Rockin' the bedhead so hard he could be the lead singer for The Cure.
Does anyone else see the resemblance?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wordless Wednesday - I bet you thought I forgot.
Rockin' the bedhead so hard he could be the lead singer for The Cure.
Monday, March 8, 2010
thankful
This morning I was doing my morning devotions when I came across a prayer journal that I used to keep. I am not sure why I stopped writing in it, but I decided to pick it up again today to see what I had written before. This was the last entry....
March 18, 2009
Yesterday was VERY hard. I came home, crawled into bed and never wanted to get out. My heart aches for Miles to get here. Today's reading talks about turning to God in times of anguish. That is the best word I can think of to describe this - anguish.
That was almost exactly a year ago, and boy has my life changed. My prayers have been answered - ten fold. I have forgotten how sad March was for me. I was very good at waiting until the middle of February - which was when other families that had received referrals after us had started getting travel calls. This is the closest I've come to knowing depression.
On March 24, 2009 we got our travel call. On March 27th we knew Liam was also on his way. On March 29th we were on a plane for Korea. Praise God.
One year later (this morning) I had to call my husband as I pulled out of the driveway to tell him to get his completely nude son out of the giant picture window in the front of our house. (He was waving quite energetically - the neighborhood got quite a show.)
March 18, 2009
Yesterday was VERY hard. I came home, crawled into bed and never wanted to get out. My heart aches for Miles to get here. Today's reading talks about turning to God in times of anguish. That is the best word I can think of to describe this - anguish.
That was almost exactly a year ago, and boy has my life changed. My prayers have been answered - ten fold. I have forgotten how sad March was for me. I was very good at waiting until the middle of February - which was when other families that had received referrals after us had started getting travel calls. This is the closest I've come to knowing depression.
On March 24, 2009 we got our travel call. On March 27th we knew Liam was also on his way. On March 29th we were on a plane for Korea. Praise God.
One year later (this morning) I had to call my husband as I pulled out of the driveway to tell him to get his completely nude son out of the giant picture window in the front of our house. (He was waving quite energetically - the neighborhood got quite a show.)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Proud Mom
The title of this post is a bit misleading....you would think that I would be using this to brag about my own children - as if I don't do that enough. In fact, I'm using it to brag about other people's children. I know that I often talk about the difficulties of dealing with impossible teenagers and the trials that they get sheer joy out of putting me through, but the truth is that I wouldn't want to have any other job. I thought I wanted to teach in higher education, and maybe someday I will, but right now I am right where I want to be.....which leads me to other people's children.
Caution: extreme bragging beyond this point.
This last week we entered the all-conference art show/competition like we are required to do every year. It is always a priority for the other art teachers and me because we were told that it is supposed to be a priority over every other art show we do (by administrators). In the past it has been really hard for me to get into it. Our students have always done well at it, but the truth is that it was my least favorite show. First of all, it was at the city's public library. I am a lover of libraries, but having to walk through 10+ homeless people to get to the front entrance, and then to see the artwork from eight different schools velcro-ed onto a couple of display boards really dashed our spirits. This year the show was at a beautiful, huge art gallery. The students actually got to frame their work. We even had a new printer and were able to print of some of their digital illustrations and prints off on large format paper. Everything about it was beautiful. One of my favorite things about the show was that so many students showed up to the artist reception on Thursday night. They weren't required to come, but they came. They brought their parents and even their friends. They introduced their art teachers to their parents, grandparents, and even boyfriends/girlfriends. Worlds collided....Okay, that may be a bit dramatic, but they were so proud, which made me so proud.
This all isn't even the best part though. I have been holding this in for days. I wanted to bust into the school on Friday and enter every administrator's office bragging about our students. I wanted to put on the announcements how our students tore apart the competition. I wanted to call up each coach and tell them how awesome our artists did - many of which are also athletes. I wanted to knock on the door of every parent who voted against the referendum last year because it focused too much on the arts (which is not really at all). I wanted to go to the elementary school board who refuse to provide art for their students because it just isn't necessary. Basically, I wanted everyone to know how great our students were......but I didn't. I held it in until now. I figured no administrators or parents or other teachers read my blog so I'm safe to do all of my bragging here, and remain humble on the surface when I go back to school on Monday.
To make a really long story just a little bit shorter.....we rocked the house on Thursday night. Every school can only submit 26 pieces to the show, and there are eight schools. Our students took home a total of 12 honorable mention and merit awards that night. The only other school that came close is twice our size and took home 5. Two students also took home both Best of Show awards - in 2-d and 3-d. To sum it up, they were awesome. And that night they were also gracious and polite. Now, I could go into much more detail as to why each individual student that won was its own little victory for them, but I won't. I guess that is between them and me. I just hope they know someday how proud I am of all of them. All of their art teachers are proud. All three of us were shining for them on Thursday night. The only downside was that we were one of the only schools without an administrator there. Maybe someday I'll figure out a way to get them interested since the emails and invitations didn't work. Maybe the big write-up in the paper that comes out next week will get them a little more interested. :)
Caution: extreme bragging beyond this point.
This last week we entered the all-conference art show/competition like we are required to do every year. It is always a priority for the other art teachers and me because we were told that it is supposed to be a priority over every other art show we do (by administrators). In the past it has been really hard for me to get into it. Our students have always done well at it, but the truth is that it was my least favorite show. First of all, it was at the city's public library. I am a lover of libraries, but having to walk through 10+ homeless people to get to the front entrance, and then to see the artwork from eight different schools velcro-ed onto a couple of display boards really dashed our spirits. This year the show was at a beautiful, huge art gallery. The students actually got to frame their work. We even had a new printer and were able to print of some of their digital illustrations and prints off on large format paper. Everything about it was beautiful. One of my favorite things about the show was that so many students showed up to the artist reception on Thursday night. They weren't required to come, but they came. They brought their parents and even their friends. They introduced their art teachers to their parents, grandparents, and even boyfriends/girlfriends. Worlds collided....Okay, that may be a bit dramatic, but they were so proud, which made me so proud.
This all isn't even the best part though. I have been holding this in for days. I wanted to bust into the school on Friday and enter every administrator's office bragging about our students. I wanted to put on the announcements how our students tore apart the competition. I wanted to call up each coach and tell them how awesome our artists did - many of which are also athletes. I wanted to knock on the door of every parent who voted against the referendum last year because it focused too much on the arts (which is not really at all). I wanted to go to the elementary school board who refuse to provide art for their students because it just isn't necessary. Basically, I wanted everyone to know how great our students were......but I didn't. I held it in until now. I figured no administrators or parents or other teachers read my blog so I'm safe to do all of my bragging here, and remain humble on the surface when I go back to school on Monday.
To make a really long story just a little bit shorter.....we rocked the house on Thursday night. Every school can only submit 26 pieces to the show, and there are eight schools. Our students took home a total of 12 honorable mention and merit awards that night. The only other school that came close is twice our size and took home 5. Two students also took home both Best of Show awards - in 2-d and 3-d. To sum it up, they were awesome. And that night they were also gracious and polite. Now, I could go into much more detail as to why each individual student that won was its own little victory for them, but I won't. I guess that is between them and me. I just hope they know someday how proud I am of all of them. All of their art teachers are proud. All three of us were shining for them on Thursday night. The only downside was that we were one of the only schools without an administrator there. Maybe someday I'll figure out a way to get them interested since the emails and invitations didn't work. Maybe the big write-up in the paper that comes out next week will get them a little more interested. :)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Ode to my Husband...
A Tribute to D-Train
I love my husband because he......
Reads stories to the boys.
Takes Cooper for walks.
If he is getting into bed and I mention I am thirsty, he will always get out of bed to bring me a glass of water.
Looks cute in t-shirts.
Is a homebody.
Is good at picking out movies.
Cried at Marley and Me - or "secreted salted discharge from his eyes."
Makes me laugh.
Can go out one day after not running for 5 years and just whip out 3 miles like its nothing.....uphill.
Is a typography dork - but a passionate typography dork.
Likes my friends.
Loves my family.
Rides his bike to work in below freezing weather while I drive in my warm cozy car.
Feels completely confident taking care of two little boys while I go out galavanting.
Always kisses me when he gets home.
50% of the time he even dips me while doing it.
Dances at weddings.
Does sweet skateboarding jumps in public with an imaginary skateboard because it makes me laugh.
Watches PBS - religiously.
Still thinks Sesame Street is the bomb.
Wears undershirts.
Can become instant friends with any old man in the room.
Talks in a silly voice to Liam.
Cooks....and makes a mean homemade salad dressing and white sauce.
Can whip a batch of chocolate chip cookies out in less than 20 minutes.
Will always wipe cat hair off my back that I don't know is there.
Is a great host.
Can screen-print the life out of a shirt.
Will watch the bachelor with me even though he actually hates it and his favorite show is on at the same time on another channel.
Has mad graphic design skillz.
Gets upset when someone uses a "z" where an "s" should be.
Likes to cuddle.
Gets embarassed easily.
Doesn't need a lot of money.
Likes to go for walks.
Says that he "doesn't want to buy into the commercialization of Valentines' Day" so that he doesn't have to get me a gift.
Is totally hot.
Still thinks I'm hot.
Likes to talk about his Nike Running Thingy that Goes with is Nike Shoe/Ipod Thingy.
Will wipe up the competition in Trivial Pursuit.
Goes crazy for giftcards to Barnes and Noble.
Gets his facts off of Men's Health.
Reads Parenting magazine and dog-ears the pages.
Takes Miles to the zoo.
Likes to eat wraps.
Never pretends like he doesn't see the cat puke so that I have to clean it up.
Gets excited about hobbies.
Is handy.
Dresses well.
Is really strong.
Likes our cat.
Is an environmentalist.
Almost never gets mad at me, and when he does it is usually because I use the computer mouse when I just put on lotion, eat at the computer, drink at the computer, touch the computer screen, don't use shortcuts on the computer, save giant files on the computer, or I don't back-up my work on the computer. Or sometimes he gets upset because I drink coffee in the car and then spill it all over the console.
But that's okay, because...
He is also .....
A good teacher.
A great father.
An amazing husband.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Totally worth it.
This morning I was just getting ready to walk out the door when Liam woke up ready to eat. Here are my options.... A. Get to work early and be super productive....meaning I would have to at some point lock myself in a standing-room only closet one extra time today while students stood outside wondering aloud what "Wyse-Fisher is doing in the closet...and what is that motor sound?" or option B. Arrive a little later and feed Liam before I left. For obvious reasons I chose B.
2. I heard him giggle.
3. While eating, he kept stopping to look at me and smile like he couldn't believe it was really me.
4. I got to chase Miles around the dining room one last time.
5. I heard him giggle.
6. While I was pulling out of the drive Miles stood on the couch and blew kisses to me.
2. No one blows me kisses.
3. I'm lucky if I get any smiles out of the 100+ disgruntled students.
4. I am the only one that giggles - usually at my own lame jokes.
5. You can forget about anyone's face lighting up at the sight of me.
6. I work.
Six reasons why it was totally worth it....
1. Liam's face lit up with the biggest smile you've ever seen when I went to get him.2. I heard him giggle.
3. While eating, he kept stopping to look at me and smile like he couldn't believe it was really me.
4. I got to chase Miles around the dining room one last time.
5. I heard him giggle.
6. While I was pulling out of the drive Miles stood on the couch and blew kisses to me.
What happens when I get to school early?
1. I have to pump in a closet with students right outside the door.2. No one blows me kisses.
3. I'm lucky if I get any smiles out of the 100+ disgruntled students.
4. I am the only one that giggles - usually at my own lame jokes.
5. You can forget about anyone's face lighting up at the sight of me.
6. I work.
This is how I make decisions now, and so far it is
Miles and Liam - 1
Grumpy Teenagers - 0
Monday, March 1, 2010
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