creativity

I'm looking for good ideas of text to use for Wordle. I think I could easily become addicted. It's just fun to play with what types of text you put in and how it looks. I like it.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, meaning Christmas is soon! I'm excited for that. Two and a half weeks and I'll be back in Illinois for more time with family and friends of old. Not that the friends that I've made here aren't old. ;-)

Being at my parent's houses ("home") is always good, but I occasionally struggle when coming back home (to my apartment and job). I like vacation a lot. I like being able to just call up one of my friends (or my one friend?) and go shopping, or see a movie, or just hang out playing rock band. I also enjoy spending time chatting with family and just spending time. I do miss that. It's not that I'm homesick...I think I just appreciated the time and relaxation that I was able to have, and I wish that it could have been longer.

Christmas is coming, though. :-) I'm getting excited about some of the creative ideas that I have for my secret santa gifts...I hope they work out as cool as I want them to.

I'm not the MOST creative person in the world, but when I get on a roll, I just want to make really cool things. I think Wordle has made me want to be more creative...I want to find/make something to put on my wall...I like quotations, always have...now I just need to find a really good one...

Wordle...fun!

Here is a word cloud of the words in my blog! Check out how you can have fun with words at wordle !

Victory for MSU

In honor of MSU beating Michigan for the first time since 2001 (and for the first time in Ann Arbor since 1990)...the original words to the MSU Fight song. :-)

On the banks of the Red Cedar, there's a school that's known to all.
It's specialty is winning, and those Spartans play good ball.
Spartan teams are never beaten, all through the game they'll fight,
Fight for the only colors, GREEN and WHITE.

Smash right through that line of blue, watch the points keep growing,
Spartan teams are bound to win, they're fighting with a vim, RAH RAH RAH.
Michigan is weakening, we're going to win this game.
FIGHT, FIGHT, RAH team FIGHT
VICTORY FOR MSU!

"Out of the mouths of babes..."

...well, 14 to 19-year-olds...

"Did you get your eyebrows waxed?"

*to another student* "Jessica's your mom"
*other student* -freaks out-
Me: "I'm not old enough to be your mom!"
"How old are you?"
"Are you not comfortable being a mom?"

Student:"Do you have a boyfriend?"
Me: "No, I've been single for 4 years"
Student: *freaks out* 4 years! You should date, and get married and live happily ever after

("overheard" between two students) "The two of you should have sex like monkeys"
Me: "What?!?!?"
Other student: "Did you see her face when you said that?!"
First student: "My bad...sorry"


I feel like I'm becoming one of those teachers that goes off on tangents easily...but it's fun! We've had tons of random conversations in one of my classes...they need some of the experience/exposure...(at least that's my excuse...)

On another note...today one of my students played battleship online where he had to solve equations correctly in order to get hits... In another class, we played desktop dodgeball with chances to throw the ball for solving equations correctly. It was pretty crazy...the kids were laying on the floor rushing to solve the problem so they could throw the ball at these little wooden kids. Thanks to Jason for the game! :-)

That's all. :-)

Updates

I've been reading updates from my friends in other countries recently..they are so good at writing about what they are learning from God and how they are adapting to their new country/culture. Reading their letters makes me think that I should write some updates! I know that these friends need to send updates, because they are being financially and prayerfully supported in ministry. But you know what? I'm being prayerfully supported in my job. Maybe I should start thinking about how I can update people that are supporting me. Updates like pictures, stories, and lessons that I'm learning...hmm...

For those who read this, know that I love hearing updates. :-)

I'm going to think some more about the whole "writing updates" subject. I'll keep you posted.

I'm also determined that this weekend is going to be the time when I order a futon mattress, a desk chair, and start organizing my apartment so I don't have papers all over the floor all the time. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

funny

I'm home. :-) Finally.

All in all it was a good trip. See Facebook for pictures later this week, I think.

Something random that I came across while googling my name (every once-in-awhile you should do this, see what you come up with...especially if you're a teacher...)

www.brtva.org

it has NOTHING to do with anyone I'm related to. That's the funny part. My name can be an acronym. Who knew?

Plans

"Nothing is by chance...No detail is forgotten in my plans for you" -Two Listeners

This is from a Christian quote of the day thing that I have setup for my igoogle homepage...

I post it here because it is frustratingly accurate today. Or maybe it's just frustrating that I know it is true, but it is hard to believe today.

I spent the weekend in Chicago for Kelly and Mark's wedding. SO FUN. :-) I loved it. True, it rained (really hard at times), but we had a good time dancing and celebrating with a lot of people that I haven't seen very often in a long time.

I know it was a short trip, but I really wanted to be there for the wedding, and I had been planning on it for a year before I even knew I was moving to Virginia...so I made a weekend out of it.

I was supposed to get on a plane at 5:00 today, and get home by 11:00 tonight. I had 2 connections: Cleveland and Washington, DC.

I arrived at the airport thinking that despite the rain, my plane would be fine, because it was just a sprinkle. When I found out that my flight was delayed, though, I wasn't too surprised...maybe it was worse than I thought. The problem came, though, that my layovers were not long enough to accomodate any delay at all...the delay from Chicago to Cleveland would cause me to miss my connecting flight to Washington...and missing that flight meant there was no way I would get back to the Shenendoah Valley Airport tonight....

The agent checked other flights into Dulles Airport (in Washington), but they all were either delayed because of weather or other issues.

I was so surprised when she offered me a hotel voucher, because my flight wasn't delayed because of weather...it was delayed because of problems with the crew (if a flight is delayed because of weather, they won't pay for your accommodations...).

So...nothing happens by chance.... What is this supposed to teach me? Why am I stuck at a hotel in Rosemont, IL (because my parents live an hour away and didn't want to turn around and come back after dropping me off and driving home, let alone drive me back here tomorrow morning for my flight...)?

I should probably spend more of my energy looking for "divine appointments" and less of it complaining/wondering why I'm here.