update

Our time at the farm was so relaxing. We hung out with the three dogs and had so much fun. We watched movies, went to an awesome natural hot springs in the mountains, toured around the area and saw Tamarak in progress, saw the "dong dong diddily dong" town (as my sis calls it) and laughed at their different accents (secretly of course), and ate A TON. I had great bacon fresh from the farm and lots of homemade foods. Yum. I learned how Paula has to be a little creative sometimes when she doesn't have a lot of stores nearby and how her food is actually a ton better and fresher! It's so inspring. Paula said when we left the puppy, Rex, moped all day and was sad that we weren't coming back. I miss him too! The bred of dog they have is amazing and so smart, it makes me want one too. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't bought a dog yet! (You'll have to see my facebook pics and check out my pics from the weekend including Rex and the two other doggies)

In other news, I am still waiting for my 4th interview to be scheduled, whew! It's hard to be patient. This is definately a season of waiting, which is hard for me, but I'm trying.

Last but not least, I'm coming to Pasadena in June! I'm so excited! I will post again about things I'm hoping to do/things I want to eat/people I must see as the time gets closer. It will be June 17-23. I can't wait to see my LA friends!

memorial day!

You know you're married to a Canadian when...

D: I have to work Friday, Mon, and Tues... are we doing anything?
E: Yeah, we're going away for Memorial Day weekend. Tell him it will have to be bumped to Fri, Tues, Weds.
D: Memorial Day is this weekend?
E: Yeah.
D: Well I can't just tell him I'm off on Monday!
E: Yeah you can.
D: So Memorial Day is on what day?
E: Monday.
D: Does everyone get Monday off?
E: Yeah, pretty much!
D: Oh
Cue discussion on what Memorial Day means.

This is how most of our American holidays unfold year after year. I hate to say that as comical as this may seem, living in the midst of it is usually not very funny to me. #111 why things are different being married to a Canadian... why is it that none of my American friends believe me when I say this? It's true! Most of the time it's really good though... for example, my husband cares about the international news, realizes that our cultural lens is often small and selfish and acknowledges it in the moment, and highly values education more so than most Americans our age do.

We plan on going to Council, ID this weekend and having a fun time with Steph, Scotty, and his parents at their farm. Surely fun photos will follow upon our return. Happy Memorial Day all!

job update

Good news: I just got a call back from the clinic I interviewed at and they want to do a 4th interview. I think they have chosen me as the person to fill the position but just haven't said it directly yet. I'm trying not to get too excited but ... I AM. Hopefully this means more hours toward licensure, more experience, more stimulation professionally, more money, and possibly ... (drumroll please) a house in the near future.

More good news: I have 8 clients now and a great new marketing tool, my website! When it rains it pours! I am almost a little scared to be too successful in my private practice right now because just as soon as things are picking up I may need to slow things down a bit so I can work more in the new position. Whew! This is a better problem than the under-employment problem, but I think I will need to make sure I am making a good balance for my life and taking care of myself.

Praise God! He heard our prayers.

mom time

Lately I've been introducing my mom to cool things in Portland that she's been missing out on. The lady has lived in Portland her whole life and has never shopped on Alberta St?! Had brunch in LO? This is wrong. Granted she's been caregiving for my dad for 5.5 years, so it's been a rough patch. But with mother's day, her birthday and two different ladies dates I have had so much fun with her in the last month. Here's to the lady who gave me life, who has amazing legs, who just paid off her house!, and who I'm taking out for a meal this morning. I love you.

therapist blog

My new blog as a thearpist is at this site. You should check it out! My website is almost ready too. I'm so excited to release it! I'll let you all know when it happens.

http://portlandtherapist.wordpress.com/

Wish me luck today. I have another interview with DePaul Treatment Center!

waiting period

Another weekend has flown by and the warmer weather has brought fun new things: baseball games and jerky, Mother's Day and crepes, flowers on the porch, frisbee in the park, kids playing outside, and neighbors with their "hello"s as we all go on our daily strolls. So fun!

Yesterday was my longer day of work: supervision and four clients. I'm still hoping and waiting for a response from the place I interviewed at last week. It was a hard interview but I really liked the supervisor and their theoretical perspective. In the meantime there have been some coffee shop dates, website planning, and wishful thinking on my part to get away from the monotony of our daily life for a few days. I didn't realize how disappointing it was to not be able to come see friends in LA this March. Now the desire to catch up with old friends, see a new place in the country, and play in a swimming pool is consuming me. When can we go?!

I guess the ambiguity of being a contractor and/or being under employed is what really consumes me. There is no vacation, there's no real hope for change, there's nothing saying that the next contract won't come for months (also nothing saying we won't still be contracting in another year). When there are houses for sale in the $200-230K price range all over the Portland metro area and a $8K tax credit (if purchased before 11/30/09) it makes it all the harder to just wait and say... ok, God... whenever you want to give us work... however you do it... we trust and follow you. It's torture.

I guess that's the honest assessment of how I'm feeling right now. I thought grad school was supposed to be the hard waiting period and afterward you were supposed to be able to do what you love, work in your field, and (call me crazy) make money. Sigh. Turns out this is a waiting period too. Wait for a job... wait for a family... wait for a dog... wait to visit friends... wait.

just another Thursday

8am wake up and cuddle
9am shower
10am coffee with two friends from WPC
12pm office time next door (catch up on some paperwork), I love that it's only a step away
3pm time for another haircut! I will post pics later this week
5pm see clients for a few hours
8pm Thursday night TV starts, it's very likely that Donovan will listen from the office and I will be in the living room... the blessing/curse of having an at home office (he's STILL going on that "10 hour project" from last week, I hope he gets paid for his hours!)

It's so strange to have my day flip flopped, doing work at night and personal stuff during the day. There's something in me that says "this isn't productive!" even though it is. I wonder if that will ever go away.

Coffeehouse 5

We went to NoPo yesterday, checked out another coffee shop on the espresso map. They use Cafe Vita beans there, reminds me so much of Seattle and Lindsey. I loved the day yesterday. It reminded me of the last two years and exploring around LA with Don. We found a farmer's market and basked in the sunshine on a little hill and listened to live music with little kiddos running around. We drove the neighborhoods of N, NE, and SE looking at houses and found two good finds in Ladd's for around $260K asking price. We even found ourselves in the Pearl eating at a veggie burrito place and eventually in SW for church in the evening. We were laughing about how many spots in the Portland area we could hit in one day! It was all spontaneous (besides going to get coffee) and really fun. I want to do it again!

ladies day!

This weekend I met up with my mom, her friend Rose, and her daughter Tara for brunch at Francis. Tara and I have known each other our whole lives, our mom's met when they were pregnant with us when they were taking their children (Stephanie and Ty) to pre school. It was so wonderful to enjoy conversation with these women this Saturday, it takes no time before I feel that we are back to where we were years ago just chatting away. We enjoyed a really yummy brunch and walked almost all of Alberta St looking at the shops. I had no idea that so many local designers sold their clothing and jewelry on Alberta St. It's really a great place for creative finds.

In other news, Donovan has been working on a project all weekend and has been slaving away making sure everything gets done. What originally was only a 10 hour project is still going... he worked on it all day Friday, Saturday, and now is still in there as of Sunday morning. I'm quite sure he has exceeded those 10 hours, but still needs to do some more work. I realized that I don't like contracting as much as I thought I did... there is a vacillation between no work at all and tons of work with no respect for plans or weather or doing things in metered moderation.

Good news: I can breathe out of both nostrils and have started running again. I'm so glad the worst is over with my sinus infection. I sleep better now too now that my sinuses aren't plugged. Actually, the scariest thing of all is to brush your teeth when your sinuses are plugged, it's like holding your breath! Along with starting my daily runs again I am counting calories. I'm such an old lady! I realized that I am gaining weight again and this may be the only way to maintain or lose weight so I am buckling down and doing it. For now I have a moderate amount of calories each day, so it's not likely that I am going to lose weight soon. The good news is I won't keep gaining it. I'm still learning how to count things and it has brought to my attention what things really are good for you and what things are not. If this lesson brings nothing but awareness about what I put in my body I still will have learned a lot. I'm planning on running one or two half marathons this June/July so I am slowly starting my training for that.

As far as my work goes, I am putting together a website with Donovan and it is coming into its final stages of completion. We have already purchased the domain. I also talked with a Portland LMFT who wants me to start seeing individual clients at his offices and collaborating with him. So we'll see how that goes. It is good to feel like I am feeling more comfortable with my schedule and getting into a stride... knowing more what my week is going to look like and how I am going to manage things.

Little things still crop up regarding my sadness and loss that my dad is gone. Today I saw a picture of our whole family on the day that I was born, my dad smiling over me. That one always gets to me. He is so happy. His favorite show will come on, or something funny will happen that I want to tell him, or I'll have a question to ask him or a favor that I want to request from him. The feeling that comes up when I realize that can't happen because he's gone now is strange and undescribable. Maybe I feel like that hope for connection with him goes into oblivion. It's definately something I'm still learning to work through.

Happy Sunday friends!