YES

In the midst of a chaotic week, I have managed to fit in 5 workouts, for a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes of exercise. I've even gotten up consistently at 6:15 to make it happen. And yes, I am pretty darn proud of myself right now.

So sad...

So yesterday I was giving a kid a language test. In the test you say "Tell me what ____ means." One of the words was "poor," so I asked the kid "Tell me what poor means," and he said "It means...um, that sometimes, at school....the kids....sometimes the kids at school don't wanna play with me."

It broke my heart.

Job

So one of the things I decided to do in 2011 is read through the entire Bible in a year. And I have to say, I was very thankful for Feb. 1st because I'm following a chronological reading plan and on Feb. 1st I started reading Exodus.

Although it's about oppression and deliverance, Exodus feels like rainbows and puppy dogs after reading the book of Job for the last half of January. And I have to say, I was genuinely confused with Job. It was depressing, but I am not sure I really understand it. Like who was right in what they were saying--Job? His friends? Neither? I have no idea.

Pandas Are On Sale at the Zoo

I came down with a cold one week into the semester. This is not good. I am attributing it, although indirectly, to working out. :) I decided that in order to make working out happen consistently, I should switch it to mornings. So I got up earlier all week. The only problem was I didn't get to bed and earlier, and just ended up sleep deprived.

Along with the sleep deprivation, it was a busy week. I got overwhelmed on Tuesday, which is a little early in the week to be overwhelmed, but Thursday was our first day of clinic. It went well! I started with 2 of my clients, mostly just getting to know them. One of my kiddos did tell me how he bought a panda at the zoo (on sale!) and keeps it at home in his bed. That was pretty awesome.

Somehow, before the craziness of the semester started I was able to finish Book #7 of the year, City of Tranquil Light. It was good, engaging, but not earth-shattering. If you're into books about far off places and very sincere missionaries, I'd recommend it.

Seriously....

Ah, so ready for this day to be over. I am officially overwhelmed. I kept looking at this week on my calendar, and knew I would be overwhelmed. I kept looking at the space between Tuesday and Thursday, knowing I would get my clinic assignments on Tuesday and see kids on Thursday. All the staring at the calendar didn't help...

I made a decision at Christmas to not be overcome by trying to control things. So maybe this is a chance to work on that. All I know is that I'll be much happier 2 or 3 weeks from now when everything is underway.

It Begins

I think right now I am equal parts excited, terrified, and motivated. We start clinic this week, which means I'll be treating my very first clients all by myself. The terrifying part is I'll look at their files tomorrow, and likely see them on Thursday. Oh, and there's school and a church meeting and some other obligations...nothing like a full week.

Although, maybe it's good for me that I have limited time. When I'm starting something new and don't know how it's going to go, I overprepare. Every first day of school as a teacher had me spending hours on lesson plans, materials, etc., probably more than necessary. Having a limited amount of time freaks me out, but maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

Maybe because I didn't have enough going on, or because I know I NEED to fit it in this week, I've decided to move my exercising to the morning. Which means I'm feeling a little sleep deprived today, but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Day 1, Semester 4

Today was the first day of my fourth semester as a graduate student in a speech language pathology program, and it was great. Last semester was...well, horrible. But if today is any indication, this semester is much more promising.

Today I have 2 of my 3 classes, Indian Education and Advanced Language Disorders. The Indian Ed. professor is kind of out there with his teaching style, so that could be interesting. He also isn't making me do any extra work even though I'm taking the class for graduate credit. He just said he expects me to take a leadership role. That's it? Done and done.

Advanced Language Disorders also sounds promising--we're going to cover literacy, adolescent language disorders, and autism spectrum disorders, all things I'm interested in.

Next week I'll start my Neuromotor Disorders class, and have a meeting about clinic. I'm so happy that I'm actually looking forward to things right now. I hope the interest sticks.

Prayer

Sometimes it takes my breath away to see how much pain people have to endure. And there are situations neither you nor anyone else can do anything about. Something happened like that today. Not something I can or want to share publicly, but something I feel the need to acknowledge. And when these things happen, although it doesn't change the events, I've found praying some of the prayers that people have prayed throughout the centuries helps. Today I've been praying this one from the Book of Common Prayer:

O merciful Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that
thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men:
Look with pity upon the sorrows of thy servant for whom
our prayers are offered. Remember him, O Lord, in mercy,
nourish his soul with patience, comfort him with a sense of
thy goodness, lift up thy countenance upon him, and give
him peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Chocolate stout in all its glory

There is a beef roast with Rogue chocolate stout in the crockpot right now, smelling delicious. I didn't want to waste the rest of the bottle, and it's a little early for me to be drinking the stuff, so I'm trying these brownies too. They are currently baking in the oven, and if the batter left in the bowl is any indication, they might turn out to be delicious too.

I also reordered cable this morning. It's been nearly a year and a half since I canceled my cable, and I'm ready to have it back. I miss it. And, I think after going without it for quite a while, I will watch it a bit differently than I did before. I'm used to long stretches of silence, and actually really appreciate them. What I am looking forward to is watching some of my favorite shows when everyone else does, and having more options for working out at home (Fit TV), and having more options for watching when I'm on the bike trainer. And reality shows. Of course. :)

Vacation: Day 6 and Beyond

And then...I got too lazy to post pictures daily. Let's just say that it was an interesting, fun, sunny vacation. Some of the highlights for me included snorkeling, getting to ride a bike again, and hiking to the Nakalele blowhole with my brother and nephew.

We had done the hike about 5 years ago, but for some reason the landscape felt completely different this time. We didn't really remember it being so steep, so we're wondering if erosion or weather has changed it since last time. Being a photo hoarder, I found a picture from 5 years ago to compare:

Dec. 2005

Dec. 2010

Dec. 2005

Dec. 2010

Dec. 2005

Dec. 2010

I'm not sure it's super convincing, and of course these pictures are taken from different angles and with a wide-angle lens, but I'd like to think I wasn't being a total wuss in thinking it was steeper and rockier.
The trip was also strange in some ways. My grandfather passed while we were gone. We knew it was coming, it was expected. But, it was still hard to see my mom get the news. It was also difficult for my parents to get flights out of the islands, so that complicated things.
When things weren't weird, we did our daily vacation thing, which is mostly lounging by the pool. My nephew figured out how to snorkel and loved it, which warms my heart. I love snorkeling! I bought him a pair of fins to use while we were there, which I'll give him for his birthday. My niece is too young (1 1/2) to really swim, but hung out around the pool most days. One day she scared the crap out of all of us by falling in. I happened to be closest so I grabbed her out, and I have to say I can still picture her floating there. She was fine.

Speaking of falling in the pool, I lost one of my favorite things to the chlorine/saline combo. I had been sitting on a boogieboard on the side of the pool, with my legs dangling in, reading. I had just started The Hunger Games, which was amazing, and didn't want to stop. I went in the house to get a drink, and when I came out, my dad was holding my Kindle and said he had knocked it in the pool. I literally just stood there for a moment, sure he was kidding.
He wasn't kidding. This is what a bricked Kindle looks like. Hey Jane Austen. The worst part wasn't even that it was broken, I knew he'd replace it. In fact, that was the first thing out of his mouth. The worst part was that we had nearly a week left in our vacation, and I had lost my books!!!

Before my Kindle took the plunge, I had finished two of Lauren Winner's books, Mudhouse Sabbath (Book 1) and Real Sex (Book 2). The day it happened, I had started the Hunger Games (Book 3), and was reading voraciously because it was so good.

So, the first step to reading recovery was going to Barnes and Noble, where I got a paper copy of the Hunger Games and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Book 4). I had the first book of the Hunger Games done that night. It's good. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress was interesting...the best word I can think of for the author is caustic. Most people who write a memoir about going home have at least some fondness or appreciation on some level for their home or upbringing. I didn't really see that here.

After finishing the Hunger Games, I couldn't not read the next one, Catching Fire (Book 5) But, B&N didn't have a paper copy...so, I bought it on Amazon, and read it on my computer. I tried bringing the laptop out by the pool, but the sun made that impossible. So I stayed up late reading it in bed. Then reading Mockingjay (Book 6), the last book in the series. I was less impressed with the final book than the first two, but definitely worth it.

Now I'm home, and trying to make good use of my time before school starts. I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I have sort of thought about what I want to keep doing and start doing. I want to continue the workout routine I've gotten into, and eventually add strength training. I also want to read through the entire Bible in a year, so I've found a plan to do that.

I also want to keep cooking, something I've really grown to enjoy. It was hard not being able to cook totally my way for 2 weeks while I was gone, so I've been overjoyed to do it this week. In between doing that I've been cleaning out cupboards and organizing, and trying not to hyperventilate when I think about school starting. Okay, not just school. Clinic. And it's not like I don't think I'll be good at it, I think I will. But I have dreaded every first day of school/class, and this is no exception. I can't wait until I am 2 or 3 weeks into clinic. Oh, and then there's that whole grade thing. Yeah, not freaking out about that this semester. I'm going to keep telling myself this. Over. and Over.

Vacation: Day 5

Vacation: Day 4

Helicopter Tour!

Vacation: Day 3

On Day 3, the boy learned to snorkel, and we ate at Bubba Gump's.

Vacation Day 2

Gin & guava, some splashing in the pool, and some coconut whacking.

Vacation: Day 1

23 hours of travel with 2 kids under 5 is a lot, so we had some photo shoots on the plane. And some wine.

Traveling Books

I got a lot of reading done on my recent trip. There's nothing like solo travel and hating to talk to seatmates on planes to amp up the reading time. A couple of weeks ago I finished Vinegar Hill, which was well written, but utterly dark and hopeless.

I needed something light after that, so started in on I'm With Fatty. The story itself was interesting, a journalist sets out to lose 50 pounds in a year, but I wasn't nearly as taken by the story as I was by the writing. Witty and entertaining doesn't quite cover it here. Ugel whipped out more novel similes and metaphors than I could count, almost all apt. If you're looking for entertainment and self-loathing, this is it.

I finished I'm With Fatty on my first flight, and started in on a book I had to read for class, Still Alice. It's a fictional account of a 50 year old professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. It's written by a neuroscientist, which makes me think it might be accurate? Accurate or not, it's engaging. It's written from the main character's perspective, so you descend with her into the Alzheimer's and see life from her perspective. Even though it was assigned for my Acquired Disorders of Language and Cognition class, I would have read it (and enjoyed it!) even if it wasn't. Fascinating.

A few weeks back we got into a discussion of Arminianism vs Calvinism at my small group, which left me at a loss for articulating the tenets of Calvinism in a way that made sense to people from outside of the tradition, so I grabbed Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport off of the shelf. I've read it before, way back, but didn't realize Richard Mouw was the author. I recently listened to him on Being, talking about Christian civility in politics, and LOVED it.

So I had started the book a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to finish it on my trip. It was really interesting to come back to it after a number of years outside of the Christian Reformed Church. There are things that still resonate for me and things I question and need to think through.

At the same time, I was also reading Exponential because someone at church asked me to. The two books could not be more opposite. I disliked Exponential almost from the beginning, but couldn't quite figure out why. Reading the two at the same time made some of it clearer. There are some values from Calvinism that were informing how I read Exponential, though that may not have become clear to me had I not been reading Mouw's book at the same time. I have to say I wouldn't really recommend Exponential unless you are looking for something to challenge your thought...or maybe you will agree with it.

I am currently without a book, which feels very shiftless. I'm looking for a new one, and have a few ideas. Crazy as it sounds, I heard Jay-Z on Fresh Air and have some interest in reading Decoded. I'm interested in The Hunger Games as well. Whatever I choose may have to wait a couple of days until Thanksgiving is over, and maybe even a few weeks after that until the semester is over. Christmas break, though, is for reading. I'm making my book list, checking it twice.

ASHA

So much going on lately, where to start....let's start here--I hate this semester. I really do detest it. It needs to be over now. And people need to have clearly stated expectations and quit surprising us with stuff, etc. etc. And I need to stop getting Bs.

On to more interesting things.

This week I was in Philadelphia for the ASHA convention. It was fabulous! I'm used to TESOL conventions which must be smaller (ASHA had 12,000 ppl this week) because I was not nearly so overwhelmed by the program book and options for sessions. ASHA could also help by organizing the sessions by time instead of subject area, but I would still probably only be able to get to about 1/5 of the sessions I want to see.

I saw quite a few really interesting sessions. One I really enjoyed looked at transition strategies for young adults who use AAC. It was really practical, and presented well, which is just as important as the content.

Another interesting research presentation looked at predicting stuttering onset in the context of the Early Language in Victoria Study. They found that you can't really predict it, so that's not great, but it was a good presentation and had some other useful information.

I was really interested in a presentation I went to on starting a private practice. It was exactly the kind of information I was hoping for too, not too detailed but not too broad either. It definitely helped me think through some of the options there.

My very favorite presentation though was Christina Santhouse talking about having the right hemisphere of her brain removed due to Rasmussen's Encephalitis. It was fascinating because not only did Christina recover from the hemispherectomy, but she finished college, earned a Master's degree and became an SLP. The PhD who presented with her said that either this type of success has not yet been documented, or does not exist. I wouldn't say it's the presentation I gained the most factual information from, but it was by far the most interesting and inspiring. Christina even had her SLP in the audience for the presentation.

When All Is Well

Last week was pretty crappy. Think breaking down in a professor's office crying, snot running down my face, hyperventilating. Kind of a mental breakdown. This semester in general has been difficult, and last week it just felt like there were far too many expectations, internal and external to live up to. Thankfully, it is in the past.

Tonight was my small group night, and we talked about our childhoods, and laughed. And laughed some more, and ended up singing the song from the commercials for My Buddy. After a crappy week like last week where there was more doubt in my mind than anything else, it just felt incredibly good to really share with people, and know that in that place I can just be myself. It was one of those nights when I left small group and just felt content.

The First Snow!

It is a good morning. I woke up to an email that 2 classes for the day are canceled, and the quizzes in those classes have been postponed to next week. Hooray!

It is also snowing, and today that makes me happy. It makes me thankful that seasons change, things die and also come back to life, and there is a feeling of incredible coziness being snuggled in on the couch in my PJs drinking my coffee under a blanket while the wind whips the snow around outside. I'm sure I won't feel the same when I'm actually walking across campus this afternoon in the wind, but for now it's nice.

Today, thankfully, has been a much better day. My family came up and we went out for dinner last night. Resources are much more in balance today. There's still a lot to do, but it'll happen.

Plus, there are still pretty trees like this, and it's the end of October.