Posts

Denim Day: What is it? Why do we wear jeans? Is sexual assault really that prevalent?

I was going to wait until Denim Day to post this; but I thought it might be better if I post it beforehand, so more people can understand why it's important to participate. Good morning and Happy Denim Day! Not that the origin of Denim Day is a happy one, but it's so great that there is a day specifically recognized for sexual assault awareness. I hope everyone who can, is wearing their jeans today in support of victims of sexual assault. Actually, all of April is recognized as the Sexual Assault awareness month. So what is denim day? Some people may not know. I actually didn't even know about it until I started working for the federal government. The first April I was employed I received an email stating that unless you were working for the Pentagon or White House or anywhere else where jeans would be inappropriate no matter the reason, that jeans were authorized to wear on denim day. Of course my first thought was, "woo hoo, I get to wear jeans to work on a Wedne

Postpartum Depression and Anxiety: It's Okay To Not Be Okay

What is Postpartum Depression? What about Postpartum Anxiety? Isn't that just when someone gets the baby blues or feels a little extra worry because they have a baby to take care of now? Y'all. No. No. No. It's also not ONLY the two extremes of drowning your baby or feeling a little down about your new role in life. It is so, so, so, so, so much more. Postpartum Depression is, "a more severe (than baby blues), longer lasting form of depression," and it happens (documented) in 1 of 8 new mothers. And by new, I just mean a new little one, not only first time moms.  Postpartum Anxiety is typically a feeling of losing control; going crazy; or excessive, constant worry surrounding the baby. The big factor in diagnosing these, are the symptoms that come along with them. Postpartum depression isn't just being sad; it's feeling anything but love toward your new baby, it can be a lack of bonding with baby, it can be numbness, it can be irritability, etc.

"Out of Student Loans and Treehouse Homes, We All Would Take the Latter"

So, I thought it would be fitting to talk about student loans; since I just learned that after paying on mine for two years, I still owe more than I borrowed. But first, I want to back up to my younger days because this is my blog and I like to talk about myself, apparently. :) I graduated high school at 17: barely. I was not a good student; which my husband likes to "jokingly" point out since he's the School Resource Officer and has access to all that information. Only later in life--when I was working on my Master's--did I learn that I have moderate ADHD (inattentive type) and that probably has a lot to do with my poor performance in school. My senior year, I was working at Del Taco somewhere in between part and full-time. It was probably way more hours than I should've been working which also was likely to have factored into that crap school record of mine. I started working full-time at a local Day Care the Monday after High School Graduation. I kept my

Happy Veteran's Day!

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What is Veteran’s Day? Aside from a Federal Holiday and an excuse to BBQ with family and friends, I mean.  Veteran’s day is a holiday observed on November 11 th every year. The day off from school and work is typically the Monday or Friday closest to that day. It is a day to honor those who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Other countries celebrate Armistice Day and/or Remembrance Day around the same time, marking the anniversary of the end of World War I. What a great thing to celebrate, right? For many of those of us who are veterans, about a week before Veteran’s Day is a time for us to share photos of us while in the military. My personal favorites I like to post are located below.  This is my favorite as a cover photo. It's my ribbon rack from my four years as active-duty in the Navy. I'm missing a few stars, but it's what I had at the time of this photo. Me and Nikki: one of those die-hard friends you find in the milita

Lithium Limerick

Good morning/afternoon/evening! I appreciate those of you who have stuck it out with me this far! :) So for this post, I'm going to share a poem that I wrote for a class when I was in graduate school. It's one of my favorites because it's informational and fun. It's called "Lithium Limerick". The class was psychopharmacology. We learned about the different medications that are prescribed for different mental health disorders. My favorite part of this class--and this is going to sound weird--was learning the brand names vs. off-brand names of different medications. What I found fun about it, was figuring out ways to match the two with something that would be easy to remember. For example, you have Lorazepam, which is the off-brand name of Ativan. Now, Ativan/Lorazepam is a benzodiazapine which is a drug typically used to treat anxiety. My connection here was that my friend Laura ([Lora]zepam) drives a van (Ati[van]). I think anyone would agree with me tha