I forgot DANCE!

The last post was getting a bit long.  I didn’t even touch on the teaching part of my life (the biggest part!) We had a field trip on Wednesday and Friday.  Although both academic, it really disrupts our usual learning schedule.  Wednesday was nearly considered a disaster.  Luckily the “field trip” was to the high school to preview the play that the community gets to see this weekend.  So the whole middle school got on buses and made the trip over.  All teachers and administrators were there.  Thank God, because the kids, our 8^th graders, thought they were above every law!  Anyways we survived, and we laugh about it now. 

So this made me very scared for our trip to Des Moines, which was scheduled for Friday.  We were going to see a production at the Civic Center called “Letters Home”.  Departure 10 am, arrive home 3:45pm.  This was going to be a long day, or so I thought.  The kids did great.  After taking away some gum (not allowed for a middle school student to chew gum on middle school time) and forcing kids to put all electronic devices in their locker, the day got much better.  The kids talked and played games all the way down.  The major “trouble makers” decided to sleep during the play, but caused no problems so…I let them, until the one next to me started to snore, I had to do something then. J 

The play was amazing.  It was all letters from various branches of military from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It was pretty powerful and with Veterans Day next week Thursday had great timing! 

The ride home the kids had their naps and were a little louder, but not misbehaving.  One student told me earlier in the week she had a dream that on our field trip I was singing and dancing on the bus, the music stopped and I kept singing.  She thought it was hilarious.  She is also a really great student so I found it funny too.  So when we were riding back she decided to sit by me!  I told her, her dream would come true if the song “Dynamite” came on.  It’s my song!  10 miles from home, the song came on.  I sang my heart out and did some seated dancing (no standing on the bus)  The kids loved it and asked me to share some of my actual dance moves next week in class.  Hmm..hopefully they will forget by Monday. 

“Dance like no one is watching”  or dance like 65 eight graders are watching either way, Dance the days away!

Breath and Dance

Do not freak out.  I had this written down somewhere, probably on a sticky note and it ran out of stickiness and now it is lost forever.  I don’t remember where it came from specifically but I do remember it was from The Message bible.  I love it when God speaks to me, in my language.  

Last week I went to my church on Wednesday night for the usual service called Encounter.  I went there for very selfish reasons.  I was feeling down and decided singing at the top of my lungs and having someone preach to me might get me out of my slums that I had decided to put myself into.  I don’t know if men experience this but I know that as a woman some days I’m in a bad mood, I know it, I do nothing to fix it, I just want to be mad for a while.  Last week Wednesday was one of those days.  So I went to church wanting and nearly demanding that God make sense of everything in my life and make it better, because I was going to church.  Horrible reason I know.  But just to let you know, our wonderful God decided to put me in my place and inform me that I was not taking part in the divine dance with him.   If I wanted to, he would gladly dance with me, but first I need to decide that I want to keep company with God and I will learn from him how to live freely and lightly. Matt 11:28-30 The Message and thus no longer having those days of the slums, or less of them anyways.   After that night I once again realized I needed to make my walk better. 

Today hit the slums again.  After thinking I had things figured out, or the things I want to deal with figured out, the parts of life that I so conveniently push under the rug started to emerge.   #1 the issue of Alltel now switching over to AT&T.  #2 I have the opportunity to possibly change service providers and get off on my own.  Issue #3 (aka the big one) I needed to make a monthly budget.  #4 I hate money! 

I started to talk to my accountant, my best friend who loves money and is good with money.  This is about our fourth conversation in one week dealing with money.  Every time it ends with him saying, you need to make a budget Krystal.  Not in so many words he chooses to be kind.  I also know that my father would say the same thing.  As a matter of fact if he is reading this he may be slightly disappointed to find out I didn’t have on yet.  (Don’t worry dad, it was made prior to writing a blog)

What has life taught me?  Problems don’t go away.  Deal with them sooner rather than later.  Budgets are not scary; they simply knock you on your butt, but will in the end hopefully keep you from drowning in debt.  It is easy to recover from getting kicked on your butt, drowning, although the hope of being able to be revived may be present, it doesn’t usually end up so great. 

Food!  What has life taught me about food.  Buy firm tofu rather than soft if you are a texture person.  That is right I cooked with Tofu!  Not horrible might I add.  I made a stir fry with it.  Allow me to share.

 When you buy tofu it comes in a square, sealed container that has water in it.  You need to cut off the amount that you want and squeeze out the water.  This can be tricky however, I took a portion, put it on a paper towel on a plate.  Took another plate and placed it on top with a can of spaghetti sauce to squeeze.   There is a tool you can buy for this if you become a tofu fan. 

Next cut the tofu into small squares and put it into a skillet with olive oil to sauté it for a bit.  While sautéing the tofu take a bag of frozen stir fry mix and put it into another skillet. I added onions and a bit of garlic to this pan as well. 

When your Tofu is ready about 15-20 min. of being stirred around in the oil, add it to the veggies.  Add your favorite stir fry sauce, I used A taste of Thai Sweet Red Chili Sauce, found at Hy-Vee.  Let it simmer for another 10 min.  BAM a delicious meal!  Oh, oops, while your waiting it might be a good idea to eat the leftover Halloween candy that the trick-or-treaters didn't get. 

Ingredients:

·         Firm Tofu

·         Bag of frozen Stir Fry Veggies

·         Some onions

·         Favorite stir fry sauce

  

“Therefore do not freak out about tomorrow, for tomorrow will probably freak out about itself. Each day has enough problems of its own.  Dance with God today, He will help you with tomorrow.” My interpretation of Matt. 6 :34

Alive and Well!

My grade book tells me it is now week 6!  Where has the time gone?  I have been in Northwest Iowa for the past two weekends, celebrating with two beautiful brides.  Congratulation to the Hoppes and Hartwigs!  As I drove for hours and took in the scenery I was reminded of the beauty that surrounds me every day, the peacefulness of this season, and that there is no place like home.  I had several people say that I looked pretty good for my first month of teaching.  The truth is that I only look alive because I am!  Thank God that despite the fact that every day the hours, tasks, and young firecrackers I work for, kill and exhaust me, BUT I love it and look forward to going back every day.  I have come to the realization that this is exactly what God had planned for me right now in my life and despite the fact that I was trying really hard to plan it out all last spring, his plan was much, much better.  Maybe I will let him plan it out more often.
Cross Country continues to be one of the many highlights to my day.  We had our second meet, it should have been number four but rain limited our already limited number of meets.  The kids did AMAZING! Every single Webster City participant has improved their time and the team continues to impress me with their caring and support for each other.  I have truly been blessed with a great first year.
With this great season upon us I have been trying some new soup recipes and due to the request of Judy I am going to be sharing some of my successes.  Feel free to steal, change and enjoy!
Tortilla Soup

·         1 medium onion

·         3 medium sized tomatoes

·         1 garlic clove

·         ½ jalapeño pepper

Cut all and sauté

·         2 can chicken broth- use low sodium

·         1 can cream of chicken soup

·         1 can black beans

Bring to a boil stirring occasionally
Cut up 4 medium size flour tortilla shells.  Add and heat for about 10 min. 
Serve with sour cream or a slice of avocado.  (optional)
Enjoy!
It looks a bit funny but tastes amazing.

"Worries go down better with soup"- Jewish Proverb

Welcome

For nearly a year now I have wanted to start my own blog.  Several people are now blogging and we use them in the school.  I have felt how difficult it can be to stay in touch with my family and friends, thus the point of my new adventure in blogging. 

After waking up all week at 6:00 my body had no trouble telling me what to do on this last summer Saturday. You guessed it, I was wide awake! So far the early mornings have been no problem simply because I am so excited to get in the car, listen to music and pray for a half hour, only to arrive greeted by friendly, smiling faces and a name plate that lets me know, I’m home. However, a funny story for everyone that shares the name, I have figured out peoples strategy for the tricky (however I’ve never found it to be tricky) spelling, switch it up then you will be right half the time. This was the second attempt the first time it was spelled with an “s”.

I feel a bit more prepared for school to start. When I left NW Iowa on Aug. 9 it took a bit for me to decide if it was really worth it. The nerves were setting in and I had no clue where to begin this giant task of starting a career. Of course I started with the easy, decorating my classroom! Put up pictures, make bulletin boards, organize filing cabinets.

My classroom was originally set up for two teachers to be teaching at the same time. That cannot happen, so now it is all mine. There are two white boards and two teacher desks, one for me and one for my Para Educator. Also a little weird, I am now in charge of a very nice lady who has been aiding teachers for over twenty years, and I am suppose to tell her what needs to be done. She is a wonderful lady and I am so happy to have her help. As of Friday I have 14 students that need special services. I will be providing those services while co-teaching with the other 8th grade teachers. The 8th grade team consists of six other women who are WONDERFUL! Each is very different and each very helpful for this new newbie! I now have five other places to stay in the winter.

Contract hours started last week Monday with new teacher orientation. Webster City Community School District is proud to announce we have 18 new teachers hired. Budget cuts, I don’t think so! The school is so blessed and so highly regarded by the surrounding area and other professionals, I feel I have huge shoes to fill. Followed by a week full of work time and Friday with district meetings.  I know what your thinking, meetings, meetings, meetings that poor girl. Nope. The meetings were great. The positive attitudes that are exhibited by everybody and the support the school receives from the community makes going to these meetings a pleasure. They also feed us like kings, diet...might be difficult this year.



Monday will consist of more meetings and Open House! To meet my students and have the school buzzing with children will probably be the main contributor for no sleep on Monday night.


School starts on Tuesday, August 24 at 8:16! August 24, had commonly been referred to as D-day. Now, it’s the day I was born for, the first day to make a difference in a child’s life. The first day to be a different kind of teacher than what they are use to. A teacher who cares! I will also have the pleasure of helping with Middle School Cross Country. I do not have a coaching certificate but we have a huge number of students in 7th & 8th grade cross country so they have enlisted the help of others. However, the coaching certificate might be right around the corner.


While I am very much in a stage of teaching known as "the fantasy stage", I am sure I will soon be moving to "the survival stage", probably around 8:30 a.m on Tuesday morning. With that being said prayers are always welcome.

Welcome to Fort Dodge! Aside from room 217 this is my primary residence. Fort Dodge is known for its slightly shady area, however, I am please to say we live on a very nice side of town, northeast corner, near all the necessities, Walmart, Target, Hy-Vee and the Mall.

I live with my old college roommate and best friend, Kristin Brodie, who I also refer to as Brodie just for future reference. She is also a first year teacher at St. Edmond High School in Fort Dodge. This is a Catholic school where she teaches high school science and coaches 8th grade volleyball.

We are also happy to say after searching for a few churches we have found one that has hit the top of the list. The search may still continue, however, we can happily say we like attending New Covenant Christian Church of Fort Dodge.

We cannot have pets at this rental so instead of a pet we have a plant. Remember I live with a science teacher so it is not any regular plant, it is a sensitive plant who we named Mike. Mike is technically classified as a Mimosa Pudica. Check them out its pretty cool and nearly fool proof to keep alive.

Now that we know Mike will be alive for the next post, lets hope the same can be said for myself.  First week of school, here I come!

“When you have come to the edge of all life that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing One of Two things will happen. There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. “ —

Patrick Overton