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!