Happy Birthday Husband!!

Happy Birthday Grant!

Grant was able to get out of work at a decent time, so we headed to Winger's for dinner. We even got there in time for Happy Hour...$1 shots! ;)

We came back and Grant opened up his gift to find his very first Cleveland Browns t-shirt. Go Brownies! :)

Fall Visit to Ohio

I spent the 15th through 25th in Ohio, and it was a great trip! It was so nice to be able to spend time with family and catch up with friends whom I have not seen in almost a year or more! I really enjoyed being able to devote time to "my" friends instead of trying to split the time with Grant's friends, as we usually have to do around the holidays when we are back in Ohio.

Anyway, my flight went smoothly and I landed in Detroit and headed to the car rentals. (First, I grabbed Hungry Howie's pizza for dinner in the airport...yum!!) Basically, I think I got ripped off because they recommended I upgrade to the next level car since the one I had reserved didn't have cruise. Well since I like my cruise and figured I'd be driving longer distances most of the time, I went ahead and upgraded. I ended up with a 2011 Ford Fusion, and I must admit that I really liked it! I've grown up having a negative association of Ford (thanks Dad & Mom...haha!), but I was actually impressed with this car. I finally made it "home" and visited with my mom, brother, and grandma for a bit. By the way, if you want to feel like you've completely wasted a day, take a 3 hour flight across country where you lose 2 hours due to the time change! I didn't eat lunch because my flight was during that time and when I got in Detroit, it was dinner time! Geesh!

The next day I went shopping with Mom, of course! :) And then I got to meet my niece Brianne!! Love her. :)

Sunday I had plans to go to Cedar Point for Halloweekends!!! I was so excited for this since it had been a couple of years since I had been to CP. I met up with Christine and her friend there, and my brother and his friends also came along. It was fun to spend time with my brother and catch up with Christine also. We rode some fantastic rides and took some excellent pictures, as well.

Over the next few days, I visited with friends. I drove to Sandusky to see my favorite J-Bil and her boyfriend Jeremy (now Fiance!! Congrats!!) and see their new house that they are doing a great job "fixing-up." Jeremy cooked us an excellent dinner, and then we made our way to Tofts for ice cream...yummm!!

I drove down to Columbus to have dinner with Jenny and Laura, my friends from undergrad at Miami. We went to Champps restaurant and caught up on life. I don't think I'd seen either of them since Jenny's wedding in July 2009!

I had lunch with Wanda and Karli (Grant's mom and sister) and Brianne too! It was great to see Brianne again, and catch up with Wanda and Karli some more. Thursday evening, I met Lindsey for dinner at Chipotle and then we went shopping at Kohl's, which was fun of course!



Saturday was my cousin Beth's wedding! It was a fall themed wedding held at a park. Fall in Ohio is so nice! The trees were gorgeous, as was the Bride! It was fun to see some of my family I hadn't seen in a year and a half too!

Sunday I packed up most of my stuff since I had an early flight back to Idaho the next day. I was supposed to go over to my dad's to visit with him and my step-mom, but she ended up being sick, so we thought it was best I didn't catch it too! Come to find out, my dad took her to the hospital that night, and she was admitted for pneumonia. She stayed for over a week and it was pretty scary at times, but she fought through it and is doing much better now.



Monday morning I headed back to the airport and made it back to Boise with a pretty smooth trip! Seems strange to say, but I'll be back in Ohio for Christmas in just a couple of months!

Headed East

I'm currently on my flight to Salt Lake City. Everything is going well and I made it to the airport on time! I think I have about 45 minutes at SLC before my flight leaves for Detroit, so I'll have to hurry once I'm there most likely. My flight to Detroit is going to be loooong, ugh. Hopefully they play a good movie!

When I was boarding I saw a sign for Internet on board, so I was really excited I could check my email and make this post. HA. Of course you have to pay for it! Really Delta? My already high ticket price and extra 25 bucks I paid you so I could check a bag wasn't enough to let you give me free wi-fi?! Nevermind that you don't even give out free peanuts or those delicious biscoff cookies anymore. I'm surprised you don't charge for water. So anyway, my post will have to wait to be published until I get Internet access.

We are starting our descent to Salt Lake, so it's time to "stow my portable electronics." See you back in the Midwest!

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, so Delta redeems itself a bit...they did have free peanuts and Biscoff cookies! Yum! AND, I got to watch The Grown-Ups (an Adam Sandler movie). SO funny! :)

Dreams

I was reading through an old journal I kept during undergrad and found this post about a dream I had. It's hilarious, so I had to share.

February 4, 2005
So I had these dreams last night. In the first, I had this boyfriend whose name was Gavin (or something like that lol) and we were at this school. Well he was working on a project and was on the roof leaning in a window and something electrocuted him. I knew something bad happened, but no one else paid any attention. So I started to run out of the school and my cell phone rang. It was him calling me and he said "help me, i'm on the roof!" and he told me to hurry. He could barely say it, but I knew I had to hurry. So I ran around trying to get on the roof...and it seemed like every time I tried to get on, something happened that I couldn't. It was like no one would help me or listen to me and I kept screaming that I had to get to him. I kept yelling his name to try to find him. Finally I found a way...I had to climb up these bookcases really close to where I was originally standing (go figure...). I got up there and he was laying there. (Here is where it gets weird(er)..lol) I got there and picked up a package of Swiss Cake Rolls and one of them was fried. It wasn't like he turned into it, b/c I found him there. But all of a sudden I had the swiss cake rolls in my hand and that was it. LOL.


A swiss cake roll, really?! So funny.

Let's Celebrate!

We finally had our first weekend where Grant was in town to officially celebrate our anniversary on the 25th. Last year, we spent the weekend in Charleston, SC, and I was hoping that an annual trip could be a tradition. Unfortunately Grant was TDY in Alaska this year, so we couldn't do a trip over the holiday weekend. And because he has other work trips planned for October, we probably won't get to do a trip this year. :(

Instead, we decided to spend the day together in Boise and then go out for a nice dinner. We chose Red Feather Lounge in Downtown Boise, and it was very good! I would recommend it. They use fresh ingredients and often get them from the Farmer's Market each week (another fun place to go, by the way!). Grant said he would drive, so I indulged in a glass few glasses of wine. :)

The night before we celebrated with some champagne in our engraved toasting glasses and a cake I made to look like our wedding cake. It's not exact, but it was fun to make, and maybe it will be another tradition. :) Regardless, it was yummy!

2 Years

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my wonderful Husband!!

Photos courtesy of Shutter Love Studio.

2 down, forever to go...

New Job!

"Again?!", you ask.

Yep, that's right. I found another job, and the best part is that it's right here in town! No more driving 1 hour each way. AMEN. Before I start telling you about this new job, I should tell you that I didn't quit my previous one. I still work PRN for them. When I took my last job, I knew it would be part-time/PRN, and that the distance would be temporary for the summer. By the time August came around, I could barely take the drive. Even though it was only 2 days a week, I was filling in at other clinics on other days, and it was just too much. 9 hour days + 2 hours on the road = not much time at home to relax. So the timing of the new job was just perfect, as I finished my committment at the other job on August 30th.

So, how did this new job come about? Before we left North Carolina, and when I was first job searching here in Idaho, I googled "speech therapy" in our town. An official company name did not come up, but a person's name did, so I just assumed she was a solo SLP who gave private therapy. I moved on and figured there was nothing in town, and I started looking in Boise.

Come June or so, as I'm driving down the street in town, I passed by an office that said speech therapy on the window. Shocked that I wasn't able to find the company on the internet, I wrote down the phone number and made a mental note to call them. I tried to do some online searching about the company, but couldn't find much. I kept putting off calling for another month or so, and finally, as I was driving into Boise one day, I thought, "Why not? Just give them a call. It can't hurt."

It just so happens that I was able to reach the owner of the company on that very first phone call! We hit it off and she told me that my timing was perfect. She had just hired another speech therapist in July, but her schedule was filling up quickly, and they could use more help. We set up a time to meet in person, and she told me more about what the company had available. They offer private speech therapy in the clinic, as well as home-health (adults), Infant-Toddler (Early Intervention...a lot like what I did in NC), and contracts in the schools. The particular position the owner was looking to fill was in a middle school and an elementary school. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I said I'd try it out. I felt like I could give up my "dream job" in a hospital for the shorter drive. It would take me about 10 minutes to get to work now! Awesome!!

School was starting a little more than a week from the time I met with the owner. Since then, I've been working 3 days a week. I do my testing and see kids 2 days a week at the middle school (5th & 6th grades), and then travel a little farther to an elementary school (K-6) 1 day a week. I have an assistant at the middle school who helps see the kids while I do testing, and she helps with a little bit of the paperwork. The way the company has set things up with the school, we only treat articulation (speech sounds) vs. language (vocabulary, following directions, etc.). Usually it's the other way around, but I won't go into that. Anyway, I LOVE articulation, so this job is turning out to be perfect for me! I love the extra time I have at the end of the day, I love the shorter drive, and I love helping the kids learn to say their sounds better! I also work Tuesday through Thursday, and I can't tell you how nice it feels to have Monday off. Sunday is not such a bad day after all!

I'm so glad I was able to find this job. I'm really liking it so far, and I have a feeling I'm going to keep liking it! Plus, since it's a school position, I'll get holidays and summers off, with the option of working in the clinic if I want! LOVE IT! :)