Play Ball!

It's feeling like summer here in SW MO. Since graduation, I've been working full time at the pharmacy until I start my new job in August. I'm having an adjustment to all the free time. Those of you who know me, know that I have a tough time sitting still. At the pharm, I've rearranged every drawer and drug section, so they will all thank me later for organizing the life time supply of rubber bands and "refrigerate this med" stickers. I'm filling my time with catching with friends, family and Mad Men. (Disappointing this year on a side note.). In between doing wedding things and watching my little brother's baseball games, I am still working on care packages. GI Joel is a huge STL Cardinals fans so I thought a baseball themed care package would be fun.

I'm not much of sports person, which funny because Joel once told me that one of the qualities that were mandatory in his future wife was being an athlete. (I showed him!)

I do enjoy going to a baseball game or watching Joel play in a league...unless it's cold, then it's not much fun. I once "surprised" (I'm terrible at keeping surprises) Joel with St.Louis tickets and I picked the coldest baseball game I'm every been to. Joel is pretty cheap, and he even broke down and bought a hoodie in the stadium. 40 degrees is just too cold. This care package is much warmer.

I threw in: *Sunflower Seeds *Cracker Jacks *Powerade *Sriracha Sauce *Nutter Butters *Reusable Cup *Letter Writing Materials *Movies *More Magazines

This was a fun one and I think he enjoyed it.

Graduation!

I met Joel in the Spring before I started graduate school. Had he known the tears, emotional break downs, and "moments" of grumpiness that I would express....I'm not sure if he would've stuck around. :) My graduate school experience was a life lesson on sacrifice, priorities, learning patience and finding the career of my dreams. I honestly didn't know much about speech language pathology as a college freshman, but man, God knew it was for me. I get to work with all ages, use my "black and white" side and my creative side to help change people's lives. From brain injury, Aphasia, swallowing trouble to correcting a kiddos speech, it may not seem like much but it's an incredible experience to watch people progress and get better. So here's to the professors, supervisors and classmates that became like family to get me through. They've taught me everything I need to know to start my career, to accept each other's differences and that you should never be the smartest person in the room, because you'll never learn anything new.

Love these people!

To GI Joel, thanks for letting me cry and take out my frustration on you. Thanks for waking up early 7,000ish miles away to watch my graduation and sticking with me from the beginning to the end. I feel like I'm returning the favor with this deployment thing.

Thanks to Blake and Syd for being great siblings who let me practice tests on them and listen to me gab about "speech" stuff that doesn't make sense.

Mom and Dad. Thanks for encouraging me to be my best. From financial help, to prayer and always being there for me. You made my journey much less stressful by taking care of the hard stuff so I could succeed. Your sacrifice was worth it!

Last to family and friends whom I've snubbed due to thesis writing and studying, thanks for sticking around. Thank you all. Each and everyone of you. Here we go! (again) Reeds Spring Primary...get ready.

Paint with Kenda

My sister and I recently went to a painting class! It was so so fun! I can't wait to go back and paint something for my new classroom. For this project, I wanted to paint something with a yellow ribbon on it. I don't have the best set up to tie a ribbon around an oak tree in the middle of Springfield....so....Kenda helped me get creative.

She cut out the outline for my soldier boots project and drew in pencil the places to help guide me along. Lets be honest. She had to help me out quite a bit. I;m not much of a painter.

I was pretty proud that I managed to paint most of the boots myself. Kenda helped me out with the wording and attached the yellow ribbon at the end.

If soldier boots aren;t your thing, my sister did a tractor. It turned out great. Kenda plans on moving downtown Republic, MO this summer where you can pick from many projects and embellishments. The link to her Facebook page is below.

https://www.facebook.com/paintwithkenda

Double Digits

I want to brag a little on this kid! Blake (my brother) decided this year for his 10th birthday that he would opt out of gifts, and ask people to bring items to put in a package for Joel! What a stud!

Family and friends brought a ton of things, I felt like I was playing Tetris to package all of the items into one box!

The theme for this package was "Welcome to Fabulous Afghanistan"

The younger kiddos drew pictures and wrote letters.

Everyone brought some creative items from Spam to homemade beef jerky. Lots of stuff to stay clean, magazines and sweet treats from home.

I'm very thankful to have such a sweet kid as a brother and very supportive friends and family while Joel is away! Here's to you guys!