Not sure why, but this song has really captured my attention lately. Usually, I don't like female singers too much, but I like this song. I'm all about the piano. I always liked playing the piano in octaves like that. It's really fun. And I like the line, "You give me peace that passes understanding." Amen.

"You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God." 2 Cor. 3:3-5.

I am SO not competent. It is crazy how much life has fallen apart. It is clear that I have no power. I am so thankful to know the Living God.

8"Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness." Romans 8:8-9

I listened to this song last night and decided to download it. Then, I listened to it a lot last night and this morning. It was stuck in my head all day so I sang it to some of my kids (--but they made fun of me for having it stuck in my head!)

So, I guess this week is an important week. This week was the anniversary of the Berlin Wall being taken down. I remember watching it happen at the time. I remember Ronald Regan standing on the wall, and watching people dig chunks out of the wall to take home as souvenirs. We used to watch the evening news almost every night while we ate supper. Anyway, I remember that happening and watching about it on the news. I remember Gorbechav (sp?) and how I always thought the birthmark on his head looked like the USSR. That was 20 years ago.

And you know, this week Sesame Street turned 40. What's sad about that is that I remember the 20th Anniversary around the same time as the Berlin Wall events. (I don't remember them being at the same time, but I guess they had to have been around the same time...) I remember they had a special on in the prime time with the Sesame Street puppets and Jim Henson. Man, how sad is it that I remember both of those things from 20 years ago, and that they seem like they happened just last year? Sad, sad.

because today I had my kids make a poster about something we were talking about and I said that they should decorate it, too with pictures to help illustrate what they were writing about You know the drawings they put on...a hot dog and a wine glass. In Spanish class. (Well, maybe wine is good for Spain, but this is middle school people!) They didn't mean it bad, it's just what they decided to draw. I had to explain that probably if you're talking about Spanish you can probably pick a better food than a HOT DOG! (And I have taught these kids Spanish since second grade. What a waste of 5 years--haha!)

Have you heard about the feud between Obama and Fox News? I first heard about it today and I am incensed! I know there have been some things that Obama has been doing lately that a lot of conservatives are up in arms about, but I haven't felt too upset, until I heard about this and then looked more deeply into the words and actions on the part of Obama's administration.

I read an article on CBS about it (I haven't figured out how to embed links on this computer, sorry!), but you can read about it basically anywhere. I cannot believe how childish the president of the United States is when the media has an opinion that opposes him. Uh, hi! You're the president, welcome to criticism!

Obama is making this big deal about how Fox is an "opinion" network and not a "News" network. Fine, but so are the ones that are crazily liberal. They just happen to share Obama's opinions so they are safe from his criticism.

Last year, I read this book America, America by Ethan Canin. It was about this man who ran for president (not true, but parts were loosely based on a real-life candidate from the past) and how his campaign was so closely tied to the media because he had the money and connections to influence what they said. It really opened my eyes to the influence that candidates have over the media that write stories about them. I guess, if the politician doesn't have control over what a branch of the media is saying he gets mad and essentially boycotts them. Yeah, we see how it is.

The one good thing is it seems that Fox's ratings are actually going up because of the president's criticism. At the same time, CNN's popularity has reached an all-time low. Hopefully, Obama does not find a way to gain control over Fox News or we are really going to be in for it. Scary times, people, scary times.

So, I stayed home sick from work today (Wednesday), and as my stomach is still going on its own personal roller-coaster ride, I called in sick for Thursday, too. Unfortunately, I slept from 8 pm Tuesday night till 6 am Wednesday morning. I laid around all day today and now even though I have a tummy in knots, the rest of me wants to be awake. It's a funny illness whatever it is, because my mind is lucid, but my body is trying to right itself from some little bug.

At first, Tuesday night, I wasn't sure if I was sick. I wasn't even sure Wednesday morning (despite the long sleep), until I tried to eat breakfast and that didn't go so well. Throughout the day, even though my mind was working fine, I noticed a few things that I think could be indicators that my body truly is sick (I have to convince myself to stay home because I feel guilty, guilty, guilty when I stay home.):
1. The fact that I will call in sick in the first place. I hate making telephone calls. It's an awful thing to do first thing in the morning. I don't like bothering my boss as she is busy busy, so if I make myself make the call, I have to feel like it's worth the dreaded part of the task.
2. If I have already gotten up and still have to go to put in lesson plans and I make myself, I must feel like it is worth all the trouble.
3. If I can watch a TV show or a movie without moving or distracting myself with something else. Rarely, do I sit through an entire TV show or movie by myself without finding something else to do--Usually I only sit still through the Office and now the new show Community. Throughout anything else, I usually have something else I am doing at the same time. Today, I watched all of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (movie) AND Weekend at Bernie's without doing something else.
4. If I don't feel like reading a book. Rare, rare occurrence right there.
5. If I am not trying to devour all the food in sight. Today, I ate half a can of soup (not the can, but the contents), and drank gatorade. yeah, that's messed up. Normally, I would have a severe headache with only eating a half a can of soup (again, the contents not the can itself).
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On the same subject, but in a different vein, I heard the commercial for a prescription today and while listening to the commercial I heard some of the side effects:
"Possible side effects include severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diahrrea, headache..."
Hey! Who slipped Ambien into my drink! THAT'S what my problem is...haha.

I just realized that today is my 20th birthday. 20 years of knowing Jesus as my Savior. How about a little walk down memory lane?

I have always had a sweet relationship with my Jesus. And this, more because of what He has done, than because of what I have done. As a youngster, I would lie in bed and pray every night. I talked to Jesus just like my friend and I truly believed that He was there listening. I think I talked to Him more readily then, than I do now. Then, I truly talked, now I mostly write prayers. I "officially" accepted Christ on this day 20 years ago, but in the weeks leading up to that day I prayed over and over for Jesus to come into my heart. I prayed in my heart during a revival at my church; I prayed in my heart during a children's church service, but as a part of a church, I felt like I needed to make it "official." I no longer hold the belief that someone needs to make it "official," I was just young and not sure of what I needed to do. I didn't know if it was enough to pray on my own. I wanted a definitive moment.

I was very nervous to tell someone what I wanted to do. It was after an Open House night at my school. My mom had a late night, since she had to work at school. I waited for her to come home from work and then I told her that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. She helped me pray and then I ran around the house, hopping up and down! I hugged my little stuffed animal Eleiye (I know, I had weird spellings for my stuffed animals), and whispered to her how happy I was.

As a young Baptist girl, I watched as most parents would kind of force (or at least, strongly encourage) their kids to be baptized soon after accepting Jesus. My parents didn't force me, though. I have always, always been thankful for that. It wasn't until almost a year later that I woke up early on a Sunday morning and felt God's prompting to follow him in baptism. In fact, as I write this I can still feel that feeling--knowing that I had something to do, but being so afraid. It was hard for me because no one knew what was up my sleeve that morning. I was very nervous. That day in Sunday School there was a cute new boy in my S.S. class. I knew that in the church service that morning I would walk forward to tell the church that I wanted to be baptized, and I was a little nervous because I was worried about what the boy would think. During the invitation, even though the cute boy was sitting right behind me, I told my parents that I wanted to go forward to be baptized. I propelled my shaky legs forward, and I made it! That morning the invitation hymn was "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." It has always been my favorite because of that. I have always looked at that act of following Jesus in baptism, as the first time that I followed God's voice.

After that, I started facing challenges in my walk, challenges like: standing up for being a Christian at school; doing the right thing, even when classmates did the wrong thing; not being ashamed of Jesus, and so many more. It was not easy, but I believed then as I do now, that those challenges would only make me better. And here we are, we have made it--20 yrs. My Jesus and me. I would not trade this life for anything. It is a gift. A precious, precious gift.

Well, this year, there are some days in which being a teacher is really stinky. But today is not one of them. Because today, I had a day off! Most people in the area didn't have today off, so it is fun to be out and about while everybody else is working hard. In fifth grade, my family lived in town for just one year. That year, when I got sick and had to stay home from school, I liked being home because everybody else was driving around when I normally would have been in school. Sometimes, I dream of having a job where you just drive around town all day (like UPS or something) because I think it would be fun to be out in the town while everybody else is "working."

Anyway, I went on a lot of adventures today and it was fun! First, I went to the movie Julie and Julia. It was pretty fun. The only problem with the movie is that it is about cooking, so I was glad that I had popcorn or I think I would have been REALLY hungry! One of my favorite actresses is Amy Adams and I liked the parts where Julia was in the movie. She and her husband had a cute relationship. I liked how Julia didn't get married until she was 40. It gave me hope--At the rate I'm going, I will probably be 40 before I get married...hehe. I also liked how Julia was looking for something to learn and when she decided on cooking, she threw herself into it.

After the movie, I bought a couple of fun things. I have been wanting to buy a crock pot lately and I found one on Target's website last night. So, after watching Julia Child and since I was close to Target I stopped by. At first, I couldn't find the crock pot that I wanted, but then I thought to look on an end-cap and there it was--ON SALE! I'm a little apprehensive about leaving it on all day while I am at work, but I'm thinking about trying it later this week when I will be around to check on it. I'm thinking of cooking beef stew first. MMM!



I also bought this strainer that you put over over the sink. I thought this would be good after my noodle fiasco last fall!

I ran across this bag that was just soo cute! I thought that it would make a good carry-on, so I stopped by and checked it out. I have also been having troubles with the muscle that I pulled in my neck/shoulder last year. One problem is carrying things into work (I always have so many books and papers and I have to walk a long ways in the morning just to sign in [someone commented the other night about our nice, blue-collar job]), so I might try to use this bag at work, too. We'll see. (it is crooked and I am using a different computer/I don't know how to turn it right-side up) (And that "junk" is all of my souvenirs from Japan, I just brought them home from school and the people from Japan are coming next week.)

Finally, I stopped off at Barnes and Noble who, it turns out, is having Educators' Week. So I bought Interview with the Vampire, which I have been wanting to read, so what better time than Halloween!?
I think I might settle in for a nice read tonight and NOT plan what I'm doing for PE tomorrow--because I don't HAVE to. Nice.