Internship

   I had another meeting at the Department of Economic Security today, only this time it was in the Tempe office, which I had never been to before. My first meeting was at the downtown Phoenix building.

  It sounds like this will be a very intense position since I will be starting out as an investigator. I will shadow someone for the fall semester and then be more on my own during the spring semester. There will be plenty of court appearances and because of this I can never wear jeans. Uh oh, I live in jeans. Guess that will have to change, which also means I need more clothes. :-(

   After I graduate with my MSW then I am bound to work for DES another 18 months, then I can do whatever I decide. I suspect I will stay with this job since the twins will be going on missions about the same time that I'm done with with the 18 months.

   The job has a good benefits package. Pays health, life, short and long-term disability insurance; vision and dental insurance; has a great retirement plan, and pays overtime, provides a car or pays for mileage; provides $425 per year for clothes, has 10 paid holidays and 10 sick days for first couple of years, then more afterwards. I've already written before that the stipend/scholarship equals to approximately $30,000 and my internship is only during the fall 2014 and spring 2015 semesters. I start the MSW program in May but don't intern during the summer. Though the starting pay is only $38,000-$40,000, considering the $30,000 scholarship, this bumps the pay up to much more. It sounds like pay raises are very good, especially for MSWs.

   I don't know, I hope it all works out. I'm worried about the time away from home, but maybe it will turn out to be more manageable than I am worried about with the boys still home. If it gets too heavy, mom has volunteered to come and help out, and it might come down to that, we will see.

   Our Governor is attempting to change the organization of child welfare and how it runs. Dan, my field instructor, said they might turn it into more of a police station. As children are taken out of the home, the parents could, more often, be sent to jail instead of trying to help them receive support to try to keep families together. A guy who has led the Department of Juvenile Corrections is working, first hand, with the governor to try and make these changes. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. I've been staying on top of the latest news about this for several months. I guess there was a specific reason why it peaked my interest.

   It has been stated that CPS employees in Arizona have about double the workloads in comparison to other states. When it was found out that thousands of questionable situations had not been investigated after reports of child abuse and neglect there was quite a public and governmental uproar, which spurred on the large undertaking of the program overhaul.

   Another concern I had was about my own safety in high emotional situations. Dan reassured me that as an intern they would never send me out to a home that was not well-known to be safe. However, a policeman will go with us when wanted or needed. He said that usually the people are more afraid of CPS than the other way around. And if you have your children, and they want them back, they'd better not be threatening anyone.

   For FHE, this evening, we worked out in the backyard. Hansan planted a Chinese evergreen elm tree; Dallan planted a dwarf, pink-flowered oleander and a purple-flowered sage bush ($2.99 each). Right after school they had a prom meeting (a group of six couples are involved) and plotted out some of the activities for that date. They are very excited and going to a lot of expense. Thankfully they make enough of their own money to pay for it. They will learn a good lesson from the expense of this date and the boys usually get it figured out once they have to spend their own money.

   Taylor called from France and talked almost 2 hours, actually they were in Brussels, Belgium but will be in Paris tomorrow. He and a buddy missed the original flight out of the USA and ended up a day behind, and $300 poorer to catch another flight. He lost his phone as he got off one of the trains in Bruge because they were about to miss another connection. He managed to call through Google Hangouts from his laptop- it was like Skype and I was surprised that I could see him in real time and that the connection was so good. His last text said they were heading to Bruges, then silence. I tried to call his phone but it must be dead. He used his roommate's iPhone to place a message onto his iPhone to call me if the phone is found. He's worried about open programs and accounts on his phone. Through his friend's phone they can track the usage so they will keep an eye on it and I will close his cell account down if this happens. Taylor felt sick about it.

   Timothy called a couple of days ago. He sounded upbeat but I'm worried about his latest GCU class. He says took him off guard at how much writing is required for this class but seems to think he's getting it under control. I hope so! I hate to see him experience academic and financial failure.

   I am flying to Tommy and Xiaojun's place this coming Sunday, and I didn't realize it was on Mother's Day (I celebrated mom's while she was here). Tommy called on Easter day and he sounded a little more insistent that I come for a visit - it made me feel like a loved mom. I didn't think I could schedule it since mom and Frank were here in April, but May works too, just before school begins on May 19th.

   I'm getting worried about my credit card usage. Lynne, get a handle on this! *sigh*