Saints be praised!!

It took five months, but I finally have some happy news to report! At long last, the state of Utah has finally granted me a license! I have been given the license of certified professional counselor extern. This means I can finally get a job and start seeing clients again. There are many more hurdles to jump before I'm a big girl with a full license, but this is the very important first step that has been hanging over my head and causing me great stress for months now. I thought since my program at MNU was so good, it would be easy to just transfer it all over to Utah. I thought wrong. I had to wait three months to meet in front of the board, which was a disaster, then use my powers of manipulation and critical thinking to get the director to see it my way. Then I had to keep harassing the director to keep focused and get the job done! 

So, next week I'm looking forward to a three day training to receive my certificate in domestic violence counseling, which will be helpful in applying for jobs. I already have a few jobs I'm looking at, and have started applying for. We'll see how long this next stage takes! I have a few extra courses that I have to take to get bumped up to the next level of licensure, a CPC intern. Then I begin accumulating 4000 hours, take the National Counselor's Exam, a Utah Ethics exam, and a clinical exam. But I have three-four years to do all that. The most important thing is that I have this license, and I can finally start putting that Master's degree to work. 

I'm so psyched! 

This is me artfully expressing the way that I juggled Griffin and my education.

Happy Valentines Day!

Those of you who have known me through various stages of my life know that "domestic diva" has never been a title that I could claim. Through the years I've gradually been improving in the domestic category, learning to cook, clean and create with the best of them.

On this momentous Valentine's Day, I feel my training is finally complete. I decided to make cupcakes for my sweetheart, my parents and my dear neighbors. Ordinarily, any baking attempt I undertake is filled with strife, mess-ups and great stress. But on this day, (actually yesterday) I was in the baking zone. I baked 20 (20 because I wanted them to be a little on the big side) perfect cupcakes. Iced them in three different colors, and (drumroll....) used a different icing to squirt red hearts on the tops of all of them. As I neared completion of the baking project, I couldn't believe how well it was all going! Literally, no problems. When they were done, and I tasted one (I had to be sure, was this really my moment?) it was delicious!!!! Not crumbly at all. A truly enjoyable activity. I just had to take pictures of my beautiful creations and shout to the world, "I can BAKE!!

To the man in the library...

Dear sir on the laptop in the children's section, 

Remember me? I'm the mom that was following her toddler around the board books corner of the library. While your, let's call him son, sprawled out on the tiny couch made for toddlers playing his gameboy. Forgive me for assuming that you were in the children's section of the library in the interest of your non-book-reading son. When you asked if there was a story time starting soon, forgive me for making the assumption that you were interested in exposing said non-book-reading son to actual books. I pointed out that the story time was actually toddler time because your son was clearly years beyond toddlerhood, and most likely would not enjoy the activity.  Perhaps a more appropriate reply from you would have included an explanation of your concern over story time, a considerate desire to move your laptop and non-book-reading son away from the toddler area in order to not be in the way. Being an ass and having an attitude does not convince anyone of your "thoughtful" intentions. I would suggest avoiding the children's section all together in the future, if you find interacting with mothers and their young children so irritating.