Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Busy, busy life!

I am so busy with my field placement, volunteer work, school, plus being a wife and mother! I love my placement! I have been able to sit in on a few intakes and in a few weeks I will be doing intakes on my own, up to the point of diagnosis, which I am not qualified to do. At that point my supervisor will come in, I'll brief her on the intake interview, tell her what I think the diagnosis will be. Then she will actually make the diagnosis. Sometimes I'll be right, sometimes I'll be wrong. Either way I'll be learning how to be a therapist!

Tomorrow night I sit in on my first individual therapy session (not counting my own therapy in 1995/96!).

In my volunteer setting I've had an opportunity to meet and talk with a transgendered client (she is biologically a male, however has always felt that she is a female, and now lives as a female). Very interesting, and also very enlightening.

Chelsea is doing well, playing Varsity soccer for her high school, and she's also in the school marching band. Mike and I went to watch her on Saturday at a marching band review. Later this month is their first competition. She looks so cute in her uniform!

I also have to brag about how smart she is. She took the ACT Plan test last year (it's a sort of pre-test for the ACT) and she scored in the top 10% in reading and science! We are so proud of her!

I am preparing to apply to graduate school and am very busy with projects for all of my classes.

Mike is in Florida for two weeks for his work. I just hope he doesn't run in to bad weather due to hurricanes. He has to go back again in October.

Scruffy is doing very well, and since we've kennel trained him again he hasn't pee'd on the floor for almost two weeks. I am really hoping he won't start again!

That's all for now, and thank-you, Carol, for getting me to update!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Happy Labor Day!

And have I been laboring! With my internship, school, volunteering and being a wife and mother I have busy!!! But it's all good. The other day at my volunteer location one of the residents overdosed on methadone. Very scary. I feel so bad because although the guy is 52 he looks like he's at least 75. Guess that's what a lifetime of drug and alcohol use does for you. The poor guy had been sober for 3 months but unfortunately a former resident came by the place the evening before and we suspect that is why he OD'd. The former guy was forced to leave the program because he kept telling other residents that the rules (staying sober, keeping your apt. clean and staying employed) were BS and he convinced several to drop out of the program. Of course they only get 3 chances at this program and some of them have lost all of their chances. Too bad, but I guess it is their choice in the long run.

My internship is going well. I attended my first group for women with borderline personality disorder which was very enlightening. The place I work is very nice and provides all the diet Pepsi I can drink along with lunch every Wed. for staff meetings. Not too bad. Oh, and all the people seem to be very nice also.

Mike took me to Rickenbackers for dinner on Saturday night for my birthday. It was really nice. Today he gave me a dozen roses and a really nice card. He leaves for Las Vegas tomorrow for the rest of the week, for work so I'll probably not see him tomorrow.

Chelsea just got back from spending time with two of her friends at Bear Lake, this weekend. She had fun, but wasn't too happy to see that I'd cleaned out her room while she was gone. Really, it was so messy that I just couldn't take it anymore! I put all of her misc. stuff in bags for her to go through but her room is clean, all laundry is done and put away and you can actually see the floor!

Mike cleaned out and reorganized the pantry, again! That is his pet peeve, a messy pantry. I try to keep it neat but sometimes I'm just in a hurry when I'm putting things away. Oh well, he enjoys organizing so I guess I'm just helping him get some enjoyment!

It rained like crazy last night and this morning. It was nice because we rarely get a lot of rain, and it's nice to have the temps go down for a change. I even turned the heater on for a few minutes this morning.

I took Scruffy for his first walk since his back problems started. He did just fine and is sleeping right now. Guess I wore him out. Tomorrow he takes the last of his steriods and hopefully is completely healed. One thing we discovered in all of this is that he LOVES Rachael Ray dog food. He can't have food with wheat in it, which is hard to find outside of prescription dog food. We've bought just about every kind of wheat free dog food (even some that is $50 for a 20 lb bag) and he hated all of it. While he was in the hospital I saw an add for RR dog food so thought I'd check it out. Not only does it not have chicken by products but it also doesn't have fillers like so many other dog foods. The best part is that Scruffy LOVES it! Every time I feed him he just scarfs it down. I'm glad to see he actually likes something that is good for him!