A beautiful day in the park!

I had a lazy day last Thursday. I needed to get caught up on some reading for school, so I decided to get out of my apartment and go for a walk in the park. We have a small park in the middle of my apartment complex. It really is beautiful. The leaves were changing and I ended up having a great day! I was reading a book for school, but it is also for pleasure. Its called Three Cups of Tea and came highly recommended by my dad. I have really enjoyed it so far. It is a true story about an ordinary man who went through extraordinary measures to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan for children. Please pick it up and read it when you get a chance. It has given me a completely different perspective of Central Asia.

Notice the rainbow by the fountain and the duck! :)

You really woudn't think I was 5 minutes from Downtown!

On another note, I have enjoyed traveling a little bit this semester. 2 weeks ago, I got to go to the Texas Occupational Therapy Association Conference (TOTA) in San Antonio. A few OT students and professors from TWU got to spend the weekend listening to OTs from all around Texas. I learned so much and enjoyed the weekend with friends as well. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Here is me with a prosthetic arm. We got to try them out. This one in particular is operated by a touch plate. The client can close the fingers into a fist or open them. They can also just use 1 finger at a time if they need to. It took a bit of training and patience, but it was really interesting. The lady who taught us to use them is an OT in San Antonio at one of their bases. She works with men and women who have returned from Iraq and have had amputations. It is amazing what they have accomplished. Some of the people have returned to surfing, water skiing, snowboarding, skiing, biking, etc. It's really incredible what they have done.

The girls on the way to the riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. Our hotel shuttled us on a bus. How nice of them! :) (Keelie, Kristyn, Katie and me)

Keelie and I on an ice cream break.

Holland and me when we went bowling!

Me, Holland, and Katie

Manning the SOTA (Student Occupational Therapy Association) table.

This past weekend, I had a reunion with some friends that I worked with last year. We met up in College Station and got to catch up. We had a great time! We went to a Pat Green concert and went out to eat at great restaurants! We ate at one place called La Bodega! It was incredible! I had the best pulled pork taco with chipotle mayo and guacamole queso! That's right, they put them together for an appetizer! Awesome!

Luke, Lauren, and me

Some people were a little tired! :)

Luke, Lauren, and Spencer

Luke, Sarah, and Spencer at La Bondega!!!

OT School

This semester has been really hectic with all of my assignments, papers, tests, etc. I can't believe I've lived in Dallas for 6 months now! The time has just flown right on by. I'm finally feeling like a local! I have really enjoyed the trees here in North Texas! Much prettier than West Texas!

I am learning different arts and crafts I may someday implement into therapy. One of them is knitting. I knit a hat this semester. Here is a picture of the process and the final product.

Here is my class at a local nursing home. This lady was telling me all about her life story. Her husband was a preacher for 29 years and helped establish a couple churches. She was so proud of him and told us that God gave her a mission in the nursing home to tell others about Jesus! Precious! She even prayed with us for 15 minutes! She was 92 years old! What a testimony!

Here are some pics of my track. We are split into 3 tracks for more one-on-one learning.

Here's a picture of us about to take the DART train to downtown Dallas to do an occupational profile on a couple of monks from Tibet! Pretty neat experience.

This is a sand mandala that the monks work on for a week and then destroy as a way to represent that things of this world are fleeting.

Here's the sand mandala itself

Here is me at a health care fair for neighborhood kids. Most of them are living at the poverty level. I was in charge of the fruits and vegetable education booth. The kids enjoyed picking out a healthy plate! I have never seen so many people lined up for a health event! It is a great need! There were people walking from blocks away!

Here is most of my entire class.

Here is us on Halloween week in Tools class. We had to determine the skills and movements needed to try on different outfits.

Courtney flew in from Florida for Homecoming! It was a great weekend!

Melinda is coaching volleyball in Omaha, TX!!! Population 999!