To Baby E...

Today was a long day.

It wasn't long in terms of the hours I worked, but rather the nature of the concerns I dealt with over the course of 8 hours.

Luckily, there was also a beautiful bright spot in my day. Today was the first Roots of Empathy baby visit of the school year. Baby E and his Mommy A spent an hour with a classroom of 4th graders and myself and it was wonderful!

If I haven't already, I'm sure I'll write an entire blog post about this incredible program in the future. For now, I'll sum it up by saying Roots of Empathy is an amazing program that teaches kids pro-social behaviors primariliy through having them observe the relationship between a baby and its parent(s).

Today it was sweet to see Baby E come into the classroom smiling and happy to be there. The kids responded as well as I could ever have hoped. The questions they asked Baby E's mom were thoughtful and it was adorable listening to the connections they made to their own lives. You ccould practically see the empathy growing inside their hearts.

So, here's to you Baby E! I appreciate you and your mommy's sacrifice of time and cannot wait to see you grow and change over the course of the next nine months.

To a sweet child...

Last week was the beginning of the new school year.  During the first weeks, I try to visit every single classroom in order to introduce myself and explain what my role is at school.  Most of the kids already know, but it's a good reminder for them anyway and a chance to get a bit of face time with the new students.

In order to make it interesting, I always try to involve the students in my explanation by asking them questions about my job.  

Here's a peek at the sweetest answer I've ever heard.

Me: "Can you tell me about some of the things I do around here?"
5th grader: "You make kids feel good about themselves!"
Me: "Well, I certainly try to do that."
5th grader: "I know you do, because that's what you did with me!"

Thank you for your vote of confidence! :)

Warmly,
Ms. C.

To a brand new season...

For those of you familiar with my college history, you will know that I started out my career at the University of San Francisco and then later transferred to the University of Washington for my BA and MSW. Having attended UW for not one, but two degrees, one would think I would have become quite the UW sports fan over my 3 years there. Sadly, my first and only UW game while I was at UW wasn't until I attended as the guest of a friend from USF during the Fall of graduate school.

My fiance would be horrified, if it weren't for the fact that he can now take credit for turning me into a fan that bleeds purple and gold.

Now, it's Husky Football time once again. First game of the season and you can already read the multitude of "Go Dawgs" FB status messages. The excitement of Football Season is in the air!

Though I can't claim to be an expert on Football or even on the Huskies (yet!), there are some aspects of Football season that I love.

For me, Football season means weekly gatherings with good friends (i.e tailgates). It means collectively cheering for one goal and celebrating like mad when our team wins. It means smiling, laughing, and enjoying our Saturdays, rain or shine. It means singing and chanting until our voices are gone. It means hugging complete strangers when the Huskies score a touchdown. It means eating burgers and chicken wings. It means decking ourselves out in Purple and Gold.

And what could be better than that on a beautiful day like today?

GO DAWGS!

To good health...

After much (or at least a little) convincing on the part of our friends, my honey and I've decided to try out the Quantum Wellness Cleanse.  What does that mean?  For three weeks we are ridding our diet of the Big 5: gluten, sugar, caffeine, animal products, and alcohol.  "You must be crazy," is the response we've heard most frequently since letting people know that we're attempting this seemingly impossible feat (the second response being "what's left to eat?").  Amazingly enough, it hasn't been as hard as it seems.

Day 1:  Craved sugar like mad.
Day 2:  Craved sugar like mad.
Day 3:  Caffeine head ache and only craved sugar a bit.
Day 4:  Caffeine head ache, no sugar cravings.
Day 5:  No caffeine headache, no sugar cravings, and I'm feeling totally energetic even though I worked all day!

If I feel this good after 5 days, how much better am I going to feel after 21?  I am fully admitting right now that after these three weeks I will be indulging in chocolate like it was going out of business and I certainly will not be vegan.  However, I am willing to give up for three weeks these food items that I dearly love in order to experiment and see if eating healthier truly makes a difference.

Which brings up the next question... why don't YOU try it?  Or even try giving up one food item?   If you do, you'll have to let me know how it goes...

One thing I know for sure, I am extremely appreciative to be healthy enough that simply changing my diet for 3 weeks is all the healthcare I need.

To the end of Summer...

I've noticed that it's difficult to appreciate summer until it's almost gone. My school's "August Days" (aka training and preparation days) are tomorrow and that means school officially starts the following week.

When I look back on my adventures over the past few months, it seems almost a blur. It would take thousands of words to describe it, so instead I think it best to use photos.

My summer was filled with:

Baseball.

Best friends.

Romantic dates with my honey.

Not one, but TWO trips to California (Disneyland and San Francisco).

Special time with the little ones in my life.

Good food.

A trip to the Oregon Coast.

And BINGO at the Greenwood Senior Center.














Now it's back to the daily grind, but not without a few moments of gratitude for the wonderful adventures I've had.

I am so appreciative for having the free time to enjoy life to its fullest.

To spring...

After a very long (and most likely still not quite over) winter, it's so wonderful to see a little ray of sunshine peeking through the gray clouds. It's days like these that I am so grateful for living in such a beautiful city.

I hear a lot of people complain about the seemingly endless gray skies and rain, but for some reason the weather doesn't bother me. Yes, I am excited when there is sunshine, but I also have days when I wish for rain. It reminds me of the yin and yang: how can you appreciate sunshine if you never have rain?

In Washington, we have a special way of judging the weather: Mt. Rainier. If you ever hear someone say, "she's out today!," you know it's a good day.

I am appreciative for our 4 separate and distinct Washington seasons!

To...?

I apologize that the last post was so cryptic. It's difficult when things happen in your personal life that are too complex to describe in a blog post or too, well, personal. In this case, my writing about it would be intruding on someone else's personal life. And that's just not fair of me, is it?

What I will say is something happened recently to a person I love dearly.

A miracle of sorts.

This person had been struggling for years with depression and anxiety and two weeks ago she found herself, as she put it, "healed."

Now, I'm not a very religious person. I was raised Catholic and attended a private Catholic high school, but I'm still not even sure I believe in a god. Any god.

However, what happened to this person is beyond logic and reason. In fact, it is so awesome I feel like I'm holding my breath just waiting for a (inevitable?) crash. Something this magnificent can't truly be real, can it?

How can someone wake up one day and quit smoking cold turkey, be open to trying new things when in the past they had been afraid, spend time in public spaces without feeling anxiety, be willing to do things on her own when previously she had needed almost constant companionship from a loved one?

How can she defy every reality she faced just a mere two weeks ago?

I don't have an answer.

All I can say is, thank you.

I don't know who or what I'm thanking, but THANK YOU!

A more precious gift could not exist than giving someone their life back.