Thanksgiving etc

I am so blessed to have such a long Thanksgiving weekend. Leah got home Tuesday night. I love spending time with Lele. We ordered pizza (too much). Wednesday I slept in til 9! We did some last minute things to the house and went shopping all about town--the usual spots--walmart, target and even hobby lobby! We got scrapbooking stuff for scott's soccer season and some supplies for Leah to make a mosaic breakfast tray for me for Christmas:). At target I got a cream color fleece and matching down vest:) Wednesday night we went to Chipoltle, Scott too. This is our all time favorite place to eat. It feels like home. Thanksgiving I started cooking about 10 and the guests arrived around noon--my dad and Jean, my mom, and all the griffiths--dave, ronnie, jon, tim and hannah, jc and ryan. We all ate too much chips and cheese dip and the boys all went to the old stadium to play catch while we did the last minute cooking. I just made all the basics--turkey (baked in a bag stuffed with fruits and veggies--so tender), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, and stuffing. Mom brought cranberry salad, ronnie brought rolls and pop, and jeanie brought pecan and pumpkin pies. Everyone left by 6! It was good to see everyone and spend some time with them. I missed Hannah and Joel. Hannah stayed in Laramie to work on an art project that is due soon and her roommate Lucas' parents fixed dinner. Joel went with a friend to his house in Huntington beach. After the family left, Leah and I took her old ceramics out and smashed them into small peices for the mosaic. It was fun! I'll bet the neighbors wondered what we were up to. Today Leah and I went for coffee and I bought Scotty an electric blanket and took it to him at work. I also took the rest of the pumpkin pie to him. I had leftover Thanksgiving for breakfast and dinner. Good thing I got up this morning and went to an hour and a half exercise class--step, power chisel and yoga! Awesome! Today was even complete with a long nap! And I have two more days of weekend yet to go!

KSU bsektball, Temple Grandin, and Adele

This week on Monday, I got to hear Temple Grandin speak. She's a 63 year old famous, successful woman who has autism. She lectures on what it is like to have autism as well as her field of study, animal handling. We got to ask her questions for two hours! I learned so much that I am already applying to the kids I work with at school and to my time with Adelle.
I had Adelle's mom help me talk Adelle into going with me to a Women's basektball game. I had asked her last time we got together if she wanted to go and she said, "No, let's just do the around the house stuff." Temple Grandin said that people with autism need to be pushed outside thier comfort zone, not to the point of overload or panic, but encouraged to do new things and not just the solitary activities that they prefer. So Rosie said she talked Adelle into going to the first half. I know that Adelle loves sports so I thought she might like to go watch them. She hated the JC soccer game I took her to this season which surprised me. I also know that Adelle is a pattern thinker and loves to look at numbers and charts so I had her bring a notebook.
Well, Adelle liked the game. At first, she kept asking if she could PLAY, not watch. She wanted to go shoot some baskets while the team was warming up but got her out notebook and wrote down the starting lineup. Keeping track of points and fouls kept her entertained for quite a while. She watched the game, too, and asked some good questions. Then she got out another peice of paper and listed a bunch of classmates, I think she was assigning them to all star teams. We made it to halftime and to te promised hotdogs. We had quite a snack of pizza, hot dogs and slushies. The only thing that upset Adelle was when one of our players helped the other team up off the court. Adelle said, "What! Why is the player helping the enemy up?" I explained that they aren't enemies, but opponents who have respect for each other and that that is good sportsmanship. I also had to explain to Adelle how to say, "excuse me" and wait instead of just climbing over people to get out of the row.
Adelle did super at the grocery store. I had reminded her the two rules before we went in, "Don't touch anything you aren't going to pay for" and "you must stay where I can see you." The first rule was from Temple Grandin and took care of the problem we had last week when Adelle picked up some tic tacs and helped herself to one then put it back. Today Adelle was perfectly appropriate, pushed the cart carefully, shook hands with the people I knew that we stopped to talk to, and didn't do anything she shouldn't. She didn't even ask for anything! She did ask if we could just hang out at the house next week (and have ice cream).

My Doggies

You should read "The Art of Racing in the Rain." Its a great book. Ever since I've read it, I have been more convinced than ever that dogs understand exactly what we are saying. Yesterday was proof again. I was explaining to Rex that we were taking Professor to see Leah and leaving him home. I didn't want him to feel bad so I was telling him that Professor would have to ride in the car for a really long time and wait in the car while we ate and shopped. While I was saying all this, Professor ran and hid under the couch and I had to drag him out when it was time to go! I wasn't completely honest with Rex, though, because Professor had a wonderful time. I don't remember if I blogged about this before, but another time that proved that they understand english was when Leah gave Rex this little cat toy that was a small, squeaky mouse. Rex was obsessed with this mouse. He kept it with him and played with it, squeaked it, licked it, cuddled it, etc, for about 36 hours straight when I realized it was way too small for him and he was going to choke on it. I waited for an opportunity and when he left it for a second to get a drink of water, I took it and hid it on top the fridge. He came back in the room and madly searched for it everywhere. I called him over to me and explained to him that I'd taken it away because it was too small. He looked at me, barked furiously at me a few times, then stopped looking for the toy, and layed down dejectedly. Proof.
Rex and Professor like to sleep with me. If you've ever owned a Shih Tzu, you know that they prefer to sleep near feet. When its cold out, one sleeps strtched out cuddling my shins and the other, my calves (I sleep on my side). Friday night when I couldn't sleep, I read my book for awhile. Rex got annoyed and came over and hit the book with his paw. When that didn't work, he laid down on my face so I couldn't see the book. Last night, Rex started scratching and it was shaking the bed. Normally, if I lieft my head up, both dogs pop their heads up to look back at me. So I looked at Rex and he looked back. Professor was upside down with all four paws spread out and his head tilted back and he didn't even open his eyes to see what was up. I told Rex to follow Professor's example and go to sleep. He hopped over the pillow and Professor and curled in a ball on my chest and laid his head on my chest. I rubbed his ears for awhile and we went to sleep. He didn't stay there long but it was sweet. I love my little doggies.

Visit to Leah

Another great visit to Leah. She'd convinced us to come and Scott planned to go o to Wichita and see the 6A state soccer championships but it turned out that neither of us slept well Friday night. I think the dude at Radina's made my coffee with caffiene even though I ordered decaf. We got up early and he drove to Newton. I couldn't nap in the car because Professor hopped all over me the whole way (turns out he had to pee and had what Scott referred to as a "lincoln log" to get rid of. We got there and Scott saw Leah's mod for the first time. We walked across campus to the coffeeshop where Leah works, Mojo's and had a coffee. I had the ham and cheese quiche--yummy! We then took Professor and walked the trail through the woods. Beautiful weather! We showed Scott where they have creekers (which are secret beer and hymn sings by a campfire). We went back to the mod and took a nap each of us on a different couch in her livingroom! Then we went to Chong's and Leah and I had chicken fried rice. I didn' like it--too oniony and who puts green peppers in chicken fried rice? Scott had something spicy. We then went to wonderful downtown Newton and I got 4 sets of Christmas lights for my office at work from the flea market, we got natural peanut butter and local honey from the health food store, I replaced my heart earrings from my favorite store, and we looked for juicers at the kitchen store--no luck. Scott walked around outside with Professor. We went back to the dorm and Leah made Scott some coffee. He never did go to wichita to watch soccer--too tired. We came back to Manhattan and I dropped Scott at the stadium for the ksu game. I do love going to Newton! Pics to follow--Leah in her mod livingroom and at Chong's.

Perfect and You won't Believe This

Last night was the perfect date! I took a nap after work then shared some olive oil popcorn with Scott. At 5 I had the crazy idea to suggest to Scott that he go with me to exercise class and you'll never believe this but he said yes! He really went with me to my step aerobics class! He did really well, too. He's complaining about how sore he is today, though. I told him he might be too old for that class:). So then we had a shower and went to Chipotle...which we've done every Friday night for years. I wore my giant comfy pink sweatpants! Then we went for coffee and a cookie at Radina's and read our books. I was home and asleep by 9:30!
Our date continued on into today as Leah convinced us to drive to Newton to visit her. We had fun on the way listening to music--Pink, Justin Beiber, Joss Stone. We even sang to old Third Day. We love to sing together in the car! Scott and I are a comedy team. I'm the straight man. I have to crab at him about his driving or he'd space off and go 50 miles per hour! At one point he asked, "What's the speed limit here again?" I said, "65. That's why the cars in the slow lane are passing you." He sang a song to me about how beautiful I am but later sang "You and I collide." After complaining again about how long it was taking to drive here, he said, "But we're together and we're having fun!" We are. We went for a walk on the trail with Leah and a sign over the bridge said, "3 ton limit" so he told me I'd better wait til they were across. Poo poo head. Never a dull moment with Scott. I suggest we repeat last night's perfect date every Friday night til death do us part.

Day in the life of a school social worker

Not that I want to think about work while I'm home, but I think my job is fascinating....maybe you will too. Yesterday began bright and early at 7:25 a.m. with FCA. I team taught with Mr. Harmon, his first time, on Philippians 4:4-9. Thought it went really well. Next met a teacher and a student in my office at 8 as the student had had a meltdown in his classroom the day before and had been too shut down to try to talk to him. The meeting went fairly well and we made a plan for future. (he's a tough kid with lots of anxiety and possibly more issues besides his family being frustrated with him. I met with them earlier and got them some services in their home). Then I recruited Nancy to go with me to get a kid out of bed whose mom called and said she was sick and he wasn't cooperating. Nancy and I banged on the wrong door for awhile and then the student we sought came right to the door when we knocked on the right door. He tried to fake dizzy and nauseated but it didn't work on us. Met then for several hours with the admin team--lots to talk about but mostly truancy stuff. Next met with a young lady who hates to read and has been refusing in reading class and gave her my best pep talk. She is somewhat like talking to a wall but I helped her with a big bully thing on monday so she responded well to me. Then noticed my guy from this morning faking in the nurses office and sent him back to class. Turned out he didn't go to class but was eventually found in the library. Did lunch group with four students with autism (high functioning) and a peer model and added a new member who fit right it. One burped and so we talked about whether or not people can help burping, how to try not to, etc. This was quickly followed by a leadership planning meeting for the workshop we are doing. Called the parent of the boy from this morning. Saw another couple kids....blanking on those issues then from 2-4 met with the gals I'm doing clinical supervision for. Today I was job shadowed by a high school student wo was pretty neat. Started the day following up on a bully situation from PE and gave the kiddo who bullied him a firm talking to and then caught that same kiddo pushing and kicking at another student in the hall! Helped a young man, my reading buddy whom I read with 20 miutes every day, who has ADHD, sort out what book to read and where to keep it, etc, as he loses any and all books he isn't quite interested in. I coordinated this with the other teachers that also require reading and his mom. Met again with the girl from yesterday who was refusing reading as she apparently has a bad attitude across the board and is failing a couple of classes. Her teacher wanted me to give her a test and then make a plan. I did that and had her stay in AES the rest of the day to get caught up. She actually sort of seemed to like that. Go figure. Talked to a mom of a kiddo with bi polar disorder about trying to figure out where his disability leaves off and his will kicks in (which the teachers have a hard time figuring out with this kiddo too). Met with my thursday lunch group which is a kiddo with a thought disorder who was having a rough day and a kiddo with asperger's (who shocked us today by initiating a whole conversation with another student) and two in the process of being diagnosed. Emails to schedule an iep meeting, then attended an iep meeting of a young man who has earned his way out of the tlc into a regular resource setting. Then cleaned off my desk and made a list to do tomorrow. Probably missed a few things I also did each day but that's about it. I'm tired and going to crawl beneath the covers early again tonight. I actually do really like my job.

Weird Dreams

Weird Dreams

I have had a couple of weird dreams lately. I don’t usually remember
my dreams so its strange that I have had two in a row. The first one,
the other night, was that we had inherited a very large house. It was
partially furnished and had lots of boxes. I was really focused on
recycling all the boxes, which isn’t a big surprise since I’m pretty
into recycling. The funny thing was, the house came with two
monkeys—both chimps—a small one and large one. I don’t
remember much about the small one but the large one was a pain in the
butt. We put it in a bedroom and kept the door shut. When its diaper
needed changing, everyone said I had to do it. It was really wet and
saggy and the chimp was hopping all over the room making chimp sounds
and I remember feeling really exasperated by it.
The second dream was about helping Joel and a good friend (not one of
his good friends I know now, just a good friend) move into a large
apartment. It had lots of bedrooms, similar to the apartment Leah lives
in now, but nicer and larger. It had a piano and the boys were really
enjoying taking turns sitting down to play around on it, of course, when
they were really supposed to be helping with the move. It was sort of
chaotic but what made it harder for me was that someone had left a
small, cuddly puppy in my care. I remember trying to let it out of the
car to use the bathroom and trying to give it back to its owner several
times and I just kept being in charge of it. It was really sweet and
snuggled up to my chest sort of like Professor does. But I couldn’t
be of any help to anyone because I had this puppy to take care of.
So let’s analyze these dreams of mine. Do you see the common themes?
Large houses filled with chaos and having responsibility for caring for
animals that had characteristics of babies/toddlers. Do you think maybe
I’m working through not being a parent of kids in my household
anymore? Wow, as I said this, tears prickled in my eyes. Must be onto
something. I wonder what I’ll dream about tonight.