Ramblings of insanity

Organization

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:10:00 +0000

I like to start out every new year with a clean house and organized drawers, closets and cabinets. I rarely actually get to start out the year with all of that, but I always make an effort LOL. Here are some of my pretty drawers and cabinets! LOL

"Organized"

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PHPC Fall Festival 2011

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:46:00 +0000

PHPC Fall Festival 2011, a set on Flickr.

I was co-person-in-charge of the fall festival at church this year and I think it turned out quite nicely!! The kids all seemed to enjoy it, anyway ...,

Swimming at OneTrueMedia.com

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:37:00 +0000

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Interactive Neighborhood for Kids at OneTrueMedia.com

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:17:00 +0000

The most fun, most awesome, most impressive place I've ever taken children ...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Southeastern Railway Museum

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:14:00 +0000

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Swimming with Camp Mays

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:50:00 +0000

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Adventure #2

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:17:00 +0000

We went to see Cars 2, had lunch at the food court at Discover Mills and then rode the carousel.

The movie we went to see was a Sensory Friendly Films showing - which I think is one of the most awesome things around. Once a month, participating AMC theaters show a movie where they turn the lights up a little, the sound down a bit, and allow kids to rock/flap/jump/stim away during the movie. It's a great chance for kids with autism to go out and see a movie with their family without having to worry about being judged or reprimanded for being themselves!

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Camp Mays adventure #1

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:56:00 +0000

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Camp Mays

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Summer

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:32:00 +0000

Updates: Chris's dad is better and home (has moved to Deanburg), school is out so I survived another year, rough draft of my prospectus was due to my advisor Friday the 20th but I haven't turned it in yet, everything else is about the same :-) Seems like everyone around me is pregnant so I've been drinking gallons of the water but it doesn't seem to be working LOL

Today was the last day of post-planning for the 2010-11 school year (I no longer get the TOTY parking spot!).
I did manage to clean out the storage closets/rooms but the rest of my classroom still looks like a hurricane blew through. Tomorrow morning is ESY planning, Friday is the governance committee meeting, and ESY begins on Tuesday.

Our niece and nephew are coming to stay with us this summer!! I can't wait - love them to bits and we are going to have lots of fun. Add in my dissertation, Christina's wedding and Camp Mays and looks like I'll be pretty busy this summer :-)

Here are some pics from my latest photog sessions:

baby Charlie:

sweet little Laney:

Caitlyn, Billy and Brian:

Jake and Ford:

the Fegan family:

Kylan:

Emma:

the Russells:

and Easter pics with Max the bunny:

and a bonus picture that I snapped while in Athens, Mark Richt (he was getting his family pics made but allowed me to snap quick shot)

Not fun!! But done!!

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:57:00 +0000

Well I wasn't really nervous about the oral part of comps because, let's face it, talking is pretty much one of the things I do best LOL. Seriously, I was confident about my proposal and all so I wasn't stressing. Until I got in there and they started asking me questions and more questions... "why did you choose to do this instead of that? How did you determine which whatever tonuse?" and the worst were the questions that took about 10 minutes to ask where I couldn't follow where they were going and didn't know what they had asked by the time they got finished LOL. I think I did OK but it was completely unnerving and I have never felt quite as stupid as I did between 1pm and 3:30pm this afternoon!!!

Definitely NOT the most fun I've had in a while :) But its over! I find out next week if I passed and get to start my dissertation or if I have to do this all over again next semester! Fingers crossed but there is nothing else I can do at this point, so I'm focusing my stress on other areas of my life for now ...

For instance ... my father in law had a heart attack last weekend, triple bypass surgery on Monday and is still in ICU. He also now has pneumonia. So if you're of the praying persuasion, please feel free to add him to your prayer list, or just send positive thoughts his way!

Update on yours truly

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:23:00 +0000

Well - my life is currently a giant pool of stress :-) But I thought I'd update my blog since it's been a while.

On the homefront: Chris has been working from home for quite some time now, which is nice (but don't tell him I said that!) He cooks dinner for me most nights, keeps up with the laundry and generally makes my life easier. Plus I get to see him more... which almost makes up for having to share the bed every night. Plus I get to sleep about 5 extra minutes in the morning because he feeds the dogs :-) We have not yet adopted a baby :-( If you know anyone pregnant looking into adoption, send 'em our way! Seriously! Buffy, Faith and Soleil are all doing well.

At work: I still adore my job, even though this is the most stressful time of year for it. I am about halfway through IEPs. I got an extension to turn in my GAAs a couple of weeks later than the original due date because of comps, so those are now due this Friday. Feel free to visit my class blog to see my kiddos and what we've been doing! I update it with a little more regularity than I do this one.

School: I have finished my coursework and taken the first part of my comprehensive exams. The take home portion of comps is due this Friday and then my oral defense is on March 25. IF I pass all of that, I will be ABD (all but dissertation) so I should be "Dr. Mays" within a year or so, barring any disasters. I truly don't know yet if I would deem it "worth it" or not - I'm leaning towards not but they tell me I will feel differently when it's all over. We'll see!

Photography: I am still taking pictures, just not as often as I'd like to be. As far as the "business" goes, I have busy spurts (mostly around Christmas, beginning of fall and beginning of spring) and then will go weeks without any appointments - which is fine with me!! I love taking pictures, but I'm relatively busy with work and school and definitely want to keep the "business" very small and limited for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that I SUCK at the business aspect - i.e. collecting money, customer service (I hate talking on the phone to strangers which makes me procrastinate on returning phone calls which makes me look bad), etc. But I have a few loyal clients who keep me as busy as I want to be (sometimes busier LOL) and it's fun to document a baby's lifetime! So far I've photographed 3 different "first years" (4 if you count Caden) which is awesome.

Here is a sampling of some of my recent work - my photography website is http://photo.nicolemays.com and I keep intending to start a blog just for my photo biz but haven't gotten around to it ... story of my life, lately!

Self-taught? Don't let my professors see that!!

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Limeades for Learning

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Sonic and DonorsChoose.org have an exciting partnership called Limeades For Learningsm. With your help, I can get the funding I need to inspire my students to learn. Go to Limeades For Learning to learn more about it. And don’t forget to make your vote count. Thanks for your help!

Your part is simple. Just go to Limeades for Learning to vote for my project. SONIC is donating more than half a million dollars to the projects that receive the most votes. But I need your help to make sure one’s mine!

Here’s part of the project I submitted:
iLearn
Can you imagine going from having no voice to being able to ask for a drink, snack, break, or hug? My students use communication aps on the one iPod we have currently to tell me what they want or need - and they're more inclined to use the iPod than their traditional communication devices. People with autism have social deficits and don't typically respond to other people - but they tend to love electronics. My students pay so much better attention to iPod aps designed to teach letters/numbers/animals/etc. than they do to traditional flashcards or books. They become engaged, active participants in their learning in a way I don't usually see. Currently I have 9 to 10 students sharing one iPod which doesn't allow much time per child. Ideally I would love for each student to have their own, but for now I would like to have two more - one for each adult in the classroom, so that we can teach, supervise and assist the students when using them .

Click on the picture at the top of this post or go to http://limeadesforlearning.com/projects/view/409929/vote to get to my project to vote - you can vote once per day per email address.

Camp Mays 2010

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:27:00 +0000

Camp Mays took our final adventure this Wednesday - to the Georgia Aquarium. I am SO beyond impressed with how well my students did on all of the trips, and other than a couple of incidents with ignorant people we had no problems at all!! I am unspeakably grateful to the people who helped out!!

This summer, we saw Toy Story 3, went to Jungle Jumpers and the playground, had a pool party at Sam's house, spent the ENTIRE day at Stone Mountain and saw the laser show and then visited the Aquarium.

My amazing husband, Chris, supported this "hare-brained scheme" (as he and my mom refer to much of what I do) in so many ways, not the least of which being financially. He also took two days off of work to go with us to Jungle Jumpers, (plus he went to get our lunch that day), and to the pool party. He is such a great man and is always so supportive of me and my job, he adores my kids, and I can't thank him enough for all that he does.

My indescribably awesome mom went on EVERY trip with us, helped me with phone calls, van rental, ticket purchasing, etc. She loaded and unloaded each kid while I drove the van, ran back and forth to the van to get forgotten things, and was the best "right-hand man" I could have asked for. She works over the summer and only has Fridays off - and she gave up EVERY Friday of her summer to help me out, and I appreciate that more than she could know :-)

My awesome parapro, Todd (Mr. Anglin) went on all the trips except for the pool party. He gave up his time off during the summer to help out and I hope he enjoyed getting to spend some fun quality time with the kiddos outside of school.

Mrs. Dollar (Stephanie), my wonderful amazing former student teacher (who will be teaching the SID/PID class at KES this year!!!) gave up 4 Fridays of her summer and helped out tremendously at Jungle Jumpers, the pool party, Stone Mountain and the Aquarium.

Sam's mom (Jennifer) went with us to Stone Mountain, donated money to Camp Mays AND opened up her home and pool to us for the pool party (and even jumped in fully clothed to help a kid!). Jennifer - you're awesome!!

My friend Ginny, who is in the PhD program with me at GSU and used to teach a class similar to mine in Rockdale County, went with us to Stone Mountain and the Aquarium and was invaluable on both trips. She gave up time that she could have used working on her dissertation to help out. Ginny - I can't thank you enough!!

One of my coworker's son, Chase, came to the pool party and went to Stone Mountain with us. Another coworker (Mrs. Hentenaar) who works with a couple of my students came to the pool party and her son and daughter, both certified lifeguards, came out to lifeguard for us!! KES is a wonderful school and the KES family is incredible :-) Thanks so much Chase, Trish, Caitlyn and Billy!!

Thanks to the parents who helped out. Seth's mom (Brenda) and his aunt (Dawn) went with us to Stone Mountain. Ryan's mom (Kim) went to the Aquarium with us. And most importantly, thanks SO much to the parents of my students who trusted me with their children and allowed me to take them on these fabulous adventures!!

Last but not least!! Thanks to Jungle Jumpers in Winder for their friendliness, discount, and for letting us use a party room. And thanks to Akins Ford in Winder for the great rate on the van!!

To read more about each adventure and see pictures, please visit my class blog

Donors Choose

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:38:00 +0000

Read about donors choose and then, if you feel so inclined, feel free to donate to my class!

Camp Mays

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Some pics from this summer's adventures with my students: (for more info, see my class blog)

More blogging

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:35:00 +0000

So in addition to this blog, I have my class blog and The Autism Teacher blog - and apparently 3 blogs weren't enough! So I have another blog, specifically to document the year 2010 in photos - one photo a day. Go here to see it :-)

Rest in peace, grandma

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Rest in peace, grandma, originally uploaded by MNicoleM.

One week before her 92nd birthday, grandma passed away yesterday afternoon and has been reunited with her husband after 25 years apart. This is one of my favorite pictures of her, from her 90th birthday.
Up until August, she lived on her own with basically no health problems. In late August, she had a heart attack then developed pneumonia in October. She has been in hospice care for a couple of months now and passed peacefully in the hospice home with her two youngest daughters, her son-in-law, one of her grandsons and me (her granddaughter in law) by her side. She lived a wonderful 92 years, had 3 daughters, one granddaughter and 6 grandsons, 4 great-grandsons and a great-granddaughter and was just a wonderful, hilarious, loving, mischevious, sassy, kind, awesome person who I am so lucky to have gotten to know and have as my grandma these past 7 years! She introduced me to one of the hospice nurses saying "This is my grandson, Chris and his wife Nicole" and I told her - "I'm not just your grandson's wife - I'm your granddaughter!!" and I truly felt like she wasn't my husband's grandma, she was MY grandma, too. I loved her with all my heart and will miss her terribly.

"Dolly Dimple Thresher"

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Merry Chris Mays!!

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Even though I've been sick pretty much since Thanksgiving and got worse for Christmas, plus we were really slow to get our decorations up and get in the Christmas spirit, we still managed to have a great holiday with family :-)

This year we spent Christmas Eve first with my parents

then at my aunt's house with my mom's brother, sister and their families:

L-R mama (Sheryl), Uncle Dwayne, Aunt Brenda

on top: my mom, her husband my dad, their daughter me, and my husband Chris.

middle: My Aunt Brenda, her husband my Uncle Wayne, my cousin Brooke, and my cousin Jodi - and Jodi's husband Matt and their son Caden

bottom photo: my Uncle Dwayne, his wife Paulina, my cousin Miriam, her husband Vince, their daughter Madison and their son Graham, my cousin Melissa was not there, nor was her husband Darren, but their daughters Holly and Suzanne were
And of course, my mom, her husband my dad, their daughter me, and my husband Chris.

Here are just the kiddos (we sure do have some cute kids in our family, huh? Where does all that blonde hair come from, though?)

L-R Holly, Caden, Madison, Graham, Suzanne

as usual, Christmas was a little sad since none of those cute kids are *mine* but one day ...

Christmas Eve evening, Chris and I exchanged our gifts from each other (no pictures - what was wrong with me?!?!) then Santy Claws came early to deliver the puppies and birdy their gifts. Buffy and Faith got new beds and bowls for their crates, some toys, pig ears and bones. Soleil got a new play perch, a new bird buddy (she's "preened" hers pretty much bare), a tent perch and some toys.

Christmas morning we went to Barnesville to see my mother-in-law (again, left the camera in the car - I must have been sicker than I realized) and drove to visit grandma in the hospice home. She's having some not-so-good days and some better days, but it was great to spend time with her and she seemed to be in pretty good spirits for the holiday. While on the one hand spending Christmas Day at the hospice home is sad, we felt very happy and grateful to get to spend another Christmas with Grandma.

(Chris, his grandma and his mom)

All told, even though our entire family agreed to spend "much less" this year, looking at our loot you'd never know that was the plan ... (I don't know why we do this - when I was little I used to lay out everything I got for Christmas so I could show my grandparents when they visited, and I guess it just became a habit - plus it's fun when everything is over to go through it all as we put it away)

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or just a plain ol' great December :)

Plethora of Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Wow - Rebecca (my camera) and I have been BI-ZZY with Christmas pictures...

Neighbors (Browns) Christmas pictures (their mom wanted something different, grungy, and funky)

Whaleys - what a FUN family!!

my precious Caden :-)

Alreds - double the fun!

the oh-so-cool Chase

Chitwood cousins - 7 kids in one photo session?? We all survived unscathed :-)
this picture is pretty representative of the session lol

kissin' cousins

Angela's crew

Courtney's crew

Then we have my former student, Sam, who is always a trip to photograph with all his expressions

and finally, my mama, daddy and 4 sisters

I also took Santa pictures, which was awesome :-)

and my annual Christmas photos of my students

YES I CAN Holiday Program

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:47:00 +0000

performance2-148, originally uploaded by MNicoleM.

This year Kennedy Elementary School's Special Education department put on our second annual performance of "A Yes I Can Holiday Program". Our special education students sang, signed, danced and played instruments and put on a fantastic show with the help of our "Special Friends" (peer buddies). It's such a fantastic show and I'm so proud of my kiddos :-)
We performed twice at school on Thursday, once form kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade then for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Thursday night we performed for parents and on Friday we went to the PDC (our county's central office) and performed for the superintendent, special ed director, and other county employees. That's FOUR 45-minute performances in 24 hours, which was exhausting - but so worth it :-)
Each self contained class is featured in two different songs on stage (dancing or playing instruments). For the other songs, they sing, sign, or play instruments off-stage. The resource students have the speaking parts in between musical numbers

Here's a slideshow of photos from rehearsals and one of the Thursday morning performances. To see video of the other Thursday morning performance and of the performance at the PDC, visit my class blog.

Indescribable Generosity

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Mitsubishi Christmas party, originally uploaded by MNicoleM.

The fantastic folks at Mitsubishi Electric in Braselton stunned our special education department today when they presented us with a check for the money they raised with their Hallway Golf fundraiser in October. They have done so much for our kids the past year and a half and have NO idea how much we appreciate them.
Each student received a gift, we had yummy treats, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Check out Mr. Butcher's (our principal) blog post

Read more about Mitsubishi's Philanthropy, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

And check out a slideshow of photos from the party today.

more photos

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:14:00 +0000

this first one is my cousin's little boy, Caden, in his daddy's ties. Isn't he adorable?!?!

Then there is the attractive Rodriguez family - the youngest son was a TRIP!

and precious little Aralyn and her family:

I can't believe that baby Addison (I took her photos at 1 week old) is now 3 months old!! Here she is with her family:

Google Rocks!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Ever since I heard that google was doing special Sesame Street doodles for SS's anniversary, I've been anxiously awaiting this ... the BEST google doodle EVER!!!