Chick-fil-A and Veggi Tales

by Erica

Chick-fil-A is my favorite restaurant-good food aside. When all other companies find it taboo to have any sort of Christian message within their business, Chick-fil-A puts a Veggie Tales CD in their kids meal.

Church League Volleyball

by Erica

I don't like to lose. No, I don't like to always lose. I think that I am getting too competitive for our church league volleyball team. Not that I am a great player or anything. I make my fair share of mistakes. I really enjoy the game and have a great time getting out and getting some exercise. I love the fact that it is something that Jason and I do together. It's just nice to have a win every once and awhile.

Can of Worms

by Erica

I have opened up a huge can of worms. My mom gave me some new photo albums for Christmas. The goal is to switch out all my childhood photos into albums that will hold up for a much longer time. Most of them are now out of the old albums but now I want to scan each of them so that we can have a digital copy. We're talking hundreds of pictures here. Then, I want to make sure they are in chronological order. Most of the dates are missing, so I will request help from my sisiter who remembers every event, date, and time. Someday they will go back into an album. Total estimated project time: 1 year.

My Sweet, Sweet Husband

by Erica

Two posts in one day, but I have to brag.

After just a terrible day at work, I get called down to the office. I am thinking that I was going to have to talk more in depth about the many kids who got in trouble today.

HOWEVER-----

There is a huge bouquet of lillies and roses sitting there for me from my sweet husband. All my problems and stresses were instantly erased. Jason, you are the best ever. I love you. Thank you!!

Out of Ideas

by Erica

(note: I am writing this out of a lot of frustration)

I am at my limit with my students. Thankfully, my administration undestands how difficult this class is. This is not your typical school. These are not your typical children. They come from rough homes. They are more street savy that I am. The most difficult part for me is that I can't do a single thing to shield them from what they have to live with. I can't control what happens outside of my classroom. I can't fix them.

The things that I deal with on a day to day basis, the lack of respect that I get from these kids and the lack of parental support cause me to wonder why I am here. I can't teach a single lesson without 15 interruptions. If I were a parent of a child who was on task, I would be complaining that my child is getting cheated out of a great education.

Oh, and then there are these benchmarks that I am supposed to get my students to? Tell me how a child is supposed to learn when there dad was put in jail last night. Common? In this school it is. I am succumbing to the fact that I don't have what it takes to teach inner city kids. I wish that I could. But I guess that I wasn't made for this population.

Weirded Out

by Erica

Yesterday's post was due to the freaky incident that happened last night. I came home to see some lights on in the house. I thought that I had turned them off before I left for work, but I could have forgotten. Not a big deal. Then, I see a Fex Ed envelope sitting inside the house. No clue how it got there. Called a couple people who could have put it inside. That wasn't the case. At this point I have freaked myself out so I called my neighbor to come search my house with me. All is clear. I am still super confused and scared. I read over Psalms 4:8 a few times, " I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou only, Lord, makest me dwell in safety." The only explaination is that I must have kicked the envelope inside the house without knowing it. So, our dogs are getting the royal treatment by spending every minute in the house with me.

Oh, and the lights? Jason had turned them on for me remotely:)

My Bodyguard

by Erica

Meet Ollie: 125 pounds of pure muscle

I'm Pathetic

by Erica

I am going to be one of those old people who die of a broken heart. It's tough being away from my husband. Here is a picture of my hottie. It is more for me than you all of you out there:)

Sadness

by Erica

When I was a little girl my parents would leave for Cincinnati for a week on business. I would cry weeks before they would leave. As soon as they left I was fine. It was the thinking about them being gone that would get me. I thought that I grew out of that a long time ago. As Jason got word that he was going on a business trip I was very excited for him but these childhood emotions came right back. I lay in bed thinking about him not being next to me and I start crying. I can be such an emotion reck. Thankfully Jason is so understanding and just hugs me.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

by Jason

I'm continually amazed by life. I enjoy thinking back on the events in my life that have brought me to where I am today. For example, when working at Sun, I could nearly pinpoint the precise decisions that I made which brought me there. I'm not just talking about the fact that I accepted an offer letter here, folks; I mean the series of decisions and events that led me there. It is really quite fascinating and amuzing to think that it was all because of a class that I decided to take my senior year in high school.

Well, it's happened again. This time, it's all because I sat in front of Ben in Digital Logic lab my sophmore year in college. Now I'm leaving HP to join Pelco. I'll be the firmware architect for their cameras. It is a little scary to leave the comfort of HP for a few reasons, but it will be such a great opportunity to grow technically, and possibly into other areas later on.

I'm hitting the ground running, too. I'm off to England for IIPSEC, then off to Dubai (I had to look up exactly where that is) for Intersec. It will be a great trip and I'm hoping to get lots of pictures to share later.

2nd Annual Fondue Night

by Erica

For the second year in a row we did New Years Eve fondue style. Last year we spent about 4 hours in the kitchen preparing this feast. This year we cut back on the amount of food, but we still ended up feeling stuffed.

Pauline and I proved to be the better card players of the night. Final score of Hand and Foot was 9,000 and some to about 1,000. The guys couldn't stand their embarassing loss and so around 1:30 they brought out Trival Pursuit.

Nearing 3:00 AM and still no winner. Jason and Steve ended up winning the game. They were very happy. Pauline and I were ready for bed.