This Week's Great Things

Today I am absolutely loving...

*that I get to see Cash in 2 days.
We are going to the Big D this weekend, and I certainly mean Dallas! Cash got us reservations at this really neat hotel, and I can't wait to tell you all about it next week.

our first play!

*that we took our students to see the play "Letters to Home" yesterday at the PAC. 

"Letters to Home"

By the end I had chills all over my body and was at a total loss for words. I totally concur with the feelings these soldiers had about the Middle East. However, I am not naive to think that my time there was as hurtful and painful as theirs. But living there, breathing that hot air, feeling that sand all over my body--it gives me a brand new appreciation for our veterans.

*that my name got drawn for a free book today from our book fair!

Ten True Tales

I was so excited all day, because I thought I got to pick out my book. I spied The Help yesterday and was going to go get it, but they laughed at me (all in good fun!). I did get to pick my book, but I had to pick from a selection. ha! Oh, well. I got a double sided Ten True Tales non-fiction book about Iraq and Afghanistan for my history lovers. It was free. I teach Social Studies. And I won---I don't care if it's dominoes, a national championship, or a book--I love winning!

*that the school is providing our dinner.

Merle's

Now, I'm being super optimistic about working until 7:00 tonight. It's our fall Parent/Teacher Conferences. I love seeing the parents, but it is a super long day in the world of education. Word on the street (or the teacher's lounge) is the Merle's Steakhouse (the finest dining in Alma, Arkansas) is catering our dinner. Hip...hip...HIP HIP HOORAY! Someone better not have been pulling my long legs.


*that my students are so pumped about Current Event Fridays.
Every teacher wants to instill a love of their subject into a child. And I would say every subject has its place in one's life. But to me Social Studies is so important because it gives us the underlying cause of why things are the way the are in the world, what is going on in the world today, and how it can be changed if need be. I love (LOVE) the fact that the subject I teach is key in changing the world. Holy cow, y'all. Holy cow!

Well, on Fridays I always have my students bring in any current events they've read, seen, or heard about over the course of the week. Not only do I have students mad when I miss work on Fridays to go to Texas because they got "ripped off" on current events that week, but I have students now petitioning for a Politics Club. My principal approved it, and yours truly is now leading that. I love politics. I love my students. And I really, really love when my students love politics and current events!

*that God has blessed Cash and I so much in our relationship and that he continues to grow us together.

I love white churches!

When Cash and I started dating, I'm not sure if I had ever met a real life Lutheran before. I knew nothing of the denomination. But I ask him questions, and I became really curious as it is so different from my Baptist upbringing. Coming from a blended family of Baptists and Pentecostal, we had some soul! You know what I mean? We clapped. We raised our hands. We even (when I went with my grandparents) got a little Holy Ghost.

But Lutherans, they don't get the Holy Ghost or raise their hands or even clap. At first this was foreign to me. I didn't know really how to worship there. But I have realized that it's not in the presentation of the service, it's in the heart of the person in the service. For Cash having traditions and taking communion is reverent and what he loves. For me it has always been praise and worship and a message that convicts you deep inside. I think both are great now, and that has been something the Lord has been working on: the art of finding a church and a belief together.

I've been attending a couple different Methodist churches. This past Sunday a young couple our age was called to the front. The preacher announced that they were getting married and had recently joined the church: she by the way of the Baptist church and he by the way of the Lutheran church. I looked at my friend with my jaw on the floor, and I couldn't help but smile knowing God was certainly doing the same thing for us. He doesn't call us to be Lutheran, Baptist, or any other denomination. He calls us to worship and love Him, and when we find that one person He made for us; well, He wants us to worship and love Him still. I'm so thankful God is proving yet again that He does take care of us. He brought Cash and I together, He'll continue to bless us as we begin to worship together.

*that election year is upon us.

Democrat

Republican

*that my dad invited me to go see Courageous with him tomorrow.

so ready to see this with the parentals!

*that I got to see my niece and nephew Monday night, and we played backyard football until dark:thirty.


*that God gave me a person I love living life with. Nothing in this world even comes close.

I love this man! He is so extraordinarily handsome and has the biggest heart of anyone I know! #soblessed

I know God is blessing your life too. Hope you are getting to see the beauty in all the circumstances. Have a blessed day, beautiful ones. And be thinking about us teachers tonight!

*Avery Jane*