Chicken Soup Diet?

It still sounds a bit crazy to me as well. But, we are going to try this crazy diet. One of Carl's coworkers even checked with his doctor, and gave it the okay. It is a 7-day thing, and every day you are allowed to eat this chicken soup (which you make with specific ingredients). I think Carl is going to starve (which is probably how you lose the weight). But certain days you can eat certain things.

Day one is fruits (but not bananas) and the soup. Drink lots of water. We plan to exercise as we do this, that way, if we lose weight, we will be able to keep it off. We have fallen off the exercising wagon, we were running every day for a long time.

I'll keep you (is anyone really reading this?) up to date on how it is going and if there is any weight lose. Carl and I purchased a scale tonight (I know, can you believe we didn't have one?!). Maybe for your viewing pleasure, I'll even put a picture of this crazy soup. :]

Backyard Campout

Jon and Kate have nothing on Melodie and Tiffany. We didn't need a huge tent or air mattresses to sleep in the backyard! We also were able to read the directions and put the tent up all by ourselves, pretty quickly. We are basically expert back-yard campers. There was no rain; there was no arguments over what outfits the girls would wear or yelling at one another over the possibility of grass stains. No wipes were needed after eating sticky marshmellows.

Yeah, they may have easily started a fire. But they had one of those expensive, fancy fire places. We didn't have anything fancy and we may or may not have needed Mel's father-in-law to build/start/keep it going for us, but really, who would have needed a fire anyways? It was almost 90 degrees.

Ryleigh didn't even want to eat the marshmellows like the 8 Gosselin children, so I'm sure the 47 she roasted and then spit out wouldn't have been a big deal if she never had the opportunity to make them.

And sure, Jon and Katie didn't worry about a crazy man who just escaped from jail finding their tents in the middle of Pungo, uh, Pennsylvania, but they did have a whole camera crew to make sure they were safe. But, it didn't hurt our ability to sleep... much. Don't worry, there was no crazy man visitor, but we did have visitors of a greener kind...

In the end, we had two sleeping girls, cuddled next to each other in the tent. No glow sticks were eaten, nor were the contents spilled all over the tent or the children.

Seriously?

Did someone actually call the creators of Snuggie and complain that their dog was cold and needed a snuggie? Whose dog would sit on their bottom like that to stay warm? I don't know about your dog, but my dog would act like a tornado to get that blanket off. Also, why are they dancing? Is it because it is a blanket with sleeves? They are happy that their hands are free? Maybe it makes them more hip. [I apologize for the quality of the video, I could not find one on youtube].

Weekend Wrap Up

I passed my National Exam! WooHoo! Now just have to finish [eh, start] my thesis! Once everything gets approved by the review board I am going to need to borrow kids between the ages of 3 and 5:11, so if you know anyone let me know!

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On Friday, Longwood Women's Soccer played Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk. Natalie started as left defensive back. :] We were so proud of her! She started the play that lead to the only goal of the game! Longwood won 1-0. Katie and Stephen even came to cheer her on. Of course, my dad sat right behind the goal (he brought Nat's dog to the game, and was not allowed inside the fence with him), a classic Dad seat. [sorry, no picture of him, left my camera at home and my phone doesn't zoom]

Proud sisters, sporting Longwood Soccer Shirts

She is the blue jersey closest to the camera

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I worked a 12 hour shift at work on Saturday. Crazy! I taught my 2 pre-k classes, we had 2 birthday parties [both of them I got to lead.. first time leading parties], and then we had Parent Survival Night. I am almost finished with my training to lead our Parent/Child classes. Next week I will lead a whole entire class, and if all goes well, the following week (when our fall semester starts) I will have one or two of my own Parent/Child classes.

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Sunday I got to have another actual day of summer. Carl and I went out on our friend's boat (cue the music... I'm on a boat!). Yes, we did have our flippy floppies. We went out with Katie, Stephen, and Katie's parents. Katie and I used to go all the time in the summer when we were younger. Back then, we used to love tubing. As we have gotten older, it has become a little less fun and a little more painful. We really like to relax, go watch the dolphins play (and were tempted to jump in a swim with them). This was Carl's second time ever going on a boat, both times have been on Katie's boat. This time we (Katie and I) wake boarded. I had never done it before, and there is a lot to remember [keep your arms straight, keep your knees bent, don't pull yourself up, let the boat do all the work, etc.]. Katie has gotten pretty good, lasting about 30 sec. to a minute up on her feet. I, on the other hand, if/when I got up, lasted about 10 sec. (and that may be a little bit of an exaggeration). I kept leaning forward once I stood up, and the front would go under and my feet would come right out of the boots! (I do have small feet, and they really didn't fit all that well to begin with). Oh well. It was still a great day. This morning I woke up and my neck and shoulders were very sore.

Aww... summer

Stephen had a nice seat

Enjoying the sun

Stephen and Katie

BFFs since 1992, haha

Me...

Katie... please note the difference, haha [I swear, there are pictures of me standing, but they are on Katie's camera]

Baby Ella

I lied, I went and saw Devyn and Ella today. She is so stinkin' cute! She mostly slept, but she let us know when she was hungry! I wanted to see her little eyes, so I had to unswaddle her and sit her up. She gave me the one-eye-stink-eye. hehe Devyn looks amazing, I'm hoping to look a tad bit as good as she does when I am pregnant/a week after having a baby. Tomorrow Ella will be a week old. It is so amazing how babies fit inside of women! Ella was 7 lbs, 5 oz. and 20 inches long when she was born. Here are some pictures from the visit (I didn't take many [2 to be exact] because I was busy cuddling a baby!).

She was awake for a little bit :]

She was screaming! She was a hungry baby!

Weekend Fun

I found out that I will be doing my internship at the Harborview CHKD location. It is in Suffolk, which isn't very far from my house. My supervisor has some "feeders" (those who have feeding defenses/aversions) on her case load and the OT there has some as well. I am super excited! I will also be able to go to the hospital and observe swallow studies (when people swallow food with barium and we watch on the x-ray) and cleft lip and palate surgeries!

Thursday I took Koal to the beach (so what if it was raining... you are going to get wet anyways) with Katie and her dog Riley. I just had to show for the record that Riley can be a calm dog (after terrorizing Koal, making him deaf by barking in his ear, fetching a ball nonstop, and running from one side to the other in the car the whole way there and back). But yeah, she was calm at the house.

I also went to my friend Sheela's baby shower with Kelly and Miss Emma. Oh how I love babies and baby shower (and really, any kind of shower). I am the best person to invite to these sort of things. I go a little crazy with gifts. Hence why, for my supervisor's baby shower a semester ago, Ashley had to go with me to Babies R Us and hold my hand so I didn't buy the whole store. I digress... it was a beautiful shower, her friends did a wonderful job, and we all got cute little candles with babies on them. Maybe I will have to light that when Carl and I start trying for babies, maybe it will be good luck.

Congratulations go out to my friend Devyn and her husband Josh. On Tuesday, she gave birth to her first baby, Ella Jean. :] Ashley and I will get to meet her this coming Tuesday and I will be sure to post some pictures. Just another baby to give me baby fever, sigh. Have I mentioned I love babies?! Even my sister's demon children (Ryleigh who suddenly turns into a terror and Molly who doesn't sleep) don't make "good birth control".

I mean, who wouldn't get baby fever from this face?!

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today (August 16 2008, if you didn't know), this happened:

My best friend and I were married! It has been a great year. There may have been some times when one of us made the other mad (ahem.. Carl), but that is to be expected. As one of my clients at the traumatic brain injury center said, "Making up is the best part, that's why I fight with my significant other." Moving on...

We did eat (take a tiny bite) of the delicious (freezer burned) wedding cake. And after we savored it (held our nose as we chewed, and chugged water afterward), we ate a piece of 2 day old cake from the same bakery. Now that was delicious!

We played some putt-putt (never go to the golf course by Ocean Breeze, it is not as fun as it looks), lounged by the pool, went an ate at Ninja, a Japanese Steakhouse. We ended the night by stopping by 7-11 for gas, a pickle (for Carl), and a Slurpee (for me). Carl came back to the car, tried to start the car and it wouldn't start. Sigh. I guess you can't have a perfect day, can you? Hopefully it is just the battery and not the alternator. I guess we will find out if this battery mysteriously dies.

To Farmville and Back

So it has been a crazy couple of days...

Thursday I finished up my internship at the traumatic brain injury center. Yay! Some of them were sad, some gave me kisses on the cheek (I even got some denture gunk left on my cheek as a departure gift.. eww), some of them just didn't get it.

Friday: Koal and I went to the beach with my sister's and their dogs. We met up with my friend Katie and her dog Riley while we were there. Koal isn't much of a "retriever", he just likes to swim around, checking on people, and laying in the surf. Later that night I went out to my friend's house for a "graduation" get together (they just finished up their last semester of grad school... I still have 2 more, boo!).

Dogs on the way to the beach.. Kai, Kona, Koal (l-r)

I don't think Koal was trying to get the toy, just making sure the other two were okay

Sister's last day in VB

Girls at Dawn's

Saturday: I worked all day, so nothing exciting.

Sunday: Carl and I went to my parents' house. We swam, we went and hit golf balls with my dad and sister, and then hit some softballs.

Monday/Tuesday: Mel, Natalie, and I drove with baby Molly the 3 hours to Farmville to take Natalie to Longwood. Molly did really well and we only had to stop once. Natalie thought she was still in Norfolk when she heard "gunshots" and high tailed it back into the car (shoving us out of the way "Save yourselves!"). It was just the trains bumping into each other. We had dinner that night with her coach (who was Mel's coach when she went to Longwood) and Mel's friend Amy (who also played at Lwood) and her husband. Molly decided that a pack and play was beneath her for sleeping and was up for good around 4 AM (with many other "wake ups"). Poor Mel. When the rest of us got out of bed at 6:30, we got some breakfast, met Nat's roommate and parents, and headed for Nat's physical. Mel and I roamed around campus, finding lots of entertaining things.

She's so excited to be headed on Lwood... still the youngest though and doesn't get shot gun.

It's a tough life... too bad she was awake 45 min. later

Just one of the fun things on campus

Aww

The new Lwood player and the one who will probably always be mentioned in any of Nat's write ups, haha.

Nat is all moved in and is now on her own. Apparently, preseason is not what it used to be and Mel has been scaring Nat for nothing. They have their first game in 4 days against VCU. I can't wait for them to play VWC so I can actually go see!

In front of her suite

This is how we left her... so mature

Useless Update

Nothing too exciting has been going on. I have 2 more days left at my traumatic brain injury center. I am sad to leave some of the guys (especially the one I am doing melodic intonation therapy- you sing functional sentences to the tune of a song to facilitate speech). I actually enjoyed this placement, even though I was sure I was going to hate working with adults. It has actually been really interesting. Each one is different, even though they all have had a brain injury. I have learned a great deal from my supervisor. She also has an awesome private practice full of different therapy options.

I did find out I will be doing my next placement at CHKD*, hopefully in the main hospital so I can do NICU feedings and swallow surveys. I have been bugging my director about the placement since I started this first placement. I really want to go observe a cleft palate surgery. My friend Ashley went and observed one and actually got to stick her hands inside the mouths of the patients!! Sooo cool!

Anyways, we are all patiently waiting for Devyn to give birth to baby Ella. Devyn, Ashley, and I went to dinner tonight. I was hoping her water would break while we were out to dinner tonight... but it didn't. :[ Here are some pictures of after dinner.

Can I please look this good 39 weeks pregnant?!

Ashley in her cute scrubs... I get to wear those all next semester! :]

I told you, this was a useless post.

*Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters