weekend with the whole family

this past weekend was incredible. everyone in my immediate family was at my dad's house on saturday. we had our thanksgiving dinner and christmas for some. i brought zach with me and i think my family really likes him. he really likes them. we had so many good laughs and it was just grand to spend time with everyone again. we figured it has been about 2 and 1/2 years since we have all been together. i can't believe how fast chandler, maddison, lily, and isabelle are growing. adam has grown up a lot too. and his girl is really cute. i hope she sticks around. adam is a good boy. i don't think he will be able to make it for christmas. as far as i know, christmas will be essie, me, and zach that are going to my parents house.
i really have missed being around my whole family. adam & cedar asked zach & i to go shooting out at adam's best friend's parents' place. it was a lot of fun to get to shoot again. then we raced back for lunch/dinner. everyone stuffed themselves with yummy food. and then we all laid around and laughed and talked. adam suggested we go bowling. so we did. it was a lot of fun. i really am not a good bowler though. zach did fairly well. brooke did amazing. cedar was just one pin shy of a turkey. and then out of no where...dj took the win. the kids got a chance to roll a few bowling balls down the lane. maddy did better than me...she is 3 turning 4 next month. all in all, it was a grand time. sooooo good to see everyone together again. we are all kind of going our separate ways now that we are growing up. it is sad, but understandable and slightly good.
i am looking forward to thanksgiving and christmas this year. thanksgiving will tragically be very short. zach & i are going to drive down to hurricane after i get out of class on wednesday. then we are driving back up thursday evening since we both have to work friday morning. blah i hate short trips. but it will be fun.
christmas is exciting for me this year. i have been wanting to put my tree up since last week. i haven't. i am waiting until after thanksgiving because i fully believe thanksgiving needs to be celebrated too. zach has been laughing at me because i have been talking about putting my tree up. i have been listening to a lot of christmas music as of late too. i also bought a santa made out of lights. santa makes me smile and i think it is just so cute all lit up. zach has also laughed at me smiling at my lighted santa. i bet he is wondering how crazy i am going to get when i really have my own place to decorate. anyway, the snow is making the season feel more real now. i don't like the cold, but i do like the mystical profound silence of snow falling. i want to take my snowboard out too. zach & i were at the d.i. the other day and found a pair of snowboarding boots that were his size. we got them. now we just need to get him a board. maybe that's what i will get him for christmas. i am at a total loss of what to get him. he won't tell me. i suggest a few things and all he says is, "sure. that would be nice."
to be fair, i guess i haven't been much help to him either. i said he shouldn't really spend money on me...esp since he doesn't have a whole lot of it right now. he just pulls a face at me and says he has every right to spoil me. then i argue back, yes but not if you are going to go in debt for me. and thus begins the grrr moments between us. grrr cause we are both stubborn and don't want to give up, but don't want to push it either. so we just grrrr and then we are done with it. i love my zacharoo. he is good to me. well, i had better get some studying in before class tonight. i will once again try to keep you all updated, but make no real promises because i do stay fairly busy.

hey look at me go....

so it isn't the end of the month and i am blogging again. wahoo. first off this last week was just about as crazy as the week before. my boss got sick from all the sick people at albertsons. come to find out late this week, they all have the swine flu now. good thing my boss got her shot. she did work most of the week, so i wasn't nearly as stressed out. and i got a small thank you from my store manager & my boss. it was a nice thank you and i am excited to use it. now just on what since the where is already in place.
this week is going to be a long week. i have class every night including friday night. but hey, at least i won't have class on thanksgiving, right. i do have lab on thursday this week and it should be a good lab. we get to look at the lower limb and i think review a bit on the upper limb too. i can't remember exactly which. i just know that the os coxa (hip) and the femur bones have a lot of landmarks that aren't exactly the easiest to find or remember.
i have advanced massage only once this week, but guess what we get to start on tuesday..... acupressure! i am really excited for it. acupressure is a total energy modality. you put pressure on different points on the body and has different effects. i will tell you all more about it as i actually learn about it. i am just excited! so this week's class schedule is anatomy, acupressure, acupressure, anatomy lab, and advanced massage.
good thing i get to end my week with massage. i just hope we get more than 35 min like we had thursday. but speaking of this past thursday..... we set up like we will for clinicals. this means we pull the curtains and make little booths. we played out the entire time we actually did hands on like it was clinicals. i was on the table first and had a pretty good massage. then it was my turn to be the therapist. since we were still technically in class, we had to pull the curtains back half way so our teacher could still see if we needed help or corrections made.
we had some sick people in class that couldn't afford to miss the class, but couldn't get or give bodywork. so they sat out and watched everybody. learn by observation. well, i looked up once and noticed all the sick people were gathered around my booth. they were all watching me. kinda creepy, but i didn't think much of it. i just smiled and kept working. the session ended and we were cleaning up the classroom. i got my feedback from my client and then proceeded to help finish putting the classroom back in order.
my teacher came up to me and said, "you are amazing if you didn't already know that, you should." my reaction, "oh, um, thanks."
my insides were screaming, "really? i am amazing? i don't even know if i know what i am really doing yet." so i started thinking about it. i had seen my teacher pass by my booth a few times and then i saw my classmates gathered around. i think my teacher told them to come watch me. to come learn by watching me. what does this mean...HOLY CRAP!!! my teacher thinks i am good, and not just good, amazing! wow!!! i am still in shock. i don't want to brag because i am still a student and still have plenty more to learn. i just wanted to share that exciting news. it makes me feel more confident now as a massage therapist practitioner.
zach tells me all the time how great i am. everyone that i have been fortunate enough to do bodywork on has also said the same. i guess i am just looking for the honest truth of someone who knows how it is supposed to feel and how i can do better. now i know that i am actually on track to becoming a fantastic therapist. i still need people to practice on. so really everyone, please i am begging...make some time when i put a time out there to let me practice. especially since i can't charge right now. if you wait, then it will be too late and you will just have to come to clinicals and pay or i get my licence and will charge you since this is my career.
i am sorry for those of you who live far away but are willing to make time. i will see what i can do. i have vacation & sick leave built up. maybe i will have to just take a weekend and make the rounds. others of you that live close(r)....what is your excuse? i have a phone. i have email. i have facebook. granted, i don't live online, nor do i wish to...which is why i always try and just say text or call me. that is the best way to get a hold of me. i generally have my phone with me. i will apologize and say now that i don't live online, and i don't live by my phone. i have a life. a very busy life. and i don't revolve around my electronics. so sue me.
i do promise that if you make the time to make time for me to come practice when i have some time posted, it will be worth it. i will call you back and see what we can do. my clinicals start in february and go until august. after january, you will just have to pay $25.00 and come to the school to see me. i won't have time otherwise. so you make the decision. (and thank you lori for driving up last night even though it was so late. i really appreciated you letting me do bodywork on you!) (erin o: thank you for letting me know that i could have called you and you would have driven down too!)
ken, joyce, christy: i will bring my table for thanksgiving. hopefully we can squeeze some time in there that i can practice on all of you :) i hate that it will be such a short visit. i am excited to see all of you again though!
and to everyone else: please see what schedule you can work with me. i would love to practice on everyone before i have to charge you. and believe me, i will try and cut some deals, but this is my career and i have bills to pay. that's life.

once again it is a new month...

at least this isn't the end of november. although, it may be the end of the month before i blog again. time is getting shorter for me somehow. i don't know exactly, but i feel as if i don't control it or have any say in my own schedule. yuck! anyways...so let's see.
halloween: zach and i got the insides of the pumpkin out and roasted the seeds. we thought about carving it, but didn't. oh well. then we started a movie, and i fell asleep. typical me. the time change was nice but i don't like that i drive to school in the dark. i really feel like we should all be grizzly bears and hibernate in the winter. i am excited to hopefully go snowboarding at least once. hopefully zach will come with me. i do like the snow better now that i have somewhat learned how to snowboard. i need to wax my board before i take it out. now the question becomes when do i have time, and money to do it.
zach and i also got my room painted. my roomie moved out and i switched rooms and painted my room. it looks really cool. i love it!
work this past week was absolutly crazy. my boss was gone all week helping the albertson's transition to family market. i really hate corporate. no one knew what they were supposed to do. none of the stores had any supplies, or the proper working technology. they asked on friday just before everyone left if there was any chance they could have the scanning coordinators stay another week. my boss said no. we had so many price changes and other things going on at my store. i was the one in charge since my boss was at albertsons. hopefully i didn't mess anything up. i don't like having to do 2 people's jobs. i'd rather just do my own. thankfully i had good help. i still got overtime and i know i may be in trouble for it. we are not allowed overtime. and corporate just told us that we can't afford to have a holiday open house and that no raises should be expected. lovely. what happened to "associated is doing fine" i think they bought all these albertsons and now are wondering if they should have really done that. oh well. i am just a worker. i just hope that this next week will be an easier going week and that they don't send so many price changes when they know we are a bit short handed.
um, let's see what else has happened....oh yeah. zach & i almost hit a deer with a big rack the other night. good thing zach was driving and paying attention. i guarantee that if i had been driving, we would have hit that deer. school is going fairly well. i am finally getting comfortable in my body mechanics. i gave 3 massages yesterday. i was completely dead after. not a good thing since i have to be able to do 5 in one day. one of them was zach. he says he could definitely tell a difference from when i first practiced on him and now. granted i did deep tissue work on him yesterday as opposed to more superficial work that i learned before. but that is what happens in advanced massage...you get to learn deep tissue work. i really like using my forearm and elbow. they are the easy ones to use. i need to learn how to use my knuckles and thumbs better. we shall see if zach still wants to be my practice dummy when i get those down better. he already said yesterday he couldn't believe that his muscles felt as if he really had gone to the gym & worked out. i told him drink more water :)
actually massage really is a work out for the client's body. esp deeper tissue work. i just hope he doesn't hate me today for being sore and having to work. anyways, i'd better get cooking on some kind of dinner/lunch food before i go pick zach up from work. have a great week everyone! and if i don't get the opportunity to post before november is up: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!