apple head

Hallelujah it's Friday!

What a week of projects, presentations, and obligations.

While class and practicum are definitely starting to wind down, final projects and papers are giving me plenty of reason to run around with my head cut off. 

Above is a picture of my apple head doll, who I sewed clothes for. 

And named him after Grandpa Melvin, because of the overalls. 

He was due on Wednesday.

But these last two days were especially insane.

Yesterday I had a bad sinus headache, but not bad enough to skirt my duties.

I sat through a 3-hour planning meeting for our upcoming show on May 8.

This was followed by a few more practicum hours at the elementary school, which included a 15 minute break to participate in a tornado drill.

Then I had to go give a 40-minute presentation with Michelle on enhancing adherence for our addictions class that evening.

I should explain that doing all of this with a sinus headache is pure torture.

But everything got done, AND the presentation went amazingly. 

Then this morning my supervision professor came to observe me at my practicum site (while I still had some minor sinus pain). 

It was a little chaotic because our final show is in 2 weeks and we're all in crazy last-minute prep mode. 

Then I went to my second practicum site of the day to dance with 3rd graders for 1.5 hours. 

Then I drove to school to have a mock interview with a fake client...which was videotaped.

(This went REALLY well, by the way. Not even sarcastic. I nailed it.)

I then met with my professor for a short 20 min. closing session.

And then I came home and washed the dishes. 

And now I need to start writing a paper that is due this coming Wednesday.

But besides the chaos of my life, I am happy to say that by the time I finished the closing session my sinus pain had vanished entirely. 

I am happy to say that even though this chaos it challenging at times, I just love it more than anything. 

AND NOW IT'S FRIDAY EVENING AND I AM SO HAPPY!

easter 2014

I'm spending too much time on the computer again...but I'll get to work immediately after I post this.

We just returned from our Easter/Spring Break in Des Moines.

It was a wonderful trip and we had so much fun with Paula and Tom! 

On Thursday night we grilled burgers and stayed in.

On Friday we ate an AMAZING breakfast at La Mie. It's a French bakery and makes AMAZING food and pastries...especially their macaroons. We will obviously have to go back there when we return because I did not get to sample all of their beautiful pastries. Paula, Ben, and I sat, chatted, and drank endless cups of coffee throughout the morning. Tom joined us for breakfast, but left to put in a few hours of work that morning. We went to Tasty Taco for lunch, followed by afternoon resting. Tom and I reclined in the backyard and worked on work/homework. The sun was hot enough to give Tom a little sunburn on his legs and face. Later that afternoon, Ben and Tom went to hot yoga while Paula and I went shopping. After such a busy day we still made time to visit two of their favorite local breweries.

On Saturday we made smoothies for breakfast, got a little exercise in, and off to Palmer's we went. Palmer's is the ultimate soup/sandwich/salad location. So many combinations of soup, sandwiches, and salads...and so yummy. We went to Costco and Trader Joe's for Easter food. Then we returned home and our family friend, Jarrod, and his girlfriend came for a brief visit that afternoon. We also played bean bags and prepared some of our food for Sunday Easter lunch. Mom and Dad came in after supper and we were joined by another family friend, Dallas, for some fun conversation. 

Sunday morning was nice and relaxing with plenty of bloody marys and mimosas to go around. It was beautiful outside, so we took the dogs and ourselves for a walk. Paula made a very delicious Easter meal. The rest of us helped here and there. Sadly, we had to take off for MKE around 2 pm. It was 80 degrees when we left Des Moines. I haven't been in that kind of heat in a long time. 

It's a little cooler here in MKE today, which I'm ok with. I'd like to experience a little spring before summer starts.
I will say that it's nice to be home, the break from school and practicum really helped, and now I'm feeling prepared and excited to finish Spring 2014. 

I had a REALLY productive morning. 

Michelle and I met at Colectivo to finish preparing for our Addictions presentation on Thursday, and then I went home to finish making my apple head doll (a project for another class) that is due on Wednesday. 

A few more weeks of hard work...and then we start the summer semester!

piano

Some fun things:

1) A new piano! It's a wedding/graduation gift from Ben's mom. We're so excited to have it in our home.

2) Our first Brewers game of the year. It was last night, against the St. Louis Cardinals. They lost, but they had a 6 game winning streak before they lost. And the Cardinals won the World Series last year...so... they're quite good. It also snowed last night as we were leaving the game. I think most of that has melted away, but it was pretty lame. Luckily, Miller Park has a retractable roof. 

3) I registered for my Fall 2014 classes yesterday. That means I only have ONE MORE SEMESTER TO REGISTER FOR. That's crazy. I just started, there's still so much to do, but I'm already preparing for the end. Weird and thrilling.

4) One more day of class and then off to Des Moines for the remainder of our break. We plan on lounging a lot. 

5) Tomorrow is my last session for one of my detention center groups. Bittersweet. But that means I get my Wednesday evenings back! 

And since we'll be in Des Moines the rest of the week, you probably won't hear from me...

So, Happy Easter!

terr-ball

Here's Terry...or as we like to call her, "Terr-ball" (sounds like hairball, doesn't it?). 

What a cutie.

I'm writing you amidst the chaos, but I truly believe everything will get done one way or another, so things will be alright. 

Tomorrow is the Wisconsin Art Therapy Symposium, which is being held at our lovely school (because we have important art therapists at our school). 

I am volunteering so that I don't have to pay to attend, so I'll be introducing two of my professors before their presentation. 

On a super-happy note, I got 20/20 on my 8-page client assessment in addictions. 

This was very uplifting because the grading system is tough in that class with very few points to earn. 

Here's a something fun! We're going to Des Moines for Easter! 

I'm really excited because we actually didn't see my family very much during Schmeckfest...

because Schmeckfest employs my family quite heavily. 

I actually haven't spent Easter with my family since 2005.

Why?

Because after I moved to Kansas I always chose to drive back for Schmeckfest instead of Easter.

(The dates are always very close together.)

So now you know where my priorities lie. 

And now I'm going to bed. 

On with the chaos!

elements

I am SOOOOO grateful it's the weekend!

I haven't had a weekend off for 3 weeks, even though I still have practicum and babysitting tomorrow.

I'll at least get the majority of tonight, Saturday and Sunday to myself. 

Thought I would post some of the projects that we've been working on this semester. 

Above is one of the life-size superheroes that our group of 3rd-graders are making.

Those are what I spend the majority of my practicum hours on. 

Each one of the kids laid down on cardboard, we traced them, and then they painted and decorated them. 

We're putting blown up pictures of their faces on them when they're fully painted and decorated.

Now I'm working with each one of the kids to do one-on-one touch-ups and make sure they're ready to present at the show. 

SOOOO MUCH WORK!

But they'll look great when we're finished. 

The kids are SO proud of them. 

We've also made a ton of these.

We're calling them kaleidoscopes, but they're essentially mandalas.

The kids paint poster board, we cut the poster board into shapes, we decide on a pattern, then we glue the shapes down onto a large cardboard circle.

We might be doing some printmaking on top of this, but we'll see. 

All of the visual arts that we do during the year become set pieces for our May 8th show.

Our 4 color palettes for projects are based on the elements: fire (red, yellow, orange), wind (pinks and purples), water (cool blues), and earth (green, brown, yellow).

I can't wait to see everything together. 

Most of my school projects are due in the next two weeks, so this will be an important weekend for preparation. 

Going to exercise and then get to work...because it's Friday afternoon after all.
Happy weekend!