I live in a movie

In June I was driving to Walmart and all of the walkers and bike riders and runners were doing their thing in the spring evening. When all of a sudden I looked over and there was a girl. On a unicycle. My first thought might have been, "hmmm...that's kind of cool." quickly followed, once watching her for a few minutes, by, "why would anyone want to do that? That doesn't look fun at all!" I got to Walmart and texted Danell about aforementioned unicyclist. Her response: :Is Peoria a real town, or are you in a movie?" :) It made me laugh. I saw the unicyclist again today and thought about Danell's comment and laughed all over again!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today my baby brother turned 13. A teenager. It's so hard to believe! I can remember when he was born! I was a sophomore in college. I had seen Dad and Amy over the summer, but I didn't get to see Josh until the holidays. It was great to meet him (and see Daynah too!). I loved cuddling with Josh and having one more person that was shorter than me in the family! I've been going through mental pictures in my head of memories I have of Josh. I have a lot of friends who have young kids and they talk about all the cute things they say and do. I have those memories filed away that I pull out and laugh about or smile over.

Things I love about Josh:
~He has a sensitive, tender spirit.
~He gives great hugs.
~He likes to cuddle.
~He will always play games with me.
~He's generous and has a heart for people.

I love you Josh! :) I'll miss seeing you today!

Pictures to go with those babies

Here are the pictures of some of the babies I got to hold on Saturday: Gavin was a little too interested in everything going on around him to take the time to look at the camera. He probably sees enough cameras every day that he knows to look away!

He was very fascinated by my ring. He asked me if he could wear it, but I told him that we should probably just keep it on my finger!

And this is little Charlotte Kate. She is definitely a cutie!

And here is the majority of the people who were at the picnic. We took the picture later in the evening, so some people had already left. If you can locate me, you'll notice that Uncle Larry saved me a spot on the row with all the 3-5 year olds! I tried to protest but than decided I could be a grown up and go with the flow. :) But really, I'm not THAT short!

We are not ashamed!

Emily and I are most definitely not ashamed that our kitchen looked like this last night and we went to bed anyway. We're not ashamed that we've both had extremely busy weeks. Obviously not busy enough that we didn't have time to eat :), but busy enough that we didn't have time to do the dishes. So, tonight I came home armed for battle!
An empty dish drainer, a towel (I actually had to add another one during dish washing) and my "favorites" playlist on iTunes.
And 30 minutes later...dishes done and trash taken out. (Some of you might be wondering why all the dishes are stacked above the dishwasher. Several years ago we learned that you just have to clean the dishes again once they come out of the dishwasher, so we stopped using it.)
And a spotless counter!

We are not ashamed because we don't let this happen very often. And this blog is supposed to show true life, not some mystical want-to-be life! And it was actually Emily's suggestion that it get blogged about. Except we weren't sure what my mom would say. But I figured, whatever she might think, she would not say out loud! :)

Babies, Babies, and more Babies!

Today was the annual Cousins' Picnic for my dad's side of the family. Cousins includes my dad's generation of cousins and his aunts and uncles and the kids on down the line. To say that the family has had a baby boom this year would be a mild understatement. They might have given the flies a run for their money, except the flies must have flown in from every state in the US for this party! Someone commented that there will be 10 babies this year. Five of which were at the party tonight. Every time you turned around there was a baby somewhere! It was so much fun. I was in baby heaven. Landon and I read a book together, and Gavin and I did lots of jumping together (well, Gavin jumped, I just encouraged him to work those legs!), and Charlotte and I watched a bags game and looked at flowers. And I got to eat dinner with Autumn, who is five. And I asked Christopher about his new baby sister who was born on Thursday and he said "She came out. I'm not answering any more questions!" Oh, yeah, and I got to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles, and my mother too :).

And I also got the answer to the mystery of why I'm not married! And from a five year old. You know the saying, everything you learn, you learn in kindergarten? Maybe it's true! I overheard Autumn's mother telling a story about how Autumn was telling her that she was going to get married first because she was the tallest. I poked my head into that conversation and exclaimed, "Is THAT why I'm not married yet?!" I thought Sara was going to fall over she started laughing so hard! But at least I know now. Now, there's only a few problems with Autumn's theory for me:
1. I have a cousin who told me a few years ago that he is never getting married. And he's taller than me.
2. My brother turns 13 next weekend. He just passed me in height and is not of marriageable age yet.
3. Sara also pointed out that if my future husband is the shortest in his family, we might be waiting around for each other for quite a while!
I'm just glad to finally have some answers. Now I don't have to worry about it anymore! Oh, wait, I wasn't really worrying about it before I had the answers. :)

Be vewy vewy quiet...

My squirrel-hunting client went on a rabbit hunting excursion today. He actually asked during our session if we could go outside to "look at nature." I told him we could go out for the remaining 7 minutes that we had. He hunted. I silently laughed and stayed quiet as instructed. Although he didn't have one, his plan was to put holes in a paper bag and keep the rabbit in there. I keep trying to convince him that these animals are wild and would much prefer to stay in the wild than be kept in bags. But he's 8. And he's a boy. And he doesn't want to hear the words coming out of my mouth. He also has a phrase he likes to use, "A long day ago." The context he uses it in is always a little sketchy, so I can't decide if he means "a long time ago" or "the other day." But it makes me think of when my brother used to say, "ever mind" instead of "never mind."

I was going to edit yesterday's post last night because I remembered one more tidbit from my day, but I had already shut off the computer. It was going to go after the "If you get HIV, you WILL DIE" paragraph and say this: Speaking of dying...We had our annual fire drill at work today. It makes me laugh every year because every year we discuss the fact that a fire drill is useless. If our building catches on fire, none of us from the third floor attic are making it out alive. Especially in the orderly way we file down the stairs! Also, they asked if anyone else was in the building and we said, "Yeah, Jeff is on the phone. Well, he was, but he's definitely dead by now!"

My brain is rattling :)

There are so many things going on in my brain, so I thought I'd do a random thought list for you today, in no particular order.

Before 9:00 today I had already been to one client's house (not for an appointment, but to schedule an appointment because she doesn't have a phone). On the way home some guy in a truck yelled "Hey gorgeous!" and than proceeded to whistle obnoxiously at me. I'd like to say I was flattered, but no so much. Plus, he was driving a trailer with some lawn care equipment in it. Hope I never have to hire him to mow my lawn!

During our team meeting at work we had to do our annual blood-born pathogens training. It consists of watching a movie that may have been made in the 80s. Or the actors just wanted it to look like it was the 80s. Either way, the best line, for the second year running is "If you have HIV, you WILL DIE!" Very ominous. But, correct me if I'm wrong. Won't I die even if I don't have HIV? And than it sparks snide remarks like the one I made to my boss. "If I come to you with a paper cut later today, I expect you to put on gloves and use the proper containers to dispose of all the stuff you use to stop the bleeding!"

We had our first AWANA leader training today. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get back into that groove, but I'll get there fast. I have no choice. AWANA starts in three weeks! Yikes!

I tried the new Nutter Butter blizzard at Dairy Queen today. It was really good for about half the container, but it didn't really have staying power. I don't know that I would get it again.

I'm a wimp. I turned the air back on because I didn't want to deal with the humidity tonight. Emily might roll her eyes at me. But she won't do it to my face, so I'm okay with it.

I think that's all of the brain rattling that I want to share! Thanks for partaking in the random workings of my brain!

I heart my clients (most of the time)

The best thing about working with kids is the unpredictability of what they will say and when they will say it. They don't have that social etiquette filter yet, and just say what they think. No two days with a client are the same because of this.

I have a client who I have been seeing for over a year. She turned 6 over the summer. We've been through quite a bit together and next week will be my last week seeing her, so I am cherishing time with her. I pick her up from her house and take her to the DCFS office to meet every week. Now, although she is six, she is delayed in speech and functions more at a 4 or 5 year old level. So over the last few months she has really come into her verbal reasoning skills, which has made her so much easier and more fun to work with.

Today, we had gotten out of the car and were walking toward the door of the office. She was telling me about something that had happened at home, when all of a sudden two motorcycles went roaring by. I could just barely hear her say, "I can't hear you. Can you hear me?" I said, "No" which I think she saw me mouth. Just as the motorcycles went by she said really loudly (kind of like in the moment in a crowd of people when everyone seems to go silent at the same time and you are left saying something really loudly because of it) "Can you hear me now?!" I laughed and said yes and than she continued with her story as if we weren't interrupted.

Than as we were getting back into the car, she asked if I had music in my car (I generally turn the radio off when clients are in the car so that they are more likely to talk). I said I had a radio and she asked if we could turn it on and I said no, but she could sing a song if she wanted to. There was a slight pause and than she said, "No, I can only sing in blue cars!" My car, amazingly enough, is not blue.

And when I told her that next week will be our last week to meet, she said with a really sad voice, "But I will miss you." Much better than when she used to scream "I hate you!" when I would go to see her at school at the beginning of last school year. :)

It's not all it's cracked up to be

Don't you hate it when you crave something and wait for it and than when you actually get it, it's just so-so? The last few weeks at the grocery store, I've eyed something that I really wanted, but talked myself out of it for two weeks because it's not that good for me. But yesterday, I finally broke down, realizing that if I don't get it, I will forever crave it. So, I had some with dinner tonight. And it just didn't even taste that great. I was disappointed. But now the craving is definitely gone!

On the other hand, I've also been craving pancakes for about a month, but I keep forgetting to buy mix while at the store. So I had pancakes for dinner last night. I'm not usually a big fan of pancakes. If I'm going to eat a breakfast food, I first want French toast and than I want waffles. But those pancakes were pretty good. However, I realized that they might have been pretty expensive pancakes, because what are the chances I'm going to want pancakes again before the mix goes bad?

A train. A train. A train. A train.

And another train. That's how many trains I got stopped by this week. Really just in two days. So, anyone want to admit to putting the beacon on my car that sends all trains to the train tracks I am approaching? Because I wouldn't mind if you take it off now. It's been fun, but I'd like to travel in normalcy next week.

Seriously though, it was almost laughable. Tuesday, my client and I were driving to the DCFS office for our session. I approached just as the train lights started going off signalling that I could no longer cross the tracks. It precipitated an interesting conversation about how trains are dangerous. Being the best therapist she's ever met, I took it as an opportunity to discuss proper boundaries and how if you respect the rules of trains (don't play on the tracks) than they are not dangerous. I won't suggest she watch Unstoppable any time soon.

Than on the way back to my office I approached the train tracks in East Peoria just as the lights started flashing so that I had to wait for the entire train to pass by. I took out my book and put the car in park when the train stopped on the train. For at least a minute before it started back down the tracks.

Than on Thursday, I was on my way to my office with my squirrel-catching client when we were approaching the East Peoria tracks. Just as a train was coming. Seriously, I am not lying. Luckily, this one was only 8 trains long. I counted.

And than on the way home we were getting off the highway to approach the same tracks. But the off ramp was backed up further than usual. I could just peer up the road and through the trees to see. What's that? A bird? Nope. Definitely a plane. Although it was at least the end of the train.

A couple of hours later, I was travelling back through East Peoria and got stopped. Again. This time it was by an engine only, going backwards.

Crazy, when you think that there are times that you can go months travelling through East Peoria without getting stopped at those tracks. Maybe I need to stop travelling. Oh wait, that's part of my job. Like I said, if you are the one who put the beacon on my car, I'd like it very much if you removed it promptly before I head to Pekin on Monday. Thank you in advance. :)

A day in the life of an in-home therapist

Enter into another perfect day with me. It is 9:30 and I arrive at my first house of the day. The family is sitting outside enjoying the perfect weather. I enter into a conversation with the mother about the logistics of next week's schedule. I half-listen to my client, who is 8, telling me something about trying to catch a squirrel (don't tell my boss that I sometimes only half-listen to my clients!). As I am finishing up with the mom, I turn around to locate my client so we can go, and he is holding a plastic bag under a tree staring at the squirrel. I started laughing and said, "What are you going to do once you get the squirrel in the bag?" He hadn't thought any further than getting it into the bag. It took me a few minutes to convince him to come with me and put off the squirrel-catching until another day.

Fast forward to 2pm. I arrive at my last client's house, who is 12. Grandma goes into his bedroom to wake him up. As we wait for him, she tells me that he has not been sleeping at night but has been sleeping all day. He does not come out of the bedroom. After about 15 minutes, Grandma lets me come into his bedroom and try to get him up. I spend five minutes trying to get him to talk to me. He won't. I go back out to the living room. We wait a few more minutes. I go back. At this point, I tell him that I didn't meet with him last week and that we needed to meet this week. I told him that he could get up and come with me or he could be angry with me for coming into his room every five minutes to get him up. Either way, I was going to be with him for an hour and a half and he was not going to sleep. Grandma gave me free reign to go in and out as I pleased. I started taking things from him. Blanket, pillows. He was not getting up. I saw a water bottle on the floor and warned him that I might have to use it and than asked Grandma's permission. She laughed and said "You go girl." So, stripped of nothing to cover up with, I started trickling water on his head. Eventually he woke up enough to talk. I finally compromised with him. As long as he stayed awake, we could have our session in his room. He agreed. So, 45 minutes into the "session", we actually got some good therapeutic time in. Well, sort of. I still don't know why he isn't sleeping at night, but we reviewed concerns about his not sleeping at night and discussed some things he could try to do differently.

It's all in a days work, folks! Squirrel hunter and Nazi therapist.

Gilmore Girls, how I've missed you...

RORY: Well, you know, I guess we don't have to talk about stuff.
LORELAI: Yeah. Who says we always have to be talking? We can not talk.
RORY: Of course we can.
LORELAI: Okay…We should probably talk about how we're not gonna talk, 'cause I don't think we should just go right into it.
RORY: Let's do something that doesn't require talking. Like we could go to the movies.
LORELAI: You want to try not talking at a movie?

I mean, this conversation made me laugh out loud. I love Gilmore Girls. This is my second episode today.

When Dad, Amy, and the kids were here, we spent a day at a fitness club that Dad got free passes to. Some of the boys were playing racquetball. All of a sudden, I turned to Daynah really excitedly and said, "Do you remember the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory and Lorelai decide to play racquetball!" And she said yes. And we laughed. Gilmore Girls is such a bonding experience. :)

It's all the library's fault!

It's the library's fault that I haven't blogged in over a week.
It's the library's fault that I haven't cleaned my bathroom in...never mind, don't want to gross my mom out :) Over a week. We'll just go with that.
It's the library's fault that I haven't been very social.

As a kid I used to love the library. I loved to go and peruse the books. Love the smell of the library (one of my memories is of an old library). But somewhere along the way, I liked to buy books instead. Than I could have my own library. Since I loved to reread books, it seemed smart. And I loaned those books out a lot. But recently, my favorite authors haven't been putting out new books fast enough. That leaves me to have to buy books that I may or may not like. Not always my favorite thing. So, I "remembered" that I could go to the library. And then I found a new author I really liked. I read 4 books this weekend. Yes, 4 full books. Over 200 pages each. I have been putting off doing things like paperwork, eating, checking Facebook, cleaning, shopping, sleeping. You name it, I've put it off. And Sunday I made the mistake of going back for more.

So, I'm trying to find some balance.
Cleaned my toilet yesterday.
Went to the store and bought food to actually cook, not just microwave.
Did some dishes.
Blogged.
Checked Facebook.
Watched television with Emily (aka, was social).
Here's to balance in my life :)

Five chocolate milk glasses

Five chocolate milk glasses testify to how little I have been home this week! The only meal I've had at home since Tuesday is breakfast. Well, actually, I did eat lunch at home on Friday. But that's it! Emily was gone all week, too, so literally, last night I washed five chocolate milk glasses and five spoons, one plate, and a cookie sheet. I've had fun tagging along with Dad, Amy, and the kids all weekend. But I'm a bit exhausted. However, I'm trying to hold back emotion today as I say goodbye. But I don't have to do that until two more meals out and a day of hanging out. And than it's back to reality. I'll try to post more later about the goings-on of the weekend. I haven't taken any pictures, so I have nothing to entertain you besides my wit, which seems to be failing me lately as I have read through some boring posts that I have written. Maybe I should watch Gilmore Girls for inspiration...