Friday, July 27, 2007

Struggling again

We did have our call with 'A' last night.

Katie is struggling, having a lot of her old behavior coming back up. She hasn't dropped, but she also (once again) isn't moving. She got a Cat 3 because she had an envelope full of slips from her class saying how good she had done (I think we have all gotten these little notes) - however these had not been given to her.

Her attention seeking behavior is back as well. The group is giving her feedback on this, and she isn't taking that well either.

It is pretty rough on our end as well when we hear this. We are a bit disappointed - the idea of a pass being so close it hard to let go of. However saying that we are disappointed tends to feed her own feelings of nto being worth it, so we feel like we are in a catch-22. In the end we basically said that she needs to get working, and "put her big girl panties on and deal with it."

Friday, July 20, 2007

Slowing down

We had our call with Katie and 'B' last night, and it was a working call, if not a great one. She still hasn't made level 4, and in fact came really close to dropping back to Orange. They were doing an exercise in group, and she let slip a reference to Focus - which was a breach in confidientiality - not severe enough to be a full Cat 4, but still a Cat 2. She didn't take that well, and then was falling back into some of her old behaviors the next day as well, and didn't take that feedback well either.

So we talked about that, and maybe got her thinking about things. The whole idea that I tried to reinforce that crap will happen, and old patterns will come up again (and again and again). She has a bad habit (pattern) of thinking that once you get past an obstacle it is gone for good. She used to do this at home as well. It also manifests where she used to think that doing one thing right erased all the times she did it wrong.

So we'll see how she does, and what she does. We keep hoping for a pass - but we've already missed the best opportunity for us for it (before my oldest goes back to college). We will have to be gone for 5 days with travel time - and that is too much to leave her 15 and 12 (maybe 13 by the time it happens) year old brothers alone, especially during school. Diane has a friend who can stay with them, but she leaves for a year in France in mid-September or early October, so we are really hoping that we can get the pass in before then, or it gets really difficult.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Staff Buddy Momma

We had our call with 'A' last night, and Katlyn got the group vote for level 4, but has to go before the high level 'committee' to get it still, and may not. Now is the time when the past may come back to get her, but I think she is prepared for it.

On Tuesday she became the 'staff buddy' Momma - helping out in the tape room. One of the things I didn't realize about it was that means she has to be the first one up and the last to bed EVERY day - just like real parents. So far she is doing really well with it, but Angies says that it does take it's toll after a while, so we'll see. There is no defined time for this (they stay there until they learn what they need to learn from it), but she was actually enthusiastic (some girls break down on hearing they will do it, even before they give it a try) about the idea of seeing things from the 'other side' as it were.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Not quite there yet...

Katie did not make level 4 - probably won't for a couple more weeks. She had assumed that her homework would also count for her daily journalling (which it doesn't) so that is the only requirement she is currently lacking. This unfortunately means that we won't have the pass that we had hoped for during the first full week of August. However we don't want her taking any shortcuts, as that has never helped her in the past.

So we'll deal with it when it happens. The good thing is that she doesn't seem to be backsliding at this time, she is steadily moving onward. I feel fairly confident that she won't drop after earning level 4, so once we hear she has that then we'll figure out how to make a pass work (since her brothers will all be back in school (the oldest 2 hours away at college).