Certified!

I know some of you followed along as I wrote my Master's report and finished graduate school, but those who are newer to my blog might need a little background. I am a speech-language pathologist (SLP; man, it feels good to say that), and in order to become an SLP, you have to obtain a Masters degree. That's not all though. Once you have your Masters, you have to complete an internship of sorts. It's called a Clinical Fellowship (CF) in the world of speech-language pathology. It must be a minimum of 36 weeks, you have to work a minimum of 35 hours per week, and you have to obtain a minimum of 1,260 clinical hours to complete your CF. Once you've completed your CF, you can apply for full state licensure (rather than an intern license) and national certification (your "C's" in SLP speak).

I became painfully aware of those required 1,260 hours last week when I received a letter notifying me that my CF came to a grand total of 1,258 hours. I did, in fact, work way more than the minimum requirements; we just filled out a portion of the application forms incorrectly. After much fretting from me and my wonderful CF supervisor (I honestly couldn't have handpicked a better supervisor for this experience), we finally got it straightened out yesterday, and today I am certified!

And I am SO excited! I honestly didn't expect to be quite so happy about it, but when my case manager told me he approved me this morning, I jumped up and down. It's been a long time coming, made sweeter by the hiccups I've experienced along the way. I feel so thankful.

September...Finally

So, my longhorns didn't win the championship. It was very, very disappointing. I may have shed a tear. But it was not as bad as it could have been, considering, and I'm glad it wasn't a blowout. And in the end, it was just a football game, and I'm still proud to be a longhorn.

Anywho, now to the matter at hand. I'm trying to catch up on my scrapbooking pages. I've got a few 12 of 12's left to do for 2009, and I want to finish them before half of 2010 passes me by. This afternoon I sat down and knocked out September's. I also caught up on The Hills and some of The City in the process. Those shows are so ridiculous, and I like it.

For this page, I used a template from a 2008 Designer Digitals freebie. The yellow paper is also from Designer Digitals. Couldn't tell ya for the other two papers though. The fonts are Futura Md and Futura Lt.

Texas Fight

{espn}

We've got on our Texas shirts,

chili's cooking on the stove,

orange and white cupcakes are waiting for dessert,

horns will be up shortly.

\m/

This is about a million times more important and more intense than the Super Bowl.

I'm hoping, oh how I'm hoping,  for a repeat of 2005's championship. I don't know if my little heart can handle defeat.

Texas Fight! Texas Fight! Yea Texas Fight!

Sayonara 2009: January through June

January 

Henry and I began the year with a little getaway to Fredericksberg, Texas. We enjoyed walking around the town, and our B&B cottage was perfectly cozy. It was a good way to celebrate the first year and a half of our marriage.

Our niece April was born a week later on January 12th, and we've been smitten by her ever since. It's hard to believe she's almost a year old!

 

In January we also started babysitting our cousin Ethan on Thursday evenings while his mom was at school. We learned to play many games Ethan-style (Battleship, Uno, Connect Four, and various others), and I think we got him hooked on eating mini-pizzas. His endless questions and cute country accent made us laugh.

 

February

One of the field trips we took Ethan on was a trip to the Texas Capitol. I think he enjoyed dragging me through the halls.

Henry and I celebrated our fourth Valentine's Day together.

Kristen Duke graciously offered to take our first family photos. That was probably one of the best things we did this year.

March

With March comes Spring Break. Unfortunately, Henry and I had different Spring Break weeks, so we didn't go anywhere together, but I was able to make a trip to Houston to visit my parents. Mom and I went to Time Out for Women, a religious, inspirational weekend retreat, which was awesome.

Henry and I did get to go somewhere together; we went one weekend to the sunken Japanese gardens in San Antonio.

 

We also took advantage of a free South by Southwest concert for the first time:  Explosions in the Sky.

 

April

We went on our biggest roadtrip of the year in April. Henry's brother Ralph married Whitney in the Oklahoma City Temple, so we traveled to Tulsa and OKC for their Easter weekend wedding.

I was excited to get another sister-in-law in this family of mostly boys!

 

My best friend in high school, Courtney, also got married in April. My mom and I were able to go to the wedding in Houston.

 

May

May was a huge month for us because we both graduated!!! There were definitely moments when I wondered if it would happen for me, and it certainly wouldn't have if I had not finished my Master's report. This next picture is of me just moments before turning it in to the Graduate School. I was too tired to jump up and down or anything, but it was a big relief to close that chapter of my graduate career. I felt a lot of personal satisfaction. I'm glad Henry was able to be there for the big moment.

Here is Henry looking handsome in his graduation regalia. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering. I'm so proud of him.

  

My best friend Cristy also graduated from medical school in May! I'm glad I got to visit with her in Dallas/Fort Worth before she moved to West Virginia.

  

And here's a picture from my graduation! I earned an M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology, and I am SO GLAD TO BE DONE WITH SCHOOL! FOREVER!!! In case you couldn't tell, I don't miss school at all, but I do miss my grad school family. I love these people.

 

We celebrated our graduations at the Austin Children's Museum, which is the perfect place to have a fun party. The giant indoor slide was a hit.

June

In June we went back to Houston for a few more weddings.

 

My cousin Stephanie got married to a Mormon boy from Idaho! She had a picture perfect wedding complete with a horse and buggy rivaling Disney (she is kind of obsessed with all things Disney).

My good friend Amanda got married in July.

 

I got to read the passage in 1st Corinthians on charity during the ceremony. Thanks for asking me, Amanda!

 

Amanda's wedding was a good excuse to hang out with high school friends since her husband Joseph also went to high school with us.

 

Check back Thursday for the second installment!

July and August

Yay for new layouts! This July page is special because in completing it, I completed a whole year's worth of 12 of 12 layouts. July 2008-July 2009...and beyond.

Do you remember my very first page? I've come a long way. It's been fun. I doubt I'll ever go back to paper scrapbooking now.






Since you can't really read the journaling on the August page, this is what it says:

"This was a fun day. Post-advanced diagnostics and pre-job. I got to sleep in, but then I got a
message from my UT supervisor saying I needed to come in to the clinic one last time to destroy a soft file.
Surprise, surprise--I couldn’t find the file anywhere in the clinic. It turned out that Melissa shredded it the night before. I snapped one last picture of my car sitting in front of Littlefield, my freshman dorm; my college days are officially over. It was also a special day because Alifia was in Austin. We went to Tx Land and Cattle and snagged a free lunch for “being cute,” and later we went to the mall with Sarah. That evening, Henry and I went to Hula Hut for Amy A.’s going away party. A raccoon ran around on the deck! So fun to see the SLP girls."

Let me explain

I guess when I said I'd post about my party "after all is said and done" what I meant was that I'd write when school is really over for me.

It's not yet.

I legitimately graduated because I fulfilled all of the academic requirements for my degree, but I'm stuck in one more session of summer school to complete the clinical requirements. (Don't worry, this was planned; didn't find out the day before graduation or anything.)

Anyway, this last little bit of clinic is like a full-time job with never-ending homework. So, see you in two-ish weeks. I plan to scrapbook my heart out. =)

It's here

I turned in the final version of my report on May 7th. Two weeks ago? Oh my, how time flies. All in all it was 61 pages long. To be honest, compared to previous grad school experiences it was a cake walk. I thought it would require lots of blood, sweat, and tears; I envisioned my second reader demanding large changes and me chasing my "committee" around trying to get last minute signatures, but in the end it wasn't so bad. Sure, I put in a ton of effort, but there wasn't a lot of stress surrounding the whole thing. So, so very surprising.

And now I graduate in TWO DAYS! I'm having my big shindig tomorrow night. Couldn't be more excited. I just hope my guests have fun. I'm excited to reunite with some of my best friends who are coming into town.

Right now I'm trying to throw together a party playlist...but I'm realizing I don't have very cool party music. And, confession: I have no idea how to use my Mom's Ipod. And I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any idea either. hahaha.

I think we need my brother's expertise.

Anywho, I've been working hard to plan this party these past few weeks, so I will post some pictures after all is said and done for you to see. This party was my inspiration. Lurv it.


{inchmark}

I did it

The first draft of my Master's report is complete. In my professor's e-mailbox. It's a beastly old thing at 32 pages long. (Fourteen of those pages were written in the last 48 hours. blech!)

I would like to thank a few special someones without whom this little miracle would not have been possible:

The inventors of the word processor, SALT, Noodlebib, EBSCOhost databases, GoogleScholar, and the Adobe Acrobat "Select" tool.

The people at Michigan State who wrote a 280-page book on all the differences between Mandarin and English, and also the people who scanned it and turned it into a PDF. Bless your souls!

My parents for making me take several typing/computer classes so that I can type really, really fast when necessary.

My husband for always being supportive of me and making sure I have food to eat and clean clothes to wear.

Focus!

Last weekend we went on a roadtrip up to Tulsa for my brother-in-law's wedding. It was really a lovely trip filled with lots of family, but the night we arrived back home I started feeling sick. And Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was sick. Today I feel a little better, but guess what, I still feel sick.

Here's the deal:
-I haven't left my house for more than 15 minutes in four days. I'm going a little stir crazy.
-I've been in school for what feels like a bajillion years and I'm tired of it. (Henry pointed out that in reality it's been about 20. Made me feel old.)
-And we all know that when you're feeling under the weather, you especially do not feel liking working.

But the facts are these: the first draft of my Master's report is due tomorrow. I've got a lot of work left to do on it, so I MUST work on it today. That is my task for the day, so that's what I need to do.

Good pep talk. Now let's get to work!

December 12, 2008

I'm finally caught up with all of my 12 of 12 layouts and with two days to spare! =) Now comes the fun of trying to figure out where everything came from...

Credits:
-bg paper (I know this one because I just downloaded it yesterday!)- 2ps Indie Pops Celebrate kit
-Alpha letters and numbers-SP "Shabby Mommy" kit (I think)
-Journal Block-SP "Festival"
-Template (can you tell I'm hooked?)-Little Dreamer Designs "Mushy My Boy"
-Font: Daisy Script
-Stitching: SP "Two Soon"
-Other papers (l-r): 1. Vinnie Pearce "Thank You" 2. 2ps "Express Yourself" 3. combo of blue polka dot paper from the 2ps Indie Pops kit and Vinnie Pearce "Thank You" 4. "BG Stripey Slurp"...not sure where it came from =/

November 12th

Credits:
Notebook paper: 3 Pixel Chicks CYG DoodleNotebook
Background Paper: 2ps "Splish" from "Splish Splash" kit
Template: Little Dreamer Designs "Playing with Paper"
Font: Pea Christy