A post full of my summer photos is coming soon, but for now I'll just show off Miss Finley Mae!

She is getting so big and her personality couldn't be more charming!

I love this little lady!

Today has been amazing! 

I am the luckiest and happiest 20 year old birthday girl

ever! 

Reese got called to serve in the Tucson, Arizona mission! 

He leaves for the MTC on December 1st. 

We are all very excited!

Family Pictures

The whole gang

Sisterly love

We may not have had the order quite right, but you get the idea

What a good looking couple

Tender...

just a thought....

I had my first Instructional Media class the other night. The Professor talked all about the current and future technologies that are and will be enhancing education, many of which are quite phenomenal! It only makes sense to include such technologies in the education of the students who will grow up in full of such gadgets and one day become the inventors and scientist who discover even more amazing products that haven't even been dreamed about yet. But I don't think that these high-tech computers, phones and software should replace  our current public education but should merely be used as tools to enhance it.

We watch a movie about the idea of an  "Ischool" where all subjects are taught, books are read, and teacher student communication all happens using Ipads and Iphones. We also learned that Kearns High School just started their school year with every student equipped with a Iphone and all the teachers an Ipad to do that very thing of conducting an Ischool.

As I thought about it, I felt almost sorry for future generations who will miss out on a part of education they will never get from a complete virtual education...

The part of elementary school when you get to spend 30 minutes a week wandering the library and reading the same old taped up, spine-broken books that your older brother read years before...

The part when you walk in to the library as a timid 1st grader and then triumphantly walk out having just checked out your very first library book...

The part of Junior high when you walk with your English class, then your Math class, then your Science class, and then your History class to the library to check out an overweight text book that smells funny and will probably sit in the bottom of your locker all semester...

The part of High school when you have to buy your own copy of "Cry, The Beloved Country" for your Honors English and spend weeks in class dissecting the book and gaining an appreciation for a book in other ways than another mindless book report...

The part of your education when you crack open the brand new book you bought at the Scholastic Book Fair and inhale its "new" smell then begin to read and can't put it down for hours...

It makes me sad to think there will be a time when students won't get those precious experiences because they will simply download everything onto their hand-held devices and virtually flip through pages then probably switch to some pointless game application on their Iphone.

To sum it up, real life doesn't happen on a screen that you hold in your hand. Technology is a tool for education, not a replacement. Students need to know how to interact with the real world in order to survive in it.

Okay, I'm done :)