October Snow

well.

IT'S SNOWING! for real...not the baby snow from the past couple of times it 'snowed'...this is the legit snow, snow. Winter Storm Warning, snow. 10-18 inches, snow. SNOW.

And the 4 people who read this know that I have this slight obsession with snow that dates back to that one time when I was 6. It was snowing. I was up late. I sliced my hand open. Went to the ER. All I really remember is the snow...and my animal pajamas. The love of snow stuck with me...the animal pajamas, sadly, did not.

Katie (intern from Ala-freaking-bama) and I went to the Wal-Mart last night before the storm (like good southerners)...and bought these awesome hardcore car snow scraper things. they are super scrapers!

**********continued***********

I wrote that bit up there yesterday. Today was another full day of snow and new experiences...

It snowed over night and most of today...the locals seem to think we at least got 12 inches of snow. It is blowing my mind that I am now living here...where it snows 12 inches. Dang.

I've been on vacation in places where there is more than that...but I've never lived anywhere like that...WHOA!

Okay. So....tonight I went to my friend Michelle's apartment to help her clean as she is in the process of moving out...I cleaned her blinds and I can still smell the Pine-Sol. Anyway...going to Michelle's meant I got to use my hardcore scraper!

There was probably 18 inches of snow on top of my car. Not to mention the drifts of snow surrounding my car. If someone had been taping me I'm sure I would've become the next YouTube sensation...I probably looked ridiculous. There was snow everywhere! oh man.

So...driving. I've never ever ever everevereverever driven in snow. But Scott (the volunteer who bought me my chair) emailed Katie and I about driving in the snow...super helpful! The residential area I drove through was icy...the main roads were okay. I skidded a bit but I steered into it so I straightened out...let me just say by the time I got to Michelle's I was relieved.

Anyway...the past two days have been crazy! We were supposed to take the kid's to two different events...but because of the snow the van fleet was grounded. Bummer.

So yesterday we had free time and today we threw together a halloween/costume party for the 3-11 year olds...complete with cookie decorating, candy, and face painting...not to mention the super awesome costume contest!

Tomorrow we are going to try and take the teens to their event at Six Flags...but it's only supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow...so it's going to be a bit chilly!! I really don't want to have to cancel another event...I'd rather freeze.

We also had two of our core families leave. One on Wednesday and one today. Both left for permanent housing...which is the goal. But there is going to be a hole in both age groups. The second family had 3 teen boys who came to everything...the other family had 1 teen and 1 kid who were equally active. So...it's going to take some getting used to.

I realize the importance of boundaries with this job and make a point to set those boundaries. But...I'm still human. I'm going to miss those kids.

But...when one family leaves we usually get another family that moves in. The need is great. We are just hoping that they are awesome kids like the ones who left...

Things to look forward to...

7 days till I see Jeanne!
51 days till I fly home for Christmas!

Revived.

Well.

First I MUST express the ridiculousness of CO weather. Last Saturday it was 25 and snowing. Today? 80 and sunny. I'm so confused.

Anyway.

Hannah Ito came and visited me last weekend. It was much needed. Since I've been here I have been making friends...but not much compares to the deep friends from college and home. It was very refreshing...oh yes.

What did we do?

We ate at Snooze. Snooze is a magical breakfast experience. Pancakes the size of your face (or two of your faces...depending on face size). Gourmet at best.

We saw White on Rice. Hilarious indie movie. Check it out if you have time.

We went bowling (for free). Okay...so we actually 'crashed' a friend of a friend's wedding reception that happened to be at a bowling alley...a swanky bowling alley. You have to be 21 to stay past 9....anyway...

We went to church. We also went to Slam Poetry. So...Denver has a decent poetry scene. Our teens were involved with a therapeutic poetry group, Art from Ashes...which is quite lovely. It basically provides the teens with the opportunity to express themselves through the spoken word. As staff, we also had to write and share poetry. I'm not very good. :) But it's fun to write. I learned that you don't even have to rhyme :)...

Well anyway...Slam Poetry is when poets compete against each other and it gets narrowed down to a winner. Well there's a place here that has slams every Sunday night. pretty sweet. The content of the poetry is always different. It's deffinitely a sub culture around here...it makes me more aware of the heartbeat of the city. Which...I must say...if the poems I've heard are any indication...is in a lot of pain.

Well. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park on Monday (Joe gave me the day off! SWEET!)...there was totally snow. We ate some too. It was pure and delicious (hopefully). We met a duck. He was all by himself...but he seriously walked right up to us and chilled for a bit. We named him Soren. Soren the duck.

Then I drove Hannah to the airport and that was that.


Then I had to go back to work. It was a weird week. One of our volunteer coordinators was taken to the hospital...still not sure what happened. He told me he felt weird that he was seeing spots and felt really warm...so he cam and sat in our office with the lights off. Then he just got progressivly worse...so I went "to go find a grown up"...I didn't know what to do...so the 'grown-ups' called 911 and he went to the hospital. Still no news.

THEN!

Did y'all see that balloon boy?? Sam called me and told me to turn on the news...oh man. The balloon wasn't terribly far from where I am...crazy. Too bad I just read about how it was a hoax. LAME.

So our projector in the youth room is somehow hooked up to cable...so we turned the news on...well two of our kids (4 and 6) were hanging out with us while their mom was in a parenting workshop. So we told them to watch the news...

I asked Tricia (4) if she ever watches the news...her response: "not often...but KK does...I watch Hannah Montana though..." haha

Then Tricia and James had a whole conversation about whether or not the news was real...James' argument "yes uh Tricia! that is outside! That thing is over The Crossing! See! That is real!"..Tricia responded with "nuh huh..."

you tell 'im Trish!

Well..I'm going to go enjoy a Sunday afternoon nap!

waiting for my clothes to dry...

oh yes. i did just decide to wash my clothes at one-ish in the AM. oh yes.

clever waste of time? i think not.

today was not at all what i expected. i shall tell you my story.

saturday morning is Kid's Rec at 10. it's usually a youth staff and a volunteer. all week we thought we would have two volunteers and a staff. nope. just a staff. me. lovely. so...it made things interesting...luckily we have some awesome 12/13 year olds who 'volunteered' to help out (we pay them in Bronco Dollars)...they were amazing! it made my job so easy!

well...then Scott showed up. Scott is a "Navy forever!" proclaimer/engineer/ex-parachute maker/handy man/grown-up nerd/giver. well. when things aren't up to Scott's level he decides to make them at his level...i.e...our vaccuum was awful...so he bought us a new one (twice).

well. apparently my desk wasn't good enough for him (not really good enough for me either...but i was making it work...)...so he brought in his "old" computer desk...practically new! extra shelves, more space, and modern...then...Katie's desk, according to Scott, needed shelving...so he put in shelving.

just wait. he then takes two of our teens (who helped put the desk together) and myself to lunch. oh yes. and then to home depot for more tool things...and then to office depot where he literally grabs my collar and drags me toward the office chairs...and tellls me to "pick one." I argue. "my chair is fine!...blah blah blah" he says (remember he was in the Navy) "your chair is a piece of $&!*" oh yes. pretty funny. well he bought me a chair. a $140 chair (!!!!!!!!!!!). and it's amazing :)

i am for sure not complaining!!!

so yes. not what i expected. new desk. new chair. wow.

i just got back from an awesome game night/movie night with church friends...so fun! almost dominated at 'forks' (spoons)...but access was denied...and we watched the Sandlot. loves it.

it's october. i've been here almost 5 months (the 14th?) and it's already so much more than i imagined!

Hannah Ito gets here on Saturday. SO pumped!

we have lots to plan for the fall holidays...should be pretty busy...hoping to take the kids to the harvest farm, trick or treating at the Invesco suites, and to six flags for fright night....crazy. (that's all in 3 days...back to back to back...oh yes.)

well i'm pretty sure my clothes are dry-ish!

goodnight dear friends.

It's Monday. It's officially a "Not Me Monday" (but I'm totally including things from this weekend)

I did not drive downtown and try to parallel park in front of a crowded restaurant. I absolutely did not run over the curb in the process. I did not hear the random bystanders laughing at my expense. I did not sit unpaid for 15 minutes and then leave after I realized it was not free parking. I then did not drive around until my gas light came on. I did not make Amanda wait at the UPS store until I went to the only gas station I knew which is 15 minutes from the UPS store...Nope. I sure didn't.

I did not drive over the curb at the park because all the gates were locked.

I did not wake up at 12:30pm. I was not 5 minutes late to work (which isn't bad because I don't live upstairs from where I work). I did not incorrectly enter the last 3 months of volunteer hours. Nope. Not me.

Well...today was crazy. Learned a lot.

Had a crisis with one of our teens today. She moved into the Crossing with her dad and stepmom. Her relationship with her mom and stepdad is pretty volatile. Her mom has full custody and decided that since she was no longer receiving child support she would come and take her daughter back (even though she hadn't been caring for the daughter for 2 months). The daughter was devastated. The mom then sends her daughter a text about how she changed her mind about making her leave because she knew how much the daughter hated her anyway so they were 'through.' The daughter doesn't hate her mom...but the mom called a quit to the relationship. The daughter is even more devasted...but relieved that she gets to stay. I just talked to the dad and he said the mom was okay with letting him be in charge. The daughter has improved in school and other areas since she's moved here. It made my heart hurt so much for her. I'm just thankful my parents decided to be grown-ups when it came to crap like that.

Anyway.

Here's a moment of kid hilarity:

Taniah, 5: (swinging outside) "skdkfh gave me a treat!"
Me: Who gave you a treat?
Taniah: God.
Me: What'd He give you?
Taniah: a fruit roll-up!

Eye See You

Okay. so here are some pics from recent trips...the people in the picture are Amanda, Crystal, Joe, and yours truly...lovely, huh?

p.s. those sunflowers=ginormous. like the size of my face. no lie.

everything but the sunflowers were taken at Rocky Mountain National Park.

for real this time.

okay.

new year. (kinda)

new blog. ahem. i'm okay with this.

so.

update:

it's day number 98 since i've been in denver. i'm lovin' it. or...

like i heard they guy on 16th Street Mall say that one time..."do you work for McDonalds?...Because I'm Lovin' It" heh.

so order me a Big Mac...Denver is marvelous. Simply. Marvelous (how much more simpler can you get, really?)

Well. Things at The Crossing have been...interesting.

I moved upstairs. 2 new roommates: Crystal and Amanda. Crystal is my level-headed, deep, focused, awesome, tends-to-get-silly-at-night roommate whom I also happen to work with (for now). And Amanda (AKA Asteroid Jane or Bajankety) is my crazy-fun-loud-Michigander (the-one-who-does-the-high-five-and-points Michigan kid) case manager roommate. They are awesome and life is definitely better when you have people to share it with...amen.

I have been demoted from a Queen Bed to a Princess Bed. oh yes. I cannot tell a lie. When I moved rooms I was missing a bed. So...as with pretty much all the furniture here...my bed was donated (thankyaverymuch). And...apparently Princess You-Go-Girl was the previous owner. Imagine a metal framed bed...white with gold nob-things...and a swirly metal headboard. oh yes. I feel quite royal. Wooden blocks and all (to hoist it high--for storage of course). did i mention...housekeeping stole my boxsprings. or is it boxspring. anyway. how rude. oh the humor.

well. tonight was training for WhizKids. i'm the club coordinator. whatever that's supposed to mean. actually it's a pretty cool one-on-one tutoring program for our kids at TC. I get to coordinate the tutors and events and such. pretty sweet. but as of right now we do not have enough tutors...hopefully God will provide exactly what we need. uh huh. das right. so...they had a raffle...i didn't win. boo. but i still got a coffee mug filled with all kinds of deliciousness.

um. we have a new intern arriving Monday from Ala-freaking-bama. and we just got another intern from South Carolina...so yeah. seems like the South IS rising again...ha. booyah.

This weekend a group of people I work with (Amanda, Crystal, Chris (intern), and Joe(supervisor)) and I are going to Rocky Mountain National Park. Can't. Wait. So. Pumped. It should be good.

So apparently...it's supposed to snow next month. NEXT month. Can I just say that it is so weird living in GA where it's 70 on Christmas and then moving to a new state where it's actually 70 in September and the seasons change...who knew. loves it. I'm pretty excited about snow. oh yes. i might even buy a new coat. might.

i'm loving church. Providence Bible Church=ama-za-zing. for real. love it. first week of Small Group aka Community Group aka CG starts on Sunday. super pumped. it's a mixed group of married couples, singles, and daters. i'm excited. all my small groups at TFC were always just girls...so this should be interesting!

I'm slowly making friends...the interns are so far my closest group of friends...but Amanda and I are always thinking of new ways to make friends...here's our list:

• bowling league
• red cross--gallon donors...or something like that
• frequent the same restaurant

the third one may become legit. so...the Village Inn (think IHOP/Denny's) has free pie Wednesdays...we've gone twice. we'll see how that goes...our servers are pretty cool.

okay. that's all for now.

i'll leave you with a few little moments of kid hilarity:

Me: Did you go potty this morning?
E, 5FW: like, actually, not really.

***

Me: T, you need to fix your belt (it was 3 sizes too big and hanging down in the front...)
Ta, 5FB: But Miss Dani, I am TRYING to be GANGSTA!

****
Tr, 5FB: Miss Dani? Do you own this place??
****
Okay i have to set this one up. Ta who is a 5 year old little black girl was talking to a 6 year old little white boy, F...

Ta: Why you lookin' so decent?
F: *looks up at me confused*
Me: Ta, what do you mean by 'decent'
Ta: *rolls eyes* why you lookin' so nice?
F: *shrugs* i don't know...i wore these clothes last night but i just wanted to wear them again today

K: Miss Dani, you are cooler than a sock puppet.

that's all.