Radio Lollipop

G'day the "Ausse Slang Word of the Day" is....

Jumper: Sweater

I had the day off from prac today, so instead of cracking down on some homework, I decided to surf the web for volunteer opportunities in Perth... and came across this.Radio Lollipop is a nationwide charity organization for children who are sick in hospital. There is one at Fremantle hospital, and one at Princess Margret Hospital in Perth. I am so excited about it. Here is a little blurb about what the position entails.

"Each Radio Lollipop station has its own team members who run the radio station, involve children in play activities and use the sounds of radio to stimulate the children´s imaginations. A stimulating mix of music and participation games is broadcast in children´s wards and rooms. Volunteers work at the bedside, playing games and co-ordinating art projects and contests in which all the sick children have the chance to win prizes. Through play, a child can find security and stability. Experience has shown that a happy motivated child can respond faster to treatment." Click here to view the website.

You are required to put in 2 hours a week, and although I'm super busy with Uni I am going to do everything in my power to make this happen. What a great opportunity to serve in the community. :)

Yep I want to be one of these crazy people. :)

I'm putting in my application tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Our new home

A quick update..... We found a place to live, and are moving in today! We won't have Internet for a few days while it's getting set up, so I wanted to post a quick picture and fill you in. This is our new home :) It is taken from my Iphone, so the quality isn't that great. sorry.
We are still in Dianella. We are about a 5 minute drive from our current house, and walking distance to our chapel and the Perth temple. We are really excited about it! We are renting from a member in our ward. We worked out an arrangement to pay rent, aswell as do the basic upkeep/maintenance of the house. They will be moving back to this house eventually in a year or so, and need someone to keep it in good shape for them.

More pictures and details to come... The packing begins!

No place to call home....

I should be sleeping at the moment, but I have a persistent migraine that has been following me around since 6:00 am this morning (it is now 11:00 pm). I have had one too many Excedrins (Panadol + caffeine for you Aussies) so I am wide awake, and still have a pounding headache. What I would really like to do right now is snuggle up in a comfy blanket, with my heater blasting, and watch gossip girl until I fall asleep (thanks jade for letting me borrow the 1st season), but alas my dang DVD player has decided to call it quits on me... so here I am. I could be studying, but I don't want to overwork my brain. It's already had a rough day as it is. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have Uni from 8:00am to 6:00 pm straight... HEAPS of brain power used today (hence the migraine most likely). I thought I would write about a dilemma Brandon and I are having.... We have been living in a ladies house while she has been in the UK for the past 6 months.
Excuse me... Can I just make a quick side comment. I can't believe we have been living in AUS for almost 7 months! Crazy how time flies. (yes, I'm on Excedrin and have trouble keeping on topic... Joni maybe you can possibly relate to this? haha)
Anyway back to the dilemma, our dear friend Mavis will be back at the beginning of September to claim her house, so we will be homeless. On top of that Brandon is leaving for Africa to roam with the elephants and life sucking mosiqitos, on the 21st this month. So needless to say, we are in a major time crunch. We are trying to get moved out before he leaves... because let's face it I REALLY don't want to move alone. I'm buff and all.. but these impressive guns aren't going to lift a washing machine, dresser and fridge on their own.
Dilemma numero 2... Perth+ renting= ridiculous. You can only apply for one place at a time because you have to put down a weeks payment, and if you are accepted they take it. So if you decide you don't want to live there you are SOL my friends... that $400.00 or so you paid up front is gone to the wind. We put an application in on Friday for a house in Bayswater, and still haven't heard back if we got it or not. We are thinking no... considering we were probably the 5th applicant. But who knows, we could get lucky.
Dilemma numero 3... we want to stay in the ward boundaries. Brandon was called as the Elders Quorum president and I am in the stake primary presidency, so we don't want to move outside of the boundaries. This however severely limits where we can live. Luckily we are not in Utah and have about a 30 minute radius to either side of us to branch out from... but still, it makes things quite challenging. So there you have it. If you do the math we need to move out in 11 days and counting, and we still have no place to call home.....

Christmas in July

Australian Slang Word of the Day is....

My shout: I'll pay.

So if someone says I'll shout you lunch... no they are not going to verbally assault you with food, they are actually offering you a free lunch!

A couple week ago a good friend of mine Anouck, threw a 'Christmas in July' party. Yes, that's right.... In case you have been living on a different planet other than earth, I will point out that it is currently winter here in Australia. Since we are in a different hemisphere, our seasons are switched. Soooo unlike the frigged, snowy white Christmas that us Utahns are all too familiar with, people in Australia celebrate Christmas by having BBQs and going to the beach. Christmas time is at the peak of their summer season, and is usually in the 100's. Since it is currently winter here down-under, my wonderful friend Anouck threw a 'Christmas in July' party to help us foreigners feel more at home. We had the traditional 'U.S' Christmas foods, such as turkey and ham, potato casserole, homemade gingerbread cookies etc. It was delightful. My favorite part of the evening was when we sang Australian Christmas Carols.... Which I will now share with you! Enjoy! Aussie Jingle Bells

Dashing through the bush in a rusty Holden Ute

kicking up the dust, esky in the boot

Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs

It's summer time and I am in my singlet shorts & thongs

Chorus:

Oh Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Jingle all the way

Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Christmas time is beaut

oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute

Engines' getting hot, dodge the kangaroos

swaggy climbs abroad, he is welcome too

all the family is there, sitting by the pool

Christmas day, the Aussie way by the barbecue

Chorus:

Come the afternoon Grandpa has a doze

the kids ad uncle Bruce, are swimming in their clothes

The time comes round to go, we take a family snap

then pack the car and all shoot through, before washing up

Chorus:

I feel the need to clarify something... when they say 'singlet, shorts & thongs' they are meaning 'flip flops' I don't want you to be alarmed envisioning people dancing around in their skimpy underwear. ;)

I told Anouck about an 'Ugly Sweater' tradition that we have back in Utah... where everyone goes out and buys an ugly sweater from the DI (thrift/op shop) and wears it to a Christmas party. Anouck and I decided to continue the tradition here in Perth. As I mentioned before Christmas is in the summer here, so there isn't a large Christmas sweater selection as you can imagine... so Anouck and I put our craftyness to work and made these fabulous vests ourselves. We even managed to find the Elders these awesome ties!

Me, Elder Hampson, Elder Hussy (from Utah... of course haha) and Anouck

I recently started my hospital prac for speech pathology at Fremantle Hospital. I have had a lot of people asking how it's been going so far, so I decided I'd share my thoughts on our blog.

Freo hospital

I am scheduled at Fremantle hospital on Tuesdays all day, from now until September, then I will be starting prac at a primary school (elementary school), and at a stuttering clinic. I was initially REALLY nervous about starting prac at the hospital. As some of you may have gathered from past entries, I am not a huge fan of needles, blood, bodily fluids, etc. Hospitals in general tend to give me the heebie jeebies.... So this was a bit of a stretch for me. I am use to working with children on their speech and language difficulties, which is what I did at Davis School district before I moved to Aus. Adults however, is a whole different playing field for me. At Fremantle hospital I am assigned in the stroke unit. Fremantle hospital is an acute setting, so I work with patients who have just barely had a stroke. Strokes can range in severity... some of these patients may have difficulty speaking, are unable to speak at all, have difficulties swallowing, difficulty with comprehension, and/or difficulty with cognition (memory, attention etc.). We are working with a wide variety of patients, all with unique, individual needs. These past few weeks have been really intense and challenging. I have really had to branch out of my comfort zone and try something that I am completely unfamiliar with. In doing so, I have really surprised myself with how much I enjoy the hospital setting. These people desperately need our help, and are so grateful to have us there. You can only imagine how challenging it would be if you were unable to communicate.....

Once I realized this, and got over the nerves of being in a hospital, I have been able to embraced this new experience. I absolutely love learning about the medical side of speech pathology, and it has been such a great experience to finally put it all to use. In a way it feels like solving a puzzle. You are handed a medical chart that states what the individual has been admitted for (in our case a stroke). By looking through the medical charts and evaluating the severity of the stroke, the hemisphere effected etc. we can start making assumptions as to what difficulties this individual may be experiencing, and how they will be treated.

These past few weeks have been focused on learning how to perform informal and formal assessments of patients who have been admitted to the hospital after a stroke. The assessments consist of evaluating the individuals speech (production/articulation), language (expression, and comprehension), cognitive abilities (memory, attention etc.), and oral musculature (looks at how the muscles involved in speech are functioning. Often after a stroke there will be some muscle weakness present).

Hopefully this all makes sense... but it has been really fascinating! I have enjoyed just sitting and talking with the patients. A lot of these patients, as you can imagine are depressed and lonely, so just having someone to talk to is extremely uplifting for them. I feel terrible thinking that I was actually scared to come work with these amazing people. These people need my help, and little do they know, they are helping me just as much in return. :) The little old ladies remind me of my sweet Grandma, and I just want to give them a big hug and let them know that they are loved.

Anyway, I am now contemplating switching from working with kids, to working with adults in the hospital when I graduate... who would have ever thought!

:)