i've been called a lot of things, but...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Can I have a different spice, please?
There was no repeat champion of the Frank Seale Spelling Bee this year. B was ready to go. This morning he woke up and said in Nacho Libre voice, "I want to weiin!" He had studied, but sometimes it just doesn't go your way. He made it easily down to the final 10 of 35, and was smelling certain victory, right up until the point when the caller said to him, "cinnamon." My immediate thought was, "He knows this," since I had called that word out to him before and he spelled it correctly. But then my very next thought was, "OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" when he paused with uncertainty and then asked for...a definition? And then a sentence? With B, if the spelling isn't out there in 2.3 seconds, it's probably not coming out right. I think he froze. And as he was standing there frozen, in my head I was begging for there to be a great disturbance in which they would feel led to give him a new word. A new spice, even....oregano, cilantro, cumin. But there was no great disturbance, and out came an unsteady, "C-I-N-A-MMON." His dream of a rematch with Amy Cho and somebody named Patel will not come to fruition, until maybe next year!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I don't even have to embellish this story
This weekend we had our annual Hi Def event for our students (your church probably calls this same event Disciple Now). Anyway, we did things differently this year, taking the whole crew out to Mt. Lebanon for the whole thing. This might have been brilliant if 1) it weren't painfully cold and 2) the cabin's heater worked better in the wee hours of the night and 3) the juniper trees weren't doing whatever they do to cause massive swelling of the sinus cavities, sneezing, sniffling, itchy & watery eyes, and even swelling of the FACE in one unfortunate middle-schooler's case. I brought B home Sat. evening in hopes that he might be able to breathe. Sadly for him, and me since he slept with me Sat. night, it didn't work.
Actually, we did have a great weekend overall. We had about 90 students and another 15-20 adults. We had some really good worship leaders and C taught the large group sessions based on Bill Hybel's Living Beyond Myself, and of course, the B-I-B-L-E. We were all challenged to serve one another. I'm not sure it took w/ B, though. In our post Hi-Def lunchtime conversation, his focus on the whole experience seemed to be late-night cabin activities such as mattress surfing and wrestling (the boys had made their own wrestling ring with about 10-15 mattresses. He is just in the 7th grade, though, so I guess that's pretty normal. I heard that he shared in the large group time this morning that he learned that God will call him to serve in ways that he'll like..."but if He calls me to serve in a beauty salon or something, I won't do that. I'll just wait for Him to call me to serve somewhere else." he may be small in stature, but he is a spiritual GIANT. :-)
But back to coldness. I'm watching the NYG/GB football game where it is -4 degrees. and there are people there who don't even have to play in the game. I can't fathom that, because it was 20-something degrees at Mt. Lebanon this weekend and I thought my ears might break right off.
Actually, we did have a great weekend overall. We had about 90 students and another 15-20 adults. We had some really good worship leaders and C taught the large group sessions based on Bill Hybel's Living Beyond Myself, and of course, the B-I-B-L-E. We were all challenged to serve one another. I'm not sure it took w/ B, though. In our post Hi-Def lunchtime conversation, his focus on the whole experience seemed to be late-night cabin activities such as mattress surfing and wrestling (the boys had made their own wrestling ring with about 10-15 mattresses. He is just in the 7th grade, though, so I guess that's pretty normal. I heard that he shared in the large group time this morning that he learned that God will call him to serve in ways that he'll like..."but if He calls me to serve in a beauty salon or something, I won't do that. I'll just wait for Him to call me to serve somewhere else." he may be small in stature, but he is a spiritual GIANT. :-)
But back to coldness. I'm watching the NYG/GB football game where it is -4 degrees. and there are people there who don't even have to play in the game. I can't fathom that, because it was 20-something degrees at Mt. Lebanon this weekend and I thought my ears might break right off.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tutorial
It's funny how just 4 hours a week can seem so huge. I usually try to write a session of LifeWay curriculum each week, but I'm having trouble getting that done now that I'm tutoring 4-5th graders in math every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure I'll get it down eventually...hopefully before the end of April, which is when my tutelage ends.
Every Monday and Wednesday I sail through the first 3 groups thinking, "I could do this again...I could go back to the classroom full time." Here's a for instance: my precious 4th graders somehow got on the topic of church as they entered the room yesterday. One boy asked another, "Have you been bath-tized?" And the next group follows them up each time with equal endearment. We're working on memorizing multiplication facts. I have discovered that none of them have bothered to do this in the past, causing much angst over math and certain failure on the TAKS. So we take timed tests. They're given a page of 25 problems covering one set of facts (they all started with the 3s) and 90 seconds (this is quite generous on my part) in which they must complete them all with 100% accuracy. When they pass that test, they get to move on to the 4s, and so on. I had given each of the kids their appropriate test and was about to start the stopwatch when one little girl said, "WAIT! I have one more important thing to do first, and it's called prayer." I smiled and said ok and the others and I watched as she bowed her head and spent a few moments asking God to help her pass the 6s. See what I mean? precious.
But then in walks my 4th and final group where I'm reminded loud and clear that this is not so much fun after all. It's a shame that this group must come last, leaving me greatly annoyed and even mean at the end of the day. Perhaps this is God's way of telling me that I'm doing exactly what He wants me to do right now. On the other hand, it could just be that there is no perfect job!
Every Monday and Wednesday I sail through the first 3 groups thinking, "I could do this again...I could go back to the classroom full time." Here's a for instance: my precious 4th graders somehow got on the topic of church as they entered the room yesterday. One boy asked another, "Have you been bath-tized?" And the next group follows them up each time with equal endearment. We're working on memorizing multiplication facts. I have discovered that none of them have bothered to do this in the past, causing much angst over math and certain failure on the TAKS. So we take timed tests. They're given a page of 25 problems covering one set of facts (they all started with the 3s) and 90 seconds (this is quite generous on my part) in which they must complete them all with 100% accuracy. When they pass that test, they get to move on to the 4s, and so on. I had given each of the kids their appropriate test and was about to start the stopwatch when one little girl said, "WAIT! I have one more important thing to do first, and it's called prayer." I smiled and said ok and the others and I watched as she bowed her head and spent a few moments asking God to help her pass the 6s. See what I mean? precious.
But then in walks my 4th and final group where I'm reminded loud and clear that this is not so much fun after all. It's a shame that this group must come last, leaving me greatly annoyed and even mean at the end of the day. Perhaps this is God's way of telling me that I'm doing exactly what He wants me to do right now. On the other hand, it could just be that there is no perfect job!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Gifting by the H's
We got ourselves some super cool Christmas gifts this year. Check out the awesomeness:
C got me a massage table and a hoodie (completely unrelated, in case you were wondering)
I got him a book called "Massage Basics" :-). That was mostly for grins, his real gift was a Home Depot gift card, with which he has since purchased -
one garage door keypad
one cooling system (like the misters at Six Flags) to go over the garage for more comfortable basketball playing and back porch for more comfortable summer sitting.
B got the Weider Total Body Works 5000, which is a neato resistance-based workout system thingy that the whole fam has already used
A got some good stuff, too, but hers are pretty much only to be enjoyed by herself. Unless you count the iPod she got, which has so far ended all car pestering and complaints.
now you comment me about your most favorite Christmas gift this year!
C got me a massage table and a hoodie (completely unrelated, in case you were wondering)
I got him a book called "Massage Basics" :-). That was mostly for grins, his real gift was a Home Depot gift card, with which he has since purchased -
one garage door keypad
one cooling system (like the misters at Six Flags) to go over the garage for more comfortable basketball playing and back porch for more comfortable summer sitting.
B got the Weider Total Body Works 5000, which is a neato resistance-based workout system thingy that the whole fam has already used
A got some good stuff, too, but hers are pretty much only to be enjoyed by herself. Unless you count the iPod she got, which has so far ended all car pestering and complaints.
now you comment me about your most favorite Christmas gift this year!
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