My residency was a wonderful experience! It was Saturday through Wednesday, 8am - 5pm and Thursday 8am-11am. There were hundreds of students there from multiple counseling majors. Most of the time we were divided up by major and year, so I was with 16 other first-residency students who were in the MFT program. Our teacher was Dr. Paul Maione, an amazing therapist who works on the cutting edge of post-modern therapy and has been influential in the creation of the newest model of MFT - collaborative inquiry. Usually the day started with lectures and demonstrations of various methods of therapy, then we spent the rest of the day role playing and learning to apply the things we had learned to actual therapy situations. The program was very intense, which was to be expected as this took the place of a role-playing class that non-online schools space out over a semester, so we were covering about three weeks worth of material each day. By the time it was over, I felt completely mentally drained, but a big part of me wished it would never end :) My group was amazing and hopefully we'll all be able to stay in contact and perhaps even meet up at the next residency!
I enjoyed the experiences at the residency so much that Rob and I have decided to work things out so that in a few years when I start my internships, we'll transition into me working full-time and him staying home (although he thinks he still wants to work part-time for a while). I am starting to look for volunteer opportunities now and hopefully they will help me get into the field sooner. One of my classmates from the residency works in south Dallas as a LCDC (chemical dependency counselor) and she had a lot of good ideas for me as to how to get into the field.
Anyway, G'ma flew out the morning of my last day. Kylie's birthday was a few days after that, so we went out on G'ma's last night for Kylie's b-day dinner. Kiki joined us. It was sort of an odd experience for me as I hadn't seen the kids since the night before as I left for my residency before they woke up. I met everyone at the restaurant, which gave me a taste of what it's like for Rob to work all day.
After dinner we let the kids stay up late to spend some last minute time with G'ma. Eva especially got very attached to G'ma (she spent the next three days fussing for G'ma). I was so grateful that G'ma came out! It made it much easier for me to leave each day knowing that Eva was being held and cuddled all day :)
We took a few last photos ~
Eva and G'ma
G'ma with all the kiddos
G'ma with Rob and the kiddos
I told the kids to give G'ma a hug goodbye before they went to bed and poor G'ma was smothered in a huge group hug :)
Thank you again Mom K for coming out to help us!!! I don't know how we would have done it without you!!! Come back soon (and bring G'pa too :) )!!! We love you!!!
It took quite a while to get things back to normal. I had to make up a week's worth of homework on top of jumping right back into my other class. I finally am starting to feel like I'm getting caught up :) I have a week and a half left of this class. I turned in my 20 pg term paper last night, which was quite a relief. I only have three shorter papers and a PPT due, along with class participation, and I'll be done for the semester! I was going to take the summer off, but there is a follow-up class for the residency that needs to be taken the semester after the residency, so I'll be doing that this summer instead. At this point, I've been going to school without a break for two and a half years. I'm thinking maybe I'll take fall semester off, but we'll have to see :) I've decided to add a certificate in addiction to my degree, so that adds another year of classes; I have about ten classes left until I start my internships. I'm going to stretch those out over about three years though so Eva will be almost 4 before I start and we can just enroll her in pre-k rather than having to get a babysitter (plus then I don't miss as much of her infant and toddler years).
Speaking of Eva, she is up and rocking on all fours. She is somewhat mobile - she moves from place to place, but we're not quite sure how she does so. She doesn't marine crawl or scoot or anything, she just wiggles and rolls and somehow ends up on the other side of the room.
Kylie requested a pig cake this year for her b-day, so Brittney and I looked up pig cakes online and came up with our own design. I think it turned out pretty well :)
For her birthday, Brittney, Rob and I made a full sized soccer goal (without the net) for Kylie to practice on. Kylie was quite surprised and loved it (despite the look on her face in this picture) ~
From her siblings, Kylie got bath markers, bath finger paint, and a toothbrush she could decorate with stickers (the other kids also got sticker toothbrushes) ~
Rob and I also gave her a sprinkler game to play with in the backyard this summer ~
Kiki came over for dinner (Kylie requested spaghetti and meatballs) and cake. She was able to video call Nona and Papa on her phone through Skype, so Nona and Papa got to sing happy birthday with us and watch Kylie blow out her candles even though they are in Russia! Modern technology is very cool! :)
After blowing out her candles, Kylie opened her present from Nona and Papa so they could watch her as she opened it. They sent her a beautiful coloring book of Russian dresses. There are color pictures of the dresses on one side, then a coloring page on the other. I also opened my birthday present from Nona and Papa so they could watch. They gave me a beautiful scarf that they got from South Korea :) Thank you Nona and Papa!!! We're so glad you were able to be part of Kylie's b-day celebration!!!
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