Another thing

Another thing that I would be happy to do for you this holiday season would be to take care of your baking needs!

I love to bake, and I would be happy to supply any festivity (or just an Tuesday ;P) of your holiday season with baked goods. I make everything from scratch and hand decorate it. If you would like to give something as a gift I can gift-package it to where all you need to do is write in names! Instant Christmas presents!

Below are photos of some of my work.

Christmas Sugar Cookies:


Famous Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies (Well, the batter anyways):

And a picture from a more formal event, a wedding cake:
I also make some killer cheesecakes: plain and chocolate are my specialties, but I can do just about any flavor you would like!

Please let me know if you want anything
sarah.tigner@gmail.com

Need a babysitter??

I am trying to earn over $400 this Christmas break so that I can go skiing with my amazing church college group.

If you need a babysitter this holiday season, please think of me!

I am able to watch your children between December 18th-23rd, 28th-30th and January 2nd-9th. Send me an email if you want me to pencil you in!!

It's been a while

I know, it's been a while since I updated...but I think I write this more for me than for anyone, so I guess it's ok since I don't really need to be updated on my own life :)

A lot has happened over the past few weeks; there was Halloween and Homecoming all in one week, the next weekend I went on a retreat with my church college group and to the opening BU mens basketball game vs. Tarleton St., the next weekend--last weekend--was the football game vs. aTm and the basketball game vs. Paul Quinn. I've also had a ton of school work mixed in with all that fun stuff because the end of the semester is quickly approaching! I have a lab final tomorrow, then two days of class next week before Thanksgiving break, after that its the last week of classes in which projects and papers are due and I have two more finals before dead days then I have two more finals and then I'm done for the semester!! Yikes, that's scary!!

Btw, if any of you are looking for help with your children over the break I am looking to make some extra money so that I can go on a ski trip with my church college group over spring break so I'll be trying to babysitt/nanny all I can--call me if you want me to help out!

Now for some fun things, pictures!! I posted them in order, so scroll down to halloween and work your way back up to the aTm game :) Enjoy!

--Sarah

More Baylor football as well as Baylor mens basketball

So, the weekend after Homecoming I went on retreat with my college group from church, and it was awesome! It was a great time to meet new friends and spend time refreshing and worshiping God; I haven't gotten the pictures from my friend from the retreat, so I can't share them with you yet...but I do have men's basketball games as well at the WONDERFUL football game we played against aTm.

The basketball opener was against Tarleton State




Of course, we won :)
Then, the next weekend (this past weekend) it was the last home football game. We scorched aTm!! It was AWESOME. Plus it was senior day, so we got to run onto the field with the freshman Baylor Line :)


See, I wasn't lying, we whooped them :)
The final was BU 41 aTm 21
When we won we rushed the field!!!
After the game we headed to the basketball game vs Paul Quinn--we had a sports double header day!Which we scorched Paul Quinn too!!

I didn't get to go to the women's basketball game, but we beat Stanford who was ranked #2! Now they're #8 and we're #9 :)

Halloween and Homecoming

I had a ton of amazing visitors for Halloween and Homecoming including RyLeigh K, Fernando, Jennifer, Alex, Mom, Dad, and Mimi! It was a very full one bedroom apartment, but it was a ton of fun!

We took RyLeigh to the zoo for trick-or-treating, she was a princess:

Then after the zoo we went to the bonfire:
The next morning was the homecoming parade:
Yes, those are our Baylor Gold medalists Jeremy Wariner and Reggie Witherspoon!
This is my favorite float, Pat Neff, Bruiser, and the Alico building!
After the parade was the game, the players entered from the home stands, it was pretty cool
Mom and Dad didn't want to stand, so they moved from sitting with Mimi, Ashley and IIt was a lot of fun, and I still can't believe that the next homecoming that I will go to will actually be homecoming for me since I will have graduated!!!

Spring

It's official, I'm not going to be off somewhere amazing doing my Child Life internship in the spring. I'll be at Baylor taking more classes. Sigh.

It's terribly disappointing when you think that interviews go well and you get calls from your interviewers telling you that although you had a strong interview they had other applicants that had stronger ones and more experience, so they're picking the other people over you. It is also disappointing when you read it in a letter that they don't even want to interview you. How is it that I went to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. this summer and had an amazing experience in which the people were raving about me wanting me to come back as soon as possible and I sit in a room with people for an hour and they don't want me?? Interviews are so rediculous! How in the world can I show how passionate I am about Child Life in an hour long interview that doesn't involve any interaction with children?? I know my stuff, I know the theories and the concepts, I can apply them--I usually end up applying them in the most random situations where I end up critiquing parents and their parenting skills or I end up evaluating children to see what developmental level they are on when I don't need to! I know that I didn't know about Child Life when I was younger so I don't have the valuable volunteer experience that others have, but I've tried hard to make up for that. I went to a conference, I did my practicum, I've gotten A's in all of my Child Life related classes. What else do these people want from me?

So, I'll still be in Waco in the spring. Taking 13 hours of classes. It's a really good thing that I know that God has an even more amazing plan than I could think of. It's a really good thing that I love it here. I love my friends, I love Baylor, and I love my church.

Guess I'll be going through applications and interviews again for an internship in the spring...
If that doesn't work out I guess I'll go to grad school...

Or maybe I'll become a nanny to some celebrity's kids...(just not Brittany Spears, she and K-Fed creep me out...)

Well then...

First off, I know that I won't be in Fort Worth in the Spring--at least I won't be at Cook Children's. I'm still holding out for Dallas to call, won't hear until the 22nd though. Should know about Georgetown in DC by next week, and I'll hopefully hear from Dartmouth about an interview by next Friday. That's the internship news. Now for the yucky stuff, if you have a weak stomach you might just want to click the x and wait a couple weeks so you don't have to see these yucky pictures. If you recall, my car door decided to slam on my thumb about two months ago, and since then I have had a horribly disgusting and purple thumb nail that has threatened many times to fall of, but it was painful when I tried to help it off, so I never did. Until today.
The nail finally came off. And as gross as the purple thumb nail was I think that my thumb without the nail is nastier. The first pictures are in chronological order including right after it happened, when I got it drilled and so on. It's pretty icky, so don't look if you don't want to!

I've got another one for ya...

I heard from Children's in Dallas, I have an interview on Wednesday at 11. Please be praying for me :)

Child Life Interviews

Well, I have my first two (hopefully not my only two!) Child Life Internship Interviews next week!!
Which is truly a blessing considering the stress and frustration that went into simply sending the applications off. If you see the previous post, Such and such..., you will see the beginning story of the problems associated with my applications--it took FOREVER for me to get letters from the hospital in D.C.--but that was just the beginning.
Originally there were 6 places I was intending to apply: Cook Children's, Children's in Dallas, Children's in Denver, Yale-New Haven Children's, Children's National in D.C., and Inova-Fairfax Children's. Then after contacting the last 3 (Yale-New Haven Children's, Children's National in D.C., and Inova-Fairfax Children's) my list got cut in half because these 3 hospitals had decided not to do spring internships for '09...great. Well, after freaking out a bit I did some quick research and found three more hospital to apply to: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Children's, Georgetown Children's, and Children's in Minneapolis. Thankfully I was able to get Georgetown and Minneapolis in by their deadlines, Dartmouth's isn't till next month. Then my list got shortened again when I found out that Children's in Denver was not a good program (according to my Child Life professor) so I didn't even bother applying. So it ends up that I'm applying to 5 places. Five. All of my friends that are also applying for spring internships applied to an average of 8, I have three less chances at actually getting an internship than they do. As stated in Such and such I don't really have a "top hospital" where I really want my internship, I just want to go where God wants me.
With this thought I ask that you pray for me through the next few weeks while I wait for responses from Dartmouth, Minneapolis, and Dallas. I also ask that you pray for me Monday the 22nd at 2:00 while I am interviewing at Cook Children's in Fort Worth and Thursday at 2:00 for my phone interview with Georgetown.

Thank you all for your support.

Preparing for Ike

I love natural disasters. I don't love it when people get hurt in them, but I do love the damage they create. It reminds me of how little we are and how great God is. He made this earth, He makes the wind and the rain and the sun shine. One of the questions that I have for God when I get to heaven is definitely going to be "how do you make a hurricane?" They are so cool! The reaction that they create is crazy. I just wish that everyone felt the way I do, because then they too would also be able to trust in God that no matter what natural disaster comes their way that God is on their side and they don't have to worry.

I've worried and been stressed and frustrated quite a bit lately, and I'm done with it. Those are emotions that I don't like, at all. Last week I was so stressed out because of my Child Life internship applications, they were due last Friday, and up until Thursday I hadn't sent a single one off. It was part procrastination (senioritis...) but it was also in part because I had asked my supervisor from the summer to send me a letter of recommendation to go with all of the applications and they took way way longer to get from D.C. to here than I though they would. Last Wednesday night my stress came to a peak, but then in my quiet time I had what my mom would call a "2 x 4 moment". God woke me up and made me realize that my stress was a direct result of my lack of trust in Him, and I think that is horrible. How can I not trust Him?? God has given me so much and I am freaking out? I don't deserve to freak out. Since then I have remembered to trust in Him and His plan for me, no more freaking out.

As big bad Ike approaches I am waiting, I want to see God's power through this storm. I hope He is able to open eyes and open hearts. I pray for safety, and I pray for wisdom for all those in Ike's path.

p.s. I have my first Child Life internship interview at Cook Children's Hospital on the 22nd...

:)

Such and such...

Wow life has been crazy the past month! I can't believe that summer is over, I am back from DC, and I just finished my first week of my last semester.I have tons of pictures from many different things, but I probably won't be posting most of them...sorry. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with posting on the major events that happen this semester, I know there will be quite a few exciting things going on :) . I've managed to fill my plate this semester, though not only with classes...I am getting totally involved with my church, and I am super excited about that! I am also two officers for my student organization, and I'm in an honor society. Plus I'm looking to get a part time job.
I just finished my internship applications, now I'm waiting on recommendation letters from my summer supervisor so that I can mail them off. I don't really have a preference for my internship location--I just pray that God gives me direction and that I am able to discern my will from His and follow it rather than mine.
I have a feeling that this semester is going to be challenging, I just hope I'm up for it...

Story of my life

I am so far behind--on keeping up with this, scrapbooking, and so many other things, I know...its the story of my life. I am currently at the little boy I talked about last time's house, he is sound asleep on the living room floor, and I would like him to stay that way for another 30 minutes if possible, so here I am typing quietly in the next room. I have hundreds of pictures from this summer that I hope to post a few of at some point, but they are all on my desktop back at my aunts house so I can't do it now.
My practicum at Children's National Medical Center is officially over. I finished my required 150 hours yesterday, and I have a lovely certificate (and tons of work) to prove it! It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. That's what this whole summer has been, amazing. I was brought here to a great group of co-workers (and by that I mean co-slaves because they were also students, meaning none of us six in all got paid a penny for the extensive work we did this summer), I was able to find a church to visit and people to connect with, and I was continually reminded that I didn't actually do any of it. This summer was given to me by God's amazing grace, and I will be continually thankful for it. God has blessed me tremendously up to this point in my life, and looking out into the future I am anxious to live what He has planned for me. Now that the practicum is over it is time for me to start looking for an internship...no rest for the weary, my first set of applications is due September 5th. At this point I have absolutely no preference on where I go, I am just waiting to hear God speak.

This evening I pick up my mother from the DC airport, and tomorrow we begin the three day journey home. There will be more stories and pictures to add from that, so once I actually get home and am able to rest for a few days I will do my best to post everything from this summer. After I make it home I only have two weeks, then my last semester on campus begins...YIKES. Although, no matter how scared I am about being a senior and getting ready for the real world, I am also amazingly excited.
I don't know why I have so much to say today...it must be the quiet, I can hear every thought going through my mind...With that I think I will end with the promise that I will post more soon, and I will be seeing some of you even sooner :)

I know...

I know, I promised more info...and its coming, hopefully tomorrow while the little boy I'm watching is napping...

Will elaborate later...

**Warning, contains images not suitable for the squeamish**

Well, I am officially a part of the clumsy club...
I let my car door slam on my thumb, these are the results. This is definitely something I suggest avoiding...
Thumb right after:

Thumb 2 days later:

Thumb after Dr burned drainage holes in it (yep, its as painful as it sounds!):
I suggest you avoid car doors!

I will write more about more once more healing has taken place, its quite hard typing with just my left hand...

The Fourth of July

Hello all! I was feeling summery today, so I decided to change my layout. You like it?

I've been having loads of fun up here in DC, and the fun is going to continue tomorrow with a day full of celebrating American independence. I get to celebrate the 4th in the nations capital, and I am super excited about it! There will probably be hundreds of pictures, and I'll do my best to post some here as soon as possible :) The big bash that I'm going to will be on PBS tomorrow night, so if you'd like you can join me in the fun!

I hope you all have a happy 4th!

I know, its been a while...

Life is crazy up here!! I think that this is the longest I've gone without watching one of my DVD's, and that is a pretty good thing :) (Not that movie watching is bad, I'm just experiencing so much more up here and it's very exciting!)

Last week and this week at the hospital were great--which is what I believe I will be saying about all my weeks at the hospital from now on! There were some amazing patients, some that I'd love to tell you about but I can't because of privacy issues. But I will tell you that I love this work; I love (most of) the patients, I am glad to have the specialist that I do, and I am truly thankful to be where I am. Being a child life specialist is something that is important and rewarding, and that has been proven to me in the past two weeks, I am so thrilled about the potential that I have in this field.

This past weekend was crazy as well, I went to two baseball games where my Texas Rangers played the Washington Nationals in DC at the new Nationals park. It was sooooo much fun to go and be a fan for the visitor :) I liked being the one yelling at the "wrong" time, is that bad?? I really loved it when a Ranger would hit a good ball or a homer and I would stand and yell, and I would be the only one doing it!! It was great, especially since we won both nights I went to :)

Oh, the other great thing was this:


That is totally me with CJ Wilson, the cool Rangers pitcher with a mohawk!!! It was totally awesome, we decided to forgo church (I know, I know, I'm a heathen--but I'm doubling up this coming weekend trying two new churches because we've yet to find one that we're drawn to...) and get to the park early, and well it paid off. We got there while the Rangers pitchers were warming up, and after warm up we went up and asked CJ for his autograph and a picture and of course he obliged! It was great, he is as adorable up close as he is in pictures!

Saturday we also went to the biggest BBQ festival this side of the Mason-Dixon line, it was huge and hot. And it smelled like home...

My practicum

It is amazing how great this job is. I haven't been able to totally immerse myself in the hospital yet, but that will change on Tuesday because I was assigned to my unit--I am will be starting as the child life student on the surgical care unit, and I am thrilled.

I'll start from the beginning with how it has been and what has been going on and what has led up to this point, there are no pictures, so this could get long, but please read it all--do it for me.

The first day I had to go through the hospital general orientation, and that was pretty boring. It was a day of presentations, many of which will not have anything to do with me for the summer, but it was mandatory since I will be there for more than six weeks as a volunteer. Then the next day I went in and it was more orientation as well as two child life seminars that were given by two of the specialists at Children's. This day was a bit better only because it actually had to do with what I will be doing over the summer. My third day was more orientation, by this time I was tired of it and ready to get out on the floor, but I wasn't allowed yet. My last day of my first week was, thank goodness, my last day of orientation. It was just detail/administrative stuff, but I still wasn't able to interact with children yet.
The next week, which was this past week, I was finally put on rotations, and they were amazing. It is so great to be able to go into a room and see a scared little child and reassure them that I am not going to poke them with anything or take anything from them and see them light up when they realized that I am just there to play with them and make them happy. My first rotation was on the medical care unit with the patients 0-11. I was able to go to rounds with the specialist on the unit, then I got to spend quality time with one patient, we played CandyLand. Then I went on to the surgical care unit (my unit for the rest of the summer!!) where I was able to spend quality time with a two year old who was absolutely adorable. Then the next day I started out on the hematology/oncology unit, and although that unit can be very depressing, it amazed me how happy-go-luck most of the patients were. That's why I love working with children; it doesn't matter to them what they're going through or what they're hooked up to as long as you talk to them and let them know they matter they are resilient and happy. It was on this unit that I was dubbed "the baby whisperer" because I was able to play with and subsequently get to sleep two restless infants. After that I went back to medical care and worked with the adolescent crowd--they're still not my favorite age, but they're not bad or scary or anything like that. There I spent time with one patient doing a craft, and that made her day so it was great to be a part of it.

I think this is going to be an amazing summer, and I'm beginning to see how much I think I am going to love this field. It is wonderful that God brought me to this profession and this place, I am so thankful. I am also thankful for all of you who read this and continue to think of me and pray for me as I go through this amazing experience. I look forward to telling you so much more as I get acquainted with my unit and the kids on it. (I don't know if I'll ever have pictures, so you may be reading a lot this summer...)

Vegas Baby!!

So, as probably all of you know I got to go to Vegas at the end of May to celebrate my 21st birthday...it was a blast!! I got to play some slots, on which I won once and then proceeded to put it all back in a loose it, but I had fun and overall I walked away with money so it was good.
I got to go see the Cirque du Soleil show "O" at the Bellagio, and it was great. It was all water and it was so fun, if you get a chance you should go--unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures, so you won't see any below. But I did take many other pictures, and here are a few of them:

The Famous Sign Mimi and Susie

Me and My first slot play Mom and I

Me and my wonderful birthday dinner at Fix; My delicious Fix dessert

Saw Kyle Bush’s car at M&M’s, can you see how I feel about him??; Dad and I

Cute Mom and Dad at the Venetian; Me and the Sign at night