Flying and Jesus

First, three kids board a plane and fly from Florida to Nashville without their parents knowing! How????
WATCH HERE

Second, a guy walks across the country wheeling a cross... and had his way provided for by strangers.
WATCH HERE



(I was going to gripe about seniority today, but I'll hold my peace for awhile more!)

Super Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole

MMMMmmmm Good!

Try this:

1 can Campbell's cheddar cheese soup
1 can milk (from above empty container)
1 can chicken, undrained or 1 shredded chicken breast
1 1/2 cups raw broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1 cup rice, uncooked

Combine soup and milk in microwave-safe bowl and heat, stirring occasionally until mixed. Add chicken, broccoli, and rice. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Transfer to small casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Feel free to substitute cheddar cheese soup for cream of celery, cream of chicken, or cream of whatever! You could also add different veggies like peas or carrots, or various meats like ground turkey, sausage or hamburger. Just cook the meat first! I bet you could put this in a crock pot on low heat too... I haven't experimented yet. Happy eating!

#17 and #32

I'm starting to draw a few conclusions: 1) I'm just a big baby; or 2) This is a lot worse that I thought it would be.

On Friday morning, I went under anesthesia and they pulled tooth #17 and #32. That's the two lower back wisdom teeth. And so recovery begins....

Friday: I pretty much sleep all day, eating a little bit of pudding and not much else. Since I'm sleeping, not much bothers me. I realize late in the day that I still have the heart monitor stickers on me and pull them off.

Saturday: Umm, ouch. The right side of my mouth is beginning to swell, I have a headache, and have horrible nausea. I have to take penicillin and a pain medicine, Propoxyphene, the latter which is making me feel pretty sick. Luckily, Justin is able to get ahold of the doctor and he says to just take Ibuprofen for the pain. It's just kinda of a dull pain anyways, but consistent. Plus, my mouth is stiff so I start using a cold pack. I have to start doing salt water mouth rinses, and try to gently brush the teeth. Still on a liquid diet- juice, broth, applesauce, pudding. Justin and I try to watch a movie, but between the noise and trying to hold the cold pack, it's just not working out. Justin reads our daily Bible reading to me out loud before bed, and I try to concentrate.

Sunday: Stayed home from church. I feel really groggy and can't talk too well, and you know you always talk at church. More pudding, more broth, more swelling, more sleep. Less nausea though, thank goodness. I feel majorly lame because it shouldn't take me this long to get better. On top of it, since we sold my Cougar yesterday, we need to go get me a car. So, about 4:30 we head over and buy a new Honda Fit (more on that later). We get back around 7:30, and I'm exhausted.

Monday: I slept horrible last night. Like bad, bad. I couldn't get comfortable. I need to get to school to work on my classroom, but it's just not happening. After a hot bath, I end up going back to sleep for a few hours, after which I wake up, and decide it is my duty to blog. After all, I don't want to forget how nasty this recovery it. That way, when I am having a bad day, I can just say "at least I didn't just get my teeth pulled." Seriously. I will.

Part of the problem with all of this is that I hate wasting time. And that is what I feel like I have done all weekend! I always want to feel profitable, and I really, really, haven't.

I should add that the doctor was great and gave me very complete recovery directions. I don't blame him for anything. This is just inevitable!

Lords of the Earth

What a great, epic missionary story! Don Richardson, also the author of Peace Child, wrote Lords of the Earth about a fellow missionary's work in the stone-age jungles of Irian Jaya. Stanley Dale was a unique personality, and it turned out, the perfect one to start a missionary work in the forgotten places of the Snow Mountains in Irian Jaya. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will blog a few quotes that were powerful to me from the book.



' "Bruno," Stan mused. "This peace treaty was initiated in a day." And then he added meaningfully: "It could have taken years!" 

 Bruno weighed Stan's point: some problems diminish in proportion to the gumption, not necessarily the superior skills or knowledge, of those who tackle them. Or increase in proportion to the timidity of those who lack daring. Some problems, Bruno reflected, but perhaps not all." '



'Hovering in helpless anguish, Bruno saw Stan raise his head and look up at the cold stars, just now beginning to emerge above the Heluk Valley's black mountain walls. And in his expression Bruno could almost read what Stan was thinking.

It's a lonely enough place in which to live; but it's an even lonelier place in which to die!'



'At the entrance to the Kibi village, Kusaho stood, his arms outstretched in welcome. I realized when I saw him that what I had imagined was true- weighed in the light of cultural differences, Kusaho must be regarded as one of the most unique human beings on earth. His untaught compassion toward strangers, his clear-sighted anticipation of unknown truth, and his willingness to differ from the majority, Kusaho towered above his peers higher, perhaps, than many great men in our culture have towered above us.'

Buy it here! Read it!

Gophers Part II

Oh, here we go again. We finally gave in and called the landlord to use some of his specialty gopher-killing devices. He came out yesterday. Then, this evening, Justin was checking out a new mound of dirt and saw the grass move. After a successful flooding, he got the wretched little thing out. He called me to look at it at about that time. Here's what happened before he, uh, disposed of it...

A most special morning

My husband always succeeds in making me feel like the most special woman in the world. I wake up this morning and stumble into the kitchen to find a handmade card:

So here I am, two dozen years old. Somehow I feel that I should be older, but I'm making the most of the time God has given me! Thanks, Lord, for another birthday and for a wonderful husband, family, and friends.

Palomarin Trailhead to Bass Lake and Alamere Falls

After a very fine hike, I took a long, steamy, bubbly bubble bath. (I hope the heat will help me to not be sore tomorrow!)

Today we met up with Kelly and Jeremy and drove to Point Reyes. I had heard about Alamere Falls when researching coastal waterfalls, and wanted to try the hike. It ended up being about 8 miles round trip, and well worth it. The hike itself was pretty mild.  A little bit uphill the first half mile to a mile but the trail is wide and well maintained. Besides that, it was pretty even hiking and it went in-and-out the shaded areas. Quite a variety of plant life kept the hike very interesting and I didn't feel like I was staring at rocks, which sometimes happens in my Sierra hikes, though I love them. A variety of animal life was also present- chipmunks, rabbits, birds, a shell of a crab, and, unfortunately, three slitherings of snakes. (Did I mention that I hate snakes- and three of them on one hike! Acck!!!) At least the snakes got off of the path right away.

About two miles in, you arrive at Bass Lake. It's a pretty lake but virtually no shore to get in. A small area gives entrance if you brought a floating device, and there is a rope swing. We would have had to sit in a small open area about 30 feet away from the lake, with too much foliage in the way to even see the lake, if we had stopped here. I have been to much, much better. Apparently it's the hot spot though, because on our hike back, we passed around 40 people who all looked like they were headed to the lake. Also apparently, nudists make an appearance, which I'm very glad that I didn't see. (Hello, keep it to yourself!)

The middle of the hike ended at Alamere Falls, and it was a sight. A 15-foot cascade drops into a small pool, and makes its was down to two smaller falls, and finally about a 40-foot drop into the sand to the ocean. It's  great photo op at the smaller falls, and if you are adventurous, you can make your way down to the beach at low tide. I'll warn you though, it is pretty steep and slippery. The sliding shale-like rock breaks away and makes the path difficult. Getting back up is worse because it's harder to grip. Still, it was worth it to go down to the beach for lunch. Even if we didn't make it down to the bottom of the 40-foot falls, it still would have been worth it to see the three other cascades.

It was a great day, and I didn't even get burnt because the four miles in it was overcast! I just hope I'm not too sore tomorrow!

Scarves and pants and shirts, Oh My!

Today.

Laid out all my school (ie... "professional") clothes to see what I had. Began a pile of all the clothing items I haven't worn in a year.Went shopping. Found some good deals. Organized my drawers. Organized my closet. Left the extra clothes in pile to give away.

Tired. Sigh. Just look what clothes can do to you!

Yikes!

School stuff...

Today I went into school today. To really work on classroom stuff-cleaning, organizing books, putting up bulletin boards. There is that feeling of progress, of newness, of starting again that is refreshing. A new batch of kids. A new technique or two to try. A new optimism that only happens at this point in the year.

I suppose that is what keeps me coming back- always a new start to impact student's lives. I know I can't get to everyone, but if I can make a lasting difference in just a few lives, I feel satisfied at the end of the year. This past year, I had one student in particular who really had some struggles and even lost her father in the last week of school. At the end of the year, she wrote me some really sweet things that meant a lot. That is the encouraging part of teaching.

The difficult part, as any seasoned teacher knows, is that there is no perfect recipe for success. Each student brings burdens, cares, or distractions with them to school, and it is my job to try teach in spite of these. A blogger didn't quite understand this in his comments about standardized testing. He seemed to think that standardized testing was an end-all for evaluating  teacher performance. Of course it isn't- otherwise it would have solved education's woes a long time ago. Yet I still think that it is an important part and don't mind being evaluated on the improvement of my student's test scores from their previous year. I don't think that teacher should be evaluated on a exact percentage of students that arrive on a certain level, but instead on improvement from the previous year.

In about three more weeks I see this year's set of about 100 thirteen and fourteen- year olds.

Bring it on! :)

Dilation!?!?!?

Wowsers... I went the optometrist today for an checkup appointment. I thought MOVC was very professional and up-to-date on new equipment and procedures, as well a friendly. During the checkup, the doctor did a test that dilated my pupils... nothing too unusual. Except that for this particular one, the pupils stay dilated a little throughout the day. Or maybe I should say A LOT! Check this freakness out:

Pretty weird!!!!