And refreshing the page over and over at 10pm Friday night is not going to help at all. So far, three of my grades have been posted. I'm waiting for two more. I really shouldn't be worried about either of the classes, but for some reason I am. I think it may be the 'get all B-'s or better or else' that really makes me worry. Hopefully the other grades will be posted Monday.

In other news, I went Christmas Caroling at a personal care home tonight. It was awesome. There was this little old lady who was the sweetest little old lady ever. She was just so touched that we came and sang to her. She even wheeled herself out to the hall to come see us. Then she followed us around her floor then up to the third floor. She followed us around until a nurse saw her and took her back to her room. I really wished I would have gotten her name. She seemed so lonely. She has no husband, and she just seems like she missed having people come to see her. I would completely go see her.

So far the time I've had since I've been at school has been pretty nice. I'm getting a chance to catch up on laundry, work on Christmas gifts, oh, and sleep. I have a whole pile of things that need to be wrapped already. I have all of my Christmas shopping done. I just need to wrap everything. And somehow, there always are a few other things that make their way up to my room in order to be wrapped. Apparently having worked at a card shop and having to wrap gifts there, makes me the go to girl for gift wrapping. I don't really mind it.

Oh, and Heather (heather_2908) and Justine (hopeless_scitz) I recieved your cards in the mail. Thank you! Mine went out on Tuesday, so they should be there relatively soon.

It's late. I should probably uncover my bed and wrap the gifts that are on it.

I turned in the last of my curriculum stuff. I was missing something, but emailed the teacher and hopefully she'll email me back and not take points off. But I have a final left to go! And it's for math.

Then my cousin texted me and asked me if I wanted to go see the Transiberian Orchestra Wednesday.

And I got my youngest brother's Christmas gift.

And I found this on youtube:



Ooh. I am getting ready to send out Christmas cards. As in sending them out tomorrow. If you want one, let me know.

This is really random. But oh well. The semester is almost done!!!!

I am working on a final for my Behavior Management class. And I absolutely love it. It involves filling out an FBA, which looks at a specific behavior and why the student exhibits that behavior, and a PBSP, a plan to help the student do better with their behavior. The PBSP involves coming up with specific interventions to help the student succeed in class. These two things are based on an actual student. They are things I will have to do when I teach. They are relevant.
I'm really not surprised at the quality of the assignments. My professor for this class is the director of special education for Pittsburgh Public Schools. Unlike my other teacher for Curriculum. Who, last class, says that she doesn't care that she gives us too much homework, or that we have other classes. She also admitted that the (overly detailed, as in about twice as much work that we would ever need to do) unit plan we have due Thursday is something we will never have to do. Okay now, which is the better teacher? Yeah, I thought so too.
And I love that I have some generic IEP goals for the PBSP already. That means I don't have to make them up. Too bad I don't have access to the student I am basing my assignemnts off of's IEP. The IEP has the PBSP that I am doing. That would be too easy though. And a breach of confidentiality.

This is just funny...


I like the Five Brian Vickers part... and the four shiny things. And the two Pittsburgh Pengins.

Really, things have been a lot better lately. I only have 14 hours left to observe. That's probably because I did 19 hours in three days. I was at the school for students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Both the elementary school and the middle/high school. I was in the same class on Thursday and Friday. And seriously, I was freaked out about starting my placement there. I was told to be prepared. I was completely planning on someone making me aware of the fact that I am fat. But no one did. I absolutely love the classroom I am in. There are 8 high school kids in that room. I got to participate in group therapy, which was fun. Those kids are amazing. They have only been in the same room together since the beginning of the year and you can see they really take care of each other and are there for each other. I honestly was not expecting that. I don't even know what I was expecting. I did see some less than pleasant things, like having a table shoved at me (because it was in a student's way when the student was mad), or seeing a high school student being forcibly escorted from the room, kicking and screaming, or the language that I heard. But it is all good. I still have 11 hours there. 6.5 Monday, 2.25 Tuesday, and the other 2.25 Wednesday, but I have all of the paperwork done. It just needs to be typed up. I have my PBSP/FBA done. Then I have 3 hours left on Wednesday at Homestead. And two lesson plans to write. And all that paperwork.

I think this calls for an update on my to-do list.
What needs to be done:

• 33 14 hours observing


• FBA/PBSP project (Final for both Behavior Management and its field placement)


• Curriculum Field placement report


• Unit plan


• Case studies


• Write a Math story book


• Find 10 Math articles


• Summarize and reply to the 10 articles


• Math Final


• Computation Test (The retake, which I don't need to take because I got a 96% the first time around)


• Find an Enrichment activity


• Write a bunch of 4 lesson plans

Yay for productivity. Tomorrow, I need to do the Field Placement stuff, the math book, and the math articles. A tall order, but I'm not going to youth group, so it can be done. Well most of it anyway. Everything will get done. And after next Tuesday, the 15th, I'll have three weeks off of school. Maybe I'll be able to get my mother's Chirstmas gift done. She wanted me to knit her a shrug. In that exact color. So I am. And I have 2.5 inches of the ribbing done for the first side. The lace part will go quickly. Then more lace on the other side. But it'll be worth it. She is one of the few I will gladly knit/crochet for.

Well anyway. Since it is December 6th now, I can say HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTINE!!! (hopeless_scitz) Hope your day is full of hunky Russian Hockey Players and everything that's nice ;D

I hate being angry. And stressed. I'm used to the stressed, but not the angry.
I'm stressed because I'm not sure if my clearances, which have not been updated in a little over a year, will be good enough for this placement which needs to be done in the next few days. My school has told me that I do not need to update my clearnaces every year. And this is the first time that anyone's said anything to me. I'm just hoping that I am able to do the last 24 hours of my placement I just started today and the last 3 at Homestead with no issues. I'll update them for next semester if I need to, but it takes a long time to get some of them in. Like 4 - 6 weeks long. I have a week to finish up all 27 hours of field placements.

I tried to look up the standards I need to reference for my hypothetical field trip, but the dept of education redesigned its website. And so far, I have been unable to locate the standards. Even after searching for state standards. Okay. I found it. Finally. But it's not easily accessible.

I'm angry because I'm stressed. And because people expect me to bend over backwards caring for them when I'm not taking care of myself first. I forget where I read it, but taking care of yourself first was compared to the oxygen mask on an airplane. When they come down, you're instructed to put your's on first. I always thought it was selfish to make sure that you were okay before someone else who needed the help, but what if you help a few people then you pass out from lack of oxygen. Then look at it like this, you put your mask on first, allowing you to help everyone else around you and you're taking care of yourself as well as others.

In other news, I started my second field placement today. And boy, is it going to be interesting. I had shoes kicked in my general direction in one room followed by that student kicking a lego thing at one of the teachers in the room, followed by that student then hitting and kicking both teachers in the room while they tried to calm the student down.
The next room I was in, another student got sent back to the classroom from music class. This student had to be carried from the room to time out because this person kicked the teacher a few times when given the chance to walk. And this was only the elementary school. But on the other hand, I had a student not only clear off a table for me, but pulled out my chair, and then asked me what kind of music I liked when the students were allowed to play music on the cd player at the end of the day. He was obviously having a good period when I was there.

Tomorrow I go to the middle school, where I was warned that the agression toward the teachers and staff is less physical but more verbal. Oh boy, I can only imagine what they can think to say to me. (Which I'm hoping won't happen, but I went in today hoping for that, and it definitely did not go that way. But I have to say that I didn't freak out and acted as a teacher in that situation should. Yay for paying attention in class.) Then I guess I get to go to the high school. But it should be very useful. Like this morning, I sat in on an IEP meeting. It was really interesting. I also learned how to make a conference call on their phone system. (No one knew how, so they had to get the directions. It was a learning experience for all.)

But overall, today was pretty good. I came home exhausted. it's probably because of all the stress. I am predicting that after the semester is over (classes are done a week from tomorrow and the only final I hae is a week from Tuesday), i will crash early one night and sleep till noon the next day. Like the one semester at Pitt where I went to bed at 7:30 becuase I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. And then slept till noon the next day. I wish I could sleep a little but more than I have been. I'm exhausted, but I just can't sleep.

I will get my Christmas cards out soon. Probably not till after next week, but they will be out soonish. Go here to leave me your address. Comments are screened. I don't care if you're not sending them out this year, I want to send one to all of you.

I should probably get to sleep soon. I have an even longer day tomorrow. 6 hours of observations, three and a half hours to work on my field trip thing before my three hour class. So I'll leave tomorrow morning at 7:40ish and hopefully get home by 10:15ish (pm. not am unfortunately.)

( And I liked it. )

I have one day until Thanksgiving break. All I need to do tomorrow is go to work and go to class. Then I have break, which really means it's a break from working and school in order for me to get all my work done. It'll be nice though.

Well, that's I have for now. More to follow later, I'm sure.

I figure I should make a post for this so I don't forget and I actually have time to get them out before Christmas.

You know the drill.

Comments are screened.

If you are reading this, I want to send you a card. Just because I like sending people things.

( Some anti-Mayor Luke Ravenstahl ramblings under here. )

More later. I need to leave for class, but really needed to get that off my chest.

I just had one of those moments where I realized things were completely different than I thought. My next thought was what was I thinking?!?! It's something that I just didn't want to see before. And now I'm just glad that I decided to see what was staring me in the face before. And part of it makes me sad, the other part of me is relieved and not very caring of the outcome. BUt whatever, it's over and done now. And I'm over it.

I registered for my last two semesters of classes. It should have only been one semester, but the director gave me some stupid reason for the one class I need to be moved to the summer. But hey, the only thing left to schedule is student teaching in the fall.

Okay, I've had this entry open for at least two weeks. I've been so crazy busy that I haven;t had time or energy when I had time to write something small. But really, life's pretty decent these days. I finally got my second field placement. Well, not really. The lady in charge of setting them up pretty much gave up on it and just sent my professor the email and told her to tell us to set up our own field placements. She said she didn't have a list of all of us who needed placements. Well she didn't have that, but there is a placement request form that she has from everyone since the first week of the semester. BUt yeah, I can't go to that placement until the end of next week when I hopefully finsih my first placement up.

I have so much work to do for school and I wonder where I'm going to be able to find the time to do everything well. I know I can get everything done, but doing it well is the problem. The semester's down to four and a half or so weeks. It's one o'clock now. I have to leave in 15 or so minutes for class. I really don't want to go, but I have to, especially since I may have to skip this class in order to finish up my placements on time and do all the work for them. My one placement requires me to teach (and write up a lesson plan and refection) three lessons. This is the class that my teacher even says is the hardest and most time consuming class that we have to take. And she takes pride in that fact. She loves piling on the work and seeming apologetic for all the work she's making us do, but then doesn't do anything about it. She even says that everyone complains about her class. And as an education teacher, she lectures us on the importance of teaching in a variety of styles and not just lecturing. And all she does is lecture. I've had education classes where we've learned a lot but had fun doing so.

My other placement is easy. Go and observe kids with behavior problems at their school and do two assignments using a student from the class we're in. And that counts as the grade for that placement and the final for the class the placement goes with.

Along with all of the school stuff, I've actually been productive around my house. I've organized and cleaned out my closet and most of my bedroom (I just have a few things left to put away, I just need to get around to doing it.), I went and got an antenna for my car (which my father said he'd get around to doing for me the past year) and installed it, fixed my headlight that was too low (when I replaced the bulb a few months ago, I had to make it point lower to get it back on right. But I figured out that when they fixed my car when my brother wrecked it, the fender was a little too bent for it to go on the way it needed to, so I pulled it out a little and the light went right on and now the headlights are all lined up again!), and I have half of my family Christmas shopping done.

Alright, it's time for me to leave, so I'll actually post this now and maybe update more later.

Lesson One: When installing the window AC, don't make the part that hangs out of the window higher than the part that sits in the window. How I learned this lesson: I looked over and saw water running down the wall underneath the AC unit. How I solved the problem: I enlisted Johan to go out on the roof to take out a piece of wood that was holding it too high.

Lesson Two: When turning said AC unit on, make sure all of the other windows are closed. How I learned this lesson: I came back into the room and wondered why it was still warm. I looked and saw the window was still open.

Lesson Three: When you see a spider, kill it before it gets away. How I learned this: The big spider I was trying to kill disappeared. And it's somewhere in my room. With me. *shudder*

Lesson Four: I definitely have a sensitivity to Red 40.

Lesson Five: I have way too many Nalgene bottles. After finding the three I knew I had, I found three more. I need to start using them more often.

After tonight, I'll be free from school. For an entire two weeks. I have a final tonight from 7 - 9. Seriously. A final on a Sunday. That's ridiculous. But then I'll have a short break. Which, if it gets hot, like my dad says it will, I'll be spending it either at work, with friends, or in my room where he insisted I put my window AC in. Ooh. And I could start on Christmas gift making. So far, I want to make a shawl for an honorary grandmother, something for my mom, a Pitt afghan for my brother, and maybe a pair of mittens. And a baby set for my cousin who's due in March. (I need to start it now or else it won't get done.)

And apparently I'm overopinionated when I say that the two women (or anyone really) fighting on whatever fighting program are at risk for brain damage from bething each other in the head and throwing each other to the ground and ultimately wanting to knock each other out. And I'm the only one in the wrong when my brother's loudly telling me that I'm the stupid one and to shut up because he's right. And who's the one that's told to shut up? Yep. that would be me. Because I'm a girl and I don't think that two women beating each other up is good entertainment. Well too bad that I'm *gasp* disagreeing with the men in the house. I'm tired of being the only one that gets yelled at for something stupid.

And really, I hope that Chatham decides for once to do something to help me graduate on time. I was told it would be offered this semester. So I'm sending some emails. And hoping that they do something. Here's the email for the professor of that class. ( Email )

How does that sound? I'm cc'ing it to the program director as well, hoping that I'm not being too much of a bother over this class. Which I know I have full rights to be, but still, she's been nothing but helpful to me and I want to stay on her good side.

Okay. Time to get focused and finish the assignments and prepare for the final I have tonight.

Happy Birthday, autumndandelion! Hope it's good one!

chellemrm, copper_1, littlelaiken, and randomgerudo, Thank you so much for the kind words, love, and support. I appreciate them more than I can say.

I just got back from Arkansas last night at midnight. Or is that this morning. But whatever. It was a looong car ride. We left at 5am CST and drove all day. Got stuck in some traffic, and stopped more often that I thought to get gas/use the bathroom. I think it was because my Poppy was starting to get really uncomfortable sitting for more than 3 hours at a time.
I thought the funeral was going to be in Virginia, where my Aunt Lynn lived with my uncle. But she was from Arkansas and most of her family was still there (more on them later). So we left Sunday morning for AR and got there at 8:30 pm CST (we gained an hour in KY). We went through TN and were within 45 minutes of where I grew up, Clarksville, TN and even saw signs for Fort Campbell, the Army Base I lived on when I was little. I miss it so much down there. I'm even thinking of moving down there sometime. It's hard to explain, but when we were in the state, I just felt so at home. I don't know. We'll see.
Sunday was a long day too. Lots of driving. Monday was hard, but I was glad I went. We left the motel and went to my aunt's mother's (Marene) house. I've met her before. She is such a nice lady. She's either in her late 80's or early 90's. My aunt Lynn was taking care of her before she died, so I am so so sad for her, she's already lost her husband and now she lost her daughter. I met her kids, Chad and Connie, and their important people, Chad's girlfriend (maybe fiancee?), Corinna, and Connie's family, her husband Jeff and their three daughters, Beth, Katie, and Cassy. Then we went to the church for the service. The pastor was interesting. It was a free will Baptist Church in Arkansas. (sometimes, I think that's all that needs to be said.) He was such a nice guy, really he was, but during the sermon he just got on a tangent and went to town. (I thought, along with my aunts, that he looked like he was about to keel over and have either a heart attack, a stroke, or a seizure. His tounge kept on darting out, he was really sweating, and he was red in the face. Like really red.) But he had a good message.
After that, most of us ran to Wal*Mart to get out of the motel and the heat (it was 95 and very humid, like can't breathe humid...). Then my mum, Shirley, Laura, and I went to Penny's to look around because I wanted to find something other than the athletic shorts and t-shirts that I brought. Wal*Mart's clothes don't fit me right for some reason. I can even get the ones that are a size too big and they're still too small in some areas and huge in others. But I ended up getting three shirts.
We went to dinner at a steakhouse that had peanuts in buckets on the tables. Bad idea. It may have been my dad that started throwing peanuts at someone. Then every once in a while, you'd see a peanut fly. At least we were in our own little section. (There were close to 25 of us.)It was actually kind of funny.
Then it was Tuesday.
And today, I went to work, came home, and checked my email to find that my professor's daughter was one of the women shot yesterday at the gym. She was shot in the shoulder and is expected to be fine, but still, I feel bad for all involved and hope they have a quick recovery.
And now, I'm sitting here tryong to figure out when in the world I'm going to have time to finish all of my homework that's going to be due this coming week and a half. And speaking of the end of the semester, I have a final the 16th. It's for my online class. From 7 - 9pm. On a Sunday night. After the semester is over.WTF?
But anyway, enough of my pointless rambling. There is homework to be done and sleep to be caught up on.
Hope everyone out there is doing well. I am feeling a lot better now that my Aunt Lynn is no longer hurting. It sounds mean to say, but really she's not in pain, she's healed and with her dad now. It's all good. Just if you will, keep her mother, Marene, in your thoughts, she's not in a good place at all.

Dear Cancer,

I hate you.

No love, Heather

*



Rest in Peace, Aunt Lynn. I'm glad you're not hurting anymore.

... my parents are supposed to go to VA to visit my Aunt who is dying from cancer on the 21st. I asked them today to just double check the date. My father's response: we're probably not going anymore because she's probably not going to live that long.


No words. Why does life hate me?

... hopeless_scitz.

She asked me:

1. If you could only wear 1 color of clothing for the rest of your life what color would you wear? Hmmm. That's a really good question. I would probably wear browns just becuas eit would be practical.
2. If you were forced to change your name what would you change your name to? I have always loved the name Katherine, Kate for short.
3. If you could be someone else who would you want to be? No one. I'm finally happy being myself.
4. What is your prized possession? Hmm. I don't know. But the afghan I made is pretty close to that status.
5. What is your favorite shape? Stars. They are just cool.


1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me"
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the questions and the answers to the questions in your journal.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. And the cycle shall continue....

Some pictures of the outfit I just bought and may even wear tonight to a bachelorette party. ( click )

And since it may involve a pool party, here's my suit: ( click )

... full of nothing much. I hung out with some friends Friday and Saturday. Friday we saw Terminator Salvation, which was pretty good and then went to Denny's. Saturday night I went and hung out with some friends, watched their kids for a little and then watched my friends try not to eletrocute themselves while fixing the AC unit using a picture that was upside down. And that's about it.

I get to go back to reality tomorrow. I work at 1, which is better than 7 I guess. But the summer schedule should be starting soon. Which I guess brings the start of summer classes. which is going to be tons of fun. Yay. I'm just hoping I survive the 8 week semester.

I really need to be better at this whole LJ thing.

I really have nothing else to report. I'm going to a bridal shower this weekend. Which makes me happy and sad at the same time. I'm so happy for Sarah, but sad that I'm not at that point yet. But I should just be happy to be where I'm at now because I'll never be exactly where I'm at ever again.

And yay Pens! And Boo to Bill Cowher for going to the other side. But we won. We just need to bring the cup back to Pittsburgh.

I recently counted up all the books I own. The number is just sad. Like I have way too many sad. And I keep buying more. I think in the past week, I've read 4 books. So i've decided I'm going to try and keep track of what I read. This should be fun.

( 4/17 - 4/24 )

( Reviews )

WOOHOO DAVID!!!!!

Way to go on the first win!!!!

Yay! I put my books and binders away right after I finished my online take home final. I even ordered my books for next semester. Now all I need to do is figure out how I'm paying for it all. Most likely it'll be me using my CD from my great great aunt and my parents helping me out. Now all I have to do for the next 7 weeks is work. Yay for a break!

More tomorrow. I just wanted to give a quick update so that you all know why I've been MIA lately.

I think I may have a new favorite show.

( Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock. )