VCU OT students were here on a visit

VCU occupational therapy students were writing an article for their class on brain injury and how it affects us. They came to the millhouse to observe and see how the millhouse works. After they write this article, they plan to have it published in a professional occupational therapy journal. They were very polite and asked very interesting questions. We wish them much luck in the future!

Richmond Flying Squirrels Fundraiser

RICHMOND FLYING SQUIRRELS presents Holiday Gift Ideas by the Community Futures Foundation(CFF). On Thursday, December 16th, give the gift of giving this holiday season as you purchase your loved one's gifts. The store hours are from 9am to 8pm at the Diamond. The Diamond is located at 3001 N. Boulevard Richmond, VA. 23230. You can also call the Flying Squirrels at (804) 359-FUNN. For one day only, the Richmond Flying Squirrels will donate 10% of the total daily retail sales to the Community Futures Foundation.

The Community Futures Foundation provides long-term community based support services to individuals with brain injury in the Metro Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. At CFF, individuals with brain injury are offered the opportunity to regain self confidence, refine work skills, and regain independence.

Positive Vibes Cafe

by Claire D.
I had a great time at Positive Vibe Cafe! I learned measuring, knife skills, kitchen sanitation, bussing tables, & a couple of simple recipes such as ice cream in a bag. I really enjoyed it. The people are very nice. I am sorry it ended on December 10. I wish it were at least a semester long. I graduated on December 10. I am so going to miss it, especially Amy Wells, Garth Larcen, & Max Larcen. I am not thinking of applying for a job there because it is so far from where I live, & CARE is unreliable; if I could afford it, I could use taxis for transportation & be able to work at Positive Vibe without a "tour of Richmond" (CARE) for transportation. The sanitizer we cleaned with is quaternary ammonium compound, a.k.a. Quats. I love the words quaternary & quats.

Chick-Fil-A Fundraiser

by Claire D.
On Thursday, November 18, 2010, The Mill House wants you to "Eat Mor Chikin"! The Chick-Fil-A fundraiser will take place from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Chick-Fil-A at Tuckernuck Plaza located at 9100 W. Broad St. 20% of all proceeds go directly to The Mill House. If you have any questions, call (804)261-7050.
EAT MOR CHIKIN!

Happy Birthday

by Claire D.
Today is Doug Girard's birthday.
Happy Birthday, Dug!
I forgot how to spell.
(Of course, that's a joke.) :)

Scary Lunch

Today we had Halloween lunch. It was dazzling good. We had Mummies (chicken enchiladas), Eyeballs (deviled eggs with food coloring & olive slices), Mouths (apple slices with peanut butter & marshmallows), & Dirt (chocolate mousse with crushed Oreos). It was delicious, especially the Eyeballs. I suggested that for next year they have Raised Eyebrows to go with the Eyeballs (the eyebrow can be made with a slice of green pepper or the peel from an apple slice).

BBQ Fundraiser

On Friday, October 29 we will have a pork BBQ fundraiser here at The Mill House (7812 Shrader Rd.; Richmond, VA 23294) from 11am-2pm or until all the BBQ is sold. Chef Elliot Buckner will prepare the BBQ in the parking lot the night before. Then it will be sold both inside & outside on Friday. Prices are: $8 for a BBQ sandwich, cole slaw & baked beans. Cornbread, soft drinks & bottled water are $1 each. All proceeds will benefit The Mill House, a clubhouse for brain-injured adults; we are a non-profit organization. It is sponsored by the law firms of: Cantor, Stoneburner, Ford, Grana & Buckner and Bucci & Dix, & Injured Workers Lawfirm.

Reading Is Dazzling, Part II
Reading is still dazzling, of course! My specific favorite books are Katie's Dream & Till Morning Is Nigh, both by Leisha Kelly. They are about the Wortham & Hammond families. Samuel & Julia Wortham have three children & George Hammond has ten children. In Katie's Dream, a long-lost relative of Katie's brought her to the Worthams after her biological mother abandoned her, & she was dazzlingly happy to be a part of the Wortham family. In Till Morning Is Nigh several of the Hammond children had the stomach flu & made nativity figures out of paper to entertain themselves since they were not well enough to be outside playing in the snow. George Hammond had gone missing & the children were afraid he had died like their mother had a year earlier, & they were so happy when he finally came back home. The Hammond & Wortham children had a lot of fun with their paper nativity scene, & it cheered George up too.

tom's advocacy opportunity

This morning I went to CFC ( Combined Federal campaign with Martha ( Mill House employee). We showed up in between 10am and 10:30am. We met ( Mill House employee) there.
We went into a large room. This is where they had the CFC. We sat down for a few minutes and heard a couple of speakers. They were telling about some past experiences in theire life. It was how the CFC got started.
Most of the volunteers were seated in a big U in the auditoriom. The people that were attending the CFC event walked around the U. This gave them a chance to talk to many of the people that were at each taBLE.
OUR tABLE was for the Mill House and the site in Norfolk that serves the people who have brain-injury. Claire, martha and i talked to some of the people. Claire or Martha brought some chocolate candy. We passed this candy out.
Either our talk on brain injury rehabilitation or chocolate cady really attracted a lot of people!! We left around 12:30 pm.

Reading Is Dazzling!

by Claire D.
Reading is dazzling!I love to read. I learned to read when I was four, & have been an avid reader ever since. I love to read fiction about families, especially families with children), female best friends, & nonfiction about classical music, English culture, & the Latin, French, & Italian languages. I believe that reading is good exercise for the brain. My favorite words are demulcent, mellifluous, resplendent, scintilla, (from Latin) & mesclun (from French). I just learned the word mesclun recently.

Farewell to interns

The interns left today, for good. All of them worked hard and they should've gotten a farewell party. They assisted in all three areas, the kitchen, communication, and maintenence units. In all the days I've been blessed to work with them, on Thursday and Fridays, they always had a great big smile on their faces.
The Mill House members were sad when they left. Some of them asked why they had to leave. They responded that it was the end of their internship. Then the members understood and they went back to working with their unit coordinators.
In all, they, the members, had been priviledged to welcome new interns in their units.

social, 7-20-10

On Thursday, July 29th, the Mill House went out bowling, close by,. and ate at Applebees. We had a great time. Everyone, assumably, had fun. There were three bowling lanes for us to choose our teams. We were joined by other groups of people at the bowling alley. After we bowled, we went to Applebees. The menu had a selection of multiple choices to choose from. We were planning to go eat at a close restaurant, but we were forced to relocate, due to a power outage. Unfortunately, there was a bad storm with power outages throughout Henrico and the Richmond area, although the night was refreshing. Laughter was in the air, when we bowled and while we had dinner.

The Mill House's social

On Thursday, July 29th, the Mill House went out bowling, close by,. and ate at Applebees. We had a great time. Everyone, assumably, had fun. There were three bowling lanes for us to choose our teams. We were joined by other groups of people at the bowling alley. After we bowled, we went to Applebees. The menu had a selection of multiple choices to choose from. We were planning to go eat at a close restaurant, but we were forced to relocate, due to a power outage. Unfortunately, there was a bad storm with power outages throughout Henrico and the Richmond area, although the night was refreshing. Laughter was in the air, when we bowled and while we had dinner.

Robbie's Birthday

Today is Robert Priest's birthday. He was one of the very first members of The Mill House. He makes me laugh so hard with his sarcastic sense of humor.
News flash: Claire Dixon died...
...laughing at Robert!

Any new comments,please give.

We want more strawberries!

What's been going on...Our first townhall meeting

all of our family came..even my husband!
Go Nelson! He did a great job with his presentation.

Our Tommy Toes....

.. are producing in gallons!

We've got a bumper crop coming in !

Since our crop was planted and fertilized,weve had peppers and lettace coming in also.
The yummy produce has been enjoyed daily by our members in our lunches. "Yummy!"

See the amazing progress we've made! Look at what the garden looked like a few months ago (see the post below) and compare it to how it looks now. Turns out our Maintenance Unit has plenty of green thumbs!

Squirrely Fries!

Play ball!

On May 20th the Mill House members went to the Diamond to watch our home baseball team play. The Squirrels played the Sea Wolves from Lake Erie and won, 5 to 1.
While they played we had some ballpark food. We preordered our food, to ease the process of ordering for 25 people all at once from a concession stand. Our food selection consisted of hot dogs, pretzels, hamburgers, and of course "squirrely fries"! Also we ordered a drink, soda drink or water, bottled.
It started at 10:35 and ended at 2:00. We were sitting safely, behind the catcher and referee, so we scarcely didn't have to catch anything. Although, they hit a foul ball that came close to us. We were sitted great!

The Mill House Garden

The Mill House has a garden! We are growing vegetables & flowers. We will not have to buy our vegetables at the supermarket anymore now that we are growing our own fresh vegetables. We are also composting biodegradable items such as fruit & vegetable peels & coffee grounds.

It's a Girl!

By Claire D.

We are all so thrilled for Crystal, the long-term case manager at The Mill House, about the newest member of her family. Olivia Skye Lloyd-Bowens was born on February 16, 2010. She weighed 5 pounds & 15 ounces. Her big brother, Isaiah, loves grapes & bananas so I made a joke asking Crystal if he is going to mash grapes & bananas to feed his baby sister.

Funny picture of Joe

This is a funny picture of Joe Craig.
Over time, our fax machine has driven Joe so crazy, yesterday we said that Joe wasn't working here anymore for a while. April Fool's!

Mill House's garden

Spring is here and we are crossing our fingers that we have seen the last frost. Virginia is, however, notorious for suprising us with odd weather. After many months of planning, preparation, and germination, the members and staff at the Mill House will begin planting a garden that will consist of many types of herbs and produce. Today, members will put the little seedlings into the Earth, cultivated and tilled over the last few weeks.To name a few, we will be growing tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, spinach and lettuce. We are planning ahead until our crops produce. After it is produced, we will start cooking those items in our soups, lunches, and whatever we are cooking. This is a stepping stone for the Mill House.
All of your green thumbs, we need your thoughts and advice, so please send it our way!

Foreign Languages

by Claire D.

I memorized the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin.I have my own well-worn copy of Latin for Dummies.
Fidem meam obligo
Vexillo civitatium Americae.
Foederatum et rei publicae
Pro qua stat.
Uni nationi, non dividendae,
Deo ducente,
Cum libertate et justitiaque pro omnibus.
Learning foreign languages is good for memory. So everybody should memorize the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin. By the way, I love the word "vexillo". It means flag. It is a pretty word. I also love the word "demulcent" which means soothing, or something that soothes.

Social

The social program consisted with dinner and games until about 6:30p.m. I wanted to leave for their dinner at Casa Grande, but I had to quit their games in the middle to go to my speech therapy. Unfortunately, they only went out to dinner, and not to a movie, so I didn’t totally miss out in we hadn’t implemented our fun to the maximum. Although, we played all sort of games, like Uno, Connect Four, and chess. I, personally, enjoyed associating with the other members.

Claire's Volunteer Position

I am volunteering at AARP. Actually, I am doing it from home but they e-mail me the work & I do it at home then I e-mail it to them. I proofread the "Impact" quarterly newsletter for the AARP headquarters in Virginia. I enjoy it very much. I love to proofread; that would be my dream job. I have been looking for a proofreading job for many years now. I am also very interested in medical terminology & medical issues.

The Millhose on 01/21/2010

Hello world, what is up out there? It is a rainy, wet day here at The Mill house in Richmond Va. To a lot ppl. that is not so nice but I am one of those ppl who just loves the rain. So it is very nice to me.
The Mill House got a new intern. Here name is Kim. She goes to one of the best colledges in the world called VCU. Kim seems like a very nice lady. Take care everyone.
Franky C
The Mill House member