Running Away from Home--For Real

In my life as a mom, I have often threatened that I was going to run away from home, so I finally did! I think I’ve mentioned that I am studying to be a clinical psychologist through an online program. As part of that program I have to spend the sometime in face-to-face contact with the university faculty, this is part of what is called A Year in Residency (AYR). I started my AYR this week in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now for those of you that know me well, you’ll know that I rarely go very far without my children, so this adventure is a huge change/challenge/adventure for all of us.

Our adventure started about 3 months ago when I was approved to attend this AYR. The first hurdle was what to do with all the kids while I was gone, which we solved by rearranging some of the summer schedule to send some of the kids to the other parents and then planning for Adara, Keturah, and a good friend to take care of Lyra and Dawniella. The first monkey wrench came when Keturah had to work night shift, but it worked out when we were asked if Lyra could attend summer school to boost here reading a little. With all that worked out, I relaxed and started planning my trip, which brought on the next stressor flying to Minneapolis.

Understand I have flown once on a little plane with Dawniella when she had RSV. I was too worried about her to worry about anything else. This however was different. I was going to have to navigate the Sea-Tac airport, get on a plane, and fly 4 hours to Minneapolis, navigate the airport in Minneapolis, and get from the airport to my dorm all by myself. Talk about freaking out! I survived it and just so Andrew and Lyra know, not only didn’t the plane crash (he was convinced that it would), but I actually made it off the plane and to my dorm with only the loss of a suitcase wheel.
So far, Minneapolis is great or at least what I’ve seen of it, the Mississippi River, where I walk across a bridge to get to class every day, my dorm room, the cafeteria, and the classrooms on the University campus. We’re in class from 8 am to 5 pm, and then have an evening session from 7 pm to 9 pm depending on if it’s an area of interest to you. During all of this, we still have homework to do, as well. Most days I’ve come back to the room and dropped just because of the amount of information we’re getting each day and needing to process it. It’s fun, exciting, and overwhelming all at the same time.





Taken out of the plane window sitting on the ground in Seattle.





Pictures of the inside of the plane.







Pictures taken out of the plane window.





All settled in my dorm room.






The Mississippi River…these are taken from a bridge I walk across every day, usually a couple of times a day.





So far, on this trip, I’ve met some very interesting people and seen some interesting sights but this was perhaps the more interesting one so far.





This is a tree just off the bridge over the river and I have no clue as to why the shoes are in the tree but it’s really cool. If someone knows, I would love to find out why they're there.