Quick Trip South

Yesterday, I drove down to see Jen, Joe and the kids for a super quick day trip. Joe's family was having a party for his sister in which our clan was invited to later in the day.

Trin Trin was so excited to see me. She hugged and kissed me when I got out of the car. Joe Joe (as I call him, goes along with Trin Trin) was a little more reserved but he warmed up quite nicely to me as the day progressed. I finally got to see him crawl in person and boy does he get around. It was so good to see them and to allow them some play time with their auntie. I love these little ones so much. They are a blessing from God to me.

This picture was taken about 3 weeks ago.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day means so much to me and there are so many wonderful memories of past Memorial Days/weekends. Like many other Memorial Day weekends, I headed up to the "cabin" near Mt. Lassen. This is what Memorial Day means to me:

• the hills of Northern California are golden
• the fields along I-5 are full of crops: corn, tomatoes, sugar beets, sunflowers, rice, wheat, alfalfa, hay, peppers, almond and walnut trees, and squash
• being with my dear family
• enjoying the fresh mountain air
• getting away from the heat of the Bay Area, the congestion, the noise
• the end of the school year is just a few weeks away
• feeding the deer, chip monks, grey squirrels, and various types of birds
• cherries at the fruit stands
• playing cards
• watching movies
• and a grateful heart for the men and women who have fought for our liberty

Here are a few photos from my time away.

And the Greatest of These is Love

For my last birthday, my mom got me this oil painting of a country church (called Amazing Grace). I love it. The picture is hanging on a small entry wall into the kitchen from the entry way and hallway. My photo looks a little crooked because there was a wall right behind me and I had no space to take the picture, it really is straight and level. Some friends picked up a catalog at a home and garden show for a company that does wall expressions, or other expressions for things around your home. I so loved the concept of putting an expression on my wall to go with the beautiful picture. Every time I walk out my front door or my garage door, I will be reminded to put on a heart of love, Christ's love.

Who is More Ready?

The end of the school year is quickly approaching and summer vacation will soon be here. As my teaching years (15 now) pass on by, my longing for summer vacation grows stronger with each passing year. This has been a good year for me, I have had a good group of students and not many "problems". Despite the lack of a stressful year, the itching to be "out of there" is huge. Not sure if that's because the end of the year is extremely busy and mind consuming or if I am just tired and need a good break. So, I have been thinking, who is more ready for a summer vacation? The students who check out sometime after spring break and state testing or teachers who attempt to keep the checked out still checked in?

People often ask me, "how many days left?" Honestly, I don't count the days left. That is scary for me because I know of all the things that need to get done before that last day. I know it is less than 3 weeks and closer to 2 weeks.

Anyways, now you know the reason for lack of posts recently. YEAH HEY, for summer vacation.

When the Ball Game Is Boring

On Sunday, my dad and I were able to go to our first Giants baseball game of the '09 season. This particular game was all pitching, neither team scored a run until til the bottom of the 10th inning when my boys won the game. Yeah for Richie!

One thing I love about AT&T Park is that when the game is dull and lacks excitement you can find something in the ball park to entertain you. Here are a few things that entertained me this time. The above photo is for those fans who speak "Spanglish" (half Spanish and half English). I will translate the sign into complete English and out of the Spanglish. It translates, "Watch the Giants 'play of the week' each Sunday". I found it quite comical, the bright flashing light was in half English and half Spanish, kinda like how I talk in Spanish and don't know all the words in Spanish so I put in English words in the place of the Spanish words. This is what I call Spanglish.

In the below photos are of 3 separate older female season ticket holders who sit in section 102 or 103 near the seats I get from Steve (thanks again Steve, my dad and I both agree these are our favorite seats). The first of the two pictures, these ladies sit directly in front of the seats we sit in. Both look to be at least retired age. I have seen them at the games many times. They both are die hard Giants fans. Everything about them is Giants baseball. They wear ear rings that have baseball bats and baseballs. They are all decked out in their orange and black. They listen to the game on a MP3 player. At this particular game the first 20,000 fans received the ball cap they are wearing. Both of the ladies had just put their "rally caps" on and turned around and told us so. They said, "time to get our rally caps on, our boys need all the help they can get". They even were ragging on the Giants for not being able to bring a runner home that was on 3rd base with no outs. So cute.

What a hoot this woman is. She is much older than the first two and looks like she has been a Giants fan her whole life. She is a glitzy fan. Her ball cap was all sequins, she was all decked out in her orange and black, black fuzzy scarf, orange ear rings, and her socks were orange with orange sequins on the top of them. She knew exactly what was happening during the game. She even booooo-ed a call the umpire made. Simply adorable.

There is a song from the Come Weary Saints CD by Sovereign Grace Music that flows through my mind often. This song is titled As Long As You Are Glorified by Mark Altrogge. Tonight I was reminded of this song as we discussed gratitude in the singles Bible study I attend where we are studying Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. Human nature is predisposed of complaining and grumbling of our circumstances and not rejoicing and thanking God for every good and bad thing that comes into our life. All things are used for His glory in our lives.

Here are the lyrics of the song and you can listen here (thank you to who has their play list on line, thanks brother).

Shall I take from Your hand Your blessings
Yet not welcome any pain
Shall I thank You for days of sunshine
Yet grumble in days of rain
Shall I love You in times of plenty
Then leave You in days of drought
Shall I trust when I reap a harvest
But when winter winds blow, then doubt

Oh let Your will be done in me
In Your love I will abide
Oh I long for nothing else as long
As You are glorified

Are You good only when I prosper
And true only when I’m filled
Are You King only when I’m carefree
And God only when I’m well
You are good when I’m poor and needy
You are true when I’m parched and dry
You still reign in the deepest valley
You’re still God in the darkest night

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

Swine Flu

On my home phone message was the superintendent of my school district with a voice message saying that a "probable case of Swine Flu" has been identified in one of the elementary schools within the district that I teach. That school will be closed this whole next week and possibly the whole next week.

I know why the CDC and the world is being careful with the Swine Flu. In 1918 two waves of the Swine Flu killed an estimated 30-50 MILLION people but from all indicators this is not the same strain as that one which was a pandemic. I did not even know what a pandemic was until 7 days ago. There has been one confirmed death in the U.S. More people will die of the common cold in one day than this wave of the Swine Flu.

Closing whole schools down is huge and I personally don't want to be involved in a school that has to close down for 1-2 weeks. One of my students last week thought that closing the school down for 2 weeks would be great. Being the teacher, I seized the moment to talk to the class why that really would not be a good idea. Here are my reasons:

1) If we have to miss 2 weeks of school because of the Swine Flu we will have to make that school up somehow and asked where do you think that will made up? They had no clue. So, I broke the news to them that we would have to go 2 weeks later in June when we should be done and on summer vacation. The whole class gave a collected
groan.
2) Next week we are administering the state wide STAR assessment tests. The teaching moment continued, I asked, "If we don't take the tests next week when are we going to take them?" They responded, "let's just not take them this year". I then needed to tell them that the tests have to be given at a certain time frame and the test would have to be given after a the mandatory 2 week break. Do you want to be away from school and not engaged in learning and preparing for very important tests (honestly, it is not so important for them personally but for us as a school as a whole and not being taken over by the state for not improving our scores for the 3rd year in a row- another post at another time, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND) and then to come back and test the week after you are first back? They don't completely get this one.
3) Will you have any set plans for your required break? Will your parents have plans for you? No, most likely not. You will be sitting at home with no plans, not able to
go out with friends, no trips to Disneyland or Circus Circus. I reminded them that most of them told me almost 2 weeks ago that most of them were bored to death over spring break because they had nothing to do. Again, another collected groan.

The same student said, "I think you are right. It would be better for our school not to close down."

Comic taken from Google images.

Like A Spring Rain

"So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:3

Whenever it rains in the springtime I am reminded of a song that we sang at the Grace on Campus Bible Study called Hosea 6:3. Today a good spring rain is watering the earth around the Bay Area. I love this little song because it is such a nugget of truth. He is more faithful than a spring rain that waters the earth. This verse starts with a prompting for us to know, to press on to know the LORD. . . and here comes the promise, He will

come to us like a rain, a spring rain

that waters the earth.

My roses have opened up and I am seeing their incredible beauty for the first time. These rose bushes were planted late last summer (they waited patiently for 6 months to be put in the ground) and now they are showing off who they are. The first rose I think is a Nancy Reagan and the second rose is a Tahitian Sunset.

The last photo is of a plant called Ruby Slippers. Before I re-landscaped my front yard I probably had a dozen Ruby Slippers. They were incredible bloomers for about 2 months and then the plant died out and looked horrible. I took them out despite my mom being totally against it As you can see, despite being

removed, one plant was a fighter and grew

back quite well.

The rain today was a complete blessing for me. There was some tension that rose up at work over the past week in my department between a few people and we had a serious sewer issue arise (literally) in the locker rooms. With those two issues and the possibility of rain, as the department chair I made the decision that all the PE classes would go to the theater and watch a couple of movies that we had not finished and give teachers an opportunity to work extra on the grades we are submitting this week and to allow a little respite from the bad behavior of the students. I think today was a breath of fresh air for all of my department. "Like a spring rain, watering the earth".