January

My Christmas tree is still up.

I have become one of those people. It's not that I have not crossed over to the insane side of Christmas spirit where you leave your tree up until July only to put it back up in October... I just have not found the time to take it down yet.

As evidenced by the looming, dark tree in the corner, this month has been just a tad busy. I spent the majority of December balancing school and finding a new car (which could be a full time job in itself) and didn't seem to find the time to take the tree down before winter break was over.

I spent my last weekend of break house sitting an adorable puppy named Holly. She was so sweet, but it reaffirmed that I do not want the responsibility of a dog at this point in my life. Cleaning up puppy messes and waking up 3 times in the middle of the night is not my idea of fun.

Jan. 4-15
School started back up the second week of January with a vengeance. We had two professional development days and then the kids came back full of energy and void of any recollection of classroom rules. The following week I packed up my suitcase and moved to my parent's house for 2 weeks of house sitting while they were in Michigan. (So my mom could harvest her stem cells for a transplant for my Uncle Randy-- see my other blog, http://healingrand.blogspot.com/ for updates on his health). The kids continued on with their amnesia resulting in stressful days that left me exhausted. I was out that Wednesday for an all day leadership meeting where we discussed the systems within our school and then analyzed them to see what works, where there are breakdowns and how we can improve them in order to be more effective. We read a few articles and had some great conversations that re-energized me and made me excited to make changes. I returned to the classroom on Thursday and then stayed up into the wee hours of the morning packing and getting ready for my flight Friday morning.

Jan. 16-20
I took Friday-Tuesday off to go to DC for inauguration. I have some wonderful friends who live in DC and they graciously offered their couches and floors to me and a few other friends. The weekend was so much fun and it was so amazing to be in DC for such a huge event. The weekend was packed with fun things, my favorite being the HBO 'We Are One' concert on the mall. It was a star-studded event that included a visit from the (then) president-elect, Barak Obama! It was amazing to be surrounded by so many people and to hear so many amazing artists and actors. (Later in the trip I spotted one of my favorite actors from CSI walking across the street by the Spy Museum--Gary Dourdan. Wow, he is a VERY good looking man!) Unfortunately I did not get to attend the actual inauguration, flights out on Wednesday where twice as much! But Carter and I did get to fly right over at about the time Obama was getting sworn in--Carter got some cool pictures of the masses of people out the plane window.

Jan. 21-25
I returned to school on Wednesday and went to my first PT appointment (b/c of accident/my fractured L5) that afternoon. My parents returned from Michigan on Friday, so my sister and I spent Friday evening with them just relaxing and catching up. After spending a fun evening out with Kelly on Saturday, I packed my things up and went back to my house (for the first time in two weeks). Sunday morning I went to check out the Highlands Pathways church location. Mark Tidd, the pastor of that site, asked me earlier in the week if I would be interested in a job as the Children's Ministry Coordinator for the Highlands, so I agreed to visit on Sunday to see what I thought.

Jan.26-31
On Monday morning I woke up to a ton of snow and the worst commute I have had since living in Denver. Anna called me on her way to work informing me that the roads were not that bad, so I went back to sleep for a few more minutes and didn't worry about the snow. By the time I was ready and out the door it had snowed about 3 inches since Anna had left. I could hardly see 20 feet in front of me and traffic was stopped on I-25. I barely made it to work before the bell rang!

I joined a dodgeball team that plays on Tuesday nights through February, so I went to my first game on Tuesday night. I have not played dodgeball since I was in 8th grade--I think it is safe to say that my skills have SERIOUSLY diminished since then! Oh, I can dodge the ball pretty well, but I don't think I could throw or catch the ball to save my life, or to save my team for that matter. I blame my small hands and my inability to hold that ball. :)

On Wednesday night, I met with Mark to talk about the Children's Ministry position at the Highlands location we had discussed earlier. After hearing his vision for the Highlands location and sharing our beliefs on how best to help the children in the Highlands neighborhood grow in Faith and their relationships with God, I decided to accept the position. I am pretty excited about the opportunity to challenge myself and to bring God into the lives of children. I volunteered as the elementary teacher at the Uptown location for about two years, so I have a good idea of how things go, but I am a bit nervous about some of the 'behind the scenes' things that I will have to figure out. Thankfully, I have a few good resources to draw upon! I'm sure there will be more to come on this later!

This weekend was the Pacific/Midwestern Synchronized Skating Championships at the Broomfield Events Center. Why is this noteworthy? Well, that meant that my dear friend (and college roommate), Ashleigh was in town! On Friday, I was able to go hang out with Ashleigh and the Grand Valley team that she coaches. We hung out at her hotel for a bit and then got dinner. On Saturday, I watched Ashleigh compete on the WMU Alumni team--Go Broncos! It was fun to see some old familiar faces from college and to watch Ashleigh skate again. Even though we didn't get to spend much time together it was so wonderful to see her! We got to catch up a bit and talk some about her upcoming wedding. (Oh, and if you were wondering, the WMU Alumni team got 2nd place-woohoo!)


It is now 1:15 AM on February 1, 2009. (For some reason the only time I think to update this thing is late at night--maybe that's why this update is written so poorly! Sorry to the one person who maybe read this all the way through! You're a trooper for making it this far!) The month is officially over, and my tree, though now bare of ornaments, is still up. :) Maybe I will take the rest of it down tomorrow...

The stolen hat

I was going through some pictures from Christmas and came across this...

Now watch closely...

This is the result of boredom on Christmas day. :)

Overheard

Some days the things you overhear are just so funny you have to write them down. This blog is devoted to some of my favorite recent conversations...



Beth (my teaching partner) to a student, "That's why we don't put our heads in a drawer."

Little girl in my class: "Mmmmm It smells romantic!" (About the smell of popcorn in the classroom).

Another Little girl in my class: "Is that Mrs. Baldner's man?" (Her husband was in the room).

4th grader in the cafeteria as I walked by... "Dude, Ms, Murphy got new hair! You know how she used to have light hair...it's not like that anymore!"

Students in my class at recess:

"Jenika, if you would like me to be your best friend I can do that for you."
"I would like that very much." (Such prim and proper 6 year olds I have!)