Beginning of time-forever...

So the first time I was clocking out on the computer rather than the time clock I somehow clicked on this screen and noticed it had all my different BYU jobs listed...including one I didn't have, but whatever. The next thing I noticed is highlighted in lime green. They think they own me or something.

Note: I recently discovered how to do print screen and since my camera is no more I have been using this feature to spice up my blog. It is so cool.

stop this train, i want to get off and go home again.

Things are going so fast! This is good and bad...it is awesome that Thanksgiving and Christmas are close, but this just means I have so much work to do before then. Ahh!

So funny update...this weekend we had our Best Buddies Halloween Party--always a big hit--and it was seriously the best turnout. The buddies looked so good in their costumes. We even had a girl dress up as Sarah Palin and during the scary monster sound contest, she said,"Vote for Sarah Palin!" Kills me. Anyway, the party was a blast and, in true Best Buddies fashion, we had to have a dance. Let me tell you...these people can dance! They put me to shame. We have 4 married buddies (2 couples) and then lots of other relationships. One buddy, Amy, is such a handful. She has down syndrome, but she is VERY high functioning...has a job, emails, does her own thing. Still, her social skills and such are not like most. She was engaged last year to another buddy, but that went south and she now has a new boyfriend. He is too much. Daniel is also a buddy, but I sense that he is much less innocent and naive than the other buddies. I'm onto him. It seems like he would just be the awkward guy at the office. Maybe somewhere pretty mild on the autism spectrum such as asperger syndrome. *Sidenote: Rachel (Zach's sister) and Candice (her cousin) are their buddies. They are good with them.* Anyway, they were dancing and getting a little too close for comfort so I just mentioned that we want to keep it clean. Daniel says, "But I have raging hormones!" I just walked away and took care of some other stuff. I walked by them again and jokingly said, "Remember the Book of Mormon rule from church dances?" Amy looked at me with a very upset face and said, "You are making me uncomfortable." More like she was making me uncomfortable. I went and talked to some other officers to get input and one said she could try and say something because she did it all the time as an EFY counselor. She got busy and when I walked back toward the dancing, Amy and Daniel stopped me and informed me that they weren't going to do any bad dancing or "petting". I don't know how I kept a straight face as I walked away.

Another funny story...my roommate's buddy lost her camera at the activity (we think she left it at home because we never saw her with it). She called my roommate who then called me to check if we had picked it up during cleanup, but we hadn't seen it. Anyway, my roommate got a few calls early Sunday about it and the last she heard Mary Ann was going to call BYU Lost and Found. Done deal, right? Never in Best Buddies. I check the email on Tuesday night and we have a message from BYU Broadcasting:
_______________________________________________

Dear Stacie Nichols,
We received some voicemails here at BYU Broadcasting from one of the BestBuddies participants who lost her camera at a recent event. Her info is below. Could you please respond to her?

Thanks,Karen Knorr

BYU Broadcasting

A young woman named Mary Ann left 2 voicemails.
She lost her camera (black with pink stripe and blue stars). Have you found it?She tried calling the Lost and Found but "they're not answering."
***-**35 or ***-**34 (she left a different number each time she called).

_________________________________________________

Why is BYU Broadcasting involved? That would definitely be the next place I called... Again, I thought that was the end of it. Who am I kidding?

Wednesday I get a call from the Best Buddies College Buddy Director from the U (my equivalent up there) who tells me that he had a message about a buddy who lost their camera. I was dying laughing. You can't be serious. He was.

I get off the phone and check my personal email and I have an email from the Best Buddies Utah State Director, Justin Haskell.

__________________________________________________

Stacie,

I think the voicemail attached is from one of your participants. Let me know if you have any questions.

In Friendship,
Justin W. Haskell

___________________________________________________

He actually attached the voicemail. Too good. It was 1:45.

Best Buddies can be so overwhelming sometimes (all the time), but I can tell you that it is giving me better abs because I laugh so much. We all need to take the advice of Elder Wirthlin: "The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable."

Last thing...I'm pretty sure that no one reads this...if so it is just my family...but I would ask that if you work in the schools, please see if you can get the Best Buddies program there. If you don't, go to bestbuddies.org and see how you can get involved. Donate, go to events, or BE A BUDDY! There is a Buddy Citizens program for adults and there is also an e-Buddies program so you can live anywhere and be involved! I don't think I have to tell you that I love working with people with disabilities, but I want you to love it too. Everyone deserves a friend and if we could all just reach out a little further then that might happen.

Real Life

I am an avid CNN.com (crime section) reader and today I was looking in the crime section and I saw "Soldier kills woman". I clicked on it and read about how a 21 year old man met a 19 year old girl on MySpace and when they finally met in real life, he ended their meeting by killing her. It is inconceivable how trusting people are. This girl didn't know this man. Yet she met him and he took advantage of her. Comments on his MySpace from other girls after the murder made it clear that his other young "girlfriends" were on his side. They didn't think this changed him at all. They still believed he was a decent guy. He even had on his profile that he could "kill for no reason and without mercy". Why would people want to be his friend let alone physically meet him all by themselves in the woods? The saddest part about the article is that the girl was a special education student. This made me realize the great responsibility I have to protect my students from the evils of the internet and dangerous people.

So for those of you with children or students...please go to isafe.org to be trained in Internet Safety for yourself and to teach others. It seems lame (I thought it was at first), but it really is important for kids to be aware of what they are up against.

get involved...

Tonight, all BYU students from California had the opportunity to come together and watch the broadcast to members in California regarding Prop 8. What a blessing it is that we have the fulness of the gospel. We know our purpose here on Earth. We know the purpose of families. We understand their role in the plan of salvation. I know that marriage is ordained of God between a man and a woman. I know that I must do what I can to ensure that our state defines marriage as such. I walked the precincts once before I left for school and haven't done anything else since, but I know I can do more even though I am out of California. I can talk to my friends. Elder Ballard talked about getting involved online. So here I am. And it can start small.

Words from our prophet, President Monson: "My young friends, be strong. The philosophies of men surround us. The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. You know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that."

And finally, just so my intentions are clear, words from our late prophet, President Hinckley: "Nevertheless, and I emphasize this, I wish to say that our opposition to attempts to legalize same-sex marriage should never be interpreted as justification for hatred, intolerance, or abuse of those who profess homosexual tendencies, either individually or as a group. As I said from this pulpit one year ago, our hearts reach out to those who refer to themselves as gays and lesbians. We love and honor them as sons and daughters of God. They are welcome in the Church. It is expected, however, that they follow the same God-given rules of conduct that apply to everyone else, whether single or married."

F-A-G

No, I am not talking about a bundle of sticks or homosexuals. I just have another funny story from my adventures in the classroom. The class took a spelling test, but two students were exempt and worked with me at the back of the room on their letters and numbers. After the test, it was circle time and the teacher asked the students to spell some of the words while we were waiting for the speech therapist to come in. They were taking turns on the words either writing in on a whiteboard or saying it out loud. Oscar, one of the exempt students, was saying random letters the whole time. The teacher asked if anyone could spell can. Oscar had stopped his random letters, looked straight at the teacher, and said F-A-G. I was dying. The other teachers didn't seem to notice, but I couldn't stop laughing. I already love my career.

back by popular demand.

Okay adoring fans...I will blog. I know I need to just make it a habit to blog like once a week. I tried that...Sundays...doesn't work since I haven't had a single free hour in the last 3 Sundays. I have to be at church at 8, back by 12:30, and then from there I have had Best Buddies meetings (the only time we could meet to do the matching), council meetings for my calling, interviews, visiting family in Ogden, and the list goes on. One of these days I will take a Sunday nap. School is amazing---I love my program. I was so worried that I wouldn't click with anyone or people would be way more experienced (they are) than I am with special education and they would think I shouldn't be there. I was wrong. I have made some great friends in my program and it is so fun to go to class everyday because I see all of them. I have program classes M-Th from 4-7...6 on Tuesdays! Before that, I work, have Best Buddies meetings, go to weight training and New Testament. After class, I just try to get everything done before I crash and burn around 12. I am up the next morning by about 6:45 to swim (I slept through my alarm this morning though). I have been volunteering for 5 hours each Friday at Amelia Earhart elementary with the same teacher I have been with for the last 2 years. It is so fun to see all my kids again, but my favorite has now been mainstreamed. I am so happy for her, but selfish me wishes she was still in my class. She even gave me a Pokemon name...Stunky. I wish life would slow down a little bit so I could enjoy it a little more, but this is how it goes I guess.
Let's see:

• This weekend, I went to Ogden because my mom was in town. So good to see family and especially my mom. My grandparents were amazing too. I hung out with my cousin, Alex, who is 18 and he was going to a party so I went. Awkward...I am a Junior in college and these kids are seniors in high school, but it was fun to be with him.
• Last night, I went to Brick Oven with some people from my program...so fun. We decided to do it more often. We need to see each other outside of class so it isn't always so stressful. I would recommend the Garlic Chicken pizza. Yum.
• After that, I went to Aunt Tiana and Uncle Brent's so I could hang out with Jordan before he leaves. I can't believe how amazing my family is. He is such a great kid/young man and I am so blessed to be related to him. I love all my family, but it has been so great to always live near the Urmston's. He is going to be such a great missionary.
• Funny story 1: I was working with a student named Bryce and he didn't listen to my prompts the first time so I repeated them. He turned to me and said,"Patience. Patience is a virtue." I do not know how I contained my laughter. Where do kids come up with these things?
• Funny story 2: Amy and I were at the library last week and we left a little before midnight. We are hilarious people (we like to think) and we noticed that one of the big, glass-covered bulletin boards right in the middle of campus was open. How could we resist? We put my roommate's phone number on a paper and wrote, "Nicole Austin, a freaking hot babe." We went home and didn't say a word. The next night I was eating dinner when Nicole walked in and said,"I got a call from a St. George area code..." I died laughing. I couldn't wait for Amy to get home. Apparently, a boy called and said, "Nicole, I saw this note. A freaking hot babe...where are you?" We couldn't let it end there so the next night we put our other roommate's number up.

All in all, this is going to be a great year. I love what I am studying and the things I am involved in. I need to try and make more time for a social life. This is my goal for this weekend. Hang out with Roxanne and other amazing friends that I don't live with. Love to you all.