"Dude"

Today I taught my nephew how to say "Dude". If I accomplish nothing else in my life I think I will be satisfied.
He is still working on the mechanics of making a peace sign.

Best Part of My Day

Today I heard my nephew said "Anna" for the first time. It warmed my heart and just that one word made me feel loved!

Today is also Joanna's birthday - it's hard to believe she just turned 4.




What a cutie!!!!!!

Funny moments are funnier when people are there to laugh with you!

Yesterday I was lonely as Esther slept and I walked around the house aimlessly trying to find something to do that made minimal noise and was still fun. I could think of nothing, so decided to go out on the front porch and call my mother. As I walked outside and was hit by a wall of freezing cold air I decided it would be more pleasant should the Christmas lights on the porch be turned on. I lifted up the hammock, walked under, and plugged in the lights. As I turned around I thought.. well, maybe if I curled up in the hammock I could get warm while I talked with my mother. So... I sat down and as I leaned back to lay down I lost my balance, my feet flew over my head and I dumped out the other side of the hammock. I landed on my head. I was laughing really really hard until I realized that I was laying upside down on my porch, legs straight up in the air, phone clutched tightly in my hand, pretty lights sparkling above my head, and I was all alone. Some how things just don't seem as funny when you have no one to enjoy them with.
After that embarrassment set in.
Bummer, a perfectly good moment of hilarity yet again turned into embarrassment. What is this world coming to?

Been a long time

So, I suppose I am a slacker and I am not sure why I decided at 12:00 a.m. (the night before I need to be in court in Bradley County before 9:00 a.m., then go and supervise the last visit one of the kids on my caseload has with his mother, then take one of my kids out to lunch for good behavior, then drive from Cleveland to Pikeville, to Dunlap, and then to Dayton, where I will see two more of my kids, and then drive home)... that I would update my blog. Maybe it is my new medication, maybe it is because I am stalling because i know that if I go to sleep then naturally I will wake up and have to begin dealing with the above categorized day.. or maybe because I am too cold to go to sleep... However, I believe the actual reason is that my sister Rinnie is my inspiration. She finally updated her blog after an absence of quite some time and so I thought I should do the same.

The medication comment is a question of mine as I just started medication today to hopefully help with my OCD/Anxiety/and apparent ADD. Who knew I was soo messed up. Well, anyway, hopefully it will help, though I won't know for a while.

I have a few funny stories from recently.

Sometimes I think I have bad luck, but really I think that it is just God's way of saying, hey, I know you like jokes and I just want you to know that I am still watching out for you. Or maybe He just knows that I am a bit of a sadist and tend to laugh when bad things such as when people (myself included) trip, spill things on themselves, or do rather embarrassing things in public. My most famous might be the time that Cristin Taylor accidentally pulled my pants down in the vegetable section of Bilo....

The other day I was washing my new car. I take it to this place where you put quarters in and get to choose between the soapy brush, soapy wash, rinse, tires, etc. Anyway, I don't know why I go there because I always leave feeling like my car is dirtier than it was when I came and generally speaking I somehow end up soaking wet. This day in particular was frustrating as I had spent approximately 5 dollars in quarters vacuuming, brushing, washing, and rinsing my car and just as I ran out of water for the final time (and ran out of quarters as well) a bird flew into the roofed closure and pooped directly on my windshield. There was nothing i could do about it. I had no more money, was soaking wet, and it was the gooey, white, slimy kind that I knew would not simply wash off my windshield if I used the spray and my wipers, no it was the kind that would spread over the entire front of my car and make it impossible to see to drive home. I felt dejected.

P.S. oh siblings of mine... the psychiatrist said that if I had been on medication sooner I may not have always been named the "relational one" - I like to think that I could have been the family brain surgeon :)

GRRR..

My computer crashed, and I am mad about it. My hard drive is "caput" and I am annoyed to the extreme.

However, a very funny moment came out of all of this - I called Erik at 10:00 at night, an appropriate time to catch him I thought. He answered the phone and

I piped up "Hey Erik, how's it going..."

a very groggy voice answered "anna?" .

OOps... I thought. I woke him up... why is he asleep... that's wierd. Shoot, I hope he isn't in another country.

"Oh no" I said, "you aren't in another country are you?"

"Um... I think so" he answered.

I chuckled to myself.

"Well, where are you... sorry I woke you up?"

"um.. I dont know... I dont know where I am... " he seemed quite confused.

I never did find out where he was... in fact, I dont think he every remembered what country he was in :)

I still laugh to myself ... haha..

BUT - I STILL HATE TECHNOLOGY - well, not really, but it is quite annoying at times!

Starting a new Job.

It has been about a month now since I started working for Omni Visions. So far so good. I started out slow, but now have a full caseload of 7 kids. Each one very differant and very unique. I am excited to work with these 7 kids. I wonder how long I will have to build relationships with these kids. Let me tell you a little bit about my kids;

5 out of the 7 kids that I have have been sexually abused. All five while living in their own home.

One of my kids was found in a trash bag in China when she was a baby, was taken to an orphanage, adopted by an american family, and sexually abused for years by her adoptive dad, before she finally made it to a new family. This little girl has been living with a foster family for 2.5 years and they are starting the adoptive process. I hope that her story will be full of redeptions.

One of my kids that was sexually abused acted out on his younger sister and was convicted in court as a sexual perpetrator. He spent 3 days in juvenile detention before being released into DCS custody. Did I mention that he is 9.

Anyway, this is just a bit on the kids that I am having the priveledge to work with. I really enjoy all of them and look forward to helping them through this journey of their life. Pray for me as I do this though. It is hard not to get overwhelmed by everyone's stories and to help them conquer their pasts.

Even though I just started this job I am realizing that I have another dream. I have been thinking a lot about being a Child Life Specialist and working in a hospital and through the past several weeks little things here and there have continued to pop up which have reminded me of this dream. One was a letter that came for Dad from St. Jude children's hospital in St. Louis. I almost cried as I read the letter asking for support and I wanted to be a part of that organization. I wanted to have an impact on those kids, not just through money, but through giving of myself. Today I was reading a friend's blog and saw a link to another woman's blog. She works for Hope Hospital or something like that in Uganda. She was talking about the kids that she works with and my heart skipped a beat and I wanted to be in Uganda, working at a hospital, helping kids to not feel afraid while they recieve treatment.
I think that this is a dream that I really need to pursue! Although I am enjoying my job right now, I get goose-bumps when I think about working in a hospital, being a child life specialist. I think I may have been destined for that kind of work?

Here is a link to the story that i was reading earlier:


Sorry I haven't updated in soo long. Although, Rin, Sarah, Mom.. you all need to update too :)

Winter Song

I know it isn't winter, thought driving around in my non-airconditioned car today made me wish there was some snow on the ground. So, Meg introduced me to this song, Winter Song... and I really really like it. I am not sure why, but I do. maybe because it reminds me of her. Anyway, there is a cute video to the song on youtube.. When I watch the video I picture Meg and I, and it is cute.
I also think that I have been hanging out with Esther, aka Mother Earth, for too long because when I first saw it and the flowers began to pop up I gasped and got all giddy :)
Sheesh, what is happening to me?

Enjoy!