changes in 2011

last year i did my MSW internship at the VA, in the mental health department. i loved it there & have been on the lookout for openings at VA facilities across the country. it was great to understand a {huge} part of our society more & find a way to serve people who serve in the military. it was also eye-opening & humbling.

this year i am doing my final internship at the local hospital. i have wanted to work at this hospital since we moved to here & i feel fortunate to have this coveted internship position. i started this week, with a bit of anxiety & uncertainty about exactly what i would be doing there. medical social work is difficult to conceptualize & explain, yet i have been drawn to it for years.

i now know why it is difficult to understand... because the entire work day flies by in a rush, with a buzz of energy & need surrounding you at all times, while you try to problem solve everything in a patient's life that is impacted by their medical condition. essentially, our medical crises don't happen in a vacuum & the medical social worker's job {at least a portion of it} is to address the universe of issues & needs that surround admission to the hospital. health, illness, life, death, success & failure--it all happens every day in every hospital. now, i get to be part of it!

when i started the MSW program, i felt like the faculty made it their mission to dissuade my plans to work as a medical/oncology social work plans. i heard repeatedly that my goals would change as i went through the program. i feel proud to know with certainty that i wasn't wrong about my goals, despite my lack of knowledge. being in this internship placement confirms that the medical field is where i want to begin my career. 

2010 in pics

last night harvey got hit by a car. a dominos delivery car to be exact. right in front of our house. it was awful to watch the whole accident happen & not be able to do a single thing. somehow he managed to bounce off the car & run out of the way before being hit again. the dominos driver didn't stop after the accident, just kept right on driving. luckily the dominos manager was upset with his driver's misbehavior & insisted that we take harvey to the vet on their expense. harvey seems to be ok, although he is really stiff & we have to monitor his breathing because the x-rays showed fluid in his lungs. he now growls at the scene of the crime each time we are near the road so brandon & i are hopeful he learned his lesson. doubtful, but hopeful.

fearing the worst as we saw the whole accident play out before us, we are now especially grateful for the little guy. this gratitude inspired me to go through our 2010 photos & reminisce. it was a good year!

harvey loves to bound through the powder
whenever we go out for a ski.

a little fox that hung around our
neighborhood last winter.

one of brandon's many crazy adventures

at the pump track in austin. harvey blew us all away
that he could keep up with this guy who was riding full speed.
i wish i would have captured the next scene,
where harvey cleared that gap! 

the brothers & their bikes.

at the alamo. 

our mariachi band along the san antonio river walk.

harvey at the san marcos kayak park.

brandon was so excited to see the surveying station near santa fe.
our requisite tourist photo spots aren't the norm i suppose.

scrub brush in southern colorado.

the droids of colorado state parks.

great sand dunes national park.

harvey wondering why brandon would
climb 40' off the ground.

crazy wyomin' rock face.

rodney graduated with style.
just three more sibling high school
graduations to survive enjoy!

we got in a little kayaking.

laramie flooded.

rowan came for a lovely visit!
(his family made it too, but he was most certainly the highlight!)

we rode bikes.

we rode bikes a lot actually.

we saw our first (& second) drive-in movie with old friends.

harvey went rafting for the first time.
he is with one of his favorite ladies in the whole world, emily.

a sweet dive into the cold snake.

i started watching bloom, our friends' son,
who we now all adore.
harvey gets a little nervous when the baby is too still or quiet.

tiff came for a visit & we talked human behavior into the ground.

kemi, mia, & i enjoyed our first of
many yearly girl's weekends in vegas!

rob & becky came for a visit.

we had an awesome time hanging out & showing them
our little life here in laramie.

we rode bikes some more. 

we enjoyed texas & family. 

we saw the ocean!

i made it my mission to pop as many man-o-wars
as i could along the national seashore. just doing my civic duty!

brandon caught a huge fish.

he also saw an adorable pine martin.

& he skied, & skied, & skied some more.

the cure

there is something difficult for me about the transition time after christmas. i get used to shopping, being on the lookout for the perfect gift, handing over my credit card, & buying, buying, buying. after christmas there are usually a few things to exchange so that keeps the trend going. then, all of the sudden, january rolls around & we should be done with the purchasing. but i just am not that good at switching off the shopping button. i had this discussion with my friend the other day & was relieved to learn that i am not alone in this buying fever. 

hopefully we closed out the shopping season with a bang! we bought a new car! we have been saving up {per dave ramsey's car-buying with cash only plan} & forked over the cash for a used all wheel drive safari van. what?!? that's right people, we bought a van! we couldn't be more stoked. it is going to be modified into a mini-motorhome of sorts & will also serve as a conduit to getting brandon out of the house & into the mountains while i slave away at my internship this spring.

i swear we saw every safari van between laramie & denver yesterday. we test-drove a few, even a pimped out conversion van with creepy limo lighting. we also went to REI to exchange my far too large bike helmet, stopped by target to buy a few 75% off work-appropriate shirts for me {see internship above}, dropped off our "second" dog at his real home, & and had an awesome dinner at PF Chang's. i haven't eaten there in a long time, but it was just as delicious as ever! 

take note of the snow on the road.
we haven't seen the blacktop of our road
since sometime in november.

we are gonna pull one, or maybe both,
of the back seats out.

so it was success all around, with a few important exchanges/purchases & then one big slammin' deal on a car we have been wanting. hopefully looking out at our new {to us} paid-for-in-hard-earned-cash-money van can bite the shopping bug!