Cool Stuff That's Happened to Me Today

Hello All!

It is Friday evening, around 7:30.

Here is just a little blog about all the awesome stuff that has happened just today and has me smiling from ear to ear.

LIST TIME!

1. Technically this happened yesterday, but Brad liked the CDs I burned him of The Wonder Years and Hit the Lights and we talked about attending a Fall Out Boy concert together. ^-^ Bonding over music.

2. My practicum shift this morning was AWESOME. Normally I work 8:30-10:30, except Wednesday because of my pre-student teaching, but on Fridays I make up that shift by staying until 12:30. Woof, right? It's actually not so bad. Those 4 hours FLY by! Anyway, long story short--my first student reached the next phase of all of his procedures (what a smart cookie!), he kept wanting hugs and when I laughed like his Elmo toy and tickled him I almost died his giggle was so cute. Transitions went really well too. Usually he cries and throws himself on the floor and it takes forever to entice him to the booth. Not today. He cried once the entire morning and it was only because he smashed his hand turning a toy over. My second student was relatively off task, as he is wont to do, but he didn't hit or spit. My third student was super sweet and giggly and I tried to save him from getting hit by another student and he kissed my hand when it came near his face. I got in my car after the shift with my cheeks almost over my eyes I was smiling so big!

3. Speaking of the practicum, Dr. Malott showed up today to check out how things were going. That might not mean much to you, but he is the head of the psychology department at Western, he's written numerous books, and he opened the other autism center in the area. I'm terribly inspired by this man and I'm starstruck every time I see him. (Sidenote: I was in the Wood Hall--the psych building on campus--waiting for a class and he walked by and smiled and nodded at me like he knew who I was and I also passed out).

4. I'm sort of getting my thesis together. Tracy DeMars, my Educational Psychology professor has agreed to be my thesis committee chair and Dr. Dan Morgan, the head of the Special Education and Literary Studies program here at Western has expressed interest in joining the committee. That means I'm two steps away from actually declaring my thesis! Plus I have two super intelligent minds on my side who are both interested in learning from this experience as well as helping me!
Here's what I have no far:

Raising and educating children with autism, aiding them in developing more high functioning social and life skills.

Ø  Imitation

Ø  Punishers/Reinforcers

Ø  Differences between normally functioning children and children with autism in this respect

ü  Temperaments

ü  Educational aid

5. I got my placement in a Kalamazoo Elementary school today for my pre-student teaching. This is very exciting in itself, since I'm one step closer to the field work before graduating, but I also got the grade level I wanted--3rd! More to come on that. My first day in this coming Wednesday!

6. Lastly...as we speak (as I'm typing this) my friend Aaron from Indiana is coming up to meet me. He should be here any minute! This is the first time I will ever be meeting him, since we met on (embarrassing) a Harry Potter roleplaying website seven years ago and have been friends ever since. Don't worry! We've skyped and everything. I even met his mother over skype. He's 18 and pretty cool, even though he's a kid (:
Also--family and loved ones! Don't fret. Rena will be here this weekend with me, as will two of her girlfriends from back home, her brother, and her brother's best friend. So this has been properly figured out and I'm safe!

Well, that's it. Off to my awesome weekend!
Love you all!

Some Recruitment/Pi Phi fun for you

First Round of Recruitment~All About Pi Phi

Second Round~Philanthropy

               

 

Round Three~Sisterhood

Round Four: Preference Party

It's not all little black dresses, pearls, and classy women
It's weird and unique too

           

Trust my fam to creep in the background and photobomb a perfectly good photo

I loves my Little Princess 

                             

"Hard Style"

"You can't photobomb a photo that is only a photo so you can photobomb"
"We can try"

                                

BID NIGHT!

We were saying goodbye, 'cause Little went to England to study abroad

~Big/Little Reveal!~

My new Twin, Ali!

                      

 

My second Little, Brianna~

Pink Party!

 AFTER INITIATION!

Mom/Daughter Day with Pi Beta Phi

Cookie Shine!

I'm Terrible and Awful and I'm Sorry

I haven't posted anything since the beginning of last semester!

My life got both boring and super busy and I didn't even think about this blog. That is until I got a phone call from my mother, telling me that my sort of cousin, Brad, has come to Western and was unsure about some things, so she gave him the URL to my blog. Naturally, I thought, well it will help him out, I wrote on it for two years. But then I realized just how far behind I'd gotten.
To be fair, nothing has really happened that's all that interesting. Life is still a waiting game for now, full of classes and other obligations.
Still: Here's a little bit about what's going down in Samtown.

1. I just reapplied for the Speech Program. I will know by March if I'm in or if I'm changing my major.
2. Mikel and I are no longer together, but we are still best friends. It works better that way, we both agree. Friends is where we're at.
3. I am currently doing my Pre-intership/pre-student teaching. It's pretty cool. I'll be placed (sometime this week) in a local school with a mentor teacher and I will go every Wednesday and assist, observe, and actually lead three lessons! My first day of that is next Wednesday, which I hope to remember to post about!
4. I am also doing an autism practicum, where I work one-on-one with children with autism, helping them develop higher functioning skills as well as social skills. So far it has been awesome. My student has tantrum-ed a little and I changed a poopy diaper today, but other than that we get along great and I'm having a really great time.
5. Brad and I met up for coffee (in case you've already forgotten he's my sort of cousin) and we were at Biggby for 4 hours before we were too hungry not to go our separate ways and grab dinner. I hope I'm helping him out and making him feel more comfortable. He expressed interest in the Greek system, which has me so excited! I'm going out to dinner with Lindsey and her sister tonight and we invited him and he seems excited to come, so I think we're going to get along great and I'll help him integrate into the WMU student culture.
HEY BRAD! When you get to this post: how am I doing? Am I totally scary crazy? Do you feel good about being here at Western? IF NOT I'M NOT DOING MY JOB AND JUST YELL AT ME TO BE BETTER!
6. I told you in September I would tell you how recruitment went. The answer is great! I had an awesome first experience! There were some girls that I didn't really click with, but that's bound to happen. I also got super close with a bunch of my sisters I only kind of knew before then. So, that was really awesome. We also got a bunch of new awesome girls! I took a second little, Brianna, who is actually one of my first little, Shelby's housemates. CRAZY! Jessica (J.Fo) also lives with them and is in Pi Phi asked if I would adopt her as a little, even though she's been in the chapter longer than me. (:
7. Living in the apartment is nice, except for the unreliable bus and the distance from campus. Hey, at this price I can't really complain. Then again, how much am I spending on gas and parking passes in comparison to just paying more rent to live closer. Either way, this place is huge and awesome and there's room for my many things in my room.
8. Working at the Honors College is both a blessing and a curse. I get short shifts, which is awesome because the job isn't terribly exciting and I have lots of other things to do. However, I get paid just over minimum wage and I only work two days a week. That means my paychecks aren't that big. Still, I mostly get paid to do my homework. And over break, I had two three and a half hour shifts where I mostly just read, except for, like, 5-10 minutes of doing work-related things. Still. I like the people I work with well enough and my supervisor is relatively laid back. She doesn't take any bullshit. But I like that about her too.

Another fun fact, before I go. I MAY be authoring another blog on WordPress. I've been told by a few people that I could talk about funny things, or even other random things. Serious things! Imagine me and serious...that's a joke. Okay, anyway
My friend Aaron told me I should do video blogs, but we'll see how this goes first and then maybe I'll transfer the written blog into a series of video blogs.
Either way, the link is below. Anything I think people care to read about or discuss, I'll post something about it there.
http://randomsamblog.wordpress.com/

You may be wondering why I didn't just make a second blog here. The answer is that I am trying new things. I'll see how I like the dashboard on the other one and decide from there which blogsite I like best.

Until next time!

Three Years

WELP I did it again.
My bad.
I'm going to do my very best to keep up with this again.

Okay, just a quick run through of my life up to this point.

1. Shawn and I broke up. It was terrible and I'm much better now, but that's something that I don't think I'll quite get away from for a while.
2. I live in an apartment now (: with my Big and her Big (see Facebook for photos)
3. I am currently dating Mikel, one of my best friends from High School
4. Recruitment is next week, so more on that!
5. My Little is studying abroad in England and she leaves in a couple weeks :(
6. I work at the Lee Honors College as an office assistant. What do I do?
    *phone rings* "Good afternoon, Lee Honors College and ATYP, this is Samantha, how may I help you?"
     Mostly appointments, transferring calls, and pulling and putting back student files.
7. I need a second job, probably a night shift, at either a hotel or restaurant. Gotta pay those sorority dues (and go home now and again) and the 7 1/2 hours a week at the LHC isn't gunna cut it.
8. My classes are pretty easy. Two are classes I am retaking (dumb) and one is just easy because it's all about opinions and application. STATS will be the stress for the semester as far as classes go.
9. Working on getting some volunteer hours. Not sure how I'm going to do it this year, with my awkwardly full schedule.
10. I just went to the Fall Out Boy Concert with Katt last night (pics on FB) and met a new friend! He was wearing our new Bronco shirt for the year and I used it as a starting point to chat with him. Haha.

He is a freshman and I may have talked him into going Greek (: GO ME! Haha.

He said he wasn't a huge FOB fan, but his high school friends were and they wanted him to come. He definitely decided they were pretty awesome. <3 he="" i="" knew="" p="" would.="">

We plan to meet up again here at Western, so I can show him the ropes. 

Well, that's all I've got for now. 

I promise I'll try to be better about this blog. I've kept it up for over two years, so there's something to be said for that.

Taking Forever

SORRY!

I have been so busy and unmotivated and I'm a terrible blogger. Haha.
Okay, so a TON of stuff has happened.
First, here's the picture of the car I promised you all those moons ago:

Cool.

Also, MY LITTLE.

It's Shelby <3 p="">

It was an awesome Big/Little reveal. She knew it was me but that was okay! Because she was so happy. (: Our little family is growing!

She got this awesome opportunity to study abroad in London, though, so she won't be around next semester. :( I know.

Other cool things:

1. I took a trip to Michigan City with Lindsey to visit the Vera Bradley outlet. She wanted so badly to go! It was an awesome road trip and we had a ton of fun hanging out. and we got lucky and the entire store was 50% for the day!

2. I made a new friend. Of course, though, with my luck, he's graduating this semester, most likely. HA. So, he probs won't be around, but hey Facebook is cool because it helps you talk to people you don't see anymore. :P

3. Greek Week started yesterday. I'm not as excited as I should be, but that's due to the bad thing that happened recently (which I will get to). Either way, it's awesome and I know it will fun for everyone!

4. This coming weekend I am going up to MSU to see my very best friend Ciana, because I miss her dearly and also because she wanted to be an awesome friend and help me through this bad thing (I'm getting there).

5. On Saturday night, the Pi Kapps are having a huge Foam Party, where we basically all hang out to celebrate the end of Greek Week and there is foam everywhere. lol. idk. It seems kinda fun.

OKAY so the bad thing, before I tell you about how happy I am that I only have two and half more weeks here.

Shawn, my boyfriend of 3 1/2 years, and I, broke up recently. It was my decision because there were some things in the relationship that were missing and some things I could have done without. I had been trying to work out these problems for some time, but with little success. At this time, I'm not ready to consider getting back together with him.

Just know that it wasn't a huge fight and it wasn't all that messy and awful. I just need to be away from him for awhile, and maybe for good.

Of course, even with it being my decision, it still hurts me to be without him. I still care about him, even if my feelings aren't what they once were. And hurting him doesn't make me feel good.

I won't say anything more about it, but I just wanted everyone to know that I'll be fine and that nothing absolutely terrible happened between us.

SO YEAH:

The end of the semester is pretty much here. I have, like, two more chapters to read for one class. I've finished both my project and the two papers I had to write for the end of the semester. I have another small project that I have to do for physics, but he hadn't even given us all the papers we need for it yet, so I've done what I can.

Then, I have two finals, one of which is online. So no big deal. But the one final I have to actually go to the class for is on WEDNESDAY. So I'll be here until halfway through the week before I can scurry home for the summer.

I don't start working until the end of May, and even then that's just training. But I'm still antsy to get home, kind of.

I want to go home because I miss my family and who likes schoolwork? haha. But I'll also miss my friends here and being a college kid. Haha. It's different when you go home!

Anyway, that's all that's really going on/has been going on.

I'm sorry it took me so long to crank this out. Hopefully the family has been keeping up with my Facebook posts. Those generally tell you what cool things I'm up to.

LOVE YOU!

Packing Up

While we're technically only a month and a half into the semester, we're also halfway through. Halfway isn't very far, when I think about it long enough, but when you add in Spring Break and the shortness of February, it's GREAT NEWS!
Another good news:

1. I won Miss Personal and Intellectual Growth 2013 for Pi Phi. It was our value of the Month. Thanks Sistas!

2. I have somewhere to live next year! Kristine (my grandBig), Rena (my Big), and myself (my Self) have signed a lease for a three bedroom at Copper Beech. It's a beautiful townhome: it's big, it's pretty, it's great. I have room to craft, I have room for furniture without having to scoot around things...Rena is bringing her kitty Lizzie, so I'll never be alone :)

3. I finally got a car! (Pictures to come) Mom is supposed to bring them the money today!! Yeah! It's a 2003 Ford Escort. 2 door (passengers--deal with it, there is plenty of leg room still). A few bumps and bruises, but it's old, so you know.

4. I learn who my Little is Friday and then next week is Big/Little and I'm SO exciteddddddddddddd :DDDDDD    I've already started buying gifts, hahahaha!

So, needless to say, with the end of the semester fast approaching (though not fast enough) and my excitement about moving into Copper Beech (July 26) I am beginning to pack up my room and take home all  the useless stuff I have.
    ~that is, dishes I don't use, decor, clothes I don't need here, etc.

I'm not sure that anything else has really happened lately. Just working hard to do my part for Pi Phi, going to class, doing homework, and will soon be crafting for my Little! :)

More on Big/Little week next month :)

Getting Better

This past week...really, this semester, has been really difficult.
I wasn't feeling inspired. Sure, I felt motivated enough--I worked out, I went to class, I'm doing relatively well I think. But I just didn't feel happy.

But yesterday was the best day I've had since I got back to school and maybe things will keep getting better from here on out.

I know a lot of people have been trouble this past week, at least, if not longer. So, it makes wonder if the universe is just trying to upset everyone.

Hopefully it's over and I can work hard and be happy and get good grades and learn some cool stuff.

So, the FYS instructor position I mentioned last blog isn't going to work out. I would have to be here for training the week before classes and the fam is going on vacation this week.
Sorry, but I'd much rather be doing this:

 Or this

 Or this

 Or this

 Or this!

Haha. I think you get the point.

Hm. What else did I want to talk about?

AH! I got into the Upper Level Professional Program for Elementary Education!

That means that I can now take all the upperclassmen courses and I am cleared to actually get my minor.

Of course, this will only work if I get into the Speech Pathology program here, since my minor is "Elementary Education minor for Speech Pathology and Audiology Majors." :/

If not, I'll see about making my major Elementary Education with a minor in Speech and Hearing Processes because my adviser tells me that I can still apply to grad school with that minor and she'll be sure I get into important Speech Path classes that will make my transcript look better to the graduate schools.

I think that a lot of the classes I've taken for this minor, though don't work for the major. I can't find a program guide for Elem. Ed. majors though, so I may just drop my Elementary Education minor and keep the Elementary Education Language Arts minor. Then, I'll make my major Behavioral Science Psychology, instead of having my general psych minor.

But everyone keeps telling me that I don't have to worry and that I'll get in and I won't even have to worry about what kind of switching to do.
I sure hope so, because I'll have wasted a lot of time and money otherwise.

But, sad news...even if I do get in this time and I'm on track, I still have to take some summer courses and I won't graduate UNDERGRAD until, like, 2017. *sigh*

Anyway...on to happy things!
So, I'm way ahead on homework. It's kind nice to have the big gaps between classes because I just do homework (and work out) to keep myself motivated. And then I don't come home from class and say "school's over for the day, I'll just do my homework later." Haha.

Me and my Big did some of our homework yesterday while we were hanging out, before Chapter.
Then, later, we went to the Pi Kappa Phi house, because they had an "I Have A Dream Pajama Jam" in honor of MLK day. Haha. It was kinda cool. There weren't A LOT of people there, so it was nice not to have someone running in to you every second. But, it was cold, so that was kinda crappy.
We stayed for a little over an hour, maybe two, and then we went back to 1517 and just hung out until we were too tired.
I like going to the Pi Kapp's parties, because they aren't crazy hardcore partiers. I can actually enjoy myself and talk to people and actually make friends, instead of trying to hear myself think over blaring music and being stuck in one room packed with people I don't know. *cough*Sig Ep*cough*
:)

 We took the pajama thing seriously :)