Arizona School of Health Sciences for a local education

Having grown up in the Phoenix area, and still being able to say that most of my family and close friends are here, I was happy to look into further educational offerings that might allow me to stay local. Given that I've been working in various administrative capacities within the healthcare industry, I decided to look at opportunities in that field.

The Arizona School of Health Sciences was recommended to me by a recent alumnus of the program. When she first told me about the online learning opportunities, I'll admit to feeling a bit uneasy about it. The reality is that AT Still University, which operates ASHS, began developing and educating compassionate, allied healthcare professionals in 1995.

That is over 10 years that the ATSU School of Health Management has been advancing whole person care as well as integrating health professions education with the latest in cutting edge online technologies.

If I am going to take the time to get further education I definitely want to get it from the best learning institution possible. To have a school that is dedicated to educating and preparing me to practice at the forefront of our healthcare system is what makes me likely to attend ATSU.

Oh, and the fact that they are local and have a ton of online offerings makes me want to attend them that much more.

Favorite Open-Ended Toys

I was a pretty imaginative kid when I was young, and so I've grown up to really value creativity. Also I have a background in preschool and early education, so I'm especially supportive of things like open-ended toys — toys that encourage creative play.

Here are a few examples of my favorite open-ended toys:

* Wooden toys, like those wooden blocks of various shapes and sizes that as a kid I used to build everything from doll houses to rat mazes.
* Legos, but not those sets that give you special pieces and instructions on how to put it all together. I mean the old-fashioned sets of legos, where you could make anything you wanted with it.
* Tool sets that allow kids to put together their own little creations. Obviously you have to have a pretty mature kid that you can trust with this kind of thing, but I think the learning experience is well worth a little work to get them there!
* Dolls that don't do anything except for wear clothes — no themes, no voice boxes, etc. Kids can find tons of games to play with a doll that doesn't just hand them a script (meaning, doesn't tell them what to play).
* Plain ol' kids outdoor toys are also fantastic. Give your kids everything from balls to sand toys to bikes and helmets, and kids can keep themselves entertained outside until the sun goes down!

You probably are getting an idea of what open-ended toys are — basically, anything that lets the kids call the shots. With that in mind, here are a few examples of toys that are not, in any way shape or form, open-ended:

* Toys that talk to them when they press a button. Usually that's all these toys are good for, and once that gets boring, they lose interest in them anyway.
* Toys that do something (i.e., make a movement) when they press a button. Ditto above.
* Character toys such as Spiderman, Transformers, etc. There is some open-ended play here, but usually it just gets scripted by the TV shows and movies they have seen. Toys that aren't characters (or at least not TV characters) are much better.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Looking Cute When You're Pregnant

The cutest pregnant women always seem to wear great maternity clothing. I don't think it's coincidence. I think the cute maternity clothes some women find have everything to do with why they are perceived as "cute" when they are pregnant.

For instance, one of my co-workers, back when I worked in preschool, always had the cutest clothes when she was pregnant. I remember this one maternity top she wore in particular — it was slightly feminine but not too frilly or anything, and very much in the current style.

A friend of mine also demonstrated how you can wear your normal clothes as maternity clothing without looking grotesque or frumpy. When she was four or five months pregnant — so with a baby bump, but not too big yet — she wore one of those pretty tops that have an empire waist line and are all flowy and drapey underneath. Because it was so loose and feminine, she was able to pull it off without looking like she was trying to squeeze her way into her old clothes.

On the other hand, wearing something that doesn't fit, or that is ill-fitting, tends to make pregnant women look odd or even like they have poor personal hygiene. That's why taking good care with your appearance while you are pregnant is so important!

Odd Places Leave an Impression on Travelers

I have traveled all throughout the United States. I have visited little towns and huge cities. I have stayed in the cheapest motels and some of the nicest luxury hotels there are. What I've discovered from my travels is it's the places that you don't think about much that end up leaving an impression on you.

For example, the state that I most want to visit again is North Carolina. I hadn't even planned on spending much time there. I was driving through on my way to somewhere that sounded more exciting. But I fell in love with the state. I loved the hippies in Asheville and the cool barbershop in Fayetteville and the way people were fishing in the ocean.

Sometimes it's not just a place that sticks with you but a feature of that place. That's how I feel about hotels in Atlanta. I went there after a long stay in San Diego. I roomed in a lot of really cool San Diego CA hotels. But the Atlanta hotels were so much more interesting. They were designed with neat Southern architecture and they offer service with Southern charm attached.

What I've learned about travel is that you can't plan for what will impress you. You can plan the details of the trip. You can plan the places that you want to see. But you just never know what's going to stick in your mind after you leave.

The World's Oldest National Parks

National parks are important. They offer sanctuaries where people can retreat into nature even though buildings are going up all around them. You would think that this is something that we only recently started worrying about. However, it's been a concern for a long time. In fact, some of the oldest national parks in the world were established in the nineteenth century, long before a lot of people started worrying about the problems of urbanization.

The oldest established National Park is Yellowstone National Park located here in the United States. It was established back in 1872 right after the National Park Service was created. This was when people started to worry about the importance of protecting the nature that was starting to be destroyed by urban development.

Canada soon followed suit with its first National Park. Banff National Park was established in 1885. It was established because of a controversy over the land here. Hot Springs were discovered in the area and some people wanted to commercialize them whereas others wanted to keep them free for the public. Keeping beautiful land available for all people at low cost or no cost is a key reason that we have national parks.