We're going to the beeach and we're...gonna eat tur..ur..UR..key

Countdown Clocks, Nature Countdowns at WishAFriend.com

Suite seats!

Becky and I
Medal of Honor recipients
Us again
This one is my fav...caught SO off guard
Carrie Underwood supporting the troops with a concert for the Medal of Honor recipients

Well the concert was amazing. It was long but amazing. It didn't help that I started to get sick on Monday night and on Tuesday I felt so bad. I should have known it was coming, everyone at work has been sick with this nasty cough/cold/flu thing going on. Actually, some time has passed so I thought I escaped the sickness but it caught up with me!! So I'm feeling all bad but I was so excited to see Carrie Underwood that I put it all on hold and today it all hit so I came home early from work...Our seats were directly right of the stage and we could see so well!! Randy Travis opened for her and that was good too!! Here are some pics from last night. I had to cut out some people in the pics for confidentiality purposes since I was technically working, but you still get to see me :)

Angels Brought Me Here.

The first song played when Ben and I were walking down the aisle after saying our vows was called "Angels Brought Me Here" by Guy Sebastian. Ben said that the singer sounded too "nasally" but the lyrics were everything I felt...and still do. Ironically, Carrie Underwood decided to take that older song and make it new...and less "nasally". I'm not that into Country music but I really do like Carrie Underwood. Today, at work, I was informed that someone donated club level suite tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert here in Denver tomorrow night...and they wanted to know if my friend Becky and I wanted to take one of our girls...HECK YES we do!!!! I'm SOOOOOOOO excited!!!! I'll get paid to go to a concert with sweet seats. This is one of those benefits that comes so unexpectedly with my job...Usually it's more of a warm fuzzy feeling benefit but this works too!

Good friends...good times

So we have been working in our back yard...actually, it's our neighbor's vision and tools, we are just along for the ride and grateful for the help. Here is a glimpse of tonight's fun-we have to burn the weeds because we have goat heads and the stickers are everywhere!!! Oh and Corky and I were very helpful...at the supervising anyway!

Making a difference or making myself insane?

"Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves. "


This past week at work seemed like such a long week...even though it was actually a short week! The first several weeks of the fall semester are always times where our census is low because most of our kids have returned to public school and we haven't gotten any new ones yet. This year is like every year in that respect. We have nine kids in our unit (our max is 30) but the nine we DO have are difficult customers!!!! They certainly keep us on our toes. So this week, in particular, I was really feeling a bit burned out. My co-worker is pregnant and that limits some of the things she can do...so I have to work my own caseload plus the difficult clients on hers when they act-out. I'm running around trying to be everything to everybody and do it with a smile on my face, when all I really want to do is scream and then the unthinkable happens. I was going through some treatment journals I had assigned my kids, reviewing their work and preparing for their next assignment when I see the cutest thing. One of my more prickly clients turned in her treatment assignment and one of the questions asked "who is someone you want to be like when you grow up?" Her response was "Rachel, my staff". How SWEET is she?!?! Now, whether or not she was "sucking up" or whether she actually meant it, it was exactly the kind of unexpected twist that my job offers and keeps you coming back day after day...and makes all of the other nonsense worth it.