Little India Girl.

This is a blog I posted on my other blog...that I forgot the password to! Enjoy!

It's official. The books arrived yesterday. All five of them.

School has officially begun.

Atleast I get to lay in my bed while I do my work. I love that about homework, I just turn on my heated blanket and go to town. Overall, I really do enjoy it. Just the fact that I have something to be responisble about kind of scares me. Yet, it's something I think all of us need to learn how to be.

To be a grown-up I need responsibility in my life. It's just something that takes time, right?

But I've seen over the short time I've been alive, nevertheless, an "Adult", that responsibility doesn't just start and end with completing your homework on time and taking out the trash when you don't feel like it. Responsibility to me is having your priorities in line, not just with yourself but with your family, friends and most importantly God. Responsibility is going above and beyond the expectations are set for you by your leaders.

Responsibility starts young in a person if you think about it. Think about all the young children today in America. Brush you teeth, you have to pick out an outfit, you have to do projects in school involving gold fish, water colors and occasionally, play dough. But you usually won't find an 8 year old taking care of her 4 younger siblings, but let me walk you across the world to Mumbai, India. You'll find that the minute you walk off the plane children will be seeking out your every coin. She is responsible for feeding her younger siblings before herself, because her parents irresponsibility, they putting drugs, alcohol, money and greed in front of their beautiful children.

Irresponsibility can cause more evil, disturbance in a relationship, more greed, more malice and deciet more than we all think.

I think as Americans, we dread the word "responsible". Atleast I do sometimes. But if you see the big picture, if you have responsibilities, that means you are blessed! That means you are doing something with your life! Next time you have to wash the car your parents bought for you, take out the trash of all food you didn't eat, go to a dreaded 8 hour shift to earn a living, clean your room full of clothes you have to wear, wash the dishes that were full of food moments before that satisfied your hunger, that is a perfect time to praise God for what he's blessed you with. Next time you have to mentor a friend or plan a ministry opportunity, you are blessed because you are using the gifts God has freely given to you. He holds you responsible to those gifts.

So as you go throughout your day, remember Little India girl. And her weight upon her shoulders to scramble and beg for bread crumbs, the burden she feels when she can't feed her baby brothers and sisters. That's her responsibility. A much heavier responsibility than washing the dishes. So when you're feeling annoyed, overwhelmed, and discouraged about your "responsibilities"



...think "Little India Girl."

You are blessed with your responsibilities.

Hamster Master.

Lately, I've been so spontaneous. Like really badly. I just want to go EXPLORE! Who wouldn't? As I grow older I wish more and more that "play" can come back again. Do you remember when you were a young little kid wondering your backyard in your own little world? If it doesn't sound familiar, I'm sorry. I was the craziest, most imaginative, spunky little girl in the world. I loved exploring. I used to live by a creek and that was my escape in the summer. I used to hunt for Crawdad's (Lobster type things, they are really creepy and yucky). Down by the creek in the winter time, the waters rose and mud would be everywhere. I was like the leader in my neighborhood, my sister and I would go around and round up all the neighborhood kids and go play in the creek, chase crawdad's, and make mud baths. I also had a "Frog farm". Yep. I really did. The best times to go hunting for frogs around my little Suburb of a neighborhood was after rainy days. I knew exactly where they all were. I feel so bad for all those frogs I captured. I had a bike with a pouch on the front where I would shove all them into...then I found this huge plastic crate thing and piled in mud, some grass/plants and a 2x4 for them to climb on. I was convinced I was a frog master. Well, the end of the "Frog Farm" days was when one windy night the lid of the crate flew off and all those frogs escaped. I was so saddened after that, and never again did I ever capture a frog. Funny thing is, now I'm deathly afraid of them.

Anyways, another weird thing about myself is that I had an obsession about hamsters when I was younger. I probably have had over 10 hamsters in my life. My first was Smores. I bought him for a penny from my Uncle. He was a very sweet loving hamster. A few hamsters later I got Punkin and he choked. Then I got Peaches and my dog bit his head on Valentine's Day, then I got some other one and it got vacuumed up. I got Ally Peanut in 4th grade, and she ran away. So, we got another hamster, Jeffrey. Well, after we got Jeffrey we found Ally Peanut with the help of my cat Malcolm. She was still alive and lived for another 2 years. When I turned 18, instead of getting a tattoo or picking up smoking like most of peers at school did, I decided to buy a hamster with my freedom of being an adult. I named this one Pancakes. Then I got another and named it Waffles. Pancakes was a mastermind in escaping, I sold her in a garage sale and I forget what happened to Waffles. Haha. Well, the other day I was at a Petstore with my sister and we were playing with these hamsters called "Robo Hamsters". They are literally no longer than 2 inches at the most and are super fast. So this guy was trying to pet one and with my "experience" from having all these hamsters I know that little ones tend to bite more. So I warned him and then I started telling him all these things about different types of hamsters and I had to stop myself and just say "I'm totally a geek right now knowing all this about hamsters..." and then he said "Yeah...you do...are you like a hamster master or something?" That's when I knew it was time to leave.

But as I was saying before, I just want to BE a kid again sometimes. I just want all the worries of the world to melt away and just BE me. A little spunky adventurous 8 year old again. It's easier said then done. Not so much the whole physical side of it all. Because clearly I haven't grown in years. But still, I just want to be a kid again.

I can see what's happening...

This week I started a class schedule that I've done before.
It's been going good so far...but I know soon before I know it,
I'll be completely up to my eyeballs in work.
But it's what I asked for.

I started this psycho-insane work load on Tuesday.
Kicking off my Practices and Practicum of ECE.
Then off to a bizarre class, Life in the Universe.
Meanwhile, feeling very let down by the lectures of both classes.
Off to my night class, Culture and Diversity of ECE.
Never thought I'd take a class on how to explain
Billy has two moms and Sally has two dads to preschoolers.
Geesh.

Then I moved onto my second semester of ASL.
For those of you who don't know what that is,
here's a learning moment! ASL is American Sign
Language. Best thing that ever happened to me.
I adore this language, the community and everything
in between! You should learn some of the language.
It's like playing Charades (Sp?). Funnest class ever.

But this night class tonight was quite possibly life
changing for me. It's called "Exceptional Development"
focusing in on children birth to 8 years old with any type
of special needs whether it be Autism, Down Syndrome,
"At Risk" children meaning children whose mothers
used a heavy amount of drugs during her pregnancy causing
delayed development in any or all 5 areas of development.
Which are physical - fine motor/gross, language and speech, adaptive,
cognitive and social emotional development.

My professor is particularly most of my inspiration.
Her name is Jennifer Adorador and quite possibly could
pass for a professional model. She is stunning yet so simple.
She majored in Occupational Therapy at CSU Northridge,
a school I've been really looking into, as well as Cal Poly.
She has been in OT for over 10 years and is very
passionate about this line of study.
Her husband and her like to go surfing, which I think is
so silly. She grew up in Northern California and called herself
a "Mountain Girl" and loves driving around Rocklin
with a surfboard on the top of her car. Haha.

During this class, I learned that I will be observing a child and
his/her family and making assesments on this child. This totally
sparked my interest. The way that she described an OT, or a PT
(Physcial Therapist) sounded like such a lovely job, if you call it that.
It's the prettiest job I've ever heard of. I'd work with infants- 3 years
that have special needs and I'd work with his/her family and doctors to help
the child develop up to his/her potential. It's a beautiful job.
To see and be apart of a learning process for both the parents and child.

All that so say, I am completely excited about this course and I really
feel blessed that I get to take it and that the Lord has given me such a heart
for his babies.

They are truly beautiful in everyway!