Roller Coaster

Wow. In the past week there have been a lot of ups and downs. I was blissfully happy enjoying every second of life. Then Sunday my mom went to the emergency room for severe stomach pains. I started freaking out, naturally, and Alex and I drove in to Lee's Summit to see her at the hospital. On the way to LS, Alex's car started overheating about 1/2 mile away from my mom's house. We kept driving until we got there, praying that we'd make it safely to my mom's. Once we got there, Alex went next door to ask our mechanic neighbor what the problem was. He told Alex what happened and what he needed to buy to fix it. Alex took my mom's car to buy the part and more coolant and came back. The neighbor came over and made sure Alex knew how to fix and and then left. To drive to Florida with his family. If they had left even 10 minutes earlier, we would have had no idea what to do besides tow it to a shop to have them fix it. And it would have cost a whole lot more than the 22 bucks it cost us to buy the part. An amazing Godsend during a potentially stress inducing incident. God totally answered our prayers of getting us there safely, and then some.

Back to my mom.

She was admitted overnight and the cat scan showed that there was something blocking the contents of her stomach from entering her intestines. So they had to stick a tube up her nose, down her throat, and into her stomach to get everything out of her stomach and relieve some of the pressure. I spent the night in the hospital room with her and Alex stayed with my siblings at my mom's house. The next morning they took the tube out and put a little camera scope down into her stomach and 12 inches beyond to see if they could figure out what the blockage was. The doctor found nothing unusual. Then came the barium drinking and x rays of her intestines/small bowel to see if they could find anything that way. By the time the x rays were finished, my mom was feeling much much better. She stayed overnight again, but this time I didn't stay with her. Alex and I got home that night around 11ish. My mom was released the next evening, with the only explanation of her pain being that she has screwed up twisty intestines (obviously they did not say it in those words :)). The pain was relieved not by what they did, but her body just did it naturally. More answered prayers. Many people were praying for my mom and her healing. God answered those prayers.

I was reflecting on these incidents and felt very peaceful and I knew that people had been praying for my strength during this time as well. I felt so encouraged that God was taking such incredible care of us during a hard couple of days. I have a fear of things in my life being too good, from when we came back from the honeymoon to a burned down apartment. I get this horrible feeling that if I get too happy, something bad will happen to destroy my happiness. I was on cloud nine until I found out my mom was in the hospital. But then that all was resolved and I felt like maybe I found stable ground.

Until Tuesday night.

Tuesday night I got ready for the shower just like I always do, and put my wedding/engagement ring in the same place I always do when I shower...on the dresser. I thought to myself about how I put all my jewelry there, and it is a wonder that our cats never mess with it. Boy was I wrong. A few hours after the shower, after Alex and I got done watching Monsters, Inc, I went to put my ring on before I went to bed. But it wasn't there. The rest of my jewelry was, but not my ring. I asked Alex if he moved it, he of course replied that the last time he saw it, I was wearing it. I started to look for it, and I noticed that Rumpy (our youngest of the two cats) had pulled two hair ties off the dresser as well and took one into the kitchen, and one into the living room. I looked everywhere for the ring, expecting to find it within a few minutes. Nope. Alex helped me look. Still no luck. We looked for at least 2 hours and didn't find it. We went to sleep and looked for hours upon hours more the next day. Still nothing. I'd like to note that our apartment is 743 square feet, so there really aren't that many places it could be. I looked all day today again. I still. haven't. found. my. wedding ring! It has been really hard emotionally for me. I don't have my wedding dress because it was lost in the fire, if I don't find my wedding ring and don't have either of those very important and sentimental items, I think I might lose it.

The maddening thing about it is that I know it's in the apartment somewhere! It is here and I just can't find it. I have run out of places to look. You name it, and I've looked there. Fifteen times. And so has Alex. Now I'm just waiting for it to show up randomly someday like everyone keeps telling me it will.

I sure hope it does. I am praying that it will.

PS- We leave for our Cruise at 530 Saturday morning and I am determined not to let it ruin our wonderful trip!

Livin the good life!

I feel like my life is too good to be true lately. After everything that happened last year I am so thankful to have smooth sailing now. The fear of coming home to a burned down apartment again is fading away. I think the transition to the new apartment really helped with that. Its a lot easier to heal when you aren't living 150 yards away from the thing that caused you so much pain.

I graduated from college on Saturday, May 8th. I graduated. I made it! Now I am in full blown summer mode and slept until 11:30 today. :) I plan on soaking up every second of my relaxing summer break before I enter the extremely different and difficult real world. In the next couple weeks I will find out which school I will be teaching at this fall. Eek! I'm excited, nervous, and super duper pumped!

Alex and I are going on a cruise in 11 days! After we get back I'm going to visit my favorite munchkins for the last three days of school. After that I will be nannying part time for three awesome kids in Lee's Summit. There is an incredible pool down the street from their house, they eat lunchables or chicken nuggets for lunch everyday, and have the most extensive dvd collection I've ever seen. Did I mention their parents have very few rules yet somehow the kids turned out amazing?!

Plans for today:

• Wake up at 11:30. Brush teeth and hair.
• Put in season 3, disk 5 of Gilmore Girls. Watch 2 episodes while blogging.
• Eat yogurt.
• Work out
• Stalk my students on facebook for ten minutes. (I created a teacher facebook so I can keep up with their lives when I don't get to see them daily. :))
• Shower.
• Read.
• Hang out with Alex when he gets off work.
• Eat dinner.
• Sleep. 

I'm telling you, my life is beyond amazing right now!

busyness (I really like that word)

I really have no idea how people find the time to blog daily or even every other day! Maybe it's just that blogging still hasn't become a part of my routine, but I really do not understand how people find time to blog daily...it amazes me!

We have a lot going on in our life these days.

• busy packing for the move
• making preparations for the move
• finishing up student teaching/my teacher work sample
• graduating in 11 days
• going to various hurrahs for my almost-graduatedness and shin digs for my scholarship/academic study program
• enjoying brookside as much as possible before we move!

Tomorrow I am going to visit one of my student's homes and meet her grandma who she lives with. She is also gonna show me where she likes to hang out and what she does in her neighborhood. I'm really excited!

Today one of my students matter of factly pointed out the zit between my eyebrows. He wasn't being rude, just observant. He then pointed out that he also has a pimple there on his forehead in the same spot. :) He sure got a kick out of that. 12-year-olds don't judge you for having pimples because they are at the prime age to start getting them!

I am so lucky to have Alex as my husband. He does so much for me, just because he loves me and desires to put me and my needs above his! I hope I can be as good of a spouse as he is someday. :)

I really like people. Every person is so different and fascinating and wonderful in their own unique way.

I have an awesomely blessed life.

spirit week

Now that I am a teacher, I actually participate in spirit week. I think a lot of my participation now has to do with the fact that I no longer care what people think of me.

Today was 80s day

I rocked a side pony.

A lot of students told me I looked pretty today...either they felt sorry for me, or the 80s look really suits me. I also got asked multiple times if I was wearing a weave. Oh, cultural differences....:)

I should really get to work on my teacher work sample. But for some reason I am highly unmotivated. Senioritis? Possibly. It's just weird because this is the most relevant assignment I've ever had, but I can't get myself to do it. Probably because I've already taught all the lessons and reflected on them on my own, and feel like this assignment is just a trivial afterthought for me.

Sunday is my favorite sister's birthday...she's gonna be 16! ahh!

She's pretty daaaang awesome.

Birthday!!

What a fabulous 22nd birthday I've had.

• New camera from my mom for birthday/graduation.
• Favorite season of Gilmore Girls on DVD from Molly. (My favorite thing to watch when I am sick or having a rough day.)
• Enjoying God book from Jordan. I read this when I was in high school but never finished it before I gave my copy away. This was also what I gave her for her birthday last November. (A different copy of course. :))
• A gift card to my favorite coffee shop The Roasterie from my dad.
• A really awesome mummy-style sleeping bag from my older brother.
• A t-shirt from Alex that says Math Has Serious Problems.
• And for my birthday/graduation present from my wonderful husband, we are going on a cruise May 22nd-May 27th!!! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. :)

This morning Alex and I skipped church and walked to The Roasterie. It was a glorious morning and I'm glad I got to start my birthday off in such a peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable day. If you hadn't noticed, I'm pretty fond of going on walks with my love.

This evening we went on a walk and I used my schnazzy new camera to take some sweet pics.

On the Trolley Trail at the bottom of the hill of our apartment.

I love tulips! 

Alex picked a little flower and put it in my hair.

Fabulous day

I had a lovely day today...actually it has been a really great week overall. But today seemed especially enjoyable. I'm not sure if it was because I had leftover homemade blackberry cobbler for dessert in my lunch, or if it was the half hour walk with my husband after school, or getting reassurance about my future as an educator; but I'd have to say that today was delightful.

I have a million stories, quotes, and anecdotes about my students running through my head right now. It would take me forever to write them all down and it would probably bore all 2 of my readers...who have probably heard them all already anyway! So I'm just going to say that I am amazed by my students every day. They are so fascinating, smart, funny, honest, athletic, talented, and so many other things. I really feel lucky to be a part of their lives. I like thinking that God knew exactly where he was guiding my steps, and he knew that I would make it to this exact stage in my life. He knew how much these kids would impact my life and change me into a better teacher and more understanding person.

I'm glad that God is God, and I am not. I woulda really screwed my life up.

Lalalalalalalalife is wonderful

I lead a great life. Instead of rigorously detailing everything that has happened in my life since my last post, I will give you a list of bullet points....these are the highlights of the past week or so.

• Going to the lake and having no clocks, cell phone service, or internet. Having no concept of time makes the days go by nice and slow.
• Hiking a 2.5 mile trail at Ha Ha Tonka Park. (It felt waaaay longer than 2.5 miles.) 
• Eating gorp (aka trail mix) while sitting on a rock during our hike.
• Spending time with my bff Brittany. She treated me to a pedicure and bought me a super cute purse for my birthday. (Which is this coming Sunday if you were wondering. :))
• Alex showing me what true love is by holding my hair back when I threw up the hamburger I ate for dinner. Now that I eat healthier, greasy food makes me sick. 
• I've lost 9 pounds so far...I still have a ways to go, but I am celebrating each pound being shed!
• This weekend I racked in the Starbucks gift cards...I was given $40 to spend as I please at Starbucks. That'll buy me quite a few iced coffees. :)
• Look at this tree that got knocked over in a little microburst that happened Friday. 

Exciting news: Alex and I are moving to Olathe! We found a really, really great apartment that has everything we wanted in a new place. We are super stoked even though pretty much everyone we know is confused as to why we're moving. But I realized something today as I was taking a walk outside in the glorious 75 degree weather...the best things in my life are all the things that people tried to talk me out of doing. Going to Uganda...3 times. Teaching middle school math in an urban school. Getting married at 21. Reflecting on this has made me even more excited to move. Whenever I encounter opposition in a decision, it always turns out spectacular. 

Today was the first day back from spring break and it was so very wonderful to see the 120 faces of my students so eager to be back in school. I love those kids. 

Spring Break!

Today is the first day of spring break, and my how wonderful it is! The weather is warming up by the minute and Alex and I ate at Eggtc for brunch. Aaaaand to top off a wonderful morning/afternoon, one of my best friends Jordan is coming over and we are gonna walk to The Roasterie. Oh and I'm going to wear my cut off jean shorts for the first time this season and I have newly shaven legs! It's going to be weird shaving more than once every three weeks...I forgot what that's like.

Tomorrow Alex and I leave to go to the lake until Friday. It's supposed to be in the upper 70s and lower 80s while we're there. So. Excited! We'll be going shopping, walking, hiking, and maybe even a little bit of laying out in the sun. :)

• I love spring break.
• I love when God gives you peace about a certain situation you've been praying about.
• I have the best husband in the world. He's hilarious. And an incredible preacher.
• Only 13 days til my 22nd birthday. Only 40 days until I graduate from college
• I'm excited to get a new camera in the near future. When I do, expect frequent picture updates.

Psalm 51:12

Restore me to the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

I highly recommend reading and meditating on Psalm 51. It's my new fave.

oh, how time passes!

Tomorrow is my last official day of my ten week student teaching....this means that I will no longer be the one planning lessons and being the sole teacher. I will still be helping out in the classroom, but I will be more of a co-teacher than the one in charge. I really never thought this day would come. I remember my freshman year of college like it was only a few months ago!

My students have changed my life in so many ways. Student teaching has changed my life in so many ways. I love making new discoveries and strides in my teaching ability. I love that my husband encourages me in my teaching aspirations and never (well rarely) asks me to tone down the amount of time I spend talking about my students. 

• I cannot believe that Alex and I have been  married for almost 8 months! Thats practically a year!
• Spring break is next week! Alex and I are going to the lake Tuesday-Friday and will be out of communication with the world...we won't even have cell phone service! I am so excited to be able to spend so much time with my love! Did I mention it is supposed to be in the seventies all next week?!?! 
• Speaking of nice weather, I am so glad it is scooter riding season! I can't explain how much my insides bubble up with joy those first few scooter rides of the season. :) I love seeing people's reactions to us on Alex's bright yellow scooter. 
• Molly (my sister) is spending the night on Saturday. Super pumped about that! She is definitely one of my favorite people on the planet. 

Today while my students were working on a project on the laptops, I noticed that one boy was completely zoning, and periodically looking at my boots. (They are mustard yellow and I wore a purple jumper dress today.) I walked over and asked him if he needed help with the assignment, and he told me he was just trying to figure out why I always wear these boots whenever I wear this dress. I told him it was because purple and yellow are my favorite colors so I love wearing them at the same time. He gave me a funny look and said, "That don't match," and got back to work. :)

I am so excited to hear Alex preach this Palm Sunday. He is amazing and inspires me to be a better person on a daily basis!

Most hilarious note ever written.

One of my students, Johniese, paid one of my other students, Kayla, to write a note to Johniese's boyfriend Deonte. The reasoning was that Kayla has much better handwriting and is better at writing in general. The finished product is this...(I made sure to type it exactly how it was written.)

        Deonte,

You mean so much to me. You iz my boo! Everything about you, i mean you just so perfect! You just got this swagg, that I can't get over. So SEXIE, so sweet, so dope! You know that I got mad feelings for you, and if you didn't know you know now. You are one of the most special people to me, and I want you to know, meeting you was a blessing. You will always have a special place in my heart! Now you know, this is how I feel about you. 

<3 By: Johniese!

             Love,

            Yo boo!

Did I mention that Johniese is 12 and Deonte is 11?!?!?!?!

I laughed for a solid 5 minutes when Deonte showed it to me. He agrees, 11 is far too young to be in love. He promised he would wait until at least 18 to fall in love. :) 

69 degrees!

Today after school, Alex and I took a walk to the Roasterie. It is between a 15 and 20 minute walk depending on how fast you are moving. Since it was so beautiful outside, we sat on the patio. (I had an iced coffee and he had a Foo-Foo Berry Jones Soda.) Just sitting there enjoying the sunshine, the coffee, and the time with my love lifted my spirits. On our way back home, we decided to jog part of the way and ran up the very steep hill that our apartment sits atop. There is something about running that really makes me feel in touch with the world. It's physically very difficult for me, but I enjoy the endorphins. :)

Things.

• Three days til spring break!
• Luigi (our 1.5 year old cat) groomed Rumpy (our new 12 week old kitten) today. A big step for their relationship.
• Alex is preaching this Sunday!
• I. love. spring!

Today one of my students put his finger in my nose. Then said I was gross....I of course replied that I wasn't the one putting my finger in someone else's nose! (Yes, this is the same student that farted on his friend. Most of my stories tend to be about him. :))

Psalm 18: 46- The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted!

I haven't blogged since the days of Xanga!

I finally stopped talking about getting a blog, and actually got one! (with much help from my wonderful husband Alex.)
Blogging is an interesting concept, because you are writing without knowing who your intended audience is, besides random people on the internet. Writing without knowing who your audience is feels very freeing but also quite constraining. I may edit myself one way if I know a certain person will be reading this, and a very different way if I knew someone else were to read it. So with that in mind, I have decided to make this blog a very transparent view of my life....well, as transparent as I can get on the internet.

These are the things that are on my mind:

• What else can I do for my students to get them engaged in learning, and enjoy it?! I feel overwhelmed by the amount of apathy and anger my students bring with them to school every day. I care about them so much and desperately want the best for them.
• I turn 22 in 20 days!
• I graduate College May 8th. Wow that is close.
• I have lost 6.4 pounds in the past three weeks. I joined weight watchers 4 weeks ago and I absolutely love it. I have quite a road ahead of myself if I plan to get my weight into the healthy BMI range, but I am super psyched about it.
• I miss traveling. I miss Uganda. I miss my kiddos there.

I think I want to end my blog posts with a funny story about my students, and an encouraging Bible verse.

No matter how much education you receive, and how confident you are in your teaching ability, nothing prepares you for what kind of action you should take when one of your students stands up, walks over to another student, puts his butt up against the other student, looks at you, and lets out the loudest, juiciest fart you've ever heard. :) (To be honest, I tried to be mad but couldn't contain my laughter. Luckily the boys are pretty much best friends, so they laughed too and got over it quickly)

Ephesians 4: 29- Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.