It all started with an internship...

A little history before the big news:

Last summer was like any other summer for me. I was still in my undergraduate work, doing summer school, waiting for Lucas to be born, had some trips planned to go to Kansas to spend time with Tiffany & the new baby. If I remember correctly I had only taken the first four weeks of summer classes because I knew Lucas would be here in mid July, and I think I actually missed one of my last finals as we were headed to Kansas. Regardless of being in school, I hadn't checked my University email account since the previous spring. I decided to get on one day, and saw two emails from the Director of the program I received my AOD counseling certification from. One from about three weeks back saying "I have some internships I was thinking you would be a good fit for, let me know what you think.." and a second one that was sent the DAY BEFORE saying "This place is a great fit, but it is very time sensitive and I would call asap if I were you"...

Now let me give you a little more history- This dude, the director of these programs is a self-diagnosed hippy who has spent time in the federal pen for smuggling drugs some years ago... His brain (more specifically his memory) has some damage done to it. I never expected him to seek me out, nor did I expect it to be so specific and tailored for me... Which is even more ironic because I wasn't actively seeking out any kind of internship. It had been in the back of my mind that I needed to start looking, but because I had other things going on, I had put it on the back burner...

SO, I checked it out.. I sent an email to some person named David at Center for Family Development. (A place I had never heard of...) He got back to me... Quick.. I called him, we had a phone interview, he asked me to come in and have an actual interview the next day because he was leaving out of town, and this was a decision they needed to make soon. Boy, was this moving quick for me... It felt like 0-60, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Come to find out what I was getting myself into was a graduate level internship. They had never before asked an undergraduate or even considered an undergraduate for their program. This program was a therapist teaching clinic. I was able to see clients through this clinic who did not have insurance, and had some wonderful experiences getting clinical supervision, and expanding my ideas of plausible career options.

About three months into my internship I got a call from David (same dude) asking me if I had some time to chat... He had been thinking about me being a good fit in some program called the "DTRC". An intensive outpatient AOD treatment facility for youth involved at the county or state level for criminal activity. So, I took that on being the naive person I am, and have been working there ever since. I am what you would call a "Primary Worker". I do individual AOD counseling, I facilitate therapy groups, and supervise while they are in our program. I love my job and feel really blessed to be part of the program. I was in it from the beginning. DTRC was a new concept and the grant had just been accepted, so I was there through the implementation process, the designing, the constructing, the configuring, etc. It is still a learning process and this job has stretched me in ways I didn't know were possible. I come home exhausted every day, and wake up the next ready to tackle another day.

... Let me see if you know where I am going with this... I get another call again from David... (who isn't just some random dude, but the director of Center for Family Development) asking me to come chat. He has been thinking about me becoming a therapist for a couple months and is wondering what I think about the idea if a spot were to open up...

Hells Yes!

So, after a few more phone calls, and a few details here and there, I have been offered the job. I will be working part time as a primary worker, and part time as an individual and family therapist.

The best part about this is how much confidence and trust CFD puts into me. All my life I have never done things the "traditional" way. Graduating high school and college early seemed to be perplexing for some people involved and I was met with a strange resistance because of my ideas of blazing my own path... CFD embraces that, and dances with me.

I am scared, nervous, excited, thankful, appreciative, determined, etc. to be starting this new job and phase in my career.

Thank you to everyone who supports me, puts up with me, manages to maintain relationships with me even though often times I can be flaky and overbooked. I appreciate it and will need your love and support as I take on a new task. One I am bound to fail at, but will get back up and have some grace when I fall, and will use all your support to help me.

A Wedding, A Bridal Shower & Eagle Crest Resort

On Saturday I spent the day with Carley and Tom intimately by their side photographing their BEAUTIFUL wedding at Mt. Pisgah. John was there and helped me out because he is the best assistant in the world. Sunday John and I parted ways, me to the north and him to the East (the difference is I came back Sunday night, and John will not return until Tuesday) I went to the beautiful Miss Kris's 2nd Wedding Shower at Zena and Lindsey's house in Aurora, OR and John went to a board meeting "weekend" at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, Or.

The Wedding 7.25.2009- Was: beautiful, universally and globally sound, romantic, genuine, personal, unique, grounded, and overall a good time. I met Carley through an internship through Center For Family Development. We had both missed the "official" orientation day, therefore we got to spend a couple of hours getting a second-hand version together. I think we both identified we gelled well that day, and have been friends since. Carley is a beautiful person with a lot of passion who manages to be relaxed, fun, and down to earth all at the same time. I met Tom a few months ago in a night out on the town (mcminemans, the vets club & the Cheeseburgers) he is a sweet, kind, humble, and hilarious. I was honored to be such an integral part of their wedding and the symbolism of their lives becoming one.



The Bridal Shower 7.26.2009- An amazing tea in the meadow! Everyone involved in putting this together did an amazing job. It in its self could have been a small wedding. Everything was gorgeous, synchronized, delicious, and picture perfect. I have never been to an actual "tea party" and it was more than I could have even imagined. I know there was countless amounts of hours put into making that party what it was. It makes me feel so happy that Kristen has so many people in her life that love her and want to make days as special as yesterday was just for her! The weather was gorgeous, and the garden was breathtaking. She scored some pretty sweet gifts, and will apparently be BAKING all the time for Michael when they are married and living together :) I feel so special to be a part of Kristen and Mike's lives, and see all the little parts coming together nicely for their big day coming up on August 14th.


Eagle Crest Resort- John is currently probably waking up, and getting ready to go tee off for a round of golf. He is on the board of directors for a charter school that is getting ready to open in the fall. They are having a meeting in Redmond and are providing wonderful accommodations to those who are traveling. John sent me a picture of his hotel room, and it looked so lonely without me in there! I had to stay behind to work, but I hope he is having a blast. In the meantime, I am so busy here I probably won't even realize he is gone (yeah right!) I feel fortunate that after spending every night together for the last four years practically I still miss him a lot when he is gone even for just two nights.

This week's agenda:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- Work, Work, Work....
Thursday- Hiking, Bachelorette party finishing touches/Working on John's movie.. (a little bit of work for me)
Friday- Work
Saturday- Bachelorette Party!

My first ever DRIVE-IN MOVIE!!

Drive-in movies have pretty much been a staple in John's 'book of fond past-time memories', he and his high school friends would drive to the nearest one (about 45 min away) all the time. I heard lots and lots of stories about how much fun they are, and since the closest one shut down since John and I started dating, we have never been. Well come to find out there is a place called "Motor-Vu" in Dallas, Or that still does drive in movies, and totaling about an 1.5 hours on the road to get there, we decided it was time for me to experience a "first" and go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the great outdoors.

So yesterday John and I had most of the day free from work. He and Mike went hiking in the morning while I established our blog, we worked out together when he got home, went to lunch with Jane, Ron & Jill at Hawaiian Time, I got dropped off then picked back up from a quick meeting at work then John and I hit up Men's Wearhouse to look at suit's for his graduation gift. After all that running around we thought it might be a good idea to go over to El Torito's for a little happy hour fun (grande draft beers and margaritas). Yesterday was shaping up to be a fun day! 7:00 rolled around and John and I were dressed in our best drive-in movie gear- SWEATS! Mike came to pick us up, and we drove to a Salem Popeyes for a quick snack. Kristen met us at the Popeyes because she had traveled down from the north-side to spend the evening with us. I hopped into the car with Kris, and we tried to beat the boy's to a location we had all never been to before "Motor-Vu- Dallas". A few wrong turns and phone calls to Salem-natives got us there all of about 2.5 minutes sooner than the boys (VICTORY!). We all piled into Mike's truck at that point ($18 for a car) and we were on our way... Chelsea (one of John's co-workers) and her boyfriend met us there, and everyone spent a decent amount of time trying to get their dome light (that despite everything we tried to do wouldn't turn off) to turn off. It was still light out when we got there so we had some time to set up the back of the truck with lots and lots of blankets and comfortable things. We made our way over to the snack bar, and after a little "who's-in-line-oh-whoops-we-just-cut in front-of-a-lot-of-people debacle I ordered a non-traditional: pickle & hot-coco... A combo meal they had never seen before. Kris & Mike got the biggest pop-corn on the planet, and we made our way back to the boy's who had put the finishing touches on the finest looking movie theater seating I have ever seen. The rest was history. We got snuggled up and watched our movie (only minorly interrupted by the car next to us and its odd behavior; lights turning off and on, hazard lights occasionally, horn honking, engine turning on and off, baby crying, etc...) It wasn't my favorite HP movie, but it was my favorite that I've seen in a drive in theater. Oh yeah, and incase you were wondering the answer, Chelsea's dome light finally turned off... Thank goodness. :)

First Blog!

Hi Friends and Family-

As life is passing us by and monumentally huge things are going on for us, we have come to realize that because of our crazy schedules not enough time is taken to appreciate and savor these moments. Hopefully if I can be diligent enough to keep this updated, and we will have some kind of personalized record of all the fun/exciting/stressful and crazy things we are doing and really appreciate them when we have time to! Aside from that, we realize that blogging is the new way to stay connected, and wanted to share with the most important people in our lives some of the inter-workings of our tedious schedules we tend to forget to celebrate and talk about with you all. We also really love checking up on other blogs to see how people are doing and the fun things they are partaking in and would like to have something like that for ourselves. So here is to new beginnings and perseverance in making this all worth while :)

Taylor & John