A Gift From a Friend

Okay, so the last day of my Exceptional Child class the older lady who sits next to me, Yong had a gift for me, a giant kiss. Yong is originally from Korea and is really sweet. she'd bought it from the commissary. There on Fort Carson by the campus.

Well it accidently went home with her and she called me and got my address to come give it to me but she never came by and i thought maybe she forgot.

Well, I came home today to find this. Apparently she came by today and gave them to my sisteri while i was gone. For some reason she added this 2 lb box of chocolate pretzels. She is so CUTE!

I am so excited, I can't remember ever really getting a gift from a classmate before. Never really had friends in class like that before. She is so sweet and I am so grateful that I got to know her! Yong is a wonderful lady that I hope she has a wonderful Christmas and finds herself blessed!

A Monster Weekend: How one teacher can turn a joy filled time, into utter pain, fear, and anger

Now that it is all over I feel safe enough to talk about whats happened this week. Starting on Saturday I logged onto Desire2Learn to check if my teachers had posted my final or anything yet. The first thing I saw was a nice shiny A. Then I saw the D. The teacher, who last semester gave me a C, couldn't "find" my mentor eval in her emails and that I had not turned in a self evaluation she supposedly had told me to do when she'd observed me. So that was 150 points I had been missing.

First of all, she never told me to do that, and there was nothing on D2L telling me what I was supposed to do for that, it just said what it was. So I hoped it was taken care of for I had no clue and assumed she would have told me it at the observation she did of me.

Second of all, my mentor teacher had sent her the evaluation a month prior. Why had she not received it? She had done this to me last semester! I emailed her, and then fussed with my other teacher because I was in a panic, failing would mess up my financial aid, could make it impossible to graduate on time next semester, and it could kill my GPA enough to kick me out of Phi Theta Kappa. I had to wait over the weekend with no responses except from my mentor teacher assuring me that she had sent it on November 5th.

Finally, today, she contacted me to ask what my teacher's email and name was that had sent it to her, so she could "find it" in her inbox... I was confused. Hadn't she looked and not found it? Isn't that why she was giving me a 0? Well i told her and she comes back with this:

"I have found an evaluation from **********  for you, under a different last name.  I had not opened it because I thought it was sent by mistake to my email."

So you DID have it? you just assumed it was junk and ignored it? Really? At least she's decided to give me the 100 points. She's still keeping the 0 on the other 50, claiming i should have known and done it and it was supposed to be 1 page long. No where on D2L does it say what it should be, or how long!  I am grateful that I am now passing, but pissed off I'm getting a 0 on a assignment that I was not told what to do, or how to do it, or even TO do it. And that 50 points could push me up to a low b!

It had just sucked the joy out of everything. That one of my teachers had been so impressed with my notes she had me email them to her, and another teacher gave me a perfect score on my final, (which includes the extra credit question I was sure i bombed) so I had ended up with 110% on my final, but all of it was gone because of one teacher...

I am very upset, but also very grateful. I've had friends tell me they were going to pray for me, and my mom put my name on the prayer roll at the temple. It all seemed to help and I am grateful that I am passing.

Plus I NEVER have to see that teacher again, EVER!

The video accurately describes how I have felt the past weekend.

Family Recipes

Finally! I got a family cookbook, but of all the family recipes there was only one I wanted, to my aunts cinnamon rolls. Made them today and by the time i rolled them flat i really hated the dough. But they are baked and smelling good!

and YES they are quite as big as they look. My family always makes cinnamon rolls HUGE. We had yeast in it and i have to let it rise for a totally of 35 minutes between all the different things. they are soo delicious. For a reference on the size let me tell you, the round pan is a full pizza pan, and behind it there is a spatula so you can tell, very large and will last a couple days!

Not feeling myself

I have been feeling really stressed lately. It's gotten so bad little things that didn't bother me before have made me burst into tears and snap. Nothing seemed terribly stressful, I just feel that way. Mom told me today she thinks it is because I haven't been taking my multi-vitamin. It might be true so guess I need to really try and remember to take them each day, and see if that calms me down or if it does nothing at all.

At least school is almost over and I have those few weeks of break before my last semester starts which I am sure will cause a lot more stress. Though I do have something calming to do this week. A friend of mine from class is paying me to make 11 rubber band jingle bracelets for her. So I have 8 more to go and I should be paid at the final Friday.

It will be nice to have money, I don't usually have money I can spend. Won't be enough to buy a game really, but enough to maybe bye a little something for myself at least, not sure what yet but I am sure I will think of something when the time comes.

My own world

You know, there is nothing I find more relaxing then getting comfortable in a chair or my bed and creating and developing my own world. Drawing maps, creating characters and cultures is a very soothing activity and I admit that sometimes I wish I could do it all the time. I get so tired of my world and its darkness. I would much rather spend my time in one of my own creations where I know everything will be okay where I don't have to worry about my future or that of my family, I know how broken a family I create is, unlike my own family which i never realized was breaking apart at the seems till it had already fallen apart.

In a fictitious world of my own design, I never have to cry.

Getting to the end of my rope

I am very tired and getting worn down. Everyday seems like a battle that I am not sure I can win. My computer, my beloved Alien-ware Laptop, has to be repaired AGAIN! All of this not to mention that a few days ago we went to get it fixed and they sent us a faulty monitor so i had to wait for a new one. we spent 8 hours trying to get it fixed -.- I love my computer but i'm growing tired of the stress. I wonder if it just wont be worth it to just... buy a new one when i have to money, a different brand that would do what i need to.

I don't want to get rid of my computer, but i'm tired of replacing it every few months, and i haven't even had it a year! and they are reluctant to just send me a new one. I've had 3 hard drives now. Apparently they had been using a brand that was faulty and that was their excuse this time for not just sending me a new computer.

I want to cry. my cat has died, i have the stress of school and everything else, and now fixing me computer again and again. I just can't handle it!!!!!

Farewell to Princess

This is princess... my 20 year old cat. I have had her for as long as i can remember.. . I was around 4 years old at the time and my mom had found her, a little kitten cowering from a large dog who was angry that she was trying to drink his water. we tried everything to find her owner but no one admitted to owning her and we ended up keeping her. We have had her ever since.  While moving down to where we lived now we almost lost her at a hotel. we were devastated but she appeared in the window right when we were about to leave. 

I loved that cat, it seems she has always been in my life and now to have her gone has left a gaping hole in my soul that i cannot bury. This all started a few months ago when we came home from church to find her gone... We looked everywhere for her and it wasn't till 24 hour later that searching the back yard again, thanks to a sighting by a neighbor, we found her hidden in tall weeds. If i hadn't walked the way i had (avoid spider webs) i never would have seen her there.

She was already going blind and going a bit deaf being outside made it completely go. she was so disoriented for awhile with not being able to see or hear and she wasn't very good at following her nose. She stopped using a litter box.. so we had to lay down puppy pads everywhere. She was like almost a completely different cat. she clung to my mom and the rest of us, following us wherever we went. It was a shock as she changed from being a sort of social cat to a clingy cat.

A few days ago my mom and my sister went on a trip to Utah so its just me and dad,. Afraid that she would once more wonder onto the porch through the dog door and then  get lost int he backyard again because i wasn't home, we locked her downstairs. She'd never been down there before but we just assumed she would be okay and know she was still home.

Yesterday i went downstairs to feed her only to find she hadn't eaten her food at all. I was worried and quickly refilled her water bowl but she was having trouble standing and would only do a few licks ever like 10 minutes. The gap between her licks of water got longer and longer. she wouldn't even drink the tuna water i brought down. I held her, hoping that she would get better. But i knew as i laid down with her in my bed that she was getting worse.

I had called my mom a few times by that point and i was praying like crazy that if she had to go, to let me be awake when she did so she wasn't alone... she deserved better then to die while i slept. I got  more than i wanted.. Right when i started maybe falling asleep she puked all over the pillow i had her on and my bed. I had to get up and clean it all.

I could feel her heart beat but she wasn't doing good. She would stop breathing and gasp for air. She would do this ever 5 seconds or  so. stop breathing then gasp for air. I carried her with me as i put my sheets and pillow in the washer and as we walked randomly her back legs would spasm... I decided to finally take her upstairs that maybe being on moms bed and smelling her she would know she was home in case she was depressed. I set her down on the bed, closed the door sot he other cat wouldn't come in and possibly bother her and when i came back she didn't have a heart beat....

I just its because when she could smell mom on the bed she knew she was home and that it was okay to let go,,, I can honestly say i just cried and almost screamed. i called my mom. I couldn't be able to go to sleep now.. she told me where some plaster mold stuff was and i mixed two up and made paw print impression of her then.. wrapping her up in one of my moms shirts, i wrapped her in a bag and put her in the fridge since we were going to have her cremated on Thursday when my mom returns..

it was so hard... to put her in there. I kept wanting to run back and check just to make sure. She wasn't dead she was sleeping but i couldn't fool myself.. her heart had stopped. Her heart beat had been so easy to feel that, i knew she was gone.  Even now I'm crying all over again. I hate that i was alone for this, I hate that she died, and I hate that i feel like it is all my fault. Maybe if i had just checked on her sooner, or been down there more...

I miss her so much and i don't know how i will be able to go on without her. She has been with me since i was about 4... almost my entire life... I tried just pushing through it and was doing good till my mentor teacher for my school-age practicum said i was looking good and asked if i wanted to go home and i just burst into tears.

Rest In Peace now Princess... I pray that even though you died while i went to close the door that you knew i was there for you and you weren't alone... and i pray that you know how much i love you