narnia

This weekend Patrick surprised me with Saturday morning tickets to Narnia. I've never been to a Saturday morning show before, but it was pretty cool. I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis and everything that he writes, but The Chronicles of Narnia have always been especially dear to my heart because I read them when I was a little girl. A couple of years ago, I read them again after finishing John Eldridge's Waking the Dead. In this book, he refers to a little boy crying to his mom one night after she had finished reading aloud a chapter in the book to him. She asks him why he is crying to which he replies, "I feel really guilty because I think I love Aslan more than I love Jesus." His mother then explained to him that everything that he loved about Aslan WAS Jesus. I remember feeling that way when I read the books. There is just something so powerful about the way Aslan captures your heart. Anyway, the movie did not disappoint. It followed the book extremely closely, and several tears were shed on my part--and some others in the audience as well. I'd highly recommend catching this one!

This weekend Patrick surprised me with Saturday morning tickets to Narnia. I've never been to a Saturday morning show before, but it was pretty cool. I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis and everything that he writes, but The Chronicles of Narnia have always been especially dear to my heart because I read them when I was a little girl. A couple of years ago, I read them again after finishing John Eldridge's Waking the Dead. In this book, he refers to a little boy crying to his mom one night after she had finished reading aloud a chapter in the book to him. She asks him why he is crying to which he replies, "I feel really guilty because I think I love Aslan more than I love Jesus." His mother then explained to him that everything that he loved about Aslan WAS Jesus. I remember feeling that way when I read the books. There is just something so powerful about the way Aslan captures your heart. Anyway, the movie did not disappoint. It followed the book extremely closely, and several tears were shed on my part--and some others in the audience as well. I'd highly recommend catching this one!

code red

This afternoon at a faculty meeting, we learned that the fallout from Tookie Williams' (co-founder of the Crips gang) execution tonight might stretch to our area with an increased threat of violence at school. We were instructed on emergency procedures and precautions to take tomorrow through Thursday. I am a little freaked out. If you read this, please pray for me and my students tomorrow, this week, and throughout. Apparently we have a significant number of Crips, Bloods, and Folks at our school...completely unbeknownst to me... Anyway, we'll see how this all plays out! Fill you in later...

This afternoon at a faculty meeting, we learned that the fallout from Tookie Williams' (co-founder of the Crips gang) execution tonight might stretch to our area with an increased threat of violence at school. We were instructed on emergency procedures and precautions to take tomorrow through Thursday. I am a little freaked out. If you read this, please pray for me and my students tomorrow, this week, and throughout. Apparently we have a significant number of Crips, Bloods, and Folks at our school...completely unbeknownst to me... Anyway, we'll see how this all plays out! Fill you in later...

teacher nerd

I am offically a teacher nerd. I get excited about composition notebooks, reading days, stickers for my students, Chaucer, colored pens to grade specific things with, easy graders, notebooks to organize novel studies... It fascinates me and gets me going. Now, what I am not so adept at is timely, organized grading and record-keeping. I know that I need to improve in those areas, but I seem to stay a couple of steps behind... I love Fridays when my students come in ready to read and respond. I HAVE to believe that their reading levels are improving and that they are learning to enjoy reading.

Last night, Patrick and I made our weekly trip to Auburn for premarital counseling with Jim. Our experiences with this counseling have really opened our eyes to ways that we will constantly need to be working on in our marriage. I am overwhelmed at how easy it is to shift into auto-pilot and coast through life, and I enter into this marriage with high hopes that Patrick and I will do what it takes to have a healthy marriage. We talked about power styles, and not surprisingly, we learned that we are both on the assertive ends. We balance between assertive-controlling and assertive-adaptive. We both, however, recognize situations in which we have portrayed passive-aggressive and passive-sufferer tendencies. Just rating ourselves and rating each other revealed to us how to serve each other more fully. I am continuing to learn and realize that marriage is about being selfless. I am definitely not there yet.

At school, through church, with my family, we are trying to find ways to serve the hurricane victims. I feel helpless to do anything that would be of any significance or real help, and I feel sick at my stomach when I start thinking about things. I keep "hoping" that it's just all almost resolved... hoping against hope.

After my "functified" post the other day, I ordered 3 books of Amazon: The Great Gatsby (which I plan to teach my 11th-grade classes beginning next week), Blue Like Jazz (recommended to me by Jesse), and The Jane Austen Book Club. I am ready to read something good! I am struggling through A Prayer for Owen Meany right now. I have heard wonderful things about it, but I can't seem to get through the first 50 pages. I am going to keep pushing through though.

I am so thankful for this weekend. I need a break so badly to get well, to rest, to address wedding invitations. Nothing is on my schedule, and that makes me so relieved.

I am offically a teacher nerd. I get excited about composition notebooks, reading days, stickers for my students, Chaucer, colored pens to grade specific things with, easy graders, notebooks to organize novel studies... It fascinates me and gets me going. Now, what I am not so adept at is timely, organized grading and record-keeping. I know that I need to improve in those areas, but I seem to stay a couple of steps behind... I love Fridays when my students come in ready to read and respond. I HAVE to believe that their reading levels are improving and that they are learning to enjoy reading.

Last night, Patrick and I made our weekly trip to Auburn for premarital counseling with Jim. Our experiences with this counseling have really opened our eyes to ways that we will constantly need to be working on in our marriage. I am overwhelmed at how easy it is to shift into auto-pilot and coast through life, and I enter into this marriage with high hopes that Patrick and I will do what it takes to have a healthy marriage. We talked about power styles, and not surprisingly, we learned that we are both on the assertive ends. We balance between assertive-controlling and assertive-adaptive. We both, however, recognize situations in which we have portrayed passive-aggressive and passive-sufferer tendencies. Just rating ourselves and rating each other revealed to us how to serve each other more fully. I am continuing to learn and realize that marriage is about being selfless. I am definitely not there yet.

At school, through church, with my family, we are trying to find ways to serve the hurricane victims. I feel helpless to do anything that would be of any significance or real help, and I feel sick at my stomach when I start thinking about things. I keep "hoping" that it's just all almost resolved... hoping against hope.

After my "functified" post the other day, I ordered 3 books of Amazon: The Great Gatsby (which I plan to teach my 11th-grade classes beginning next week), Blue Like Jazz (recommended to me by Jesse), and The Jane Austen Book Club. I am ready to read something good! I am struggling through A Prayer for Owen Meany right now. I have heard wonderful things about it, but I can't seem to get through the first 50 pages. I am going to keep pushing through though.

I am so thankful for this weekend. I need a break so badly to get well, to rest, to address wedding invitations. Nothing is on my schedule, and that makes me so relieved.

funks

I am almost officially in a funk. School has been back in session for 2 and a half weeks; I'm back in a routine of things; and I feel like the most boring person in the world. I haven't read anything interesting lately; I haven't written ANYTHING worthwhile; and all I do is teach school and write thank you notes. And to boot, I've gotten sick! I just bought 3 books off amazon in hopes of adding interest to myself. I keep thinking, once I get back to school, once I get married, once I am settled in a routine, THEN I will get my life together... If I don't watch it, I'll never progress. I'm just ranting now... In more important matters, I cannot stop watching the news on all the hurricane devestation. It is so humbling and almost overwhelming to realize what a vapor our life is really like. It's definitely making me less concerned with all of the meaningless details of my life and wanting to focus on more eternal matters. I am searching for my purpose at school. The kids I work with need love AND education. I daily get frustrated and even discouraged in my inability to give them either. I had to "write up" a student today for cursing in my class. He was so discouraged, and I hated doing it... I pray for strength, courage, and EN-couragement. I hope that in starting another day, it will be with fresh perspective and anti-funk-ness.

I am almost officially in a funk. School has been back in session for 2 and a half weeks; I'm back in a routine of things; and I feel like the most boring person in the world. I haven't read anything interesting lately; I haven't written ANYTHING worthwhile; and all I do is teach school and write thank you notes. And to boot, I've gotten sick! I just bought 3 books off amazon in hopes of adding interest to myself. I keep thinking, once I get back to school, once I get married, once I am settled in a routine, THEN I will get my life together... If I don't watch it, I'll never progress. I'm just ranting now... In more important matters, I cannot stop watching the news on all the hurricane devestation. It is so humbling and almost overwhelming to realize what a vapor our life is really like. It's definitely making me less concerned with all of the meaningless details of my life and wanting to focus on more eternal matters. I am searching for my purpose at school. The kids I work with need love AND education. I daily get frustrated and even discouraged in my inability to give them either. I had to "write up" a student today for cursing in my class. He was so discouraged, and I hated doing it... I pray for strength, courage, and EN-couragement. I hope that in starting another day, it will be with fresh perspective and anti-funk-ness.

my first time at something like this

So, I've finally joined the blogging culture. We'll see how long this lasts and how productive it is. I'm heading to Mexico tomorrow for a mission trip. hopefully I'll have something worthwhile to write about upon returning...

So, I've finally joined the blogging culture. We'll see how long this lasts and how productive it is. I'm heading to Mexico tomorrow for a mission trip. hopefully I'll have something worthwhile to write about upon returning...