Sweet Freedom

You are reading the blog of a girl who got to start driving again as of this past Monday! It was two months exactly since I last drove. How crazy is that? I got to be early to class for the first time in two months all this week! (Okay, I have a werid need to be early/on time every where I go.) In my personal opinion if you're always late it's because you think you're more important than anything/anybody else that you hold up by being late.
In other news, I had my history final this morning even though we still have another week of class before finals. We have a few things left to do, so I have two more days of history next week. Yea! (I've decided that 7:30 is too early for a class unless you absolutley need one to fill a requirement that's only offered that early.) I really like the teacher for this class, but I hate hate hate his tests! If it weren't for his dumb tests I'd have an A. Oh well.
Lets see. . . tomorrow I'm going shopping for toys to entertain Jeff for the 7 hour bus ride to Anacortas. That's always fun. . . dollar tree here I come! I also need to get a plain white tshirt for the opening ceremony to put a spidercrab on with Kim.
My class schedule for next year is algebra at 8:30, history 9:30, speech 10:30 and choir at 11:30. (Don't worry Anna it's only MWF so I'll be able to go to intervarsity worship.)
Yep, that's all folks. Talk to ya later.

A History on Me

As some of you know I went to my doctor in Seattle yesterday afternoon. In order for what he told me to make sense to you, lets go back more than nineteen years. My mom was pregnant with one baby; or so she thought. I was a suprise. Anyways, the baby my parents didn't know they were having had a stroke. Now we all know what strokes do to old people right? You got the trouble with talking, walking and moving usually only one side of their body. Well, if you have one as a baby they call it cerebral palsy. I have a mild form. There are some people that I've met who have CP who can't walk, talk etc. My left hand and arm are pretty much useless. They just hang around. Heh. That sounds funny. I walked with a really bad limp in my left leg until I was nine and had surgery. (My left arm and leg didn't grow as much as they should've so I was lopsided.) I still walk a little funny, but not enough so that people make fun of. (That's a plus.) Heh. About the end of fifth grade I started having what I would learn in about a year to be seizures. I went to every freaking doctor in Yakima and nobody knew anything. (My mom evenually asked a doctor from West Pres if he could recommend someone. The guy he recommened didn't have room for another patient so he recommended me to Dr. Vlcek.) Dr. Vlcek is a neuraligist. He told my parents I was having seizures. Then he told us the bad news: most people with CP get these seizures when they're three and they go away by the time you enter kindergarden. If you get them after age three, you'll most likely have seizures for the rest of your life. He put me on Tegretol. I was on that until July between junior and senior year of high school except for a brief time sophomore year of high school, but that came to a screeching halt when I had a seizure three days before my sixteenth birthday. (Margarete & Stover were with me. We were walking dogs for the Humane Society. The one time I've ever been in an ambulance and I couldn't even enjoy it. Sad.) Anyways, Dr. V. told us that Tegretol causes a loss of bone density in women. Joy. So he switched me to Keppra which does not cause bone density loss. Everything was fine until this past March when I had a mini seizure while running errands during spring break. So I said goodbye to driving and hello to increased Keppra. Alas, the seizures were still hangin' around. That brings us to the present. I told Dr. V. about the seizures I was having, but he doesn't think they're seizures. He thinks I'm having spasticicity so say hello to Baclofen. Yes folks I get to add another medication. Joy. Just what I always wanted. Spasticicity is this tightness in my left leg and arm that come around in my arm especially 'cause it doesn't get used. Most people or all people? don't know they whole story. I enjoy that fact 'cause if people know somethings different about you, they tend to treat you different. The old saying "make fun of what you're scared of or don't understand." Or maybe that's just my saying. *shrug*
All I have to say is God must have an awesome plan for my life 'cause what teenager would like any of the above?
PS- who comes up with these names of medications? Where do you get tegretol, keppra and baclofen? I mean, come on.

I'm getting excited!

Last night was the meeting with the whole Yakima team for Orcas. My pod (pod 'cause that's what orcas travel in), is made up of two women teachers, five girl mentors and two guy mentors. None of you guys know then except Anna and Cherize know two of them. Molly and Kim. Yes, you read right, Molly is in my pod. But it's okay 'cause the purpose of my going to Orcas has nothing to do with Molly. Maybe if I keep telling myself that. . . no it really is okay. It's just that as I discovered last summer, she pays more attention to me and my boy than her boy. That's bad. Plus she talks about her past boys in front of her new boy. She's talking to me or someone else, but he's right there so he hears which is not good. I need to talk to her about that. . . and now I'm ranbling. Anyways, my little boy for this summer is Jeffrey Martinez. I know his dad is white, his mom is mexican, he goes to Adams Elementary and he always looks like he lost his best friend. I will need to call the teachers of my pod to find out more so I can get age appropriate toys. The good news is that in comparing Jeff to last summer's Sergio, he'll be easier. *heave sigh of relief* We leave on June 20th and come back on the 24th. It's almost a month away! If only we could skip to the 17th of June. Then school would be over. (That's an added bonus.) But the 17th is when we puffy paint the blue sweatshirts for the boys. It's really fun! That's on Friday. The following Sunday we have commitioning at 1st Pres at 9:30AM instead of the usual 8:ooAM! Hooray for sleeping in! Then it's back to 1st Pres by 2:30PM to meet the 21 mentors, six teachers, the other director and assorted suppost staff from Kennewick. This year we're going to have a clown's communion. Does anyone know how that is different from a regular communion? I guess I'll find out in a month, but I'm curious. Then we get blabbed at for a while, eat dinner and have the opening ceremony where we get to meet our boys!!! My pod is the spider crab so we need to have a spider crab on us somewhere. Kim and I are going to make shirts. (That way we can wear them after Orcas is over.)
On a side note today I reread a book I'm going to recommend to all girls that read my blog. It's called forsuchatimeisthis by Lisa Ryan. I will lend it to anyone. It's a book about how to be a modern day Esther. (That's why no boys will be interested unless you want to be a modern day Esther too.)

Good Times in SpokaVegas

Today was Barbie's graduation from Whitworth. Dad, Julie, Laura and myself drove down this morning. Mom and Grandma went on Friday afternoon. We met at a restaurant across the street from Shari's 'cause it was packed. (I don't remember the name of it.) Anyways, I finally got to meet Barbie's boyfriend Jordan! He is sooo nice! Not to mention a Christian, super cute, very intelligent, with an awesome sense of humor! He was totally making major fun of Laura! It was only the second time he'd met her. During lunch I got to talk to Jordan 'cause he sat across from me. (I had to make sure he's good enough for my sister.) And before the graduation ceremony I got to talk with him some more. He's a werido! He enjoys disecting human cadavers. He does evenually want to be a surgeon, but still. . .Yuck!!! *shudder* So I'm not going to go to another graduation ever unless Valerie begs me 'cause they are seriously borrrring! But Whitworth does do something cool. They decorate their hats with something that relates to their major. Barbie had a double helix 'cause she majored in biology. The psych majors had fake rats on the hats, one religion major had a bobble head Jesus glued to the top, and the nursing majors all had those nurse hats made from paper.
Off to bed, Sally

The Best Five Days of the Year Hands Down

As I was laying awake last night from 10PM-12ishAM, I thought about what I'm going to post about now. As most of you all know, for the past three summers I've been a mentor at Orcas Island Encampment. This is a camp for underprivileged boys age six through nine.This camp is what made my decision to go into social work. The boys that come to this camp come from really crappy homes. If they have a dad, he's not the ideal role model. Their moms usually work more than one job so these boys fend for themselves and their siblings most of the time. These boys have been let down by the people who are suppose to love, provide and protect them. By the time I meet the little boy who I'll be a mentor to, he doesn't trust or love easily. You spend the first two and a half to three days of camp earning their trust. But it is sooo worth it! When you see them smile at you, when they grab your hand to drag you to see something "cool", in their laughter, in the way they beg for a piggyback ride. When you first meet them you having an overwhelming desire to take them home with you. They for the most part have big brown eyes, miscevious smiles that show a missing tooth or two, soft black hair, more energy than you thought could be in one boy, and a stubborn disposition. Most will do whatever it takes to push you away or make you cry. They've been hurt, therefore they will hurt you before you can hurt them. By the end of the five days they won't let you out of their sight. They cry when they find out we're going home. They tell you they hate you. But it's only because they've had an awesome time in "heaven" and now have to go home to "hell". (Not my words. My second summer, Pablo told me that.) My three boy are Chris age 11 now, Pablo age 10 now, and Sergio age 7 now. I get to see Pablo every once in a while. He still greets me with a hug hard enough to knock me over. I saw Chris last summer. His smile got extra wide and his words tripped over each other as he told me about school, his friends, his mom, sister and everything else under the sun. Sergio I got to see on a regular basis until his family moved. He is a very stubborn and willful boy, but he listened to me. My point is that I made an impact on their lives in some small way and changed it for the better. The best part is that this camp is funded through 1st Pres and West Pres so we get the joy of telling them about Jesus. As the directors say, we plant the seed. Someday they'll remember and want to know more. My dream is to start a camp just like this for little girls. Someday it'll happen.

Informational Meeting at WPC

I just got back from this meeting. It was about whether or not our associate pastor would still be our associate pastor. She will! I'm way excited 'cause she is an awesome person and pastor! I know she got a divorce and that goes against the Bible, but what about forgiveness? I thought for sure they'd fire her straight away, but as I learned at the meeting, apparently there would've probably been a protest 'cause the majority of the congregation want her back. When she came to WPC when I was a freshman we were having major problems with our church. It was falling apart from the inside out. She came to our church knowing all these problems, and she brought us back together and helped heal our church. I'm sooo super happy she's coming back! She starts again on the sixth of this month, I believe. Yeah!

The Trials And Tribulations Of My Eye

As I write this my right eye is swollen half shut. It's very sad. It's also a nice light pinkypurpleyyellowy color. I look just great! I know you're all dying to know how my eye came to be in such a state, so here ya go. Annie and I were at Bonnie's dorm room visiting. She has a thing that you put objects into and it makes the shape of the object. (I don't know what they are called. Annie? Bonnie? A little help.) Anyway, I put my face in it to get the profile of my face. Now I've done this before and my eye never swelled up and looked like I got a black eye. My eye was already sad 'cause about last Monday I noticed that my eye hurt. So thinking it was my contacts causing the problem in my poor right eye, I took them out. The pain got worse and the white part turned red. *heave sigh* I told my mom and went to the eye doctor on Thursday. He told me to not wear my contacts for three days. I thought the problem was an eye lash turned the wrong way or something, but alas; I was wrong. There was something on my contact that wouldn't come of with the solution. So now my poor right eye is red and half way swollen shut. Yep. Now I will be going to lay down and put an ice pack on my eye to see if it'll help.
It was great to see you Bonnie! Long distance hug.