January 13, 2010

Wow,a blog entry about me!

I can do that right? This is a post I had to write for my upcoming Education Psychology class.

Hello Class! My name is Melissa Griffin I live on the beautiful island of Kodiak with my husband and three children. I love to sew, knit, read and take walks on the beach with my family. My journey through college education began over 10 years ago; I always knew I wanted to be a teacher even as young girl. At the time the prime motivating factor for my desire was to be given the freedom to draw on the chalkboard anytime I wanted. Through my formative education years I had many excellent teachers and few not so skilled but I still wanted to teach, even if the chalkboard had been replaced by the white board; dry erase offered so many more colors! And so I began at UAA with an interest in special education, especially in the field of autism. Shortly after graduating high school I met my soon to be husband, we married young and started a family, I had finished two years of college classes. I always intended to go back, but life as a military wife was demanding, with deployments overseas and long hours alone, I simply fell into the rhythm of motherhood and was very content. In 2007 I had a three year old a five year old and a six year old, my oldest was in school full time. I realized I was entering a new stage in my life as mother; I wanted to do something satisfying with my coming freedom and felt personally motivated to finish what I had started. By now we were living in Kodiak, which for me was perfect; distance education fit our lifestyle to a T. I have been plugging along only taking 6 credits at a time, this semester will be my most intensive yet. I have a wonderful support system from my husband, family and friends. Now that all of my children are in school full time, I have many opportunities to volunteer at my kids school where I am surrounded by a talented and wonderful group of motivating teachers. I haven’t decided which age group I would like to teach as of yet but I am focusing on the lower levels of elementary for the time being. I can’t wait to finish my journey.


January 12, 2010

"I'm a LOT of Chinese"



Tiny Talk Tuesday's is new blog carnival event I am trying out. It focuses on the funny things our kids say and their unique view on the world around them. I hope you enjoy it.
This conversation was relayed to me by Miss Maria one of the aides in Naomi's class. Sometime during the last week the kids in her K-5 class had a discussion about what nationality a few of the kids were i.e. Filipino, Japanese, Russian, Caucasian.
The next day Miss Maria was sitting at a table with Peach and her friend Grace. The girls were talking about where they were from, Maria told them she was little bit Chinese. Peach responded with "I'm a LOT of Chinese.....My Mom makes a LOT of Chinese food and I eat it all up."


January 11, 2010

The Sun Came Out and One Eyed Piano Playing

Today was a beautiful day cold,clear and the sun was shinning, I opened all the curtains and let the sun shine in! The blogger gods must have heard we complaining about the weather and played a fast one on me. I should complain about the weather more often or maybe it was a gift for revisiting my poor neglected blog.
Peach is now taking ballet lessons she had a great time tonight but cried all the way home because she was hoping to have the same teacher she had last year. There are two Naomi's in her class of 5 girls. Good thing she still goes by Peach. Eli and Caleb are both in piano and doing a great job, Eli can even play with one eye. Eli's eye is getting better as far as we can tell but he will need to see the specialist in Anchorage this month. Hopefully we can catch a flight out next week via the CG, I would love to get off the rock even for just a few hours.
Okay, YouTube is taking forever to upload that video of Eli.
We are now entering the time of night after 6pm when I simply run out of steam as it were with the kids. Tonight Peach is especially tired. Like Oh my goodness give me a spanking and put me to bed tired. Which I shall gladly grant her, well maybe not the spanking but I'm going to step away here for a sec read her a couple of books and put that little princess down for her beauty rest.
I'm back! Here's the video of Eli playing. Hope you enjoyed day 2 of blogging for a week.


January 10, 2010

Blogging for a Week!

Thats right I am going to try my best and jump start my blog again by blogging every day for a week. To start off the week I'll post a picture of a very talented little artist.



Caleb's picture "Kid's Don't Float" was chosen as the May photo for the Alaska Joint Insurance Group. He won a cool art kit and a special recoginition award certificate. We are very proud of him. Grandma's and Grandpa Dennis we will send you a copy if would like one. Dad I need your current address. Other then that we had a long first week back to school and are trying to get back into the swing of a schedule. I start classes again on Wednesday and will be very busy this sememester taking 8 credits.
We have had so much rain, wind and fog for so long I honeslty can't remember when the sun shone last. I have us all taking vitamins and we have been visiting the new pool, and the tanning salon (just me and Aaron) to try and stay somewhat emotionally stable. I told my mom when she was here that it's gotten to the point where I don't even look out the window in the morning. I just assume it will be raining. But, thats Kodiak in January and we just make the best of it.