Why my job rules, and other anecdotes

Today I changed a 1 1/2 year old's life, and mine is infinitely better for it. Typically I haven't really written about my kids because I haven't felt like it, and I think it's a little weird to put them out on the internet. Obviously I won't be using names, but I just had to share this one story, because I have yet to feel as accomplished at my job as I did today.

Every other Tuesday the church I work at hosts a group called MOPs, short for Mom's of Preschoolers. It's apparently an international organization, but that really has nothing to do with my story. My story is about an absolutely adorable 1 1/2 year old girl with huge separation issues. It's not at all unusual for kids that age to have issues leaving mom, in fact, on of the first kids I ever babysat spent the first 20 minutes of my time there screaming, but typically kids will settle down given enough time and distraction. This is not the case for my little lady friend. She's been to the group a few times, and every time no matter what any of us tried, she just screamed for mom, or just plain screamed the whole time.

Now I know what you're thinking, just go get her mom. But we try to keep the kids as long as we can, so that they can adjust and their moms can enjoy the time learning and sharing with other moms. While we do occasionally have to go get moms, it's always a last ditch effort, even if the kiddo has been hard to handle in weeks previous. So here I am, 9:30 this morning having gotten very little sleep the night before with this completely inconsolable 1 1/2 screaming about how much she wants her mom and trying to pull the latched door open so she can go find her. So what do I do? I reason. With a 1 1/2 year old. And it worked.

After about a half hour of looking out the window at the cars, looking at every toy and the shelf of books in the classroom and seeing if she wanted to ride in the stroller, all it took to actually calm her down was to tell her I couldn't understand what she was saying when she yelled. Yup. All I did was remind her about twenty times that in order for me to understand her she needed to talk quietly, and then positively reinforcing the behavior. And she was good. For the rest of the 2 hours she was there.

All that to say that I'm pretty much a genius.

In other Nicki related news.

• I've decided to apply to Fuller Seminary's Theology program to further my education in youth ministry via their certificate program, which may very well turn into an M. Div. with a youth family and culture emphasis. 
• My car got hit in the alley behind our house (not while I was in it fortunately) and now has some pretty minor damage to the front passenger fender, which irks me greatly, but should be fairly easy to fix with some help from my dad (please?)
• I supported our youth program's missions trips (yes trips, they are sending junior and senior high kids to four different locations this year) by spending way too much money on the most beautiful tea set I've ever seen (pics coming soon, or you can meet it in person for a tea party if you live close!)
• I am now a member of two different small groups and am actually pretty excited about studying God's word with some pretty cool people, which is a new experience for me, because Bible studies tend to freak me out.
• I am a sponsor (aka youth leader) for our church's junior high program and love the kids I'm getting to know greatly. 
• My Lenten thing (I don't tend to give stuff up, but instead add things I should be doing) is to write for at least half an hour daily. So at some point in the fairly near future I should actually finish a book, which will be big news.

That's all I have to report for now. Hopefully next time I write won't be as far from this one so I won't have to shove everything together in one post.

Loves!