Followership

I've realized that within all the different areas of my life, I now answer to four different supervisors: one for my work for MTW, one for my outplacement site at MARR, one for my counseling site on Tuesday evenings at my school, and one for my group supervision class at school.

Somehow I hope I am becoming more humble.

I do know that I am working with some of the best counselors ever and I'm getting some pretty darn good advice.

And I love my MTW boss, who is so flexible with my crazy schedule and trusts me to plan and do my work well on my own. Gratefulness abounds to you McKenzie!!

I am, however, looking forward to May 10, which is when I gradate and hopefully will be employed with one, and only one, supervisor.

If MARR doesn't prepare me to be a counselor, I don't know what will..

I had two weeks off from school, work, and my internship in August. It was lovely, and much needed. The summer semester schedule really almost put me over the edge. But as my friend Christina always reminds me, you just have to get through it and then the summer of doom is done once and for all. When she was in the middle of hers last year, she ended up at Urgent Care one night, so I think I got by quite easily.

I started my internship at MARR again yesterday. I had been in touch with my supervisor (Leanne) over break, and so I knew going into the day that:
1) She had given MARR her two weeks notice, and I was only going to have like 3 days left with her.
2) Starting yesterday I was starting to lead my first weekly family dynamics group that will continue through next May.
3) I had been off for two weeks, and for patients at a treatment program, two weeks can bring a lot of doom, but also a lot of healing. It can go either way.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that some of the patients not only noticed that I was gone but that they missed me. That really boosted my confidence! Several asked where I was and said they were glad I was back. However, I found out a couple of them had relapsed, which is always sad to here about.

I also got a crash course in being a group therapy leader. My supervisor was not able to help me as much with my group, so I picked the topic, prepared the questions myself, and ran the group completely on my own. And you know what, it went pretty smooth.

I'll also be following up with a lot of the patients families that my supervisor was following up with. They were trying to break me in, so two families to follow up with was a good caseload for me for now. Starting next week, that's going to jump to about 10 or so.

Yesterday I got there early and stayed late, being attentive to Leanne and learning as much as I could before she left, including getting to know the families she was working with, who will now become mine. To this beginning therapist, the responsibility is HUGE. I am sort of thankful for this forced responsibility. Now I don't have time to think if I feel ready to do something or not. I just have to try. I'm at MARR three days a week this semester, so tomorrow will be another day of whirlwind learning!

P.S. Leanne did find me another supervisor at MARR who will help me, so I'm not completely on my own =).

How to drink a Summer Shandy

My favorite beer is Leinenkugal's Honey Weiss. It's the best thing that's ever come out of Wisconsin. For some unknown reason, this beer has never made it to Georgia. Untillll....they unveiled Summer Shandy, a perfectly refreshing brewsky with a hint of lemonade. I found it a few weeks ago in the beer aisle at Kroger and somehow despite my surprise and amazement I managed to limit myself to only one pack.

I found out when I was in Minnesota over the past week that Summer Shandy is a summer beer only and is being phased out. Most of my fam was going Shandy-crazy and was totally stocking up in preparation. Luckily, my aunt Mary's friend Kathy got them a few cases, and they allowed me the pleasure of having one after Sam and I went horseback riding in 90 degree heat. It tasted sooo good. This beer is also amazing when paddleboating with your sister-in-law, trying to stay refreshed at your cousin Sean's surprise birthday party, and surviving getting pulled over by the boating police in your brother's unregistered pontoon boat.

All in all, I had an awesome, relaxing, and throughoutly enjoyable time in Minnesota!! I miss you guys already!!

Success in cooking

My cousin Simon frequently blogs about his culinary adventures. I actually got to see Simon and his wife Eve last week on their last leg of their trip to Georgia, and we made some brownies together. It was very fitting, because within such a small activity we both obtained some pretty significant blog content.

We were making the brownies at my cousin Rochelle's house. Rochelle is a tremendous cook, but she hates doing it. She has to do it because otherwise her three young kids would starve, but that's probably her only motivation. That night she made this amazing BBQ pork on the grill which you could pile high on a bun and enjoy to the max.

I, on the other hand, usually cook with much trepidation and fear. For a long time, I was a horrible cook. I didn't know how to measure things right or look for a good recipe. Plus I never really had a lot of opportunities to try. When you're single, primarily cooking for yourself, you're basically fine with eating a lot of the same meals over and over again.

However, since I bought my house I've been struck with this desire to cook. I got some good cookbooks as presents from sister-in-law and slowly took advantage of opportunities to make things. I was super careful with how I made it, asked for help when it was available, and picked really simple things so I would feel more successful. So far, it's been amazing. And I love it!

Probably the hardest thing I've made was Chocolate Indulgence Cheesecake for Nathan and Jamie's engagement party last Sunday (the pic is of all of Jamie's bridesmaids except her friend Laura who lived too far away to come). It called for things I never had to use before like coffee extract, which I never was able to find, but was able to use kahlua instead. I also had never made a cheesecake before. So it was quite a gamble. But the extra batter on the beaters tasted pretty good and so did my spoon sample of the kahlua topping, so I felt hopeful about the result. It ended up being a huge success with only once slice remaining on the plate at the end of the night! The best part was Nathan's mom sincerely begging me for the recipe, which was a first for me. And she's like a cook extraordinaire!! I felt really satisfied and my confidence level boosted like way up.

Here's a link to the recipe if you want to check it out! Oh yeah, and it was low-carb.