The Western Pleasure Project revisited

      I'm a little bit behind on posting. Not because I haven't been, or because I feel I need to stick to a specific schedule, but because I have a bunch of dolls to share that I finished a while ago, and just haven't talked about yet. I guess having lots of photos is better than not having enough. I started talking about this batch of dolls before the end of July. And now we're in the middle of August and I haven't shown them to anyone. 

     Technically I am making these dolls for my next live sale. But I also have no probably at all with people asking for them now if they see something they like. I was considering having my next live sale this month, but then orders and not-doing-things got in the way of that. What I mean by not doing things was this week I made one doll that I needed to make for an order and then I didn't do any more doll work. Well, I didn't work on making any more dolls. I did get into making some lunch bag sets. So I did bits of doll work this week, but not tons. 

     This week I got my letter from the school telling me my job position for the year. And I am really excited to say, I got what I wanted! I am going to be working in intensive autism. This does mean that I won't be at LHS, at least for this year, since the program is at the middle school, but I get to work with some really excellent kids who need, and maybe even want, my help. Not all the kids I work with at the high school actually want my help. A lot of them seem to be embarrassed that they need a para for anything, so they avoid asking for, or accepting help at all costs. In intensive autism it is more like teaching again. But I don't have to do any of the lesson planning. I just take whatever programming the kids have for their day and work with them 1:1 and help them learn things. And there will be dancing and walking around, and joy! And I am really excited about this! It is going to be VERY different from any of the work I have done as a para so far. Other than the short period of time I worked in IAP last summer. 

     I will definitely miss my school friends, but the ones that are real friends I also see outside of school. IAP was supposed to move to the high school this year, and it very well might actually move next year. So I can take a year at a different school. Especially where I will be so busy working with the kids that I probably won't have time to miss visiting. And if I miss it too much I will leave early and stop by LHS to say hi to people. The middle school starts a half hour later after all. 

     Currently, I am thinking that I won't have an August live sale. I don't have enough time to get things finished for it, or really enough time to advertise it. So I will just hold off and do a Black Friday sale. Like I mentioned though, if there is a sales doll that you have seen that you want, let me know. I am hoping that the new job position will be so energizing that I will come home from school ready to jump into some doll work. At least a few days a week. But we'll see. 

     I have definitely been enjoying this summer. I have worked, but not too much. I have definitely taken a good amount of time to just do whatever I felt like, even if it was reading a book. I took the leap and applied for a new position at a different school, got it, and I am excited for all the new things. Vaguely nervous because of all the new things as well, lol. But I do think it will be an excellent school year. I will be able to use a lot of specialized skills that I have worked really hard to acquire. And while I am a little bit nervous I am definitely more excited for this year!