Wedding Plans

January 28, 2009 at 8:01 am (Uncategorized)

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…

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Ah!

January 26, 2009 at 10:09 pm (Uncategorized)

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 :)

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Coaching

November 15, 2008 at 7:17 am (Uncategorized)

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)

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4% Less Fat

October 22, 2008 at 9:37 pm (Uncategorized)

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.

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Rough News

October 20, 2008 at 9:46 pm (Uncategorized)

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.

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Longest Day Ever

September 25, 2008 at 8:01 pm (Uncategorized)

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) :(

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Craziest Day of the Year So Far…

September 19, 2008 at 6:10 pm (Uncategorized)

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…

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My Friend Theresa

July 28, 2008 at 1:03 pm (Uncategorized)

I went to a funeral on Saturday for a friend of mine who passed away at the age of 41 of cancer.  She was the most phenomenal person I have ever met.  Her passion for God and telling others about him touched the lives of everyone she met.  She was truly outstanding.

Her dad said that in the couple of years she was diagnosed with cancer she never asked why.  How often do I ask God why he puts me through small things, and she never asked why He gave her cancer?  She understood that God was performing His will to make the greatest impact on His Kingdom.  She may not have seen or understood the big picture, but she didn’t need to.  I think that’s why she impacted everyone she met.  Her life was truly fully devoted to the cause of Christ, and people saw that she was different.  How can you not love a God that someone so passionately follows?

Attending the funeral I reflected on how much she impacted my life in particular.  Theresa was the international minister when I first started going to CMSU.  She enlisted my help, and I was hooked ever since.  She always told me that we could impact the nations without going anywhere at all by ministering to these students.  That impacted the rest of my life.  From there I became more involved in the BSU, which led me to be on staff there, which led me to where I am right now – in Independence helping plant a church.  Reflecting also helped me realize I am not as passionate about God as I was then.  That makes me sad, but ultimately it inspires me to do better.  So, even in her death God is using Theresa to touch me.

I am not the only one.  First Baptist of Warrensburg was packed the day of her funeral, and it lasted 1 1/2 hours because so many people had so much to say about her impact.  They said that there were several doctors and nurses in Germany (where she was when the cancer hit) who realized there was something different about her and her family.  They will never be the same.  There was a group of 9 individuals she was training to do missions, and the day after they left is the day she passed.  They will also never be the same… as letters that someone read at the funeral expressed.  There are countless others.

To quote someone who spoke at the funeral, “If I could live my life like Theresa, it would be an honor.”

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Mother Earth Coffee

July 24, 2008 at 11:19 am (Uncategorized)

I went grocery shopping this morning and discovered a company that sells Organic Fair Trade coffee.  I was very excited, especially since it is priced the same as the coffee I usually buy.

The coffee is from El Salvador, and the company was founded solely to help the poverty-striken coffee farmers in that country.  They claim that the coffee is shade grown under banana trees, and that they know the producers by name because they visit them.  On top of all that, the coffee is locally roasted.  The other thing that struck me about this company is that it was founded by a woman! :)  

If you want to know more about this coffee you should visit http://www.motherearthcoffeeco.com/.  You can order some there, too, and apparently you can order your beans green if you like to roast them yourself.  If you want to buy some from a store you should visit your local HyVee (if you live in the KC area).

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Why I Hate Medicare/Medicaid – Repost

July 12, 2008 at 4:25 pm (Uncategorized)

A couple of years ago my grandma needed knee replacement surgery.  For some reason this surgery did not heal properly, and she has had a couple of infections settle in her knee.  As a result of the slow healing my grandma has fallen twice and broken her wrist and her hip.  Her wrist is healed now, but she had to have hip replacement surgery in January.  While she was in the hospital healing from that surgery she fell again, and is now in a senior care facility (nursing home) for rehab.

Here’s the part where Medicare comes in.  They have decided that my grandma is not healing as fast as she should, so they are going to stop providing care.  Since she cannot get along on her own yet and both of my parents work, the nursing home cannot release her to go home without either reporting her as a health hazard to herself or forcing her to hire someone to live and take care of her (or one of my parents has to quit their job).  Instead, my grandma has to pay $165 a DAY to stay where she is.  That’s $60,225 a year.  We found cheaper places, but as we all know lower cost comes with lower quality, and that is just not acceptable.

So far, that’s not too bad.  Here’s the real kicker… Medicare will not kick back in until my grandma has $999 TOTAL.  That means she has to spend all of her money, retirement, life insurance, CD’s, 401K, etc. down to $999 before they will cover her again.  Not only that, but she will have to sell her house and car.  Pretty much she will have to have nothing before they will help.

All of this wouldn’t be so bad if my grandma looked like she had hope of progressing.  It’s been 2 months and she can’t even get from her wheelchair to her bed on her own.  Oh, and I forgot to tell you that my grandma is only 68 years old and otherwise has no health issues.  So if it does take my grandma a few years to get better, but she does get better, she’ll get out of the home to go home to nothing – no house, no car, no money.

I thought Medicare was supposed to help!

My grandma is still in the assisted living place.  She goes in and out of wanting to improve, but in the meantime her money is being eaten up until Medicare kicks back in.  I really just want her to want to get better… so, if you think about it, please pray for her.

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