This Weekend I...

I decided to pick health care in Haiti for the topic of my semester-long project for International Research and Strategic Planning. I am so excited; I've been reading a lot about Haiti all weekend, starting with the book Mountains Beyond Mountains (which I am reading for a book review for another class. work smart not and hard). As much as I am deeply concerned with issues our own nation is facing, I can't deny that my heart beats for this stuff and the struggles of others around the world. It satisfies the anthropologist in me to learn about other cultures, and the social worker in me to figure out how we can help.

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I made these fancy crescent rolls (adding peanut butter makes things fancy, right?).

I got a lot done this weekend! I majorly cleaned the bathroom, scrubbing down the whole shower/bath, which left my brain rattled in cleaning supply fumes (oops). But I got free Starbucks as a reward, and a super clean shower.

Kyle made a new jungle gym for the kitties and they got to play outside a lot.

I made a giant batch of curried turkey with rice, to have lots of leftovers for lunch through the week.

I also got a vine. Grew a vine? Planted a vine? I don't know why it's called vine, but I signed up. You can expect mostly videos of cats.

Not pictured: I did a bunch of homework, drank some wine, watched some TV, painted my nails, cut the kittens claws, texted with my sister a lot, watched a little Penguins hockey, enjoyed spending time with my husband, listened to this song and this song, and woke up around 4:30am both Saturday and Sunday (the cats have me trained). I have another busy week ahead, every week until maybe the second one in May will be busy, but that's how I like it. I'm having my baby teeth pulled this afternoon, volunteering at Project Homeless Connect Thursday, with lots of class, homework, internship and everything else around and in between. Have a good one!

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Lately

I decided to join this linkup (with Sarah and Stephanie) today, to give you a quick summary of life as of late. I like that it takes a strengths perspective and focuses on the good in life, while keeping reality in mind and reflecting on the not-so-good. Do I sound like a social worker yet?! :P

Happy:
- This may be the first semester of my life to ever really challenge me. It is mainly due to the sheer number of things there are to do in the allotted 24 hours per day. This can go under both categories, because  I'm excited about it because I feel fulfilled by doing work, but I also like to have time to cook dinner for my husband. We shall see how it goes.
- I quite like social policy. I still want to move back to DC.
- I'm really looking forward to my trip to Boston in March!
- On Thursdays we have class from 8am to 5:35 pm, so this week I made brownies to bring to folks and spread cheer. It worked! Definitely something to do every once in a while.

- This evening I am going to not do work (at some point), eat Thai food and watch The Campaign with husband. Looking forward to relaxing, maybe with some wine.
- My social work cohort is really filled with wonderful people. Sometimes I'm almost creeped out by how nice people are. I am not that nice, I assure you.
- I know I've talked about it at length already, but just had to say my Erin Condren planner is serving me wonderfully and even more so than last (half) semester. I guess it's only serving me well because I use it well, so pat on the back for me?
- I am getting my baby teeth pulled out on Monday, woohoo!
- As a part of my Practice with Communities and Organizations class, we will be working with an actual agency to help them in their endeavors this semester. My class is working with Pack of Hope, a relatively new organization that provides packed food for kids to take home over the weekends, when they do not have access to food at school and might not get any food at all otherwise. You should check them out, and if you're in McLennan county, consider donating or supporting one of their fundraisers!

- This was really delicious. Thought you should know.

 

Crappy:
- I have no clue where I'll be interning next year. I'm not supposed to know yet, but I don't even have any concrete ideas or agencies that interest me. Hopefully Baylor will find me something that fits my interests.
- I am gearing myself up to be so sad when The Office is over. This show was a whole support system for me while navigating the stress of being new to the Army, and I just love it and love the characters. It is time for it to go, and I'll always have the dvds, but still, so sad. No more Jam. And yesterdays episode...ahh.
- Anyone else tear up from sadness when you hear about other people getting pregnant or having babies or anything? I do. Wish I did not.
- Did you know that a 2002 National Geographic study found that 10% of 18-24 year olds in the USA couldn't locate the USA on a map? Even with the Mercator projection map. 30% could not locate the Pacific Ocean. I started reading a really interesting book on international social work.
- IRB training. That's all.

Have a good weekend, all!

- From the desk of Mrs. M

This Weekend...

Went to a conference on special needs children, hosted right down the road at UMHB. It was an OK conference.

The featured speaker was Kristin Neff, a professor at UT Austin. She spoke about her pioneering work on the topic of self-compassion. Kristin has an autistic son, and her family was the center of a documentary called The Horse Boy (she didn't talk about the film much, but I'd remembered seeing the trailer for it back when it came out). I enjoyed her talk. I think the conference was most beneficial to me as a social work intern in that it provided me with a lot of resources and services available for clients I may have at some point in my two years at Baylor. I think it was a great help for parents of special needs children.

After that Kyle and I had a date night! We won't get to see each other for a while as he has to go into the field for practice; luckily it's just at Fort Hood, but I still won't get to be in touch with him. We had a gift card to the Dead Fish Grill, so we went there for dinner! We wanted to get Cabin in the Woods to watch in the evening, and had a few things to get and coupons to use, so our date night continued with trips to Target, Natural Grocery, and the Dollar General. Don't we know how to live! :)

To Target to get the movie...

I think the toy section of Target blew Kyle's mind just a bit.

Picking up his favorite soap to take into the field...

We had a coupon for 5$ off if we spent 25$, only good on that day, so we were venturing around the dollar General trying to accumulate 25$ worth of stuff. I think we provided the night cashier with some entertainment, at least. 

And then, we did get home to watch Cabin in the Woods. It's really good. 

Sunday continued with Kyle spending the morning and first part of the afternoon bottling the beer that has been brewing in his closet for the last month or so. It was an interesting and time consuming process, resulting in 3 growlers and 34 bottles of beer! Hopefully Kyle likes it...

While he did that, I did homework and painted my nails blue!

- Mrs. M

This Weekend I...

Joining the new linkup with Syndal and Sar! 

Kyle and I had a date day where we went boot shopping, Indian food eating, and Dunkin' Donuts coffee drinking. You can read more about it here!

Kyle made a kitty jungle gym with a bunch of boxes we had lying around. Eyesore? Yes. Awesome? Definitely. I took a video of them playing in it, too.

I did a bunch of homework. And some laundry. Not pictured because it's not that interesting.

I made some healthy food, husband made some drinks.

Aaaand...on Friday I found out all of our wedding photos are ready! We were able to look through them all online, and our photographer is sending me a disc so I will be able to share! I'm glad I can control which pictures you get to see; I'm probably too harsh a judge but I do not look good in most pictures. Also that's boring and I want you to see the fun stuff!

- Mrs. M

Thursday Thoughts (17)

{one} I spend my evenings with these two. And a pile of books/notebooks and laptop.

{two} I am going to try one of each of these with my 10$ Starbucks card I claimed from livingsocial ($5 for a $10 card!). yum. I feel like I must have had a pumpkin spice latte before, but I can't recall (I definitely remember enjoying their holiday drinks last year as that was when I moved down here and Kyle came back from deployment. I worked at Dunkin' through one fall season in Pittsburgh, so I am more familiar with their pumpkin flavored items and enjoy their simple flavor shot coffees, but no DD Cafe down in these parts. Anyway. I'm going to enjoy these. 

{three} I made a big batch of some form of southwestern quinoa salad to bring to lunch for the week. It is really tasty and simple to make, and you can really put in whatever you have around. 

{four} I kind of want some yellow rain boots. Maybe it's just wishful thinking that it would rain here. 

{five} I got my nail polish swap package in the mail from Stephanie! I love them all and I'm excited to try the Essie plumberry for fall! And I already put some of the pink sparkles over the mint polish I had on this week. Thank you Stephanie! :)

{Lastly} I miss this city.

- Mrs. M

Thursday Thoughts (16)

{one} I love coming home from school/internship to my kitties and husband. They are all pretty cute.

 {two} Week one of class + internship is almost over! It's been pretty intense and tiring, but in a good way. No more fire alarms going off.

{three} This chair and room just looks so comfy and cozy. I imagine there is also a fireplace in the room. I want to be there.

{four} Now that I'm commuting to campus, I am glad that I finally got some prescription sunglasses. This way I can both see clearly AND drive into the morning sun!

 {five} I really don't have much else. Lots going on but I gotta get back to work!

- Mrs. M

High Five for Friday

1. I adore these two.
2. I found these awesome skull rings on etsy. I think they're subtle and cute.
3. This gold skull on my desk is probably less subtle, but still awesome.
4. Kyle and I went to Scholtzsky's for the first time- we liked our sandwiches and I really liked the raspberry iced tea.
5. We also saw the Expendables 2 today, haha. It was just what you'd expect, especially if you've seen the first one. We were given a bunch of free Expendables stuff at a bar in Pittsburgh, combined with the overall ridiculousness of the films, I think we're obligated to see these films. Though rumor is the next one will feature Nicholas Cage, ugh, so I may not see that one.
6. Kyle made a post about some new maps we got in the mail, and included this cute picture of Huxley resting on one of them.

- Mrs. M

Thursday Thoughts (15)

{one} brother and sister bird watching.

{two} I am hoping to go to Boston for spring break next year. I've never really done anything interesting on any spring break (well except for getting married on my last one HAH), because I'm usually the dork that uses the time to still do work and not have to deal with the chaos of a short trip. BUT here's the thing. a) I'm already craving being somewhere other than Texas, b) I've been all around the USA but never to New England and I think I would like it and c) I know so many people there now! Two of my bridesmaids Emma and Tracy are in their second and first years of grad school up there, our friend Allie is from there, AND my sister, who has been working at Georgetown University Qatar campus for the last two years, will be returning to the states and moving up there in September for a manager position at Georgetown Cupcake (super cool. She worked at the very first DC shop while in undergrad). There's really no reason for me not to go, except figuring out if Kyle would be able to come also. Army things are likely happening next year, and in Army fashion we might not know too far in advance. But I've looked into plane tickets already, and they're just so inexpensive right now.

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{three} Kyle and I have been watching the Long Way Down on youtube. Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charley ride motorcycles from the tip top of the UK to the very bottom of South Africa, with a small team. It's pretty cool, even if you're not that into motorcycles (me). We are currently at the part where they are in Kenya, I think a little over half way of the distance. It makes me want to adopt all the little children.

{four} I'm not sure when the wedding photos will be ready. Sometimes I forget that happened. I guess I'm no longer in such a rush to get them; I think it helps that we saw a preview a while ago. I am looking forward to sharing more about the day and the details here on the blog, though!

{five} My week-long intro course has ended (except not really because we still have stuff due, including a group presentation, and two more class sessions on the next two Fridays), so I have my last long weekend off before school really starts on Monday! I had to get a drug screen for my internship, and other than that I should be ready to go! Binders and textbooks and post-its, oh my! I will not be saying very much, if anything about my internship on the blog/online. I will be at a hospital and residential treatment center working with at-risk patients, so for confidentiality as well as simple professional reasons, I won't discuss even how it is going. But I am optimistic and really looking forward to the experience! I will probably have a blog post soon about my Baylor first impressions, and general excitement over my profession of choice. :)

{six} Somehow no pictures were taken (not even of the food!), but I met up with Sar for lunch the other day in Waco! She was terribly sweet and funny and listened to my crazy family drama.

{seven} Any nail polish and The Office fans? You may get a kick out of this as I did! I would definitely add "that's what she said" to my polish collection.

{eight} Ever really loved a book and didn't really know why? I randomly picked this up from a bookshelf in my 11th grade classroom and read it, and it is my favorite book. I have reread it since, but I'm not sure I could tell you why it quickly became my favorite. It must have really appealed to something in my 11th grade self.

{nine} I'm excited for fall TV to return. Because of shows like Happy Endings.

{ten} I like this for a few reasons.

- Mrs. M