Another Update!

Can you believe that I'm already updating again! I know, it's a shocker! This weekend I had a lot of fun and was VERY busy! Friday night was just studying, laundry, and updating my blog. It wasn't that exciting. Saturday, I straightened my hair (an event in and of itself) and went to GR. I did some shopping for a new red purse (my favorite one broke) and supplies for my cousin's bachelorette party. After hitting up the mall I headed to Ashley's house to see Carter and Ashley before going downtown for dinner and drinks. Sunday I met up with Matt and his friend Tyler to see the GVSU production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was set to a Bollywood theme so I was a little nervous of what it was going to be like. I was very pleasantly surprised! The costuming, acting, and general production was amazing! Afterwards, I picked up my sister and had dinner with Matt and Tyler at Applebee's. Dinner was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime.

Here are some pics from the weekend! My camera died so I don't have that many : (

Sam with a wedding night gift ; )

"Good girls are made of sugar and spice - as for me I'm made of Vodka and Ice"

Me with the Bride to Be (Sam's had a few drinks at this point!)

And a few more at this point! Modeling one of her new pairs of panties in downtown GR.

Tailgating!

On September 20th Jenna and I met up to tailgate with Garrett and some of his friends at MSU. It was a BLAST! We kind of crashed their party so I'm very appreciative of them for taking care of us. When the game started, we went back to one of Garrett's friend's apartments to watch the game and hang out. Later on we attempted to go out in EL but Jenna and I ended up leaving before things got too crazy.

Jenna and I at MSU... and yes, I have drunk eyes.

Jenna playing catch phrase!

Drunk pic of Garrett and I

All in all, it was a great time and a beautiful day. Hopefully we can do it again soon!

This one's for you Carrie!

Wow... so yeah... I havent updated in quite awhile. I've been SO busy lately: Class three nights a week and still working over 30 hours at the bank. But enough excuses... So, to remind myself of everything I need to blog about, I decided to go back through my pictures from the summer. Here are a few pics from what I've been up to for the past three months:

I completely forgot about this picture and literally laughed out loud when I saw it on my computer. Let me explain... From the time I was a little girl, I loved the 10 days of summer when the Ionia Free Fair is in town. I used to show Jersey cattle with my family and 4H group until I was 12 and loved every minute of it. I also baked (something I haven't done since) and made crafts (some of which my step-mom still has on display at our house... bless her heart) and met up with friends that I saw only once a year. Needless to say, my family are some of the few Ionians who truly enjoy the fair.

This year we began a new tradition. I dont even remember how or why it happened, but we decided to do a picture scavenger hunt, complete with a 20+ item list and competitive teams. Some of the items on the list were: the biggest redneck, vomit (bonus points for catching someone in the act), and shortest man shorts. Above is the picture that my team took for the latter category. This was SO much fun for everyone involved! Next year we're going bigger and better so if you have any ideas for categories, let me know.

On August 1st, I saw Wicked with my friend Jenna and her mom. Here's a pic of us at dinner with Jenna's boyfriend's sister, Katie. We had a GREAT time! I can't even describe how much I loved that play!

August 22, the day of birthdays, was a fun night out with my friends. One of my bests, Jenna, shares her birthday with my sister, Lindsey, and about 10 other people I could list. This year, we met for wine at Jenna's apartment and then went out to the Riv in East Lansing. Above is a pic of (from left) Erin, Jenna, Me, and Jessica. We had SO much fun and got lots of free beer marketing swag.

Here's Jenna all decked out in her swag.

This is Jenna T and I. She moved to Indianapolis because she got a fancy engineering job and we all miss her : (

On Labor Day weekend, I went to visit Ashley, James and Carter in Grand Rapids for a little bit. It was a beautiful weekend and we took Carter to the Splash Park nearby. Here are a few pics from that weekend.
Gettin' a drink from the water sprayer thingy - he LOVED LOVED LOVED it here. It was SO fun to watch him have such a good time : )

Ok, I realize this is a little gross, but he's just so cute I couldnt resist!

Happy camper after playing in the water!

Much more interested in getting back in the water instead of sitting with his Auntie!

In September we had a Pit Reunion! The Pit is the place where the Ionia analysts at the bank used to sit, and when I started it consisted of myself, Garrett, and Carrie. Matt was there too, but in another office. I've become extremely good friends with each of them since I started working back in Ionia. Well, Garrett left to work in Troy about a year ago, and Matt and Carrie both spend the majority of their time in Grand Rapids at the Beltline. In other words, they LEFT ME! So, the night before an all employee meeting, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were all in the same town at the same time. We had drinks at Harpers in East Lansing and stayed at the Marriott. It was supposed to be an early night.... but a few drinks later we changed our minds. This pic was taken from Carrie's camera phone (so technically she's there in spirit). There was a pic with all of us but it didnt turn out that well. Also, I apparenly spilled a few drops of my shot on everyone. oops... Garrett's in the middle, and Matt's on the right.



I still have a few more pics to get on my computer, so let me give you a little teaser for my next post (hopefully it will happen within the next 3 months): MSU tailgating, Bachelorette Party, and Carter time!

Explanation...

Ok, so if you look at my first 6 posts, you'll notice they're pretty academic in nature... Well, that's because I had to create a blog for my Ed Tech class at GVSU. Now that the class is over, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and keep the blog going with my personal stuff... Thanks, Carrie for influencing that decision! haha...

So, in May I started education classes at GVSU and I love it so far. I had an Inro to Ed class and a Technology in Education class that I've completed. Currently, I'm in Diversity in Education which is turning out to be a lot better than I expected.

I also happen to be the proud cousin of two IHS graduates this spring! Here are a few pics from Steph's open house a few weeks ago:

This is all of the cousins on my dad's side. Back row: Adam (graduated from IHS this spring), Justin my brother, Matt. Middle Row: Lindsey my sister, Stephanie, Me. Front Row: Ali, Karlee. Since I'm one of the oldest, I've pretty much watched all of them grow up and I'm very proud... most of the time!
One of the 5 rainbows that we got to see! It was rainy at first but ended up being beautiful later on in the night!

Steph being a dork as usual.

My uncle's band, Bailey's Comet, played at Stephs party. I love listening to them- it's always a good time!

I also have a super cute pic of my brother posing with his towel after getting out of the pool, but since he's here with me right now, he said I absolutely cannot post that pic online. haha... I guess I better respect his wishes this time. Maybe I'll sneak it in another post ; )

Out and About w/ my Brother

So I just got this new laptop a few weeks ago and i LOVE it! Right now, my brother, Justin, and I are at Beaners/Biggby taking advantage of the free wi-fi. Im drinking coffee and he's just watching. Over the past few days we've been running errands and taking pictures of things to enter into the photography department at the fair. Here are a few samples of my favorites:

So today I've been running around buying frames and mats and trying desperately to get these ready for Tuesday when I have to enter them. I had a lot of fun taking the pics, especially with my brother coming along.

Cyberbullying video

http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/the-hidden-life-of-schools/#comment-10260

I commented on an ed tech blog that showed a video of a father who is speaking out against cyber-bullying. At the age of 13, his son committed suicide because of online bullying. It is just one more thing that teachers need to think about as we discuss teaching via virtual reality and social networking sites. Watch the video, if you're like me you'll be moved to tears.

Shocking Discovery...

Topic: What can you tell me about the group that made this site? Do you think this site is appropriate for use in schools? Why or why not? How can kids learn to be less trusting of information on the Internet (especially given the address of this site)? Do an Internet search for Martin Luther King -- Where does this site appear in your list of results (and, which search engine did you use)? How do you think they got to be so high on the list?

When I first opened this site, I thought it was an average informational site on MLK. But then I read the quote on the side and I was confused... it didnt seem like a quote that was appropriate for the type of site I thought this was. When I googled the publisher, Stormfront, I learned that they are basically a white supremacist group, or white nationalist as they call themselves. This site is definitely biased and completely inappropriate for school use. I realize that nobody is perfect, and I'm sure that Mr. King had his indiscretions, but students should take facts from an unbiased and more reliable source. The fact that this is a .org site is troubling because kids are taught that those sites are usually more valuable than a .com site. As a future teacher, I think it's important for students to be taught how to evaluate information and websites, just as we did this week. Doing some research on the publisher can tell a student a lot about the minds behind the website. When I searched google, this site came up 8th or 9th on the list... right on the front page! That was scary because I rarely move past the front page, and Im sure most students do the same. I wouldnt be surprised at all if a student looked at this site, however I hope the student had been taught some critical thinking in regards to what a website contains. I think a great way to show students how incorrect some information on the Internet is would be to show them websites with blatantly incorrect or biased information (obviously not as offensive as this one) and then explain how anyone can create a website if they wish. It seems to me that evaluating websites would be one of the first steps when teaching Internet literacy. I'm sure this site got so high on the list mostly because of their web address. In most cases it will perfectly match what was searched. Also, the mini-description of the page makes it sound like a teacher's dream, instead of the nightmare it really is.