History Today

The God in control yesterday is still in control today.  He was not elected and He cannot be dethroned!  

That statement came from a respected friend's Facebook status, posted this morning.  How true those words are.  Regardless of my opinions and viewpoints, God knew the results of the election before the first vote was ever even cast.  His plans are much greater than mine, and HE is in control.  Far be it from me to question or doubt His divine wisdom.

Regardless of my political preference, or my candidate choice, or my thoughts on things, I serve a great God who promises to "cause all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) I think these things are something that we all need to keep in perspective, whether we supported Obama, McCain, or another candidate altogether.

As for me, I will respect the authority God has put before me, and I will trust Him, because He is the King of Kings.

Life

JOB: I haven't really talked much about my "new" job (not that it's new anymore), so let me just fill you in on things.  I LOVE being a Wildcat again.  As I mentioned in my post "Blessed" at the beginning of the school year, I truly am blessed to be at Central.  As much as I loved Zachary, I am ecstatic about my job now.  I am so much happier in general.  I feel less stressed, and I am getting more time with Parker, and it's also really fun to "go to school" with my sister.  I have a great boss, great coworkers, and I am really loving teaching English III.  I was really nervous since I hadn't ever taught juniors before, but I am having a blast.  Dawn and I work really well planning together, and Rachel's experience with English III helps us out so much too. (They're the other junior teachers.)

PARKER: Parker is doing SO well, as you have probably read on her blog.  She is such a sweet, happy little girl.  Right now, she is talking to me and eating fish sticks! (and sharing them with Jackson, haha) I am truly blessed to have such a great little girl who brings so much joy to so many people.

TRENT: Today is Trent's 26th birthday!  Happy birthday to him!  He is, of course, glad that it's hunting season and that the grass doesn't have to be cut as often, etc.  I continue to feel blessed to be married to him.

CHURCH: We also recently started going to a community group with our church.  We have wanted to be a part of a group for so long, but it hadn't worked out until recently.  We are so excited to meet with our friends at Cody and Brittany's each Tuesday.  I am really grateful to be a part of a small group Bible study again.  It's so encouraging, and it's really fun to be a part of a group who come from so many different places of life.  Newlyweds, married for a while, engaged, dating, single mom, foster parents, etc.  God really knit together a unique group of people to study His word and live out "Community" together.  I love it!

MY HEART: God has still been heavily placing adoption and related topics on my heart.  I follow several "adoption" blogs, and I get so excited about the things God is doing in this area.  We continue to pray about when we will hopefully adopt!  November is "Adoption Awareness Month," so expect to hear adoption related things on my blog over the next few weeks! 

Homecoming

Well, I survived my first CHS Homecoming as a teacher.  There are pictures on Parker's blog, and more to come soon.  I am SUPER proud of my sister for winning Homecoming queen.  Parker dressed up in a mini version of the Kittens' silvers (the dance team at CHS) and was super cute for the HC game! I've been really busy with work, watching CC play volleyball, and keeping up with Parker! 

I'll update again soon.. something a little more thought provoking.

Gustav

Well, we survived Gustav.  We were really concerned about getting water in our house, because our ditch in the front yard has been backing up/overflowing into our yard after just a big rain.  Fortunately, unknown to us at the time, some neighbors had done some digging in the major drainage ditch on our street, and water drained off quite nicely.  We had a shutter blow off the house, a few shingles gone, and a few of our neighbors' fences went down, but all in all, we were very fortunate.  We lost power around 1:10 on Monday afternoon, and it was restored Wednesday night around 9:00 or so. (Not positive when exactly, since we were at Trent's brother's with the generator and window a.c. units.)

I have really been in awe of the amount of damage Baton Rouge has sustained.  For us, this was so much worse than Katrina, yet the national media keeps reporting things to the effect of "Louisiana really dodged a bullet on this one..."  Sure, there were no major levee breaches, and not thousands of deaths due to Gustav, but it has definitely impacted our state and the city of Baton Rouge in dramatic ways.  I have never seen lines to get gas so long...  or so many trees down (and on top of houses).  I know it will take a while to "recover" from this.  My parents are still without power- and as of right now, have no estimate on when it will be restored.

But, God was faithful, and protected our family.  Even though some of my family members have pretty extensive roof damage, trees down, etc., noone in the family was hurt in any way.  Thank God for his protection.

Blessed!

To say the very least, I was EXTREMELY nervous about starting my job at Central.  However, I have been reminded EVERY day about how great God's blessings are.  It has been such a smooth transition for me.  I love my department, I love my administration, and I love (well, at least like) my students.... mostly. : )

The day before classes began, I found out I would no longer be teaching Business English- just 5 sections of English III.  My "duty" is to be the "Yearbook Advisor."  Basically, what this means is that I will proof the yearbook & help out as needed/as I want without having the full responsibility.  I LOVE it.  The yearbook teacher/sponsor is amazing and I think the yearbook will be incredible. I'm glad I get to be a part of it.

I'm still not "back in the routine"... I come home SO exhausted. I'm not used to the whole "wake up at 5:30" thing yet.  I miss my friends at Zachary SO much, but I know that I am right where God wants me to be.

Finished Classroom

MY CLASSROOM FINALLY LOOKS LIKE A CLASSROOM!! (and not a storage closet!)

HUGE thanks to my Mom, Dad, Grandmother, sister, Maw Maw and Paw Paw (for keeping Parker), and the CHS volleyball team (especially Coach Michelle and Coach Blanchard) for all of their help today! We finally got yearbooks, computers, etc. moved out and my classroom organized how I want it! Here are my "final product" pictures...

Make-up work board next to the door

Side wall

a view of the room from the door... note that cabinets are moved, desks are organized, and THERE ARE NO YEARBOOKS!

My "movie posters" from Erica... hard to see them, but they are for The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, and A Raisin in the Sun.

Cabinets/computers

My desk.. now in the front corner of the room

My rules/consequences... I prefer "Expectations" and "Alternatives"

A few "in progress" pics...

BEFORE:
(Please note that the stacks of books are actually two deep.)

AFTER:
Everything in the bottom half of this cabinet is to be thrown away. Yes, there was that much useless material in here!! (I'm pretty sure the scanner & printer in top shelf are trash-able too!)


BEFORE:


AFTER:

(above)I swapped out the Farm Animal border for my books... they actually run the length of the chalkboard. And of course, my favorite poster in my classroom.... the "Warning" sign!
(below) This board is directly to the right of my chalkboards (which I still plan to replace with dry-erase boards eventually). I will post sports team schedules, announcements, etc. on this one.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This board has different words that are "themes" of American literature and American history as a whole... here's a close-up of a few. Others include: bravery, honor, freedom, struggle, non-conformists, education...

This is the panel directly to the left of the big "American Dream" bulletin board.