If You Have It---They Will Come.

The craziness of the Iron Man has started. Our town is full of hustle and bustle with all of the people who will be here competing for the weekend.

According to the Iron Man registration:

2,200 athletes from 30 countries and 47 states will be participating in this inaugural event in St. George. 72 qualifying positions are at stake for the 2010 World Championship held in Hawaii.

Amazing!

I SO WISH that I could go be at the finish line on Saturday to cheer and watch the finishers! We were going to, but now we have some family stuff we have to do instead :( Kind of bummed. Oh well, family is more important anyway, right???

Good luck to all of those competing!!! It is an amazing accomplishment. It fascinates me that a human body is even capable of such a feat!

Unexpected.

Today was my last day of Practicum. What is Practicum??? It means that I have been assigned to an elementary school and a specific classroom to go and observe/teach in for the semester. Basically it means I get to "practice" the things I am taught in my classes the rest of the week. I go once a week to the same classroom. Next semester will be another school and another classroom.

I went to Practicum today and had a little "gift" for the students. It was just a pencil and a plastic stencil thing with shapes they could trace. They were excited. It was something super simple, but they thought it was great. If only my own children could be so easily satisfied!

About mid-day, the students gave me a bouquet of flowers and each one of them had written me a nice thank you card. They are in 2nd grade, so the cards were super cute. They told me that they loved me and were going to miss me and that I was the greatest teacher ever. That kind of stuff.

The unexpected part??? Well, there is a student in the class that really struggles. This student struggles with a learning disability and some emotional problems. He rarely smiles. Rarely shows emotion (unless it is anger) and spends a lot of time at the Principals office, Counselors office, at a table at the back of the room. You get the idea. I have had to help this student one-on-one quite a bit because he is always behind on his work. There are times when he flat out refuses to do his work and throws tantrums. Things like banging his head on his desk, throwing his papers on the floor, breaking his pencils. You know, fun stuff like that ;)

So, on with the unexpected. When the teacher announced that it was the last day that I would be there, this student and I were sitting at the back table doing his math worksheets. He looked up and said, "What?". . .then the teacher told him that it would be my last day there. He got this horrified look in his eye and then started crying. Not a tantrum kind of a cry, but a heartbroken kind of a cry. Before you know it, I had tears in my eyes, the teacher had tears in her eyes, and so did the aide that was in there helping. Sheesh!!!

I didn't expect to get choked up, but even more than that, I didn't expect the most difficult kid in the entire class to care one bit that I was leaving. It just goes to show, you may touch someone's life in a way that you don't expect, and they may touch yours in a way you don't expect.

A quote I once read says: "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

I found out how true that was today.

FINALS!

You would think that at my age finals week would be something long ago from my past. Not the case. Here I sit stressing over the 6 finals that I have coming up. Two this week. Four next week. It is during finals week that I always ask myself, "What was I thinking going back to school at my age?" Then finals week comes and goes and I am back to myself again and I know why I went back to school at my age.

I think I stress more about finals now then I did back when I was a young college student. I am not sure why that is the case, but it is. I know that I spend far more time studying for finals now than I used to. Cramming all that info into my brain isn't nearly as easy as it used to be, that's for sure! However, it IS doable.

After this semester, I will have two more semesters and then I will be off to student teach. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Only two more times will I have to survive finals week for my BS degree. Then the big decision will be. . .do I go on to get my Masters? PhD? Probably. I am crazy like that, you know.

Enough chitter chatter. I am off to study for finals!

Perspective.

As I was out on my walk/run with the dog this morning, this song came on my iPod just as I was finishing up my third mile. It made me smile. It made me happy. It made me think.

Sometimes all you need in life is a little perspective. In the large scheme of things, my life is pretty darn good. I just need to remember to dream a little bit more and stress a little bit less :)

Enjoy!

Dear World.

Dear World,

Normally I am a pretty happy person and can deal with what has been thrown my way. I can usually deal with pretty much anything and not stress about it too much because I know that tomorrow is another day. Lately, however, I have been pretty overwhelmed. I don't mean to complain, but can you please just let me deal with everything on my plate before you dish out anything else? I would really appreciate it.


Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Me :)

Two Weeks and Then Finals!

I am almost there. I have almost survived another semester of school! I am counting down the days until Summer. I need the break like you cannot imagine! I have been in school since last May with only a couple of weeks between semesters. It has felt like I have been going non-stop for a year now. My brain is tired and needs a rest :)

After this semester, I will have two more semesters of classes and then I will student teach. I am sure that it will be here before I know it. At least I hope it feels like it is here quick!

I have to take the dreaded Praxis test this summer. I think I will keep my comments to myself on my thoughts about the Praxis. I am dreading it, and I don't really agree with the whole idea behind it. Like I said, I will keep my comments to myself. It is just something that I have to do, and if I don't pass it, I won't get my teaching certificate. Of course I am able to take it as many times as I need to in order to pass it for $150 a pop. GRRRRR!

I am trying not to let the Praxis test weigh on me too much. I just have to put it at the back of my mind and try not to dwell on it. I need to try and prepare for it the best I can, and just do the best I can. If I don't pass it, I will take it again until I do. Persistence! That will be my mantra for the Praxis test :)

Well, enough for now! I need to finish getting ready to teach 2nd graders about changing irregular nouns into plurals. Fun stuff!

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

Do you ever feel frustrated or overwhelmed??? Man, I sure do right now! I know that I am truly blessed and that I have more than a lot of people, but lately, I feel like we are NEVER going to get on top of things.

What am I talking about???

Well, last year when Bryan's job changed, it put us in a position with our finances that we had never been in before. All of a sudden we were financially strapped. Not a fun place to be! We were paying for two homes and living expenses in two places. I was back in school (still am!), NOT CHEAP!

He was offered a new job and we were thinking YES! Now we can get back to where we were before all of this mess!!! Well, it hasn't been easy. Seriously. Not fun. We are still digging ourselves out of the hole that we got into back then.

We still haven't sold our home up north. UGH! So sick of it! So, that is weighing on us financially.

We were able to build our new home. THANK GOODNESS! Seriously the bright spot in all of this. However, every time we think we are on top of stuff. . .more stuff happens.

For example, we planned on using our tax refund to put new tires on my car, buy blinds and to start putting in the backyard. Guess what? No refund. Instead we got to PAY state taxes. Almost a thousand bucks. How lucky is that?

So, we have been waiting to buy blinds. We have some temporaries up, and they work, I am glad for that. Not glad that I have to wait to get the real blinds, but glad that I don't have sheets on my windows.

Every time we get a little bit ahead and think we might actually have some extra money. . . guess what? Something else happens.

On Saturday, my daughter backed my husbands car into a truck. Nice. Not. I am guessing that it will cost another thousand+ or so bucks to fix his car. If we make an insurance claim, our rates will skyrocket because she is a new driver AND because not so long ago my hubby had an incident on the highway that we had to claim already. It did some pretty bad damage to my car. I am just grateful that the truck she backed into wasn't damaged in any way and that my daughter wasn't hurt!

Seriously, I could go on and on and on, about money right now, but I won't. In the large scheme of things, I know that these situations are all going to pass. The fact of the matter is that all in all I am very blessed. I have a beautiful home and I have food on the table and a husband and children whom I love.

The little instances that keep popping up and taking a thousand bucks here and a thousand bucks there, must be happening to teach me something. Maybe patience? Maybe humility? Who knows. I just hope I learn from it quick so we can quit shelling out $$$ like we have it buried in the backyard! :) Unfortunately, we don't!

Happy Birthday Kam!

On Sunday we celebrated my oldest son's 19th birthday. I am not sure how it is that I have a 19 year old son when I am only 29, but hey, I guess I do! ;)

Seriously though, I am not sure where the last 19 years have gone. It is a little bit scary when I think about how quickly they have flown by.

I often think about the years of raising Kam and now that he is living on his own I question myself all the time wondering if I have taught him everything a parent needs to in order to succeed in the world. It is a little bit overwhelming to think about!

I will never forget the first time I was actually able to hold him in my arms. When he was born, he had some complications and spent about a week in the neonatal ICU. It was scary being so young myself at the time and having my baby whisk out of the room after he was born for testing. The first time I got to touch him, he was hooked up to so many cords and machines that all I could do was stare at them and wonder if he was going to be okay. I was able to reach my hands in the bed and touch him, but I wasn't able to actually hold him. I remember crying myself to sleep because I was so scared and felt so helpless. All I wanted to do was to protect the small infant that laid in that bed in a way that I had never felt before in my life.

Fortunately, a week later he was unhooked from the machines and able to come home. It was an amazing and scary thing to be a mom the first time. The dynamic of our family completely changed. It went from just my husband and I to a family of three. For the first time I knew what unconditional love was really all about. I felt so protective of my child and I knew that there was nothing that I wouldn't do for him.

Life flew by and here he is at age 19. I am sure that he thinks he no longer needs his parents. I am sure that I am uncool and really more of a pest than anything else. I am sure he thinks that I don't understand what it is like to be 19. That being said, the feelings that I felt for him 19 years ago when he was born are still the same. There is nothing that I wouldn't do to protect him and there is nothing he can do to ever make me stop loving him. The unconditional love of being a parent is something you can't even comprehend until you actually experience it for yourself.

Happy Birthday Kameron!!! Thanks for giving my first taste of what motherhood is really all about.

New School Record!!!

START LINE

HALFWAY POINT

FINISHED!!!

CONGRATS to my son who officially beat the Freshman school record for the one-miler yesterday at his track meet. The old time: 5:16.8 His time: 5:15.7 WAHOO!!! His name will be put up on a board in the school gym as holding the school record until someone else can come along and beat it.
Once they get his name up there, I will go and take a picture and share it. We are pretty proud of him.

His next goal is to beat the Freshman record for the 2-miler. He is pretty close to doing it, and I think that he probably will by the end of the track season. That would be super exciting if he does. Two records beat in one season would certainly be something to brag about! :)

Not Feeling Like Myself.

Why? Because it has been SO long since I have sat down and created something. I haven't painted or sanded or nailed or varnished or inked or torn or drawn or photographed much of anything lately. It just doesn't seem like I am myself unless I am creating some kind of something. I guess it is just who I am. I never have thought of myself as the creative "type", but I guess deep down I am. I don't feel like I am accomplishing much of anything when I have all of these ideas and projects in my head that I want to make and create and no time to make them come alive.

I think that is the best part of creating. To take an idea that is floating around in my head and making it come alive and then looking at it and saying, "I did that!" No better feeling I tell ya!

I did do some fun layouts at the Scrapbook Expo a couple of weeks ago. Other than that, there has been a cap on my creative juices and they have not flowed in quite some time.

I wish that school wasn't consuming every part of my free time. I wish that I could magically make more time appear in my day. Since I can't, I will just have to deal with the fact that I won't have time to create much of anything until finals are over with in 4 weeks. **SIGH**

Until then, I will just keep the lid on my creative juices and hope that I can let them flow once again ALL Summer LONG!!! Keepin' my fingers crossed for that!

Update Much???

Lately I have been short on time, and apparently short on words, because I haven't updated my blog much at all lately.

Seems that the majority of my time is spent cleaning the house, going to school, and doing homework. I don't get a lot of inspiration to write much of anything just from doing those things day in and day out.

I have four more weeks and I will be DONE with this semester! I am seriously so excited! After this semester, I will have two more semesters of classes and then I will student teach. Part of me feels like it will never get here and part of me feels like I can't believe it is happening that soon! After that, I will just have to keep my fingers crossed that there will be a job out there waiting for me. Here's hoping!!!

Upcoming happenings: My oldest son will turn 19 on the 11th of April. Not sure how that is possible considering I am only 29! ;) I can't believe he is that old. This is his last official year of being a teenager! CRaZy!!! Since he moved and took his new job in a different city, we don't get to see him as much as we used to. It is kind of strange. Life has a way of moving on faster than you expect it to.

Diet update: Week one was AWESOME! I lost 5 lbs and I thought that it would be a breeze to lose the rest of what I wanted. Week two, not so great. I didn't lose one single pound! I was disappointed this morning when I got on the scale. However, I did remember that week two on the Biggest Loser is always a hard week, so I am not giving up hope! I am going to keep exercising and keep up on watching what I eat and see what week 3 brings. Hopefully another weight loss! :)

That pretty much covers it. I need to get back to doing homework. So, for any of you who still read this old bloggity blog of mine, now you are updated on the life and times of Lori! :D