Today I'm thankful that:
My first snow storm of the season didn't incapacitate me.
My Christmas tree is up, and it's beautiful.
I have a warm house to be in.
We finished watching season 2 of 30 Rock on DVD. Hilarious.
I have a husband who likes to plays games.
There's a purring cat beside me.
The Broncos won.
I'm wearing a soft red sweater.
There's less than two weeks until Christmas vacation.
I'm really loving Sara Groves' remake of Jars of Clay's Flood. I bought the whole $30 package that came with extra downloads, a mug, free trade coffee and an autograph. And I think Flood was worth it. Also, my favorite song on the new album, Like a Lake. I think it's about being open even after we've been hurt. My favorite lyric from the song
"Everything in me is tightening,
Curling in around this ache
I will lay my heart wide open
Like the surface of a lake
Wide open a lake."
It's beautiful and a little sad.
I'm also enjoying her jazzy remix of her own version of When the Saints.
Also today, I'm really glad to be a literature teacher, for the simple fact that I get to read the literature too. We read part of Walden today. Parts of me think that Thoreau is totally ridiculous, unrealistic and pompous. But parts of me really love him and I smile when I read it.
My favorite quotes from Walden for today.
"For a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
"I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only."
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
"I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars."
Otherwise, the last month has been very difficult at work. I don't really want to go into it or talk about it anymore. Suffice to say that at the end of many days, I come home, look at Michael, and think that he's the only person left in Pennsylvania who I like. (This is not altogether true, but you all know I'm perhaps prone to exaggeration, and it definitely feels that way some days.) So I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break, but not the parent-teacher conferences that come before it. But if I can get through that without being screamed at (remember last year?), I think I'll have a really good break. I'm going to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday with her. Which freaks me out. How can I have a mom who's 60? I'm not prepared to have my parents grow old and die. And too often I dwell on it too much and then can't sleep. I digress. I'm going to try to start keeping a gratitude journal. Because I feel that my spirit could use it. Maybe I'll share some of that here.
In any case, you should go buy the new Sara Groves album, and if you can, you should get the extra downloads. Also, if you haven't yet, you should see Up. I cried a little. My favorite line, "I hid under the porch because I love you."
And I'm not going to try to write some conclusion to wrap this all up.
I got the postcard from Millionaire almost two weeks ago. Sorry for not updating. I am not needed as a contestant. I'm pretty OK with it. The whole two weeks I was waiting I kept thinking that I didn't really want to go, but also that maybe I was just kidding myself and trying to talk myself down in case I wasn't accepted. But when Michael called me from home to tell me I hadn't gotten I was just like, Oh well. I think this was largely due to a couple of near sleepless nights of anxiety associated with just thinking about being on national television. In any case, I won't be going on, nor winning a million dollars.
In other news, we had college days yesterday, which included getting up at 3:30 to leave at 4:00 for Washington Adventist University (formerly CUC). We had a pretty good (really long) day. At least it was quite a bit better than my last college days experience there three years ago. And by the way, yes, this is my fourth year teaching. How did this happen? I'm not quite sure. Sometimes I have to really think through it chronologically to believe it. I'm starting to forget names from my first two years. And not be able to remember who was in what class. I expect this will only get worse.
Tonight we're going to Cirque Del Soleil (or however it's spelled) with the gymnastics team!
Tomorrow is homeleave! We're flying to Tennessee! I'm going to see my family! My sister and her husband bought a house! I'm going to help paint the living room!
That is all.
Today Ben Yancer texted me to tell me I should check out mylifeisaverage.com. He promised I would not be disappointed. I've been laughing out loud a lot since then. Here's maybe my favorite:
Today, I was standing around waiting for my friend, when a businessman walked by on his phone and said "I don't care how hard it is, just stick it in!" I whispered to myself "That's what she said." The man heard, stopped walking, came back to me and high-fived me. Then continued walking. MLIA.
We've made it to our first homeleave. So far the school year has been pretty good. We had a good Senior Retreat, my third in four years. We elected Senior class officers and I think we got some good ones. There were some issues during the retreat, but nothing that we haven't survived, although one of our senior boys was expelled afterward.
My classes are going pretty well. My first section of English is so quiet. I practically have to beg for participation. Second section I have to cut them off. Class dynamics are so weird, one group will love something and the second just won't care about it in the least. My business math class I have 28 students. (!) I'm pulling my hair out a bit with this one. My classroom is too small for this many students and it ends up getting really loud really fast. I'm already really frustrated with it, which is not a good sign. I've made seating charts, I've threatened, I've taken points away, I've nearly cried in class... nothing is working. I'm going to make a new seating chart this week and give it another go.
Our housemate has made it almost six weeks. We're hoping to start integrating him back into the dorm soon. Maybe a night or two a week at first to see how he handles it, and hopefully by this time next month he'll be back in pretty much full time. We've felt mostly pretty good about it, but we do miss our privacy. And he's messy. That's annoying. I mean, I'm no neat freak, but this is beyond that.
This homeleave we went to New York for a couple of days. Tuesday afternoon we drove to Newark, New Jersey and got into our hotel. Then we got tickets to In the Heights, so we went into the city. It was a really great musical. More modern music and dancing. It was about two days in Spanish Harlem. We recommend it. It was right up there with Wicked and Billy Elliot.
Wednesday we slept in a bit and then went to try to get the lottery drawing tickets for Shrek the Musical for the Wednesday matinee. Lucky for us there were only about 16 people there trying for the 16 tickets, so we got cheap tickets and pretty good seats for Shrek. It was fun, not as awesome as some of the other shows we've seen, but still a good time. Then we found the Strand, New York's largest bookstore, with used, new and rare books. My book loving heart enjoyed it. Then we got some awesome Thai food (they have vegetarian duck) down near China Town.
Thursday we went to Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Michael's been wanting us to try out for a couple months, so we finally went. To audition you have to sit through tapings of the show, so it was really long. We got there at about 10:15 and we weren't done until 4:30. To audition, they have you come into the studio and sit to take a 10 minute, 30 question multiple choice test. About 200 people tried out, and they don't give the results until after three tapings of the show. Which was a really long time. We were pretty done by that time. And the test was really hard, so we didn't think we had passed it at all. Only about ten people did pass, and actually, I was one of them, and the only woman! I was pretty nervous. Don't really want to go on TV. Anyway, so after the show I had a short interview with one of the show's producers and they took my picture (we had already filled out these long questionnaires earlier), and that was it. I'll hear in a couple of weeks whether they want me for the show or not. Really, I'm pretty OK if I don't get on, because it just makes me anxious to think about it. But at least I know I'm smart. I guess, it's really just trivia, not smartness. Actually, I think it's just as much about being able to make good guesses as anything.
So anyway, we're home now and enjoying a quiet Sabbath together. Tomorrow we're back on duty. It's nice to have the house to ourselves for a little while.
We're one week into the new school year. So far it's going well. Except that it is really hot and muggy, and the library has no air conditioning. Which is rather uncomfortable... bleh. We're both teaching the same classes from last year, so to give ourselves a new challenge, we have a student staying with us. He had some behavioral problems last year and he wasn't going to be reaccepted, so we offered because we like him and think he can do better. We're hoping things will go well and he'll be able to transfer back into the dorm by the end of October. That's the goal. So far it's going pretty well. We had a bit of a hiccup yesterday, but now I think we're back on track.
I'm teaching mostly Juniors again this year, and this class seems to be a more studious bunch, which is kind of fun for me. In English, my first period class is silent. I have to beg them for interaction. It's like pulling teeth. My second period class can't get enough of the interaction. It's always interesting to see how different the dynamics will be between two classes when you present the exact same material.
We have a lot of new staff this year, and that presents some challenges. I have no internet in my office for my desktop computer or my laptop, which is pretty aggravating. I have to go to the computer lab every time I want to print anything off. And our grading system is web-based, so I haven't been able to put in any grades yet, which is frustrating. We'll see how it goes. I'm definitely missing some of the old staff, but enjoying getting to know the new ones, and hoping they'll be good for the kids. After all, that's what it's all about. I'm mostly excited about this year, despite desperately wanting to leave last year. We're senior sponsors and we have senior retreat coming up next weekend. We're hoping it will bring the class together some, because wow, that has not happened yet. There are a lot of challenges, which is a good thing.
This summer Michael was the best man in the wedding of his childhood best-friend, Joe. Here are some pics of the evening.
Isn't he handsome?
My sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and me.
The bride, groom and Michael
Michael giving his best-man toast. He choked up a little. It was sweet.
Here's Justin and Shelli when we visited them in July in Atlanta. Her apartment is super cute.
A family photo. Shelby is not especially good at looking at the camera. We have lots of shots of half of her face.
Shelli and Justin with the Loser's trophy.
The trade.
Us with the loser's trophy. Not looking real good here. It was about midnight. Right before the drive to Nashville.
Me, Christa, and our honorary sister, Leslie, getting ready for Christa and Wes' wedding reception/shower.
It's a little less nerve-wracking the second time around.
My mom and Dino went on a vacation this summer and at some restaurant near Glacier National Park, Dino had the most amazing baked potato ever. So of course my mom tried to duplicate it, with fabulous results while I was visiting. So I made my own attempt, and we've been enjoying this ever since.
On the bottom: a baked potato. Then a combination of olive oil and herbs and seasonings of your choice (I use an Italian mix, cumin, fresh garlic, plus garlic salt and black pepper). Topped with sauteed vegetables of my choice: I like broccoli, onion, zucchini, and red pepper. Then on top, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes and feta cheese. It's pretty amazing, and very filling. No side dishes needed.
We had this for lunch today. Fabulous.
This is the new furniture we built. Kind of. A kit from Target helped a lot. It's nice to have a place to put all this stuff.
July was kind of a mixed bag. By the first week of being home, I was so bored I wanted to cry. So we started trying to fill our time. We cleaned every room top to bottom and rearranged some things. Put together a new book case and shoe rack for some of our excess stuff. Then we started a diet and we tried out two different fitness gyms (I think we might try another one next week). Michael was the dean on duty in the boys dorm for two different weekends. Then last week his sister came to visit for a couple of days. We went to New York and shopped, tried for the Wicked lottery. There must have been at least 400 people there. We did not get tickets. We did have some amazing Thai food down in the China Town/Little Italy area. They had some fantastic vegetarian duck. We also went to Philadelphia and did some shopping at the King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall east of the Mississippi. We stayed the night last Wednesday, took Amanda to the airport at 6:00, then drove to Atlanta.
We spent Friday and Saturday with Justin and Shelli. Mostly hanging out, playing games, talking, eating, and a little canoeing. Then we exchanged our Loser's trophy. (Michael and I are the most recent losers.)
Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning I drove to Nashville, then Michael kept driving to Louisville. I hung out with the family while Michael was in rehearsal for his longtime friend Joe's wedding. On Tuesday my sister woke me up to tell me that Minnie, our family dog for the last 16 years, was sick. For the second time in three weeks. She wasn't moving and wouldn't eat. We decided it was time to say goodbye. Christa, my mom and I went to the vet and said our goodbyes. The vet and the assistant were really kind and she was gone in just a few seconds. We buried her in the backyard during a very fitting rainstorm.
Tuesday night I got myself up to Louisville, and Wednesday evening was the wedding. It was lovely. And after the wedding we drove back home. We got here about 9:00 this morning and slept until 3:00. Now we're relaxing a little until I go on duty as the girl's dean for the weekend. And next Tuesday we start pre-session meetings. So that's pretty much the summer. It's been good.
On Sunday of our Mexico trip we went to a place to go zip lining. The company was Canopy River, and if you're ever in Puerto Vallarta, I highly recommend them. We did some short training first, and then we were off! There were 12 zip lines, they went all over this river valley, back and forth, lower higher and some were very fast and some were slower. One of them the speed got up to 40 miles per hour. I came speeding into that one so fast I almost kicked the camera man in the face. The day before I'd gotten sunburned and was also kind of sick with Montezuma's revenge. (Yeesh) So Sunday I didn't eat a big breakfast, and didn't drink enough, and during some of the hiking between zip lines I started to feel overheated and sick and migrainy. So they let me skip two lines while everyone else went in, and I took off my helmet and drank some water. I started to feel better and was able to finish off the trip. The last two lines took us down to the bottom of the river valley and then we rode back up to the top of the mountain on mules. Never ridden a mule before. The mule in front of mine kept stopping to eat. And the guy riding him couldn't get him to start again. It was hilarious. Also, he only spoke Spanish and I couldn't really speak Spanish, so I just giggled. Anyway, despite the sickness we had a really good time. It was my favorite part of the trip. Here are some pictures of our adventures, unfortunately, no mule shots. 
Here are some pictures from our trip to Mexico, we had a good time and I barely got burned.
Flying in to Puerto Vallarta
We had to fly out over the ocean and come back in to land, because the mountains are so close to the beach. Breathtaking.
Our bedroom
The view from our room
Walking on the beach. Who knew it was rainy season?
Los Arcoles (I don't remember if that's right)
These rocks that have archs carved out of the bottom by the water, can't really see it from here.
Going out to dinner one night.
A hanging bridge over a river.
The coast, it was beautiful
On the hanging bridge. A little scary.
Some of the stuff we bought for ourselves and for others.
The sunset one night.
The zip line place
Hanging out.
The truck that took us to the zip line place.
A surfer
A famous cathedral in downtown Puerta Vallarta
She was beading that puma by hand.
Musicians serenading some diners
Some sand sculptures
Very cool
A tiny lizard in our hotel room
