I have a student I have had for three years now (almost). He doesn't talk. He swears. Now, remember he is a severely cognitively impaired 5 year old with autism. His strength, running back and forth the classroom and hitting his head. This nonverbal child has suddenly been able to pick up swear words like a splash of spaghetti sauce on my white shirt, but he doesn't pick up functional speech. Sorta. We walk out of his favorite activity room with lots of swings and crash mats and he will stomp his foot and say "spit!" Or I was insisting that he take off his coat himself and in slow mo he says "maaasssstaaard" Of course with a "B." Or I turn off the music and he says "truck" I sure wish he would like a good word. Drink, eat, more, no, yes. Next, I'm waiting for the spam to hit the fan.

I went up North this weekend and found some really nice places to camp. I am really excited to go and can't wait until summer!

I registered Max the Dog (yes Sara, I started calling him Max the Dog to spare your Max the Husband any confusion!) and myself to be trained in therapy dog classes. I currently donate to the Helen Devos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids and think it would be something to volunteer there in this way. I love taking Max the Dog places and think this would be a great experience.

I met someone. Alright, so this is news to many of you. All of you because I haven't told any of you. My BFF doesn't know yet because she's been too busy, but I met a really nice guy. The thing standing in my way? ME! I'm Ms Independent! He likes all of the things I like and is willing to do things I want to do and I want to do things he wants to do. Now, it is really super early in the "friendship" but the jittery, tingly feeling is there and well that has only happened one time. Early this year, but that "friend" passed away and I moved on. This would be the only other guy EVER to make me feel this way. To be continued...

The other thing is I had to call 911 the other night at 3 in the morning because of a awful burning toxic smell coming into my windows. Someone was making meth in a car down the road. I had to close my windows on a nice night because this awful choking smell was filling my house. My house is still stinking and thanks heavens for the nice weather that I can leave my windows open! It was quite a scary experience. But hopefully it will not happen again.

Thanks for reading my hodgepodge!