Done, Done, Done, Done, DONE!!!!!!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can now claim to have "experience" as a teacher. As of today, May 25, 2006 at 1:00p.m. (Central Standard Time), I completed my first full year of teaching. To celebrate, Karen and I went to Half Price Books and sold a million books for $9.00. We then used the $9.00 for a posh meal at subway. We then proceeded too spend gift certificates at Border's bookstore, that I received from students. I got two whole, brand new books! Plus, afterwards, we went to Barnes and Nobles and spent two more gift certificates on books. I got two more! I am lovingly calling this night our "book tour". It was great fun.

As I look back, I think about how far my students have come. Believe it or not, over the course of nine months (funny that a school year is nine months. same as bringing a child into the world. hmmmm...)I have seen these kids go from scrawny, small little babies, to courageous problem solvers. I hugged a girl today who, when I first met her, wanted to go back to second grade. She has a learning disability, but passed a very hard state mandated test. I hugged her because at the beginning of the year she wouldn't make eye contact and gave up constantly. At the end of the year, she was smiling and wouldn't accept help. She gained confidence and I got to help with that. Pretty cool.

Now on to funnier musings. First, things you never thought you would hear.

"David, (My gifted and talented student who is brilliant but talks too much and can't pay attention, go figure)why are you in trouble?"
"Mr. Norvell, the only reason I shot pretzels out of my nose was because the others were calling me a 'fraidy cat."

"Mr. Norvell, I have to go to the bathroom bad!"
"Why haven't you told me sooner?!?"
"I didn't think you would let me go!I have to go!! I am going!! (Wet spot appears on the young girls pants : ( )
"Ok go to the nurse and get cleaned up." ( I then nonchalantly throw a couple sanitary wipes on the ground and dab them around with my foot until it is clean.

"Mr. Norvell, my tooth this reeeaaally loose."
"Why don't you pull it out then?"
Girl proceeds to rip the lose tooth from her mouth.
"Oh my goodness, you are a haus!"

"Mr. Norvell, he is looking at me!"

"Mr. Norvell, they are talking near me and I want them to be quiet!"

"Ok class, for today's Grammar assignment I want you to write these ten sentences in cursive on page 245 down and correct them."
(student raises hand)"Mr. Norvell, what subject is this?"
(another student)"Mr. Norvell, do we have to write in cursive?"
(yet another student)"Mr. Norvell, what page is it on?"
(another one)"Mr. Norvell, do we have to write each sentence?"
(and yes, one more)"Mr. Norvell, how many sentences do we write?"

Mom,Dad, I am so sorry!

The way I see it, I had 21 students for a whole school year, taking care of them and working with them for more waking hours than their parents. So, cumulatively I have about 20 years of child rearing experience. Nice!

This has been a great year. The Lord has richly blessed me with a great school, amazing kids, exceptional coworkers and bosses, and a ministry that is near and dear to me. That is satisfaction.

"I did it myself"

When I was a little girl, I had this Bert and Ernie book that my parents used to read to me called I Did It Myself. It went through various daily tasks with Ernie performing each one all by himself. On one page there would be a picture of Ernie making his bed, and the text would say "I made my bed before school. I did it myself". The next page: "I brushed my teeth. I did it myself." And so on and so on. There was a time when I was little where I tripped over my tricycle on the front porch and broke my arm. One afternoon, arm in pink cast, Dad was reading me that book and he inserted his own text to make his daughter laugh: "I broke my arm. I did it myself." At the time I can remember being overly sensitive and getting mad, but now I just laugh about it. My dad's sense of humor is so unique to him. There was one afternoon a few years back that I heard my sister, Sarah, make a comment that sounded exactly like something Dad would have said.
My 3 siblings and I were eating ice cream after church one afternoon, and like usual, Mike had finished his before everyone else had. We have the same trait of eating food so fast you don't remember what it taste like. Sarah had been last to be served in the ice cream line, and when she joined us at our little table on the patio, Mike leaned over with his spoon at the ready to take a scoop of ice cream off of the top of sarah's serving. Sarah leans to the side to dodge Mike, and said "You won't like this Mike...it's pastachio flavored." Mike, in his funnly little voice he uses when he is making a joke try to sound serious, says back to Sarah,"oh, thats ok, I like pasticho". Sarah, taking on the same tone in her voice says, "Oh, did I say Pistachio? I meant split pea," and at that,all four of us burst out laughing. It was so much like a comment my dad would have made; it was almost erie in similarity.

Living with Dave has made me stop and examine just where I come up with some of my traits and habbits. I think about the way I have seen certain things done in the past, and I can almost pinpoint exactly with parent genetically passed down a certain trait or tendancy to me. Just like Dave's family, they each had their own unique traits. For example, most people would put a half used brick of cheese, the kind you grate or slice from, in a plastic zip-loc bag back in the fridge. Not my dad....he gets a pice of clear plastic wrap and a rubber band, and wraps the exposed end in plastic wrap, using the rubber band to secure it. I don't think I have ever looked into someone elses refrigerator and seen this type of rubber-band packaging. My mom, however, has "little plate syndrome". I have this too. No matter what we are eating, we try and cram it all on a small plate rather then a large sized dinner plate like normal people would. If it is just us by ourselves, we always reach for the little plate. Even the way I arrange dishes in my cabinets come from a certain parent.
What's my point in all this mumbo jumbo? I just wonder where along the line I decided to do things one way or the other. At any point in my life, I could have decided to use a rubberband and plastic wrap method for storing cheese rather then the plastic bag, or I could have decided to pick the proper sized plate for my food rather then cram it all onto one of the dessert sized plates. What made me pick one way or the other. I don't remember consiously making these decisions...it's almost like they chose me. I look at some of the things I do compared to Dave, and I wonder which of my traits passed on to me from my parents, and their parents before them, and so on and so on, will my kids pick over their fathers, and visa versa. Will my children insist on stacking the sliverware perfectly on top of one another in the dividers in the drawer like Dave, or will they settle for them just being chunked into their specific spot, no stacking needed, like their mother. Will they be addicted to chapstick and flip out everytime one is not in sight distance, or will they instead love fantasy novels and play strategy games. Will they put leftover food in tupperware, or on a plate with clear wrap over it. I have to admit, it will be fun to see.

(NOTE: I apologize for my misspelled words. I can't figure out how to make our spell check on the blog work, but I will at least try to make my misspellings consistent for you!)

a momentous occassion

In the same week that my siblings will graduate with Masters degrees, or their second masters degree, I will mail off my graduate school application. Scary.

Saturday outings!

Dave and I complimented the first sunny Saturday in quite a while with a trip to the botanical gardens in Ft. Worth. So fun and spontanious! It helped me forget about all the trials of Friday (for those of you who don't know, mainly siblings and extended siblings, I am currently unemployed). Dave decided to take a few pictures of some of the pretty flowers and the cute turtles in the pond at the edge of the park.

Happy Smile

Dave and I both had dentist appointments yesterday. It had been over a year for us each. I had a clean bill of mouth health while my husband called me at 5 to tell me he was getting a filling. There is something I am better at then him...finally! I can brush with the best of them. I think it is because I hate coffee breath, so everymorning I usually brush my teeth with three applications of toothpaste to get the taste out. Is it wrong to have pride over a clean mouth?

Things to anticipate!

Back in Feb I had mentioned to Dave that I had been looking forward to our wedding for so long, that I didn't know what I would do without something to anticipate and look forward to after it was all over. Being the cute husband that he is, he looked at me with a goofy smile and said.."um, you have marriage to look forward too...". Of course I was looking forward to being married, but there is something about having an event or occasion to look forward to that helps the work week pass. That being said, I was quickly surprised how fast our calendar filled up with events to anticipate.
This coming weekend Dave will take Fri off and travel down to San Marcos for a good friend of his graduation. After driving back late that night, Sat we will get up and drive to Brownwood together for HPU's graduation.
The next weekend we will be looking forward to attending my step sister's, Courtney, baccalaureate ceremony, and then the next Friday is Dave's last day of his first teaching year as well as a big wedding he is involved in. We will leave Friday afternoon to drive to San Antonio for a wonderful outdoor wedding ceremony in which Dave will serve as the best man! Coming home on Sunday we will hopefully be able to spend some time with Dad and Pam as they are in town for Courtney's graduation ceremony, and then that coming Friday, Walter and Mary will be in town, and that includes a trip to Canton! June has us looking forward to both our birthday's and a special weekend trip to a B&B in Granburry to celebrate. The first two weekends in July are two more weddings to travel to,and all of this packed into weeks of new jobs for me, summer time off for Dave and the start up of summer school. I think I will need a vacation after all this fun summer stuff to recuperate from my anticipation.

update...

Day one of the job went very well. I have never felt that a staff had anxiously anticipated my arrival like I did yesterday. When I got there they had my desk all cleaned off for me, had literature ready for me to read, and even a weekly plan to make sure I learned everything I needed to learn. They were so appreciative of my presence, and I couldn't be more excited to dive into my new job. I have some BIG job responsibilities. Much different then Barrington. It makes me very nervous and anxious, as they laid out their high standards for me yesterday, but I know that I can handle it, and once I get past the learning curve, I think my time there will be very beneficial to my career. My favorite part of the job yesterday was at the very beginning when they took me on a tour of the office. They opened the back patio door to the back porch, and it beheld before me a lovely patio furniture set looking out over Delaney Wine Vineyards. Such an amazing change from the frost covered windows looking out over Highland Park Vet at Barrington. I can't wait to eat my lunch outside and dream of being in Italy.


I am sure for all newly weds, there is a time when reality sets in and you begin to realize...."hey, this person really does do some things that bug me". I think the beginning of that reality is starting to set in here, so (lydia in particular), you can be ready for some more funny stories as Dave and I learn how to communicate and get through the "why the heck do you take out the trash like that? You're CRAZY!".

Most recently, I think Dave has realized just how uneasy clutter makes me. Sweet husband....while a receipt left by the computer for a day or two may mean nothing to him...inside my OCD with order is scraming to throw it away! Oh boy...these next few months are going to be fun!

Ok...off to day two of my new job. Hopefully it will be just as good as day 1!