Awards Assembly

Today, John and I were invited to Dakota's school for the 2nd grade awards assembly because Dakota was getting an award. I think that throughout the year, each kid eventually gets an award – even if the teacher has to make something up. The poor guy never gets awards for academics, but his teachers always come up with something. I think in Kindergarten, he got an award for having the biggest enthusiasm about dinosaurs (or something like that), lol... Today he got an award for his creativity and sharing his creativity with the class by showing them how to make things. He was so excited when the teacher called his name. He started running around the gym with his arms up acting really silly instead of just walking up to the front normally like the other kids. Ok, so it was sort of embarrassing – but all of the 2nd graders got a good laugh. I just wish we had gotten it on video. He is also now a member of the Principal's Lunch Club. Each month, the school focuses on a character trait and 1 kid out of each classroom is picked for doing the best job at showing that trait. Last months trait was Honesty – and Dakota was the one picked out of his class for being so honest. He is probably too honest sometimes, lol... The kids that are picked during the month get to have a pizza party with the principal.

Last week, I had a parent/teacher conference with Mikayla's teacher. She is doing great. She already knows things that they won't be teaching until Kindergarten. She can count to 49 on her own. If you remind her that the next number is 50 she can keep going. She knows pretty much all the letters by sight. She also understands patterns and can rhyme words.

I forgot to mention that my chronic headaches are a lot better! About a month ago, my other doctor put me on a migraine medicine. He took me off one of my other medications, and told me to lower all my pain medications that my Rheumatologist put me on. I'm not having constant headaches any more. I still get them, but they are not constant, and they aren't as bad. My body pain is a little worse but I can deal with it. It's easier to get your mind off of body pain than it is head pain.

My classes are really stressful this semester. Especially my Principles of Graphic Design class. For example, one of the assignments last week was to start designing a logo for a non-profit organization. I can do that on the computer and be done within an hour. But no...it can't be that simple. She made us draw out 100 different logo concepts on paper. That took me HOURS. Not only did it take me forever to even think of 100 different ways to do a logo for one place – it killed my arm and hand. She makes us draw things all the time before we design them on the computer, and it really ticks me off. I am not an artist – I don't like to draw. I didn't take the Illustration course for a reason...

My photography class started out kind of rocky. I didn't do well for my first assignment. We were told to try not to use on-camera flash. The teacher said that it was lighting for dummies – or something like that. Well, the light was not working well for me that day and the pictures were coming out dark so I used the flash. The teacher does voice critiques for everyone in the class, and we have to listen to everyone's to learn from their mistakes. On mine, the teacher was kind of a jerk. He gave me a D and said he wouldn't accept my photo because I used the flash. He told me that I needed to redo it. 2 other people in my class used flash, but the teacher accepted it because he thought it was done in a more “artistic” way. Ugh... artistic people drive me nuts. So anyway, I redid it and got an A. There are some odd assignments. A couple of weeks ago, we had to take a picture showing the emotion loneliness. It couldn't be something obvious though, like a person sitting somewhere alone. We were supposed to use lighting and negative space to show loneliness. I somehow ended up getting a B on that one. This week I'm suppose to submit a 6 – 8 photo documentary telling a story about a person, place, or thing but we can't use words. This photography class isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. Right now though, I have a B in both of my classes. Of course, an A would be nice – but I'm happy with a B. I'll just be happy to get done with these classes with a passing grade.