Back at it again

I am back at school again. New semester. This time I am taking four classes.

1. Introduction to Special Education
2. Psychology II- Lifespan Development
3. Speech
4. Health- Drugs Across the Spectrum

I am loving the Special Education class so far. My teacher is very demanding of us, and I love that. He's also worked in the field for a lot of years, and is planning on starting a school group for those in the special education field. He is the first teacher at our school to teach Special Education. Right now he's working on a mission statement. I have to volunteer 20 hours in a Special Education setting in a school to pass this class. I am having a hard time finding a school to take me, or return my calls. I think it's really neat that as I am learning about "exceptional learners", as they are called, that I am having the same kind of experience that I had when I used to edit photographs. As I would edit, I would find myself feeling a great love and appreciation for the people who's pictures I worked on. I could understand the love Heavenly Father has for each one of them. As I am learning about exceptional learners I am having a similar experience, feeling a great love and appreciation for these children of our Heavenly Father who have struggles, developmental and physical. I know I am following a path that I will love.

The Health class is a bit interesting. We have some major projects, one of which I don't really want to do. We have to get together in a group and visit a chemical dependency self-help group, sit in on their meeting and then do a report on it. I don't want to do that. I'd like to remain in the dark about that kind of stuff. I've been there with tobacco, and I don't want to see what other people are struggling with, with even stronger addictions. The other project we have to do is do a presentation about a case study. Our group picked a study done in Massachusetts where they are focusing on preventing college students from binge drinking.

Jacob turns 18 on Wednesday and I'm lacking gift/activity ideas because of his leg. He can't do all the ideas I would love to do to celebrate his birthday like some laser tag games for him and his friends, or bowling, etc. Also, we don't know what our financial situation is right now, or what to expect for a final cost to fix him, but so far we're in debt for 2 grand and he's still broken :( I missed a call from the financial person at the hospital yesterday and am waiting for her to call me back today. I'm hoping that he will qualify for some help from the state since the surgery will happen after he's 18 and has no insurance, but we will see.

I have lots of work to get back to, so that's all for an update for now. Ciao!

Bear Den Camera

I have been leaving the window to this site open for the last day or two, and coming when I hear noises. This den in Ely Minnesota is being shared by two female bears, Hope and Lily. Lily is the mama bear, Hope is almost 2 years old. Lily is about to have another baby, most likely before January 22. I'm hoping to see a live black bear birth, wouldn't that be a treat!?
Check it out yourself. You have to watch a 15 second commercial before the camera comes on.
(Also today when I was watching Lily covered the camera with straw, so I'm hoping she moves the straw down before she has her new baby/babies.)

Lilly and Hope Bear Cam

I'm getting butterflies in my tummy....

Our family has had a nice break this holiday season. We had a lot of fun playing and being together. The kids went back to school this week and I start my next semester next week. I have two classes on Monday, one in the evening and then a class each day for the next three days. I have Fridays and weekends free for studying and grocery shopping.

I've spent a lot of time this week working on Buddy. He's coming along. He's so smart and has caught onto a lot of stuff I've been trying to teach him (yet also forgetting some really important stuff I've been trying to get him to remember). He's been to classes twice and both times was the best behaved dog there. He's in classes for dogs 5 months and up. He has a few new tricks that help with redirecting his attention and obedience. I also have taken him a couple of times to the pet store to let him wander and sniff and see people and other dogs. The kids really want him to learn fun tricks, like "roll over", and are not patient about him just working on basic control and commands. Some day he's going to be the best dog ever, I just know it!

I have my books for my new classes. They look pretty interesting. I'm putting off starting to read them because I have had teachers go out of order with chapters and I don't want to spend time reading something I don't need yet, so instead I am reading Eat, Pray, Love. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'd like to finish the book first. So far it's very good!

I also finally got a chance to look at the pictures I took last August in Utah. Man, those were some really good days for me and the kids!