Crazy!

So I'm a little crazy in the head, but at least I accept it and admit it, right???
Anyway, I'm going to be taking part a Polar Bear Plunge a little less than a month away and NEED some one time donations/pledges to support me. Donations go to Special Olympics - a great cause!!!
If you click the link below, it will bring you right to my pledge page and you can make your donation online. Please please please help me out!
www.plungemn.org/plunger/elizabethcrabtree
Thanks so much!

Another Hobby

Well, after over a year I have finally taken my Christmas present out of its original packaging and am putting it to good use...I am learning to sew! For a while, I've been wanting to learn, so much that for Christmas of 2009, I asked for a sewing machine. Because my parents love me mucho, they granted my request - however, I haven't even put it to use until last weekend, when I took it out of the box for the FIRST time ever.
To start out...I don't really have a space to sew, so I made the trek to the big city to find a folding sewing table. At Heirloom Creations I found the perfect table:

I was originally recommended to not try something too challenging - instead make napkins or something of the sort. It was a good idea but I feared if I was making something that I wouldn't really use...I'd lose interest quite quickly. So while I was at Heirloom Creations I looked around for good kits for beginners.

I found this perfect little wallet kit. It came with pre-cut fabric and the directions - which may as well have been in Latin, but it was all provided. Kindly, Krystal (friend from church) volunteered to help get me started in my new sewing hobby. I brought my machine and fabric and kits over to her house and we let it fly. After much chatting and only having to use my seam ripper once, I had produced a cute little wallet.

With the fabric provided with the kit being okay but not completely to my liking (a little too much pink and "floral"), I had gone and purchased some new prints. Then tonight, feeling brave and crafty, I attempted to make another wallet - and it worked! I didn't use the seam ripper this time, but I did stab myself with a pin...all these lil lessons and tricks that I'll continue to learn as I continue to sew.

Maybe next time I'll even mix different prints - I'm thinking a solid and a print...getting crazy now!

How's this???

Mom's been wanting me to update my blog. It's late. I'm tired. It's cold out. I tried shoveling the inches and inches of snow out of the driveway tonight. By the time I got inside, I couldn't really feel my face. It's too cold to be out shoveling. I decided. I also dislike cold/winter/negative degree weather. But I do thank God for giving me the ability to shovel - and also the ability to feel. I'd rather not be using my abilities to shovel and to feel super cold windchills, but at least I can.
How's that mom? Probably not what you had in mind, but I bet it still made you smile...probably more out of spite... =)

Back In the Groove???

Considering it's been at least 4 months since my last post, I figure I'm a little past due and it's time for me to try to get back into the groove. While I would like to, I also don't know what to write about, or even where to begin.
See...I even forgot I was typing this for the last 30 minutes. To spare you here is the gist:
In the last few months, my parents have completed moved into their new home. To help them out and save some money, I had the honor to move into their house. It's a little weird to be living on my own in the house I grew up in, but it's nice too.
Life has brought me many changes in the past year and I think it'd be fair to say - I'm kinda starting over, to where I was just over a year ago. I'm up for challenges and I up for new things. I continue to pray about and consider my involvement with the military. As I investigate my options, I pray that God will lead me in the direction where he can best use me. For all of you prayer warriors, any additional prayers would be greatly appreciated.
That is probably the biggest thing in my heart and mind right now. Based on that decision and path that I take, the rest of my world will fall into place around it.
I'm hoping that the goals in mind of competing in more Triathlons next year with my cousin (and anyone else that would like to join) will help keep me motivated for working out. P90X is looking good as well as getting back into the pool on a daily basis. I've lost my groove in a lot of areas of life...but I'm determined to get it back - and I will. Starting tomorrow. I'm going to swim and/or run tomorrow. I promise.
But for now, I'm off to McCrossans. It's their dedication ceremony/church service with their new chapel. Pretty exciting and huge progress. I pray that it is well used for all the boys out there! I'll be back to keep ya informed of getting my groove back...

Crunch Time

Oh what a glorious, rainy Sunday. I love rain, I really do - but at some point this summer I'd appreciate for the temperature to be above 75 AND have sunshine at the same time. I trust that this will happen, I just need to wait. Aaahhh, another thing to test and try my patience.

Patience - blah. There are times I'd like to spit in the face of patience. An example of one of these times would be the last year. Yup, patience, I spit at you. But, even with all my spitting - nothing happens, except my patience is probably tried more. The appropriate time still needs to pass before my waiting will be done.

Well, for one of my milestones, my waiting is almost over. I have a feeling this last bit of time will feel way longer that the last how many months have. It's crunch time. I have a lot of unfinished projects. Not really, but kind of. My poems have suffered, and that makes me sad. I've started a few - but would get too emotional or mopey or drained to finish. But in the last couple weeks, I've turned my game back on. I've cleaned. With my cleaning, my apartment is 90% back the way I want/need to have it all the time. In my cleaning I found my poetry notebook, the one with all my unfinished poems. In my time of nothingness - I plan to work on these. Some may be scratched all together - shoot I may not remember what I was feeling or going for in some of them, but others will be finished and I expect to post them soon.

You know what I hate most about patience - is once you have it and the waiting is almost over, then comes anticipation. For me, with anticipation comes nerves and anxiety. I have been fluctuating between having the urge to vomit, cry and smile...sometimes all at once. People just laugh - but I say to many, if you were in this circumstance, I bet they would understand.

With that, my blog has been much neglected, along with other areas of my life. I'm getting em back. I'm taking it all back. I've made it through the worst and the bulk is over. I went toe to toe with patience and I've won....so far...I just pray that the Lord will help me through the last bit...which I have now discovered is by far the HARDEST!

On the "Road" Again...well...plane anyway

It's been an interesting past month or so. I've been on the go more than anticipated but it's gone incredibly well. However, I better not speak too soon, I'm sitting in the airport in Cleveland waiting to fly back home, through Minneapolis, of course.

First my traveling started with a road trip to eastern Wisconsin for a B-E-A-UTIFUL wedding. It was an adventure through Amish country, cranberry bogs and lots of nothingness (particularly across Minnesota). The parents-of-the-groom do live in Austin, so if I ever need a break while making a trek like that again, I may just give them a call =)

Next was the branding in Lakeview. No surprises there, other than another AMAZING weekend with "family" that I love. No major injuries, just a few bangs and bruises overall. I rode horse, helped sort, wrestled calves and even learned how to give vaccination shots! Some people would like to say that the drive to Rosebud is a drive through nothingness, but I strongly object and say it's a drive right into God's Country!

My previous post was a little bit about my trip to DC. It was a whirlwind, too much conference and not enough tourist time. Blair, Nate and I did get to eat at a couple local places and take the After Dark bus tour of the monuments - I would recommend that tour to anyone. It's crazy how one statue, monument, or building can look so different. My favorite thing was the Marine Memorial (better known as Iwo Jima). I would have loved to stick around for the weekend, but I had to fly back home, do laundry and pack back up for my trip to Cleveland.

On Monday, I flew off to Cleveland, where I now sit, for a conference for the VA Spinal Cord Injury System of Care. It was a pretty good conference and I met some helpful people I will not hesitate to use in the future with questions or concerns that pop up. Networking is all it's about right??? I came to Cleveland not being too excited to come here, to say the least. For the most part, it lived up to my expectations, but there were a few diamonds in the rough. The architecture was striking, especially with all the old churches they have ALL OVER the city. I'm kicking myself for not getting any pictures of that. We had some poor directions of how to get to some places in the city, but stumbled upon it last night and were quite impressed with some of the shops and places to eat. I even rode a mechanical bull - twice! Of course, Lake Erie was a sight to see, but it's still pretty chilly and the area we were by didn't have much of a lake front or Pier, but now I am happy to say I've been to 3 of the great lakes.

Well, I'll have some pictures to follow about the above, but for now, I'm going to wrap this up and work on a crossword puzzle until it's time to board. Once I get home this afternoon, I'll be home for a little while. But I can't get too comfortable, there is always something (near or far) that it seems I need to run to.

PS: Cleveland does NOT rock...

History

With all that's been going on and the running around that I've been doing, it's been pointed out to me (numerous times) that I'm young. This can be a disadvantage or work in my favor - either way, it can be quite intimidating to present myself to groups and other professionals.

Last week I was in D.C. for the 2010 Social Work Congress. It's a national gathering of social workers from all across the country (and US Territories). This was the 2nd gathering with the first one being held 5 years ago. Each Congress has a mission for the social workers that have been selected to attend. The first one was focused on clinical goals. This year was the year to plan the future of social work. Across the country, a majority of social workers are of the Baby Boomer generation and are nearing retirement. That can be a scary thought when you think about all the knowledge and processes that will be exiting the field.

This year's theme was "Reaffirm, Revisit & Re-imagine the Profession." They also had to get 30 social workers under the age of 30, to help represent the up and coming leaders of the field. I was honored to be one of the 30 (and surprisingly I wasn't the youngest...). But I was the youngest Masters graduate, which I did feel put some pressure on me.

Not to say this is anywhere similar, but I've heard an individual of a race or gender say they feel that they are being heard as the entire race, but it's just their opinion. That is what I felt like. I was say something and as soon as I'd start to speak, everyone within ear shot would stop and listen and say, "say that again, we need to better understand the young people that will be replacing us," whether or not it had anything to do with social work. No pressure. I've just been working for 2.5 years as a Master graduate social worker, and now I'm expected to help form the social work goals and values for the next 10 years...are you kidding me?

It was a very informative and interesting process. We were split into work groups where we would come up with a vision for that topic. Each group had 100 people in it, but were broken down into 10 smaller groups. The topics I was assigned to was Leadership Development and Influence. At my tables I had people of various ages, experiences, backgrounds and practice. I really enjoyed and learned a lot. I also feel that some people were able to walk away with some new thoughts or beliefs after hearing my (the younger, more conservative) side of things. Haha, I think it was more eye opening for them to hear the conservative point of view vs. the younger...not many Republican social workers now-a-days...or ever.

With that, I just want to thank people of all ages and walks of life. Everyone has impacted me and my belief system in some way or another. I would not be who I am today. The social work field will feel some great losses with some of my colleagues that will soon retire, but I hope I will do them proud and become a great leader in my profession. And someday, I can help educate young, newer, social workers on the history of social work =)