Great news people!!! I got my grades back for this semester:

- Capstone Project: A
- Math for Elem Teachers: A
- Math for Secondary Teachers: A
- Music in History: B
- Political Sociology: B+ (this one was very surprising... All I can say is PTL for the curve)
- Social Psychology: C (kinda bummed about this one but I did awful on all of the quizzes and those where worth 55% of the grade...)

I also heard back from CSUCI and it looks like after next semester I will indeed be a college graduate! Praise the Lord!

Summer is quickly approaching and in an effort to not slack off too much with my blog, I decided to set up my mobil blogging... So get ready for some short blogs...
In other news, Yesterday was Grandma's birthday. Nae made a cake... Tuesday I move into camp and start a 12 day straight work week (don't worry, I get breaks... And half days off...). 

Happy Mother's Day

So it's a day late... Who cares?

Yesterday was mother's day and for all of you mom's out there, I hope that you felt loved and appreciated yesterday. Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to not only spend Mother's day with my wonderful mommy, but also with both of my Grandmothers. Granted, one of them doesn't celebrate holidays (J.W.) and the other has Alzheimer's, but I still felt blessed to be around three amazing women who have made me who I am today.

Graduation

Nope. Not me... tricked you!

My little sister Sarah is graduating from college/Nursing School on Monday. She has turned in her final papers and is quickly entering a new stage in her life. I couldn't be happier for her.

At the same time, it's embarrassing to say, yeah my little sister is graduating next week. I feel like the biggest slacker alive for still having another semester ahead of me (which I know that I have been a slacker... I had a solid year or two of being a slacker, which is why she is graduating before me...). I can't help but think how confusing it will be when all of our family and friends get my graduation announcements 6 months after they got Sarah's. I know this seems petty but I am jealous. Maybe it's the fact that I still haven't heard back on my grad check yet to find out if I actually can be done next semester or not... Maybe it's just a little bit of that feeling of 'I'm the older sister so I should accomplish everything I want before my younger sisters'...

Whatever the case may be, Sarah Belle, I am so incredibly proud of you and what you have accomplished. You have worked so hard and have been through so much. You deserve every bit of joy and recognition for what you have accomplished. I love you very much and can't wait to see how God will use you and your gifts in your life!

Bad Tutor

Yesterday I got called a Bad Tutor...

So here's what happened. I was working in the tutoring center with a girl on some Pre-Calc. There were three other girls working with another tutor on the same subject so I offered for one or two of them to come over and work with us if the other tutor was too busy. The first girl I was helping was great; model student, super nice, asked questions, desired to learn the concepts instead of just getting it done, took directions well (she even emailed me later thanking me for my help and asked if I would tutor her privately for her test coming up)... We finished up and she left so two of the girls from the other group came over. One was good; nice, kinda quiet, definitely just was looking to get the work done instead of understanding the whole concept, but was polite and listened. The other girl was pretty awful; rude, only wanted me to do the problems and give them the answers, impatient, extremely sarcastic (I mean, I get sarcasm... at times I am guilty of some sarcasm... But you know those people who just take it too far? They are so sarcastic that anything out of their mouth is just mean even if it's not true?).

I was getting pretty fed up with this kid (I say kid because she was acting like a kid... maybe 19) by the time we got to the last problem. Without going to much into the mathematics of what we were trying to do, the question wanted us to use a theorem (that I have never seen before... it happens pretty often where something pops up that I have never seen but I usually can read the book a little and find an example and explain it in ways other can understand) to find an exact value of a complex, un-real number. I found an example and followed it but ran into a problem which ended up requiring us to approximate a number to find an exact value (if that's confusing to you, that's because it is... In math we like exact values because they are complete; no information gets lost along the way. As soon as you approximate, you loose information... So to approximate something in order to find an exact values is counter-intuitive and far beyond what you should be doing in Pre-Calc). The girl was so impatient through this whole thing, saying things like "maybe you should ask another tutor... I hear that's what you guys are supposed to do..." and "What's your name? I'm taking names." I did ask another tutor who ran into the same problem so we asked our boss (who runs the tutoring center and just gave her thesis talk or something on some math topic... basically, she's smart and knows her stuff). She went through the exact same process I did and got the exact same result. We gave them some other problems to try that would give them nice answers that they could apply the theorem to and called it a day. By that time, I was off duty and started to pack up my stuff. While I was packing up, the girl, talking to her friends, said, "It's fine, my teacher will just say I had a 'bad tutor' again." I couldn't hold it in any longer so I replied, "Thank you! That's really encouraging. I am glad we could help. You actually can tell you teacher that the person who runs the center helped you with that problem and got the same result."

So really, she didn't call me a bad tutor directly, but implied that someone (her teacher I guess... but I have doubts that any teacher would say that which makes me think it is just her... but I could be wrong) said myself and anyone else who has helped her before in the center were "bad tutors." I talked to my boss about it today and she said that she has had issues with this particular student before and has had to ask her to leave, which makes me feel a little better. Not that I am taking anything that she said seriously because she seemed like a really unhappy person who thinks the world should bow at her feet. Still, it was an interesting way to start out the week.

Re-Post

I must confess, I didn't write this... I read it on someone else's blog. But I like what she is adding to the conversation...

“10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, & $1,188,263,000,000 later, we managed to kill one person.” //Anonymous

“Justice has been done.” //President Obama

“America has sent an unmistakeable message…justice will be done.” //President George W. Bush

“We’ve poisoned the word justice with our illusory patriotism.” //Kourtney Jackson

This monumental event is the shot heard round the world. This is a proverbial tsunami sweeping across the United States. Lots of opinions have been stated. We as Americans pledge, “…liberty and justice for all.” But at what cost? Does justice condone the countless lives lost for the sake of the “war on terrorism”? Does justice demand retribution and vengeance? Are we, as humans and children of God, to seek justice?

There are lots of thoughts swimming around in not only my head, but many other people’s brains too. If anything I ask that we, as Christians, would be diligent in prayer. As Americans we should not wave our flags at Muslims, Al Qaeda, or any other country for that matter. God did not send his son just for America. God did not send his son to take on the sins of every single human being in the world solely for America’s gain. We have been shown mercy through the act of what Christ did for us on the cross. We should extend mercy to those that oppose us, those that persecute us, and those that send orders to kill thousands of people’s lives. The Bible tell us to, ” love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you.” That’s pretty counterculture, eh? I’m not sure many Americans are quick to look up this verse found in Matthew chapter five.

I know what it’s like to lose someone to the “war on terror”. I know what it’s like to pray that my step brother who is in the Marines will make it home safely from being in Afghanistan. There is pain, grief, and much loss because of 9/11. We all feel it. We know the haunting feeling that occurs every September 11.

We, as Christians, need to pray for members of the Bin Laden family, Al Qaeda, and terrorists. Why? Because Christ tells us to. In fact, he doesn’t say it’s just an option if you want to possibly pray for your enemies, he implores us to pray for them. This is the same man who died for corrupt political leaders, terrorists, you, and me. We should seek to be more like Christ in our speech. We should not be quick to praise America’s so called act of justice. I ask you to think. To reflect. To pray.

Above all, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without hoping to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God, because he is kind even to people who are ungrateful and full of sin. Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy. ” (Luke chapter)

America, please have mercy