Man meant it for evil, but I am grateful.

Today I am ending my summer break early to go be a teacher of teachers and it got me thinking, once again, about my journey. Many of you that know me, know that the last 10 years have been a turbulent, crazy ride for me...especially when it comes to teaching. I've had some super high high's and some incredible lows. But I look back and despite the bad, despite the ugly, I find myself grateful. I worked for a school where the same year that I was chosen as the Arizona Charter School Teacher of the Year, I was not asked back because I was "disloyal." I was considered disloyal because I took my kids out of the high school in their district because one of my children was being verbally and emotionally abused by the staff. But I look back and I am so grateful for my time there! I met some amazing people, some of whom are to this day some of my very best friends. I had the opportunity to spread my wings and get a taste of what it was like to be in front of teachers doing training instead of just the children, and a seed was planted. And had I not been treated unfairly, I would have stayed. I would have stayed until the end of next year, at the least, to let my youngest finish elementary school. And had I stayed, I would not be where I am today. I would not be in the position to follow my passion of training teachers. I would not be pursuing my Master's degree so that someday I can do this full time. What man meant for evil, God turned to good, and because of HIM I have been abundantly blessed. If I had not been treated unfairly, I would never have moved on and I would never have taught Jr. High, which I LOVE!! Crazy as that sounds, I LOVE these crazy kiddos and getting to hang out with them everyday! I moved on, to a new school, and I had a great couple of years there. I got some fantastic training in the new Common Core standards...I learned about IB and teaching to a global generation. It was training I could get no where else. I was successful in my teaching and things were going GREAT! But once again something happened...it was a little thing, not a huge deal to most, but my character was questioned, I was judged unfairly, and I was crushed...I could have stayed, but I wouldn't have been happy, I wouldn't have been successful. My student's learning would have suffered. I sought counsel, because having had this happen twice with administration really caused me to stop and look at myself and ask if I was doing something wrong. Godly people assured me that I had not. And, then, God opened a door. I walked through that door knowing that it was nothing short of the hand of God. I didn't do anything to deserve it, I didn't make it happen. He did. And I have landed here in a place where in the grand scheme of things I am supremely happy...sure there are days, we all have days, where I don't want to deal with one more kid, one more parent, one more essay! But, I love my job! I love that I get to hang out with crazy Jr. Highers all day, and then a couple nights a week I get to chat with adults about what I've learned about teaching them. I love that I have stories to write that make me laugh as well as my readers! What man meant for evil, God has turned to good in my life, over and over again. And for that, I am grateful.

Recipe: Cream Cheese Chicken Croissants

I make these in bulk and freeze them so I'm cutting down the recipe...for my cooked, diced chicken, I throw a whole chicken in a crock-pot overnight and then de-bone it in the morning...it yields about 6 cups of chicken which would make this recipe three times.

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 cube cream cheese (8oz)
4 chopped green onions
4 Tbls chopped bacon (I use Hormel real bacon bits from Sam's Club)
1.5 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
1 tsp black pepper
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls or similar

Directions:
Mix first 6 ingredients together in a bowl.  Set aside.  Unroll crescent rolls and put two triangles together to create a rectangle and pinch the centers together. (they make these in sheets now for recipes, which would preclude having to put them together but I'm too cheap to buy name brand unless I have a coupon!)  Put a large scoop (I used my Pampered Chef medium cookie scoop) of chicken mixture in the center. Fold up sides to enclose.  At this point, if you're freezing for later place "buns" as close together side by side in the freezer container of your choice and freeze.  When you use them later, let them come to room temperature, brush outside of bun with egg and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  If you're not freezing I don't bother with the egg wash...might not need it if you do freeze but I haven't tried that yet.  If you're cooking right away just place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  These were a BIG hit with the kids!!

Yields: 8 "buns"

A New Journey

Wow!! Two years since I've so much as posted a picture here. That's what Facebook has done to me...I post everything there. My journey has take a definite change...I'm officially a Junior High Language Arts teacher!! Wow, is it different...and in some ways so much the same!! I LOVE it though...I think it's something you have to be called to and I absolutely adore these kids!! Even with all their drama!! Since this blog is all about enjoying the journey, and since my journey has take an turn that I'm really enjoying...I thought it appropriate to blog about it...even if no one else sees it.

Showing off the Christmas Jammies!!

 

More Christmas!!

 

Abby, who takes after mom in her love of all things crafty, got an art tote and a bunch of little doodads (pipe cleaners, puffy balls, google eyes, craft glue, acrylic paint, etc...) to go in it. Daddy decided it would be fun to wrap each individual thing so she had a LOT to open on that one!!!

Christmas PIctures!!

 

Christmas morning always begins with stockings...Sarah is checking out how the mechanical toothbrush works!!

 

This has been the most used Christmas present yet! It has been raining all day so riding the new bike Joe got was out and using the new rollerblades was out so most of the day was taken up playing WiiFit and shooting at each other with Nerf dart guns!! There are Nerf darts all over my house in wierd places but they had SO MUCH FUN!!

 

Bethany has shown an overwhelming interest in learning how to decorate cakes and use fondant so I got her a student kit for fondant. You can't beat the deal I got the day after Thanksgiving either, 50% off then another 20% off of that 50%!! I love a bargain!!

Celebrating the Miracle of Hannukah!!

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deuteronomy 6:4

Tonight at sundown was the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. I am not Jewish and I don't pretend to be an expert on the feasts, but my family has celebrated Hanukkah with my best friend (who was raised Jewish) for many years. When they moved away to Florida one of the many things the children said they missed was celebrating Hanukkah. For them, it was more the latke's and playing dreidel with their beloved friends, than it was about the miracle of Hanukkah. That miracle cannot, however, be overlooked.

Here is the definition of Hanukkah from wikipedia.com:

"Hanukkah", from the Hebrew word for "dedication" or "consecration", marks the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV and commemorates the "miracle of the container of oil". According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.

As Christians we are told in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It would be wise of us to take pause at this time of year to reflect on the rededication of our bodies as a temple to the Holy Spirit and spend the next eight days taking stock of our spiritual stores, that we may not be caught unprepared when the Lord returns. (Matthew 25:1-13) How fortunate we are that God has seen fit to provide a miracle to us as well, in the form of a baby lying in a manger who came to pave the road to heaven by becoming the payment for our sins.

With this in mind, I celebrate and wonder at the greatness of a God who provided eight days of oil for His people, and who provides the even greater miracle of providing for the salvation of our souls through His Son Jesus Christ!!

So, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!! Be blessed in this and the coming year!!

WW

 

A Time to Be Thankful....

I was listening to KLOVE today and one of the radio personalities was asking people to call and say what they are thankful for...several people called in and said the things you would expect...The sovereignty of God, which covers all things...family, friends, etc...and it got me thinking...besides all those things, which of course I am EXTREMELY grateful for...what would I say I was thankful for if I was able to get through to the radio station??

My thoughts immediately went to my best friend Heather. In October of 2006 this wonderful woman was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer. We had some days, and weeks, and months...where we weren't sure she would make it. But she has. She has survived the horrible disease, and the sometimes even more horrible treatment. I am certainly not the only one, but I am beyond grateful that God has granted Heather one more day, and by His Grace many more days!! She is like a sister to me and I miss her (because she moved to Florida in the midst of this ordeal!) a ton, but am very glad I can pick up the phone and give her a call!!

She has published a book that talks about (among other things) her ordeal with cancer and shows her amazing GOD perspective on all things. You can order it here!!

Sudden Hail Storm!!

Weather in the Valley of the Sun can be fickle at times!! It was sunny and in the low 70's this afternoon when we left church and suddenly at about 2:45 thunder crashed and we had a sudden storm!! It started as rain, then turned to hail about a cm in diameter, and now it's 3:02 and it's gone!! Go figure!! Still, it's exciting when we have WEATHER (that's not just HOT) here in the sun capitol of the world!! I took a few pictures for proof!!

 

 

 

A Thousand Cranes

This is our cry,
This is our prayer,
Peace in the World!

 

"I had just prepared breakfast for my baby boy, I had bent over his basket to pick him up when I felt a tremendous wind blow me across the room.....my baby boy has not followed me here."

 

 

My junior thespian just finished her first play! The story of A Thousand Cranes is a touching one...it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Saduko is a 12yr old girl, who was two at the time the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Now, 10 years later she discovers she has lukemia. This is her story. It's a great book as well. Definitely worth a look.

Bethany was fantastic and we are SO proud that she overcame her fears and kept on auditioning until she finally got a part. Now we may regret encouraging her toward that goal as she has definitely been bitten by the Theater bug and can't wait until auditions for the next production are held!

From the shores of California!!

Wow!! The time has gotten away from me!! Recently, my friends convinced me to sign up for facebook...I warn you it is somewhat addicting!! As a result my blog has been seriously neglected...apologies to my small readership!!

My BABY turned 13 on October 13th of this year!! Her greatest wish for many years has been to swim with the dolphins...so we pooled our money (some of her savings and some of the money we would have spent if she had a party) and we loaded the car and headed out to Sea World, San Diego just my daughter and I. We spent the drive chatting and laughing. She spent our first day at Sea World worrying a little that she'd miss her appointed swim time with the dolphins and reveling in the fact that she was an "only child" for the day and got to call all the shots!! She was more than a little nervous about swimming with the dolphins by herself (I opted to not spend the money and get some really great pictures instead!) but she was also very excited. God is SO good...as we waited for her group to be called I overheard a conversation next to me and the voice sounded familiar...I looked over and standing next to us with her daughter was B's fourth grade teacher (her "first" teacher besides me, and someone she utterly adored!) waiting to, you guessed it, swim with the dolphins!! Turns out her daughter was celebrating her birthday as well and they had done the exact same thing as her birthday gift!! B got to be in their group and share the experience with them, and I was able to take pictures for her teacher, something she had been a little concerned about!! Here's a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

We also spent a beautiful sunset on the beach at Belmont Park, and then got dinner and Henna tattoo's!! It was quite the mother/daughter date!! (truth be told, I had as much fun as she did!!)

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!! I can't believe my baby is a TEENAGER!!!

The Sunset from Belmont Park...

 

The photographer gets artistic....

 

 

 

 

Beth and her teacher.

 

This is a picture of a hole in the ice that Josiah actually started when we were at Sea World two years ago...two years of lemmings putting fingers into the same hole and it's now about 1.5 inches deep. We thought he might think it was cool that it was still there...and he did.

 

Beth thought the fish were really cool. They were part of a Halloween celebration.

 

Hanging out on the beach turned out to be a cold and windy proposition but we gutted it out for about 30 minutes, then we went to a local Greek restaurant and ate icee's and sandwiches served by the hot greek guy who worked there.

We went CATCHING!!

Tim took me away for our anniversary to White Horse Lake. For the record, he offered to take me to a bed and breakfast and I was the one who suggested camping. I'm not sure we've ever been camping without kids along and boy did we enjoy ourselves!! The fresh air, the cool water, the break from the desert heat were all a wonderful respite from our "normal" lives.

We went fishing Saturday morning and we actually caught fish!! After being skunked on our last few fishing trips that sure was fun!! The fish were biting so well it was almost impossible to NOT catch something. In the end we caught 14 trout, I caught 9 and Tim caught 5 but if you ask him he'll tell you he caught 6 because one of mine was caught on his pole. I cast it, I reeled it in....that one counts for me!! To his credit he was rowing the boat...but he also dropped two other fish I caught overboard!!

Saturday afternoon it started to rain so we decided to drive into Flagstaff and have a nice lunch in out of the rain. On the way down the mountain it started to HAIL!! Hail the size of small marbles fell for probably 10 minutes, so hard and thick it was hard to see to drive!! It was unbelievable!! By the time we got to Flagstaff it was a balmy 78 degrees and sunny. When we drove back all the hail had melted and the ground wasn't even wet!! Only in Arizona!!

We decided to take the boat out and try some more fishing later that afternoon. While we were out fishing we saw several heron, ducks chasing each other through the marsh, and a hawk who dove down and caught a fish of his own, then flew up to his perch to have dinner!! It was amazing. As the sun started to set the fish started jumping, what a sight!! I have NEVER seen SO many fish (outside of a fish farm) jumping in one place!! It was incredible!!

Saturday night we had a feast of fried fish and potatoes for dinner...then hid in our tent to get out of the rain! We kind of missed out on having a campfire and roasting marshmallows but it wasn't too bad snuggling in the tent reading a book and relaxing!

Sunday morning we relaxed by a fire, then we went out in the boat and caught some more fish. We wanted to have enough to take home for the kids. We actually caught double that!

Sunday afternoon happened way too soon and it was time to head home!! We had a great time and can't wait until Spring so we can take the kids up there (and maybe make another trip alone!)

 

This is our campsite. We were about 100 yds from the water.

 

This is four of the six fish we caught the first day.

 

 

Our fish and potato feast!! I realized this was the first time that *I* cooked the fish!! Usually we fish with my dh's parents and mom cooks the fish!

 

Our view of the lake from our campsite. Can you see the heron under the tree??

 

 

See?? I have proof I caught more fish!!

 

Finally!!!

About two weeks ago my littlest came to me with big alligator tears asking me, "Momma, how come ALL of my friends have loost toofs and NOT ME?!" I told her that everyone loses teeth at different times and that she would too she would just have to be patient. She told me she was still going to cry for a little bit because she was sad.

WELL...Thursday at school she was eating an apple and practically knocked her tooth right out!! It was hanging by a bare thread so when we got home she let her big sissy (this is B's official job in our family) pull it out!!! There was GREAT rejoicing as she put it under her pillow and asked me about a hundred times if I remembered to call the tooth fairy. She wrote a note asking if she could keep her tooth so she could show her class. She even drew a picture for the tooth fairy...when I asked her why she look at me amazed, "Mommy, if someone comes all this way to give you a surprise when you lose your tooth you should give them a picture or something to say thank you, that's only polite!" Well, yes it is!! That's my polite girl!! Needless to say the tooth fairy accepted the picture in leiu of the tooth so she could show it to her class, and left her a lipgloss AND a golden dollar! Never was there a more excited six year old girl on Friday morning!!



Here she is showing how she can breathe through a straw now with her mouth closed and her nose plugged because she can put the straw through the space in her teeth!! LOL!!

Sarah Palin for President!!

Some of my teacher friends are going to hate me, I'm sure, but I LOVE this woman. Granted, I don't know a whole lot about her yet but I like her style, I like her humor, and I like her gumption!! She has a beautiful family and isn't afraid to BE a mom while campaigning for the second highest office in the country. I can't wait to see more on her in the near future...I'm not big into politics but I had to comment...

Puppy Update!!

I realized I haven't updated about the princess recently. She's still as adorable as ever, but getting BIG!! Given the size of her paws, she's definitely not done yet!!

Beth said Chloe ws showing my students how to be in "ready position."

 

Beth likes snuggling with her puppy!

 

Chloe and Molly are finally getting along!! They play together and eat out of the same bowl...and we caught them sharing a bone!!

 

She's getting to be a little too big to be carried around...not that the girls don't try!!