Well, life has been crazy recently, but around here I guess it always is. Since I last wrote, much has happened. We had the FBF Carribean Conference, which was really a blessing. This year I was half responsible for the special music schedule. That meant choir numbers, offertories and special music for 9 services within a week. It was quite an experience. I enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing old ones again, including a member of my mission team to Spain in 2002. That week I also received a package that made me smile-now I have a new shirt.
The weekend before conference started, we had a birthday party for Andy, and the weekend after conference we had a surprise birthday party for Carolina. At Carolina's party, we had over 50 people in the home where we had the party. I was in charge of games, and that turned out to be a lot of fun.

Love is in the air!

In Mrs. Encarnacion's first graders' air, to be precise. I don't know why these incidents seem to be restricted to her class, but I have not noticed it in either of the other 2 classes. First grade PE is the highlight of my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I wish everyone could get to know the special little people that I have the privilege to teach. These kids provide most of my funny sayings by students. A few weeks ago, I was lining the kids up in a certain order to play a game, and I told Juan to go stand between Alexandria and Nathalie. His answer was, "Between Alexandria and Nathalie??? Por fin! (translation-finally!)" I hear from his teacher that it is not a good idea to put him near those two again. She tells me this is not an isolated experience. On Wednesday, we were headed inside from PE, and Carolina raised her hand to tell me, "Teacher, Johnmarco said he loves me!" It was not a complaint, or something that bothered her, she just wanted me to know. Apparently they have to be separated in class because they have been blowing kisses, and touching each other often. And finally, this morning in early arrival, Juan (yes, the same one) raised his hand and said, "Teacher, Nayari is doing to me like this," as he went through the motions of blowing kisses. This one I think was pretty one sided because he did not seem very happy about it.

Vacation?

Last weekend we supposedly had a day of vacation, but I am very much looking forward to this weekend so I can recover from last weekend. On Saturday, we had Fall Fest (a school fundraiser), which meant booths, activities and food for 650+ kids and their parents. The entire week before was spent planning and setting up for this. Quite a busy day, but enjoyable. I was in charge of the art activity, as well as in charge of the art contest. I was rather discouraged when I arrived Saturday morning when half the art projects I had posted the night before were on the floor. Thankfully Priscilla, Valentina and Philip were there and helped me finish putting them up. I would not have finished without their help. The art activity was pretty messy, but then some of the best art projects are the messiest. For 2 tickets, the kids got a piece of paper, and they could either paint with the provided paints and brushes, or use birdseed and glue to make a picture.

On Monday, we had a college and career activity. Janice volunteered me to help her plan it, and we had a great time all around, but we have said that never again will we volunteer to plan something for the Monday after fall fest-too much to do! We split the college kids into 2 teams for a photo scavenger hunt. Each team had a list of pictures that they had to take, including things such as:

□ Everyone waving at a parking lot security guard
□ Guys on the team in front of a gas station selling gas for $0.56
□ Meet someone with the same name as a team member and take a picture of the two of them
□ Picture of group serenading a stranger with a Christmas carol
□ The Driver shaking hands with a McDonald’s manager
□ The reflection of your team in a mirror. (Just the reflection not the actual people.)
□ Your team looking over the edge of a parking garage wall. Picture must be taken from the ground. Team must be on second level or higher

(if you would like a more thorough list, leave a comment with contact info and I can email you the list)
Janice and I had great fun making up the list of pictures. For the bonus, they had to solve a series of riddles to figure out the final word (Spain) which they had to spell by forming the letters with the bodies of team members on the lawn of the fort. Since we planned the whole thing, we were the photographers, and we were not allowed to help our team at all. Half the fun was listening to them try to figure things out. The whole thing was a great success, and we've been told that we're planning the next one too. Maybe someday in all my extra time, I'll post some of the pictures we took.

Wednesday night I was especially thankful for God's protection. It was raining so hard as I went home that I could hardly see, and I missed my exit. Since the only way back home from where I was passed through a street that always floods pretty badly when it rains, I stopped at Burger King until the rain let up enough for me to make it home. I love storms, especially ones with lots of lightning, but it was unnerving to be by myself at night and not able to see the road because of the rain. But God kept me safe, and I made it home.

Hopefully this weekend will be uneventful. There is a ladies fellowship tonight, but after that, I plan on lots of sleep this weekend.

Busy weekend

Nothing much different has happened lately, although I have given an excessive amount of demerits in the past 2 days. Oh well, I think the point got across-I spent a good hour between yesterday and today dealing with 2 boys, and thankfully they realize the problem with what they did and are truly sorry, not just because of the demerits they received.
This weekend promises to be interesting. The plan, at least for right now, consists of going home, and going to bed early to recover some sleep. Tomorrow morning I'm going to a College/high school activity to play volleyball and help out because one of the youth sponsors is out of town. I'm looking forward to the chance to slam a few volleyballs over the net. Perfect stress reliever! I know I'll be sore later, though, because it's been too long since I've played much. I did play some I think it was 2 weeks ago when the highschool was playing volleyball in PE and I was able to join them. After the volleyball thing, the plan is to go to El Morro with Jonathan and Heather, and Janice. I've been before, but none of them have.
By the way, I welcome comments from anyone who reads this-if you don' t know how to comment, click on the link that says 0 comments (or 1 or 2 , etc) and there will be a place for you to add yours.

Killer Ceiling Fans!

Mom was right when she warned about getting near the fan. Not that I usually ignore my mom, but I always did wonder how bad a wooden fan blade could hurt-after all, it's not metal, not sharp. How bad could it be? Last night I found out. The wires to my new ceiling fan (it plugs into a wall outlet) are covered in this plastic wire covering stuff which is stuck to my concrete ceiling with double sided tape, and last night the wires began to fall. Smart intelligent me decides to try to stick the wires back without turning off the fan. I know, sounds stupid, but it is awfully hot in my room-if it's only 92 in there, that's a good day, so I didn't really want to turn the fan off. Well, now, the fan is off, and the wires are hanging down from the ceiling instead of running over to the wall and hanging there. Hopefully I'll be able to fix that tonight after getting some more double sided tape.


There's lots of things to write about lately, and I don't know when the next time is that I'll get to sit down here, so I'll throw it all out there today. Last week was adventurous, to say the least. I am now driving my car, I'm pretty used to the clutch and all that, but I am still getting used to the Puerto Rican drivers. I love the puertorican people, but you have to drive like an idiot here to survive-and yes, I include myself in that statement. Some of the things they will do are unbelievable. The Lord has really protected me here. I guess the thing to see will be how I drive when I go home this Christmas. It could be pretty interesting. I'll probably have to plaster all over my dashboard: "This is not Puerto Rico. This is not Puerto Rico." I'll have to remember that in the US stop signs mean something, that if a policeman has his lights on he wants to pull you over, that you can only turn from a turn lane, not all available lanes of traffic, and that the lane markings mean that's how many lanes there are-you can't just make a lane if there's room.


Another part of life in Puerto Rico: Thursday we had school off because we had no water. Not a good thing when you have 650 children who always need to go to the bathroom, get a drink, etc. It seems that a large pump for our area broke, and the water company did not notify anyone. So by the time we learned there was a problem, all 3 of our reserve tanks (this happens a lot) were empty. Now if we had known, we could have saved water and survived on the 3 tanks, but we didn't know until the tanks were empty. So, we got a day off of school. Teachers didn't find out til we got here, so we worked til noon and then went home.


Disturbing thing number 1: Thursday night I decided to listen to a sermon by Jim VanGelderen that my dad had given me to put on my computer. I was rather disturbed when I fould he talked so fast I could not understand him. I guess my brain is conditioned to the rhythm of Spanish. I had never had trouble understanding him the many times I've heard him before, but I was really struggling.


Disturbing thing number 2: Friday night a couple of other teachers and I went to the beach about an hour away to watch the sunset and take pictures. We got to watch the sunset, but it was really too dark to take pictures. We spent an hour or so there just listening to the waves, and all 3 of us on the phone with different people. (it's kinda fun to call and say "Guess where I am" or "Can you hear the water?") When we were ready to leave, we decided to get some pinchos to eat. I had not had pinchos in a long time, and I really wanted some. A pincho is basically pieces of chicken on a stick that has been grilled and slathered in barbecue sauce-good stuff! Anyway, one of the teachers with us knew of this place about 10 minutes away where the pinchos were really good, and the owners were people she had met at her previous church. As soon as we got to the roadside stand and walked up, a man sitting there greeted this teacher, and so did the couple with him. They all began to talk, and we found out that the couple were missionaries assisting missionaries to the military all over the world, and they were headed to Germany the next day. They mentioned the name of one of the missionaries, and it sounded familiar to me, so I asked what his wife's name was. Turns out that this was my first grade teacher and her husband that these people were talking about. By default, they also knew 2 of my piano teachers from elementary school who happen to be related to my first grade teacher. I ended up in a roadside stand in Puerto Rico meeting missionaries headed to Germany to visit my first grade teacher from Texas. Weird!! We did enjoy some good fellowship with these people.


This weekend on our outing to Old San Juan we began planning our College and Career activity for Columbus day (which we get off of school). It should be interesting-a photo scavenger hunt through San Juan. I'm looking forward to it-of course, I know several of the things they'll have to find, so it should be fun.


I was so thankful during choir on Sunday that one of the new teachers is a pianist. We began the final runthrough for the Sunday night choir song, and I realized I had never played the accompaniment before, and it was crazy. We had spent all our time before with me playing parts along with the choir, so I was really scared when I found out we were singing it that night, and I couldn't play it well at all. Thankfully Janice had played it before, so we made a switch-she played, and I sang alto. I would have gotten it with practice, but Sunday afternoon choir practice is too late to practice the accompaniment!


Yesterday I was thankful for Javier, the mechanic up the street. I was dropping off a teacher whose car had been in the shop, and as I was sitting there, he noticed my tire was very low on air. He told me to pull over, and he filled it and didn't charge me anything. I am finding steering so much easier now-I don't have power steering, and it was becoming a challenge.


Now for students: Waldemar is a sweet child who loves all kinds of reptiles, and plans to build his career around them. I think it was mentioned once in a newsletter interview that I like lizards and such, so ever since then every time he sees me he tells me or shows me something. now that he's in my class once a week, I hear from him more often. Like the time he came to me before class, and said, "Teacher, my snake has the same birthday as me!" On a sadder note, his book report book is by Steve and Terri Irwin-as I walked past, he showed it to me, and said, "He was my inspiration!" I don't know that I've ever seen a sadder face on a child. Finally, last week he showed me a snake magazine he has, and after school he brought by the subscription card so I could sign up for it too. I appreciate the thought, but I don't think $40 for a reptile magazine (while it would be interesting) would be the best investment of my money. Oh well.


Often my first graders will giggle when I speak Spanish to them. I only do this on the occasion that my English is not getting their attention, or when one of the children who is new to English needs to understand very clearly what we are doing. They tell me that my Spanish is not bad, it's just funny. Apparently even if their teacher has Spanish as their first language the kids laugh when the teacher speaks Spanish. I guess after the intense work in kindergarten to teach them English, they expect that all teachers speak English only. One day in piano, Nicole was giggling at me again, so I asked her if my Spanish was funny. She said, "No teacher, it's that you moved your nose!"


And finally, on Thursdays and Fridays, I watch K4, K5 and 1st grade from 7:00 to 7:30 in the lunchroom until their teachers come to pick them up. For the kindergarteners, this is the only time I see them. Last Thursday morning, Alejandra in K5 walked in and gave me a hug. She used to come in crying every morning, but has graduated to a very serious face-in fact I've never seen her smile. After she hugged me, she stepped back, and with a very solemn faced told me, "Te quiero mucho!" (I love you a lot!)

Iguanas

Well, it's been over a month since I've written anything. Life has been crazy, and the internet has been down. Things are going well, though. My Spanish is improving, I think, though Amy says it getting worse. She laughs at my Puertorican accent. =) I am really enjoying PE. They provide me with many amusing moments. One day we were walking across campus to the basketball court, and Shania had her hand in the air the whole time. I kept telling her that I was not answering questions while we were in line and on our way somewhere. Finally when her part of the line walked past me, she leaned over, hugged, me, and said, "I love you, teacher." That's why she was raising her hand and I kept telling her to put it down. As we continued walking that same day, several of the children suddenly started saying "Mira, teacher!" ("Look, teacher!") "Iguanas!" When I looked, about 20 feet away were 2 large iguanas heading our direction. They were probably the largest ones I had seen since I've been here, and my guess is that they were a bit longer than a first grader is tall, and therefore fairly scary to the kids. I crossed the sidewalk to the other side of the line putting myself between the iguanas and my children, though I don't really know what I would have done had the iguanas come running. It did seem to calm the kids some, though. I just told them to wave hello to the iguanas and keep walking. I heard a chorus of "Hello, Mr. iguana!", then they kept walking and made it safely to the basketball court. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. I think iguanas are fascinating, and would love to have one. Another day during PE, I asked if anyone had questions about the game we were playing, and one boy raised his hand to say, "Teacher, when I was born, I was very sick and had to stay in the hospital for a very long time." Not sure where that one came from, but I just kept going. later that same day, the same child raised his hand in the middle of something else to tell me that he had a new baby cousin.
Monday on the way back from PE, they were instructed several times to stay on the sidewalk-cars are coming into the parking lot getting ready for dismissal, so it's really a safety issue as well as one to keep their lines straight. Two or three of them stepped off onto the pavement, and when I looked at the end of the line, I saw Rochellie step off into the grass and stand there for a couple of seconds, probably to see if I would notice. Of course when she saw me looking, she immediately stepped back onto the side walk. This was a particularly frustrating PE day for me, because they were not listening at all. So, when I headed back to the court to pick up my equipment, and found the high school boys playing volleyball for PE, I joined them and slammed a few balls over the net since I had a free half hour and I was already in my PE clothes. What a great stress reliever! Of course since I haven't been playing volleyball for a while, I'm feeling it now, but it was great fun.
Another thing I had not thought of in relation to PE is shoelaces. They are supposed to know how to tie their shoes from kindergarten, but invariably at the beginning of class I will have anywhere from 5-10 with their shoes untied. I used to tie them myself, but have lately been having the ones who do tie shoes helping their classmates. Takes a lot less time.

This year's visitation has been interesting so far. I don't know if I've explained it here before, but our church's visitation program is basically to schedule visits in the home of each child in the school since the majority of them come from non Christian homes. The way things are set up here with gated communities does not make it very practical or even possible sometimes for a door to door type thing. The teacher will go into the home, talk about how the child is doing in school, ask if the parent has any questions, and then explain that this is also a visit from the church, and try to share the gospel. We have seen many of the parents saved, and several families brought into the church. The second visit I was scheduled for was an hour to an hour and a half away, I was supposed to be translating, and I was sick. Mom was praying and so were some others that I would be able to think and help communicate. Thankfully I was able to breathe the whole time, and the father wanted to practice his English, but we did speak Spanish a lot. The visit went fairly well, we found out that the parents were Christians and that they frequently take missions trips. This week, we set out on a visit that was supposed to be very close, but we could not find the place that was written down on the information card. After about 20 minutes of searching, and 2 or 3 phone calls, we finally figured out that the address on the card was the child's grandmother, and the place we had been given directions to was the child's house. When we got there, we found out that the family was another Christian family, but this time I had to do more translating. The mother understood a lot of English, but did not speak much. I'm really enjoying these opportunities to use the Spanish I know. Some day I will be fluent, at least I'm working on that.

And finally, the funny translation for the week: one of the new college students trying to learn English translated this line "una mama, un papa, y muchos hermanos" into "A mother, a potato, and many siblings." The line should have been translated into "a mother, a father and many siblings," but an accent was missed, resulting in the potato mistake. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

First grade PE

Well, I'm now a pe teacher! I had the first day of first grade pe today, and it was interesting. I know next week will be better because I'll actually get there on time, and hopefully it won't be raining. The scheduling problem I have is that I'm teaching 6th grade music until 1:50 and 1st grade pe starts at 1:45. Today we had the 1st grade wait with their teacher, but starting next week, Mr. Ruiz will stay with 6th grade and I will leave a little early to get 1st grade. Hopefully that will fix things. My schedule this year has been so crazy, but I guess I'll never be bored.


I know there's tons of things I keep wanting to write about, but when I can get to the computer I can never remember them. So instead, here's a list of things I'm thankful for right now

1. God's sovereignty
2. This beautiful island
3. The incredible Puerto Rican people
4. The opportunities I have had to learn and practice Spanish
5. The clear and unmistakable way the Lord has led in my life
6. Good friends...God has given me so many
7. My car!
8. My phone (even though the battery has problems)
9. My second year of teaching-what a huge difference to already know people and procedures. I am loving my job more and more.
10. PE-I get to run around and play with first graders (all of their teachers have asked me to be sure to make them very tired)
11. Computers and the internet
12. Many lessons the Lord taught me this summer
13. My dad's health
14. My little brother who wrote me a letter saying, "I miss you so much, I love you."
15. My brother who's going to college next week
16. My sister whose volleyball games I'm missing =(
17. My brother who is a sports nut (wait, isn't that all of them? but I think this one is crazier than the rest)
18. My brother who just started Jr High
19. My sister who is a great artist, and really hilarious if you listen long enough and see her when she doesn't know you're watching
20. My little sister with such a tender heart she cried watching Ronald Reagan's funeral (she was 4), cried the whole way through another sister's wedding ceremony, and went to see Dad one morning at school crying because she was worried about him (he just had surgery to remove a skin cancer)
21. My little sister who is the youngest of 10 with tons of energy and an adorable smile
22. My sister who just got married-we can have entire paragraphs of conversation in our heads while only saying individual words (it was so fun to confuse her boyfriend before they got married)
23. My mom who's really funny and smart

A new year

This will be a quick one. I taught my first class of the year today. This year's 5th grade class has such a different spirit from last years class. I think I'm really going to enjoy them. This morning I helped get children out of cars and enjoyed watching the traffic jam (I say enjoyed because I wasn't involved in the traffic) that the parents of the students created. I'm still amazed at how "easily" we get 600 students into the school in the mornings. The rest of today will be taken up trying to figure out my schedule. So far I have 35 piano students signed up, am in the classroom 7 hours a week, chapel 3 hours a week, with a possible 3 hours of PE, but we'll have to wait and see on the PE. I'm wondering how many different versions of the schedule I'll have to make before it finally works. That's all I have time for right now. Sometime soon I have to post pictures of my "new to me" car so my mom can see what it looks like.

I'm still alive

I'm back in Puerto Rico in my apartment without internet access. I've been spending time making a blanket for my sister, tinkering around on my computer, watching various ballgames (Braves, World Cup, and ladies volleyball PanAmerican cup), reading and talking on the phone. I have internet access right now because tonight I am spending the night with a family from church so that Mrs. Santiago will not have to wake her children up to take them to the airport with her when she picks up some friends at 2 AM. She was kind enough to give me a driving lesson today. I do know how to drive, but not a manual transmission. Since the car I was given is manual transmission, Mrs. Santiago has been helping me learn to drive it. It has been an adventure! Hopefully an adventure that will be over soon. I am very thankful to have the car, and I will be even more thankful when I learn to drive it so I am not stuck at home. Even though there are a lot of people gone this summer, I have really been enjoying being back here and getting to know these people a little better than is possible during the school year. Have I mentioned that I love it here? God has been so good to me in placing me in a place that, while it is not perfect (nowhere is), is a wonderful fit for me. The people are great too. =)

Wedding pictures

Two of my little sisters-two of the 3 flower girls.

I'll post more pictures later-I wasn't able to finish while I was home, and it may be a while before I can post more, but I'll try.

Life as a dictator

....at least that's what my little brother says I'm being. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Lots has happened since May 17, the last time I posted anything. I left Puerto Rico on June 1, at 7:00 AM. I was exhausted when I left, because the day before, I got up at 6 AM to do laundry before going to the beach at 8. When I got back from the beach, I fixed lunch, then fell asleep on the couch for about 30 minutes. When I woke up, I called Ariel and Andrea, because we were supposed to go to the motor vehicle place to transfer the car title to my name. We didn't realize that it woukd take 4 hours, though! I got back to the apartment at 6:10, and we had to leave around 6:25 to get to church. After the church service, I talked to a lot of people and said a lot of goodbyes to people I will not see again for a very long time. I got home around 10 or so, and called my mom. Around 1AM I finally got off the phone (no, I wasn't talking to my mom that whole time, a couple of other people called, and I called a couple of other people), and as soon as I got off the phone, I started packing and cleaning. I know I should have done that earlier, but I was so busy that it didn't happen. I finished packing about 4:20 AM, 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport. I didn't get to sleep again until sometime around 4 that afternoon, so I was understandably exhausted. The next Monday started serious preparations for my sister's wedding, including painting numerous parts of our house. Monday night (or tuesday morning) we went to bed at 3, Tuesday night at 3, Wednesday night 1:30 or 2, Thursday night 11:30, Friday night 2, Saturday 12 and sunday night I don't even remember. So really, I'm still recovering from the lost sleep. The wedding really did go well, and I'll post a few pictures soon. Now to the reason I'm called a dictator. All day Sunday, my dad was sick, and Sunday night we left church early to go home and take him to the ER. He came back sometime around 1AM, and on Tuesday went to the doctor for a followup visit. They decided on Tuesday that he needed to have his galbladder out, so early Wednesday morning, mom took him in. They were hoping to do it laparoscopically, and send him home Wed night, but that didn't happen, so as of right now, he is still in the hospital, but we are hoping he'll be able to come home tomorrow. Since Wednesday, I have been playing mom to 8 of my younger brothers and sisters, and you know what, a large part of that has been spent being a chauffer! Then again, I knew it was going to be that way. So far we have been doing pretty well, but we will all be glad when mom and dad come home and things are back to normal. Ian says that I'm being a dictator, but that's the way it has to be when you are trying to keep 9 people organized, get them everywhere they need to go, and make sure they get done everything that needs to get done. Right now they're all supposed to be taking naps, which means a little more peace and quite than usual, really the only reason I can type this long. This entire vacation has been very crazy, but the Lord has been teaching me so much about patience and trust. Even though I'm exhausted and things are crazy, I'm very thankful for the lessons I've been learning.

How I got here (part 2)

Well, we survived the moving trip to Georgia, and the first person we met was the principal. I was impressed right away with his kindness when my little sister (who was about 5 at the time) introduced herself by saying, "I'm Anna Elizabeth Nething" and he replied, "Well, I'm Timotheus Lee!" Most everyone was kind, but that first year was pretty rough. 7th grade can be a trying time to begin with, but having just moved and knowing no one made it worse. I remember sitting in class the first few days thinking "I should be starting jr high with Reylan, Demarcus, Shannon, the other Sarah, the Jennifers, and the Nicoles (there were 2 of each of those in my class)." I joined the track team in 7th grade, and I think that helped a lot. When I was in 9th grade, the youth pastor announced a missions trip to Mexico. I didn't really know any Spanish, but as I had said many years before, any chance to go on a missions trip I would take. I don't remember how much money we had to come up with, but it was somewhere around $300. After all the interviews and meetings and stuff, the team was made up of 7 girls. Rachel, Leila, Kristy,Valerie, Helena, me, and Tiffany Stokes. Mrs Jones had not been planning on going, but with the team made up entirely of girls, she and Pastor Mike both came with us. We took the trip with Oremex , an organization that among other things helps churches take missions trips in to Mexico. Often, more than one church is involved in the trip, and that was the case with our trip. Another church from Georgia, about and hour and a half south of us went the same week. During the week we helped a small church with VBS. The things we could do were pretty limited because of the language barrier, but it was a good time. We also helped build offices on the roof for the pastor who had given up his office to build bathrooms for visiting teams. I learned a lot that week in Mexico, and the Lord used one of the missionaries we were working with to challenge me about some things.In tenth grade, I started Spanish class, which I mostly enjoyed. Mrs. Pittman drilled the vocab and verbs into our heads, and I was very thankful for that when I started college Spanish. Eleventh grade was my second and last year of high school Spanish.All this time, pretty much since the same time I felt the Lord wanted me to be a missionary, I also had wanted to be a doctor. More specifically I wanted to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. I can see now that the Lord probably used an uncontrollable shaking in my hands (which would be disastrous in brain surgery) to steer me in a different direction. I'm not sure where the desire came from, but I have always been (and still am) fascinated with anything medical. Part of it, I'm sure, was that my dad is a science teacher. Because of that we were always being exposed to one thing or another whether it was being woken up at 2 AM to see a comet crash into Jupiter (at least I think that's what it was-everything's foggy at at that hour), helping dad practice for his dissections in class, or tagging along on a field trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston as a prize for one of dad's students. I remember times in highschool when one of my brothers or sisters injured themselves, and there was so much blood that mom and dad made me look at it (because the blood didn't bother me) and tell them what it was so they could describe it to the doctor over the phone. I remember telling my mom that she needed stitches in her finger after she cut it on a can-she didn't really want to look at it. I also had the amazing opportunity to be present for the birth of my brother who is now in second grade. (wow, I feel old!) Needless to say, in high school I fit every possible science into my schedule, even taking Physics and Chemistry in the same year in back to back hours in my dad's classroom. However, through all this, the Lord had other plans for me.

Almost done!

It has been a while since I've given a real update on what's going on here, so I'll give it a shot now. I'm quite likely to forget some things, but I'll try to remember. My trip to Greenville in April was wonderful. I spent some time with my sister on Monday the week I went. We went to Paris Mountain and Reedy River and took a lot of pictures. I was able to go to my Spanish church several times during the week, which I really enjoyed. I was also able to visit Agnew Rd., the church where my former high school choir director is now pastor. They didn't know I was coming, so that was fun. I ran into old friends and old roommates, even some I wasn't expecting. The first couple days I was wandering around campus were interesting, because every five minutes or so, someone would see me, scream, and come running. Only a few people knew I was coming, mostly because I was so busy I neglected to tell people I was coming. I really think that made it more fun. I stayed with Amy in CVA the whole week, and we enjoyed ourselves getting some work done as well as catching up (even though I talk to her on the phone almost every week, it's been a while since we've seen each other).
The weekend after I came back, we began the soccer tournament. My girls lost their first round game 4-3, but they did so well! I was sad, mostly because they were, but they really did their best, and were just starting to put everything together that we've worked on all season. The second round was supposed to happen on Saturday, but torrential rains turned the soccer field into a mud pit, and we postponed the rest of the tournament to the next Thursday. In the second round, we played for 3rd place. All my girls showed up for the game, and they played the best soccer I have ever seen them play. The offensive players were passing, and playing together, and the defense was really on top of things. They did almost everything I asked, which was really nice. We won that game 3-1, with 2 goals scored by Sydney, who hadn't scored once all season. Valerie scored the other goal, and on the way back down the field, she turned to me and said, "I finally faced the right way!" She's an aggressive player, and probably the best on the team, but she had this problem of her shots just missing the goal because she was trying too hard for the corners. It took all season for it to sink in that if you face diagonally when you kick the ball, it's not going to go straight. Also, during half time, the girls came and said, "Teacher, we're doing your plan!" All season, I worked at convincing them that to me, defense is just as important as offense. Some of them tend to think that if they're not put in the offensive positions, they're not important. Anyway, one of the things I would say to my defenders is that their job was to keep the goalie bored-they should get the ball down the field long before the other team has a chance to score. So when half time came, they were very excited that so far, our goalie was bored. They were so excited at the end of the game, it was almost as if we had won the championship. Oh, almost forgot, we actually scored all 4 of the goals scored in the game-one of my defenders accidently kicked the ball into our goal while she was trying to get it out. Oh well. I really enjoyed getting to know the girls during the season. They all learned and grew so much. I especially enjoyed the interesting discussions they would start as we sat waiting for the games. My two favorites were, "Teacher, the Bible says love your enemies. Do I have to love Satan?", and "Teacher, is God going to come today?" The second conversation was especially interesting, since they were talking about what will happen at the rapture.
Last Sunday, my roommate was sick, so she took me to church, but I had to find a ride home. I thought I had a ride, but it didn't work out, so I was going to call Priscilla and have her come get me (which she had said she would do if she had to). The only problem was that I couldn't get ahold of her, because she was sleeping. Well, when Mrs. Santana saw me in the parking lot trying to call Priscilla, she asked if I had a ride. When she found out I didn't, I got in trouble for not telling her earlier. The Santanas took me with them to Longhorn, where we celebrated Mr. Santana's mom's birthday. When we got back to church at night, I was instructed again that if I ever need a ride, I had better tell them. I think I've learned my lesson. =)
Last Thursday, we had our teacher appreciation banquet, which I really enjoyed. We ate at one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been to. They handed out service awards, and Longhorn certificates for those with perfect attendance. The best part of teacher appreciation was that we had Friday off! I went bowling with 12 other people, mostly teachers, and a few college students. It was only the second time I had gone bowling, but it wasn't too bad. However, it was sad to find out as we were returning our shoes that mine were the same size as Walter's, one of the seventh grade teachers. And if you're wondering, that doesn't mean his feet are small!
This week has been interesting. Several of my piano students are doing very well. I've been giving them things to do for their last lesson, so we've been looking at a lot of things. This weekend is Mother's day, as well as college graduation, so it will for sure be busy.
It's also nice to have the college students from BJ back.

Iglesia Bautista Fundamental Tabernaculo

I just found my church's website today and enjoyed looking through the pictures and the missionary list. I am so thankful that the Lord directed me to this church for my last 2 years in Greenville. I learned so much under Pastor Fernandez's preaching. The music is conservative, and the congregational singing is very enthusiastic, which is not always easy to find. The people sing with all their hearts and it is a blessing just to listen. I also made many friends, learned Spanish, and grew spiritually in the weekly youth group meetings. If you're ever in Greenville and looking for a Spanish speaking church, I highly recommend Tabernaculo. (This post really isn't as random as it may seem-I was in Greenville a week ago and was able to be at my church 5 times)

All that to say, I miss my church!

www.iglesiatabernaculo.org

How I got here (part 1)

Well, since I finally have a little bit of time, I'm going to attempt the story of how I ended up here. It's a rather long one, so I'll probably break it down into a few chunks. I guess it all started back sometime in elementary school. I was saved when I was 4 1/2, not long before my family moved to Texas. I remember as far back as first and second grade being fascinated with missionary presentations and not being able to shake the feeling that maybe God wanted me to be a missionary. I remember sometime around fourth grade a man coming to church and anouncing a missions trip and I was so upset because I was not old enough to go. I decided right then and there that if the opportunity ever arose for me to go on a missions trip, I would do it. While we lived in Texas, my parents were in charge of our church's bus ministry. That meant that on Saturdays we spent almost all day visiting the families of the kids we picked up on Sundays. Much of the time I hated going, because we were gone for a long time, and it was always so hot, especially during the summer. Looking back, I can see God's direction in my life starting even in the visitation that I didn't like. Many of our families were Hispanic, and when we visited on Saturdays, we would invariably be invited into their homes. My extremely "spiritual" (ha) memories of the visits were the times that these families would prepare food for us, usually from their native country. They were so hospitable, and the homemade flour tortillas and other things they made for us were so delicious. The Lord was using this time in my life to plant a love and burden for Spanish speaking people in my heart. I don't doubt God's sovereignty in leading my dad to an area so heavily populated with Hispanics. I did, however, doubt his wisdom when my dad informed us that we would be moving to Georgia the summer after my 6th grade year. There were many things I knew I would miss about Texas, the top of the list being my friends. I did not look forward to starting jr high with a group of kids I didn't know. I was also upset that I would not get to study Texas history. Weird, I know, but when we studied it in 4th grade, I became so fascinated that I could hardly wait to get to 8th grade when we could spend the whole year studying it. Of course, Mr Russell made almost every school subject fascinating, but history just topped it all, and I just couldn't wait. And now that I was so close to 8th grade and Texas history, my dad was saying we were going to move! I was not very happy at all about the whole idea, but I really didn't have a choice. Actually, I had the choice in how I reacted: I cried the entire trip to Dallas, which was 2-2 and 1/2 hours.

Help!!

I'm going nuts! Actually, I'm ok, it's just that this week has been and will continue to be a little crazy. I'm leaving for Greenville Saturday afternoon, and I have not had an evening at home to clean, get things done and pack since Saturday, and I won't have one between now and when I leave. All for a good cause, though. Monday night is normally visitation, but since I didn't have a scheduled visit, I went with the group that normally goes to Walmart or Kmart to pass out tracts. We have to be careful that we only give them to people who are exiting the store. I hear that in the past there has been danger or threat of arrest, so when a policeman approached one of the college guys, he was naturally a little nervous. Jose told us that the policeman was asking him questions, and he just felt prompted to basically preach to the guy. After talking for a while, the policeman trusted Christ as his Savior. It was a blessing to see Jose's excitement, and a blessing to hear how the Lord turned a potentially scary situation into a witnessing opportunity.
Last night I had a scheduled visit to the home of a second grade student. His parents are solid Christians and the kind of parents any teacher would love to deal with. Their home was in the mountains, so there was land and quite that I thoroughly enjoyed, since I live in the city and don't see much of it.
Tonight is church, sign language class, and choir practice afterwards for chapel tomorrow.
Thursday night is college choir practice, and practice with the men's quartet for Easter.
Friday is soccer game (the last before playoffs) and after the game a concert at the fine arts center. If I remember correctly, it's the Emerson string quartet. Not quite sure what they're playing, but it should be nice.
After all that fun, I'll be leaving for the airport around noon on Saturday.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I have to figure out my taxes, and figure out how to deal with Puerto Rican taxes as well as US and state taxes.

Halfway through

I can't believe this second semester is almost over! So much has happened lately that it would take more than the little bits of time I've had to write about any thing, that and the internet's been down for about 4 days. Field day was quite the adventure, I shall have to post pictures (I took 87) hopefully after this Parent Teacher Meeting stuff is over. PTM is tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go well. I have a few kids with pretty low grades in music classes, mostly because of not turning things in. Not much I can do about that. I guess the most exciting recent news (at least for me) is that I will be going to Greenville for my spring break in about 3 weeks!!!! All the details for that has kept my mind rather busy lately.

"That changes everything"

Usually when I quote my students, it's because they said something funny. This time, one of them said something that has stuck with me for several days. I can usually tell when my students haven't practiced. When they have more interest in talking, and humming, and general wandering around the room before they sit down and get their books out, Ibegin to suspect that maybe they didn't practice. On Friday, I knew for sure that Alex hadn't practiced (because he misplaced his notebook and hadn't had it for over a week), but he was still humming, putting off playing, etc. I heard him singing under his breath "Joy to the world, the teacher's dead." He's not the type of kid that actually hates his teachers, but from what I can gather, his classmates had been singing it, and he picked it up, not really thinking about what he was singing. I asked him not to sing it, not because I was personally offended because I'm a teacher (my skin's a little thicker than that), but because of obvious problems with the song. He asked me why I didn't like it, and I said, "First of all, the words go against the Bible."
"They do?"
"Yes, in Exodus it says thou shalt not kill"
Then he made the statement "That changes everything, then!"
Does it really change everything for me? or do I continue to do what I want to do conveniently ignoring the Bible's commands against whatever it is?
I'm thankful that Alex has a tender heart, and that God used him to point out that what the Bible says really should change everything we say and do.

First soccer game

We have our first game today. I'm really hoping one of my players was able to get ahold of her mom to tell her to come later to pick her up. If she doesn't, well, I guess it's my fault if Valerie has to leave early. I didn't really discuss the fact that our team played second on Friday. Oops! This will be interesting. On Tuesday, the people in charge decided that we needed to make a trade form my team to one of the weaker teams, so that the games would be more evenly balanced. I lost one of my sixth graders, and I have gained a fourth grader that I have never met before.
My high school girls basketball team won their game yesterday. I really enjoy the coaching, but it takes up more of your mind than I realized. We ended up winning by 1 point, but it shouldn't have been even that close. The other team has 2 really tall girls, and when I was giving some of the other kids a chance to play, I conveniently forgot the fact that I needed to leave Cristina in because she's the only one tall enough to come close to defending those two. Oh well, it all worked out eventually. So far our record is 2-1.
The middle school and high school students today have ben asking every person they see to sponsor them for a walkathon to earn money for a science lab. I have told every one of them to aske me later after I have a chance to think about how much I can help. A science lab is a worthy cause, I've just had to decide that I'll only sponsor kids I teach, since it could quickly snowball if I didn't do that.
As for piano lessons, every child except one now has their piano books. 2 so far have finished their books and bought new ones, 2 more are within 1-2 lessons of finishing their books, and several more are coming close.
Monday we have off of school, and I'm planning on going to a Spanish ladies conference sponsored by a Christian college in Bayamon. David Cortes and his wife (from Mexico) are doing the speaking. I'm glad for the day off school, as well as the opportunity to go to this conference.

First soccer practice

Yesterday was pretty interesting. We're playing with seven girls on the field at once, and at practice yesterday I had exactly seven. I really enjoyed the drills and stuff, and during the scrimmage, I was reminded once again how much trouble I would be in as a coach if this weren't just intramural. I could never stay in the proper prescribed place for a coach. After the first basketball game I coached, I wondered why I was so tired. During the second game, I discovered that it was becaused I walked up and down the sidelines during the whole game. This was not just a leisurely stroll, I was walking fast and hard! The first soccer game is Friday. I'm really looking forward to this coaching thing. I have a really good group of girls with sweet spirits who are willing to listen. They have made it fun for me. I'm enjoying getting to know my students outside of class.