Schools

I received a last minute phone call to fill in for "White Christmas" at my high school because the bass player was suspended. It's nice to be paid for what I love doing--even if it is the easiest part I've ever played :).

This afternoon I have an interview at Cory Elementary for my student teaching placement, and I'm stoked! The teacher is fantastic, and three of my piano students attend the school.

I am really starting to realize how fortunate it is that I will be making an income doing what I am aboslutely passionate about. Good deal!

Yes, it was an amazing trip.

Thanksgiving week was spent with family in Denmark, and it was nothing short of incredible. We explored castles, roamed the city streets, and kept warm with Tuborg Christmas beers. The city was lit and decorated for Christmas, and the beautiful people were bundled from head to toe.

Grandma Clair came along giving an added element of entertainment, and I always had one of the girls on my arm. Peter kept us oriented, and he and Debbie spoiled us all to pieces.

Copenhagen is a remarkable city, but I'm pretty certain Michael will be more than glad to be home :).

I am thankful for the family that I have in the Van Wirts, and for their overwhelming love and generosity. Gobble gobble!

Culture shock.

Last night, I went to the cleanest house party of my collegiate career. It was the ladies' farewell party as they are moving for their student teaching before graduating in May.

"Shut-up" was the closest thing to fowl language that I heard uttered, and the snack/drink table held a gallon of milk, a gallon of chocolate milk, and a couple two liters of 7-up.

The majority of the party was spent dancing ridiculously to songs by our oh-so-beloved boy bands, mainly the Backstreet boys, and those Spice Girls. We danced to the point of making the floor bow beneath us.

Not quite what parties at DU look like. Leave it up to Jess and Stacy Mac to have a wholesome throw-down. Love you girlies!

18 pages later..

I am reminded of what a great listener my journal is.

My new year's resolution

To use all the ink in a pen before losing the darn thing.

The hap-happiest season of all.

December comes, and the sounds begin: clanking in the kitchen, Christmas songs on the piano, loud crackling fires, the bussel of feet, and voices bouncing off the hard wood floors.

What a year this has been...

"I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I posses a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, a child humanized or de-humanized."

~Hiam Ginott