My heroes for today

When I was little, my favorite cartoon hero was Underdog. I can still hear it "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" I only went to half-day kindergarten and my best friend Randy lived next door to us with his grandparents. We were poor as church mice (our mom didn't work and our dad was in college and was the janitor at the Lakeland Ledger) and we didn't have a TV. So, some days, I got to go next door to Randy's house and we would watch Underdog at 2:00 and drink cranberry juice. I don't remember why that was so special, but hey, I was only four and turned five, what did I know???

For some strange reason, I've been thinking about heroes and what it takes to be one. I've read some great articles lately about people who do great things but I'm noticing that my heroes tend to be people who do quiet great things instead of loud, in your face great things. For example, I heard a great story about a women's college softball team, and one girl hit a home run, but missed first base and went back to tag the bag. On the way back she hurt her knee and couldn't walk. Two girls from the other team carried her around the bases. That story made me cry! You can read it here: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24392612/

I read about a teacher who donated a kidney to a student in her class. That is unbelievably awesome... If you don't believe me, read it here: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20131192,00.html

Those people are certainly heroes but I'll tell you about some more – only these, I know personally.

I know a lady who does stuff at my church. She owns her own shop and she sews. We do the Awana children's program at our church, and she sews on all the patches for all of our kids. Last year, she would come to church, get the awards, take them to her shop, sew them on and bring them back – ALL IN THE SAME NIGHT! At my old church, most of my own personal awards were held on with melted plastic zip bags. (They work great for a short-term iron on - the cheaper the better!)

Another woman I know has only been at our church since March. Since March, she's moved four times and one of those times was from Arkansas! She teaches a pre-K Sunday school class, is the Sparks director in our Awana Club, works in the time before Sunday school, and takes great care of her husband and her two boys. Besides all that, she keeps the most spotless house I've ever seen. I can't keep a spotless house and it's just the cat and me!

I have a friend in my Master's program that just had a baby. She has another child who was born in June of 2007. She teaches third grade, is doing the Master's thing, and has a brand new baby and a 17 month old. . . I don't know how she's not just crazy. Get this – she was in class ONE WEEK after giving birth.

Another remarkable woman I know does a lot too! She teaches first grade, is a single mom (who gets NO support from a dead-beat dad) is the greatest greeter I've ever seen at church, and is the Commander of our Awana clubs. Her daughter plays soccer, practice two nights a week and a game on Saturday, does dance class and never misses Awana club on Wednesday nights. This mom does this every week, with no dad to help. Also, at her school, they don't just send home report cards, they have report card conferences. So, in the last two or three weeks since report cards went home, she's done 18 parent conferences.

I think the most amazing thing about all these people is that they don't do these things to be the center of attention or to have people notice. They'd probably be embarrassed to read this. They just do it. I see other people who seem to have this need to have all eyes and all attention focused on them. I don't get that and I don't think it's necessary, it's actually selfish and self-centered, as well as annoying to everybody else. I have a poster at school that says, "Freedom is everywhere you look." So are heroes!

Fighting with myself

For about the last week, I have been fighting with myself. The good news is, when you fight with yourself, you always win. However, you also always lose. . . Strange thoughts I know, but if you know me, you're not really surprised. I'm fighting with myself over my compulsion to be negative instead of positive. Last week in Awana, I encouraged our TNT clubbers to be thankful for five things every day. Easy, right, we have five fingers, at least once a day, while we're praying, thank God for five things, one for each finger. Well, I tried to do it, but every time I try, I keep coming up with something negative for each positive thing. Why do I do that? What's wrong with me? Here are some of the odd thoughts running through my head. I'm thankful I have a job (I heard today that something like 10 million people are unemployed) but I'm irritated because I have so many children and we didn't get a raise (or even a step this year. According to our county, my year of work last year counts as . . . NOTHING!) I have a new car, but I have car payments. I have good friends, but no time to see them or talk to them. (Thank goodness for facebook—at least I can see pictures of them occasionally.) I am working on my Master's degree, but it's nearly killing me. See?? No matter what good thing I come up with, part of me comes up with some negative thing. I hate that! I wish I could just look at the positive. I'm going to have to work on that. Maybe I should just make a list of good things and carry it in my head, and jump right to the next one every time my mind wanders over to the dark side. I can use my habit of jumping from topic to topic to my advantage. . . So, here's my list of good things.

1. Master's classes – we are on week 12 and the semester goes to 15.

2. After nine more school days, we get a whole week off for Thanksgiving.

3. Thanksgiving. Yeah turkey and dressing, and I know Robyn will make a pound cake using Granny's recipe. .

4. My Aunt Mary Ellen is going to be fine, just fine.

5. My friend Stacy had a perfectly healthy baby.

6. I'm not the one who delivered a 9 lb, 6 oz baby last week.

7. My cat doesn't require around the clock attention (like a new baby does) although he is staring at my fingers while I type and watching the mouse move suspiciously. . .

8. Publix makes this great Chocolate Trinity ice cream. Chocolate, with Denali fudge and caramel cups. (It's incredible!)

9. I've got some great new friends at church (and on facebook!)

10. Those new friends have a great new business that is going to be incredibly useful for people.

See, my list of good things is MUCH bigger than the negatives. . Focus on that!!!

Random thoughts on a random day

Once again, I'm using my blog to blurt out my feelings about anything I want to.

My students at school this year may actually be more stubborn than I am which is saying a LOT! I have never seen such a group of kids so determined to have their own way. I, of course, am just as determined that there are things that must be done MY way, so it's not going well. Even after 10 weeks of school, it's still rough.

I'm irritated at some judge in my county who says that this guy that nobody knows can have all our private information because we work for a public entity. You can read the exciting article here: http://www.theledger.com/article/20081031/NEWS/810310360

This guy, who nobody knows requested information from the School Board, some of he got. Other information, they told him, they were unable to provide due to the HIPPA law. He sued the School Board, and won, which means that the district has to hand over private information, names, addresses, phone numbers, even names and birthdays of dependent children, of everyone who is on the School Board's insurance plan. According to my attorney friend, the judge just did what the law says. Well, then the law is stupid and needs to be changed. In the mean time, let's all just hope and pray that nothing happens to anyone's dependent children that this man gets information about. . .

Election Day is tomorrow. I'm so glad it will be over, but I'm so worried, although I know I shouldn't be. I'm so unhappy with all of my choices. I just want it over! I'm also tired of advertisements on facebook for one particular candidate. It's either him or the acacia berry colon cleanse all the time. I'm not sure which one is worse. I'm also sick and tired of hearing my 6^th graders expound on politics. We're voting for a potential new state bird because they are just out of control with this election. They are saying mean, nasty things to each other about the election and the strange thing is, hardly any of them really have a clue. I wonder if parents have any idea how their children twist what they (the kids) hear their parents say.

 

Now the good news: We have a great new couple at our church who I just like a lot. They just moved here from St. Louis and they are just the nicest people. They are starting a business here in our county and they found our church. Everybody who has met them so far just LOVES Cindy and Dan. I'm so glad they found us.

We had a Fall Festival on Saturday at a ranch that a couple in our church own. It was so much fun. There was apple bobbing, greased poles to climb, greased pigs to chase around, chickens to catch, lots of food and a dessert cook-off. There were some seriously good desserts there. The judges really had a hard time choosing the best one, and they all looked a little green around the gills later on. Our new friend Dan said he had to have something salty to get rid of all the sweet. Maybe we should make a cookbook with all those recipes in it. I really love my church.

What makes “FAMILY?”

What makes family? Is it just sharing DNA with somebody? I don't think so. I have my "real" family, and my church family, and then some people I just love a whole bunch. Today my real family and I (my 2 sisters, my nephew Josh and my niece) had lunch/dinner with some friends in Lakeland that we have known forever, I guess. Mrs. Rita and Brother Frank (that's what EVERYBODY calls them) went to church with my parents when they moved to Lakeland in 1970. My dad and Brother Frank picked up kids on a church bus and worked in junior church together. For years, Brother Frank and Mrs. Rita didn't have any children. They wanted some, but it wasn't in the cards. So, they picked us. We were dirt poor (we three little girls didn't know it, but we were!) and basically, Mrs. Rita and Brother Frank invested their time and energy in us. It was actually in my parents will for years that if anything happened to them, we were supposed to go to Mrs. Rita and Brother Frank. After years and years, they decided to adopt a baby. So in September they got Courtney. Her name is actually Robyn Courtney, named after my oldest sister. Lo and behold, in April, they had Whitney. After years of being told no, no, not possible, apparently it was. So, they went from no babies to two in nine months. We moved to Auburndale before that, but always at Christmas and holiday, we always saw each other. Fast forward a few years, until I'm in college. A freshman at USF in Tampa, my sister lives in Auburndale in my parents' house and I hate living in a dorm. So, I move out of the dorm at Christmas and into the house with her. We start going back to church with Mrs. Rita and Brother Frank again. One Saturday, Mrs. Rita is telling us her frustrations with the girls after school situation. They are in first and second grade now. We stumble upon the perfect solution. I am driving back and forth to Tampa three times a week, I pick them up at school, take them home, so the homework routine, until she gets home. She is driving back and forth to Tampa to work and Brother Frank leaves for work at 2:15. . It's perfect. This continues until I graduate from college. By this time, my sister has gone back to college and she takes over.

Time goes on, the girls don't need us anymore, we both start teaching, we change churches and don't see each other so much.

Then, we're sitting at the hospital in Marathon in the Keys waiting for the doctor to check our mom one more time. It's been three days, so today we have to tell him to turn off the machines. We hear something and look at the door, there's Mrs. Rita and Brother Frank. They drove hours to be with us. . We stand there together, around her bed. We pray, and we leave. A few minutes later, the doctor tells us it's over. So we cry and cry, together.

We go back to the rental vacation house. We have to get home, so while we pack up Mom and Daddy's stuff, Mrs. Rita starts to clean. By the time we're packed up, she's done. A few days later we call her and ask her the hardest thing ever, will she sing at our mom's funeral? She tells us that mom asked her to years ago, but she was hoping we'd forget. She can't promise she can do it, but she'll try. She can and she does. . .

One day, we get an invitation to a wedding in the mail. Whitney is getting married. Doesn't seem possible, but it is. Then, baby shower, then Courtney's wedding, baby number two for Whitney, then Courtney's baby shower. We see each other off and on again . . . but not nearly as often as we should.

Brother Frank and I share a birthday, so today we went to their house for lunch. I can't think how long it's been since I've been there, but it's amazing how it feels like home. We talked, laughed, ate, and tried to figure out how many hours we've spent in that house together. . . We can't even imagine. We catch up, watch the kids play, and wonder where the time went. We leave, promising that it won't be this long again.

What makes family? If it's blood and DNA, we're not related. If its memories and time spent together, and love between people, then today we had lunch with family.

The Wednesday Wars

I read an article not too long ago about the Newbery Awards. I follow "The Unquiet Library" on Twitter and read this article from their blog: "Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?" The article was written by Anita Silvey and was published in School Library Journal, Oct 2, 2008. Here's a link if you want to read the article: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6601546.html?nid=3242. In the article, that author starts with two examples of people who seemingly believe the Newbery Award has lost some of its luster. In case you don't know, the Newbery Award is given every year for the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." During the summers, I work on reading through the Newbery books, all of them. I'm about 1/3 of the way through. Every year the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children, part of the ALA) chooses the Newbery Medal winner and several Newbery Honor books. The Medal winner gets a gold seal, and the honor books get a silver seal. There is a list of current and past winners here: http://tinyurl.com/6cr7xy

I haven't read this year's winner yet, but today I read the Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, which is a Newbery Honor book. I can't imagine how good the winner must be, for this to be an honor book. It is fabulous! I read a LOT of children's books and this is the best one I've read in a long time. It's so good; I read it all in one sitting. We got back from my niece's soccer game at about 1:45 and I was going to read a little bit and take a nap. I had no nap, but I've finished the entire book already. It made me laugh and cry, all at the same time. It is just a wonderful, wonderful story of growing up, realizing the people we most expect to do the right thing don't always do it, but that sometimes unexpectedly, we find what we need in others. It's about being wrong, admitting it, and loving each other in spite of ourselves, and in spite of them. It's just a great book.

Sorry, ten minutes later. We just had some excitement in our neighborhood. The police, deputies, and state troopers are chasing some guy in a truck, and he chose to drive down my street. He cut through an alley, and hit two parked cars, right across from my street. The Sheriff's department helicopter just flew over, and all my neighbors are out in the street. One guy, in a truck, running from six or eight law enforcement people. Does he really think they won't catch him??? I just hope he doesn't hurt anybody else. . . Whew.

 

 

Is it wrong to wonder why?

    I heard some distressing news on Friday. A lady at our church unexpectedly passed away. This same family lost a daughter to leukemia, a son had a terrible car accident, nearly died, went through months of rehab, and now this. It just doesn't seem fair or right at all. I don't get it.

    Then, yesterday on Saturday, I went to my niece's birthday party. Ten years ago, my sister had to have a C-section to deliver this tiny little four and a half pound, seven-week early baby. (She ended up being born two days before my birthday – what a great gift I got that year!) We thought she was the prettiest thing we'd ever seen, but looking at the pictures now, maybe not so much. She was a skinny baby, and we're more used to babies with fat little thighs and round cheeks just made for kissing. She did turn in to one of those babies, but at first, she wasn't. The tip of my forefinger covered the entire palm of her hand, her foot – the length of my pinkie finger. She was tiny, like holding a breath of air. It was possible to hold her literally, in one hand. Now, she is such a great kid – and I don't just say that because I'm her aunt. She's smart, (only missed four questions total on her FCAT test last year) she just started playing soccer, which she loves, she loves her dance class, she's so pretty, and she's a sweet girl. She loves her teacher at school, and loves to help her, she is nice to new kids at church and school, and she loves to bake goodies for Mr. Harvey, one of her favorite men at church. Yesterday, after being hit with the astounding news about the death of our friend, I watched her and her friends at her birthday party. I watched the big girls, especially Abby; take care of the two little girls. I watched girls from church make new friends and talk to girls from school. I watched them all play together; some dressed up in their Pixie Princess party attire. It was good. It was good for my heavy heart.

    Then, I left the party, to attend the wedding of a former student who is also the daughter of a friend from work. I watch Maggie and David dance, watched Randy, Maggie's dad dance with her in her wedding dress, watched David dance with his mom. I watched my friend try not to cry as she watched her baby get married and I thought where does the time go. It seems like just yesterday Maggie was 12 and in my class, struggling to learn new things, and going through the struggles and trials of most middle schoolers. Today, she is Mrs. Booth. I wondered, how quickly will this be my girl, my sweet little four and a half pound baby? I watched the celebration and thought, "This is good." It was good for my heavy heart.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the Bible says: 

    To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

     A time to be born, And a time to die;
    A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;

     A time to kill, And a time to heal;
    A time to break down, And a time to build up;

     A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
    A time to mourn, And a time to dance;

Yesterday was both a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

McDonald’s French Fries and other random thoughts

One thing I love about blogging is that I can just ramble on about anything and it's OK. I guess if somebody doesn't want to read it, feel free to click somewhere else. So, here are some completely random thoughts for today.

1. Is there anything in the world as good to eat as hot, fresh, McDonald's French fries? I don't think so. Wait a minute, let me back up – the grits I ate in London may have been pretty close. Maybe it's just my approximately 12-year-old palate, but I really, really, love those fries. I was at school late today, too many papers to grade, too much work to do and it was raining and of course, I have two umbrellas in my car, but NONE in my classroom, so on the way home it was late and I was hungry so I ate early. I just happened to have a book of McDonald's gift certificates in my purse, so why not? That first fry. . . Yummy! The second and thirds ones, Ok, the entire serving, they were just perfect. Now, I have a million things I should be doing, reading chapters, figuring out a fold-able for continents and oceans, and instead, here I sit blogging about French fries.

2. Media certification test – My friend Robyn and I passed our media certification tests on Saturday. Yay for us. We were a little stressed for several reasons. A) We weren't sure we knew enough to pass yet. B) No pressure but FSU has a 100% passing rate on that test. I was afraid I would be the first one not to pass. I mean we can take it again, but still. Nothing like being reminded that our school is the "#1 ranked program in the US and Canada for youth services and #5 for school media." That's fantastic, but while I was sitting there waiting for my test questions to start rolling up, I still felt like throwing up. But we both passed, which makes three out of our group of five in our county. Our other two friends take it later this month. According to the state, I can now (when the paperwork is done) work as a certified media specialist, without the degree. Of course we still go back to that "don't know enough about what I'm doing thing." We have to finish the two classes we have right now, do an internship and one more class, and then we are done. In some ways it seems like it's been forever and in some ways it feels like we "only just begun."

3. Bills and bills – I hate paying my bills. It's not the draining of my bank account, although that is certainly not fun. I just hate the time it takes to do it. I always feel like I could be doing something so much more fun.

4. Politics – I hate it. Can't we just vote and get it over with? Teaching 6^th grade is lovely – political thoughts from 12-year olds. . . Scary thought, right? I've decided that if somebody running for office can't tell me why I should vote for him/her without telling me how bad, evil, and rotten the other person(s) are, I don't want to vote for them. . .Oh I guess that means I don't get to vote at all ever again! That's a joke, of course, I'll vote – can I vote D) none of the above??

5. Nora Roberts – Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors. I accidently picked up a book of hers that I've already read and started reading it the other day in a weak moment. I know, I know, I should be reading chapters and articles on the organization of information and managing information organizations. I am, I am, but I just have to read something more fun. I love how she (Nora Roberts) writes trilogies because I like the people in them and one book just isn't enough. I love that the women in her books are always bright and funny, not stupid and bland. These are women I'd like to hang out with, seriously. In addition, her men. . . Sorry, drifted off there for a minute. There are such good stories in her books. I can't believe how prolific she is, and how many books she manages to write. My sister once said that inside my head must be a scary place, because of the way things just pop out of my mouth. I'd like to take a peek inside Nora Robert's head. . I can't imagine how she manages to create all these characters and keep them straight and yet still give them so much personality. BTW, the book I'm re-reading (for the third time I think) is Blood Brothers. It is part of the Sign of Seven Trilogy, the second book "The Hollow" came out in March. Book three "The Pagan Stone" comes in December, hopefully after the FSU semester is over. That's probably an all night, get it read it right away book.

All right, enough random thought for now. Chapters and articles are glaring at me from across the desk. To work, to work!