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!