Offset by a Giggle

Planning a wedding should be exciting, that’s what I’m told at least.  I’ve found, though, that at the moment it’s just another thing added to my list of things to do!  I do enjoy it, but I don’t have a lot of time to plan.  It’s a good thing I have an amazing fiancee who has taken a lot of it on himself.

Here’s what we have so far, in no particular order:

1. Location – Grover Park Baptist Church, Warrensburg, MO

2. Reception site – Warrensburg Community Center (right across the street)

3. Wedding party

4. Photographer – my wonderful friend Rebekah Wright (www.rebekahwright.com)

5. My dress

6. Bridesmaid dresses (wine-colored)

7. Invitations and programs (mostly) – designed by another wonderful friend, Kelly Campbell

Coming Soon – cake, flowers, and registries

The hardest part so far has been picking music.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I’ll keep this updated as things progress…

Updates…

1. I’m getting married!  Wedding date: 3/14/09 (crazy, I know).  Location: Grover Park Baptist Church in Warrensburg.  More details: to come in a future post.

2. Still coaching Scholar Bowl.  My kids have placed in the top 4 teams every competition but one!  I am very proud of them and super excited.

3. Taking a class.  This semester is Functions of a Complex Variable… don’t ask, you don’t want to know.

4. LifeConnection is going strong.  We’re close to our 1 year mark!  That is also really exciting.

5. Enrollment conferences.  We have all of our kids come to school with their parents to enroll for next year’s classes.  We do this through our advisory program, and this year I have juniors who I will be enrolling in a couple of weeks.  However, I will be switching to freshmen next year so I am enrolling them this week.  That makes for long days… today went like this – school 6:30-3:00, class 4:00-5:15, enrollment 6:00-8:30.  And tomorrow is the same minus class.

I am extremely exhausted, but life is good.  Lots of exciting things are happening.  And, God is good enough to allow me to do all of this without getting sick or go insane

I have my very first competition as JV Scholar Bowl coach today!  We’re meeting up at the school at 6:45 this morning, gathering the team from Chrisman, and heading over to Lexington.  It is incredibly early for a Saturday, but I’m very excited.  We have a great group of kids, and I’m anxious to see what they’ll do!  I’ll update this post when I find out… plus, with what I’ve learned as a coach.  I’m sure I’ll learn a lot today.

We took 4th!  We did lose to Chrisman (who got 2nd), but in all fairness they only have a JV team, so we played their best.  My A team had 3 sophomores and a freshman on it, and the freshman took 7th best scorer in the whole tournament.  Plus, this was our very first competition this season, and my very first as a coach, so I’m excited to see what they’ll do in the future.  December 6th is our next tournament!  (more on coaching to come)

I had my official measurements done tonight after 3 weeks of working out at 24Hour Fitness, and I have lost 2.5 pounds and 4% fat.  None of my size measurements were any different, but he said it was because I’m replacing fat with muscle, so they’ll stay the same for a little while my body adjusts.  I’m pretty excited about the 4% fat… and, the best part is that I have a TON more energy than I used to.

So, if anyone is in Independence and is wanting to get their body on track I highly recommend Greg at 24Hour Fitness off of 39th Street.

I found out first block this morning that one of my 5th block students passed away with sickle cell anemia.  He had been battling this disease for more than 13 years.  The hard part is that I didn’t even know he was sick.  He went into the hospital last week while I was out of town and his body just couldn’t recover this time.

This has really just made me realize how important my job is.  I desperately need to make an impact on my students’ lives because they literally may not be here tomorrow.  The family asked to keep this quiet for awhile, so most of the students don’t even know yet.  I am definitely not looking forward to the day my 5th block finds out, but I pray that God will give me the grace and words to say to glorify Him and be consoling to my students.  In the meantime, I pray that He would help me to put this aside when I can so I can focus on the rest of my kids.  I really feel like each of my students is my own kid, so it’s hard for me to lose one.

I did, in case you either don’t know or don’t remember, lose a student last year right around this time, too.  So, I’m 2 for 2.  I hope this is not a glimpse into my future… losing a student every year I’m teaching would be a lot of students in the long-run.

The family did think this student was getting better before his body decided to shut down this morning, so if you could pray for them that would be wonderful.  I pray that they would find comfort, support, and friendship during this rough time.

Today:

6 am – 6:30 am: make copies and gather things for the day

6:30am – 7:15 am: academic coach’s meeting

7:25am – 1:10 pm: teaching, no plan period today

1:20pm - 3:00 pm: collaboration

3:30 – 4:45: Scholar Bowl practice

4:45 – 7:45: driving to class, class, homework, driving home

I now need to eat dinner, grade my papers, and make sure I’m ready for tomorrow.  Trister ends tomorrow!!

The bad news is that every Thursday is going to be this crazy until Scholar Bowl is over (minus the 6:30am meeting)

Week 5 of school year number 2 is over and I haven’t written anything about it!  It’s not because nothing has happened but because too much has happened.  This has been a very busy year so far.  It’s good, though, much better than year 1.

Here’s what made today so crazy:

Apparently there was a fight before school started, so my kids came to class all excited about it.  I have a class that is 2/3 freshman boys, just so you know.  Then, during my first block I had a kid who was having a rough time making good choices.  First, he came to class without anything – no ID, no book, no paper, nothing to write with, no agenda.  So I sent him to get an ID.  He comes back and tells me they won’t give him one (which is a lie).  Then he asks me if he can go to the nurse because he has this bug bite on his hand.  I didn’t let him go because I could tell he was just wanting out, but he just kept asking me.  A few minutes later I tell him to go get his book out of his locker, and he blows up saying that’s what he had been asking me.  Then he says, “I’m sick of this, I’m going to Recovery.”  I told him he couldn’t go without me giving him permission but he leaves anyway.  In the meantime one of the secretaries comes to tell me my co-teacher’s substitute did not show up and I see this kid in the hallway still.  So I have her take him to his adminstrator.  THEN, he comes back up right as it’s passing time and gets in a fight with another kid in my class.  Remember, this all happened 1st block – before 8:20 in the morning.

4th and 5th block I co-teach an Algebra 1 class with a SPED teacher, and 1/3 of our students have an IEP.  My co-teacher is in Ohio because her daughter is having a bay, and remember the secretary said my sub didn’t show up.  So, I had to teach a room full of 30 kids 2 blocks in a row, 1/3 of which is SPED.  It wouldn’t have been so bad except the SPED kids are used to getting one-on-one help, of which I couldn’t give them when I was in there by myself.

3rd and 6th block my students took a test, and it was too long.  So they have to finish it up on Monday, which I hate doing because they’ve already seen the test and therefore know what specific questions are on it.

During lunch I left the room, the kids left the room, I locked the door, and when I came back I unlocked the door.  So, the only time the room was left unsupervised it was locked.  When the students came back from lunch not one, but 2 of them said something was stolen from them.  How does that even happen?!

Good times…