Recent Reasons I Love My Life

Sweet hubs and silly girl

Precious best friend's baby boy

Sweet nieces and little lady

Former students who make me laugh!

Super super silly little girl!

Sweet Students who love my baby girl

Gorgeous sis/awesome aunt

Being a part of an AWESOME school (Homecoming)

Sweet students! Coop!

D'Shea

William

Corey

Being a part of something bigger than myself. Love. Life. Students. Family. Friends. Blessed. Thankful. Undeserving. Amazed.

The Cross

Last night was the first night our community group combined with another group for guys/girls night. We had the incredible blessing of being "paired" with Brandon Hays & Amy Imel's group. Not only was it extremely nice just to see the hearts of some more amazing women, it was just a great night of truth and challenges.

But one statement stuck with me more than anything else. Here's a quote from my lovely friend Leslie that has just pierced my heart today....

"We need to focus on the Cross-- the REALITY of the cross, not the "pretty" cross.

Think about that. I know I will be....

Stream of consciousness...

I. Am. Tired. This week is dragging on.

I love my students. They make me laugh. Smile. Want to pull my hair out. Stifle laughter when I really SHOULDNT let them know I think they're funny. Cry. Sad. Disappointed. Proud of their success. Have a better day. Have a worse day. Want to be a better person. See the good in the small things. See potential in the unlikely. Exhausted.

Parker pretty much cracks me up. She is an absolutely hilarious little girl. She had so much energy, joy, and zest for life. She makes me want to be a better person/mom/friend/etc. She is so smart and loving and sensitive. She's pretty much the best kid ever.

Community group tonight. I love them so much. They are an amazing group of people to walk through life with! And I'm super pumped because tonight is Cohen's first night at cgroup!! It's the first newborn baby for the LP group and I am thrilled!

I'm watching CSI and blogging from my iPhone. By the way, my iPhone doesn't have a name (like several people I know) but if it did... I think it would be Ellie. Ha. Gonna go do something more productive now.

Crazy Love?

I am a reader. I love, love books. But I'm more of a "fiction book" fan because I love a good STORY. But I'm about to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. A little nervous. Slightly intimidated. Ready to be challenged. Anything that is subtitled "Overwhelmed By a Relentless God" is bound to instill a little... shall we say... holy hesitation? I'm already a bit overwhelmed after reading these lines in the Preface: "This book is... for those who don't want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do." and "Come with me on this journey. I don't promise it will be painless." YIKES. We'll see how this goes.

Here's to reading nonfiction. Truth. Challenges.

Football and Blessings

New pics of Parker posted on the family blog...

We went to the Central-Catholic game tonight, but insanely huge crowd + Parker wanting to run around + fear of my car getting stuck as more and more people put ruts in the extremely, extremely muddy parking area= totally stressed out Janee. I love my Cats, but I really, really didn't want to deal with a stuck car at the end of the game when Parker was exhausted and ready to go home. That rain this morning completely destroyed the field where people park at Wildcat Stadium, and I really believe that the longer I stayed, the less likely it would've been for me to get out! So I'm listening to the boys totally run over Catholic High... 53-6 at the end of the 3rd quarter!!! I remember the days where Central simply could. not. beat. Catholic High.

I love teaching at "my" school. Everything is just so much more exciting for me! I am so, so blessed to be in a place where I feel "at home." I love my coworkers, bosses, students... it's such a great place for me to be! I mean, come on, I'm even excited about FOOTBALL! I'm so proud of the football players I taught last year and the ones I'm teaching now. Not only are they great athletes, they are incredible kids! I'm so glad they're doing so well!

So go check out pics of mini-cheerleader Parker on the other blog!