Solomon

This semester I am taking two education classes. I have the intro to education, EDU 150, also known as, "We are weeding out the real teachers!" Hopefully, fingers crossed, I won't be weeded out. ;) My other education class is called Survey Exceptionalities. As I am learning about "exceptions" or "disabilities," I have great admiration for my buddy Solomon Powell and his precious family.

Last year, I had the privilege to spend time with Solomon every Wednesday afternoon. It was so exciting to see him improve each week.
Favorite parts of my visits with Solomon:
1. When he would  grab my hand and sniff it to see who I was
2. When f he would lay his head on me and rest for a few minute from his energetic playfulness.
3. When he would sing along with me to his rollie pollie song.
4. When he would play his bright orange recorder.
5. Telling him I would see him later and that I loved him!

 I will admit that 2 years ago I was afraid I would break individuals with "special needs" if I helped them. I was taught a great lesson watching Mrs. Angie, Solomon's mom, love on and encourage Solomon. One afternoon while playing on the floor with his brightly colored toys she said, "All of us have special needs that God gives us. We all need special attention." Needless to say, I've remembered what she said since that afternoon. Reality check! I may not have the same needs as Solomon, but I have needs that have to be met every day. If the same care were given to personal "special needs" life might actually be "normal."

After sitting through three Survey Exceptionalities classes, I have been reminded that everyday is full of "special needs." Children diagnosed with exceptionalites are not oddities.
All of us have special needs. We are all oddities.

Who doesn't love this buddy's' face?

Taken

On Friday night our room was very exciting. We stayed home, made pizza, watched a movie, and went to bed at 10. ( A couple of us were a bit under the weather.) Our movie choice was presented to us by my roommate Julianne. That movie was Taken.

 I had heard great things about Taken, but since I had been in Europe for the summer  when it was released and away from my parents, I had been advised not to see it until I was safely home. Well, I took the plunge...I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation, excitement, nervousness until credits rolled.

Five Favorite Things from Taken:
1. Liam Neeson- He's great AND he is Aslan.
2. The mention of Langley (I love a good CIA reference)
3. Liam was a "Preventer." (I love spies)
4. AWESOME "Take 'em down!" fight scenes.
5. Everything was resolved and my favorite characters were safe when 1 hour and 30 mins ticked by on the   DVD player.

All of those factors made a great movie. The major theme that really moved me was not that she was taken, but the purpose for her kidnapping, sex trafficking. The most poignant and heart-breaking scene in the movie was the auction scene.  A room filled with rich, greasy, pinkie ring wearing, old men bidding $250,000 to $500,000 on these helpless girls. I will never forget the sound of the auctioneer saying, "We've saved the best for last." The mind boggling thought is that this REAL LIFE . Not only is it real life, the one of biggest prostitution rings of our country hits close to my new home.

The moments of watching those poor girls demoralized by selfish men made me thankful for God's  grace. How often I take it for granted. Living in a city an hour from Memphis spurs me to take action. I am not sure what action :) , but I know I can begin by praying because God is Sovereign and Good!

Yep, I did it!

That's right. I created a blog. As I began this endeavor, I realized that I am not blog savvy quite yet. After clicking the "save layout", Design tab, "apply this template", and many other buttons for an embarrassing amount of time, I finally reached the page you are viewing at this moment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

While I looked through backgrounds I wanted to find one covered in yellow. Now that took an extensive amount of time because sadly the background world was lacking my ideal yellow background. I mean, why couldn't the sites read my mind? Yellow IS my favorite color.

 Living the Color Yellow..
You might be wondering what in the world does she mean by that? Here is a little help.
Definitions According to the Oxford Dictionary:

Live-spend one's life in a particular way or under particular circumstances

Color- the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light

Yellow- the color between green and orange in the spectrum

As you read, the definition of yellow isn't an in-depth definition. To create my personal definition, I ask you to visualize the rainbow without yellow between orange and green. 

Looks strange doesn't it? It lacks some vibrancy.

My definition of living the color yellow is as follows. I live the color yellow by trying to "spend one's time""producing the different sensations""between orange and green."  In other words, I am trying to live a vibrant life.

vibrant- full of energy and enthusiasm
            (of color) bright and striking

On this blog I hope you find day to day vibrancy in words, thoughts, and stories that make up my life!