Snippet from a "normal" week

As my fieldwork approaches an end (only 2 weeks left) it seems appropriate to give an example of what life has been like this summer for me. We'll take this last week for the example.

THURSDAY:
Get up, go walking, read scriptures, get ready for work. Spend the rest of the time I had left before I go to work studying for the Occupational Therapy boards I have to take in September. Catch the bus about noon and go to work. Work until about 6:30 with the cutest kids ever. They really are so much fun to work with. And the therapists I work with are amazing as well. Get home in time to grab my stuff and head off to the temple. I got there early which was good since there were probably about 100 people there to do baptisms. It's great to see the temple so busy. After a great time at the temple head over to Allana's to drop off some much needed cookies to her. Talks with Allana and McKenzie for a while until I convince myself it's time to go home and go to sleep.

FRIDAY:
Wake up about 7:00, make sure car is moved to Josh and Jeff's garage so I don't get a parking ticket for street cleaning. Get ready and leave for work at the clinic so I can be there in time to plan for our Friday Summer Camp from 10-1. Continue working until about 6:30 with enough time to snatch lunch bites between patients. Come home, meet Shana, grab dinner and take her to the airport. Come home and decompress on the couch before I attempt to go to sleep.

SATURDAY:
Wake up early enough that I can go walking and not roast to death in the heat, before 8:00. Shower and take off for Orange County to go to Mike and Laurel's house for Jeremy's 2nd birthday party. Spend several hours there catching up with the family and eating way too much food. Plus partaking of a cake made in the shape of a tractor. Laurel does amazing things with cake. About 3:30 decide I'd better come home and get caught in traffic on the 405 because there is a brush fire right off the freeway near Long Beach. By 5:00 make it home. Start getting ready for the film festival ward activity with Santa Monica ward. Michelle calls to say that they need help getting everything ready so it will be done by the time everyone gets there. Quickly finish getting ready and head to the church. Help put up a film strip representing the movie Vertigo and then partake of the 18 wonderful films that were made by members of our wards. It was a wonderful activity. After it was over I jumped in the car and went to the store to buy food for the birthday dinner that was happening the next day.

SUNDAY:
Wake up, write Thomas his weekly e-mail, read the lessons for church, get ready for church, make cake for the birthday dinner, head to church. Wait for 15 minutes until they let us in to ward council. After ward council have our fellowshipping committee meeting in the hallway since there are no empty rooms in the church at that time. Then it was finally time for church. Found out we had a new committee member!!! Hurray for that. After church it was time to put the cakes out for munch and mingle. I took off a little early to head home in time to grab the food fo the birthday dinner and head to the bishop's house to make dinner before all the birthday people got there. The rest of the committe caught up with me after munch and mingle was cleaned up. We had a great birthday dinner at the bishop's house for the July birthdays. Seriously, people don't know what they're missing out on when they don't come on their birthday month. About 9:00 I made it home. Ahhhh relaxation.

MONDAY:
Leave by 7:00 so I can get to work at USC by 7:30 so I can leave work by 3:30. Since my clinic isn't open on Mondays I decided to keep working at USC through the summer. Can't have a day off in the week. Wouldn't know what to do with that. Plus a little money coming in is good. Didn't actually leave work until 3:45 so I had to race home and fight traffic but got here at 4:25. Run in and throw on a dress to be ready when Eric picked me up at 4:30 to go to Chelsea and Jonathan's wedding reception. The reception was so much fun. My friend Chelsea from BYU married Jonathan, my friend Eric from LA's little brother. I had a great time seeing Chelsea and meeting Eric's family too. Everyone was so nice. It was one of those receptions where you could just tell everyone was happy. It made me feel like this is what marriage is supposed to be like. A great night. We got home about 11:00, just in time to go to sleep.

TUESDAY:
Wake up early enough to get to work by 9:30. Work until 6:45 and then worry that I'm not gonna get home in time for knitting group. Get home at 7:15 and still have 15 minutes to eat dinner before people start getting here for knitting group. Had a great time with Emily, Allana and Whitney crocheting and knitting away for an hour or so. It was actually relaxing! Try to get ready for bed early enough to catch up on my journal before catching some restless sleep due to the current temperature increase this week.

WEDNESDAY:
Somehow the middle of the week tends to be the most relaxing. I didn't have to work until 2:00 and spent the morning exercising, reading, studying, talking to mom and looking for jobs. Somehow looking for jobs takes up way too much time. Can't wait until that is over. Went to work and had a really short day which was nice. Made it home with all the good intentions of studying for the boards. Ended up making dinner (yay!) and then spending way too long signing up to take the boards and figure out my timeline for the next few months until I will hopefully, fingers crossed, be working as a registered and licensed occupational therapist! After that it was too late to start studying for the boards, so I opened up a little family history and tried to piece together several files that needed merging. And thanks to Allana's help I think I figured out how to do it. Amanda and I caught up for a couple of minutes before deciding it was bed time.

Phew! What a week. And I wonder how I ever fit school into this schedule? I've come to the conclusion that life just fills up whatever time you have so plan accordingly...there will never be spare time.