Working Girl

Okay, sort of a working girl. I teach as an adjunct (meaning part-time for those not in higher education) speech instructor for Oklahoma Panhandle State University. I really enjoy teaching - even basic public speaking.

This semester, I am teaching an online speech class for the university. This is a little different for me. I have taught hybrid classes with the University of Phoenix, but I've never taught a full online course before and it is a little different.

At this point, some of you are thinking...how the heck do you teach/learn public speaking online? I mean, isn't it supposed to be about giving speeches? I understand your question and it is definitely not the prefered way to teach this - at least in my opinion. That said, there is also a need for online speech classes.

Since almost every institution of higher education requires students to take a basic speech course, we need to be open to offering it in a manner that students need and want. Online is the new way to go for many students. I will admit that students doing their online class while sitting in their dorm room or in their cubicle at their on-campus job, really bothers me. If you are on campus, take a regular speech class. However, I understand that there are just some students who would rather do it that way and that's fine.

Anyway, I am now into week 3 of this course and it is going fairly well. I am curious to see how my evaluations turn out at the end complared to my previous traditional class evaluations. Turning a class into an online class is not as easy as it may seem. If you've been teaching a while, it's not the hardest thing in the world, but it is critical to understand that teaching in the classroom and teaching online are different beasts. The activities that worked great in a face-to-face class, typcally don't fly well online. You have to get creative to keep students interested and motivated.

I'll put this out to you all to see if you think I'm getting close to the mark. Here's this week's threaded discussion. How does the opposite gender communicate? What about the communication patterns/styles of the opposite gender bothers you? There are two discussion threads. Males are supposed to respond in one thread and females in the other. In a traditional class I have the two groups split up and create a list of what they don't like about the opposite gender's communication style. Then we come together as a class and go through them all and talk about possible "solutions" to the complaints. For this online exercise, I have allowed them to read all the comments and complaints and then offered a third thread were we can discuss the "solutions." We'll see how this one turns out transitioning to online. I really wanted to keep this activity so I hope it works.

So, I'll pose the question to you as well...What about the opposite gender's communication style drives you crazy?

"No...I don't want it!"

We are on the countdown till The Wee One's birthday. She officially turns 2 in a couple of weeks and while we've been seeing signs of the "terrible two's" for a while, this week has been especially challenging.

At first, you think it is wonderful when your child learns to talk. All the new things they can express and tell you about, even in their fragmented sentence structure. Then they start figuring out that they can use this new-found vocabulary to reject things, and pout, and make you want to pull your hair out. I really do think it is part of their twisted plot to get us back for keeping them cramped up inside us for so long. Don't they realize that that process was just as uncomfortable for us (if not more so)? Gheesh!

Anyway, the past two weeks have brought a series of new phrases and words into our home. "Ewww, nasty." "Nasty, gross." "Mine." "Knock, come in." "Someone at door." "Cited for scuela (Excited for school/escuela)." Mostly pretty cute.

Then we got the not-so-cute ones..."Arrrr, oh shit." Yeah, she said it. Fortunately, it only lasted 2 days, and I'm hoping doesn't make a reappearance for a few years. (Is it sad that it was kind of funny/cute when I first heard it? Be proud of me...even thought it was kind of funny, I did not laugh!).

Then the dreaded, "No...I don't want it!" Sometimes she leaves out the "I" for extra irritation. I mean, really, if you are gonna whine, at least whine in a sentence. That one has not left so quickly.

Pretty much everything this week has received this lovely phrase. To top it off, she has one of those typically cute, high, sweet voices. Not so cute or sweet when the high pitch is used to whine. She has also started to do a little dance with the phrase. That's lovely. I mean the dance is kind of cute, but it's being used as a whine so it loses it's cuteness very quickly.

I'm not sure if it is all the weather changes, the fact that she started back to Mother's Day Out last week, the fact that she's turning the corner to official toddler-hood, if she's teething, or if she's not feeling well like everyone around us, or a combination of all of the above (that's my bet really). Regardless the reason, it is driving The Husband and I crazy. She has had a lot of timeouts this week and some early bedtimes. After reading a friend's blog this morning, I'm beginning to think it's just something in the air. Her children are at least at ages that you can reason with (in theory). At my little precious' age, we can try some amount of reasoning, but let's face it, a 2 year old isn't exactly high up the level of cognitive communication.

For now, we will fight it out and ultimately, The Husband and I will win, although I anticipate some ugly battles in the near future. Lord, give me strength (for real!).

Frazzled

My mind is just on the frizz today. I feel like it is running in a million different directions, and to be honest, it probably is. Today is the first day back at Mother's Day Out so I have a block of time to myself to get things done. That said, there are sooooo many things I need to do that I can't seem to get hold of it. I know, I know...use a little time management. Yeah, if it were that easy, I'd have it done by now.

Anyway, here are few of the frazzled ramblings going through my mind today...

- Do I have enough life insurance to cover things for The Husband and The Wee One? (Thank you MetLife for making me oh so much more aware of all the costs that would be added to The Husband if I weren't around...day care, housecleaning, etc.)

- How do I make cuts in my already super tight budget to afford more life insurance? ($300 a month on groceries is already pretty darn lean, don't ya think?)

- Why can't our society see that we have put ourselves in this financial recession by our own doing? If we didn't have to have EVERYTHING we want, the minute we want it, we might be a little better off. (Listened to a report on the radio about the number of people still losing their homes...maybe they should not purchase something they can't afford just because they want it.) Note...I am not totally free from blame on this. My splurge comes in the form of travel, and though we do it cheap, it is still something we should reign in.

- Are there any online communication courses I can teach?

- Why won't my stupid computer work the way I need it to to get this application to teach an online class done?

- How in the heck am I gonna get my stats done for my dissertation so that my advisor doesn't drive out here and kick my butt?

- Does anyone know the going rate for statistical help?

- Is it okay for The Wee One to live off chicken nuggets and fruit snacks since that's all she'll eat on a consistent basis? (Okay, she does eat other stuff, but I know that her main supply of nutrients are from these two things...oh, and milk).

- Am I doing enough with The Wee One to give her all the experiences and learning opportunities she needs?

- What church should be be attending? (Been searching, and let me tell you folks...it's hard to find a place where you really feel you fit and belong).

- Should I change my plans to visit my dear friend since her work situation is getting ready to change?

I guess that's about it for now. So, now that you know what a spaz I am, I hope you are able to appreciate the randomness of my ramblings. For now, I will lay my burdens and worries before God and go take a shower!

The lengths we go to for success

A while back I mentioned that we have been working hit and miss with potty training The Wee One. Basically, we have been encouraging her interest, but not really pushing anything since we knew we would be traveling a lot this summer. Now that we are home for an extended period, we figured it was time to give this a more concentrated effort.

We talked to people and read up on the training process and headed to Wally World to get the "necessary supplies." We now have stickers and picture cards and character underwear. Here's the kick...

My child does not particularly care for the characters that come on girl panties. Walking through the kiddie underwear aisle, the only characters she noticed and/or liked were on the boys undies. Therefore, my precious little girl is running around the house in boys under-roos!

As she started digging through the bag of undies and telling me about Woody, Buzz, Wallie, and Cars, I asked The Husband if he would be okay with his daughter wearing boys undies. His response was classic..."As long as they aren't anyone but hers, I'm fine with it."

Bless Their Heart

The first choir meeting of the semester was tonight and like a good little choir member, I immediately came home and pulled up all the music we'll be singing on YouTube. While doing this, The Husband was on the other computer typing in "Worst Choir Ever", just to see what would pop up. Check it out below...



Not really sure what to follow that up with besides..."Bless Their Hearts."

Cutie-patootie

I firmly believe that God made children so funny to help rebuild the tummy muscles they ruined during the pregnancy and labor. I feel like I laugh all the time at The Wee One. I know that a child is always cuter to their parents than to others, but to be fair, they are also more frustrating to their parents than anyone else.

Here are two of the things The Wee One has done recently that I find cute:

*We took a trip to visit family in Central Texas. My grandparents have a small organ at their place and The Wee One loves to mess with it. She will sit there for 30 minutes just hitting all the different buttons. This time we figured out what she's really been doing. After about 20 minutes of hitting buttons, she hit the one that actually turned it on. She turned to my grandma and said, "See? I did it."

*The Sister got married yesterday. While I was serving up the delicious chocolate groom's cake, The Wee One came over to get a bite. She came up to me and said, "chocka" so I gave her a little bite. I kept serving others and she just stood next to me watching it all. Then she quietly went over and got a plate off the table and brought it back to me. She held it up with a fork in her other hand ready for me to serve her some delicious chocka cake.



She definitely has a personality all her own and the majority of the time, I love it! At the moment she is watching the awesome downpour of rain through the window and singing some little made-up song. It's a good day.

Summer is over...but it's been a great one!

So, school started today, officially marking the end of summer for us. On one hand, I'm sad. On the other, I'm kind of glad we will be back to a more regular schedule. This summer was flown by and we have had a lot of fun. Here's a quick recap.

May saw the addition of a new member to the family. The Newest Sister married The Youngest Brother and it was literally a family affair! The Husband, The Wee One, and I were all in the wedding and though it was crazy hot in all our get ups, it was BEAUTIFUL.

The end of May was mine & The Husband's 7th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going wine tasting in Lubbock. Not super exotic, I know, but we had a fantastic weekend and bought some really yummy wines.

June took us on a retreat-from-the-heat to Colorado. We hit Monument Lake for a weekend camp-out. It was a very interesting few days...caught my first fish (ever) and had a friendly bear visit the tent in the middle of the night. (Sorry, no pictures of the bear - too chicken to stick my head out of the tent. I do have a picture of one of the lakes near our camp grounds. Doesn't it just make you want to run to Colorado?)


Additionally, my mom had an art show this month. It was a lot of fun helping put the show together and it was wonderful when she sold some!

In July we got to spend a lot of time in Amarillo visiting family and friends. I sware we were there just about every weekend. However, it was totally worth it to play with everyone. I'm working on future husband possibilities for The Wee One. I figure I have enough friends with little boys that she should have plenty of options.





Toward the end of July, we went back to Colorado, again trying to escape the heat. No luck that time...Colorado got a heat-wave while we were there. Yikes! Still had a great time in Lake City, Gunnison, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Ouray, Silverton, Teluride, Mesa Verde, and Durango. Not a bad week. No bears, but plenty of beautiful, God-inspired vistas!


The last week of July we went down to the Hill Country of Texas. Austin, Waco, Georgetown, San Antonio, Canyon Lake, and Concan. Got to see more family and eat at one of our favorite places in Austin (Sweetish Hill Bakery). The end of the trip (and the end of the summer) was the family reunion. This is The Husband's grandmother's family reunion and it is a ton of fun! Sitting in the Frio River all day and eating great food every evening. Can you ask for more?

That pretty much sums up our summer, but it also explains a little about why I haven't been on here as much as I would have liked. Now it's back to school and routine. I think I'm ready!

I have a good reason...

Hello dear followers (and anyone else who might be dropping by today)!

I know it has been a long time since I've posted on here, but I do have a good reason. We have been traveling like crazy. Not all our travels have been a big deal, but most of the places we have been have had very limited access if any at all. Therefore, this is the first time in a good while that I have had good internet, but it is only for a short time. (Thank you Starbucks!)

I have included a few pictures of what we've been doing this summer. When I return home next week I will fill you in more on some details and hopefully upload some more pictures! Enjoy!!!

Mesa Verde National Park

At Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Just kicking it, pool-side! : )

If you haven't had time to enjoy the summer yet, you better get moving - it's almost over!!!! (No tears now, just think - though the summer may go, so will the HEAT!)