Almost finished 2nd semester

Gee, the time really flies by, I can't believe I've almost completed 8 Uni topics. The last time I was Uni it took me 3 years to get as far as 8 topics completed, including the foundation year. Exams are during the end of November.
I've qualified as a telephone counsellor at Lifeline now, and I do a regular Sunday afternoon shift. I continue to keep up with additional training, such as a Mental Health Workshop I attended for a full weekend, and this week I'll be going to more training about Youth As Perpetrators of Abusers in families, and then another presentation of the Impact of Toxic Stress on Young Children's Brain Development. Coupled with my Uni studies in all things social, I'm on a big learning curve, and loving every minute of it.
Stephanie is coming along really fine. Her speech has leaped ahead, her stutter has gone, she's not as anxious as she was before and her confidence is up. She's adapted to the routine of living at Mummy's and visiting Daddy's. It seems to be working well with David too, he's seems to be appreciating his private time.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and I'll soon start putting up some posts about violence within our community when somethings of interest come along. I have a literature review to do for Sociology and that has taken my reading into some very interesting places. Domestic Violence, Violence against women and social justice has become such a large part of my life now that not posting about my findings would be remiss of me.
That's about it. Life is really good, I am actually doing a bit of scrapping here and there. I have an album that only has 5 pages left to do and I really should finish it.
Stephanie's fringe has started to look back to normal after her friend chopped her hair earlier this year. Here's a pic with her best friend and neighbour - Lilly.

Life is still fantastic

Well, although there is nothing new to report, I thought I'd update with the latest. I just got my results for my first semester at Uni and I'm totally stoked with my marks. I got a Distinction for three topics, Introduction to Social Work, Introduction to Social Planning and Australian Politics - A Comparative Study which has surprised me as I didn't think I would enjoy Politics at all, but this particular course, I did. I got a Credit for Aspects of Psychology, which is something that I'm pleased about but the exam was multiple choice and I'm not very good at those, plus the topic contents I found boring, such as areas of the brain, the only section in the course, Childhood Development, which I found of incredible interest wasn't a large component and that was disappointing. Still it took my reading to lots of areas of interest.

Lifeline - I've just come off supervised shifts, having passed all the criteria with comments such as "good use of skills".

I've been enjoying the school holidays, Stephanie is continuing to blossom into a lovely pre-5 year old, which has it's challenges (such as every sentence that starts with "I want" tends to drive one nuts) but other than that she's growing into a young girl who's speech has continued to improve, as has her confidence, particularly with talking to adults.

Life is good, life is great, having fun enjoying it and making the most of my time.

Life is still full of good news

The fantastic stuff just keeps on happening. The latest for April is the appearance of Stephanie's first school report that came in the mail last week. The general comments read:
"Stephanie is a cheerful, polite, chatty and friendly girl who has settled into kindergarten routines well."
It goes on to desribe what she does with crafts, puzzles and cooking. There's also a picture of her included in the report and everything that is listed in the Learning Outcomes is very, very positive.
I'm so pleased the pre-school has done this, I didn't know they did, and to receive such positive feedback about her has brightened up everything! (especially given my concerns about her previous environment)
Uni continues to be 'the best'. I'm totally loving all my subjects, even Politics! Would never have thought that possible. Getting to know some really nice people too.
Halfway through Lifeline Counselling training, that is going well too.
My social life is perfect too.
I love being single. Have no idea if that will ever change, it's just not on the agenda.
Everything is going well, what more can I say? It doesn't get much better than this.

Some more Jewellery

Here's some more jewellery that has sold very quickly. I've been experimenting with beading.

Sold some jewellery

The good news for March is that I've actually sold some jewellery, which I'm really pleased about. I made 5 more necklaces the other night and have listed them on Ebay too, so hopefully the majority of them will go. I'm looking forward to my jewellery making class on March 29th.

Everything is coming along nicely. I've done the first week of Uni already and I think all the subjects are good for me, so I'm pleased about that. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into them as the semester progresses.

Today my girlfriends daughter cut Stephanie's hair by cropping the front fringe. Her friend is only 5 and we're all glad that she didn't progress to around the back. An emergency fix up by the hairdresser may have helped but I think overall we'll just have to wait for her hair to grow! Never mind.

Things are progressing well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what good news April will bring.

Jewel of the Tides

Discover nature's vanishing gems.
Natural seaglass.

This is what has been keeping me occupied recently. Over the past 6 weeks or so I've become an almost professional beach-comber. After seeing someone collect some seaglass at a recent visit to the beach, out of curiosity I wanted to find out how old the pieces are, particuarly the really round and worn ones and was blown away with the fact that some pieces could have been made in the mid-1850's! I've found that red, orange and yellow seaglass is rare world wide. Black is rare everywhere except Australia and is probably our oldest glass, it is really a very, very dark olive green when held up to bright sunlight. Blue is common in other places but very rare in Australia. I've found 4 blue pieces and 1 red piece. The red is likely to have come from a boat light. I've also found out there are almost 800 shipwrecks off the South Australian coast.
Seaglass is disappearing. As pieces get worn down to nothing, or people collect them, or they become buried forever under deep piles of sand the glass is not being replaced as people are more wary of litter and plastic has taken over as the preferred container to hold liquids as opposed to glass. So seaglass really is nature's vanishing gem.

The more I read, the more interested I became in the different types of seaglass and I started collecting it. I found some sites that make some gorgeous jewellery with it. So since then I've also embarked on teaching myself how to make jewellery!
Here are my first creations. I've sourced some itty bitty bottles and have filled them with teeny tiny seaglass and I've experimented with wire wrapping.
I've also incorporated my scrapbooking too! As I've done some off the page items for my seaglass storage and my jewellery findings.
Life is still as fantastic as ever!

It's all go, go, go!

Everything is happening! It's all positive.

Stephanie started pre-school and she loves her 'kindergarten' as she likes to call it. I think her first day was a bit un-nerving for her, not knowing what was going to happen because on her first day she had to go to day care and they do a 'kindy run'. It's a great system, they walk the kids up through the back gate, through the primary oval and in through the back gate of the pre-school. So she had to do that on her first day and she told me later she was a bit scared. But after that, well, it's a breeze now! She goes for 2.5 hours 4 days per week.

I'm all enrolled and registered for lectures and tuts at Uni. Got my ID card and also bought my books too! The elective (Psychology) subject had over $150 in books alone, good job the other topics I've chosen aren't all expensive books. That starts on March 3rd.

I'm also fully registered to begin Lifeline training on Feb 11th.

So it's all go, go, go and go some more. The future's so bright I gotta wear shades...lol