http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat recent pleonast.com entries by user ericandkat en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=598979 No pictures now but hopefully soon. I have a bunch from our vacation. My brother got married in October in Las Vegas so our entire family was out there for 3 days. Then Eric, Luke, and I went to Los Angeles for 3 more days. Other than Luke not adjusting well to the time change we had a blast! Luckily casinos are 24 hours and it's not too crowded at 4:30 in the morning (but amazingly there were still people gambling and drinking that early). This is my third week at Shepherd Center, it is a catastrophic care hospital in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. I see patients with spinal cord injuries with various degrees of paralysis, patients with Multiple Sclerosis, and patients with traumatic brain injuries. It is very interesting and challenging and I stay so busy! I am feeling much more comfortable and confident in my abilities now, the first week I was stressed out and scared to death! Luke is doing so well at his school at Emory. Sometimes when I pick him up in the evenings he ... 2008-11-13 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=580246 I have a job offer from a hospital in Covington! It's a bit of a drive but its a job and I'm thankful. Although, the day after they called with the job offer I got called for a phone interview at another hospital for an Outpatient Dietitian position and the pay would be about $13,000 more per year plus awesome benefits. I had the phone interview yesterday and feel good about it, but probably won't know until the end of next week. But it is just so comforting to know for sure that I will have a job when we move. The Lord keeps opening doors and blessing us so much! Luke had his evaluation from the staff at Emory who also found he has autism and he qualifies for their program. He was such a trooper all day that day, we were there for 3 1/2 hours, he had to entertain himself for much of that time while I spoke with various people and answered questions. Then he had to eat in the car, got no nap, and had to go to the doctor for an hour and a half because he had been running a fever... 2008-09-26 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=575799 Luke was accepted into the Emory Autism Center in Decatur, GA!!! We prayed long and hard that it would work out. There was one person ahead of us on the waiting list who was trying (and taking their sweet time) to decide whether they wanted the one open spot available in his age group. I don't know if they decided "no" or if the Emory Autism Center was just tired of them ho-humming around to make a decision. So he got the spot! Of course they have to do their own evaluation to confirm that he actually has autism, then he will begin the program on October 1st. So the next few weeks are going to be a whirl-wind for us. I had originally given my last day here at work as October 3rd. Well that obviously had to change, so now I will work up until Sept. 30th, the day before Luke starts "school." So that Tuesday night we will drive down to Atlanta and most likely stay with my sister in her one bedroom apartment (with her huge pitbull mix dog) Wednesday, Thursday, ... 2008-09-15 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=571270 Just wanted to share something funny that happened to me yesterday. I was on my lunch hour and of course went shopping at Wal-Mart (those of you who have read my posts previously will know of my love for Wal-Mart excentric clientelle). I had a buggy full of merchandise and stopped over in the Blimpie sandwich shop in the store to grab a sandwich to take back with me to work (because of course people don't eat on their lunch hour, they shop and run errands and eat at work). I'm in line and deciding which bag of chips I want with my sandwich. There were several people in line behind me. I'm comparing the baked version of different chip flavors to the non-baked regular version and decide upon baked Cheetos. The lady behind me squeezes my arm and tells me to choose the one I like and not to limit my choice to the baked chips. She then asks when my birthday is and I tell her July. She says "so you're a cancer like me, my birthday is July 4th. Well you are free, a free spirit. ... 2008-09-04 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=565018 We are asking God to grant us wisdom and we are asking all our friends and family for their prayers and support. A few weeks ago we took Luke to see a Child Psychologist because we had some concerns about his development. He has been diagnosed with autism. If you are not familiar with autism spectrum disorder I encourage you to go to autismspeaks.org to learn more. In order for Luke to have the best opportunities for learning and growth we have decided to move to the Atlanta area in the very near future. We love where we live right now in the mountains of North Carolina but it is such a rural area that unfortunately there aren't adequate services or therapy for autism. Again we ask for your earnest prayers as we have some major decisions to make concerning where to live, where to work, where to worship, and of course where to take Luke for therapy. 2008-08-20 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=557610 We have puppies at our house! Well, we've had them for 6 weeks now actually. My parent's Minature Pincher "Gina" had 4 puppies back in June - three boys and a girl. Right now they are so cute but so rowdy and messy. There is one little boy who is so meek and sweet and cuddly. And the little girl gets in there and plays rough with the boys! If anyone knows me well they know I am not a dog person so it is a stretch for me to compliment dogs like that but these puppies are an exception. Luke likes the puppies but he preferes to watch them from the other side of the screen door so they can't lick his toes! I did get a couple of pictures of us playing with the puppies a couple of weeks ago (see below). We might get stuck with some of the puppies though because it seems that with times as they are people don't want to buy a $300 dog. We may end up at the Wal-mart parking lot selling them for cheap while they are still extra cute! Silly puppies! Aren't they cute? ... 2008-08-01 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=550678 I'm so excited I finally was able to put a picture in the top left corner of my blog! It's the little things in life that amuse me. Really though, you can laugh because you don't know how many times and the many different ways I tried before having success. Fittingly it is also some of the little things in life that annoy me as well. Like this week at work, the other Nutritionist is out on vacation which doesn't annoy me; but having to sit at her desk in her office because it is closer to the Clerk's desk (for easier communication) does. I don't know where she keeps any of her material that I need during my nutrition educations and I hate to go rifling through her stuff. Also she has go-go-Gadget-arms while I have short stubby ones - this makes it difficult because everything from the keyboard to her cup of pens is a stretch for me to reach. Maybe I shall just re-arrange things temporarily.... As promised here are some pictures from our outing on a pontoon boat on Memorial Day ... 2008-07-15 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=548163 Just a little note to let you know what has been going on in our lives recently. Yesterday was Luke's 2nd birthday! We celebrated at the beach on Lake Chatuge on Saturday. I love little towns because it wasn't crowded at all even though it was 4th of July weekend. We reserved a covered pavilion for free! We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and Luke covered himself with cake. Luke and Mommy spent most of the afternoon in the water (he LOVES the water). Daddy couldn't get in the water because he has been sporting a bandage on his left arm for the past week and a half and couldn't get it wet. Especially with yucky lake water. If you're wondering why Eric has a bandage on his left arm it is because he wrecked his Harley a couple of Fridays ago. Fortunately his arm is all that was hurt, it could have been so much worse. He was on his way to meet me at work (we only have one car) because we had planned to go to Nashville for two days. Well we spent the first part of our mini-vacati... 2008-07-08 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=540821 Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com As some of you may know we have a multi-generational household since we live with my parents. Living with your parents has both its perks and its annoyances for all parties involved. For example, our perks include but not limited to: (1) Enjoyable company of my parents (2) Close relationship of grandparents to grandchild - ie frequent free babysitting (3) Sharing of household expenses - ie free rent, free sattelite tv, free utilities (4) Other free stuff As expected there are annoyances, however minor they may be. Recently my Dad had the opportunity to obtain a free freezer (us Beelers love a chance to get anything for free - see above). He told us about it and we all thought "yeah, sounds great." You can always use more freezer space right? Then he tells us that it's going to come stocked full of food. "How could this get any better?" we thought. You can always benefit from free food right? So on a Sund... 2008-06-18 http://www.pleonast.com/user/ericandkat?l=5&entryID=536540 I am so excited that I was able to post my first picture onto my family's very own blog! Not going to be too sure of myself just yet though, still learning. Now I just need to figure out how to put a picture up in the top left hand corner like most other people's blogs I have seen. I was also very pleased to see that there were messages posted on my very own blog, I have friends! That's nice to remember when you live in the boonies and all of your friends live at least 2 hours away. But I'm willing to pay a price for living in such a beautiful area. And now that I am officially employed as of March 31st I can go to the Wal-mart near my work on my lunch hour. That used to be pretty much a special trip once or twice a month. I tell you, ya'll miss out on the excitement of living in the middle of nowhere; going to Wal-mart is entertainment. I've always felt that if you are feeling particularly down on your looks you just have to go to the DMV, a theme park, or Wal-mart. And now ... 2008-06-06