Why I love my job

These days, I am working twice a week at two different jobs, both of which I'm going to try and keep up after the baby comes:

1)Transition - I used to work at Telos with the residential treatment kids in Orem. Since May, I've been working with their "after-care" program as their Recreation Therapist. It's really different for me because it's less therapy-oriented and more "leisure education". With the freedom these kids now have, I help them plan their free time with exposure to activities and new interests because BOREDOM LEADS TO TROUBLE! All part of their relapse-prevention plan... So that's Wednesday evenings.

2)Extended Family Inc - I worked all summer at this program that deals with state kids (foster and juvenille kids from Utah). This summer was sort of a trial-period where I exposed the kids to RT because the owner was interested in adding it to her program. At the end of the summer, they decided they loved what I did there and asked if I'd keep working once a week. Well, to protect my license and certification, there are some legalities that need to take place: Namely, writing a Policy & Procedures that includes how I'm going to run the program. So essentially, it's up to me to correctly start their RT program! It still seems a little crazy to me that I'm actually doing this, and I sort of feel like I don't know exactly what I'm doing and just going through the motions... but with help from the RT at Telos, I think I'm heading in the right direction. And it's kind of cool to think I'm helping build up this program.

Now, I work Saturday afternoons for about four hours - right in the middle of football game day, which is great cuz Dan can watch boring ol' football with baby Ty! I think it will be great to have something else to do - and this is the type of RT that I love. I love running therapeutic groups and fun activities that make these kids smile and just be KIDS for a time - without their crappy life situations to deal with.

These pictures are from our FLOUR WAR - it's like Capture the Flag, but instead of tagging someone, you hit your opponent with "flour bombs" (flour wrapped in toilet paper), and each person has a rank worth a certain number of points. TOTALLY fun. At the end, we had a "finale" where we stood in a circle, grabbed two handfuls of flour, and on the count of three, threw the flour at each other. Here's the aftermath of it all: (You can click on the collage to see it bigger)