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....

"My career is over"

During a group speech session today, one of my third graders said the funniest thing. He lost a turn or something during a game and he says "My career is over." I replied, "what career would that be?" He says with a straight face "My life career." I thought that was so funny! I replied back "You say some funny things, sometimes." He then proceeded to ask me, "what did I say that was funny?" I think it is so interesting to sit back and look at life from a third-graders perspective. Winning or losing a game with your friends is so important at this age. Sometimes I wish I was able to go back and be a kid again just so I wouldn't have so many life-decisions to worry about. But, on the other side, there are so many wonderful things in my life right now that I would never want to give up in a swap.
While I am on the topic of funny things that kids say, I have another story. So, I was working with a pre-school kiddo who could not keep his hands to himself. I asked him if he could please try to keep his hands still, and he replies with a straight face, "It's not me, its my hands." If only we could get away with that excuse as an adult...hehe!

The Rest of the Story....

I love having misleading blog titles. Not that I am going to lie in this blog, but I like to have titles that sound captivating, when in fact the story is rather bland. My best friend from grad school came to Austin this weekend and stayed with me on Sunday night (we didn't have work on Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr Day...wohoo! I love three day weekends!!) We went to go see 27 Dresses with two of my other good friends. It was a good movie, pretty predictable, but heartwarming. (side note- while I am thinking of movies that I have seen recently-Natalie, if you read this...I LOVED Juno too!) Overall, I had a pretty good weekend. I was very glad to be able to see so much of my friends!
As I went to bed last night, and then when I woke up this morning I came to the realization that I HATE getting up in the morning. I am such a worrier that I make up a million and a half things to worry about during my morning routine. I thought I might share some of my thoughts with you: What if I sleep through my alarm? What if I am late to work today? What if my lesson plans don't work out as well as they sound in my head? Why am I so tired? What if one of my kids throws up today (if you know me, you know that this is one of my worst fears in life....what is wrong with me?) What if the kid who throws up in my room gets me sick and then I throw up? (translation in leslie's mind: the world is OVER) Why does school start so early in the morning?Why does my hair look good when I leave the house, but then as soon as I walk outside it turns into a frizzed -out blob? Why is it so cold outside? (for you mid-westerners, 32 degrees is outrageously cold in Texas still) What if the traffic is really bad today? Why do I have to sit through so many stoplights just to travel 6 miles to work?...enough of this! Then once I get to work and start seeing my wonderful kids, many of these questions drift far from my mind. So, what I would love for someone to invent one day is a way for me to get from my bed to work without thinking a single thought...except for maybe a prayer of thanksgiving for being able to wake up and live another day!

Home Alone

So, Chris went home (to Temple) for the entire weekend. His parents bought a house to flip, so he went home to help fix it up. I decided to stay home because I would be by myself in Temple as well..and what have I accomplished so far this weekend? A whole lot of nothing. I stayed in bed watching TV until 11:00 this morning. I know, you are all envious of my exciting life. I have to admit, though, it has been kinda nice having some alone time. I guess I hadn't realized that I am never by myself anymore.

I went out last night to see a movie with my best friend, Chelsea. The movie was sold out, of course, so we went to a restaurant and just hung out for a while. It was so nice to be with my friends. Yet another thing that I often take for granted. I am so blessed that God has given me such great friends that are always there for me. I know this wasn't much of a post, but I should probably jet...the TV is calling my name (hehe). Thank you God for giving me so many people in my life that help to pick me up and remind me of your many blessings in my life!

Ode to Cedar

Cedar pollen
Oh how I hate thee.
You make my nose run
and my head ache.
Medicine no longer does the trick!
I wake up in the morning and blow my nose
I blow until I fear I might lose a brain cell or two.

Cedar Pollen
I hope you go away
Otherwise I might have to invest in a tree-
In order to furnish my never-ending tissue use

The end!

Update of all Updates

I hope the title of this blog isn't misleading. I don't have any big news to share with anyone who reads this...I just feel like I should start by updating on what has happened over the past 6 months or so.

So, I got married to my best friend on July 7 of this past year. It has been a great 6 months! I enjoy being with the person that I love the most everyday. It is actually fun to cook dinner, something I thought I would never be capable of doing myself. I used to be grossed out by raw meat, And while I don't get excited about it now, I find it doesn't bother me anymore.

I also started my first 'real' job in August. I am a speech-language pathologist for a local school district. I absolutely love working with all of my students, each one of them has some characteristic that is able to make my day worth while. It has been hard getting used to being responsible for so many things though. Needless to say, I have been very stressed over the past couple of months with getting used to a new job and trying to prove myself as a responsible adult amongst teachers who have been teaching longer than I have been alive. I think I have been able to make my mark though, so for now I am satisfied.

I love being back in Austin, but I miss my family a lot. I secretly pray everyday for them to be able to move closer to me!!.

I decided to post a few recent pics...some of them are from Christmas. I was so glad that we were able to visit my family (parents and grandparents) as well as Chris' family. I had a really hard time being away from my family on Christmas day, but I was glad that I got to see them for so long...

So, after reading over this blog I realized that it will probably put whoever reads it into an endless slumber...it is totally void of my normally witty humor. Hopefully future posts will contain more leslie-isms.