Newborns

My husband's sister gave birth last week, and we got to see Baby Mae at 4 days old, as soon as the family was up to having company.  I got to hold her and she is sweet and perfect.  A little too perfect actually. 

When I think of newborns, I think of a fragile swolen little thing with quivering arms and closed eyes, swaddled in warm but absorbant blankets so they won't hurt themselves by moving around too much.

I don't know, I guess I thought it was like having prune fingers after swimming, just that babies had it for longer cause they were in all that fluid for 9 months rather than a few hours.

Mae was a c-section.  She got too big too fast in her momma's belly. 
Several of my college friends have been giving birth in the last month, and while reviewing facebook pictures, etc, I found what my previous schema of child birth has been: wrinkled, white and pink all over the place, etc.
 
I came to the conclusion that vaginal child birth is harder on the baby than I had previously supposed.  Maybe they're both equally hard.  It's entirely possible.  But squooshing a baby through a space that is not supposed to be baby sized never hit me as traumatic for the child until I felt suprized at seeing a baby who didn't have the signs of child birth as I had expected them. 
 
It then occurred to me that babies are formed pretty perfectly in a momma's belly... it's just the method of exit.  Poor babies.  Let's be nice to them.

Dale, Alana, and All

1. Dale had 5 interviews in the first week of October for jobs that were better than Tech Support at Teleperformance!

2. Among those was one IDEAL position that Dale fit 98% of what Dale had been hoping for.

3. Dale got hired on his second interview with Eleutian Technologies as an HR Assistant Manager! Hired on Friday at 4:30pm, started on Monday at 9:00am.

4.  Dale got to quit Teleperformance and shift work.

5. Dale begins to leave for work an hour early in the morning because he's so excited to get to work and get things moving.

1. Alana is at Midterms of Grad school for Social work.  I have a week off for Fall Break, but can't bring myself to do homework like I probably should.  Really, I only need a 3.0, and I'm fairly confident that my half-effort work is still a C in half of my classes, and an A in the other half.

2. Alana gets her first client on her own caseload this week.  Practicing Therapist, here I come!

1. We find out we're not alone in the Activities Committee Calling, and that the Ward is really excited for any party we can invite them to.  Hurrah for an entertainment starved audience!

2. We've had house guests every weekend for the past four weeks.  Upcoming weekend: Just us. Quite an adventure, but it'll be nice to sleep in again.



Biggest things for Dale, i guess, but it really affects both of us.  We're still trying to calculate what this will mean for our budding family.  Trying to go to London in May, now actually a possibility for us, but waiting on the travel arrangements to confirm.  I still have class, calling, and husband to work on and with, so I haven't really been able to slow down and look at our life plans.  I graduate with my MSW in 10 months... although it seems to really be creeping by.  I need to find a hobby or get back into running or something.  Seems like all responsibilities and no interests right now.  If there are any suggestions let me know.  I'm not complaining, just describing.  Really...

In an effort to make myself a better person: Deep Thought

"God asks us to give thanks," she said. "Even when we have little to be thankful for."
She also spoke of the responsibility individuals have to recognize and develop their talents, and to avoid comparing themselves to others.

"Find your gifts and talents, acknowledge them, develop them and use them to develop His kingdom," she said. "Gratitude is a commandment ... may we all have a grateful heart, count our blessings and use our talents to bless others."

--Sharon G. Samuelson, BYU devotional, 9/7/10

Disembark: Graduate Style

Big changes, all!  My last day of work at DWS passed on 8/23/10, I turned in my ID card and employee access pass, and took home my beloved office plant (more on the beloved plant to follow).

I then reported the next day to be a Master of Social Work Intern at VMH, ARTEC, ASAP!!!  Basically, for 20 hours a week, I work as an adolescent substance abuse counselor at Salt Lake City's public Mental Health facility.  I'm in training now, but I'll eventually get a caseload of my own.  I've already seen that these kids are smart, and have a lot of rich experience that I admire them for overcoming.  I'm excited to help them overcome addiction and take in new coping skills.  I like the kids.  And especially since I'm not really a disciplinarian, I think I'll be as effecitive as can be expected.

Class on Thursday and Friday are kindof an afterthought.  Haven't really freaked out about them yet, although they each will teach me good skills to broaden my current experience.  I'll learn techniques in 8 different theories to apply in my theraputic travel sack, I'll learn more about general policy from a real Juvenile Court Judge, I'm learning more and more about the official diagnostic manual for all Mental Health professionals, one class focuses specifically on social welfare policy regarding our nation's baby boomers, and the last is a research methods class...I'm most excited about all of the OTHER ones :)

Recoup

After the intense July month, Dale and I have been really happy to have a bit of uneventful time before things change again.  This time has given us opportunity to expand our social circle in Salt Lake, and see who will brave the 40 mile move to maintain friendships.  So far, it's been awesome to see:

Ben and Elise Bowen
Duane and Elyse Bennett
Clancy Clawson
Sean and Emily Nowling
Laura and Dwane Phillips
Jeanelle and Corbin McCabe
Wendy and Steven Burton
Carissa Johnson
Scott and Bree Hunter

I know that may seem silly to count the friends you've had visiting, but it's a direct fall out from counting your blessings.  We just moved 7 weeks ago, and there have been lonely moments.  Not every couple in a new place has been this fortunate.

It was also special to have Nanette, Jeremy, Heather, John, and Liam just HAPPEN to be in Utah for independent events so we could share an afternoon together and eat lunch.  I really like my siblings.

Family Adventures

My mother and three of my siblings and their entire families joined Dale and I in Utah this weekend for an extended family reunion.  The reunion was a great excuse, but I was most interested in the 7 adults and 7 children of my immediate family being in town together for 52 hours.

Wheeler Farm, tour of my new place,
Rodeo
    We sat 6 rows behind the livestock the cowboys tried to wresle with.  I couldn't help laughing every time the pooped!  We saw bucking bronco's and the bull rides, but my favorite was the one where two guys had to rope a cow and milk it, racing to the judges to show them their milk first in order to win!

Tubing down the Provo River
    We thought 7 adults and 7 children (the oldest at 6 years old) would be okay in 7 tubes.  You know, one child in each adult's lap?  Well, 25 yards into the float, Amber pulled herself, her infant, and her toddler out of the event.  100 yards down the river, Jeremy's wife and infant got upturned and panicked which pulled that family out of the river, Mom lost her tube trying to help... and 6 of us (3 adults and 3 children) made it down the river in safety!  The others were left to walk through the brambles bare-footed, until they were able to hitch hike a ride back to the Tube Rental establishment. 
     May sound like a nightmare, but really was at least a story, and a nice way to view the mountians in the canyon.

Thanksgiving Pointe Dinosaur Museum
     "The largest Dinosaur Museum in the world. Literally."  Nough Said.  The cutest part was when Nathan and Jeremy had to play with the dinosaur sized velcro stuffed parts to build their own dinosaur.  Loved it!

On Sunday, we all got together for dinner and played games the whole afternoon and evening.  Dale loves games and is really good at pulling a group together around them because he gets so passionate :).  With the weekend over, we'll go swimming and play games on Monday and Tuesday nights... I love my family, and I'll miss them when they leave again.

Countdown to quit begins... and I'm feeling trunky

Back to a normal day at work.  With all of the holidays and a week taken off for graduate school, I am only working a total 9 days in the month of July.  As you can imagine, those days have been intense.  I just got back from my last 4-day weekend, and now I get to chill at the computer processing paperwork that isn't so complecated I can't listen to Matt Wertz and Mika through the head phones on the computer.  Here's to 16 days 3.9 hours of work left before grad school.