Resolutions - a few weeks late

I think it's pretty obvious that one of my new years resolutions this year was NOT to be more on top of things, given that my post reviewing last year and talking about new years resolutions is 11 days late haha! Anyway ...

2010 has been a crazy year. It will forever be known as the year I went crazy. However, the year I went crazy turned out to be one of the best of my life. I may have spent a good $2500, and lost all my living room furniture in the process, but moving to Colorado and back in 2 weeks flat sure helped me learn to appreciate the things in my life that matter. The move (and subsequent move back) forced me into getting a job at a new school, forced me into meeting new people, and overall forced me into mixing my life up a bit. What a blessing that turned out to be! I LOVE my job, LOVE my new friends, LOVE living with one of my favorite people ... the list goes on and on. Moving made me realize how good I had things here, and moving back made me love my life and appreciate it much more. I'd say the outcome was pretty darn good.

On to the resolutions. First, let's review last year's:

- volunteer at least once a month I did this through July, then I moved, and thus the volunteering stopped

- read through the entire bible I was reading through my one year bible and made it through the month of may, then somehow I just stopped completely

- try at least one new thing each month (could be as simple as a new type of food, restaurant, activity, etc) Um, I think I managed documenting this through March, though I'm sure somewhere in there I tried new things. Heck, moving was new, new job, new home, new pet, etc) I'd say I did enough new.

- Project 365 - I missed about 90 days the entire year, all of which were after I moved back from CO. Life got a little crazy, and while I still posted when I could, it definitely wasn't daily. The whole point of this was to take more pictures though, which I definitely did, so I'd consider it a win either way

So on to this year.

- As with every year of my life, I resolve to lose weight (though I'm not going to mention how much), and work out regularly. Unfortunately, I'm off to a bad start with a bum foot which leaves me unable to work out. darn.

- Do something to start building a photography portfolio. I may actually want to do something with this hobby someday (as a job or just on the side) so I want to get some more practice photographing different things and groups of people. This may include giving some free photography sessions to people I know just for the experience; it may include taking a class; maybe something else... all I know is I'm going to make an effort to learn more about taking good pictures, and practice what I learn.

That's about it this year. I'm not making 15 goals for once. I'm making two. Two that I can accomplish. I'm happy with them.

Oh, and maybe post to my blog more ... we'll see haha

Packing and Baby Fever

I have to apologize, I haven't posted anything here in almost a month! yikes! In my defense, I have been crazy busy and stressed with the end of the year, and my internet hasn't exactly been working well the past few weeks. Since the internet hasn't been working I haven't even been able to upload photos so I'm even way behind in that. Good thing summer starts next week. Maybe I'll be able to play catch up then haha.

In recent news: I have officially packed up and moved everything out of my classroom. I was becoming very overwhelmed with all the random boxes and stuff around which was leading to some very near panic attacks during the day so I had to just get it out. Tony came and helped me move all my stuff to Betty's garage today so as of tonight I am DONE. The only thing left in my classroom is furniture, a large stack of lined paper, and a cup of pencils. Ridiculous? yes. Do I have ANY idea what we are going to do the rest of the week? no. oh well. At least the stress is gone haha.

Also, I have serious baby fever. Not that this is new exactly; I've been saying I want a baby for years haha ... but this week it is especially bad. One of my teammates had a baby in March and she has been coming up with the baby after school to get some packing done. Well, the baby likes to be held ALL the time, so I offered to hold her while Shelly packed. I held her for an hour 2 days in a row after school. I played with her, fed her, and rocked her to sleep. 7 different people walked by and saw me holding her and told me "that looks good on you. You're a natural". This is how the baby fever began.

Then, yesterday at the hospital I held 3 different babies the whole 2 hours I was there. The first one I held until she fell asleep and 3 different nurses stopped to ask me if I could stay forever because they hadn't seen that child sleep yet. They said no one had been able to calm her down and there must be something very calming about me. "you really have a knack for that, you must have kids of your own huh?" um no. But now I think I need one.

So, baby fever is in full force. haha Now if only I could find myself a husband and have a baby tomorrow. likely? not at all hehe

Volunteering

I'm way behind in my blogging again; I apologize.

So I am really loving this volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital. The way it works is every week once I clock in I go to the patient board. On the board there are slips of paper for children that need visitors. You are supposed to pick a few, pack a bag of stuff to play with, and then go see if they are in need of a visitor at that time. I tend to usually pick all the babies first, then kids under the age of 5. I just love the little ones! Every week I have gone so far, I have spent my evening holding a number of babies, then playing with another child. This week however, was different.

This week when I went I checked the board and took all the babies as usual. Plus, I took the slip for a little boy I have played with every week since I started. I started on the highest floor and made my way down. Every last one of those babies was sleeping! I kid you not! My last stop was to see the little boy, but he was sleeping too. Seeing as how I had no patients to visit, and a lot of time to kill, I figured I'd just ask a nurse if she knew of anyone else who might like a visitor at that time. She directed me to the room of a 13 year old boy. Normally I wouldn't pick a kid that age to visit, I don't know what to say to them! But, I had just asked her who needed a visit, so how could I back out? So I poked my head in and asked how he was doing. He immediately told me to come in because he was so bored by himself. I ended up staying in there playing star wars video games with him for an hour. He was so much fun! When I left he was so grateful that I had hung out with him for awhile. He was all smiles and must have said thank you like 20 times.

With the little ones you know they have fun, but they can't really express gratitude like someone older can. It made me feel really good. Next week, I think I'll pick some more older kids to go visit ... along with some babies of course, how can I give up that?!? hehe

Texas Children's Hospital

Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to posting about this, but I've been busy (I sound like a broken record, I know haha). Last week was my first week volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital. I am SO excited about this volunteer position, I really think I am going to love it!

I shadowed someone last week to get a feel for the hospital and what to do. The lady I shadowed has been there 11 years, so she knew everything there was to know. The whole thing is really laid back, which I really like. Basically they have this board with cards with kids information on them. These are kids whose parents have requested someone come in or the nurse has. The card has their name, their age, and their sex. You choose a few you want to visit, dig through the closets to find some games or books that a child that age might like, then you go visit them. You can hang out with them in their room and play games and chat, or if they are able, you can take them to the play room on the floor. Some are just babies, so you just hold them (um, my personal favorite! haha). If a nurse needs help keeping a kid distracted, you can pop in help. Like I said, very laid back. The point is just to hang out with kids when the parent needs a break, or when there is no one there with them.

Tomorrow will be my first day by myself. I'm a little nervous, but I also can't wait. I'll keep you posted on how it goes (though I can't guarantee it will be any time this week haha)

Treasure - Part II

Awhile back, I posted about what I had been doing in December to volunteer my time, and mentioned that I had something else in the works for this year. I am quite certain that you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what that was (haha!) and I am finally ready to share that with you.

So, starting in a few weeks, after all my paperwork is completed, I am going to be volunteering for a few hours, every Tuesday evening, at Texas Children's Hospital. :)

Despite the fact that I currently feel like death has wrapped his boney fingers around me and is slowly pulling me down into his black pit (I kid, but really, I haven't felt so sick in years! I feel AWFUL!) I made it up to Texas Children's today for my volunteer interview. Under any other circumstance I would have tried to reschedule, but I already had to schedule this over a month in advance, and today is the only weekday for awhile that I don't have to go to work. So, I got the fever under control, pulled myself together, and went to my interview at noon. I met with a very nice lady and we chatted for about 45 minutes. She shared with me all the different opportunities they have for volunteers, and I decided to start my placement as a patient pal. Basically I will go to Texas Children's every Tuesday from 5-7 and talk to individual patients, read them stories, play games, do puzzles, or just hold babies. The point is to give parents a break and give the kids something fun to do. I could not be more excited about this! I cannot wait to get started! Unfortunately, it will be a few weeks still before everything will be in order and I can attend an orientation.

After the interview, I got super lucky and they said they could squeeze me in for my TB skin test while I was there since I live so far away. This is really awesome because now I can just have my school nurse read the test on Wednesday, sign off my paperwork, and fax it back in. Saves me a LOT of driving just to have someone look at my arm for 2 seconds. So, I headed over to the clinic to get my TB test done. I have had a lot of these skin tests done because you have to have one every year in college to be allowed into classrooms, so I know what they are like. EVERY single time thus far, I have passed out afterwards. I have a serious fear of needles. This isn't even a big needle; I realize it's no big deal, but every single time after it's over I start thinking about the needle in my skin, get lightheaded, and pass out. I have now learned that I have to ask the nurse to let me sit there for a few minutes to prevent this from happening, but I was sort of scared of this lady as when I first walked in I overheard her making fun of the lady before me for crying when she got a tetanus shot. Didn't seem like she was going to be too sympathetic to how absolutely pathetic I am, so I didn't say anything. She gave me the shot, I felt a little lightheaded but shook it off, walked out of the office, my vision started to blur a little, I leaned back against the wall in the hallway (where the scary nurse could no longer see me) and stood there like a crazy person for a few minutes. But guess what?!? I didn't pass out! HUGE progress here! haha

Since I wasn't expecting to get the TB skin test done today I ended up being out a lot longer than planned. I felt fine pretty much the whole time, then on the way home I started to feel a little run down again. That may have something to do with when the last time I took any Advil was though ... but no worries, I have since taken some more.

So, that's my big news of the day! I'm going to be volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital every Tuesday for the next 6 months. I am SO excited about this I cannot even tell you! :)