I found out last week that my contract for MHMR went through, which means I can get paid for what I do. Hooray! Getting paid is good. I had to fill out a BUNCH of paperwork to turn into Medicaid (who kills more trees than the education system? The insurance companies!), but I am happy to do it if it means I get paid. I got it all turned in and can expect a paycheck in the not too distant future. I also found out that my supervisor called a meeting for Friday. Apparently I'm going to have a peon assigned to me! Some undergraduate students are going to be working with us out at MHMR. I'll find out tomorrow exactly what it is they'll be doing. But I'll be supervising them. That is a scary thought!

I celebrated on Tuesday by venturing out to Fuzzy's Taco!. It's not too far from where I work, and was really close to where I had an appointment. The girl behind the counter recognized me and said they had missed me. Yay! I enjoyed my veggie taco and borracho beans. They are every bit as good as I remember!

David and I took a load of my stuff over the the apartment Saturday night. Sunday, we spent running errands and getting wedding stuff done. We have everything all ready to go. Now we can relax, theoretically.

He had set up his dining room table, complete with a vase of beautiful flowers! We feasted on fajitas, Spanish rice, bean and corn dip, with strawberry shortcake for dessert. We even danced a little bit, too! I was also excited to receive my present, which was tickets to the musical Wicked coming in October. It is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, and I have heard really good things about it! Thanx, David for such a fun evening!

The majority of yesterday and today was spent packing up my stuff. I am still amazed at the amount of stuff that I have accumulated through the years! The best part is that now that everything has been cleaned out and stuff is being packed up, I am starting to have a floor again. Hooray! I will be really glad when my stuff is all moved and I won't have to do this anymore, because it is a huge task and a pain.

Today I went with Mom and Deanna to pick up our pottery! All of our stuff turned out really cute. I did learn that three coats of paint is the trick, but my stuff still turned out good. David's mug is cute, it is blue with a sheep on it. (I had wanted a turtle, since that's his favorite animal, but they didn't have a turtle stencil and I can't draw one to save my life. So he has a sheep on his mug.)I also had some coasters that I had painted with Mom & Deanna, and the frame. We're going to print off one of the group pictures from the party and put it in the frame. I am excited with how it all turned out, and can't wait to try my hand at some more!

Tomorrow is our neighborhood block party. These are always lotsa fun, albeit hot. They have a band, and some bounce houses and inflatable water slide for the kids. (although last year they closed it to kids at ten-thirty and declared it adults only). We usually blow up helium balloons for the kids, but I don't know if we're going to do that this year, due to lack of time on our part. Dad borrowed my uncle's new and huge smoker, and is smoking a bunch of meat for the party. It will be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

This afternoon, I had a home visit for one of my clients. While I was there, a speech therapist and another worker were there. We were telling the parent what she needed to do in order to better work and live with her kids. What was really great is that we were all on the same page and were telling her the same kind of stuff to work on. I'm so glad that we could all agree like that. It made me feel like I knew what I was talking about.

Anywho, it has been a very busy weekend, but a good one. The bachelorette party was a total blast! I decided to paint a picture frame, and had all the girls sign it. Then I got the girls who work there to take a group picture, which will go in the frame. How cool is that? I also painted a mug for David. It's blue, which is his favorite color. I will go on Friday and pick up everyone's pottery. I'll take some pictures of my stuff if it turns out well!

Yesterday at church, I had several people ask me how many days we had left until the wedding. We also had the choirs from the Covenant service and Celebration service combine to form the God and Country Chorale, where we performed Battle Hymn of the Republic and sang lotsa patriotic songs. It was a lot of fun, and I know I will be glad when choir rehearsal starts up again in September!

Last night, David and I saw Batman Begins. I enjoyed the movie, however, I developed a horrible headache during it, although I don't think it was related. At any rate, the movie was really good, and I would recommend it.

The convention is in Houston, from November 3-5. I'm supposed to present my poster on Saturday, November 5th, at the 10:30-11:15 poster session! I like presenting in the morning, it gets it over with early so I can relax the rest of the day. The best part about this presentation, is that it gives me two presentations at a conference (last year's presentation was the first), so that'll get me out of my research methods comprehensive exam! Hooray! That's supposed to be the hardest one, so I'm pumped about not having to take it.

This morning, my class met up at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. We got a tour of the facility, discussed the roles of the psychology department, and learned about research projects going on. I talked to the research coordinator afterwards and told him about my background and how I was interested in doing research with Scottish Rite. It is such a neat environment and performing research there would be a wonderful and rewarding experience.