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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Another Update (Tori)

Hello all! An update on things here in Fort Worth:

It rained pretty much the entire first three days of this week. It was rather dreary and annoying. It didn't help that I have been fighting a cold since Saturday night. I thought it was just allergies (a lot of wind around here has made them pretty bad for everyone) but then it moved to my chest. I'm doing much better, but Sunday and Monday were tough. I've still got some chest congestion and a pretty nasty-sounding cough, but feel MUCH better.

Aaron finished our desk on Monday morning! The sanding and first coat of finish was done Sunday and then he put the second coat on Monday morning and it was in the living room waiting for me when I got home from babysitting! It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I'll take some pictures this weekend and put them up. It hasn't gotten completely organized yet because we've both been busy and I've been asleep a lot.

Aaron got a computer game called Spore that he's been wanting for a while now. He got it yesterday and spent a few hours last night playing. It seems like a pretty cool game, the basic premise is that you create your own species and evolve and work your way up from a single-celled organism. I'm not sure where it ends (if you work until you reach "higher intelligence" or not), but I guess we'll see.

Aaron went to a crisis counseling orientation session yesterday at the high school he'll be working at next semester. He got to meet the staff and others that he'll be working with and received his name tag and parking permit. So now he's official. I think he'll be going back a few more times this semester to meet with his field adviser and work on gathering data for his honor's project and another research project he's doing for a class this semester. His research sounds pretty interesting and involves the worth the wait abstinence program.

Last Friday, I went to the team meeting for the boy that I'm going to be working with. We call him Chiquito for confidentiality purposes and so that's what I'll call him here as well. I got to meet Chiquito, his other therapists, his mom, and little brother. I observed while one of the other therapists ran through a session with him while the team leader (my supervisor) took data and made notes on what changes needed to be made to his program and set goals to work on for the next week. It was really interesting and a good learning experience for me. Then on Saturday I went back and had what we call a rapport session with Chiquito. I just went to play and get acquainted with him and allow him to become more familiar with me. I brought a toy with me just in case and we ended up needing it. He usually has Saturday and Sunday off from therapy and so my presence on a Saturday wasn't very welcome. We let him know I wasn't there to work, just to play and I presented my toy (a loud squeaking stuffed penguin). He then warmed up to me and we spent the next two hours playing outside in the yard. Poor kid doesn't know yet that starting next week I'm actually going to start working him on Saturdays too. I didn't go on Monday due to the fact that I wasn't feeling well enough to keep up with two full hours of playing. Yesterday, I went and met with my supervisor and she trained me on all of his programs. It was a fairly good session (especially considering that I'm new and unfamiliar to him). I observed all of the programs and was able to work on a few of them with him myself. All in all it was a great experience and I'm very excited about being able to work with him.

Tuesday was the 9th, our first month anniversary. Time has certainly been flying by! I need to ask Jason how the pictures are coming. I promise we'll get them out to everyone as soon as they're ready.

Well, that's enough for now. Next time I'll have to make sure Aaron writes the update so that you all can hear from him too!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Newlywed Life (by Tori)

Hello all! It's been almost four weeks now since we got married. We have both started back to school and are settling into our routines.

Aaron has a full class load as well as being president of NASW-TCU (National Association of Social Workers-TCU chapter) and a job. He's working at a company called Texas Steam. They have contracts with trucking companies and go there to pressure wash their trucks each week. It's hard work, but pays well and the boss is a really great guy (thanks again Kathy for telling Aaron about it).

I also have a full load of classes, am babysitting for a couple families, and just recently got a position working as a behavior therapist with a young boy that has Autism here in the Fort Worth area. I'm very excited about getting some experience as well as having the opportunity to work with a very well-known professional in the field.

We travelled up to Oklahoma over Labor Day weekend for a short visit with my mom. It was a nice visit and we managed to drive up and back in between storms, so the drive was nice and easy.

We have been working on our place, mostly trying to get everything organized and consolidate our things. We've gotten it almost finished. We lost our closet to a new washer/dryer and shelving and so had been hanging clothes on a portable rack. We purchased a wardrobe when we were in Oklahoma so now we not only have a place to hide our clothes away, but some more storage space too! We found a nice desk for free and are working on refinishing it. It's close to being finished and once that is done the house will be done. I'll be sure to post some pictures of it when everything is finished.

We received our pictures from the photographer on a disk last week. We have given them to our friend Jason to edit, so once he is finished we will be posting them on here and making DVDs for those that want to print their own pictures. We do have full printing rights to them so it won't be a problem for you to print them anywhere you like.

That's all for now, we'll keep you updated on things!