Twice in One Week!

Today I woke up at the crack of dawn (5 am) and headed down to San Antonio to babysit for Merced. He is a lot easy to take care of than I thought he would be. I has no self harming behaviors, which is really typical for autistic kids. He is also a lot more talkative than most autistic kids. Unfortunately, he is a huge sensory seeker, which means he is constantly looking for sensory input, which also means that he is ALL over the place ALL the time. Its fun, but it definitely wears me out. If you don't know a lot about autism, and want to learn more, click here. Its just the Wikipedia site on it, but its got good basic info.

He is also outrageously smart. He can read, use the computer, and do a lot of things that most autistic kids at his age would not be able to do. He is also dang good at the Wii. He kicked my butt today at Wii bowling (p.s. I totally want a Wii now).

Merced also has the weirdest stem I've ever seen in an autistic child. Stems are repetitive behaviors that autistic children perform in order to calm themselves or get the sensory input that they desire. Autistic kids have tons of stems that they perform throughout the day. Stems can include rocking, making a particular noise over and over, rubbing their hands together, stroking an object over and over, or stacking blocks and knocking them over repetively; pretty much anything that the child can come up them. Most autistic kids have a favorite stem. Most of the kids I've seen have a favorite stem of stacking blocks and knocking them over, or rubbing an object.

Merced's favorite stem? Watching the seconds 16 thru 35 of this video over and over and over and over and over.
I added the hyperlink for extra suspense. I wouldn't want you guys to get bored.

After work I went to class (the last day!) and did reviews for all the finals I had next week. Then, I went and checked out a car for Jaron in San Marcos. It's a nice car and a good deal I think, so I hope everything works out.

After that I came back to Georgetown (I have to get more blood drawn tomorrow, boo).

BIG NEWS IN THE COE FAMILY HOUSE: As I recently wrote, my family was interested in getting a foreign exchange student in the spring, but today the woman from the agency called and said that a girl the same age as my sister was on the plane to America today and going through her training in the next couple of days when the family she was going to be staying with had to cancel because the mom lost her job. The woman told my mom that she didn't want to have to send the girl home, and asked if we would take her.
Tomorrow, we have an interview with the agency to make sure we aren't total weirdos, and as long as we pass (cross your fingers, we are a little weird!), Martina will be here on Thursday.
She is from Italy, speaks Italian, Spanish, German, English and a little Chinese and seems really nice. It should make for an interesting year.

Last thing and then I'm done. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my haircut. I have big decisions to make, and I thought I would turn my haircut into a democracy. Here are my choices.

1. Leave my hair at shoulder length, trim it a little and add some layers.

2. Do a litle something like this:3. Or pull a Victoria Beckham and go with a little something like this:
Except for not as long in the front and sans tats.

Anyways, your votes and opinions are greatly appreciated. Until next time!

Big Decisions!

So I've pretty much decided that it is impossible for me to blog on a daily basis. I am simply too busy all the time. Maybe one day I will get to a point in my life where I will have the time to blog on a regular basis, but until then, you will just have to take what you get.

The past couple of days have been spent catching up with school and working at Kactus Kidz. Tomorrow I have a presentation worth 50% of my final grade in the course, so say a little prayer for me and my presentation. Also, my hours got cut back at Kactus Kidz, which required me to get a new job, after very little searching, I was able to find a job working with a family in San Antonio that has an autistic 6 year old boy, Mercede, and a 4 year old little girl, Paloma. They pay outrageously well, are extremely nice, and my friend Laura and I are splitting the hours, so it doesn't require a huge time commitment. Also, the mom is the President of the Autism Society of San Antonio, which will make for a great job reference (ps. can you believe I'm talking about job references? I graduate in a little over a year...I'm not ready to be a grown up), and it will give me great experience working with an autistic child everyday. To be honest, autism fascinates me, and it is my favorite disorder to treat. The kids are so intelligent and fun, they just have problems communicating whatever is going on in their head. If I were ever to get my doctorate in occupational therapy, I'd do my thesis on autism.

I'm blabbing and letting my nerdy side out. Sorry if I bored you.

Anyways, this weekend I am coming home, so Georgetown kids get ready to hang out with me. I have to get more blood drawn to make sure everything is back to normal after the sickness (see previous blog) and on Saturday I'll probably make my way up to Lampasas for a family reunion. In other Coe family news, my family will be getting another foreign exchange student (we had one from China when I was in middle school) in the Spring. Should be interesting....

Jaron is leaving to go back to Stephenville after this weekend. Also, because of gas prices and busy schedules, we are only going to be able to see each other every other weekend. I am extremely not looking forward to this at all.

Now you're caught up with my life, so we'll turn to the real reason for this blog. At the end of August, I have to decide where to do my rotations in the fall and spring of next year. I have many choices as there are hundreds of places across the country I can go to. Here are my options summed up:
1. I could go to somewhere really cool and interesting and different, because you only get this kind of opportunity once.
2. I could go to the Dallas/Fort Worth area because it is different but still close to home. Also, it offers great job opportunities, I know some of my friends are moving there after they graduate, and it is a bit closer to Jaron.
3. I could go to the Austin area and live with my parents.

Unfortunately, my parents have told me they can't afford to send me somewhere cool and interesting right now, which means I would have to foot the bill myself, which will be pretty hard to do when you're working a 50 hour a week job for free.
This makes number 2 the ideal, but my parents have told me that if I pick something in the Austin area and live at home, I could have the money that they would be paying for rent.

Anyways, I don't know what I am going to pick yet. I've been praying for God to give me guidance...please pray for me too!

I Bet You Missed Me!

So I havn't blogged in quite a while, but I have several very good excuses. The rest of Mission Arlington went really well, and was quite drama free. The kids had fun and did a great job of spreading the Word. Thursday, I celebrated my 21st birthday in a very uneventful, but fun way at the Rainbow Expresses.

On Friday we went to Six Flags. I actually rode the Texas Giant! We got fast passes which made it possible for us to ride all of the big rides without waiting in line. Theoretically, its a great idea, but when you don't stop in between, it can make you very sick. I almost lost my lunch! We also met a really nice guy who let us sleep in the Sam Houston theather once we were done with the rides. Overall, I think it was my favorite trip to Six Flags.

Once we got back, I had a 90s birthday party at my house. Overall, it was a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone that came. Pictures are as follows:

The next week I spent the week playing catch up at school after missing a week while at MA. I had 3 different tests and 2 quizzes plus a couple of papers. Working at the same time left pretty much no time to blog.

On Thursday I headed home to Georgetown and hung out there for a while before heading to Goldthwaite for the Covey family reunion. It was interesting to say the least. I did a ton of things I have never done before: eat yellow meat watermelon, try fried alligator (it was very good), back road in a homemade buggy, watch older uncles drink moonshine in the barn "out back", and play washers. I also got hit on twice, and one of the boys that hit on me offered to "wrestle" Jaron the next day. Probably for my love. Overall, it was a really good time, and it was fun to spend time with Jaron's family.

Sunday is when what we shall now refer to "the sickness" began. Jaron and Philip spent the night here in Georgetown and we got up early and headed to Lockhart for church. I woke up with a killer headache and spent most of the day with it. By the end of the night it was making me sick to my stomach.

On Monday I still had my headache but made myself go to work, school, and then back to work. By the time I got home, I had a stiff neck and a very high fever, and a nurse on the nurse hotline recommended that I go to the ER because I was suffering from many symptoms of menigitis. My awesome roommates (thanks guys) took me to the hospital. I got blood work, CT scan, urine sample, and even a spinal tap (which, don't let doctors lie to you like they did to me, hurts!) but the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. The doctor there gave me some painkillers and told me to sleep it off.

Tuesday and Wednesday I laid on the couch in the living room very miserable. My roommates took great care of me, and Jo even came by and gave me little TLC. Thanks Jo! By Thursday I couldn't swallow spit, water, food, or anything else, my fever still hadn't gone down, and I was absolutely miserable, so my mom came and got me and took me to my doctor in Georgetown, who immediately checked me into the hospital because of severe dehydration, which was causing an unsafe increased heart rate and decreased oxygen intake.

Thursday and Friday were spent in the hospital. I got pumped full of all sorts of stuff the whole time I was there. By the time I left Friday evening, my left arm was twice the size of my right because the tissues were so full of fluid! Sodium, Saline, Potassium, Steriods, Antibiotics, you name it, it was in me. I also had to do urine tests, and a bunch of different blood tests. It wasn't a good experience for someone like me (I'm terrified of needles). I also had a pee in a special cup and keep track of how much I peed for the nurses. I needed help going to the bathroom, showering, eating, changing. It was a very demoralizing experience. The only positive was that I got all the jello, ice cream and yogurt I wanted, and all the nurses, doctors, and techs were very nice. Also, Jaron and Philip came and visited me (thanks guys) and my aunt and uncle sent me some very pretty flowers.

All the tests came back negative, and the doctors still have no idea what was wrong with me.

Once I finally got to go home, I was exhausted from not sleeping, and have been doing so the last couple of days. Today I went back in for more testing, and while I still have to wait for the test results to come back, the doctor has banned me from school and work until Monday. Mostly because all of my protein, potassium, and white blood cell count levels were too low to be around other people.

This means that instead of spending next week at Junior High Camp, I'll be busying catching up with school.

In conclusion, being sick sucks, and although "the sickness" made me lose 14 pounds and got me access to all the jello, ice cream and yogurt I could ask for, I don't wish it on anyone.

And that is my updated life.