christmas time is here again

well fall 2011 is finished, and i did pretty well on finals. i now have a break until august... so far i have been doing a lot of reading and embroidery. i am looking forward to having some down time, but am nervous to hear back from schools. i have to wait until march to hear back from the programs i applied to. i hope to get into UT austin, but i know that it is a competitive program. however, i can honestly say there is nothing i could have done to make my application any stronger.
i am looking forward to going home next week, it will be nice to have some cold weather. after christmas i will be heading to idaho falls to spend new years with richard and jimmy. REALLY looking forward to that.
conor and daralee had a whirl wind trip to austin a few days ago. it was wonderful to see them. i have been a little down lately because so many of my close friends have moved out of austin the last six months. it was great to see some old friends, even if it was only for a short time.
well there is a quick update! thanks for stopping by.

daralee and conor.

joan and conor

 unfinished brain embroidery.

 finished brain embroidery.

unfinished middle ear embroidery. 

finished middle ear embroidery. (thank you gift to my teachers for writing my letters of recommendation).

two year austiniversary

hard to believe i have been in texas for two years now!
really learning to love it here.

texas fires

thanks everyone for the concerned texts/emails, but lucky for me i haven't been involved in the fires. they are, however, a little too close for comfort. here are a few resources if you want to see what is going on down here in the lone star state.

this is a real time map, if you click on the flames it allows you to see how large each fire is and the % contained.

this map shows the smoke range of each fire.

if you want to donate your time or physical/financial donations this is a composite of websites where you can do so.

this video illustrates how quickly the fires can spread.

also here is a google image search for pictures.

summer daze

school is back in session for the fall, and i didn't update my blog once this summer! time has flown! i am excited for this semester, not only am i in classes that seems like they will be very interesting but i only have classes two days a week. i go from 8-5 on tues and thurs, but this means i can work mwf and have the weekends off if i like. trying to decide if i will stay on-call with mom's best friend or if i will attempt waitressing again.

the summer was good, spent about a month in kentucky observing at a few facilities in lexington. i observed at st joseph's east hospital (with wonderful aubrie), cardinal rehabilitation hospital and the commission for children with special needs. it was wonderful to get some hands on experience and spend a little extra time with my family. speaking of family, tommy and amy gave birth to lincoln thomas quisenberry on july 9th! a new baby cousin! they seem to be doing well, only had a little correspondence via texts and emailed pictures.

after leaving kentucky i went to colorado for the 4th of july, you can't beat the wonderful view from cheyenne mountain. it was nice to be in cooler weather for a bit as well. drove back down to austin with my mother and she spent a long weekend with me. we did a lot of running around (even visited the alamo drafthouse twice!).

summer school went well; took statistics and audiology. i enjoyed audiology much more than i thought i would and have decided to switch from a speech pathology masters to audiology doctorate. this means i will have a few more years of school, but hopefully it will offer more job opportunities and a higher salary.

austin is great, but the town is feeling empty. tsouni moved back to london, gwynne and cameron moved to denver, and my friend leigha moved back to boston. seems a lot of people are pursuing options outside of texas. however, i do still have some great friends here, and now i have people to stay with in other cities! with the weather acting the way it has i can't blame them for leaving. we have had 70+ days of over 100 degrees, supposed to be 110 tomorrow. fortunately one can always go swimming at barton springs.

my birthday is tomorrow (can't believe it has been a fully year!). i am going thrift shopping with jenn in the morning, having a massage in the afternoon and finishing up the day at a breast cancer benefit. should be a great day!

april

april was a good month, spent a lot of time on school (now i am working on my blog instead of studying...). i am looking forward to some time off from school, but will be going to summer school in a few weeks. at this rate i will be finished with the leveling program at the end of the fall, that means i can start working as a speech therapy assistant while applying to grad schools. OR i can make a new career decision and do something completely different... either way i will finish my second degree.

tsouni's birthday was this month, her mom came in from england for a visit. on her actual birthday we went to karaoke at the high ball (always a good time), then had a quick dinner at whole foods and some pool.

xanadu room at the high ball.

cat cake i made for tsouni.

trish and tsouni playing pool at the grand. 

new shirt from blue velvet. 















this summer i am planning an extended trip to kentucky. tommy and amy are expecting a little baby boy in august, so i need to get in and out before summer school. :P they are getting married this weekend in lexington (congratulations!). 

on a separate note i watched a wonderful documentary the other day called hear and now. it follows a 65 year old couple as they get cochlear implants, and was filmed by their daughter. check it out if you have time.

east side boil

for the last ten years my roommate (jeff) and landlord (daniel) have been throwing a crawfish boil. it started out as a group of friends and has grown into a huge event. they throw a huge party, but also raise money for the east side community center. this year daniel raised about $15,000 and 600 people attended. i didn't eat any of the crawfish but had a good time anyway!

truck from louisiana, the trailer truck combo was as long as the house. the trailer had three separate cookers for the event. 














boatloads of corn (didn't actually get through all of it). 

 crowd at the start of the day.















people eating.

crowd towards the end of the day. 

annie ray took pictures.  here i am with some of my speech therapy friends.


















roy enjoying the leftover boxes.


















luckily daniel had interns pick up most of the yard! it is all back to normal, possibly even better than  before.

hot water bottles

i never posted pictures of my christmas craft project! i made hot water bottle covers for my family, then i embroidered their names on the front.

developed my own pattern.

pinned product. 

finished cover. 

embroidered for mom. 

winter.

here is a quick snapshot of my life the last 5 months...

November:
spent thanksgiving in houston with mary catherine and brad.

December:
went home for christmas and new years.

view from the rent's place.

spent most of my time next to the fire.

christmas tree.





















January:
spent most of my time working at frank and started back to school as a leveling student for speech therapy.

February:
work and school.

March:
lots of people were in town for sxsw. minna came over with some friends from australia, and a whole slew of people came from colorado. didn't go to as many shows as i would have liked since i was working so much, but did get to see shannon and the clams at cheer up charlie's!

April:
april is just around the corner. i have left my job at frank in order to focus on school, going back to nannying i think. makes it easier to juggle school and work when i can make my own schedule. austin is warming up nicely and i am looking forward to summer.

here are some pictures on my flickr. sorry to have such a short generic posting, but so much time has passed since my last one that i just needed to get one up. i was called out by a few people for my lack of posts... school is going well, keeping me very busy. it is nice to some intellectual stimulation and my program is full of wonderful people. once i finish this second degree i hope to get into grad school, i figure if i apply to enough places somewhere has got to take me.   :P