family time

I feel like I should squeeze in one last post before 2015. 

We are currently in Kansas visiting Ben's family. 

The picture above is from a day celebration that we had at a B&B in Lindsborg, Kansas. 

The Stuckys gathered to celebrate Grandma Milly's 90th birthday, which is coming up in February. 

We are headed to Lawrence tomorrow to hang with friends. 

We'll stay for New Years and then head back to MKE on Jan. 1. 

Luckily, Ben doesn't have to return to school until Jan. 5, so he has time to relax yet. 

It's been a wonderful trip thus far. 

Spent Christmas in South Dakota with my family.

Saw some good ol' friends. 

Spoke to some important people about potential job opportunities in Sioux Falls. 

The job search may ramp up a little more in the coming months, but it's at least time to get things rolling.

Our lease is up in August. 

There are more notable things about our future house situation...but I'll explain those when we know more about the future in general. 

I'll try to post a few pictures from my phone when I get a chance. 

Until then, I'll be enjoying my break. :)

Happy New Years!

finish line

Final semester of supervision. Final semester-long art piece.

SORRY FOR THE HIATUS!

So I made it...almost.

There is the matter of this little "take home exam" that I have yet to complete for Family Systems, but the goal is to sit in a coffee shop and complete it on Monday!

Otherwise I somehow magically made it through 2 very tough weeks. 

They weren't the toughest 2 weeks because I had a lot to do.

They were just THE LAST TWO WEEKS of one of the hardest semesters I've ever experienced. 

I actually didn't have THAT much to do.

Luckily, I've had practice with 2 other tough semesters. 

If I hadn't had experience with the first two semesters I never would have made it through this one. 

Not to mention that they were the last two weeks of PRACTICUM.

That part really hasn't sunk in yet.

I hit my 800 practicum hour requirement (actually probably more like 825-ish) and I will officially have 18-20 hours of my life back each week.

WOW.

THAT'S HUGE.

But I might also be working more hours at EYM, looking for a real, full-time job, doing homework from the two classes that I'll be taking this spring semester, creating my exit art show, and writing a 30-page contextual essay about my research.

So YES. I AM looking forward to it.

These last two weeks were hard because I was sick with a cold. 

The first week was just a dry throat and postnasal drip.

Week 2 was a full blown cold, but because I didn't have a lot to do I could actually do SOME laying around...but not much. And now I've given my cold to Ben (but I think we could blame his elementary school children too).

I managed to do some rearranging of my schedule at the hospital in order to get the rest of my hours in and clients closed out. 

I did have to cancel my last visit to the infusion clinic and my last time at the cancer support group on the oncology floor.

It's not responsible to spread your cold to people with compromised immune systems. 

I took a bouquet of tissue paper flowers as a gift to the infusion clinic on Friday. The nurses loved them and they were super appreciative.

Because I still have a little residual cold and cough I decided to take it easy today and tomorrow. 

Been napping, drinking tea, and watching tons of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. 

No shame. 

Time for a break.

Speaking of breaks...

Never got to say how wonderful it was to have Ben's sister with us for Thanksgiving break. 

We made a nice little spread, hung out, watched Netflix, Skyped/called family, went to my final Open Studio at the hospital, and took Emily on her very first brewery tour over at Lakefront. 

I actually have some "homework" to complete before the spring semester starts...aka analyzing my research, and completing my annotated bibliography (no small tasks).
BUT I have until JANUARY 26 until classes start again.
Thank you MMU, for the most beautifully long Christmas break.

Hope that gives you all an idea of what life has been for the past 3 weeks.
We're headed out for a week in South Dakota and then Kansas.
Going to be cleaning the house until then...it's been awhile.

lost in familiar places

3 weeks to go, my friends!

And one of them is THANKSGIVING week. 

Unfortunately I think it's going to be a really hard few weeks simply because I don't want to do a single thing. 

Writing papers just doesn't seem that exciting anymore. 

Thanks, but no thanks.

I'd rather pet my beautiful kittens. 

We really love them to pieces...and obviously can't take enough pictures of them. 

So this is basically a post to let you know that I'm still alive and procrastinating all of the time. 

That's why I'm on the blog instead.

I'm also just trying to stay afloat.

It's a miracle if I can wash a few dishes these days. 

Though I DID make some very comforting cheeseburger soup last night.

Feels like it's taking all of my strength just to get homework done.

I have a multicultural paper to write.

So right now I'm going to gird up my loins and make some paper-writing magic happen. 

facepainting

Happy belated Halloween, ya'll!

I wasn't planning on dressing up this year, but my friend Holly said I should do a little something creative because we were planning on attending the De La Buena/ Hood Smoke show here in MKE. Holly works with me at Express Yourself MKE and she and her husband sing and play piano for De La Buena, which is Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz music. It was an awesome show and fun to be with friends. 

I have always wanted to try out a candy skull design, which is a traditional Hispanic celebratory practice for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on Nov. 1. I still have the pictures of the festival in Guatemala. But I didn't want to use cruddy cheap paint that cracks and sucks the moisture out of your face, so I asked a friend of mine who does a lot of theatrical face painting. She recommended a costume/theatre make-up shop downtown, so I splurged on some black and white. It took about an hour to paint. It was so much fun and I was sad to take it off at the end of the night. The make-up was worth it too. I had to be careful not to smudge it, but it looked just as good at the end of the night as it did at the beginning. The picture above is my practice run. The picture below is what I wore to the show. I actually liked the design from the first run (typical me!). I had to be careful to make sure I could replicate the design on both sides. 

Other than that...

Study, internship, study, internship...

I'm done with my midterm stress bomb and have transitioned into the beautiful, pre-end-of-the-year lull. 

I am not "out of the woods" yet, but compared to my midterm, the rest of the semester looks glorious.

Quite a bit of reading and writing to do, but it's nicely spread out. 

98 hours of internship to go.

1 weekend class to go. 

4 weeks of class to go (not including Thanksgiving break). 

By the way, Ben and I are super-excited to have his sister Emily be with us for Thanksgiving this year. 

Can't wait to cook, explore MKE, and lazily hang around the house with her!

I have a very dreaded annotated bibliography that will require A LOT of reading and writing during Christmas break....but I have 6 weeks off so it shouldn't be an issue. 

Ben and I are going to a Yonder Mountain String Band concert tonight.

How I've missed the bluegrass music!

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE SO CLOSE TO THE END!

I AM ELATED!

Best wishes in your final weeks without extreme snow and cold!

the leaves in milwaukee

A shot from the parking garage at my internship.
This was a rare sighting of sun this week.
Mostly clouds and rain.

Behold! The glorious Wisconsin fall colors!

I wish fall would last for half of the year instead of winter. 

Hopefully this year will not be another "polar vortex" extravaganza. 

I've been polling folks at the infusion clinic.

Some people say that it will be worse. Other people say not. 

We shall see.

The family systems presentation went well, by the way.

Glad I can now recycle all 12 of those journal articles that I had to read in preparation for it. 

Test this Thursday...and I'm going to try to get my genogram/paper done...but I'll likely just have a rough draft.

She pushed the due date back a week because of the test falling on the same day. 

"Midterm" busyness will essentially be done by the end of this week.

I'm officially at 650/800 hours for internship.

Only 150 to go!

Hard to believe we're nearing the end. 

Research is going well. 

I've only got 2 more weeks to go...but I might actually finish up early because I already have 6 pictures and stories. 

Need to speak with my professor on Monday. 

Another shot from the parking garage.

mid-term

It's already OCTOBER 11!

I blinked and now we're nearly half way through the month. 

Fall has been lovely, but I've been so busy that I've barely had time to enjoy it. 

My Family Systems presentation is this Thursday.

Then my Genogram and Genogram Paper are due next Thursday, along with a test.

Can't wait to take down these next two weeks!

Maybe I'll have lots of fun things to write about after that...maybe.

For now, you can look at my body map...which is about 7 feet long.

The body on the paper is literally the size of my body. 

dismal

Here's a print from rehab group. 

String painting.

Pretty successful process.

Found the idea on Pinterest and made it my own. 

So....

I am really busy.

And stressed.

And tired.

Today as I was driving towards my internship I told myself I should have stayed home. 

I decided to leave 5 hours early because I was just too tired and lethargic to really make anything significant happen.

Luckily, I didn't have anything of importance scheduled.

(Oh, how I love my flexible schedule.)

It was a really great choice. 

I slept, worked on Family Systems homework, ran one errand, and cleaned the living room. 

We can't have good days everyday, so this one was just one of those not so good days. 

Glad I had the opportunity to pass on it and try again tomorrow. 

Also, we took the train down to Chicago on Saturday for a Royals vs. White Sox game. 

This was Emily's first professional baseball game that she has ever attended, so we were happy to be with her for the momentous occasion.

We stayed with our friend Kelly and she also attended the game with us. 

We ate some fabulous ballpark food...not to mention Ann Sathers (cinnamon rolls from heaven) and Southport Grocery and Cafe. 

I can't believe October is here.

I have some big paper/presentations/things happening in these next 3 weeks. 

I'll try to check back in, but no promises.

I'm a little afraid, but also extremely excited to tackle what I feel will be the busiest part of my grad school career.

Wish me luck!

hilde snuggles

Here's a pic of my sweet little Hilde snuggled up, asleep on my shoulder.

I totally needed her snuggles tonight because I just finished my first family systems test and the essay section was harder than I imagined. 

Not to mention my brain was a little fried before I even began.

I looked back on the week that I've had, and I realized that it was also harder than I imagined.

Coming off of an awesome weekend of art therapy in the woods was inspiring and fun, yet it made this week exhausting. 

Quite the day today:

9a-10:45a - Meeting at Express Yourself. (Did I mention that I'm officially on staff and leading one group there this year? I'm SO EXCITED to stay connected with those inspirational people!)

11a-4p - internship at the hospital

4-4:25 - rush hour traffic

4:25-4:40 - grab supper to go

5-6 - cram information into head for family systems test

6-7:30 - take test

7:45 - collapse onto couch

8-9 - devote entire hour to doing absolutely nothing...and perusing internet.  

It will be nice to calmly focus on homework and relaxing this weekend.

The plan is to be a little more prepared for next week. 

colloquium 2014

2014 Colloquium piece.

All of the 1st and final year art therapy graduate students ventured into the woods for a retreat at Camp Edwards by East Troy, WI this past weekend.

Art making, tai chi, good art therapy discussion and just loads of fun.

I am so grateful for the experience. 

It was nice to be a knowledgable 2nd year student that could kind of sit back, enjoy, and embrace the weekend, instead of being in that 1st year confused haze. 

Colloquium is also a sign that THE END IS NEAR!

I'm getting ready to finally tackle my 6-week research project, which I plan to begin next week. 

If I can just make it to December.... oh boy.

So excited.

iowa wedding

We have returned from Iowa!

Nate and Andrea are married and a great time was had by all, but we were sure exhausted when we returned home this afternoon. 

Quite the trip.

Ben and I left Milwaukee on Friday morning with only a 4.5 hour drive to make down to Iowa City.

However, that trip was lengthened slightly when we noticed a progressive rumbling/shaking developing in the car...turns out it was a flat tire 12 miles from Madison (45 minutes into the trip). 

Something must have pierced the side of the tire.

Ben handily put the spare on and we made our way to a tire shop in Madison. 

Luckily, we were back on the road an hour later. 

That could have been so much worse.

We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning wandering around Iowa City, a lovely college town. 

On Saturday afternoon we drove over to Nate's farm near the Kalona, IA area for the wedding.

It was a gorgeous August day for an outside wedding. 

Great food, dancing, and company.

Looks like that's the last extended trip that we'll be taking for a little while.
Time to refocus on this semester.
I am bracing myself for the amount of work ahead.

Here's the start of my supervision piece.
We'll see where it ends up.

birthday!

27th birthday!

The day of my birthday was pretty typical...kind of boring and not that much fun at internship. 

But the evening was a winner. 

We ate some of the most amazing ethnic food I have EVER eaten: ETHIOPIAN. 

It tasted very similar to Indian food, but had its own unique twist. 

I'll be dreaming about that meal for awhile. 

And then because it FINALLY cooled off here in Milwaukee we went back to Tosa for some Colectivo coffee (decaf for this highly sensitive lady) while we sat in the squishy love seat in the "almost outside" (they have a garage door that they open when the weather is lovely). 

I just completed my first week of fall classes. 

Going to be a really interesting, really busy semester: Family Systems, Assessment/Clinical Skills, Supervision, and Multicultural Art Therapy. 

I was also just reminded that I'm in my last counseling class! 

Only art therapy department classes this spring! So happy.

It's also kind of blowing my mind that I only have one more semester to go after this one.

WOAH!

I also got my internship hours rolling again. 

Rehab group, cancer support group, and then I had some really great one-on-one sessions to finish off August. 

I'll be heading back to the 12th floor and starting at the infusion clinic next week.

Didn't want to go this week because I'm a touch under the weather. 

Weird postnasal drip/throat tickle/allergies? 

Just can never be sure, so it's best to stay off the unit. 

Our good friend Kelly from Chicago came to visit during that in-between point where I turned in my research proposal and started of fall classes. 

Perfect timing. 

And tomorrow we're headed to Iowa City!

Longtime Bethel friend Nate is getting married near Kalona on Saturday. 

Happy to see friends...

Also happy that it will be the last trip for a little while...

Sometimes it's just good to stay in one place. 

Happy Labor Day weekend!

to kansas, chicago, and back

Royals game with Justine (and more friends)

I am SOOOO happy to be home!

We have had quite the adventure, and I'm reminded why it's a good idea to do absolutely nothing sometimes. 

On Sunday I finished my 3 day research class, which we spent workshopping our research proposals.

That SAME DAY we left for Des Moines and stayed with Paula and Tom. 

On Monday we drove to Kansas City for my first taste of Oklahoma Joe's burnt end sandwich. Amazing! Then we watched the Royals move into first place over at Kauffman Stadium with a bunch of friends. (This was all part of Ben's birthday extravaganza.) We stayed in Lawrence for the evening.

On Tuesday we officially said happy birthday to Benjamin and hung out in Lawrence for most of the day. But we weren't done yet! Off to McPherson we went...and I actually kept moving down to Wichita to have a lovely supper with Kezia.

I spent most of Wednesday in the pool at Dorothy and Keith's (woooo!) walking around the shallow end while reading and highlighting journal articles (barf). That evening we drove to Reba's in Newton to have drinks and talk with some great mentors and friends within our particular fields (a fellow educator and an art therapist). 

On Thursday we met with Kim and Joel for lunch back in Newton, wandered around the freshly renovated Fine Arts Center at Bethel and found a few beloved professors. This was followed by a big Harder/Stucky family meal. 

And as you can tell, these days went by WAY to quickly...

...which left us back on the road Friday morning. We just drove back to Des Moines for the evening and watched our niece and nephew (who happen to be dogs) while Tom and Paula were vacationing in California. 

THEN DOROTHY AND EMILY CAME TO VISIT MILWAUKEE on Saturday!

We showed them around...which happens to center around all of the best food we can think of. 

Then on Monday we took the awesomely quick train down to Chicago to move Emily into her home at The Chicago Center for the semester.

We're pretty happy that she's so close.

Then Ben and I returned to MKE this afternoon (Tuesday)...

so I could quickly make edits to my paper and attend a research editing group that I've been working with BECAUSE MY RESEARCH PROPOSAL IS DUE ON FRIDAY. 

And now after writing this all down...I can better understand why I'm so tired. 

What an amazing week...but now is time for research proposal completion and 

DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

If you don't hear from me....you know why. 

View of Lake Michigan from Hyde Park

Dropping Emily off at her new home for the semester.

the porch

Hey all.

Here's that picture of the backyard porch at our friends' home out in rural Wisconsin. 

This is where we partially celebrated our wedding anniversary with our lovely McCabe-Juhnke friends. 

It was a treat to have a cup of coffee out there during the cool mornings.

It overlooked a huge lake/marsh that we kayaked on. 

So lovely. 

I hope I can have a big lovely porch like that someday...even if it isn't attached to a huge mansion-like farm house. 

And below is a paper coffee cup with a view. 

I made it last weekend.

My paper and annotations are coming along...but I better keep at it.

Going to be a busy week!

margaritas

My "avocado/pear" dream catcher that I made with willow branches in open studio last week. 

Woo!

I am 66.6% done with classes for the summer.

My supervision presentation went really well with really nice feedback from my peers...followed by a super quick final exam in psychopathology. 

Kind of depressing to hear my professor say, "Have a nice summer" when in reality it will last for what feels like a nano-second. 

Oh well! 

A break is a break, and for that I am grateful!

I have also officially hit my 200 hour mark for the summer semester (500 hours total). 

300 hours to go! (which I will start at the end of August)

So I'll be going in to see 1/1 patients next week, but other than that...I'll be swimming in research....all of the research I haven't been doing for the past month. 

And then....2 WEEKS OFF!

Which will be partially spent in Kansas...and also finishing up my research proposal...right in time for my birthday. 

So how have I been celebrating? 

Margaritas with some of my AT ladies last night at Bel Air Cantina. 

La Reve, the French restaurant in the Wauwatosa village nearby. 

I received a very nice gift certificate for La Reve from the folks I babysit for this last Christmas. 

It was a perfect time to use it. 

And I'm taking most of tomorrow off as well....though I may do some reading if I get bored (don't want to clean the house).
We talked about going to the beach and getting donuts from the fancy new donut place in the Third Ward.

We'll see.

Just enjoying one more victory in the game of grad school!

nonlinear

A commissioned piece that traveled down to some dear friends in Florida this week. 

Greetings!

Happy to say that I am 6 days away from putting down my DSM-5 for a while.

The psychopathology final will take place this Wednesday, as well as my final Supervision class for the summer. 

We just have to turn in papers and do a brief presentation. 

That leaves me with my research class...but my hope is that with my other classes and my additional work hours at EYM out of the way, I'll be able to focus and write a nice first draft for myself. 

You're probably wondering what my research will be about...

It might be a little difficult to grasp this because art therapy lives in a very strange land...

but I will be researching the therapeutic potential of hope through the process of my own art-making, specifically while working with the oncological population. 

I'll be doing art-based inquiry, which means I'll meet with oncology patients to make art and hear about their own stories of hope (or not hope); then I'll do my own art making in response to our session (called response art). In the spring I'll analyze all of the art that I made (the data), find themes, and then write a paper. It's a pretty nuanced way of doing research, so I won't blame you for thinking it sounds bizarre. 

Like I said, art therapy lives in a very special world. 

And otherwise...

I've been making a lot of art and attempting to force myself to work on my homework...it feels almost impossible at times. 

Ben and I had our one year anniversary on July 20. 

I realized that I did not include a picture of our house sitting job, but that's basically what we were doing that weekend. 

It was for our church friends, who happen to live in a really beautiful farm house about 30 minutes from MKE. Ben was out there longer than me, feeding the sheep, chickens, cat & dog, as well as a few other chores. Austin drove over from Columbus, OH to join us, so his sister Taylor came over from Madison. It was great to spend some time in the country with friends. 

Then Ben and I drove back for church and ate our favorite food in the world...Pho and Bahn Mi...at one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants. 

We have a little celebrating in order yet, because I don't think we tried hard enough and I was busy worrying about homework. :)

Maybe after class is done. 

sailing

Been working on these little 3-D Block Canvases. They're super tiny. I think it says a lot about me needing control these days....

OH, HIIIIIIIIIIIIII.....

Yes. Long lost me.

Been a bit hectic these last few weeks.

My family visited last weekend...but I honestly don't remember if other big stuff has been going on.

I'm in a whirlwind of class, practicum, babysitting, working....

It's gotten a little ridiculous.

But I'm happy to report that 2 classes will be out of my life by July 30.

I'm also trying not to have a panic attack as I write that because even though I'm starting to close out a few more classes, I'm also supposed to start writing a research proposal within the next week or two.

And let's just say the "research" part has been lacking.

I'm not the only one (WE ARE VERY, VERY BUSY). 

But I need to step my game up this next week and start doing some serious reading/writing for my annotated bibliography. 

First draft of my proposal is due August 8.

Final draft is due August 22. 

AND THEN THE BUSIEST SEMESTER OF MY ENTIRE LIFE WILL BEGIN ON AUGUST 25.

My schedule is a little horrific.

I'll let you know if it turns out that I'm not that busy...

but don't be surprised if these posts occur at 1 month intervals. 

I would update you more on my family's trip to MKE, but all you really need to know is:

baseball, beer, bloody marys, kittens, lake, macaroons, ice cream, food (in general).....

YAY FAMILY

summerfest

I'm not tired yet, so I'm going to take the opportunity to write you all.

I just got home from my first Summerfest!
I went solo because Ben had a gig, but I have to say that it was A LOT of fun going by myself.
Going alone means you just kind of get to go wherever you want without having to check in with someone.
Oddly freeing.
I DID see EYM friends there, so I was alone, but not lonely. 

Hugest music festival ever.

They actual refer to it as "The World's Largest Music Festival," whatever that means. 

Kind of awesome, as long as you're prepared to be surrounded by a dense crowd of people and pay a lot of $$$ for beer and food.

I actually ate beforehand and only bought one beer, so that was helpful.

AND I not only got to see some big names like Ziggy Marley and The Hold Steady....I also got to see my dear Express Yourself MKE friends play in their amazing local MKE bands. 

Not even on smaller stages...

They OPENED for Ziggy Marley!

Ugh. They're so amazing.

I took the shuttle, which in my opinion, is always a good idea in MKE. 

A lady was trampled at the Ziggy Marley concert, broke her leg, and they hauled her off in an ambulance.

Glad I left to go check out The Hold Steady before Ziggy got started.

My friend Cammie told me what happened when I returned to ride the shuttle back with her. 

So despite the negative ending...I had a really good time and I REALLY want to go back next year.

We'll see what we're doing by then. 

Today was an fellow AT student friend's birthday, so we're celebrating with her tomorrow evening. 

4th of July also means I don't have to go into the hospital tomorrow...so I'll probably be reading for Research during the day...because in grad school all holidays mean "time to catch up". 

Happy 4th, ya'll.

nashville

Woah.

The days are moving fast lately.
Been a ridiculously stressful and busy week.
Didn't plan for it to be that way, but it sneaks up on you.

Nashville was phenomenal!
What a great city.
We rolled into town on Thursday evening (after adding 1.5 hours of wading through construction to our 8.5 hour drive) and met up with Frank at his favorite BBQ spot, which happens to be located right next to his favorite craft brewery.
We ate, relaxed, caught up on wedding news, and listened to live country music in the sweltering heat.
(The gross 90-degree weather reminded us why we left the South.)

We spent Friday sight-seeing in Nashville:
biscuits for breakfast
Country Music Hall of Fame
a couple record stores
Hattie B's hot (spicy) chicken for lunch
amazing Indian food for supper
(we're really about the food, if you couldn't tell)

Most of Saturday was spent at the hotel.
I had a lot of homework to do.
Ben lounged, exercised, slept, watched World Cup, etc.

And that evening we went to Frank and Jen's fabulous wedding!
The whole evening was really lovely, and so worth the trip to see some of our favorite folks get married.
The sun wasn't out, so we didn't roast. :)
So grateful.
It was also a treat to see some old Tallahassee/FSU friends.

We got home on Sunday evening and it's been a whirlwind ever since. 

Research class started on Monday. 9a - 1p. 

I studied SO HARD for my psychopathology midterm (diagnosing mental illness), which I took last night and did quite well on. 

(OHMYGOODNESS I WAS STRESSED OUT!)

I also helped with summer group at EYM on Tuesday and Thursday since one of their group leaders couldn't come in this week. 

I babysat on Tuesday night.

Didn't even go into the hospital for the first time this week until TODAY!

Had a 1/1 session that went really well. 

I'm looking forward to hopefully having more of those. 

Open Studio is tomorrow afternoon/evening, and then a cancer survivorship event on Saturday. 

SUNDAY IS MY BIG, LONG DAY OF REST!

You can tell my thoughts are all over the place, so I'm going to go rest up for what's to come!

soul collage

This seems like a good time to write.

Might as well since I didn't feel too motivated to do a lot of homework today.

Hopefully tomorrow is the day!

Friends from Minneapolis, Tim and Liz, are staying with us this weekend. 

They're in town for a wedding, but we got in some good hanging out as well. 

We made a big breakfast this morning, took them down to Bayview to a record store, and then to St. Francis Brewery for some Bloody Marys, beer samplers, and beer cheese soup. 

They're fun and entertaining folks.

This afternoon I gave Tim a haircut and french-braided Liz's hair for the wedding. 

I am full of skills that I just don't put to the test that often. 

Below are three "soul collages" that I made at the hospital's open studio on Friday. 

I have to be there 2-7 pm, so I had plenty of time to make them.

You basically have a smallish sheet of white cardstock, then you look through magazines and pick 3-5 images that you're attracted to (you're not supposed to think about it a whole lot, just pick), then arrange the pictures and glue. To finish it up you look at the imagery and write from the perspective "I am one who..." by filling in the rest of the sentence based off the images you chose. 

So I would think of the qualities and characteristics of flowers, fish, open sky, etc. and write about how I connect, represent or embody those characteristics. 

Kind of neat. 

Great for self-learning and introspection. 

mirror lake state park

We drove up to Mirror Lake State park this last weekend.

Had a great time exploring this gorgeous area just north of Madison.

We arrived on Friday night and set up camp.

I was pretty excited to break in our mostly new camping gear that we received as wedding gifts. 

I have a dream to go back for a partial week at the Winfield bluegrass festival in KS someday and really put it to good use.

Because we're both used to getting up early, we awoke at 6:20 am on Saturday morning, had breakfast, and went on a nice, long hike. 

We basically had the trail to ourself because nobody really gets up that early on a Saturday, except us.

We spent the remainder of that time reading psychopathology (just me), taking naps, drinking some beers, eating some food, and preparing for some rain to head our way.

Little did we know that a VERY large storm was headed our way.

Ben made the extremely good point that we may end up sitting in our tent, trying to stay dry for the remainder of the night. 

Then our stuff would still be wet and muddy in the morning. 

Since there was no really good reason to go through all of that....we packed up as it was starting to sprinkle, stopped at Culver's for ice cream, and headed back to Milwaukee. 

Sad we couldn't stretch it out until Sunday, but grateful we didn't get wet. 

It was actually kind of nice because we had extra time to lounge at home and prepare for the week ahead.

I was at the hospital 9:30 am - 6:00 pm today, so I'm pretty wiped out, but I had two really good 1/1 sessions, and a occupational therapy rehab group. 

Successful day.

I'm also currently at 377 internship hours!

By the end of next week I will have reached the halfway mark of 400!

This summer semester is already flying by...and we just got started. 

We'll be back at colloquium (our big art therapy camping trip) as knowledgable second-year students in 3 short months. 

Grad school scheduling blows my mind sometimes...especially when I finished two bachelors degrees in 5 years. 

This is lightening speed. 

And we're going to Nashville to see Jen and Frank get married...NEXT WEEK!

rhythmn

Oh no!

I'm definitely procrastinating right now. 

I went to the hospital this morning to do a short presentation on art therapy at staff orientation with a fellow intern of mine.

It felt a little chaotic because the other intern wasn't feeling well, so she texted that she would be in late. 

Then she came right before we were supposed to leave.

Another one of the interns happily volunteered to help me with it since she wasn't feeling well, but we didn't have a lot of time to go over things.

Regardless, we got through it and it went pretty well!

It will be even better next time.

Now I'm supposed to be readying psychopathology...and I just don't want to.

But I'm going to do it anyway.

Just wanted to share my painting above that I made for a good friend down in Chicago. 

Kind of a break through piece for me. 

It's started me down a new path of art making.

Also, routine is starting to establish itself again, and I always appreciate that. 

glorious wisconsin summer

I was so busy this last semester I didn't even realize how happy I would be to have decent weather this summer.

It's been gorgeous lately.

REAL spring weather. 

Hot sun with a cool breeze.

The inside of the house is still a livable temperature. 

I go biking almost every day. 

I sit on the porch with a beer and my assigned readings.

Friends occasionally call me up and we go to fun spots in Milwaukee (like the marina above). 

Even though things will be busying up, it's still won't be as bad as this last semester.

I'm starting to settle into my new practicum schedule, though it will probably change here and there based on different cancer survivorship events that we attend. 

But it's just so nice to consolidate my hours and only have practicum 3 days a week. 

The days can feel a little long, but I'm getting used to it. 

I love my supervisor. 

And I'm starting to understand what it means to be an art therapist in a hospital. 

Quite different from my last practicum. 

I was introduced to the managers on the oncology floor this last Friday, and it looks like that unit is about to become my territory. 

Pretty excited to make connections with the staff and get to work. 

In other news, the kitties are wonderful.

And we've been having some fantastic self-care lately. 

Last night I took Ben to 2 of my favorite new spots in the Bayview neighborhood.

Classic Slice...a tasty pizza place.

And Bryant's....a bar with no menu. You just tell the bartender what drinks and flavors you like, and then he makes you a fancy drink from a list of over 450. 

The atmosphere is partially what makes it so wonderful.

Super dark lit with a big ol' fish tank and jazz/oldies music. 

Speaking of self-care, I got my hair trimmed.

FINALLY found a lady that I'll be sticking with. 

Thanks to one of the EYM staff for recommending the place. 

THEN I went to Banana Republic and took advantage of a sale + rewards coupon.

Have a new dress for Jen and Frank's wedding on June 21. 

THEN I went to Valentine Coffee Roasters to read some of my 175 assigned pages in a calm, quiet atmosphere with a well-made cup of coffee.

I love Collectivo, but it can be pretty chaotic in there. 

Valentine doesn't even play music...so it's actually perfect for studying purposes.

Went on a 45-minute bike ride.

Ben made steaks.

Then we made mac and cheese in our new camping stove...just to test it out....because we're actually going camping at Mirror Lake State Park this next weekend. 

SO EXCITED to get out of the city...

even though I'll probably be taking my psychopathology books with me. :)

dsm

My first DSM arrived and psychopathology starts on Wednesday.

That means that I'll be learning to diagnose this summer, which is a somewhat intimidating and scary thought.

But hopefully I will just learn a ton and then feel less intimidated about it afterwards. 

It's been quite a week.

Got through orientation and had my first 2 days of practicum at the hospital. 

It's a pretty independent and flexible internship (in terms of hours), which I'm excited for. 

We started off by putting together our art supply bags that we'll take around to waiting rooms and patient rooms. 

My supervisor is only there Mondays and Fridays, so we're pretty much on our own. 

Maralee, Annie, and I set up shop in same-day surgery waiting room and started making Hope Stones and Bottles of Hope. (I'll post a picture of those later.)

I got to practice my presentation of our these art therapy directives, but we didn't have too many takers.

Rejection in the waiting room does not really bother me. 

Some people just don't do art.

I also realized that I set up my presentation so that I wouldn't feel so rejected. 

I always say, "If you'd like to come join us, feel free." 

That way I leave it open-ended instead of being accepted or rejected with a yes or no question like, "Would you like to come join us?"

:)

Waiting rooms are just to get us feeling comfortable with the hospital and help us figure out how we're going to initiate art therapy with others. 

After a few weeks we'll start getting referrals and head into infusion rooms, which is where I mostly want to be.

I also get to start doing art therapy presentations for new employee orientation with another AT friend of mine this Tuesday.

Hopefully I will be a rock star at explaining art therapy by the time I leave this place. 

We also had our first open studio yesterday 2-7 pm. 

It's pretty exhausting to do that for 5 hours, but it was fun and I think I'll eventually become accustomed to the length.

I'm still used to my daily schedule of 2-3 hours of internship a day. 

I was at the hospital 8.5 hours yesterday!

Last night my professor's band had a gig in Riverwest so I met some friends there afterwards. 

Then I met Ben over at The Jazz Estate to hear another fabulous band that an EYM friend of mine plays in. 

I also got to say goodbye to Erin, who interned with me at EYM this last spring.

She graduated last week, packed up, and is moving to Louisville, Kentucky for an art therapy job.

I'm so happy for her because she is so deserving of it. 

She was such an important support for me this last semester. 

We're sad that we're not in Nebraska for the Harder reunion this weekend, but we'll definitely be making the most of our 3 day weekend. 

Time to clean, rest up, and prepare for Ben's last 2 weeks of school, as well as the start of my summer semester. 

practicum #2

Hi all,

Here are some one-sided thank you cards that I made for the staff from my first practicum.

There are close to 20 people...so I had to make something that could be replicated easily. 

Kind of nice because I can say thank you and give them a little art to remember me by.

Though I told them that I'm not really saying goodbye because they and their organization are too inspiring to leave.

I plan on stopping by when I can. 

Hopefully I'll be running a group in the fall and spring. 

Going to make for a REALLY busy fall semester, but I'm going to work very, very hard to make that a reality.  

I had orientation at the hospital this morning.
One more full day of orientation and then I'll hit the waiting rooms on Thursday, followed by my first supervision and then open studio on Friday. 

Can't wait to really get the ball rolling and become accustomed to my new "home" for the next 7 months. 

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm quite grateful that I don't have to transition to another practicum after this one. 

You have to do at least 2. Some people do 3, but I'm choosing to just do 2. 

Ben gave the sermon at church on Sunday. 

He did a lovely job. 

Lots of good feedback from our little congregation. 

I'm trying to enjoy my one week of "vacation"(meaning no class),

 but there's plenty to do...

and it's kind of now or...

wait until the end of the summer semester. 

Regardless, here's to resting my brain!