Day...oops.

Okay, okay. So I'm not passing blame, but the writing prompts was getting to me. Deeper than sitting on my to-do list saying "Hey! Look at me!" It was all about gifts. And frankly as much as I do (and don't) like gifts, I have a hard time thinking of posting all the way through December and talking only about gifts.  Although I suppose if I really tried I could turn each of them around and make each post revolve around The gift...I want t the few of you who visit to not have to read the same post only re-worded every day. That, and finals week was a killer. We're talking only 2.5 hours of sleep across 2 days killer. Will I pick up the "one a day" in January? Maybe. If I find a good enough prompt that actually has some kind of depth to it. Until then, I ramble.

• Christmas is in 3 days. Holy schmoley. Where did THAT come from?!
• Wanna know what I did today? Good, because I'm gonna tell you. I got to go to Science Central today with these sweet faces:

seriously, I get PAID to spend time with these wonderful children who so quickly worked their way into my heart. PAID. Can I pay them?I absolutely adore these 3. Melt.my.heart.

So I hung out with them, filled my belly with Panera, and am now sitting at a favorite coffee shop playing on Pinterest and drinking a white chocolate mocha until I don't want to. And when I'm done with that? I'm gonna read a REAL book. Not about speech therapy. This book to be exact:

photo credit

 I'd tell you why I'm obsessed with this author/story line/series, but that's for another post. But I'm reading books the rest of society reads, and I'm gonna read until I don't want to anymore. Moral of the story? Christmas break is my best friend. (Actually, it's been kinda nuts, and today is my first real "break-ish" day but I love it and am milking it for all its worth).

• My grades for the semester, nothing short of the grace of God Almighty, came back better than expected. As in, passing.  ( And as I type this, at table of 3 older  ladies at afore-mentioned coffee shop, 1 just said loud enough for the whole coffee shop to hear "But yes! Speech therapy works!" I'm tempted to go shake their hands. And listen to the rest of their conversation. Must....behave....) 
• I miss my grad school friends. If only seeing them all in one place again didn't mean having to start school again, and being back in Terre Haute...

when you're here, you're family.

I am sufficiently pleased with the number of pictures in this post.

Day 9

What gift do you regret breaking?

I wasn't exactly a graceful child, but I do remember being really upset when my toys would break. Mostly because I think I loved them each, and while I wasn't careful with them, I never liked breaking a toy. Do I remember one in particular? Nope. And it was a totally different story when someone else broke one of my toys. Devastation. Not so much in the obnoxious sense, but more...heartfelt. I just loved things fixed. It also came in really handy that both of my parents are quite creative/handy with and about broken things! (Probably because I got so upset when my things didn't work right.)
Is all of this telling of my personality traits now? Probably. But I think I turned out ok....so I'll take it!

I need to embrace this picture-less post. It's ok, right? I guess I'll just have to make up for it next week!

Day 8

What was your favourite thing you received below the age of 10?
 
She was my best friend, and came to me (thanks to a favorite uncle) right about 4th grade. I had (/have) her dresses, other clothes that weren't hers but I made her wear them anyway, I was in the American Girl Club (for the time that it existed), I read all the books at least 2 times, I own BINDERS full of their trading cardss....you name it. I made a couple trips to American Girl store....I BREATHED this company. And it was awesome.I also can't believe I just admitted that here.
Maybe someday I'll let my future daughter play with them and it will be sentimental, or maybe I'll just keep her in her carrying case. (I told you I was all about this.) Regardless, she made my childhood what it was, and I love it :)

Day 7

Some of my answers to these questions are becoming pretty boring. Does that mean I'm boring?! Maybe I should start making up some of my answers to make it a little more interesting. Maybe not. I'm not sure I could be that creative. I digress.

What was the strangest thing that ever made your gift wish list?

My Christmas list, as you may or may not have read earlier, is pretty standard usually. Clothes, something practical,movies, music, books, house-ish things. This year has to be the most unique, and few of these made even my own mother say "Are you sure?!". I think it has to do a lot with the fact that this is at the very tip-top of my list:

mhmm, you read that right. Ages 1-5. 

Aside from a new to-go coffee cup, everything I've asked for this year is either a toy or a game. I'm 22...I haven't asked for toys for Christmas in a LONG time. It's so much fun.
 It's one of the great things I love about speech therapy....we don't have specific toys that are strictly for speech (although there are some awesome companies who make toys that get done exactly what you need). We can take just about any toy and make it work for us.
The clinic here has a lot of toys, but I like having my own for a few reasons. If it's mine, I can guess a little better who's germs have been on it. Also, I know all the pieces (ideally) will be where I need them to be there when I need them to be there, and also so I'll have them with me wherever I go once I'm finished here soon.
Some other things I would l-o-v-e to add to my ridiculously growing collection of child's play things:

I'm obsessed with this. Velcro food that you can cut apart with a wooden knife on a cutting board. yes.


any and all children's books. I'm obsessed with using books/themes in therapy as much as possible.

Don't worry about gift wrapping them....just send them my way.

Day 6

Do you like to try to guess your gifts ahead of time?


Yes, you caught me. Two posts in one day...I fell behind. I'd use finals as an excuse....but it really, my life this week ("dead week"...named so because you supposedly just have to study for next week, but it's reality that you are dead to the world because you have SO much that you have to do.) is a never-ending to-do list. It's fine.

I am undecided on my answer to this question. For a few reasons, actually, but I'll try and be concise. I like to know because I'm not a fan of surprises. It's the type A controller/planner in me, but I just like to know what's coming and how things are going to be, and then have them happen that way. You can imagine how hard I must work, on a daily basis, to let go of this (especially in grad. school. With my major. And my life.) A life goal is really to be able to truly "flop with the mop". So yes, sometimes I like to know. I tell people (mostly just my mom) what I want for Christmas and that's what happens. Beautiful.

Aaaand then sometimes I like for people to have stories and reasoning behind a gift, and have it mean something more than "you asked for it." Everyone likes to be thought of, right?

Personally, I like to think I'm a creative "I know you asked for that but I got you this because here's why" kind of gift giver.
Sometimes it's kind of hard to write a lot about these prompts. They're kind of boring, but I started with them and I WILL finish them. WILL.

This little gem was such a gift:

My wonderful friend Kayla and her husband Chris made this for me for my college graduation. I ordered it, but they surprised me by giving it to me as a gift! They're super talented, you should check them out (shameless plug!) It hangs in the hallway of my apartment and I just really, really love it. And was surprised by it. And life is still ok.

Day 5

What was the first gift you ever made another person?


My only regret about this post is that I can't share a picture (I have a real problem with picture-less posts.) My first gift I ever made someone (short of drawings I'm sure) has to be home-made/preschool made Christmas ornaments. My mother keeps every single ornament/Christmas decoration that any of the 5 of us children ever made and hangs them on the back of our Christmas tree every year (the side that faces the windows of our living room. Which is strategically far enough away from the road in front of my house to where you can only see the tree and lights when you drive by. Very sneaky, mom....)
If I were home in Bremen I'd have all kinds of pictures to post of them, because I love every single one of my ornaments that I've ever made. Because I fear I may the only one besides my mother who appreciates my art skills. My favorite decoration that I ever made remains to this day my toilet-paper tube nativity scene. Yes, every single character, including the animals, is made from a toilet paper tube. Baby Jesus is a peanut (literally) hot glued to a toilet paper tube (cut in half) and is under a yellow square of fabric (because he would get cold without it....duh....)
I love it so much that I may just post a picture of it later this month once I'm back in Bremen. And that way my mom will HAVE to get it out of storage. I win!

I stole this from google images, and it kind of looks like the real thing. But peanut Jesus really just makes it great. You'll see.

Day 4

Sorry, neighbors. All I wanted was a bowl of soup.
It was actually going really well (although I remain terrible at sautee-ing onions.) until I went to add the bacon. Now I'm a huge fan of microwaveable bacon. But it's only 5 seconds per piece that you make, not 30.I made 5 pieces. So it sat in the microwave for 4:30 and not 25 seconds. Let's just say math is not my strong suit, and every candle in my apartment is lit, because burnt bacon/paper towel smells awful. (And so may the entry way to my apt. building. Sorry again, everyone else.)
So once I made sure my microwave did not blow up (although the longer I think about it, the more I realize that it very well could have) I ended up with this
http://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/soups/bacon-and-baked-potato-soup/

Easy easy easy. I left out the celery and green onion, mainly because I didn't have any on hand. It still tasted delicious. I also learned from this experience that I like thyme. Who knew.

So now I sit writing final clinic  reports, well, and this (my last Monday class at 8am is tomorrow morning for a whole year. I could weep with excitement), my Christmas tree lit (and lots of candles still), and a warm blanket. I'm content :)

Day 3.

Here it is, the dreaded " I have no prompt for this day so what do I say?" weekend post. But then I realized that I had been blogging withOUT a prompt since I started rambling on this thing, and then I felt silly for stressing over a lack of structure.

Last night was one of those nights that you wake up the next morning from and your heart is still full. So let me tell you about my Friday night :-)
I desperately wish we had taken pictures, but I got to spend last night with 4 other CD grad students, mostly on a whim of "you have no plans, I have no plans, let's have no plans together!" But it ended so wonderfully. We did nothing that would seem significant, but we sat around and laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. Most of our conversations revolved around the crazy men that are and aren't in our lives, but it delved into so much more. And then resorted back to discussing leaving a sweater in a professor's mailbox and TPing. (NOT TPing the recipient of the sweater. Well, that wasn't discussed long anyway....) After we ate, and ate, and ate (can I mention that I had my first gluten-free brownie and I looooooooved it!!) we sat down to watch The King's Speech. Yes, a room of Speech Pathologists (well, in about 1.5 years anyway) watching a movie about an adult stutterer. We had that man all KINDS of diagnosed.
In short, to describe it to someone who wasn't there, it was "a really good night". But to the 5 of us who were, it was such a breath of fresh air and a soul-refreshing night. And you just can't say "no" to that.
(Discalimer: I love all my speech ladies. I truly do. These 4 just happened to be the ones I spent time with last night. It would have been equally wonderful with any/all of them there)


In other news, I was also crafty  yesterday and now my living room end tables are celebrating Christmas! (Most credit goes to Pinterest...let's be honest.)

1-My new mini obsession is printables. (as seen in both frames above.) Save the file to your computer, print them out (either on your own printer or as a picture...I had mine done at wal-mart since my printer ink is EXPENSIVE and I had to go there anyway....they were less than 50 cents a piece!), stick them in a frame.
2-The rest of my apartment is much more Christmas-y than these. These are just the latest addition :-)

Day 2

I'm not sure what qualifies as "disappointing".  I could be a super-person and tell you that in all actuality I have a really hard time with people buying me gifts, how I'm sure that it's some underlying psychological issue that I should probably seek treatment for once I have a career and benefits that will cover it. Or how it's probably some kind of "I can't handle being the center of attention and I just do things for other people and I'm uncomfortable when they do things for me" but I won't. And today's prompt isn't about me right now, it's me as a child. And as a child, I loooved presents.

"Tuesday, December 2, 2011
What was the most disappointing gift you received as a child?"


I don't remember ever being disappointed by a present, but it was probably socks, or clothes. I remember being disappointed by presents I didn't get, like an Easy Bake. But it works now, because I can blame all my "adult" quirks on not having an Easy Bake a child.
I've heard that they're not all they're cracked up to be, but still. A girl could dream.



source
See, doesn't it even just look lovely? It would have fit prefect in my
Little Tikes play kitchen....


Now that this post isn't all about the gift I never got, I'd have to say that my most disappointing gift as a child still stands at clothes. Or socks. I hated getting socks.
On a side note, I just read on my writing prompt that there is none for the weekends. Weekends are for "free writing". So what do I write about then?! Christmas-y things? My homework list? Someone needs to tell me the rules to the job I made for myself.

Day 1. (otherwise known as "I can't believe I'm doing this")

Call it an avoidance behavior. Call it caving. Call it an early New Year's resolution of sorts. Call it crazy.
Whatever the case, I'm doing it. One of those writing prompts through every day of the month kind of thing. December is probably one of the worst months to try and do this, since I'll be everywhere in the state of Indiana (more or less) with Christmas break and what have you, but I'm doing it. Why? Who knows. I had quite a few friends do this through the month of November, and since I'm only about a month behind, better now then never....I think. (Ps, here's my prompt, so you know I'm not making these things up.)
Day 1: What was the first tangible gift you remember receiving?
The first? Hm. Excellent question. The more I sit here and think about it, the more I want to say this gem:


 The 1993 original edition, complete with a few add-on sets.It was a Christmas gift, and I remember wanting it more than anything else in existence.I would have been about 4 when it came out, but I don't think I got it until I was at least 5 or 6. I also remember finding it in my sister's closet about a month before Christmas that year, and confessing after I opened it that I knew it was coming. Not much has changed.

This toy remains one of my favorite childhood toys, and as soon as I live in a place that I actually have more than a closet to put therapy/toy/therapy toys in, you better believe it's coming to live with me. Minivan and all.

There, day 1, done. That wasn't so bad.