Professional Success

I had a little professional success last week. After a very lengthy process, I finally received my C's for my profession. The Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology is received only after completing a Master's Degree in an accredited program and a clinical fellowship which entails a specific level of supervision over a period of 1230 hours. You don't have to have someone looking over your shoulder all the time, but you must be supervised over a period of time by someone who carries their C's and meets certain requirements. It's really a mentorship in which you complete a rating form three times and receive a recommendation from your mentor. It's all really lovely.

Anyway......... it took a really long time for me to complete that fellowship because I didn't work enough hours when we were waiting for Gabi, then we moved, then the Hurricane and various illnesses interrupted my hours accrued. I actually finished it about 3 weeks into this school year, but it takes awhile to have it reviewed and approved. Despite all of those hurdles, I am officially an independent SLP. I love my career and all the possibilities that are available to me. I love the people I work with and the opportunity to help families. So this little milestone is a HUGE one for me. I am very blessed to be where I am professionally.

Santa's Visit and Other Adventures

Ed and I are off this week and we took the opportunity to spend some family time together and check a few things off of our list. This morning we visited a local mall to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas and have the obligatory picture taken. Gabi was not feeling well and was very tired, so she wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting on some strangers lap. After a little game of catch with Santa, she happily told him what she wanted and then smiled for the camera.

Items on Gabi's self-generated Christmas list:

1. Ball
2. Bear
3. Kitchen

Then we went on a great adventure to make a friend for our beloved Yobo, who remains in Korea. Gabi is becoming very impatient with this whole big sister thing. At least once a day she says, "I want to see Yobo." or "Yobo's coming to see me." or "I want to go see him." Off we went to Build-a-Bear to find a friend for Yobo. She independently chose an adorable dog, dressed him in a Tae Kwon Do gi and named him Ruffy. We gave her no assistance in choosing which animal or the outfit. We were amazed when she came up with the Tae Kwon Do get-up as it seems appropriate for her Asian brother or sister. She actually wanted to name him Ruff-Ruff and I asked her how she felt about Ruffy instead. This was satisfactory. She brought him home, dressed him in his new duds and lovingly placed him in Yobo's bed until s/he comes home.


We also managed to get some much needed shopping accomplished for a couple of birthdays coming up and in preparation of our trips to Utah and Illinois in December. Gabi is pretty juiced up about Jesus' birthday and the house is almost decorated. I put the tree up about 10 days ago (a record for me) and I've been working my way through the madness in other areas.

The Austins will be traveling to Austin to visit our old friends, the Schafers, after a friend-filled Thanksgiving tomorrow. We can't wait for both occasions. The pecan pie (a first attempt) and cookies are ready to go, thanks to Gabi's help. We have a couple of side dishes to load up and we'll have a houseful at Kurt and Sandy's for the big meal. I love that. It reminds me of our military days, which I long for at this time of year.

A few pictures from the last few days! I promise to be more faithful in my posting.

Hiatus...

I apologize for the long hiatus from posting. It has been a busy month with both Ed and I traveling, my parents visiting and holiday excitement. Thanks for being patient.

The Best Candy-Giver Ever

I stand corrected. Gabi's favorite part was definitely giving out the candy. She kept saying, "More kids are coming from the neighborhood. More kids are coming. They need to get their candy." Ed tried to snag a mini Twix and almost lost a hand. She was a Nazi about the candy. "It's for the kids, not for you. Maybe they're coming."

"We have to give all the candy to them. We're not empty."

I think we've had 60-80 trick-or-treaters. I love that. My parents haven't had any in about 10 years. At one point, there was a huge gaggle of them-- about 20. They were having such a good time. Isn't that fun? And the big kids were so patient with Gabi when she was handing out the candy. It took her awhile.

Halloweiner!

Oh my goodness! I did not think that Gabriella Lilisol would be as into Halloween as she was. When I made her costume vest several weeks ago, she put it on for about 4 minutes and then didn't want it anymore. I prepared myself that she probably wouldn't really want to dress up. I could not have been more wrong.

This is how the day went-- Ed took Gabi with him to drop off a cake for the cake walk at our church. She saw all of the things being prepared for the festival and was soooo excited! She told Daddy that she couldn't wait to go to her party. When he corrected her that it wasn't her (birthday) party, she refused to talk to him. "I'm not talking," she said. Well, that's a first.

Ed woke her up from her nap to go to the festival. She was not interested in getting up until he said it was time to go to the party. She eagerly got dressed in her costume and was very proud of the result. She even sported that hat. That was the first surprise. The next was that she stayed at the festival for 3 1/2 + hours without complaint and loved it! I thought she'd poop out a long time before that. Then we drove home and she was rearing to go Trick-or-Treating! She got her pumpkin basket and off we went. I thought she'd only be interested in going to a couple of houses. Strike 3. She would say "Trick or Treat," "thank you" and turn around and say, "We need to go to another house." Are you kidding me? We went to about 6 houses. And now she's helping me hand candy out to the trick-or-treaters. She had an excellent day!!!

Did I mention that the weather was glorious!?! It was! It's been raining for a week straight and we've had some flooding, so it was wonderful to be outside in the sunshine and the cooler fall air. I still miss the Midwestern autumn. I love the changing colors, the football games, the smell of burning leaves and bonfires, hot dogs and s'mores cooking and bundling up in layers. I really miss all of that. But even the shift in cooler temps and the crispness of the air got to me today. I love being reminded of the truly simple pleasures.

Almost 4 months in

Next Saturday will mark 4 months on the waiting list for a referral for Baby Yobo. Please continue to keep Yobo in your prayers, as we'll as his/her birthparents. Please also pray for his/her foster family. Yobo is likely already born and living in this world. We pray that s/he's healthy, loved and comforted by those providing for him/her for now.

And if you could manage a prayer for my patience, I'd be much obliged.

Sorry... Blogging Hiatus

I apologize for my absence... sort of. We've been very busy with multiple October happenings. It's a crazy month of pumpkin patches, visitors, festivals and overall busyness. I also have a lot of pictures on my camera that need to be downloaded. Unfortunately, I've been letting my co-workers use my camera at school and I often forget to bring it home. I haven't had a lot of foresight lately.

My work assignments have also shifted which causes me to be off of my home campus once a week. It doesn't seem like much, but I'm only working 4 days a week this year. This has wreaked havoc on my tiny brain already. I'm not the kind of person who can manage such simple chaos. But I'm trying.

Let's see... do I have any funnies to tell on Gabi?

• She got in trouble for running into a friend repeatedly with one of the little cars at school. The teacher scolded her 3 times by saying, "Stop running into your friend with the car Gabi. He doesn't like that." Gabi ignored her. Finally, after the 4th reprimand, Gabi looked at her and said, "It's not a car. It's a truck."
• She told her daddy that he "made a nice project."
  
• She refers to her girly parts as her "Gi-nut." That one kills me.
  
• She can spell her name. Gabi, not Gabriella. But still.
  
• She's consistently using very big words like thermometer, temperature, neighborhood.
  
• She recently painted her pumpkin all by herself.
  
• Every time we go into a store now, she points something out for a baby and says, "Oooh, Obo will share it with me?" (Obo=Yobo)
• She can tell you her birthday.
  
• She loves Sunday School.
• Tonight she told us that she would wait for us in the car while we went to our Sunday School meeting. Really?
• She can recognize letters by whose name it belongs to. For example, any time she sees the letter J, she says, "It's Joseph." All of the letters relate to a friend at school.
  

We have a lot going on in the next month or so. We have fall festivals, Halloween, and get-togethers this week. GG and Grumps will visit early November. Ed will travel for work. I will travel for a conference and then Thanksgiving will come and go. Whew!! Life is at warp speed these days, isn't it?