May needs to hurry up!

Thanksgiving

As I left work today, I thought back over the past few days and realized how many stories I had heard about broken hearts, broken families, and broken spirits. Numerous people in my life - close friends to acquaintances, Christian and non-Christian - have shared their brokenness with me this week. Husbands leaving wives, wives leaving husbands, family members in intensive care, car problems, dysfunctional families - I have heard a lot this week. And that breaks my heart! Those people have really been on my heart today. It also lets me know that I am extremely blessed. When I see all the hurt and dysfunction in the world, even in faithful Christians' lives, I can't help but feel completely and totally loved by the Lord. I have a faithful and loving husband, who would lay his life down for me if need be. With him, I know we can face each and every day, each challenge, and come out ahead. He challenges me to be a better woman, a better wife, a better employee, a better Christian each and every day. I have a supportive and loving family. Each one loves, cares for, and supports the others. I have a great job, that I look forward to going to every day. My coworkers are encouraging and uplifting to one another. I have a reliable car, a clean place to live, food in the cabinet, and a soft bed to sleep in. I really have a lot going for me, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it's the Lord providing for me.

This year, I am thankful simply for the Lord and His love in my life.

It has been a while since I have updated! We've just been so busy! Tyler is trying to finish up this semester at school, and I've just been working hard! We've had so much going on. We got a Yorkie in October - her name is Daisy and she's been a lot of fun for us! Here are some pics of her:
She likes to help drive.
Here's Daisy with my mom's dog, Boo... they still aren't too sure of each other.
Me with my puppy the first day we had her.

I've been doing a lot of stuff with the people from work. The girls all went to the Race for the Cure in Little Rock on October 11. We had a lot of fun! Then, this past Thursday we had our Thanksgiving dinner at work. Here are some pics from that:
DeiDre and Karee, two of our aides, with Chrissy, a PT
Nap time after lunch... we're laying on hot packs and using the IFC units, which kind of tingle and vibrate... That's me with Rhonda, Chelsea, Brittney, Lauren and Rachel who are all our wonderful aides.
Me & Lauren, a PT
Lauren, me, & Chrissy (both PTs)

I really love my job! We have a blast at work, and I'm excited about our Christmas party coming up soon! We also do Secret Santa, which is going to be a lot of fun, too!

This weekend Tyler and I went to El Dorado to see our friends Austin & Linley, and their 4-month old baby girl Kinlee. She has grown so much since we'd seen her last. We are going on a cruise in May with the two of them and we were working out little details of our trip. It's going to be so much fun! We're heading to the Bahamas and Key West at the end of May. We can't wait!
Us with Austin & Linley on their wedding day in September 2006 - Tyler was the best man.
Here we are with them at our rehearsal dinner this time last year. Linley had just found out she was having Kinlee a few weeks before.

We can't believe we've almost been married a year! We are taking a little getaway the week before our anniversary, back to Hot Springs and the place we spent our wedding night. We are excited about going back to Garvan Gardens and hanging out in Hot Springs.

Thanksgiving is this week and we are planning on going to Fordyce for lunch to see Tyler's extended family, and coming back to Conway for dinner with my family. I have to work the day after, which isn't much fun, but I'm going with some of the girls from work to the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker in Little Rock that night, so that helps a little bit!

I can't believe the next week will start December! Time sure passes quickly when you're loving your life! :)

Some thoughts.

I was reading back through a book called Becoming a Vessel God Can Use by Donna Partow, and this passage just seemed to sum up what the Lord has been slowly teaching me lately, and what we talked about last night at our small group.

"It is not a sin to use human means to solve our problems. It is a sin to trust them more than we trust God, to think that they are better than God's ways, or to leave God completely out of the picture. Why are we so foolish to look to ourselves and our own resources, when God delights in putting His resources to work on our behalf? When we place our confidence in God and God along, He promises to strengthen us and do battle on our behalf (Exodus 14:14). That's the best battle plan of all. "

Resting, Relaxing, & Refueling

We had a busy week - Tyler had a bunch of homework and projects, I went to my mom's small group, some out of town friends stopped in for a visit, and the Office premiere (which was great!)! Thankfully, this weekend we got to slow down and just enjoy hanging out together for a while! Here we are going shopping at Target and getting Starbucks on Friday night:
Saturday we spent the day at the park, just hanging out together and cooking lunch on the grill. I guess we were pretending that we were tailgating...

It was a beautiful day!


Too bad that the Hogs lost; otherwise it would have been an absolutely perfect day!

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

Here are some random happenings going on in the McDonalds' lives lately:


Mills turned 10 on Sept 6. I can't believe he's really that old. The baby of the family's not a baby any more!
The same weekend (the weekend after Labor Day) my sweet friend Kate was in town and I got to have lunch with her at Michealangelo's in downtown Conway! I miss that girl a lot.
Here's me braving the storm the day that Hurricane Ike hit Conway... I look a little too happy for the tornado sirens to be going off.... but we figured that a hurricane hitting central Arkansas just doesn't happen very often and we should get a picture.
Me & Tyler going to church Saturday night. I love my husband!

Slow week in the news

It's been a while since I updated... that's because not much is happening. Work, work, work, 5 days a week! And for Tyler, school, school, and more school! We kicked off small groups at New Life this past weekend. Tyler and I are leading a group for newlyweds called Newlyweds' Night Out. We're hoping to go camping some this fall too. Other than that... we are just counting down the days until the Office premieres - which is 11 days from now!

So here's a few Office quotes for you.

Dwight Schrute:
I signed up for Second Life about a year ago. Back then, my life was so great that I literally wanted a second one. In my second life I was also a paper salesman and I was also named Dwight. Absolutely everything was the same. Except I could fly.


Jim Halpert:
It's a bold move to photoshop yourself into a picture with your girlfriend and her kids on a ski trip with their real father. But then again, Michael is a bold guy. Is bold the right word?

Michael Scott:
I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon- sue me- and since I don''t have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It''s good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot. That''s it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that.

Michael Scott:
I guess I didn't know her very well... I marked her arm.
Jim Halpert:
You what?
Michael Scott:
I put a mark on her arm... so I could tell them apart. [laughing] I don-- I know. I know. [pause] I can't believe I gave her my bike.

And can Jim and Pam PLEASE get engaged this season?

Life Lately

I feel like it's been forever since I had the time to sit down and upload pictures or even check my email. Thanks to the long weekend, I have a little time right now! Let's see... last Monday was my birthday - I turned 23. I can't believe I'm really that old, I think I'll always be 17 in my mind. Here's a picture of me with the cake my mom made for me - it was good!

I worked the whole week, long hours, but I'm still greatly enjoying my job. Then, Friday night we went up to Fayetteville to see our friends Nick and Brandi. Brandi graduated with me from OT school and they moved to Fayetteville so Nick could go back to school at U of A. Here's the guys playing Wii.



We all went to the Razorback football season opening game on Saturday night. It was mine and Tyler's first Hogs game ever.
Me & Brandi getting ready to go to the game:

View of the field from where we were sitting - we had great seats!
Nick and Brandi were over in the student section somewhere:
After the game, we went to Braums and got ice cream - a treat for us since we don't have them in Central Arkansas!


Thankfully, Tyler and I both have tomorrow off to celebrate Labor Day and just enjoy a day off. I love short work weeks! :) I'm spending the day cleaning the apartment and Tyler has to work a 3-11 shift tonight. Otherwise, we're just hanging out!

You don't look like the decaf type...

That's what our waitress said to us tonight when we ordered decaf coffee after dinner.

Tyler suprised me and took me out tonight for my birthday to Murry's Dinner Playhouse, which is also where we went on our first date. Guys and Dolls was playing and we are big musical (and Frank Sinatra) fans. It was great. It was fun reliving some old memories! Here we are at Murry's:
I also got my temporary license today, which is great news! I'm completely a full-fledged occupational therapist now. Finally!!!

Kami McDonald, MS, OTR/L

Yes, that's me! Although actually I suppose I do not have the "L" at the end of my name quite yet, but I'm told the Arkansas State Medical Board is working on my license...

So today was my first day of work! I am exhausted but it was a good day. I was welcomed with hugs from several employees (seems they've been very short staffed!) and though I have only technically worked there for one day, I was hired in June and so some of the front office ladies feel like family already! I love the environment I'm going to be working in. It's very fast-paced, which appeals to me, and lots of things are color coded, which makes me very happy. People are very organized and clean up after themselves, which also makes me happy. This clinic has a lot of aides, so that's awesome, cause it means we can see more patients more productively. There are a lot of dry-erase calendars there, which thrills my heart. I also like the thera-bands attached to the wall permanently in color order so they don't get lost or lay on the floor. The paperwork is also very straightforward and a lot easier than anything I ever did on clinicals. By the end of the day, I was hopping into treatment like I'd been there forever...

I have my own little spot in the office, 2 cabinets to fill up with books, a mail box where my CHECK goes, and a little space of community desk to put my pictures and desk accessories on.

I also got the sweet action goodie basket that you see pictured above. It had a blanket and water bottle with the clinic's logo on them, a picture frame, a Yankee candle, Sonic and Subway gift cards, Oreos and Nutter Butters, gum, and a nice card welcoming me. Guess all the hard work the past 5 years paid off - I love Nutter Butters. And blankets. And Sonic.

Anyway, it was just an all-around good first day for me. :) Yay, OT.

Last of the beach pictures... :(

My brother took lots of pics of me and Tyler, here are my favorites.

The beach our very last day there...
Me & Nan enjoying our last minutes of paradise...
My daddy with all his kids
Nan and Bop with all their grandkids
Me & Tyler again

I am very sad that we had to leave the beach, cause it was a little slice of heaven on earth! It was a great trip, but now we've got a lot of other things on our plate!

I found out yesterday that I passed my boards! Praise the Lord, He got me through it! I won't know my exact score for 4-6 more weeks, but as long as I passed, I am a happy girl! I still haven't gotten my temporary license, but hopefully that will come through next week. I start work at River Valley on Monday for orientation and just getting my feet wet at the clinic. Tyler starts back to school on Wednesday for orientation and Thursday for class. This is his final year, at last! He'll be done in May of 2009. I know this year is going to fly right on by!

We are celebrating our 8 month-a-versary today, which we can't even believe! In some ways it seems like we have been married for years and years, and in others it seems like our wedding was just yesterday. We are definitely right around the corner from our one year anniversary, it will be here before we know it! Crazy!

We're off to run errands to get everything done before Monday!

More from the beach