I am a P4!

You may have noticed that I have been posting frequently over the last few days. This is because I have had a tiny break from school as I officially transition from being a P3 to a P4...my final year of pharmacy school!!! You may also have noticed a new little toy on my sidebar; it is a countdown to my graduation date. And believe me, I and everybody else in my house is counting!

While I am very excited about being a P4, I am also suffering from a tad bit of apprehension. As most of you know, Abby Grace and I do not like being apart. With the P4 year, comes longer hours than we are accustomed to being separated. I'm sure we will both ultimately do fine, but in the meantime, I am asking for your prayers to help us through this final stretch...so that we may again spend our beloved time together when I am finally finished. What does my counter say today? 12 months and 5 days? WHOO HOO!

"F" Words

If you were to visit our house these days, you would hear a lot of "F" words. No, we have not suddenly taken a liking for cussing; F is just the letter we are focusing on first in speech. Last Friday, I took Abby for her initial speech evaluation. In terms of language, she is above and beyond, speaking in descriptive paragraphs. Her only setback, as expected, is her articulation. She does really well with her stop sounds such a B, D, P, and K but struggles with her continuous sounds such as F and S.

How do our sessions progress? We are on a home program where we see Karen (our therapist) once a week. Abby responded well to me so Karen felt that we would make more progress at home than we would seeing her multiple times a week. She gives us an assignment; we practice; we go back and hopefully perform our new tricks; then we get a new assignment. We will stay on each letter for 3-4 weeks before adding new material.

The first week was a success! I found that the car was a fun place to practice our F sounds, not to mention that I have a pretty captive audience while driving down the road. This week, we did things like F aaa and F ooo. Abby Grace "performed" nicely for Karen and we are moving on. Now we have flashcards with pictures of things like F ish and F eet and F an. I am typing this way because this is how we are saying these words...very Sesame Street...very fun!!! Plus we get to play with shaving cream (pictured), finger paint, and chalk to help us practice our sounds!!

Finally, I will leave you with a picture of Abby after we got home from speech on Friday. She could be found in the backyard, flaunting her flesh and fleeing through the fountains...okay, they were just sprinklers. :)

House Bird

See this picture? Apparently, a grackle has adopted our roof, and we have appropriately named him, "House Bird." It is fun to watch him eyeball us, and occasionally fuss, when we enter into the front yard. I think that he truly believes he is king of our yard. And why shouldn't he be? You don't see me perched on top of our roof!

Crazy Lady!!

Well, we all know who she is thanks to The Biggest Loser on NBC. But what I didn't realize, was how crazy Jillian Michaels is...until last Friday when I decided to embark in her 30 Day Shred adventure. I have never been a fan of workout videos; I think their sole purpose is to collect dust and make you feel guilty for the fact that they are collecting dust. In addition, why can't somebody just go walk or run? I'll tell you why!! Because that somebody has a 3-year old daughter who prefers to stop and pick dandelions every 5 steps. So that and a little encouragement from Big Mama sent me to Target to buy this thing. There are 3 levels, and myself, really thinking I am in pretty decent shape decided to humor Jillian for the first day by starting with level 1. Well, let me tell you, Jillian got the last laugh. I spent the entire weekend licking my wounds. By Tuesday, though, it had gotten easier so I decided to move up to level 2 today. How much harder could the second level be? Next to impossible...that is how hard! So once again, Jillian got the last laugh!

The dying question though is does the torture chamber work? The answer is "without a doubt, YES!!!" I was already seeing and feeling results by day 4. So if you can endure a little pain and suffering, then I highly recommend this video. You are welcome Jillian Michaels for the advertisement.

How?

I sent Jeremy and Abby to the backyard to sleep in a tent, and I am supposed to be studying. Problem being, I have senioritis and I still have a full year to go. More on that later. In the meantime, I have a list of things I want to blog about, and blogging happens to be more fun than pharmacogenetics. I mean, really, I can only read so many Jurassic Park quotes in one setting. Yes, the last lecture I studied had three such quotes. I digress.

How? How in the world can a person lose one, single black flip-flop? It was there last fall when I organized my closet, and if you know Amarillo, there is no way I have needed it since then. And the last time I checked, flip-flops, although they are shoes, do not walk by themselves. In addition, if it were this time last year that I had lost the flip-flop I might accuse Abby of taking it (and throwing it away) but she really doesn't do that anymore. Also, we can barely even make it to see our own parents these days, let alone take any tropical vacations, so the single flip-flop is not in Cancun either. Why am I so worked up over this flip-flop? The obvious...IT (as a pair) IS MY FAVORITE!!! So, my dear readers, if you see a single black flip-flop walking down the street where you may live, it is probably mine. Please send it home.

I must continue studying; the only way Jeremy could get Abby to go to sleep without Mama was promising her that I would be in the tent when she woke up the first time...usually by midnight.

Best Part Worst Part

What is the best part of my day? Picking Abby Grace up from school wherein the incessant chattering begins. I love the curiousity that she possesses and her desire to share every detail of her thought process with whoever might listen.

What is the worst part of my day? Picking Abby Grace up from school wherein the incessant chattering begins. She never stops to take a breath until she is beyond asleep...AHHHHH!!!

Either way, I am thankful that they are parts of my day.

The Birthday Party

"Mama, you want to come to Baby's birthday party?"

"Of course, I do. When does it start?"

"Let me get ready."

Abby then spent the next five minutes putting out plates and cutting cake, only to discover that she was lacking a few pieces of cake. Easy solution...use pizza slices.

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Gabby (baby of the day) and served icecream.

The party was pretty shortlived, though, because ALL of the babies must have contracted swine flu. Abby reported that they were all feeling sick and took their temperatures (pictured). The birthday party was over because all babies were then sick, crying, and needing to be held.

Upon getting them calmed down, it was bedtime. Notice where the babies' bedroom is...you've got it...my closet. I mean, why wouldn't I have 9 babies sleeping in my closet?

Finally, Abby went back to her kitchen to clean up from the party. With a sink full of dishes (to wash in the morning), she informed me that tomorrow is Liz's birthday and that we will have her party in the morning. I can't wait, and hopefully we will have no more swine flu outbreaks!!

Oh, and FYI, swine flu should really be called H1N1 due to its poor impact on the pig industry. But swine flu is really more fun for this purpose. And I must hope that all of my readers are fully aware that you can't get swine flu from eating pork or kissing pigs or whatever hoggish activities you may engage in. :)