New class and a funny story

Well, today, we officially moved out of the Newlyweds Class at our church (Houston's First Baptist Church). Hard to fathom...we're not technically "newlyweds" anymore. It still feels like we are just starting out sometimes but then when I think of it, it's hard to imagine life differently. So, anyways, today we graduated and moved on into a new class called Blueprints for young married adults. It's a brand new class that just started today. Ben is going to be one of the teachers along with another man. I will be a part of the teacher support team (I just made this up) where I will give ideas, feedback, insight, prayer, possible co-teaching and any needed encouragement or lifting of spirits. I'm so excited about this opportunity for us. The other husband and wife duos in leadership with us are wonderful and I'm really excited about getting to know some new couples on a deeper level. So, looking for a class for young married adults? Just let me know and I'll give ya all the details!

So, the funny story. The characters in this story will remain nameless to protect their identities...but you know who you are :). And I do have permission to tell this story, so don't think I'm being mean. So we ate lunch today with our wonderful new class at Goode Company BBQ (yummy!). Afterwards, of course, we were some of the last to leave, standing around talking. Moving from table, to then door, to then outside, and eventually to car, stopping at each to talk for 10 minutes. I love it when that happens! So, we've made it outside and are talking about light stuff - the wife and I having a separate conversation from our husbands. Well, we started talking about being politically correct and saying "a woman walked in" instead of "a girl walked in" and I said something that made the girl I was talking to think of something hilarious in her head. Unfortunately, she had just taken a big gulp of tea and bursted out laughing at the same time. I'm sure you can only imagine the result. Yep...tea all over me sprayed out of her mouth. It was one of the funniest things ever. I didn't care at all - really it just made me laugh til I had tears in my eyes. It was one of those good bonding moments when really any pretenses or fronts just kinda go away :). A blessing in disguise I think.

A perk to the job

Well, the first few days back have been pretty good. I must say that beyond the high possibility of stress, impossible tests, and a never-ending to-do list, teaching has some major perks. Yes, there's the obvious ones - summers off and...(maybe that's the only obvious one), but anyways there's lots more that are pretty great. One, I realized anew today. It's been tough getting back - hard to return after getting a taste of a summer-like schedule again, and then the kids are very focused and are out of their routine. But today, there was a bright spot! One of my tougher kids started getting my jokes. I usually will say random things here and there throughout the day that most kids don't catch b/c they're not paying attention or they just don't understand so they just stare at me. I don't know what it was, but this one kid just thought I was so funny today. He would laugh when no one else was even getting it and it was just fun. They say one of the best ways to motivate children to get them to do what you want them to do (i.e. learn!) is to simply love and respect them and in turn earn their love and respect. This takes time and intentional comments, conversation, and actions but the returns are immense. So this gave me hope into the feat of earning this sweet but tough little boy's admiration. All in all, a good day and good to be back. :)

We're back

Power's back up at BCE and school's back on! I'm making lesson plans and getting ready for school to keep going full steam. It'll be good to be back.

Yikes! Still no power!

So, my school, Bear Creek Elementary, is the only school in the district that doesn't have power. I am praying the power comes back on by Monday...teaching in the dark would be difficult and ineffective. We'll see!

Close to normal...

Well, we got back to Dallas safely and were welcomed by electricity and water in our apartment! We are so thankful. We were also welcomed by a very foul smell of rotten chicken we had accidentally left in a cooler on the counter in our rush out of town last Saturday. Absolutely nasty. Apparently there really is a great need for food to stay in the fridge.


So today and tomorrow I have no school. Seems a little like I'm playin hooky. Ben's at work as are most people but I guess the schools had to be a little more conservative. If half their employees don't come back they don't just have an empty spot but an empty spot with 20-30 kids unattended...no bueno! I'm ready to get back and hear the stories from my kids. It is nice though to have the time to catch up on laundry and cleaning in our apartment. We left it a mess last Saturday. Things should be back to normal soon...

Heading Back

Well, the time has come. We've been in Dallas since Saturday night and its time to return home. Ben has to go back to work tomorrow but for me, school has been canceled until Monday. For the rest of the week, I'll probably just clean up our apartment and try to get some order back, maybe see if there's anywhere I can help out.

God has been so gracious to us. It's definitely not desireable to be in a hurricane, lose power etc but He has blessed us during this time emensely. We've been with my family and had a lot of fun and sweet times. My mom and I took my sister Anne out to a birthday breakfast yesterday at La Madeline (delicious!). I love my sister. Ben and I got to hang out with Dennis and Alecia Doty last night because they had come up to Dallas as well to get away from the storm. Also, we played 42 (dominoes) with my parents for the first time. And I had coffee with Jamie and then went to Target and had a great time together. It's just been such a sweet time with my family and friends and I'm so thankful for it. We were going to go to Dallas next weekend but we moved our plane tickets to the weekend before my birthday and will stay in Houston next weekend.

We're looking forward to being back in our apartment and getting back to some sort of normal. I don't think we have power at our apartment but I'm not sure...we'll see! It'll be another adventure :).

Safe in Dallas

Well, we decided to stay in Dallas with my family for a little while. No power, no water, limited food...Dallas was looking better by the minute. Saturday night in Houston, we decided to go out for food, just to get out of the increasingly hot apartment. We went by the only open McDonalds on Westheimer but the drive-thru line was wrapped around the building almost twice. We kept going to Double Daves. They were turning people away because they had flat run out of food. We drove around some more and found a random Chinese restaurant we've never even considered eating at before. It's amazing how good things look when they're the only option and you're hungry. Haha. We stood in the line out the door for about a minute with the other stinky, unshowered people. We started to think...hey, we've got family in Dallas. It could be like this for a while...let's just go to Dallas!! So we jumped out of line and into the car, zoomed home, packed enough for several days (including essential items like golf clubs and books and snack food) and headed to Dallas. Best decision ever!

We went to church this morning with my parents. The pastor asked for any evacuees from Houston to stand up and the entire congregation applauded us for being courageous and just for what we came out of. We were very honoroed.

When we were driving around, we took some pictures. They were all through the car windows while it rained, but it gives a picture of the state of Houston. It makes me think of someone just grabbing Houston and shaking it back and forth really hard and then setting it back down. We didn't have any damage in our apartment besides trees down and we're thankful that neither of our cars were damaged. God was very gracious to take care of us.

Pictures to come...