Student Teaching and Graduation

My last year of college was the hardest and busiest of all my years in school, but it was also my favorite. I was able to be a part of the Urban Education option at Kennesaw State University. Fall 2011 I observed an AP Calculus class at Osborne High School for 20 hours or so and also team taught a lesson on the Product Rule with another intern. 

Spring 2012 I did 20 special education observation hours at Smitha Middle School. My favorite part of these observation hours was going to P.E. with the students with disabilities. They cranked up the music, walked/ran laps, and played games. At one point, a girl who I think had autism, grabbed the microphone and said "This one is for all the ladies!" 

Fall 2012 I was in an 11th grade math class. This was my hardest semester ever. I didn't sleep much, especially during the 2 week unit that I taught. But this semester was great preparation for student teaching. 

Spring 2013 was my official student teaching semester. I worked with Ms. Vinson. She co-teaches 10th grade math with Mr. Voyles, who is the special education teacher. They were the best team I'd ever seen. We had so much fun together! They LOVE their students and are both passionate about what they do. They really do want to make a difference for good in the lives of their students. We laughed a lot together and I really loved working with both of them! 

I also loved the students this semester. I felt like I really got to know some of them and my relationships with the students was what motivated me when I was stressed or tired. There were 3 girls in one block who were so excited for me and the baby. They always made comments about how big my belly was getting and how they "loved pregnant women!" There was another student who is considered to have a learning disability. He worked harder than any other student in any other class! He would come to class everyday and would just eat up whatever I was teaching. And everyday he would say "Oh man, I don't know if I can do this Ms. Rampton. This is so hard!" But then when we'd review, he would be like "Oh yeah, I remember this, this is easy." At one point, he got the highest grade on a unit test. He's one of those people that you look at and you can just see how good they are. That they are more pure or more innocent than most other people. I can't really explain it, but every teacher I talked to who had taught him had a soft place in their heart for him. 

I can go on and on about the students I taught, but in short, I am so glad I did student teaching!! I came really close to pulling out when we ran into some bumps in the road in December. But Colby and my mom were my cheerleaders and we were able to get through it. Dr. Guillory, a professor I will never forget and will always admire, was also my advocate and inspired me to keep going. I feel more confident in my ability to teach now that I have gone through student teaching. 

Ms. Vinson, me and Mr. Voyles

At the end of the student teaching semester, each Urban Education intern had to do a capstone presentation. Basically a 30 minute presentation where we show evidence that we met the requirements of the program. I was very nervous and stressed about it, but it went better than I had hoped. Colby came and brought donuts for everyone, which was awesome! And most of the other interns came and watched my presentation as well, which made me feel good. As I shared what I learned from my experiences, I was very honest and felt good about what I said. During the 15 minutes of questions/comments after my presentation, I felt amazing! My professors and the teachers at Osborne pointed out how much I had grown and the strengths that I had as a teacher. They mentioned how painfully honest I am, which is a trait I am beginning to be proud of. They also mentioned that it would be good for me to look for a teaching position of some sort because of my qualifications. Basically that they didn't want me to waste all that I learned as they knew I am going to do the stay at home mom thing. I was flattered. I don't consider staying home with my baby (who will be highlighted in the next post) a waste though. Now that he is here, there is no one I'd rather spend my days with. At some point, I may look into a part time online teaching position. But mostly it's just nice to know that I have a bachelor degree and a teaching certificate/license. It's a big confidence booster for me. 

If you want to see the website I made for my capstone presentation, you can view it at tammyrampton.weebly.com.

Graduation day was an amazing feeling! I was pretty pregnant at the time, which probably contributed to my strong emotions and that I wanted to cry throughout the ceremony, but it felt good to know that I did it. With about 6 and half years worth of college classes on my college transcript, I finally have a degree!!!! Sweet!!!!

Me and Ashley before graduation. I carpooled with her and the other Ashley during the student teaching semester and it was awesome! We'd vent and laugh and sometimes cry together on our way to school and home each day. I LOVED carpooling with the Ashley's!! 

Colby's name should be on my diploma as well because he did so much to help me through the past 3 years.
He's amazing!

Me and the interns before the Urban Education graduation ceremony

All of us interns! We're like a family! I'm going to miss them so much!! We were together for
two years through the program.

Jason let Colby have his camera for a few minutes and, of course, this is what Colby did. :)

Trip to Savannah with Mom and Dad Finn

My mom and dad came out for graduation and spent a week just to play with us! I was afraid they might get bored spending an entire week, but we had a great time!! 

They flew in on a Thursday night and we went to Savannah, GA Friday afternoon. We walked around by the river that night and checked out a few of the shops. There were lots of people out and it was a fun atmosphere. My parents bought a lunch box for Tory filled with candy for around $30. :) He's a lucky little boy! 

We then drove to our hotel on Hilton Head Island. We were all hungry and the guy at the hotel desk recommended a place where we could get ribs and wings. It was a small bar and it was pretty busy, so we figured the food would be alright. Well let's just say when they brought out the wings, I thought they looked like little lumps of poop. No joke, they didn't look good. And we ordered BBQ wings, but these had a mustard sauce on them. I can't believe I didn't take a picture! Well they tasted about as good as they looked. For the first time in the history of wings, the celery sticks were eaten first. 

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. Mom and Dad dropped Colby and I off at a high school so Colby could run and they went to check stuff out. Colby had a great run, but he also had an allergic reaction which wasn't cool. Thankfully his throat didn't swell enough to make him stop breathing, so we were able to continue with our trip as planned. 

We spent the afternoon at the beach after an exciting adventure of trying to find a place to park. The weather was perfect and the ocean was nice!! I wore my workout capris and a t-shirt to swim in since I'm too cheap to buy a swimsuit that would cover my basketball belly. I felt kind of like a freak, but had fun anyway. 

Beach Beauties

 On our walk back to the car, we found this awesome tree!!!

For the first time in Colby's life, he loves his quads more than his biceps. 

Saturday night we went to a good restaurant. Dad got ribs, Colby got salmon, and mom and I got tilapia. It was good and we finished it off with cheesecake and pie. We topped off the night by looking at the fancy boats in the harbor and playing an intense game of Uno.

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and drove to the other side of the island. We walked on a beach that was covered in broken shells!

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Mom's Mother's Day present

We finished the day in the Historic District of Savannah. We ate dinner, went on a horse carriage tour of some of the squares, and then hit the road.

Look closely and you'll see that Colby is spitting water like the statues. 

Throughout the weekend we also enjoyed finding good places for my mom to get a Coke, fighting over who would pay for what, and hunting for a bathroom regularly for my mom and me. It was a really fun and relaxing weekend!

Utah Trip April 2013

Colby is the cutest! He had the great idea of flying me out to Utah during Spring break in April so that I could have a baby shower with my family. I was sad to go without him, but with me being so stressed with school and dealing with my pregnant-woman mood swings, I think he might have been a bit relieved to have me on the other side of the country for a couple of days. 

My first day in Utah, I made pancakes for Tory and Sophie for breakfast and we took Tory to school. Then my mom, Sophie and I visited Shalise, my best friend from high school. Shalise recently had a baby girl, so we were excited to see her. 

Despite the look on Sophie's face, I think she enjoyed holding the baby. :) 

That afternoon Tory, Sophie and I went to the park. They picked dandelions for Tia! Tory also handed two dandelions to me and said "One is for you and one is for the baby!" They had fun flying their mini kites, running around the grass, playing on the hill, and swinging!

I love hanging out with these kiddos!!!!

These were the dandelions they picked for Tia. 

After the park, Tiffany, my mom, Tory, Sophie and I went shopping for the shower. I didn't get any pictures of that, but it was fun. Well, it's kind of a lot of work shopping with Tory and Sophie, but all things considered they did good. That night we had Cafe Rio for dinner! That night I also went and saw Tory ride his scooter at the skate park. He's a brave little guy! But it was dark so I didn't get any pictures. :(

Troy and Tory enjoying some Cafe Rio!!! Yeah buddy!

While I was eating Cafe Rio in Utah, Colby was eating chips and queso in Georgia. 

Sophie just being her cute self!

Friday night was the shower and it was so cute! Tiffany and my mom did an amazing job with the decorations and food and everything! It was beyond any expectations that I had, it was great! Colby's aunt Shelley and Grandma Rampton came and it was fun to have them there! I think they had a good time. And I was so surprised when I looked out the window and saw Alene walking up the driveway! I had no idea she was coming and was so excited to see her!!!!! Cathy, Michele, Bonita, Grandma, Jessica, Tiffany, Mom, Dad, Troy, and Tyler were there as well. I thought it was cool that the guys hung around for parts of the night. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the people, but I was having so much fun being with everyone that I didn't think about my camera. Colby was on google hang out during the shower, so he was able to kind of participate in the party. He ended up entertaining Tory and Sophie for a good chunk of the night. :)

Below are pictures Colby took from his view on Google hang out.

Tory as a pirate

Alene as a pirate

Troy as a pirate

Jessica, Tyler's girl friend, as a pirate

Me as a pirate

Saturday morning came too quickly and it was time for me to go back to Georgia. I was excited to be back with Colby, but even after living away from family for over 4 years, I cry every time I leave. We'll blame this time on the pregnancy...

But before we headed to the airport, Troy and Tory had me laughing:

Pretend it's still April....

Colby wrote this post back in April, but with life being crazy, we didn't get around to publishing it. So here it is. Tammy added the pictures. :) 

Well hello blog world.  This is Colby, and I approved this blog post.

It has been an adventurous, busy past few months.  We’ve both been doing school, and we both can see glorious light at the end of the education tunnel!  Tammy graduates in May, and I finish up my last couple MBA night classes in July.  I am so tired of giving up 3-4 nights a week for class and homework, and I am ready to simplify our lives a bit.

And, I must say, I’m very proud of Tammy for sticking through an intense, challenging “Urban Education” teaching program.  She’s been doing her student teaching at Osborne High School, which is a failing school by the federal No Child Left Behind standards.  The school has to deal with inner city problems like gang violence, teen pregnancy, and low income.  Twice during her student teaching semester there have been threats of gun violence in the area and they’ve had to go into “lockdown” where kids stay in their classrooms and wait for the warnings to lift.  So, I’ve been glad as she’s come home in one piece each day.

On her last day of her autonomous student teaching, I came into her morning class with a dozen roses and some M&Ms to give to the class.  I’d gotten in touch with the teacher of the class and coordinated it via text.  Tammy and I were at the gym the night before, and I’d spent like 10 minutes dinking on my phone.  Which, isn’t that abnormal, cause I dink a lot on my phone.  She looked over at me on the treadmill like “hey Billy, I don’t have all day.  I’m pregnant and tired.”  What she didn’t know was that I was texting her teacher.  We went to Publix that night too and I bought four big bags of M&Ms.  I thought it was funny that she didn’t even wonder why I was buying four bags of M&Ms…apparently I buy sugar in quantities like that often enough that it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary to her.  So the next morning, I headed over to her high school.  The lady at the front desk gave me one of those “ohhhhhhhhhhh, that’s sooooo sweeeeet” type looks, and Ms. Vinson, Tammy’s teacher, fetched me from the office and brought me up to their classroom.  I think Tammy really liked the surprise.  Brownie points earned by me: at least 5.

(I should mention…I was dinking with my phone that morning, and had temporarily broken it, so I had to borrow her bright pink phone for the day.  Slightly embarrassing to go to lunch with several other people and yank out my pink phone to make a call.  Oh well.)

Tammy’s belly has been expanding at an impressive rate.  She still looks small since it’s her first child, but it’s kind of fun to watch her belly button slowly stretch out.  She has a bigger pot belly than me for the first time in our marriage.  Now that school is finally starting to wind down, she’s started nesting.  All the baby clothes are set out in nice little piles.  We have like 25 pairs of baby socks which look like…really small socks, I guess.  When we flew back from Utah for Christmas, we volunteered to get bumped and got two flight vouchers for doing so.  I surprised Tam with a flight out to Utah to have a baby shower with her family, and while she was there this past weekend, she got lots of cute things that she was excited about.  Kudos to her mom and sister for all the work they put into it—Tammy loved the whole thing.  Plus I earned another 6 or 7 brownie points for that so I think it was a win for everyone.

This was one of Tammy's dad's contributions to the shower: writing the cheesecake toppings on mini chalk boards. He did a great job!

I think I’ve known this whole time that I’ll soon be a father.  When Tammy took out the baby toys though I think it hit me a bit more.  We’re going to have all of these loud, obnoxious toys in our house for like the next 20 years or whatever.  This is like the real deal, like there ain’t no going back!  It will be fun for Bumpy and I to irritate Tammy for the next 20 years with all of these trinkets.

Also, I hope we don’t have an ugly baby.  Tammy hates it when I bring this up, but you see some baby pics on Facebook, and you think to yourself, wow that’s an interesting-looking human.  We just saw pics of our friends’ baby.  Marc and Ashleigh, your baby looks really cute.  Hopefully our baby is a looker too.  I mean, if he’s ugly, we’ll get over it and love him I’m sure…Tammy will be much too emotionally invested in him after the birthing process to think he’s ugly anyway, but let’s hope he ain’t ugly.  Pray for us.

But honestly, look at him! He's destined to be adorable! 

And all you mommies…I’ve got respect for you.  Seeing all the junk you have to deal with makes me grateful to you.  And also grateful that I’m a man.

One more baby thing—it is amazing how much gear these little humans require.  Seriously, I don’t know how cavemen and cavemommys got by with only rocks, fire, and wooly mammoth meat.

I recently was released as Scoutmaster in our ward.  I have LOVED working with the young men…they are awesome.  I’m also looking forward to a shift in our schedules.  Things have been very busy for the past 2-3 years, and it will be nice to scale back a little bit and really focus on work and family.  Rampton Consulting is growing, slowly but surely, and now that school is soon done, I can really dig in and try to grow it more.  We have several potentially big developments for the company on the horizon and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Alright, it’s been nice chatting at you.  Have a nice day.

We Loved 2012

Okay, so back at Christmastime I wrote this massive post, but never published it. So here it is now. :)

This post is just a splattering of events that have happened since our last post.  The last half of 2012 was full of fun things I want to remember.

We had an amazing time in Europe!!  It went by so fast, but we were ready to come home by the end.  It’s fun to look back at our pictures and be like “Wow!  We were really there!!”  We bought Lion Bars and Lion cereal for Tiffany because she loved Lion Bars when she went to Europe a few years back.  Well, come to find out, Colby went to our local Publix and found a huge stack of Lion Bars in the foreign foods section…. Guess we should have checked that out before our trip. J

A couple weeks after being home, the beehive class brought me a cute card and a heart shaped cookie.  I was really sad to be out of young women.  I balled my eyes out in front of them for the first time the Sunday we got back from Europe.  It was cute though because a couple of them had tears too, so it was a gushy moment all around.

Now I’m teaching the sun beams and it’s an adventure every Sunday.  Some of those kiddos don’t come to class very excited, but they usually lighten up once they get their treat and start coloring.  My favorite lesson to teach was “I Can Be Kind to Animals.”  It’s a low-stress calling most of the time and makes the last 2 hours of church fly by.

I am also on the Relief Society Activity committee.  My first activity that I helped plan was a self-defense night.  Can I just say AWESOME!!!!!  The ladies LOVED IT!!!!!  I had recruited 3 young men to watch the nursery that night.  My favorite part of the night was when one of the young men walked by the room where we were at right as the bishop’s wife was “fighting” our instructor and screaming “GET BACK!!!!”  He got this funny smile on his face like “This is what you do at Relief Society activities?”  

Colby went repelling with the young men and young women in September.  I was totally bummed that I couldn’t go, but he had a good time. 

Colby and Mark Dunbabin got together to construct a pinewood derby car for scouts.  It was a beauty...

We LOVE to have friends over to play games.  One night this fall we had several couples and their young kids over.  Colby decided it would be funny to show everyone how he can blow up a rubber glove on his head.  One of the 18 month olds was emotionally shattered by Colby’s trick. But everyone else got a good laugh out of it.

Colby and I have found an amazing restaurant called Thai Ginger.  We go there every chance we get.  It’s a small, family owned business.  We have loved everything we’ve ordered there so far.  

The dish in front is called Rama King.  It is MUY BIEN!!!!!

Back in October, Colby and I drove our friends car and U-haul trailer out to Denver for them.  It was really fun!  While driving through Kansas at night, there was an amazing lightning storm!  So beautiful!  While driving through Eastern Colorado, we ran out of gas (twice, actually).  The first time we met this nice couple who drove 8 miles back to get us gas.  While we waited, we watched as Felix Baumgartner got ready to jump from 128,000 feet (24 miles).  Right as Felix stepped out of his capsule and was getting ready to jump, our life-savors arrived with our gas.  Their timing was so perfect that we missed the entire jump except for the landing.  J  It was funny. 

Our GPS took us off the interstate to some small town roads somewhere in Alabama or Mississippi.  The traffic was stopped because a super small dog was on the loose.  The owner was next to her vehicle and poured dog food in the middle of the street in order to entice the puppy to return.  To say the least, it was ineffective and the dog ended up running off into the trees.  Colby is the man in the red t-shirt.

Colby achieved his lifelong dream of visiting Colby, Kansas. 

This past semester was probably the most stressful semester of my entire college experience.  But one day in my literacy class we did this fun activity where we watched the news clip of the exploding whale and then we had to create a representation of what we saw.  I'm not exactly sure what the point of the lesson was, but my friends and I had a great time!  

My beautiful poster.  This was my favorite assignment from this semester
(that's not really saying a whole lot, but  we're trying to keep this post positive). 

In early November Tyler, my mom, Alene, and Grandma came out to visit and to go to Baby Jesse’s farewell.  I was super overwhelmed and stressed with school, so I didn’t get to play as much as I wanted to, but it was still so fun to have them out!  We went to dinner at Bubba-Que’s, played Yahtzee, went to Nashville, and played more games.  I ran with Alene one day and that was great!  My mom and Alene had a good time at the Amish store.  I enjoyed walking with my mom and taking Grizz and Nala to the ponds with Colby and Tyler.  And the highlight of the trip was when Tyler and the guys caught a baby possum and brought it back to the Thurgood’s house.  It was a cute little thing (though not everyone else would describe it that way) and had a very nasty smell. 

Grandma having a great time playing Taboo and wearing Uncle Jess's possum-hunting hat!

Tyler found a new friend for his posse.  

The weekend my family came to town Colby and I got our first ultrasound of Baby Bumpy Rampton!!  We’re so thrilled!!  The little lemon (that’s how big it is right now) has been so good to me!  I haven’t barfed once.  I’ve felt nauseous a lot and I have been sleeping a lot, but that’s it.  I love salt anyway, but since we got pregnant salt has become an even dearer friend of mine.  Vegetables, on the other hand, have become an enemy.  We’ve just begun rekindling the friendship.  Baby Bumpy is scheduled to arrive around June 24^th or so.  The day after we got the first ultrasound, Colby created Baby Bumpy’s Facebook page.  But since Facebook is bossy, we had to name him “Little Bumpy Rampton” instead.  Colby has created the cutest page, filling out Bumpy’s interests and he has Bumpy post funny things like “Just chillin in my hot tub.”  It’s been so fun and Bumpy has over 200 friends! 

Bumpy's First Picture

My mom bought a mini blender when she was out, so Colby’s become a smoothy master.  They’re a great alternative to ice cream and always sound good, especially when I’m nauseous.

We call our baby "Baby Bumpy Rampton" or "Bumpy" for short because, when I texted Michele the picture of the ultrasound she replied with the most bubbly text of all time and was the first to call our baby Bumpy:

"What? What? Oh my HECK!!!! There is a tiny bean in your tummy?!?!? Congratulations!!!!! Baby bumpy Rampton! I love you guys!!!!!!!!"

As for our furry adopted children, Grizz and Nala are doing good.  They are good little companions, but we’re not sure how long Grizz will be able to stay with us.  Grizz has become much more territorial and growly over the past several months, enough so that we’re not comfortable keeping him with Bumpy running around.  We made the decision that Grizz needs a new home the night our friends 2 year old jogged up to Grizz’s crate and said “Puppy!!”  and Grizz growled at him.  Grizz hasn’t bit a child yet, but has bit Colby and has growled several times at us and our friends.  I’m totally crushed, but hoping that we’ll find a nice home for him between now and June.

But Nala is just as sweet as ever.  She stands her ground with Grizz, but still would never hurt a fly.  I am pretty sure she'll be a good friend to Bumpy.

They sleep together like this all the time, even when it's 80+ degrees outside.

Grizz, sound asleep, with his head out the doggy door.

Grizz after a haircut.  He's so cute!!

Grizz and Nala sleeping on their way to Nashville to visit their cousins, Jake and Addie.

Last week was our Relief Society Christmas dinner.  We had Mexican food at a members beautiful house.  Colby came over and helped set up and then he and 3 other guys came and sang Christmas carols to us while we ate dessert.  It was really fun!  I'm so sad I didn't take pictures of the actual event because it turned out to be so nice, but here are the beautiful invitations I made (with much help from Colby).

Colby also sang in 5 numbers during our ward Christmas fireside.  I think everyone’s favorite was when he played guitar and sang “Silent Night” in German with 2 other men.  It was cool.  Afterward everyone kept telling me “You have such a talented husband!”  I know, he’s amazing.