Just a quick update!

For those who did not see via facebook twitter or some other way... "Goodbye technology community. Today is my last day for a while. I'm going silent for 46 days during the time of lent (not really for lent just for my own growth which I happened to decide to do during lent). I'm ridding my life of all the noise of technology to spend more time working on my faith with God. Being that the Olympics are on currently I will allow some tv time for that and email for work and school as well as typing out blogs I will prewrite on Sundays. If you need to get a hold of me please email call or text. Wish me luck"

So what does this mean for blogs? Well thats simple really, throughout the week I will write down things that I find important or that I deem blog worthy and on Sundays I will type them out on here. SO don't worry, there will still be blogs (quite possibly more regularly this way anyway).

Being that its not Sunday and almost midnight on the day that I go silent, this update will be short. Today was a good day, I had work which was nice because I got to help out with appositives, and then homework and finally a Mardi Gras party. That party was super fun! Instead of the traditional way of getting beads we made a game out of it. We each started with 8 beads, and while we played Settlers (Which I finally learned Ben and Jord so watch out!) we made a rule that we could not say any words that started with the letters G or M for mardi gras and if you did then whomever caught you got one of your beads. If you caught yourself before anyone else noticed then you didn't have to give up beads. It turned out to be extremely difficult and between the rules of settlers and focusing on the words said, we had to think a lot. It was a total blast though and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was so glad to spend time with my friends and just have laughs and an overall good time!

In honor of the short blog, I have chosen two quotes for the day:


At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.
--Jean Houston


A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul.
--Dwight L. Moody

We Are The World Foundation

Teaching

Ah the wonderful world of my chosen profession: teaching. First off let me start by saying that I couldn't be happier then where I stand in life today. Every day I wake up knowing that I am doing the right thing because no matter how tired I am I make sure to try and start each day with a smile. Some days are harder then others but I try to make sure to start each day off right by remembering how difficult the task would be had I not made the decision to change my major. I even set my alarm clock text to "Time for a wonderful day!" The mere fact that I am able to tackle waking up with a smile even on the early mornings lets me know I am in the right place.
Today I woke up before my alarm and got my day started with a bagel and cream cheese. I took a shower and got ready for the day and then headed out the door to County High. Ms. Fodor's class (the fifth hour that I observe is Judith Fodor's honors 9 English class) had presentations today. They read the novel "Night" which is a concentration camp story and had to do a multi-genre project and then present their work to the class. Some of the kids are brilliant. I enjoyed every single presentation! There were poems, comic books of chapters of the story, Recipes to make an SS officer, an auschwitz cafe menu, lullaby's for Jewish kids, birth certificates, Hitler's report card, board games, journal entries, letters, obituaries, an obituary of Hitler's sanity, and many many more creative pieces and we haven't even gotten to the presentations that had a technology piece in them yet! It was the coolest thing seeing the kids present a project they worked hard on! I will definitely teach my classes the multi-genre project even if I end up teaching middle school. *As a side note on that, I will not be one of those teachers who limits what I teach in fear of the students not grasping it. Rather then teaching down to their level I plan on teaching them up to the standard that I will decide on.* Anyway, I absolutely love projects like this one because in a school system that doesn't have art classes at their level, the kids need a creative outlet and a way to express themselves. Hopefully I will get examples of their work to take and keep so I can share it with you. Jamie's 6th hour read today, not too much excitement there, and finally her 7th hour started. That class always brightens my day. We talked about The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Little Shop of Horrors and Ashton Kutcher's Saturday Night Live grape skit (I swear they got work done too lol) and overall just had a nice relaxed class. They are working on the multi-genre project that Fodor's class did and are already starting to put together promising projects. They are the most open to my being there and love sharing their work and stories with me. That class brings me laughs and joys and I can't wait to have a class of my own that is half as awesome as they are.
After class I went to drop off my Dean's List letter at my insurance place so that my mom will get the good student discount but when I got there we realized it didn't actually say my gpa on it so it wouldn't work. We ended up requesting an official transcript be sent. While I was there I solved two rubik's cubes and joked around with the people in the office. I want to start solving the cube more often again, I've gotten kinda slow at it compared to where I was. It used to help me to de-stress and I would like to get to that point again.
I am trying to learn to play the guitar but it is proving to not be easy. I can not for the life of me play a C chord, or any barre chords. Its a bummer!! But practice will help that I hope. I just have to stay on it and not quit like I have in the past. I might take lessons soon but I would rather do voice lessons. I LOVE theater and I have always felt like my number one limitation is the inability (or maybe the lack of confidence) to do musicals. Hopefully voice lessons will fix that. I can teach myself guitar rather then using the lessons for something that I can't learn on my own. My wonderful Mom gave me a certificate for lessons of my choice at the art center and the decision is now between guitar and voice. I will keep my blog updated with my choice.
I made the decision to accept the nomination to be a Deacon at my church today. I am happy with my decision and can't wait to see where being a deacon takes me in my church and faith.
I had a wonderful day and look forward to the end of my week tomorrow so I can have a relaxing and equally as wonderful weekend.

A good teacher has been defined as one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
-- Thomas J.

Smoothie!!

So I wasn't going to start blogging officially until tomorrow but I had to write about this wonderful smoothie I just made. Mom bought this chocolate silk (silk is like the non dairy soy milk) and at first I wasn't too crazy about it but it kinda grew on me. But anyway she was drinking it the other night and said "Wouldn't this be good to make a smoothie out of?" And so today I decided I would try it and boy am I glad I did! I put about a cup of crushed ice into my smoothie maker with a banana, about 3/4 cup of the silk, and somewhere around 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. It is truly wonderful! If you like chocolate, bananas, peanut butter and smoothies I suggest you try it!!
While I am here I suppose I can make a quick little blurb about my day as well. It was so nice to have the day off. I didn't realize how tired I was, but now that I have had the day to rest and recover I feel like I have real energy again! It was an amazing feeling to just be able to relax and not have to worry about this or that needing to be done. I must admit I did miss being in the classroom with all the kids today but they will still be there Thursday. Speaking of which I am extremely excited for Thursday because the kids in my 5th hour are finishing their presentations so I get to watch a few of them! For those of you who don't know, I spend three hours every Tuesday and Thursday observing two different teachers at Pueblo County High School. I love every minute of it and know in my heart that I have finally found the path that God wants me to be on.
Also speaking of God, I am extremely happy about something! Many of you probably already know this but I am going to be the Young Adult Advisory Delegate (Y.A.A.D) for Presbyterian General Assembly (G.A) in July. I am extremely happy about this but kind of nervous too. I know its going to be an amazing experience but a LOT of work too. I am asking for prayers as the time approaches that we will be successful in our time of meeting and make decisions for the Presbyterian churches of America.
Never take the days of relaxation for granted, or for that matter any day. Each day we are given is a blessing. Each day from today forward, I want to finish my blogs with a quote that matches what I have to say. Today I will have two because both seemed fitting:

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.
-- Henry Van Dyke

And of course one for my delicious smoothie, a classic quote:
Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.
--Forrest Gump

Blogging

So I have wanted to start doing this for a long time now. The title blog diaries has been floating around in my head for somewhere around six months. My brother Ben just started his blog and I figured why not start one with him.
Ben had a good point, it seems that life changes rapidly over the years and it is my desire to remember those years. I want to be able to look back at something years from now and read about what was important to me at differing times in my life. I also want to be able to share the important highlights of my life with the family I can't see every day.
I think it will be neat to read up on how my brother is doing every now and then and be able to update my blog with what I am doing to give him something to read too. This way if he goes far away for residency we will still be able to know whats going on in each others lives. My brother and I have always been extremely close so being away from him hasn't been easy but it has helped me to be extremely grateful for the times we do get to spend together. Jordan has been such an amazing person for him and I am so glad that she has been able to help him through being away and the stresses of medical school.
My dad is the other one that I know will appreciate my blogs, he has been away for a long time now but we still try to talk as much as possible. Hopefully this way he will be able to keep up on the happenings in his kids lives and won't feel like he is so far away.
To everyone else reading my blogs, thank you and I love you all and hope that you enjoy them!