Warrior Princess

A Little Break in Routine

2006-09-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Every now and then it is nice to just get away and relax. Sometimes this requires a full out vacation on the beach in Oahu, or skiing in Denver. Sometimes all that is needed is a good book, a cup of cocoa and a few hours of quiet.
This past week I was able to "get away" for a few days by helping a friend house sit. Julie's grandparents were out of town this week and needed someone to stay at the house and watch their adorable Maltese.
It's been nice living in Valparaiso just five minutes away from the church. For one thing, it doesn't take me as long to get ready for school in the morning, and I don't have to pack three different outfits for all the things I need to do while in town for the day. Being able to go back to the house and chill between activities was a definite plus.
Although the routines of my daily activities have not changed greatly, enough things changed with my change of residence that I am quite spoiled now. I love my family, and I love living with them, and I love being close to Destin, but I must admit that living in town so close to everything else has me almost wishing I could find a place in town to live permanently. Almost.
I go home tonight after youth group and it will certainly be nice to see Mom again and get back into the other aspects of my daily routine. It will also be fun to tell her all about my week in minute detail. :o)

Down time

2006-09-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

A slow time for blogs but a busy time for everything else. Beetween Rocky and Youth Group I've been keeping myself out of trouble. :o)

School is pretty routine, lessons, quizzes, grading, and tests. The yearbook has gotten off to a rather "rocky" start, but I think in a few weeks things will be much better. Still waiting for the computer program so that we can get working on pages. :o(

I went to Alabanza last week with Julie. I had a blast. Si showed up too and so the three of us sat together. I saw several familiar faces and got to introduce Julie around some. Dale Julio was the speaker and he is working through an interesting series. I enjoyed the message and the singing so I think I'll go back sometime soon.

The youth group boating event was a blast. Thanks to all who put that together. We had a great turnout and I know that everyone who had an opportunity to try out the tubes and skis had a great time. I went on the tube once. I planned to give it a second try after lunch but got sidetracked talking, swimming, and playing tennis.

Labor Day weekend has been enjoyable. I love three day weekends. I've managed to get a lot of work done, and I've been having some relaxing moments as well. I played tennis with Julie on Friday and then she spent the night Saturday night. Sunday evening I got to spend with Savannah and we did a lot of catching up. Overall a great weekend.

Back to work tomorrow. The break has been nice, but I'll be glad to get back to work, my kids have alot of learning to do. :o)

My Birthday!!!!

2006-08-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a great birthday today! I just want to say thank you to all the people who made my birthday a great day - Julie, my Mom, Savannah, the little girls, Luke and Joe, Dad, all the teachers at Rocky that said happy birthday, and my yearbook class who ate my brownies. :o)

I had a great dinner - Mom fixed Lemon_pepper chicken with mashed potatoes, garlic bread, smashed potatoes, and green beans. Later on tonight we'll have Key Lime Pie and I get to open presents. :o) The best part of the birthday for sure.

School is going well, and yearbook is off to a great start for the year. Next week we'll start selling ads to businesses, I plan to start a fundraiser within the next week or two, and we'll be taking pictures and all sorts of cool stuff. :o)

I have at the moment quite a bit of free time after 5pm every night and I have pretty free weekends - not counting the four hour Saturday school every off and on. I'm excited about finding fun stuff to do with my new free time - maybe Alabanza and hanging out with friends. I hear there's a place that offers swing dance lessons in town - I think I'll have to look into that too - maybe get a group together. That would certainly be fun.

First Days of School

2006-08-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

School Has Begun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very excited to be back at Rocky this year. I have several very interesting classes and I am the yearbook advisor again. :o)

Looking forward to all the great things that are going to be happening this year.

Health and Beauty Conclusion

2006-07-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well, Mom and I started part of the detox diet suggested by the author of Toxic Relief, but had to quit rather prematurely this time when we came to the realization that at this stage in our resources, we would be unable to follow through all the way.

I must say that for the almost full week that we were on the extremely strict diet, I did begin to feel better physically, but I don't know that it had to do a lot with detoxing. It was probably, most simply put, because for almost a straight week, I ate no sugar, no chocolate, no caffeinne of any form, drank at least twice as much water as usual (although, still not nearly enough), and ate many extremely healthy fruits, vegetables, grains, and more. So I was on an extremely strict, but also extremely healthy almost vegetarian diet. :o)

Even though we can't really go through the detox diet and fast like we had anticipated, Mom and I hvae decided that it would be for the benefit of all concerned, if we began eating up the food in the house and slowly, but consistently replacing it with choices of better health, like wheat flour instead of white, wheat noodles, brown rice, non-sugary cereals, and so on. I must admit that as ominous as it might sound to decrease chocolate and sugar consumption around the house, I am all for it. :o) It's about time some of those types of changes started occurring. Besides, if it's not here to eat, it's a lot easier to not miss it. :o)

On the beauty side of this article, I bought some new makeup last night. :o) I was also looking through some hair style magazines. Although sorely tempted to chop off my hair in a Storm look, I have decided to merely try a few styling changes to the mid length that I possess. I'm afraid that I might regret my decision to chop it off and spend two and a half more years, just getting it back to it's present length, not to mention the mid back length that I've been working for all year.

So I am almost all set to begin back at Rocky as a stylish professor of Languages and History. Actually, with only a Bachelor's degree, maybe the term professor is a little ambitious. I had better stick to the more humble appendage of teacher. :o)

Health and Beauty Part I

2006-07-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Mom has us reading a very interesting book at the dinner table these days. She does actually wait until we have finished eating, which is a good thing considering the topic - toxification of our bodies in today's industrial world.

According to the author of the book Toxic Relief, we live in a society inundated by toxins. Between the toxins naturally found in our bodies, and the toxins we place there through breathing polluted air, smoking, and eating foods that have pesticides and chemicals in them, we are literally toxic waste dumps. Well, actually, some of us are worse off than others; however, the point of this book is to show people how to detoxify their bodies and live much healthier lives in a culture that makes that extremely difficult.

The book is written by a doctor, and is actually a lot more interesting than I first gave it credit for. The first two chapters, devoted to introducing the reader to the dangers of toxification, are rather dry and hard to begin. However, the practical aspects of the book are getting very interesting. I'll write later about the different things that are suggested for enhancing health and; therefore, enhancing beauty.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

2006-07-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm back home. Celebrations for Independance Day were enjoyable. I even got to see a few of the fireworks displays as we drove home from Pensacola.

My car is no longer mine. I sold it yesterday to a junkyard. :o( Now begins the search for the new perfect car. I pray that I can find one before school starts. :o)

Being home is nice. It's quiet (this alone is rather shocking), comfortable and very familiar. Why is it so hard to move out of the familiar and comfortable zone anyway? I never thought of myself as unfriendly or unsociable, but I do seem to have a real problem with doing things out of the ordinary. I like things to stay the same and I don't much enjoy change. At least not lasting change.

Okay, I'm rambling now. Although I don't like change very much, and prefer the comfortable and familiar, it does make me wonder what God has in store for me. The last time I got really comfortable and complacent about where I was in life, and truly believed that I had attained the "place," God completely turned my world upside down and had me doing stuff I never would have dreamed of. It took a little while to get comfortable again after that.

Well, dinner is ready and I don't feel like being philosophical any more, so this is the end.

Lazy Summer Days

2006-07-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

This week has been rather interesting. I've been kept pretty busy what with running errands and cooking and doing a bit of housecleaning.

My family is coming out for a visit on Tuesday. My grandparents will arrive on Monday and then the rest will come out on Tuesday. We're going to play games and chit chat all day and it should be lots of fun. I'm not sure what will be going on in the way of fireworks, but I'm hoping for the opportunity to see some - I haven't really watched the fireworks in a while. I hear that Joey bought a whole bunch of different crackers on sale, but I don't know if Julie Ann is going to be favorable to a display here. She sounded really nervous when I just mentioned that they had been purchased. This I did not share with my family however, in the hope that if Joe should bring them out the men can convince her that there really is no danger.

I have a sundress that I am going to try to put together this week if I can convince my mom to bring the sewing machine with her. That might be a bit much though, so I might just have to wait and put it together when I get home.

Lord willing, I plan to be finished here on Friday and will be coming home that night. :o)

This week promises to be filled with as many events as the last one, so the time should go by quickly.

Detained

2006-06-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

With excitement, I packed my bags yesterday afternoon for a quick weekend trip home. I scanned the Pensacola map, looking for a better way out of the crowded city. In other words, a way to more easily avoid the traffic on I-10 and the annoyance of bumper to bumper traffic over the bridge. I determined that Highway 98 might be my best option. I decided to time it and determine if driving through Navarre, Mary Esther and Fort Walton might be faster than waiting on the bridge. Besides, the change of scenery would be nice. Interstate traffic can get rather monotonous.

I was well out of the city and had already talked to both my mother and little sister about my ability to get home a little earlier than planned. We were all excited about the prospect, especially Lila whom, I expect, wanted me to take her to the pool to go swimming. The road was a little trafficky, but I thought I was paying careful attention to those around me.

Unfortunately, I was rather oblivious, in my joy to be going home, of my surroundings. It's not so much that I wasn't paying attention, it was just that I was being presumptive. I was assuming that of course everything was fine because I was being careful. Well, I wasn't careful enough. One of those little distractions, one of those minute things that one does not even think about, caused me to take my eyes off the road. It could have been anything- a fancy house on the side of the road, a skipping CD in my player, a decision to change the radio station - it could have been any of the ordinary distractions that I allow myself to engage in while driving.

The next thing I knew, the white van ahead of me was stopped dead in the street and I was a lot closer than I had realized. Before, he had been yards ahead, now, only inches. I knew, before I had time to realize it, what would happen. Even while I was applying too much pressure to my brakes, I knew that we would collide.

The tires screeched and then the entire car jolted forward. The sound of tearing metal and breaking glass and then nothing. In shock, I looked without seeing at the front of my car and the back of the one in front of me. The van's back window looked wierd - like the gentleman driving it had put Saran Wrap over it. It would be almost an hour before I realized that it had shattered in the crash.

Somehow I got my car off the road and then stepped out to examine the damage. I was in shock. A thousand things went through my mind but I processed none. I didn't know what to do or say. I looked at my poor car but I saw nothing. I, who had been trained in first aid, CPR, and what to do in emergencies, stared at my car wondering if I should call my mother.

I did call my mother, but first I called 911 and reported the accident. A fire truck showed up and the paramedics cleaned up the mess on the road. They moved my car for me over to a parking lot where we could wait for the police in a safer environment. When they were sure that we were both alright they left and we waited. We waited for an hour and twenty minutes before the police showed up. By then my unlce and aunt had arrived and were helping me to make decisions and telling me stories to help me not think about the accident.

So here I am, in Pensacola with a really beautiful bruise on me knee, a stiff back, a sore neck, and a sore chest. That's all. Nothing seriously wrong with me, and not even a scratch on the other driver. The Lord was surely watching over both of us and keeping us safe.

The moral of the story is this. (Oh yes, there must be a moral.) First of all, praise to God must be given in all cirumstances of life. This is yet another instance of His soveriegn grace and mercy in my life. Secondly, driving presumptuously and in a proud manner that says I will never get hurt will only end up in heartache. As the Good Book says, "pride cometh before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall." Thirdly, no matter how careful you are, and no matter whose fault it may truly be, according to the state of Florida, if you run into someone's rear end, you are the one who gets slapped with a citation of careless driving. :o(

Fun Filled Weekend

2006-06-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I came home for the weekend to surprise Dad for Father's Day. Despite a couple of attempted sabotages, he was thoroughly surprised. :o)

I was expecting a rather quiet weekend - other than Nacho Night I didn't really know of anything else that was going on. By the way, if you didn't make it to the Bedsole's or Destin on Friday for Nacho NIght with the Youth Group then you MISSED OUT!!!! We had a blast and there was a very large turnout.

Saturday morning I found out about a bridal shower for Mary Jo and Jammer. Of course it was a ladies only shower so I got to go to that. Mom had originally planned to go and was excited that I would get to go with her, but as the morning progressed, she started feeling rather sickly and so I ended up going by myself. I had an enjoyable time, catching up with various ladies in the church and finding out how everyone was doing. Mary Jo looked like she was having a good time and I would say her shower was a great success judging from the number of ladies that showed up and the general feelings of fun and relaxation. :o)

Sunday morning I had nursery duty for my Mom since she and Dad had to attend elsewhere in order to promote the Jail Ministry and discuss the banquet that is coming up on Thursday night. The nursery started out rather crowded, with one helper per child. In fact, for a while there were more helpers than babies. Hannah and Sarah Anne were watching over their adorable 13 month old nephew, Rachel was practicing aunt"ly" attentions on her adorable niece, and I was watching Mikayla (I don't know how to spell her name.) Mrs. Pierce came in with her youngest for a while and even Eunice showed up for a minute or two with adorable Elizebeth. However, as soon as communion started, I was abandoned with all the babies. Hannah was the only one to stick around and help out at that point. :o)

Tonight after evening service I'm driving off headed back to Aunt Julie's and Uncle Ligon's for another week. Next weekend I'll probably be home again, this time for a planned vacation - but we shall see. It's amazing how quickly one's plans can change in only one week.

Days Two and Three

2006-06-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Monday dawned bright and clear and Elisabeth and I hiked up to a beautiful lookout point near our campground at Panther Creek. The hike was pretty easy even though most of it was uphill. From the lookout point you could look down at a beautiful lake. There was a little town on the other side with picturesque houses and buildings. In the center of the lake was a medium sized island covered in trees and brush. It looked like the perfect lake to go sailing on.

Monday afternoon we drove a little further north and stopped at the Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. This was where the legendary Davy Crockett was born. After setting up our tent and taking a quick cat nap, we decided to walk around and do a little exploring. We visited the museum, and walked around a recreation of the Crockett homestead and then found a trail along the river and hiked around in the woods for a couple of hours.

Monday night we had a campfire - the only one we would end up having on the trip - and roasted marshmallows for smores. (You can't go camping without smores!) Tuesday morning we packed up and drove 30minutes to Jonesborough where we stayed with Caroline. Caroline is from PCC and she and her brother Micah had been good friends of Elisabeth. I didn't know them quite as well, but I enjoyed renewing my acquaintance with them and meeting several members of their family.

Tuesday afternoon was spent wandering around downtown Jonesborough and visiting. Tuesday night was a family party for Micah who is leaving with the Marines in August to go to Iraq. Tuesday night we spent in a real bed upstairs in the "Opera Room."

Caroline's nephew - a precocious six year old - has decided that he wants to be the Phantom of the Opera. He apparently loves the movie enough to have watched it several times. This little phantom likes to pretend that the upstairs spare room is really the Opera Room.

Wednesday, after breakfast, we packed up again and hit the road - this time armed with several maps and suggestions of the most beautiful places to see and visit. The first one on the list was Roan Mountain.

Krazy KOA

2006-06-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Eight thirty Sunday night found my comrade and I standing outside of the KOA office trying to find the paper work for tent camping. We had just located the price list - $20 for one night!! - when a woman walked around the corner and addressed us.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked in a disgusted tone, as if we were some type of cockroach that had found its way onto her kitchen counter.

"Oh, we're fine. We're just trying to figure out how to get settled for tent camping tonight." I replied super politely.

"Ya'll can't camp here tonight. We don't allow tent camping after the office is closed.

This I found unusual - if you can register an RV on the honor system, why not a tent? Besides, you'd think they would include a sign stating that with all the rest of the confusing jumble of signs and papers. I pointed this out to our dear saleswoman and she snapped out.

"It's right there, plain as day."

Sure enough, it was there, right in front of my nose. This is why you should usually think before you blurt out whatever rude comments happen to be on your mind.

She stood there with her arms crossed waiting for us to get moving, so without too many more words, Lisbeth and I turned around and headed back to the waiting car. At this point I was slightly worried. There was technically enough daylight to set up the tent before the darkness set in, but only just enough if we set it up right away. We didn't really have time to go hunting for a different site.

Elisabeth pulled out the road atlas and I opened it up and we started looking for state parks in the vicinity where we would be allowed to set up a tent. This took a little while, but we didn't want to get on the road again until we knew where we were headed.

Not more than five minutes later, a golf cart comes circling through the parking lot and this time our helpful woman had her husband with her. He pulled the golf cart up alongside us and when our window was open for communication, he said gruffly,

"Now, you girls are gonna have to move on. You can't sit in this parking lot after the office is closed."

At this point I was angry. I was so angry I started shaking and the tearducts in my eyes opened their floodgates. I was beyond being sweet and polite to these people. Why anyone would want to camp in a KOA is beyond me, but anyway, that's a different story.

In icily polite tones we explained that since we had been denied access at their fine facilities, we were simply attempting to find a camping ground where we could stay the night since we weren't interested in sleeping on the side of the road and really had no where else to go. Well, the idea of two helpless females seemed to appeal to his teensy weensy sense of chivalry because after a few minutes he came back around and suggested a couple of campgrounds for us.

We missed the exit for his suggestion and also missed the exit for the welcome center. At this point the darkness had settled in and it was already ten o'clock so we decided to just drive all night until we got closer to Knoxville and find a state park up there where there seemed to be a greater abundance of state parks.

So our first real night camping was culminated in a long drive through the night, a nap in a Waffle House parking lot and a stop at Panther Creek State Park around 2 am to finish the night out inside the car covered in sleeping bags.

One O'Clock in the Morning

2006-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that now that I am on vacation it seems to mean staying up much later at night but waking up at the same time in the morning. Why is that?

Anyway, I'm in Jonesborough at the moment spending the night with a girl from PCC . She knew Elisabeth much better than she knew me, but I've been having an enjoyable time getting to know her better as well as chatting with her family.

My vacation has been very interesting so far. Saturday I spent most of the day helping with the set up and tear down of a wedding. SUnday night Elisabeth and I camped out in the car because we got to the camp site a little too late to set up our tent. More on that story later.

Yesterday we camped for real at a beautiful State Park located at the birth site of Davy Crockett. We went on several hiking trails and my legs really felt that this morning when I woke up. You know, sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag is a lot harder than I remember it being when I was ten.

Tonight - well, this morning - I'll get to sleep in a real bed and then it's on to Roan Mountain tomorrow morning/afternoonish.

Titles are rather hard things to write....

2006-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

So I've been sick, but now I'm better. I spent the entire weekend in bed drinking cough syrup and downing aspirin under "doctor's" orders. (That would be my mom.) Now I only have a rather annoying cough which will probably hang around for weeks.

Tomorrow I'm driving to Pensacola to start my road trip. I'll be travelling to Tennessee with a college friend and we'll be taking in the sights and sounds of the Appalachian Mountains - the Great Smoky Range to be precise. I'm going to take lots of pictures, but not with a digital camera since I haven't had time to buy one yet.

I'll be without internet access for a week, so my next post will be all about my road trip and the cool things I've seen. I'm really quite excited about the idea of camping and driving for a week. This is the reason for being a teacher. You have an entire summer every year for exploring and traveling. :o)

This summer I actually will have time for exploring and hanging out with friends and getting to know new people. I'm not taking on a part time job this time - Linens 'N Things was quite enough of a venture in that direction - and I will be living for at least part of the summer with my aunt and uncle in Pensacola. She's having a minor surgery and will need some help around the house for a little while, so this is my opportunity to get to know my new aunt and spend some time with her.

So those are my summer plans for now.

SUMMER VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

No More Papers, No More Books, No More Students' Dirty Looks! :o)

Laser Bowling

2006-05-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Laser bowling Friday night was lots of fun. We had a good turnout with the youth - Josh, Kyle, Caitie, Nicole, Julie, Holly, Susannah, Corban, John Mark and even a few new faces - Ian and Cameron.

It's good to see the youth come together and fellowship. The bowling was exciting. We had several high scores including Joe, Kyle, Nicole, Caitie, and my brother.

I took several pictures and I hope that they come out. The lighting wasn't great since the lights were off and the black lights were going.

Sailing on Monday

2006-05-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sailing, Sailing, over the bay so blue,

I love sailing, now tell me, what about you?

Sailing, sailing, isn't it all so grand,

Next time we go sailing, let's not get caught in

The sand! :o)

Sailing is ever so much fun. Especially on a nice breezy day when the wind is just strong enough to get the boat moving at a fast click, but not so strong that you feel like you'll fall out of the boat.

The water on the bay was dark blue and a little choppy from the wind, and the sky overhead was clear blue with only a few wisps of clouds. I was so glad that it decided not to rain while we were out. It was so peaceful out on the water and we only saw a few other boats out - pretty far away.

Sailing along the coast was cool - you could see all the houses and we were just far enough away as to not really notice the road. The mansion looked like a hotel in a manicured park from where we were and there were several other houses along the highway that were bigger from there than I had expected.

It was a pretty uneventful trip - in a good way - until we docked. Then the trouble began. Joey backed the truck up just a little too far so that once the boat was on the trailer and he started pulling it up the sand started to spin. When it was obvious that Joey couldn't get out on his own, Joe started pushing. That helped some, but not quite enough so I jumped in too, eager to lend a hand. Well, that didn't seem to do much good either and the end result of pushing was that Joe got covered in wet sand from a spinning left wheel.

At this point I noticed a blue minivan with two dogs hanging out the passenger window. The occupants of said van seemed to have taken an interest in our little show for the van was pulled up and parked just in front of us. Joe and Joey had started scouring the shore for boards or rocks when a voice emanated from the driver's side of the van.

"Did ya'll get stuck? Yeah, that sand is troublesome. There's cement down unner there so ya jes gotta go real slow like."

A man dressed in jeans and a navy blue t-shirt got out of the van. He walked toward us with a cigarette hanging from his mouth and a full beer bottle in his hand. He sauntered over to the driver's side and began giving Joey tips on how to pull out. "Go real slow - don't let the tires spin."

It almost worked, but Joey was just in too deep on the left side, so our rescuer proceeded to pull a strap out of the back of his van and offered to pull us out.

I must confess that at this point I was a bit skeptical - how was a little blue minivan going to pull a big truck and boat up out of the sand? But then, I had forgotten that Joey could also help to pull; he wasn't completely helpless.

The trick worked like a dream and without any spinning at all Joey came up out of the sand and all three vehicles were once again safely on dry land. The perfect, adventurous ending to an enjoyable afternoon on the bay.

Easter Vacation

2006-04-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

I had a great time visiting with Elizabeth and Bethany when I went to Atlanta over Easter Vacation. I've never driven that far by myself before and so that was a bit of an adventure. At least for the first two hours, then it started to get boring and by the time the ride was over I was happy to get out of the car and walk around. :o)

Friday night Bethany was working so I spent time talking with Elizabeth and getting caught up as we walked around Marietta Square and ate dinner. Saturday we were going to spend at Stone Mountain, but that didn't work out so instead we went into downtown Atlanta for the afternoon. I saw the huge mall and then we went with Bethany to Atlantic Station and ate dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. That was so much fun!! The wait was 30 minutes, but Elizabeth managed to magically secure us a table with no wait at all - as long as we didn't mind eating at the cocktail island. We had a great time and ate a pizza that was half jerk chicken pizza and half tomato basil. Different, but definately gourmet. :o)

Sunday I worshipped with Bethany and her husband Eric at their church - Orange Street Baptist Church. It's the same church that Trent and Erin Hamilton attend, but they were not there that Sunday. :o( Sunday afternoon I spent playing football with people from Elizabeth's church and hanging out at her house.

Overall it was an exciting and exhilerating trip and it was great to see some friends and family that I haven't seen in a while. My next trip . . . . I don't know, but I hope it's soon.

The rest of Easter Vacation was spent relaxing and hanging out with friends here at home and staying far away from papers that needed grading or lesson plans.

Now that school is started back routine comes with it, but I've noticed that since the classes are winding down there are less papers to grade. Just three more weeks until final exams - I guess I need to get started on writing my final exams. I think overall I do prefer to be on this end of the exam - writing it is sometimes so much easier and less time consuming than studying for it. :o)

Current Events

2006-04-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you Lizette and all you others who stepped forward to help me find the paragraph marker. I think I've finally figured it out. :o)

I hear that controversial issues are the thing to get comments, so I thought I'd actually read the news today to see if I could find anything worth commenting on myself. I think I've found a few things.

First of all, it looks like South Dakota is taking the lead in legally banning abortions. I say, good for them. According to an article entitled, "doctor flies in to perform abortions," at http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/31/griffin.abortion/index.html, "Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law last month a bill that will make performing abortions a felony -- except to save the life of the mother. If unchallenged, it would go into effect this summer. " Of course, it's very likely to be challenged, but I, along with others, think that perhaps it's time for Roe v. Wade to be overturned in Supreme Court. Who knows, only time will tell with this one. Nevertheless, I think that the movement in South Dakota should be watched carefully because this is likely to be a turning point for other similar movements that may or may not happen in other states around the country.

The rest of the article is interesting also; about a kindly 70 year old woman who has retired, but believes it is her call in life to save helpless babies from being born into families that do not want them.

In other news - March 31 - student demonstrations dwindled to a minimum as high schoolers were warned that they would be arrested for truancy. And why were they walking the streets in California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico? Not just to cut class. (Although, I'm sure there were plenty who were there "just for the ride".) No, these caring citizens were demonstrating to the senators that they believe the new immigration laws are not good, and that the senators who oppose them are right.

So, illegal immigration is getting it's turn in courts again, and the result is truancy on, not college campuses this time, but middle school and high school campuses. Interesting.

By the way, for those of you interested in sources, that is also a CNN article in the education news section, titled, "Schools Curb Student Protests on Education."

That's all for now folks!

If Luke Was a Teacher...

2006-03-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Luke is doing the dishes right now and I'm having fun annoying him. He says he must have silence so that he can concentrate. As if it's that hard to wash the dishes. According to Luke, if he was a teacher, all his students would be dead. I'm not sure what he means by this. Maybe that he will teach dead people? Anyway, enough about Luke. I only have two weeks left until Easter Vacation!!!!! Yay!!!!! :o) I'm looking forward to the break with great anticipation. Maybe the weather will be nice enough for a beach treip or three. Does anyone have any idea how to make paragraph breaks on this thing? Until I figure that out, maybe using a different color each time I change thoughts will help. Not having paragraphs is really beginning to annoy me. Especially since there is nothing to really break up the monotony of a very long blog. Next Friday is Work A Thon at Rocky Bayou. I'm looking forward to the break from teaching that this will afford. I'm also interested to see what kinds of pictures my students will come up with for the yearbook next year.

Problems Solved - I think

2006-03-10T19:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've had a few technical difficulties, but I think I'm back up and running now. This is what happens when computer illiterate English teacher attempts to blog. :o)

Missions

2006-03-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been pretty busy for us. Yesterday was pretty routine - Saturday school for me and working on the bathroom for Dad. The rest of the family did odd jobs and hung out. Today though was out of the routine. First of all, I got up at 6:30 in the morning for church. First United Methodist of Niceville is having their missions conference and Dad set up a display table for it. The first service was at 8:15. We were all going to go at first, but not everyone got up in time, so Dad and I went for the first service. It was great. Joanne Shetler spoke during the service and told about her work with Wycliffe Translators in the Philippines. She has been working for some time (at least 10 years) with the Bolongwa tribe. (I have no idea of I spelled that correctly, but that's how it sounds.) Then at 9:40 they had a contemporary service - fun change of pace - and John Mark spoke about his work in Mexico City. He gave his presentation in more of a sermon format. At 2:00 pm Mom and I returned to the church for a missionary's tea for the ladies of the church and the missionaries' wives. That was lots of fun. It was really interesting to hear missionaries from around the world speak about their work. I met a young woman, Jill, who teaches math classes at a missionary school in Kenya. She was really nice. She's on furlough right now and will be returning in June.

Comments on the Youth Bonfire

2006-03-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

The bonfire last night went well. I had a great time and I know Luke, Zanna and Joe had fun as well. The twins did a great job with the games, and everyone brought enough food stuffs. The fire itself was certainly one of the biggest bonfires I've seen in a while. Mrs. Bedsole was happy to get rid of all that old wood. I think we had a pretty decent turnout too - a good sized crowd of regulars. :o) I had to leave early, so I don't know how it ended, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves while I was there.

"don't waste your life" by John Piper

2006-02-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

As most of you already know, I LOVE to read. I usually read sappy romances and easy "no-thinkers," but in the past few weeks I changed my pattern a bit and read a book called "don't waste your life" by John Piper. Piper does a great job of making the Bible not only accessible, but also appliable. (is that a word?) In other words, he had some great thoughts on how God expects us to live our lives and some practical ways to glorify God in all that we do no matter where we are. Though I learned a lot from the book, my favorite insight was in the realm of why we bother to work hard. I guess because, as a teacher, I deal a lot with "why should I spend my valuable time doing ____ when it doesn't even really matter?" "Why get an A+ when I can do the minimum and slide through the class with a C-?" Piper says that we should work hard and do our jobs well, not for the praise of man but for God's glory. How much glory does God get when the world sees a Christian doing a shoddy job? What kind of witness are we if our co-worker hears us talk about God and how Christ is the answer to everything, but then sees us shifting our work off on someone else, or doing a poor job so that we can leave earlier? I guess the bottom line is, we work hard so that God can be glorified in our work. It gives us an opportunity to be a witness for Christ. We are ambassadors for the kingdom no matter where we are, whether in Christian ministries, the foreign mission field, or a secular field. In fact, I would think personally, that the secular field would be the best place for us to show others through our actions what it means to be a Christian. Whether we bag groceries, sweep floors, teach classes, or just attend classes and do "boring" homework, our work should be the best that we can do and should make people say, "she works like that because she's a Christian." This will bring glory to God and will help further the kingdom of God because it will give opportunity for us to tell about the hope that is within us. If we do not do our best and are known for cheating, swindling, or just plain being lazy, then the non-Christians who see us will think, "if that's a Christian, then I don't want to be one." So that's one of the things that I have learned in the past frew weeks and it has whetted my appetite for further useful books. :o)