Tribute to the Silent Heros

As my boss stated so perfectly this morning about working with special ed. "If you don't love it, you don't belong." You either love, or you hate working with special children. They are demanding, exhausting, frustrating, adorable, sweet, surprising, and always something new.

As any teacher I already have a few of my favorites.

One boy who drives me up the wall, but always surprises me with how smart he is. I finally have gotten him to listen to me. Favorite moments with him. "I'm bored." (one of his favorite things to say)

"Find something to do, help with the puzzle, play a game, or play on the wii."

He wandered into the corner and pretty soon everyone was ignoring him. (He's very dramatic and loves attention so we ignore his attention grabbing behavior). "I found a stick and I'm going to break it in half." Then after no one responds. "OW! I cut my hand! Ah, my hand! I cut it! It stings!" "How did you do that?" "I broke a stick." This kid is a high functioning kid, he doesn't need to be babysat. The stick he grabbed was pretty thick, we all had assumed it was a twig he had picked up. Guess he won't be doing that again. One of the aids fixed it up for him and he started playing wii. Half an hour later he was still saying sporadically. "Ow, my hand. I cut it." Ah, that boy. Another of his favorite sayings is, "Haha, sucks for you!" and "I'm gonna get in a fight at the park." and "I'm moving to Phoenix." (Which he never does. Shame).

Another of my favorites is an autistic girl who looooooovvvveeesss colors. When you wear the same color shirt she does, here's the response you get, "Gasp!... Gasp!... Blue!... We're the blue shirt girls!... Yes we are."

She loves her coffee too. "Do you want some coffee?"

"Gasp!" then very calmly, "yes."

"Do you wanna do a crossword puzzle?"

"Gasp!... yes."

"Do you want to help with the puzzle?"

"Gasp!... yes. On the white table? In the blue chair? Yes." "He's being silly in the blue chair. ... Yes he is. ... He does that. ... Yeah, he does that." Ah, precious, precious girl.

One kid forever gets on all the teachers' and the aides' nerves. "Sit down." "Let us handle that." "What did I just tell you?" "Don't talk when someone else is talking." "Please talk in a normal voice." "SIT." "SHH!" "SIT DOWN." "What did I JUST say?" It takes a lot of patience not to grind your teeth when you see him walk in the classroom.

One of my other favorites is a lower functioning girl who LOVES to sing. "Bad boys, bad boys..." and she wants you to finish it. She loves Backstreet Boys, Christmas and Broadway songs. "Hit the road Jack.... Hit the road firedrill... hit the road chair... hit the road (insert whatever she thinks of at that moment." "Can I have a scratch?" She loves being scratched. And the fair.

There really is a lot to love about these kids. They are sweet spirits and most of them are a shoo-in for the celestial kingdom. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to work with these spunky hilarious kids.

Favorite moment of today. "Bye ______, have fun at math." WHAM! Down goes one chair. "Bye ______." WHAM! Down goes another. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! He really didn't want to go to math. Luckily the kids had already cleared out. So, I ignored him. WHAM! One last chair before he left. Bye _____

A Little Different

I noticed that a few of my friends started out their most recent posts with apologies for neglecting their blogs. :) I understand as I have not been as attentive as I should to my own.

I am getting married in a day less than two weeks.

Answers to frequently asked questions:

Yes, I am crazy excited and a tiny bit nervous.

Yes, I realize it is a huge change and I am enormously excited to tackle the challenge. I love challenge because it means I get to grow and become better.

We are going to live where we are now because we both have jobs here.

The wedding plans are coming along just as they should and I have had very little stress to deal with (minus the initial not wanting to make decisions stress).

His father is officiating the ceremony as he is a Justice of the Peace.

We will be getting seal in the Draper Temple within the year.

He is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me and I do love him more than life itself.

I am 21, he is 29. Nope, I don't think I'm too young and I don't think that is too big of an age gap.

We met through a mutual friend and just sparked it off a little while later.

I am getting married literally across the country because that is where his family is, and it is so much prettier in New York than it is in Arizona in the Fall.

Another change that has happened is that I'm an aunt! My younger brother has gone to college. My dear friend from college is getting married in a little more than a month. I found a job at the high school. I am more comfortable with myself now than I have ever been. My almost sister (we're practically family anyway) moved away to go to college two hours away, not too bad if you ask me. I will be moving out of my parent's house for the last time.

All of these changes are good and I am glad they are happening. I especially love my job even though it makes me grind my teeth and wish smacking were legal in schools. I tip my hat to all those who work with special education and thrive on it. You are amazing super humans and you are underappreciated. But that is a post for another time. I promise I will be better.