Leah

Monday I took the Fternoon off and Scott and I drove to Newton to see Leah. We met her at the art building where she was loading her first kiln. She has had her art fired in kilns before and took turns watching the kiln, but her Professor wanted her to do this one on her own, with his help. She loaded it and then Tuesday was to spend the whole day, all eight hours, sitting with it, loading wood every five to seven minutes and checking the temperature regularly. It was fascinating to hear about and watch.
We had a cup of coffee at Mojos where Leah works, then We then went out to eat at La Fiesta, a change for us, since we almost always eat at Chongs. Then we watched Leah's last official Bethel orchestra concert. We sat right in the front row about ten feet from Leah and joked that we were going to move out chairs up even closer. Scott asked if we had to have instruments to sit by her, ha ha. Leah told David to sit with us, I don't think he was planning on the front row! We are so proud of our Leah and so happy for the amazing experiences she's had at Bethel.

Vacation

I can't even begin to explain how stressful the couple of weeks leading up to this vacation were, at work, the car wreck.... This relaxation was sooooo needed.

We arrived in Mexico late in the afternoon on Monday. We were so tired and overwhelmed with how gigantic this place is, that we just sort of hung out in the rooms for while. Then we cleaned up and went for a wonderful meal in what turns out to be our favorite restaurant here. We are treated like kings and queens in all the restaurants, chairs pulled out, napkins placed on laps, greeted as if we are best friends, waters filled ata moment notice, a dirty plate removed almost immediately. The restaurant we like best is called Mo Mo Hana or something like that, it is Japanese. I had sweet and sour pork while Mom and Scott has salmon. Then we all had fried ice cream.
Breakfast is in a beautiful open air restaurant with a big, tall grass roof. I am partaking of lots of delicious no no's like pastries.
Days are filled with laying in the sun, looking at the waves, reading books, or relaxing in the hammock on the balcony, napping in the air conditioning.
Yesterday we went to the spa and had hydrotherapy which is a series of sauna, steam, jacuzzi, etc. Mom and I then had manis and pedis and Scott had a deep tissue massage. Ask him about it. He was amazed to put it mildly. I had forgotten it was his first massage ever. It was whole body. Only missed a few places:) ha ha. We all went back for relaxing massages last night. One hour twenty minutes. Pretty much all over but not certain places. I was so relaxed I was concentrating on not drooling onto the floor.
I went for a short run in an obstacle course yesterday morning and last night Scott and I went for a long walk including through a 2 k labyrinth of bushes. We walked along the beachway. There isn't a traditional beach here but there are beautiful man made lagoons and walkways. You can see and hear the waves just beyond. They are really strong, especially in the late afternoon. I love how they hit and spray up twenty feet or so.
It is warm here, of course. There is a nice breeze most of the time so if you get in the shade it feels wonderful. We are all sunburned so we will sit under a hut with our legs sticking out until they burn, too.
One more day and i think we will do more of the same. Why not?

Friday and Today

Yesterday Scott spent the entire day driving to Wichita to get me a new car. It's awesome. I really like it. It's tiny and super bright and 5 speed, fun to drive. A mazda2. It plays Pandora radio through my phone or my iPod. The trunk held all my groceries. Two times I needed to turn around in a tight space and giggled because it turns in such a tiny circle! It fits in almost any space! I figure even though its tiny, it's safe because you can't miss it coming! Scott and I joked that if it got hit, it would fly and bounce and roll but there are so many airbags in it, it would be like follow around in a marshmallow!
This morning I got up and had ,y quiet time and cleaned then Greg came over to bring Adelle a prom dress from his daughter to try on. He liked my new car and I gave him a tour of the house. Greg is my Principal. He's leaving to go to the High School next year and we will really miss him. He's gonna do some great things up there.
Then I ran over to Angela's to show her my car and she loved it, too. Angela is the new counselor this year and she's becoming,ing a really good friend.
Then I picked up Cecilia, my International Buddy, and we drove out to the Konza and hiked the 2.5 mile trail. The weather was perfect, 67degrees, breezy. We also drove by Eisenhower and then out to the lake. It's funny when she stops and takes pictures of things she thinks are cool...Tuttle Creek Lake is cool? We are getting comfortable with each other and today we laughed quite a bit. She practices her English and lately I've been practicing my Spanish, too. Whew, I am really rusty!
Here are some pics os the Konza and the new car.

Happy to be alive

Whew! God is so good. I don't think it's even sunk in yet just how good. We were in a car wreck today on the highway. We were headed to Olathe to look at a car and go see Dad. We were supposed to be at the dealer at 10. When we got up, it was raining, so I had Scott drive. I knew our car hydroplanes because its happened to me before so I had Scott drive. He was relaxed and even put the cruise control on. I told him not to but he thought it was ok. I had to try hard to relax. It was raining so hard. Just outside Topeka, we were in the inside lane and we hydroplaned. When the wheels caught, it thrust us hard into the concrete median wall. We hit the front left corner and then the back side then sort of slid off to the right and came to a stop in a triangle between the highway and an on ramp. Cars just kept whiz zing by. Two did pull up to our windows to see if we were ok. I rolled down the window and told Scott when it was clear and we pulled the rest of the way off the road. Scott said I had yelled "we're going to die!" But I don't remember that. I remember doing a horror movie scream. We had a good laugh. Then we took turn getting out on the rain and mud to look at the car. It's toast. Scott thinks its still fixable, but I doubt it. I felt weepy and exhausted all day today and I still feel kind of numb. My neck and chest hurt badly initially but I iced them at Julie's. my neck felt better. Tonight, 12 hours later my chest feels a lot better too. I'm so tired. The police took about 15 minutes to get there. He didn't seem too concerned. We rode in the aaa tow truck to a car place on Wanamaker. We called the insurance company and Julie and a couple of people and Julie came to get us. I am so happy to be alive and consider it a miracle in so, so many ways that we weren't hurt worse or killed. Praise you, Lord!

Me Lately

So much going on!  Life is a wonderful whirlwind.  The last two weekends were family--my brother and his family came up two weekends, brought my mom one overnight.  There was eating and music and laughter and small nephews running around and lots of diaper changing and a birthday party.  I enjoyed it very much. Work has been good but we've had a couple of stressful events, pretty par for the course.  I am still enjoying teaching my BSW intern and having her around.  I also started clinical supervision with another gal and went to a workshop on the new DSM which will revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat people.  Exciting stuff.  On Friday, the teachers did a dance for the kids to motivate them for State testing.  When a good youtube shows up, I will post it on facebook.  This weekend was a training for Homestead which I gave part of.  I was worried for a long while about what I'd say then God showed me and I felt peaceful.  Then the gal who presented before me segwayed into every part of my talk so that was onfirmation.  It went really well and I not only enjoyed the rest of the conference and what I learned but I got excited and affirmed that we are on the right track and these girls are going to experience amazing transformation!  I meet with them in small group on Thursday afternoons.  This morning Adelle went with me to church for the first time and it went really well.  She got into the worship and listened quietly to the sermon and even asked questions!  Last night I met my new International Buddy--a visiting teacher from Ecuador who is here to get her Master's degree.  We came over to the house and looked at pictures of our families on facebook and got to know each other.  I will spend an hour or so a week with her.  She needs help getting to the grocery store so that will be an easy way to spend time with her and help her, too!  My devotions this morning were about taking care of yourself and persevering.  I am feeling full to the brim with opportunities to give and serve which makes me really happy but I will start saying no now so I can keep a balance.  It is sort of ironic that while I'm at the peak of using all my gifts to serve in ways I love, Scotty is in a valley of knowing what to do and how to use his stockpile of gifts.  Pray for him.

Day in the life

My day started this morning at 530 am. I woke up sweat soaked completely. Not sure why because it was cold! I was awakened by a text message so I actually thought just for a minute, "snow day!" But alas, no. The text said school was open. I walked out in my cold, soaked Jammie's to let the dogs out then back in, made coffee, gave Professor his medicine for his ear, ran the bath and picked out my clothes: dark khaki jean,s a cream sweater, nice colorful scarf, and my crazy furry white snow boots. Took my nice bath, makeup, hair, etc, then out to the kitchen for coffee, kashi with blueberries, Rex on my lap, and my quiet time, prayer, memorization, rick warren devotional. 630 I bundle up and trudge out to the car to scrape three inches of icy snow off the car. I slip and slide my way to work and arrive just after 7. Get my office open, then head down to Fca. my guest speaker came in a tad late and we had some kids missing so we just chattedvten prayed. back to the office, help a kiddo who is super stressed out, send him to class, then get two new students set up with a tour and get them oriented and help the secretary with the crazy start of the day with all the snow, etc. Admin. meeting for two hours where we talked about two kid issues, a school safety issue, the kiddo who made the threat yesterday, and truancy. 10. Ish. See a kiddo having a bad day, then meet with asst principal and autism teacher about our kiddo to make a plan. Go back to my office and call the school resource police officer who says he wants to meet with the kiddo and parent at noon. Get that set up. Call the previous social worker for info about the new kids. Eat lunch. Had snacked on trail mix during the admin meeting. Lunch today was from home, leftover sausage, egg and cheese cups and low carb yogurt. Yumm. Cover a class meeting where we showed a video about making friends and I winged a good discussion about making eating new people and getting to know them. Back to the office. See the kiddo who received the threat, consult with a teacher about another kiddo, see the kiddo who made the threat, then meet with the police and the dad and the kiddo to give some background. See a kiddo with a teacher. 2:00. Do my time log, send some emails, get ready for clinical supervision. Do after school dismissal and help the new kiddos get to their bus. Kim and Jesi arrive. Kim and I counsel Jesi on her huge break up. 4 o'clock. Drive home. Take a glorious short nap and talk to scott awhile and got ready for the gym. 515 drive to the gym for a killer intense step class. Fun! Drive home, scott leaves for the game. Make a new recipe. Low carb taco bake. Now blogging, will eat, watch Chicago fire then go to bed early and start all over tomorrow.

Last days of break and new hair

Today I am trying to savor the day, the last weekend before the full rat race begins again. I try to find joy in the little things-- sleeping in, quiet time, Joel being here, the pups who will miss me, naps, time to do whatever. I have had a good break and even found myself getting a bit bored. I'm not ready for the stress but I'm ready to go back and see everyone, my friends at work and my clients whom I do enjoy. I am looking forward to having an undergrad intern this semester and she starts tomorrow. And excited for everyone to see my new hair! I got a haircut on Thursday. Here are the pics but it doesn't do it justice-- it's long in the front and short elsewhere. I like it. I was ready for something more neat and tidy. Scott likes it too! Bonus!