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Paul got on me because I haven’t written about my new job yet; so here goes.
I started my new job at Campbell County High School on 8/7/08. The position is a Transition Coordinator. It’s a grant position under Title 1 Part D. I’m working with students that are currently in Campbell Lodge or Holly Hill (residential facilities) or those that are transitioning back to the high school from the alternative school. Typically, these kids would come to the school, get enrolled, be handed a schedule and basically told “good luck!” There wasn’t anyone to make sure that the kids didn’t fall through the cracks…they had guidance counselors, but they are really busy and don’t have the time or resources to monitor these kids as closely as they need to be monitored. Thus, my position was created.
My overall goal for the program is to make sure that these kids graduate. This grant was created to reduce recidivism and dropout rates. I have spent the past 1.5 weeks developing the position from scratch. It’s been difficult because A) no one knows exactly what I’m suppose to be doing B) I don’t have a direct supervisor or team to ask questions to in my building C) I have a HUGE learning curve with learning the school system, the programs that these kids are coming from, and all of the in-school supports / programs / testing that is available for them.
Basically it looks like I’ll be spending my time helping the pre-transition process like getting their transcripts put into the computer, making a schedule for them, notifying the teachers of the child’s situation, and getting to know the kids before they even come to the high school. Once they are ready to transition, I”ll be showing them around and monitoring them weekly (via face to face visits, emails updates from teachers, phone calls home or to their residential facility) to ensure that they are holding up ok, fitting in, and being successful. There’s a TON more stuff that I have to do including holding ARC meetings, making a graduation plan, career planning, teaching organizational skills, social skills, self-esteem, etc etc etc. I already have about 40 kids on my caseload, and it will just go up from there. I assume that I’ll keep the kids until they graduate so my list will eventually be really huge.
It looks like it’s going to be an exciting job; all the teachers and staff at the high school and alternative schools are really excited for the prospect of the program and what it can do for the kids. I’ll update more in about a month to let you know how it’s going!

Our real estate agent, Holly Nally, came over last night…we have an offer on our house!!!! We countered just a bit on it, and she will hear back from them today. We are so excited to only own ONE house soon! We are losing a heck of a lot of money on it, but that’s the market right now. At least it will be off our backs.

Please cross your fingers / pray / do a rain dance or anything else that you do to bring us luck! We should find out today!

*UPDATE*
They accepted our counter offer! So, now we just have to wait for inspections and loan paperwork, etc to be done and then waiting for the closing!

So after a long 6 years, I have decided to leave my job at NorthKey. It’s been a great experience here: my first “real job” during grad school, two internships, an unbelievable job in children’s crisis, great coworkers, great learning experiences, and wonderful friends. After a lot of research, soul-searching and long, drawn out conversations with Paul, family and friends, I decided to take a chance a something new.

I will be the Transition Coordinator for Campbell County High School. Basically, I’ll be working with Title 1, Part D kids (neglected & delinquent) who are transitioning from state agencies, residential facilities, detention center, and alternative school into the regular high school. I’ll be helping them to compile all of their credits from previous placements, do career planning, be a liason to all the agencies they are invovled with, work with their families, hold meetings, and basically monitor them intensely to make sure that they have the resources and safety net that they need to be successful in school. These kids typically get handed a schedule on their first day and told “good luck.” This is a unique position that will keep these kids from falling through the cracks, and work to reduce dropout rates and truancy. Cool stuff.

I’m excited for this new step in my career; it’s better pay, I’ll be in the school systems (one of my long term goals), and of course I get the amazing school schedule ;-).

Well, at least I appear that way

I learned how to solve a rubix cube today. I always thought that it was just random luck, but there are actually a lot of algorithms that you have to use depending on the way the cube is set up at different times. It’s really interesting and a great brain workout!

Now I just have to memorize all the algorithms and then I can REALLY look like a genius!

We started out on Saturday by attending a musical that Emily’s cousin Wes was in. It was a small theatre group introducing a new Christian musical. We enjoyed it. Sean enjoyed his afternoon with his Auntie Gamma (Emily’s Aunt Laurie).
Emily made us a reservation at John Philip’s in Crestview Hills. Its one of my new favorite restaraunts. The menu is small (wine list huge), but the selection of appetizers and entree’s is not missing anything. I went with the Filet (with a side of mushroom bourdalaise sauce) and Emily got the prime rib. Having a restaraunt of this nature makes me feel we don’t need to drive down to the waterfront anymore! The service is great as well. Our waiter was never overbearing and even remembered the last time we came in (and he wasn’t even our waiter that time!).
Ashley kept an ear out for Sean while we were out to eat - Thanks again Ash! Another advantage of the colony! Emily and I finished up the night watching the movie Jumper - although she didn’t make it through and had to finish it on Sunday. I don’t know why that movie got such a bad review when it was in theatre’s, as we both enjoyed it. Def. a renter and not a buyer though.
On Sunday, Emily, Sean, and I went to the Newport Aquarium. We got the idea a few weeks back when we visited a Petsmart store. He just stared with great awe into the little aquariums there.

We had a great time. Sean stayed up for it as long as he could. We actually got almost to the end before he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. He only missed the penguins (We’ll just have to catch them when we go to the St. Louis Zoo next time).
On Monday, I came home to a Father’s Day surprise! Emily and I have been looking for a small table and chair set to have on our front porch, but never got around to picking one up. I had a model that I liked, but Emily was unsure about it. Turns out, she liked it enough to make it my father’s day gift - I was quite pleased!

Sean did something amazing tonight…you just have to see it to believe it!!

We traveled to St. Louis over Memorial Day Weekend to visit Paul’s family, and to attend Stephen’s wedding (friend of Paul’s). We had a great time and took a ton of pictures!

Still working on getting the wedding pictures online.

See pictures of Sean during the weekend by clicking below:

Sean’s getting so big! Just a few days ago, he started grabbing toys with his hand, then with both hands and then bringing the toy to his mouth. He loves this new skill and tends to hold on to his toys for 5-10 minutes at a time! He also is very talkative lately. He loves when people have “conversations” with him; mimicking the noises that he makes. He cracks up laughing and keeps the conversation going until you stop it. So cute.

I’m going to start getting some videos of Sean, hopefully on a weekly basis, and putting them on our youtube account. He’s doing so many new things each week, and we want everyone to be able to enjoy the milestones along with us. Plus, he’s so darn cute, who could resist a movie of him??

Today was my first day back at work and Sean’s first full day at daycare. My day went well; it was actually kind of nice to get back to “adult land.” I’m not thrilled about starting to actually work again, but it was nice to be back in the work environment and have adult time and discussions.

Sean did really well at daycare today. He took several short naps, one long nap, and drank most of every bottle. The head lady said that he did wonderful. It wasn’t too difficult to leave him this morning; once I put him in their exersaucer, he was good to go and playing like crazy. He was asleep when I picked him up today, but was VERY happy to see his mommy!

When we got home, he had a bottle and PASSED OUT until 9pm when we finally woke him up to give him a bath and bottle and send him to bed. I wonder how long he’ll sleep tonight. Daycare seems to have worn him out!

The only negative to the daycare so far is that he came home smelling like patchouli…bleh. I don’t know what to do about it. Paul and I hate the smell of patchouli, especially on our boy! We had to really scrub him tonight and it didn’t all come off. Wonder if it’ll come out of his clothes easily. I have a feeling it’s one of the owners that wears it so I’m not sure what to do/say. Help?

Well, my 12 week maternity leave is coming to a close this evening. It’s been a crazy journey! Who could have thought that my last few weeks of pregnancy I was saying “I just don’t know what I’m going to do for 12 whole weeks at home…” LOL. Silly (stupid) me!

Tomorrow I head back to work and Sean will spend his first whole day at daycare. I should have started a poll to see how many cups of coffee I’d need to make it through the day! I’m used to getting at least one big nap per day, sometimes 2-3! I don’t have any idea how I’m going to get up at 6:15a and make it until 5:00p, then get dinner ready and him into bed later, all without a nap! Whew. It scares me to even think about it!

On a happier note, Sean ALMOST rolled over today! I’ve been practicing with him and he can roll over from his back to his tummy if I flop his legs over for him first. Today, he was playing on his playmat and flopped his legs over by himself! He was laying on his side for awhile and if he had wanted to, he could have flipped himself the rest of the way over. We’ll keep up the practice and try to get a video of him rolling when he does it! What a big boy!

Things have been really busy the past few days around here.  Little Sean is as busy as ever trying to get his little thumb into his mouth.  He’s made a lot of progress over the past week, and has figured out that it kind of stays in there if he turns his hand sideways.  He hasn’t quite gotten the sucking part down, he mostly chews on his thumb at this point.  He has also been practicing rolling over from his back to his tummy.  If I roll his legs a little bit to the side for him, he can get his arm to the front and get his head up and around and flip himself!  He laughs every time he does it..probably more so because I’m giggling and shrieking and laughing because I’m so proud of him, than he is proud of himself

On a sad note, I have to go back to work starting May 20th.  I’m torn about it; I am looking forward to getting out of the house and having some alone/adult time, but I can’t imagine not seeing Sean for so many hours!  The most I’ve been away from him during the day is 2-3 hours.  So far, I think the schedule will start out as me home on Mondays, Daycare on Tues & Wed and my mom watching him on Thurs and Fri.  That of course will change when she goes to the cabin over the summer, but by then he’ll be used to daycare and probably won’t mind going more often.

Speaking of daycare, he gets a “trial run” day on Monday!  I’m dropping him off at 2pm Monday and Paul will be picking him up on his way home from work around 545pm.  I figure it’ll give me a chance to see what it feels like to leave him there, and also give him a chance to try it out before staying a whole day there.  I’m both nervous and excited, but I am really happy with the daycare center, so I feel at ease.   The great news is that they aren’t even charging me for the 1/2 day!  Cool stuff.

Sorry there haven’t been many pictures so far this month…I keep forgetting to take them.  I’ll try to get some thumb-sucking and rolling over ones soon.