Posted on Aug 25, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Well thanks to tropical storm Fay, it has been raining non-stop here since Saturday. At times it has been very heavy with strong winds. Sunday morning when I got up to take the dog out I realized all of the stuff that had been blown around from our back porch. Both chair cushions from the patio furniture had been moved. One was in the middle of the yard and one was missing until Kevin later found it in our neighbors’ yard. The banana plant that my mom brought a while ago, which normally rests up against the house, was also in the yard. And the most surprising thing to me was that our next door neighbors’ large gas grill was completely knocked over. Talk about some fast winds! I actually don’t mind when it storms at least during the night because the rain is a soothing sound that helps both me and Maggie sleep soundly. Unfortunately Kevin is not blessed with that gift. I think he gets jealous listening to the two of us snore through it.
So here we are on our third day of rain and it probably won’t be the last. Like I said I don’t mind all the storms. The only difficult thing is that we can’t take Maggie out hardly at all. And with such a high energy dog like her that means lots and lots of playing inside. Sometimes it is hard to keep her entertained when she hasn’t been out all day. But we have a new thing we are training her to do which is instead of just throwing the ball to make her chase it, we like to bounce it hard on the carpet and see if she can catch it in her mouth. She is getting really good! We are thinking we should enter her in the doggie olympics. She definitely has a high jump and pretends to do hurdles over us on the couch all the time. If she were entered in the chewing competition she would win the gold medal hands down. That dog will chew on her nylon bone for 30 minutes straight until we force her to stop.
Kevin started back to MBA class this evening. So for a while that means I will be spending my Monday and Tuesday evenings alone. At least I have the puppy to keep me company! I am, however, excited about reinstating Thursday date night. We tried doing that last year and then Kevin ended up with a Thursday night class. So now we are back on and I already know what this Thursday will entail: the unofficial kick-off of college football. This theme will pretty much continue every weekend until December 
Don’t get me wrong though I am very much looking forward to it. Why you ask? Leann you know nothing about football! On the contrary my friends; I have been learning a lot with the help of the book I bought for Kevin (actually for myself) on our 1 year anniversary back in January. It’s called Get Your Own Damn Beer, I’m Watching the Game! : a woman’s guide to loving pro-football, written by the actress and NFL wife, Holly Robinson Peete. My gift to Kevin was that I would read the book by August so that when the season started I would be able to not only watch games with him but actually understand what was going on. And it’s true that the more I know, the more I am interested in the game. I always thought football was way too complicated. And while I still miss a lot of things Kevin is always good to pause the t.v. and explain things to me. The best part is that I get to spend quality time with my husband doing something that he enjoys. Isn’t that the real definition of romance? I love him so much that I don’t care what we are doing, we can always have fun together.
Well now that I’ve rambled on for a while I suppose it’s time to get some ‘real’ work done.
Everyone stay dry!
Posted on Aug 18, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Yesterday our senior pastor Tim came back after a summer-long sabbatical. It was really great to have him back and he preached a message that was pretty convicting for me entitled “So Little Time.” The lesson was not any sort of new profound thought, but sometimes I need a little reminding. The main point came from Psalm 90 that talks about “teach us to number our days.” Tim challenged us to think about how we spend our time here on earth. He made a comparison between the movie Dead Poets Society (one of my favorite movies) in which the whole theme is carpe diem: seize the day, and the Christian viewpoint which also has a similar message. The main difference between the secular and Christian view is the reasoning behind it. The world would say that since there is nothing after life on earth we might as well make the most of every moment. In other words, nothing really matters so make each day count. In contrast, if you believe in eternal life in heaven and know that you have limited time to do God’s work on earth, then EvErYtHiNg you do matters so make each day count.
I was also pretty convicted by this statement: there is a big difference between counting the days and making the days count. If you know me at all you know that I love to have countdowns to things. I used to count down the long days until our wedding, the number of hours ’til graduation, the months until we moved in to our house, the time until we could finally get our dog. And every year I start counting about 4 months before my birthday and let everyone know that it is coming up. So on and so forth. I love looking forward to the big events in life. And I suppose there is nothing inherantly wrong about that. The problem lies in the fact that I am always looking toward the future, as if one day I will finally achieve ultimate happiness. I rarely take the time to stop and smell the roses or try and make a difference in someone’s life today because I constantly look to the next thing coming up. Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God.” Being still, I mean truly still, and shutting out all the worldly concerns is something I need to work on.
Children and Music
Another interesting point was brought up on Sunday that I would like to discuss. First I want to talk about the spiritual implications and then I will look at it from a strictly musical standpoint.
The church we go to is a mixture of contemporary and traditional. We do sing hymns and we also sing modern praise music, but we don’t have the full out rock and roll band with flashing lights. This weekend we sang a famous hymn “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” written by Isaac Watts. We learned that it came from a book of some thousand hymns called Divine and Moral Songs for Children that Watts wrote in order for young kids to memorize and learn about some of the profound truths of God. I’ll be honest I’ve heard this song before and while I thought it was nice and all, I really never thought about the words. If you want the full text click here. Sometimes I think we really need to approach worship through the eyes of a child. We forget how awesome and mighty our God is, and how amazing is the beauty of everything He has created. It’s just like how a child looks up at his dad or mom. I don’t mean to slam on contemporary Christian music. I think a lot of it is good and I listen to it occasionally. But if you really take the time to listen to the lyrics, you start to realize how much our modern music is focused on US. Most of these songs talk about what God has done for ME and how I feel about it. We fail to recognize the supreme beauty of our Creator. That’s why I think many of the old hymns are so great, because they are focused on Him alone.
And Now for the Soap Box…
If you have continued reading this long I commend you for your endurance . Kevin thinks that I would make a great lawyer because when I get fixated on something that I feel strongly about I really get fired up and can’t let it go. Well this is one of those topics for me. Speaking from strictly a musical standpoint, I am dismayed at what the ultra-contemporary church’s music has done to our kids’ ability to sing. Why you ask? It has nothing to do with the theology behind the words or the flashy lights of the presentation. It is simply the fact that a lot of our modern Christian songs were written to be sung by one person and enjoyed by the audience. Case in point; I have been amazed in recent years while visiting some mega churches where there might be 4,000 people in the congregation and yet you can hardly hear anyone singing. It’s because they can’t follow the music!! For several hundreds of years hymns from all different denominations were composed following very strict harmonic rules. That’s why it is so easy to pick up on the melody of a hymn even if you’ve only heard it for the first time. Kids who grow up listening to these hymns automatically learn a sense of harmonic progressions because they are predictable and they make sense to our brains. In turn they develop a better ear for singing. I hate to make a blanket statement but I’m going to because I’m a music teacher. It is painfully obvious to figure out which kids have been ‘churched’ from an early age or even just been sung to by their parents, and those who have not or all they ever listen to is heavy rock music.
Ah well, I could go on about this forever. Once again I am in no way trying to preach and tell people to take their kids to church. I am simply saying please expose them to good quality music from an early age and sing to them even if you think your voice is bad. It can make all the difference in the world. Trust me I know!
I suppose my college education really was good for something.
Okay end soap box… =)
Posted on Aug 06, 2008 under Childhood |
I wanted to share this funny memory that I had today before I forget. As I was working in my classroom again and getting it decorated, it made me remember how when I was a little girl I used to create my own “bulletin boards” outside my bedroom. I would use the space in our hallway right next to my door. The bulletin boards usually had themes like seasons or animals if I recall correctly. I think it’s funny because it seems like I was already destined to be a teacher =) But what I truly appreciate now looking back on that time was the fact that my parents allowed me to express my creativity, even though the tape and other materials were probably not the best thing to be used on our wall paint. They knew that it made me happy and they obviously cared about fostering my imagination. I hope that one day when I have kids I will hold that same attitude. I hope that I can show them how much I care about their hopes and dreams and how those are more important than a little home maintenance. Ahh bulletin boards, such a small thing back then, but look where it got me…
Posted on Aug 05, 2008 under General |
Well we arrived home on Sunday from our weekend in GA. The beginning of the trip did not exactly go as planned. Maggie continued to have stomach issues for three days so we had to take her to see the vet on Friday morning before we left. Luckily we got to see the doctor-on-duty and he turned out to be a UT fan! We knew we were in good hands. But by the time we dropped her at the kennel and got back into town we were stopped yet again by some weird traffic thing. All the major highways were closed (at lunch time on Friday no less!) due to someone important being in town. So our shopping trip was cut very short, but I made up for it on Saturday with the girls and I was very successful. My back to school wardrobe is now complete.
Saturday night was a lot of fun. We had a surprise baby shower for Ricky and Tiffany. Played some fun co-ed games including pregnant twister, haha! We all enjoyed the evening. Here are the proud parents-to-be:
Ricky’s face is priceless whenever anyone talks about baby Jake =)
Tiffany modeling the baby clothes.
A good time was had by all.
Puppy Medicine
When we got back on Sunday night we still had a little bit of medicine to feed Maggie. It wasn’t enough to fit into the squirt thingy so we ended up putting it in a spoon. It was like trying to coax a small child into taking something yucky. She eventually did lick it, but not without making a big mess
Back to Work
Today was my first time back at school. I officially don’t begin until Friday but I needed to make some progress since I have two classrooms. I can already tell this year is going to be a lot different, but hopefully in a good way. The wonderful news was that my trailor at the K-2 school is already here! This is only shocking because last year the trailor did not arrive until 2 weeks into the school year. My “new” used one is quite dirty, but at least I have it all to myself and I am ready to spruce it up. I was even able to snag 25 free carpet squares from a local store this afternoon. I will be pretty busy the next two days getting both rooms completed. Hopefully I can get some photos up when it’s all done. We’ll I’d better get back to cutting and taping things =)