Remeber I told you about a little boy I was helping this summer? He was learning how to walk?

Well, as it does for every student who starts back to school, it takes some time to remember how to do things. He came back to school and remembered quite well all the stuff he had learned over the summer at summer school. We had gotten him to take 2 or 3 steps on his own, without any assistance from a teacher and that was pretty big because he was unsure of himself, just needed some confidence and reassurance that we were there.

Fast forward to today. Our PT came into my office and affirmed that he is walking on his own! She told me that he (on more than one occasion) took 6-8 steps on his own without falling backwards for reassurance or falling period. How exciting!! This is huge for this little guy.

This is why I love this job. It's the little things that I take for granted all the time that my students struggle with and when they succeed, it's amazing and totally gratifying.

I AM making a difference in my job. I AM successful. I AM blessed!!

Today was the service for my friend's babies. It was so sad, but the pastor made some very awesome statements. He said that there is no verse in the Bible that says that the twins are in heaven, but he knows in his heart that they are because God has nothing to hold against them. They were not born into this sinful world. How cool is that. The twins will never know sin or pain or guilt. They will just know the glory of the Lord! And when we see them in heaven, we will see them just as God wants us to. I just think this is amazing.

Tonight was amaaaazing (foreshadowing?). I attended the A&M vs UNC women's soccer game here in CS.

The game started off well, and all togerhter, both teams played hard and were very aggressive. There were lots of fouls. There were only maybe 5 shots for each team in the first half; no goals scored. As the second half was played out, both teams were getting frustrated. It was frustrating to watch them as they made poor touches and passes were often to the wrong team. In the latter part of the second half, the Aggies almost scored a diving header from inside the 8 yard line. It was so sweet, but the UNC keeper was right there to stop it. Both teams got tired and worn out of course, after playing for 90 minutes. The Aggies never let up on the attack. There were many beautiful crosses and shots, they just didn't make it in.

As they started the first overtime period, the Ags continued the barrage on UNC. Our attacks were often and strong, but still no score at the end of the first overtime period. I was very worried that we would have to go to penalty kicks, one of my most hated parts of soccer, even though it's a thrilling time.

Then comes the exciting part. In a moment that rivals the 2002 A&M vs OU football game winning Aggie touchdown, with about 2 minutes remaining in the overtime period, Amy Berend passed the ball to Ashley Pistorious who ended up with the ball, one-on-one with the UNC goalkeeper and a shot to the lower left corner of the goal, just out of reach of the goalie. The 8,204 member crowd (a new NCAA record!) erupted into whoops, yells, and a rush of adrenaline in support of the Lady Aggies. The Lady Ags put forth amazing effort, with the defense staying solid throughout and the freshman keeper recorded her first official shutout of her college career.. against UNC (that simply doesn't happen often, people). Kat also pointed out to me that the only game UNC lost last year was the game that kicked them out of the playoffs. And this year, they started with a loss to Texas A&M University :-D whoop.

Wonderful.. it was wonderful :o)

Please be in prayer for my friend Stacy. She got pregnant back in March with twins and it's been a rough road. She and her husband have been trying to have children for a few years now and it didn't happen until this year. Unfortunately, they lost the babies last night after a week stint in the hospital. Please please be in prayer for them.

that bad kid . . .

Lauren: "ooooohhh that bad girl lauren from texas....she skipped the presidents convocation.....if only we could be as bad as that bad kid lauren..."
Lauren: thats what they say around here about me


LOL ...

Wow, it's been awhile. . . Apologies again but I still don't have internet at my apartment (grr) and I just dislike spending a lot of time here in the computer lab. So! Let me attempt to let you in on what's been going on with me for the past week. :o)

A couple of weeks ago, I went to NTI (New Teacher Induction) with alll the other new teachers to the district. One of the only upsides was that I met a lot of other teachers - all of whom are really cool (of course. i mean, all teachers are cool, duh)! Anywho - it was good I guess. That weekend, I attempted to get a little more settled in my new apartment. (and I don't remember what else ... that was two weeks ago)

The next week, I had teacher inservice allllll week. Something everyday! I did get to attend a couple of really good seminars on autism and also a team grouping meeting for the office that I work in. **side note** Yeah, so I work in an office now. It's totally bizarre. I always thought my "office" would be my classroom or attached to a gymnasium. But, I'm sure it's gonna be really good and a great experience.** Okay so back to last week ... I also went by the highschool a few times to see the ladies from last year. I miss them SO much. They're just so fun and there is more to them than just work - they're ... real. haha.. Anywho, I am gonna go see them a lot I think. And then this last weekend, I kinda bummed around on Saturday - got some stuff done around the apartment and stuff. Yeah.. stuff. Sunday was fun - after church we went to eat at Wings N More for a "good bye Lauren" party thing. It was good. :o) Sunday night I went helped Ashley paint her room. I am just awesome . . . I painted two whole walls. Yeah.. I rock. Basically. hehe...

This week has started off good! Yesterday, Laurie (my coworker) and I went around to a lot of the schools and met teachers, talked about schedules, etc. I also had some coaching stuff.

TODAY is/was the first day of school !!! I'm part-time, so I went to work at 8 and I got off at 12!! Yeah, this pretty much rocks. I'll go up to the highschool in about 45 minutes and visit and get ready for athletics. I might really really like my schedule :o) Haha..

In other life things, I have just kinda been cruising. Trying to make it from day to day. The end of July/beginning of August has been hectic with friends visiting (I miss you girls [and Ben]!!) and friends moving away (Love you Patrice and Lauren!!), but it's change, and I'm makin it. I think I have decided that I want to teach 9th grade Sunday School at the church. I might just be insane, but I think it'll be cool.

I gotta jet, but I'm praying for you! Please keep prayin for me!!!

Well, my apologies for not posting recently, I've been pretty busy, and have not even had internet connection for 3 or 4 days now. So let's see.. what have I been up to?

After UMARMY, I stayed with the Smith boys for 4 days - that was a lot of fun and I hadn't gotten to see them for a long while. At the same time, I was working in the mornings for summer school doing some adaptive p.e. stuff. It was really cool - I got to work with a little boy named Jaime. He's so cute. He is learning to walk without using a walker or support from a teacher. He's getting really close. It's all in his head now. So that is going to be some stuff that I'll get to deal with in the upcoming year too.

Speaking of the upcoming year, I started back to work on Tuesday of this week. (yesterday) It's called NTI, or New Teacher Induction. It's a really good tool for classroom teachers, but it's hard to transfer the information to a totally different environment like PE. But it's all good. I'll make it I'm sure.

Another reason I haven't been around is because I've had so many friends here!! Wendy and Ginger were here (Wendy had to go back early for classes... boo), Julie visited, and Kat too!! It's been crazy fun.

I don't have internet connection at my *NEW * apartment still, but it will come soon enough. :o)

Gotta go. Love ya.