_For Jessica...

I am of the mindset that eating should be viewed as a way to pamper your body. You can make or break yourself with your food choices. Depending on what you eat, your body will either love you for it and work with you, or hate you for it and work against you. One of the 903 girls and dear friend, Jessica Cooper and husband have decided to eat as whole as they can and organic when possible. She blogs about new recipes they try and gives the scoop on local farmer's markets. I love it. I have always been a hippy at heart and LOVE eating clean and whole. I LOVE the taste of most fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. I love to pamper myself with what I eat, so I share in their quest to make the healthiest food choices possible. I have recently been looking for new recipes to try and my dear friend Cindy gave me this one. Enjoy, Jess!

Ingredients:

One Spaghetti Squash
Pasta Sauce
Ground turkey
Italian seasoning
Garlic clove (optional)


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half. Scoop out the seeds and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, put your sauce in a pot and doctor it up however you'd like. Brown your turkey meat (or cut up chicken) in a little bit of olive oil, italian seasoning, and a clove of garlic (if you're into that sort of thing) and put it in with your sauce. Simmer that junk {while your squash is cooking}. After your squash is done cooking, take it out and turn it over...take a fork and run it over the flesh. If it strings like spaghetti and can easily be picked up it is done! The flesh will also take on a darker yellow color when it is done. Cook the squash for a little less time if you like your "noodles" al dente. Do the taste test, your tongue won't steer you wrong! Scoop the "noodles" out with tongs or a fork, plate it and put your sauce on top! It's delicious.

I have fallen in love with spaghetti squash...I don't know if I will be able to go back to eating processed pasta noodles now that I have such a healthy alternative! I have found a lot more recipes using spaghetti squash, so if you like it let me know and I will pass those along as well!

Happy eating :)

i wish i could get on facebook at work

No, not because i am THAT obsessed with what a few friends and a hundred acquaintances are up to...but because my profile contains all of my *pictures* of the friends i love and i would love to show you! So, that title was actually a trick.

What i really want to talk about is not facebook, but how THANKFUL i am for my {amazing} friends.

This weekend i went to the mountains with some of my {favorite} girls in the world. This past April, Eternal (my church), hosted a silent auction to help raise money for the Guatemala trip i went on this past summer. Diana won a weekend {away} in the mountains! So about 10 of us girls went on up. We had an amazing time.

Here are some highlights: (hopefully i will have pictures to share later, once my computer at home is fixed :)

1. we made an amazing fire without the help of any boys!

2. we sang and worshiped together. i have missed that.

3. i got to actually hang out with kylie and heather!

4. amy lost her footing and was drug about 15 feet by the ridiculous swing

5. there was a river that flowed behind the house...the image of seeing that river by the light of the moon and stars will never leave me.

6. we played hilarious board games

7. i got to spend quality time and pray with my favorite amy coccia

8. i got to spend time with lauren dean...i have been wanting to do this for a while because i think [she is just precious!]

................

Amy and i drove back to town Saturday night so we could go to worship on Sunday. Amy was playing, so she had to get back, and i have just MISSED worship! Being out of town is not conducive to regular church attendance. It's definitely {not} about attendance for me, or my church for that matter... i MISS my wonderful community when i spend a lot of time away from them. They are my heart.

..................................................................................................................................

Sunday my dear friends Jonathan and Lizzy surprised me right before church was about to start! They were coming into town from Hilton Head for Melissa's baby shower that afternoon, and decided to come early for church. I was startled by Lizzy's voice whispering in my ear, "is someone sitting here"? I yelped. I was SO surprised! After church Lizzy, Jonathan, Josh, Maria, Niles, and I went to lunch and then to the baby shower in Charlotte. At the baby shower the {903 Girls} were together again (minus Julie), and had a great time.

......................................................

I LOVE our group of girls from college...they're more like sisters. i don't have a sister and they are the closest things i have to that type of relationship. We are all so different but come together so well. Lizzy's baby shower is in 3 weeks and Julie is coming into town for it!! i couldn't be more thrilled.

........................................................................................

So this weekend i was reminded of how {blessed} i am by my friends, old and new. You ladies and gentlemen have NO idea how much i love you all, and how i wouldn't be able to make it in this cold world without your friendship.

God is good.

where have i BEEN??

That's the 1,000,000 question!!
my life was a bit of a whirlwind over the summer! {wait, that's a lie} i did whatever i wanted to do for 10 weeks this summer, and that just happened to [not include blogging] i know you're dying to know, so here are some things i did do:

1.) went to the lake with amy...daily

2.) stayed up late with amy...nightly

3.) went to charleston with amy...weekly

4.) hung out with kyle...weekly

5.) went to guatemala for 2 weeks

....and here are some things i wanted to do, but didn't....

1.) blog more ;)

2.) take a few weekend trips to out of town places

3.) organize my craft things...and my house. and my life.

4.) lesson plan my first entire semester of school

even though i didn't get some things done that i wanted to do, it was great to not have a care in the world during the summer for the first time in years. the very existence of schools and their wonderful hours never ceases to satisfy my longing for free time. speaking of schools and jobs, i need to get back to mine and finish these medicaid billings :-/

but all of that to say i'm baa-aaack and ready to keep everyone up to date on some [important] decisions coming up. though true, that was fully intended as a teaser so you'll keep reading and then give me great advice ;)

hhhhmmmm_

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/18/eco.free.economy/index.html

thoughts later.

silence_

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
— Jack Kerouack

just 5 minutes

of peace and quiet. of not thinking about anything pressing or important. of sitting up straight, instead of hunched over in my chair. of looking out of a window and drinking on some coffee. of sunshine. of hearing His voice. of NOT DOING IEP'S!! just 5 minutes.


yes, it's that time folks...IEP crunch time. i have close to 50 kids on my caseload...most of which have summer birthdays, which means that i need to have their IEP meetings before the school year is over. and we have 10 days left, not counting this day. IEP paperwork, on top of medicaid billings and treatment makes for loooong days...which turn into longer days when i truck it to the hospital in the afternoons! i really shouldn't complain, though. i have a job! thank God.

in other news, i am gearing up for the summer! amy and i have spent some time planning out our adventures :) skip (the pastor of my church), and his family have left for florida for the month. i would LOVE to have that flexibility, and i'm so glad they're able to take a break and rest. and even more glad that they left their kayaks! amy is keeping there dog switch (aka snitch, stitch, stitches, flick, etc...) and they told her to use the kayaks as often as she wants. so saturday amy and i trucked it down to a neighbor's dock on lake wylie (she lives in tega cay, by the way), and set out to have a day of adventure. when we got there the neighbor was home (clark), and he told us we could also use his pontoon and jet ski when we wanted as well!! yeeeeeaah! that is awesome. this particular day; however, we just wanted to play on the kayaks. and play we did. we found a dock that we've hung out on before...we're not really sure who it belongs to. there is no house associated with it, and our best guess is that it's owned by duke power...b/c there is a metal plate on the outside of it that says "duke power." makes sense, right? anyway, we paddled over to "our" dock and played in the water, kayaked, and laid out in the sun. it was AWESOME. we did the same thing on sunday after church. and yesterday afternoon after school we kayaked over to the namowisc's (sp?...i usually just call them the namowhiskers ;) and jumped off their high dock...without permission. i know, we live SO on the edge, right? hahahahaha. anyway, we then paddled back and i went and hung out with michelle and beulah while andy took his seminary final. i just love that family. michelle is a wonderful friend and so fun to be around...and beulah lights up any room she's in. i am continually amazed at the people God has placed in my life. so that's one thing we're going to do this summer...use the heck out of that boat, jetski, and those kayaks.

we've also talked about touring the great north carolina wine country. ahhahahahahahhaha. but seriously. they're are vineyards around and we want to check them out. other plans include, but are not limited to, weekend trips to asheville, carborro, virginia, charleston, san diego, LA...ha, yeah right. i don't know where we think we're going to get all of this money! we both work for the school district! but we will do as much as we can with what we have! maybe we can be like betty jo ray and "become a tourist in our hometown." remember that little spot on cn2 in college, girls? i hope my college friends are reading this, otherwise that sentence was wasted.

well, that's all i got right now. i should get back to writing IEP's and scheduling meetings. i just needed 5 minutes (well, what turned into 20...) of shooting the breeze. i hope the busyness (sp?) makes the time fly!

what's been going on

i've decided to invite my family and friends to this blog...i don't know why i haven't before now. i haven't written in a while...i have several drafts, which is so typical of me. but i decided to go ahead and write to catch everyone (one) up with what's been going on lately.

work is going well...i love working in the school system. i especially love the hours. i work from 7:30-2:30 or 3:00. i have a long break for Thanksgiving, a longer one for christmas, out for spring break, and then out for a little over 2 months! it's nearing the end of the school year and this will be my first summer with "nothing" to do since i was in undergrad! yeehaw! i know i talk a lot about breaks, but i do enjoy my job when i'm here, too. i work with 3 self-contained classrooms, and i LOVE my children. they are the best. they say the funniest things all the time. i've started to randomly write down the things they've said on stray pieces of paper. next year i vow to make a quote book. yes, they are that funny.

i've been working at the hospital in the afternoons to help out the SLP-get her oriented to treating adults. she has been with children for many years and doesn't have a lot of experience with adults. she is wonderful to work with, and i need the money. it's great how God provides...i was getting very low on funds, and my parents have been unable to help me out, and just in the nick of time angie called and said they would need me for the next couple of months or so. hooray :). it makes for long days, but i'm so thankful for the work.

my love life is also going well :) this month kyle and i will have been "officially" dating for 5 months...but practically dating for 6 months ;) and i'm crazy about him. he treats me the way i've always known i've deserved to be treated. we have fun together and keep each other laughing, even when we're sitting around doing nothing. he has definitely become one of my best friends. i love being around him and we compliment each other well. he's met my family they are all fans. he gets along well with my friends...all is well :). he leaves at some point to move back to nashville, though. don't know how i feel about that. i'm excited for him to be able to finish school and for his life to return to a sense of normalcy since the accident, but i'm going to miss the devil out of him.

things on the friend front are looking good as well. back in april julie and jt came into town, bringing everyone from college together for a nice reunion of sorts. jonathan and lizzy; ryan and ashley, jessica and pj; melissa and jeremy; peter and jillian; me and josh and pat were all there and it was great to hang out with everyone again :) lizzy's birthday is june 11th and i'm going down to hilton head to hang out with them and go to an avett brothers show. may 29th is christy and james' wedding, so i'll be there as well and will be able to see everyone...excited about that!

this week i need to get support letters for guatemala...that's right, i'm at it again! this summer i will be there for 2 weeks, as opposed to one like last year. i will need to raise some mega funds, so as much as i love your prayers, i could REALLY use your money ;) i continue to love my church. they are my heart and everyone is doing well. amy signed a contract for next school year, so she won't be teaching music full time. cindy is doing ESY this summer and jeremy is thinking about going into the navy. danielle will be in uganda all summer for invisible children. and she thought she might be going to peru for a year, but she is staying in the country. heather and the kids are doing well. i meet with michelle and beulah about every other week. i love that baby!

my body seems to be doing well. after my big hormonal imbalance scare last year, i think we have finally figured out what's been going on with me. my body is very sensitive to sugar and carbs...so sensitive that it messes with my girl hormones and could possibly affect fertility. i plan on having babies, so i've changed my diet drastically...i should eat refined sugar/simple carbs very rarely...and i even have to watch the "good carb" intake as well. ugh. but i lost most of the weight that i had put on during that scary time, thank God. i've still got about another 1-15 lbs to go, but i'll get there. i've always been very athletic and healthy, so it was really scary when things started to head south in that area. i've started running again and i just signed up for my first half marathon. it is on november 13 in greenville. i'm on a training schedule now, lifting a few times a week and running a few times a week. i'm really trying to ease back into running because even though my heart and breathing are ok when i run; my muscles aren't used to the routine and i don't want to over do it. but i'm really bad at not overdoing things, so we'll see how this goes ;)

so that's about it :) things are going well. God is faithful and wonderful and worthy. and i thank Him for this time of smooth sailing.

new beginnings_

so i've met a boy. not recently...well, sort of. we went to high school together, but never hung out. our circles rubbed edges, but never merged. i knew him by name only. he knew me by name, face, and car (i drove an old school pathfinder littered with rock climbing, kayaking, and dmb stickers_kindof hard to miss). but i digress.
so here's how our circles finally merged.

.........................once upon a time {no good story

can begin with anything else}....................................

a boy was in a motorcycle accident. and it was bad. i found out via facebook {are you surprised} and saw where his family had started a caringbridge website. i signed up to receive his updates via email, so every night around 10:30 or so, I would wake up to the buzz of my blackberry graciously informing me of said boy's medical status. i began to look forward to these updates, though they would more often than not rouse me from a wicked cool dream. i know, that's an early bedtime {did i mention i used to be an old lady...}. i followed him and prayed for him through fevers, infections, a bk amputation, wet lungs, speaking valves and trach weaning (my specialty), feeding tubes (also a specialty), and then he woke up. Soon he was home from the hospital and began updating his website himself. so i started thinking about him more and more, especially since he started popping up on facebook all time. sometimes i would be in the middle of the day and randomly think about him. when i thought of him i would pray for him and his recovery.
then one day i signed on and he had changed his picture. to this: i love a man with a beard. i realized then how handsome he looked with a beard. and i wanted to tell him. now, those of you who know me know that i am very shy when it comes to boys. and only when it comes to boys. i don't hit on boys or give them more attention than any other gender...and by any other gender i mean female. just to clarify. but i really wanted to tell this boy. so i did. on his facebook wall. LAME. i mean, what? are we in highschool? apparently. i realize how ridiculous this all sounds. but we had no other way of knowing each other! that is my excuse. that sparked some conversation...via facebook...which brings me to thanksgiving break. i was coming home. i let the world know...{on facebook}...and lo and behold...the boy wanted to hang out...and this time he asked me. hooray! so we spent everyday of thanksgiving break together. and every weekend/and or week since. seriously. and now that boy has become one of my best friends. and boyfriend. double wow.

what is his name, you ask? kyle. kyle rampey. after dating we realized some strange little quirks in our pasts and families that relate to one another. so here they are. my grandmother taught his mom and her sisters. my mom and his mom are both nurses...and worked together for years at the hospital...and his mom took care of me after i was born. right before she got pregnant with kyle...or maybe she was even a couple of weeks pregnant? nah. numbers don't add up. anyway, i was going to be named kyle thomas if i were a boy. his name is kyle and his dad's name is thomas. and..oh, wait! MY dad's name is thomas. we happen to know a lot of the same people, not only because we went to the same school, but because his sister married a guy that went to the church where i was raised. my family knew his family pretty well. so there you have that.
so about kyle. about us. we are wonderfully compatible. like nothing i've ever experienced. we have a blast together, even when we're sitting around doing nothing. and i can be completely myself around him. and i mean COMPLETELY. and he loves it. what?

.....here are the things we are not.....

we are NOT the same person. we are NOT argumentative. we are NOT biting. we are NOT distant. we are NOT needy (most of the time). we are NOT dramatic. we are NOT hard on each other. we are NOT passive aggressive.

...here are the things we are...we ARE different. we ARE totally "that couple." we ARE weird (well, maybe not as weird as this picture). we ARE incredibly laid back. we ARE honest with each other...brutally. we ARE easy to get along with. we ARE easy to please (most of the time). we ARE best friends. we ARE believers. we ARE optimistic and positive. we ARE healthy. we ARE in love. we ARE quiet. we ARE good at speaking the other's love language. we ARE outdoorsy. we ARE sushi lovers. we ARE fascinated with the study of medicine. we ARE silly. we ARE funny. we ARE fun. we ARE loving. we ARE better together.



one of the things that i love about us is that we ARE different....
i am loud. kyle is quiet. i am disorganized. kyle is particular. he would love to have a garden like this. i would not. i like to go go go. kyle is a homebody (at least right now). i am a talker. kyles is not. i have the tendency to be artsy fartsy. kyle does not. i enjoy weird music (or what kyle would call weird). kyle does not. i like to get dirty. kyle does not. kyle hates to drive long distances. i do not. kyle loves abercrombie and fitch. i do not. i talk a lot about my feelings. kyle does not. kyle can go DAYS without a shower. i cannot. kyle loves taco bell. i do not. kyle likes toe rings and thumb rings. i do not. i act on emotion. kyle does not.

we compliment each other in the most perfect ways. i get him out of the house and he slows me down. i bring out the conversationalist in him and he quiets me. i can motivate him and he soothes me when i am too hard on myself. he can focus on the outside and i focus on the inside. i shower and he doesn't, so at least one of us is clean. hahahahhahahahha.

i will confront this one head on. i've had people ask if the amputation bothers me. the answer is absolutely not. is it scary sometimes? yes. it is for everyone involved. especially him. one thing that is neat about us and works to our advantage is that i'm a therapist. i work in inpatient rehab. i've seen people with similar stories come through the halls of the hospital. i've treated them. i've laughed with them. i've cried with them. and i celebrated with them as they succeeded. so the fear is never overwhelming. taking care of him physically when necessary never bothers me. he takes care of me too. kyle is ok. and will continue to make gains. we have only scratched the surface of his rehab potential. a couple more surgeries and there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. my gift is encouragement. i am fascinated by the body's God-given ability to heal and i couldn't be more thrilled to witness it first hand and have the privilege to be a part of this story.

his family has been so accepting of me. they are also wonderful and supportive. as many of you know, my family is going through a difficult time. and his family has been patient and loving with me, and willing to take care of me whenever i've needed it. i hope that i can return the favor.

he is not someone i would have put myself with. so God did. sometimes you don't know what you need until it is given to you. and so it is with us. he calms me. he slows me. he challenges me. he is patient with me. he encourages me. he supports me. he loves me. and for that i am grateful.

our own little oscar_

in light of the recent award show that aired sunday night, (i'm looking at you, oscar); for girl's night yesterday my friends and i decided to host our own awards show...

the title, {i gotchyo crazy}

the nominees [the real nominees of this show will not be revealed to protect identity]
{myself, flarby, derica, daredith, ape-keepinit-real, kellsworth}


our show started off with a question...

what's the craziest thing you've ever done?

...which turned into an ugly game of [never have i ever]. you know the game...derived from the circle of death we all fell into so many sloppy nights in college_

...so here's a sample of some of the things us sweet girls have NEVER done...

_Never Have I Ever...

-created a fake profile on facebook to friend an ex girlfriend

of a current boyfriend...and have online
conversations
with her.

-been hit by a car of a crazy ex girlfriend

-been literally thrown into a fist fight with a girl you barely knew...by my

boyfriend

-ran from a cabbie after jumping out of the vehicle without

paying...alone. in boston.

TWICE.

-woken up with furniture against the bedroom door, and an

entire conversation on AIM...with no one but

[yourself]

-gotten in a [cab] with strange men [to go to a secret salsa club in

the middle of puerto rico]...who decided to do drugs on the way.

-made out on the dance floor

...at {someone else's wedding}

-gotten thrown out of a marine fight...by a marine.

-driven in the middle of the night to charleston just

because you wanted to see the beach that bad...and it happened to be on

the night of a {meteor shower}

...the list could go on. really...

girl's night yesterday was spent eating cookie dough, drinking wine, and laughing, laughing, laughing HYSTERICALLY at our poor life choices; marveling over our ability to survive such events;
_and thanking God that {He} loves us in spite of ourselves.

_a new start_

i have a terrible habit. i move to new towns and meet amazing people and have wonderful times...and when one of us moves away i drop them. not on purpose. i just have a terrible time communicating on the phone. email is too impersonal for my taste, and as much as i would love to do snail mail, the process usually stops with a really cool idea for a card. ideas-action=lonely mailboxes. so, i attempt to blog. this will be a way to reconnect with (gone but not forgotten) friends who leave 1-2 voicemails a week, threatening me to call them back. this will in no way replace a phone call or a weekend visit...but it will help me be a better friend...if i know that you know what's been going on...i know i won't have to stay on the talk box as long...that sounds worse than it really is.

so to all of those i've lost touch with:

_it's not because i don't love you...

...it's not because i don't think of you often_

_it's simply because i can be terribly selfish...

pleaseforgiveme