Christmas Honesty

In this post I am going to share one very honest truth about myself. I really don't like Christmas. The meaning behind it with the birth of our Savior, yes that's awesome; the tacky decorations, the cold, the busy mall, and the obnoxious music...not so awesome. It's actually really annoying what this world has made Christmas out to be. 

 There is one thing I love about Christmas. The way a church looks at Christmas time is beautiful. This morning while I was walking into church, I was wishing I was in bed and dreading my next couple of busy weeks in school. Stepping into the sanctuary literally took my breath away. The stage was filled with fresh, red poinsettias and all sorts of Christmas trees covered in white lights. 

I was so wrapped up in everything that the beginning weeks of December brings (finals and too many projects!) I forgot all about the season of Advent, the Christmas based sermons, and mostly the joy that comes to people around Christmastime.

So this year, yeah, I think I'm ready for Christmas...just so long as I don't have to listen to the music!

Black Friday

It has become a tradition that every year Andy, Cassie & I go out at 10pm on Thursday night after Thanksgiving to witness the madness (or at least the beginning) of Black Friday. People are crazy. Seriously. 

Andy had it all planned out where we would go and the deals we would see..it was awesome until we stopped at our first destination: Walmart. Absolute chaos. So we skipped out on that store and went to Target and then the mall to see the midnight openings. I have to admit at one point in Target, I was hiding out in the card section while Cassie and Andy were digging through the mountains of DVDs. Thank goodness no one wants to buy cards on Black Friday.

 The mall was pretty packed. Andy and I went to slower stores like Vanity, where I bought a scarf, & Eddie Bauer, where everything was still overpriced; while Cassie and Brooke were first in line at the stores with the good doorbusters. By the end of the night Andy & I were eating Auntie Anne's pretzel bites waiting for Cass and Brooke to get done shopping. We were so over Black Friday. But what a night. Here's a few observations I made from this crazy night. 

1. Don't bring your baby Black Friday shopping with you. It's just not nice. 

2. Probably shouldn't go Black Friday shopping if you're unable to walk without assistive equipment (e.g.crutches).
3.  Singing cards are very entertaining and helpful if you get claustrophobic.  
4. No deal is worth the wait in a line that wraps through the entire store.
5. Bring your baby home and put it to bed! Please.

6. People are freakishly patient. Holy lines batman. 

7. Even if you're early, you're probably too late. 

8. People are crazy.

(We went out on Thursday after Thanksgiving dinner as a family and bought a tv just hours before Walmart was a war zone.) 

Girls are crazy about their shoes. 

A Visit with the NCATE

TONS of homework to do for tomorrow...blog time! Terrible...I know...in other news...this morning I was on a panel for the College of Education; the NCATE came into our school recently and rated the College of Education at Western Michigan University "at risk." [What's that mean? Pretty much that they don't think the College of Education is doing it's job and they need to revamp the whole program.] 

In order to defend what the College of Education is doing, they put a bunch of students on a panel and gave us cookie cutter answers to give to the NCATE. Here's my dilemma with being on this panel. I am a Special Education major. Our program is COMPLETELY different than the Elementary Ed/Early Childhood majors. COMPLETELY different--I cannot stress that enough. Their cookie cutter answers could not do our program [or our amazing faculty] justice. 

This got me thinking. Wow. I am so in the right place. Being in the SPED program is overwhelming, stressful, and it drives me absolutely insane. The faculty makes us go over material to the point of nausea and on the same hand, makes me feel like I'm running into a brick wall over and over and over because it's too hard. The lesson plans are exhausting and excessive. The practicums are, at times, uncontrollable and don't even get me started on TEACHlive. 

BUT I have learned so much being in this program and I can honestly say I feel confident to walk into any type classroom tomorrow and not fall flat on my face be successful. I am so proud to be a Special Education major, I am so proud of our program. And best of luck to the Elementary Education Program! 

Back to lesson planning...

Soap Box

Something I am very passionate about is advocating for people with disabilities. In fact if you know me well enough you're probably rolling your eyes right now because you know where this is going. PERSON FIRST LANGUAGE, PEOPLE. 

This is so important to me. Ignorance. Yeah yeah... "they" don't hear you call somebody a retard and "they" don't hear you call them that autistic guy--but it's not about that. It's about having common courtesy and respect for individuals with disabilities. PERSON FIRST. 

[let me explain...autistic kid switches to kid with autism. downs kid switches to kid with down syndrome. and I am begging you, just remove retard and any form of it from your vocabulary.]

Putting the individual FIRST acknowledges you are respecting that person as an individual, not the disability they have. Look past the label and see the person! 

Ok I'm off my soap box now...but if you're interested for more information or need to be convinced more on this subject check out this guy, he speaks better than me.  

An Open Letter to Ann Coulter

Truth Behind Retard

Weekend at Home!

I just love being home, especially this time of year.  Our wood stove is cranked and the view from every window in our house is beautifully displaying FALL! 

Every weekend when I come home, I vow I am going to be so productive and get lots done...well today I got a ton done--but none of it had to do with school. Oh well. Win some and lose some. :) 

Mess #1 Puzzle pins

SCEC is holding an Autism Awareness fundraiser on October 17 (From 10am to 5pm in Sangren Hall) and everyone took some puzzle pieces home to decorate. I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with! 

(Here comes a shameless plug--Come on by Sangren to get your own Autism puzzle piece pin!) 

 Some completed pieces--and then I found glitter and the mess grew...

Mess #2 Wedding Crafts!

My mom has been doing so much for our wedding. I am so grateful for her and everything she does. I stepped in today while she was at the Cross Country meet and made some wedding crafts!

A couple of the finished project-I am so in love with how our wedding is turning out so far! 

Dot was getting a little bored, she's more of a hands on girl but lacks the ability to use the hot glue gun (although so do I...my poor burned fingers...) She fell asleep several times with her head on the bar of the stool. Goofy girl. 

CHEESE!

I [seriously] had so much fun taking pictures with this kid. I was laughing so hard the whole time. It was really hard for us to be serious.

And it's really nice my sister is such a fantastic photographer (thanks Cass!). 

Here's a couple favorites! 

[Summertime Cooking].

One of the many things Andy and I share in common is the love of cooking and being in the kitchen. I have been working a ton this past week and I wasn't always around for dinner (and if I was, Andy was not). Wednesday night we both (finally!) got in the kitchen and cooked a wonderful meal together. We made stuffed zucchini, spaghetti along with some doctored spaghetti sauce, and garlic bread. Served with salad on the side. It turned out amazing!! 

Chopping up the inside of the zucchinis after they were hollowed out. 

This is the "stuffed" part of the zucchini. It has sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, green pepper, and a little tomato sauce. We let it all simmer together to get all the flavors going. We also used the leftover stuffing to put in a tomato sauce for the spaghetti.  

After the stuffing was hot and had simmered for a while, we put it in the hollowed out zucchinis. Andy found some really pretty golden zucchini at the Farmers market this past weekend and they looked awesome and tasted delicious! We put these in the oven for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees and then put some mozzarella cheese on top and broiled it for a little bit to make it melt.  

We didn't get a final picture before it got eaten...it went fast! Delicious group effort!