Monthly Update

*95% on my first quiz of law school. You have to get a 95% to get an "A". What is wrong with these people? Shouldn't a 90% be sufficient?
*Took my first final exam of law school in Criminal Law. Won't know the results for probably another week. Hoping for a "B".
*We start right in on the next class, Constitutional Criminal Law. It just seems wrong to just keep going. No break. Just take a final and start the next class. Ugh.
*Had a great time in Atlanta with Justin and Shelli and enjoyed an Andrew Peterson concert together while we were there. We didn't take any pictures to document the weekend.
*Suddenly there is Christmas stuff everywhere. And I haven't even bought any Christmas presents yet. Studying all the time really puts me behind on my holiday shopping.
*Today I bought my first Christmas wrapping paper. I love wrapping paper. I especially like it if it's metallic or sparkly.
*Had a bunch of dead trees cut down in our yard. There is plenty of free firewood out by the curb, if you're interested.
*So far law school is harder than any other level of school I've been a part of. I know this is probably not shocking to most of you, but I kind of thought I would be able to slack off and get good grades like I used to. So far, I just have to study all the time and hope and pray to get good grades. It would be helpful if more of my classes had more than one or two tests to base the whole grade on. Anyway, it's all much more time-consuming than I had imagined, but I guess that's why not everyone is a lawyer.
*That's all I can think of for now.

The latest

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.

Five and a half weeks in...

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.

July recap

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.

Wedding weekend

Siblings

Christa, Michael and Kirk at the rehearsal

On the way to the rehearsal dinner at the Spaghetti Factory

Old friends

SIsters

Good times

Sister-in-law Rahel and Grandma Jeanne


All ready to go

Gorgeous

Beautiful view

Me and mom




Me and Dino

Happy couple

Musicians

Michael performed the ceremony

Post-wedding bliss

We put up all the decorations the morning-this was my job, besides being matron of honor.

We made about 1,000 cranes

Best buds


And they're off

Boston and Concord

The hotel lobby. Whoa.

View from our hotel window

Statue of Paul Revere

On the Freedom Trail

Cotton Mather is buried in this very old cemetery - looking out toBoston Harbor

Boston Harbor - it was beautiful


In Concord - reenactment. That cannon was very loud -hence the shaky camera shot from my shaken hands.

At the Old North Bridge.

Our whole Junior class took a picture in this tree a long time ago...

I like this tree



Michael got bored while Idrove home. The result? About 40 pictures of us in the car...

And this.

Angela=Tired

This past weekend was Junior Presentation. We are Junior sponsors. This made for much exhaustion. The weekend included Friday night vespers put on by the Juniors, most of the church service put on by the Juniors and a nice meal, auctioning gift baskets, skit selection, song and banner presentation and marching on Saturday night. Michael and I were mostly involved with the skits and song stuff. What added to our nightmare was that last Wednesday three boys who were in six skits between them were suspended. So we had to find people to fill in, sometimes that person filling in was Michael. I mostly did backstage stuff, pulling the curtain, telling people when to go on and off stage, getting props on and off stage, fixing costumes. That stuff. During the meal I also helped get food back and forth. It was ultra stressful. Pratices every night last week. But it all came off really well. One of the girls' deans told me that it was the best one she'd been to since she's been here (11 years). And we've never done this before! So we felt pretty ecstatic. I hurt all over and am still exhausted, but I feel like now I can do anything.

Michael played a bully in a nerds vs. bullies dance off skit, which was the favorite of many people. He danced to Soldier Boy. If we get a video, I'll post it. It was pretty hilarious.

So that's taken up our lives for the last couple of weeks. And two weeks from today begins spring break. I could use it a little sooner, but I'll take what I can get. We'll be in Nashville, hopefully interviewing and applying for more jobs. No serious bites yet, but we're still praying and hoping. How does one know how to make such a huge decision? I feel like maybe this just won't happen for us. Maybe we're supposed to stay here forever. But that makes me sad, so I'm still trying to keep hope alive.

Billy Elliot

Homeleave began Wednesday, and we left a little early to be sure to get to New York in time. We checked into our hotel and then set off for The Daily Show. We got there early, there were only about 15 people in line ahead of us, so I headed off to get some hot chocolate and a newspaper. It was freaking cold. I don't know. Somewhere in the 20s. So the hot chocolate kept us relatively warm for a few minutes. Then I tried to do The New York Time crossword puzzle with gloves on. Much more difficult to write neatly with gloves on. The guy standing next to us in line was pretty impressed with how much of the crossword we completed. I'm a crossword junky, but yeah the NYT is definitely a tough nut to crack. Anyway, we enjoyed the show, and definitely enjoyed being warm for a while. If you want to see the show that we saw live, it was Wednesday, February 4.

So after The Daily Show we hurried on over to Broadway and got a quick bite of mediocre food before going to see Billy Elliot. Which was amazing. Also, I was sitting about 2 feet from the stage. I ordered Orchestra, Partial View, which apparently means that you're off to the side, but so close that the actors spit on you. It was fantastic. Also, they had these little windows beneath the stage so that you could see the people in the orchestra pit. One of the lady trombone players was doing Sudoku on her time between songs. Another guy was reading. It was pretty cool to see them. Anyway, the show was awesome, but sitting that close to the speakers was a bit deafening. But still amazing. Maybe my very favorite. The dancing was fabulous. So if you're ever in New York you should go. For real.

So we stayed in our hotel that night, which was really nice, we booked it on Priceline, by the way. The Wellington, on 7th avenue at 55th street. It was a block down from Carnegie Hall, pretty cool. And across the street from the Park Central Hotel. So the next day we got up and had some nice hummus and crepes at a cute little French-ish restaurant, where our waiter was actually French. Then we decided that it was too cold to enjoy the day, and too cold to want to stay for another play, so we bought some lovely desserts and went home.

Today I'm applying for jobs and relaxing at home. It's a good homeleave. There will be some pictures to follow.

Negligent blogger returns to cyberspace

I know. It's been awhile. I have the semi-excuse of the broken keyboard, but truth be told, I have a work computer and Michael's computer if I really wanted to blog. Also, I can't find my camera cord, so I can't post pictures. Which is irritating me. I know it's been missing for at least two months... but where could I have put it? I've turned the house upside down, but no luck. In any case, life here continues in it's usual busy, generally good way. It all feels more routine this year, and yet I'm busier than ever with Junior class sponsorship (ugh) and Business Math. We're starting to look for jobs in Nashville for after this school year. I'm anxious to move home, and unsure that God will allow me to do that.

Some other things that have happened lately: We went to Louisville and Nashville for Thanksgiving break. I helped Michael's mom do some wedding planning, (she's getting married at the end of March), and I was with my sister when she found "the dress", (she's getting married at the end of May).

We went and bought a Christmas tree at the tree farm down the road. I decorated it and am feeling especially jolly this week. I love Christmas ever so much. Strange, for a girl who hates winter so much. Maybe it's because Christmas makes winter seem more bearable.

I've been off birth-control for a few months now and feel like maybe my depression/anxiety/sluggishness is lifting. What if that were one of the big contributing factors all along and I never knew it? I've been on birth control since shortly before I started college because of the ovarian cysts... which is right around the time I started having serious problems. I'm trying not to think about those seven years of struggles, and yet hope that it could be true, so that it would maybe ease the struggle. And no, I'm not pregnant. But yes, someone asked me again last weekend at church. That was pure joy.

This year for Christmas, my family is going to Gatlinburg. This will be the first Christmas without Grandma, and my aunt and mom were finding it a little too difficult to try to do normal Christmas without her. We're very glad to have something to look forward to this year (Christa's wedding) instead of more death, like last year.

And lastly, for this post, I'm reading The Shack right now and I would like to recommend it to all of you. I'm finding it very mind-opening and hopeful. I'll try to be a better blog friend.

Things done over homeleave

My dad came to visit over homeleave. His first visit to our home. So we showed him around Philadelphia, saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We went to the old Wannemaker's, which is now a Macy's. There they have the world's largest working organ, which they play every day at noon and 5:30. So we listened to the noon concert, which was lovely. We saw a few old churches where our Founding Fathers were common visitors or members. Then we went down to the Italian Market, which was mostly closed at 6:00, but we found a great little bakery and bought a piece of chocolate raspberry ganache cake and a piece of chocolate covered cheesecake. They were delicious. Then we ate at a great little restaurant where the portions and quality were fantastic and the presentation was beautiful. I think it was called Sabrina's.

Friday we mostly hung around the house, but we did venture out into Hamburg, and we showed my dad the school. Saturday we made a lovely brunch with crepes, fruit salad and hashbrowns. Then we went to Lancaster and looked at Amish stuff. Quilts, baked goods, etc. We stopped at the big 10,000 Villages in Ephrata that has a little cafe inside and sells fair trade Persian Rugs. On Sunday we left Michael home and Dad and I explored Longwood Gardens.

Now I'm back to work. I'm pretty tired, but glad for a good visit with my dad, even though it rained and was cloudy every day he was here. Too bad you can't order up the weather for such occasions.

We may shortly have some exciting news to share. Pending the final decision... coming any day now.

Piazza San Marco

I've been trying for weeks to upload this video. I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but Blogger didn't like it, so here's a link to it. Hope you enjoy. I did. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Video of St. Mark's Square

Goings on

It shouldn't be humanly possible to sleep as much as I have been lately. Between 10 and 12 hours a night. And I still wake up groggy and force myself not to take naps during the day, or go to bed at 8:30, which is when I want to go to bed. I hope it has more to do with my medication than my mental state. I've been slowly reducing the dosage on my antidepressant, and would like to go down a little more, but I'm afraid of impending doom if I go too low. Where is the line? The balance? I wish I knew. And also, I wish I knew whether last winter's disaster was just caused by the perfect storm of small contributing factors or whether this is something I should expect in my life. A few years of relative okay and then a year of horrendous disappointments? I guess there's only one way to find out. And having anxiety attacks about it in the meantime probably won't help. Okay, it definitely won't help.

So besides the enormous amounts of sleep, we started having pre-session meetings this week with our new principal. I like him. He's punctual, a quality I probably over-value in people. He's also into building staff relationships and he's fairly blunt. I like that. Also, he wants to pay me more. I like that. He came to me and said he was confused by my contract. I told him in the nicest way possible that I didn't think it was fair, but that I like working here, and that there are a lot of injustices in the world. He said that just because life isn't fait doesn't mean we shouldn't try to correct it. So to make a long story short, I may be making a lot more money this year. I'm excited about that.

Also, I agreed to teach one section of Business Math this year. Because I have lost my mind. And Michael's and my schedules overlap this year, so I can't have any breakdowns because he won't be able to sub for me. So here's hoping that last winter's difficulties will stay in last winter and not infect this one. Because as nice as it is to have a husband who is willing to teach for you when you can't get out of bed, it's even nicer if he doesn't have to do that for you.

And to assist in that, I painted my office a light green. The plummy-mauve was killing me. It wasn't enough that it was cold and gray outside, I had to have a dreary hole to work in? No more! Light green-a color that exists in nature, that might brighten my mood on some dark days. That's the hope, at least.

A couple weeks ago I got bored, so we made a trip down south and saw first Michael's family, then spent a day at camp and remembered how good it is to be with best friends, then spent a few days with my family. The house that I was dreaming about sold, so I'll have to find a new house to dream about, I guess. We're still tentatively planning to move to Nashville after this school year. Of course we want to follow God's plan, so we're planning with hope that this is God's plan.

Students arrive next Friday. Registration on Sunday. School starts Monday. The nightmares have begun. It's the initial plunge that's painful. By October I should be fine.

I finished four books this week. But no lesson plans.

Roma - Ciao!

The drive from Florence to Rome was beautiful. We saw many fortress cities - perched on the top of a hill, surrounded by a wall. It gave a new meaning to the verse about being like a city on a hill. You can't see much of anything but hills all around, and there is this city sitting like a crown on top of the hill. Quite impressive. There were also fields of sunflowers and mountains and many other beautiful things to see.

Rome had crazy traffic, like nothing I've ever experienced. Not in Costa Rica or Jamaica or Paris. Sometimes there were no dividing lines for lanes, so the cars just filled all the space possible, bottlenecking, until it broke out into two lanes, with lines. Then all five former lanes jam into that space. And if there isn't enough space on your side of the road, and no one is coming on the other side too soon, just drive over there. No big deal. And all the scooters and motorcycles weave between the cars. It was stressful. So after finally finding the airport (signs were not very helpful) we dropped off the car and took the train back into the city. Unfortunately, we didn't remember where our hotel was. So we had to ask a lady at a tourist information booth. We only knew the name of the hotel. She helped us and we got back safely.

The next day we took a bus tour of the city and saw many sights: Circo Massimo, the oldest standing theater, the Jewish Synagogue, Saint Peter's, Vatican City, the biggest dog ever (or small horse, if you prefer), the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We also happened upon the changing of the guard at Parliament. (?) We were just walking down the street, heard a band playing, and followed the music. There were lots of soldiers with guns.

The next day it was our mission to see the Coliseum and the Sistine Chapel. The Coliseum was very interesting, and of course, huge. Looking out of it and watching the cars whiz by, I wondered what it would be like to drive by the Coliseum on your way to work every day. It was just mind boggling. There are ruins that were buildings before Christ walked on earth. It was amazing. Because of a bus strike in the city that day we had to wait a long, long time for our tour bus, but finally we found one and went over to Vatican City and made the hike to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We really just wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but they don't let you do that. We went through dozens of rooms filled with sculptures, tapestries, paintings and other priceless works of art. Almost every ceiling was covered with paintings or frescoes. The amount of art was stunning. I couldn't even take it all in. Finally we got to the Sistine Chapel, where there was a guard yelling, "Please be quiet! No pictures!" Most people ignored him and talked as loud as they pleased and snapped pictures (some with the flash on). I'll admit that I held my camera down by my waist, pointed up and took a couple shots. But I turned my flash off. It was amazing and beautiful. Go see it for yourself. There are no words.

So after the Sistine Chapel we ate at a creperie, had some more gelato and headed back to our hotel. We had our very best gelato that night when we were out searching for food around 9:00 near our hotel. I had ciocolato and frute de bosco (chocolate and berry). We were tempted to go back as soon as we finished. We should have.

The next day we flew back to New York.

All in all our trip was amazing. We saw amazing things and walked a lot and ate a whole lot of gelato. I recommend the limone. Yum. We got really tired of pizza and pasta. We planned the whole trip on our own, and I think it was a smashing success, if I do say so myself. And now, the final pictures from our amazing European adventure!

A city on a hill



On our bus tour


Castle San Angelo - the Papal fortress


The changing of the guard


Inside the Pantheon


Us outside the Pantheon


Some nuns outside the Piazza Venezia - there were nuns all over the place in Rome


The entrance to the largest park in Rome


Some ruins


Us at St. Peter's


St. Peter's


The Trevi Fountain


Inside the Vatican Museum


Also inside the Vatican Museum


The Sistine Ceiling


Leaving the Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museum


The Coliseum


Us inside the Coliseum


Inside the Coliseum


Piazza Venezia - where Mussolini used to give his speeches. Impressive, no?