Happy Birthday America!

I cannot think of a better place to spend the 4th of July (Maybe except at Grandma's with a bunch of tired babies and little kids lighting off fireworks with their dads and having a front row view for Morgan's fireworks from Grandma's front yard. But until I can get back there this is a pretty good second place. Our festivities started the night before at the A Capitol 4th Concert dress rehearsal. 

It wasn't the best concert line up but it was still fun to be out there and celebrate our freedom! The morning of the 4th we had a nice big 4th of July breakfast!

 And of course, a great show of fireworks!

I am a lucky girl to be in such great company!

Happy 4th!

Tour Guides

Living in such a popular tourist area it is fun to have friends and family come visit and be a tour guide. I don't think I will ever get tired of visiting all the tourist attractions in the area. This last week family came to visit and we did a number of fun things:

Our first stop was Baltimore. We ate at the Cafe Hon and across the street they had a little shop that sold a Grape Nehi! This was particularly exciting to me because I spent a chunk of my childhood watching MASH and Radar drinks them and was excited to have my own Grape Nehi. 

 While taking a trip down memory lane, I loved seeing these purple dragon boat rides because when we were kids the only computer/video game we had was Roller Coaster Tycoon and this ride was on the game. My favorite response from my brother was "You better have gone on them if you were that close!"

 We went to an Orioles game. They didn't win but they made a great effort right at the end that made the game exciting!

 Our next trip was on the Philadelphia via Hershey and Gettysburg. The whole town of Hershey has street lights like this.

 There is also a ride you can go on that teaches you how chocolate is made.

 The singing cows are the ones that teach you about it.

 In Philadelphia we saw the liberty bell and Independence hall.

 One of our last adventures was an in depth tour of the U.S. Capitol. I've never toured the capitol so it was fun to experience something new!

 Overall, it was a great trip! Always busy taking it all in and having a lot of fun! We are always happy when people come to visit!

Kendra Clark, CTRS

It's official! I am now in the ranks of Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists! I am so happy to have passed the exam in February and now able to use the credentials. I am so excited to officially sign my name: Kendra Clark, CTRS. :)

Greetings from Vermont

I have lived in Vermont for exactly 10 days and I am happy to report I still have 10 fingers and 10 toes! It's been -12 degrees when I have gone to work in the morning a few days in a row! These New England winters definitely take some getting used to! I have been wearing two pairs of thermals under my pants and I'm still cold. I would be happy wearing my coat all day long but would probably stick out too much. Vermont brings a lot of changes for me. The biggest change for me is that I am living by myself. I rarely like being along let alone living alone. But I am lucky enough to have many people who love me and still want to stay in contact with me and thank heavens for Skype. I'm not sure I would make it if I didn't have Skype! There are also plans for special visits that will help pass the time. Vermont is beautiful! I live a little outside of town and there really is a beautiful countryside. This was my first view of Burlington, Vermont in the daylight. It was a bright and beautiful sunrise but very cold!

I was very under prepared for how cold it really was outside!

We went to check out Lake Champlain that morning and this was our first beautiful sight!

We went for breakfast at a local brunch establishment, Penny Cluse Cafe, that quickly became one of our favorites. It was also our first exposure to real Vermont maple syrup.

And finally, it's official! I am Vermont Children's Hospital's Child Life intern. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be completing a child life internship even if it is in Vermont. I look forward to the new adventures and challenges that I'm sure will come.

Child Life Internship

 

When I first started college I knew that I wanted to be a Recreation Therapist AND and Child Life Specialist. Since I am a planner I had a plan on how I was going to do it. As much as I would like to, my plans don't always work out (most of the time for the better) and there were ups and downs and plenty of plan changes. As I learned more about the professions and requirements I was better able to plan out how I wanted to complete this goal. Over the years there have been several requirement changes to both professions making it more difficult to complete and at times I wanted to give up and be happy with one but I still knew that I always wanted to do both. My senior year I found out there are programs that let you complete both internships at one time! Golden! This was perfect for me! I could complete my goal and do it efficiently! :) I spent 10 months perfecting every single word on my applications. I sent them in and within a week all of them had contacted me and let me know they were not offering the dual internship program anymore. My whole plan dissolved and I had no direction. Thankfully that is when the internship at NIH came together. For so many reason I know that is where I was supposed to be. As happy as I was at NIH and loved doing Recreation Therapy there I was told if I wanted a job in pediatrics I need my Child Life certification. So I went to work researching over 30 Child Life programs. Trying to find ones that I qualified for and were available when I wanted them. I came up with a good number of them but felt like I need to find a couple more to apply to. I made it seems like countless phone calls trying to find an internship that would work for me. I decided to call Vermont Children's Hospital even though they didn't have any information about an internship on their website. After a several phone calls to them I finally got through and they asked me if I would be interested in applying for the internship in January. I had already missed the deadline for the January internship by two months so I was not expecting it at all! I was just planning on working whatever job I could find until May when the Child Life internships began. If I could complete my internship starting in January I could take the certification test in May and start looking for a real job! Also if I completed it by May I wouldn't have to take an extra Child Life class. So I submitted all my information in I feel like record speed, especially since there was a hurricane that hit the east coast two days after they asked me to apply and everyone was out of the office for a few days. Then I waited an agonizing two weeks to hear back from them with an interview request and the next week that I did in a hotel room in Portland Oregon the day before my brother's wedding. And the next week we played phone tag but I finally got the call and was ACCEPTED!!!! I was so thrilled and accepted immediately! They said I could think about it if I wanted but I had enough time to think, I just needed to jump through the hoop of a Child Life internship so I could work with the population I really wanted. I am so blessed this internship worked out perfectly with my life right now. So I'm off to a new adventure at Vermont Children's Hospital!

My Best Friend is HOME!!!!

I have been counting down the days for 2 years 1 week and 5 days! I have missed him so much! Elder Clark left Bogota, Columbia at 11:59 last night and I have been so excited I couldn't even sleep! He flight plans sent him through JFK, SLC and finally to Boise. I couldn't get more than one day off of work so I made a quick trip up to JFK to meet him. I, of course, had to make a sign and would not settle for any less than the best sign, and that included flashing lights!

 

I hopped on my flight this morning at 6am in DC

 I usually am on the metro early in the mornings so I don't get to see a sun rise very often so I was happy the see this beautiful sight!

 Coming in to New York you can see a lot of areas still flooded and damage done by the storm. It's hard to believe this beautiful morning was so different just a week ago today. There were a bunch on tanker ships just sitting off shore that was cool to see.

 I finally made it and went through security again just to see this guy. I was so glad his gate was right inside security. I couldn't find him for a few minutes and was about to get up on the chair, hold my sign up, and turn until we found each other. Thankfully after a few more minutes I found him!

 Right before I sent him off to SLC to meet another sister we had one last picture. Welcome home Elder Clark! You have done incredible work and been a faithful missionary. I am so excited you're home!!

Letter to Heaven

Dear Heaven,
You have welcomed home another sweet young soul this week. He has such a tender heart and spent so much of his time thinking of others instead of himself. Regardless of what trials he was given here he never lost his faith. What a great example he is to the rest of us. He has been so brave and he finally knew it was time to return home. Thank you for letting a sweet boy bless our lives.
With love from all of us still here,
Kendra