Monday, August 24, 2009

One Day Down, 176 To Go

We got our kitchen updated! I can't believe how pretty it looks. After living for five years in a kitchen with pink countertops and 1980's wallpaper, I am absolutely thrilled to have such a beautiful & modern kitchen. You can scroll down to my previous post to see the before picture of our kitchen. Now here is the after pictures!




The first day of school went really well. I am being intentional about having a good attitude this year. Although this school year is gushing with reasons to have a bad attitude, I am going to (by God's grace) refuse to fall into that trap. This year each of my students will get to check out a laptop to keep for their own personal 24/7 use. I'm super happy for the kids to have this opportunity, however, I know there are still alot of kinks that need to be worked out from the teaching side of the project. All my lesson plans from the past 5 years of teaching are now worthless, and I will need to learn how to teach my students lessons that allow them to use their laptops in my class every day. I definitely have my doubts about how it's all going to work out, but like I said, I am choosing to have a good attitude.


Our district also decided they will allow facial piercings this year, so as a result, many of the precious children walked in today sporting their new jewelry, sharp objects protruding from their chins and colorful hoops from their eyebrows and lips. I personally don't have a problem with it, except that it surprises me how much freedom students have in school now compared to when I was in school. Whatever happened to one hole in each ear? I remember back in college when I got my belly button pierced. I thought it was cute and I enjoyed it mostly because it made me feel unique. I must admit I came very close to piercing my eyebrow too, but it was dependent on my brother martin getting his nose (or chin?) pierced with me, and I'm pretty sure it was him that chickened out. When I first met Brian, he had a big barbell pierced through his tongue, and I thought he was so dreamy. All this to say, I can excuse the piercings because it's really just an attempt to be different from everyone else, to be an individual. At least it's not as permanent as a tattoo. It's just different seeing all the students wearly them freely this year.


Our school is also in a huge financial crisis which means we don't get alot of "help" to get our kids to pass. Yeah, don't ask me why all the 11th graders get laptops, but we can't afford to buy paper or bus our students to school. Something is messed up. Oh yeah, good attitude.


Thankfully, there are no more than 30 precious students in each of my classes and I can pronounce all their names. God made each of those faces and loves them so much. I hope I don't lose that perspective.


Back on August 10, Brian's grandmother in Midland went to be with Jesus after a long battle with Alzheimer's. They called her "Boozer", not because she was a drinker, just because it just suited her. I will always remember her laugh. She was a role model in many ways, but I especially want to remember that she never let anything get her down... she laughed about everything. The Proverbs 31 woman could "laugh at the future" and that describes Boozer perfectly. We were all able to go out to Midland for her funeral and celebrate how precious her life was. We had a great time seeing the family out there and the girls loved playing with thier cousins.
Cowgirl Laney
Princess Avery, Princess Kenadi and Princess Tatum

Kade loved Laney! They were inseperable the whole time!

Kenadi, Avery & Tatum at the church

Sweet Girls

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Your kitchen looks awesome and I'm so glad your first day back went well. That's so crazy about the laptops but no paper.

Erica said...

Your kitchen looks amazing! I am so happy for you!
I will be praying for you as you have such an important role in the lives of those kids!