Yep, this girl just made butter. I was looking for an activity for my one of my speech therapy sessions with a 7-ish year old boy. I went on the Zoom website (yep, the pbskids tv show from WAY BACK WHEN! I loved that tv show soooo much! I hyperlinked the website btw so you can find the hundreds of exciting activities on there.) and was looking at different activities and came across homemade butter. It was so easy! 1. Put heavy cream in a jar 2. Shake the jar for 10+ minutes until it becomes butter. I thought...I can handle that. That is about as many steps as it takes to make a pop-tart!
This is not the butter we made, but it was similar!
I was a little bit nervous because I didn't know if my client would like it, but it turns out that it was the perfect activity. He is working on the /er/ sound, so /r/ at the end and in the middle of words. As luck would have it, buttER works!! So while we shook it, we talked all about butter and what you put butter on etc... (Anything to get him to say that word a lot to practice his good /r/ sounds. He had so much fun, and when we were done he said "Its like speech-made butter! Get it Devery? Get it? Speech-made!" I had baked some biscuits that morning so he ate it on a biscuit and thought it was so great. He was so proud of himself, so we decided to take some out to his dad and brother. I can now say that I have made butter from scratch! We had such a good time, and it actually tasted pretty good.
I love being a Speech Therapist! Some of my favorite activities we have done in sessions are the butter, making homemade pretzels, making beads then painting them, shadow puppets, marshmallow bowling, potato stamps, planting a flower, and video taping things and watching it. Holy cow I'm going to be getting paid to PLAY! Ok ok, its more than that, I promise. The activities are just kind of to "trick" the kids into learning to speak well. I have learned so much in grad school though. Our scope of practice is HUGE. It covers articulation (learning to say sounds appropriately), voice disorders, langauge disorders, swallowing disorders, laryngectomy rehab, acute care, long term car, cognition, TBI, Aphasia, accent reduction, reading, spelling, deaf/hearing impaired, etc... So much! It is such a great profession!
Alright, not in history, but today. Here's your bulleted list of Monday, July 5:
Played Ultimate Frisbee and Soccer with the missionaries at 6:30 AM
Worked on my thesis till noon
Worked at the Bakery till 6:00
Worked on my thesis from 7-10ish, and finished the Prospectus portion (well, a draft of it anyway)
Went to bed BEFORE 11:00 pm. Ok, well that one technically has not come to pass as of right now, since I'm blogging...but it will, in less than 32 minutes!! I can hardly wait!
Yeah, thats all I've got today folks. Sorry its so uninteresting. It was actually a really good day, I love being busy (and not being at school too....)
I think I'm going to try to do a weekly thing. I am going to post a "Mormon Messages" from YouTube every sunday...or very late Saturday night in this case. I found a great one for today. I remember loving this talk when he gave it, and it has such a good message!
Ooh, hey want to see a (hopefully positive) couch transformation?? This is the couch that I was given: Yes I am very grateful for it!! I cannot not be grateful for a free couch! However nowhere in the rules does it say you can't call a free couch ugly...vomit-colored, if I may. Three trips to wal-mart and one encounter with a staple gun later, this is what it looks like.
Its ok if you want to be impressed, I'm expecting a call from TLC later. I'll probably be the star of a new show. It will most likely be about interior decorating on a budget...or maybe 400 things you can do with a king size sheet and a staple gun...I'll keep you posted on the details. But seriously, I know it doesn't look amazing and obviously homemade, but it looks better than it did initially yes??
I celebrated the initiation of the new month by coming to school at six in the morning. Yes, I promise I have been very productive; I just found an extra minute to finally watch this video all the way through, and as much as I dislike Lady Gaga, and definitely really like this video. I found it extremely amusing and entertaining :)
The thought running through my head as I watched this was: "Dang I really want to be friends with these guys." I mean really, they are probably a blast to hang out with!
Anyway, here it is, I am welcoming in the new month with this....
The day started off with a little soccer and ultimate frisbee with the missionaries; the sisters in our ward and the elders in the other wards. So...I guess its been a while since I played soccer - I think the last time was Junior High P.E. It really is quite amazing how not-good I am at that game. I really was one of the "waste of space" players. One of the wonderful things about playing sports with a bunch of missionaries is that they HAVE to be nice. I got plenty of pity passes, which I quickly kicked in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. However, I think I did score one goal. Oh yeah! After soccer we played ultimate Frisbee. I am not by any means amazing at that game either - but I can actually catch the Frisbee, and throw it at least toward the person I meant to throw it at. I am pretty sure I even intercepted one pass! Wahoo! I hope we keep doing this Frisbee/soccer/sports thing every Monday morning. (Yes yes, even at 6:30 am!) After that I went to work at the bakery! Today is a landmark event at the bakery because it was the first time I made peanut butter cookie dough. Yikes! I was honestly nervous the entire time. Just the smell of peanut butter cookie dough brings back all those memories of extreme PAIN in my hand from that fateful day in Grand Junction, CO. Never fear, I made it out alive, with all my limbs, and no visits to the doctors office. Phew!
The next event of the day is that I completed a speech/language diagnostic evaluation! My first one going solo! There were definitely some mistakes I made, but I think overall it went well! The client was very nice and helpful :) Maybe I can do this Speech Pathology thing after all eh?
I figured I must do some sort of post to commemorate Michael Jackson's death. I don't really have much to say about it though....ummm....I guess since it is MY blog and Jared said I was allowed to be selfish right now, I could talk about what I was doing when he died.
Let see, one year ago today, I was living in a house a few miles from here. I was probably alone in that house actually because I was usually alone. Both of my roommates worked full time; one of them I never NEVER saw except in passing (and it was ok that way), and one I would talk to when she was home. I had just moved to Missouri about 2 weeks before so I was all hot and sweaty and not used to the humidity (yeah, I'm still not). I was going to classes every day during the week and just breaking into the grad-school scene. Ah, I was such a young un' back then. The thought of having one client a week still scared the pants off me. Not literally of course, but a very frightening idea. Ooh, and back then I still thought that it was possible to straighten my hair in the summer here. I learned not-so-quickly-because-of-how-stubborn-I-am that it is definitely not possible at all. Curly hair for me for 4 months!
Also, back then, I didn't have the amazing watch that I currently own. (Shout out to Kevin Bell!). Kevin and I went garage sale-ing this morning for a few hours, and he couldn't bear to leave a sale without getting something for free so he asked the owner if we could get "that pink Zac Efron watch over there" with his purchase. Lucky for me, they said yes ;) So now I am the proud owner of a watch with Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens on the face, High School Musical in bold pink writing, and pink rhinestones around the sides. Yeah, I'm going to wear it until someone says something.It kind of looks like that, but Zac and Vanessa are leaping into the air with joy. Oh and there are those pink rhinestones around the two sides. Very classy...very chic...very stylish... very adult....very...you get it.
Since his death his movie, This is It, came out. Its pretty good, you should check it out!! Yes, I know that he is kinda weird/creepy/freaky/confusing/half-plastic, but he could sing and dance like nobody else!!
So, rest in peace Mr. Jackson. p.s. that is a hyperlink to the official Michael Jackson YouTube Channel. Check it out!! Oh yeah, and I know that the date says June 24th, but I really did it on the 25th...whoops!
Haaapppy Thursday! (This is said in a Frosty the Snowman voice)
To me, Thursday is one of the best days of the week. Ever since my sophomore year of college I have looked forward to Thursday the most out of all of the days of the week except for Sunday. It probably isn't the best way to look at it, but usually my brain checks out on Thursday, because it is so close to Friday, and Friday is the end of the week! Hallelujah! No more school! (Its really bad when I have tests or something on Friday, because my brain is already one day gone!!)
Thursday: Thursday (pronounced /ˈθɜrzdeɪ/ or /ˈθɜrzdi/(listen)) is the fourth day of the week according to the ISO 8601 international standard adopted in most western countries. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention and in the Judeo-Christian calendar it is the fifth day of the week. It falls between Wednesday and Friday. The name is derived from Old EnglishÞūnresdæg and Middle EnglishThuresday, which means "Thunor's day".
Now that we're all educated on the name...Here are some Thursday facts: My favorite Thursday picture -Yeah. I would looove to be there. That place is called Thursday Island. It looks fantastic doesn't it?? Lets pretend I am on that beach reading a book...just for the FUN of it!
My favorite Thursday quote -
"By Thursday morning, we'd gotten over the worst of it." - William Scranton
This is just what I was saying before! By Thursday you are past Wednesday and well on your way to Friday! Again, I don't know who this William Scranton guy is (although his name is kinda familiar) but he sure knows what he is talking about! Ok so I cheated and picked a second quote - but I couldn't help it.
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining. " - Jef Raskin
I don't even know what that means really, but it was an amusing mental image when I read it, so I added it.
First Thursday Google search - Alright I just typed "Thursday" into Google and the first few links were for a band called Thursday. I listened to them a little bit...eh...not worth it.
A Thursday YouTube Video -
One word - WEIRD. I have no idea what to think about this video, but, what can I expect from David Bowie?
Song of the Day for Thursday, June 24, 2010 - Okay this is a game we call the ipod game. You put your ipod on shuffle, and hit next. The first song it comes to is "your song" for the day. Usually we play it before a dance or something, and we have to include the title of that song in a natural conversation. Sometimes its really boring titles, but sometimes its really fun like "rough landing holly" or "G.N.O." or "God must have spent a little more time on you." (yeah say that with a straight face in church.) I think one of my all time favorites was Beth Moak's one Sunday. During my Sunday School lesson she managed to fit in "Where the Green Grass Grows" into her comment. It was hilarious!!
The song of today, however is...........drumroll....................Sunshine by Regina Spektor. Now this would be a very boring one if I had to use it in a sentence-boring and very easy since it is so blasted hot outside all I can think about is the sunshine! This is just the song of the day-it fits! I have yet to form an opinion about her...I think she is very very talented, but I'm not sure its exactly what I'm looking for in music. Her voice is really cool and I love vocals and piano, but its kinda weird sometimes too...hmmm.
Regret of the day - I probably should have not taken that second nap and worked on my thesis instead
The best part of my Thursday - The naps - yes I realize that is almost contradicting my previous statement!
Best text of Thursday 6/24/10 - "Yeppers" Ross Glazner. This was in response to when I asked him if he's coming to Springfield this weekend!! Yay!!
