Back again. :)

Hey all,'I haven't written in awhile since I haven't felt like it. However, I'm doing a lot more now than I was earlier in the year. I'm involved in Cincinnati Goalball, which is really fun. We went to our first tournament in Michigan a few weeks ago. I'm the only girl on the team, so I had to be put on a pool team with two girls from Wyskonsin. They'd played together before, so that was cool. Our guys got Mercied all four games, but scord once, and my team got mercied twice, 8/2 once, and 14-7 the last game. It was fun! I loved actually being able to use the goals, because I've never used them before and found that it is a lot easier to stay aligned when you can use the goal to back up against before throwing. We have another, more casual, tournament this coming Sunday, so I'm excited about that. Randy has been looking for a job down here, but hasn't found anything yet. He's applied to places though. I can't wait until he has a job down here! My job is boring, mostly, but it is a job so I'm not really complaining. I do get things to do from finance, which is good since there small easy things but things that need done and I'm saving time for them. I don't know how long i'll be at the company, but it's nice to have a job. Speaking of jobs, I worked at a summer camp this past summer and it was the best experience ever! I loved it! It was a Christian camp, so I got to work with kids and share my faith and grow in my faith and I wish I could work there all the time! Maybe I'll post more about that later. Right now I've got to go pack to go to a friend's house tomorrow, we have an ACBGCC (Greater Cincinnati Chapter), meeting tomorrow so I'm staying at there house and getting a ride to work Wednesday. I'll get to use their treadmill to work out to get in shape for the "Flying Pig" walk I'm doing to raise money for ACB. 5K, 10K, and half Marathon.... wish me luck! I may die! lol Really, bye for now.

Very Very Very long time o see! I'm baaaaack!!!

Hey all! I was bored today and saw somebody's post to a blog on the guide dog network group I'm apart of on facebook, and realized that I hadn't posted on here in awhile,although I've written. Yeah! Almost two years would be considered awhile! Gosh! Hmmm... An overview of the past two years... I started dating randy in April of 2012, who I met through Mike and Sara, and he stuck with me through the horrid methods experience I had, (not a good teacher placement), and student teaching, (which was with Mr. P from earlier posts, and was really good.) Now we are engaged! :d We're getting married September 27, 2013! I have my dress picked out and my bridesmaids dresses almost decided on. We're getting married in my home church and having the reception in a reception hall at our fairgrounds. I'm so excited! :D Also, I have a job now, not teaching as I'm not sure I want to do that at least right now, but as an Office Mannager at a company working with adults with cognitive disabilities. I'm living with the owner of the small company now, they thought I'd be a great fit for the company and knew my dad from school, so decided to help me out so I could find a place. They truly love having me work for them and say that the company feels complete like it hasn't for two years since the previous lady that did my job died of cancer, (R.I.P for her), so I know it isn't just because they knew my dad that they hired me haha! :) I'm moving in to my own apartment December 9th, and am really excited about it! It's unfurnished, but I have some furnature already from family and Jim and shelly,, who I'm living with now, have some they don't use that they said I could, so that's great! I like my job, although it can get boring sometimes when people are not coming in and I'm caught up on what I have to do lol! Other than that it's great, and I get to talk to clients which is fun. You'd think I had more to write... Oh! i'm still working Bilko, and he's doing great. He has some fatty sists on his sides, but the vet said they aren't cancerous so he's fine. Boy did I freak out the first time I found one though! Randy was there, and his brother's dog had some, so he calmed me down. Oh, we had to put Hope down in March. She was our standard poodle. She was having seizures and the medication was making her in to a different dog, and her organs were shutting down. The meds weren't helping much either. It was really sad, but she's with Jesus now... Mom and dad got snickers, a Golden doodle, (golden retriever/poodle cross), in april and she's a bundle of energy. she was only 8 weeks when they got her. She loves Bilko, and Bilko likes her, but not the pulling on his ears andconstantly wanting him to play part. He'll be seven in December! How'd that happen! Oh! I went to a Cincinnati Goalball group last night, a friend I know through aCBo plays and told me about it, and I absolutely love it! Shelly went with me and promptly decided we had to get a ball for OTS and play as a staff. lol! I'm sore now since I haven't played in forever, so will probably take a hot bath tonight lol. I did well though, scored the winning point in overtime for the game where the teams were ACB (mine), vs. NFB, so that was awesome. I'm planning on going whenever I can, hopefully every week, when it starts again in January. It's $25 for ten or so weeks, so pretty good. They have two weeks in December, but I hope I can convince them to let me pay half of it or something since I'm joining late. I know there's things I've forgotten to say in here, but I'm going to post this now and take Billy out. Hopefully somebody still reads this!!!!

Sp--Texas!

Over spring break I went to Aldine Texas with the Education department. Actually it was all early childhood majors except me and Dr. P's son. We went to see the Aldine school system. We left Saturday March 4 and came back late Tuesday night. Our flight was delayed 2.5 hours due to who knows what, so we got to Houston around 4:30-ish which would be 5:30-ish in Ohio.
We decided to go to the Texas Rodeo, because most of us wanted to see Billy Kurington, but we missed the concert, so we just went to the huuuge carnival. Sara and I split yummy barbecue ribs and funnel cake. We were going to ride rides but decided not to do that, because the tickets were expensive. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 in Texas which was 12:30 in Ohio so pretty late.
On Sunday we went to Nasa space station in Houston and took a tram tour of some of the buildings including the old mission control center that was used for the first landing on the moon in 1969, and also the training center for the astronauts. It was cool, but I do wish I could have seen them. We went through a building that was the whole space craft that was the length of the building. It showed the rocket boosters as well. I also got an "audio tour" which was basically an MP3 player and a sheet with numbers that you typed into the player to hear what they said about whatever you were looking at, but I just ended up typing in some numbers to hear information since I obviously couldn't see what was around me anyway. Sara and I got dip-and-dots! They were sooo good! We had trouble getting the vending machine to work. Yeah, a vending machine for dip-and-dots. Weird, huh? We finally went to the actual stand and got them.
After Nasa we went to Galviston, (which I didn't realize is completely an island), and after driving around for awhile looking at houses and trying to decide where to eat, walked around on the beach. Bilko loved running around on his flexy leash. He even went into the canal for a little bit! It wasn't deep at all and no waves but he did like walking around in it. He did drink salt water, and I kept having to stop him, so I fed him and he drank pretty much a full bottle of water.
We finally decided to go eat at some famous Texas place called Lubi's, but it wasn't there anymore, so we went to this Italian and seafood restaurant called Mario's and I got lobster-stuffed ravioli that was quite good and jelato for desert. It was good. I'd never had and before, but the meal and it were expensive. $25 for everything. We had a really cool waiter who gave us tons of samples of jelato and Sara and I took a picture with him.
Monday we went to a EC Pre-k school that was a public pre-k-- weird since we don't have them in Ohio. It was a montessorri school for economically disadvantaged children. Here are my notes from it:
Preschool: montessorri schools are very structured and quiet. Did a song about reading before reading a book. (Read a book called The Cow Boy mouse. Haha!) Read aloud together. The teacher read the book but the kids did read it too. Lots of repetitions. They use a lot more difficult words than many preschools. Lots of singing. Lots of repetition used in instruction and memory techniques. Sounding out words. 100% participation (everyone gets to participate.) Visuals for everything. A lot of songs that the students sing to tell peers good job. (That's the way I like it for example.) Songs for rule following. lots of songs and motions. (I am happy when you follow the rules. I am sad when you don't follow the rules. to the tune of if your happy and you know it.) I don't like how she used pink for girls and blue for boys when giving students writing paper. The classroom is very colorful and everything is labeled. The curriculum now is what we learned in kindergarten. LOTS of repetition. They repeated the learning goals for the lessens after the teacher said them. In gym they were more like typical kids. They played a game where they had a "magic clip" and whoever had the clip had to run around the room until they found their partner and then they had to go get the number of beanbags that was said and take them back to their spot. They shared, practiced counting, and got exercise as well as listening. The teacher also had a moddle of what the kids were supposed to do on the mats, (where they put the beanbags), on the wall.
When they spell things a lot of times they just have the kids sound it out. (cow, Ca-ah-wa.)
The special Ed class wasn't as montessorri based because of having to teach to IEPS. Many of the kids have language problems. The second teacher was louder than the first, the classroom also seemed more open. The students were also more talkative. She didn't use the cards either. The walls aren't as crowded. She did a lot of repetition. The cards were used for when they were at stations. After we got back Sara and I wanted to go to the hot-tub, but didn't have much time, so we went for like 15 minutes and came back to get back in our professional clothes to go to a meeting the BG grads working in aldine. I looove Aldine! I'm not sure intervention majors can apply to student teach there, but I really want to! It is amazzzing! We had a wonderful "ar salking to the PR guy that does all the hiring of teachers in Aldine, and some BG grads that are now teaching in Aldine. We then just hung out in our hotel rooms for the night because we were all tired.
Tuesday we went to this engineering school for K-4. Yeah! An entineering-based elementary school! They had sessions where they did different types of engineering, although I didn't get to see any. It was really neat! Here are my notes from that day:
4th grade at an engineering and math science elementary school. Class 1 room number 30. She starts out with a warmup activity for the class, (a packet), she is reading the activity too 2 kids. A lot of independent work is done at the beginning of her class. This teacher randomly sings her instructions! Hahahaha! The class came up with weird words to make sure they had the right multiple choice letter. (one kid said "call of duty," when she said "cookie" for C haha!) She used "tree diagrams" for organizing answers from two groups, (how many colors combinations can you get when...) Sometimes they play basketball where they get to answer questions against another group and whenever someone gets an answer right they get to shoot. (Didn't actually do this but was told about it.) The entire class went to the bathroom at once and went in groups of 3 guys and 3 girls. Read homework problems aloud to check them. Played a math game with angles where the teacher drew a bunch of lines on the board and the students had to write what angles they saw, (they were numbered.) One person was at the board and the rest were answering at their seats. If everyone got the answer right the team got a point, and if the person at the board got it right they got another point. Teacher was very enthusiastic, and repeated instructions a lot. She has multiple classes. The second class she actually practiced the "geometry Simon says," which she didn't practice before playing the game with the first class. (Right, obtuse, acute, translation, reflection, rotation, perpendicular, intersecting, parallel, line.)
Classroom 2: She graduated from Toledo U! Teaches reading but incorporates writing and language as well. Uses smart board. Plays trash can basketball and other games for TAX preparation. She also does "Bubba Bucks" which means every time kids do homework, answer questions in class etc they get bucks and when they don't do homework etc they pay her and can spend them at her "store" once a month. Teaches budgeting money. Does crafts to go along with books. She lets them be very creative. As long as they have what is needed for grading they can do what they want with the project. They do not have much art so she incorporates it into lessons. (Not much music either. Once every two weeks.)
The special education teachers in Texas co-teach and work with the students in special ed in inclusion settings. TAX is harder than OAT and determins whether or not the students pass the grade. If not they go to summer school. Everything in her classroom is labeled and she has students that are "table captains" that make sure everything is put away. Flash cards for sentences and sentence structure. Has set of paint strips, (free from Loes), that say A B C D and they kids use a close pin to show the answer and they can pick what color paint strip they want. A CD with prefixes, suffixes etc and they spin it and whatever there finger is pointed to when spin stops is what they have to use for the sentence, (also free.) MANY free reading activities.
Overall I think the elementary school convinced me more than the Pre-K since I can teach elementary. I loooved it! I'm totally going to apply for student teaching! (well if possible. I'll check into it when I get back to school.)
We had tex-mex for dinner and then went to the airport where the next crazy adventure began!

Friends and memories

Ok, so I'm not gonna lie. Reading Mandi's blog got me inspired to write this, but I've been thinking it a lot recently anyway so here's the motivation I needed to write it lol.

You know those friends that when your little you talk about going to the same college or living next door with your families and all that? Well I had a very good friend in Elementry that I thought the friendship would last forever. She was my closest friend from third grade till middle school. In middle school we still hung out some, but we didn't have every class together so it was hard. I remember a time... I think it was middleschool or early high school, when i was at a basketball game. My parents saw Alex and I wanted to go sit with her in the students section. I did, and I thought it'd be just like old times where she'd tell me what was going on in the game and we'd laugh at the players. I was wrong. She hardly talked to me at all! She was laughing and joking with other kids around me and ignoring me! Then when half time rolled around she left me alone in the stands! I don't remember if I cried or not, but I might have. Someone came and sat with me. I don't remember who but I think it was an adult. I was soo mad at Alex! She said later that one of her other friends was really sad and needed her and that she didn't want to leave me but everyone was pressuring her and all this stuff. I think I knew then that we wern't going to stay friends. We still talked off and on, but our friendship was never the same. Now I have her number, but I don't think she has mine, and I feel like even if I did call her it'd be the most awkward conversation ever haha! I hate losing friends like that, but it happends, and I think God does that for a reason.
When I was in high school, I had friends I hung with all the time. My friends Sara and Brittani were the closest, and we did tons of stuff together. Sara and I were in band together, so we had lots of time to hang out, and Britt came over a lot and we talked on the phone for hours :)
I'd known Britt and her twin sister Chelsey for years... we went to this before school program together... but high school is when we really started becoming close. The problem was, all of my close friends were at least a year or 2 older than me. Needless to say, senior year sucked! I couldn't really make new friends by then. Cliques were set in stone, and I wasn't really close with anyone in my grade. I hated it! I hung out with a yunger student that was kind of a social outcast. She was/is nice and we get/got along, but we never went to each other's houses or anything like that. She kind of thinks of me as her big sister :)
She knows she can come to me with anything, but its hard to keep in touch when she's still in high school.

GDB... Ah GDB! I was soo excited! I wanted to make new friends and couldn't wait to meet everybody, but I was nervous too. I hadn't had to make new friends much lately, but figured I could do it ok. I met Mandi first, and was really excited! She liked drums like me and was really cool!We were on the same plane to San fransisco, and I thought we'd talk the whole ride, but we didn't. I would've talked to her, but I wasn't sure if she was sleeping or listening to music or something and didn't want to interupt her lol! I thought we'd become really good friendsright off at school, and we hung out, but I'm not sure why we didn't hang out more. I wish we would have. For some reason we didn't. She was probably the who was most like me or at least a lot like me haha!
I really miss all my friends from GDB. Carina: Awesome roomie! I'm glad she recently texted me her new number. :) Yes!
Kristina: All I can say about that is tons of laughter and stupid songs came from our conversations, but also some pretty deep stuff too. :)
Stephannie: I remember this one time sitting in Star Bucks drinking Mint-moca Frapiccinos and comparing american and canadian money haha! Then we knocked on the window to get Carina's attention cause she was walking up and she thought it was the door... oops!
Mandi: I remember one time sitting in her room talking about our home lives and finding out that they were pretty similar in some aspects, and we really did have a lot in common. O and playing with her phone. It was really nice to just sit and talk and not be interupted by instructors taking us on routs lol.I think she was the one that ratted me and Kristina out for puttingBalloons in Tony's shower though... Darn you Mandi! LOL JK JK! Shhh! I didn't just admit that we did that! :) Good times!
O and the TP-ing the instructors... and flexy leash! Wish you guys'd gotten me off the couch 5 feet away for that one! The movie could've waited lol! I'm still wondering exactly who tried to TP me... whoever it was did a pretty crappy job of it :P
Hugs Mandi!

Yeah, I really miss my GDB friends. Now that I'm at college, I have friends, but sometimes I still feel alone. I'm not usually invited to friends rooms (Well, recently Mike and Sara have invited me places but there gonna be my roomies next year and I've known Sara for ever, and Meagan), but last semester I hardly saw the so I didn't like that much..m. and this semester none of the people I sometimes hung with and I really do much together because of schedules so it really sucksThe ones I made that live in my dorm don't invite me anywhere though, so I don't know what to think of that. I've known Sara for years (Yes the Sara from earlier in this post, which shows that friendships can last.) So God has blessed me with someone who I can turn to,and I am extremely greatful.
I don't know why God brings some people more in to lives than others, but I'm soo greatful fore all the friends he's blessed me with over the years, and I really wanna get together with out-of-state friends like Mandi and Stephannie and Carina and Kristina this summer! Miss you all! Hugs!
Jenna and Bilko
(gosh this post was depressing and random and I don't think it even makes sense! Arg me an my swirling thoughts!)