Teachers teaching teaching.

My professors are incredible. Every last one of them. I am so privileged to be in this program!

Too young to die?

Who are we to dictate when our time here is up? We're not, but we certainly like trying to be in control of it.

At the very least, parents expect their children to outlive them. That has not been the case for too many of my friend's parents...friends who never made it to 25. Whether it is years or just days after the death of their precious child, there remains that same look in their eyes that will never leave. Some find peace and joy in Christ, while others find their loss reason to be angry with and turn from their faith. Whatever it is, we turn to the eternal on our knees with our arms extended in helplessness begging for answers that even if we received, would still never satisfy our desire for understanding.

"A heart of gold stopped beating

to shiny eyes at rest.

God broke our hearts to prove,

He only takes the best.

Everyday we have needed you,

Everyday we have cried,

If love could have saved you,

You never would have died.

I think of you in silence,

And make no outward show,

But what it meant to lose you,

No one will ever know.

To the grave we travel,

Our flowers are placed with care,

No one knows the heartache

as we turn and leave you there.

To some you are forgotten,

to others just part of the past,

But to us that loved you,

your memories with always last."

#2

Paint your fingers and toes new colors.

There ya have it (with Tony's feet in the background).

#6

Rearrange Something in the House

This is a direct result of Kasia's #6. She and Tony bought a new couch for their living room, and as a result had two couches and a futon. So, I bought the futon from them so that Shaz and I could have some more seating in our living room. When I first brought it in it looked awful because I had it where the blue couch is now. We are enjoying it, however, and are now both able to completely lie down while we're watching movies :-)

And while we're on furniture, I'd like to point out that Shazia's sister came up to paint the baby's dresser and changing table with sea turtles as well as other sea creatures. She is so talented, and did a wonderful job.

Clean Slate

Though I am taking five years to earn my degrees, these final two will be very different from the first three. I have entered an entirely new community of students who are all doing their graduate work, and who all are striving to be exemplory teachers. This means that I am integrating with people who share my passion for education, and I can't think of anywhere I would rather be.

My professors are all phenomenal educators with years of experience who are simply guiding us as we are learning to teach by doing.

I have begun in a third grade classroom in an underpriviledged community this week, and I fell in love with the students the first day. I am so looking forward to see how this year unfolds. It will definitely be challenging and require a lot of hard work, but I am so fortunate to have heard my calling and to have been given the opportunity to realize my dream.

I truly am deeply fulfilled by all that I do.

Anna's first day.

Anna and I took Sadie out this afternoon to walk off her first day of school anxiety.

This is my absolute favorite picture of her :).

Yes, she is bigger than me.

I am so blessed.

This weekend definitely is in the running for one of my best ever; I spent it with my amazing family and friends. We spent sweet dinners together, played board games, went to my childhood church, and enjoyed a beautiful hike. Good times :-).


Brandon came over for dinner, after months of not having seen him.

Baby shower cake.

Daddy and me.

Matt tying his shoe on the water tower.

Walking Athena in the park.

This is as far as we made it on our hike...

Chillin' on a rock.

In my tree :).

Austina and Athena

For whatever reason, Tony decided to name their dog Athena--often times she gets yelled at as "Austina" and I get all confused.

Anyway, she and I have become very good friends, and she is a very good doggie :-).

#1

Go to a new restaurant.

Last night Michael took me out to dinner for the last time before he leaves for Denmark. We went to seven30south and were quite impressed. It is just north of me on University in the quaint, little Bonnie Brae neighborhood. I had a nice glass of shiraz (so Michael had to drive home), and a light chicken penne pasta dish.

I am sure that we will be visiting again once he gets back :-)

#5

Watch a movie you wouldn't normally pick out.

The other night instead of going to a house party with the steel band, Shazia and I stayed in and watched the latest movie she had received in the mail from Blockbuster: Medea Goes to Jail.

I would never have chosen to watch a movie with Tyler Perry cross-dressing, because I feel that Eddy Murphey went too far with that same idea.

I loved it, however. I was exhausted when we started it and didn't think that I would stay awake for the whole thing, but it kept my attention througout, and I was laughing up a storm.

Shaz said that it was the worst of the Tyler Perry movies and that I will probably like the others better, so I think I'll have to check that out :-).

The List

Kasia and I decided that a fun outlet/hobby would be to make a list of things for us to both do within the month, and as we do so blog about our experience.

This list for August is:

1. Go out to a new restaurant.

2. Paint your fingers and toes a new color.

3. Put together a new outfit with old clothes.

4. Make a new recipe.

5. Watch a movie you would not normally pick out.

6. Rearrange something in the house.

So, when I have post titles that just consist of a number, this is what they are referring to :-).

#4

Make a new recipe:

This morning, Anna and I made blueberry muffins from scratch. They had bought a case of blueberries from Costco, so we thought we would take advantage.

Ingredients:

1 cup of milk

1 egg

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

2 cups of flour (we used whole wheat flour)

3/4 cup of sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup of fresh blueberries

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line muffin pan with paper liners.

2)In large bowl stir together milk, egg, and oil. Add flour, baking powder sugar, and blueberries; gently mix the batter then spoon it into pan.

3) Bake for 20 minutes, serve hot.

I also sprinkled sugar on top for a little extra sweet and crust, and Anna decided to put colorful sprinkles on top. They look hilarious, and tasted delicious :-).

We got the recipe from allrecipes.com.

I have recently been teaching Anna to cook and bake, and she is absolutely loving it! She is able to totally own the projects, and feels a great sense of accomplishment.

Say a prayer for my sweet Aunt Debbie today.

Mental note: Don't trust Holden if he claims to know his way...

...or you may end up lost:

Holden and I decided to finally climb Mount Blodget today. We have lived at the foot of it our entire lives, but had yet to hike it. Today we finally did, but the way down was quite the adventure. First, I fell and banged my leg up, then we took a "bunny trail" and ended up lost in a bunch of shrubs that kept scraping against my abrasions. Ouch.

Holden cruising.

The mountain.

On the water tower.

Itty, bitty creek.

We finally found the trail again :-). (Notice how much taller he is. Yikes!)

Ziplock's memorial bench.

Rest in peace, sweet friend.

Relief

It has finally cooled off a bit, and I love it! Maybe I can actually sleep under the covers tonight :-).

Squirt triuqS

This "totally righteous" little dude is already into music! We have been infiltrating him with all kinds of different music, and he kicks Shazia while he's dancing to it.

Wish her luck playing her recital with him boogying inside her :-).

"T" is for Therapy

The trail, Target, and talking have been my theraputic "t's."

Just when you think you've got it figured out.....you're thrown a curve ball.

Him + Her = Me

From him, I got my normal feet, my nose, my hair, my terrible eyesight, and the bright red color I turn after I've had a drink.

From her, I got my smile, my passion for teaching, my voice, my legs, and my sensitive spirit.

From them both, I got my love for music, adventure, and our spectacular mountains.


Xie xie you two, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome :-).

Congrats, Mom!

This evening, we celebrated Mom. After 30-some-odd years of teaching, the beginning of the school year isn't terribly exciting to her. Especially not this year. She was moving rooms to an area with no walls and no door, as has an outrageous number of students that she is responsible for. Fortunately, the Lord provided her some encouragement by providing her a co-teacher who is as sweet as can be (and, I might mention, is the same age as me), and brought to her school an old church friend. To top it off, her entire school was rewarded for their outstanding improvement in test scores--a lot of which had to do with the drastic increase in the scores of her ELL students.

What a sweet way to begin the year! Her co-teacher has no idea what a blessing it will be to be mentored by my mommy :-).

Squishy Noses

Have I mentioned that Holden and I look alike?? Yeah, even with parents who are complete opposites, and a six year age difference we somehow have very similar features. One of those features is our nose: they are little button noses that are very smooshy.

So, tonight at a celebratory dinner for my mom, we were smooshing our noses together. Weird, I know.