Whats been up....

This is my new friend, Kaitlyn Frits. There is a cool story about her... Two weekends ago, she met my brother at church in Valdosta. They went out to eat together and Andrew told her that he has a sister living in Augusta. She quickly told him that she is from Augusta and that her family always takes in college students to be their "family away from home". I got a phone call from her Saturday asking me to go to church with her family and then to eat lunch afterwards. Normally, I would be hesitant and said no, because I dont like doing things without thinking about it for a few days, but to my surprise, I said yes! I did not want to have another lonely weekend, and it would be so nice to have a "family" in Augusta. I met them at church, and immediately they took me in. I felt like I had known them for years, within the first 5 minutes of conversation. Afterwards, we ordered Firehouse Subs and went to their house to eat. She has such a sweet family, who deeply care about everyone. I am so thankful that the Lord put her in Andrews path, and that he felt like he should tell her about me.

This week, we had to sit out in the waiting rooms with patients and "entertain" them. We had word searches, markers, crayons, paper, and pipe cleaners. This is one of my creations. haha.. The kids thought it was cute so thats what matters :) We also taught them how to make flowers, their initials, and several other cool stuff.

This has been the highlight of my week so far. I was making rounds yesterday and took a little girl some paper and markers. She was so excited, but instead of wanting to do something for herself, she wanted to do something for me. She painted this for me, and on the back it says "I LOVE YOU" with her name and date. This is definitely on my fridge now!

Another highlight of the week so far:
I am doing my rotation on the oncology floor, so I am working with cancer patients all month. Well yesterday I met with this one patient who does not have high spirits. Lets just say I was able to get a smile and laugh out of him. They said he has not smiled or laughed in ONE MONTH! I almost burst into tears when I heard that... But thats not all..... I even got him to say he will challenge me to a game in the teen room of "Guitar Hero" ! He wanted to do it right then, but unfortunately, I had to go do something else... So that will be tomorrow!! :)

and last but not least... Here is a picture of Chanel, because I know all my family back home is missing her just as much as they are missing me!!

Laura Lee...

I am so late on posting this, but I have been so busy! I told whoever sent me a letter I would do a post just for them! (thats how bad I hate going to the mailbox to nothing!) sooo.. My first letter I got was from my new friend Laura Lee Fields!

When I say new friend, I mean NEW friend! When I was working at VERGE over the summer, I happened to meet Laura Lee on my last day there! She was so sweet and so full of energy and smiles, it was contagious! The very next day I happened to run into her at the bank, which I did not know she worked at! Guess that was Gods plan of starting out friendship!

Laura Lee, thank you so much for being so sweet to me these past few weeks! I am so thankful that I met you and have continued to keep in touch! You have been such a joy to be friends with in this short amount of time, and I cannot wait to be friends for many more years! Thank you so much for sending me my sweet letter! I felt like a little kid when I went to the mailbox! haha. I took a picture but for some reason its not uploading.

Love you Laura Lee!!

Night on the town....

Last night 4 of us interns went to a place called Boll Weevils. It has been such a long, draining week for us, so we wanted to get some good desserts. They had cakes, pies, and cheesecakes. Of course, I got the cheesecake with strawberry on top :) I have never seen slices as big as what they serve. It was definitely one of the best dessert places I have ever been to, and I am sure I will go there several more times during this internship.

One of the girls got this piece of cake.. I took this to show just how big the slices were.

Laura Merriem, Tricia, and Stephanie... The other intern (Carrie) had to go out of town for her brothers wedding.

Me, Rebeccah (Tricia and Stephanie's roommate), and Maggie (Laura Merriems best friend from highschool)

After we ate, we wanted to walk down to the river to take some pictures. It was absolutely gorgeous, but we learned our lesson for going down there late at night by running into some creepy guys.

We thought this thing was cool looking :)

1 week down, 31 more to go!

WOW... This has been one of the busiest weeks of my entire life. I guess I didnt really realize how much harder "med-school" is than regular college!

Monday and Tuesday we had orientation that lasted from 8am -4pm. It was very draining!

I was able to come home to some sweet kisses from Chanel though!

On Wednesday we were able to meet with the managers/directors of Child Life. This is where we were assigned our first rotation, given our assignments for the ENTIRE 9 months, talked about the different camps we get to go on, and all the other information we need to know! I am SO excited, my first rotation is with pediatric oncology patients!! All of yall know cancer patients are who have my heart, so I cannot wait to start working with them! Its going to be such an emotional time, but I will treasure every second of it.

This is our "Big Fat Notebook"

Thursday, all the interns got together and had to come up with 48 different activities that we will have to do with infants/toddlers, school age children, and teens in the hospitals. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will be hosting "developmental play groups" for these patients, with the activities we came up with. I was very proud of us, we came up with some VERY cool and creative ideas, Im looking forward to doing them myself!

Today, we had to go to a "Professionalism" seminar, with all the other new students of MCG, where the President/CEO and other important faculty welcomed us all to the college/hospital. One thing that was really neat, is one speaker talked about his daughter who had a type of cancer and was in and out of the hospital for years. He talked about how her favorite memory was "Camp Rainbow" (which we get to go to in January). Camp Rainbow is a camp for kids with cancer. He said that the Child Life Specialist were what kept her motivated to keep fighting off cancer. When asked who her best friend was, she replied "the child life specialists". She passed away a few years ago, but I thought it was so cool that he talked about Child Life Specialists in a room filled with doctors, dentists, and nurses. Most people do not know who we are, and I saw several students whispering to each other, "What are child life specialists". This brought tears to all of the interns eyes. We cannot wait to get into the field and make a difference to these patients!

MCG.. Day 1

Stephanie, Carrie, Me, Laura Merriem, and Tricia

(the other interns)

I am blessed. I am scared. I am shocked. I am ready. I am nervous. I am going to have such a good time. I am going to miss my family. I am going to make friends. I am going to miss Anthony. I am emotional. I am humbled. I am missing home. I am growing up. I am lonely. I am learning to be independent. I am stepping out of my comfort zone. I can do this....

Today was day one of the internship.. nothing too exciting happened, it was just orientation. The exciting part does not happen until Wednesday!

On Saturday I got a text message from one of the interns (I had only met one of the interns at this point) saying they were all getting together for coffee and to pray about these next 9 months. I was in shock. I guess I was not expecting to have a group of strong Christian girlfriends. Alot of the anxiety I was having went away at this point. I could not think of a better way to start off this internship! I got to the girls house, worrying that I was going to be the "odd ball" of the group since Child Life was not my major, and since these girls were already good friends. They took me in like they've known me for years. We spent two hours talking about our expectations and goals of this internship. Before we left, Tricia said we all needed to get in a circle and pray for the year. It was so calming to be in a circle with 4 other girls hearing each one of them praying for these next 9 months. Praying that we will be a light in a dark time for children and their family members in a scary hospital setting. Praying that we will be best friends during this time. Praying that we will hold each other accountable for our actions on and off the hospital campus. Praying that we will find a way to talk about the Lord to patients.

I could not have asked for a better group of girls to be in this internship with me. God has been in this process from day one. He continues to amaze me during all of this. I am so excited to have a group of Christian girlfriends to work with and grow with together these next 9 months! I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do through us this next year!

Apartment Pictures....

Everyone keeps asking for pictures of my new apartment, so here they are! I cant seem to get the spacing right, so I give up.. just ignore it!!

Mimi and I downtown before she left to go home.

The family.
My Mimi.

We did not realize my place was going to be this small, so I am having to send home a lot of furniture with my parents to put back into storage! I am not used to having white walls, but since I am only going to be here for 9 months, I figured it wouldnt matter ;)
Princess Chanel and her own bed. My bedroom. I am going to paint a picture to hang over my bed, so its not finished yet!

The front of my room.

The dining area.

The kitchen... we are still decorating the top of the cabinets! And I still have to go buy a microwave!
The living room.
Bathroom.

Mama, Daddy, and Mimi-

Thank you so much for all of yalls hard work you put in yesterday and today! I know I am not that strong, and that caused yall to have to work even harder! You will never know how much I appreciate all that yall have done! I love my new place, thanks to yall!

My Poppy and My G-daddy....

Lets just say that I have the best grandfathers in the entire world... Here's why...

Isnt this bed so cute?!?! My G-daddy made it for me!! Mama showed my a picture in a magazine of something like this, and I just had to have it! Since I dont have any money, I decided to ask my Gdaddy if he thought he could make it. Without any hesitation, he said yes, and had it completed within 3 days! I am in LOVE with it. My mom distressed it (not shown in the picture) and it looks absolutely amazing!! My baby is so spoiled!!

I have never met someone who likes to fix things like my Poppy. I have a soft-top convertible mustang, and EVERY TIME it rains, the back of my car fills up with water... but not anymore, thanks to Poppy! He has spent money taking my car to shops to get it fixed (which didnt fix it), he has looked up new tops for my car, but today.... we found the problem! Poppy, thank you so much for not giving up! I am so excited to have a car that smells good now! :) I am going to miss you so much!!!!

The Last Date....

Yesterday Anthony took the day off of work to spend our last day together. The day started with me getting my hair colored, then we got lunch, watched movies, made cds, went to Johnny Carinos for dinner, and Putt Putt for some fun time together!

Outside of Johnny Carinos! Both of us were so stuffed! We were going to go watch a movie, but figured we could have more fun doing something active... so we chose Putt Putt!
We have an ongoing battle at Putt Putt to see who wins. Sadly, I have only won once (because we said it was okay to cheat that one round). Unfortunately, Anthony won this time...

But I made the only hole in one!

happiness.
We always choose the first course, because we love the cave with the cricket noise!


Anthony,

You are amazing. Thank you so much for taking off a day of work to spend time with me before I move. You do not know how much that meant to me. I could not ask for a better boyfriend during this time of my life. Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging. Thank you for being a shoulder for me to cry on. Thank you for listening to all my fears and excitements. You always know the right thing to say. I am so blessed to have you. I am going to miss you far more than you can possibly imagine. Tonight was really emotional for me saying my goodbyes, but I think it made us even closer. These 9 months are going to fly by because we have each other to lean on! Thank you for everything! I love you so much!!

Goodbyes....

Last Friday night, Grammy and Gdaddy took our family out to eat for a "going away dinner" for me and my brother. We went to Sunset Grill, and it was absolutely delicious!!! The worst part was saying our goodbyes at the end...

On Sunday, Mimi and Poppy had our family over for our "going away" lunch. I requested fried chicken and Andrew requested country fried steak, and for dessert we both agreed on butterfinger pie! Needless to say, it was delicious!!!
Andrew, Poppy, Me, Nanny, and Mimi ... some of my favorite people in the entire world!!!
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Monday morning my baby brother left for college :( I have dreaded this day for a long time! My brother is more than a brother to me, he is one of my best friends and a role model to myself and many others. Even though I hate to see him go, I know he is going to change Valdosta State University's campus for the good! He has such a loving heart and a desire to follow the Lord, I cannot wait to see what this next phase of his life is like!
Daddy saying his goodbyes..
Mama crying before he left :(

Thank goodness this picture wasnt zoomed, I had been crying too!

our final goodbye...

GOODBYES ARE SO HARD!!!!