Odds and Ends

This is just a catch up post. September is a total blur. I had Educational Psychology as a three weekend class which translates into about four weeks: First weekend of class, off a weekend, class weekend, off a weekend, final class weekend. In that time, I read about 10 chapters, took three very difficult tests, did 10+ hours of classroom observation, and wrote 8 papers. I also learned a lot about myself. The class was very interesting. It talked about the best way to teach so that students learn. For example, you have to make sure they have the proper background knowledge and then use scaffolding and various methods of teaching to build upon the knowledge. The key is moving information to long-term memory and promoting deep rather than shallow rote-memorization type learning. The second part of the class dealt with motivation. Are you extrinsically or intrinsically motivated? I struggled with this quite a bit trying to decide what I was. There are a lot of times I'm intrinsically motivated and I think probably most of the time this is the case. However, in the classroom I am often performance avoidance. I think I still struggle with not talking because I don't want people to think I'm not smart. It's like I have to maintain the appearance and stereotype of what a 4.0 gpa student would be like. After the class I talked to the professor about this. He basically told me to embrace being a nerd and to just do it. I have to make myself talk in class and get used to it. So I guess that's what I'll have to do. ;-)

So, in the midst of not having a life I guess a lot actually did happen.

Jordan and Ashley reconciled their differences. The morning after the gymnastics lesson I was torn about what to do. The more I thought about it though, I really felt Ashley should be in piano. I talked to Ashley and told her I thought she would be making a mistake doing gymnastics and not piano. She loves music and singing and enjoyed the time that I had taught her some on the piano. Ashley agreed, reluctantly but pretty quickly. I really didn't have to talk her into it. When we picked her up from her first piano lesson she was absolutely ecstatic. She loved it. She's already playing with both hands and doing quite well at it. Jordan is still loving gymnastics and can almost do a handstand now - not an easy feat believe me. I still can't do one. Hailey is also loving dance. Our Thursday schedule is as follows:
2:30 pm Julie leaves work
3:10 pm Hailey gets out of school
3:20 pm Jordan and Ashley get out of school
3:30 pm leave Elgin for Lawton
4:00 pm Jordan and Hailey change clothes at gymnastics center; Ashley does reading homework with Mommy
4:15 pm Jordan starts gymnastics class
4:30 pm Ashley, Hailey, and Julie leave 44th Street and Gore for piano
4:50 pm Ashley dropped off at piano at 6th Street and Gore
5:00 pm Greg leaves Cameron
5:10 pm Julie and Hailey arrive at 82nd and Cache for Hailey's dance
5:15 pm Greg picks up Jordan from gymnastics
5:30 pm Greg and Jordan pick up Ashley from piano and head home to fix supper
6:15 pm Jordan and Hailey head home to eat supper
6:45 pm supper
7:15 pm bath
8:00 pm bedtime for girls

An early September fire raged almost a week through the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. We were able to see the fires from our home but they were on the other side of the lake. 35,000 acres were burned along with 11 homes. It's really sad to see where it burned. We went camping the first weekend of October and saw the damage. The poor animals have been forced into areas they don't normally have to go to find food. We were used to seeing deer in the Camp Doris Campground, but we were a little scared when the Longhorns were grazing next to our tent that evening!

Wichita Mountains fires seen from our house

Longhorn standing in the middle of a burned field

September 8, 2011 - Greg, Jordan, and Ashley came home to find deer in our backyard!

When we went camping, we tried out geocaching with Mom and Dad. The girls loved it. We found Noah's ark at the Holy City, Oklahoma's largest picnic table, a date on a dam, and a little box of treasures inside of a little shelter. The girls also loved camping. It's been over a year since we bought our tent but this was the first time we actually slept in it somewhere. It dropped down to 50 degrees that night and we were soooo cold. But it was still fun.

Hailey in front of our tent

Finding the treasure box

What's in it Grandma?

The hidden box that Jordan found when she moved the rock

Posing after our first really neat geocache find

It really is a massive picnic table!

Hailey in the mountains