12 goals for 2012

2011 is going to be a tough year to follow, but I can tell 2012 is going to be filled with some pretty fun events too. Here are my top 12 goals for 2012:

1. Be a better student

My first semester of graduate school was a bit of an adjustment. I made good grades, but they could have been even better! I will be a grad student for the entire year of 2012 and I plan to be a good one! I am going to read all of the assigned readings, not procrastinate on homework and projects, and try to be the best clinician possible!

2. Lose weight

Duh, right...isn't this everyone's goal? Since getting married, I have gained the additional "newlywed nine" lol. If I could get back to the size I was in senior year of high school, I'd be one happy girl. I know I must change my eating habits, and EXERCISE! Those two things are hard to do when you're a broke, busy graduate student, which leads me into goal #3....

3. RUN in a 5K

This has always been a dream of mine, but here's the thing...I HATE running! I have never been a "runner" in my life and would rather do any type of aerobics class that torches calories over running! So, that is why a 5K is so challenging for me. I can't tell you how many times I've started a training plan, and then quit a week later. SO, April 2011 is my goal month to run in a 5K, lets do this!

4. Fix a variety of meals

This goal is mainly for Sterling. I am a picky eater and when looking for recipes, anything that has cheese, chicken, or italian in the title, I will fix it! But Sterling has a huge range of taste and I know would probably like more variety in his meals.

5. Save money

This is also hard to do considering I am not making hardly any money at the moment, but what little we do have, I'd like to work harder to save it.

6. Consolidate

Sterling and I were talking about goals for each other and he says that I need to lessen my attachment to material things. Sure, I can't let go of the 30 JMU shirts that I have, or the numerous purses and bags that I own, but I am going to try rid of the things that I do not use. This will also be a way to de-clutter the apartment some. I can't imagine living in an apartment smaller than this one, it seems like we have so much stuff!

7. Get a pet

This is after all the next step right? Get married, move in together, and then get a puppy? We currently can not have the dog that we want (lab) because of weight restrictions (a dog has to be under 25 lbs) that our landlord put in place, but we will get one at some point this year! I can't wait to have our own pet, I'll finally have someone to keep me company while Sterling is working weird hours!

8. Make sure people know how much I care for them

Celebrate birthdays, send them a card, go visit people at their houses, have more family time, anything! I feel like I slacked on this a little in 2011.

9. Read more and watch less TV

There are a lot of books I want to read. Since we have got rid of cable, this shouldn't be too hard!

10. Get outdoors

Hike, bike, run, anything outside! I feel like I didn't get outside much during the second half of 2011.

11. Couponing

I'd really like to become good at couponing! I've been trying to read up on all the blogs and get all the tips and tricks, but it seems like it is hard work and time consuming. But in the end, I think it all the hard work will be worth it considering it will help us save money! One of the main reasons I hate going grocery shopping, is the total at the end of checkout, eek!

12. And last but not least, blog more

We'll see about this one, considering my track record the past couple of years!

Here's to 2012 and hoping it will be just as good as the last! :)

Life right now

Hello all, its been a while since I last wrote but thats because I have been really occupied with grad school! It is now week 7 and WHAT a whirlwind it has been this far! I seriously was not ready for what grad had in store for me! The very first day we had class and then we all went to an off campus home/barn called Selu Observatory where we got to introduce ourself and why we wanted to be a SLP. Then we had lunch and sat and listened to an overwhelmingly amount of information about the next two years of our life! It was very intimidating and information overload, I think we all left wondering what exactly we got ourselves into. Then Tuesday, we had an information session about clinic and we got our clients that we would begin therapy with the NEXT week. We were all VERY intimidated to start working with clients because we had no idea how to do anything related to therapy! We were so nervous to even call our client to tell them the exact date when therapy would start lol.

I currently have two clients, an adult and child, and then I do hearing screenings for the education students. Clinic has already been such a learning experience. I often wish that Radford would not give us clients until the second semester, or would just give us just one our first semester, but I see why they give us clients right off the bat. I guess there is no better way to learn than to make mistakes and gain knowledge from them. Clinic is so much work. We are with clients 6 hours a week, have a meeting with our supervisor for an hour once a week, then it takes an hour before each session to prepare for it, then we have to do the paper work-writing soap notes and lesson plans. For each soap note (basically a page long summary of how the client performed during the session), we turn them into our supervisor and then they revise them and return them for us to redo. I have revised the first soap note of the semester 4 times now! Anyways, it is hard to balance clinic on top of all the work for classes.

It has been such a challenge to get back into "student mode" again. My year off definitely spoiled me! They said time management was very important, and now I know how important it really is! There is ALWAYS something to be done. I am on campus all day long everyday of the week except Friday. I have had to get used to that too. Radford definitely doesn't compare to JMU, but I am trying to accept the campus as it is and be thankful that I even have this opportunity. I didn't get a GA position, and I am little upset about that. Even though I don't know when I would fit in time for the job, I am still hoping to get one! The extra money would be wonderful! I just wonder why all my friends have got one and I haven't. I thought I had one the other day when a lady emailed me asking to come in for interview. After immediately responding saying I could come in for an interview on the day she said, she emailed be back saying that the position been closed. WHOMP WHOMP....I really got my hopes up just to get them let down. Hopefully I will get one sooner rather than later.

Ok, enough about grad school, lets talk about married life. I love love love being married! Sterling and I have been married now for 3 months, and it has been great! I love having someone to go to bed with and wake up next to. I love having Sterling to talk about my day, to hang out with, to cook with, to snuggle with, to talk about school with, to do everything with! Life is seriously better with him by my side, he is my better half! Sterling has been working a lot of nights lately, and it reallllllly sucks!!! I hate hate hate spending my nights alone. It does give me a chance to do my homework without distractions, but I miss him so much. When he works nights, we're on total opposite schedules, the only time we get to see each other is for like an hour when he gets home at 12:30 at night. I didn't think I'd be bothered that much by being alone, but it sucks, I'm ready to get him back to day shift. Since we live in Christiansburg there is no one for me to hang out with. I could hang out at Jenn, Jess, and Brooke's apartment, but a lot of times I just want to come home and relax and not go all the way back to Radford twice in one day. But anyways I know it will get better soon, and until then I need to suck it up and "put my big girl panties on" lol!

Alrighty, I'm going to get back to homework now!

Thanks for reading! :)

Kate

I'm back!

Actions speak louder than words...that's what you need to keep in mind when reading my blog. I don't know how many times I have said that I am going to keep up with blogging and then NOT done it. So here I am again, saying I'm back, and that I am going to blog more often...we'll see! :)

Now that our wedding is over, I feel like a have a new found sense of freedom. Planning a wedding in 5 months takes up a lot of your time! There are so many things that I want to get back into now that "wedding" isn't on the forefront of the brain. Such as...blogging! I love looking back and reading how I was feeling at the time. I also feel this is a good way of getting out your feelings in a positive way. I plan on blogging on our engagement, wedding, and honeymoon here soon. I meant to keep a journal along the way, but it just didn't happen.

With my new freedom I also want to get into cooking, decorating, and DIY projects! Now that we have our new apartment, it definitely needs some "sprucing" up. Jess and Jenn has introduced me to a new website: Pinterest. It. is. Amazing! You can find so many cute ideas and pictures of literally anything and save them to your "board" to go back and look at them later. I have found lots of cute decorating ideas and yummy recipes I can't wait to try!

With that, I have a confession to make...I do not know how to cook!!! And not only do I not know how, I also don't really have any interest in cooking. Now that I am a wife, it is expected that I be in the kitchen everyday preparing these amazing meals for my husband. While I wish that was the case, it just doesn't happen overnight! There are several reasons why I am struggling with this. First off, I am pretty picky, I don't eat/fix a variety of foods. Sterling eats pretty much everything while I like mostly Italian, pasta, and chicken. So I want to fix him different things to eat, but why would I want to make it if I don't like it? I am hoping my taste broadens. Another problem is I am broke. Therefore, it is hard to go grocery shopping and buy all those ingredients. Even if we had all the ingredients to cook, we still don't have all the untencils/pots/pans to make it. Bottom line: I need help. I need to stop making excuses and just try! Hopefully my cooking skills will improve in the months and years to come! And I know Sterling would agree!

Grad schools starts in 11 more days. I have a feeling that these freedoms that I am enjoying now are going to be a thing of the past once school starts. So I am trying to soak them all up!

Life at the moment.

Hey yall! It's time for my monthly post! ha. This has been a good week so far, there is lots of fun stuff going on. Last night was the TR Halloween dance, and it was a blast! I was so impressed by the quality of costumes! There were definitely some creative ones! I got to see some of my ACE campers too, and dance with them! They make me happy :) Today we went on the Salem Ghost Tour with Mingle. Thursday I am supposed to be going on a field trip at school. Friday is dress up day in 1st grade. We are supposed to dress up as someone from "long ago" aka someone from the colonial times, and have fun things planned for the day. Saturday is the Roanoke Ghost Tour and we're going out for Halloween! Woo! Anyways, heres whats been up lately...

My little guy at work these past weeks has definitely been testing his limits. He's out of the honeymoon period, and now into the lets see what I can do and get away with period. He shouts out all the time, hits, and just generally does not listen! It's pretty bad when I just walk into the room and he shouts at me, "Just get away, get out NOW!" Last week, I felt like I was failing at my job. His behaviors escalated last week, and I didn't really know how to handle them. One day, the teacher I'm with had to discipline him all day because he would not listen to me anymore. I just felt stupid that I couldn't find the right way to discipline him, I mean after all thats why Im there, so she doesn't have to do that. But I had to tell myself that she has had 13 years experience with this, and I have had only 2 months of it. At camp, sure we had to discipline every now and then, but not to this extent. School is a lot more structured and strict, as where camp was more lenient and carefree. You have to be on top of them, schools not a place to goof around. I feel like sometimes I need to take a mean pill, so I can be more firm and stern with him. But I'm getting better with being authoritative with him.

I was warned when I got the job that the little guy I'm with could possibly be moving. Well, I got word this week that his family has sold their house, and will be moving soon. Since he is moving, I will be placed with someone new but it will be at the same school I am in. Even though he does have his behavior problems, I will miss him and the first grade class I am in. I knew I shouldn't get attached, but I did! :( But hopefully the new student/class I will be with will be just as good of experience!

So far, I am really enjoying my second job with Therapeutic Recreation. I am working with the adults with disabilities every Tuesday and Thursday, and some Fridays. The adults are a lot of fun and are a good change from the crazy kids. With the adults, you don't have to go chasing them around, put them in time out, or worry about bathroom needs. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to hang out with cool people and do fun things! I actually look forward to going to work!

Something that has been breaking my heart lately is my Dad's esophagus problems. He has been battling the ulcers in his esophagus since February and he still is not better. All I want is for this to go away for him! He has had 3 stints put in, and now he just went to get a 4th one in. He did get some good news though when he went to get the 4th stint. He has 2 ulcers, one in the top, and one in bottom. Well the one in the top has gotten better, so they just had to put a stint in the for the bottom one! This is great news and I only hope the bottom one will do the same. They still don't know what is causing this and if they do all they can, and they still don't get better, he will have to undergo a very serious surgery to fix it. We don't want this! So say a little prayer for him, he's my hero!

I am very excited for a Halloween celebration this Saturday! I have decided to be Katy Perry. I hope my costume turns out ok, and that people recognize who I am! I will miss JMU Halloweens, they were so fun! We always had a house full at our apartment Halloween weekend, and the parties were always eventful. We are going downtown this year, so hopefully it will live up to JMU, probably not though.

I am going to be starting something new in the next couple of days. I am going to do 10 days of blogging, and each day will be a certain number things about me. I saw this on another blog, and stole the idea. So be on the lookout for that soon!

I hope everyone has a great Halloween week and weekend! :)
Kate

Halloween

So, as you can see I already have my Halloween template up and running! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween, it is my favorite holiday! I love: pumpkins, Halloween decorations, costumes, Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, pumpkin carving, pumpkin smells, changing leaves, crunchy leaves, the movie Hocus Pocus, scary movies, trick-or-treaters, candy corn, haunted houses, Halloween stores, black cats, orange and black, and anything else Halloween related! I know it is not October yet, but since the stores already have all their Halloween merchandise out, I figure I can start celebrating Halloween too! :)

Transitions

Well, it's official, summer is over, and fall is moving in. This summer went by SO fast, I know they all usually do, but this one seemed to go by the fastest. It was a good summer, not the best, but a good one. I had 5 weeks off to do completely nothing before my summer job started, went to the beach twice, spent a lot of time at the pool, went to several baseball games, attended 2 weddings and bachelorette parties, celebrated 4 years with Sterling, had a great 4th summer with ACE camp, and hung out a bunch with the friends, family, and boyfriend! Overall it was a very relaxing summer, and I know I probably won't get too many more like this one so I better have enjoyed it!

....and with summer ending, so brings the next chapter in life: the year off...

The year off has started with a bang. I got a pretty perfect "in between" job. I am an instructional assistant to a little 1st grader who has autism. I am in a 1st grade classroom all day, and have morning car, lunch, and afternoon bus duty. It is a pretty easy job. I feel like I got lucky to be with the little guy I am with, I know a lot of other IA's can have difficult students, but mine is definitely one of the easier ones (so far! lets keep our fingers crossed). The only bad thing is, is that he may be moving soon and I don't know where or who I will be with after that. I do have a contract with the school system so I will have a job, but I am already getting attached to my little guy and the classroom I am in, I don't really want to leave! I also don't really want to leave the school, the principle and staff are super nice and friendly. I am still trying to get used to the fact that the studnets call me "Ms. Johnson", I don't feel old enough to have that said to me yet! It is also taking some getting used to working with all older adults. At camp and at school, I've always worked with people my same age, so it is different working with older people. Sometimes I feel like I have more in common with the 5th graders than some of the older teachers! ha. Overall, I think this will be a good experience for me so I can get practice working with kids in case I decide to work in a school setting one day.

During the summer, I had a thought about applying for grad school at Appalachian State for this coming spring semester. I had pretty much made up my mind that I was going to apply until I got this school job. I decided it was probably better to go ahead and wait to apply for fall 2011. It will give me more time to save money and more time to study for the second round of GRE's! And will give me plenty of time to plan for a certain something if that happens. So I will definitely be applying for fall semester 2011, as planned before.

I think I am handling the transition from JMU to Roanoke pretty well. I think I am finally over missing JMU and wishing I was going back, I think I have moved on. The biggest thing that has helped me cope with not heading back this semseter is being with Sterling. I do not miss the long distance relationship AT ALL. It is sooo nice being in the same city, and knowing that we do not have to leave each other again. Our relationship is finally right where I want it and I'm so ready to start building our lives together. Another thing that I do not miss is homework! I love getting off work and have nothing to do-no reading, busy work, or studying! But there is one thing I do miss, and that's living on my own. I do have independence living with my dad, but it's still not complete-living on your own-independence. I have thought seriously about moving out but I decided against it because it seems pointless to pay rent when I could be saving that money. So, until grad school, I will be living at home-rent and bill free.

Whew, so that was an update on the past 4 months of my life. I've said it before, but I'm going to try harder to update the blog more.

Thanks for reading!
Kate

Sorry!

Sorry everyone that I have not blogged in like 2 months, but I will be back soon! I don't really get on the computer much and I rarely think that I have something worthy to blog about. But after this weekend, I will update more.

So, Thursday I am going to JMU to finish cleaning out the apartment for the very last time *tears*. I can't believe that this phase of life is officially over. caput. done. So sad. I'm gonna miss that place and all the memories it brought. I just pray that we don't get fined for anything, I'm nervous about that!

After JMU I am going to Richmond to meet with my roomies and celebrate Natalie's wedding bachelorette style Friday night! Then on Saturday I will be going to her wedding shower. I'm super excited for some good times with the roomies this weekend!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Kate