This is the latest photo experiment. I had fun... as cold as it was! :) It's pretty amazing how fast people go off of the exit ramp too!


Things to smile about today:
:) time with Lily

Finished a book today. Everyone must read this one. I'm going to have to read it again. It opens your eyes and puts into words things that have been stiring that can now come to rest in His grace. Name of the book? Grace Walk

So here is a portion (at the end of the book) where McVey is actually quoting Socrates:

Imagine a cave, says Socrates, very far underground and with a long passage leading out into the daylight. In this cave there are men who have been prisoners there since they were children. They are chained to the ground, and even their heads are fastened in such a way that they can look only in front of them, at the wall of the cave. Behind the line of prisoners a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a roadway. People walk along this road and talk to one another and carry things with them. The prisoners would see the shadows of those people, shadows thrown by the light of the fire on the cave wall in front of them. And, supposing the cave wall reflected sound, the prisoners would hear sounds coming from the shadows. Since the prisoners cannot turn their heads, the only things they will see and know are shadows; and so they will assume that the shadows are real things, for they cannot know anything about the fire and the roadway and the people behind them.
Now, suppose we unchain one of the prisoners, and make him turn around. This will be very frightening and painful for him; the movements of his body will hurt him, and his eyes will be dazzled by the fire. And if we tell him that the things he now sees are more real than the shadows, he will not believeus, and he will want to sit down again and face the wall of the shadows which he understands. Now, suppose we go even further than this, and forcibly drag him out through the long tunnel into the sunlight. This will be even more painful and frightening for him; and when he arrives above the ground he will be blinded by the sun. But slowly, let us imagine, he will get used to it. At first, he will be able to look at the stars and the moon at night. Later he will look at shadows thrown by the sun and at reflections in pools of water. Finally, he will be able to see the trees and mountains in full daylight, and he will recognize that these, not the shadows in the cave, are the real things. And when he has become accustomed to looking around him, he wil at last realize that the light which makes all this possible comes from the sun.

"The Allegory of the Cave"

I never want to go back to the point of being content to watch shadows. I believe that the fullness of God's life is completely in reach. I want to see the mountains in full daylight.


Things to smile about today:
:) Where God has brought me and where the road leads
:) Time to relax
:) water :)

I must confess... Christmas just hasn't felt like Christmas this year. I have greatly enjoyed my time with my family, and now that I'm back in BG there are a lot of things that I would like to get done that are "Christmasy", but something feels out of wack. Not to sure what it is... maybe I just need some reflective time.

The past four days have been spent on the road. Friday was the drive down to mom's and then an extra 45 min. of driving on down to Urbana. (Let me back up here a little bit.) On my way to mom's, I stopped at my dad's work to see how he was doing. I have made this a habit as it has become the only time I get to see him without others around. Anywayz, dad continued to tell me that just an hour before, my brother had shot a hole through his wall. As dad continued to explain, the following details became praise worthy. My father actually proclaimed God's protection in all of this! :) So, T's gun was jammed. Instead of going outside to fix it, he was in his bedroom. (We still are not sure why he forgot this very important detail.) First praise is that the gun did not blow up in his face. Instead, it shot through his wall at about chest level leaving a hole roughly 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. It continued through M's wall leaving a hole on her side roughly 3 to 4 inches in diameter and traveled across her room peppering the wall above her bed roughly 4 feet in diameter. Needless to say, if sis had been in her bedroom watching tv or reading, she would either be very hurt or not here. Second praise, if T had been facing the other direction in his bedroom, it would have gone through his other wall, into the computer room and hit sis who was sitting in direct aim... but he wasn't. T was so scared that he didn't talk for an hour and then said that he never wants anything to do with guns again. That may not last to long, but dad has his guns put away until he is 18 (he is currently 14).

That incident, however, did not send me to the Urbana hospital. It was the accident that happened only 5 hours later. My step mom, step grandma, and sis were in a car accident just outside of Urabana. A guy pulled out in front of them and S t-boned him at 50 mph. He got out of his car and began running on foot, leaving his girlfriend and three kids in the car. My step grandma got pinned under the dash and sis was thrown around in the backseat. Results: S (stepmom) had surgery today to put a screw in her lower leg/ankle bone area. Sis has seatbelt burns and S (step grandma) is really sore and going back to the hospital for more xrays as her right hand is starting to swell even more. The people in the other car refused treatment and had no insurance.

(deep breath) just needed to get all of that out.

Other than that, time spent with my family was good. I got to see all of my siblings and most of my aunts and uncles. :) Only 2 more gatherings left! (One was post poned due to the wreck.)


Things to smile about today:
:) God's protection over my family
:) Dad proclaiming God's protection
:) a few days of little to do

Wow... I knew that it had been awhile since I had last blogged, but I didn't think that it had been this long! Time flys when you have fun... or maybe when you are just to busy! :) Either way, I'm bloggin now.

Time is going to fly for the next couple of days. I have a lot to do and a lot of places to be between now and the 3rd of Jan. (The next day I go back to school.) Within that list is a work day at the school (in my new room... more on that later), 6 Christmas parties: mom, mike and appropriate siblings, dad, sherry and appropriate siblings, mom's parents with aunts and uncles, dad's parents with aunts and uncles, sherry's parents with aunts and uncles, and mike's parents with aunts and uncles. I've already had one this past weekend with some extended family. My total will be 7, unless another one pops up and that is totally possible.

Now for the new room. I'll be teaching in the other Early Childhood room. Until this point in time, there have been three experienced teachers in one room and only one experienced teacher in the other. By switching with one of the other teachers, both rooms will have two exp. teachers. I am excited and sad all at the same time. I will miss the children I have already been with. They are to cute and have a place in my heart. Some of them are not taking this news well, others are okay and yet most of the little ones won't even realize what really has happened until the beginning of the year comes. One little girl keeps asking why I can't be her teacher anymore. One of the most common questions I have had is "When will you be my teacher again?" It hasn't clicked that this is permanent. One little boy asked if he could go over to the other room with me. It made me smile... and sad at the same time.

So... this will probably be my last set of funny stories from the West room. :(
(My new funny stories will be from the East room.)

This morning on line we read the story, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. While reading this story one of the little boys asked where Rudolph was. A little girl promptly answered, "He wasn't born yet."

A few pages later one of the kids blurted out, "Santa's smoking!" (A pipe) This generated the response, "Only in this story does he smoke. In real life he doesn't."

After the story was read, somehow we got on the discussion of first words that the children had spoken when they were little. We got the common answers like, ball, duck, baba... and then one little girl announced to the whole class that her first word was "toilet paper". Yes, toilet paper! I'm sure that is not true and that she was wanting to be special, but why did she pick toilet paper?!?!

The conversation continued and a child had mentioned that their dad had remembered what his first word was and another little girl said, "My dad forgets everything." We had a good laugh over that one too. :)


Things to smile about today:
:) Big hugs from little kids
:) Memories, as new as they may be, from working with T
:) a week and a half off of school!

This picture is titled

"Aldi Extra-Long"

You had to be there! The open house went so well. We had approximately 40 people in and out of our house all night. 5 different house showed from our neighborhood and then several friends and family came. It was so good to see everyone interacting. Everyone mingled well. I was concerned that it would be neighbors in one room and our friends in another, but it wasn't that way at all! There was a lot of laughter, a lot of food... and a lot of good starts to (hopefully) some really good friendships. I am looking forward to the future and what God as in store for our street and neighborhood!

4 day weekend

This has been great! Of course, Thursday wasn't exactly pleasant (I called in sick), but I did get to sleep a lot! :)

Anywayz, Danielle and I went shopping last night. We were out for a long time and every time we came out of another store it was colder than we went in! It didn't matter how long we were in there! We were able to get some neat things to decorate the house. I can't wait to get it all up today. The only down side is that we have to clean first. I wish I could go straight to the decorating. :)


Things to smile about today:
:) snow
:) the thought of a spotless, clean house
:) getting to decorate that spotless, clean house

Things to smile about today:
:) Time with family
:) Musical concerts
:) Snow fall
:) Sleep