Teaching is a Weird Profession

I am officially done shaping the young minds of the Class of 2014. I've been looking forward to this day for a number of reasons:

1. Hanging out with my Sweet Girl - everyday!!
2. No alarm clocks, for me at least.(dang you Brian, still having to wake up early)
3. No worrying if I have "teacher clothes" clean. I can wear shorts and pj's all day if I want.
4. No more dealing with "those" students. (Oh, you know what I'm talking about.)
5. More sewing (yes, I'm a nerd.)
6. Getting the baby's room together.
7. De-cluttering Ft. Frink
8. Going on vacation.
9. Growing a kid
10. Enjoying a (remotely) stress-free day.

But teaching is a weird profession. It's just odd to me that I spend every workday with this kids. I see them everyday. I know their names. I know if they hate A&M and love UT. I know about their parents, siblings, friends, etc. I know who they are "dating" (can you really date in 8th grade??) I know way more about them than they probably know, but, hey, they are the ones talking about it all. But after today, I won't see these kids again. Probably ever.

That's just weird to me. You become a part of their daily life and then you aren't. And they are afraid to say "hi" in the grocery store, but they sure weren't afraid to shoot tweeties across my classroom.

It's just weird.

Teeny Tiny Flowers & Aspirations

I love the little flower clips from Briar Claire. I just bought Kaylynn 3 (don't worry Brian, it was from my paypal surplus, nothing was charged to the credit card and nothing left our bank account) crochet flower clips (in the colors that I want to do her "big girl room" in one day (mustard, deep aqua & charcoal gray...or at least accent with. Anywho, I got to looking at them and thought to myself, "Self, you could totally make those."

With that inner dialogue, I set out to find an internet tutorial, because if there is ONE thing I'm good at, it's finding a free tutorial online. So I found this one:

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/teeny-tiny-flowers.html

Yeah, I'm going to try it. But what got me today is the lady's "profile info" on the left-hand side of the blog. It says:

Hello! Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic,

it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married,

stay at home Mum with two young children and a new baby.

We live in a 100year old Victorian house in the North of England

which we are slowly renovating, and here I spend my days

:: mothering, decorating, crocheting, baking, sewing, crafting

and gardening. I hope you enjoy your peek

into my colourful little world. xxxx

Lucy is leading my "fantasy" life...you know, if you were allowed to script your own life. This would be me. And Brian can really choke when I mention that the England part of that wouldn't be so bad either (NO, we're not moving back there....I mean if one could script a life like that, why wouldn't one want to live in England...or Scandiavia...or France...or someplace exotic!)

And aren't the clippies so cute!

Endangered

I'm worried. I'm very, very worried. Finals hell week is here and I feel that the beard is an endangered species, certain to become extinct by the middle of next week, if not sooner.

We've got a Christmas party to go to on Saturday morning and said endangered beard is making me "look like a bum". I'm not sure I can show up at the party with the beard. I fear that its demise may come sooner than I wanted.

I do not think there's anything I can do to save it. To power me through, I'm going to focus on the times we had together. So many hours we spent in the office - alone. So many hours we spent "learning" the ins and outs of property law, corporate law, and - most recently - estate law. So many hours were spent itching and scratching and wondering just why in the hell the peach fuzz was so sharp.

So many hours together. And yet, in a few days our time will end. So much time is spent saving endangered animals. What about the endangered beards? Where are the efforts to stave off the girlfriends, employers, and others from killing the beard?

No, I do not think I can make a difference in saving endangered beards. I will resign myself to my memories.

My "Aha!" Moment

As I mentioned earlier, I am doing the "Bible In 90 Days" at my church. I've passed the halfway mark, and I am pleased to report that I am right on track. Sometimes I don't read my full 12 pages, but I make up for it the next day.

The readings are getting easier to physically read, but the entire Bible is hard reading. At our weekly meeting this week, I had my "aha!" moment.

I'm sure many of you know that life is stressful right now for Brian and I. Brian works all the time (much to his dismay) and has school, which leaves him for very little Kaylynn time. I work all day, get more time with Kaylynn than Brian, but still not as much as I want. I am in charge of all "household" matters, which is hard when all you want to do is hang out with your sweet girl. The house won't clean itself...and I'm sure if you saw mine, you'd say "Yeah, and you don't clean it either!" I've been waiting for life to get "normal". You know, when you just live and enjoy life.

The beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes starts off by saying that everything is "meaningless." Kinda depressing, right? But not really! What the video talked about yesterday was that we assume normal life is a monorail, going smoothly in one direction, not diverting one way or other other. But in reality, life is a roller coaster. It has ups, it has downs, and that is the TRUE normal! Life isn't supposed to be easy. Ecclesiastes teaches us that we aren't to seek out our own life fulfillment, but celebrate the joys that God gives us, as well as the adversity, because if we didn't have adversity, we wouldn't see the joys as joyful.

I think this particular book answers that question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" They aren't necessarily "bad things", though our human heads understand them as bad things. It's really just a downward part of a roller coaster and we have to work hard to overcome the adversity so we can enjoy the next joyful part of our human lives.

This helps me keep on. Knowing that there will be joys amongst adversity. That life will not be easy, and that's NORMAL! Kaylynn is definitely a joy to our life, even though we (ok, Brian) overcame huge adversity when she was being born (she wasn't born at an ideal time for him). But the best news is that we got through and celebrated the best joy we've experienced!

Aha! :)

Huh?

Ok, it's official (or reemphasized; I may have already proven the point). Law school is pointless. The passage below sums up my first year (plus) in law school. It comes from a judge's opinion I'm supposed to be "learning" from.

"Ordinarily, the parties' intent must be ascertained from the deed or other instrument creating the restriction. However, when the language used in the instrument is ambiguous, the court must look to the language of the instrument..."

Read that second sentence again and tell me what the hell it is supposed to mean. Seriously, I'd like your thoughts because I have none. My real question is this: just what the hell was the judge looking at in the first place? I mean, if the judge was actually looking at the language of the instrument, they wouldn't be inclined to look at it again. Honestly, pointless.

I can't wait to ask this question tomorrow in class and hear the prof say "I don't know what that means" or "don't worry about that". That will make me feel that I am using my time very well. I'd prefer to watch the Cowboys and their messed up $1B stadium. And you know how much I like watching the Cowboys.

Five Years

I hate getting this question:

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

My answer is always: "Hopefully alive."

Five years seems like such a long time out. But it's really not. I was reminded the other day just how short five years really is. I was sitting on the bus (imagine that, I was sitting on the bus doing some thinking), listening to my iPod when a song came on. It was a song that I had first heard abroad five years earlier when London first began flirting with me.

:: Flashback ::

I had just finished my workout at the YMCA at Barbican. It was my routine. I'd get up "early" to exercise (6:30 AM - that was early since the workday didn't start until 9:30. It gave me enough time to workout, shower, and still get to work on time. Oh how I miss those seven hour days). Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays was weightlifting at the YMCA. Barbican was only a few stops away on the Metropolitan or Circle lines from our flat at Aldgate. Tuesdays and Thursdays were my running days. It was a treat getting run down along the Thames, passing the Tower of London, St. Paul's, and finally reaching London Bridge before turning around and heading back.

The weightlifting days were always my favorite. It generally wasn't crowded, but there was a gym rat that always argued with one of the YMCA employees about who was better - Arsenal or Chelsea. I, of course, kept my mouth shut because I was a Man U fan. But whenever Arsenal and Chelsea played, the stakes were high. The workday after the game, the fan of the losing team had to wear the other team's jersey. Classic humiliation.

Anyway, back to the story. I just got on the Circle Line train to get to work. It was quite a long ride - nine stops to get to Temple. I was at the front of the train because it was less crowded. I almost always got a seat. I was sitting there listening to my old school discman trying not to fall asleep (I almost always fell asleep. Like I said, I got up early. It was just a wonder that I managed to wake up in time to get off at my stop).

The beginning of the song didn't help me stay awake. In fact, it pushed me closer to a state of unconsciousness (with my mouth open and the drool dripping down my shirt...). But after listening to the first few lines of the song, I perked up because I realized this song could be applicable to my life.

And it instantaneously became one of "those" songs. It was one of those songs that I started over even before it had ended because I didn't really listen to the words. I had heard the words, but I hadn't listened to them. With these songs I feel it is imperative to listen to the words before moving on to the next song. That really just means that I listen to part of the song over and over and over and over and over until I reach my destination. Yep, it was one of those songs. And it became my favorite song.

:: Back to the now ::

Five years. Hard to believe. Would I have guessed that I would have gone back to the city I fell in love with and moved back to Houston? No. Would I have guessed that we would visit 28 countries during that time? No. Would I have guessed that I would have been married. Well, yeah. That was a given (assuming a certain special someone gave the right answer). Would I have guessed that I'd have made it through the largest hurricane on record relatively unscathed? Not really. I mean, a hurricane, yes. A huge hurricane, no. And would I have guessed I would have a kid? No. Hell, I'm still a kid. But I digress.

So here's what I got to thinking. With everything that I have done in the past five years, where will I be after the next five? Who knows, but I have a feeling my threadbare gypsy soul will have something to do with it.

Perfect Timing

It still amazes me that there are certain "things" that can totally clear your mind of all that is going on in the world. These "things" could be pictures, songs, thoughts or any number of other items. And so often it seems that these "things" show up at just the right time.

Case in point. I was sitting on the bus this afternoon (class was cancelled - WHOOP!!!) thinking about everything that was looming on the horizon - the holidays, work, hurricane leftovers, a new president, a crappy economy, finals, a kid - when a song came on my iPod and completely took all of these thoughts out of my mind. And ironically enough, I did exactly what the title of the song said to do: Drift Away.

The song I heard is not the original, but it's the one I prefer and the one that takes me back to that T.G.I. Friday's in Latvia with some great friends. All I could do was smile and recall how we spent a couple of hours walking around Riga. I was in a bad mood then too (after a tantrum that I still quite regret to this day). All that changed when we were paid a visit by a butterfly (I know that sounds cheesy and childish and whatever else you may be thinking, but I don't care). As weird as it sounds, it totally brought me out of my bad mood. Here we were, walking down this path, killing some time until dinner when a butterfly landed on Jessi's hat. We thought it was funny at first and took some pictures. The butterfly took off and we thought nothing else of it...until it showed up on Bree. And then on Matt. And then on Kyle. The thing was curiously attracted to our group. I'm sure that it was because we were in its territory and that it was simply crapping all over us to "mark" us, but it was cool nonetheless.

On Jessi's hat

On Bree's shoulder

On Matt's hair

On Kyle's fingers

After our butterfly encounter, we went in search for the restaurant that we would be eating at the following night. It turned out to be a unique restaurant (as described by our guide book) that used garlic in EVERYTHING it made. Now, I like garlic and I'll spare you the details, but the garlic ice cream pushed me over the edge.

After finding our next evening's meal, we went in search of the current evening's meal which proved to be an extremely difficult task. Riga is an old city, full of architecture from times past but it is extremely modern. I enjoyed the old town feel, but was deeply disappointed in the modern techno influence that dominated (Riga has become a favorite stomping ground of British bachelor parties; we had a bachelor party group on our flight going to the Baltic states). We generally had a policy that we would try to eat at "authentic" restaurants in the places that we visited and attempted to adhere to that policy while there. However, after several hours (yes, literally hours) of searching, we finally settled on T.G.I. Friday's at 11:30 PM.

It was in this restaurant, in the 6 person booth in which we were impatiently waiting for our mozzarella stick appetizers, that Uncle Kracker's rendition of "Drift Away" came on. Without any prompt, the 5 of us (Kyle was in the bathroom) busted out singing the chorus ("Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock 'n roll and drift away") because, let's face it, we are the noisy Americans. But hey, we knew the song and we knew the words and it was one of the few things that we understood in an ex-soviet country so why not? As it turns out, one of the Latvian servers at the restaurant jumped in with us and started singing along too. After the song was over, we managed to talk to him about where he lived and how he liked Riga. He was born and raised in Riga but had made the decision to leave because of it's modern, techno-ish dominance. I think he said he was going to move to Sweden to be with his girlfriend or something, but I don't fully remember.

I guess my point is that I know that life is about living for the future. But it seems that sometimes, we should live in the past, if not for a brief few minutes, to remind us why we continue to live for the future. So often that reminder is enough to allow us to look past the storm clouds that appear to be brewing on the horizon and look forward to calmer days ahead.

Sad Prediction

My dad made a sad, but probably true prediction this weekend. Our daughter will probably be born before the Aggies win another football game. I added probably in there because I do believe that God works miracles - I just think He's got more important things to worry about right now than Aggie football.

Perspective

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

While we've been busy complaining about how bad it sucks to not have electricty and being unable to live in your own house, many other people are going through much, much worse. I am glad to find sites like these, as it serves as a slap in the face, a wake-up call, reminding me how lucky and blessed we really are.

Reminds me of that country song that has that line in it that says "And I thought I was tough..." I admire these people. I really do.

We Are Fans...

...of the Olympics. I seriously don't remember getting this into the Games since 1996 and the US Women's Gymnastics team. We haven't missed a Michael Phelps swim - how fast is he?! I find Brian shouting at synchronized diving, "SHE OPENED UP EARLY! Watch this. See? She opened up early." We're amazed at the bar abilities of our men's gymnastics team, floored by how dominating the beach volleyball girls are, and excited about the "Redeem Team".

We're just waiting on track and field. Kaylynn's going to think her parents went crazy by the end of these 3 weeks. :)

Ponderings

Is it cruel to give your child the initials WWF?

Edited: WWF made the approved initial list compiled 26 years ago when Brian was baking in the oven. Sweet! I just need to get Brian on board. :)