It's almost Christmas!

It's hard to believe this time last year I was in school! Now, I've completed my 90 days of orientation at work and am officially employed as a full time CHKD occupational therapist, and I absolutely, positively adore my job. It's amazing, and I am so thankful every day that I've gotten the opportunity to do this!

For anyone who missed it, here's our end of the year Christmas card:

So, in other exciting news, Seth and I were able to go look at what we thought would be our new house! It was gorgeous inside with truly amazing views. There's just one tiny problem.... It had major termite damage below and leakage, and a serious risk of the porch falling in one day. So, not so tiny problems... It did show us what we want, though, in a house in terms of layout, as it was pretty much perfect on that front. :-) So, the house hunt will continue when more houses come on the market this spring.

We have our families coming over for Christmas this year! My parents, Seth's parents, my brother, and his fiance are all coming over, then we have the group Christmas at my grandmother's, followed by what will be well earned drinks. That morning, I'm going to make a casserole for breakfast, and we have mimosa ingredients, eggnog, and pomegranate sparkling cider. It's going to be awesome! We have all the presents under the tree, and we even have Rosie's stocking stuffers! She was very excited when I brought home the candy cane braided bone from Target.... And super disappointed when I didn't pass it over immediately.


So, that's about it! We are excited about Christmas and family visits and all that good stuff. :-) And food, obviously. 2013 is almost over, and it's been a fantastic year!

It's Nearly Thanksgiving!

Omigoodness, it's nearly Thanksgiving! I've been working for over 60 days now as an Occupational Therapist, and I love it! It's amazing, and I'm so blessed because I have awesome, amazing coworkers. Plus, I can walk to work normally! That's pretty hard to beat.

Everyone's been doing the "things I'm thankful for" on Facebook, so I thought I'd do my own short one here.

Things I'm Thankful For 2013 Edition
1. Our family -- I am still madly in love with my husband, our awesome shepadoodle, and our parents and siblings.

2. My nephew -- he's so freaking cute! And special enough to warrant his own thankful number.
3. Being done studying -- Seth just passed and is now a CCNP. He's been studying hard for the past 6 months! And I'm done with school -- it's amazing!
4. Netflix! I love being able to catch up on random movies and share shows with my husband.
5. Having lived in Charleston -- it was the best choice for us for a couple years. And the food was fantabulous.
6. Moving back to Norfolk -- I love that we're here with our families again! We get to see everyone so much more, and go on trips!

7. All our friends -- new and old, we've been blessed to have good friends to help us along our way as we grow and have new experiences.
8. Holidays -- Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving -- they're all amazing!
9. Celebrating 4 years of marriage this year -- I cannot say enough how much I love being married to my best friend. He's my rock, and knows me better than anyone. And, he gives me hugs when I whack my head on the dryer and start to cry and try to explain incoherently.'

10. Life in general -- we have a great life here -- a walkable neighborhood (with sidewalks!), an awesome apartment, fabulous families, an awesome dog, a dog park less than 5 minutes away, good jobs, and just, everything.

So, that's about it! We're just enjoying life and each other, which is as I think it should be. Hopefully I'll remember to post more about this little adventures sooner next time!

Graduation, Moving, and Honeymoon!

Life has been busy since graduating July 20th from MUSC with my Master of Science in Occupational Therapy! Go me. :-) We graduated and then immediately moved from Charleston, SC to Norfolk, VA, where we got to work moving in and getting ready to take Boards in my case! We've had a couple friends ask us if we've explored the area more since moving in, and really, no. I was studying... like constantly. I finally took Boards (prayers that they went well are appreciated as I'll find out in a few days how I did -- I just hope I passed!) after some drama with our school, but it all worked out in the end! We've gotten to see both Tweedles and their S.O.'s and a couple friends! Always exciting. :-)

One thing I did do as a study break while dog-sitting for my parents (they went to PA for a conference/visit with friends/quasi vacation in the evenings for Mom and all day for Dad) was to make homemade baby blankets that are technically receiving blankets for Baby Chubbs, who should be making her/his appearance soon to my sister- and brother-in-law in DC. I had an awesome trip up with my mother in law and was able to get some extra studying in while there -- I probably came off as super obsessive, but I feel like it's earned. I also made a little beach ball for the bebe with extra fabric.

After finally taking Boards, it was time for our HONEYMOON! Only like 4 years late, but still. It was seriously amazing. We had wonderful food, met some cool people, and saw beautiful sights both on the boat and around the Bahamas. Adventures included snorkeling, a zoo/city tour, and a couple's massage. Enjoy the photos!

The Marching Flamingos!!

Mickey and Minnie, of course.

Mine? Mine? Mine?

With Stitch! The only character we got a photo with because we didn't want to stand in line.

This is as close as I could get to this bird without him freaking out majorly.

Me feeding the Lorikeet!

Before Formal night -- our deck was awesome.

Castaway Cay and our boat!

Snorkeling!

After Pirate night, we came home to a MONKEY!

In the adults only pool, enjoying the warmer water.

At Palo, the Italian restaurant, which had amazing food. We had tons of special meals prepared to be Cassi-friendly this trip.

1 more day of fieldwork!

Tomorrow is my last fieldwork day! It's hard to believe this semester is almost over, and I'm SO CLOSE to being an Occupational Therapy graduate! MUSC 2013-- Go Odds!

 6 years ago, I graduated from Randolph-Macon Women's College, and I'm actually graduating with a wonderful group of all women classmates again! I have loved both experiences, and feel incredibly blessed by all I have seen and learned.

In other news, my best friend, who I've known since 7th grade, came to visit me in Charleston! We were afraid the weather would be sucky (thanks to the tropical storm that somehow just missed us), but we had wonderful, sunny weather the whole time! The week before I got to hang out with E, and the week before that Seth came to town! I had a couple slower weekends, but I'm heading to Norfolk for the 4th! Most excitingly, I have a job interview for my dream position while I'm up there! My pretty much sole questions was, "What do I need to wear?" since I need to pack interview clothes! I also get to finally check out our new apartment. :-)

Rosie will be moving up on the 4th, basically -- I'll be alone in the apartment, which is going to be hella creepy. I just hate living alone -- there will be NO scary movie moments at all. None. Or else poor Seth will get a crying phone call again about whatever freaked me out. (In my defense, last time was a roach, which I am insanely phobic about. Rosie finds my dance of fear every time I see a roach hilarious.)

 I think that's it for highlights! We've both been keeping busy. Seth just passed one of his networking certifications, which is awesome! We're just getting ready to live together again finally and spend time together again as a family. :-) I can't wait!

5 weeks down out of 12!

It's absolutely insane to me that I'm almost halfway done with my second rotation in pediatrics. I seriously, seriously love it. It's tiring, but I still want to go to work every day, so that's always good.

Seth comes to visit Charleston in SIX DAYS! I'm so, so, so excited. SO excited. Rosie is also going to be excited-- she's started pouting at me when we facetime and she can sorta see and definitely hear him, but she knows it's a lie. Dog has her judging face in place when we FaceTime. :-) To the right is Rosie taking a break because I took her on a 2-3 mile walk, and she was hot and tired. Poor little doodle was DONE.

In other exciting news, Rosie and I saw a dolphin just off the dock! It was a wonderful and funny experience, which I actually had my camera to record:

Other good news is I've been studying for Boards! I'm trying to get a lot done now, before it's time to pack and move and have visitors. Seth comes next weekend, then I'm watching E the weekend after, and then Chachushka comes to visit! It's a busy couple of weekends, and there are nights when I just don't have energy to do more than come home and walk Rosie, basically.

In awesome news, Seth and I have hopefully found a place in Norfolk to live in Ghent! It's exactly where we want to be, and will let us enjoy the walkability while our only child is Rosie. :-) Now I just need to find a job!

So, that's it! A quick update right before the halfway point of fieldwork. :-)

Cheers,
Cassi

Counting Down!

A quick countdown of all the exciting things going on:
1/4 of the way done with my rotation
20 days until Seth visits
34 until Ashley visits
77 days until graduation
79 days until I move back in with Seth
112 days until our belated honeymoon cruise on the Disney Dream

It's all so amazing! I am unbelievable blessed. We have awesome families and supportive friends and family. I am also madly in love with pediatrics for occupational therapy-- it's so amazing. I had a patient with autism who I was able to make a connection with and close more circles-- it was awesome. I need to re-read a couple books to remember their techniques, including Floortime to review now that I've seen it in person, but I am just feeling so lucky to be in the position I'm in as a whole. I love, love, love working with children and their families and helping them to problem solve. I need to work on communicating with adults, and getting over my shyness, but I'm getting there. :-)

One of my California cousins just had a baby, and she's super cute! The other California cousin (on Seth's side) is getting married over Thanksgiving, so hopefully (as long as my schedule allows it) I'll be making my first West Coast trip, meeting the bebe, and maybe Disney? We'll see how much time there is! I look forward to meeting the husbands, too. :-)

Seth has been in Norfolk for a month now --  it's so strange not to have him here with me every day! Rosie is here with me, which is amazing and makes life so much better-- I'd be a wreck without Rosie here, because I can't handle living alone. I've never lived alone before without at least a dog, and I would hate it. I'm also a big old wussy-pants, and could not handle any weird noises at night without Rosie to protect me. :-) There's a reason I don't watch anything scary! (Like, ever.) I have a couple books I need to finish not because I don't love them, but because I got scared and can't handle reading them and walking outside at night alone!

So, basically, life is good and normal and Rosie and I are just spending a lot of time at the dog park. When it warms up again, I'll hopefully be able to ditch the hat and get a little blonder again before we move! I miss being blonder, although I need to restock on sunscreen as soon as it goes on sale. :-)

I am so, so, so excited about our belated honeymoon! We had to delay in large part because I had food allergies that made travel really difficult, and then I was in school, and we've dealt with the stress of unemployment twice now in the past 2 years. We were hoping to go to Ireland, but we're waiting until we have more time to really enjoy the country and explore! I've never cruised or been to the Bahamas before, so I am beyond excited. It's going to be so much fun! It'll be 4 days for just Seth and I to enjoy each other and reconnect and have just time for us-- no worries, no stress, just fun and love and attention. Plus, we're going over my birthday, and I mentioned to the travel agent that it's a belated honeymoon, so we're going to get surprises of some sort while on board!!! Next steps are getting the passports, visas, and plane tickets, but we'll take care of the passports at least while Seth is in town. :-)

Overall, life is just amazing. I can't believe how fast this rotation is going, and how much I seriously love it. I loved acute care, but my heart really is in pediatrics right now. I want to do PRN work on weekends with acute care to keep my skills in that field up, but, yeah. Pediatrics got me into this field for a reason, and this rotation has reminded me why God set me on this path to begin with. It's insane to me how much I look forward to work each day, even when I'm tired, because it really does fulfill me.

Seth started his new job on Wednesday and was able to slowly ease his way back into the workforce-- it's a great job thus far, and I think it's exactly where we were supposed to be right now. I'm so thankful to have our families to help us through as we live over 400 miles apart, since he's able to live rent-free with his parents. We're both ready for graduation and really being together again! I can't wait to see him and finish up with our Charleston tourism while he's in town, and just spend time as family! Rosie misses him terribly-- when we facetime, she can hear him and cocks her head in confusion as she listens to what he says, especially if she can see the screen. It's so cute!

I think that's all for now! Tomorrow is a shopping day for fabrics and clothes and Mother's Day cards, and then spending the rest of the weekend getting a little more studying done! I reviewed a little last weekend, and was thankful that I remembered more than I had expected to!

Cheers,
Cassi

Moving North!

After nearly 2 months of searching, Seth is employed again! We are so excited. God really does work in mysterious ways-- we had been discussing where we should end up, and then Seth's contract ended, so we started applying in Charleston and Norfolk-- Norfolk won! Seth has found employment and will begin his new position on April 15th. We are so thankful and blessed to have families that have supported us on this journey. :-) We came up to visit, and are now leaving with a job for Seth--

just like last time he was unemployed!

We're going to be celebrating by going out to dinner, checking out Fort Sumter, and in general being tourists in our own town (well, while it is our town). Rosie will be staying with me-- she's going to have a bit of culture shock between Seth living up here in Norfolk and me having 10 hour days! Poor Rosie is not going to be thrilled.Seth will be living with his parents for now, and we'll find a place of our own once I graduate! It's hard to believe there are so many changes coming to our lives in such a short time. :-)

I got a blue one, Seth a black!

We're so thankful for the love and support of our families, and we look forward to this next chapter. The in-between pages of being apart aren't the best, but my parents actually helped us find a way to get through it-- they surprised us with new iPod touches so we can use the Facetime application to keep in touch!!!

I start my next rotation on the 15th-- we finally cleared up the not-so-small matter of identity theft that occurred, and I'm so thankful that it's over with. I am STOKED to be starting my pediatric outpatient rotation-- I'll learn so, so, so much. I now know I'll start job hunting in Norfolk! I'm going to be studying for Boards while I'm here in Charleston-- it's going to be a lot of work but TOTALLY worth it to begin the job I've been called to. I absolutely love occupational therapy! My last rotation was ah-maz-ing, and I know the next one will be, too.

Goodbye, Beard.

Coolest

It's the last week of level II fieldwork, rotation 1! To celebrate, here's the limo I totally want to ride in one day. I was SUPER excited coming home and seeing that!

Seth's been growing out his beard. This is the longest and fullest his beard's gotten, and also the longest his hair's been since college!

He's even appropriately rocking the Hokie hat.


At the dog park this weekend, Rosie taught him how to fetch balls from the water:

She's great at supervising!

Seth and I tried to have a photo session with Roo to commemorate the beard before it's demise.

Rosie reaaaaaaaaally wanted the liver treat. She didn't quite as much want to sit still for the photo. One day, we'll have a nice camera and a tripod so I can actually set up shots rather than just use my freakishly long arm span.

This is the closest we got to a nice shot with little Roo.

We've been going to the park frequently with Rosie, but I miss my Charizard!!!! Finally posting the picture from the Festival of Lights. :-)

Other cute winter photos from Seth's phone:

Rosie and her elephant, warming themselves by the fire.

Rosie loves to give kisses.

And that's about it! We're excited to see some friends this weekend who are coming down from DC! It's hard to believe it's been 2 years since we moved from there, but definitely loving our Charleston life!

One Month Left!!!

What? Seriously? 1 month. That's it. I have enough digits to count down the last days of this rotation.

For the record, still loving this rotation, but I'm jealous of the PTs who get three 8-week rotations, just because I know I like this setting and have learned a lot, but I'd love the opportunity to learn in a different environment, too. Oh, well, c'est la vie. And what a beautiful life it is. :-)

Seth and I are spending lots of together time lately, which has been awesome. Rosie is thrilled with going out and about in the afternoon as we enjoy the warm spells as they come, but then is more thrilled to have us home and making/eating food. One day, we'll have a real dining room table, and her little puppy heart will break.

It's hard to believe that I graduate in less than 5 months! July 20, 2013, I will be officially a graduate of MUSC! I start my next rotation in mid-April and will be working with pediatrics in an outpatient setting, and I can't wait. I am looking for scrubs in the right color, and have been hitting up the thrift stores (cue the Macklemore/Ryan Lewis song now) to try to find them. Haven't been as successful as hoped, but I have been able to get a couple Grey's Anatomy tops, which are just insanely comfortable and kind of my new obsession.

The Hokie football schedule is up! Hopefully we'll be able to attend at least one game again this year. :-) We'll just have to see where we are and how everything's going around that time.

Also!! If you love key lime, get the key lime cupcakes and icing. It's amazing. Worth all the additives and bad things for you, because it's delicious like none other. I found it at WalMart and have no idea which company did it, but yeah. Totally worth it!

Really, not much is going on aside from just enjoying life and looking forward to the future. We've had opportunities for excellent talks about what's going on in our life. It always amazes me when we each find out something about the other we thought we knew (because we'd talked about it, not just because we "know" what the other person things), but hadn't quite been right about for either of us. It's the little surprises that make life so fun!

It seems like not that much, but we're having fun and going to continue to explore Charleston. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to check out a trail or something this weekend!

Cheers,
Cassi

Halfway this week!

Omigoodness! We (as in my class and I) are halfway through our first rotation as of this Friday. Midterms are this week, and apparently, we should all fail. I'll probably get dinged on assertiveness, which I find funny given that I'm not a particularly timid person in general, but that's fine. :-) I love the acute care and the outpatient parts of my experience-- I need to remind my CI that I'd like to observe some of the surgeries still. I'd actually love to see a hand surgery if I can, but I also want to see the neck surgeries if possible, since I work with them the most in this rotation. It's a lot of fun to see as much as I can while I'm here and take advantage of it! Learning is fun, y'all.

So, Seth and I went to our first oyster roast today! It was to benefit a little girl who is one of a set of triplets, has torticollis, and most importantly needs a liver transplant, which she'll be getting from her dad three days from now. It was fun to do the oyster roast thing, although we agree we'd rather just get our oysters on the halfshell. :-P Or else roast them ourselves and do a better job cleaning them first or something... It was a lot of work, but it was fun and another thing to check off our "Charleston to-do list" while we're here. When we got home, I made us shrimp and grits with andouille sausage! It was delicious and exciting and healthy overall, which is always a plus. :-)

It's hard to believe that it's almost Lent and Easter time again! Easter comes just after my rotation here ends. I'm giving up swearing again for Lent, as I didn't do as good a job with it last year, but hopefully it'll stick this year. I don't swear at all at work, but it's still a habit I need to kick more in my personal life.

In other news, I learned from America's Test Kitchen that you can make your bananas go from ripe to overripe by baking them in the oven for up to 20 minutes to release the yummy sugars. So, it's banana bread time again! I'm making the cinnamon swirl banana bread-- it's so good.

Now, time for more House of Cards then bedtime.

Adventures in Texas and Fieldwork

Seth and I have pretty boring lives right now, and it's AMAZING. I love, love, love my fieldwork placement, and have been surprised as how much I really enjoy my acute care rotation. I thought it was going to be not my favorite, but I really enjoy it. I'll get to watch some surgeries while on rotation, and I've gotten to see some outpatient OT, including working with persons with aphasia, and it's just amazing. I love that when I get up in the morning, the only reason I don't want to go to work is just because I was up too late, not at all because I don't want to go to work. Seth is still loving his job, too, and we're just looking to the future to see what happens, i.e. where I can get a job as well as where/when we want to move.

I get excited-- and it's my POSTER!

My view all day on Sunday. Thrilling.

This past weekend I was in Texas for the first time ever for a conference. First of all, we rocked our group project-- it was seriously awesome. I got to know one of the PT profs better, and she's just beyond amazing. My poster looked fabulous as well! It was really interesting to meet all the people so interested in SRC's, although I will say, some people need to calm down. The one thing that wasn't as fun was the travel-- we had a 2 hour delay just to get into the airport due to the people in Charlotte not being able to de-ice the plane, then I was told I could go on standby for the return flight for an extra fee, but with no guarantees and the Charlotte part would be the same time, then my flight was completely cancelled due to mechanical failure of some sort (which, fair enough, I'd rather not fly), then weather delays led to my staying in San Antonio another night. I was near tears, especially since I found out right after I'd bought the worst sandwich EVER. Poor Seth had lots of phone calls from a distressed wife, but I made it home safe and sound, sent my CI a text that I was going to not make it (I seriously did not want to cry on the phone with my CI because I was just that stressed out), and had a lovely night in a much better hotel than I had stayed in. Plus, I flew out on US Airways (I am never taking American Airlines again if I can help it), and learned that if I had been in Terminal A, life would have been much better food-wise. Oh, well! It was an adventure, and I made it home safe and sound and got the BEST greeting from Rosie-- she was just beyond excited.

San Antonio itself was really interesting-- it's got SO MUCH SPACE! Like, insane amounts, especially compared to DC and Chicago. It's so different than anywhere else I've lived. On the plane ride there, I sat next to an awesome scientist from England, and it just made for an interesting chat. He was going to another conference in the same hotel. But, yes, SA-- the Riverwalk is way cool. I stayed in the Crockett Hotel, which actually kinda sucked, but they had breakfast ready each day, and let's be real, food is super important in my life. It was in walking distance of everything, including the mall, which had the best display ever:

That's right. Squirrels. Front and center. I definitely detoured at 6 am while walking over to the other hotel to take a photo of the Squirrels.

Riverwalk as I was walking to the conference.

Seriously, these lights are gorgeous in person.

We went on a riverboat tour of the San Antonio Riverwalk-- it was totally worth it! There's so much interesting history, and it's a different view of the walk (much faster than *actually* walking it). We also went to see the Market... Not so worth it. It was basically a tourist trap, and I just wasn't as interested. La Villita was kind of empty the whole time, and probably more of a go-to during the summer months, but it was interesting to see the tiny houses. Seriously, I think I would have hit my head on a couple of the entryways. I'm not that tall, so you know that's short. We also walked over the Rosario's for dinner-- I got the spinach and mushroom enchiladas, which had the best enchilada sauce EVER on it. I also tried green salsa stuff-- it was so good! I didn't think it was spicy like at all, but then again, Seth and I put a whole jalapeno at least in the homemade salsa I make, seeds and all, so I feel like my judgement on this issue is slightly impaired. :-) But, if you ever go to San Antonio, Rosario's is totally worth it! If nothing else, they have awesome light fixtures, which I 100% want to emulate in my house one day if it's even slightly possible.

The oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in Texas.

All in all, life has been pretty awesome. I came home to gorgeous weather after having super nice, warm weather in SA as well, and Seth and I have been able to just hang out and enjoy each other's company more in the past few weeks. We're both about to get cracking on the books, though-- I have more to read before my next rotation, and then Seth needs to study more for his Cisco certs. We're going to implement hour-long required study time soon (by Lent at the latest). Anyways, I think that's it! Time to go enjoy another evening of reading fun books while cuddling with Rosie and hanging out with Seth. <3