6 days....

Eeeeekkkkkk I'm so excited!!! I was telling someone today that this time next week I would be home and I got all teary. I can't wait!

I had a blast today. April and I worked in the kitchen for 6 hours straight. It was so fun. Friends she is just like me, loves to cook and bake. So her kitchen is well stocked with all of the gadgets I would need to make my creations. I made a triple batch of sweet potato casserole, triple batch of green been casserole, double recipe of pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing, and double recipe of apple cake (which looks like it turned out wonderfully...if it tastes as good as it looks I'll post the recipe so that those of you who have way too many apples right now can bake away...yes Mandi even you could make this recipe). April peeled 20 lbs of potatoes, 10lbs of carrots, put the turkey in a brine mixture (this was interesting and I can't wait to try it), a triple batch of stuffing, and a triple batch of cranberry salad (can't wait to try this as well it has cranberries, apples, celery, and other goodies). So tomorrow we're off to church and then back to her house to get everything cooked. She's asked the neighbour if we can use her oven as well thankfully! I'm so excited... can you tell that I REALLY needed this in my life? Her husband was great at keeping the kids busy and felt bad for us, so he treated us to supper at a brewery downtown where they even make their own root beer. It was delicious!

Anyways, I'm off to bed shortly for my busy day tomorrow. Before i do though here's my pic of the day...
I just realized that this poor little guy has not made my blog yet, not too hard to tell who my favorites are huh? Sheesh I'm a bad mom :) Anyways, this is Alpine (or Moe as I like to call him). He's definitely Papa's boy! However, I can't wait to grab him and give him a big kiss, even though he'll be squirming the whole time.

Big boy haircut....

Our baby got his first haircut today at 7 months old. NOW he looks like every other Shih Tzu :) I'm surprised he didn't end up with more of the Chihuahua features. So he went from this....

to this.....
I loved Troop's colors in his coat. However I knew someday we would loose them because they were his puppy hair. Although the shaggy coat was so cute, Jason and I decided to get rid of it. Snow and shaggy hair on dogs equals frustration with a capital F. My little guy is growing up :( I think I need to call the breeder and ask if she plans on breeding Troop's parents again. Honey are you up for that challenge? ha ha ha (oh and now I understand all you crazy women who always want another baby....sorry to compare your another baby to my puppy but that's my life).

7 days.....

Holy crap I'm a week away from seeing all of you and my babies :) I'm so freaking excited! This weekend is a busy one for me. Not only am I cooking that Thanksgiving dinner with my friend (we're doing all prep tomorrow). I'm also doing crazy, crazy amounts of school work. I want to be able to go home for those three and a half days and not have to do any homework. I do have a midterm that I will need to study for. However, since I'm going to be on a plane and in airports for 5 hours the day before the midterm, that should be enough time right? Regardless, I'm pumped!

Here is a pic from March 6, 2007. It's from Disneyland in California. This is the first time that Jason had ever seen Mickey Mouse in his life. Now he thought he would be mad that Mickey didn't have red pants on, but as you can see from his face in the picture, he really didn't care because it was freaking Mickey Mouse! I love my husband....

8 days.....

June 2007 somewhere between Port Aux Basques and Cornerbrook, Newfoundland (it was sooooo beautiful there)

Week 6 happenings....

• not interested in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
• waking up randomly at 5:30 and not being able to get back to sleep makes for a really long day
• I LOVE my counselor!!!!
• got an email that I need to start thinking about practicum for next semester?!?!?!
• need to look into joining Canandian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and/or American Counseling Association
• need to find inexpensive ways to have fun with friends
• am thankful for my life here right now (if we could just figure out a way that Jason could live here and work I'd be all set)
• feeling sad that one of the residents from the home passed away :(
• am getting used to, and loving, weekly counseling sessions
• had my first intense empathetic experience with someone I barely knew, it was exhausting and wonderfully beautiful all at the same time....ahhh I'm getting teary just thinking about it
• only 10 more weeks to go in this semester...see baby this is going to go by quick!
• this time next weekend I'll be on my way home, now I'm crying
• spring break is huge down here....how do the college students afford it?
• guava yogurt is really good
• don't read about medical concerns on the internet because you'll freak yourself out
• I made Hamburger Helper for the first time in many many years and it was so good
• Costco here is way better than Costco at home however I don't need that much food here, I need it home.....arghhhhhh
• April (don't have pics of her yet) and I are making Thanksgiving supper for 25 people this weekend...I'm so excited...it's been way too long since I cooked and baked (her husband is Canadian so that's why we're celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving here isn't until the end of Nov.), she bought everything and I'm going to help
• went to a Mennonite Relief sale....so much yummy food! Basically everything everyone makes gets donated to Mennonite organizations like MCC...I have heard about these so much and it was very fun to finally get to go to one
• got another A on a paper, got an A on my case study report, and got 73/75 on my Psychopathology Midterm (so yes that's another A) folks I am rocking grad school :) ha ha ha

9 days.....

Jason is really really sick right now, he actually hasn't been this sick since I've known him (dude's on puffers for the first time in his life). So I'm having an extra hard time being away right now. So we need to pray that this clears up for many reasons: I don't want it, he is miserable, and we want to be able to have a fun time when I'm home!!!

April 3, 2008 Jason's first time ever going to Walt Disney World and Florida!

Interview observations...

So I'm on week 2 of interviewing an undergraduate. It's interesting, I wasn't nervous at all this time. Things flowed really well. I just got done doing my verbatim assignment from that second interview. So here are some of my observations:

• hearing yourself on tape is weird
• watching yourself on tape is even weirder ("oh my gosh why did I just do that" where some thoughts running through my mind)
• I hate typing out verbatim, so frustrating
• 15 minutes of tape time=5 and a half pages single spaced
• not looking forward to going through it again and writing about all the non-verbal things
• I may have this segment memorized by the time I'm done
• people insert "like" a lot when they're talking
• I freaking talk fast! I know some of you are laughing right now but holy crap... I had to stop and rewind so much when I was talking because I was cramming so much into 5 seconds of tape (you know kind of like this sentence). It was insane. So for all of you out there who I have seen get the confused look on your face when I'm talking because I lost you 20 words ago...I get it!
• after verbatim, then analysis on body language, then I have to write about my personal thoughts I was having...just how honest should I be?
• I'm never going to get this assignment done, good thing it's worth 5% of my mark and has already taken me 4 hours and I probably have another 4 to go. Freaking grad school!
• I think I'm a little stressed....good thing I have another counseling session in 2 and a half hours. Apparently I now need counselling on a weekly basis. When I made fun of my counsellor for this he told me, "well Freud used to see his clients 5 days a week, would you like us to do that?". What a smarty pants... I like him though, he's a keeper!