end of the year madness!!

THE END OF THE YEAR IS FINALLY HERE AND I THINK THAT MY STUDENTS BRAINS HAVE COMPLETELY LEFT THEIR BODIES!! TODAY WHILE THE STUDENTS WERE TAKING A TEST ONE OF THE BOYS DECIDED TO STICK AN ERASER UP HIS NOSE. NOW WHILE THIS MIGHT BE A NORMAL OCCURRENCE WITH YOUNGER STUDENTS, I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS HAPPEN WITH MIDDLE SCHOOLERS. I WAS WORKING IN MY ROOM AND LOOKED OVER TO SEE HIM BENT OVER HIS DESK WITH HIS FINGERS ON HIS NOSE. THE ERASER HAD GONE UP A LITTLE FURTHER THAN HE HAD EXPECTED. SO HE COULDN'T USE JUST ONE FINGER, OTHERWISE IT MIGHT HAVE GONE FURTHER UP HIS NOSE...SO HE WAS PUSHING IT AND WORKING IT DOWN!! I WISH I HAD A PICTURE TO SHOW TO HIS PARENTS.

lost in the mail

i recently got a letter delivered that got lost in the mail...my grandma wrote a letter to me and never mailed it. my uncle was looking through a lot of her papers and found it. so he delivered it to me!! i was so excited to get the letter over the past weekend...mostly because my grandma died a year ago. it was so cool to read her letter to me; she wrote the letter exactly ten years ago. it was to apologize for forgetting my birthday. my grandma suffered from alzheimer's, so when she wrote the letter her mind was really affecting her ability to remember things. she was saying how she was looking forward to coming down for my high school graduation and she also enjoyed seeing my picture in the newspaper. my mom must have sent her a portion of the sports section where i appeared for track. i love having this letter from her because she still knew who i was when she wrote the note. not only that but she also had an interest in what i was doing...grandma really cared about her family a lot. it was so hard when she died because she had forgotten who everyone was. getting that letter all these years later was a very sweet moment.

what is scary to me now is that my grandma mariage is showing the early signs of alzheimer's. the things that she is doing, saying, or forgetting are very similar to what i watched happen to my grandma ryan. i hate that i am losing my grandma to age and what that means for our family. i know it is just a fact of life in some ways, but that hardly makes it easy to deal with...especially since it has happened before.

my "brother"-in-law

i love my brother-in-law...this weekend he did a really nice thing for me. he took my two nieces up to his parents, so my sister and i could spend saturday and sunday together. we were able to hang out and go shopping, just the two of us. it has been a very long time since we have had any prolonged alone time, & it was wonderful. the cool thing is that this was completely his idea. mike is always doing thoughtful stuff for my sister and i appreciate being able to benefit from it. over the years mike has done a lot of things for me...when my first niece was born mike bought my plane ticket, so i could fly up to ohio and surprise abigail. he has picked me up from the airport late at night when i'd fly up from virginia. over the years that mike has been a part of our family, i've begun to see him not as a brother-in-law but as my brother.

it's funny that things are so good now, because when he & abigail first got married i wasn't too fond of the idea. i cried throughout the whole entire wedding ceremony...most of the guests thought it was sweet that i was so happy for my sister. little did they realize the thoughts that i was really harboring in my heart. i must admit that i wasn't too thrilled about losing my sister and adding someone else to our close small family. i didn't find the thought of abigail living anywhere besides in west liberty exciting. knowing that i was going to have to share her with another family besides ours was frustrating. in other words...how dare mike steal my sister!! funny thing is i basically said all those things in my maid of honor speech at the reception...a little shocking for many guests. most come expecting hear people raving about how wonderful the wedding is & how happy they are. hmm...my speech was one of honesty about how difficult the whole thing was. i can still quote my last line, "abigail, i love you so much, and mike, i like you a lot. hopefully by christmas i can say i love you too." everyone laughed, but i was serious & my family knew it. to say i love you to someone i had only known for 4 years was really hard for me. thankfully mike was understanding and didn't hold a grudge against me!! that speech of mine was given 8 years ago and so much has changed since then...now i can appreciate what mike has brought to our family and love him as my brother. what can i say...change is hard for me.

scioto hills...

our youth group just got back from 247...a retreat at scioto hills camp. it was a really really good weekend. the weather was chilly but perfect; snow was on the ground and it snowed while we were there. this is the first time we had significant snow on the ground since i've been going...it was a lot of fun. since becoming a calstumi leader, this is the third time i've been able to go, and every year the time we spend together is amazing. just hanging around together and talking, playing, and laughing is wonderful. there were times when we shared deep thoughts and concerns, but also moments of insane silliness. i just love those times so much!! i'm pretty beat today after averaging 5 hours of sleep over 3 days, but it was worth it. every time our group goes it is a good time, except at the end last year when a bunch of our students got sick...other than that part though everything was good. this retreat is always a highlight for our students who go, and it is definitely something that i look forward to. the staff at the camp really work hard to make the time valuable and relaxing...i appreciate all the time they spend setting this stuff up. they allow a lot of time during the day to be open, of course there are activities to do but nothing we have to do...you can just sit around and relax if you want...or take a nap. =) it's cool that they do not structure every single minute of our time, but allow freedom to just be.

it was so good as a leader to see the students respond to the speaker and take heart what God was saying. at the end of a couple of evening sessions some of our students just got together and prayed alone. i love seeing them together praying...not when it is something they have to do but something they want to do. it encourages me that God is working in the lives of these students and it isn't something fake or put on just for the people around them. i was praying a lot going into this weekend that God would move in our youth group...now that prayer is that the students will remember that God did move and will continue to move throughout the school year. i'm so thankful that God has chosen to use me in this ministry.

what am i doing?

as a teacher in a christian school what am i doing? i often wonder if i am really helping them know who God is better and how to live...i wonder whether our school is just "christian" because the staff is and because it is on our sign. if we are a christian school i want there to be a difference in my students...not just the staff. i know i'm just working with middle school students and many aren't saved but...i really want those who are to begin now to stand out for God and be able to recognize his work. as much as i love teaching at a christian school, i find that the hardest part is for God to be interesting to the students. they hear about him in every class, study him in bible, and sing about him in chapel...they take him for granted when they hear so much. hmm...as i type that i am sheepishly smiling because i can be the same way too!!

back in the swing of things

well, school is back and flying along. it is almost the end of the first semester, which means halfway through the year. i can't believe we are about halfway through, which i guess is a good thing. i feel like christmas break didn't even happen...it went by so quickly. it also doesn't help that the weather has been insanely warm lately; i know a lot of people enjoy this warm streak...so good for you. i personally want some cold weather and several inches of snow, especially since as a teacher i would benefit from having a snow day. oh well, one perk to having the warm weather is that i don't have to clean my car off every morning. since i park my car outside, i usually end up cleaning it off every morning in a normal winter...so the one bright side is that my arm is not constantly sore from the heavy snow.

on a break!

i'm so excited; christmas break officially started 40 minutes ago. the school is quiet and no one else is here except another middle school teacher. i can't wait to wake up tomorrow knowing that i have no place important to be until 6:30 pm. even just typing that gives me a surge of energy! it's hard to explain how tired i am and just ready for a few days off. my students feel the same way...i know they do and it is a good thing. we all are in need of time away to rest, relax, and be with other people...and also not think about teaching/learning a lesson. this break is going to be phenomenal, not because i have tons of exciting plans, but just because it is time out of the ordinary.