9/11

We had our bully prevention kick off day at Eisenhower today.  It was a huge success.  It wasn't lost on me that today is the anniversary of the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 12 years ago.  I have vivid memories of where I was and all that happened within the first few hours of that first plane hitting the tower.  I mostly remembered feeling numb and helpless.  How could there be so much hate in the world?  Today our focus was teaching the kids how to make their school and therefore world a little better by eradicating hate, by doing your part to stand up for each other and to treat one another with respect.  I can easily get overwhelmed by all the hate and evil in the world.  So I leave the big problems in God's hands and I do what I can, day in and day, out to try to make my tiny part of the world a better place. 

Senior Pictures

One of the Homestead girls is really into photography and is getting really good at it.  So I asked them if they'd take Adelle's senior pictures.  Adelle told me a few weeks ago that she wanted them taken.  Her family has no money.  Adelle knew enough about it to bring several outfits, casual and otherwise.  So we took the pics last weekend.  We all met at Homestead and Adelle was pumped.  She'd been nervous about it earlier, even told me we should reschedule for spring.  But she went outside with the girls and told me to stay inside.  The girls said she posed!  She kept coming in and changing her clothes and going back out.  Tonight they emailed me some of the photos.  I can't wait to show them to Adelle!  Here is a sneak peek!

Old Trunk

So I repurposed an old trunk using really old sheet music.  I forgot to take a pic before I got started but there is one in a previous blog.

I put the music on, carefully trimmed around the hardware using a razor blade, then put mod pudge all over it.  I think I like it but I'm not sure.  What do you think?

New Livngroom

Our new livingroom furniture was delivered and we are almost done decorating it.  I still need to get so,e flowers for the coffee table and I a, repurposing a trunk with antique sheet music that will go where the sofa table is.  I purchased a mirror for over the fireplace mantel yesterday and it looks amazing.  We also plan to paint the room the same color as the bedroom, a unique green.  It is so cozy in here now!  

My grandparents

I dreamt about my grandparents for some reason last night and decided to blog about them.

My Dad's parents, Madeline and Alfred Eugene Griffith or "Griff" were very cool people.  We called then Nonnie and Granddad.  Nonnie and Granddad always lived in fancy apartments with ornate furniture and drove fancy big cars.  They were always dressed up stylishly, Nonnie in her 70's polyester pantsuits with big jewelry and Granddad in slacks and a dress shirt.  Nonnie wore beautiful silver wigs, lots of makeup and painted her long fingernails red.  She modeled fur coats in her sixties for a high end department store.  Grandad was short and bald with white hair around the edges and a white mustache.  He wore fedora hats and smoked a pipe with half and half tobacco.  We always ate a meal together and sat at the dining room table and ate out of serving bowls and had dessert.

Nonnie and Granddad met in Chicago where Nonnie was raised.  Nonnie had been married before that and had Uncle Bob then the guy got violent so she divorced him and became a flapper in the early 20's.  Grandad and Nonnie married and lived and worked at the YMCA in the early years and were ping pong champions in Chicago.  Later, Grandad worked for a bank.  

Nonnie was in charge and loved to be bossy and sassy.  She was very loving to David and I but didn't have a good relationship with my Dad.  She loved to move her furniture around which really meant standing there bossing all the men around.

My Grandad was quiet and really in charge but he let Nonnie think she was in charge.  He was also very loving and liked to take me for walks.  He told me stories of when he was little like when he had the hiccups for a year and when a roly poly crawled in his ear.  He was always listening to the Royals on a transistor hand held radio and liked to eat weird food.  He taught me to eat peanut butter and bologna sandwiches on toast to which he also added baked beans. He had some unique phrases that he would yell out occasionally.  My memories of Grandad have become blurred over the years because Lee and he had a lot of similarities.  I just remember Grandads kindness and strong presence in the room.

I never met my Grandfather Leo on my Moms side because he died when she was in her twenties.  My Grandma Pickens was a sweetheart.  Her name was Corinna Faye Horseman but she remarried a man named Jihn Pickens.  She was a roundish blue haired Grandma who was a more traditional Grandma. She gave us treats and played the piano and had a garden.  She was loving and a softy.  She died when I was in fourth grade which was the first time I remember my mom crying.  My Grandpa John was kind of scary.  He liked guns and had a bra tie clip.  I really only saw him at holidays because he made himself scarce when we went to Grandmas.  She lived in a tiny little house with lots of nick nacks and I always talked her into giving me one.  

Nonnie and Grandad.  Madeline and Griff.

Corinna Faye, Grandma Pickens

A good day at work

I've written about some of the challenges at work and I had a pretty good day on Friday and all week really, so I thought I'd write about that.  I do love my job and the people I work with.  I love that its challenging every day.

I almost didn't go to work Friday since I have this rotten summer cold and I didn't have much scheduled for Friday but I went and I decided I'd just do some paperwork and only handle what came in the door rather than calling kids down to see me.  I started the day doing a dress code intervention with a gal who had a temper tantrum earlier in the week over dress code.  It went ok but no one told me that she unzipped the jacket as soon as I left.  Then at lunch, whew, lots showing.  She ended up in Marvin's office having another tantrum.  I thought he did great, he had tried to be positive and supportive and she'd disrespected him so he called me then got very firm with her and said his patience was running thin.  She got up and huffed out but came with me and complied in changing.  She cried a little but responded to my calm offers of support then went back to class.  The cool thing was, I got a hold of mom and had a very positive conversation with her when it had Not gone that way with the elementary school.

I spent much of the rest of the morning doing Medicaid logging and completed the whole month of August!  Then I received a referral for one of our kids on the autism spectrum, that he had been asking a young lady out and sending her notes and she was uncomfortable.  This can be fairly sticky with kids who lack social recognition because they can be sexually harassing someone completely innocently.  My talk with him went pretty well and then I gave the autism teacher a heads up so the paras can keep an eye on it.

I did some observations of students at both lunches and second lunch with the 7 th graders, Marvin was giving announcements over the microphone and he said," see that lady over there?  That's Mrs. Clark, wave Mrs. clark.  She has worked hard and accomplished something I think you all will really appreciate.  She has convinced the district to give everyone Monday off school!"  Of course the cafeteria erupted in cheers and applause with everyone looking at me and thanking me.  I think some of them actually believed him!  It was awesome.

After lunch Angela and I went to elective team to problem solve with them about challenging kids.  When we walked in the door, they cheered and said, "Here come the girls!"  It made me feel good.

The new referrals flew after that and I could pretty much only write them down for Monday then I did clinical supervision with Tanya.  As I mentioned, I feel like my purpose this late in my career is to pass along the experience and wisdom I've gained over the years.  I may not be equipped to do different kinds of social work and I'm not real motivated to learn tons more and I realized that this is what I'm supposed to be doing for the next six years or so until I retire.  And after that, who knows?  I can continue to do clinical supervision.  I could do private practice with adolescents, or I could learn something else.  I didn't think I was qualified to do the small group at Homestead but God is working through me there.  

Anyway, it was a good day.

Tidbits

I was so exhausted after my first full week of work that I slept 12 hours Friday night, took a nap on Saturday and slept good again last night.

First full week with kids:  orienting the intern is going well; new staff are green but coming along; did a suicide assessment for a kiddo with autism, working hard to help an anxious student with zero confidence and a huge tendency to refuse (and his mama rescues him) to work through some issues; making behavior plans for angry students; collaborating with staff and outside therapists on a kiddo with reactive attachment disorder; started teaching in the autism room ( we have 14 kids in the program this year!); planning for the bully kick off day; started FCA; met with all but 2 of the 49 kids on my caseload; visited five of the six teams I'm on; had our first faculty and admin meetings; and started planning for emergency preparedness week.  Whew!  No wonder I'm tired!  

I've been feeling really forgetful at work lately and it really bothers me then God has shown me that my goal is to love others and encourage them, not to gain their favor.  I want people to see Christ and be drawn to Him, not to me.  Maybe they can even see Him clearer when I am weak.  God is so good.

Rex misses me during the week.  He is still taking the new "baby" which is a toy rabbit everywhere he goes.  I had another proof that he understands English.  Yesterday morning I got up super early to make coffee for our house guests and told Rex when we got up that we were just getting  up briefly then going back to bed.  I got up, let him out and back in, made the coffee then couldn't find him.  He was already back in bed waiting for me!  And I never go back to bed!

Jackie and TJ stayed with us two nights.  We met them at Harry's Friday night along with the Sherows for dinner then last night I cooked for them and then we went to the movie to see Elysium.  They bought us some mums for the pots in front and some green plants for the front, too. 

I got Adelle yesterday and did our usual errands then over here for frozen pizza and iPad time.  I taught her how to take pizza out of the oven.  Still working on paying attention while driving the grocery cart and in the parking lot.  Gigi called me this week just to tell me how worried she is about Adelle and her future and what a life saver I am to her.  She got in trouble this week for ramming her shoulder into a girl in the hallway.  No telling what that was about but she did tell me her favorite show wasn't on all last week and that made her very sad and mad.  She talked a lot about feelings yesterday which is unusual.  

Can't wait to talk to the family on the phone this week to see how Leah's student teaching went, when Hannah is coming, how Joel is doing especially financially and what the rents are up to.