Spring Break and the Rattlesnake Roundup

This past week was Spring Break here in Abilene. Since I work in the schools I actually got the week off from my school kids. I did have to work on Monday and Friday seeing Early Childhood and clinic kids and I went up north to see some school kids who were not on Spring Break with my other CI, Todd. Having the three days off was nice but I had A LOT of paperwork to do and I had to put together my portfolio that is due next Friday to my CI.

One of the things that I did get to do was go to Austin and meet up with my best friend Liz and FINALLY meet her baby, Will. Liz had Will 6 months ago and I was determined to meet him and see Liz before we move up north. It was well worth the trip!

This weekend we went to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. We moved here just after it finished last year and were asked several times if we made it out to it so we figured it MUST be a big deal. WRONG! It was basically your average county fair with flea markets, carnival rides and all the fried food you can eat... with a building full of rattlesnakes thrown in. On the inside of the Roundup you could watch them milk the snakes for venom, skin the snakes, measure the snakes and listen to "snake handling safety" (Like I really want to handle a rattle snake!) It was hardly worth the 30 minute drive and $7 we paid to get in. Oh well, we can say we went. Here are some pictures from the Roundup. Be aware, some are graphic.







Isn't West Texas fun??

As far as the move, we're still expecting to be out of Abilene in early April, Todd has 3 flights left and should finish next week. We're currently looking into buying our first home which is scary and exciting all at the same time and looking from thousands of miles away makes no exception. We're not worried, God will provide the perfect place wether it's buying a house or living on base.

That's about all the excitement in the Saksa household. Only 10 days stand between me and my master's degree!

Running into the wind, not like the wind

Saturday was the big Fort Worth Cowtown Marathon! I'd be totally lying if I didn't say I wasn't REALLY glad that it is over with! I love running and will always run but I'm really tired of training! Training for a marathon is a 3 month COMMITMENT! You have to be dedicated and willing to work your weekends around the 2-3 hour long runs. Running 2 marathons 3 months apart became over 6 months of continuous training! Todd and I really started losing motivation toward the end but we had committed to the goal and needed to finish it. Unfortunately, it was a MUCH less than perfect event. There are pros and cons for Saturday races as well as Sunday races. The pros for this Saturday race was that we didn't have to finish the race and almost immediately get in the car and drive back to Abilene and we still had a fairly relaxing weekend. The big con for this Saturday race was that Todd didn't get off work until after 5 on Friday because of mission planning. That meant we were VERY rushed to get to Ft. Worth, eat and get in bed at a decent hour Friday night. Both of us have also been fighting some bad allergies for the last week or so mostly due to the ever changing weather and grass fires. I myself have also been having some asthma problems as well. Needless to say, the rush and the less than perfect health made us not looking very forward to the 26.2 mile feat. The weather all last week was in the upper 80s/low 90s so we were VERY grateful for the 40 degree weather that blew in Friday night. HOWEVER, it also came with 30-40 mph wind gusts out of the north! If you've never run into a strong head wind it's a lot like doing wind sprints with a parachute tied to your waist. It makes your muscles work twice as hard which, in turn, makes you tired faster. Bottom line... Saturday was in no way ideal running conditions for us. But, we finished (3:24 for Todd and 4:26 for me) and that's all that is ever important to me! Todd was disappointed with his time since he really wants to qualify for Boston but as far as I'm concerned, considering all, I'm just proud to have my finisher medal and that beautifully horrible soreness in my legs.

The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing. Part of the weekend was about celebrating my upcoming 25th birthday so Saturday night we had a celebratory/post race indulgence at P.F Changs! We slept in this morning and eventually made our way back to Abilene.

And another week begins...4 more weeks for me, 5 more flights for Todd.

Run fast and carry a big stick

Yesterday marked a first for me in my many years of running...I was BITTEN BY A DOG!!
Saturday was our LAST 20 mile training run before the Cowtown marathon and the Abilene Runner's Club was going back out to Steamboat Mountain to run the 13 mile course so Todd and I thought it a perfect opportunity to run some great hills and finish the 20 miler on back country roads instead of the same neighborhoods that we always run in. Unfortunately, Todd had his running buddy and I was either not fast enough to run with some or too fast to run with others and therefore, I was left running alone. Around mile 14 (about 4 miles from where our cars where) out of nowhere 2 dogs started barking at me. I didn't really think anything of it because dogs bark at me all the time when running and have even run up and sniffed at me. But before I could even react one of them ran up and bit me really hard on my right calf! He even bit me so hard that I fell on my other knee and elbow! I didn't really have time to react and the other dog was growling so I just got up and kept running to get away! Once I got back on a main road I stopped to "assess the damage" I was wearing running tights which fortunately took some of the blow but my right calf has 4 decent sized cuts, a few scratches and one REALLY large bruise! It seriously was a traumatizing experience. I felt betrayed by my favorite animal on earth and when it happened I had an overwhelming feeling of being alone since I was miles from anyone I knew and didn't have my cell phone. I actually finished the run, with a lot of pain and tears, and vowed to never run long runs on country roads with out a stick or rock and when necessary to always carry my cell phone. Once Todd picked me up and we went home and showered we decided it was the right thing to do to report the bite. We had to file a report with the county Sheriff who met us at the hospital to take a report and the dog was picked up and taken in to be quarantined for 10 days. We ended up waiting for an hour and a half at the emergency room to find out they were only going to give me a tetnus shot (which I've had one in the past 3 years) so we left. Quite the eventful Valentine's Day :)

After all said and done, we did have a very enjoyable Valentine's Day evening at home and made lamb chops, grilled asparagus and polenta. We had some wine and finished the evening with homemade gluten free molten chocolate cake and ice cream :) YUM!

Work updates: Todd has 5 more flights and I have 6 more weeks of interning!

T minus 2 weeks until the Ft. Worth Cowtown Marathon...and then a nice long race break :)

Ice Day!

The weather here in Abilene has been in true Texas form over the past 2 weeks. Last week we had quite the heat wave with the highs for 3 days well above 80! This week however an ice storm came into town dropping the temperature below freezing for about 48 hours and bringing LOTS of drizzle, freezing rain and last night some sleet. Since I'm working in the school systems right now I had an 'inclement weather day' yesterday and, naturally, all of our clinic kids cancelled as well. Todd's flight yesterday got cancelled but he was still supposed to go in at 10am and he got half way to base and got a call that they were closing the base to all "un-essential" personnel. It was fun just staying home in our pajamas, watching movies and hanging out all day. Of course, we got bored since we're such busy people but I don't think either one of us would complain about the free day off. The temperature today is supposed to get up to 50 but not until lunch time or later. I was fully expecting a delayed start to my day (Todd's had already been determined to be 9am today) but when I woke up I was shocked that all Abilene/Wylie schools were cancelled again! Fortunately, I have 5 kids to see this afternoon in the clinic after the ice melts so my day won't be a complete waste. So that's some fun times in Abilene. We usually get at least one nasty cold weather week in January in Texas and since it's January 28...I'm guessing that's it! Here are a few pictures of our ice day.

Shades of things to come??

View from the back porch

View from our front porch

Thunderbirds, here we come!

Today was "Squadron Night" for Todd, meaning he found out which squadron he will be going into at Ellsworth AFB. Todd got his first choice the 34th Bomb Squadron the Thunderbirds! We're very excited because all of our friends that we've been with since the beginning as well as new friends we've made in Abilene are all going to be apart of the 34th! This also means that we know Todd will be deploying in January 2010. We still won't know for about another month or so when we will be moving but it's nice to know where we're going :)


This is an actual Thunderbird B1 that had flown into Dyess recently.

Best Careers for 2009

According to US News & World Report Occupational Therapy is in the top 30 careers for 2009. There is also a good article about OT from the list http://www.usnews.com/sections/business/best-careers/

Looks like I made a good career choice :)

Holidays Update

Here we are in 2009! They always say when you're a kid that time flies as you get older... and it DOES! 2008 was quite the eventful year! I'm not going to lie- I hope 2009 is NOT as eventful. The 2 big things happening for sure in 2009 include FINALLY graduating from OT school and moving to Rapid City, South Dakota. Both of which I'm very excited about. After 7 years it will be so wonderful to finally be an occupational therapist and actually get paid or doing something that I love. I'm excited but also nervous about the move up north. I've never lived outside of Texas and I've never lived more than about 4 1/2 hours from my family so I imagine homesickness will happen on occasion. But I am very excited to see new places and experience new things with Todd as well as really experience Air Force life in an operational squadron since all we've ever known is training squadrons. As of Friday January 9 we will know which squadron we will be a part of at Ellsworth which will also tell us when Todd will deploy ( either January or July of 2010) so either way we still have some time to prepare for that but it will be nice to know.

Tomorrow officially starts the beginning of the end of my masters degree! 12 more weeks of free labor, 1 national board exam and graduation are all the stand between me and being a licensed occupational therapist. I'm really looking forward to the next 12 weeks. While I absolutely LOVED my hand therapy rotation, I did get into OT for kids so I'm excited to be working with them again. I have 2 clinical instructors (CI) this time, one of which I will be with all morning in the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) centers with kiddos 0-3 and also in the Abilene and surrounding school districts with kiddos 3-18. In the afternoon I'll be with my other CI who I got to know quite well during my first rotation in the outpatient clinic seeing all sorts of kiddos. I think I'm really going to learn a lot and get to see a lot of different perspectives of pediatric OT.

Todd started flying last week. He's had 3 flights so far that all went really well. He hasn't had to plan for them yet but just show up and go so they haven't been a true test of his full knowledge of the B1 but those flights will be coming soon. We're actually praying right now that the rest of the flight don't occur as quickly since I have to be here until March 27 we'd really like to be able to move together.

Our holidays as a whole were very relaxing after we got back from the whirlwind trip to Minnesota. We spent Christmas with my parents in Austin and really didn't do a whole lot but run and eat and spend quality time with family. New Years Eve was spent here in Abilene at our friend's house where we successfully stayed up until 1:30am and then spent New Years Day lounging around the house and taking down Christmas decorations.

The only other news to officially share with everyone now is that over the past 3-4 weeks I've been pretty sick and in the past week I've found out that I also have Celiac Disease (www.celiac.org) like my mom which is an autoimmune disease where gluten essentially destroys the small intestines and I will now be living on a gluten free diet...which is no fun AT ALL but at least I feel 10 times better and healthier now that I'm not eating gluten. Major change but with the love and support of my friends and family it will all be ok. :)

As for New Year's Resolutions (which I never make)....to start studying for my OT board exam!