Last Day of Class

Hey Dr. Ries,

I really enjoyed this class and the opportunities that it has given me.  I would probably never have tried to use a lot of this technology if it had not been introduced to me.  One of the different projects that we worked on that I liked was blogging.  You had told me that you liked that I woud write about anything that was on my mind and that is exactly what I liked about it.  I personally do not always like to talk about myself to people and I do not like to open up about different topics, but I felt comfortable with this.  It was almost like a journal that I was writting in that allowed me to be able to express myself.  I also liked the other programs that we used and Iwas surprisingly very happy with them when I finished, but not simply for that.  What I was really happy about was that I felt like I was able to accomplish something and think outside the box about what I would like to use in a classroom when I teach.  I was a little worried about different ways to incorporate technology, but I learned some great different ways to do so.  Thanks for the everything and taking the time to help me whenever I had questions.  Enjoy the summer.

PS.  I also liked that all this typing has allowed me to work on my keyboard skills.  I used to be kind of slow when typing and have gotten a lot more used to it now.

My Two Days (3/3) - A Birthday Party

After we had returned to the funeral home, we found out that we were going to my brother and sistein-law's house so that we could throw my nephew a birthday party.  Yup, the funeral happened to be the same day as my nephew's 5th birthday.  They wanted to continue with a little celebration so that my nephew would not feel left out on his day.  He did not go to the funeral, nor his sister.  They were watched by a family friend for botht the wake and the funeral.  My nephew did not fully understand the meaning of death and that you cannot ever see the person again, so he was not completely shaken over everything.  He is CO CUTE though.  My brother told me that when my nephew woke up, he went and saw his mom to say good morning and she wished him a happy birthday.  He asked her if he looked bigger and then said he was going to weigh himself on the scale to check. 0:-)

The party started out a bit weird as everyone was dressed for a funeral, but it was actually fun.  The food was catered; which was a surprise from my sister-in-law's aunt, who is actually a close family friend.  I played a lot of games with my nephew as he loves board games.  Everyone was taking turns playing.  We also played around with my niece and another baby girl who was a friend's baby.  It was really hectic, but turned into a happy day.  It also happened to be the day of the royal wedding, but I did nto follow it so I would not have even known if it was not for the wedding replays.  It was just too busy and I fell asleep before 10 PM that night.

My Two Days (2/3) - The Funeral

So, the next day, which was Friday, was the day of the funeral.  Since we are family and we were all part of the funeral, we had to first go to the funeral parlor to have a prayer service and pay our last respects before they would close the coffin.  Well, I thought we had to be there for 9 AM and the actual funeral started at 10 AM, my dad thought we had to be there at 8:30, and my brother thought 8:45.  I had to rush to get ready since I thought that I would have an extra half hour.  When we got there, we sat around for a little while.  As a side note, I always thought that the deceased were put in a cold storage like place overnight and taken out the next day.... I was wrong.  Everything was left as it was from the night before.  When the director came in, we had a little prayer service, each went up one last time, and walked out so that the casket was closed.  Then we went to the church in a procession following the flowers, herse, and the limo with my two brothers, sister-in-law, her mother, and two of their really close friends in it. 

The mass for the funeral was really hard.  My sister-in-law and her mother were crying a lot.  I was trying not to cry because I actually hate to cry in front of people.  Ironically though, when I see people cry, especially those that are very close to me, I will start to tear up.  That actually bothers me though because it does not necessarily have to be people that I am familiar with or know on a personal level.  So if anyone is ever crying and you see me purposely looking in every direction but yours, you now know why.  Anyway, the priest said a lot of really nice and personal things that really meant something to the people who knew Gigi.  After the mass was over, we went back to our cars and had to wait about 15 minutes for the priest.  We kind of created a bit of a traffic jam in the parking lot as other people were trying to enter for a funeral immediately after ours at 11AM.  We then went to the cemetary for the final parting.  Everyone was given a a flower to put down beside that casket after the prayers.  Finally, we drove back to the funeral home following teh limo to get my one brother back while everyone else in the limo had to go back for their own cars.  Another side note, I thought that in the cemetary during the funeral, the casket gets lowered and a close relative puts a shovel-full of dirt afterwards.  My dad said that it used to happen, but not so much anymore because some people cannot take the site of that happening and actually jump in to the hole. O.O  I only thought that happened in movies.