Texas

So this is officially our 4th week in Texas. It's been too long since we last blogged!

 

 

 

At Corey's for a Sioux Game

Here's what we've been up to:

In general~ We are getting acclimated to TX, although the crazily fluctuating weather makes us feel like we are in ND at times. It was 75 degrees last Saturday, and yesterday and today have been in the teens with below zero wind chills. Work has actually been canceled for me for the past two days because of the ice covering every road. The traffic has been a bit of an adjustment for us, but we make a pretty good team when manning them. Hopefully I'll be comfortable driving them on my own by the time we're done here! We're still trying to find a church to be involved with, and have been to a couple different ones so far. There are so many options it's overwhelming trying to narrow things down. The Superbowl will be here this weekend so the area is getting pretty hyped up. Unfortunately, we will not be sitting in front row seats. If we want to watch it from the parking lot on a big screen tickets are $500, but to park in that lot is $1000. Lol, maybe we'll save toward a vacation instead! :)

One of the churches in downtown Fort Worth

Me and some of my co-workers & friends downtown FW, ESPN headquarters

Kara ~ I am currently working at an LTAC which stands for Long Term Acute Care. I guess the best way to explain it is to say that it is for people that are too sick or weak to tolerate a rehab or skilled nursing facility. Our job is to get them prepared for tolerating more therapy and for nursing to help stabilize them medically. I have never been in a facility like this, and I really do enjoy it. Most people are very sick, so we give them only what they can tolerate. Some patients can tolerate only 15 minutes or so of sitting up, where many others are down at the gym with us working out for an hour or two at a time. The people that we see either go to rehab, where they will need to tolerate 3 hrs of therapy per day, go to a nursing home (many people come from a nursing home or assisted living facilities) to receive therapy and other assistance until they are ready for the next step, and we do have many patients that are rockstars and go home from working with us. My co-workers are great, everyone is super friendly and helpful. So far so good!! :) 

Long horns at the Fort Worth Stock Yards

Andy ~ He is continuing his work with MetaXpert, the company he worked for while we were in Sandpoint, as well as looking for what the Metroplex has to offer him while we're here. He loves running, biking, and most things athletic, and enjoys participating in races from time to time. Continuing this is something he would like to do, however he has decided that if he is going to do these things, he is not going to make it all about himself, but to do it for a purpose. He is registered for a 5K that is next weekend to help fight Human Trafficking, which is a very real situation going on all over the world today, especially with children. Many people (mostly women and children) are being sold into sexual slavery and labor every day. Here's a quick stat from a paper written by Mary C. Burke:
"Human Rights Watch (2003) and the State Department of the United States (2005) are among those who estimate that 800,000 to 900,000 women, men and children are trafficked across international borders each year for the purpose of economic exploitation with approximately 100,000 more trafficked within the borders of their own countries."
His fund-raising page can be found HERE (just click on the underlined word) or at: 
http://www.active.com/donate/run4justiceGrapevine/endhumantrafficking
This is also a link to a video about the actual event, called Run4Justice. If you feel pulled to donate, please do so. Every little bit helps!!!! Andy's also decided to take a weekly Spanish class offered by one of the colleges around here. This week we are trying to find some volunteer opportunities that we would be interested in doing during the next 9 weeks.

Mark came down for a weekend! Corey, Mark and Andy

Corey, Andy, and Mark

We've spent our weekends hanging out with friends, experiencing the Stock Yards in Fort Worth, downtown FW and Dallas, and spending as much time outside as possible when the weather is good. When it's not, we are usually catching up on the TV show Lost online, which we only have a couple episodes left!! Any good suggestions for another series we'd enjoy?

Hope you all enjoy your week, we'll try to keep up the blog more often from now! :)