More Marley

Let me tell you.... it's a VERY good thing that this puppy is cute! Here's why she's lucky she's adorable...

1. She eats cat poop. Yeah, gross. We had to put the cat litter box into the tub in the front bathroom in order to get her to stop. Thankfully it's never used (by humans, at least), because that's completely unsanitary, and it grosses me out. But, then again, puppy almond rocha (you know, cat poop covered in litter!) on my living room carpet grosses me out more.

2. She bites. HARD. With her itty bitty razor sharp teeth. I have snags on my new sofa slip covers, teeth marks on my shoes, holes in my socks, and holes in my hands. I've purchased every chew toy imaginable, but I guess we just taste better!

3. She cries all night. It makes me so sad! We were trying to kennel train her, but she would just complain all night and bite and scratch at the kennel door. I know this is bad puppy parenting, but I just couldn't take it any more, and so I kept letting her out when she whined for too long. :/ Hey... I need my sleep! This one is in the process of being corrected, however. She's now outside all day long while I'm at work and Kyle is sleeping. That way he doesn't have to deal with her barking or pooping on the carpet while he tries to sleep. (We just have to worry about her sticking her head through the hole in the fence and getting her head bitten off by the pit bull next door!) At night she's now going in the laundry room, where I can't hear her whine! So now I don't feel like a guilty mother, and I'm able to sleep (plus, there's no mess for me to clean up in the morning!)

4. She plays in the sprinklers. Honestly, this is adorable. Unless I've just given her a bath. Then, of course, she gets soaking wet and rolls around in the dirt. Or she tries to dig at the ground once the water goes away, apparently in search for more. Then she wants to come inside and dirty up my house.

5. She's a menace! One example: We had all our recycling bagged up nice and neat, ready to be taken in to the recycling center. Guess Marley thought that was too boring! Here's what I found the other day...

Our entire side yard is covered in bottles and cans, thanks to our precious baby.

Despite all her shortcomings, we really do love her. We're just looking forward to when obedience school starts kicking in!

We'll see how long this gets...

*Edit* So, I got all clever with my picture formatting and had all these small pictures organzied nearly around a medium sized picture. Well, then I switched my blog layout and it messed up my picture formatting. Basically, what I'm saying is: I'm too tired to fix it, so deal with it. :)


I have so much to write about! I've been so so very busy, and even now I should not be on the computer, since my house needs attention, but I just have to connect to you all again. Since my last post a lot has gone on, and I want to tell you all everything, but I'll probably do it in a few posts, so that you don't get overwhelmed!

I'll start with retreat, and then over the next couple days I want to blog about following (and bug me if I take too long to get to it):

~Marley- how cute she is, how much she drives me crazy, and new pictures!
~San Jose with the family, including new family pictures that I took for us.
~Improvements to the house that we've made.
~Most importantly - what God has been doing in my life, especially through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

But for tonight... high school retreat!

This year was my second year going on retreat, and it was awesome, awesome, awesome. My first year was so great, but this year beat it, hands down. We went to Hartland, and the chapel speaker was the youth pastor from one of the Hanford churches. It was so incredible being up in the mountains surrounded by God's creation. The best part was that there were no cell phone towers nearby! Okay... not the best part, but it was REALLY nice not having to deal with the kids and their phones. The downside, of course, was that I couldn't talk to Kyle the entire time, and I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've gone without talking to him in over five years!

I had a cabin of awesome girls, and we had some really great conversations in the cabin, especially on the last night (we stayed up past 3 am!). It's great being able to get to know the kids a little deeper than we normally get at school. Plus, we (the teachers) get to let our guard down a bit and the students get to see another side of us, to a certain degree. I think it's really helpful for the students to see us like that periodically, and realize that we really do love them and care for them, and we're not just homework assigning tyrants! These are my girls that I had in my cabin. Oh, and it was cold up there, if you couldn't tell...

Hartland was just beautiful, and they also had some fun things for the kids to do. They have a shuffleboard area, so we all played like we were retired and on a cruise. :) There's also a swing that the kids (and teachers!) loved playing on. You can get really high and kick the tree branches above you, but you really need some help, preferably from two boys.


Other fun things included horse shoes, Frisbee, tether ball, and paddle boats that sank, especially if you tried to pile 6 boys in one.


Hartland also has a giant swing (different from the other one) that swings out over the river, and I got some great pictures of the kids on it. I love their reactions as they pull the cord that releases them! They also have a zipline, and it is the greatest zipline I've ever seen, simply because they let two people on at a time, and when two people are on it, they are pretty much guaranteed to get wet! The medium sized picture of the two boys below- they hit the water so soon because of their combined weight that they were dragged through the water and ended up getting stuck, so they had to be rescued. Oh, and that water was COLD!

And now, the best part of camp. Every morning and evening we had chapel, and the pastor spoke about faith. It was the perfect thing for our students to hear, and honestly, for me as well. He used Hebrews 11 (of course), but also spoke about getting out of the boat. Having faith enough to get out of the boat. I think his message really resonated with a lot of the students, and I'm praying that the decisions they made at camp continue now that they are down off the mountain. All too often we experience the 'camp high' or have the 'mountain top experience' and then nothing in our life changes when we get back home. I know for some of our students, the message really hit them, and their lives are going to be changed. Some of the others, I'm praying that they really meant it when they said they are ready to get out of the boat. One night in chapel the speaker gave the students the opportunity to write their name on a post-it if they felt the were really ready to live with faith, and get out of the boat. The next morning when we came in to chapel, this is what we saw:

One of the seniors brought all the names back home, and he made it into a permanent cross that's now on display in the locker room.

The other really cool thing that's done every year at camp is done at the last night's campfire. If you want, on the last day you pick up a stick and carry it with you the rest of the day. Then at the campfire, the students have the chance to share what their stick means - something they're struggling with that they need to give over to God, some sin they want to give up, their fears, or whatever it is that they need to give up to God. Then, as a symbolic gesture, the stick is put in the campfire. Or, they can just put it in without sharing. This year was incredibly intense. Some of the stuff that they shared - WOW. I was blown away by some of the things my students are going through or have gone through that I never would have guessed. Huge stuff that was so foreign to me growing up, and that no kid should have to go through. I wish some of them would have shared in a less public setting, though, because it was huge stuff that really only a few, close accountability partners need to know. However, I hope now that the rest of the students know what their friends are going through they'll step up and encourage and hold their friends accountable.

I used the opportunity that night to share with the kids as well. So many of them think that, or act as if all their problems will go away because they put the stick in and gave it over to God one night. So I shared with them that it is a daily process, and some times a minute by minute ordeal of giving it over to God. I shared with them my stick, which represented my plans. I told them all that if I would have had things my way, I would be at home with a baby. A few of them knew that Kyle and I had been trying to start a family, but for the majority of them (and some of the staff members) it was the first time they knew anything. I shared with them that despite the fact I still desperately ache for a child, I know that God's plan is so much better than mine, and it's a daily process of giving up my will and my plans in exchange for His. After all, if I already had a baby, I might not be teaching this year. And I am so, so in love with my classes and students and now I can't imagine not having them this year. Already it makes me want to cry thinking that I only have a few short months left with this senior class. I seriously love these kids so much and don't want them to leave me! Can I fail them all?

After the campfire, I received some great encouragement from a few students, and it helps make our whole ordeal more worthwhile. I had one student tell me he was sorry I got stuck with them instead of a baby, but that he was really glad I was his teacher. And then one of the girls in my cabin told me that she was selfishly glad that I was not a mother yet, and explained that if I was not at the school, many of the students would not have a teacher they felt comfortable talking with and seeking advice from. Talk about a compliment. I already knew I was at KCS for a reason, and knew that part of that reason was so the students would have a teacher they felt comfortable around. There's one other (young) teacher that the students also talk to, but the rest of the staff is of the older generation, and the kids generally don't want to talk to them about problems. It's really too bad, too, because my coworkers are wonderful, godly people and I've learned TONS from them. But, I guess at 16 it's easier to talk to someone in their twenties than in their fifties or older. It's really great hearing from my students that they are glad I'm teaching and that they feel comfortable enough that they would come to me if they had a problem and needed advice. This, I think, is why I want to stay at a private school. The pay sucks, but I can teach them in so many areas of life that I could never ever mention at a public school. I love that I'm able to be a positive influence on these kids, and show them that you can be young and live a fun, wonderful life that's also completely sold out to Christ. My goal at KCS is to give them the best English education I possibly can, but more than that, I want to inspire them to live wholeheartedly for Christ, and have a passionate, exhilarating love-life with their Creator.

Well, there you go. That, in a nutshell, was camp. I got sooooo many good pictures (I'm now known as the school paparazzi :) ) and had a great time just lovin on my students. And now, it's time to go get a little more cleaning done before bed. Or, I might just go watch tv. :)

*leaving on a school bus*

Just wanted to say that I'm going to miss all you ladies until Thursday! It's the high school retreat at school, so I'll be up in the mountains, far away from any technology. So I'll miss everything that goes on in your lives over the next few days!

If you think of it, pray for our kids - that they will be receptive to the message at camp and that their friendships and faith will grow and mature.

And pray for me - I'm still not doing so great. I'm about 99% sure that I actually had/have food poisoning. Which type or what brought it on - who knows!? But, all the symptoms fit, and though I'm feeling much better, my stomach still is not doing well. I still can't really eat much, and even the little I'm able to eat upsets my stomach and often sends me running to the bathroom. So we'll see how a bus ride goes tomorrow!! Oh yeah, and how camp food reacts :(

"See" you ladies later this week!

Sick and tired...

It's been a rough week for me this week.

One of our students was killed this week. She was only in fourth grade. Her older brother, who is one of my students, was driving the vehicle. This family has already gone through so much. Mom died a few years ago from cancer. A very close aunt died last year. And their grandpa is dying. And now they've lost little Emilie. Our little tiny community is very shook up. We've been lucky, and things like this never happen. Please pray for the Millers. The funeral is tomorrow, so school has been cancelled in order to allow the staff, students and their families to attend.

On the bright side (or, less bleak side), I've been amazed at how our students have responded to this tragedy. They started praying for the family Monday, once they found out. Tuesday almost the entire high school met during break around the 'prayer tree' to pray for the family. The students have held a bake sale to raise money for the family, and brought in over $300 just from one bake sale. They're doing another at the football game tomorrow. They have a car wash planned to raise more money. And the junior class is donating all the money raised by their tri-tip dinner fundraiser, which was originally going towards their senior trip, to the family. The students have done this all on their own. It amazes me how much they love and care.

The other reason it's been a rough week is that I'm sick! Like, sick as a dog, sick. Really, really, sick. Almost went to the hospital sick. And it all came on in a matter of hours last night. I had a headache yesterday, but I attributed it to the fact that my classroom smelled like skunk (some of our genius boys thought it would be a good idea to try to shake a skunk out of a tree). I went to worship practice last night with a headache, but otherwise feeling fine. When I got home just before 9, I wasn't feeling great, so I took my temperature, but it was normal. Within two hours, my temperature had gone up to 102.5, and then continued even higher to 102.8. And then the throwing up started. :( Kyle had to come home from work, because we weren't sure if I would need to go in to the hospital. He had to come in and wake me up every half hour or so to make sure my fever hadn't gone any higher. Kyle also had to make calls for me to arrange a sub, and went down to the school bright and early this morning to get everything out for the sub. I am so thankful for my husband! Thankfully, my fever started to come down, and by this morning it was in the mid 101s. After I got up and took a bath, I journeyed out the the couch, and slept there until after 2. By that point, I no longer had a fever! My head is still pounding, though, and I still can't eat much, so it's not over yet. But, at least the fever is gone. I had to be under tons of blankets because I was so cold. My teeth would chatter so much that the thermometer would fall out of my mouth, and every muscle in my body was in extreme pain because I was so tense from shivering so much. Soooo not fun! And now I'm missing high school youth group. Hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow so I can go to the funeral and the football game, but we'll see. And hopefully I don't get anyone else sick!

Pictures

Before I post pictures of Marley...

I have taken so many pictures lately! My right hand and fingers are literally sore right now because I've been shooting so many frames. Yesterday was the KCHS homecoming, so between the homecoming floats and activities, the powder puff football game, and the JV and Varsity football games I shot over 1,200 pictures! (1200 is what I came home with, after deleting obviously bad ones off the camera, so I have no clue how many I actually took!). My hand hurt so bad last night. It was so cold and windy and I was down on the field taking pictures for the teams, but I got tons of great pictures for them, so I guess it was worth it. And then this morning I took senior pictures for a student, and took over 400 more. My camera needs a vacation!

And now some pictures of our adorable little poop factory!

The first is of her first night with us. She was fixed that day, and was very lethargic and scared. So she hid by the toilet all night! And when I woke up in the morning, our bedroom carpet and bathroom was covered in poop! We got her Wednesday, and we've already gone through 2 cans of carpet cleaner! Ack! (It's getting better now, though).

Her second day with us she was much more herself. I brought her out back, and she played around with tree bark and pine needles. She loves running around, and for some reason loves the spot where our patio meets the grass. No clue why that's fascinating, but she always goes there!

Puppy!

We decided on Marley for a name for the pup. She's just so adorable! I don't have any pictures of her yet, besides ones on my phone, but in the next couple days I'll be snapping away like crazy and will get you some pictures of her.

Right now she's really lethargic, and she has slept almost every minute since I picked her up. She had her shots and surgery today (she was "altered" as the shelter puts it) so she'll be out of it for a couple days. And we can't give her a bath for a week, so we have to put up with SMELLY dog. But, she's cute!

A new addition to the family

We bought a puppy!!!

Hopefully I didn't get all your hopes up thinking I was pregnant (no news on that, btw). We picked out a little German Shepherd mix at the shelter on Friday, and I get to pick her up Wednesday after she's been "altered" and microchipped and all that. She's a cute little thing, and I can't wait until I can take pictures of her to show you.

We do need a name, though, so help me out! Any suggestions are welcome!

House pictures!

I sure hope you'll excuse me for taking so long to get these up here for your viewing pleasure. See, we didn't have internet for the first week, and then when that was set up, our office was not clean enough to set up the computer. So for a couple days we sat on the floor with our old laptop, but I can't get pictures on to that one anymore because the USB ports are broken. And then (yes, more excuses - but all valid) the laptop died. :( A few more days pass, and we finally get everything out of the office and in to the garage, and Kyle was able to get our computer set up yesterday. So, now I can give you pictures. Of course, I took these a week ago, so the house doesn't look like this at all anymore! The last couple pictures I just took, and those are the big changes. Oh, and please excuse the 'snapshot-esque' picture quality. Definitely not home magazine photos here.

Below is the living room and dining room. (and the cat being bad and scratching the couch) You'll notice the tan couch, blue recliner, and off to the left is the big banana yellow couch. The banana couch, by the way, fell out of the truck on the way over here because the guys didn't think they needed to tie it down. After all, it's a couch; where's a couch gunna go? Well, it went into the middle of Lemoore and D street, that's where! Anyway, I hated that the furniture didn't match, so now we have slip covers. :)

Kitchen looks pretty much the same as it did before, except for the big, wonderful, expensive fridge.

This is the office. It's now all cleaned up, and our computer is no longer in pieces on the floor. We have an entertainment center across from the desk, and a little work out area in the corner.

The garage still pretty much looks like this! It's all pushed to one side now, but there's still a ton of stuff to go through.

Spare bedroom is all set up and ready to go for visitors!

Our bedroom is below. Please excuse the un-made bed. Everything in there is now cleaned up and nice and pretty. No more boxes on the ground, thankfully!

And now some of the changes since those other pictures were taken. We now have two brown couches and a flax recliner! I love matching furniture. We just got them the other day, and they're a little big, so we're still fighting with them and having to re-tuck them in all the time until we're able to get those things you can slip down between the cushions to hold the cover in place. Whatever those things are called!

And the first painting we've (actually, I've) done is in the kitchen. I finally have my red wall in my kitchen. All the other walls will be white, and the cabinets will be black. I'm two coats down on the red, and we'll see how many it takes total. At least one more, I know that much.

So, there you go! Things are coming along nicely, just slowly. We hardly have any time with work and church obligations and going to my students volleyball and football games.

I hope you all had a great week, and I hope this week will be another good one!

We're Moved!

Well, it's all in. It's a mess, and there are boxes and bags everywhere, but it's all moved over. It's going to take forever to get things in their place, but once things start coming together a little more I will post some pictures for you guys!

Big move tomorrow!

So I'm counting down the hours until we get a call telling us to come pick up the keys to our own home! It's crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that we are now the proud owners of a mortgage. You thought I was going to say house, didn't you! :)

Tonight is my last night on Powell Ave. And that is a wonderful, wonderful thought. There is still so much to do around the apartment, though, and that is not a good thought. I've done pretty much all the packing and prep, so I'm looking forward to having some help. It's not that Kyle hasn't been avoiding packing and helping, he just hasn't had too much time. Okay, there's also some avoidance. I'm going to be up extremely late tonight getting more stuff done, and I just have to hope it's enough. My parents are coming down tomorrow, and we'll have their help and Kyle's parents on Saturday, so hopefully everything will get done in a timely manner.

Okay... back to cleaning and packing. We'll be without Internet for a bit, but I'll try to at least check your posts at work until everything is set up at the new place.

Slip - n - slide

One huge tarp

+

dish soap

+

lots of water

+

a bunch of students

=

tons of fun!

Each year at the beginning of the school year, SLT (the student leadership team) puts on a Day of Welcome, and we do fun stuff as a high school. For the second year in a row now we've had a huge slip-n-slide for the kids to play on. Since it was so incredibly hot out today, the kids really enjoyed the water! I however, stood outside for 2 hours, burning up, and taking hundreds of pictures. Don't worry, I won't share them all. :)

We had quite a bit of water.

Quite a bit of soap.

Plenty of mud!

And plenty of sillyness.

They played tug of war...

... and crab walk soccer...

And lots of good, old fashioned slip-n-sliding.

And the senior class got together for some fun pictures at the end of it all!

So there you go. This is my job, people! How crazy is that? Of course, it's not like this all the time, but I am so blessed to work at this school and with these kids.

Some random pictures

Just some other pictures I took in my classroom last week that I liked!

I'm super picky about my pencils being very, very sharp, or a very thin lead, so I keep tons of them on hand!

My early morning lifeline.

I was given this at a little ceremony in college for my major, since we were all going to be teachers. It's filled with all sorts of symbolic little things for teachers. Now, though, it's pretty beat up, because it falls off my desk all the time!

And the shoe. Again.

First day of school!

Well, like many of your kids, I'm back at school now! Of course, I'm on the other side of the desk. Like all the kids I got all dressed up and wore my nice, new (smaller sized!) outfit. Since everyone else is sharing first day of school pictures, I figured I would too. :)

So here's my first day of school outfit. Notice the wonderful red high heels - love them!

Here's a closer view of my killer shoes, because I know you want to see them better.

And since none of you have had the opportunity to see my classroom, I thought I'd give you guys a tour. As you can see, it too is done in black, white, and red. Perhaps those could be my favorite colors?

I love that little wooden sign I have below the class rules - it says "Thou shalt not whine." And below that you'll see my flowers and art work I made to match my room.

And then there is my desk, which normally looks much, much worse than this. And the student desks, which are normally filled with students (go figure, huh).

I have bulletin boards for each of my classes, and all the books that I teach for that class up as well, like this:

You'll see in the picture on the right that I have a periodic table - yes, in an English classroom. It's a periodic table of American Prose, and I just bought it and think it's just about the coolest thing ever, and that's why I'm a nerdy English teacher.

So each of those binders below represents a book/unit I teach. It's a lot. And then books that go with them have their home right next to the binders. I get to teach some amazing books - The Giver, To Kill A Mockingbird, Night, A Wrinkle in Time, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Great Divorce... just to name a few.













I also have a super cool bulletin board that I put pictures of my student on, but since it's a new school year... the only thing up there right now is the liger that students made for me last year.

Okay, I'm sick of dealing with the formatting on this silly post, so until next time... >