Week 4: Famous Last Words

This week was pretty great and as it's getting closer to the weekend, i'm hoping to get a lot of homework done so that I can have tons of fun celebrating my mom's birthday without worry of getting behind (again). Schoolwork wise I was a little frazzled this week, so i'm trying to avoid that happening again.

So, here are the things that made me happy this week:

1. Breakthrough at Calm Waters
• This week I had an amazing experience in my Children I Grief Group at Calm Waters that just blew me away! The children in that age group are 3-5 years old, though the group is composed of mostly 4 year olds. This means that facilitation with them is difficult because they have short attention spans and cognitively have trouble accepting and dealing with grief as well as with trying to articulate their feelings. Usually you are lucky to get 1-3 word answers from the kids as they fidget or scan the room searching for a toy that strikes their fancy. This Monday’s group, however, was different. Every child (all 7 of them) in that group opened up about why they were there and how they felt about what happened. They would say, “my daddy died” or “my mom is dead” then they’d come give me a hug or look down at the floor and pick at the carpet. Then, when they had to say how they were feeling that evening, most of them chose the “sad” picture and said, “Tonight I’m sad/happy/etc. because…” even though they were not told to expand upon their feelings, only identify them. It was incredible and truly a testimate to how well their parents are doing with keeping lines of communication open and fostering a child who understands that talking about their feelings is okay. I mean after all, these 7 little kids opened up about losing their loved ones to two people they’d only met once before. I simply couldn’t believe it and felt so honored and pleased that they felt safe enough to tell me what they did. 

1. Got my first two research methods quizzes back and I made 100s on both!
2. My roommate and I went to yoga at the Houston Huffman Fitness Center and it was wonderful!
3. Went for my third fill
• I went in to get another fill this past week and was ecstatic to see the scale drop even more! I had lost 11 pounds in the 3 weeks it had been since my last fill! My P.A. was so pleased with my progress that she decided not to add any more saline because I was doing so well that she didn't want to jinx it. 
4. Paying it forward 
• The other day I took a care package (a backpack with a blanket, a tee shirt, some food, personal care items, water, and a note from me) to the homeless man that is always panhandling at the place where I turn after exiting the highway to get to my practicum site. He was so grateful and couldn't believe that I gave him a backpack because he had one and it got stolen just the day before. I walked away feeling pretty happy, but that feeling grew 10x when I came back around to get on the highway in my car and I saw the man i'd given the bag to walking up to another homeless man and sitting down with him to share what i'd given him. He had so little, yet he shared it with those around him. 

Things to look forward to this weekend:

1. Mom's birthday celebration! 
• I'm taking Mom to get her nails done and her eyebrow pierced before my roommate gets off work. Then we are all going to go to dinner before checking in at the Grand Hotel and Casino where we will gamble a little and have some drinks before dozing off in a gorgeous room
2. Getting some sleep

To wrap this up, I leave you with a photo I took of Naala when I went home to get my fill. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Naala hates having her picture taken

My photo from 9-7-14