Almost April

Well, it's almost April - hard to believe we've been here since December 11th! This is the longest period of time I have gone without seeing my parents and I am getting very excited to see them for Heidi's college Graduation in the middle of May!

Josh, Matt, and I played golf together today. It was a beautiful day and I am proud to announce that I have begun keeping score- well, sort of. I have graduated from not keeping score at all to putting down a "frowny face" or a "smiley face" in the score card for each hole. It was fun to take the game a little more seriously- if one can call the cute little faces Josh drew for me serious.

Matt has been keeping busy with his classes and homework and Josh has been doing the same old, same old. No new news on the flight school date front.

Tomorrow I will begin another busy work week, and this weekend I will work my first weekend. From here out I will need to work a weekend a month. Although I am not thrilled about this, I will have a chance to know what weekends I am responsible for way in advance, so this makes it a little better.

Some other exciting news is that Josh and Matt's grandpa may be coming for a short visit next week. We are looking forward to spending some time with him if it all works out!

That's all for now!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt is here!

Sadly, his flight was delayed on Monday and he arrived at 2:30 am into Mobile, AL (originally he was supposed to fly into Pensacola). Sooo....we celebrated his birthday one day late on Tuesday (and no, not at 2:30 in the morning).

(these candles look suspicious)

(Whitney, I know your tricks, I know exactly how to blow out re-lighting candles)

(Josh looks like he's had more blue icing than cake!)

Matt has been keeping very busy with 8 hours of class a day and then homework at night.


All of his books laid out to read

(getting sleepy)

Matt and Josh had a chance to fit in 9 holes of golf after work yesterday (thanks to daylight savings!)

I continue to love my job, but have not had too much time for golfing.

I have patients that never want to see me again, patients that want to buy me a box of chocolates, patients that require heavy lifting, patients that require no lifting at all, patients who don't remember me from day to day, patients who wish they didn't remember me from day to day, patients that say "thank you", and patients that say "no thank you"- and "go away"! At the end of the day, I suppose the good even out the bad, but somehow I am still able to walk away rejuvenated and satisfied.

I love my work and thank God for the opportunity to interact with so many people from different walks of life. It is so neat to learn about their life stories. Lately, I work from about 7:00-3:30/4 and then I have been trying to make it to the gym so that I can lift my patients without hurting myself (and I suppose keep up my girlish figure).

Well, that's all for now! Thanks for visiting.

We love visitors!

In preparation for Matt's (Josh's brother) arrival for a month of training in Pensacola, we bought a guest bed and finally put our guestroom to good use! Matt will arrive on his Birthday (Monday) and then stay for about a month.


(Picture of the guestroom before this weekend)

(another "before" picture. The navy curtains were hung by the owner when we rented the house)


"After" pictures: I've always loved the colors blue and brown together and we had lots of beachy accents laying around, so we made the room "beach themed"



(Mom Albright made the shell wreath on the wall around the time of our wedding)

After three trips to target, I finally picked out some curtains I liked. Our bedroom doesn't have curtains yet, haha.



Wall hangings over the bed



I tied back the curtains with some jewels I found in the craft aisle of walmart

Every time I asked Josh to come into the room to help me hang something he had to get under the covers and experience the coziness before he did his chores.


We always enjoy visitors and hope to see some of you all some time soon! ;)

Presenting in Dallas

As some of you may remember from an earlier post, I mentioned a few months back that I was submitting a few abstracts for review to see if I might have an opportunity to present some of the SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) research I did with a rehab doc and another OT at Jefferson during my schooling there.

While the abstract for my personal research project was not accepted to be presented at the conference (the qualitative study I did for my final research project), two of the other abstracts that I submitted with the Rehab Doc from Jefferson were accepted!

What does this all mean?

Hopefully, if all goes as planned, I will have an opportunity to present in Dallas, TX at the Congress of Spinal Cord Medicine Conference (September 23-26, 2009). I will be presenting and publishing alongside the rehab doctor that I worked closely with during my last year at Jefferson. In the next several months we will be communicating long-distance to create a final presentation and a publication. I am thrilled to have an opportunity like this so early in my career and hope to maintain these types of connections throughout the years ahead.

I apologize if anything mentioned above is incoherent or difficult to understand. I am very tired from work! This week I have had 13 visits each day and I am loving my job. My patients come in all shapes and sizes and I enjoy them very much.

Have a great week!

A history lesson for Edgar

Many of you have asked if Edgar ever goes outside and I have always replied, "no no! What if a hawk swooped him up!?"

Yesterday, Josh thought "it was time" for Edgar to get a little history lesson (i.e. learning what it's supposed to be like to be a guinea pig so that he will learn to appreciate his posh lifestyle all the more).
Guinea pigs travel in large families in Peru and they are heavily preyed upon animals (by animals and humans alike).

Although we did not share this piece of information with our little guy, we thought it would be fun to expose him to the great outdoors (very carefully, I might add).

Don't let the aerial view deceive you- he is a very large guinea pig

(Josh coaxing him onto the grass with a green bean)

(Edgar seeking security behind Josh's legs and under the chair)

(Can't I go inside now? What did I do wrong to deserve this?!)
Edgar did take a little nibble on the small amount of grass we have in the back yard, but he was not impressed ;)

(Did I do that??? Only kidding...it's some spilled potting soil)

I can't believe it's March!

Time sure does fly. Although Edgar may disagree with this fact being that Mom and Dad are gone most of the day....our seedlings seem to be growing like weeds! (Yes, we purposefully put the cucumber plant nearest to Edgar or the window- depends on one's perspective)





























A few updates from the Cradle of Naval Aviation:

I have been working at my new job for 2 weeks and some change now and love it. I am surrounded by some great therapists, the patients are neat, and the facility has some great resources. So far I can actually say that I come home and feel like I can relax! A feeling I have not been too familiar with over the last 5 and a half years. It may take some getting used to.

Josh continues to await news of when he will begin flight school or "class up". Rumor has it he may be starting up on March 20th.

We are anxiously awaiting Matt's arrival on his Birthday (and Heidi's Birthday for that matter)- March 16th- yippee!

This weekend we hope to explore a new part of town toward the "Pensacola Beach" area if it is nice enough to walk around.

That's about all I can think of for now :)

Thanks for visiting!