or am i dwelling on the fact it's far too early for me to be out of bed.  am i even thankful i have that job?  how often do i focus on the fact running is hard and time consuming, and not the fact that not only do i have my health, but i'm healthy enough to just go run a mile and a half after sitting on my butt all winter?  how often do i complain about my car?  i have a car... that's more than a lot of people can say.  i wake up in a warm, comfortable bed with a roof over my head.  i have great roommates who i love.  i GET to go to school and have an opportunity to get a good degree and have a job that i genuinely like.

it's easy to be thankful for bigger things- a good meal, sweet precious children (i got to see my munchkins today... it's easy to be thankful when you have 2 kids beating on a door yelling 'aunt kellie, aunt kellie!" when they see you...), a kind word or hug when you need one, a good paycheck, time with someone you deeply care for...

i need to be better about being thankful for the 'little' things that really aren't little at all.  the fact that i'm sitting here, breathing, with the ability to type on a computer is not a little thing to be thankful for at all!

{back to the grind}

oh break... lovely break... how i miss thee!

it's true.  breaks come to an end.  this one was fabulous :)

this week, ian's gone on break off to nashville to do clean-up from the flooding.  tonight would usually be one of our nights to hang out, BUT he's gone, so i had to find some ways to entertain myself.

here's how:

ever heard of amish friendship bread?  basically, it's bread that you get as a starter from a friend, mix it over 10 days, then split the batter, giving some to friends (hence the 'friendship bread') and then add some other ingredients and make bread!

starter... 10 days to go!

then you add some other ingredients...

side note... it smells.  it's been fermenting for the past 10 days, and i won't lie, it smells like i've had a brewery in my house

in the pan, ready to go!

all finished!!!  and it's actually pretty good- not too sweet, which i like

on a completely different note, none of my clients came today.  not so well-known story... when i first started doing therapy, i had approximately 4 clients and 5 sessions.  considering all of that came in just one semester, i may have gotten the record at eku for most clients in a semester.  i'm afraid i'm continuing that streak.  we'll see... 

glad tomorrow's wednesday!  work, then no school, i get to see my munchkins, and have a nice, relaxing day :)

*i have 3 bags of the bread starter, so if you want one, let me know!

{bleeding blue}

in kentucky, uk basketball runs deep through veins.

we bleed blue.

people have followed uk basketball from the time they could understand what basketball is (and some didn't even have a choice from the time they were born...)

i am not a kentucky native, BUT i have always been a wildcat, and i do truly bleed blue.

the wildcats are my team and college basketball makes my heart beat a little faster.  i love march madness.  it's college basketball at it's finest.  it's when teams  really learn what competition is and the anxiousness of being finished is in the air.

march madness also makes me want to fulfill my desire to become a coach.  do i know a ton about basketball?  of course not.  i am far too short to ever be any good at basketball, and sports with my feet have always been my forte.  i can't play baseball, tennis, basketball, volleyball.  still... i love basketball.  i love the strength and beauty of a jumpshot and the accuracy of a good 3.  i hate bad defense and missed rebounds and bad passes.

this leads me to a desire to coach.  kentucky over the past few years has been notorious for the "middle school player" as i so lovingly refer to them as.  demarcus cousins... terrance jones... great players, but middle schoolers.  have you seen their faces?  have you seen some of the plays they pull?  i want to make them sit in a chair, look up at me, and have a little chat about the choices they've made and how they're going to fix them (and eye rolling and huffy faces have no effect on me).  i love working with my middle schoolers, and it's only given me credibility and talent to actually coach these boys.

dear coach cal.  give me the chance to work with your next middle school player!  you know you'll get one... some young man who needs a little growing up.  they can be my personal project!  (if anyone knows cal, feel free to pass this along.. i'm sure he's looking for another assistant coach!)


let's go cats!


*edit* following this post, uk beat florida and won their 27th sec title :)  loved it... they played like a team and not a young team.  their training is finally paying off!  keep it up, boys... keep it up!

{it's not even noon}

today is crazy.

it's not even noon.

SO!  tuesday i kind of noticed brownie had a little creak to her.  she's old.  it was raining.  it was cold.  i equated it to arthritis.  this morning, same deal... until i left work... it sounded as if my car wanted to break in half.

i cried, called my mechanic, and made the dreadful trip to nicholasville.  add to this that just what... 3 weeks ago?  my car got a new axel, wheel joints, and wheel bearings, i was slightly aggravated.  and frustrated.  and tearful.   essentially, i was a mess, and i think i scared the sweet older man who took a look at my car.  45 minutes later, after many prayers and a few more teary text messages to very sweet people, i heard the door open.  the mechanic said "i put some grease on that joint, you're good to go".  i honestly made him repeat it.  i didn't believe it.  brownie doesn't have simple, free fixes.   we go for the big guns and do things like, oh, have our transmission go out?  have a distributor go out?  have an axel need replaced.

i could have kissed my car.

they had me drive around the property surrounding the mechanic for about 10 minutes to make sure it fixed, it did, and i headed home.

i pull up... there's a letter taped to my door.  that's strange.  naturally, i open it, and oh, it's a letter from an attorney about our house.  apparently some stuff's hit the fan with the bank, so now my rent checks DON'T go to my landlord, but to the bank.  this could get exciting.  just what i need- more excitement in my life!


on the upper hand of all of this, HELLO ADULTHOOD!  today i feel super adult and i'm not sure if that's good or bad, but i'm learning to handle so many wonderful situations!

and i'm doing it all before noon.

be impressed (and can i tell this story to future employers to show how responsible and proactive i am?  someone tell me yes...)

{fun mail}

i love getting fun mail!  mail is a lost art... my mama likes to send cards and fun things like that which is super awesome to get :)

compassion international is also super awesome about sending me fun mail!  in the past few weeks they've sent me the coolest calendar, a travel mug, a book, and today, a scrapbook for my compassion child, but more importantly, they send me these little letters written by a sweet 7 year old in uganda!

a few weeks ago, i worked an event in wilmore, and it turned out that 3 of the people who actually work for compassion (compassion is like 80-90% run by volunteers) came.  it was really fun to get the opportunity to talk to them about the logistics of compassion and just talk about a really great organization. one of the women noticed my book i have with letters and pictures my compassion child, esther, has sent me over the years and told me she'd send me a scrapbook that compassion designed for such things!

i know i've blogged about compassion before, but i'm just in awe of them as an organization.  what they do for kids around the world is amazing... just recently, one of the compassion graduates was elected to the senate of uganda!  how cool is that?  check it out here.  it's so crazy to think that all the way over in uganda, i get to help a little girl go to school and become whatever she wants to be, and without her even knowing, she's giving me a glimpse of how God sees us... as His kids who he wants to see grow up and be examples of Him for the world to see.  i know my esther is going to do amazing things in uganda :)

if you want more info on compassion, message me or go here :)  for real... consider it... these kids will change your life...

http://www.compassion.com/

{continued joys of breaks!}

ahhhh  i'm still relishing in the fact i'm on break.

yesterday was great.  i went to work, then went to ian's.  he took the day off, and we got to hang out (which is awesome since he's leaving for csf's spring break trip to nashville on sunday!)  we went to the arboretum and walked around, made pad thai, which aside from my poor choice in chicken (i accidentally got dark meat... gross...) was SUPER good, and finished our night by going to southland's night of worship.  laid back and wonderful... my kind of day!

today was just as good... i went to work and am on day 3 of our risk game

yeah, i'm green... controlling 3 capitals. it's fine ;)

i got to take a nap, which i LOVE.  naps are the best.  i don't know why i didn't think so as much when i was a little kid... i'd gladly trade 3 year olds for their naps now!  i sat in my favorite chair and read with a good cup of coffee, then went to the craft store to use a gift card i've had for a while now and made these! 

hmmm purple, my favorite color?  how'd you guess...

Finally, my new pair of glasses came today!  i got them from costalcontacts.com and they were FREE!  yes.. free... i paid for shipping.  they're just slightly off my prescription (i don't think i measured my pupils right... darn pupils), but for free, they're kinda fun :)  not an every-day kind of pair, and i still like my other glasses better, but FREE!  i love free...

 2 more days of break... we'll see what other things i can find to entertain myself!

{eww}

for the past few days, our shower hasn't been draining right.

it's done this before... but super bad.  like bad to the point draino didn't even make a slight improvement.  so bad i went and bought a snake and learned how to snake a drain.

there are some jobs about living in a house i just find repulsing.

hair in the drain is one.  it's so nasty.  i know it's mine, but still... so gross!

another?  rodents.  i can do bugs, i can do snakes, i can do many-a-nasty creature, but the sight of a little bald tail and the sound of that scratching makes my skin crawl.  i can set the trap to get the little bugger (yes, i'm a hippie and i'm a big proponent of killing mice), but if i catch anything, i would pay a hefty price for someone to come remove it.  i'm not kidding when i say it's one of the first things i asked ian after we started dating... we had a mouse in our garage (we never caught him... he took off) and i'm pretty sure it would have been a deal breaker if he would have said 'nope... i won't get the dead thing'.

dear hair.  please please please stay out of the drain.  you are beyond gross (also, if anyone has any ideas of how to keep it out, it's one of the drains that lifts and turns...)

{breaks}

one of the greatest things about still being a college student is breaks.

i get spring break, i get fall break, i get winter break... it's great.  i'm aware that in the real-world, there is no such thing as spring break anymore.

it's such a great time to relax and NOT think about school.

this weekend has been great for that- i know i get weekends even in the school year, but so often, they're consumed with studying or doing homework, that it's nice to just be able to relax and enjoy life without the stress of trying to be a good student.

friday night was a uk gymastics meet.

i convinced ian to come with me, and brian brought my little clairebear :)  she loved it... it's hilarious, she's so girly.  she loves to twirl, she loves dolls (her favorite is a john wesley doll... i'm not kidding at all... it exists ) and she absolutely loved the vault.  she kept asking brian to make them do it again.

not the greatest picture... we were in action ;)

saturday was a full day with the boy- he came over and we made brunch... waffles, bacon, eggs... the works!  and it was beyond delicious.  then we went to the y in an attempt to play basketball.  ended up being little kid championships, so while they were adorable, we didn't get to play much.  we determined i'm NOT making uk's team anytime soon as many of the little kids shot better than me, but we had fun anyway.  then was dinner and "the town".  if you haven't seen it... really good movie.  i stayed awake, so you know it's good (if you don't know, i fall asleep during almost every movie.  it's a curse that's been passed down from generation to generation in the crook family...)

i love that it's just the first weekend of being on break.  i don't have a lot planned, but i honestly like it better that way!

{craziness}

i really like medical-based classes.  i've taken biology, anatomy, physiology, neuro, and currently, dysphagia.
learning about the body and how the body works and why certain things are the way they are astonish me. there's so much crazy stuff about how we work.

just learning about different systems, different organs, and different ways the body #1. protects us and #2. creates optimum conditions for survival is crazy.

in neuro, we learned about all the parts of the brain and how little we actually know... we don't know why tylanol works, we don't know why some people get dementia, we don't always know how the brain recovers or makes new systems of organization; it's crazy cool.

currently in dysphagia (swallowing disorders), we're learning about the neuro control of swallowing.  it's super hard and i should be studying for my exam tonight, but everything about swallowing is sweet.

so much happens to swallow and you almost never have to think about taking a drink or eating.

you chew your food in a way that it forms a ball, you have to push the food over the back of your tongue, then your body takes over.  everything widens, shortens, opens, things come down to protect your airway, and before you know it, your food's in your stomach and you're already on the next bite.  you didn't choke, you didn't have liquid go straight to your lungs... you didn't even think about it.

here's the crazy thing.  we have this thing called the central pattern generator (it's crazy... google doesn't even have decent info on it).  it controls things we do in patterns- breathing, eating, walking... how often do you think about breathing?
you can even do a lot of that in a coma.  you need almost zero neural support.  (to change it you do, so swallowing differently with liquid and food is different, but the physical act of swallowing, you can do in a coma)

basically, while studying is not the most fun thing in the world, and i'm only slightly procrastinating by writing this post, i'm amazed by how cool our bodies are.  basically, God made us in so many crazy, intricate ways.  people study their entire lives to figure out our bodies, and we just can't.  there will always be parts we don't know how they work, or why they work.  it's so cool that our bodies are set up exactly to do what we need to support life, and most of it, we don't even have to think about or try to control- it all just works how it needs to.


if only that was enough to pass my test... back to studying cranial nerves, areas of the brain, and nuclei i can't even pronounce :)