Jed and Eve: August

Work has been stressful. I started at 2 new schools in a different program that is essentially a completely different job (other than that it's still school-based counseling). Now I'm on site at 4 schools and cover kids at 3 additional schools in 2 programs in 2 towns. We are short-staffed right now and they're trying to hire someone else so hopefully it'll improve at some point. :\ School started in Julian in the beginning of August and in Ramona near the end of the month, so my summer ended quickly!

trying to de-stress and stay cool

I designed a 16-week high school DBT curriculum for my coworker because I was feeling bogged down and wanted to do something exciting and different. It took me about 6 hours and was stressful but fun.

It was crazy stupid hot here for a while, peaking at over 110 degrees. It was also a great time for the car's AC to have issues so there has been a lot of sweaty 1.5 hour drives this summer..

when you have temps over 100, you get a cactus apparently

tested the temp in the car, lolz

We dogsat our friends' dog and Nova's brother-from-another-mother, Eddie, for 1.5 weeks.

We have been having ants enjoying the water in the pipes in this crazy drought, so have had to use borax traps to deal with that. Then we got even more lucky and got fleas when both dogs were here so got to treat them and the house for those guys. It was a very enjoyable time period, lol.

In mid-August, we met up with Daniel and Maddy for dinner and hanging in Solana Beach/Encinitas

Bangkok Bay delights

I got to babysit my nieces/nephew twice in August. Although the science activity flopped (boats made of ice with straw and paper plate sails), we had fun with practicing dexterity skills, colors, letters, numbers, spelling, and social skills with water, scooping floating objects with a tool and placing in floating cups, spelling with foam letters, wet sponges thrown at a sidewalk chalk target, a walk, a water fight, and general goofiness made up our day.

teaching them how to selfie, mwaahaha

Day 2, we read (I can't get enough Mo Willems) and did a scavenger hunt on our way to play at the park; then after lunch, writing/letter recognition practice (don't you love my perfect Kinder style models? yes, she does cursive because she was in Montessori), patterns/pompom division (math is fun at this age), and coloring. I got to try my first baby carrier and now can love the concept and the application!

I had a Skype interview for a place in Portland, but no dice.

We spoiled ourselves and got a Wii U with Super Mario Bros U and Splatoon, which is a hilarious player-vs-player paintballing-esque game in which you turn into a squid!

For months I'd planned our backpacking trip to Lena Lakes in the Olympics and for over a year I planned my chocolate decadence cake from Piece of Cake Bakery in Portland (my first non-wedding professional cake ever) for my big 3-0 birthday. But we didn't get to be in the PNW (I'm so homesick) and I grieved and made other plans. And then they, too, fell through (lots of forest fires this time of year in SoCal).

So I settled again and we ended up doing a short little dayhike in Big Bear and got Punjabi food and vegan pastries and I still got to enjoy being out away from people, palm trees, and concrete.

I got a lot done in the last decade (went on a mission, got bachelor's and master's degrees, established my career, got married, got a dog) and changed a lot for the better (I was kind of a reckless B at 20) so I hope I can say the same in another decade.

Work also kind enough to do a vegan-friendly potluck for the August birthdays.