Changing seasons....

I am coming to the end of my clinical in Texas and will soon be headed to Idaho for my next one! I am done at Kindred Hospital in Arlington on Oct 14th and on the 15th my mom and sister fly in to drive with me to Idaho. We will leave OK on Friday the 16th and head off on our journey. I am sad to be leaving Brett because it has been so great to spend more time with him, but I am ready to move on and keep going with school. I keep reminding myself that the sooner I keep going the sooner I will be done with school. I am also very excited to spend time with my extended family out in Idaho! The other student that was with Rudy (my CI) left this week, her name is Lauren, and I was sad to see her go, it was nice to have someone to talk to about the differences in our schooling and in ways she had learned to do things. The picture above is of us on her last day! Rudy tried to get us standing so you could see the Dallas Cowboys stadium in the background (which is right down the street from the hospital) but I don't think it worked too well!


To the left is a picture of the daisies that Brett sent me at the hospital on my birthday and the roses that Denny and Bev (Brett's great aunt and uncle who I am staying with here in TX) got for me for my birthday. It was such a special day for me, I was sad because it was the first birthday ever that I wouldn't be spending with my family, friends or Brett, but when I came back to the house for the night Tracey and the boys (Denny and Bev's daughter and grandkids) were at the house and Tony (a good friend of Den and Bev's that I have gotten to know pretty well since I came here) and his son came over and had supper with us and it was so special for me. Bev made a special dinner and we had a great time! I am so blessed to have great family and friends that make me feel at home even when I am far from my immediate family and friends. Brett came down the weekend before my birthday and we went to downtown Dallas and went out to eat and walked around. We also went to IKEA and found 2 dressers for our bedroom and we also went mini-golfing. So it turned out to be a very special birthday!



This past week my friend Maureen came through Fort Worth on her way to MN for a wedding so she stopped and had supper with me! I was so excited to see her, we were RA's together in Noren my sophomore year of college and have remained friends ever since. Maureen just graduated this past year from graduate school for Speech-Language Pathology and now lives in Del Rio, TX with her husband who is also a pilot in the Air Force. It is so great to talk with her because we have so many similar experiences, she also lived away from her husband while she went to graduate school so she is a great encouragement to me. We chatted for almost 3 hours and it was a great end to the week!
-Emily