Making a difference

I have recently been feeling as if I am not making enough of an inpact in my student's lives/communication. Sometimes, especially with me more severe kiddos, I feel like I am not doing enough to make a valuable difference in their life outcomes. I know that progress will be slow for most of my students, but it can be hard seeing kids day after day and working on the same skill everyday. So, needless to say I was getting kind of upset and feeling like I wasn't serving my students in the best way possible. I recently went to a conference in San Antonio and attended one class that I thought was very worth while. I learned a lot of information that I am ready to take back and use with some of kiddos in the life skills program. It will be a big undertaking for me to get started, but I feel like I might be able to make a positive difference if I take the time to implement what I learned. Right now I am feeling good about attending the conference and learning some new techniques....we'll see how I feel in two weeks after I have been working with my students again.
Time for ramblings....Our conference was located in downtown San Antonio, on the riverwalk. It is such a beautiful location, but--let me tell you how hard it is to navigate the streets (walking and driving). I feel like after spending two days in downtown, I should be able to tell someone how to get to the convention center (where our conference was)....I can honestly say that I would probably get that person lost if I attempted to give directions. After locating the convention center upon arriving in San Antonio, I set out on the mission to find cheap parking. Yea Right! My first attempt ended up with me accidentally getting back on the highway and traveling a mile or so down the road in order to loop back around. My second attempt led me into the RiverCenter Mall parking garage. I was excited that it was relatively empty, and I parked my car and walked downstairs. WRONG! As soon as I get downstairs, I find out that will cost me $20 to park all day. So, I marched back upstairs and left the garage...but not after paying one dollar for being in the garage 2.5 minutes. I finally found parking, but I worried all day that my car would be gone when I came back that night to move it to the hotel. (But that is just how my mind works) I was able to see much of the downtown area because our hotel was located directly across from market square (about a mile or so from the convention center). Friday morning, my friends and I decided to leave our cars at the hotel and walk to the convention center to save some money. We not only got our exercise, but we also saw a variety of interesting people along the way..hehe. Oh well, I guess all the walking and getting lost was worth the information that I learned in one of my sessions....hopefully :)

A Taylor-tabulous weekend

Chris and I went home to Galveston for the weekend. I hadn't seen my parentals and sister since right after Christmas, so I was in need of a little family time. Saturday my parents, Chris, and I went up to Lake Houston to do some fishing. Let me paint a picture of our adventures on the lake for you. We get to the lake around 1:00 p.m. It is a beautiful February day, 74 degrees to be exact. We lauch the boat and head across the lake to check out all of the fishing spots that my parents claim have tons of fish. The first cove we stop at ends up taking one of dad's lures. Score: Lake -1 Taylors-0. Next we start down the lake a little farther to check out the 'river' that has many fish. After retrieving many lures from tangled messes in tree stumps, we still had caught a total of 0 fish. (I say we, but I actually was not fishing. I have still not come to liking the fishing pasttime. I will sit with others who are fishing. But, let's be honest, Fish kinda freak me out. They flop around and are covered with slimy scales. I had a pet fish once, named Stripey. I liked to watch him in his 1 gallon tank, but whenever his tank had to be cleaned I would freak out. So, to solve the situation I bought a snail to clean the tank. Then the snail died, and I am sad to say that that was also the sad end to Stripey as well.) Anywho, at this point I noticed that it was starting to get rather chilly, and the sun that I was basking in was suddenly perpetually hidden behind a mass of grey clouds. We (or rather, they) fished for a while longer (score update lake-2 taylors-0) and never caught a fish. Mom exclaimed "I've got one" several times, but they were all false alarms of logs tricking her. We all decide that it is time to head back to the truck because the wind is starting to pick up. As we head back across the lake, we realize that we have to ride the whole way into the wind. By this point, I wrapped my whole body inside my t-shirt but the artic blast keep attacking. We made it back to the truck in about 30 or so minutes....the longest 30 minutes of my life (hehe). We got to the truck and defrosted ourselves, and come to find out...the truck temperature still read 70 degrees. I think God sent an artic storm over Lake Houston and miraculously ended it just in time so we cold safely drive back to Galveston. or, maybe I am just that much of a whimp. Despite the frostbite, I had a wonderful weekend with my wonderful family. I miss not being able to spend more time with them....