Praise the Lord for the tree...

...in my neighbors yard
which he was walking behind
with his dog
in front of their house
across the street
where there were no cars
or kids
at the bottom of our inclined driveway
upon which our garage sits
where I park my car
that I got out of
and walked up the stairs
to punch the garage door button
only to look back and see

my car rolling out of the garage
down our inclined driveway
across the street
down the hill
into my neighbors yard
toward his house
where he was walking his dog
and into the tree.
Praise the Lord for the tree.

You must put your car in "Park" if you wish for it to remain that way.

Anybody looking to sell a good car?

Hurry and get here Turkey Day!

I am already ready already for Thanksgiving break! :) Here's a funny lil turkey day dance- turn up your music and listen. Click Here

A glimpse into my days at school...

Jason Grier had this (click here) very funny website link on his blog that lets you build yourself in legos! How fantastic! This is me at school... I wear my black Dansko shoes everyday or else my back is killin by the end of the day... lots of days a scarf.. around the waist or the neck... and most always I have my mug with hot tea. Jasmine green tea. With Splenda. Most days my hair starts off like this and ends up in a pony tail. Also, I keep my pencil in hand to mark down all the bad kids in my, "Ah-woo-woo" Behavior Log. It is getting quite full. Today, after the pep rally, I was walking in the crowded hall and somebody pulled my hair. Real Mature. Mmmm, I love high schoolers.

Thanks for the encouraging comments on the last post... I'm truckin along... report cards come out next week. I'm 1/4 of the way through the year! Yippee! :) I'm praying about next year. I love to teach, but I'm dying to get into a class with some Deaf kids. When they talk back it isn't quite as annoying. :) There's a job opening in Richland one teaching their middle school Deaf class. That'd be pretty sweet... except I'd have to drive 45 min. to work everyday. I'd spend my entire salary on transportation to and from! Oh well, it'll work out. The Lord is good like that.

one of those days

I walked into school at 7:30 this lovely Monday morning, to a parent standing at my door with her son. We spent about 30 minutes talking about how her son didn't finish my test and how I should've given him more time.

I wore my hair in braids today and walked out of my room first block to get some copies and hear one of my male students say, "what's up with her hair, she looks like she's from 1902!"

I spent all of my planning period second block on "Freetranslation.com" trying to type everything into the translator so that my new student, who happens to be Chinese and not speak one single word of English, would be able to have some sort of a clue what is going on around him.

I spent my entire lunch helping the same student try to open his locker with, what turns out was, the wrong combination.

Fourth block I was observed by an administrator and a man who our school paid a lot of money to come in and tell us how to do our "discipline plan" better. When they left, the student who was sitting in front of them, who could hear everything they were saying, proceeded to tell the class that they were talking about how I didn't do the discipline plan right.

A girl in the same class saw my Bible on my desk and attitudely asked, "Uuhhhh, are teachers allowed to have those?"

And I got my second paycheck. $691.70 I've been working since August 31 getting there at 7:30 and leaving at about 5:30 everyday.

Every sad, depressing song you can think of was on the radio when I drove home. I repeatedly told it to "be quiet" and turned the station until I finally turned it off. Listening to it was like pouring syrup on chocolate chip and caramel pancakes; just too much.

I think I'm gonna grab a book and turn in early tonight.

EEEEEEEKKKK!

Seeing as how I don't really have a whole lot of free time these days, i decided to seize this opportunity of a day off to clean out my garage which was still packed to the brim with boxes from college. So I start digging and I come across my basket of knitting things and as I was bringing them in, something squirmed out of the bottem, down my leg and under some other boxes. All I saw was a tail. And let me just say that I don't think I have ever gone to hoopin and hollerin the way I did when that think skidded down my leg.

Have you ever seen the commercial where the little toe nail fungus lefts up the nail and slithers in, his tail wagging behind... (eegghh) that is exactly what it looked like.

Turns out our garage had become infested with mice. EEeewwww! We had to take all the boxes out, dump out the contents in the front yard and Benjamin stood there with a shovel and pounded them into the ground. (He did a lot more than little bunny foo- foo)

And I thought roaches were bad...

Pyrex

So tomorrow is Game Day. Well, I guess it's today since it's 12:01. One of my favorite parts of football season is tailgating. I've written blogs before on food. It's just good stuff. I think it's neat how Jesus says we'll have a FEAST with him... as a Silars Bald song says, "We'll feast with the saints at His banqueting table and laugh with those that He's called his own..." I like that. It makes me excited and anticipatory (not sure that's a word).

So tonight I was getting ready for the Feast that is the beginning of the Clemson football season. I sat down, made my list and scooted off to Walmart to get some groceries. Well everybody and their BROTHER obviously thinks it's a good idea to get their weekly groceries at Walmart on friday night at 9:00. I read through an entire People Magazine while I was waiting in line to check out!

So I came home and was making one of my favorite tailgating treats: creamy crescents. Mmm, Mmm... they're tasty. And I was also (and therein lies the key to what prompted this late night blog) cooking some chicken to put in a dip for tomorrow. The chicken was done, so I moved it over to the other side of the stove and pulled the crescents out of the oven to cool. I set them on the stove and walked over to the sink to start on some dishes. I'm scrubbing away at the pots and there is this loud EXPLOSION behind me, and I think we've been bombed. Well, I turn around and my entire kitchen is covered in tiny bits of glass and my crescents are smoking on the front burner... I forgot to turn it off.

Apparently Pyrex wasn't made for the stovetop :)

(Random memory that just poppped into my head: When I was registering at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for wedding stuff, the guy was showing me around the kitchen section and was trying to sell me on this great OXO brand measuring cup. And I was trying to politely tell him that I didn't want to buy it and I said, "Oh, I already have a lot of Playtex... I don't think I need any more." He stood there a minute with this slightly embarrassed look on his face and we moved on... it wasn't til I got in the car that I realized what I'd said. Oh my.)

I'm still alive..

Yes, there have been reports that I have dropped off the face of the earth, but do not listen to them, I am still alive and kickin. Actually, I would define it more like this: alive and paddling. Yep. Paddling. I'm just trying to keep my head above water and paddling like crazy to do so! I never knew there would be a time in my life that I had no time. I mean, it's like monday morning when I step out of bed, somebody hits a stopwatch and says, "Go!," and it's a race 'til friday. The week feels like one long day without a break. I came home this past friday and went to sleep at 6:00 and woke up at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Can you say, "POOPED!?"

Teachers do not get paid near enough. Everybody always says that, but I mean it. It's ridiculous. A beginning teachers salary in SC is $28, 608. I am there at 7:15 every morning and it is rare that I leave before 6:00. And when I leave, I don't "leave." It comes home with me in some form or another. Papers to grade, lessons to plan, parents to call... it's insane, really. It blows my mind how people do this their whole lives. PLUS, I still haven't gotten paid. I am basically volunteering right now. New teachers don't get paid until Sept. 9th. (Unless you jumped through a hoop that I didn't realize you were supposed to jump through until it was too late) All that to say, I'm alive, but I don't quite have this whole "life" thing down pat yet. Each week gets a little smoother, but whew.. it's been a bumpy ride so far.

I don't know what I would do if it hadn't been for Benjamin. He's been my calming wind these past few weeks. Even now, it's precious to be to see how the Lord has blessed me with a husband who can calm my soul when it's all swirling. He's been so helpful and understanding about the "wifely duties" that I've been slack on.. He's been light-hearted and easy going. Last week he took me Kayaking down to Saluda river and boy did we have a ball. So the "marriage" part of life has been a delight and refreshing as I've entered into this world of "adulthood." I must say I did my fair share of complaining in collge about late-night studies and the like.. but now that I'm here, I must say the grass isn't as green as I thought it'd be... Maybe it's just different grass is all.. This life is about seasons I suppose.. each has their own positives and negatives. Each one is sweet in their own ways. This season is hard in one sense, because I am working very hard and without much rest, but I think the Lord is blessing me through it because if it was easy, I'd be depending on myself... now, I'm weak, and through that, He is strong. Praise Him!

Blogging really is theraputic for me.. so maybe I'll try and get back in the swing.. we'll see.. if you'd like to keep up with what I'm teaching my classes you can go to my beautiful (yeah right) website:
https://www.edline.net/pages/White_Knoll_High_School/Classes/322200CW-03
or this one for my physical science classes:
https://www.edline.net/pages/White_Knoll_High_School/Classes/321101HW-06

I am supposed to update them everyday... we'll see how that goes..

Benjamin's been walking around the house singing "Tiger Rag." We're so excited about going back up to Tiger town next weekend! He's excited about the football and I'm excited about seeing all the faces I've missed these past few months. It's going to be a fun time.. and my Dad and Mrs. J. are even coming... my Dad is especially thrilled about that! :) Life is good.. and I am not sure the ride is ever smooth. Maybe it was meant to be like this.. who likes to ride on a flat roller coaster?!

Why a roller coaster...?

...I don't know, but that is what I think about when I look at my life. But not the kind of roller coaster thought that relates to ups and downs. My roller coaster thoughts are little different. Here's my brain in an analogy:

It's "get-in-free-day" at Six flags amusement park, so everybody and their brother is there. Everybody is waiting in line to get on the awesomest roller coaster in the park, so naturally I am in line too. I've used up all my tickets and I can ride one more ride. As I'm in line for the awesome roller coaster, I'm looking around at all the other roller coasters that are there. They aren't the coolest ones, but each has a unique quality about it that I kinda dig. So after waiting in line for this incredible roller coaster that everybody else is dying to ride, I decide at the last minute to let somebody else go ahead of me and use my ticket on a different ride.

I am the worst second guesser that there ever was. I live my life this way and it drives me crazy. I wish someone could and would put a stop to the madness that is my decision making ability.

It's times like these I'm thankful for predestination. :)

This... is a rainbow maker. I bought it off ebay. It has a solar panel that generates electricty enough to turn the gears and spin the crystal. It creates little rainbows that spin and twirl and dance around my house. It is most delightful. :)

Here's our home. We live on cobbleview drive. I like the street name and the neighborhood! The boys had been living here for about 9 months... so the following pics are after there's been a womans touch :) And a lot of woman elbow grease as well :)

come on in...

I put up new curtains and bamboo blinds.. you can't really see the blinds cause it's daytime.. i want to get one of those fans with the big wicker fan blades... if I can talk B into it... we'll see :)

from the foyer into the living room

looking out of the kitchen

looking into the kitchen

our room

our bathroom

our closet. It took me a while to get it all organized and my husband consistantly tries to revert back to his old ways of closet keeping... piles

guest/ children (not for a while, hopefully!) rooms

guest bath

the back deck

The back yard... I always forget to water the ferns... and there will be flower bed eventually. And a vegetable garden. Yum!

My sweet sister Ashley came over and helped me transition my laundry room from drab to fab! We had a great time painting... we laughed the whole time. Some of the days discussion included: "wouldn't it be nice if paint cans came with little men." as well as "Do you think the guy at the paint store would take me seriously if I walked in and said, I would like to paint my kitchen the color of my toenails, can you hook me up?"

Almost done!

Yay! A downy blue laundry room! Bring on the dirty clothes!