It's official

Welp, it's official I will be spending Jan 5-Feb 27 at Valmir rehab hospital in OKC and March 9-May 1 at Shriner's Children Hospital in Houston. I'm really pretty excited. The hospital in OKC is a neuro rehab so I will mainly be dealing with stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury patients. I'm actually looking forward to working in this setting because it's going to be very different from anything else I've ever experienced. I chose Shriner's for my last clinical because I would like to get some good pediatric PT experience and what better place to get that than Shriner's. In all, even though we were last pick I ended up getting some really great clinical sites and am going to learn a lot to say the least. Also, if anyone reading this has a room to rent or knows someone who can use a temporary roomate let me know!

It's been a while...

Okay, I'm going to make another attempt at this blogging business. I pretty much summarized May-July in a few posts, but you'll get the jist. I am going to try to keep this regular, but sometimes there really isn't much going on. No kids, no pets...just little 'ol me. But I guess your interested enough if your reading this. Enjoy.

Amarillo Jewels.

So this weekend I managed to find 3 things I like about Amarillo. That's right, 3 in one weekend!
1) First Friday Art Walk
The first friday of every month there are about 30 different artists that have galleries in the sunset shopping center that open from 6-9 to display their work. It is definently a change of pace for this place. This month Jake, Becca, Jodie and myself decided to indulge ourselves in art, desserts and a few glasses of wine. We just browsed around for about 2 hours. There is a wide variety of art, anywhere from the not so talented to a guy who paints masterpieces in the dark. Apparently the spirit moves him to paint and can vary from indian elders to Jesus. He must have contact with all the spirits...the more the merrier I say :)

2) The Farmer's Market
Okay, so I'm reading this book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover (I highly recommend this book to everyone by the way). The book is about a family who decides to live solely on food that they grow themselves or is grown by local farmers. Anyways, it has encouraged me to support local farmers so off to the market I went saturday morning. Since I'm leaving town in a week I only got a few things, fresh sunflowers, potatoes, canteloupe and okra. But man, I made a fabulous pot of okra and tomatoes! I can't wait until I get back and can really load up on fresh veggies and fruit!

3) Spoonfed Tribe
Saturday night Shawna and I decided that we needed to get out of the house and went to a bar downtown, Burberry's, to listen to one of our favorite local artists, Josh Paulson play. Little did we know we were in for a treat. We were having a pretty good time, nothing crazy, just hanging listening to some good music. Later, our friends Jodie and Evan showed up and said the band that was coming on later, Spoonfed Tribe, was suppose to be pretty decent so we decided to stick around. Oh man, decent is a bit of an understatement! This was the most wonderful, energetic, rock, reggae, new age, hawaiian luau dance party I have ever been to. You couldn't help but jump around and dance a little. So. much. fun. I checked out their myspace page, but the music on there does not do them justice, you must see them live. If they are coming to your town, go see them! Kudos to Mr. Paulson for getting them to Amarillo fo sho!

Austin!

out on 6th

kayaking on town lake
rach took kelly on a romatical ride

rawwwrrrr (i don't even konw)

meat. plate.

Since I've lived in Texas all of my friends have told me on numerous occasions that I really need to visit Austin. They say it's like no where else in Texas and being a wannabe hippie and all, apparently it's the place for me...or at least a little more suitable than west Texas :) My good friend Grober is in grad school at UT so, Rach, J Brown and I decided to make a mini vacation trip down to see her. It was wonderful I got to hang out Becca, Grober, Rach, J Brown, Robert, Sally, and my roomie from AC Sarah! It was such a great time. We went to the Salt Lick BBQ....mmmmm meat plate! We played around Austin in the south congress area, headed to Barton Springs, went kayaking on town lake and partied on the infamous 6th street. It was so great to see everyone. I've decided that there are just some people that you need in your life; there are some people that you don't have to see or talk to regularly, but you know would drop everything and drive across country if you needed them. I hope everyone has that. Austin was soooo fun and it is definently going on the short list of places that I would like to live.

4th of July Camping!

So, one night Shawna and I decided that we wanted to go camping for the 4th. As you can imagine it took a lot of convincing to make me want to hang out in the mountains ;) We decided to go back to our beloved Red River, NM. So, Shawna, Chris, Jodie, Evan, Jake, Becca, Kat, Kyle, Zeus and I headed out for the weekend. All I can say is the Friemels are the best to go camping with because they have everything! We really had a blast. Oh, did I mention that Shawna purchased a tent the week before and set it up in our dining room...we were a little excited! Spending time outside with good friends is my happiness. Jake, Becca and I went on a marathon hike on saturday and were a little worn out by the time we got back, but it was definently worth it. Oh, and I must share a new camp recipe courtesy of Becca. Two words BANANA BOATS. Ok, take an unpeeled banana and cut a strip out of the peel and scoop out a little well in the banana. Then proceed to stuff as many marshmallows, carmel chips, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips as possbile. Wrap the entire banana in foil and place in hot coals for about 10 minutes and then prepare to have the best dessert of your entire life. I don't even like bananas, they usually make me gag and this is one of the best things I have ever eaten. Eating was a major part of the trip, fajitas, breakfast burritos and the classic hobo dinners...at least we didn't go hungry! The trip was all to short as always and we headed back to the flatlands on Sunday.

Back in west texas....

We made it back from Utah safe and sound. On the way back we took a little side trip in Colorado Springs and Manitou springs which was a great end to the trip. It was nice to get back into my own house, watching my own tv, being able to use my own kitchen, etc. I spent a few weeks at home hanging out with the fam and friends and then it was back to Amarillo...yes that is just as exciting as it sounds. Since then I've gotten back into the swing of school and life out here in the dessert. I'm pretty sure my time spent in the mountains just made me want to move there even more!

Southern Utah

Goblin valley in a cave

Goblin valley

Arches National Park

Can you find us?

Double O arch

Happy Birthday to me!

Some mandolin playing in Moab, I love it here!

mmmmm, breakfast!

Goblin valley

Delicate arch...this is the most famous one I think

We were pretty excited

Good group pic at arches

Aren't we cute :)

So this weekend we decided to head down to Moab for a little camping fun! We all took Friday off and headed down in the afternoon. Saturday we hiked ALL DAY at Arches National Park. It was amazing...I have never seen anything quite like it! All of the different rock formations were incredible and we had a great time just hiking and enjoying the great outdoors. It was also my birthday which made it even better and my wonderful roomate got a chocolate truffle cake so we could celebrate saturday night. Camping with good friends and chocolate is all a girl needs for her birthday right!?! So we woke up Sunday morning to another beautiful day, had the best eggs benedict ever at a restaurant in Moab, listened to a little mandolin playing and headed over to Goblin Valley. This place was crazy cool. It apparenly used to be underwater and wasn't "discovered" until the 1920's. All of these mushroom shaped rock formations are in this valley and you can hike all around them, crawl on top of them and even find a few neat caves. We eventually got back to SLC Sunday night and were worn out! But a great weekend none the less. Oh ya, I've been working too. Finally getting to work on my own with patients and am doing my own evals....but you don't really care about that :) Next weekend is Vegas so I'll let you know how that turns out!