My last week at practicum went well and my last lesson was fine. I wasn’t as happy with it as I was the first one, but it was fine. I have two weeks of classes left now. I have a test on Monday and a presentation on Thursday. We will start taking notes for our final exam this week.
Josh is done with summer school and that was the biggest waste of his time. The schools always say the kids will lose information that they have learned through the year if they do not go to summer school, but what I saw in summer school was pretty much babysitting. The kids were doing a lot of playing, not much reading. Josh does more at home with me than he did at summer school. I will not waste his time with that again if I can help it.
Mandy’s paw is doing much better. I hope she will leave it alone now.
Our church 4th of July celebration (I Love America) is this Friday. It is on God TV if you get God TV. It will be shown around the world. Here is the link if you are going to be home to see the times: CLICK HERE!!

This was a much better week for me, I wasn’t as busy. The class is going well. I got an A on the first test, so that is good and I got my assignments turned in and one turned in early. I have to turn in my portfolio next week with the lessons that I have done so far, so this weekend I will be putting that together. I just have to type up the information and make the portfolio look nice. I also want to get ahead in my text reading. The chapters are really long and it is easy for me to get behind in my reading.
The lessons I did the with kids this week were a lot of fun. This is a reading practicum, so I had to practice doing running records one day and another day I read the kids a multi-cultural book. I read The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie DePaola and we discussed Native American culture. I took in my Native American dolls and I let the kids look at those also. They did a writing lesson and that was all. It took about 30 minutes I think. I had so much fun. I do another lesson on Monday. That will be my last one and in fact Tuesday will be my last day of Practicum. The school will be getting done with summer school this week. Josh will be glad to be done. He has not enjoyed it. It is too bad I can not teach to his grade, but I am Early Childhood, the oldest kids I can teach are 3rd grade.
Mandy went to the vet last Friday. The vet was really not exactly sure what was wrong with her paw…he said it could just be an irritation or it could be a a tumor , but he gave her some anti-biotics and a shot of cortisone to treat it as an irritation. He said if it didn’t get better to bring her back and they would biopsy it, but it is going away and she hasn’t been scratching it anymore. I should say, the bump she had is gone, but she had scratched and bit it so much that part of her pad came off one of her toes, I know that is so gross, but it is healing. Her foot looks really good, you have to get down really close to her to even tell anything was wrong.
We met my friend Tammy last weekend and her family and went to the Zoo. That is the teacher with the little girl I babysat as a baby (Sofie), Sofie is getting so big. There are pictures of her and Josh and Sofie’s sister Sara at my facebook and two movie clips of them. We had a great time!! I miss them so much.
Well, I will stop writing now. Have a nice week!!

I have been really busy. My Summer college class has started. It is a Reading practicum, and I am going to be able to teach reading lessons next week. We have a lot to do in that class, it will be fun though. The teacher I work with is very helpful and the kids are great as always. This last week was crazy though because the class is divided into two classes, the lecture part where you learn the strategies of teaching reading and the practicum class where you learn what is expected of you at the practicum. We only meet for the practicum class the first and last week and then actually go to the practicum at the school the rest of the time and only meet for the lecture class. Anyway, I had already started my practicum, so I was doing both classes, then going to practicum, doing homework/reading/ and preparing lessons for the practicum and taking Josh to Sylvan. It was a busy week. We have a test on Tuesday. I also need to get my lesson plans all together for the lessons I will teach next week. I am teaching a complicated lesson on Tuesday.
Josh is doing good. He is ready for summer school to be over. I can not see that his class is doing anything, but they are doing some field trips, so that is fun.
Today Josh and I are going to the library so he can pick out some books to read. Later today Mandy has a vet appointment…she has been chewing on her paw and it has a red bump on it and one of her pads is in bad shape. We shall see what that is all about.
I will be pretty busy the next few weeks, so I will not be able to visit, but have a great month and when my class is over on July 9th, I will be able to visit. Have a nice weekend.

We are still going on vacation, but my SIL wanted to try and go somewhere that we can drive in one day and not have to stop for a hotel. We have decided on Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, Alabama. We will still get to do a dolphin tour and we have a wonderful view of the beach from our condo. I am looking forward to laying on the beach and getting a tan. We will leave August 9th and return Aug. 14th. Here is the new link to the place we will stay. Click Here!!

I started my reading practicum, it is going good. I am just observing right now, so nothing too stressful. I do not go today because the kids are going on a field trip. My classes actually start next Monday (8th). I am hoping they will say this placement (practicum) is ok, if not, I am spending all of this time over at the school for no reason. I am sure it will be fine. I did my other practicum over there last Fall. In fact, some of the same kids from the class in the fall are in this class. It is fun. They have learned a lot since I left them around Thanksgiving!!
I am so excited!! We are planning a vacation to St. George Island, FL in August. It will actually be Karl’s 3 sisters and their kids, they each have one son, and me and Josh. We just plan to relax on the beach and visit the lighthouse and I would love for the kids to do the dolphin tour. They go out on a boat and see the dolphins. It is a children only tour. Josh and his cousins are all about the same age, so they have a lot of fun together. I really want to see the dolphins too. I am taking my camera. I am hoping to see some really awesome things at the beach. We have not been on vacation since Josh was in pre-school and we went to Florida to Disneyworld if you remember that trip. We will just be going to the beach this time and we will stay for 5 days. Anyway, we have reserved a condo, here is a link to it. There are nicer ones of course, but this is what we could afford. Have a nice week!! Here is the link to the condo Click Here!!

Here is another picture of Mandy for fun and one of Josh and Mandy at Christmas if you haven’t seen it.  We got a new camera at Christmas, I will try to post pictures every now and then for you guys to see.