I guess you have to grow up sometime!?!

Well, I guess now I am what you would call an official, authentic, real life grown up!! That's right people, I accepted my first real JOB this week!! I feel great about my decision, and am really excited about the 'new road' I will soon begin. Don't get me wrong, these past 3 years of PT school have been a full time job. But, there is just something about knowing that FINALLY everything you have been working for and towards is becoming a reality.

I feel extremely blessed to have recieved multiple jobs offers, especially in these current economic times. As many of you know there are multiple settings you can work in as a physical therapist, which are really all very different from one another. There is outpatient orthopedics, which is your mom and pop type clinic that now-a-days are on every corner. You can work in hospitals providing acute physical therapy. You can work with kids in outpatient practices or in school settings. You can work with strictly neurological patients, including spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, ALS and many other conditions. You can work in home health, where you provide physical therapy in the patient's home. You can work with strictly geriatrics or elderly people. Anyway, you get my point, there are lots of options!

Both in school and on clinical rotations, I fell in love with neurological rehab specifically in the geriatric population. If you've known me for any time at all, you know that I love "old people". I love and respect their lives that they've lived and have yet to live. I am passionate about giving them the health care that they need and deserve, and not just writing them off because they are "old". Anyway, with that said, after much deliberation, I decided on a job at a skilled nursing facility in Bryan/College Station!! Now....If only I can finish my last 4 projects, graduate in May, and pass the National board exam in June....I will be on to bigger and better things! (That last sentence sounds so easy on paper)

Hill Country Getaway

For Christmas, my sister Alison gave my mom a "coupon" for a weekend retreat in Fredericksburg for all the girls to enjoy. Finally, this last weekend all of our schedules coincided and we were able to cash in on our trip! It really is a rare day when we can all escape from our lives at the same time. With that said it wasn't a very long weekend, but still very relaxing and fun!

Alison did not get off work until noon on Friday, so when she got off we headed to Fredericksburg from Temple. We decided to take the scenic route (through Marble Falls and Johnson City) in hopes of seeing some spring flowers along the way. We saw a few patches here and there but they definitely aren't in full bloom yet. We stopped at Whittington's in Johnson City to get some delicious homemade beef jerky!

Most all of the shops on the Main Street close around 5, so when when we finally got into town, it was too late to shop. So we took our stuff to our incredibly cute B&B called Aunt Violet's Cabin, and then drove up and down the main street to plan our Saturday so that we could maximize our time.

Overall, we had a great time. I didn't purchase too much because I really don't need any home decor. I did get a few things with birds on them to add to my current bird fetish. Hopefully with these new additions my bird obsession will be satisfied, for a while at least =)! We ate at Fredericksburg Bakery for breakfast and got some things to go as well =). For lunch we ate a Rather Sweet Bakery, it was wonderful! On our way out of town we stopped at Wildseed Farms, but again the flowers were not really in bloom yet. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

On Saturday night, I met Drew and some friends in Austin for a friend's birthday celebration. We had a great time hanging out and celebrating!! I don't have any pictures to show for it, but trust me it was fun!