I just saw an article on my yahoo home page about Sandra Bullock, and since it talked about adoption I thought I would check it out.
"Bullock . . . started the adoption process four years ago and finally brought home a baby boy born in New Orleans in January."
So if a super-star and famous Oscar winner waited 4 years I don't feel so bad now about our 20 month wait (and counting.)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
"I am a slave. . . what would you have me do?"
My favorite quote from the campy 1982 classic "Beastmaster" (that ran on TBS on a regular basis from 1988-1993) is from our dimwitted but curvy heroine Kiri, "I am a slave. . . what would you have me do?" Let me preface this with a little background, Beastmaster sees that our scantly clad Kiri has been beaten and observed with 2-dimensional robotic shock, "They whip you like. . . a beast."
Well my friends, CTU, South and Western have whipped me "like a beast" this week, and all I can say is. . . wait for it. . . , "I am a slave, what would you have me do?"
Sheesh, it has been quite the week. I have been working crazy long hours and at this point in the game I am just looking to make it to the end. All my class work and training end the middle of May and I am looking forward to having my evenings and weekends back.
I did get a chance to take a breather this week. Dave and I went to the temple with our good friends Wendy and Tim. After attending the temple we had a great dinner at this sushi place none of us had been to before. It was nice to chat with them and just have some grown-up-friend-time.
All Saturday morning was dedicated tp grading and working. Spencer and Dave worked on pulling some weeds from the lawn and I was plugged into the computer until I finally had to break away to prepare food for my sister in law's baby shower. The little one is due in less than 3 weeks! Wow it is getting close. It was so fun to spend the afternoon with them and see all the swag for baby Dean. What a great time! My sister Tiffani made the most amazing blessing gown. . I mean WOW! It took over 120 hours to crochet. I will try to post pictures.
Next week looks just as brutal for me and my schedule. . . I am counting the days.
On the adoption front:
No news from API (our domestic agency) they still need to approve the revised homestudy before we are "officially" on the list and our profile is shown to prospective birthmothers.
No news from Kaz. All we hear is, it is slow.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Crazy Times
Since I have been essentially working 4 jobs (CTU, WWCC, South University Training and mommy duty) these last few weeks I have been swamped. . . and yet here I sit blogging? Probably avoiding real work :)
Well, CTU is more then halfway done. It has been a boat load of work. My hand was forced when at week 2 they scheduled me for next term, so I had to let them know I would not be returning to teach for them. They were great to work with and have been very professional. I still have lots of work to keep me busy with CTU, but now I do not have to worry about that.
WWCC is great as usual, I had a whole batch of projects to grade this week. I used turnitin.com for the first time. That was really helpful, I will be using that in the future. It takes only a little more time, but it is so helpful to find plagiarism.
My South training started on Monday and I can already tell I will like this better. The class sizes are capped at 15 (my other classes are capped at 35 and 24) so having the smaller class makes it so much more friendly and manageable. The training goes on until May 11, so I still have a few more weeks to go. I am feeling very positive about it. They will not tell me until after training if I will be assigned a class and it may take a few quarters to work me into the system. I can already tell I will enjoy working for this school.
As for Spencer. . . Mr. Super Star, he has been doing great. It has been hard because I have been working so much, but the little trooper has been great at entertaining himself and being cheerful. He has had a couple of milestone too. He can now go potty all by himself, no help. He strolls into the bathroom closes the door and announces, "I need privacy." It is great! Also, he has started writing letters. We have a workbook that he can trace letters, and he is doing a great job.
Life around here is great.
My neighbor just adopted a beautiful baby girl, they only waited a few weeks. I am 98% ecstatic and 2% green with envy. They went with an agency we looked at but decided against. I am just glad they had a positive experience. So, we wait. The child meant to come to our family will be here when the time is right.
I have book group this week, Dave and I are going to the temple on a double date with our good friends and my sister-in-law is having a baby shower on Saturday. Did I mention we planted 5 trees in the backyard and installed curbing? Phew. . . lots going on.
Life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it.
Well, CTU is more then halfway done. It has been a boat load of work. My hand was forced when at week 2 they scheduled me for next term, so I had to let them know I would not be returning to teach for them. They were great to work with and have been very professional. I still have lots of work to keep me busy with CTU, but now I do not have to worry about that.
WWCC is great as usual, I had a whole batch of projects to grade this week. I used turnitin.com for the first time. That was really helpful, I will be using that in the future. It takes only a little more time, but it is so helpful to find plagiarism.
My South training started on Monday and I can already tell I will like this better. The class sizes are capped at 15 (my other classes are capped at 35 and 24) so having the smaller class makes it so much more friendly and manageable. The training goes on until May 11, so I still have a few more weeks to go. I am feeling very positive about it. They will not tell me until after training if I will be assigned a class and it may take a few quarters to work me into the system. I can already tell I will enjoy working for this school.
As for Spencer. . . Mr. Super Star, he has been doing great. It has been hard because I have been working so much, but the little trooper has been great at entertaining himself and being cheerful. He has had a couple of milestone too. He can now go potty all by himself, no help. He strolls into the bathroom closes the door and announces, "I need privacy." It is great! Also, he has started writing letters. We have a workbook that he can trace letters, and he is doing a great job.
Life around here is great.
My neighbor just adopted a beautiful baby girl, they only waited a few weeks. I am 98% ecstatic and 2% green with envy. They went with an agency we looked at but decided against. I am just glad they had a positive experience. So, we wait. The child meant to come to our family will be here when the time is right.
I have book group this week, Dave and I are going to the temple on a double date with our good friends and my sister-in-law is having a baby shower on Saturday. Did I mention we planted 5 trees in the backyard and installed curbing? Phew. . . lots going on.
Life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Sing. . . Sing a song
I was sitting in my office and I heard Spencer singing in the living room. Check it out:
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
My new online class
I just completed week 1 of my 5 1/2 week class at CTU. Here's the skinny:
A week ago I embarked on the CTU adventure. It was a long process to get here. Training was 4 weeks and I spent many hours working/training to get up to speed on the CTU way of doing things. The training classes were well organized and I was able to meet 4 other ladies training to teach the same class. It was good to have some friends in the same boat. We have been good about sharing lecture notes and tips.
So, last Saturday (April 3) I sent out the "Welcome to Class" email. (Weeks officially start on Sunday at CTU but I am able to get all the work done on Saturday.) Monday night of last week I had my mentor training session. First term instructors are required to have weekly training sessions and my group has training every Monday night. My mentor is kind of. . . how shall I put it? He's just phoning it in if you know what I mean. He has been short with a few people in class about asking questions. I feel like I have a step up because I have been teaching online for 5 years and this is just policy and procedure, but for some in our class they have never taught before.
So that is "training."
My classes are synchronous, which means I have to be Live online for 3 hours a week. I had to pick two times that would work with my schedule. So. . . Mondays are out (because of my training), Thursdays I have book group, Friday is Date Night/Family activities and Saturday we spend as a family and we need that day to get things done. . . and obviously I am not working on the Sabbath. So that left me with Tuesday night and Wednesday night.
So, Tuesday night my lecture went well. I really liked lecturing Live online. It was great to have that interaction. My students were great with asking questions and being engaged. Wednesday night my class was even better, my content was more streamlined. Lecturing online was a rush, it gave me that little charge I used to get teaching on campus. It reminds me how much I love teaching.
On another positive note, I like the new technology. It is great being acquainted with a new platform and new software. I like knowing what stuff is available and out there. CTU is very structured and organized, they are driven more like a business than a school. There seems to be focused goals and I like working for a place that knows what it wants.
On the downside. . . The class is eating up three nights week. I hate to spend my precious family time working. Being synchronous has been a nice experience but I think the trade off is less time with Dave and Spencer. Also, I have very little control over my class structure. I do not get to write my own assignments, I do the assignments CTU wants. I also do not get to pick due dates and as most work is due on Fridays that means my Saturdays are eaten up by grading because of the policy for turn out time on grading.
All and all this is a good experience. Having a first hand knowledge of online synchronous teaching is wonderful.
Taking all the pros and cons into account I was reminded by my friend of some great advice. There are lots of things we can spend our time doing some are good, others are better and some are best. Looking at my time and applying the Good, Better, Best analogy, I have to ask myself. . which one is CTU? It certainly isn't a bad choice, but is there a better choice out there? I think the answer is yes.
A week ago I embarked on the CTU adventure. It was a long process to get here. Training was 4 weeks and I spent many hours working/training to get up to speed on the CTU way of doing things. The training classes were well organized and I was able to meet 4 other ladies training to teach the same class. It was good to have some friends in the same boat. We have been good about sharing lecture notes and tips.
So, last Saturday (April 3) I sent out the "Welcome to Class" email. (Weeks officially start on Sunday at CTU but I am able to get all the work done on Saturday.) Monday night of last week I had my mentor training session. First term instructors are required to have weekly training sessions and my group has training every Monday night. My mentor is kind of. . . how shall I put it? He's just phoning it in if you know what I mean. He has been short with a few people in class about asking questions. I feel like I have a step up because I have been teaching online for 5 years and this is just policy and procedure, but for some in our class they have never taught before.
So that is "training."
My classes are synchronous, which means I have to be Live online for 3 hours a week. I had to pick two times that would work with my schedule. So. . . Mondays are out (because of my training), Thursdays I have book group, Friday is Date Night/Family activities and Saturday we spend as a family and we need that day to get things done. . . and obviously I am not working on the Sabbath. So that left me with Tuesday night and Wednesday night.
So, Tuesday night my lecture went well. I really liked lecturing Live online. It was great to have that interaction. My students were great with asking questions and being engaged. Wednesday night my class was even better, my content was more streamlined. Lecturing online was a rush, it gave me that little charge I used to get teaching on campus. It reminds me how much I love teaching.
On another positive note, I like the new technology. It is great being acquainted with a new platform and new software. I like knowing what stuff is available and out there. CTU is very structured and organized, they are driven more like a business than a school. There seems to be focused goals and I like working for a place that knows what it wants.
On the downside. . . The class is eating up three nights week. I hate to spend my precious family time working. Being synchronous has been a nice experience but I think the trade off is less time with Dave and Spencer. Also, I have very little control over my class structure. I do not get to write my own assignments, I do the assignments CTU wants. I also do not get to pick due dates and as most work is due on Fridays that means my Saturdays are eaten up by grading because of the policy for turn out time on grading.
All and all this is a good experience. Having a first hand knowledge of online synchronous teaching is wonderful.
Taking all the pros and cons into account I was reminded by my friend of some great advice. There are lots of things we can spend our time doing some are good, others are better and some are best. Looking at my time and applying the Good, Better, Best analogy, I have to ask myself. . which one is CTU? It certainly isn't a bad choice, but is there a better choice out there? I think the answer is yes.
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