Hunt Family Connection

Happy School Psychology Awareness Week!

For those of you that don't know, I'm a School Psychologist (and have a recently renewed license to prove it!) and this week we are being celebrated :)

From the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) website:

The theme of this year’s School Psychology Awareness Week, "Today is a good day to… SHINE!" focuses on shining a light on the positive work school psychologists do to promote students’ academic and personal success.

I was assessed by a School Psychologist when I was in grade school, and it made an impression. Years later when asked what I wanted to do, I thought back to that experience and thought I might want to do what she did. So I went back and talked to that School Psychologist several times as I was making decisions about school and career - I was even lucky enough to do my first practicum experience with her. I still keep in contact and just met with her while I was in Wisconsin this last summer. I'm guessing she doesn't realize how much she has impacted my life, so I think I'll send an email today to remind her she's the reason I got into this in the first place....that seems like a good way to celebrate our week!

I love what I do (well, most of it!) Of course there are things about my job that I don't enjoy, but the part I enjoy most is working with children and their families. I work in elementary schools, so I often work with families as they are first learning about the struggles their child might be experiencing. I love working with kids to watch and see how they learn....I love being able to share the things I've discovered with the team - to help explain what might be happening and how we can better support this student. And while it's not always easy to deliver this information, I feel good about my ability to work with parents as they come to terms with what's happening with their child.

Yesterday I worked with a student who struggles with writing and spelling. One of the tests I gave him was a spelling test. When we started the spelling test I noticed a definite change in his behavior - he became more attentive and really interested in doing his absolute best. He told me he wanted to get 100% so he could have an ice cream treat. When I explained that it really wasn't that kind of test, and that no one ever gets 100%, he started to tear up a little bit. He said he has a deal with his parents that if he gets 100% on a spelling test he can have an ice cream treat....he mentioned that he hadn't had ice cream in a long, long time. Now, he might have been totally playing me, but me might not have been. In an attempt to keep him from falling apart on me, I offered to call his parents after we finished working, and let them know how hard he worked with me (we had done many other tests prior to the spelling test) - I said I couldn't promise he would get an ice cream treat, but I would pass along the fact that he put forth a great deal of effort :)  He happily gave me his phone number.....I tried several times throughout the day and even made a call around dinner time. No one answered any of the times that I called.....but I plan to keep trying. Yesterday I also met with two separate sets of parents that are asking for help in figuring out what's happening with their children. They are both going to be a bit complicated and involved, and both sets of parents seem completely exhausted and confused by what's happening with their children. I'm looking forward to learning more about these students and helping the team form a plan that will make their school experiences better (both the students' and the parents' experiences with the school!)

Working with children and families is only part of what I do. I've been reading a very fun blog by a School Psychologist in California, and this week she has been doing some "day in the life" posts that show what other kinds of things we do. I'd encourage you to check it out - even if you're not terribly interested in School Psychologists, she's a great writer and her posts often make me laugh - Notes from the School Psychologist.

And if you know a School Psychologist, maybe you could make a point of telling them how awesome they are this week....we really don't get a lot of that in the work that we do :)

Opportunity Center Graduation

Tuesday night, thanks to Pa-paw’s babysitting service, I was able to go with Wil to the Opportunity Center graduation ceremony. It was held at one of the high school auditoriums and much to my surprise, it was pretty well filled up.  About 66 students were set to graduate and most of them came. It was an amazing ceremony and there were several times when I (and much of the audience) became teary-eyed.

The students at OC are far from “traditional” and have taken some very different and difficult roads to arrive at this night. Many of the students already have children (one was actually scheduled to have her baby the very next morning!), many of the students have been in and out of school for a variety of reasons, and some of the students have no real place to call home and just move around from place to place. Without OC, most of those students would not  have been graduating last night.

Highlights included a drum circle (awesome!), two students sang Blackbird, two students spoke – one of how proud she was to graduate before her daughter was born…one about how hard this had all been and how inspiring her mother has been in the journey…both spoke of the staff at OC and how wonderful they are, and when the students got their diplomas they went through the “hug line” and hugged each staff member :)

It was like no other graduation I have ever been to – as students got their diplomas there were often cries of excited profanity from the kids in the audience – LOL!  Such a great celebration for these kids – they were so obviously proud to be there. 

And speaking of proud…I was so proud of Wil and what he does at Opportunity Center. It takes a very special kind of person to work with this population of students and I have said over and over again that I wouldn’t be very good at it.  I think Wil is AWESOME at it, and in just one year he has already made such a big difference in so many lives.  He really was meant to teach, and finding this school has been an extra blessing for him/us.  We are still a bit uncertain about what his teaching future holds with all of the budget cuts and movement in the district this coming fall, and we may not know for certain what’s happening until school starts in the fall.  People are being forced to change schools or leave the district all together and some incredible teachers are being let go. It’s all very unsettling, but we continue to hope for the best. We’ll take all of the positive thoughts anyone is willing to send our way!

After the ceremony we went out for dinner with the staff – they are such a kind and fun group of people. They take good care of each other and happily include spouses in their little family. One of the teachers and his wife just had a baby – she is 11 days old!  I got to hold her for a bit at the ceremony (soooo tiny!) and she was passed around the table at dinner too.  It was a great night – we went home quite happy and also quite sleepy :)

It just won’t be the same…

This is my Wednesday “lunch bunch” friends/co-workers:

I am bummed to report that this picture was taken at a going-away-party for Megan (2nd from the left). Lunch will definitely not be the same without her colorful stories and comments :) Megan sits right next to me at my office downtown (which is not an easy spot for someone to fill with all of my personal space issues!) and I will miss having her there too. She has such great energy and positive spirit – and awesome fidgets! She has a love of all things organized and I will miss that too. Luckily she isn’t going far – she is moving to Portland so we will still be able to see her every now and again (if she doesn’t forget us!) We are also hoping to bring her to lunch every now and again via Skype – gotta love the technology :)

I am definitely happy that she is doing what’s good for her, but I’m sad for me and our team at work – you will be missed Megan!

I’ve added other pictures from the going-away party to the ESS Celebrations album – we are also saying goodbye to another awesome co-worker (Melissa R.) who will be greatly missed. Change is no fun sometimes…

Looking Back – parties and bedtime routine

I was reading through blogs this morning, and a favorite of mine by Cathy Zielske was looking back on a picture she had taken on this day last year. It prompted me to go back into my picture folder and see what we were doing this time last year.  I also dug into the blog archive to see if I was writing about it too :)

I didn’t take any pictures on the 12th, but pulled up this one from the 11th

That’s my “boss” Larry and in the background is a bunch of the special ed. staff/co-workers that I work with. Larry has made it a tradition to invite the district’s special education staff to his beautiful home on the river for drinks, eats, and end of the year celebrating. 

We just had our end of the year celebration on Wednesday as well as an end of the year lunch/meeting/celebration with the school psychologists and consultants.  I went to both events and took most of my pictures at the school psych/consultant meeting – here is a shot of some of my wonderful co-workers :)

We were celebrating the retirement of two members of our group – very sad to see them go, but happy for them and whatever adventure they choose to go on next!  On Monday we’ll be gathering again to celebrate two more co-workers that are moving on to new jobs next year. 

Like I mentioned earlier, I also looked at the blog to see what I was writing about this time last year and found this post from June 11th: Worn out and a new routine – I just LOVE that picture of him asleep in the high chair!

It was also fun to read about the bedtime routine we had a year ago, just as he was giving up that bedtime bottle. Of course our routine looks a little different now…

Some nights the routine starts with a bath – I get G started by filling up the tub, help get him undressed, and recently we’ve been trying to sit on the potty to see if he’ll go at all before we get in the tub (no luck there yet!) Once in the tub I get him all washed up and then call Wil in to supervise tub play while I pick up around the upstairs. After bath we get pjs on, then head back into the bathroom to brush teeth.  Graham has been good about this so far and even lets me help – I’m hoping this continues!  After we brush teeth we go back into his bedroom to take his fluoride then rock and read stories. Right now his absolute favorite is the Amazing Airplanes book – it’s one we have on loan from the library, but I think we’re going to have to look for it at the book store because he is very insistent that we read it every night! We sometimes read more than one story, and sometimes he just wants to read the airplane book again. After stories we do hugs and kisses and he goes right down into his crib and gathers up everything he needs there….a sippy cup with a little water, his puppy, blanket, and yes…he still has the pacifier at bedtime.  I’m determined that it will not move to his big boy room with him though – a battle that will soon be waged :(  I start his bedtime music, shut off the light, and that’s it! He sometimes chats to himself or plays a little, but often goes right to sleep. We are very lucky that bedtime is this easy and even luckier that he sleeps all night long.  I usually get him down sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 and he isn’t up again until anywhere form 7:00 – 8:00 the next morning.

Oh that was fun! I will have to remember to look back more often :)  I never would have remembered all about G’s bedtime routine had I not written about it here on the blog – it is why I do this. Do you remember what you were doing a year ago today??

Pooped on….both figuratively and literally :)

Yep – I came home from work this afternoon and proclaimed to Wil that I had been pooped on…repeatedly…today.

I won’t go into details on the first “incident” (mostly ‘cause it’s boring) but I was feeling a LOT underappreciated at work today. It’s a tough time of year – so much to do and just not enough time….blah blah blah.

So I left for my afternoon meetings, and walked right into a very difficult meeting that I never would have anticipated being difficult. My conversations with the parent prior to the meeting had gone very well and I felt we were all on the same page. The student’s therapist, invited to the meeting by the parent, was on a very different page and proceeded to make what should have been a 10-15 minute discussion into an hour long debate. I felt pretty beat up and attacked by the time the meeting was over, and again…..”pooped on” – lol

The final incident took the pooping from the metaphorical to the literal… I went to pick up Graham from daycare where I found the kids playing in the backyard. Graham came running over to me and wanted to be picked up. After holding him for a bit I put him back down and noticed that he had “stuff” on his shoe. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that he had stepped in some dog poop while out in the yard. Sure enough…after having picked him up I then had poop on my pants – nice.

I’m very pleased to also report that there were bright moments throughout the day – it certainly wasn’t all poop :)

It was Wednesday, so I got to have a nice lunch with Kara, Melissa, and Megan. It’s always so nice to step away from the craziness of work for a few minutes with good friends. And last night was date night! We branched out a bit since Pa-Paw and Grandma are out of town, and tried a new sitter. It went great and we are told that Graham was very good. Apparently he is perfectly capable of listening AND following direction ;)  Krystal says they had LOTS of fun and he went to bed with no troubles – yay! Wil and I had a quick dinner together and then went to the new Star Trek movie. I have to admit that it was much better than I had expected and was even pretty funny at times. Of course there were also a few moments that were pretty emotional and made the pregnant lady all teary-eyed, but it was all good in the end.

So here’s hoping that tomorrow is poop-free, both figuratively AND literally :)

Surviving!

Let's start with a picture of Graham that I took with my phone a week or so ago. 

We were on our way to daycare, and he just decided to plop right down there on the front step while waiting for me to load up the van with our stuff. Sometimes it's hard to get him in the van in the morning as he LOVES being outside and would rather just wander around the yard/driveway. When it's nice he gets to spend a lot of time outside at daycare and I'm very grateful for that.

It's been quite a week here already - the cold/cough has taken a lot out of me, and Wil came home sick yesterday so we are both in pretty sorry states.  Graham was coughing a little bit last night and had a runny nose, but I still hold out hope that he won't have it as bad as we do.  It seems that many have been sick around here lately - both children and adults.  There are just some nasty bugs going around I guess.  Many thanks and great appreciation for Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery though - we are so lucky to have family here that can help when things feel a bit overwhelming.  They had Graham on Monday night, and offered to pick him up from daycare again today.  I'm hoping I'll feel well enough to clean up the house a little bit tonight before Graham gets home - a lot has been let go while we're not feeling our best.

A very good thing happened at work this week (a bright spot amongst a slew of not-so-bright moments!) and it's the beginning of what I hope is a very happy ending for a student I mentioned in a post awhile back. I was able to briefly meet his forever family this week - yay! They seem really wonderful and ready to provide him with everything he could need to make this transition. I think that he will have opportunities available to him that he would never have even imagined....I'm so very excited about the possibilities for his future.

And thank goodness today is my day to work at my office downtown and meet up with my friends for lunch - Wednesdays really help me get though the week and I am in desperate need of one right now :)

Back to Work....

...but doing the snow dance tonight in hopes that school/work will be called off tomorrow :)  It would be nice to start our winter vacation a little early...I still have some Christmas baking I'd like to get done!

We were back at work on Wednesday - not  bad day to be at work for me as I get to work at my office downtown (where I am most productive) and have lunch with my friends. Graham was happy to be back at daycare - when we got in the door he shed his coat and ran off without looking back.

Wednesday night after work I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things that might come in handy if we're stranded at the house again any time soon - they were still talking about the possibility of more snowy and icy weather then. 

We were at work today too - the weather was ok for most of the day, but they were predicting rain and freezing temps by afternoon/evening. The district canceled all after-school activities, so even my meeting was canceled and we were all sent home.

I picked Graham up from daycare and we went to Costco to put gas in the van, and then on to a haircut appointment for G. He had a much shorter nap than usual today and when we arrived the stylist was running 15-20 minutes late, so by the time G got into the chair, we were already pushing our luck. He was fairly entertained with hair clips, a spray bottle of water, and the stylist and I singing jingle bells over and over again. We got a great cut and I don't think he was too traumatized by the experience....I, on the other hand, was exhausted when it was all over :) 

Wil was home when we got there - we all had a nice dinner and played a bit before bed. Graham was in a bit of a mood (a result of the poor napping methinks) but it wasn't that bad at all. I've done the snow dance and there is already a light dusting on the roads - we'll see what happens overnight.

Oh - Graham came home with a package from daycare yesterday - it says:

To: Mom and Dad
From: Graham

Sabrina says some was made by Graham, and some was made with assistance from her daughter. It was one of my favorite gifts to open last year (his handprints in a clay mold) and I'm looking forward to it again this year - can't wait to see what they came up with :)

Feel free to join in on the snow dance with me - we'll take any extra help we can get on this one!

...and there was great rejoicing!

I am thrilled to pass along that Wil is going to be working FULL TIME as  a math teacher at the Opportunity Center.

He will actually be working full time and then some, as he is also doing the night class at Northwest Christian College. Wil found out yesterday that the Opportunity Center has never really had a math teacher before, so they don't necessarily have any kind of set curriculum or even any textbooks in the building for him to use. Someone will be showing him where he can get resources today. He is going to be one busy guy preparing for both of these jobs, but he's a very happy guy :) He has really enjoyed his two interviews with the staff there and looks forward to being part of the family-like atmosphere they have created.

The Opportunity Center is an alternative high school so the population can be somewhat challenging for a variety of reasons. Wil being who he is though, is really looking forward to the challenge and can't wait to get started. They are lucky to have him, he's going to be an amazing teacher.

Thanks for all of the good thoughts and prayers - I'm sure it helped :) We went to bed last night with dreams of dual income, double benefit coverage, and many other happy thoughts.

Right now....

....outside of my window I have a great view of the 1st graders making great big soap bubbles on the playground. I can't seem to stop looking at all of the fun and excitement :)

Inside my window, sitting right here on my desk, is a fun reminder of our work retreat yesterday.  The school psychologists and consultants spent all day yesterday getting some work done, planning for next year, and doing some team building. Our closing activity was especially fun...one of the School Psychologists made bookmarks for everyone with their name on. We passed them around and everyone wrote one or two words about that person...things they appreciate about them.  Right now it's making me feel really good to see all of the nice things my co-workers said about me....just the kind of thing I need this time of year.

Back to work - just wanted to share a couple of happy things.....

Much better!

We got a report of a good day at daycare yesterday and G seemed to be in a better mood last night, so I think the bug that got ahold of him is all but gone. (excuse me while I go knock on wood!)

On Tuesday he seemed to be doing tons better, so he did get to go to the "mall park" with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery for a little bit before dinner. They shared some pictures of the adventure and I put together this page with some of them:

(click on picture for page credits)

It was a great way to end our "sick day" - fun for G and a nice break for mommy to finish up some chores around the house.  You can see more mall park photos here: MALL PARK PICS

Finally Friday - yay! Work continues to be a bit stressful as the end of the school year nears. Everyone just seems a little more anxious and on edge. My "to do" list is long, but it all needs to be done in the next 40-some work days - eeek!

Special treat tonight though - Kara is taking Melissa, Teresa, and I out for dinner and the boys are doing baby duty! I'm very much looking forward to my night out with the girls :)