"I'm just really gonna focus on my career..."

It's been a whirlwind of a month for me and Eliza! Especially on the job front. I accepted a part time job working in a teen addiction recovery outpatient unit.

I trained and started on August 20th. I worked from 8:30am until 2pm at The Nurturing Center, then drove a half hour to the addiction recovery center and worked until 7 or 8pm. It was pretty crazy but kept things interesting! Actually, I don't know if I handled the stress very well, but I'm recovering now.

The hardest part, though, was that I only was getting to see Eliza for an hour or so in the evenings on Monday and Tuesday and had to rely on Steve and my mom to take care of Eliza while I worked in the evenings.

Eliza's also had a ton of trouble going to bed at my house, so most of the time I spent with her in the evenings involved (and still involve) me trying to beg/bargain/threaten/persuade her to stay in her bed and go to sleep! That was pretty painful.

Then, a week later, the executive director at The Nurturing Center told me that one of the case managers was taking a job elsewhere and asked if I was interested in doing the full-time job.

At first I said no because I felt like I needed to follow through with the new job I had just accepted and worked at for one week. However, I prayed/fasted/fretted and decided that although I would make less money over-all, having a schedule that involved a 8-4 sort of schedule would be the best for Eliza and myself, and I needed to do what was best for me and my family.

So as of tomorrow, I'll transition from doing invidividual and art group therapy with parents and play therapy with pre-schoolers to being a "Family Service Coordinator" for the parents at The Nurturing Center. I know I'll miss some aspects of doing therapy, especially working with the kids. But I'll get to do lots of parenting groups, one or two every day. I'll be coordinating lots of resources and referrals in the community, setting goals with the parents, and working with Department of Social Services with the parents who have open neglect and/or abuse cases. It should be a pretty hefty caseload and a lot of responsibility, so I hope I can keep up!!! Say a prayer for me.

I'm looking forward to having a "normal" schedule, though! I just realized that I have NEVER had a schedule where I worked full-time 8-4. I was always doing school or working a part-time, strange hours sort of thing. Should be interesting! or normal...? We'll see.

(Eliza in her zebra dress that Oma got for her. Zebra's are still her favorite animal, and she would wear this dress EVERY day if I let her!)

Eliza started back at pre-school on August 16th at a wonderful little Montessori school in Columbia (The same one she went to in May). She goes from about 8:30 until 2:30 Mon- Thurs and until noon on Friday's.

I think she's doing pretty well, but it's hard to know because when we ask her how school went or what she did at school that day, she almost always answers, "I don't want to talk about it." or "Nothing." I thought that response wouldn't come until the adolescent, "I'm too cool for my parents," phase. Oh well.

In other news, my divorce is STILL not finalized! Not because there's been any drama-- on the contrary, nothing at all has happened. Nothing. We're just sitting around waiting for our request for a court date to make it to the top of the stack in the county court house. We keep saying, maybe this week! and here we are two months later... still waiting!

So for now, "I'm just really gonna focus on my career!" (reference, How I Met Your Mother)