Love Ya, Em!!! ;)

Remembering Where I Was

There are defining moments in people's lives in which a tragedy takes place and forever burns in our memories the time and place we heard the news.  Elvis dying, Reagan getting shot, the Challenger...I remember where I was and what I was doing with each event.  But nothing compares to the morning of 9/11.  My husband, my kids and I were in Malaysia, preparing to fly back to Thailand the next morning.  It was the evening there.  My husband called me, alarmed, telling me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  Immediately we were all watching the television, trying to grasp what had just happened.  Of course you know the rest...that tragic day, which was amazingly brilliant and blue, played out as the nation literally stood still.  Flights were stopped, televisions all over the nation were playing and people were glued.  We knew it was bad, but being the Americans we are, we stood by and watched hoping for that one miracle rescue, or the view of loved ones being reunited.  Those stories came, and we clung to the hope they provided.

For us, we had to stay in Malaysia for three more days.  Seems the twin towers in Kuala Lampur were also threatened.  No flying for us. 

The only thing that compares in any way to this event is the 2006 tsunami in Thailand.  Three entire families, good friends, were there.  We watched video footage of Phi Phi island, which was totally wiped out, hoping to get a glimpse.  Miraculously, all three families were safe.  But in the meantime we were stricken with grief as we watched the human suffering mount.

9/11 is different, though, in that it was caused with human hands.  I don't understand how any religion can try to justify the destruction of innocent human lives the way Islam has.  I'm grateful for the prevention of any future attacks.  I wonder if our country knows how blessed we are?

Thoughts on the New School Year

I hate morning duty.  It's a little much to ask of someone to be that cheerful that early.

I hate morning duty in the rain.  That was two days ago.  I was wet all day.

I love having glorious, uninterrupted time to work in my room.

I love goofy teachers.

I love seeing good people being good at what they do.

I must keep a change of clothes at school.  For those rainy morning duty days.

I need a bigger umbrella.  Three kids getting out of a car at once cannot be covered by my little umbrella.

I love that our school has grandparent's day.

I love that tons of grandparents come to grandparent's day.

There are, in some cases, complete and justifiable reasons for the use of ritalin.

I love finding what kids are good at.  That "I just did that" look is priceless.

Some meetings really are useless and a waste of time.

Sometimes we get to see courage in the rawest sense of the word, and it is inspiring.

Major Frustration for Teachers at my School?

That we can only get into our classes after six in the morning and can't getting in after six at night.  We would work more than a twelve hour day if we could.

Why?

Because that's what it takes to do the job and do it well.  And we're happy to do it if it means by doing so, we don't have to bring our work home on the weekends.

But so far, it's a no-go.

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

You know, there are so many things that make us unique.  I've always focused on the micro:  birth order, personality type, learning style, education and personal choices are all things that factor in to making us each unique from every other person on the planet.  But this video focuses on the macro:  perception of time.  I find it fascinating that we can be so different from others in the way we think of time, and that Protestants are forward thinking.  It all worked together to make sense to me.  I plan on reading "The Geography of Time" by Robert Levine.  I'm developing a theory right now that maybe this is at the core of why so many object so passionately against President Obama.  He is making decisions that are not forward thinking, and it is going against the very core of Protestant perceptions of time.  We'll see how it goes after I read the book.

"Sorry's dont mean anything...

...when they aren't followed by actions.  Words don't bring healing.  Actions do." 


Paul Teutul, jr.

Fall's Almost Here!!!

We had a big thunderstorm last night and into today.  It succeeded in whetting my appetite for Fall. I am SO ready for Fall weather.  I want to open up the house, hear kids playing outside, feel breezes and watch the trees change.  I want to sit in bleachers and watch awesome baseball, particularly numbers 27 and 7.  I want to play turkey bowl and celebrate family.

OK, Fall (tap, tap, tap)...  I'm ready.