Where's Beth!?!?!?!?!

Living in Fort Wayne has been great for the last 15 years but... I don't have family close at all. That being the case, I have adopted and been adopted by many friends whom I now consider family.

One of my favorite families is, what I would like to name, the First Family. The Baker family. This family has been such a wonderful blessing in my life. They have mostly moved on in the last years but I get to see them every once in a while. These moments are moments that I cherish .... and often find myself in side-splitting laughter. The 'Baker boys' were wee little ones (Literally! They were babies) when I first joined their family as a babysitter and now these boys are all shooting up like weeds...but much better looking!!! :) They have grown into amazing young men of God and I hope that my sweet nephews are even half of the cool that they are!!!

I have the best stories about these boys but nothing compares to the stories these boys tell. Today, while they were hangin' out with their awesome Aunt Bec, they had one of the funniest, weirdest, most amazing stories ever.

Here's the short of the story in bulleted form (as best I can remember):

* Bec and the boys head to the Friendly Fox for some breakfast.

* Black speedy dog darts out.

* Bakers chase dog for over 3 hours.....yes 3 hours... maybe it was more.

* realize that I saw (and briefly chased) same dog earlier that morning before work

* Meet new friends for life, Jamie & Dave -- who all become partners in crime/dogcatching

* kept chasing dog

* dog bites Jamie

* kept chasing dog

* Jamie hops in car and stranger (named Beth) also hops in car with Bakers to search for dog

* kept chasing dog

* call animal control and animal control threatens to call police if they continue to help find dog

* went to the Fox for lunch

* animal control drives by

* dog walks by

* Bakers decide to continue to chase dog

* call Jamie & Dave (not Beth... not sure where she went, actually-- Bec left her in the dust)

* gain dog's trust because Dave stayed in car

* call owner

* happy ending.

I wish I could tell you the way they do. They are word masters and are soooo funny when they dish it up. I love them and miss them a lot. I bet Beth misses them too.

Thanks for letting me share Bloggerfriends!

Have a great night!

Off to the races!

So Aedan, Hilda, Krista and I took a walk to the park. It was so fun to see him walking by himself. Here is a video.... let's see if it works. :)

Cute, no? The slide was a ton a fun too. I gotta try to get the pictures somehow. :)

Home sweet home

This weekend, I have traveled to a place where everybody knows my name. Sweet home Chicago. (...and yes... everyone in Chicago knows my name. ...almost everyone)

On Friday, I took a tour of my dad's work. He works for AT&T and ... boy o' boy! I am amazed! I think I have the smartest dad in the whole wide world! Trust me! If you ever took a tour of a building like that, you would think my dad is the smartest too. The cables, wires, boxes, shelves, circuits.... yeah... he's goooood.

After lunch with my mom, we got all artsy-fartsy and she helped me finish painting a picture that I have been working on for a while. I could not get the shading correct and she helped me out. "Oh... just put this here... tint this like this... bring this line like this!" ...she is so good! She's the smartest mom in the world too! (I'll post a picture when I get it done)

My nephew and the rest of the family (yes... in that order) are coming tonight or tomorrow for an early Easter. I love this place. ...I just wish mom was making turkey and stuffing. mmmmmm..... stuffing.........

Whoot! Whoot!!

Just gotta give it up to my awesome prayin' posse these last couple of days. I have some very big potential changes that have come up these last few days and have to make some biiiiiig decisions.

I heart my friends and family!!!

You guys are such a blessing!
Lub ya muchly!!!

Nostalgia sets in

So I was walking Hilda the yesterday and we stopped at the Taylor U -FW closed campus. As I was hitting the ball and watching Hilda fly across the field, I turned around and saw this sign.

A flood of memories rushed back into my consciousness and, like the sappy girl I am, I got a little choked up. I had such great memories at this place. Here are a few:

• Midnight soccer- turning on our car lights to light up the field. Loved it because the best part was how we played until there was only one or two cars with their lights on. It was a battery cable jumping party at 2:00 in the morning!
• Praise/Prayer in Hausser- I remember that when a situation would come up (or sometimes just because we were not doing anything) we would spontaneously group together, light the fire and have a worship time in Hausser. Loved it!!!
• Breaking in to Founders to eat bagels and cereal because we worked during dinner hours and we were broke and couldn't afford to go out and almost getting caught and running back to Shultz and people thinking it was the boys that did it... heeheeheehee! (Hey! Girls can scale wall too, you know!)
• Shooting the girls in my wing with a super-soaker because they didn't show up for bible study. Knock! Knock! BLAST!!!! "...are you coming to bible study now?" I was a great RA!!!
• Standing on the toilets and singing with Ang. She was waaaaaaay better than I was but.... as long as the boys didn't hear... LOL!!
• Hockey games at Founders. Love hockey!
• Making mud men at night on the soccer field board after dancing in the rain then almost getting caught by Brent, Corey and Kara because it was a weekend when people came to see TUFW. What? I don't see dried, bright, mud people on that purple board across the field!
• The summer at Winchester with Debby and Christy.... no... I won't sing the song here.
• Spring break at my house with Matty and the girls
• Getting to go to chapel to worship with my friends 3 times a week. Wouldn't that be nice now?

Ahhhh, college. I miss you Tuff W.

Single and...Loving it??

I think it is amazing how God created us to be in community. To live together. To want to be with others. To feel loved and accepted by others. He created us a social beings with a part of us that is completed when we are with friends and family.

And then there is marrage. To have a partner, companion, lover and friend that does life with you. Someone to hang out with, cook with, walk with, laugh and cry with, be there at night so you can share when you've had a great day(or bad).... you know, do life together.

Another one of my single girlfriends is getting married today. I really am so very happy for her but.... it reminds me again how I am not.

I know that God is supposed to be (and is) my partner and companion but I need...I want to hug someone. I want someone to share life with. Is that bad? I do to trust that God has a plan for my life but this part of His plan, right now... isn't my favorite. A long time ago, I set my standards very high for the kind of man that I want to marry. On days like today (and it seems, more and more ofthen), I find myself reassessing things. Are my standards too high? Am I living the kind of life worthy of someone who meets the standards that I am wanting for him? In other words, if I meet the kind of guy that has the 'whole package'... will I be someone who is the 'whole package' for him?

Whoa! I have to get ready! Thanks for letting me spew a little!

Have a great day blogger friends!

Kids today..... an addendum

Ok... so I know I had my little soap box earlier last week but I have to add an addendum to my earlier rantings.....

Today is a day that I love.

Today makes teaching worth it all.

Today I LOVE my job!

Today, I LOVE my kiddos!

Today... I am so proud of what I do and of my students.


Today we took our reading tests. My students are always so nervous. A lot of what they do, where they go and how they get help depends on what these tests show. I work with the kids that began below grade level. At the beginning of the year, everyone is on a level playing field because they all have a hard time understanding what they read. It's my job, and no small task, to help them learn to understand ---and hopefully in the process, learn to love reading.

On testing days, I usually get a mixture of 'oooooh's' and 'oh nooooo's' from them. Some of them love the challenge that is before them to improve from where they were last time. They jump at the chance to better themselves, to up their game and to have proof that they have been working hard. Others seem weighed down by the fact that, yet again, they are being tested. Long tests that show where they are at --at a subject that is such a struggle for them. They wince at the idea that maybe, just maybe they could have worked a little harder. And what if they don't do better? What if? What if? It's haunting to some of my sweet kids.

But today.... I love today. Almost every single one of my students have improved from their last quarter score. Almost every single one!! I have had many that have not only tested at grade level but have surpassed and are (trumpets please...) ABOVE grade level!!!!

I am so very proud of all of my students. They work so very hard every day in class. They put up with me expecting more than they think they can do. They work hard and they work often. They are expected to come to reading ready to work and work hard. And look at them now.... improving, reading at or above grade level and with huuuuge smiles on their faces. The greatest thing about today is that I get to share the excitement with them as they see their hard work pay off!

Today is a great day to be a teacher. A great day to be their teacher!!

The countdown begins!

It is nearly time.

16 days until I leave for the sunny, warm, friendly atmosphere of the blazing south. AKA... Florida, here we come!

I am so ready to spend the weekend/week with my sister's, their hubbies and their super-cute boys!!! We are going to camp on Easter weekend and then heading down to Merritt Island for the remainder of the week. IIIIIII CCCAAAAANNNNN"""TTTTTT WWWWAAAAAIIIIITTTTT!!!!!!!!!

Kids today....

Attention: Please be aware that the following post is indeed a soap box the size of the Empire State Building. ...I just wanted to warn you. It gets ugly.

I have been teaching for 10 years now. I feel like I should have a handle on what happens in school. And yet... I am continually surprised at the lack of....what should I call it... the lack of self-awareness, respect, loyalty and the nerve that students have.

Since I am a teacher by profession and a story-teller by nature, I have a few examples:

One of my coworkers told me that the kids in her 5th grade class have started doing this thing where she asks them to do something and they answer, "I guess so." (and of course the eye roll comes along with it.) I GUESS SO!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Man-O-man! If my mother even caught me thinking that response to a teacher when I was in school, my hide would have been tanned so fast!!!

Today in class I had to tell a student three times to put all four legs of the chair on the floor. The third time, I told him to move his magnet. (That is our consequence: once = warning, twice=time-out, three times= phone call... I only have them for 90 min, for goodness sake! Three times in 90 min is toooooo many!) ANYWAY..... I asked him to move his magnet which would have put him in time out. He proceeded to give me a stare-down(still leaning back in his chair), chuckled once, and then bounced up and yelled "Man! I swear!" as he stomped up to the board to move his magnet. And I mean stomped. When he turned around from the board, he had a smirk on his face. .........seriously?

And for the final story, and the grande finale.... Yesterday we finished ISTEP (our state tests). I had been testing 4 5th graders. They are kids that I have in class on a daily basis. When they got done, I sent them back to class and secretly put a bag of goodies in their lockers. I wrote a note that said I was proud of them, I'm glad they did so well, and told them I would see them tomorrow in class. At the end of the day, one of them opened their locker, looked at the bag and said, "It's about time. She needed to stop being greedy with all that candy!" ...yes. You read that correctly.

So I say all of this with this thought in mind. Nothing that has happened this year with any of my students has surprised God. He knows the hearts and minds of both my students... and mine too. He has a plan for each one of my kiddos. My job? My job has to be not only to teach them, and in some cases parent them, but more importantly, to pray for them. I have to be on my knees for these kids. I have to interceed. I have to be willing to go to war for them. On days like today, when I want to throw my hands up and give up... that is when I need to pray with more gusto! God may have an awesome plan for them but if they keep choosing evil, ....eek! That is just scary to think about. I want to be Moses and stand in the gap for these kids.

I wanna STEP on ISTEP

Hello bloggers, followers and all otherers out there!

Long time no blog. But fear not, for I am back. :) So this week is our state-wide test called ISTEP here in Fort Wayne. It is crazy that I feel more tired this week than I do teaching all day long. Proctoring tests all day is tough!!! I think it's the fact that normally, I am up and moving but this week.... it's read directions, sit for 55 min. Read directions, sit for 45 min. The kiddos seem like they are doing great but I'm about to fall asleep! I am so proud of our kiddos so far. I am hoping that they are all doing their best!!!