chris, Christmas, colleen, college, dogs and cats, fish, God, health, holidays, photos, psoriasis, Ryan, transcription, travel, Weather, work, work at home

2022 Christmas/New Year’s Newsletter

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS 2022 AND ALL OF THE PEACE AND WISDOM POSSIBLE FOR 2023!!

VIDEO I put together to “Mary, Did You Know — 2007

https://youtu.be/g0aI8cwrW-U

Video from a local lightshow off of a local road that we will greatly miss!

Canon in D

CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH!

Ridgewater off Morley by the 84 & 90 intersection. I hope they’ll have it going a few more days if anyone can go see it!!

Another Post-Pandemic year to contemplate, the Lord has brought us all here through again!  Prayers to those of you ill, suffering, or just tired of dealing with all the insanity, and praying for a blessing to touch you now and in the new year.

Isaiah 43:18–19

18 “Forget the former things;do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  
No matter how it seems, we have to trust God is doing a new thing!!!
1990 Song by DC Talk, Nu Thing, about our Great God!
The former members of DC Talk are now Toby Mac and also Michael Tait of the Newsboys…

2022 Picture page!

To minimize load time I put all the pictures on a separate page.  Please take a look, I wanted to make a snapshot of our whole year!  I will put just a few here — then click the “Read More” if it shows up. Blessings!!

Continue reading “2022 Christmas/New Year’s Newsletter”

birthdays, chris, Christmas, colleen, college, dogs and cats, fish, God, health, holidays, house repairs, life, Pans/Pandas, photos, Ryan, sleep, transcription, TV, work, work at home

2021 Christmas newsletter

A copy from my 07 newsletter…. still very true!

Mary’s Song

Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.” (KJV)

VIDEO I put together to “Mary, Did You Know —

https://youtu.be/g0aI8cwrW-U

 

 

 

 

Last year’s picture blog — https://www.criscollrj.com/2020-monthly-picture-blog/   2020 picture blog!  (2021 note, I may do this at some point for 21 and more likely for 22.  I am vaguely disappointed in ways with both that method and this one used here in 21…. would like to find the PERFECT picture display method…. ha ha.)

 

 

 

A text only version of this newsletter — this one is picture heavy.  (WILL BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, IF NEEDED–let me know)

 

PRAYERS TO ALL this second very strange year!  After God brought us through COVID last December, we are thankful for no lasting problems except some extra fatigue for about 6+ weeks.

So grateful also for our sons’ recovery and my mother’s.  Strangely no one else in our families got it!  We had two humongous snowstorms in December of 2020 that made life interesting trying to get out of the house for COVID tests and needed grocery pickups. Broke limbs on several of our trees!  The snow stayed around until at least February, and as we gained strength we started walking at the parks and seeing the frozen lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINTER 2021,

JANUARY started off the year baking cookies that we gave to family and friends!1-4-21 Roger went back to college, and has several classes finished now towards his Psychology/Human Services Degree from Southern New Hampshire University! Later in January I began substitute teaching again.  I also FINALLY got back to some transcription for Free State, and did until April when I once again needed a break due to overscheduling!  Looking forward to doing some more this winter to “keep my fingers in the pot.”  I also often do some data entry at home, both for courthouses and for a friend’s printing company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading “2021 Christmas newsletter”

autism, chris, college

breaking back in –

So out of this habit it’s ridiculous.  So guess I’ll just start with a small post.  I never finished the Christmas newsletter picture section – but will just start over with that next Christmas season!

2017-05-11 18.19.17 I’m still working many many hours for our sweet Chris, and we have discovered new parks to walk in, which I try and eventually introduce to the rest of the family eventually.  This one is the Perry Bluffs and is so beautiful!  The endeavor for an easier way for Christopher to communicate continues, and we try to get more and better ideas all the time.  When we get a day all together as a family we treasure it.  Funny how when something normal like that is discontinued for a time it is so treasured when it happens!

My three month semester break was ending May 31, and I knew I was not going to make that deadline.  So I wrote and asked for another month, not thinking I’d get it, but they granted it until June 30!  So I won’t have to return to my courses until July 1.  Hopefully by then things will be more stable for us with my work schedule and everything else.  I have one more semester of lesson plans, then another semester to write a large research paper.

The BAES degree is more described here BAES Degree– I have decided to get it and believe I will be satisfied with it.  I will have a solid background in both special education and regular education and the ability to make lesson plans, and also I have the year or so of speech pathology and related prerequisites from Kent.  when I do finish and get a job at some point I may seek something managerial in perhaps even the special needs/disabilities arena for adults, or something similar.  I am most familiar with that!  We’ll see what happens.  If everything goes right I should graduate by June of 18 or a little before.  I will also have the opportunity if I wish to to reenroll later and get my teaching degree by completing student teaching and observation.

chris, Christmas, colleen, college, dogs and cats, fish, holidays, Ryan, weight, work

Christmas letter 2013

 

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.

 

image

A very blessed Christmas season to you all!  I am so sorry I did not get cards out this year – I will try and get them out next year along with a printed newsletter.  We enjoyed our Christmas very much and had a lot of family time.  Colleen and I are enjoying our tradition of baking together.  We also sat and watched movies and went to see Pettiti’s garden center’s Christmas display as well.  Unfortunately a bad virus kept us from attending Kraynak’s in Sharon with the Jevnikars but hopefully we will get there next year. 

2013-11-18 11.48.07Chris is flourishing at his adult workshop after some adjustment hiccups last year, and he has a wonderful Autism Interventionist specialist now working with him this year.  This has made a huge difference for him, and we are so grateful!  He also after a few years’ wait finally has working hearing aids and is starting to wear them all day there at school.  He is also being provided the Autismate program for the IPad soon which is an excellent program for autistic individuals to communicate better.   Chris continues to say occasional words, the most recent being Juice! 3 times as I took a container of orange juice out of our basement refrigerator!

1277992_10202637956815563_1986459377_oWhile continuing college Colleen continues to take care of a lot of animals, the new one of which is Buddy, a Bearded Dragon!  All of us including her boyfriend Scott have said NO more, but, boy, she sure enjoys what we have!  She continues to draw and won great praise from her art teacher, with her art being shown at the school, also.  Colleen baked delicious cookies this Christmas again, making her decorated sugar cookies and buckeyes,  among other things, and I also made my monster cookies.  We wanted to make a gingerbread house that I bought from World Market, but unfortunately, in the strange way things tend to go, the entire kit went missing, and we have yet to find it.  So I suppose it will be a later winter gingerbread house when it is found…. sigh. 

pets collage

 

2013-11-12 07.06.36I think lately what is striking me is how tall Ryan is, suddenly!  He is growing into a young man before our eyes.  His academic progress is fun to watch, and the fact that he enjoys it all so much is thrilling.  Currently Ryan’s favorite game is Minecraft either on Dad’s IPhone or my Kindle.  He also sometimes plays it on Chris’s IPad (while we hold it!!!) – unfortunately he broke his own IPad last March.  He played Minecraft on his PC for a while but then didn’t want to anymore, for some unknown reason.  Ryan’s high point is outings with daddy every weekend and he loves “the little grocery store” and “Marc’s Store.”  Keeping Ryan by us in a store still can be a challenge as he wants to dash off and get his favorite chocolate milk and chips.  He is getting so independent!  He misses latchkey as he was cut out of it this school year with his school not offering it any longer (he is now in middle school in a different building). 

Graduation from fifth grade was a highlight of Ryan’s year!  It was very emotional to say goodbye to Leroy Elementary School!

image2013-06-06 15.05.14

 

2013-07-20 20.23.15

Getting back to Port Clinton/Marblehead this summer with the Jevnikars was a wonderful outing!  We hadn’t been there with them since 2005.  Ironically Roger then also was assigned Ottawa and Sandusky counties with his work, so he gets to go back there every few months – I went with him back this fall one time.  It was super having an all-day camping day with our friends in July and we enjoyed swimming, walking, eating barbecue, and traveling to the Marblehead Beach!

2013-07-20 13.47.192013-07-20 13.47.562013-07-20 16.07.272013-07-20 16.07.452013-07-20 18.14.302013-07-20 20.08.162013-07-20 20.12.432013-07-20 20.13.062013-07-20 20.17.092013-07-20 20.27.35

 

IMG_20130627_122352Things continue to the same in our data entry work – God has enabled us to keep up the 3 two-day trips every quarter! Prayers appreciated for some medical issues for Rog that continue.  I also continue to perform home health care with two companies.   Rog has chosen Columbia College online in Missouri to obtain his bachelor’s degree in social work – just awaiting the right session to enroll in.  I have transferred from Kent State over to the online college Western Govern University, where I continue to major in special education.  I really like it a lot – and of course, though, I loved Kent as well, but the scarcity of any classes locally or at a time that was convenient to go was becoming a bigger problem every semester.  WGU’S degree also adds an elementary school license which may be very handy for flexibility in job-hunting!  They go on a six-month semester, and one can start any month.  I started September 1 and go through the middle of February, and then start again in March.  I can take a month or two off in between any semesters as long as I give them notice.  I also still hope to go back for autism certification and ABA after I receive the bachelor’s.  Can’t believe I will be student teaching in just a few years or less!

Anyone who wants to read the list of my complete courses at WGU can click here — https://criscollrj.com/2013/08/15/transfers-and-changes/  ha ha!

I started using My Fitness Pal in January 2013 and have kept up with it fairly well to date.  I am not logging each day now though, as I should, but hope to get back to that today!!!  I have lost another 10 pounds or so – it wavers between 20 and 25 pounds total loss since early 2012.  I need to lose more but do feel so much better being down about one size!  In the new year we hope to attend a water fitness class at the Y every Wednesday.  A very bad cold/virus got me away from walking in late November, and I hope to have my strength completely back when Ryan goes back to school January 6 so that I can start walking every morning again.  The entire family was down with this virus between mid November and mid December – it was awful!!  We also have a really nice exercise bike in the basement that we want to start riding now that everyone is starting to feel better.

3ToqYg6hO4VybqyNnyyHl0cJoYsv0p4r5i0UEAJjJoE2013-06-04 16.42.152013-11-07 08.18.572013-09-23 16.34.48

 

2013-11-09 13.01.402013-11-12 07.08.172013-11-12 07.12.332013-11-12 07.12.382013-12-24 11.50.312013-12-25 17.42.492013-12-03 18.37.552013-12-04 17.28.01320x480-Student2013-12-07 12.57.18ryan2013-12-10 06.27.412013-12-10 09.03.342013-12-15 10.20.152013-12-15 10.20.392013-12-15 17.15.012013-12-15 17.21.202013-12-15 17.22.232013-12-25 18.12.392013-12-25 18.12.492013-12-19 16.59.352013-12-19 19.35.182013-12-20 19.55.232013-12-25 17.42.18

autism, chris, colleen, college, health, Ryan, weight, work

Transfers and Changes!

2013-06-04 16.40.07

summer13

 

After a very busy, enjoyable summer, we are headed into a fall of changes yet excitement!

First, Chris had a very nice summer camp, along with Ryan, part of the time, where the boys got to swim, go to the mall, the movies, play at the park, and just generally get a lot of activity and movement in the sun, and rain!  Both boys enjoy it a lot and we hope they get to attend next year!  Then Chris went back to his workshop and is really accelerating his progress now after their acquiring an autism interventionist (which is what I’m striving to be, eventually!) that is working wonders with him.  I am also putting more programs on the IPad including Autismate Lite and a Social Story program that we hope will be helpful to him.  He also has been playing on a spelling matching game with me that he enjoys a lot!

Ryan also greatly enjoyed that summer camp, and went to another as well, which was from his school and was an autism camp at a local school.  That was more academic, and we were so pleased that he was actually promoted to a higher level class when he was there.  He then decided to test that teacher with some behaviors but then calmed down and did his work the rest of the time he was there.  He then had another week at the activities camp, and is now half done with his first week of NO camp.  This has been hard on him and we are just trying to keep him busy and happy.  Today is scheduled with going out to the store and later going for his before school physical.  Then tomorrow I work and Grandma watches him, then the weekend is full of time with his brother and then only one more week!  AND the 20th he has 2 hours at his school for orientation.  Before I know it, Ryan will be in 6th grade – August 26!  New school, new teacher, but most likely mostly the same classmates.

Colleen is preparing for her 2nd year of college and most likely will be working at the same time.  This will be a busy new year for her, and she and Scott continue to plan their future and have fun together.  He is working a lot and they try their best to schedule time together around their schedules.  She continues her love for all pets, and our telling her NO MORE PETS continues.

As always Rog and I are scheduling our quarterly business trips together and have some much needed alone time as we drive miles around the area to these SE Ohio and Western PA counties.  We most likely are next going on October, with the blazing fall leaves.  It is cool to see the seasons change as we do these trips.

Other than that, I’m still working for my senior ladies – two years now! And we have Chris every weekend and have fun with him and the family. Rog and I are battling our own health issues and trying to get healthier. I lost 13 pounds this year doing MFP and walking – think he has lost some weight too, but not sure how much. I’m looking forward now to fall walking and plan to sign up for hopefully two Y classes and start lifting weights a little. I think that will start my weight loss back up. I actually have lost a total of 25 since 2010 and think I do look better. Double chin is gone!

My driver’s license pic in 2010: license

 

Me now. About 25 pounds down…wgu pic

50 to go!

After waiting since March when I signed up for Western Governor’s to see any progress on my entrance (such as my schedule or what classes I personally need to take) I finally got my orientation page and my schedule page, along with all the courses I need to take, on my main portal today!  They had told me before the magic date would be the 15th of August.  So I get to start my orientation activities, which probably will take me a week or so, along with all my classes to investigate.  This is my cup of tea so I will be overly excited about it for a while… ha ha.

Time to put in a “more” tag and then those of you interested can read all about what classes I’ll be taking! Continue reading “Transfers and Changes!”

college

Goodbye for now, Kent State!

2013-06-17 09.00.59

A few months ago I decided after some researching to apply at Western Governor’s University (more about that here https://criscollrj.com/2013/05/17/migraine-aura-lethargyexhaustionrelaxing-blog-time/).  This saves me time and money, as the courses are less expensive and everything is online.  However, before I had made that decision I had applied for scholarships at Kent, and I was awarded the one above AFTER I made the decision to leave!!!  What a beautiful plaque and a nice feeling of accomplishment!  I did try and enroll in a class online so that I could still use the scholarship, but was unable to arrange for the splitting of the financial aid between the two colleges, and this morning was just told by Kent that because I wasn’t full time at Kent I would not be able to use it.  But I still will treasure the plaque – my first plaque of this sort!!  My best wishes to whoever they award it to next Smile

So now in two and a half months I will start an unknown venture of studying online at Western Governor’s University – I am just waiting for hearing what transfers and what I have to take first.

Meanwhile the deep cleaning of bedrooms has begun – I am half done with my bedroom.  Ryan starts summer camp next week and Chris started today.  It is cooler this year, which I like… though the plants may need a little more sun!  We have had a lot of rain so far!!

college, organizing, weight

Migraine aura lethargy/exhaustion=relaxing blog time

 

 

2013-05-07 08.45.00

Had my post-stress migraine today but luckily not a huge headache with it – just a bit of achy eyes and exhaustion.  So seemed a good time for a well-overdue blog post!  I am too whipped to do anything else.

My last posts were mostly about weight, so my quick update about that is that I am STILL on a plateau and starting to doubt if I will ever lose more than ten pounds.  Well, not really, I have to have SOME hope since I have to lose 50 more pounds.  But either I have to change something or be patient – yep, those are the choices.  HA!  Being that what I have been doing WAS working I will just try a bit longer.  Perhaps I am just still building muscle….  The plateau will be 8 weeks tomorrow.  Still having about 1700-1900 calories and walking fairly regularly, and also count heavy cleaning my once a week as exercise, plus some of the cleaning at home.  Also just started Tai Chi but only once a week.

Big change that I didn’t post about – I found out through researching some online schools this college program:  http://www.wgu.edu/education/teacher_certification_special_education_bachelor_degree, and I decided to apply.  I have since taken their entrance test (yes, an entrance test! I was so nervous! but I passed) and transferred my credits in.  I am aiming for a September start.  I LOVED Kent but the drive was getting more difficult as I was going to have to drive 4 days a week including 1-2 nights in the fall semester.  So I am eagerly awaiting receiving a schedule for fall.

Took a look at my posts from last summer where I saw this one https://criscollrj.com/2012/07/23/2012-summersuper-hot-super-busy-flying-by/ where I have a list of what I wanted to accomplish.  Let’s see how it compares to now:

LAST SUMMER:

  • Finish all the filing in the office (it’s already sorted by drawer now – yay me! – and all recycling is ready to go across the street).  Clean out files if possible.   Did get this done sometime before school started.
  • Almost forgot this one – a big one – try and get 1/4 to 1/2 done with course on educational psych for fall that is already on line – that will put me so much ahead for fall where I’m also taking math for teachers, educational technology, and american sign language [only class on campus, rest online!] I did very poorly on this, and continued to procrastinate throughout fall semester too, finishing most of the courses in the last three weeks of the semester.  I did get an A but only by ignoring the whole world….  This is a bit scary with my new college being totally self-driven – I have to do better on self planning and WILL.
  • Prioritize all paperwork and put on the calendar and make sure it’s done on time.  For Chris, Colleen, Ryan, my college, Rog/Colleen’s college, and anything else I need to do… I actually have done fairly well with this.  I love syncing of gmail/calendar on phone and computer!! Open-mouthed smile
  • Sort all clothes in the three bedrooms and give away the tons we don’t need. Laughing hysterically.  Nope, not even close.
  • KEEP deleting emails I don’t need – in the last week I have gone from 18000 emails to 2,000 emails, and still deleting. Yes, did do this.  I actually told someone about this yesterday but thought it was 80,000 emails, guess in one year I quadrupled the number in my head!
  • Go through freezers again and plan more meals to use up what we have. I believe I did do this.
  • Complete the deep-cleaning of the kitchen by scrubbing out and sorting all cabinets. Nope.
  • Finish straightening basement, clean out the fridge bins that are down there for the downstairs freezer. Did first thing but not second.
  • Pass out Avon books again. I think so…
  • Finish painting living room? Nope.
  • Work with Colleen on sorting 4 years worth of school documents and organize them into bookcase and filing sorters. We did do about half of this but they’re still in a box.
  • Probably many more ………

THIS SUMMER:

  • Finish all the filing in the office (it’s already sorted by drawer now – yay me! – and all recycling is ready to go across the street).  Clean out files if possible. Yep, exactly the same amount has built up – plan to do this this coming weekend and next week.
  • Sort all clothes in the three bedrooms and give away the tons we don’t need. Bedrooms are supposed to come the end of May, to mid-June.
  • Clean out email again
  • Complete new paperwork projects – I do have a few right now for the next weeks/month.
  • Clean off Toshiba computer and prepare it for Rog’s back-up computer.  Buy new flash drive to store excess files on for backup.
  • Thoroughly scrub down both refrigerators and hopefully swap one for the other (the basement one is bigger and nicer!)
  • Complete the deep-cleaning of the kitchen by scrubbing out and sorting all cabinets.
  • Clean out basement.
  • Pass out Avon books again.
  • Finish painting living room?
  • Finish work with Colleen on sorting 4 years worth of school documents and organize them into bookcase and filing sorters.
  • Have some fun family outings – more than last year?  Hopefully it won’t be so HOT!

Some pictures from the last few months…

2013-04-27 15.37.27

Lake Erie’s double horizon phenomenon, seeing Canada!

 

 

 

2013-04-07 13.44.41

Picnic a month or so ago across the street – winter was finally over!

 

 

2013-04-09 09.24.16

Rog hard at work at Tionesta PA Smile

 

2013-04-30 08.51.45

Gallia County Ohio River glory.

 

 

P4040654

Ryan at Wendy’s before his haircut Smile

college, weight

New classes and new food plan!

Since I like to pile it on all at once I’m tackling just that!

First, the classes.  I love many things about them and also don’t like some things about them.  But all are necessary and I will be challenged and will grow stronger and hopefully wiser with all the information I’m learning!

  • Characteristics of Special Education, Moderate to Intensive.  So far I love this class!  But I don’t like that it’s at night.  At least it’s only once a week.  My husband Roger has been wonderful to pick up Ryan from latchkey these nights.  I did miss last Wednesday due to Concord, Ohio, having its own personal blizzard which caused a pile-up I mentioned in the last blog post.  I was just not up to going down to school after that.  The class is very interesting with reviewing all the ways special education works and is comprised of, and the course has just begun so all kinds of projects are still in store.  I think we have 5 or 6 projects due in the semester.  This course is a requirement for special ed.
  • Basic Math Concepts II.  So far this class has been more challenging than Math Concepts I which I took last semester.  Of course that shouldn’t be a surprise.  I have to start the lessons earlier.  I am planning to actually start tonight, giving me 6 days to work on it before it is due.  Last week started the study of probabilities, which I was completely unfamiliar with, and I didn’t have enough time once I finally really started it to complete it well and understand it.  I only got 80% on the homework before I ran out of time.  I don’t want to repeat that.  This course is a requirement for special ed.

Now, I could have stopped there.  I am not able to get into advanced study for special education yet because I did not yet complete Math Concepts II.  So, since I am on my last semester of Pell grant (I timed out as I had too many semesters) I did not want to only have 7 credit hours in my last semester on the Pell grant, not using the whole thing when it was available.  So I searched for a few classes to get up to full time, ones that would be applicable to my educational goals.  I have wanted to also get a master’s degree in speech pathology, but had put that on hold until I finished the special education degree.  Therefore with this gap I added two courses towards that:

  • Quantitative Methods in Psychology – in other words, Statistics.  I didn’t really realize when I signed up for it that it was Statistics.  I didn’t realize until I looked at the book sample on Amazon and saw – math?  Ugh.  So far, however, it hasn’t been too bad.  The teacher, however, just did send our first homework to us online and it is due in about 10 days, the day before our first exam.  I have not looked at it yet.  I hope I haven’t shot myself in the foot taking two math courses at once – although they say, admittedly, that statistics is not really math – hmmm, don’t know about that!  This course is a requirement for the speech pathology degree I still hope to get later.
  • Language Disorders in Children.  So far this course is amazing, and exactly the information I am wanting to learn in addition to the special education above.  [You can tell I really could do without the math information – ha ha!]  However, the teacher kind of scared me when she told us that her tests were really really hard and were practically the entire grade for the class – that there is really nothing else graded.  The chapters are also longer than average and I am not getting enough of the reading done.  But it sure helps that I’m fascinated with the topic – I should be able to catch up on the reading and do fine.  This course is a requirement for the speech pathology degree I still hope to get later.

So, all and all, an interesting semester!

Then (and I will probably post more on this next week) I decided to start posting on my phone and computer to My Fitness Pal.  A friend of mine’s son lost 25 pounds on it and I decided to check it out.  It has been four days, and so far everything is going well!  I did set the calories rather high at 1700, just to give myself some leeway as last time I believe I had set Sparkpeople (similar app I did last summer) at 1400 and kept going over.  I love seeing exactly where I am with my nutrients and levels.  More next week along with hopefully my first loss post… but it’s a very slow rate – set at 1/2 pound a week to keep it off….

(can I get HERE?)

college kitty

autism Ryan, chris, college

Teaching Enjoyment

Ahh, so many ways to look at that. I thought of that title the other day while trying to help Chris with some things. And as my mind will play with words I realized there were two ways to look at that.

The first way is how when trying to plan events with Chris, I just wish he would show clearly that he enjoys them. I wish there was a way to look at Chris and say, wow, he really loves this activity!! We took him and Ryan to a Fall Festival, which was wonderful!

 

2011-10-09 13.43.21

And as we were attending the event, which was a pumpkin patch, food, guitar playing, animals and a corn maze, we could not get Chris to stop and look at anything. He did stop and eat a hot dog. He seemed happy, and he really did seem to like the corn maze. I just wish we could learn how to get him to stop and look at things, the way Ryan does at this point. We will keep striving.

And is there a way to teach enjoyment of things to Chris and other children/adults with autism? Why for example do we have trouble with this with Chris, but not with Ryan, when they both have autism? Ryan, however, is much worse with hitting randomly, throwing things, and running off. A different problem, but still a problem. Autism spectrum is a mystery to me still . . .

So then of course the other side of the coin is teaching enjoyment as in the enjoyment of teaching. I was thinking about that as well as I was trying to think of how to teach our Chris and Ryan. I do enjoy teaching, though I never wanted to do it in the traditional sense of a regular school teacher. I now surprisingly find myself going in the teaching field as a special education teacher, which I never expected. I do feel God has led me into this journey to get my teaching license, perhaps to help me learn to enjoy teaching more? To help me become skilled at it? I thank Him for the opportunity which has come unexpectedly, and can’t wait to see what He has in store for me through it, both with the boys and with the world and my career.

2011-10-09 13.43.04

college

Minor changes or major changes?

Yep, that was the question.

At the beginning of speech class called applied phonetics, our teacher sat in front of us and shared that of the 100 people in the class, only 15 would make it into the master’s program. She advised to have another option in mind. I thought about that for a week or so, as I knew it was competitive but didn’t realize how extremely competitive it is – figured if I had the 3.7 GPA I was fine. As the week went on I got more nervous about it, wondering if I should change something, so Wednesday of this week I went to see one of the advisors.

My one advisor is a former speech therapist of Chris’s and a very nice person that we have known for years. I have not yet met with my formal advisor for me with senior status, but just meeting with her gave me more insight, though she encouraged me to still meet with the senior advisor. She thought in my situation I would be very wise to choose a different major and then pursue the speech pathology as a master after graduating with a degree that could be used as a job.

I thought all of this over. I am not really a wimp (lol) and had to decide if I should really just drop out of this degree at this point (after finishing this semester) or if I should see it through and apply for the master’s. However, I am not as young as I was, with three years to gamble on whether I will be able to get farther in a degree that has no future as a bachelor’s. If I do a different, marketable degree, then I could be employed in that field in three years, and then possibly get employee tuition reimbursement to go for my master’s! So I decided to make a major change. But it is was not because I don’t like my classes, or think that I can’t do well enough.

After researching for a day I emailed some chairs of departments and set about to decide between the bachelor’s degrees of Special Education, Deafness Education, ASL (American Sign Language), and Psychology (though I thought there was a fifth? Oh well…). Once I narrowed down more about each degree, I thought that the course requirements in the Special Education (Moderate to Severe) were most fitting to what I was trying to accomplish, with courses such as Applied Behavior Analysis, American Sign Language, and Speech and Language Development being a part of the listed courses.

I don’t want to be a teacher standing in the front of the class though – I hope I can be a one-on-one or maybe a home schooling teacher where you teach virtually. And I definitely want to work with individuals with autism/and/or deafness.

So Monday I will be turning in my program of study form (or before if I can do online) in preparation for the registration date of October 10. God willing, I will still get my master’s in speech after I’m done with this, but good grief, I’m actually getting a teaching degree! Wow! It’s not anything I pictured myself doing . . .