100th post!!

This is my 100th post!! Yay!! When I first decided to start a blog, I really wasn't sure I'd like doing it or would write anything that anyone would want to read. Once I started, I met some new friends and realized what a great outlet blogging is just to talk and ramble aimlessly when I want to!! I talk entirely too much most of the time, and I'm sure my blog spares Walter some of having to listen to me too!! Most of all, I feel connected to my real life friends who are bloggers as well as my new friends that I have met and continue to meet.

Work was good today, although I really didn't do too much. I worked my schedule out for next week (as much as I could) and got my folders organized for my kids. We are doing "Why Try" groups, which teach social skills, help with motivation, etc. and after co-leading a couple with my co-worker, I will attempt to do some with some kids at my schools on my own. I am excited to try it! Next week I will be at my schools all day, so things will get moving. I will try to meet with all my current students and will start getting new ones pretty soon.

My friend, Lesley, was having problems with her blog for the last week, so I went by her house today to see if I could help. I think Blogger is just acting up a little lately, but realized that if Lesley was just PATIENT, the pictures would eventually load!!! It was really a convenient excuse to go by and visit!!! I loved seeing Lane, her son, who has GROWN like crazy since I saw him last!!!

I picked up frozen daiquiris for Walter & I on my way home, so we are just having a quiet night at home, doing nothing! This seemed like a REALLY long week, I guess since it's my first full week of work since May! Whew! Have a nice Friday night!!

Thursday

Today was a good day at work. I got some things organized at the office and got some records from last year for some of my new students, so i'm looking forward to reading through them and seeing what I've got going on this year.

Tonight, my friend, Kelly & I went to visit our friend, Jessica and her new baby, Marcello. He is SOOOO cute and Jessica is such a sweet little mommy!! It was great to see them.


My brain is tired again, so that's all i've got!!! I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. We really don't have any plans except for lunch with my parents on Sunday, so we'll get some things done around the house and relax!

Birthday Girl!!

Thank you to everyone for the birthday messages, cards, and gifts! And a great, big, SPECIAL thank you to Lizzy for my birthday poem! Everyone, please amuse me and go read it now at The Journey to the Hot Tub! However, it is unfortunate that after sharing a VERY traumatic intimate detail with her, that she chose to torment me with my own name, but it's ok, because on her birthday, I will write her a poem and i'm sure i'll have some good rhyming words to use...like fever, believer...ha ha ha...but anyway, it was an awesome poem and I thank you Lizzy!

I collect some of the Willow Tree figurines, well, the ones that have some meaning to me, and the one in the picture above is my favorite one because that IS me!! I love being the birthday girl and I always milk it for all it's worth!!! Birthdays do have some downsides, besides the obvious getting older aspect, like your drivers license expiring. Blah. Walter's expires next month, so we will go on his next Friday off and get them renewed.

I am one of those people who will dig in the closet to see what i'm getting for my birthday or Christmas, so imagine my surprise when I went to my wishlist on Amazon.com to get the name of the crock pot I wanted and was going to see if I could order it with other gift certificates that I got, and it says the item has been PURCHASED!! WOOOHOOO!!! That's my sneaky little mom, I'm sure. She gave me a $50 Land's End gift certificate via email the other day, but apparently that was to trick me and give me the Crock pot too on Sunday when we go to lunch at ALBASHA!! Michelle asked what type of food is served at Albasha - it is Lebanese and SOOOO good! So anyway, yay for my crock pot! It is a really cool one that you can use the inner part to sautee onions on the stove, you can freeze stuff in it, microwave in it, etc.

So, anyway, we went to dinner tonight with Cathy & Brent at Hilltop and not only did I get a delicious steak dinner, but a free ice cream dessert that Cathy & I shared. It was a wonderful birthday!!

Work was great today! I love those days that fly by so fast that it's time to go home before you know it. And I get off work at 2:30, so really, the day flies by really fast sometimes. I met the little boy who is only coming to school for an hour each day this week, then we'll try to get him to come longer next week. He has tons of support at school and had a great day (or hour) today and said he really wants to be able to come to school. I just hope that lasts!! We met with him first thing this morning and did the most important thing - broke the classroom rules down one by one to be sure he understood. Instead of just saying "be respectful," we explained to him what behaviors are considered respectful, etc. Sometimes we don't think about the fact that due to parenting or cultural differences, some kids don't know what the rules actually mean. After we got 1 hour boy (let's call him 1H) off to class, I took my co-worker to another of my old schools to show her around, and now i'm done with that. Everyone at my schools should be able to handle things on their own now, and that is cool. Afterwards, I went to a meeting with the special education teachers at "Elementary School 2" (ES2) and was glad to be invited and involved with their staff. The biggest stress in my job, to me, is making sure I have office space in every school on the day i'm there. I am so excited and relieved that i've already got that worked out. I really like the west side schools so far, so everything is working out really well.

Questions & Comments:

Kim and I talked about insurance on my new car - the car salesman was totally wrong and my insurance did go up! It was only about $20/month, but still, she told me that story about the Honda being a theft risk and the insurance being higher!

Kim & Lesley both mentioned not knowing that you could buy/sell books on Half.com. I would think that renting the books is the best idea, but buying and selling them on Half.com is good too. I knew you could get college books, but wouldn't have thought about high school books being on there.

Lesley left me a comment how I enjoy my job & care about the kids I work with and I just have to say that it's really true. I take my job very seriously and really do care about the kids I work with. I get frustrated with teachers who are mean or don't take time to help kids who need something. My big mouth is finally good for something, because I am speaking up for kids who are falling through the cracks! So, thank you for those kind words, Lesley!

Tuesday

My brain is almost too tired to post anything tonight, but since i'm here, I may as well go ahead!! I spent almost 3 hours in the staff meeting about a student today with about 15 other people! It's amazing what can happen when everyone works together and is willing to do what it takes to help a child.

After work, Walter & I had to go back to the Ford dealer and bring a check from my bank. My bank's loan was at a much better interest rate, so we decided to use it instead. Then we went to eat at Albasha! Yum!!! And we are eating out WAY too much again and will blow our budget if we don't get back on track. With my BIRTHDAY tomorrow, I know it's hopeless to start now, but Monday, the diet and budget are going to be enforced!!!

Monday

I had my bi-weekly supervision session with my social work supervisor today and I really LOVE meeting with her! I have to have 4 hours of supervision per month that I work (hence - no supervision over the summer) for 2 out of 3 years to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). I don't intend to leave my job once i'm licensed, but I would like to have a small private practice to work with kids in the afternoons a few days a week, but anyway, that's WAY off from now, but I do have to meet with a supervisor. One of my co-workers is planning to get certified to supervise Courtney & I, but for now, we are both using a former professor for supervision. But I do LOVE meeting with my supervisor and consider her to be my own personal therapist sometimes!!! Today I caught my supervisor up on all the changes and what I will be doing this year. She is going to do group supervision with Courtney & I, as well as my friend, Christine! Yay!

I am so proud of myself sometimes for using my brain! Cameron's school sends home an entire set of books for the students to keep at home for the year so they don't have to bring them back & forth every day. And that's great. And super convenient. Unless, your child lives in 2 houses! Cameron is with me 1 week and his dad 1 week, so that is a LOT of moving books back & forth. I figured out last year to go to Half.com and buy the books he has so that we can have a set at each house, then sell them back the next year! Yesterday, I paid $128 for textbooks for this year, and sold 2 books (YES, the SAME day I put them on there) for $95, plus there is one more that hasn't sold yet. Work it out, girl!

The cat is out of the bag, and for once, it isn't a cat in my house!!! I have been planning a surprise party for Walter's 50th birthday in September and trying to "feel him out" to see if he wanted a party or not, cause i'd really rather him be involved if he really did want a party, and yesterday while we were having lunch at the Grand Wall (yummmmy), he said that he would like to have a party. So I said, ok, well, it's on September 20th!!! I've been working on this for awhile, and my next door neighbor, Leon, was going to have everyone at HIS house to fool Walter, including Leon's brother-in-law who is cooking a huge pasta Jambalaya over there for the party. And all that's still on, just now, Walter can invite who he wants and plan what he'd like to have, which is great with me. He says I couldn't have pulled this off, but yeah, I could have!!

I got ANOTHER Land's End gift certificate today for my birthday (on Wednesday) from my mom! I guess that means the crock pot will have to go on my Christmas list, but i'm really excited about the Land's End stuff and ordered 4 really cute shirts today!! Yay!! I had just gotten an email for free shipping, so I hit the jackpot!! Woohoo!!!

Cathy & Brent came over last night to see the car and I took Cathy on a ride (top DOWN of course) to Popeyes to pick up dinner for all of us & Cameron. We watched a little of the Olympics (Walter's latest obsession) and had a fun visit. We are going to dinner Wednesday night for my birthday instead of Thursday (steak night), so i'm looking forward to that.

And hey...leave me a comment so I know that you're here!!! I'd love to come read your blog too!!!

Questions & Comments:

Kim asked if my car is a standard like my old one - no. It's an automatic transmission. And i'm betting Kayli's insurance is higher because of her age.

What I need...

Nik at Exceptional Voyage cracked me up with this assignment: google your screen name and the word NEEDS after it and see what you REALLY need!

Dawn needs A GUITARIST - I'm certain that I do need a guitarist, like a hot one from Maroon 5 or something!!

Dawn needs A MIRACLE- Yes, this is totally true! I am praying for a miracle for JP!

Dawn needs A TRIPOD - Eh...I do have a camera and I suppose I could put it on a tripod.

Dawn needs A REALITY CHECK - I'm going to have to argue with this one. I'm pretty much all about reality at this stage of my life.

Dawn needs TO GET OVER HERSELF - Someone must have heard about the new Stang, cause yeah, I do think I'm the bomb now! LOL

Dawn needs (and i'm not making this up!!) A BIG GLASS JAR TO GROW HER OWN "BRAIN IN THE VAT." - ummm, ok, that's just creepy.

Dawn needs A HISTORY LESSON - Please spare me!

Dawn needs TRAINING - Yes, new challenges at work can always be made easier with training!

Dawn needs TO SHOW SHE IS SERIOUS ABOUT STAYING CLEAN - And I am! I bathed just this morning!!

Dawn needs TO DEVELOP MORE SPEED ENDURANCE - Again, word about the new Stang is spreading!!

So, what do YOU need??? And thanks Nik, that was entertaining!!!

Sunny Sunday

I had so much fun last night with my friends!! 5 of us showed up, and most of them have stayed in contact off and on through the years, but I hadn't seen most of them since I was 16 or so. We ended up staying at Ninfa's Restaurant talking & laughing until 11pm, so it was close to 12 before I got home. It's amazing how much history we all have together and I know they all were a huge part of my life growing up. We are planning to get together for our birthdays and have dinner to stay in touch, so I'm really excited about that! My friend, Holli & I may try to get together once in awhile for lunch since we live so close to each other. Here are a couple of pictures we took last night - at the table: Darleen, Gail, me, Holli, & Tracy


And yes, Holli and I did take the new MUSTANG to dinner last night and it was so fun to drive!!! It's funny to see how much room there ISN'T in the back seat! Lesley - you are right that Lane & Ryan will love the car, and they MIGHT fit in the back seat, but i'm not even sure!!! I will have to bring it over one day and show it to y'all!!

I am planning to soak up some sun in the pool this morning and hopefully clean the house today!!! Walter's friend is coming to pick the boat up that we've been boat-sitting, so otherwise, not much more going on.

Questions & Comments:
Kim said she would let the "bad kids" walk all over her if she worked with them in a school. I have to say that I have learned through my role in the schools that I can't handle a class of my own!!! Every now & then I have to watch a class for a teacher and the kids do walk all over me!! I either have to be really mean or I just lose control! I do great in small groups and with the kids I know, but i'm not cut out to be a teacher!