1) Official Teaching Assignment - It's official now. Next year I will be teaching a grade 5 class half of their subjects (English, music, phys ed.) and the other half will be phys ed. prep coverage for grades 2-5! Yay!


2) Price-d Out - When I was watching Montreal with a slim lead over Boston during the third period of their game 7 I knew in my head Boston was done. Why? Because Carey Price was in the net, and he was reminding me of how he played at the Olympics. Calm. Steady. Unbeatable. But then he got injured in the first game against N.Y. and its been nothing but an adventure for Les Habitants. Currently we have our back up to the back up, Dustin Tokarski from Watson, Sk, in the net. While it's great to see Dusty between the pipes, I have another solution.

Bell Centre Announcer: Please welcome our starting goalie... and anthem singer... 

Ms. Ginette Reno!

3) House - We're heading over to look at a house today. There's probably only a 100-1 chance of us buying it... but your saying there's still a chance? I s'pose. Not hopeful though.

Update: I wrote that yesterday. The house was a 1982 special. No updates done whatsoever. Asking price of $219,000. Yeesh. No thank you. Not a big brown shag carpet kind of guy. Nor rotting decks. Nor archways leading into the shower.


4) Teeth - Yesterday I went back to the dentist for my last visit. After two more fillings I am now all finished! Thankfully you can't see the drool from my mouth. Ouch! But finally I'm done! I'm going to have a nice big steak to celebrate! More like a glass of luke-warm water while using a straw.


5) Weird Chuckle #1 I always chuckle over psalm 49 during evening prayer: "with the harp I will solve my problems." Oh? With the harp? I think that verse means more than the literal sense. Unless you're Lutheran, of course.


6) Weird Chuckle #2 - Our boys have, at various times, been very sporadic in the pooping department. Now if you don't think there is such a thing as a pooping department, you've obviously never had kids. Joseph once went 11 days sans poop. He then proceeded to "empty the tomb" at the then Easter vigil. Very symbolic. Well his baby brother is following in his older brother's poopsteps. He will go days at a time all too content on bringing stuff into his body, and not out. This leads to a very frustrated mother who occasionally yells out in despair: "Poop John Paul!" I always get a chuckle out of it.

I know, grow up right.


7) Weight lifters - Thank you to Buff Dude and Furious Pete for teaching me new exercises via your youtube channels. With names like that, how could there be anything but success?!


8) Kiss my Hand - So the Pope kisses someone's hand and there's another uproar.

1...2...3...YAWN. This story is pretty bizarre, and if nothing else it illustrates how divided Catholics are. If you are unaware, lifesitenews reported that the Pope kissed the hand of a gay-activist priest. The priest then handed the pope a copy of his book which, although I've never read it (or heard of this priest), I can probably guess that the book has to do with his activism for the gay ideology.

Now the Pope can kiss any hand he wants (well, please not mine, it probably has baby spit up on it). Yet people are in an uproar. Some are saying how dare he welcome in such a scandalous priest. Some say the Pope is simply welcoming sinners, just like Jesus. Such charity! But then... wouldn't that be judging the person? And who are we to judge? And was the priest being repentant, or acting out an agenda? And was the Pope agreeing with him (of course not)? Totally bizarre. Now had the Pope kissed the priest's hands but also rejected his book, that would have said something! Oh well. Move on. I'm over it.


9) Mr. Millette Day - That's right. I teach my various classes on alternate days. These days are known by many of the students as Mr. Millette Days. This morning a mother of a grade five child I teach was giving me feedback about yesterday.

Mom: "How was your day?"
Grade 5er: It was the worst Mr. Millette Day ever... he made us waltz.

Mean Mr. Millette.

10) Token picture of Joseph - Nothing like doughnuts in the park.

3 Up, 3 Down - May 25th

I just watched the Jays win their 5th in a row, so that inspired me to put out another 3 Up, 3 Down segment. In my usual positive manner, I will start with a negative so that I can end on a positive. Truth be told, though, it's easier for me to begin by thinking of something negative.


1 Down - Catechism
I suppose this is both an Up and a Down. But anyway, I've postponed confirmation and first communion for my catechism class. As I predicted back in January, they're just not ready. Anything they know about the faith has come from me teaching them (scary, hey). Long story short, although I really like the kids, they're not ready.

Now that darn devil has really tried to get at me for this. Whispering words such as "you're depriving the sacraments from them... how dare you take away grace from them?... look, their parents will be angry with you... and Father too..." It makes a guy afraid about such a decision. But fear, and the desire for false peace, cannot rule such decisions. In the end, if they have the sacraments now, I'll never see them in the church again. But, I know with more time, there will be a far greater chance of something building. Take that you devil. And, by the way, apparently Fr. is over the moon happy with my decision. He's been pretty pumped that finally something is being done the right way rather than the hippy way. Still though. Lots of opportunity to suffer.


1 Up - Corner Gas
Corner Gas movie? Oh yeah! They start filming in a month. My grade five class was pretty pumped too. We're working on a pop culture research project and nearly half the class is researching Corner Gas characters. One of the girls in my class, Laci, tells me she's closely related to Brent Butt (the star, from Tisdale). She sees him quite often at family get togethers. She also tells me that the character Lacy (the owner of the Ruby) was named after her. I would probably need to verify that from her parents, but there's a good chance what Laci says is true. Actually, seeing as I teach nearly 200 students, many have told me that they're related to Brent. But they all ask me the same thing. "Why is his last name Butt?" No wonder he's so funny. You'd have to be with that last name.


2 Down - House
Searching for a quality budget-friendly house in Tisdale is like searching for a good Jesuit. Pretty hard to come by. Almost non existent, really. So we wait, rather impatiently. As one friend at work told me, it's either mansions or crack-shacks in Tisdale.


2 Up - Teaching position
I unofficially announce to you that my scheduled grade four teaching assignment may or may not be changing next year. Ok, it's definitely probably changing, perhaps. But this unofficial, ok. Let's just say I'll be pretty happy about what it is. If it ever becomes official, that is.


3 Down - Strike?
CFL players strike? Are you serious? That seems to be where we're headed. NOOOOO!!!! I think CFL football is the one sport I could not live without. But those greedy players want raises all the way up to an average of beyond $92,000/year. Such greed! For what? Sacrificing your body and even your family for half of a year? Ok, they're not that greedy. But still though, the CFL ain't rich, and the players need to understand that. And my constant purchasing of Rider gear pays their salary!


3 Up - Summer
Lame, but I'll end on it. Summer is here. Sorry, I'll say that again. SUMMER IS HERE! It's been 25+ degrees the past several days. Ridiculously hot. So hot our van's a/c decided to stop working ($igh). But it's so nice to sit outside. The mosquitoes haven't even shown up yet either! You should see Joseph! You bring him outside and he can't stop running around! He's in disbelief too that he wears shorts all day, and not just for a workout. And just yesterday we taught him to stand up and pee against a tree! Well, that's a work in progress actually. You see, he was sitting in his little kiddy pool when he announced that he had to pee. So Becca told him to pee against a tree. I sat in disbelief as Becca tried to teach him how to pee standing up. Awkward. It wasn't working. Sheesh! Never leave a girl to do a man's job. So a few minutes later Joseph announced that he had to pee again. Finally it was my turn! Now Joseph might not have it all down pat yet, but at least he's on the right track. You know, he's not spot on... but he's aiming for success...

On that note, I must go...   to you know where...

Spring Update

Are you dying to know how we're doing and what's new in our life? Really? Good, because I figured it was high time I do one of my specialty blogs that involve a lot of pictures and some words about us.

Spring has finally come to the prairies. Oh boy, oh boy. Despite our long, long Winter last year at this time we'd been out in shorts and tee's for a while now and even did a photo op with Joseph shirtless. This year... um, no. 

We put on shorts for the first time yesterday morning. Because it's been so long since he's experienced anything but Winter garb, Joseph was totally taken aback. "Are we working out? Exercising?" he asked. Then, touching and gazing at his own little spindly legs, "Look, LEGS!" He just couldn't get over it that we were going to wear them all day and outside.

As we've put everything Winter away, he's been a little confused and keeps asking where the snow has gone. But, given the first semi-warm day last week he was ready to haul out his little pool and fill it up with water. Yeah right, buddy.

We usually get lots of prairie flooding in the Spring. We didn't have as much snow this year, so the flooding initially wasn't that bad. But then when it melted and snowed, melted and snowed a few more times we had some significant little lakes in the fields all the way from Tisdale to Nipawin.

Every visit to Grandpa and Grandma's for a while meant bringing along rubber boots and only getting out of the van when we'd donned them. Mud and water everywhere. The horse pen in Nipawin was, literally, a beautiful little lake. On our visit there with Aunty Bridget, Joseph was delighted to get the little blow-up boat out with Grandpa and paddle around. 

I know that Dan's mentioned it briefly, but I think it deserves more attention. We're beyond thrilled that he has a full-time permanent position teaching for the Fall. Our only little disappointment is that we're still far from Saskatoon and our beloved Latin Mass. But, so far, it seems like God's will is that we're stuck in Tisdale for a while longer. 

Speaking of Dan, it's been so wonderful for me that he's less-than-full-time right now. Since John Paul was born, Joseph and Dan get up every morning and often I'm in bed with the baby much longer. Dan's also been leaving later for work every day and often getting his exercising done in the morning, so we have more family time (and more help for me) every night. Plus, he still comes home for lunch every day and usually does the dishes for me. Yep, I know, I'm super lucky!

Now that we're stuck settled in Tisdale for the time being, we're also on a house hunt. We're buying a house! What?! Really? Only if we can find one, that is. 

We found out about Dan's job the day before John Paul was born and knew then that we'd be in the market. But, of course, it took weeks for us to be anywhere near ready to begin looking. One night Dan showed me this beautiful (huge) house for sale online that was sort of in our price range. We decided to call the Realtor! I drove by the house the next morning and was going home to make the call when... I saw a big SOLD sign on the lawn. Lesson learned: don't set your hopes on things of this world, Becca.

The house hunt continues, but as this is a small town, and as there are far fewer homes for sale than there were last year, and as none really pique our interest thus far, we haven't even gone to see any yet. Time will tell!

I know! I know! You're dying for baby news and pictures, right?

Our little John Paul isn't so little anymore. He's now 7 weeks old. And at our 6 week doctor's appointment last week he weighed in at a whopping 11 lbs. 2 oz. "Wow! You make some big babies," my doctor commented. Yes, it's true! 

John Paul is such a delight... most (some) of the time! He's been smiling now for a few weeks, but just in the last week or so added the most gorgeous little cooing and ahhing to the mix. His open-mouthed smiles and sparkling eyes let you know he's laughing even if the sound doesn't come out. 

And he is so chubby! I've always loved chubby babies. Somehow they are just more edible and squishy. Okay, I'm getting carried away here. A few times already, I've gone to put on an outfit for the first time and discover that it's not much longer for this boy. He's been wearing 3 month clothing for a few weeks already and some of that is almost too small!

We went through a few weeks of fussy colic, but now seem to be mostly on the other side. Unfortunately for me, this means I'm back to some major cut backs in the food department as I was with Joseph. As I was telling Dan, it's not just like offering up one treat for Lent, it's like giving up all the good stuff. All dairy, onions, pickles, corn... and did I say dairy? But, truth be told, it's all worth it in the end to have a happy non-screaming baby. And when he smiles and talks to me... oh, I feel like I'll die I'm so in love with this little man.  

On Our Bookshelf, Vol. 2

I thought it was about time to add to our blog list of books we're reading. Before John Paul came along, we were going to the library every week. Since then, it's been a bit more sporadic and just this week John Paul made his first-ever trip with us. We love books and we'll make him a book-lover too!

Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler - If you read popular Catholic blogs, you're probably familiar with Jen Fulwiler. She's an atheist to Catholic convert who blogs at the National Catholic Register and on her own Conversion Diary. I'm not actually a regular to either of Jen's blogs, but I do occasionally like to peruse them. Her book chronicling her conversion to Catholicism recently came out and Dan bought it for me for Mother's Day. 

Wow! I didn't expect to like Something Other Than God as much as I do (I'm almost done it!). Using C.S. Lewis' quote that "human history... [is] the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy," Jen sets off to tell her own personal search for God in a gripping story. And that's really what it is: simply, a story. But one so fascinating and well-written that it's really, really hard to put down. Jen's conversion to Catholicism, along with her husband, only came after intense research, debate, and personal examination. She and her husband were grappling with the Catholic pro-life stanch on abortion and contraception at precisely the time she was diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis while pregnant with their second child. Her husband, a lawyer, read the legal documents of one Carhart (the late-term abortionist) case and they both decided they could not be pro-choice after the horrors they read. Meanwhile, doctors told her she needed to get a permanent plan for contraception (or, better yet, sterilization)and not have any more kids because of the DVT and... well, I haven't gotten that far yet, but I know they now have 6 kids. 

I highly recommend this read and if you live close, I'll even lend you the book!


Busiest People Ever and others by Richard Scarry - If you've never read Richard Scarry, go out right now and find a copy at your library! Actually, I hear they're a little hard to find and the ones we own, as well as the ones at our local library, are older (falling apart) editions.

Dan and I grew up reading about Busytown people and Joseph is just loving them too! He will spend hours just pouring over the pictures. How could you not? There are disasters left, right, and centre. There are cute, lovable little animal characters like Mr Frumble, Sargent Murphy, Bananas Gorilla, Mr Gronkle, and Vanderbuilt who show up in every story. There are stores, trucks, bikes, and other vehicles everywhere. The hustle and bustle of Busytown is sure entertainment for kids and parents.

The Restless Flame and other books by Louis de Wohl - So many people, saints and otherwise, report being inspired to be a better person by reading the lives of the saints. More than spiritual dissertations, the Catechism, and, even sometimes, the Bible, the real-life story of a saint struggling to follow Christ is perhaps one of the best ways to realize that I too can get to heaven.

I recently finished reading de Wohl's novel about St Augustine, The Restless Flame. As with his many other novels of the lives of the saints, it was a gripping tale. De Wohl combines facts already known of the saint's life along with other fictional details of his own making, twisting it all together in a very realistic, beautifully written novel. Usually, the life of the saint is told through the eyes of a fictional or semi-fictional character who comes into contact with the saint; in this way, the saint may not be the main character of the story, but in the end the saint affects the lives of all the other characters so deeply that he or she is in fact the main character. I have never been so interested in the saints as in reading his books. You get the feeling that you are akin to the characters and, in seeing their faults and how they overcome them, that you too can strive for holiness. De Wohl is surely the best of the best! 

When You Can't Just Let it Go

Today I was teaching some grade twos my usual arts ed. The kids were copying some stuff off the board. Most were done actually, and I was impatiently waiting for the last few stragglers to finish up. Not wanting to waste time doing nothing, I asked the students to sing me a song. Two of the girls then began singing shyly but sweetly. Some of the other girls in class then joined in. I asked what they were singing. They said it was a song from the movie Frozen. Being curious, I quickly loaded up the song on youtube and we watched the scene from the movie that they were singing. This youtube version also had the lyrics on the bottom so that kids can sing along. And so, I turned on the song "Let it Go."

It was a rousing rendition. Though some of the boys sang along, it was the girls who gave everything they had. They were flapping their arms dramatically, singing with proper dynamics and tempo. Everything they had went into that song. I just sat and took it all in. The song started off as a typical modern day kid's movie song. There's a girl. She's fed up with the status quo. She wants to break free. Get away from what people say she must be. Be her own person. Blah blah blah.

Then some words in the song jumped out at me:

It's time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through

No right, no wrong, no rules for me

I'm free

When the song finished the girls glowed with joy and fulfillment. I told them they sang beautifully. They beamed back. I then suggested to them that maybe not everything they were singing in the song was good. Oh their faces dropped! They looked like I had just kicked their little puppies. These girls love their little puppies.

That's it, puppies! I wrote the above lyrics on the board. Then I told the girls that I was going to go and kick all of their puppies. They looked at me in shock and protested loudly. "What? Why!" Nevertheless, I insisted! I told them that they just told me there were no rules for me. That there was no right and wrong. That I was truly free! And by golly I want to go kick their dumb little puppies! Kick them far! More loud protests ensued. Then I broke in with my point. I explained the importance of realizing what we are singing about. Are there rules for a good reason? Is there right and wrong? If you say there is no right, then how can that very statement be right? Are we free when we run around fearing what will happen because there are no rules? Basic basic stuff. And you know what? The girls understood what I was saying. I just fear that up until that point they believed those lyrics, in a childish dreamy sort of way, and that nobody had told them otherwise. Up until today. Clearly to be a parent nowadays you have to be ever vigilant. I shudder thinking about raising Joseph and John Paul in these morally deprived days.

Sometimes you can't just let things go.

"The truth will set you free."

The Best Houseguest

My sister, Bridget, spent 6 days visiting us at the beginning of May. Actually, in all it was only 5 full days total. Short and sweet. But, seriously, she is the best houseguest ever. Want to know why?

She is a chef. No, really. She just graduated from chef school. She will cook and bake for you.

She is hugely entertaining for little boys. Lego house master builder.

She can burp my own baby way better than I can.

She just does stuff. Washes dishes, folds laundry, sweeps floors, racks leaves, changes diapers, reads stories.

She sings and dances. And gets little people singing and dancing.

And on and on.

5 days wasn't long enough, but we tried to fit in some fun stuff...

We took Bridget to Nipawin. 

We went to the Melfort pool.

We went walking on the trails.

We had a girls afternoon and went shopping, such as it is, around Tisdale and for coffee at our new little coffee shop.

We took her to walking around the river in Saskatoon.

Her visit was perfectly timed to coincide with Dan's silly Student-led-Conferences when he has to be gone all evening. Having Bridget around was way more than the extra set of hands that I was needing. 

One of Bridget's favourite memories from her visit, I'm sure, will be waking up to a little boy standing over her mattress on the floor staring at her. "It's time to get up Aunty Bridget! Let's go to Nipawin." Joseph was delighted to cook, bake, and wash dishes with Bridget. And, of course, she would sit for as long as he liked reading stories. Long after she left, Joseph kept asking where Aunty Bridget went, despite being with us when we dropped her at the airport. Now he wants to go on the airplane to visit her!

Prize for Best Mother's Day Card

Dan has a little bit of a reputation making cards. Yesterday, being Mother's Day and all, I was treated to only the best. Only the best for this mom. See for yourself!

The front:

 Inside: "Just kidding! It's empty" and "You should check our real diapers though!"

 The Back:

#imnotcool

It's time to point out the obvious. That's about all I do on this blog anyway. Today the obvious is: ending statements on twitter, and for some reason facebook, with a hashtag is frightfully annoying. #buggingme  #getalife  #excommunicatetrudeau

I never paid much attention to it before. I'm told that on twitter people will do a hashtag somethingerother to have other groups or people become aware of what was just tweeted, because we're all supposed to care. So now after nearly every statement a hashtag, most of them seemingly made up on the spot, is provided. 

For instance:

Happy Mother's Day!  #numberonemom  #imabettersonthanyou  #flowerstoreopentoday?"

Ok, fine. If it feels good, do it.

But recently these hashtags have been showing up on facebook. I would guess that a person can send out a tweet and update his/her facebook status all at the same time. Thus, facebook is now being inundated with hashtags. But I answer that if we can put a man on the moon, can we not figure out a way to have the facebook status not include the hashtag?  #whodoesthis? #annoyedwithgeeks

The real reason, of course, that hashtags bug me is that they make me feel like I just don't belong.  #imnotcool  #hashtagsaredivisive  #firstworldproblems  Nowadays if I update my facebook status I feel tempted to add a hashtag about my house being messy, or having a good workout, or about the quality of my underwear. You know, because everyone should care about this. If the twits, or whatever they're called, on twitter can be this important, why can't I?  #imspecialtoo  #weareallspecial  #nobodysnotspecial

I can only imagine what history would've been like had twitter and the hashtag been around from the beginning.

God:

Let there be light!  #darknessscattered  #heavensopenedup  #usecflbulbs

Moses:

Let my people go!  #stickintoaserpant  #plaguecity  #youwishjoshua

Jesus:

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  #apostlesarelost  #cometome  #iamtruthpontiuspilate

St. Francis of Assisi: 

Preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words.  #dumbidea  #lol  #mutesunite  #mendicantsarethebomb

Abraham Lincoln:

Fourscore and seven years ago... #fourscoremeanseighty  #historyinthemaking  #goingtothetheatreafter

In the end, once again this life doesn't make since. We all think that the world must care about what we're thinking. But then we limit this thought to 140 characters or less. But then we need context, so we hashtag something to sort of provide context. But then the hashtag is extended beyond the context in which it was created for. And those who see the hashtag outside of its context and don't know what it's about feel like they need some context on why it's there. 

And at what point do hashtags need their own hashtags to explain what they mean? Can there be a hashtag to a hashtag? Sigh. "The hunter has become the hunted! The fox has become... the fox... that has caught itself!"

Sorry, you probably need some context for that last quote. Hang on... here we go:

#cornergasline  #hankisfunny  #aroundandaroundwego

...

#weareallstupid

Points to Ponder - May Edition

What, no blog in over a week from Canada's favourite blog?

Or maybe just Saskatchewan's favourite?...

Tisdale's favourite?...

How about the favourite blog to come from north central Tisdale?

1) On that note, let's begin with a suggestion. To honour our town slogan I think it's only proper to rename our blog along the lines of: rapeandhoney.blogspot.com. Or maybe that domain name is already taken.


2) My teaching assignment for next year is official. I'll be teaching grade four. I have mixed feelings about this. Namely, grade four is one of the few grades left that I have never taught anything from. Therefore, all new planning is required. Also, I initially was supposed to teach a combination of grade 5 ELA (English Language Arts) and phys ed., but that has been changed due to a shifting of teachers in the school division. So I'm a little sad to leave a phys ed. position, though my principal said she'll try and work it so I can teach my grade 4s phys ed.

Nevertheless, if you asked me a year ago if I would like a full-time permanent position teaching grade four here, I would have been ecstatic. So there you go! We're very blessed. Plus, grade four is not grade one, or even kindergarten! I most likely won't have kids running to show me what they picked out of their nose. Hopefully not.


3) Speaking of teaching, it's funny to think of teaching in the old one-room schoolhouse days. Obviously the older kids helped the younger kids out, and the teacher had a little more free-reign to teach as he/she deemed necessary. But nowadays, since almost nobody ever fails, we're unknowingly returning to that model. For instance, next year I will have at least one student in my class who reads and counts at a level below many of the kindergartners. I will also have a student who thinks and reads at a grade 7 level. And then I'll have every level in between. So even in a grade four position I will be spanning out eight grades. But it's not about what's best for each child. It's simply all about inclusion these days. Every child needs to be included in his/her grade, whether or not that's best for them.

4) The NFL Draft begins tonight! Who cares!?! Well, I do have a soft spot for the draft. You see, back in the day when I used to drive home all alone from Ontario to Saskatchewan every year (following university being done) I would need something to listen to. Wouldn't you know it, my drive would always coincide with the NFL draft, which then ran all day Thursday and Friday. So I listened to it on my Sirius radio ESPN station. It would involve about 5 hours of pre-draft analysis. Then each team would get 15 minutes to pick. So a team would pick. There'd be 5-10 minutes of analysis on that pick. Then a commercial break. Then 5 or so minutes of analysis on who they thought the next team would pick. And repeat over and over, for two days. At night time there would be expert opinions on who won the draft, and then call in shows with fan opinion.

Yeppers, good times.


5) I hope I don't get served a lawsuit from the NFL over using their logo. They're like that, you know.


6) Whoever coined the phrase: "sleeping like a baby"? That person must have never had a baby.


7) Today is also the March for Life in Ottawa. To celebrate, Justin Trudeau said yesterday that he will not allow pro-life candidates to run for office with the liberal party. Once again I hope (against all hope) that our bishops will come out strongly against this.

Who raised this guy anyway?

7) This past Sunday we had to drive Becca's sister Bridget to the airport. Though the flight wasn't until 5pm, we got up at 5:30am and drove to Saskatoon in order to attend the Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form). Quite frankly, it's the only truly beautiful Mass in the province that I've seen. Oh the young families there! Children everywhere!


8) At the Mass we chanced to see a certain Alyssa Golob there. She is the youth coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition, and a frequent guest on SUN T.V. She's made quite the name for herself out there. But, I still remember her as the girl I used to give "warnings" to (yes, scare quotes indeed) while at the Academy. I was the Resident Assistant and, under that pathetic structure of student life governance, was charged with policing my fellow students on things such as dress code and not washing dishes. So I remember giving Alyssa many warnings, mainly for her talking too loudly in the hallway while classes were going on. I guess all that talking is being channeled the proper way. Meanwhile, I'm still giving warnings to kids talking in the hallways. Some things never change.


9) Though it's still not summer yet (nor barely spring), the roads have finally melted enough to allow me to go jogging. It feels so good!

And no, I can't run listening to Jann Arden. Sorry if that's insensitive.

10) Ah 10, the perfect biblical number. Well, that and 3, 7, 12, 40, 50 and 144,000. 10 represents the law. I am reminded of how in the Old Testament God used to smite those who disobeyed him, as a form of punishment. Nowadays He just sends us liturgists....