Bad dog

We have a bad dog who needs constant redirection. In efforts to keep him out of certain areas of the house, my dad put up a board. Thus far, it has been effective. Now only if we can stop tripping on it...

My Wednesday

Tonight, I saw a super cool girl play volleyball. Even though the Warriors gave them a run for their money, Tayler and the Eagles won. :)


On the way to taking a couple of kids to kids' group tonight, this is the conversation that occurred in my car:

Kid 1: If you drive a car in the middle of the desert, you will run into a cactus.
Me: I have been in the middle of the desert and I have not ran into a cactus.
Kid 1: You have?
Kid 2: If you drive in Mexico without any hands [on the wheel], then you will run into buildings.
Kid 1: That can happen here too.
Kid 2: Yeah, you're right, it can.

Seriously...I don't know where they come up with this stuff, but it is amazing to hear kids' minds at work. :)

Birthday week continues...

In honor of birthday week (because there have been so many birthdays), Angie was born today.

(Sorry, cuz, I had to gank this from your Facebook.)


Tomorrow is my cousin Lindsay's birthday. Happy birthday!

Birthday day

Today is the birthday day! Today is my my grandpa (Pa)'s birthday, Harmony (my roommate from college)'s birthday, and Rebecca (my friend from grad school)'s birthday! Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day!

Labor Day

At First, I thought that this blog would be titled "Chicago Hates Me," but I now have since recanted that statement. I went to Chicago for Labor Day weekend, which has been in the works for about two months. At the last minute, my friend Rebecca could not come up from Nashville to go, but I still enjoyed my time.:(

I left early Sat. morning and dropped off some stuff at college for my sister, Kristen. Just a note: her dorm room was pretty CLEAN and she has been living there for about 2 weeks. I was impressed and told her so.

Then, I drove on to Grace's house, where we went garage saling (only to find a piece of plastic attached to my tire), then on to a sandwich place where we were served an extra sandwich by accident, resulting in a massive amount of food, and then we headed to downtown. The strap to my bag also broke, resulting in an interesting situation to waltz around downtown with an open bag. Thankfully, when we went to a festival where we found super cool and super cheap jewelry, Grace carried my stuff.:)




Then...we went to Alhambra, a Mediterranean restaurant. Instead of the regular Flamenco dancers, they had belly dancers for a very long show. The weirdest part...there was a male with a medallion about 1/3 the size of his chest. I am not sure what that was about.


Sunday was church (we couldn't seem to make it on time to any of the million services or so from Harvest), then lunch/coffee with Uncle Rick, my cousin, Lindsay, and my friend, Adriana. It was very awesome to make the connections between people I know. They were interested in my uncle's ministry and wanted to help out if possible.

That evening, we went to a bonfire "out in the middle of nowhere". (Please note here: this is from Grace, a city dweller. In reality, it was way out in the west suburbs in a tree-lined neighborhood in a huuuuuge house that had a moderate-size backyard and plenty of neighbors.) Haha...I love her.



The crazy drive home required at least one picture, so I settled on the Sanitary Lunch. We should have eaten there during State Dance Competition this spring.

Ode to September

Gone are the days when I thought Sept. was a useless month, squeezed in between summer and fall as a month with little point. Now, I see September as the heralding of fall, an extra space gap between the longest and shortest days of the year. It is a time to breathe deeply and enjoy a break from the chaos that was this summer. So...I will lay outside after work, take walks, and breathe deeply, knowing that this day is one day closer to beautiful leaves and trying to soak up the last few minutes of sunlight for the day. Happy September!

Another day in the life of a social worker...

"I'm not an addict...I can stop anytime I want." If I was paid $1 for every time I heard that, I would take an extra day off (or at least have a nice steak dinner...either or which would be nice). Some days, working with court mandated clients is difficult and stressful. Other times, it is so rewarding to make a positive impact on people's lives. I think everyone starting social work should work with court-mandated clients. It is so character-building to learn compassion and confrontation at the same time. In the ebb and flow of child welfare, we are in our busy season, which sometimes means 10-12 hour days. However, I am grateful for this job and know God has called me here for now.