Almost one week down...

I've been with my class now for 3 days. And I'm realizing that my writing style at school has now evolved into my blog writing style. I guess it's not all bad since my class tells me that my writing is really funny. That's a good thing right? Twenty-nine 10-year olds in a classroom leads to an interesting dynamic. With that many students, you don't have just one leader. Several students try to jump in and be the leader. And while it can lead to conflict, it gives me a chance to teach compromise and to show them that you don't always have to have a leader. Or that everyone can be a leader at certain times.

We're also discussing unity. As a teacher or a person, I can't have twenty-nine students who can't or don't know how to get along. The more unified they are, the easier my job becomes. Unless of course they all decided to mutiny or something along those lines! Children need to learn how to get along with everyone they're going to meet. It's a lesson I had to learn on my mission. We may not like everyone in this life, but we don't always get to choose who we work with or who's in our class. And to me, merely tolerating a person isn't enough. To tolerate them means you're saying "well, I just have to deal with this person for a short amount of time and then I'll never see them again." While that works well sometimes, it doesn't work in my classroom. It leads to resentment and hurt feelings. It's all about looking for the positive in other people. Is that an easy thing? No it's really not. Sometimes it's hard for us as people to look for the good in others. Especially when we don't want to like them. But having charity means loving people the way Christ loved people. And seeing others the way He did. I can't teach that in my classroom (although at times I wish I could) but I can help them to learn why it's important to look for the good in others. When we look for the good, a funny thing happens. Most of the time, all those bad things that bothered us start to disappear. They might still be there but we don't notice them as much. It really does work.

That's my challenge to you this week. If you're struggling with someone right now, look for the good in them. Don't dwell on the annoying things they do or the bad things. Only look at the good things. Write them down if you have to. And say something to them about it. Well, compliment them rather. And see what happens. I've seen students change because of that one little thing.

While you're at it, pray for my husband's hometown and the people who died today. We're having a sad evening in our house tonight.

That Time Again

I've been asking my husband all day if I have to go back to school tomorrow. He keeps looking at me like I'm crazy. So I had to explain. I love teaching but having the summer off is just so relaxing, and I get in the habit of reading and taking naps. Not to mention I now have to break my tv addiction that I get every summer! All the more reason to get pregnant soon :) But really and truly, when school starts, it's just another sign that summer is ending. Which means cold weather is coming and the year is winding down. Talk about depressing thoughts! Now that I've cheered everyone up....

Everything just gets crazy at this time of year. And it really doesn't slow down until January. So I appreciate the summer and enjoy the hot weather. Mainly because I can't stand the cold or the snow! I like snow days but I don't like snow, go figure. My husband is the complete opposite. He loves the cold weather, loves snow, loves rain. Me, I like "perfect" days. Good thing we live in a state where we can get a little bit of both.

I was just outside enjoying the weather and imagining we have another week of summer left. Which we don't. But it doesn't hurt to imagine. I have to say that having a Sunday before Monday is wonderful idea! Church was amazing today. One thing that stood out was the theme of obedience. So many people in this world complain about rules but at the same time they want to be happy. Well, we can't be happy without rules. That's the way it works. Obeying rules because we choose to, is what brings us true happiness. I wish my students would obey the classroom rules simply because they had respect and they wanted to. Not because they're afraid of punishment. Heavenly Father wants us to obey His rules because He knows we can find happiness there. We can't say we want happiness and then do the opposite of what God asks. Life doesn't work that way. We might have temporary happiness but it will never bring us the true happiness we desire. I know that for a fact.

So, follow the rules and be happy. And someone please tell me I don't have to go to school tomorrow! I'm thinking I shouldn't wish that however. Every time I wish for something along those lines, something goes wrong. We've already had an earthquake and a hurricane in the last week. I think I'm done with natural disasters for awhile. Let's hold off for a month at least.

Enjoy your last bit of summer. Spend time with your children and help them get excited about school tomorrow! I want happy kids in my class!

Fitting In

The joyful Open House was tonight. I never would have considered myself popular by any means in high school however I did have plenty of friends. After tonight's Open House, I'm learning more about me. I talked to people  in every group almost in school. Tonight, I made a connection with every parent in my classroom. And these parents are all quite different. I guess I'm more of a drifter than a person who stays with one group. You know what though, that's a really good thing. It lets me talk to lots of different people and get along with all of them. Not a bad skill to have.

However, it does wear me out quite a bit. I think I'm socially drained after tonight. I need to be isolated with just my husband for a day or two. Not that I try to please every parent or say what they want but I noticed that I did what I used to do in high school. Instead of changing myself for other people, I share with each person or group the part of me they need to see. Sad thing, not all people get to see all sides of me. Good thing, I can have things in common with tons of people. Thankfully, my husband gets to see all sides of me. Not very many people do I'm noticing. I guess I'm pretty picky about who I share all of me with. But it's a good thing I share all of me with my amazing husband. It is draining only sharing part of you with certain people. Sometimes I feel like I have to be on guard all the time to make sure I won't act in a way to upset someone.

But the parents were wonderful and I'm looking forward to another great year!

Shaking up the school year

Well, this is me. I can never ever have a normal school year or a normal anything for that matter! I think odd and strange events seem to follow me. Losing the flight crew right before the flight, brakes going out on the plane, llamas escaping the BYU-Ag center, car wreck and subsequent fire on TRAX, crazy snow storms, fires in L.A., unexpected earthquake the week I'm preparing my classroom. Maybe I'm some kind of magnet for bad events or something like that. Or it could be I happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But someone should seriously warn people when they're with me that these kinds of things happen.

It was supposed to be a nice normal day full of me getting my classroom ready for the Open House on Thursday. Instead it was me running around like crazy making sure I had everything I needed. One small blessing, got the notebooks I needed for free! Then came the meeting about math (I don't teach math by the way, but I still had to be there) and the meeting about science (I also don't teach science). Thankfully they were short and painless.

Finally have my Welcome board designed. Since I'm on a tight tight budget this school year, I had to be creative and not buy any of it. So everything is done by hand. We all know I'm not an artist by any means, I just pretend to be! I'm good at faking although it was a lot easier when I taught second grade because the kids told me I was an amazing artist. Now the kids laugh along with me and making guesses as to what I'm drawing. Usually wrong guesses of course. Anyways, we will be "Catch a Wave into 5th Grade!" The two things I was worried about making, palm trees and surfboards managed to be fairly easy. Art teacher had two palm trees and I found a surfboard template online that I spent time tracing today. Now I have to get names on the surfboards and staple them to the board.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be busy planning for next week. I also realized today that I don't have space for 29 students in my room. Well, I have space for the students but I had to rearrange quite bit. This is going to be an interesting year. Very interesting year.

Got wonderful news about my class from last year as far as state testing goes. So I'm feeling pretty good. And in the middle of being told this wonderful news, the fake walls of my classroom started shaking slightly and everything felt like a huge gust of wind blew through the school. Of course it couldn't be something normal like a gust of wind. Earthquake. That's always loads of fun let me tell you. It's funny though cause I do get excited about earthquakes for some reason. Probably because I've never had anything bad happen. I'd better go knock on wood right about now because next time I'm in an earthquake, something worse will happen. I apologize to everyone around me in advance.

And now it's time to review the Language Arts curriculum and get my Social Studies ready to go for the school year. Be safe out there. Getting ready for school is dangerous business. Tomorrow I shall have a picture of the amazing bulletin board. You can decide for yourselves if I'm an artist!

Maestra!

School

Today was the first day back without the kids. Let me tell you how my day went: I'm eating Chocolate Seduction ice cream. Does that tell you anything? I can also barely keep my eyes open.

I sat in meetings all day long which is typical the first day back but I forgot how long and tiring it is. I have laundry I have to get done today as well but I don't know if I'll stay awake to finish it.

On the plus side, I walked into my room today expecting to move around filing cabinets, desks, chairs etc. But nope. The custodians did all of that! I just need to rearrange the desks! It's wonderful actually. Downside: every year I promise myself I'm going to get organized. And every year, I end up throwing everything in cupboards at the end of the year. So I was running around like crazy today searching for everything I needed. I need to write myself notes or something at the end of the year so I remember where everything is when school starts again! That would be a good idea. Still trying to figure out what I want to put on my bulletin board to welcome back students. If you have any thoughts, feel free to let me know.

We got curriculum updates today which means planning is a little different than normal. Not to mention the fact that I still don't have my class list. Very sad actually about that one. It's a little hard to plan when I don't know how many students will be in my class. Apparently we're looking at around 30 in our homerooms. Which means I'll have 26 in my Language Arts class. It's a lot but somehow I'll make it work out. I just want names so I can make name tags and set up my grade book.

So much to do and so little time before next week. I pray I can get everything finished in time. I'm thinking about reworking some things this year for my classroom. Hopefully it'll make everything run smoother in class. I hope anyway.

Time for some sleep so I can get ready to do it all again tomorrow. Hopefully the county decides to give me an id badge. Life is very difficult without it.

Let the lower lights be burning

I know school is going to start when the nightmares and dreams start up again and yesterday was quite the dream. Well, thinking about it, I'm not sure if it's a dream or a nightmare. I'll let you decide! So, I dream that it's the first day of school, and all is going quite nicely. Until the end of the day. I'm reading a book to my class and realize that the clock is broken. Look at my watch. it's 3:40 and they haven't started dismissal! We get a phone call to our classrooms telling us the buses have all broken down and there's a problem outside the school. I'm stuck at the school until everyone is home. The buses don't even come until after 7pm. Yeah, now that I think about it, I had a nightmare. Not a good way to start the day before I go back to school.

But the rest of the day was exceptional. Church truly was amazing today. And hubby and I had a nice drive around town before coming home for a snuggle. Well, for me it's a snuggle. He calls it snoogies and doesn't understand why I like it so much! One day he'll catch on. It's almost time for his soccer game to start so that's how I'll be wrapping up the day. Watching America play and hopefully win!

To all my teacher friends out there, if you've already started teaching, I hope it's going well. If you're just getting ready, good luck tomorrow! Or whenever you happen to start. Enjoy the time you have left.

Interesting hymn in church today. One of my favorites but we don't sing it very often. "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy." Hubby leaned over to me and says, what's this song called in Spanish? So I tell him the name and he wants to know why we don't sing it very often. I agree with him. The third verse really struck me today:
 "Trim your feeble lamp my brother;
 Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.
 Let the lower lights be burning; Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling sea man, you may rescue, you may save."

How true is that? Christ and Heavenly Father leave it to us to help those in need. It's through us prayers are answered many times. If we aren't prepared and listening to the promptings of the Spirit, someone may lose out. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. No doubt about that. And we need to be ready at all times. We never know how He may use us any given day. We may rescue someone and not even realize it. I've experienced the joy of bringing others to Christ. But it wasn't me that did it. Christ was the one who did it all. I was the instrument in His hands. And we can all be instruments if we're willing.

Enjoy the rest of this glorious Sunday! I know I certainly will. This week I'm sure my posts will be about school. And how to balance that with being a wife! I'm supposed to make pescados dorados tomorrow.

Pensando

Yep the title is in Spanish this time. It's kind of like a guessing game for all of you. And it amuses me! Cause my brain works in both languages, at the same time. It means sometimes really strange words come out of my mouth. And people in my dreams who only speak English in real life (like my parents), speak Spanish. I'll admit it sometimes makes my head hurt and I forgot what language I'm speaking but it's worth it because of the people I've gotten to know.

It's been a crazy few days. Crazy more in the mind sense rather than in actually doing things. School starts soon and that means all those things that I put in the back of my mind to ponder during the summer have to come to the front. Like what my classroom is going to look like this year. I've gone through 5 or 6 plans this summer and think I've finally found one I like. I need to figure out the projects for the beginning of the year. I need some new things but I'm keeping some of the old ones as well. And which novel to start with at the end of September. I may have to run to the supply closet and grab Esperanza Rising simply because it's a wonderful book. And even though the main character is a girl, the boys seem to enjoy the story just as much! Plus I can bring Spanish into the classroom which is even better. There are so many other things I've done this summer to get ready for the year that I wonder if it can even count as a summer! I read all the Black Eyed Susan nominee books for elementary school thanks to the librarian at school. And I wrote a summary for each one. That's gotta count for something right? It's like I even did homework over the summer!

So I'm wrapping up the summer tomorrow and I'm sad. Really and truly sad. But I'm also excited for a new school year and a new class of students. Hopefully my students haven't heard any bad rumors about me. And if they have, like I give too much homework, that's fine. They'll be pleasantly surprised when they see what it's all about in my classroom. I tried explaining to my husband how exhausting the first two weeks of school are. That's when I realized I'm dealing with a painter. He looked at me as though I was speaking Greek. Then says "Well, I work outside and inside and deal with crazy people all day long. Plus I never know what my schedule is going to be each day. How is being a teacher harder than that?" Clearly I will be getting no sympathy from him this school year. Maybe when he sees the mountain of work I bring home to grade and the projects I plan (those were kept from his eyes when we were dating because they were at my house, not anywhere near him) then he might come to understand. I'm hoping to talk him into grading papers on his days off! Still not sure how that will work however. It can be good spelling practice for him to grade the spelling tests. He can learn new vocabulary too!

Well, tomorrow is going to be a great Sunday! I'm coming back home as a wonderful friend put it the other day. It's going to be exciting to be in the Monocacy Ward again. I don't know how long we'll be there, but I'm excited for the new adventure. And so is my husband even if he is a bit nervous and worried about the whole English thing. Tomorrow is also the Great Food Truck Race!

Adios!

More cooking adventures

Well, my time before school starts is winding down faster than I thought possible. I want another week. Please? Someone, anyone? Guess that won't be happening. Instead of going out today and doing possible errands, I decided to be extra lazy. I stayed home and slept in a little. Gave me some time to plan food for today. I love lazy days like this because I can sit and ponder about the world.

I had the urge to cook today. I know, again. I enjoy cooking but I don't always find the time to do it. Hopefully my husband realizes that me cooking isn't going to be a habit once school starts. Otherwise he will be sadly disappointed. In my quest to find something to cook, I ended up reading a bunch of craft blogs. I think I'm officially hooked on these things. So if you know of any good ones, feel free to pass them along!

Lunch time came and yet again I cooked up a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. It's quickly becoming my standard dish. Good thing hubby isn't home to see me make it. He might go crazy! I'm fine eating the same thing every day. He however is not. Since we have all these great tomatoes in the crisper, I need to use them. I'm grateful we have them because I've been craving tomatoes lately. Lots and lots of delicious tomatoes. The best way to make them in my opinion is to cut them into big chunks, put on a little salt, a drizzle of Italian dressing and some mozzarella cheese! Perfect and fresh. If I had basil in the house I would add that. I make a huge bowl of that!

My husband came home early today yay! He was busy digging through the kitchen looking for food. I don't always buy snacks because if I buy them, I eat them. Bad plan! Hence, I start looking for recipes. He comes out to the kitchen as I'm busy hacking into the block of brown sugar. Yep. It turned into a block so I was chopping it with a knife so I could microwave it and use it. At the same time, I'm melting butter in a pot and putting powdered sugar in a bowl. Poor guy looks around and says "Que vas a cocinar?" Apparently, he didn't take note of the dessert ingredients and assumed I was going to make dinner or something. Well, any dinner that has sugar sounds good to me. Nope. I made peanut butter fudge! My family I know can picture this all too well. I decided I was going to be good and set out all the ingredients ahead of time. In the process, I figure I can start melting the butter because it will take a little while. That was the mistake. Butter melts a whole lot faster when you try to do other things. Good thing he left the kitchen at that point. Because that's when I start running around like a mad woman! Grabbing the brown sugar and dumping it in the pot with the milk. Then it starts to boil faster than I think. Another bad plan because at that point, I can't leave it alone or it'll burn. So I'm stirring the pot with one hand and putting peanut butter into a measure cup with the other. Miraculously, I don't get burned, and I get everything mixed together perfectly! The fudge now sits cooling in the fridge! And the kitchen is cleaned! I've got to work on this whole timing thing when I cook or there might be some big accidents soon!

I was going to go off on a parenting rant, but I'll save that for another day. Right now I'm busy singing hymns. "Conmigo quedate Senor, la noche viene ya" One of my favorites. Enjoy these last few days before school everyone!

Adventures in Cooking

I'm thinking this blog may be split between me learning how to cook and keep house with a Mexican husband and adventures in teaching elementary school! Either way it's going to be exciting for you all I'm sure! Any Spanish phrases are here because we do speak Spanish in our house. Makes life more fun that way.

My husband came to me yesterday after seeing black beans in the pantry and asks "Porque nunca haces frijoles" For my non-Spanish speakers on here that means why don't you ever make beans? Well, honey, I haven't been able to figure out what I want to do with them is all. He says (and I'll keep this in English for you) well you should make them tomorrow with hierba buena (mint). All I can think is "you want me to make black beans and put mint in them? Are you insane?" So after some internet searching, pondering and frantic questioning to my friends on I2US, I realize this is an ok thing to do if not something liked by everyone. So I rinse my beans and cook them with mint I picked from the backyard. Surprisingly, it was amazing. They tasted really good! And for those of you worried about the after effects of beans, put the mint in them! It really works!

Well, I decided to be ambitious and not only make beans (because who wants to eat just black beans) but to reheat the tinga from the night before, make rice the Mexican way and fresh salsa. All of this, after I taught Spanish class until almost 5. Who's a good wife? Yep that's right me!

Salsa did not quite turn out quite the way I planned. I like spicy foods really I do. I mean my husband is Mexican after all and loves eating spicy foods. He bought some serrano chiles the other day when we bought a huge box of Roma tomatoes. I had to ask him about using them salsa since we usually use jalapeños. He says just to use the same amount I normally use. Now, he's been making a raw salsa the last few days with the serranos, tomatoes and lime just cut up and I've tried it. Yep it's spicy! I figure I'll be fine to make the salsa. Put 3 tomatoes and 5 yes 5 serranos in the pot and cover them with water. They boil and get soft. I put them in the blender with the salt and garlic. As I lift the top off the blender once it's mixed, I take a whiff and I think I almost burned my face off. I start choking and coughing. Yep that's pretty spicy. The hubby loves it of course. I enjoy it on top of the beans and rice. A few small spoonfuls on top. While he eats it straight with tortilla chips. On the plus side, I read recently that capsaicin does increase your metabolism. I figure I'm good to go for a few days.

So our dinner was a success! And I'm slowly realizing I can't stay up until 1am since school does start on Monday. I haven't stayed up with late all summer and now the week before school starts I can't sleep. I go to bed with my husband around 10:30 and I wait and wait and wait for awhile. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. I end up downstairs on the computer, reading or watching tv until I'm finally ready to drift off.

Join me tomorrow as I discuss Outrageous Kid Parties and my favorite books. Unless of course something else comes up in my life. In which case, you'll end up reading something else equally exciting! Please feel free to leave comments!

Cooking

I had a wonderful plan to make tinga today for the two of us. As always, when my husband doesn't have work, my best laid plans never seem to happen. He prefers to not make plans and see what happens. I like planning out everything. You think I would learn quickly to not make plans at least when he's not working. Nope not me. I figure oh maybe once I talk him into doing something else. But usually his spur of the moment plans are always enjoyable.

I put the chicken on to cook so I could shred it, and my husband says "let's go fishing!" Now as you all know I'm not a huge huge fishing fan. But it was a beautiful day so I said yes. And we had a really good time like always. Well, we get home and my husband cleans the fish while I shred the chicken. Tinga is a fabulous dish by the way. So I'm including it here for you to enjoy. As a note, this is only one way to make tinga, go search the web. There are tons of ways!

Tinga:
1 small chicken cooked and shredded or 2 to 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can of chipotle chiles
1 onion sliced into thin rings
3 roma tomotoes sliced
corn tortillas or tostadas
queso fresco or mozzarella
sour cream or crema
lettuce thinly sliced/chopped
salsa verde or other salsa

1. Boil the chicken with a piece of onion until the chicken is cooked through.
2. Shred chicken into small pieces.
3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add onions. Saute until soft.
4. Add the tomatoes and the chipotle chiles. DO NOT add the whole can if you don't like it really spicy. Try starting with 2 or 3. I usually add 5 or 6 but we like it spicy! Add some of the liquid from the boiled chicken or water.
5. "Mash" the chiles so the seeds begin to come out.
6. Once the tomatoes start to get soft, add the chicken and some more liquid if needed. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until the flavors blend together.
7. Serve in tortillas or on tostadas with other toppings.

Summertime

I'm in denial right now about the fact that summer is almost over. I hate that feeling when everything starts to wind down. One more week left for me until I go back to school to set up my classroom and get things ready for the new school year. Normally, I've gone in at least once by now. This year due to some things at the end of the last school year, I've held off on going back as long as possible. In fact, I'm pondering waiting until Monday morning. Yep, my room will be utter chaos compared to the other teachers but I want to enjoy my week. If I can possibly talk my husband into going with me tomorrow to move all the heavy stuff, then I will but that's it. No thinking about school until Monday morning. I feel the need to cram so much into this week. I need to get my fun before it's back to grading papers and planning lessons. I love that by the way, don't get me wrong! But there's something about summer that just lets you be free for a little while. Part of me is saying hey hold up! Just relax this week. Which is what I did today.

My husband and I had our niece and nephew over for a sleepover last night. They crashed around midnight and I was up and up and up and up. Til like 4am. The whole time telling myself, go to bed, you only have a week left, you want to sleep in. Maybe that was part of the problem. I only have a week left so I wanted to stay up. I don't think I've stayed up that late since college, and I probably wasn't doing anything fun then either! But I watched my husband, niece and nephew sleeping. It was amazing. This morning, we woke up and didn't do anything. I made waffles and we ate in the middle of the blankets and pillows on the living room floor. Then we ended up going to Adventure Playground. Came home and fell asleep again. It doesn't sound like a very exciting day but snuggled up together falling asleep is wonderful. My husband says he's feeling lazy today. I don't mind at all. We're watching Bugs Bunny right now, and I'm content. Estoy feliz y tranquila! I need to learn how to enjoy relaxing and being lazy. I feel guilty for doing it but really and truly it's a good thing once in awhile. We need to build back up for the week to come. In my case, the school year to come.

Now it's off to the kitchen in a few to make huevos y jamon. I think I might throw in some tomatoes just cause I can!

Hasta mañana,

Fishing and Marriage

Yep this is going to be about fishing. Actually about fishing and marriage. Yes I've only been married a month, but I'm learning a lot. I know most of that is thanks to the mission. Living with a person for 18 months will do that to you. I mean, when you can only be apart to go to the bathroom, you gotta learn how to compromise. Otherwise, you're miserable until your next companion. Like seriously miserable. And you're with that person day in and day out. Like a marriage but more intense.

Anyway, back to the analogy here. My husband loves fishing. We're talking beyond love, it's almost an obsession but it brings home some extra food! And it makes him happy. He comes back so relaxed and calm. So I say "more fishing!" I however am not a huge fishing fan. Not sure why. I think it's the fact that you put a worm on a hook and that worm lures a poor fish (which I have no problem eating) into a trap. Then you pull the poor fish out of the water and gut him. Pretty violent! It kind of scares me to put the worm on the hook actually. But whenever my husband decides to go fishing, guess who gets roped into going? Yep yours truly. I'm learning to enjoy fishing but I have to say it's not number one on my list. Why do I go then? Because I love him. This is something that makes him happy and after painting houses all day and coming home exhausted, I can grant him this one request. I don't always go but 9 times out of 10 I'm there with him. Maybe I'm not actively fishing but I'm enjoying the look on his face as he catches fish after fish. Or as he just sits patiently.

Well, a few weeks ago I actually caught 2 fish! Quite the exciting time. However, catching a fish makes you think it's always going to be easy to catch them. Not so. That's where they get you! And where I get bored. We went fishing today since he worked so hard all week. Actually it was a gorgeous day. Not too hot at all. Cloudy and perfect. I brought my book along like always. Halfway to the river he looks at me and asks if I really want to be with him and the nephew fishing. Ummm yep honey I do. Today I really do. And I did. I meant it. I fished for a little bit and caught one yay! But then I climbed on a rock to enjoy my book. Well, the rain moved in, luckily for me a drizzle, and I stuff the book in my shirt. My dear husband looks over at me and goes "well, I guess you think we should leave now." I told him I was fine to stay and wait it out. I was fine. I finally saw the river and fishing the way he sees it. Beautiful. Nope we might not always catch fish. And it might rain. But it's amazing to observe nature and just relax. I don't think we do that enough in this world. I sat there singing hymns and reading. And just enjoying the beauty of nature. I have to say it was the best fishing trip ever. Really and truly. Now I know to just wait for those wonderful moments. My husband is right. You have to be patient.

Thoughts etc

So this is all thanks to my little sister that I've started this blog. We shall see where it goes. Mainly this is my ramblings on life, school, and love. Hmmm doesn't sound very exciting but I'll do my best!

I'm not normally a controversial person, but the last several years have caused me to face things that I never thought I would face. I've changed my mind about certain people and my political outlook. I have learned that people are people no matter what. It reminds me of Horton Hears a Who, you know, "a person's a person no matter how small." I know not everyone agrees withe me, and that's fine. The only thing I know is we're all children of God. If we keep that in mind, everything else will follow.

I finished teaching a summer Spanish class today. It's a two week class, and I only had 4 students this time. It amazes me how quickly ten-year olds will change their minds when given the facts. They came to me fairly open minded and as they discovered new foods, new cultures and new people, they grew as well. No, they didn't become fluent Spanish speakers in two weeks, but they grasped new vocabulary and a desire to learn more. That's the most important thing to me. They have a new appreciation for their country, and they want to change it. To me that's a small miracle! They tried jicama, salsa verde, pico de gallo, handmade tortillas, agua de sandia, agua de tamarindo and pastel de tres leches. Not once did I hear "ewwww that's gross" "I won't try that" They tried everything and if they didn't like it, all I heard was a quiet "wow that's not what I'm used to" And they were pleasantly surprised by the food. A girl who hates tomatoes has become a lover of pico de gallo.

So this blog is just a compilation of my thoughts. If you like it, great. If not, I'm sure there's something else out there!