update

Got another ear infection! And I think it's gone again. Other ear, this time. Maybe pink eye, too. Gone now, too. My eyes now look like each other and look "normal."

Winter! Suddenly it's dark, even though it isn't quite evening yet!

I'm taken to painting and to putting stickers on things. It's very entertaining.

I might possibly make myself use sign language with other people who know sign language in the near future. It's been a LONG time. I don't remember quite so well now. So maybe you should pray for whoever gets stuck talking to me. Or pray for me, that I'd be bold enough to talk (sign). Or pray that I'd remember enough to get by. Or think of all the funny scenerios you've ever had or heard of with people mixing up embarrissingly in their second or third or seventh language.

My favorite personal example to share is when I confused "novio" (boyfriend) and "nieve" (snow). I tried to say that there was lots of snow in my backyard. I'm not sure what actually came accross. But such language mixups are pretty much inevitable when learning a new language. Option 1: maintain silence (and motionless hands). Option 2: risk making goofy mistakes (or worse) but progress in learning and using a language. I think those are the two options.

I got an ear infection. Yes, that is the really important news of the day. It is my excuse for sleeping in, for laying around, for being tired after an 11 hour night, for any grumpiness in my mood, for looking tired and sick when I was at the bank, and for why I'm not shoveling more than my side of the driveway. Even if I don't tell you, it is still my excuse.

It is also why I'm going to spend half a million (no, wait, I think it's closer to 40) dollars on antiallergy medication soon. Because I can argue that I don't need it anymore if I don't have a sinus infection or ear infection, but since I have at least one of those, my argument doesn't even work for me and I'm going to get the medication. Well, if they have it ready for me, at least.

I have a "new" hobby of watching movies. It's an important job, you know. Better than laying in bed all day. Maybe I'll even try to take my guinnea pig out to watch part of one. But maybe not. One time when I did that, he made me wet.

I might at some point return to working on some sort of craft, but my attention span is a bit short right now and I haven't come up with a craft that I want to do enough to actually do it. Maybe I will clean my room. That could go on my list of tasks for the day so that I can check it off tonight.

the house decorating continues

sandpaper, soon to become other things. :)

Friedrik

My landlord gave me permission to have a guinnea pig, so here he is! He's about three months old and my very own dearly loved pet. :)

I own a house - not that it cuts any off of my monthly rent

Like any good home owner, I've used part of my long Labor Day weekend to work on my house. Specifically, I put on roofing.
I got a relatively good deal on it: I'm thinking it cost under 10 dollars. Not that I bought anything I used for the direct purpose of roofing my house. I used scissors, kid's glue, and a cereal box. :) Yay for cheap recreation.
Here you can see more of my painting efforts from the past week. Thanks to my mother for loaning me paints and paintbrushes, this has been economical for me as well. I did buy one thing of white paint, but it was in the one dollar range. Mixing grey with dark color of choice just doesn't work the same as adding white. But it does produce interesting colors.

Here is a picture from an earlier Saturday. I went sailing with siblings. It was neat watching my brother direct the sailing of the sailboat.

Greetings. It has been a month and a day since I last wrote. And I'm not checking to see if that's true or not, but you can.

In that time, I've finished my language development class. I will attempt to continue to bring whatever information I gained into random and less random conversations.

I've decided to take a break this next semester. I'm very excited and a little nervous about that. It will be so nice! But what will I do with all my free time? "All" that free time. Yes. I'm sure it will disappear quickly. But I hope I enjoy it, too.

I've started excercising. Amazing, really. But only twenty minutes, plus or minus three. Except Saturday and/or Sunday and/or a non-working day. Then I might take a longer walk if it was for fun. I have occasionally tap-danced instead of walking. So far, no neighbor has complained to me, but I will continue to avoid tap dancing at midnight (unless I do it on carpet so no-one can hear me).

Actually, I've taken up cooking, too. I actually made a casserole and cooked it in the oven twice this summer. I hope you are sufficiently impressed. I have also baked muffins and cornbread from mixes - you don't need to be very impressed by that, except for the fact that I actually did it instead of just heating up frozen pizzas. Said frozen pizzas take too long to prepare when I only have an oven to do it in. I did make pancakes "from scratch." You can be impressed because I actually did it in spite of egg germ anxiety. And I used whole wheat, which means I remembered to buy whole wheat flour at the store.

Greetings again. Yes, again, I am delaying my online homework assignment. The hated "I don't care" thought has attacked my schoolwork. If I only have 60 minutes left on the computer, I tend to get a little more focused, but I still have 66, supposedly.

Today, I helped advertize my childcare center.

Speaking of which, here are more useful tips for childcare providers.

IF there is sticky rice on the floor, spray it with the bleach water solution. As long as you get it wet enough, the rice should sweep up easily. Thanks to my coworker for that idea. It has saved me some stress.

IF you need to plan an art activity, I'm sorry. Unless you want to, and then I'm happy for you. This week, I made hand-print octopuses (retrieve handprints from children while they finger paint, cut out while children are napping, apply sticker eyes, tape them on with packing tape because their glue is of questionable strength, and hang from the ceiling, tape to the wall and/or leave in a pile on your counter to do something with).

I also made foot-print fish. This idea came about with the help of another teacher. This might not qualify as good art because it was exceedingly teacher directed and I didn't even let them fingerpaint freely on the side. They did get to help pick the colors for their foot, but their choices were somewhat limmited. We will call it a sensory activity with some social-emotional development thrown in. The fish are comprized of foot-prints and a fin added to the outside of the foot by the child's thumb (with more or less direction from the teacher's hand). Then (during nap time) the fish can be cut out to look a little more like fish, the eye-stickers can be applied (my eye stickers came in pairs, so I had to cut them appart). The packing tape can be applied, and a nice smile can be added. I like happy fish.

Finally, we started on Jellyfish. They are, of course, made from paper plates cut in half and fingerpainted. I haven't gotten any further than that. The only down-side is that I had paint out three days in one week, and that's alot. But we are having fun with our oceany theme. (Okay, so the Bumble Bee song doesn't really match, but they sing it so nicely!)

Speaking of music, there is the Shark song I learned at camp (so I just never get to the part where the shark bites me). I think there is another one about fishies and a shark that I should finish learning, but I don't feel like I know it well enough to teach it yet. Then there is the Little Indians counting song. I think it is probably politically incorrect, but it has a lovely tune and involves counting, so I have changed it to the Little ______(insert theme-apropriate object here) song. We have sung about Sea Turtles and Octopuses so far.

Now there are only 51 minutes, so I will consider my homework again. My mood has improved some, too, which might help. :)

Greetings friends. I have 13 minutes before I have told myself I must get serious about finishing (starting) my chapter review assignment that was due yesterday. Instead of schoolwork, on Saturday morning, my alarm clock went off at 3:55 a.m. (think 4 hours of sleep, because of course I was excited enough between the final VBS evening Friday and the adventure to come on Saturday that it was hard to get to sleep). I drove with the sunrise overhead through flashing yellow light intersections (it was about 4:30 a.m.) to my family's house. I got to see the newest goat kid - a pretty white female goat - and observe my brothers make breakfast and finally, an hour after arriving, we left. We drove and drove and drove. We drove into another state, past beautiful mountains, to a camp where friends of my dad were helping out. We visited with them a while and then drove and drove and drove back to my family's home so that the goats could be milked. And finally, I drove home past a police car sitting on an off road (I was going 2 miles under the speed limmit) and past another one that had pulled someone over. I drove with a sunset over me. Sunrise and sunset and it's the middle of summer, so it was a long day! But a nice one. Worth losing one point in my college class (not a grade point, just one of the points used to come up with the grade point). Now I have 5 minutes until I really need to get serious, so maybe I'll just start early.

It's been awhile and I wanted to update my post.

Meanwhile, I'm "chatting" on Facebook with my not-so-great Spanish. Unfortunately, that limmits my conversation. But it's a fun challange.

I live in town now - transportation time to church is under a third. Transportation time to work is between a half and a third? Save on gas, not on rent. :)

Back to the Spanish conversation, I thought the person scrambled the spelling of a word (switched to letters around), but really it was another word! Online Spanish dictionaries are helpful...

Back to my English blog... (I do not have a Spanish blog...) my class is going well. Yesterday I got my online assignment submitted with 2 minutes to spare before the library computer cut me off! Praise God.

Lord willing, I'm starting my next class next Monday! I decided to take it. Then I decided to drop it, but procrastinated until what I thought was the last day, which, incidentally, was a week too late. So then I had the options of being dropped from the class for non-payment or paying. I paid. So now I will study again! I'm even excited (somewhat). But it's only three credits, so it shouldn't be too bad. I think there are fewer weeks in the summer term, and there are only three exams but there are more essay-type things involving my writing something down. This may mean more effort goes into this class compared to last class (which was set up almost perfectly for me as far as being easy for me to do right now).

So anyways, THIS week I can do stuff that I might not have quite as much time for next week; hence the blog post. However, once again, three credits shouldn't take too much time.

Anyway, it looks like I'll be moving soon-ish. Possibly the beginning of June. I'm expecting to have around 60 minutes of driving less per day Monday through Friday (unless we end up with hour lunch breaks, which could add back in maybe 20 minutes of driving - 10 somewhere and 10 back to work? Not sure I like the hour lunch break idea) and maybe 40 or 50 minutes less driving on Sundays (but then, I might make short trips in the afternoon that I ordinarily would not have because they wouldn't be short while I live here).

The place my potential appartment-mate and I applied for is little and cute. I like it pretty well. We'll see what happens.

new kid on the block

Missy is a very attentive mommy.

It's Sunday, two weeks from my last post. The sun has come out, I have put sunscreen on kids at work (not today), and the one lecture for week 13 of my Speech Anatomy class was between 10 and 11 minutes long, followed by a quiz with a 5 minute time limmit. I got one question wrong the first time, so I took it a second time, submitting it perfectly the second time in 1 minute and 10 seconds. It kind of reminds me of when I told my advisor at my community college that I did really (annoyingly) well at Chemistry without even trying very hard, and I wasn't sure if I should try for a career in Chemistry (i.e. teaching highschool chemistry) or if I should flee from it. I think she leaned towards the fleeing suggestion. So the plan is: I'll finish this class and then take a break. (Haha.) The break will leave me with more time and resources for completing my "move to town" scheme. I'm actually ready to move mentally, but really feeling a little lost in life right now (not a rare feeling).

update

New dishes, new towels, a growing collection of stuff for when I (Lord willing) move. I'm trying to move south to a warmer climate with less snow - but I mean somewhere around 20 miles south to a city in which I already work and go to church. So, my local friends, worry not.

I cleaned my room Saturday. Under my bed, I found notes on breathing (translation; notes for my Anatomy of Speech class), my camera!, a pair of sandals, my "nice" shoes, and dust bunnies. That might explain the "almost getting a cold" feeling. I removed all but the dust bunnies (thus, the "allergies" have a right to continue, though they seem better today. Does that mean I'm allergic to shoes? Oh, but I did wash my sheets, so it could still be dust).

I also desided that I'd had enough of empty walls. I think the calander may have been added to the wall earlier in the week, but the door decorations and three crayon and/or marker drawings from work were added Saturday. So I have one wall that is less spartan, and the rest look like they did the week before. But I figure the things on the wall shouldn't be any worse than the MESS I've been perpetuating in my room (that got a lot better Saturday, too, but it's looking worse already. Folding and putting away clothes really helps. Dumping laundry on beds doesn't help the clean-looking rating).

Once apon a time

Once upon a time (meaning, it didn't happen but I'm going to tell the story anyway), there was a man who was rather unconventional. None-the-less, he decided one day that he should take a particular class at the local college. He applied, but the college was hesitant to enroll him. His unconventionalness led them to question his smartness. So they sent out a representative to talk with him.

The representative was busy on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday, but he had to make a decision by early Monday morning, so he went to visit the man on Saturday. He walked up to find the man outside working on a fence. After a few pleasantries, he asked the man, "What day is today?"

The man looked thoughtful. "Today," he declared, "is a sad day. I forgot to feed my dog this morning. That made the dog upset, so it was a sad day." The man looked up at the representative and continued plaintively, "Then the dog caught one of my chickens and killed it and ate it. Thus, today is a sadder day."

The representative thought to himself, "This man is smart enough, though I don't always follow his logic. He can take a college class; he'd just better brush up on his spelling."

The evening before the test, with one lecture left

Log into website for online class.
Check e-mail.
E-mail representative.
Read a few blogs.
Out of time; computer shutting down. That's what you get for using the computer on a Friday evening not long before closing time.

Browse fabric store.
Visit grocery store - get food before you get to feeling too sick from delaying supper.
Eat food and drive to Kmart. Wow, the pizza sticks exceeded expectations - at least the first one did.
Browse Kmart.
Buy jumprope when you can (I've looked at wrong times before).
Hurry to pick up sister from work.
Wait in car.
Catch up on record keeping. Well, don't catch up all the way, but do write down the amount spent at grocery store earlier.
Look for something to cut the ties off the jump rope (suppose I jump rope in the parking lot while I wait for my sister?).
Search results in... finding the strategically placed harmonica.
Play harmonica.
Keep playing harmonica.
Play harmonica for sister when she comes.

Drive home.
Disassemble playdough model of larynx in anticipation of making playdough model of the skull.
Eat pizza. Garlic and onion tastes are acceptable; there is no hot red pepper on it; it is safe to eat.
Drink Coca-cola. Maybe it will help for studying.
Eat a brownie. :)
Put in a load of laundry.
Talk about cell phone plans.

Finally... connect to the internet.
Check e-mail.
Open online class website - and Facebook.
Learn about (what did I learn? don't cheat by looking at notes! Ummm The Hard and Soft Palate and the Tonsils)
Take quiz. Get 12 out of 14.
Look at Facebook.
Retake quiz. 14 out of 14. Short term memory has some benefits.
Write blog entry.

And now it is 10:47 according to the computer. Perhaps I should go to bed? No, review a little more. But the playdough model of the bones important for articulation (the skull), well, maybe tomorrow? Or tonight? Or just cancel that idea?

thankfulness

Sometimes I'm a little more choice-ful in thankfulness. Or more aware of what I can be thankful for. Or both.

Last night, a book to read. (and another to read soon.)

This morning, my boss calling at about 6:34 a.m. That may not LOOK like something to be thankful for, but I had used up my alarm clocks (the radio was playing still) and needed to actually get up, and after the phone call, I did. (She called to check what I was bringing for lunch so that she'd know what she was bringing. We each brought a piece of lunch and shared. It was fun.)

I got to go to a training for my early child care work. It was good, definately better than I expected. And it distracted me and occupied my brain in a constructive way. That was good, too. So I'm thankful for that. (All my co-workers came and shared a table and lunch.)

Then, I got to go to the library. Thankful for those. I go to libraries fairly often. And then I got to go walk and talk at the beach (to a lake, not the ocean) with a friend. And now I'm home, using the computer and internet. See? Lots of blessings God has granted me.

I forgot to put it in earlier, but on my way to the training this morning, I prayed/hoped for a certain song to play on the radio next, and guess what! It did. An unnecessary but appreciated gift from God.

studying

I didn't get 100% on the respiratory muscles 14 point quiz until the 5th try (only 5 tries are allowed). One of the attempts was made before I heard the lecture, just in case I didn't listen to the lecture before I needed to take the test. I got a little over half right that time. But to get 100%, I actually had to not only listen to the lecture but also spend an hour or two or three studying the book, the slides, notes, and internet resources, not to mention driving time when my brain tried to review a muscle or few or conversations/comments with family and co-workers (i.e. did you know that some breathing muscles are attached to your arm? Your humerus, actually. Which is humorous). Random comments are one of my prefered study methods. Another is dreaming about it. That study method may be harder to carry out, though an upcoming challenging test might help.

larynx model

What can happen when a daycare teacher becomes a speech anatomy student in a class in which the instructor recommends clay models? Microwave playdough models. Sooo, it's a little lopsided. Be glad YOUR larynx was made by God and not a daycare teacher. :)

Saturday!

But I just scheduled to take a test Wednesday, and I'm not ready.

So I guess I'd better study.

But I shall write first. :) I've been having trouble with a certain headache. I got one Monday morning, but then I didn't get one until this morning!!!! I'd been getting one more like every other day, so this was a lovely improvement.

I've been thinking and praying relating to the subject of a "call" from God. There's even a book entitled The Missionary Call or something like that. Just like I did last year, I earnestly read part of it... and then stopped. When will I read more than the first two chapters, the last chapter, and some inbetween? This belongs on a list of 4 books that I've been assigned/recommended and have started but not completed in the last year or two.

But back to the subject of "call". I read early in Exodus about God calling Moses (burning bush story). What really stood out to me was when Moses asked God the why me question, and God promised Moses a sign for him, to confirm the call for him. This sign was that the Israelites would worship God there after being brought out of Egypt. This amuses me. Moses did have signs - the burning bush, the miracles - but this one sign specified for him (I suppose the burning bush was for him to) but this sign was to take place... AFTER ... Moses obeyed. AFTER Moses risked his life, Aaron's life, and Israelite lives. (Of course, Moses may have needed that confirmation at that part-way-through point in his assignment.)

The other thing that stood out was that God handled Moses's questions without explicitely recording His anger until Moses asked God to send somebody else. That was not a pleasantly received question. (And God answered letting Aaron join Moses. God didn't simply withdraw His direction.)

I'm a little further in Exodus now. Encouraged to read about God being in control. Still encouraged that God would address my concern about "call" in my Bible reading around the same time.

I'm tired. I had this brilliant idea of not driving home between morning church and evening thing at church (not a regular evening service; we don't have that at my church). I'm not sure how much gas I'll save, because I've planned to drive elsewhere, somewhere I haven't been. But I'm pretty sure that it is closer than home. Whether it AND the library AND wherever else I drive will all add up to less than driving home, I do not know.

My ONE! college class is going well. I'm learning new and interesting things! Currently, I've been learning about the larynx. And the cricoid cartilage and the hyoid bone and lots of neat things like that.

Work is going pretty well.

The weather is gloomy.

I'm happy.

Have a good week!

picking pictures

Trying to choose a few pictures from when I was in Puerto Rico to make a display... Choose only a few pictures to show what defies words.

It is interesting to look back. Now that I've worked in a child care center, some things make more sense. Like the quiet corner that we would call the cozy corner at my current job. What preschool room is complete without one? And of course some of what we did with the preschool kids looked alot like playing. Playing is an excellent way for preschoolers to learn. I suppose I've grown more used to the technical explaination of what is being learned in comfortable everyday life. Taking a break looking at books on the floor in the quiet corner - that was building for literacy (in fact, a teacher can get a higher rating on one scale in a one-year-old classroom if the teacher does this with a child). Playing outside - gross motor (I thought it was a break, but now I would put it under learning/development as well) (also important for a better rating). "Free play" - decision making, social-emotional development, and tell me what they freely are playing and we can probably put it into even more educational categories.

I think I have 18 pictures chosen now. Possibly too many. Possibly not as many pictures of older students as I want. But a start.

school and weekend

At this point, I have (re?)memorized my student ID number for Utah State University. I have taken three quizes (one more than technically assigned for this week) (and I think I had taken all three before Wednesday). But I still have text book studying to do. And the kind of studying I should do to make sure I will still know what I knew the hours of the lectures and quizes when the hour of the test arrives. But thus far, the class is going well. I learned about kinds of cartilage, among other things. One kind is "elastic". The others escape me. Reassurance that I should study (except that depending on how the test is made, I might only need to recognize the correct words out of a group of words for kinds of cartilage, not come up with them out of thin air, in which case I still might be okay, though I'm not sure). Enough about my dear speech anatomy class.

I'm excited for the weekend. I have high hopes of things I could do, but I expect time will be an issue, especially since I don't want to be rushed. I want a nice relaxing Friday evening-Saturday. I have cleaning, and a movie to watch in Spanish (it is also in English, but the goal is to improve my Spanish), and more.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I'll start my class from Utah State University (online). I'm pretty excited. I think my text book is at the post office waiting to be picked up.

This past week, I was out 3 evenings for college group related activities; two of those nights, there was black ice. But we haven't gotten much snow. The snow outside should be measured in inches, not feet.

On New Year's Eve Day, my family and I went snow-shoeing on a near-bye mountain. It was neat to do an activity-outing with so many of us together (8 people!). It was beautiful, too, but the lighting turned out not right on a number of pictures... I think something was wrong with how it automatically decided to expose. Oh, great, I just looked and my camera is set to take pictures in its "Tv" mode, whatever that means. I think that was the problem.

Please know that these snow pictures from snow-shoeing were not taken at my house! :) We went onto a mountain with more snow.

The lighting turned out pretty good on this one! (I think it was probably taken while the camera was still on a more normal setting)

And lighting represented wrong again (picture probably taken after the setting was changed away from a normal setting). I think this was my first time snow-shoeing. I liked it pretty well, especially running (jogging) for short bits. I liked feeling more in control and safer than with skiing, (I think if I was better at cross-country skiing, maybe the control thing wouldn't be such an issue.)

Pictures from Christmas. I think I was talking or about to talk or just talked in this picture... We wore home-made "elf" hats on Christmas and helped at and enjoyed a community dinner in a nearby community (ranks as a one-stop-light-intersection town).

Thanks to a brother for taking the sisters-in-elf-hats photos.

A highlight from New Year's Eve day... twice hearing what was presumably the neighbor's cannon going off and the resulting conversations. So Mary Poppins is not quite as unrealistic as one might think... :)