The Lemmertorium

Sorry, this doesn’t have anything to do with the British/American sitcom. It does have everything to do with my office, though. Here are some pictures I took with Lacey’s camera, so that everyone can see it.

This is my desk. On the back wall is a painting that we recieved from one of our parents/students while in China. Oh, and that’s a Far Side Off the Wall calendar proudly displayed on the desk.

My chairs, and the door. The panda calendar is from Newton’s Panda Garden.

And one last shot with my Birthday balloon. Thanks mom.

Now, I ought to mention one thing. This will actually be my old office a few weeks from now. They’re going to let me move into one with a window!

Correction on my job. I work at the Todd Co. Middle School as an aid, and its pretty tough. Pray for me if you get time. Cory’s getting training to work with his kids, but I just got thrown in. In February, I will start teaching a 25 minute reading class too. I’m pretty nervous about it because its really hard to keep the kids focused. No apples getting thrown at me yet! but its pretty tough. I do really like working with the kids and they really need it, but its a very stressful job. We had a teen homicide and suicide this last weekend in the community, so its been a pretty crazy week to be thrown into it. My favorite time is when I get to work one-on-one with kids, which doesn’t happen very often. Good news is that I’m actually getting paid more than at Sticks for a job that doesn’t require a BA. (thats actually pretty sad) Oh well, anyway pray for Cory and I. We are trying to make a difference in a place that is pretty hard to make a difference. Pray for the Native American people.

One time I got attacked by a kid with fetal alcohol syndrome.  He punched me in the face, and beamed several apples, pears, and other assorted fruits at my head.  He didn’t hit me hard, and I managed to dodge the fruit, but my co-worker’s forehead took a beating.

What does this have to do with anything?  Well, Lacey has a job now.  She’s working as a teacher’s aide for the Rosebud Middle School on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

She had her first day today, and she seems to think she’s going to like it.  Her duties include:

• assisting teachers in their language, math and history classes.
• helping in the special ed classes
• giving one-on-one help to a girl with fetal alcohol) syndrome
• and, watching the boy’s restroom

We’re both really excited for Lacey’s job.  It means we don’t have to be sponges to our parents anymore.  But, more importantly, it means a new adventure for us.

In many ways moving out here is a natural sequel to our time in China.  Perhaps China was a preparation for us to work on the indian reservation.  It will be interesting to see how we fair with the Native Americans.  We loved our time with the Chinese, I can’t wait to see how our new adventure goes.

Today was my first day at work.

And I enjoyed it!

It will be interesting to see how this job pans out. DSS is located on the “Rez” (short for [indian] reservation). I’ll be doing casework for families who have had abuse/neglect allegations raised against them.

It seems like a challenging job, but I think I’ll enjoy it. I don’t start casework for another month or two. I’ll be having extensive training, in fact I’ll be gone training for 3 weeks in February.

It looks like I’ll be spending much of my time driving throughout the state. I also get my own office, mobile phone, and laptop. Pretty neat, eh?

I’m no longer a poor waif, wandering the streets of Valentine like a listless vagabond.

I was hired last night by the State of South Dakota. I’ll be working for the child protection agency at Rosebud Indian Reservation. My job will be to talk with children whose parents have abuse and neglect allegations, and to determine if and what kind of services they need in order to keep their children.

I’m really excited about this new job. I’ll get to continue working with children in trouble, and I think it will be a good step up from Orchard Place.

I start on the 18th of January.

A week ago on Monday I interviewed for a position with the South Dakota Social Services office in Mission. My duties would be to:

1. Evaluate families to determine if abuse and neglect allegations are founded.
2. Intervene with families who have founded abuse/neglect allegations. And provide support for the families so that they may keep their children at home.

Contrary to popular opinion I will not be responsible for stealing crying kids from their mother’s loving arms (sorry mom, the police do that).
They called me yesterday. I got really excited when the phone rang, but it was a false alarm… My reference’s phone numbers weren’t working (which is strange since I gave them the same numbers I used to call them). I was asked to give her new numbers, and here’s the interesting part. She told me: “The sooner I get those references, the sooner I can talk to you about more interesting news.”
Hmm… what does that mean? I’m assuming at this point that the job is mine. And that the reference check is the last formality before I get hired. This is all speculation (knock on wood, take it with a grain of salt, don’t eat yellow snow, etc.), but I think my odds are good. Unfortunately, if I don’t get this job we’ll probably not stay in Nebraska any longer. That would really stink, since it means that the weeks Lacey and I have spent here were a big waste of time.
But I’m assuming I’ll get a call either sometime today, or sometime on Monday. So I’ll let you know as soon I hear.