Junior Year

So it is official, I start my junior year of college in less than 5 days. I am so excited and cannot wait to see what my classes are going to be like. It is really excited to be moved in and my 1st roomie has arrived and roomie #2 is coming tomorrow and we cannot wait. I also travelled around A quad and priced books. That was not a fun task. I totalled my books and it came to $500.00! Yikes, looks like I will be checking multiple websites and the library so I can discount those :) It is going to be a very fun and exciting year and I cannot wait for it to start!

Woo Wee!

So I have not blogged in a while. Technically, less than a week but still it feels like forever. A lot of crazy things happened since I last blogged so I figured I would tell you about them. I returned from Louisville on a Friday and the following day I loaded up my mom's car and mine and headed back to school. When I arrived I found out that my room was not ready because someone had been living there and had trashed the place. Well thanks to my fabulous mother and aunt they decided to clean the room instead of having house cleaning do it and they did a fabulous job. Now I am moved in and working in the Athletic Training Room for preseason athletics. I cannot wait for my other two roomies to get here, it is kinda lonely without them. After moving in on Saturday, my cousin and I went to Michigan for the day on Sunday. We have kinda started a tradition of going to U. of M.'s Football Fan Day. This is the second year we have gone and we had so much fun. We got to meet all 4 quaterbacks and the offensive line. They are really cool guys and not to mention good looking. The best part about this year's football fan day is that we will be heading back up to Michigan to watch the Wolverine's play against Univeristy of Miami Ohio. This is exciting because it is my cousin's first official college (not to mention Big 10) football game. While in Ann Arbor we also decided to look at some of the stores. Since we live in central Ohio it is nearly impossible to find any U. of M. item because apparently the Buckeyes are gods or something. So we hit the motherload of motherloads and found a ton of Michigan items and we were superstoked and cannot wait to go back up in three weeks!

Travel Report: Louisville

So today I got back from a vacation of visiting friends in Louisville, Kentucky. This is my first actual vacation in Kentucky. The drive from Ohio to Louisville was decent and enjoyable. My only problem was the bridge that connects the two states and I believe the fear of the bridge, I inherited from my mother. She absolutely hates bridges and this one made me nervous. It could have been the fact that this is the first time I have ever driven the bridge, I have ridden in a car over it but not driven it myself. Once in Louisville I realized how neat of a town it really is. It a large college town but it feels small when everyone knows everyone. Where my friends live were located in a perfect spot with hometown shops, ice cream shops, pizzerias, and bars. It was really nice and even though I felt I was in a quaint town I wasn't. We were able to walk to many places and the zoo was only 7 minutes away. I would definitely go back there and spend a vacation and it was really nice to get to relax. We were able to shop some at Mall at. St. Matthews and it was a lot of fun. There was all kinds of things to do even for youngsters and adults. So rating for Louisville: 5 stars :)

Common Courtesy

So I volunteer for a family for about two hours each week (or more) in helping their daughter who has autism. I have known this family for some time now and I willingly do this since I want to become an OT and focus on children with autism. Today was a fabulous day while I was working on tasks with the child, we were drawing shapes and she drew a smile face and dubbed it a monkey. Then we drew a circle she then added 2 eyes and a mouth and something on top of her head, she then looked at me and said "a queen." This took me by surprise because her imagination was working and we have never had her do this task before. Her mind is developing and her imagination is growing and it was really cool to see her be able to come up with this imagination. We scribbled for a bit and looked up and said "the ocean" and then proceeded to draw a king. It took my breath away to see her being able to react like and watching her grow each week just amazes me. However, my day was ruined when I went to leave. And when I mean ruined I mean that I was let down. I left saying good bye to the autistic girl and her sister I then proceeded just to say good-bye and the father completely ignored me. This is not the first time he has done this and I feel that he purposely ignores me because he knew I was leaving it wasn't like I was with a group or sneaking out, I was the only one leaving. He does this often and I normally let if roll off my back but some how I can't do that this time, it really is bugging me. I know that I have not done or said anything that is rude because I normally do not hang around the house long enough but I just don't know what I should do. Should I tell him I think what he does by ignoring me is rude or should I just let it roll off my back. The way he treats me is really getting in the way of my relationship with the girls because when I know that he is going to be at the house, I do not want to go over for a visit.

Bad day? NBD

So today I attended a kick off event for Walk Now for Autism by Autism Speaks. It was sponsored by the Limited Brands and besides the fabulous decor, great food and beverages, the speakers were phenomenal. There was an autistic teenager (16) who spoke, a mother who has in the past 12 years never spoke publicly about her son's autism and someone that made me realize that my bad days are not bad days. His name is Henry Slatkin. He is the president of Limited Brands' Home Design and has a nine year old son with autism. Before he spoke they showed a video about their son and how they did ABA therapy from about 8 in the morning till 6 at night and how he was unresponsive. This means that everything that Henry and his family told to their son he had no response because his brain could not comprehend what was being told to him. The sad thing about Henry and his family is that he informed us that his wife and him had decided to put him in a home because they could no longer take care of him. This put life into perspective to me. Could you imagine having to put your child who is nine years old into a home because you could not provide for him. Even though you had all the money and did everything you were told to do and nothing came out of it, no progress. I can not imagine, I am not a mother yet but to have to place your child in a home and to have to make the decision about the fact that you were not adequate enough is mind blowing-ly painful. I am very appreciative that as right now I do not have to make a decision like that and that my niece is making great progress. We, as humans always take things for granted and today I realized that I take my niece's progress for granted. Yes we are happy when she does something new but we want her to be a high functioning autistic person and right now she is not there. However from where she used to be with no therapy or vitamins she is high functioning and is doing great. So before you complain about a bad day think before you lash out or complain. Life could be worse

Beauty Announcement: Nail Colors

Growing up I never thought I would be the girl into make-up, nail polish, hair products, and clothes but that all changed when I 1.became a teenager 2.found a straightening iron and 3. got my nails professionally done for the very first time in eighth grade. Well one of my favorite obsessions besides handbags is nail color and my favorite collections come from the one and only OPI. I love all their colors and I even love their wide brushes. My new favorite thing about them is that they no longer use toxic ingredients such as DBP, toluene, and formaldehyde. However they have a new collection out and I am super super excited. I was flipping through one of my magazines that I had recently received in the mail trying to find another nail color ad (Revlon has a new collection out too and they look fabulous as well!) when my sister asked me if it was the new OPI one I was looking for. I immediately stopped looking for what I wanted to show my sister and flipped out. I could not believe that I had missed their add however when I did finally see it, it made up for! Their new colors coming out in this collection titled Couture Couleurs, La Collection de France are absolutely exquisite and I cannot wait for my nail guy to get them so I can try them. I have attached a link for you to see them because I am so excited that they are out!

OPI: http://www.opi.com/France.asp

Book Review: The Game of my Life

This book is written by Jason McElwain. You may recognize the name, he is a nineteen year old autistic boy who on the night of his senior basketball game scored 20 points in the last 3 minutes. Jason who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 was his high school's team manager for the four years he attended. When he tried out for the Varsity team and was cut, the Coach asked him to be the manager and Jason said yes. The coach also made a promise that on Jason's senior night he would get to dress. He may not have been able to play but he was definitely going to get to dress. Well luck just so has it that Jason's team, Greece Athena, was winning by a lot and was put in with 4:19 to go. After shooting two shots that missed he lit up and according to him was "hot as a pistol" Scoring 20 points, the game's high scorer. This book is truly an inspiration to families everywhere who deal with hardships. This book touches me closely because a girl that I refer to as my niece has autism and our dream for her is to be able to live by herself one day. Very well written this is a must read for anyone and everyone. The book is laid out perfectly and is a page turner. Even though I knew how the end was going to turn out I just had to keep reading and reading. This gets a 5 out of 5 on my scale.

Getting Ahead

So this summer I had a to do list. On this list was finish a t-shirt quilt and other sorts of stuff I would like to do while I was home. Well....I added something to the list and decided that instead of making it a this summer project I am going to make it a next summer project. When my mother was young, her mother (my grandmother) bought her a wooden toy chest. Well when I was born she re-did the chest and gave it to me. After being a baby toy chest, a boat, a to refrigerator, a baby bed, and a trunk for all of my marvelous costumes it was put away and has not come out of storage for over three years. I want to re-do it again and turn it into a chest that I can put all my blankets it (I have quite a few). After two hours of just getting the top finish off I decided to call it quits because it was going to be more work then what I wanted to get into and will hopefully be done in another year. So by next year at this time I will hopefully be blogging about my next great accomplishment. Re-finishing an old toy chest!