She's so Photogenic!!!

A gal I know from Auburn and a fellow blogger hosted a contest for pet owners to submit their favorite pictures of their canines and other pets! I entered this picture of Sierra that I took when she was a puppy! She hasn't announced the winner yet, but I think my girl has a pretty good chance, don't you think? She compiled all the pictures she was sent into a slide show! If you need a good laugh and a warm heart, check out Erika's blog and look for Sierra! Erika is an incredible interior designer and her blog is one that I stalk often! Her twin sister, Darby, has a really cool blog as well! Check them out!

What an Awesome Opportunity!

As I'm trying to seek the intentions God has for me in this life and not focus on the limitations, I'm trying to open my eyes to every opportunity sent my way. I feel certain that I have made good friends in Greenville so fast because I completely opened myself up to whoever God sent my way. When my cousin sent me on a happy hour without him to meet all of his friends just 2 weeks after moving here, I went not knowing who or what to expect. What a blessing it has been to have met so many fun people and been included in so many great events like a day on Lake Keowee, birthday parties, and Gamecock Football! Me and Meredith at the tailgate

No...this is not a new friend...this would be the locksmith that charged Matt $150 to unlock their car after they locked the keys in the car!

Mom and Dad were able to get me 45 yd line, 10th row seats to the game! So, no...I did not zoom in to take this picture! Best seats I've ever had for a football game!

Besides making good friends, I've been trying to find opportunities to fill my extra time. I have a lot of time on my hands 1.) because work is slow, and 2.) because I'm single and don't have a family to take care of. So because I'm not letting the nature of my job and a slow economy nor my marital status define who I am, my eyes are open to the intentions God has for me. I decided a while back to try to get involved with the Children's Hospital at Greenville Memorial. This was such a natural decision for me since I grew up watching my Mom give so much of her time to Children's Hospital at Richland Memorial in Columbia. Lucky for me, I have a pretty solid connection with the Children's Hospital here in Greenville.

I asked Bill Schmidt (who just so happens to be the Director of Children's Hospital), or Dr. Bill as I like to call him every now and then, whether there was any group I could be a part of that would allow me to meet other people and get involved with Children's Hospital. Being the eternal optimist that he is, Dr. Bill immediatly said, "Yep! I'm going to get you involved with the Development Council!" Within a few weeks, I had 2 emails in my inbox welcoming me to the Development Council and inviting me to a New Member Orientation. I had to sign a Commitment Form and started to read a description of the Council which mentioned that this was a 3 year commitment! Yikes! What had I gotten myself into?

So, today was the New Member Orientation. I tried to remember what Mom would wear to hospital board meetings back in the day, so I threw on my favorite wool tweed dress pants, some sassy heels that are impossible to walk in and a sweater. (I love dressing up in the fall!) I walked into the lobby of Greenville Memorial and felt like I was in Phipps down in Atlanta! There was a hustle and bustle about the place, very upbeat, piano playing in the lobby, food court straight ahead. Was I really in a hospital???

I turned the corner to go to Conference Room #5 and saw Linda Brees who Dr. Bill told to look out for me! She immediately threw her arm around me and welcomed me! They took my picture for the directory and then shuffled me into the Conference room where a bunch of men and women, dressed in business suits were sitting around a table eating lunch. I felt a bit of anxiety as I started to think of little ol' me...a former school teacher...not really fitting in with the 'suits'! But as soon as I sat down, everyone was so nice and we had a great lunch talking and getting to know each other.

Dr. Bill soon came into the room and sat down and ate lunch with us. Then the meeting started. As the various leaders of the group went around and spoke to all of us about the Development Council and its purpose, I began to realize that this was an incredible opportunity given to me! Suddenly, getting out and meeting people took second base to getting out and making a difference.

The Development Council does so much to support the children and staff at Children's Hospital! They plan events and fundraisers to raise money for the hospital...anything from the Radiothon that raised over $200,000 dollars this year to golf tournaments. They are committed to the education of children and parents about child safety to keep kids OUT of the hospital! There are so many other ways that the council gets involved with children and I'm so excited that I have been given a chance to work with them too!

The absolute best part of the meeting was at the end when Dr. Schmidt took us on a tour of the Children's Hospital. Besides my father, of course, I have always said that Dr. Bill is one of the most incredible men I know. To see the Children's Hospital that he runs and is so passionate about reaffirmed my respect for Bill and all that he has done to make this facility one of the best around. He took us through the NICU first which was absolutely heart breaking and incredible at the same time. To see babies in little beds, clinging to their lives...some of them only weighing in at a little over a pound! Each baby has a station with a monitor and rocking chair. Each station also has a dry erase board on the wall. One baby's older sibling wrote a note saying that he loved his little sister. Another baby had a note written on the board from one of his nurses saying, "Yeah! I weigh 3 pounds!"

Every child at Children's Hospital must go to school. Dr. Bill showed us the classroom they have set up. They bring in teachers who are hired by the school districts to work at the hospital and teach kids who are sick. So while kids are in the hospital, they are counted present at school and can return without missing much of anything!

Dr. Bill also showed us the 'Treatment Rooms' they have on the Children's Hospital floor. He told us that there is a strict policy that no treatment beyond a finger prick is ever done in a child's room. Any procedure that has to be done, the child is taken to another room, neutral ground, so that their rooms are a safe haven where they can relax. They also put kids to sleep for any painful procedure because they want the hospital experience to be as pain free as possible.

I could go on forever about everything else I saw today...but I won't! It was amazing! I almost felt like I was on an episode of Grey's Anatomy and I was one of the residents trying to keep up with Dr. Bailey because Dr. Bill walked so fast throughout the tour that he was literally about 15 feet in front all of us the whole time! Every time he started walking again, we were almost in a jog to keep up with him!

I can't wait for the next meeting which is November 5th! One day after Election Day! Oh boy! And with that in mind and Halloween approaching...I'll leave you with this cartoon to ponder! (I found it while blog stalking...yet again!)

Something to Think About...

I've been reading "The Shack" by William Young lately. I'd recommend it to anyone who struggles with the question of why God lets bad things happen. There was a quote that I wrote down the other day after I read it that I keep thinking about:

"...humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I (God) have for them"

How often do we focus on the limitations of ourselves and others? I think of myself as a single girl in her 30's before I think of anything else. Not to say that being single is always a limitation but a lot of people view it that way. And those who view it as a limitation and are burdened because of it are missing what God has intended for them. I am not defined by my singleness but by who I am and who God wants me to be...a teacher, a daughter, a friend, a sister, etc.

How often does society define others by their limitations? Kids with disabilities are often defined by their disability rather than who they are. Emily once told me while we were at Auburn that we should always consider "the child before the disability." In other words, rather than saying "the down syndrome student" we should say "the student with down syndrome."

Even political candidates are defined by their limitations (i.e. McCain-old, Palin-inexperienced) when really we should define them by who they are and what they have to offer.

I've been thinking about this quote for the past few days and thought I'd share. I hope it sticks with you for a while as well!

I'm Still Sleepy!

So, Sierra sleeps in my room (on the floor, not in my bed! I have a thing with dogs in bed...I can't stand the hair and Sierra is a bed hog). She used to sleep in her crate but that stopped around the time that she started waking up at 4:00 am and barking! The bark collar worked for a while but then I decided that she spent so much time in her crate during the day, it wasn't such a bad idea to let her sleep in my room. I started this down in Charleston and she did great. Her bed was on the floor about 2 feet away from mine and each night we would go to our respective beds and turn in for the night.

Lately, however, Sierra dog has been a bit restless. I've woken up for the past couple nights to her shaking her head (she has an ear infection which I think is why she's shaking) so of course, her collar makes noise. So, I've taken her collar off before she goes to bed. That seemed to work for a while. But last night, she came up with a new trick to wake me up.

About 3:30 am, I wake up to what sounded like my poor dog using every muscle in her body to hurl all over my carpet. I threw on the light, sprung out of bed and hurried her into the bathroom on the tile floor. Once in the bathroom, she stares up at me with a grin on her sweet face, as if to say, "Wanna play?" Oooooh! I was not happy! So now that my eyes are adjusted to the light and I feel as if I've run around the block a few times after the mad sprint to the bathroom to avoid massive damage to my carpet, I'm wide awake. And what does Sierra do once she realizes that it's not time to play? Well, she just goes back to her bed and falls asleep. Needless to say, the snooze button on my alarm was pushed a couple extra times this morning! Praise God for Office Days!

Weekends in Greenville

I just thought I'd post some pictures of what's been going on in Greenville over the past couple weekends. My last post was about my girls weekend with Erin and Jenn. Here are a couple pictures. Don't you love how Erin and I are twins in the first picture and Jenn and I are dressed alike in the next? I'm a complete copy cat!

On the bridge in Falls Park

At SkyTop Apple Orchard

This past weekend, Mom and Dad came up to Greenville with the Bayards to stay with the Schmidts. On Saturday, we all went up to Table Rock to hike and have a picnic lunch. The hike brought back memories of when we came up to Greenville to visit Bill and Jean when I was younger and we all hiked Table Rock. I can remember sliding down one of the rocks into the water below. Table Rock is only about 45 minutes away from Greenville so I hope that I'll get up there again soon! I think Sierra was a mountain goat in her former life! She never stopped...my hands felt like they were rope burned from pulling back on the leash so much! She loved it.

I have to say though, one of the more memorable moments for me was what happened after we got back from the hike. While we were hiking, Ruth Bayard stayed behind because her foot was bothering her. So we planned to meet her at the trail head for lunch. After we ate lunch, Ruth walked up to the restroom before we got in the car to go back to Greenville. Mom, Jean, and I were talking around the table as Ruth walked up the hill. Mom was holding onto Sierra when all of a sudden Sierra starts barking in Ruth's direction. We all looked up at Ruth and it seemed like she was fine...so we just told Sierra to lock it up. Sierra kept at it though. A couple minutes later, after non stop barking, we realized that Ruth was still up at the top of the hill and hadn't made it to the restroom yet and she was limping. She started calling down to us so her husband John ran up the hill to her. Turns out that she had twisted her ankle and was really hurt. I'm not saying that my dog is a genius...but I am convinced that she has a 6th sense!

Sierra and Dexter

Okay...so I was going to post pictures that I took of Fall for Greenville, but since it just took me almost 30 minutes to post the last few, I think I'll take a break for today! Is anyone else having problems posting pictures to your blog? Everytime I try to post them, they go the the top of the post and then I have to drag them to the spot in the post where I want them to be. Lately, it's been next to impossible to drag them...they just don't move! What am I doing wrong? Should I post the pictures first and then type around? Help!

Girls Weekend!

This weekend my friends Jenn and Erin came to visit me in Greenville! They both got here around lunch time on Saturday so we went straight downtown and grabbed a bite to eat at Paris Cafe on Main Street. Mom and I went there a couple weeks ago for lunch...it's a great spot to grab a good sandwich and salad and sit outside to enjoy the fresh air! I then took them up and down Main Street to look at all the cute shops. Jenn took advantage of a baby free weekend and started her Christmas shopping! On Sunday, we went with Angie and Tres and family to the SkyTop Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC! It was an adventure!

The more people I know who have children, the more in awe of parenthood I am! We drove up to Angie and Tres' house to see a Suburban and a Mini Van packed full of strollers, snacks, car seats, and oh...babies. They had friends in from Charlotte who had 2 kids so there was twice as much stuff to haul up to the mountains. The drive up to the orchard was absolutely gorgeous! The fall colors have started to appear so it is really cool driving into the mountains! I can't believe I'm this close to them! Once we got up to the orchard, we met Jason and Caryn and their new baby, Charley. Tres and friend, Chad, got a dozen apple donuts which were better than they should have been! Oh my gosh! They were like an apple version of a funnel cake you get at the fair...but better.

You should have seen the whole clan walking through the orchard. The kids were hysterical! One little girl, Peyton, kept picking the apples, biting into them and then throwing them down on the ground. I'm sure the people walking through after us must have seen a couple dozen apples with teeth marks in them on the ground and wondered what strange animal was lurking around the orchard biting into apples but not eating them. It was a great place for the kids to run around and it was fun for the adults too! I thought it was pretty cool being able to just pick an apple off the tree and eat it right there!

We then stopped off in Hendersonville to get lunch at a Mexican restaurant afterwards. You should of seen the poor girls face at the door when Jason told her that we had 15 people with us, "and 6 of them are kids!" They survived and the place is still standing so all in all, it was a great day.

When we got back, the girls left and I went straight to my room to read the last 9 pages of The Other Boleyn Girl, which I've been reading for the past 6 weeks almost and could not put down! This was the longest book I've ever read--I LOVE to read but am a slow reader so this was a pretty big deal for me! I couldn't wait to rent the movie so I went straight to Blockbuster. I sat down with a glass of wine and the homemade applesauce I made with the apples I picked (I know...doesn't sound like a very appetizing combination, but I was full from the Mexican food). From the first 5 minutes of the movie, I was disappointed! They changed the whole thing!!! I hate when Hollywood does that! I get so wrapped up in the book and involved with the characters and the story line! I actually get sad when I finish a book! So I get really excited when to watch the movie because I feel like it's a way for the story to keep going. It just wasn't the same.

It was a great weekend overall...and of course, I forgot my camera everywhere we went! Hopefully Erin will send me the 2 pictures she had room for on her camera that we took at the orchard on Sunday and I'll post those soon!