Last day of the year...

As it is the last day of 2008, so it is time for reflections on the year, and time to make a resolution. Okay, so maybe not an official resolution, but everyone should take the time to think about things that we can change to make ourselves better people and make a better year.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and kept in mind that there is more to Christmas than just getting gifts and Santa. We should all take time to remember the true meaning of Christmas, the Nativity story, and the love and family involved. And as Tiny Tim would say in "Christmas Carol" "and God bless us, Everyone!"

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Toby

Toby wanted to wish everyone who reads my blog a Merry Christmas! He is very excited and hopes that Santa brings him all of the things that he asked for. He said he gives lots of puppy kisses to everyone!

Christmas Eve!

As it is Christmas Eve here in the US, it is Christmas Eve night in places like Australia and New Zealand, and Santa has began his famous journey. NORAD has began its annual Santa Tracker, and above is some video that they were able to find of Santa traveling over Auckland, New Zealand!



I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Next Assignment

As I know many of you have been awaiting my final decision of where in the US I will travel next, I finally know. After much debate and consideration, I decided to go to Texas for my next assignment. I was looking at assignments in the larger cities, and interviewed and was accepted to work as an acute care PT at the Medical City Hospital in Dallas, TX (click the link above to view the webpage). This hospital is a large hospital, and offers 5 specialty hospitals of: Cancer, Heart, Transplant, Women's, and Children's. I should be able to have the opportunity to learn many great things at this hospital, as well as hopefully learn to work with patients who have just had transplants or other difficult procedures. I am very excited, plus, Dallas will be a fun city to live in!

Toby on the Beach

Toby wanted to go for a walk on the beach today, and he had a blast! He was such a good boy and enjoyed sniffing the shells and looking at the seagulls.

Sunrise at Wrightsville

Here are some pictures of the sunrise this morning as seen from the 3rd floor deck area at the beach house on Wrightsville Beach. The pictures do not do it justice, it is really beautiful!

Candy Time!

It's that time of year again! My mother and I spent time tonight making our yearly Christmas Candy. We made peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge, chocolate covered peanut butter balls (shown in the picture in the before and after chocolate coating phases), and Ritz peanut butter crackers coated in white chocolate. Yum, yum!

And the verdict is...

My step-sister is having twin boys! Congratulations Kellie and Josh!

Christmas Deliveries!

Tis the season for Christmas cards and package deliveries! The vendors at work have been bringing yummy goodies, so that is nice. Also, I got two packages in the mail today from friends. One was a wonderful goody basket for myself and my family and the other was a gift from my best friend. Toby was very happy with the latter gift, as it contained a nice set of small bones for him. As you can tell from the pictures, he was very anxious to get into the present!

Thank you to all for the Christmas Cards and presents!

Hallmark Snowmen

This weekend, my mother and I went into Hallmark and purchased this year's dancing/singing snowmen. She has gotten them every year for about 4 years or so, so we couldn't resist. Here is a video of the dancing/singing snowmen, they are quite cute!

The "herd" is emerging...

At night, you can barely see the wreaths

As seen from the front door

Before the wreaths

Last night, we began to unpack the deer and trees and put them together. Today, we finally got our deer placed in the yard. After a break to thaw out, we then hung the wreaths on the windows and the garage. There still may be a few changes to come, as in we are trying to decide what to do with the upper windows and also if we should put the moose out as well. If you cannot tell, at this point, there are two trees (one that changes from blue to white lights), and 5 deer (two large, two medium that are animated, and one small baby). We also have some other things that we may place outside in the next week, you'll just have to wait to see!

Neighbor's House

Our same neighbor who had the fun Halloween decorations up, now has an entire yard full of Christmas decorations. On the way home from work a few days ago, I snapped these pictures. They really do not do it justice as there are so many fun decorations in their yard (front and back). I hope that you enjoy! We should be getting some of our "herd" out this weekend, I'll be sure to share pictures when it goes up.

Time for Christmas Cheer

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to decorate for Christmas! We got our tree decorated, and sometime this weekend, we will work on getting the lighted deer and other decorations in the yard. Look, Toby even has his penguin toy with a Santa hat out to play with.

Black Friday Shopping!

In an attempt to boost the economy, my mother and I did our part today during Black Friday shopping! We began this morning at Wal-mart at 5 am (I can't say that I recommend this, as it was very poorly managed and people were acting like idiots). We made it to Target in time to get in line to enter the store at 6 am, where we were able to obtain the purchases that we were hoping for. We made a quick stop to Best Buy to get some Blu Rays; where I might add that this is the shortest trip that I have ever had in Best Buy for Black Friday shopping, there was barely a line (I think I stood in line for about 3 minutes. We then went to Macy's to get a few items we were looking for, and a few we didn't expect to get, but were too good of deals to pass up. Finally, we ended up picking up my step-sister and went to the mall for our final excursion. As you can see, the car trunk was absolutely FILLED (and this is a rather large trunk). Overall, a great day of shopping, and boy am I ready for a nap!

Thanksgiving Laughs

I went down to SC to have dinner and spend time with my family. While lunch was cooking, we were being silly and all decided to sit on each other's lap. From left to right it is my mother, my aunt Jamine, myself, then my aunt Joy. We had a bunch of fun today, and even got to play the Wii to burn off some calories from the amazing meal. Who would have ever thought my grandmother and grandfather would be playing a video game and enjoying it!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Early Thanksgiving Shopping

My mother and I woke up early this morning to get to K-Mart at 7 am for their Thanksgiving Day sales. The crowds were much shorter and we were able to get a Blu-Ray player and a Wii Guitar Hero on a great sale! Time to drive to SC for Thanksgiving!

Spencer/Salisbury Christmas Parade

Today, I was driving to work and noticed an unnatural amount of cars parked on the side of the road and by the train museum. I then remembered, after seeing a sign that reminded me, that it was the day for the Spencer/Salisbury Christmas parade today from 2-5 pm. Thankfully, we were able to leave work at noonish due to low census (as many of our patients were discharged today, and most hospital patients would decline coming to Rehab to return home for Thanksgiving). As I was driving home, one lane on each side of the road was already closed off, and the vendors were already out selling hot chocolate, balloons, and other trinkets. Parking was already becoming an issue, and people had their lawn chairs and blankets out to enjoy the parade. It was really funny to see such a big crowd forming 2 hours early for a local parade, but I guess it is good timing since children are out of school and some parents probably took off as well. I'm just happy that I got through the traffic and didn't get caught having to find an alternate route home!

Happy Early Thanksgiving everyone!

Snow!

We woke up this morning to have a small amount of snow in the yard and on my car. It was nice to see, and thankfully, it is not bad enough to be on the roads. Very pretty way to start the morning.

The Farm House

As our caseload at work is down a bit, we all decided to go to the Farm House for lunch today. It looks like a log cabin that has been converted into a restaurant, and it was nice Southern style cooking. There was even a nice cozy fire burning on one side of the room. We all had a great time, and it was nice to go eat somewhere new and see part of Salisbury.

Funny Picture

Sorry, that there haven't been many blog posts during this assignment, but I've been taking it easy and enjoying being home. Rest assured, next assignment, when I'm in a new city, I will be sure to post more. Here is a cute picture that I took of Toby yesterday after I gave him a bath. He was silly as always running around!

Happy Veteran's Day

I just wanted to take the time to thank all of the Veteran's past and present for serving for our country. Happy Veteran's Day!!! By the way, this picture was taken at the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, HI.

Interesting Patients

Two new patients were admitted today, and wow are they both unique! The patient I evaluated has a touch of dementia, and is a bit of a drama queen, so whenever we start to move her, she screams out at the top of her lungs. When informed that yelling is not appropriate behavior and she has to stop or she will disturb the other patients, she replies "I'm so sorry, I won't do it again." Just to scream again as soon as we start to try to get her to move again. She also changes the subject when she doesn't want to participate or wants to stall by saying "you sure are pretty" or "I really do like your top, that is very pretty." Very funny!

The other patient is going to be a tough one. She is very much used to having things her own way, and believes that she can dictate how her therapy is going to be performed. She believes that she will get out of the 3 hours a day, that is required by law and insurance to perform. She also doesn't realize that the entire point to therapy is to perform all of the activities herself. At the end of the day, when the OT was completing her last time with her, she helped the patient to her room. The patient demanded the OT to take her shoes off, the OT said that she needed to do this herself, as this is why she is in therapy. The patient said that she would just get in bed with her shoes on, and the OT told her that it was her choice, so the patient threw herself in bed, took off her shoe, and threw it at the OT! Needless to say, the OT was not a happy camper, but at least she wasn't hit by the shoe.

Looks like we are in for an interesting week next week.

Congratulations to Obama/Biden

In a landslide election, the US decided that they wanted "Change" and elected Barak Obama as the next President. I know that this will be a tough next four years, and good luck to Obama and Biden in turning around the state of the US as it is today.

Election Day

Today is election day, I just wanted to remind everyone to go out and vote! Remember, only a few votes decided the last Presidential election, so every vote counts. Also, you can't complain about the President if you don't vote. It should be interesting either way to see who wins this election.

Good luck to McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden!

Kites!

After lunch, we went down to the beach and saw tons of giant kites. Apparently, the local kite club decided to have a kite day and brought out all of their big kites to show off. They were SOOOOO big and so pretty. I cannot say that I've ever seen so many pretty kites before. There was a nice breeze to keep the kites flying, and the temperature was in the 70s.

Wilmington

We went for dinner tonight at Reel Cafe in downtown Wilmington. It was just around sunset, so we walked down to the waterfront to get a good view. We were able to see the USS North Carolina in the background, as well as two of the bridges. Very nice view and great weather!

Happy Halloween

I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween! We got festive at work and decided to decorate our tiny skeleton for the occasion! Our patients thought we had lost our minds, little do they know... Sorry that this got posted a bit late, but after work, I rushed straight home and then it was off to the beach. I hope for it to be a nice and relaxing weekend. Also, hopefully, the weather will warm up so that I can get some nice walks on the beach. Unfortunately, these beaches aren't nice and warm year-round like they were in St. Thomas (I definitely miss that).

New Toy

Since I worked so much overtime last week and I have been hearing from my coworkers how much fun the Wii and the Wii Fit are, I decided to buy one. I was able to find a good deal on E-Bay for the Wii Fit bundle, so I bought one. The delivery came today, and I am very excited to get it installed and start playing. I'll let you all know how much fun it is!

Decisions, Decisions

Well, I'm trying to decide where I want to go on my next assignment, but I'm not sure where I want to go. I've heard that there is a lot of fun things to do in California, but I know there are more exciting things to do in other places. Please, everyone, make your suggestions on where you think would be a good place to go for my next assignment from January until March!

Fall Decorations

Since I posted a picture of the neighbor's house the other day, here is a picture of our front porch. We put a few decorations up for the fall to get in the decorative spirit. I cannot wait to put the "herd" up for Christmas, it will be very exciting (don't worry, I will post pictures of the progress).

Halloween Decorations

As some of you know, there is a neighbor who always goes out in decorating their yard for the holidays. The first few days of October, they put up the inflatables, so I took a picture yesterday and thought I would share. After all, Halloween is next week! I believe I counted 12 decorations in the yard.

Gas Prices

As I am driving 40 min. to and from work daily, I am very interested in gas prices. Thankfully, I was happy to see this morning that the prices had dropped down below $3 a gallon. While I know that SC has been seeing lower prices for a week or so now, it has just dropped in the Triad region. This should help make my weekly gas bill less scary!

Busy Day

As I have finally completed my meetings and other orientation type tasks to get acquainted with this hospital, we are ramping up to the full amount of 10 patients for the Rehab Unit. Today, I was able to see a complete load of 5 patients for me. I know, 5 patients may not seem like a lot, but in the Rehab world, it is a full load. What you have to keep in mind is that each patient must receive at least 2 therapies (OT, PT, and speech), and receive a minimum of 3 hours of treatment total. This means that I am treating each patient for at least 1 1/2 hours a day. So, with 5 patients, that means a total of 7 1/2 hours of treatment time. Thankfully, some of these patients are seen two at a time, so that helps some in keeping things flowing smoothly. I am very excited to be working at full capacity now!

Bye Bye Tommy Bowden!

Happy news today in Tiger Town! It was announced today that Tommy Bowden, after 10 seasons at Clemson, will no longer be the coach of the Clemson Tigers football team. This season has not been great and half-way through the season we are 3-3 overall, and 1-2 in the ACC...this should not be the record for a team who was ranked #9 in the preseason and expected to win the ACC championship this year. Thankfully, the Offensive Coordinator Rob Spence was also fired, as he has been making very poor calls for the past few years. We will have an interim head coach fill in for the last games.

Hopefully, this will be a turning point for the Clemson football team, and next year we will have a coach who the players respect and can turn things around.

Zoo Slideshow

Here is a little slideshow that I put together with the pictures that I took from the zoo yesterday. There are several more good shots, but if I put all of the pictures on here, it would be way too long. I hope that you enjoy, and turn the sound on to hear Savage Garden's "The Animal Song."

Fun at the Zoo!

We went to the NC Zoo today, located in Asheboro, NC. We had a lot of fun and got to see the lions getting their daily treat of a fake Ostrich filled with meaty goodies! There were Elk, Bison, Rhinos, Elephants, and all kinds of animals. The weather was great and the animals were pretty active. I definitely recommend the zoo if you are in the area and have the time.