Go go go

Yesterday was a go go go day. In other words, we, I, never stopped moving. I learned yesterday when I was in therapy that my hips are weak and time to crank up my work out so it's in high gear!

I just finished with a web chat. Check it out when you get a chance:

http://wolfmeansbusiness.com/upcoming_events.php

Nicole

What a week: My Business

Man oh Man, what a week.
 Monday was a day of girl Scot fun. After Monday, the week was underway! Tuesday I felt I had a revelation, an epiphany, hit the jackpot, and grew 12 inches tall all at one time. I had a session that I won with Eli Davidson that was fantastic. " Eli encourages pepole to take that first step to overcome their own obstacles. As a successful life coach she has coached Oscar Nominees, Golden Globe winners and many of the Hollywood's inner circle as well as clients throughout the United States, Canada and Great Britian. Eli has also coached numerous leaders in the technology, real estate, entertainment and healthcare industries"  Ladies and Gentleman, I am in the business of HOPE. I help patients with catastrophic injuries and medical providers find solutions for recovery faster.
This was a good week for therapy. My Occupational and Physical therapy so far is coming along nicely. No major breakthroughs this week, though in due time.......who knows?
I was able to get back in the gym with my personal trainer-my man, Mr.E.
It was a good thing we worked out this week because I was asked to have my back tattooed for an exhibit.
The week came to an end with a Christmas couch band shin dig along with a trip to see the "Snow Queen". A very lovely ballet.                                          

Eli Davidson

 I saw this rainbow the day after I worked with Eli :)

Working out with Mr.E

''work it out, work it out''

Time for music

''rock'in around the Christmas Tree.....''

One Blue Wall: My back will be on display at this gallery 

Happy Christmas shopping this week :)

Nicole 

good good

I'm beginning to see a pattern with this blog. Very interesting. A few days I'm updating back to back, but come Wednesday/Thursday there are no posts until after the weekend. Again, interesting. Well, last Thursday I spoke, and once Friday hit, I was in a car on my way to New Orleans. I really love it there. This was a visit/ buisness trip. The visit part was hanging out with my friend, and the business part was being on stand by to be an extra in a t.v show.

Friday was spent catching up, though Saturday held the real adventure. As my buddy was getting off work Saturday night, she offered two of her co-workers a ride home. One lives in town and the other takes a ferry across the river to another part of the city. People are on and off the ferry so much, it's built and big enough to drive your car on the drive off once across. Well, it was exactly what we did. We drove onto the ferry excited about the five minute ride. It really was pretty cool. The wind was blowing, the weather was cold, yet we remained cozy in the car jamming out to Pandora radio.

When the ferry docked, we went to the closest, coolest watering hole still excited about our ferry car ride experience. 

Good thing we took that left after we got off

Enjoying first Ferry Car Experience

This is my relieved we made it face

With in about 5 minutes we noticed someones dog eager to play pool

Then this dog decided to be best buds with  us

Funny faces make the world go round

Though we could have taken pictures all night long, it was a quick turn around to take the ferry back. I can now check this off of my bucket list (there really is no list, but if there were, this would probably on it). 

Fast forward to today. After making it back, I was scheduled to talk to a bunch of Girl Scots this afternoon. They are in the process of earning their "Athletic" badges. One of my physical therapist has a daughter in this troop whom I adore and couldn't pass up the opportunity to speak and also play some wii dance with girls. Probably one of my favorite pass time activities.   

Rachel my PT introducing me

Chatting with the Girl Scots

Then the wii dance workout began

Look at them go!

Get it girls!

Time to go, now pose for the camera

As you can see, it was quite an afternoon. About to hit the hay, big day tomorrow. I'll give you all details tomorrow. Until then.....

Nicole

Dinner, JUMPING, Christmas speaking fun

Quick little tid bit. Tuesday night, I attended the annual Presidents dinner at the country club with my dad. Good company and AMAZING food.

So....let's begin. Did the title of this post have the word  "jumping" in it? It sure does. Yesterday, I was back in therapy. Time to pump some iron. On a side note, I met with my personal trainer, ECLISIUS FRANKLIN, and my schedule has days marked to be in the gym. Yeah! Back to therapy. I worked with Ashlee first. Our time together, was working, and learning the fine art of buttoning buttons and also unbuttoning them. Let me just say this, it's not the easiest thing to do when I have to go to the bathroom. But, that was the exercise, and boy was it. I survived. Ashlee is a great therapist, she push's me in a positive way.

Now that my buttoning skills were pretty good, it was on to Physical Therapy with Teresa. Ok kids, with the exception of answering some phone calls in between ( which is actually a big no no) She and I kicked my butt! She had me jumping, I mean JUMPING, on a trampoline. It may sound as if it's not a big deal, but when you fall off a building and you're rebuilding your muscles..... it's a BIG deal. Haylea and her friend Jess were observing along with being mini cheerleaders.

This is the gym I do my physical therapy

Get ready......

JUMP!

JUMP JUMP!!!

Jumping, lots of fun, but boy does it work you out. I know now that with a little help, I am one mean, lean, jumping machine. After therapy, it was a mad dash to the house to get ready for the Jackie's International annual Christmas Party where I was speaking that night. 

What a set up, the place where the party was held looked like a winter wonderland. Everything, tables, chairs were decked out in red, white snow, ornaments, etc. The room felt like Christmas.

This picture really doesn't do the set up much justice, but I'm sure you get the idea. While I was giving a speech, my brother was in L.A taking pictures with interesting celebrities.

If you don't know who this is, don't worry, you're not missing out on much. Right now, I'm about to grab a bite to eat, then heading to a play my friends wrote. It's called " Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And then some). I plan on laughing alot. I'll make sure to give you the 411 later. 

Nicole

BIONESS Time Baby!

Now that we're all up to speed, another exciting week is underway. I still can't believe already it's December. Crazy huh? Christmas and New Years are actually right around the corner. Time flies when you're having fun.

I'm looking forward to the New Year. Celebration is underway! With that said, Monday was definitely a day of celebration. I mentioned it before in one of my previous posts, but awhile back I received this amazing device called the BIONESS. When I fell, I severed my spinal cord in a spot that effected my hands. They don't work as well as they used to. However, this machine, the BIONESS, is a device that fits around your forearm and hand that shocks/pulsates the muscle and nerves sending messages to your brain reminding it how and what your hands are suppose to do. I was lucky and was awarded two units. This summer, both units went on the fritz and I've been waiting/praying  for the company to decide if they were going to repair them or send new ones. Some how my prayers were answered ( and because my mother helped getting the point across), and last Friday two brand new units were delivered to my house :)

So come Monday, it was back in the saddle again. Walking into therapy was a joy. Two new BIONESS under my arm ready to work.

Ashlee preparing new units

Fitting the device to my arm

The exercises are underway

After we were done with the set up, I could feel the work the BIONESS hand helped with. My forearms were definitely sore. Water therapy was next, though I didn't get very far because some how the indoor pool had, just over the weekend, turned into a hot tub. The pool is heated, but shot up to 102* over the weekend. Sadly pool therapy was canceled that day, but was substituted with a hefty workout in the gym. Not all was lost. 

Right now, I'm sitting around and waiting. My dad invited me to the company Christmas dinner. Now it's just waiting for him to finish work and head towards good food and good people :)

Nicole  

Firemen, speech, yoga meets dance, old friends, and family bliss

The last couple of days have been full of excitement. Though my lack of writing has been brief, hopefully this recap will tickle the fancy.  As I said, I have a crazy life. To some, this is only the minor leagues, but regardless I love it.

Wednesday came and went and therapy as you read, was fantastic. Being able to work with the same therapists again is great. They know me, they're familiar with what my muscles are capable of, and most importantly push me to keep working. After I finished therapy that afternoon and eventually made my way back home, I brushed up on my speech I was giving the next morning. Afterwards, my head hit the pillow and sleep and I became best friends once again.

Thursday seemed to come to soon. Yet ironically, some stiffness, a little soreness, and other than that, this gal was feel'in pretty good. Once ready, it was off to speak at the Mississippi Society for Social Work Leadership in Healthcare 2011 Annual Conference. Back in October I had been asked to speak and was super stoked the date had finally arrived. Before any speech there are always a few butterflies in my stomach. Then once the butterflies calm down, all is good, and I begin my speech. I've been told and also say, that everyone is their own worse critic. We're sometimes harder on ourselves. The speech went well. Of course I have my critics to work on and fix, but for the most part, I feel it went well.

Everyone was really receptive and kind. Though, my time wasn't over yet. I'd be heading back to the end of the conference Friday afternoon for a Yoga Meets Dance session to begin the weekend. That night I occupied my friends to the unveiling of the 2012 Mississippi Firemen's catalog they were commissioned to do for the MS burn foundation.
Talamieka and Charles Brice are both the creators of Brice Media, they shot and did the layout on the opening page of this website. Here's a sample of some the shots they took for this calender:

Pretty good right? Needless to say, I was looking forward to the event. It was literally down to the wire to get  all the calenders printed, which by the way happened in the nick of time. Then it was off to the event, which we made right on time. The event, and the calenders looked great. Firefighters from different parts of the state were featured. Luckily, a few of the firefighters featured in the calender were there to sign autographs. Quite the scene.

The inside of the event looked beautiful:

These are some of the firefighters in the calender

Of course my buddy, the beautiful talented,Talameika Brice of Brice Media

Look at her in action

And of course the other founder and my big brother buddy of Brice Media, Charles 

Goofy

Those two are great. The evening was great was. Good Music, great cause, I saw a few folks I knew. Brice Media shined that night. Everyone really loved the calenders. So, we left happy and content. 

Friday it was back for round two at the conference. I was ending the conference with a Yoga Meets Dance class. I had my doubts if it was going to be a good class because right as we started a fire drill went off for about what seemed like an eternity. But luckily, as the music played and the class went on, we ended on a great note for the conference and the weekend. 

That night, I was invited to attend a birthday. An old friend of mine was in town visiting her family  and celebrating her birthday. Reuniting with an old friend is always fun. We caught up, ate cake, and I was able to meet her kids who filled the celebration air with sounds of giggles. 

Party! This is another close friend, Jordan, just enjoying fun 

A hefty size of ice cream cake and friends was the close of a good week. I'm not sure if I've ever shown a picture of my brother on here, but as I was getting home he was heading out for the night. We shagged a picture together before he head out into the night's festivities. Here's my little bro. The kid drives me crazy some nights, but I love him :)

The moon went down and the sun came up and low and behold, it's Saturday! It was a pleasant Saturday also. I went and visited my friend Donovan, who in September learned and was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. The doctors found a tumor which spread to his liver. Luckily a few days later, doctors removed the tumor which had practically blocked his digestion. He's been at home recovering actually quite well and will begin chemotherapy just as soon as possible. In the meantime he's become a movie buff with all the time he has. So, I spent the day hanging out and watching movies. He's growing his hair out along with a beard and  also introduced me to the newest member oh his family, Chango (if I spelled it wrong, I'm sorry).

Sweet Right?

Adorable

And just when you thought it couldn't get any cuter. Look at this little puppy dog curled up asleep

Awwwwwwwww

We watched movies, chit chatted and geeked out. It was nice, his girlfriend joined in fun movie time after she got off, and all was well. The weekend came to a beautiful close. I headed to the country to visit a friend. The weather was perfect for lodging. She has a screened in front porch. At one point we were both sitting on the porch. She was reading a book and I listening to the tunes on my ipod enjoying nature. And we both had the same thought " I know were not talking, but I am so happy". Just sitting enjoying nature is a nice pass time. 

So there you have it. A little crazy yet, completely fulfilled. Let's see what this week has in store.

Nicole