This morning when I opened my front door to let my dog out, my mouth fell open and hung there for about 10 seconds. I knew that it sometimes snows in Portland, and I knew that it was in the forecast to happen this weekend, but looking out at the white blanketover the parking lot, the cars, the rooftop, and the little flurries heading down from the sky... amazing! I don't know if you can wrap your head around how much I love snow, because I've never lived in it, and rarely even visited it (mostly because I hate skiing) but I love it! It's basically the best thing, and it came way before sliced bread. I'm sure that once you get used to it, you can start to think of it as a nuisance, but I never will! And I won't get to have a white Christmas, but I get a littlewhitepre-Christmas! Yipee!
Rocky ran around the parking lot exploring, and Penny had a very difficult time deciding where to pee, since there was no available dirt. She finally settled on creating someyellow snow. Now we are all just sitting in the house watching it fall outside the window like it's prime entertainment - which for me it is!
Unfortunately, I don't get to miss anything boring today. Everything basically shuts down in Portland when it snows. I am missing church and my small group tonight, both of which I love, so that's a bummer. But I'm going to spend the day making angels in the snow and teaching Rocky and Penny how to make a snowman. :)
P.S. Linda - I'm stealing your fun font style. It makes things more interesting.
I know that's super un-pc, but what can I say? Political correctness is just not my thing. So... I started a new job! I'm sure I mentioned something about it in earlier posts, but I'm too lazy to go back and see what I said. :) So if you already read some of this or I've already told you about it, feel free to skim. The job is at a group home, which I'm not going to name just in case. It's a locked down residential facility for mentally ill children and adolescents. Look at it like this: remember the kids I worked with in SLO? If they couldn't cut it in the programs at FCNI, they would have to go to a place like this one. So it's a little wild. However, given that I knew what I was getting into, the first couple days were surprisingly mellow. (I'm not even going to bother knocking on wood, because there are going to be crazy days when I want to pull my hair out regardless.) There are 4 units on the premises, one has 5-11 year olds, one 7-13, and two have 13-18 year olds. Of the teenage units, they have "internal behaviors" (self harm, suicidal ideation, etc.) and on the other they have "external behaviors" (physically aggressive, etc.) The 7-13 year old unit actually have the most severe behaviors. There are 12 beds in each unit, and they are almost always full. Got all that? There's a quiz later.
So, my first two days, as I said, were pretty easy. Except for the fact that the shifts are 10 hours long. After working at Family Care, where we rarely spent more than 5 hours in a row with one client, it feels a little insane to spend 10 hours in a row with 12 clients, on a regular basis. Wow. But other than that it was good. A little overwhelming meeting so many clients and so many staff members, but still good. I worked on one of the teenage units yesterday, and the other one today. Tomorrow I'll be with the little ones, so that's sure to be chaotic. The teens are pretty predictable though. A little bit of attitude, a lot of moodiness, various attempts to manipulate me, some flirtation from a couple audacious boys, and a couple girls who are already my best friend.
There was, of course, a little excitement. Yesterday one kid tried to run during lunch, and escaped from the cafeteria, but not the campus. At dinner tonight three of the kids got into a fight, about five staff jumped into action within three seconds, restraining all three kids, (one to the ground) but not before one boy got punched. By a girl. It was a whirlwind. The restraining thing will be a little hard for me to get used to, because it's basically never done at FCNI (even though we were trained to do it) but sometimes it's necessary when you have 30 mentally ill children in one room. Or even 12 kids. I hope they don't overdo it though, because it's kind of traumatizing for everyone involved when people get restrained (in my opinion). Anyhow, outside of those events the kids were fairly calm throughout the day. On my unit, anyway.
Anyway, that's my news. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories to share in the future. (Disclaimer - it's sort of unethical to be writing about the clients, but I will never use names or identifying characteristics about any client. Just general stories.) I have a lot to learn about the organization, but being with the kids is kind of like coming home. I missed them. It's hard to explain if you haven't worked with this demographic before, but when you have, they stick with you. At some point, in some post, maybe I will be able to articulate why, but for now that's all I'll say. It's good to be back.
Before I go, I have a video, and one more little tidbit: it's supposed to SNOW in Portland this weekend! Woo hoo! I'm soo excited!!
I meant to post this video awhile ago, but I never got around to it. Some of you may have seen it already. If you don't have sound on your computer, you can still watch it. Just hum "Carol of the Bells" to yourself, and ignore the dirty looks from your co-workers. Enjoy!
Ok, there are a lot, but believe it or not, this is actually a small selection of all the photos. I tried to sum up the fun, while giving you the whole picture. Enjoy!
Our first night at dinner (My Birthday!):
At the karaoke bar:
Beautiful Catalina (view from the ship):
The little boats we took from the ship to the island:
... the plane ticket that my mom bought so I could come home and be with my family. ... a lifetime of happy Thanksgiving memories. ... the sunshine after the rain. ... Carmel Valley: the hills, the oaks, the smell, and the home-ness. ... seeing old friends and the feeling that even though its been months (or years) we can pick up right where we left off. ... friends in general, who make me laugh, and support me when I need it. ... giggles. ... Bennett, for having a birthday at Thanksgiving time so that I could see the whole family. ... music, chatter, and pumpkin cake. ... the holiday season, and all its reminders of how many blessings God has given me.
I want to start by saying, that after almost two weeks of no blog entries, I was a little disappointed that when I finally wrote one, I got one comment. From my mother. Thanks for your loyalty Mom. (Patrick and Linda if you are reading this - please forgive my hypocrisy. I guess we are all at least partly motivated by the comments).
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all that I created a second blog. :) I was trying to clear out space on my computer, and my Cal Poly senior project was taking up a lot of space, but I didn't have the heart to just delete it. So I had a brilliant thought. Make a blog! I had already created all the makings of a web site, I just hadn't done anything with it, so now I have. It's a web site with positive parenting tips for foster parents (although they apply to any parent). It's not very exciting, but it was a lot of work (plus the 20 page research paper that went with it!) I don't really plan to update it, it's pretty much just... done. So oblige me and just take a little glance at it, will you? Thanks. :)
I am sorry I have been neglecting you. You are important to me, I promise. I think you're valued by others as well, and I know that when I neglect you, it affects them too. I have been selfish and I apologize.
Ok, moving on. I had an amazingly fabulous time on vacation. I got some quality time in with the fam, and then set off on a nautical adventure of epic proportions. I am going to wait to talk more about the cruise when the pictures have been compiled so I can do a little photo journalism... more fun that way.
A little about the family time... Kelly and I took the kids trick or treating, which was a fun and hilarious time. (Especially the littlest boy running after the others, chanting, "oh god, oh god, oh god." Ha ha.) If Tommy had his way he would have stayed extended amounts of time at each house, trying out the kids' toys and chatting with the adults ("you'll never believe what I saw at the last house!") We had to hurry him along so he didn't get left in the dust by the bigger kids, but that made it all the more entertaining. Then throughout the weekend: Ally and I had lengthy intellectual conversations about Harry Potter, we all cheered at Ally's soccer game, Tommy and Bennett had a grand old time playing in a fountain (Tara: "hypothetically, Kelly, if Bennett were soaking from head to toe, how would you feel?"), I got to watch Ally do a triathlon (she's quite the athlete), spent some quality time with Arletta, watched Sesame Street with Bennett, and in the end, with a sigh in my heart, said goodbye to everyone. Good thing Thanksgiving is next week! :)
After the cruise (details later, promise) I returned to the land of Port. I had a lot to catch up on with school, despite the fact that I worked my tail off before I left. I also had a bit of a financial crisis. Basically, reality came crashing down on me, and it was a bit of a rough week. Hence, no blogging. But I am doing better now, remembering to trust God, He's gotten me this far after all. And, speaking of His faithfulness... I have a job interview on Tuesday! It's at a group home, and I'm a little nervous about that, I'm not going to lie, but I think it will be good experience and I really need the money. So, say a prayer for me that I'll get the job. Thanks!
So that's about all I have for you, other than this special clip that I have Bennett to thank for. It's brought to you by the letter J. Don't forget to turn the sound off on my playlist at the bottom. And you don't need to watch the whole thing, just about a minute and a half or so and you'll get the good stuff. :)
Just wanted to give a very brief update so that people don't wonder where I've been. The last couple of weeks have been super busy getting ready to go out of town. This weekend I've been in So. Cal. having a lovely time with my wonderful family. Tomorrow is my 25th birthday (aah!) and I'm going on a cruise to Baja Mexico with 8 of my fabulous friends. So I'm super excited about that, and there will be much to write about when I get back to Portlandia. More about my time away when I return.
A single girl living in a small town loving a big God with her whole heart. Living the adventure of walking by faith, learning from mistakes, meeting people where they're at, and loving them like crazy. Kick off your shoes and sit in the grass with me.
"I am a dreamer, a wisher, a crier, a hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer. I'm a pretender, so sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in, come in."
Credit to Shel Silverstein - one of my childhood heroes. (Edit by me.)
