Fall. Midterms.

The end of this week marks the middle of the semester.  Oh boy oh boy.  And look, it's finally fall!

I'm only a quarter done with my internship hours since my previous one didn't work out.  I just changed over from a mental health agency where they had nothing for us to do but read and shadow occasionally to a placement that was needing someone to actually work.  It's at an elementary school and middle school and though it's not ideal either (it involves a lot of teachers' aid kind of work), it will expose me to a new facet of social work and look good on my resume.  Unfortunate thing is that I'm starting mid-semester so I have to hit the ground running and need to catch up on my hours in a big way.  sigh.

I submitted my application to take the bachelor's level ASWB test to get my LSW licensure.  I'm planning on taking it in November so that I can get my license as soon as I graduate in .. 7 weeks!  I'd better start studying huh?  ><;

This week I will complete my 6 weeks of training at 5-C and graduate to being a "real" employee able to be on the floor alone with the kids.  That's both exciting and a little scary, admittedly.  I'm pretty proud of myself for all the skills I've learned and the several certifications I've gone through.  I've also raced against my training group cohort and will be done a week or 2 ahead of them.  I'm an overachiever when it's something I enjoy and I really love working there.  Too bad I will probably need to stay part time since in order to go full time I would need to go to peace officer training in April and then be required to stay on 2 years.  And also it pays far less than an LSW should be making..  mer.

Jed is still kicking butt at work being innovative in the way that they do things and saving the company money.  He's also trying to keep kicking butt in school although he isn't enjoying his last few "foundations" courses.  I know how he feels - they suck.

Some interesting highlights of the past 3 weeks:

Jed got several hundred dollars worth of work done at the dentist when we thought it was gonna be thousands.  Good news.  And now he can chew properly and isn't in near constant pain.  Poor thing has been suffering for a while.  So glad we were able to get that done for him.

I went to a free 8 hour conference on various subjects relating to childrens' mental health given at the local high school.  It was a great experience and I felt so "grown-up" at a conference with lots of PhD snooties giving seminars.  Learned some good stuff.

Got my hair cut.  It's the shortest it's ever been and I really like it!

I have fallen in love with Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  We use it at 5-C and it's common among counselors too.  I just can't get enough of it and ended up buying of the the quintessential books about it: the creator, Marsha Linehan's Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (it was originally developed for people with BPD but has greatly expanded).

Pocatello's ISU hosted a workshop weekend with Joel Plys and Jenna Applegarth.  I didn't have the money to go to the workshops, though I was invited to an intimately small private lesson since I helped organize the people coming down from Rexburg and am the "scene leader" as they put it.  I went to the Saturday night dance with the Jazz House Big Band who were great and it was a really good dance.  I really miss dancing with experienced dancers so it was a nice change of pace.

I also got to do 2 midnight shifts and got them out of the way.  That was good times and screwed up 2 weekends in a row.  Missing church a lot lately, lol.  I need more sleep during the week, lol!

We made cider and kicked butt at it.  It was delish.  Anyway, that was our little fall celebration since I gave up Halloween when I gave up Wiccanism.  I was also meaning to bake my famous spice cookies and cinnamuffs but didn't end up with time this weekend.  Ah well, it's supposed to snow this week so baking will go well with snow or orange leaves, which ever.