Kyle's leftovers

Ok, so it wasn't named when it was raining on us, but now it is-Tropical Storm Kyle. After college choir last night, and talking with some of the staff, I have a better understanding now of how it's actually affected us. Apparently because of all the storms and rains, the city/municpality reservoir is full of silt, and has to be processed differently before being dispersed to homes, etc. This process takes a lot more time, so the city is only turning water on from 2AM to 8ish. Problem with that is that we don't find out that the city has been turning the water off until we are close to the bottom of our reserve tanks. Last night we only had 1200 gallons in the tanks for the college kids to shower, etc. since we had used so much water for the bathrooms at the school. Hopefully over night we were able to get some water in the tanks so we'll be able to have school. The weekend should be a little better because there won't be the huge water consumption of the 600 school kids to deal with-just the college which I think is somewhere around 35-36 people. Last night we had carryout food and plastic utensils from the cafeteria so that there wouldn't be any dishes to wash. Right now we're just trying to conserve water to make it through the day-remind me not to walk past the bathrooms unless I have to......

Also, on Wednesday, the governor canceled sales tax for the day supposedly to help storm victims (who wouldn't get aid money that soon anyway) who are rebuilding/recovering from the storm. I don't know how much rebuilding is done since structures are more built to withstand winds etc (everything is concrete....ok, almost everything), probably just more flood recovery. It's not just the storm victims taking advantage of the no sales tax-people are rushing to buy computers, plasma tvs, and other large items. And, the governor extended the tax holiday until Saturday. I'm dreading a needed trip to Walmart-the parking lots and aisles will be packed!!

Not too much to say today, I think, but since I'm trying to make a habit of writing more often, I'll at least say something. Today went pretty well-my composing students are slowly but surely getting the idea of how to do dictation, although I did let them out 15 minutes early because I had it in my head that this was the class that gets out at 10 after the hour. Oops! I did have one funny incident where I was trying to return Diego to his classroom after his piano lesson (this first grader is not trusted in the halls by himself) and we couldn't find his class. We even went outside, but apparently the class was walking in an area where we couldn't see them. One of the other teachers told me where the class was, so I just kept Diego with me while we waited for the class to come back. He began to get worried about his teacher. He told me he missed her, and he was convinced that someone had come along to steal her. I tried to assure him that the teacher was ok, and he said to me "Ok teacher, I'll trust you." A few minutes later he was worried again, I tried to reassure him again, and he said, "I'll try to believe you." I don't think I've ever seen a student quite so happy to see his teacher as Diego was when we finally found his class.
I play for college choir tonight, so I'm still at school pretty late. They sing Sunday morning in church, so I'm sure that's what we'll work on, as well as some of the music for the FBFI conference.
Tomorrow we have our second volleyball game, and hopefully the uniforms will be here in time to have the girls try them on and check to make sure they fit.

Happenings

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written........or maybe I can believe it. I spent all summer at home (which should be no excuse, but I spent most of my computer time on Facebook) and since I've been back I've been super busy.
So, for a quick run down of what's going on, here ya go.
I'm teaching 4th grade music, 6th grade music, 7th grade composing, 8th grade guitar, High school girls PE, piano lessons, playing for HS, church and college choir, scheduling all the church music (which is a challenge since we lost several people this year who were very involved in the music program) and next semester will add music appreciation.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to teaching high school, but the Lord has really been doing a work in our teens, and it has been exciting to see the changes in hearts and lives since this school year has started. Several of them went to camp this summer, and were really impacted by what they heard and learned, and they have not just been talking about the decisions they've made, but we're all seeing the evidence. Very exciting!
So, it's been busy, but I'm enjoying things. I'm teaching more middle school this year, which definitely brings its challenges, but they're also a lot more fun, even when they give me way too much information, which is pretty often. =)
I'm sure there's other things to write, but right now the headache is obscuring them, so I'll save them for later after I leave you with this quote (ok, it's more of a story than a quote):

Jasmine had been gone from school for a few days, and when she came back, on the way to PE she was telling me that she didn't think she could do all the running, that her strength ran out at three laps, that she was gonna fall over and die, etc, etc. Since we really had only been doing 2 laps around the bball court (which we started while she was gone) I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. Turns out the other girls told her that we ran 12 laps every class.......and she believed them!! I was definitely amused, and I'm still not sure why she believed them.

And for those who are wondering, no, I haven't drowned from all the rain we've been getting. Basically the set of storms that's projected to become a tropical depression and eventually be named Kyle has been forming over our heads this weekend. The governor's trying to get the south of PR (that received 24" of rain in 24 hours) to be declared in a state of emergency so they can get federal funding. In the south (I'm in the north) apparently many houses and businessess were affected, as well as the plantain and coffee crops. All we've gotten on this end of things is a bunch of rain.

And one more thing that I almost forgot-last Sunday I (along with some friends) narrowly, or not so narrowly according to some counts, escaped being hit TWICE by lightning. We headed to Walmart after church, because my campus daughter needed to pick up some money being sent to her by money gram. As we left the church, it started to rain a little, but with in a couple of minutes, we found an area where it had stopped raining. Eventually we ran into rain again, and as we sat a a stop light, we began to see lightning, and instantaneously hear the thunder along with it. One of them struck extremely close, and I thought it hit the traffic light in front of us. I found out later from the girls in the car with me, that they actually saw sparks from my car. How I could miss the car being hit by lightning I'm not sure, but they were quite sure they saw sparks in the area where the antenna connects to the car. Not 30 seconds later, the electrical pole next to the traffic light behind us was hit by lightning, and this time, all the traffic lights went out, and a cloud of orange smoke rose from the pole that was hit. We got to Walmart as quickly as possible after that, and after I had dropped the girls off and found a parking space, I was walking through the parking lot (which at some points had ankle deep water) to get inside when another bolt of lightning struck close and loud enough that it set off several car alarms in the parking lot. And believe it or not, when we left Walmart, the sun was shining, the sky was almost clear, and it was getting hot!

Finished.....almost.

One more K5 graduation tonight, then I'm finished!!!!!!!! I'm looking forward to sleep.

04-18-08

If you can't tell from reading it, when I wrote the last post, I was extremely exhausted. That, and I had a headache. I'm feeling a bit better now, especially with the prospects of finishing the last Spring Program tonight and no school on Monday! (yeah for another Puerto Rican holiday!)

This morning, when Sophia (2nd grade) stepped out of her car, she said, "Teacher, this is the second best day of my life!" Of course, I had to know why, so I asked her. She told me, "The spelling bee [she won 1st -3rd grade division] was the first and today is the second." Today was when they announced the winner of the year-long team competition among the three teams (red blue and yellow). Red team won, and Sophia is red team.

This afternoon, I was sending two piano students back to class after their lesson, and as the left, I said, "Goodbye, gentlemen." As Irvin headed out the door, he replied, "Goodbye, gentle lady." Made me laugh.

You think English with a Spanish accent is interesting, try Spanish with a Chinese accent. Wow. I heard it for the first time last night speaking to one of the school parents bringing her child for the program. Some of you who know me know I love languages and accents, so it was definitely interesting for me. We have several (5-6) kids in the school who are fluent in English, Spanish, AND Chinese! Amazing, especially little Kolea who is in first grade-she speaks each equally well (at least I know she does English and Spanish-I don't speak Chinese, but I'm assuming she speaks it pretty well). I sure wish it came that easily for me.

Pray for my middle school students if you think about it. Middle school music classes have been a struggle lately. I teach them during the last period of the day, plus it's elective which they think translates to playtime. Also, it doesn't help that it's the end of the school year. Classroom control has been difficult, but that's not my main concern. The attitudes and behaviors I'm seeing are scary (not that I'm afraid of the kids, it's scary what those attitudes and behaviors lead to) The problem is not that they don't obey in class-it goes deeper to a heart issue. Many know they're doing wrong, but try to blame it on others. Others know, but say it's too hard to behave correctly. A great deal of them just don't care, and these are the ones my heart breaks for. I can just imagine some of the things waiting for them if they don't let the Lord get ahold of their hearts soon. I don't know what more I can do for them, but I do know that I can pray that God will get their attention before it's too late. I love these kids, and I know there's still hope for them. Just pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in dealing with them, and that He will help me know how to reach their heart, not just their behavior.

Now, off to final prep for the last program. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

04-17-08

Tonight we have the second of our three spring programs. I will be sooo glad when they are finished tomorrow night. I think they're going well, but I won't be sad to be finished. We're doing "The Life of Fanny Crosby" from a book of Soundforth programs. My car is finally back and functioning, many dollars later. It's got one more trip to the mechanic to be officially fixed/finished, and I'm going to be taking care of that on Tuesday.

03-18-08

This was actually written last week, but since internet was down, it didn't get sent again until today.

Wow, have I found a treasure!! Actually, Clarissa found it for me but it's still exciting all the same. Yesterday during Carlos's piano lesson in the afternoon, Clarissa came in with a huge stack of music and told me that they were about to throw a box away (they're reorganizing the library after its move) but they found all this music. As I looked through the stack, I got soo excited! One thing that I have been specifically looking for was in the stack-a book of 6 Clementi sonatinas! Carlos's hands are so small that he can't reach an octave, and 7ths are pretty difficult for him, and it's quite a challenge to find music that challenges him but doesn't have huge stretches for his hands. Also in the stack were books 1-5 of the John Thompson piano method, plus Teaching Little Fingers to play and Book 1 in Spanish. More exciting stuff!! Besides the Clementi, the most exciting thing in the stack was 5-6 copies of the music magazine "The Etude" from different months in 1940-1942, as well as one from 1949! There are many different articles with specifics for different instruments, question and answer columns, book reviews, new pieces of music, and some of the most interesting things are the ads. One article that was interesting was about "new" recording technology. Anyway, I'm looking forward to wading through the rest of the stack of magazines-I've really enjoyed the ones I've already ben able to look at. Carlos says the only time he's ever seen someone as excited as I was when I saw all that music was when he watched "Trading Spaces"

After school yesterday, Mrs. Santana and Carlos took me home, and before they dropped me off, we went to a neat store that's within walking distance of home-a cake store. They have everything you could ever imagine possibly needing to make, decorate, and store a cake. All kinds of decorations, tools to decorate, ways to display, different types of pans, frostings, fillings, ingredients, etc. Anyway, a pretty cool store that I look forward to going back to some day when I have a functioning oven that's of a decent size. Right now, I have to settle for the toaster oven, where at least I can make cookies, even though it's only 5-6 at a time. I can tell you that makes life interesting especially since I really have a problem making single batches of anything-it's a good day when I can hold myself to a double instead of a triple batch. =)

My order from Bath and Body Works came yesterday! Finally! Ok, so it wasn't really that long, especially by Puerto Rican standards-a little under 2 weeks. It was exciting for 2 reasons-first, Janice's birthday present got here before Janice's birthday, and second, there are no Bath and Body Works stores here in PR, so it's really nice to have some of the stuff.

I'm doing tons of work on the spring program. We'll see if it actually comes together-every year/season, I'm convinced it will never work, but it always does.

One more thing-I was able to have a good talk with Jorge on Monday. He got saved in December after one of his piano lessons, and on Monday he was really struggling with forgiveness towards a classmate. Pray that he gets ahold of the concept-bitterness and hate are so nasty and hurtful, and that's not just to the person they're against. I shared with him several verses about forgiveness, and even encouraged him to pray for the boy, who really does need the prayer.

Spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm excited because I'm looking forward to our traditional trip to Culebra, hopefully for some good snorkeling, and gorgeous view on the ferry ride over and on the beach as well.

2-27-08

We're furiously preparing for Field Day around here. I'm working the score table again, and it should be less stress this year since we should already have the ribbons ready. Since this is the third year I'm doing score, I've got my system pretty much worked out. We are doing it in a different place this year, so that should be interesting. I think I'm gonna miss it being within walking distance of the beach.

Once Field Day's done, I'll be concentrating on the spring program, for which we're using a program on the life of Fanny Crosby from a Soundforth book of junior programs.
And of course, a blog entry wouldn't be complete without a couple of student quotes.

In PE we've been learning to pass the baton correctly in preparation for the relay during Field Day. On Monday, I was asking my second graders why we were using a certain hand to hold it, and Sophia raised her hand and said, "So that we will fast-en up!"

I was talking with Luis after class today, and he was talking about how hard it was to keep from talking in class. I was joking with him, and said, "Yeah, life's rough, isn't it?" He said, "Well, not so much since we have the opportunity to be saved, but some other things are tough."

Trilingual conversation, Lunar eclipse, the death of a chair, and a new best friend

Quite a strange title, but it helps me to remember the things I wanted to write about, and it reminds me of the days Amy and I used to email and compete to find the strangest subject lines possible that many times had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the emails (remember the 99 bottles of nail polish, Am?)

First of all, the trilingual conversation. I've ben able to pick up a bit of ASL since I've been here. I understand much more than I can actually sign, but I'm still in the learning process. Milagros (one of our college grads who happens to be deaf) was working as a hall monitor and was trying to communicate with a parent, but it wasn't working. Many of the parents are able to make basic hand motions, but others, especially those who aren't as familiar with the school have a little more trouble. I happened to be passing through, and asked the mom what she needed. Since I know Spanish, I understood what she needed and turned to communicate that with Milagros. Most of my sign language, however, I associate with English words, so when I turned back to the mother to explain, I started talking to her in English, and didn't realize my mistake until she looked slightly confused. Talk about brain fry! I thought 2 languages was hard, but adding a third is even more interesting.

Lunar eclipse-it was pretty neat. I sat outside for an hour or so and watched and took pictures. I wasn't the only one out on my street. There were about 3 others from time to time coming out with their cameras.

The death of a chair-as I was sitting on the walkway in front of my apartment, my only portable chair (not a recliner) slipped off the edge and broke. =( Oh well, one more thing for the shopping list.

My new best friend-Tide to Go! I love this stuff-it has saved me embarrassment and stained clothes many times. It's saved a a few friends too. =)

Wish I had more time to write, but I must go to supper!

2-13-08

I've gotten tired of trying to come up with titles that usually sound cheesy to me, then I never end up writing because I can't come up with a title, so here goes with using the date for my title. Maybe I'll write more-who knows?

Probably not since I wrote all that 11 days ago.

I have decided that January in Puerto Rico provides what is quite possibly the world's most perfect weather (as long as I could vacation to see snow every once in a while). It's cool at nights and in the mornings, and not obnoxiously hot throughout the day-the weeklong forecast reads "Hi-81 Lo-72" 7 times in a row most weeks, occasionally with some rain thrown in.

This semester 8th grade choir has started, and we've had surprisingly good attitudes and participation. We'll see how long that lasts us, but for right now it looks good.

Last night we had an interesting visit-the mom is very faithful in her Pentecostal church, and neither father nor son are saved, but seem to be interested in the things of the Lord. I'm hoping they'll come visit on Wednesday night.

Soccer season was canceled for not enough kids signed up. They were sad and so was I. I was loooking forward to the fun and extra exercise, but I guess we'll have to wait for next year.

I've started work on our spring program. Hopefully it will not drain me quite as much as the last one.

And just as I was typing all this, Judith came in looking for a translator, so I saved it and left. After I finished with her meeting, as I walked out of the room, another 2nd grade teacher asked for a translator, and by the time I was done with that, it was 4:15, and I had to devote myself to finding a ride home. I was hoping to make it home at 4, so I would have time to walk to Walgreens before it got dark and do some last minute Valentine's Day shopping, but that didn't happen. Everyone who would go home early enough was gone by 4:15, so I stayed. It worked out alright though, because Mrs. Rojas had to go to Costco, and she didn't want to go alone, so I was able to go with her, and get at least the candy I needed. When I got home, I went to the pharmacy almost right across the street to get the gift bags that I needed. So, in the end it worked out, but I didn't get back to the computer until this morning.

How was that?

Sometimes my students just leave me speechless.
Today Kamila saw the picture of a bunny in her piano book, and told me she had a bunny, and the bunny's name was Beethoven.
I asked her if she knew who Beethoven was, and she said, "He was the very best player of the piano." I was pretty impressed that a second grader knew who Beethoven was, but I don't guess I should have been surprised because her dad's a pianist himself. Anyway, I asked her if she'd ever heard any of the music Beethoven wrote, and she said "No, but he is friends with my Daddy!"

Interesting thought

Today during his piano lesson, I was using whiteout on the finger numbers in Efrain's book. (at this point I'd rather him focus on the note names than finger numbers)
He was fascinated with the whiteout, since it looked like the numbers were just disappearing, so he looks at me and asks, "So, if I put that on me I'll be invisible?"

Last day

Today's the last day before Christmas break. I can't believe it went so fast-as someone said at our meeting on Monday: "Does anyone know where September, October, and November went?" another teacher replied, "No, but we don't want them back." Since I last posted, so much has happened, but I won't really have a chance to catch up on it probably until I get home, which should happen tomorrow. I will share my most recent favorite quote from one of my students: "You know, teacher, you really are a crazy woman!" Don't remember what I said, but with Carlitos, I'm sure it was deserved, and just so you know it wasn't disrespectful. =)

And in case you're wondering, my car got fixed, worked for 19 days, then broke down again, and has been that way since Thanksgiving.

The carless club

Not exactly a club I've always wanted to be a member of, but the one I'm in right now. Pray for wisdom in how to deal with the situation if you think about it.
I haven't posted much this school year at all, so I'll try to write a few ramblings. Probably won't be in chronological order, or any kind of order for that matter.
This year I have been teaching a couple of new classes that I have really enjoyed.
6th grade music-I taught this before, but since I had a class of 30 and only 12 books, I basically branched out and did my own thing with a lot of listening/music appreciation and music history. This year I have a small group 3 times a week for a quarter in my office, and at the next quarter I get a new group. I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. The group I have this quarter will prove to be a lot of fun, I think. On the second day of class we were able to hold 2 part harmony that lasted 2-3 measures. Not much by some standards, but leaps and bounds for the kids I'm working with.

7th grade choir-In the past years, we've had combined middle school choirs, but this year they're split up, and I have 7th grade for 1st and 4th quarters (our schedules are weird due to time change-we don't change, but the States do, and since we use BJ LINC our schedules have to change even though the time doesn't. weird, I know) I had a group of 10 who started with some having a hard time even singing the note I played on the piano, but by the last day of first quarter were able to sing in chapel, and able to identify by hearing most any major/perfect interval from second to octave. I was so proud of them, and I can't wait until 4th quarter to work with them again. Incidentally, the last day of class we had brownies and fudge, because I teach them that to remember treble clef line notes they say the sentence Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, and they really didn't know what fudge was. Brownie they know, but not fudge, so I made both so they could compare them.

7th grade girls PE-this is my challenge class at the moment. Most of the girls I have are absolutely not interested in sports in the least. Finding something to interest them and keep them actively partcipating is a constant challenge for me. Also, behavior is a challenge, but apparently that has been the case with this class since at least 1st grade if not longer.

7th grade Music Appreciation-I'm enjoying this one so far-I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects, and try to interest my kids in wholesome good music. I think I've succeeded with a few so far. We're talking about orchestra families and instruments right now, so that's been fun.

I'm also finally getting to coach a volleyball team. My favorite sport to play, and the one I know the most about (along with track and field) and this is the first time in 3 years I've had the opportunity to work with it. I have a team of 4-6th graders, and as of right now they're undefeated within the school (it's intramural just as the other teams I've coached have been). They almost lost last week, I think partially because they saw the posted records and came to the court saying "We've won all our games, teacher!" and playing like they didn't have to try. They saw really quickly that they did have to try, and were able to pull it off, but as I told them later, it wasn't one of our prettier wins. The most exciting was that one of my littlest and least experienced kids served the last 2 points for the win, making it 16-14 in the third game of a best of 3 set. I think she was a little scared when she saw her teammates running at her-I don't think she realized they were happy. It was I think the first time she'd served it over the net in a game, and she did it twice, under extreme pressure (though I'm not sure she really understood the last game of the set, we're tied at 14, game goes to 15 you have to win by 2 kind of pressure)
It's taken me this long (6 weeks) to get them to realize that they've won at the end of the game.
Oh well, at least we're having fun.

Yes, I've been delinquent. I've been unbelievably busy, so I'm going to take the wimpy way out and post what Janice wrote about our visitation adventure 2 weeks ago.



Puertorican Potholes and Providential Provision

If you know anything about Puerto Rico, you probably wonder the same thing I do. Where does all of the toll money go? Because it surely does not go to the roads...I officially met a Puertorican pothole Monday night - in "met" I mean hit it dead on. And this was no ordinary pothole - no, this was the "Grand Canyon of all potholes."Sarah Nething and I were on our way to visit one of my students as all good Calvary teachers do on Monday nights. We travel about a half an hour away from the school, up near the mountains, and the road was worse than usual - even for PR. We arrived at what I thought was the correct street 25 minutes early. Not wanting to alarm the family, I decided that we should drive around and "explore." So we did, but on the way back, it was starting to get dark. And....it had rained that day. So the combination of those two things made it hard to see all of the potholes....thus the inevitable meeting. As soon as we hit it, I heard the air escaping from the front passenger side tire. "Great! I thought! Of all the things - this is NOT what I need." (It's funny...Sarah and were just feeling like "grownups" an hour before because they were "letting" go on visitation by ourselves...)Conveniently, the next safest place to pull off was the road that I thought the student lived on. I call the family letting them know what happened, and we were actually farther up the road than we should have been. So they tell us to stay where we are (what else are going to do?) and they would come find us. So, I proceed to get the spare tire, the crowbar, and the jack out of the trunk, having no earthly idea what to do with them. As we're getting ready to attempt to change the tire ourselves (in skirts!!!). we notice a man sitting up on his balcony in the house right next to us. We notice him because he is giving all kinds of advice as well as telling us what tools to use. My flesh immediately thought, "Why don't you get up and offer us some help?! If this were the South I'd have two or three gentlemen stopping to help by now!" I finally asked Sarah to ask him if he would help. She does so, and he reluctantly agrees. So we wait for TEN minutes for the man to come downstairs...."What is taking him so long???" I think. Finally, he comes around the corner, and I am instantly rebuked because the man has a prosthetic leg and is walking with a cane. I felt horrible! He hobbles over to us and attempts to turn the lug nuts, which were put on last time with a machine. However, because he had no leverage due to his fake leg, we were stepping on one side of the crowbar while he pushed on the other with his weak arms. The bolts wouldn't budge. We tried for a good twenty minutes, with him going all the way back inside to get more tools.Finally, my student's parents arrive on the scene. At the same time the man from the house across the street comes out to offer some help. I selfishly think, "Well, where have you been all this time? Watching us from your window???" Again, I am instantly rebuked when the man tells us that he is a mechanic. Of all the jobs he could have had and of all the roads we could have stopped on, the Lord providentially placed us across the street from a mechanic. At this point, the bolts were starting to loosen a little, but the miniscule jack that we had was not placed correctly under the car, and the car falls off. So our handy mechanic goes into his garage and gets a professional jack and proceeds to get the car back in place.We change the tire, and the mechanic takes my old tire into his garage. Now this is no "leave your work at the office" mechanic. This is a "I have my own air machine in my garage" mechanic. He tries to fix it, but alas, it was ruined.The job being done, we say "Muchas gracias!" to everyone involved and have our visit with the family. Of course, I have to drive extra slow on the way back to school - which, as all of you who know me well, know I don't like to do.I thought that this would be the end of the story, but God's provision was more than I ever expected. Our school's Mr. Fix-it, Mike, says that he will take the car on Tuesday to get a new tire on it for me. He ends up not having time, so I wait until Wednesday. All day I wait for him to come and tell me what I owe the tire place. I never hear from him, so I called him after school. An anonymous person paid for me to have not one, but TWO new tires for the front of my car. I knew that replacing two tires at a time is always better, but I only had money for one, so that was what I was going to get. But the Lord knew my need. He was the only One who knew my checkbook balance, and He provided over and above what I could ever ask or think!All of this has shown me that we serve a God who is in control of every situation and that nothing is too hard for Him!

I'll provide my own commentary on the event at a later date, provided I have a chance to breathe/email.

Airports

Anybody need a map of concourse A at the Atlanta airport??? Cuz at this point I could probably give you a pretty good one. That's where I've spent my last 2 days and probably at least one more. Hopefully only one more. Maybe later I'll be ready to talk about it.

Summer, so far

Today is Laney's birthday-I can't believe she's already 5! Makes me feel sooo old!!!
I've been home for one month now, and no, it hasn't been restful. Not to say I haven't enjoyed it, but I've ben working since the day after I got home. Except for this week. I've been babysitting 3 girls, ages 7, 3, and 3 months, and this week the older two were with grandparents, and the mom and dad wanted to spend some time with the baby, so I've been able to sleep in some. Earlier this week I took the kids to the pool, another day we went to the library, and yesterday I took my brothers to play soccer and I got to play a little myself. I figured since I've coached the sport for 2 seasons I'd better start learning how to play it myself!
A couple of weeks ago, I dropped my mom off at a cleaning job, and went in search of a Cuban restaurant I'd been told about. I was really looking forward to some Caribbean food, so when I finally found the place ( I only knew the exit it was near, not the address or anything like that) I was pretty excited. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich (cuban/caribbean style, not the straight from the frig variety americans are used to) and tostones-sliced and fried plantains. While I was sitting there eating my half of the meal (I saved half the sandwich and most of the tostones to share with my family because the portions are huge), a Hispanic man in scrubs came out one of the doors and said, "Haven't I already given you one of these (referring to the valued customer cards-get it punched 7 times, you get something free)?" I'd never seen the man before in my life, but he was convinced he knew me, either from the other restaurant or even from his office, and he also seemed to know about me being in Puerto Rico. Really weird! Anyway, I found out later that he's my mom's dermatologist and either he'd seen pictures of me, or I looked enough like my mom that he recognized me.
My next interesting experience for the day came when I walked into Walmart. I was a little frustrated, because I'd looked in several stores, including another Walmart, for the game "Operation." My dad had mentioned a few days previously that he had always wanted that game and never got it, so we decided to get it for him for Father's day. Only problem was that it was pretty difficult to find a version that wasn't Shrek, or Spiderman, or something else weird, we just wanted the plain old Operation! Thankfully I found it at this Walmart, and began walking towards the checkout. On the way, I saw some people setting something up, and discovered it was Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-Fil-A) doing a book signing. I've always been impressed with the man and his testimony, but I've also always been a chicken, so I didn't want to walk up and talk to him. After all, what could I possibly have to say that would be worth his time, especially since I didn't have the money to buy his book. I had a collection I got from the kids to pay for the game, but that's about it. I called my mom to tell her Mr. Cathy was there, because I thought maybe she'd like to see him later. She told me I should go talk to him, so I said, "Fine, I'll do it!" When I went up to the table there were 2 or 3 other people there, and I said "Mr. Cathy, I'm sorry I can't buy one of your books, but I wanted to tell you that I love Chick-Fil-A. I'm living in Puerto Rico now, and I really miss it. Every time I come home, it's the first meal I eat, usually even before baggage claim in the airport." He said he was real happy to hear that, then he said, "You know what? I'm going to give you one of my books." he picked up a book off the stack, opened it up to sign it with his name and Proverbs 22:1, then he looked at the front of the book and stopped. Apparently they weren't taking money for the books at the table, which I didn't realize at first, because they were Walmart's books. So, he said, "I forgot these were company books, so I'm gonna give you the money to pay for it." He reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, flipped through several bills, and handed me a $20. "Keep the change," he said. To which I replied, "Thank you sir, and God bless you!" I payed for the game and the book in the Walmart checkout, all the while amazed at this man's kindness towards me, a random person walking through Walmart. Just a really neat experience!
the other fun part about it was that we signed the card that came with the game with all our names, and at the bottom, "and Truett Cathy" because the money left over from what he gave me helped pay for the rest of the game. That was a lot of fun explaining to Dad!!

new instruments

I don't normally carry around student quizzes to show people, but two this past week were too good to pass up.
One of the questions required a list of 3 of the following 4 instruments: harp, English horn, bass clarinet, bass trombone

several of my students involuntarily created new instruments in answer to this question, but these were my 2 favorites: tropical bass, and bass hormone. yep, you read that one right.

Student quotes

Teacher, can you turn the sun off? It's hot out here!
-Achsah, 6th grade

Teacher, you're beautiful!
-Natalia, 1st grade

After being asked if they knew where in the Bible you could find "Be ye kind one to another" :

On page 25!
-Nicole, 1st grade

life

Yeah, I know, it's been forever. But life has been crazy. Among other things, I've been sick for a week with a mild form of dengue, field day, spring break, soccer finals, and this weekend the senior banquet. I've decided I'm not going to put pictures up here any more. I'll still write, but my pictures will go up at facebook since it's so much faster to upload them there. So, if you have a facebook account, look at the pictures there. If not, leave a comment to let me know and I can email you the link so you can see them even if you don't have facebook. Anyway, that's all for now.