Student Return + State Assessment = One Stressed out Teacher!

You will hopefully remember that I have had two students who got really sick. One with H1N1 and the other with a genetic kidney disease. I just wanted to give all of you a brief update.

Grace-She has still not returned to school, though she is out of the hospital. I have met with her a few times to provide Home Based tutoring. She is such a little warrior. Grace had surgery a few weeks ago on her trachea, which was severely damaged during her time in the coma. She had a voice box that she used to speak. I think I was more nervous about meeting together than she was. She was so excited to finally have school! This time has ended up being a blessing for me. Please continue to pray for her, as she still has a long road ahead of her :)

Dustin-This guy is another little warrior. The disease he has attacks his kidneys. He will eventually have to go on Dialysis, and then have a transplant. The first transplant is not expected to work, so they will have to try another one...but they won't do more than two! Despite all of this, Dustin has been able to return to school.

This time has been a mixture of excitement and stress. Before Dustin returned, I had to learn how to take blood pressure because his needs to be taken regularly. I also need to look for signs of how he is feeling, and know when/if I need to call for an ambulance. When I talked to the nurse about why he was allowed to return to school, with all of these health concerns, she said it was so that his last days would be as normal as possible. Talk about breaking my heart! I don't know how to be the teacher that he needs. I know God will provide this for me though. Please pray for this situation and for Dustin.

State Testing-Our state tests begin on Monday. We will take our math test beginning on Monday. I am very nervous about these. I have a few interesting students in my class who make me nervous about doing well on the test. I am praying that God would quiet this anxiety in both mine and my students' hearts. I have tried extremely hard to make this experience as positive as possible for my kiddos. It will not be a stressful time. I may be stressed, but my students will hopefully not pick up on that. My room has been transformed. I (and a group of special helpers) made and hung up posters with encouraging words to hang around the room. I am so excited to see my kids faces when they walk in on Monday!

Please Pray :) Love all of you that are reading this and am so lucky to have you in my life!

Parent Teacher Conferences...What the Heck??

These last few days have been some of the most stressful up to this point in my teaching career. Parent-Teacher Conferences had me second guessing myself on everything that I have ever done this school year. My confidence level was a 1 on a scale of 1 to 100...not exaggerating either! By the end of day 1, my confidence had not improved!

CONFERENCE 1
The first conference was with a student that I really enjoy (I do enjoy all of them). I was glad that his conference was first because his mom and I have a pretty good relationship. I figured that I would be able to get the jitters out with this one, which was definitely not the case! First, mom let the baby brother out of his stroller and instructed my student to watch him during the conference. The baby found everything to get into. It didn't seem to bother mom though because she was able to stay focused. Next thing I know, out of the corner of my eye, I see the baby take a pencil and try to put it in his mouth. My student ran to stop him. In the process he knocked a chair off a desk, fell down, and the chair landed on his finger! Screaming and tears followed soon after. Mom looked at him and then turned back to me to continue on with conferences...WTH?? Wouldn't you have wanted to check on your son?? My student then asked to go get a drink. He didn't make it out the door, however. He stopped at a trashcan and THREW UP instead!! Again, mom looked at him and then turned back to me to continue on with conferences...WTH? I then had to tell her to take her son home for the night. Not only had he gotten sick, but his finger was huge!

When school started the next day, in he comes walking through the door...after having been sick 10 hours earlier. His finger was still huge and purple! I sent him to the nurse for ice immediately. The nurse took one look at it and called mom. After a trip to the ER, I found out that my student did indeed break his finger!

Happy to report that conferences did improve, minus the parent who told me that I was dumb and an idiot for thinking her student wasn't gifted (keep in mind, this third grader reads below grade level)...WTH??

What are some people thinking??

What a Year!!

The year is already off to a wonderful start. I can't believe that I just finished my first quarter as a first year teacher! Parent Teacher Conferences are this week...please pray for me! I am excited to meet with parents and get to chat about their child. My kids are so wonderful. Still, I am nervous about talking to parents. If you know me at all, you know that I'm not so great with with confrontation. I don't anticipate any, but you never know :)

On a sadder noter, please continue to pray for my student Grace. This link gives more information about her and her condition. I think that she is going to be featured on ABC nightly news. Grace is such a sweetie and needs lots and lots of prayers!

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FNightline%2FSwineFluNews%2Fswine-flu-stories-young-victims-h1n1%2Fstory%3Fid%3D8827490%26page%3D2&h=ba747c0b91c875a0e21bdc9b031c8100

My Return!

Two years ago, I had the amazing opportunity to travel overseas to share the Good News. Father has once again presented me with a chance to serve him. I cannot believe how life has changed in the two years that have passed since my first visit! JC has become such an important part of my life and revealed his faithfulness many times over. I feel so blessed to once again get the chance to share about his grace and precious gift...himself. Life overseas was definitely a challenge. Public buses, a foreign language, etc were very taxing both physically and mentally. I really had to trust Father to provide and SURPRISE! he did :) The good things far outweighed the challenges. The Good News came alive to the people. 12 came to be brothers and sisters. How could one doubt that Father is good? Pr-s were answered then, and I know they will be once again. This Christmas, I will once again travel overseas to take classes, share, and love on the local people. Please PR that my heart would start being prepared for those that I will meet. PR that Father will already begin softening the hearts of those that I will interact with when I reach my city. PR that finances will be raised so that I can go serve our Father. This "story" is worth sharing with the world!

My First Classroom

As promised, I finally am posting some pics of my classroom.

This is the bulletin board outside of my room, welcoming the students in. You can't see, but the lily pads each have a student's name on it.First, I had these ugly display racks on this wall. I got creative and turned it into a homemade bulletin board. Hopefully it will stick. The first week of school, students each created their self portrait of how they feel about the first week of third grade. Good news! All smiling faces :) Hopefully when we create our portraits again later, there will still be smiles.

The amazing reading corner...complete with homemade cubbies and bookshelves. Thanks Dad!

The view of the room walking in. My desk is in the back of the room. The curtains were made by my Momma. I'm so blessed to have such a talented family!

A special thanks to: Mom and Dad for all of the donations (both time and material), Kristi for all of her help, the staff at Morris Hill for being so supportive, and all of you who are praying for me. Keep those prayers a-coming!

summer, cont.

More ups...but first a down. While I was in New Mexico, I found out that my Grandpa had passed away unexpectedly of many causes. Hence, a family road trip to California, which was interesting in itself. We stayed at my Grandpa's house, which was kind of weird and eerie, but it was good bonding time. I learned alot about my grandpa while going through the house and hearing stories from my dad and Aunt. Grandpa was quite a colorful man! Never a dull moment in his life.

Mom and Dad really wanted to show Kristi and I their old haunts (they both grew up in Southern California). So, one day, they dropped us off at Disneyland for the entire day! Quite the experience.

Posing outside of It's A Small World...guess what song I had in my head the rest of the day??
You can't really see, but this is on the Snow White ride. When I was younger and went to Disneyland, I freaked out on this ride...to the point of screaming. I fared a little better this time :)

AAAAHHHHH a Haunted Mansion! This ride still gives Kristi nightmares. Feel free to give her a hard time, if you see her :)

Super cool dolphins on our surprise visit to the beach on fourth of July.

The place where my dad used to set sail...literally. Apparently my dad and grandpa were quite the sailors back in the day.

Moral of the story: Value the time you have with people. You never know if you will have time together again. Live without regrets!

The Roller Coaster I call my summer vacation

Can you believe that summer is over??? There were parts that seemed to fly past and still others that took FOREVER! I thought that I would share a brief glimpse into it (complete with pictures)

First, there was graduation, which was pretty exciting :) I didn't know it then, but it was also a very blessed time in my life. My grandpa was able to come out for my grad party, which I sadly did not look forward to. You see, my grandpa and I didn't have the best relationship. We definitely weren't close. I would even say there were some feeling of distrust and anxiety towards him. The time spent with him helped to lay some of those feelings aside. For the first time, I was able to really talk to him...granted not about the deep things...but just talk. It was the first time that he ever told me that he was proud of me and all that I had done. I am moved to tears still, just thinking about it.

I realized later what a blessing this time was.

But first, an up :)

I had the opportunity to be part of a work that headed to New Mexico. While there, I worked on stripping and waxing a mission school's floors. It was hard work, but I loved it! This trip provided me with some time spend with people I admire from my church back home. These wonderful people took the time to really pour into me and learn about my life. I loved hearing their faith stories. Since we were in New Mexico, we did take some time to look around.
The oldest adobe church in Sante Fe.

The staircase in Loretta Chapel. When first built, this staircase had NO visible supports. The hand railing was added later. It was so incredible. The story goes that the sisters at the church put out an add for someone to build a staircase that would lead from the chapel up to the choir loft. An anonymous carpenter built the staircase and then left before receiving payment.

We also visited Bandelier...complete with ancient cliff dwellings and pretty scenery :)