what happens in vegas.....

chris and celeste welcomed kyle and i last weekend into their las vegas home. they live about 20 minutes north of the strip in a nice neighborhood. the weather was a little chilly, but warmer than the north dakota wind and snow. i arrived on friday at 8:30am so we had the whole day for activities. we grabbed some breakfast then went hiking in one of the state parks. chris and celeste have 2 dogs, bandit and dudley. they LOVE to hike and proceeded to chase each other up and down the mountain discovering new paths and sliding down the huge rocks... talk about a manicure. dudley, a very clumsy dog, was pretty cute as he tried to coordinate his body. one time he tried to jump up onto a rock, about mid jump realized he wasn't going to make it, fell down and landed in a bush... right next to this prickly thing. thank goodness he didn't fall into it. hiking really made me want to live in a city where i  could hike more often. its really refreshing to be outside, absorbing all of God's indescribable creation and getting an excellent workout at the same time. 

the prickly bush

'mom... my paw hurts!'

wet willy :)

we vegged for a bit at home after getting inn and out burger (check that off the list) and then got ready to go out on the strip. we made a pit stop to make a couple of sports bets. celeste and i really didn't know what we were doing because we don't watch enough football to really make an educated guess. but kyle and chris had a blast. they bet on football and of course soccer. i wont discuss the 'winnings' :) we then went to XS (pronounced 'excess'... who knew i would sound so silly when i said each letter 'X' then 'S'). it was a ton of fun! it just so happened the had a famous DJ playing that night. Wolfgang Gartner. yeah... i had never heard of him either, but it turns out hes pretty good AND when kyle googled the name Wolfgang, he is the second name that comes up... i'd say that's pretty famous. i embedded one of his mixes. honestly, it was kind of like a show too, the lights were awesome the music was great and the dancing was even better!

the blue guy in the middle is Wolfgang
himself!!

saturday we slept in and literally laid around all day. we watched  college football to see how our bets were doing, flipping back and forth between dual survivor-- a show where a hippie and an ex-marine are placed into the wild and they survived (it's hilarious and awesome... i highly recommend it) while kyle practiced playing black jack and celeste and i took numerous naps. we got ready to go back to the strip for a nice dinner at fiamma, in the MGM Grand and catch a Cirque du Soleleil show, KA. dinner was fabulous. we each got something different and shared, ordered a couple bottles of wine and had a relaxing dinner. the KA show was unbelievable. its absolutely amazing to me the talented athletes that perform in these shows. they are so gifted. afterwards, kyle and chris played some black jack. i played $1 worth on the penny slots and lost $0.80 and decided to call it quits. :) but i am happy to say i have officially gambled now!

dudley

bandit

i left early sunday morning, slept all afternoon once i got home and then made the trek back to good 'ol fargo. 

apparently this is called 'tebowing' ...
its the new cool thing to do? this is chris btw

monday marked laura's 22nd birthday! she's so old! i took her out to dinner to her favorite sushi place and even though the service was sub par, the free birthday dessert made up for it! it was delicious. she and i watched the last Harry Potter movie (she got it for her bday from mom) and then grabbed a drink with some of her friends and her bf, casey. 

tuesday, i got to play soccer for the first time in..... longer than i can even remember, which is particularly sad. laura and her team play in a co-ed indoor league. my touch was a little off to start with but i think it found it eventually. i was a little sore afterwards.... a lot sore afterwards... it kind of felt like freshman year preseason all over. that's a little embarrassing. 

laura and i drove home on wednesday after work and it's been so great to be home. i have been spoiled these last 6 years of my life being so close to home for college and grad school. i originally was supposed to work on friday (the joys of working in a hospital) but my CI was really nice and gave me the day off. 

thanksgiving dinner was so delicious. it was just mom, dad, laura and i. ashley had to work so she could come home over Christmas, but we skyped her. we stuffed ourselves and then laid on the couch. unfortunately the lions lost their game to non other than the stupid packers. we played some cards and then went to target at midnight to get some deals! holy smokes. the line was around the entire building to get in. mom got a kick of the constant stream of TV's that kept coming out the doors. i also ran into former Wayzata High School soccer star, Molly Kurth and her mom, at Target. it was so great to see her! we got home at about 2am, went to bed and then mom and i went to the mall again at about 10am. we shopped until about 2pm and after saving tons of money, went home. 

i am planning on getting together with anna (PT friend) and then elena and some other friends tomorrow. then church on sunday and back to fargo for my last 3 weeks  of my rotation. can you believe it?! i graduate in June and then FINALLY get to make a little money instead of giving it all to school.

dinner....

...and a show

belated

well, apparently i have been a bit lazy and haven't updated this in over a week. i know you guys have been aching for another entry ;)

kyle, hiking in portland

let's see.... not this past weekend, but the weekend before that... kyle and dexter came to fargo to visit. he was only able to stay for about 24 hours because he had a flight to portland, oregon on sunday morning to play as a trialist in a Portland Timbers mini camp - which he did very well at :) read this article to see what the head coach had to say! he got in after work on friday and we were both famished. i had asked the girls at work for a couple of suggestions on local cuisine and had an entire list of restaurants. and guess where we went.... Texas Roadhouse. we were on our way to another restaurant (recommended to us by a PT at work) and saw Texas Roadhouse. we both secretly wanted to go there and pulled the..." if YOU really want to go there then that's fine with me" to test the water and see if the other had the same thing in mind :) we decided to at least look at the menu at this other place before going back to Texas Roadhouse.

jenista and i at the FLL game 10/22

well, after kyle's wonderful navigation app on his Droid took us PAST the restaurant... yeah PAST... this is actually quite funny and deserves a side note... we turned off the main road in fargo (yes THE one and only main road) and the restaurant is pretty much right on the corner in the shopping area. i was looking out the window and physically saw the restaurant. kyle on the other hand was looking down at his phone which ended up navigating him past the turn and was taking us an entire block farther than the restaurant. as we pass the turn i said 'KYLE! the restaurant was right there!' he said 'oh! my phone said it was a block up ahead.' hahaha so anyway after we drove past the restaurant, peeked in the windows and made a couple of pretty lame excuses why not to go there, we went to Texas Roadhouse, devoured some peanuts during our 45 minute wait, snarfed down a basket of rolls each and enjoyed a meal together.

the rest of our time together consisted of watching movies and being lazy. oh.. we did take dexter to the dog park and decided north dakota dog parks aren't as good as minnesota ones. the dogs are just better in minnesota :)

we snatched kyle before pregame vs FLL at home. his parents, kyle and i

unfortunately, laura wasn't in town when kyle and the dex were. she was at her conference tournament in (believe it or not) detroit, michigan. it's just my luck that she would go to detroit as soon as i leave :) her team ended up losing in the championship game and sadly their season is over and laura's career is over. although she was sad that it is over, she has also been very busy with nursing school and is grateful for a little extra study time in the evenings. i, on the other hand, am enjoying her having a little extra time as well. last week we ate out at Granite City, and it just so happened to be wine night! we shared a bottle of wine, a flatbread and a couple of apps and enjoyed each others company, then went back to the house im staying in and watched TV and played my dragon village game on my iPhone. ----- don't laugh----- the game involves raising and breeding dragons to live in my dragon park. regardless if you think im a nerd or not, laura and i like it and that't that!

tailgating at alumni weekend

things in the clinic have been fun and challenging. my CI, leah, continues to 'leave me hanging' every once in a while... and although i hate feeling like i don't know what im doing in front of our her and our patient, it has been a good learning experience to 1.) plan more therapy activities than time allows... just in case and 2.) to think on my feet and problem solve. after all, i am still a student and i learn better through my own problem solving than by being told. i will admit that coaching soccer has definitely benefited me in planning my sessions. it's kind of like having a bag of tricks and being able to pull one out as needed during a training session or therapy session. my therapy bag just isn't quite as big as my soccer bag yet.

just a sweetie pie

i had mentioned my favorite patient was being discharged home a couple weeks ago.... our last day with him was a lot of fun and we did a lot of education on safety at home, practicing various functional tasks and talking with his family. at the end of our day, we ran up to his room quickly to drop off the cane we were sending him with. before we left both leah and i gave him a hug and he started to cry. it was the sweetest thing and put tears in my own eyes. i am so thankful to have been a part of his recovery and life and was immediately reassured that physical therapy is the right profession for me.

kyle was on the poster... his mom and i were having fun

last week was a long week for me as i worked 6 days. leah had to work last saturday, and she was gracious enough to let me work on saturday to take this upcoming friday off of work. kyle and i are going to visit his childhood friend, chris, who is in the Air Force and his wife, celeste. they just so happen to live in las vegas which isn't a bad place to go visit. although i haven't ever gambled, kyle has promised to teach me and hopefully win a little bit of money to pay back some of the trip. we are hoping to catch a show and a stop at In and Out Burger is most definitely a priority.

until thursday evening when i drive back to my parents house to leave out of the MPLS airport on friday morning, i will be forcing myself to workout, fighting through the soreness in all of my muscles as i have just started to get back into lifting... gross, watching Top Shot - the search for the best marksman (a reality show on Netflix), working on my mid semester evaluation of myself, breeding dragons (currently i'm working towards a blue fire dragon) and just being lazy.

Campeones! Campeones! Ole Ole Ole!!!

If the title or above picture wasn't enough of a clue, Kyle's team, the NSC Minnesota Stars won the NASL (North American Soccer League) Championship! 

My flight from Minneapolis left at 7:00am on Saturday morning, arriving in Fort Lauderdale, FL at 2:41pm, with a stop in Atlanta, GA. Although lay over usually is a burden, this one wasn't. Kyle's middle brother, Kelly, whom I haven't met yet, had the same lay over to get to Fort Lauderdale to see Kyle. The catch is, I didn't know he was coming and neither did Kyle. It was kind of funny how we met actually. Kelly had walked by me waiting at the gate and saw my suitcase which had the Big Ten Women's Soccer logo. He found out from Kathy (mama Altman) that I was in Atlanta and sent me a Facebook message to call him. We chatted until our flight took off and then met Al and Kathy at our final destination.

How cute

We had a little bit of time to meet Kyle at his hotel and say hi before he had to leave for his game. He looked very focused. It was so exciting to see him in that setting. We checked into our room, in the same hotel and grabbed a bite to eat with Kelly and some of Kyle and his friends from Trinity University. Then, off to the game. Thankfully I brought my rain boots and Kathy made these personalized ponchos for all of us! She made them for us because our Altman jersey's wouldn't show with rain gear on. 

The game was thankfully pretty uneventful. Kyle played awesome. The final score was 0-0, but with the aggregate, The Stars won 3-1! 

Woo Hoo!

We had a fun time celebrating with the team and fans after the game at Champps. After Champps kicked us out, we went to some bars, where everyone was dressed up in their Halloween costumes. We all decided we were in costume as Champions!

Unfortunately my flight was at 6:00am the next morning, so I actually didn't even get a wink of sleep before Kyle got me a cab for the airport. I originally thought I would be able to fly standby on one of the six flights later in the day. But, just my luck, there was a boat show in Ft. Lauderdale last weekend too. So, all the flights were overbooked :(

This one is for you, Dirt

I pretty much slept all morning on my flights, slept when I got home, drove back to Fargo, and fell asleep. Monday was a good day at work, despite being pretty tired. I started to feel a little sore throat on Monday night and went to bed a little early. Well, if anyone remembers my blog update for my first 2 weeks in Detroit where I woke up late 2 Tuesday's in a row. Yeah.... that happened again. I woke up 10 minutes before I needed to be at work. I ended up being late, and then felt really sick the whole day. But I fought through the day because I already felt bad for being late. I got home at about 5:00pm and went to bed until 7:00pm when Laura brought me some soup. Then hopped back into bed at 8:30pm and slept until my alarm went off this morning. I woke up, wishing I didn't have to and went to work. 

Celebrating with a 7/7 in memory of Grandpa
Had an extra one for you Dad!

On another note, my favorite patient is getting discharged on Friday. He is a Latino American who suffered from a stroke, leading to right sided weakness. He has progressed so much and he is so motivated to get better, always pushing himself the extra inch. Not to mention he is hilarious and every time he laughs its contagious. I will miss him a lot and am blessed to have had such a fun and persevering patient as one of my first experiences in the rehabilitation setting.