I've reflected on my reflections of my reflections

For the past few days, I have spent all my non-internship, non-sleeping time completing my program portfolio. My grad program requires us to complete a portfolio instead of taking comps. This thing is HUGE! It is full of many of my assignments, projects, papers, and reports that I have completed while in grad school. There are fourteen different sections, each focused on a different outcome that I should have met while in school. Each outcome requires 2-3 examples of graded work to demonstrate that I have gained the knowledge and skills relating to that outcome. Additionally, each outcome requires a 2-4 page reflection, where I reflect on how I learned the information contained within in the outcome and why it is important to me as a speech-language pathologist. I'm definitely over all of the reflecting. 

I finally turned the darn thing in today, so I am finished! Well, finished for now. I'm sure I will get it back with minor "edits" that my professors want me to make. One step closer to graduation in December! 

Date Night!

Ben loves going to the movies. Me, not so much. I like to watch movies, but I hate having to pay ($19!!) for us to go, plus I can get very antsy. I always have to go to the bathroom about 30 minutes into the movie. I generally prefer to wait until I can just rent the movie and pause it whenever I feel like doing so. Ben has really been wanting to go to the movies recently, and I wanted to see Julie & Julia, so we agreed to go tonight. 

The movie times were 7:25, which was a bit early for us, or 10:something, which would be way to late for my grandma self. I picked Ben up from work, brought him a change of clothes. We headed over to California Pizza Kitchen at Atlantic Station because I had a 20% coupon. It's not my favorite restaurant, but it is usually a reliable good meal. After dinner we went to the theater at Atlantic Station. We got there a few minutes early, so I spent some time playing pac-man and hangman on my phone. The previews finally started, and there are two movies coming out soon that look good, The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock, and Did You Hear About The Morgans? I'm not sure I would pay $19 to go see them, but they do look good. There were two other previews of movies that seemed pretty disturbing. 

Anyway, back to the movie. Just as the movie got started, my nose completely stopped up. As in I couldn't get any air to go in or out. So I became a mouth breather, which is really frustrating. (I seem to have caught a cold from my therapy kids in the first week of my internship. Oh the germs!) The theater we went to is really nice, and they have these seats that rock a little. About half-way through the movie, I feel feet on the back of my chair and then my chair move. I ignored it. Then I felt someone moving their feet around on my chair again, making the chair rock more. I knew there wasn't a kid back there. Then it happened a third time, so I asked Ben to look through the seats behind us to determine if someone had their feet propped up on my chair, and sure enough they did. I was debating whether I should say something, and then you know what? It happened AGAIN! At this point, I turned around and poked my head through the hole between the chairs and politely said "Hey! Can you take your feet off my chair? It's making my chair move," which was then met with blank stares by the guy with the shifty feet and his girlfriend. Hmm...I know, I'm the crazy one. Why wouldn't I want someone's feet constantly moving all over the back of my chair causing my chair to move? I only paid $19, right?

Not long after confronting Mr. Shifty Feet, my nose miraculously cleared up. I could breathe through it again! I think it was a sign. I'm not sure what for, but a sign nonetheless. From then on, everything was pleasant. The movie was very good; Exactly the kind of movie I like to see. After the movie, we went to Kilwin's, where I got a caramel and pecan covered pretzel. It was a sweet end to a good night!

Kim's Shower

On Saturday, Kim, one of my friends from grad school, had a wedding shower. It was at a cute tea room in Woodstock. It was very girly, just like a wedding shower should be! I went with Kimberly, another friend from grad school. I know, they have the same name. It confuses the heck out of me at times, but I try to always call one of them Kim and one of them Kimberly to keep it straight. 

Kim can be quite humorous, and she can make the funniest faces. 

How about this funny face? As soon as I took this picture, I looked at it and laughed out loud. (Don't worry - I told her I was putting this on my blog!)

I made her hold up the towels I got her. 

This one is just cute. 

This photo is Kimberly, Kim, and then me. Please ignore my chunky-munky arms. I thought about having Ben photoshop them so that they would look smaller, but decided against doing so. I never understood why my mom thought she had fat arms (she didn't like to wear sleeveless clothing) until now. I have them as well and now I totally understand. 

We were served some kind of berry tea and some little tea pastries and sandwiches. I bypassed the sandwiches in favor of the cute little desserts, obviously not helping the arm situation. I wanted to take pictures of the table and food, but I was a little unsure of how the nice older ladies at my table would respond to that decision. I thought trying to explain the whole blog thing was a little more than I was interested in explaining at the time. 

It is fun to go to girly activities like a shower every now and then.  She is getting married the weekend before Christmas and I have always wanted to go to a Christmas wedding. I had a great time and can't wait for the wedding!

Seaside...Again!

I am participating in "Show Us Your Life" over Kelly's Korner again this week, except this time is is all about your favorite vacation spot. It actually started yesterday, so I am a little late, but better late than never, right? We just got back from our favorite vacation spot last week, and I was planning on doing a post anyway, so I thought I would still participate in the blog tour, even if it is a day late. 

Our favorite vacation spot is Seaside, which is in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. We absolutely love this place. We went for the first time in May (you can read about that trip here), and decided to go back for our anniversary last weekend. Actually, we got an offer for a free night there, and that is when we decided to go back. Anyway, the beach is gorgeous, we can walk everywhere we need to go, and it is a great family-friendly beach. 

The room we stayed in this time is called "Sunnybrook." As much as we liked the last room we stayed in, we liked this one even better. It was a little bigger and it has lots of windows, meaning lots of sunlight, which we like. I got another Vera Bradley bag for free, too! It was on the bed when we checked in. 

The beach is just so pretty!

During the summer, movies are shown at the ampitheater on Fridays. "The Truman Show" was the movie of the week while we were there, which was neat because it was filmed in Seaside. 

Every evening, we saw TONS of people heading down to the beach to take the classic white and khaki on the beach picture for their Christmas cards/over the fireplace family photo. 

We took this picture of the sunset as we were walking back from dinner. The beach houses are so nice. I wish we could afford to live in Seaside! 

The sunset on the beach. So pretty!

I can't wait to go back next year! 

3-Day Fundraiser Night

On July 30th, our 3-Day team put together a fundraiser at Chick-fil-A. (You can learn more about why we are doing The 3-Day here.) We have a lot of money to raise before October, over $8,000, and thought that this would be a great way to raise money. The operator at this store was kind enough to agree to give us 10% of the total sales for the specified time of the fundraiser. We also raffled off a couple of gift baskets, donated by my mawmaw and aunt Sandra, as well as one of my mom's friends from high school. The night was a success, and we are closer to meeting our fundraiser goal. Thanks to everyone who came out for dinner to support us! (Oh, and if you would like to donate to the cause, follow the link on the left side of the page.) Here are some pictures from the evening. 

What I'm Reading: Everyone Worth Knowing

I bought this book about a year ago with the intention to read it during my short summer break, but then everything with mom happened and I never got to read it as planned. I've said this before, but I have to force myself to not read during the semester because I end up reading instead of doing school stuff. I took this to the beach with me over the weekend. I bought it because I found on sale for $5 and because it is written by the same author who wrote The Devil Wears Prada. It turned out to be a good beach read. It wasn't really about anything of substance, but I enjoyed it. Basically, this girl goes to college at Emory, takes a banking job in NYC because it will pay the bills, but she ends of hating the job and quits after a few years. Through her uncle's connections as an entertainment writer, she gets a job at a PR firm that deals with all the biggest celebrities and socialites. The book basically details her experiences through her job, including all of the craziness/activities in which the wealthy participate. There were a few things that I was somewhat uncomfortable about, such as drug use, and some sex things that I would rather not read about, but it never got anywhere near anything graphic. The main character doesn't get involved in any of this, just details the participation of those she represents. I'm sure that it is, unfortunately, an accurate representation of the activities of some of the wealthy. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I will probably buy another of her books if I happen to find it on sale.

SHOW US YOUR LIFE - Reception/Honeymoon

Our wedding reception was at Magnolia Hall in Piedmont Park. Piedmont Park is kind of like the Central Park of Atlanta, just not quite so big. Our ceremony was held on the lawn in front of Magnolia Hall. You can see the last row of chairs from the ceremony in this photo. Magnolia Hall is an old blacksmith's forge that has been converted into a event space. 

This was our cake. We got it from Mark at Baker's Man Inc., and we loved it. All the layers were the same, so that they would all get eaten, including the top layer. He made us a replica of the top layer on our first anniversary. The layers were white cake with buttercream frosting. The inside layers were key lime curd with raspberry, and then cream cheese frosting. The dj played "How Sweet It Is" by Marvin Gaye while we cut the cake. 

The groom's cake was chocolate with chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream frosting. This one went quickly at the reception! We actually liked it better than the big cake. 

We took dance lessons and learned how to the Foxtrot for our first dance. We danced to the jazzy version of "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra. 

These are some extra photos of our wedding party and us that haven't really fit in to any week, so I just included them here. This is the entire wedding party walking across the bridge. 

Ben pushing me on the swing in the park. 

And the best for last! This is our favorite picture from the wedding. The photographer had us dance in front of the Atlanta skyline.  

For our honeymoon, we went to Antigua, and it was fabulous! We stayed at Hermitage Bay, which was recently named to the Conde Nast Hot List. We actually stayed there right when they opened, before it was recognized by Conde Nast, so it was not quite so expensive. 

This photo is the view from the spa. Ben loves this picture because of the tree. 

This is a photo of the beach. This place was super secluded, and we were often the only people on the beach. 

We stayed in a hillside cottage, where we had our own plunge pool. It was so nice! This is the view from out on the water, looking up at the cottages on the hillside. 

This is the view from our cottage, as well as our plunge pool. 

It also happened to be Carnival while we were there, so we went into town to check it out. It was so much fun, and definitely one of the coolest cultural experiences ever. This photo is of us from where we watched the parade. (When I say parade, it isn't anything like a parade here in America. This thing took HOURS! Like 4 hours at least, sometimes it just stopped moving, and the people in the parade would go into the stores to by cokes as they went by.)

Y'all aren't going to believe this, but these girls were doing the cotton-eyed joe! Haha!
These little girls were in the parade. The girl in the middle was fascinated by my hair. She walked straight up to me while I was watching and just touched my hair. I don't think she had seen/felt white people hair before. She was so sweet! 

This photo is of some girls dressed as butterflies. I just thought their costumes were really pretty!

Sorry this post is so long! I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Head over to Kelly's Korner to check out more!

We Made It!

Nothing ever goes as planned, right? We just got to Seaside this evening and will be here for the weekend. Since I knew we would be traveling, I got my oil changed on Monday at Curry Honda, where I always take my car. (And believe me, I have been there plenty, thanks to being hit THREE times.) I got the oil changed, ran a quick errand, and then headed home. Tuesday I did not drive at all because I stayed at home all day and we walked to Melting Pot for dinner for our anniversary. Wednesday, I decided to run up to Chick-fil-A and grab some lunch in the drive-thru to take back home. I had been doing school work on Wednesday morning and had not taken a shower yet. When I went to get lunch, I figured it didn't matter if my hair was a little greasy and my shirt was my too-big pajama shirt because I was just going through the drive-thru. 

Anyway, when it is my turn at the speaker in the drive-thru, I roll down my window and hear a car making a loud noise, so I think to myself "man, someone's car does not sound too good." I worried it was mine for a second, and then decided it must have been the van behind me. I was relieved to hear the sound disappear as I pulled around after placing my order, so I figured it was definitely the van. After I get my food, I pull back out onto the road, a VERY BUSY road, mind you, right in the middle of the lunch hour, and call my MIL to thank her for a card. Well, I get to the light, and as I am talking to her, I hear my car making the noise again, and then it started to shake and make some crazy noises, followed by some loud noise that sounded like something large fell out of my car onto the road. I immediately put on my flashers, and hang up the phone. Then this lady (and by lady, I mean Dara Torres/ Jane of the Jungle style, as she had major arm muscles) knocks on my window, tells me to put my car in neutral and she is going to push it into the parking lot across the street. Meanwhile, I am thinking that of course this happens to me when I have not taken a shower, not even brushed my hair, and I have my pajama tshirt on. I say ok, as the man in the car behind her jumps out, proceeds to block the crazy oncoming traffic so that Jane can push me across the street. Once I got in the parking lot, the nice man had me open the hood, and then he told me that the belt on the alternator had come of, so I needed to have it towed somewhere. The nice people left me then, and I called AAA to come get my car. Thank goodness for AAA! The tow man was there in less than 30 minutes, as was my other MIL to pick me up and take me home. During this 30 minutes, I sat in my car, turned off, and in the sun, meaning I got all nasty sweaty, making me look oh so pretty on top of everything else. 

The end of the story is not quite so exciting. AAA towed my car to the dealership for only $35. We were a little stressed about not having the car to drive to the beach today and had made other car plans thinking that my car had some major damage that would cost lots of money and definitely take more than a day to repair. As it turns out, the nice man at Curry Honda called this morning and said that the car was fixed, there was no major damage, and we could come pick it up in 30 minutes. So we head up there, luggage and everything, go in to pick up the car, and do you know what? IT WAS FREE! How great is that?! I'm not sure why it was free, but I don't care. 

So we made it to the beach today, despite the craziness with the car. Our room here is very pretty, the beach is gorgeous, and we are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. But we miss our weenies! 

I found them!

Actually, Ben found the pictures on his computer of Cleo and the banana. She is so darn cute!! I just love my Cleo.

My banana after I got it back from her. See all of the teeth marks? 

 

Banana Thieves

I eat a banana just about every morning for breakfast, along with some yogurt. The weenies don't really get table food, other than fruits and vegetables. (And the occasional dropped potato chip.) I always take the last bite of the banana, break it into two, and then give it to the weenies. They really love bananas. When Cleo was a puppy, I put my banana on the coffee table while I ate my yogurt, and she stole it! The whole banana! I have pictures of it somewhere, but can't find them. 

This morning as I peeled my banana, it broke in half. The top half fell on the floor, and Eleanor got it. Cleo was out of reach on the couch, since she doesn't jump down. Eleanor took it behind the couch and I watched her eat the whole thing. At one point, I tried to bend down and pick up the banana from Eleanor, while holding the other half of the banana in my hand. Bad idea! Cleo sneak attacked the other half of the banana, breaking off all but one bite. I had one bite, the weenies had the rest. 

Two Years?!

We have been married for two years today. A lot has happened in those two years, good and bad! In one sense, it has gone by quickly, but in another sense, not so quickly due to all of the things that have happened. I have been in grad school since we got married! And I'm still not done. 

We are going to the Melting Pot tonight (with a coupon), so that should be really good. We didn't really do anything last year because of everything going on with mom. This weekend, we are going to Seaside to celebrate. 

Happy Anniversary, Ben!

I love our church!

Today was a great day at church! We started off at the 9:00 service, and the opener was so amazing. We had a guy that sang "Let's Stay Together" and he sounded just like Al Green. Seriously. I turned to Ben and said "That dude can sing." I do love me some oldies/motown, however. Then, they (there was a girl singing backup, too) started singing a song that I don't name the name of, but it had something to do with "join the band." There are three campuses that comprise the church, and each of the campuses were singing the same song, too, with their worship leader. At the SAME TIME. They showed each campus worship leader on the screen while they were singing, so we could see each of the other churches on the screen at the same time. I really don't know how to describe it other than that is was fabulous!

Anyway, then Andy had a great message today. He started by talking about how Buckhead church was recently ranked as the third biggest church in the country by Forbes magazine. (Not in a snooty, hahaha, we are the best way, but moreso as an intro into the rest of the message, which was about his vision for the church.) Anyway, they are doing some really cool stuff. Starting in the next couple of weeks, you can watch the 6:00 service LIVE on your computer. From anywhere. Isn't technology great? They are also doing some sort of small group kind of thing through this as well, which is also great for people who don't live in a community that offers small groups like ours does. If you are interested, you can go here to learn more/watch the services online. 

After church, we headed down to UpStreet. Today was our first day as kindergarten small group leaders. We were all excited and ready to meet the kids in our class. So we set up, had everything ready to go, and we waited. And then we waited more. Then other classes started to fill up, but we were still waiting. At 11:02, 2 minutes after the service started, we still had ZERO kids in our class. In fact, we were the only class without any kids. All of the other classes had at least 4 kids. Ben said he felt kind of like the kid on the playground that doesn't get picked to play. I felt similarly. Finally, at 11:05, we had our first kid. They started trickling in after that. As it turned out, out of the 6 kids we had today, only 1 was actually on our roll. We ended up getting all of the kids coming in for their first day that had not yet been assigned to a class. I think our classroom coach (the lady in charge of the room) felt a little sorry for us. I don't blame her, I was feeling sorry for myself at that point! Once we got some kids, we had a lot of fun. We are really looking forward to being small group leaders and getting to love on these kids for the next year. 

As the last two of our kids were picked up by their parents, the fire alarm went off in the building. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry, but we picked up our things and got out of there. The firetrucks came and everything, but it didn't appear that there was actually a fire. It was a chaotic end to crazy morning!

Grandma Green's Birthday

Today is Grandma Green's birthday. To celebrate, we took her to her family's barbecue restaurant, Wallace Barbecue. The food is so darn good there. (On a side note, I didn't eat as much as normal there tonight because I have been having some serious indigestion/heartburn. At least that is what I think the problem is. Mom always had extreme reflux, so I guess I probably will, too.) After dinner, we went back to Grandma Green's house for cake and presents. Ben and I made a red velvet cake for her birthday. Unfortunately, it was not the prettiest thing, but it still tasted really good. This is the third time we have made the cake, and we think we finally got it figured out. We use a modified version of Paula Deen's recipe, and have been tweaking it each time. We figured out what we were doing wrong when we baked the third layer today, so we should have it together for the next time. We had fun eating cake, especially Mattie. She was hyped up on sugar after eating some of the cake, so she was pretty funny. When we left, Ben said that Mattie is funny, but that it is even funnier that we can play with her and go home when we are tired. Kat and Will still have to calm her down! 

Happy birthday Grandma Green!