Thanksgiving? Already?

Wow, this year is flying by! I can't believe that I've been in Rochester for 3 and 1/2 months already. Nuts! I haven't been very good at keeping this thing update, but that's not a surprise to anyone I'm guessing :) Lets see, last time I wrote was before Diego, Travis, Mandy and Sophia came through. We had a gloriously relaxing time, which I was thankful for since A) I don't know of much to entertain around here and B) I think I needed to relax and slow down just as much as they did. We hit up the fabulous city market, did some exploring, and got some hot cider!

Yummy fresh veggies

The crew checkin things out

Sophia didn't get the "Lets slurp and look content" memo :)

It was a little cramped in my tiny studio with all five of us, but we got along just fine! There were only a few mishaps, the best, caused by me, is pictured here....

Whoopsies

But over all I think that they would give the trip two thumbs up, well at least t-rave would.

Hey Mikey, he liked it!

It was really great to have them come through! I wish I could have gone on with them to NYC, looks like they had a blast down there as well. 

And I've also had another visitor, my bro, Travis. He came in to see me for Thanksgiving! We made our first ever turkey dinner. We just ended up doing the turkey breast, don't worry we named it Giblet, and we had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and of course rolls. Travie had 3 rolls before we even finished cooking the rest of dinner haha. But it all turned out well, unbelievably, and we 'gobbled' it up. We also made a fantastic Kansas Dirt Cake (the remnants of which I will be having for dinner tonight). My supervisor from my internship invited us over to her place for dessert and football, so we took a 30 min siesta and then went over there. They were a blast to be around! The highlight was for sure her daughters super hyper dog, whose name was Optimus Prime:) The rest of his trip consisted mostly of eating and movie watching, two of our favs :) I'm so glad he came, Thanksgiving wouldn't have been the same without family or close friends! 

Giblet

Our yummy spread

The next thing I have to look forward to is a trip back to KC in couple week for Josh and Amy's wedding! Super pumped for that! Until then, it's just the daily grind of making fabulous music with fabulous kids and learning more than I ever have before. What a rough life :)

Stressed, Refressed, and (unfortunately) Restressed

My slow decent from observation to being the one in charge at my internship recently turned into a mad downhill avalanche. I now, officially, have my first full case load! It includes: 5 individuals, 5 groups, 1 general edu music class, general band, steel drum band, chorus, and teaching trumpet, percussion, and steel drum lessons. The groups happen anywhere from once to three times a week. Needless to say, I'm slightly overwhelmed and stressed. Thankfully, my supervisors and fellow interns are awesome, and I truly enjoy what I do, otherwise I might be going a little nuts. Wait, who am I fooling, I am going a little nuts haha. So, yes, between learning new songs for my sessions, coming up with ways to keep my students engaged, learning how to actually play the instruments I'm giving lessons for, doing paperwork, and sleeping and eating, my life has gotten pretty busy.

Last weekend though, I was able to escape for a couple of days and drive down to South Bend, Indian for my cousin Jenna's wedding. It was SO GREAT to get to be with my family, even if only for roughly 48 hours. There was a ton of great people, food, and ridiculously corny jokes (made by my father of course) that I laughed way to hard at. The wedding was absolutely beautiful!!! It was at the Basilica on the Notre Dame campus. Here are some of my fav pics from the weekend. 

The Basilica ceiling, gorgeous!

My aunt and uncle watching their daughter get married :)

Two very studly men I found outside of the church

Me and my big bro!

The front doors of the Basilica

Our happy little Fort family

 We had a blast the entire weekend. One of the coolest things about the wedding was that the priest who married them, Father Steve Titus is actually our like 3rd cousin or something along those lines. He did an amazing job! He was super down to earth and relaxed and helped to keep the stress level down. One of the many highlights of the weekend was watching him contort his at least 6'4 self into my tiny car and refuse to scoot the seat back. I was laughing to the point of tears. Another highlight was getting to dance to "Super Freak" with my parents and aunt Linda and uncle Scotty at the reception. Now that's not something I could have ever imagined occurring in my lifetime haha, but I won't be forgetting it anytime soon haha. 

Now it's unfortunately back to the grind, planning, and practicing, and replanning. Thankfully, I have a group of friends coming in this weekend so I have some motivation to get things done so I can fully enjoy them being here! Also, I see that they are predicting the first snowfall for this coming Saturday, so there are bright visions of mittens and snowmen and hot coco in my future:)

Praises

Ok, so I had such a crazy great morning I had to write about it. Most of the people that will be reading this are the same people that have been praying for me to find a good church home and community up here. Today marks exactly 2 months of living in Rochester. I've been on the church hunt since my first week here, going off of leads to sister churches to mine back in KC, KCBT, and recommendations of trusted friends and my supervisor at my internship. Last week I went to one that I finally felt could be a good fit. They seemed to have a lot of people around my age, something all the other churches I visited lacked, but first and foremost they preached Jesus in a truthful and relevant way. People brought their bibles, and actually opened them (gasp), and they appear to be all about missions and fellowship. They had a guest speaker, who was excellent, so I decided to go back this week and see how I felt about the senior pastor. Last night Jesus and I had a pretty deep heart to heart. I journaled like 9 pages about all the things that have been on my heart lately, things I'm learning, things I know I need to be learning, questions, doubts, fears, confessions, praises, you name it, it was in the chat :) But one of this things I earnestly asked was for confirmation as to whether or not this is the church he would have me stay at and that I would make some more friends. I said, "Lord, just let one person say hello to me." And I made up my mind that no matter what, I would get some guts and go to the welcome center after service and meet some people. So I'm pulling into the church this morning and I notice that the person in front of me has Nebraska plates. I think to myself, "Hmm, maybe this is another new comer." I basically swerve into oncoming traffic to see if the driver was a male or female, and sure enough, a young looking girl. I hear a tiny little voice inside my head say, "This is it, meet her." So I follow her and park just a couple cars down. This is when I start to doubt myself, I think "What am I gonna do? Tackle her and say- Hey, I was just stalking you in the parking lot, are you from the Midwest? Me too! Do you wanna be my friend?" And I realize that instead of being 10 mins late like I was the week before, I'm 15 mins early. What am I gonna do with these 15 mins? By the time I've thought all of this, she's out of her car and in the building. Way to go me. I saw she was wearing a white coat, so I think maybe I'll try and find her when I go in. I stay in my car and read some proverbs, you know for wisdom, and to kill time haha. I finally head in and find my way through a maze of halls to the sanctuary and plant myself more toward the middle than my usual back row choice, tryin to be bold here. I grab a "New Visitor" card and start to fill it out. Two girls who look around my age come sit right in front of me, and one of them turns and introduces herself, Nicole. She's wearing a white coat. She asks if its my first Sunday, and where I'm from. I say it's my second and that I'm from Kansas, to which she replies, "Oh really! I'm from Nebraska!" So even after my failure to be bold the Lord brings me to her anyway, but that's not all. She introduces me to her friend, Abbie, who just happens to be starting a small group for new people next week. God is too darn good to be sometimes. So we exchange emails, and they invite me to an event for college age people this Friday. After service, I use my new found confidence to go to the welcome center, and who do I see again, Nicole, she's part of the new comers ministry, good at it too I might add. I also meet two other young ladies that are planning to come to the event on Friday. 

Friends, fellowship, community. Ask and you shall recieve.

Sink or Swim

It's 6:45 am last Thursday morning. I'm getting ready, as usual, already on my second cup of coffee. I hear my phone go off, which is quite strange for 6:45 in the morning, and look to see a text from my supervisor telling me she was up all night with a horrible cold and won't be able to make it to school. I'm on my own. For the first time. AHHHHHHH! Now she was very gracious and said that she wanted me to do the first session but that I could cancel the other 4 if I wanted. It was up to me. Seeing as I had only done one hello song so far on my own, that option was very tempting. But I'd just come off a super encouraging time with Jesus that morning, so I decided to go for it :) I finished getting ready in record speed, meaning I forgot to pack nearly everything I needed for the day, and headed to the school. Our Thursday mornings are kinda crazy in the fact that we have 3 groups and 2 individual sessions basically back to back. I had about an hour to write all five plans and tailor them to address as many of the students goals as I possibly could. Seeing as I had very limited repertoire, I had to learn a couple new songs, quickly, and come up with a few on the spot. Man am I glad I do well under pressure. I finished my plan in the first session far to quickly and landed myself 10 mins to fill and a SUPER bouncy autistic teenager staring at me like, "Really, that's all ya got?" My response, thought know it sounds cliche, was, when all else fails, dance. Oh and dance we did. We shimmied and we shaked and we hand jived to our hearts content. The next session waaaaaaas... a little nuts, most def some of my more challenging kiddos, but no one tried to kill me, bite me maybe, squeeze my ever popular chub cheeks, most def, but no attempts on my life. The last 3 went pretty smoothly and included songs with lyrics such as, "A boy says hi, a girl says hi, and a duck says quack quack quack!" and, "Miss Fort's got a duck on her head, and she keeps it there all day." All in all, by the time I lunch hit I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, but was still grinnin. The transition from doing one or two sessions a week in school, to five or six a day in the internship and the real world is a tough one for sure, but it's good. It makes you think on your feet, learn new things, quickly, and realize that it's all about what is going to be best for the client and how to better yourself as a therapist so you can provide it. 

Also, yesterday I got my schedule all set and it looks like I'll be working with ages 6-20 and about 10 different diagnosis, fabulous! Got my work cut out for me. Highlight of my day today? Attempting to teach 3 teenage ASD boys how to do the 'shimmy' part of the chicken dance, HILARIOUS!

Week Four

So my weekend get-away in DC was just fabulous. It was so great to see some familiar faces, get lots of hugs, and one AMAZING back rub (to get out all my newly formed stress knots) from Kasha. I came back feeling so refreshed and I didn't even know I needed refreshing. My internship has also been really great this week, as usual. Got to do some observation with some younger kids. Met the cutest little guy with CP. He had this tiny squeaky voice that went up and down in the exact same pattern for everything he said. He really loved the piano so after every activity he would announce, "And now it's time to play the piano!!!" and would have to be redirected to wait until the end of the session. His PT was also in the session with us. She was able to do stretching that he absolutely would not tolerate in her sessions because he was distracted by the music. PT is very painful for him, but music is very motivating. He has a great voice and picks up on the melody and words to a song so quickly. It was really great to see the two fields working together for the good of the child. 

Yesterday we has our second Jr. High chorus rehearsal at my main school. Most of the kids that come to chorus are at the school for emotional disorders or severe learning disabilities. They need an environment with fewer students in the classroom and more one-on-one time with the teachers to that they can learn successfully. Things like chorus and band are opportunities for them to shine in ways they might not have been able to in their district school. There was one boy who sat to the side and didn't really sing very much, but approached my supervisor after wards to ask if she needed anyone to play drums for any of our songs. He said that he played in his old school and at his church. Since there just happened to be a drum set in the room my supervisor invited him to sit down and show her what he could do. She let him set the beat and then played with him on the piano. We started to draw a crowd in with the noise. She asked him if he knew "Eye of the Tiger". He didn't so she showed him how to start it off and then started playing with him on piano again. He just took off with it. By this time everyone from his class including teachers and aides were there singing along. He was fabulous. When it was over everyone cheered and he ran out of the room beaming because he didn't know what to do with his new found fame. It was one of those tear jerker moments you know, to see a kid who obviously had some pretty severe difficulties succeed and receive that much praise. Man was it cool. I think that I'm in the right profession folks :)

Snot Factory

Of course. I knew it was coming. A cold. A yummy sore throaty, snotty-lious, headache filled cold. Thankfully the worse of it was experienced over the weekend when I had to text a few comrades Saturday night requesting them to check on my status Sunday morning for fear that I was going to drown in my snot. I think that's about graphic enough eh? Buuuuuuuut, I am feeling better now, thankfully, because I DESPISE blowing my nose. My dad and bro on the other hand LOVE it. I wonder if that means they like to get sick? Doubtful. Anyways, I'm feeling just well enough to make a crazy 7 hour drive down to the outskirts of DC for a dayish to visit my beloved friends Kasha and Emily. Kasha's mom is attending a conference there so we are crashing her hotel room and hanging out! I'm beyond pumped to see some familiar faces and get a bear hug or two! Who knows what we'll do, Kasha's making the plans, something she hates to do, but does very well, so I'm sure it will be a blast! I'd be happy just to sit in the room and stare at them the whole time, but that might be creepy so I'd better not :)

Speaking of familiar faces, those I know and love back in the Midwest sure have been taking care of me. I feel so stinking loved and cared for. Everyday I get at least one text or phone call or letter or package, and I know, for a fact, that I get many more prayers. I'm going to post of pic of one day's worth of loot! I got a package from my fam in which my mom included cold meds and cough drops among a million other fabulous things (how did she know?!). I also got a package with a 2 LB BAG of Roasterie coffee (my MOST FAV coffee from KC) from Mac with a lovely letter, and a LONG letter from Cholbear. Not to mention the Silly Bands from Eli, sheet music and letter from Kit, and letters from Mandy, Kasha, Leah, and Rachel I've gotten in the the past 2 weeks alone. I feel so blessed to call you all my friends! I hope that I can attempt to bless you all even half as much as you bless me!!! 

Seriously great mail day

I Think I'm in Love

Ya know, I've only felt this way about one other boy. He stole my heart a couple summers ago, goes by the name of Luca :) He's the five year old with autism that I got to work with for a couple of months at a special needs preschool. He's who spurred me on to wanting to work with kids with special needs. He made a tremendous impact on me. I was his "B" :) Today I met exactly what I imagine a teenage version of Luca would be. Now I didn't make any connections to Luca during the session, it wasn't till afterward when I was trying to figure out what it was about him that seemed to familiar to me that the light turned on. He came bounding into the room, he'd just got done swinging his aide told us (Luca's fav) and he kept talking about riding the bus (Luca's second fav). He was almost as tall as me and about 12 times as fast. He bounced around the room with precision I could only dream of having. I mean he would run and leap and land right smack in front of a drum and not knock it over. I could walk 10 feet around a drum and still manage to tip it somehow :) He was so full of energy he could barely sit still and needed endless sensory stimulation, but he was also so full of joy that couldn't possibly get upset with him. Oh and he had absolutely no concept of personal space, a trait I've found common in men, but it was so much more endearing on him. He does what my supervisor coined as "drive by's". He'll pace and leap around the room and on his way by come with in about 2 inches of your face, his way of saying hello. About mid-session, he paced by and pressed his forehead to mine for just a half a second. That was it. My heart was his. Of course, this isn't good because he needs to be aware of personal boundaries and work on having the "Stranger Danger" reflex, so those are some of his goals. But it's just like when Luca was supposed to be working on walking the halls independently and he would reach up and grab my hand, the therapist in me pulls away (most of the time) so that he can grow, but my heart gets touched just the same. This is gonna be a good year.