Well folks, I made it! Now, I have graduation next week and I will be officially done school! <phew>

Dh got me some gorgeous celebratory flowers.

Nice macro, eh?  A week or so ago, we got a new camera as our old one was slowly dying and I really wanted a new one for graduation.  The new one is pretty nice! I’ll blog more about it another time…But suffice it to say, it takes some pretty good pictures!!!

So, I am going to relax a bit the next couple of days.  It will be delicious!!

1

There have been ups and down for the past few years.  Some of the downs were nearly enough to make me quit.  However, I stuck with it and now…..I am on my very last day! 

<phew>  I made it!

2

3

A week or so back, someone left the following comment on my blog:

“So, indulge us, if you have a moment.. what are your dreams after graduation? Are you applying for jobs now, or are you taking the summer off to be with NB and decompress, or some combination? What do you most look forward to, after graduation?”

I wasn’t really ignoring the comment, it just took me a while to get  around to answering it!

What are my dreams for after graduation?  Honestly, what I am most excited about and looking forward to is the chance to have my life and schedule back so that I can get back to exercising and eating healthy. 

As to applying for jobs now….I have to take a licensing exam before I can really apply for a job.  It is my plan to take the exam at the end of June. That gives me several weeks to spend studying while NB is still in school and then pretty much when he’s done school, I’ll be done my studying obligations too.  It can take up to a month to get your license after taking the exam.  So, basically, I’ll be taking the summer off.  Once I get my license, I may put my name in at a couple of local nursing homes for per diem work, but I won’t look for a job in earnest until the end of summer.

And what I most look forward to after graduation is having time!  I look forward to being home and not having the pressure of school and assignments hanging over me.  I look forward to spending time with my family and myself! 

4

By the way…I saw a bird at the feeder that I’d never ever seen before.  It was a rose breasted grosbeak.

5

It’s done! It’s done!

My great big, huge, hours of time consuming, last ever school project is done!!!! Woot!!!!!!!!!

It got loooong too! I assembled it in a binder and used 50 page protectors!

Lookee…Here’s the table of contents:

Section One:  Introduction

Section Two:  Cardiovascular Exercise

·         Beach Ball Volley Ball

·         Hot Potato

·         Parachute Play

·         Rhythm Stomp

·         Wheelchair Walk

Section Three: Cognitive Activities

·         Playing Cards

·         Slogans and Logos

·         Animal Parade, Quiz Ball, I’m Packing my Suitcase            

·         You Name It!

·         Word From A Word

Section Four: Creative Activities and Crafts

·         Bean Mosaic

·         Gumdrop Tower

·         Plant a Seed

·         String Art

·         Tissue Paper Flowers

Section Five: Kitchen Activities

·         Cold Meal

·         Cookies

·         Fill the Cupboards

·         Kitchen Safety

·         Washing Dishes

Section Six: Upper Body Strengthening Exercises

·         Ball Exercises and Trivia Quiz

·         Bar Exercises

·         Parachute Games

·         Resistance Band Loops

·         Resistance Band Pairs Activity

Section Seven: Trivia     

·         Animal

·         Christmas Carols

·         Colors

·         Fall

·         Gardening

·         Spring  

·         Summer

·         United States

·         Vermont

·         Weights and Measures

Section Eight: Patient Education Hand-outs

·         Kitchen Safety

·         Energy Conservation

·         Work Simplification and Energy Conservation

·         Energy Conservation Tips

 <phew!>

And here’s a sample page:

Group Size:        6-8                          Group Set Up:   In a large circle                  Time:  30 minutes

Therapeutic Objective:

                Cardiovascular workout

Supplies Needed:

                Parachute

                Lightweight Ball

Introduction/Warm-Up:

Have each participant introduce him/herself.

Look over left shoulder. Look over right shoulder.  Return head to center.

Lower chin to chest.  Bring head back to neutral. Look up towards ceiling. 

Shoulder flexion and extension.

                Shoulder abduction and adduction.

Elbow flexion and extension.

Wrist flexion and extension.

                Open and close fists (finger flexion and extension).

Main Activity:

Parachute Mushrooms

                Bring parachute in to middle of group.

                Give each participant handles to hold.

                Have participants raise arms so that parachute goes up.

                Have participants lower arms so that parachute “mushrooms” and comes down.

                Repeat parachute mushrooms 4x.

                Parachute Earthquake

With participants grabbing edge of parachute, shake arms so parachute flaps up and down. 

                Throw a ball on the parachute and have participants shake it off.

                Rest arms and repeat Parachute Earthquake 5x.

                Parachute Pinwheel

With participants grabbing edge of parachute, have them pass hand-to-hand, moving the parachute around in a circle as they move their hands. 

Move the parachute through three complete circles.

 Change direction and do three complete circles.

Parachute Mushrooms. (See above)  Repeat 3x.

Cool Down/Wrap-Up:

Open and close fists (finger flexion and extension).

Wrist flexion and extension.

Elbow flexion and extension.

Look over left shoulder. Look over right shoulder.  Return head to center.

Therapeutic Benefits:

                UE strength        UE ROM      Balance             Social participation      Core strengthening

And another…..

Group Size:    4-8                              Group Set Up:   In a circle             Time:  30 minutes

Therapeutic Objective:

                Cognition

Supplies Needed:

                Quiz beach ball

Introduction/Warm-Up:

Have each patient introducing him/herself.

                Shoulder flexion and extension.

                Shoulder abduction and adduction.

                Shoulder shrugs.

Elbow flexion and extension.

Forearm supination and pronation.

Wrist flexion and extension.

                Open and close fists (finger flexion and extension).

Main Activity:

Activity 1:  Animal Parade   
Choose one participant to start by naming an animal.  Going around the circle, each person names an animal starting with the last letter of the previous animal.  Example: The first person says, “Goat.”  The last letter of goat is T and the second person would name an animal starting with a T, like turtle.  Then the third person would name an animal starting with E, like elephant etc.  Go around the circle at least 3x.

Variation: Name animals in alphabetical order, rather than by last letter of previous animal.

Activity 2: Quiz Ball
Using one of the quiz beach balls, have participants play catch.  When a participant catches the ball, he/she looks at the question facing up and answers it.  Then he/she tosses it to another person.  Try to give each participant at least 3 opportunities to catch the ball and answer a question.

Activity 3: I’m Packing my Suitcase 
The object of this game is to name items one might pack in a suitcase and take on a trip. 

Variation 1 Easy: 
Have each participant take a turn stating one item they might put in the suitcase.

Variation 2 Hard :
Have the first participant state what he/she is putting in the suitcase.  The second participant names what the first person said and adds what he/she would put in.  The third person names what persons 1 and 2 said and adds what he/she puts in.  Example:  Person one says, “I am packing my suitcase and putting in my socks.” Person two says, I am packing my suitcase and putting in my socks and pants.”  Person three says, “I am packing my suitcase and putting in my socks, pants and toothbrush.”

The OT leader can offer themes for trips to challenge participants to think of appropriate things to pack.  Themes might include these trips: beach, skiing, a wedding, a business trip, vacation, camping, etc.

Cool Down/Wrap-Up:

Shoulder flexion and extension.

                Shoulder abduction and adduction.

                Horizontal abduction and adduction.

Elbow flexion and extension.

                Reach across opposite shoulders to “hug” self.

Therapeutic Benefits:

Core strengthening         UE ROM               Social participation

                Activity tolerance             UE strength

                Balance training                Reminiscence

                Cardiovascular exercise

I made up 25 of these, plus trivia pages…..Well, I guess if you read the Contents page you know!

But best of all it is done, done, done!

Now just 5 days of fieldwork left!!!! Squee!!!!

My last day of class was Friday.  When I got home my boys had gotten me these in celebration.

I am counting down the days until I finish fieldwork and the days until I graduate.  I can’t believe it is almost over!!!!

Do I have time to blog this morning? Umm…Nope! This’ll be quick.

Dh and I started yesterday pandemic grocery shopping.  Our cupboards and freezer had gotten quite bare over the past two months.  We went shopping and got a good supply of all our usual stuff.  It was a hefty grocery trip (and we hit Walmart too) but I can rest easy that we have back-up food in case of an emergency.

Other than that we puttered around the house and watched movies yesterday.  I was totally in project procrastination mode! 

Also, I had a splitting headache yesterday afternoon.  I tucked myself in my bed just to rest for a minute or two and fell instantly asleep and slept for an hour and a half! I don’t know the last time I napped that long when I wasn’t sick!

I must be overtired though because this morning, I slept until my alarm went off.  I usually wake up a half hour or so before it goes off…But today I was dreaming this interesting dream and I just kept on sleeping!

What else?  I’m growing my hair out.  Right now (and likely for most of the summer) it is in the terrible in between stage.  The hard part is that I hate my hair in my face and on my ears.  It is finally long enough that if I gel it up, use two snap barrettes per side and some bobby pins that I can hold it back off my face.   It figures too, that at my last haircut, the stylist layered the heck out of my hair.  Now I have five zillion different layers to try to grow out and even up.

K…..Gotta brush teeth and dash to work!

Well, that event yesterday was sure hopping! I think they shoo-ed away the media though.  That truck we saw first thing the in morning left and didn’t reappear. There was one media truck parked on the neighboring property, but that’s all we could see.  Honestly though, media trucks wouldn’t have been able to get in and get close anyway as the entrance to the main part of the park is through a covered bridge (Yes, a real wooden covered bridge!) and I doubt it is load rated for media trucks, iykwim!

But the traffic came and went all afternoon.  I saw one of our senators heading over and supposedly other high ranking folks were there. 

We did not attend the event ourselves. We talked about it, but honestly it was too hot!  We hit mid-80′s or so here yesterday.  It was beautiful and soooo unseasonably mild.  I spent lots of time out of the house, but the heat and sun took their toll on me and I decided I didn’t want to be over at the park with no relief from the sun.  I’m a bit of a heat lightweight, especially having a sudden heat wave like yesterday!

Hmmm….Since I just found this video (complete with shots showing media lined up taking pictures of speeches) it appears that the media was actually there….

<edit…Due to the annoying autoplay feature of this video, I removed it.  Here’s a nice quiet link instead.>

http://www.wcax.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3691882&at1=News&h1=A Homecoming for Captain Phillips

Well, today will be a much quieter day.  After an early run to the store for groceries, I have to work all day on my school project.  Yesterday was nice, I schoolwork wasn’t even on my radar.  Today, I need to really buckle down and get stuff done!