California

The fourth of July is one of my top two holidays (the other being Thanksgiving). Growing up we always went to the Lake Michigan and hung out at the beach all day. Then we would bundle up in blankets and sit back to watch the fireworks that were set off of the pier. Then there was always the excitement of waiting in line for an hour to get out of town and onto the highway to head back home. :) It was just always a very relaxed day spent with family, usually our cousins on my dad's side.

The five of us had a grand weekend in California. :)

This year I didn't make it back in time for the traditional Fourth of July festivities in Michigan/Indiana. I was still able to spend the Fourth with my cousins though! I'm still visiting my Mary and her husband Caleb in Arizona. :) Another cousin (Jon) is in California doing an internship this summer, so Mary, Caleb, and I drove over to California to spend the Fourth with Jon and his girlfriend. We had a great weekend. :) We started off the weekend by going to the beach on Friday, which was awesome! Those ocean waves definitely have something on the Lake Michigan waves, but I missed watching the fireworks go off over the water.

It is always so good to spend time with these two! I never know when or where I'll see them next!

Saturday morning we started the day off right... with a board game! Have you ever heard of "Pandemic"? I think it is a relatively new game, and it's a lot of fun. It's a group strategy game, so for those of you who aren't competitive, this one might be a good for you. :) Then we headed over to a friend of Jon and Cristilynn's for the afternoon and evening. We played some epic volleyball, played another round of Pandemic, ate some yummy food, and ended the evening with some fireworks and sparklers. Later that night Jon, Cristilynn, and I played a terrific game of Settlers of Catan. (I just LOVE board games. :)

Just a couple days left with Mary and Caleb!

Sunday we went to church and then had to head back to Arizona. Our weekend visit went far too fast. :( Enjoy some pictures of the Arizona and California scenery. I hear it is much greener in the winter time. :)

Arizona Sunset

Arizona sunset... hard to catch a good picture in a moving vehicle! 

It's dry and brown in California now...

So I keep trying to imagine these hills all in green. :)

Pictures don't do justice. These mountains seemed MUCH bigger in person.

I love the way these mountains and hills are so wrinkled and defined. 

The windmill farm in the forefront gives a little perspective to how big these mountains are.

I fly out of Arizona to Indiana on Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing all my Midwest peeps!

Sedona, Arizona

God is a God of truth, beauty, and goodness. An excellent place to see just a glimpse of these aspects of His character is in His creation. Mary, Caleb, Michelle and I stopped in Sedona on our way to BTC on Thursday and the beauty of the creation there is absolutely breath-taking. The redness of the rocks, the jaggedness of the cliffs, the towering walls of rock arranged into beautiful pillars... I am reminded of this hymn adapted by Stuart K. Hine: 

How Great Thou Art

"O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder 

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made.

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to thee

How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to thee

How great thou art, how great thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

When I look down from lofty mountains grandeur,

And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to thee

How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to thee

How great thou art, how great thou art!"

*Last two verses excluded here... but totally worth looking up and reading (or singing)!!!*

I do wish that pictures could do justice to the reality of the beauty displayed in the earth, but they never can. Creation is a reflection of who God is in His beauty and creativity, and pictures are only a poor reflection of that reflection. But perhaps you may like to see some anyways... ;)

"O Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens." Psalm 8:1

"Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

    to still the enemy and the avenger." Psalm 8:2

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

"Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

    and crowned him with glory and honor." Psalm 8:5

"You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

    whatever passes along the paths of the seas." Psalm 8:6-8

"O Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Psalm 8:9

Just a few more pictures for you to enjoy today... :)

We visited Slide Rock State Park before we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ. The river bed is rock and the flow of water over the years has cut away a "slide". It looks like a ton of fun, and many families were out enjoying the God-provided recreation. A little further up the river displayed more of God's beauty in His creation.

Spring and Summer Fashions

One of the advantages of being on the west coast is getting a glimpse of the up and coming fashions and trends. It is always interesting to see what *new* things will be marketed this season! So, without further ado let me inform you of a few trends that I have observed this spring. You can expect these fashions to be coming to your area soon!

Fashions!
Prepare yourselves for the comeback of the... overalls! These showed a slight upwards trend last summer, but most people just looked at them with surprise and amusement. Well, they are back this year and I have actually seen several people wearing them! Both pants and shorts versions are available. Dark denim and washed out denim are options. Fortunately I have not seen any acid washed overalls yet though! :) Another shocking comeback is the jumpsuit! I can just hear you now...

*gasp* "No!" 

But yes, they really are back. They are not only in the stores but I have seen them being worn frequently, even more often than overalls. They come in all sorts of patterns and lengths. I have seen full length jumpsuits (which remind me of clown suits really!) and then the short-sleeve/shorts version. The shorter version is definitely more popular. Another, more general trend this year is the vintage styles in clothing. This seems to include lighter weight shirts with some embroidery around the necklines and hems. Horizontal stripes and polka dots are some of the more popular patterns this year in fabric this year.

Another trend I have seen this year, although not a fashion clothing trend, is a car color. Many newer cars that I am seeing driven on the roads in the greater Seattle area are a deep brown... almost burgundy color. It is actually a very rich and luxurious color. It will be interesting to see if it catches on and is added to the common color swatch for cars.


Summer Plans
The school year is over and summer has begun. I did a little re-arranging in my classroom and have put a few ideas for next year on the back burner to simmer all summer long. But for now I am just ready to rest and relax after this school year. :)

My new library area in my classroom. This is what you see now looking in at the door. I'd like to make some pillows for the floor. :)

The Seattle area summer weather is absolutely glorious. It really makes me sad that I am going to miss it! I am thankful that I had the privilege of experiencing it for four or five weeks before heading out for the summer. My main goals this summer are to visit family and work on my "current reads" shelf.

I realized that I had too many books that I have not finished yet. So this summer I'm going to try and finish most of these books. :) We'll see how far I get!

My cousin Mary flew up to Seattle and spent a few days with me there. Then we flew together back to her new home in Arizona.

Enjoying Molly Moon's ice cream in Seattle with one of my favorite people. I'm so glad Mary came to visit me in Seattle!!!

We have enjoyed a couple of days together in the dry heat of Arizona already. :) I'm hoping to avoid a sunburn while I'm here! ;-) Mary and her husband Caleb have been quite consistent in pointing out the advantages of living in Arizona. I have an inkling that they are trying to get me to move here... ;-)

This weekend I will be attending the Building Tomorrow's Church Conference here in Arizona, then I will spend another week with Mary and Caleb before flying to Indiana. I am so looking forward to being with my family! It is the hardest thing in the world to be apart from those who you love most. There is peace in knowing that you are where God has you, but peace is not necessarily synonymous with easy. In fact I rather think that "peace" and "ease" are rarely found together. In mid-August I will head back to Washington. I am planning on visiting Victoria, B.C. with a couple of other teachers from the school. This is a "just for fun" trip that I have been wanting to take since I moved here. I've heard that Victoria is both gorgeous and a darling place to visit.

Then my summer will be nearly over. I'll have about a week to unpack, deal with my car a little bit more, get together with a few people, and acclimate myself back into the Seattle weather, traffic patterns, driving times, and prepare myself for the school schedule.

Teacher work week is the last week in August and school begins September 2nd. I'm looking forward to a beautiful and refreshing summer.

A Good Week

This week was a good week. For the first time in several weeks I have been feeling better! My cough and sniffles are diminishing and my energy is not draining nearly as quickly as it has been of late. Woot woot!!!

I've enjoyed a few sunny days this past week. I continue to be awed by the presence of the snow-capped mountains on these bright, clear days. What beauty and majesty they possess! And to think, they are just a dim reflection of the God who has chosen me to be His daughter. What wonder. What an amazing truth. How humbling.

Pictures make them seem so small, but these mountains command your attention. They arrest your eyes as you walk or drive along, making it difficult to notice anything except their presence. They are majestic.

Wheeeeeee! Standing at the top of a hill is the best place for some of the prettiest views.

At school this past week we had our classroom spelling bees. The top two spellers in each classroom will go on to compete in a spelling bee for grades 1-6. Then they will have the opportunity to go on and compete with another school. How fun! We also had our Read-In Day on Friday last week. This is one of my favorite days of the school year. :) Everyone brings in lots of books and we spend the whole day reading, breaking only for recess, lunch, music, and P.E. It is a blast! Now we are on our mid-winter break. I'm looking forward to doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a little bit of nothing. :)

Signs of spring are beginning to appear. The grass needs mowing and the early flowers are beginning to bloom. The tmeperatures are staying between 45 and 60 degrees during the day. It's hard for me to believe that it really is still the middle of February! I am really enjoying these short, mild winters. :) That said, I am praying for and sympathizing with those of you buried in the snow and bundling up against the cold! Take heart! Summer is coming!!!

I noticed several flowering trees on my way home from church yesterday.

Sunday Thoughts

I really, really enjoyed being with my family for Christmas. First of alll, I got to spend time with some of my most favorite people! Secondly, I got to spend time with some of the most awesome people. And thirdly, I got to spend time with some of my awesomest and favoritest people! Parents and siblings and cousins and nephews! I was sad that I didn't get to see my oldest sister and her family though. :(

Little bro is so tall!!!

It started snowing as I drove to the airport to head back to Seattle. I ended up waiting for a good 7 hours in the South Bend airport before even boarding a place. 

This is my "YAY! I'm-finally-on-a-plane-and-I hope-we-get-to-take-off!" face. :)

After another 30-40 minutes of waiting on the runway we did get to take off and go to Chicago. Even though I had missed my original connection in Chicago (by 4 or 5 hours), God was so kind as to give me a seat on another plane that had been delayed in taking off. Once I got to Chicago I had another 4 hours of waiting in the airport before we boarded the plane. Snow does crazy things to airports! I ended up getting into Seattle at 4am on Monday morning. I didn't end up going to school that day. ;-)

Made it back to Seattle! Yay! And then got a haircut. :)

Autumn is gone... long gone really. Winter was already here. Now I'm fairly certain that winter is on it's way out giving way to spring rains. The picture of the dusting of snow in my previous post was all the snow that we saw this year. It's always possible that we'll get another dusting, but it doesn't seem likely to me. I'm sitting at the window as I write this, and looking out I see vibrant green grass that needs to be cut again. It only dulled in its bright hue for a few weeks, but never got to the dull brown that the midwest sees during the bleak mid-winter. I awake in the mornings to birds twittering outside my window. Such a cheerful waking-up sound! We've been getting lots and lots of rain lately. Not just the constant autumn/winter drizzle, but rather some good heavy downpours. The rain pounding on the ground is a very pleasant sound but I really feel that I need a good dose of bright, warm sunshine. So much so that I was actually checking weather reports down in Oregon and on the east side of the Cascades to see if it would be worth a Saturday drive. Alas, they were cloudy and rainy too.

One of our recent spring rains. It is coming down hard!

It has been a really bad cold and flu season here. I'm still a young teacher, so I'm not surprised that I've been getting sick a lot, but it sure is exhausting and annoying! ;-) Someone at church commented on the fact that I've been sick a lot and went on to say they were concerned about my "fragile health". Well... that is certainly the first time I have ever had my health described that way. Typically I say that overall I'm really healthy. I'd rather think of it as a young teacher building up her immune system. ;-) Truth be told though, I have been perpetually fatigued the past couple of months. Just absolutely beat by the time three o-clock rolls around each day. It is probably in part just that I've been fighting bug after bug, and probably in part that my job has been emotionally demanding, but it finally dawned on me that probably the biggest slice of the puzzle is that I have been lacking Vitamin D! Last year I was consciously thinking about how I needed to be ready for the lack of sunshine and how I needed to be taking vitamin D to supplement for the lack of sunshine. I didn't get sick as much last year and definitely wasn't as tired. I began taking it again this week so hopefully I'll see an upswing in energy and general health. ;-) Perhaps a dose of sunshine is in order to jumpstart my energy again. I wonder what the forecast in Arizona is for this next weekend...

I am still loving where I'm living. The family that I live with is such a blessing to me on a daily basis. It continues to amuse me just how similar my growing up years were to the kids of the family. The books on the shelves could have come from my parents library. Movies that we watched when we were little... traditions through the holidays... even phrases our parents used! Anyways, all that to say that I am feeling very blessed and very at home with where I'm living this year. Please begin praying with me as I begin to look for my next living arrangement as this one is just temporary. I can stay until December, but know that the summer is typically the best time to move. 

On another note, I think the school year is getting easier. Over Christmas break I took a lot of time to reflect on why I was struggling and none of what I came up with was surprising. It was a lot of what I had already verbalized, but had not yet thought through completely how it was affecting my every day living and teaching. Upon returning to school in January I resolved to switch my focus from trying to get everything done, or even what I though was important done, and instead focusing on just living out each day in love. I decided to switch from trying to get through the lessons and loving as I went to loving as I went and letting the lessons be the vehicle of how I went through the day. I had to actually say to myself that for the month of January it didn't matter how much I got through. I needed to just focus on loving my 21 students. And you know what? It made a huge different in my stress levels. Living love, letting curriculum just be the means. The class size is still a huge challenge for me. I want to give every student the attention they need and have time to deal with heart issues that arise every day and have time for great communication with parents and still teach every lesson thoroughly and meet the curriculum goals that are set for 2nd grade. But the thing is, I can't. There's no way I can do all of that with 21 students. So I'm back to the basics: loving my students and shepherding their hearts. 

I'm still struggling with church... Please pray. I'm not growing and feel very stagnant in my walk. I'm praying for wisdom, a soft heart, and the Lord's leading. 

After many, many, many prayers, lots of patience, and a long time of looking, God granted me a car. It is an electric blue 2003 Mazda Protege5. I've been enjoying the good, firm brakes and the fact that it only has 62,000 miles on it. Woot woot! I didn't ever think that I would be able to afford a car with such low mileage. I need to take it to the mechanic for some squealing belts, but other than that it has been functioning wonderfully for me. Praise the Lord for his new mercies with me!

Introducing Zwingli!

I expect Zwingli and I will enjoy many Bunbury-ing adventures together. ;-)

I read a new book this weekend. It is called "The Lost Princess: A Double Story"by George MacDonald. It is an older book with a very interesting premise, several profound statements, and great insights into the ugliness of the human heart when it is centered upon self. The book is a book meant for children, and so many of the lessons that can be drawn from it are not proclaimed openly but rather woven into the story. It's a good one to pick up and read! I also read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry this weekend. I'm still thinking about that one and trying to decide what I think about it. Have any of you read that one and have thoughts on it?

I just noticed that all my past pictures have disappeared from the blog. Sorry about that. I've looked for a reason why and apparently there's no good reason... it has happened to other blogger.com bloggers. I was also hoping to find a way to get them back up and visible (some of those Yellowstone pictures were just breathtaking! and I'm sorry that they have gone!) but there seems to be no way to put them all back on except manually. That seems a bit tedious. I hope it doesn't happen again! Perhaps that just means it's time for another cross-country roadtrip so that I can take more pictures. ;-) 

Well, I think that's all for today. As always, I appreciate your prayers! I love hearing from you! :)

Autumn in Seattle

...the air is crisp and cool. It smells of freshly fallen leaves, pumpkins, apples, grapes, and rain. Everywhere you go people have donned boots, scarves, thick jackets (but not yet winter coats), and colorful umbrellas. Coffee is always a staple in Seattle, but its consumption has increased dramatically during the entrance of autumn, if for no other reason than to have something warm to wrap cold fingers around. The temperature fluctuates between the mid-30's and mid-50's with a couple of frosty mornings here and there. Last night brought the first dusting of snow. People will stay off the roads this morning, but the snow will all be melted by evening.

Baking has become a delightful pastime for many, and muffins, cookies, and gingerbread have begun appearing on family tables and in neighbor's cupboards. The scents of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon waft through the air. 

Fires are lit in fireplaces and heaters are turned on. Golden, red, orange, and brown leaves drop to the ground, leaving bare branches exposed for the next three or four months. The evergreens flaunt their ever green boughs, promising to keep refreshing color in the scenery along the way. Dark falls earlier, making 4:30pm feel like 7:30pm and 7pm feel like the deepest of night watches. Strong breezes blow through the trees. Houses are shut up tight and cozy against the wind, for the air is crisp and cool...