1. I grew up on a dairy farm in West Tennessee.
2. My first job at around 6-7years old was to stand at the back of the barn and spray the cows udder with water.
3. Probably a year or so later I moved on to cleaning the barn down at the end of the day.
4. I used a hose that was attached to a pump that increased the pressure of the water to the point that I had to hold it with both hands so it would not fly away when the pump was started. 5. I don't remember when I milked my first cow. My guess is when I was around eight.
6. This may not sound that great to some, but I love it. As a kid it was like one adventure after another. Cows, chickens, pigs and lots of land to roam.
7. I graduated from Dresden High School in 1988.
8. I was salutatorian of my class. The school was consolidated with several other small county schools a few years back and is now called Eastside.
9. I enjoyed high school for the most part, but would not want to go back.
10. I was in the band and
11. had my first serious boyfriend.
12. After high school I went to the University of Tennessee at Martin. I loved college.
13. My first major was biology, but didn't have plans for how I would use it.
14. A close friend of my suggested social work to me and I changed majors after my sophomore year.
15. I graduated from UTM in May 1992 with a BSW.
16. I immediately went to graduate school at Flordia State University in June.
17. I had good grades at UTM and because I went to an undergraduate program that was accredited by the Council on Social Work Education I entered FSU as an advanced standing student.
18. I attended classes that summer and
19. then entered the fall semester with the second year graduate students.
20. In December I moved to Nashville, Tennessee to finish my
21. last semester of graduate school working at the Veteran's Administration Hospital.
22. After graduate school I moved to LaGrange, Georgia because Rourk asked me too.
23. My first job was with the West Georgia Medical Center Hospice.
24. I was too young for this job, but the director took a chance on me.
25. I guess it didn't hurt that the job required a MSW and we were hard to find in rural areas at the time.
26. Hospice was a wonderful experience and I handled it well. There are many patients that I think about often.
27. Sam was my favorite. He was this elderly, black man that lived with his sister in one of the mill houses not far from my office. I used to make extra visits to see him and take him treats. Such a sweet man. I'll never forget visiting him soon after Rourk and I got married. He saved the clipping from the newspaper of our wedding. I miss Sam, but I don't miss the fact that he used to drive around LaGrange on morphine.
28. That's right, we got married in LaGrange, Georgia and St. Mark's Episcopal Church.
29. Reverend Mark Waldo married us. I wonder how many Where's Waldo jokes he had to endure.
30. Rourk and I moved to Stevenson, Alabama in April 1995.
31. We rented a small house on Adelaide Street.
32. If I have another daughter I may push to name her Adelaide.
33. I went to work for the Alabama Department of Health as a mid-level supervisor covering three counties.
34. Loved it and the people I supervised.
35. I wasn't crazy about Stevenson because the population was less than 3,000. The next town over wasn't much better, only 12,000. Chattanooga was an hour away and so was Huntsville. 36. We bought out first house in Stevenson and
37. spent the first year completing one home improvement project after another.
38. I was promoted to Social Work Director for Public Health Area 5 in 1998.
39. Many months I drove over 3,000 miles for my job.
40. I spent more nights in Montgomery, Alabama than I'd like to count.
41. I did this until 2000.
42. That's when I realized the job was going to be the death of me.
43. In the summer of 1998, Rourk came to me and said he wanted to quit his job and go to dental school.
44. I thought he was crazy.
45. In the fall of 1990 Rourk went to University of Alabama at Huntsville to start his pre-requisites for dental school.
46. In January of 2000 he was admitted to the fall class of UAB Dental School.
47. In April of that same year we sold our house in Stevenson.
48. We moved to an apartment in Vestavia Hills (Birmingham) that same month.
49. I continued to work for the health department and changed my base office to Shelby County.
50. Once in Birmingham I started thinking I didn't have to stay at the health department because of the many MSW opportunities there.
51. I started looking for a new job and in July accepted a position as the patient services manager for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
52. I covered the entire state of Alabama, but the travel wasn't as bad ADPH.
53. I coordinated support groups, patient and professional education and the patient aide program.
54. This was a very good move for me.
55. Rourk studied and I enjoyed myself.
56. I went out with friends.
57. I read books, lots of books.
58. I pulled out the sewing machine.
59. I watch lots of movies.
60. I grew restless. I was approaching my mid-30s.
61. My internal clock started ticking and I wanted to have a baby.
62. We started infertility in 2001.
63. Two depressing years were spent in treatment.
64. In October 2003, we had Ryan.
65. We talked every day about where we would move after dental school.
66. We thought about staying in Alabama and would take a drive at least once a month to look at different cities and towns.
67. We thought about going into the Indian Health Service because it sounded like an adventure and because the two year commitment would help us get out of debt. Dental school is expensive.
68. We ultimately decided to move to South Carolina because it is close to the mountains and close to the beach. Hey, people have decided to move for less.
69. Rourk graduated June 5, 2004.
70. I quit my job with LLS that same month.
71. We took an almost three week vacation to Canada. We stayed with family in Calgary and then spent almost a week near Banff and Lake Louise in a cabin. Ryan was with us. It was and still is one of our best vacations yet.
72. Okay, so our honeymoon was pretty good.
73. The train trip from Toronto to Vancouver wasn't bad either.
75. After we finished traveling we moved to SC in July. Rourk stared his associateship a few days later.
76. I wasn't going to work. I was just going to stay home with Ryan.
77. By September I was stir crazy and had a contract social work position with NHC Home Care.
78. I made social work visits strictly on an as needed basis. I enjoyed it.
80. I continued this until Rourk bought his own dental practice in July 2005. Working PT for NHC and working for Rourk was too much.
Okay, my goal was to make it to 100, but I kept getting interrupted and I'm working on a dress for Lilly and Ryan's not feeling well. I'll pick up the other 20 soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment