Just a Random Update

I'm trying to do a better job of updating frequently, so here goes nothing...

Last Wednesday I finally finished my Creative Curriculum training. This was training in the program that I use to teach my wonderful four-year-olds. I'll be quite honest... out of the 9 days of training that were spread through a few months, I learned just about nothing. The trainers all seemed to be really unorganized and waste a lot of time. Something they, no doubt, would not tolerate from us teachers. I hate that the state paid for me (along with about 40-50 other people) to have such useless training. Oh well, maybe I did learn a thing or two and I just don't realize. Nevertheless, I glad to be done with it.

This weekend has been a fun one :) Friday night I went with David to Pendleton to visit for a little while with his family. We hung out, even walked a little path and star gazed for a bit, then had Mac's for dinner... yummy in the tummy :) After that we just kind of talked an mingled. Most of my time was spent at the "salon"-- Emma Kate, David's youngest cousin wanted to play with and fix my hair. I think she had fun with that :) Those three girls have lots of energy. Makes me wanna be a kid again-- such fun!

Today (Saturday) I actually slept in until nearly 11:00. This is a great accomplishment for me. I have to get up at 5 on weekdays, which usually causes me, out of habit, to wake up pretty early even on weekends. I musta been tired! Other than that, I've kind of just taken some time to unwind and relax today. One of those "mental health" days that all teachers have to take every once and a while. I did manage to get a little (and I mean little) work done on lesson planning. I'll finish tomrrow.

So we're supposed to get some questionable weather again this week. Maybe it'll be a winter storm. I can guarantee that If I wish and hope for it again it wont happen. Kinda the whole "watched pot never boils" thing going on. So i'll try to just forget about it and let it take its course. (right-- you know I really want it to snow!)

I'll leave you with this bible verse. I have so many friends who are first year teachers, and David is just beginning his student teaching. As I was starting to teach I saw these verses in the bible. They were an encouragement to me. Verse two is one I use to this day as a prayer in the morning:

1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
Deutoronomy 32:1-4

Anna Kate and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Ever heard of the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? He keeps having bad things happen to him one after another. Apparently I had one of those days today. Well, there were good parts to my day as well, as there were Alexander's. Here goes:

Early this morning my stepmom woke me up to tell me that she wouldn't be keeping sunday school this morning. That meant that I did not need to go early to help her. After this I didn't reset my alarm, so I ended up sleeping through church.

Sometime after I woke up I realized that I am losing my voice. Not sure how or why. I haven't been yelling too much or anything lately. Maybe just part of the whole "first year teacher catching EVERYTHING" scenario.

While helping keep 1-3rd graders I was walking behind the television (genius, I know) and I tripped. This caused three things to happen. Number 1, I cut the tv off, stopping the movie the kids were watching. Number two, I spilled some popcorn that I had in my hand. Finally, I caught myself with my hand and hurt my thumb. It was one of those things where it felt like jello when it went down. Pretty gross feeling. Anyway, it is incredibly sore now, I don't even wanna think of how it will feel in the morning after being still all night.

To cap the day off, I was driving home from spending the evening with David (which was wonderful, by the way. No bad part to that) and I hit a deer. It was one of those things that my parents constantly reminded me about. EVERY time I would leave the house late at night they would say "look out for deer!" So, after hearing this for about 6 years straight, I've caught on. I drive slow, at least the speed limit, at night and look for yellow spot because the deer's eyes will light up. I saw none of that tonight. It basically just happened in a split second. Before anything could be done at all, I hit it. The worst part was seeing it afterwards. Ugh, makes me sick thinking about it. Why do they choose the moment when a car is coming to run out??? I guess I'm lucky it was only one... I saw others run right behind me. Anyway, I hope the car is ok. I looked at it the best I could in the dark. I guess I'll deal with that tomorrow.

If you have one very bad day, does that mean the next one has to be very good automatically?? I sure hope so!

Things I've learned lately.....

I do this post every once and a while because I really like it. It makes me think about what's happened in my life lately. So these are some things I've learned. If you don't understand some of them, I could explain :)

1. Apparently I'm getting more emotional as I get older
2. 4 year olds are absolutely, positively hilarious
3. mental exhaustion is worse than physical
4. Country music never fails to make me smile... I just love it
5. I'm growing up... whether I like that or not remains to be decided
6. I do miss my brother.... wow, I hope he doesn't read this, he'd make fun :)
7. My dog is insane...I'm not kidding
8. I need to stop being so "old" and act like a 22 year old (I swear that work does it to you... I go to be way to early)
9. Cherry is STILL my favorite!
10. I miss my friends very much.... it's been WAY too long
11. When you get in your 20's all your friends start getting married... BIG realization, huh :)
12. I'm laid back, but I can be incredibly passionate (if you know me, you know what I'm passionate about!)
13. Sometimes I just need to shut my big mouth :) (long story... it happens a lot)
14. Boys are still confusing... yes, all of them
15. Finding the perfect gift for someone makes me really happy
16. Plastic is going to be the death of me... who are the guys who invented this unbreakable stuff to wrap EVERYTHING in??
17. Praising and serving God brings purpose to my life, I should seek more opportunities to do it!
18. Sleep is my friend, it's underated I tell you... underated!

That's about all for now-- peace

I've kind of given up on New Year's resolutions. One reason is, for me, they never last very long. Another reason is that I try to make "resolutions" in my life (the really important ones) as needed.... who says I have to wait until January? So I'm not gonna talk about my resolutions for the new year, more like my hopes and anticipations...

1. Become a better teacher-- as I mentioned earlier, teaching four year olds is quickly becoming a passion for me. I'll be honest, I haven't yet quite figured out if I'm good at it. I don't mean that as a "pitty party" or anything, just that I want to get through a whole school year to be able to reflect and see if I think I did a good job or not. I have some great colleagues working with me that are nice enough, and professional enough, to give good constructive criticism. Luckily they haven't had anything bad to say yet, but I know that they will let me know if something arises that I need to fix or improve on. This is one thing that I enjoy about teaching so much more that being in college. People actually want to HELP you become better instead of constantly nag about stupid stuff, no joke... it's amazing :) So, all that to say I hope to become a better teacher each day and find out at the end if I wanna start all over again with the 4's in August!

2. Get more involved in church functions: I must confess that 2006, more than any year so far, has been a bad year for me in this area. I can blame it on many things... tough times student teaching, graduating, new career, busy life, etc. The truth is that nothing is more important than my relationship with God and serving Him. I didn't make that extremely evident last year... I'm going to try this year to do a better job.

3. See more of my friends: It's funny, this never seems to be a problem when you're in college. I saw most all of my friends on a daily basis, or weekly at the very least. When you graduate that becomes a different story. I feel like I haven't spent time with friends in forever. So, I hope to do that some more this year. Many of them have moved away-- Atlanta, Columbia, Tampa. Hmm, I think this means 2 things. #1- ROAD TRIPS :) and #2- I need to work on rebuidling some relationships with friends around here and make some new ones!

4. Doing some fun, adventurous things: No one would know it by my life right now, but I'm actually a fairly adventurous person, and I love to have fun. Jumping out of a plane, no.... but I am ALWAYS up for traveling, speed, roller coasters, water sports, and trying new things. I feel like I've spent the last semester of college up until now worrying about teaching in some way or another. I want to make a point of getting out and doing some exciting things this year. I'll have to give this one a little more thought, I'm not sure what those things are yet. Got any suggestions???

5. Moving out?? I put a question mark on this one because I am still in thought and prayer about this. I still live with my parents, if you can't tell. There comes a point, I'm sure lots of people have been there, when you feel like it's time to move out. I'm not sure exaclty when this will be, but I can say that I am thinking about it. On one hand, saving money is important. Living with the parents allows me to do this. On the other, is anyone really ever financially ready to be on their own? I think most people just usually end up having to do it and take that leap of faith anyway.

6. Honesty: This is a "hope" for this year... but it's probably the closest to a resolution that we're gonna get. Before I say it, I wanna clear things up. I don't have a habit of lying or anything like that. The thing that I wanna do this year is make an effort to be more honest with people about my feelings. I want to say what I want and what I feel. Of course I don't want to be mean about it. I just have a tendecy to say the words "It doesn't matter to me" or "that's ok, don't worry" or, "whatever you want, I don't care" a lot. I'm sure these wont go out the window completely. Old habits die hard. I hope I can work on it at least a little.

These are just some of my hopes for the year. Prayers are appreciated for what I am sure will be a challenging, yet rewarding year!!