Happy Halloween!!! :]
Parker digging out the guts.
Oct 21 2010
Happy one year to Cameron!
Happy Birthday to Kyle! (Yesterday. :/)
Yesterday I got to do the coolest thing ever!! For our Intro to Deaf Education class we have to take two trips to Deaf Schools. Yesterday we got to go the the Jean Massieu School (JMS) for the Deaf in West Valley. (Part of the new totally ridiculous Utah School for the Deaf and Blind. For those that don't realize the ridiculousness of this, look at the title for a while, and ponder what that truly means.) Anyway, we got to go. :] It was the greatest experience of my life. I was amazed at the intelligence and signing capability of these kids! What has taken me years to learn, and granted I am far from mastering the art, these kids just seem to know! It was amazing. We started with a tour of the whole school (which was basically just one long hallway they called Death Row.) It was so cool to see each classroom. There is nothing special about the decor, it seriously is just like every elementary classroom I ever attended in my life. However, the numbers are so few. There are only about 5-6 kids tops in each classroom. The desks are arranged in a small square, with the teacher on a chair in the middle. After our tour we broke off into small groups and went and observed each of the classrooms. My favorite and first class we visited was the fourth grade teacher. She was amazing with those kids. She used books, not to read, but to teach the kids real life concepts and signs. She had a way of using classifiers (which I never saw a point for before this moment I'll have you know) to get the kids to recognize the signs and concepts for themselves. She was amazing! I was so fascinated with the way she signed to those kids. There was a really problematic student and the way she handled him was amazing. She would get right down on his level, and not give up until he signed what she wanted him to, no matter how distracted he got. All at the same time of giving her attention to the other kids. After this, we went to the math class and watched the students learn math. This was also really cool, because the teacher incorporated hidden English and Reading into her math lessons to help the kids learn as well. It was cool, and she was my second favorite teacher. :] We got to go outside for a couple of minutes and watch the kids interact with one another during recess. It was really fun. We visited the Pre-K class, and they had us laughing so hard. These little three and four year olds were fascinated with us, and would sign full blown conversations with us. They knew more words than any other three or four year old I have ever met, and they were Deaf! It makes me even more mad at the statistics and facts that the hearing world labels these kids with. Why do they believe these Deaf kids are disabled? I spent an entire day with 70 or so of them, and never once did I notice a disability. They learn in a different language. They are not learning slower than the average hearing child. They are not learning less. The third graders I visited could speak 2 languages! They knew the correct English grammar and the correct ASL grammar. I know I couldn't do that when I was in third grade, and I was intelligent! This is not me saying I hate the hearing world, audiologists, oralists (kind of), or speech teachers. I hate the fact that everyone of those kids in that school is labeled as disabled in a hearing world where correctly functioning ears are a necessity. The only thing these kids can't do, is hear. And I don't believe that is going to stop them from doing anything they want. The only that will stop them is the people that can hear and can't understand. Now who is the less intelligent? If we can send someone to the moon, see Mars, build an iPhone and every other strange technology, why can't we believe that someone who can't hear can do anything we can? It's totally stupid. We believe in so much, why can't these kids be believed in too? It is really humbling to me. I value everything I have that much more now, because although I worked hard to get where I am, I know those kids will have to work ten times as hard to even get accepted to college. Let alone get the freedoms and scholarships I have in my college experiences. I am proud to say that I will get to teach these gifted individuals.
Oct 18 2010
Fall Break was great.
I was so ready to go home last week, I was dying! Troy was getting so sick of me counting down the days until we got to go home. But it finally came, and I was thrilled! We headed home Thursday afternoon, because neither of us had class so we just took our time, slept in, and then headed south. That night we went to dinner with Troy's roommate from last semester, Derek and his new fiance Tara. It was really fun, we went to the Mayan and ate and watched the divers. I had never met Tara, and we hadn't seen Derek all summer so it was good. After this little outing, the madness began. Our Fall Break turned into something like a wedding-planning extravaganza. Friday I spent the day with Melissa, running around picking up and looking at random things for decorations and the bridesmaid outfits. It was hectic, but it was fun to catch up with her and get to go to lunch with her. We got a lot done too. Friday night, me and Troy spent forever in Bed Bath and Beyond registering for stuff. It was crazy. It didn't go too bad, we were just so exhausted after. We went to his house and his dad made us a delicious omelet and we watched Letters to Juliet with Craig and Becky. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to my final dress fitting. It was fun, Becky, my mom, Parker, and my grandparents came with to see the whole thing. I'm glad it's finished and I love it! After that we rushed home, picked up my little sisters and ran to Melissa's to have everyone measured for their bridesmaid dresses. Then we rushed off again to the bridal shower that the Butterfield side was throwing for me. It was really fun, I got to meet a whole bunch of the family on that side that I hadn't yet, and we got a lot of cool gifts. It was fun. :] I really enjoyed it. After the shower we took Parker to her grandma's and then met my family for bowling at Jack and Jill's. It was really fun, Troy beat all of us of course. Even my father. Ha. After bowling we went to Pizza Factory and all ate way too much food so we had a ton of leftovers. It was good and fun though. We stopped by Red Mango and got some delicious frozen yogurt that I have been missing so greatly while we have been in Logan. That was basically our Fall Break in a nutshell. Lots of wedding stuff, and not much relaxation. But it was still so good to get to spend time at home with both sides of the family. It all just ended way too soon!
Oct 7 2010
So, I have a crow problem.
Those great birds and nature noises I was such a fan of a few posts ago, now they have a friend. A lovely devil crow that refuses to leave me alone. It is the worst thing ever. He doesn't start his great song until about seven in the morning. And since I sleep with my window open, he sings right into me and wakes me up. Lately, I have finally been getting up and shutting my window. The dumb bird hates me. As soon as I shut the window, he shuts up. No joke, the bird knows. I tested this this morning. Closed the window, waited, didn't hear him singing. For about twenty minutes. That is too long for him to just be catching his breath. Open the window again, and there he goes. I think he watches me. It's a game to him now, and I'm constantly losing. This is no joke. I really have tested this, and it is backed by extensive research. I feel like Zooey Daschanel on Failure to Launch, when she has to kill the Mockingbird outside her window with the Air-soft gun.
Anyone have an air-soft gun I can borrow for the weekend?
Oct 3 2010
Yay I'm finally posting! This one has pictures of things we have been up to (and things we did FOREVER ago, but I figured visuals are always great!) We have been really busy lately, and it has been fun. We had a good week, with lots of school stuff going on. This Friday was the BYU/USU game, so all week we were really pumped for that. So pumped in fact, that we decided we needed the best seats in the house, so we camped out on Thursday to get them. :] It was cold and windy, and we didn't sleep at all, but it was really fun! It's all about the experience. So Friday we got special early seating for the game, and got to sit right up front on the fifty yard line! It was awesome, considering just how many people were there! It was nuts! And it was a really good game, because we won. :] There were a couple of slanderers around, and that wasn't great, but all in all, it was good clean fun. Here are pictures from the game. It was so hot we were dying! 
These are from Zion's but, hey, they were just there. :]
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