My Final Paper

Well, I have jump started my research this week! Originally, I was doing my paper on autism. I was going to argue that there is not enough available resources for parents coping with autism. But, quite the contrary, I learned that my idea for the paper may not work. I decided instead to write about how much is avaiable for parents who have autistic children. I was reading and reading, realizing that there are so many support groups, and much learned about autism. So, I decided it would be much easier to write about the understand, coping, and support help that there is for parents. You can see my othline in our discussion. Can anyone read it and send me suggestions through the discussion board? I feel good about my outline, but sometimes after going at something non stop, I don't see it the way an outsider would. I am completely open to suggestions. My husband is not so great at writing papers, so his imput is almsot not even there! He can tell you anything about history though! I hope to get some good feedback. How are you doing on your paper? If anyone wants a second opinion, I am here!

I Am Moving Back To Massachusettes!

My husband and I have been stationed in Las Vegas Nevada for the Airforce for the past 5 years. I have never liked it here. We were scheduled to be out for December of 2011, but we put in for early seperation and it was accepted for December 15th of this year. We are finally out of here! I will certainly miss my friends that I have made out here. They have been like a second family. On the other hand, I am thrilled to get my children closer to their real family. My sister has two daughters in close age with my two children. I am eager to unite them all. Right in line with my husband, my mom and sister are my best friends, so it is truely exciting to know I am headed back home. I will, however, have to take another grueling 6 hour flight on a plane with two kids, plus two animals! My girlfriend may fly with me for support. My dad is flying out here on the 7th od December to drive back to MA with my husband in the Uhaul. What an ordeal! It shall be interesting, to say the least. I look forward to what is to come. It is the next chapter in ourt life, and it should be a great one!

What if Plagarism Happened to Me?

What would I do if plagarism happened to me? I am going to answer this question as a student pretending another student used my work. I would first try to address them personally, making sure not to jump to conclusions. I would ask them if they meant to do it, or they simply forgot to cite it properly. If I were to have to take it any further than that my next step would be to speak with my teacher or other proper authorities. I would hope it would not have to be taken any further than that. I like to believe that others are honest, though that is not always the case. I think it shows bad morals and ethics. How would you handle it? Do you think it would be better to get upset and attack the person, or approach them in a calm manner? I try never to let my patience get the best of me, but working so hard on something just to have somebody come along and take recognition for it has got to be an awful feeling. I would love to hear how you feel you might react in this situation.

Online Schooling At Kaplan University

Hey class! I must say that I love the freedom of being an online student. It feels great to have the flexibility in my schedule. I have found that having a couple of different choices for seminar times to be really helpful. I think for me it was a matter of not being able to drive to a campus when I needed to. My husband is in the airforce and I am really limited to my own time because of it. He happens to work a job that requires him to have a lot of flexibility. He can work a 7am-4pm one day and the next 3 days be scheduled to work a 4pm-12am. This leaves me on the back burner for school. That is why when I learned about Kaplan I was so excited because I knew it meant I would finally be able to work on my career! I love the self-directed style because it gives me the opportunity to be my own boss for the most part. I decide when studying fits my schedule and when I will get my assignments done. On the other hand, I have to make sure I really stay ontop of things. For example, I did not see that there was a 40 point exersice due in unit 1 and ended up turning it in a couple of days ago. I never had to click on the orange unit panel to see what work was due in prior classes so I did not catch that one. You live and you learn! Sometimes, even with all of its flexibility I still find  it hard to keep up. I have another life outside if being a student, which is quite busy. I sometimes have a hard time balancing the two. So, I could not imagine being commited to a campus classroom what so ever! I feel that Kaplan does do a great job at keeping the community easy to access. I have never had trouble getting to know my students or my professors. The only thing I can say I wish went on every semester is that we were allowed the professors number. I had two other teachers that gave us their personal number and it came in handy a few times. It was much easier than havinf to wait for a response to an email. Beside that, I truly enjoy Kaplan University as a whole. I would love to hear what you think of online schooling as well. Feel free to write to me on my blog.

Mom, Feeling Overwhelmed? You Are Not Alone! Lets Laugh It Off A Bit :)

So, tonight I am trying to write on my blog for school, but mean while I have my 10 month old son in my lap clawing at the keyborad, and my 3 years old daughter asking me 21 questions while applying four different lip balms to her darling little face. Dishes need to be done, the rugs look as if someone dragged a large roll of cheap toiletpaper across them, my laundry room more so resembles a laundry mat, and I have yet to serve dinner. But isn't this the joy of being a mother? Sometimes we have to stop, breath deep, and think of how wonderful our dysfunction truly is. I have a great story that will explain to you just what I mean. Well, recently my nana had passed away and I had to fly back to Massachusettes from Las Vegas to attend the funeral. Unfortunatly my husband was unable to get the time off of work, so off I went with my two children back home to MA! Oh what a flight. Now, I gotta say my kids are normally really well behaved and give me little trouble, but of coarse this was not the case while trapped on an airplane packed with at least 50 strangers! It was aweful, to say the least. My son was crying and wiggling the entire time, and my daughter was demanding for everytihng and anything that was packed into the diaper bag. We finally land for a 2 hour layover in Atlanta. After putting my $4.00 into the Smart Cart machine, I quickly put my son into the front,  found a vacant wheelchair and had my daughter sit in that. I pulled out the water colors for her, and a bottle for him. Ahh, a break from the chaos! Before I knew it the time had arrived to gather the kids, and the diaper bag, and get onto the next plane. I get us settled in and await to see what unlucky person will have to take the seat in our row. A man sits down and briefly tells me he is married with two girls at home and has to travel for business quite often. I share my story of why I am flying and he tells me I am brave. The plane takes flight, the seatbelt sign turns off, and it is time to feed my son some solid food. At this point I am completely overwhelmed and admitidly debating on ordering a dozen cocktails! So, this man in his nice business suit is reading a book, minding his own business, totally unaware of what he is about to endure. I get out the jar of food and twist off the lid, reach into the bag and get out the spoon. I say to my son "mmm you want some sweet potatoes?" Right then Julian reaches for the spoon, pulls it back, and as he lets it go forward, the food goes flying into the air! It landed all over this poor man and myself. All over his face and in my hair. I  immediatly feel my eyes fill up with tears. I am soooo embarrassed and exhausted of patience. All of the sudden this guy starts laughing so hard that he was wheezing, and it broke the tension for me. I began to laugh with him. It was then that I realized how comical it all was. I also began to think of how lucky I was to have my children without or without messes and pandamonium! So, moral of my story is that when you are having a stressful day with your responsibilities as a mom just remember my story and maybe it will help you to just laugh it off a bit! I would love to hear some other moms funnys stories about motherhood, so feel free to share!

Hello Classmates!

I hope you were all able to find me on here! I already posted one blog. I will have to get the hang of thins. It may not be a good idea for somebody to give me all of this freedom to talk about what I feel like! I may become the next hot thing hahaha. Well I had a good time getting through the process. It was neat to learn how to set up a blog. I honestly did not know this stuff existed! I know, I am behind the times!

Being Active With Your Voice When It Counts

As most of you have probably heard during the past week, a teenage boy took his own life after fellow classmates taunted and teased him over his sexuality. His personal relations were streamed over the internet for all to see. What a devastating situation all around. What we need to understand is that this is a chrisis in our world; not accepting someone for who they are. It is shameful to cast judgement on a person based on their sexual orientation. It does not need to be this way. If we learn to speak up for others when we see these kinds of hateful acts unfolding, well then, maybe things can tunr out different for the next person dealing with their identity. It starts with demanding common respect and understanding. The old saying " if you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all" may need to be fine tuned for our generation to something more suitable, say " if you find witness someone saying something that is not nice then take a stand for the victim and correct the offender for their fault". This could be a great start to change in our world, to healing the wounded, and to leaving all to feel a bit more safe in our society to be who they are.