The People!

Yeah for the Austin Smiles team!


Post-op nurse!


My bf...kinda...


Bf and anesthesiologist- way too cool for school...


Hello Peace Corps boys!


The docs!


In the operating room...yes, he IS dancing with a monkey... needless to say, this was my favorite room to visit!


Bed 1.


Bed 2.



Bed 3. Hey, look! That's me! Can't you tell from the pink pants? (complements of Melissa Schmidt! Thanks again!)



Bed 4.



Bed 5.


Hey, that's me again! Yeah, I totally look cute in scrubs! It's totally the pig tails! (which you can't see until the hair cover thing...)

The Military Hospital!

Where Austin Smiles worked miracles!


The outside with our bus!

The hall where the parents waited...until we moved them to a cooler area (Melissa's big idea!)


The recovery area! Complete with Dr. Oveja!


The view outside the recovery area.


Oh, the stairs...we went up and down these stairs at least 20 times a day! Oh, yeah! I was super tired the whole time we were there...


Our awesome bus!


Complete with a great staff...


And sing-a-longs...


A great driver!


And military escorts!


Several of them!


Okay, lots of them! Don't let the machine guns scare you- they were super helpful and nice to us!

The best part of today...

...was seeing a previous preschool-age client, who called out my name, ran to me, and jumped into my arms. So cute! Oh yeah- that's why I'm suffering through grad school! For little moments like that...

And remember how earlier this week I had a school-age kiddo come into therapy sobbing and left with a smile on his face and feeling super proud of the English muffin pizza he made? Yeah, pizza making is a therapy technique :o) It really made my day that speech therapy was his safe place where he could calm down and leave feeling more confident about himself and his world. Can I kiddo get all that from making pizza? Why yes, yes he can. And that's why speech-language pathology rocks! Just saying...

And sometimes I need a little reminder to get me to the end of this semester.