Doctor's Orders

I have been having trouble with my vision over these past few weeks. I keep feeling dizzy and I just have a hard time focusing. Last weekend I went to the doctor and he found wax on my ear drum. He cleaned it out, which was excruciating pain and then I thought that was it. Well I was still dizzy when I went back to class. I had to wear my glasses a couple of days because I hadn't gotten enough sleep and I noticed there was no dizziness. So I figured out it was my contacts.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and she said I was putting too much pressure on my eyes. I have to take 2 minute breaks every 20 minutes and my prescriptions had actually swapped and I had to switch my contacts. She ordered me to take a vacation from studying. So under doctor's orders, we went out to dinner and a movie.

We went to see Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I wasn't really all that excited about it, but there wasn't anything else playing. Well I loved it! It was the craziest movie I had ever seen, but it was so creative. The really fleshed out some details behind the story that the 1st version did not. Johnny Depp did an outstanding job of being "odd." It was just what the doctor ordered.

Emmy

One day during our 5 minute restroom break everyone was looking at my cute screensaver with all of my nieces and nephews. We started talking about cute things that kids say and I of course had lots of things to contribute. Well I told them about my little niece, Emmy. When you ask her a question and she is not sure of the answer or she's not ready to complete a task, she will reply, "Two minutes!"

So the other day one of my classmates was presenting a lesson and the professor stopped him and started to give corrections, it was a lot to take in for him so he looked up and replied, "Two minutes!"

And yes I know I should be at church, Jonathan and I decided to have a devo at home so I could get some sleep.

We survived!

I have noticed that most of my posts have exclamation points, I wonder if there is something psychological behind that.... Anyway....

So still in San Marcos taking my class. There are three levels of this course. Each year you learn the pedagogy behind teaching certain melodic and rhythmic elements to kids. I remember when I was in level one we got to watch some level three teachers teach their peers in front of us. We call it teaching lab. They were such good teachers, they had beautiful transitions between games and their songs, I was in awe. Then the 3rd week of level one, we had to get up and teach a mini lesson for about 2 minutes, I survived. 2nd level was about 5 minutes, and today I had to teach for 10 minutes. That doesn't sound very long I know. I usually teach kids for 45, but those are kids! Today I had about 40 adults watching me, plus the 3 faculty members who were taking notes and checking my pitch with their tuning fork. But it went pretty well and I learned a lot about the language that we have to use to ask questions to children.

Then the 3 faculty members got in a heated discussion about how to present the concept that we were working on, one eighth note followed by a sixteenth. It was very interesting and they were very passionate about their theories. Who knew that teaching music was so much like a science?

It was such a relief when we were done that my roommate and I decided that we would celebrate and go and get a smoothie. As we were leaving our dorms we looked at each other and thought, I hope no one finds out that we didn't go straight home to start on our homework. That is when you know you are overworked.

I Love My Husband!!!

Well I just got home from a grueling week at my class. I decided on my way home that the house would not be clean because Jonathan has had a very busy week. I have found that if I don't plan on stuff like that, I am not disappointed. Well as I walk in the living room and dining room they are spotless!! Then I decided to go up to bed for some much needed sleep and I walked in the bedroom and it is cleaner than it has ever been. He even straightened the closet and we can see the floor!!!

Plus on top of that he is working extra hours for the next couple of months to save for our new house. I am blessed.

Wireless Myth

My class had a project to turn in by midnight tonight, but we weren't quite finished so I stopped by a classmate's house in south Austin on my way home to Temple. We worked hard on the assignment, but we didn't quite finish before he had to go on a date. So I told him I would finish it up and email it to our professor. Well I had some errands to run in North Austin and I didn't want to backtrack to Mom's house so Mom and I went to Barnes and Noble; wireless internet right? WRONG! Well not completely wrong. I got a great signal for the internet, but it turns out that you have to pay for the internet kind of like a calling card. Their provider was even SBC (my internet provider) but I have to pay an additional monthly fee to use it away from my home.

No problem, we think, let's just go to Starbucks. We drive over there, same drill but their provider is T-Mobile. So then we drive to some random apartment complex to use someone else's server, but everyone in this apartment complex has a password, they are smart. So we call Mary Ann and she gives us some great advice-Schlotsky's. It works!! We didn't even have to get out of the car. Technology is amazing. There I was typing an email in my car! Anyway, the moral of the story is, if you need internet, it is less trouble to just drive all the way home.

I Am Now One of Those People

I am in San Marcos right now taking a three week course in Kodaly. For those of you that don't know, Kodaly is a method of teaching music developed by a Hungarian. They don't really teach you how to teach in college, so that is what this course does. It is very prescribed and very challenging. We have to do this huge song collection which is equivalent to a Master's thesis. My collection currently has around 350 songs in it and it fits in 2 3-inch binders. So I am now one of those people I promised I would never be. I am one of those teachers that must roll a big dorky cart around with all of my stuff in it. I can see all of the college kids here looking at me thinking, "There's one of those people."

Good news. I found out yesterday that they are offering scholarships for graduate credit for these Kodaly courses. At the end of this one, I could have 18 hours towards a masters and I would only need 18 more! So I got the graduate application and the booklet for the GRE and we'll see what happens. Can you believe, I might have a masters degree? The official degree would be a Music Masters with an emphasis in Kodaly. And the funny part is I am going to be done with my thesis before I even take the other classes!

Any advice about the GRE would be appreciated

grrr

I am frantically trying to get ready to leave for my class tomorrow. I have to stay in the dorms for 3 weeks, but I feel like I am packing to move there. If I had a camera, I would take a picture of all of the stuff that I am taking. Now that I am no longer living in a dorm type of space I am used to all of the luxuries. I really wanted to take my toaster oven along, but Karen advised me against that. She informed me that it could burn down the dorm.

So here I am ready to pack the car up so I can leave right after church and one of Jonathan's friends calls to talk. I am so glad that he has friends that want to talk to him, but man talk about bad timing. I think they have been on the phone for a little over an hour and I really need his muscles to help me with all of my junk. I keep giving him the "help" signals, but its just not working. So I guess I will call upon my muscles, here I go!!

Here We Go

Okay so we finally have a blog. Everyone has been bugging me to make one so here I go.

I have been frantically running around trying to make graduation invitations. It seems like such a nice idea to make graduation invitations at home, save money with not too much work right? Well I spent just over an hour looking for a sort of template on the internet to even see what a graduation invitation is supposed to look like. I ran to Staples to buy printing supplies and then spent an hour trying to feed the "special" paper into the printer. That didn't work so I went back to staples and had to buy even more stuff. All in all I think that I only saved about $10 in making my own invitations. The things we will do for our husbands.