Stoned Chloe

Today Chloe had to go to the internal vet specialist for an endoscopy. Luckily, the vet saw nothing wrong beyond a little inflamed small intestine. Turns out she most likely has IBS (like mother, like daughter I guess!) but we'll get the formal results from the biopsies and blood tests next week. She looked so pitiful when I picked her up this afternoon. She had a bandage wrapped around one leg (like a polo wrap on a horse) over where she had her IV. Tonight I unwrapped her leg and they had shaved it!!! Now my poor pretty girl has a shaved leg - like someone started giving her a poodle cut and then gave up. Hopefully it'll grow back quickly, because she does look pretty funny. She was still kinda drugged from the procedure and has been acting really funny. She's just very hypotonic, falls over in my lap and falls asleep. And of course, she's playing it for all it's worth.

I have to say physically I'm doing better than Chloe. After my hip hop class on Monday night, I felt like a 95 year old who needed a hip replacement, but I think I'm getting back to normal. Hopefully the pain means it's working! Haven't heard from Chris, so I take it he's feeling better and made it to the Inca hike to Macchu Piccu. Have I mentioned I miss him?

"Ready, set....Go!"

Besides today being mom's birthday and having a great bday lunch with her, (in which my grandmother threatened to "smack the crap" out of my dad if he didn't let her pay - she's awesome) I'd have to say that the best part of today was definitely my home visit with the 17 month old kiddo I've been working with for about a month. This poor little boy has a speech delay (which, considering all that I've studied, could be a lot worse) and therefore does not have many words to his vocab, really does not babble at all and rarely imitates the voices and sounds he hears. All in all, he has the current speech development of an 8-12 month old. So, today was an amazing session. I engaged him in some "ready, set...go!" play and he actually began using "mo" for "more" and more amazingly, he started imitating the intonation and rhythm of my "ready, set, go!" vocalizations. It was probably one of the cutest things I've ever heard. This is such a break through, for I've never heard him verbalize or imitate so much. It may not seem much to some of ya'll, but my line of work can be so discouraging, since every child is different and it takes so much work and time to notice a change. So every little bit of improvement is a huge step. After last week's session, I was feeling very discouraged because my kiddo was very cranky and just fussed the entire time without making any verbalizations, which resulted in having to end the session early because he had become over stimulated. So today was definitely a break through and makes me feel so good and excited about my work.

After class tonight I swam some laps. Chloe was in the backyard with me and ran back and forth along the side of the pool while barking as I swam laps. It was possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. She's such a hoot. Not quite sure if she was scared for me, or just didn't recognize me in the water. In other news, according to Chris' blog, he's sick in Peru (poor guy, must've drunk the water b/c that happened to me in Ecuador). I feel so badly for him, because that's gotta suck, but he wrote "Being sick makes me miss Ashley even more," which selfishly makes me smile. :)

"Everyday holds the opportunity for beauty."

I named this post after a quote I heard in a movie this weekend and I thought it was fantastic and uplifting. My happiness today would definitely have to be the fact that I began taking a dance class today!! This is very important to me because I have been dancing all my life (definitely a part of who I am) and haven't had the opportunity since I graduated from Sewanee two years ago. It's an adult hip hop class and is so much fun. It felt so good to work up a sweat and feel worn out. A work out that's actually fun, imagine that! Boo running! So my friend Jo and I are gonna go to this dance class at least once a week. I can't wait to get back in shape and get my dancer's body back. Oh, and the guy who teaches the class has a DVD coming out Friday, how cool is that?

On a more serious note, I got an e-mail from Wes, who is this amazing old guy who, with his now deceased wife, left his home in the US to "following his calling" and move to Ecuador to build an orphanage. When I went to Ecuador in college, we helped build this orphanage (www.eldulcerefugio.com). Anyway, this e-mail said that recently one of the boy's parents came back for their son and later rediculously accused Wes of child abuse. Why the authorities chose to believe these flaky parents over Wes is beyond me, but probably has to do with the fact that he is a "gringo". So, Wes is very unsure of the future of the home, but knows that the older boys are being transferred to a juvenile detention center (when they have never been accused of any misdemeanors before) and the younger boys are being taken out of Wes' custody for now. So, please pray, send good thoughts, do a lucky dance for Wes. I'm sure I'll update when I get more news.

And It Begins...

So, I have decided it is time to create a blog, because I know everyone wants to live precariously through me. This blog may not contain journeys throughout Peru, but is still worth the read. Critics, please be kind. Today turned out to be a fantastic day. One of my good friends, Erin, who also was one of my junior year roomies at Sewanee, was in town for an optometry conference. After braving the parking lot that is 635 for an hour, I picked her up out at the Gaylord (which is pretty amazing, people) and we went to lunch at Mi Cocina in Las Colinas. I figured since she was in Texas, I needed to prove to her that our Tex-Mex is much better than the Tenn-Mex she has become acustomed to in Tennessee. We chatted about the goings on in our lives and it was great to catch up with her, since I hadn't seen her since a friend's wedding last July. Our group of Sewanee friends is trying to get together in October for Homecoming, but I guess it'll depend on if there are any cheap airfares, especially since Chris and I are planning a trip to Chicago for Labor Day. (Die, Wright Amendment, Die!) After lunch and dropping Erin off at her hotel, I went to the Rascal Flatt's concert out at Smirnoff at Fair Park with Ginger, Amanda and another friend Melanie. We enjoyed beer, laughs, and good music. I think they are one of my new favorite bands, coupled with Bright Eyes (thank you, Chris). I was just excited that they played "Bless the Broken Road" (lyrics go "God bless the broken road that led me straight to you) because that is one of my new favorite songs and holds special meaning to me. They also played some good covers like "Friends in Low Places", "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Born in the USA" and "Let It Be" (or "Letter C" as we liked to sing). I think the funniest part of the night was this biatch who laid a blanket in front of ours and would squirt water at anyone who stepped on her blessed blanket. So, the quote of the night would definitely have to be "Don't step on the blanket!" to all passerby's. So, in this parting, I dare all of ya'll to go out and step on some blankets.