October 24, 2010

For the Southern Pines Pilot

Mary Wynne Parker Perryman

Mary Wynne Parker Perryman, 58, of Southern Pines, died on Sunday, October 24, 2010, at her home after a courageous ten-year battle with ovarian cancer.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 27 at Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Southern Pines.

Mary Wynne was a graduate of Newport (Arkansas) High School and Hendrix College (Conway, Arkansas). In addition to her calling as a wife and a mother, Mary Wynne worked at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia; and Talbots and Terpsichore in Southern Pines, North Carolina. She was preceded in death by her mother, Beatrice Churchwell Parker; her father, Fred Mathis “Crackie” Parker; and her brother, David Mathis Parker.

She is survived by her husband of 36 years, Grady J. Perryman; son, David M. Perryman and his wife Victoria of Raleigh, North Carolina; daughter, Melissa K. Perryman of Statesville, North Carolina; sister, Katherine “Kaki” Kinard and her husband Jim of Lansing, Kansas; niece, Jennifer Wynne Johnson and her husband Matt of Overland Park, Kansas, and their two children Parker and Emma.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church; Opening New Doors Building Fund; 330 S. May Street; Southern Pines, North Carolina 28387. Online condolences may be made at www.bolesfuneralhome.com or http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mwperryman.

Goodbye Summer! Hello Real World!

First of all, I realized how slack I have been with this blog. I have SO MUCH to catch everyone up on. I will try to summarize my summer with few words and several pictures. I'm a visual person, so that's how I will present my life to you!

After graduation, I expected a sweet summer of bliss. Living at home with my parents, visiting friends in NC and DC occasionally, and just enjoying NOT being in graduate school. Luckily, I did all of those things, but it wasn't pure bliss. While visiting Zak in DC (and interviewing for several metro area jobs), he got in a motorcycle accident. He broke his left wrist and right tibia (at the knee). He had surgery on his knee and I spent 7 days in the hospital with him. It has been an interesting summer for that broken boy. Here are some pictures that he has allowed me to share with you...

Zak in the ER with his wrist and knee in temporary casts

The only real damage the motorcycle sustained from the accident

Caretaker and patient

When he got home from the hospital, I thought I was done with hospitals. Unfortunately, my mother was admitted. That was frustrating, but we all got through it. My mom had a good outlook on things and we are all proud of her!

I spent some free time out of hospitals to enjoy friends. Zak flew out to his parent's house in Utah to do his physical therapy, so that meant that I wouldn't see him the rest of the summer. Fortunately, Zak's mother is incredibly nice! She flew me out to Utah and took care of everything for my full 8 days in Ogden. It was such a nice vacation to see Zak and see Utah! I had never been there and really enjoyed meeting his family and friends. He flew back to DC last week and has been doing well (even walking most of the time without a cane now)!

Zak & I at the dinosaur park in Utah

The Vono's backyard!

Me feeding a tortoise in the Vono's backyard

Zak's mother made this amazing quilt for me! I did not deserve all her kindness!

In other big news, I moved and started my new job!!!!!!!!!!!!

I moved to Statesville, NC a week and a half ago into a one-bedroom apartment. I love my new place!! It is very spacious and I've enjoyed getting furniture (with the help of good, family friends) and decorating. I didn't know anyone when I moved to Statesville, but have met a few good people so far and think I can handle this slower lifestyle for a little while.

My living room/study area

My dining area is a bit bare so far, but still nice!

Bathroom

Bedroom

Kitchen

My mom, dad, and Aunt Kaki visit my new apartment!

I started my job...TODAY! I will be contracted into the Iredell-Statesville Schools. I will be working at an elementary school with children Kindergarten - 5th grade. Today was just organizing my new office/therapy room. Below is my new room after a full day moving boxes and putting things in their places.

My new job!

Me, Dad, & Mom in front of my new job! We are the Crawdads!

My new office/therapy room!

I am very excited about starting life in the real world and in a new place for a while. What an adventure!!!!


Also, on September 11, my brother (David), sister-in-law (Vickie), and I will be walking in the Gail Parkins Ovarian Cancer Walk. We have been raising money and appreciate those who have given time, money, thoughts, and prayers the last decade during my mother's fight. If you would like to give, please visit this website ( click here ) and click on SUPPORT OVARIAN-PORTANT CAUSE underneath my mother's photo. Thank you for your support (both monetary and emotional)!!

Commence: To have or make a beginning; to enter into

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -Charles Darwin

I will try to catch everyone up on my goings-on since Snowmageddon (which was my last blog post on here) as succinctly as possible.

Balancing classes, internship, and a social life proved difficult during my last semester at Gallaudet, but I think that I succeeded at all of them. I got out into DC and enjoyed more of the city and what it has to offer than any other semesters, thanks to my friends and the stubborn side of my brain that knew this may be my last few months living in DC. The following photos show some of the fun things I have done during the springtime:

My suitemate, Krystin, & myself out dancing in DC!

One of the highlights of springtime was my parents visit to DC at the start of my spring break. It was so much fun to show them around DC! We even got a White House tour!! It was really neat to be in there with the Obama administration because we had not been inside since the Clinton administration (I think). Unfortunately, I did not take many photos of us around DC because I was having too much fun!

Chapel Hill friends! Maggie, Mandy, Emily, & Myself

David, Vickie, & I went to see the Carolina Hurricanes v Washington Capitals in Raleigh, NC (hockey game!)

Zak & I at a DC United (soccer) game! We had fun despite the score!


Zak enjoyed the National Botanical Gardens (note: this photo is not of a real flower!)


The following photos were taken at a Washington Nationals v Atlanta Braves baseball game!
Zak, Teddy, Me, & George


Erin & myself (SLPs in the graduating class of 2010!)

Will, Erin, Me, & Zak at the Nationals game! We got fancy seats in the Diamond Club because we have a fantastic connection!

The semester went by without too many hitches. I did not make it home for Easter for the first time in my life, but I joined my DC family (my cousins, Mark & Marsha and their sons, Hunter & James) for church and a delicious Easter lunch! I made it through my internship at Building Blocks Therapy and found out that I really enjoy working for a private clinic and working with children (I guess I already knew that part though). My classes went by with MANY ups and downs. We had to alter our class schedules dramatically after snowpocalypse in February. It really threw everything off, but we persevered and survived!

When we finally hit Friday May 7, we were done with all classes, all assignments, and all internships. We had a fantastic cookout at Cheryl & Michael's house (Cheryl is in my program and is graduating in 3 years due to being pregnant and having her adorable baby last summer). It was SO nice to just relax and enjoy each others company without worrying about assignments. We could just enjoy the weather and the festivities! Here are a few photos from that night!

10 out of 11 of the SLPs in my year
(Jackie, Rachel, Erin, Cheryl, Heather, Carolyn, Meredith, Erica, Me, & Nada)

We even had a pinata! At this point, we had already knocked the head off! (That's me in the blindfold!)

Less than a week later, we all gathered with our families to celebrate finishing our Masters in Speech-Language Pathology. I was SO lucky and blessed to have many family members and friends join me in celebrating.

On Thursday, May 13, my fellow SLP ladies and myself threw a party and invited our families and 3 speakers to join us. The speakers were two woman who have been affected by tragic circumstances (one suffered from a Traumatic Brain Injury and the other from a Stroke). They spoke of their troubles and difficulties and how speech-language pathologists helped them to where they are now, able to make speeches in front of crowds! They were both really inspirational and it was difficulty to keep a dry eye!

The graduating girls (plus 1 and minus 1)
Anna, Carolyn, Meredith, Cheryl, Jackie, Erica, Nada, Heather, Erin, Rachel, & me

Afterward was the Hooding and Graduate Awards Ceremony was held, which is when I received my Masters hood. It was a strange experience to put on that hood for the first time! I smiled like a goofball the entire time!

My parents & I post-Hooding ceremony in front of the Gallaudet Bison statue

The whole group post-Hooding ceremony
My uncle Steve, Aunt Jackie, Aunt Kaki, me, Mom, Dad, Mema, David, & Vickie

Zak & I post-Hooding ceremony
(he does not get credit for the rose, Gallaudet gave it to me)

On Friday, May 14, the full Commencement Ceremony was held and took a long time. They called out every individual's name (both graduate student and undergraduate student) and we all walked across the stage to receive our diplomas from Gallaudet's President Hurwitz. It was a very exciting week and I still do not think that it has fully hit me.

Me with some of my SLP ladies waiting for the Commencement Ceremony to begin
(we took our gowns off because this building was so hot!)

The whole group post-Commencement ceremony!!!
Aunt Kaki, Aunt Jackie, Uncle Steve, Vickie, David, me, Mom, Dad, & Mema

Dinner party at Mark & Marsha's house! This cake was so cute and delicious!
Mom, Dad, me, David, & Vickie

The entire group at Mark & Marsha's house!
Uncle Steve, Marsha, David, Aunt Kaki, Mark, Dad, Lisa, Kevin
Mema, Me, Mom, Vickie, & Aunt Jackie

I have moved back home to NC with my parents for the time being. I continue in my job search and want to work somewhere on the east coast within a days drive of my parents. I have applied many places and have several interviews. Thank you to everyone who has helped me in this search. It is not easy!

The week after graduation my parents and I enjoyed a WONDERFULLY RELAXING week at Holden Beach. We sat around, watched TV, enjoyed the sand and waves, and I read a lot of Harry Potter! It was SO nice to have a wonderful week of no-worries!



I cannot have completed consecutive 19 years of schooling without support. I want to thank all of you for helping me become who I am today! I cannot believe that I am done but...I AM DONE!

I will continue this blog if anyone seems interested. I do not know where the next step will take me...but it will be an adventure!

Hooding & Commencement

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of blog updates this semester. It has been a whirlwind of activity here in DC! I promise to post about everything soon!

Secondly, I will be graduating this Thursday and Friday! I cannot believe my time here at Gallaudet University is coming to a close!!

If you have the time and would like to check out the Hooding Ceremony and/or Commencement Ceremony, you can watch them both live online!

Click on the link below and click WATCH IT LIVE!

http://commencement.gallaudet.edu/

Thank you to all those who have helped me get to where I am now!

Snowpocalypse/Snowmageddon/Blizzard 2010

above: our unofficial cardboard/duct tape yardstick measuring 23" of snow

Happy Snow Day! I just figured I should update my blog since many of you are asking about the BLIZZARD of 2010! DC has been outrageous over the past week. Last Thursday was a normal day up until I went to the grocery store at 10:30pm to grab a few things to eat and drink over the weekend (the cafeteria food gets really old really quickly). I went there with 3 friends and we had never seen such a sight! The entire grocery store was PACKED! So many people stocking up on every kind of food and drink item. I figured this is what grocery stores would look like in 2012 when the apocalypse strikes. There was barely anything left on the shelves and people were waiting in lines that stretched from the front check out counters to the back of the store! It was insanity! I had to wait an hour just to buy like 3 items. Ridiculous!

Gallaudet closed on Friday at noon, which meant I had to run several errands before the whole place shut down for the impending storm. DC declared a snow emergency and shut down many streets for plowing and such. The snow began about 11am on Friday and did not stop until Saturday evening. It really was a blizzard with the winds whipping and the snow being so difficult to see through (I think visibility was about 1/4 mile most of the time).

As many of you know, I'm a southern girl. Born in Florida, raised in Alabama and North Carolina. Snow to me is 1 inch of white stuff covering the pine straw outside. The most I had ever seen prior to this weekend was 20 inches back in the late 90s in NC (I think that was the same storm that my brother cracked his eyebrow wide open in). This DC storm trumped that one. There are several measurements from around DC, but I believe we got about 26 inches or so here.

I was glad I live in a dormitory because I had several of my friends here with me to hang out with and play Wii with on Friday and Saturday despite the snow storm outside. I also got to watch the Super Bowl with my suitemate, Krystin, and some other friends without having to travel outside.

School (and internship) have been canceled for me today so I am enjoying the day by catching up on schoolwork (and I watched Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets this morning! I hadn't seen the movie since I read the book over Winter Break). They are calling for another snow storm to hit DC tomorrow (Tuesday) which should bring another 5 inches to the area. I'm not sure when I'll have class or internship again...but I'm not worried about it yet! Haha!!

Just wanted everyone to know that I'm safe and sound. Every time I speak to my mom she sounds so worried about me in the snow. I promise I'm not driving in this!

Here are some pictures that I have taken out my window of each day (Friday-Monday) to show the progression of snow, plus a few at the bottom of me and my suitemates, Nicole & Heidi, playing in the snow on Saturday! The snow came up above our knees which made it difficult to walk and hilarious to try and run in!

above: Friday (Feb 5) late afternoon

above: Saturday (Feb 6) around 12pm

above: My friend, Greg, & I walking to the cafeteria for lunch on Saturday (Feb 6) around 12pm

above: Me, atop a giant mound of snow on Sat Feb 6 around 12pm

Me and my suitemates, Heidi & Nicole, made our way to the playground on campus on Sat Feb 6 around 4pm

above: me lying in the snow on Sat Feb 6

above: Sun Feb 7 around 12pm

above: Mon Feb 8 around 2pm (the snowman in the middle of the picture was made by my suitemates, Heidi & Nicole!)

Happy New Year 2010!

Hello from the nation's capital! We have over half a foot of snow on the ground here! Yesterday it snowed from before dawn through about 7pm. It is a beautiful blanket of powdery snow!



As I have not written on here since before Halloween, I will try to make this short and sweet.

I visited a college friend, Mandy, at the University of Virginia the week before Halloween. It was so much fun to see her (she is also getting her Masters in Speech-Language Pathology) and to see her campus. We enjoyed the nightlife of Charlottesville, Virginia and went to a wine tasting at King Family Vineyards. It was a very relaxing weekend and so nice to spend it with a good friend.

Jessica, Me, & Mandy in Charlottesville, NC

Wine tasting near UVA

Halloween was fun. As you can see in the last post, I carved pumpkins and enjoyed hot mulled cider at my friend Erin's apartment.

A lot of shenanigans occurred as we got further into the semester. I think we all go a little loopy when we are so focused on our schoolwork! The following pictures are examples of that!

Ben, Me, Kat, Wyatte, & Greg at dinner out in DC

Krystin (my suitemate), Me, & Michael (a visiting friend from college)

Michael (friend from college) seems excited about the Capitol (he's a law student)

My Thanksgiving celebrations began a week before the actual holiday. Similar to last year, my classmates (plus dates, boyfriends, fiances, and husbands) and I made food and had a Thanksgiving feast! It was so nice to enjoy food that wasn't cooked in the cafeteria on campus! Homemade food is just SO much better!

SLP 2010 girls (9 of 12 of us) at our Thanksgiving Party

I traveled home to North Carolina the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. I got into Southern Pines around 11pm and got some giant hugs from my parents. We woke up the next morning and headed to Charlotte to stay with Vickie's family. We had 9 people (and 2 dogs) in their house. The food was absolutely fantastic! Vickie's mother, Elham, is one of the best cooks in the world! I ate so much food there I could have stopped eating until Christmas and been fine!

The Perrymans and The Flahertys on Thanksgiving in Charlotte, NC

The Perrymans at the Pinehurst Resort over Thanksgiving

Exams went alright. They are always really stressful but I somehow make it through them every time. I think a lot of the stress is relieved when I spend time with friends just trying to decompress and relax and enjoy each others company.

Krystin & I at H Street Country Club

It was so nice when I finished and knew I was heading home. I drove from DC to Greensboro, NC to visit my friend, Michael (the same guy in the photos above). He showed me around to all the Christmas decoration hot spots (there is an entire neighborhood that all decorates with these giant balls of Christmas lights hung in their trees. It is soo cool!). I had to leave Greensboro early though, because a big snow storm was heading our way. I got home just before the sleet hit Southern Pines, but it started snowing in Greensboro less than an hour after I left. Washington, DC got hit HARD by this snow storm. I felt so fortunate that I left the day before because I would have been stuck for days!

Christmas break was soooooo nice. I feel so blessed to have a wonderful home and family to come back to every break. I visited friends in Chapel Hill a few times, spent time in Raleigh with David and Vickie, and spent a lot of time at home with my parents. (If anyone needs another TV show to watch, check out Glee on Wednesday nights! You won't regret it! My mom and I are addicted to it now!)

Dad & I at CCNC for the Christmas Party (the Waller Family Band behind us!)

Fu enjoying one of his Christmas presents

Our church, BMPC, raised its steeple in January! Construction on our new building is coming right along!

High school friends, Kevin and Mike, accompanied me to see Avatar in 3D

During Christmas break my mother also got her most recent CA-125 number (the cancer marker for ovarian cancer). Her number is 15 (below 35 is normal)!!! We are so excited and blessed to have wonderful doctors and supportive family and friends!! You can check out more information on her CaringBridge site by clicking here.

I drove back to DC on Jan. 18 (Martin Luther King Jr Day) and started classes the next day. I am taking 5 classes (Cued Speech, Voice Disorders, Stuttering, Phonology/Articulation, and Research Methods) plus internship. My internship this semester is at a private practice called Building Blocks Therapy. They have two offices, one in DC and one in VA. I will be working with children with various diagnoses from age 1-10. My supervisor is really nice and I have enjoyed being there so far.

I cannot believe that I only have 102 days until graduation. I will have my Master's in Speech-Language Pathology so soon! It seems surreal. I hope I can just pass these classes, get through internship, and find a good job.

The big questions people are asking me are:
Do you have a job yet?
Where do you want to work?
Do you want to live in NC?

The answers to these are:
No, I don't have a job yet.
I'm unsure of where I want to work but I'm really open-minded. I want to work with Deaf and hard-of-hearing children though.
I wouldn't mind living in NC, but I'm looking all along the east coast. I would like to stay within a day's drive of my family.

I will finish this post with a few pictures from this month in DC so far. I hope things are well for you and your family!

Me, Nicole, Krystin, & Heidi (all my suitemates) at dinner before classes began!

My best friend from high school, Julie, just moved to DC too! She is at GW for graduate school (Public Health School)! I love having her here with me!