Kristen Blog

Sometimes people get my name wrong.  Sometimes I correct them.  But my absolute favorite is when someone calls me "Christian," and I never, never ask them to change it.  It is my favorite!  There is a lady at Synergy.  I didn't know her name until I'd been interning for all of about 6 months.  (It is easy to miss things in that place!  I also didn't know, for months, my work bestie was married to a co-worker OR that two a-stinking-dorable other co-workers were dating!)  Anyway, when I finally figured out her name, I was so proud I had to share it.  Every time she would walk by my office, I would shout, "Hi, KAREN!" like I deserved an award for being so smart.  She's a diva, and she's super sweet, so she got a big kick out of it, and she took great pause to shout back, "Hi, Christian!"  (SERIOUSLY  LOVE  her!!) When someone accidentally calls me "Christian," I beam inside, and I tell myself the mistake is "Freudian....

Man, oh man, Friday had a rough start.  I got all weepy Thursday night (I've actually been quite weepy all week???  #emotional), and I stayed up too late.  I woke up Friday pretty sure I was going to keel over with exhaustion.  True fact.  I stood in the kitchen with my head on my elbows, supported by the counter, and I almost fell back to sleep, as I prayed and contemplated taking a sick day.  I chose to drink my mocha and push through. I had prepped an easy and fun lesson for my classes, who were on their last day of school before spring break.  Job Skills BINGO!  (with pretty awesome cupcake prizes - stolen from my pantry...sorry kids!)  There are a couple of classes I see, 2 in fact, which are particularly hard for me to get to.  Unfortunately, they also happen to be two of my very favorite groups of people, so I cannot NOT go.  It always seems to fall on my bus duty day, and I am scrambling to get Dillon on the bus and get Ev...

It's been a rough week, in many ways.  For one, I left the house several days by 8 or 9am and didn't return until 8pm.  Various things going on.  My schedule is flexible, and I am switching roles back and forth multiple times throughout the day and into the night.  Mom, teacher, counselor...counselor, teacher, Mom.  And sometimes they all just seem to blend together. But this week was particularly hard.  We buried a client.  Everyone is distraught.  I am distraught, on top of being weary...and I feel the additional burden of trying to carry hope into the scene, and sometimes that is just hard.  How do you insert hope in the midst of tragic grief?  I poured out all the love and compassion I had.  I served where I saw need that I could fill. I felt the exhaustion particularly in the mornings later in the week.  I was awake but not awake for the first few hours of the day.  By Friday, I just downright felt like I was runn...

The fact that I can sit and listen to all kinds of stories of trauma for hours on end...That I can experience heated escalations and be the grounded, stable force...I can perform like a three-ring circus amid trash talking, downright rude and arrogant teens and  still  walk away with a smile.  But if my husband doesn't answer my text within 5 minutes...or the tech guy on the line tells me it will "only" take a week to fix and return my computer to me, I suddenly down-grade to a raging toddler at the height of her frustration induced, puddles of tears, foot stomping, arms flailing tantrum. Am I doomed to remain a complete and utter conundrum?! This is humanity, my friends.  This is Kristen Shanna, in the flesh.  Genuiiiiine for real.  Sometimes, or ALWAYS, it just feels like a game of "How Much Before She Blows" but unlike Old Faithful, I am consistently UNpredicatable in how much I can take. I have to give myself some kind of credit, though.  At ...

Yellowstone, here we come! We planned to enter Yellowstone through the south side, staying a little ways outside of the Grand Tetons in Moran, Wyoming.  Listen, I did this thing pretty last minute.  From what I understand it is important to book like a year in advance to get certain "special" locations.  I don't think I will EVER be able to plan a vacation that far in advance.  So, we deal with what we've got available.  I think I used Expedia (not always a reliable method), and I found a lodge that looked right up our alley.  It was a little remote, but we were super pleased with our stay and experience at Togwotee Mountain Lodge. This was definitely part of the trip where I had researched a stop about 20 minutes ahead of our arrival to get groceries.  It was a 3 night stay, and there wasn't much around.  There was a nice restaurant and a little convenience store (with gas!) but...with 4 kids, we opted to have all of our little needs ...

I am a firm believer in acceptance. I am all about diversity.  So much so, because I am so diverse within myself.  My moods often change from one minute to the next!  I mean, I've never been really big on conformity.  I love change...as long as I am in charge of it.  😁  I am drawn to unique, different, diverse.  It's part of why I love my job.  I am all over the place, stretched out over 3 counties and 20 schools.  I see different people every single day, and often times I am in multiple different places within one day.  Never too long in one spot (I was not good with the whole classroom gig, same place every day 8 to 4.  That was way too rigid for me.) I just love diversity.  And I love people.  I mean...collectively, I hate them.  But individually, I just love ALL people, and I want to give them a GREAT BIG HUG!  I love all people...except...the ones who are in front of me, behind me or beside me in my car...