Quick Update

Though most people that actually read this blog I also email or talk to on the phone regularly but I just thought I'd take a few minutes to give a brief update of our first 2 weeks in South Dakota. We were welcomed to the frigid north on Friday April 24 with SNOW, yes SNOW! It was crazy to leave a state where it was already hitting the 90's and flip flops were mandatory to arrive in a state where a light jacket is STILL needed for any outing. We stayed with our friends the Erkens for 2 days before we were able to close on our new house! It is very exciting to be a home owner! While it was nerve racking to buy a house "sight unseen" it ended up being exactly what we wanted and more. The location is great, the space is great and it suites our needs perfect. Of course, there are some minor cosmetic things that we intend to change and updates we plan to make but what house comes perfect? Unpacking still has not been completed as i spent the first week and a half studying for my NBCOT exam which I took on Wednesday May 6. I'm very glad to have it over with but will be relieved when I find out if I passed. As far as work, I was offered 2 jobs last week, one of which I declined and one I accepted! The one I accepted is not a full time position yet but the manager thinks that by the end of the summer I will be full time. It's at the pediatric facility here called Children's Care. It's an amazing facility with great therapists and would actually be exactly what I was doing during my last clinical rotation. I figure I'd rather work PRN (as needed)/part time and do the job I really want than work full time in a position I'm not very crazy about. The hospital has also contacted me about 2 positions they have opening and I'm trying to maybe work it out to work part time there but we'll see. Todd has gotten all "in processed" and is getting settled into his new squadron. He likes it a lot so far and will start flying next week. We have our first squadron function tomorrow so we'll get to meet a lot of new people which we are very excited about. I'm very excited about the fact that there are 2 wives in our new squadron who are OTs!! One works at Children's Care and the other works at the hospital. Other than that we haven't gotten to do a whole lot yet due to unpacking, in-processing and of course my board exams but that will soon change with the warming weather and getting more settled. Overall, Rapid City is A LOT better than Abilene! There is lots to do and the scenery is A LOT prettier. Some observations to date:
-The black hills are called the black hills because they are covered in trees and look black from a distant.
-Gambling is legal in South Dakota so there are casinos EVERYWHERE!
-If you're from Wyoming you refer to people from South Dakota as a "rabbit choker".
-There is a big difference if you're from "east of the river" or "west of the river"... the river being the Missouri river.

That's all I got for now! Hopefully we'll have the house put together with our new furniture soon and I'll get pictures up on here or emailed!

Judgement Day

I have officially scheduled my National Board of Certification in Occupational Therapy Exam (NBCOTE)! Wednesday, May 6 at 12:00 pm in Rapid City I will take the 4 hour test that will officially qualify me as an OT and give me credentials of OTR. I have been studying diligently and will continue to do so over the next 3 weeks but as you can imagine I am very nervous/anxious to take this very important test so PLEASE PRAY! Hopefully, I'll have good news about a week after I take it!

A thought to ponder

As many of you know, when I run by myself I generally do one of 3 things; listen to music on my ipod, listen to sermon podcasts on my ipod, or pray. Today I was listening to my usual Wednesday running podcast, Matt Chandler of The Village Church's previous Sunday sermon. (FYI-my sister attends The Village). He was talking about modern day Christianity and the continuation of extremist groups that still believe in evolution and natural selection and he said:

"If modern day evolution and natural selection really exists, then why do we spend trillions of dollars and time trying to cure and prevent disease.?"

I found that deeply profound and a true testament to the fact that God has His hands in everything, whether we know it or not and whether we believe in Him or not. Why would an evolutionist protest the need for increased spending for stem cell research to find cures for diseases if there core beliefs say that people should just die and let evolution continue?

Hmmmm

South Dakota, Here We Come!

Well it's unofficially official. The movers will be here to pack our stuff on April 20 and they will pick it up on April 21. We will start the 2 day trip to Rapid City on April 22. We plan to take a little westwardly trip and spend the night in Denver for several reasons. 1. The trip is more scenic, 2. The trip is on more major highways, 3. There is and Air Force base outside of Denver that we can stay at with the dogs, 4. There is supposedly a great local pizza place that serves a whole line of gluten free pizzas and calzones! YUM!

So here is the drama we have encountered with this move. Todd finished training on March 20 so we went ahead and put in our 30 day notice on our house here meaning that we would be scheduled to be out of here on April 19. We entered contract on the house we are purchasing on March 21 scheduled for a closing date of April 22. So if you read the first paragraph then you understand the drama. We've been waiting for official orders since Todd got finished with training and, of course, nothing can get rolling without official orders. We got orders yesterday and were able to FINALLY get something moving. We were afraid that we were going to have to move ourselves but fortunately our current house has not been rented yet so our landlord is letting us stay until the 22nd and the sellers of our new house agreed to move the closing date to April 27. So... it's not really our "ideal" plan but it's all working out.

I've interviewed with a few more jobs but since I can't start working until after May 23 and am not actually in South Dakota yet I haven't been offered anything... yet. I'm very hopeful that the perfect job is out there for me. I'm currently spending my days studying for my national board exams. I am waiting on one piece of paper called an "Authorization to Test" so that i can schedule my test date but I'm hoping to take it around May 11. I'll post an official date when I know it because prayer will be needed!

I guess that is about all the news I have. Todd and I have been rather lazy lately with us both being done with work for now so we have been "taking in the sights" of Abilene... or at least the ones we haven't seen in the last 9 months.

Until next time!

I'm not neglecting the blog

I'm not neglecting the blog.. .we're just waiting on more "official" dates of our move before I send it out for the world to see!

BUT, I am DONE with my masters and Todd is DONE with B1 training. We will be moving SOON and we close on our new house April 22.

That is all I know for now :)

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.