October & November

Since I have been slacking on taking pictures and we haven't had time to do much else other than do school and work and occasionally hang out with a friend here and there, I thought I'd do October and November together.

October was spent stressing over clients not being available to work with (in the hospital or having babies..) and with mega papers for me.  I am proud to say, however, that I have gotten all As on my grad papers so far, so that's pretty exciting.  

I have been trying to really dive in with PSR and do more than homework and chores but really try and work some issues out with these kids.  Doing homework and chores and the like is totally acceptable PSR time since the whole time I'm working on teaching them various skills and talking about issues they have, but I feel like I'm slipping into lazy PSR time..  I have been using several of the American Girl advice books as well as Berenstain Bear books, applied DBT skills, and journal writing exercises to prompt conversation about real issues and I have had some really great breakthroughs and good dialogues with clients.  

I was able to do MRT training that was fantastic and I'm so excited for the opportunity to use it at some point in the future.  

Jed has been stressing over school and it's been a lot of work for him this semester, especially his AAF competition group.  The Envoy's battery is on the fritz or something and we haven't gotten it looked at yet so Jed has been walking to school.  Yuck.  He has been working so hard, though, and it doing great.  Only 2 more semesters to go!!

Late in October someone smashed into our Envoy that was parked in it's assigned parking spot and seriously damaged the door and a little of the frame.  We asked the spot next to us (the only person legally allowed to park in that spot) if they knew anything about it and they got defensive about it.  Their car didn't show enough damage for the damage our car had anyway..  Insurance said they couldn't do anything about it.  So we have a really nice dent that we have to pay out of pocket for.  

We also got a puppy, but she'll have her own introductory blog post.  ;) 

However, my dog that I got when I was 13 passed away.  Beag had two large tumors on her spleen and had a spleenectomy, but died a couple days later and they're not entirely sure why.  Possibly a thrown blood clot or something.  Regardless, it was really hard to deal with that news, even though she was 14.  Rest in peace, my puppy, and I hope to see you again.  <3

Ok, so, November...  I finally got a haircut.  Haven't had it cut since April, so it was much needed.  I actually went to a professional salon for the first time instead of having a friend cut it or going to the beauty college.  I like it! 

We went out to our first movie in forever: Wreck-It Ralph.  So good!!  I thought that the design, plot, and characters were very excellently done.  I believe this one made it to my top 5 animated movies for sure.

We haven't had a lot of time to hang out with friends lately and haven't left Rexburg all semester (much to our chagrin) except to pick up the dog, so that's been pretty difficult.  We have hung out with Matt and Daniel and Maddy a couple times, but haven't really gotten many photos. 

passed out puppy in lap

The harsh winter weather has been holding off so far and we've only had snow fall a couple times that melts off.  Hoping that this winter is much like last: snow that melts off in a couple days instead of continual sub-zero temperatures, piles of snow, and lots of black ice and stupid drivers.  I wouldn't mind the snow if I didn't have to commute 60 miles round trip to work and drive clients around, but I really hate driving in the snow and ice with dangerous (cocky and/or inexperienced) drivers around me.  Ugh.. 

For Thanksgiving I got 4 whole days off (since I crammed my clients into 3 days, heh).  We had a nice, low key dinner at home that was actually 100% vegan.  We had tofurky roasted with red potatoes, carrots, onion, and apples; mashed yukon gold potatoes; gravy; croissants; peas and corn; cranberry sauce; butternut squash soup; sparkling cider; and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  It was great!

We then followed it up with some face masked, because we're beautiful!

Until next time!