Week 1: Famous Last Words

This week has been wonderfully productive. It’s only Tuesday, but I’ve finalized some details for my training at Calm Waters this weekend, done almost every assignment for week 1 (all except for blog comments because that cannot be done until Friday the 22^nd), made a list of things to get done before school starts, and spent some quality time with my roommate and my boyfriend.

My roommate has been in Kansas for most of the summer, helping her grandmother with work around the farm. Her grandmother really is wonderful, and Amber does so much to help her. In return, her grandma is giving her a plot of land to build a house on once they get their finances in order and Amber graduates. It’s a nice area with plenty of shade from trees, room to grow a garden, and room for a decent-sized house. I saw it when I went up to visit earlier this summer.  In fact, I saw a lot when I visited earlier. Kansas really is quite beautiful! It has rolling hills, farms growing wheat or corn for miles, little houses with broken down old tractors, good ol’ farm dogs, placid lakes, wild plums (that make for a DELICIOUS jam that Amber’s grandma makes), and a different way of living. Everyone there knows everyone and everyone helps each other out.  It’s precisely this sense of community that I have come to notice my hometown lacks.

Frisco, Texas is where I grew up and spent most of my adolescence. When we moved there, it was a farming community with 1 high school and no Wal-Mart. Now, there are 6 high schools, at least 3 Wal-Marts, a 3-story mall, tons of mega-churches, shopping centers as far as the eye can see, and a truly unnecessary amount of fast-food chicken joints. It’s a wealthy town, though my family is not wealthy which continues to set us apart. The people here seem to care more about keeping up appearances, having material items, and being “superior” than about the lives of the people they surround themselves with. Frisco doesn't really have a sense of community, togetherness, well-being, responsibility, pride, or goodwill. Every time I go back, I realize precisely why I was so ready to leave. It’s just not the place for a down-to-earth, positive gal like me. I feel like it holds me back and brings me down, but I return pretty often to see my amazing family!

In fact, I’m blogging from my mom’s living room in Frisco with her Chinese Crested Powder Puff named Naala in my lap, begging for food I don’t have. Anyway, this week has really only just begun, so I don’t have any exciting stories to share but I know that the rest of this week is going to be lovely. Tomorrow I have my second fill for my lap band, which is pretty exciting (for me, at least). After that, I have training at Calm Waters in OKC then school starts! I can’t believe how fast the summer has gone by, but I think I’m ready for fall.

Here's some pictures of Naala to finish this post and hopefully leave you with a smile!

Naala's "Begging" Face

My photo from August 2014

Naala is a bro

My photo from August 2014