Wake up, sleepyheads!

I need a snow day...I am soooo tired this morning and our laundry is piling up to my ears. There's a chance of snow tonight and if we were off school tomorrow I could catch up on laundry and take a nap. Sigh...I can dream can't I?

Kat -- Thanks for sharing about your job. I admire those who can work with special needs children so closely. I imagine that it must be very difficult at times!

I honestly have nothing else to say right now. I must be tired, huh?

I hope y'all have a wonderful day today! I'll check in this evening.

Love,
Christy

I am up and awake!

Kat- My mother is a speech patholigist (well, I never said I could spell ) She works with special needs kids for the school district, wow. My mother does have alot of patience, but I also think she uses the food sometimes to block out how some of her kids home situations bother her. Bless you for doing this work

Christy- Being a school teacher is so important, you and Jenelle both deserve badges in my book. Even if you get your snow day at least this is hump day and the weekend is coming.

I think God totally works in my life. I talk to God on the way to work and on the way home. Well last night I really didn't have anything to say (this is new for me ) So I just kinda smiled and waved. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of such love and it gave me that extra boost that I needed to be more willing in my workout and do the whole cardio part.

Jenelle- You are such a beautiful person. Whenever I read some of your posts on the other boards or recieve a PM from you you get me thinking. I am so blessed to know you and all the lovely women here at 3FC.

Okay check in time! Where is Ellis? Do I need to go wake her up? Sandi's? Patton? Ruth? CJ?

Today I am going to try to set up a format for the Step Thread discussion. I need ya'll prayers to help me get serious about studying for my WWT exam

Looking forward to hanging with my FP sponsor today, but what am I going to eat? My hubby turned all my hamburger into shepards pie I put out some meat, but thawing in the fridge takes forever, maybe its time I learn the defrost on my microwave

Have a lovely day!
Miss Chris

Good morning, everyone!

Christy, I'm sorry you're so tired. Winter is an exhausting time. I hope the weekend comes quickly for you, hon.

Miss Chris, I'll definitely say prayers for you writing your exam. Have a good time with your sponser today! Hon, you put the meat in the microwave and hit the "defrost" button. Gee, this new technology.

It's REALLY cold here again. I can't believe it. -38C with the windchill, going down to
-43C. I can't keep having the kids stay home... I really bundled up my daughter this morning... (no easy task trying to get a teenager to dress warmly) she has a 25 minute walk to school.
Oh... there was a dead starling on the sidewalk this morning. Frozen. Poor little love.

Kat, congratulations on doing the yoga!
Thank you for the "inner harvest" message.
My husband works in the mental health field now, but on his very last day working with adults with autism, he a beautiful experience. He'd worked for almost 10 years one-on-one with an autistic man. "David" wasn't able to talk, but could sign a little. And there was never any eye contact or physical contact. Well, on his last day, my DH was talking quietly to "David", and telling him that he wouldn't be seeing him again every day. "David" put his hand out and covered my DH's hand with his, and just rested it there for several minutes. I just cried when he told me...

Jannelle... I'm sorry you're missing your friend.

I haven't had my coffee yet. And I suppose I should plan breakfast before I go over the edge.

Have a wonderful day, dear girls.

Check out the Step Thread. If you don't like the format (sharing experience, stength, and hope as related to the Step) let me know. Instead we can do a question and answer type thread related to the Step or give journaling ideas. I am sure Kat and I have both had to answer some hard questions going through Step 1. I still have some to answer. Talking about my depression

Ellis-We are enjoying a balmy 35 F. OMG if it gets up to 50 I will have to get my shorts out

If you gals get a chance pop down to the Alternachick forum and wish Ruthxxx a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She is 65 years young today! I hope I have the wisdom and beauty of Ruth at her age.

Well I will check in later gators!
Miss Chris

Morning!

Autism is definitely a tough population to work with but I love it. I have always felt connected to these kids for some reason. I was very happy to find this job in 2002 - it was just what I was looking for!

Ellis - what a cool and touching story!

Chris - Thanks for making the step thread. I will definitely check it out the in the next few days.

Christy - Do you have Monday off? I'm psyched for a 3 day weekend.

Today, after work, I am going out with work friends to a place that serves tea and scones. I've never been. It should be fun! Then tonight DH and I are going to another friends' place to watch a show we like.

If I don't get to post again today, I hope everyone has a blessed and abstinent day!

Ellis -- The story about your husband's "David" gave me chills. How beautiful!

Does your daughter walk to school by choice or is there no school bus that could take her? Bless her heart out in that cold! But you're right; keeping them home for the cold or whatever reason makes it so much harder for them to stay in the routine.

How did breakfast go? You got it all planned, right?

Kat -- Nope, we don't get Monday off. It's looking like I'll have a snow day tomorrow though!

I hope this doesn't sound too stupid, but how do you do speech pathology with autistic children? I have no experience with true special needs youngsters, but I thought that nearly all autistic kids were noncommunicative. Just curious...

Chris -- Good luck with that exam! I know you'll do great on it. When do you have to take it?

Thanks for the pat on the back! We teachers luv that stuff! Doesn't everybody?

How'd your workout with sponsor go? I hear you about the lovely "God feeling"! Sometimes it just comes over me out of the blue like this big rush of warmth. When that happens, you just can't wipe the smile off your face!

I was thinking about the master's classes I'm starting. In my undergrad days I was such an academic perfectionist that I freaked out if I thought I was going to get something less than a B. I never did, but it was hard and you know what? It didn't matter a bit! I didn't get a teaching position any faster because of it. As a matter of fact, I got one later than most because I stopped to have a baby. I know that this program is going to be hard because it is a math education degree and, while I love teaching third grade math, anything above that frightens me! I gave myself permission last night to do the best I could in these classes without sacrificing my recovery, my family, or my current job. If that means I'll get a C, then so be it. And you know what? It felt good to decide that and made me much more excited about this new venture! (Wasn't quite ready to say a D would be okay... )

Anyway, sorry to be so longwinded. Just wanted to share that cuz, believe me, that is a first!

Going to check out the Step thread!

Love ya,
Christy

Christy - I've been thinking about starting a master's program, but I don't want to get a master's in elementary ed. and that's about all that's available to me. I'd LOVE to get my master's in either Reading or English (my undergrad degree is a B.A. in English), but the local extension campus doesn't offer it and I can't drive 70 miles one way to go to school. (I did when I was getting my undergrad degree, but I also wasn't teaching then.) I could go literally 10 miles up the road to a university in another state, but they will charge me out of state tuition. If I am gonna pay that much for a degree, it had better be from Harvard!

Kat - My sister's youngest is not autistic, but she is non-communicative. She has something called Angelman's Syndrome. It's a partial deletion of the maternal 16th (?) chromosome. If you get it on the father's side, it's Prader-Willi, which is disease where your brain literally is incapable of telling you that you are full. As a result, many Angelman's children have food issues. My sister put a lock on the fridge after Amanda escaped from her room one morning and my sister found her sitting in front of the fridge with about 40 cheese wrappers around her (and no telling how many wrappers she had actually ingested!).

Ellis - My aunt lived in North Dakota for a few years and had the stories of
-50 degree wind chills. There's just no way I could do it! I don't think I could ever get used to that much cold! Brr!
Miss Chris - I love the step thread! I promise to post to it, but it probably won't be tonight. (and thanks for the PM )

Everybody!

Well I have had a nice day. I found my reading glasses, had a good workout at the gym, had a lovely salad for lunch, a nice visit with my MIL, picked up a few groceries, took a long hot bath, and now I am ready to leave for meeting in an hour.

Christy- I thought you had to have a B in grad school? I think my mom works with all kinds of special needs kids even autism. Its all about communication.

AWESOME POST IN THE STEP THREAD CHRISTY!

Kat-Tell us about the scones and tea. It sounds so official.

Ellis-Where have you been today? Haven't seen you around much.
My kiddo walks about 0.75 miles to the bus stop. Its some sort of American torture, having to ride with a group of monkeys to school.

Okay off to lurk and read, AND go to meeting.

Love ya'll
Miss Chris

Don't burst my grad school bubble, girl! Actually, you may be right; I honestly don't know. I do know that this a brand new degree from the university and since we are the first cohort going through, they are still kind of feeling their way around. As a matter of fact, we don't even have to take the GRE.

If it turns out that I can't hang without giving up my sanity, I'll let it go. (The master's program...NOT my sanity!) I'm not emotionally attached to getting it at this point in time.

Jennelle -- I would probably be better suited to an English post grad myself. My B.A. is "interdisciplinary English". The deal here is that our district just got through paying for English masters for a group of teachers and they're through with that for awhile. They do want to get in on this math program so they'll be footing the bill for it. I figured why not? They were going to pay for it...no GRE requirement...classes only about 20 minutes from my home one night a week. What do I have to lose?

Going off to contemplate earning B's (heavy sigh ),
Christy

Hi there!

Tea and scones were very yummy. I had never been to this place - it was very sweet inside. The four of us got a pot of tea each and small scones to put jelly on, etc... They were yummy.

Christy: Autism is a spectrum disorder. So kids may or may not have speech. But even if they do not have speech, SLP's can teach them non-verbal ways to communicate, like using picture cards. I work with a variety of communication skills, such as articulation (speech sounds), pragmatics (social skills), semantics (vocabulary), syntax (grammar), etc...

I think you do need a B in grad school to pass.

Jennelle: I've never heard of that disorder. Must be tough for your sister to deal with!

Chris - I hope you're meeting went well!

OK, off to see friends tonight. Have a great night!

I've not posted in awhile. I've been busy.

I'm in class this week to learn the Scada system. Felicia thinks I'm more familiar with it than the others,ha,ha. You either need to be an engineer or computer programmer. There is so much garbage in my head right now I'm going to have to let it rest for a day or 2 and then go back to the practice page.

My phone rang today during class but couldn't get to it in time. I waited until I got out of class to return the call--didn't recognize the number--Guess who answered on the other end--Miss Chris--Chris-evidently your hubby punched a button for my number cause the answering maching caught a conversation.

Miss Chris--glad you are making a step page.

More later--I need to let my brain rest for awhile.I'm still seeing analog and status pages!!!!