'the morning' by andrew osenga

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memorial weekend

to be honest, not very memorable. i was feeling crappy all week, so i knew i would be laying fairly low during the weekend. friday i went to the library to get some movies for the long weekend (they are free, and i knew i wouldnt have to bring them back until this morning) so i got five. if you want to know more about which ones go here. i didnt dare go outside too much for fear of melting. it was rediculously hot here this weekend. on thursday it was around 68, by the time saturday rolled around it was in the high ninties, and over that with the humidity! i like to think of myself as a kind man, but all bets are off in that kind of weather. i turn from mild-mannered teacher into 'HULK SMASH!!!' needless to say, i kept most of my activities indoors. i got a sneak peek at what life will be like after this week: pure lazy fun! ahh, i cant wait...
but first there are a few more events before the year can be called 'over', such as: tonight is 8th grade graduation. hopefully it wont be too long. i better go rooting around my closet and see if i cant find that 'once a year' tie...

bye bye 8th graders

though the sixth and seventh graders still have a week of school left, the eight graders had their last day today. its sad to see them go, but its exciting to know they are ready to move on. the selfish part of me wants them to stick around because they are so much fun and i will really miss the conversations and discussions we had together, but the teacher part of me is impressed and joyful about what they have accomplished over the past three years and excited about their next step into high school!

and just like that *poof* they grow up

it doesnt make sense

i cant figure it out: the weather is great, the sun is out, its in the high 60's, and here i am sick. i thought being sick was only allowed when its bad weather. well, it shouldnt be allowed. sunday i was just sitting around and somehow, amazingly, i could actually feel myself get sick over the course of about 5 minutes. it was one of the strangest observations i have ever been able to witness. and i have been feeling crappy (sore throat and sinus) ever since. ive been trying to take cough drops, but it almost seems like they make it worse.
today my voice got so horse that i actually had to stop class because i couldnt continue without coughing. i hadnt planned to, but i just had them read their textbooks the rest of the hour. i really should consider staying home tomorrow, but i wont. ive only got six and a half days of work left until august, i would feel pretty stupid to not be able to handle that... i guess ill just try to get to bed on time tonight (although last time i did that i was up tossing and turning until three a.m.)

that was rather nice

im just getting back from talking to an old friend. we used to be really close and would hang out all the time. we would often talk for a long time at the end of the day. but about a year ago we had a bit of a falling out. i didnt budge, nor did she. we went our seperate ways. we still kept a business relationship, but we would never really talk anymore. slowly, i think we have both let the wound heal and are now able to chit chat here and there.
today i was just over talking with her for about 45 minutes. it was lovely. i guess i had forgotten how well we got along and how nice it is to connect with her. i dont know if we will return to that social friendship, but i look forward to deepening our working relationship; you know, a friend, not just a collegue.

it comes up fast on you

im slowly starting to realize that its almost the end of the year for me. usually im counting down the days when spring break hits, but this year i havent really even given it much thought. weve only got 9 days left! yikes!!! thats a good thing and a bad thing. its good because, well, lets face it: then its summer vacation! but its also a bad thing because i have so much to cover yet with the kids before schools out, and because this means the 8th graders will be gone forever! thats a sad thought for me. when i started here the current 8th graders were my homeroom kids, and now they are moving on out of here. there are some really great kids in that class and im really going to miss seeing them everyday. it sounds cheesy, i know, but us teachers really actually do love our students! ive only got them for one more week, so i guess i should make the most of it and enjoy these last few days. either that, or ill just give them all F's so they will have to come back here next year...

the weekend at a glance

here is a quick list of fun stuff i did this weekend:
-went home to michigan
-met curt (who seems like a rather cool guy)
-spent some quality time with my folks
-finally got to chill and talk with the guys again
-caught up with adam
-played play-doh with my nephew
-went to tgi fridays twice in one night
-payed way too much for gas
-had my favorite home cooked dinner
-celebrated mothers day
-when to the grocery store for chocolate milk
-2 hours later, when back for diced pineapples
-visited with both of my grammas
-laughed hysterically with my dad many times about really stupid stuff. a lot.

a special day

happy birthday to my niece jaideyn! she turns one year old today! i dont know what is expected of a one year old, as far as development goes, but when i saw here yesterday she was starting to stand up on her own. she just stands there, not holding on to anything, looking across the room. you can see this look on her face that says 'i want to go over there, but how?!?' im sure she will figure out that riddle soon!

as it is

its been a while since my last post, partly that has been due to my wanting to leave quickly after school last week (mowing the lawn, running to the bank, post office, etc) and also due to the lack of things to say. some times i feel like sharing, other times i dont. so it goes.

lights, camera, auction!

saturday was quite a strange day. our school had its annual auction to raise money. its always successful and alot of fun. this year the ladies who are in charge of setting the whole thing up came up to me and asked if i would be interested in donating anything for the auction. i asked what might they have in mind? she said that the local mini golf place gave us four tickets, and was wondering if i would be willing to go play mini golf with a few students on a saturday afternoon. they would then auction off two of this activity. i thought 'well, that sounds fun, i would like to do that with the students even without the auction!' so i said yes.
as this weekend grew closer i started to get a little nervous. how much would i go for? heres what i was afraid of: what if i only go for a couple dollars? i try not to be proud, but that would be a bit of a blow to my confidence. but then i got scared of the opposite: what if it goes for alot of money and the students realize that im not really that cool, and they wasted their money on this? i couldnt win, so i decided that i wasnt going to think about it.
saturday came and my item came up. it was really crazy because some of the parents were bidding on it and i felt totally strange. after it was all over i peeked my head back up to see what had happened. it turns out that it went for way too much: 2 parents actually paid $325 bucks for their student to spend an afternoon mini golfing with me! yikes! i better make it worth their money...

wii. my thoughts

spiritual gifts test

we have been doing spiritual gifts tests this week in 8th grade. it has been really interesting to see the students fill them out. looking at some of the results as we went along was kind of cool because i got to see some of the students realize things about themselves for the first time. some of the students are realizing that they havent given any thought to what they are called to and what they excell at, while other students are figuring out the focus they always had.
one of my students came up to me after class while we were filling out the test and said 'am i doing this wrong? i seem to be getting really high numbers in a lot of these categories. is that right?' it was funny to me because it was absolutely right. hes just starting to realize how blessed he is by God. this guy loves to serve, hes an amazing leader, he constantly encourages, and he is passionate about scriptures and prayer. the only thing hes missing is pride. not too bad, huh? seeing his response to this test has been cool because hes gaining some self confidence and is realizing what God is calling him to. there are quite a few other kids who are begining to understand and figure out how to put their gifts to use.
its great to see these kids begin to step out and own their faith, it makes it all worth it!

sick. but funny.

i was talking to a friend last night about how much we like pets. she has a cat and loves it but sometimes gets sick of it. we started talking about if i have ever thought about getting a dog. i said that i would love to, in fact, i really want a dog. the big problem for me though is the committment end of it. not that i have any fear of committment, i just travel around a bit on the weekends, and would get really sick of trying to find a place for it every time i needed to go away.
as we talked about it more i also said "one of the biggest things keeping me from getting a dog is the fact that its not just a committement for now, but actually for ten to fifteen years!"
she said "thats true..."
"i could easily do it if it meant for just a year or two" i told her
"maybe you should get a 14 year old dog then!" she laughed
i said "but its when they are puppies that they are the best, i dont want someone elses old dog." its at this point that i came up with one of the sickest, most depraived suggestions ever as a solution: "i know, what i really want is a puppy with cancer!!!"

lawn work

wow, i really hate lawn work. i, unfortunately, spend most of my saturday doing lawn work. sure, it would have been a lot easier if i had actually not procrastinated and instead mowed the lawn a week ago. but no, i decide to wait until the grass is about as tall as king kong before i finally cave in and mow.
i started off putting the bag on to catch the grass. that didnt last long. instead i ended up going over everything twice (there by taking longer, and making me hate it more).
as i was mowing i decided to make a few changes to my back yard. first, i guess for some reason the old residents thought they could grow a garden in the back. so, i ripped out the 'rabbit keep away' fence and junk. second, i figured i would get rid of the fire pit my other old resident decided to put in. i didnt mind having it, but ive never used it, and im not so sure about its legality. so out it went.
after taking far too long and making me far too annoyed, i finished up the lawn. the problem is i know that beast will reer its ugly head again way too soon.

finally!

phew! this has been a very hectic couple of weeks! i have been keeping way too busy these past two weeks (well, except for the good friday vacation day...) i have been swamped with extra activities that took a lot of extra time and effort (two things im not used to). last week i had to plan and coordinate the easter chapel for school. i plan most chapels at school, but this one was for all the grades, so it has to be 'extra special'. it was alot of details that needed to be taken care of- kids needed to practice skit, we needed a set, helpers to work the set, people to set up, a power point slide show for the songs and graphics, etc. it went over well, so i guess its all worth it right? also, yesterday our school had an extra fundraiser and i was tapped to take care of the decoraions for it. sounds easy, but i really hate using cheesy decorations you can buy in stores. i typically prefer to make them myself. which takes alot more time and alot more stress... but that was last night, so thats out of the way too! the other thing that has been looming over my head was redoing my bathroom. i had started last weekend and i finally got it done this weekend (well, i still need to install the new door knob). also i had a bunch of friends over monday night so i wanted it finished and the place cleaned up as well.
but now all that is taken care of. now i can sit back and relax. at least until the next stressful event shows up.

good friday

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
Luke 23:44-46, Mark 15:39.

this weekend

im not entirely sure what i have up this weekend. my folks first said they wanted to come down with my sis, bro-in-law, and the kids. but i guess tim has a lot of work to do, so he cant afford the time off, so he cant come. my sis then says maybe she should stay home with the kids then, my dad then says he doesnt see the point in coming down just the two of them, and my mom wants to go to their church for easter. so maybe they wont come down. or maybe they will. so, my weekend is still rather undecided at this point. if they come down it will be alot of fun, but if they dont maybe i can actually get caught up on my school work and other projects. either way im sure it will be a busy weekend!

gameworks

another fun thing about the trip up to minneapolis was going to a place called 'gameworks'. its a big video arcade for adults (i dont mean 'adults' as in bad stuff, i mean an arcade with a bar in it). the place was big and they had a lot of games to play (most of them were sega games, but i tried not to complain too much...) with tons of driving sims and stuff. we had some coupons so we got to play 10 or 15 games for only five bucks each!
they even had ski ball! certainly one of my favorites, and, as i guess is manditory, that game gives out tickets that you can trade in for crappy stuff. at one point while we were playing, robbs ski ball machine decided that he had won it all and just started spitting out the tickets! and then it kept going. and going. and going. eventually the machine emptied out and robb got about 350 tickets when he should have only gotten about 8! the only problem was this: even with 350 tickets all you can get is crap! so, we figured we would be nice and we found a young kid who was there and we gave them all to her.
after a while we got bored and we headed over to coldstone for ice cream, which is always top of the line!

ps. the next day we heard on the news that someone was shot and killed on the street corner in front of gameworks about 20 minutes after we left. yikes.

fixin up the place

it was a really busy weekend, even though i didnt do much at all. go figure. saturday i spent most of the day repainting my bathroom. i painted my bathroom just a year or two ago, but i did a really poor job of it. i didnt repaint the ceiling or trim, i had alot of paint spots on the ceiling, and i didnt sand very well before i started. also, the color was horrible! bear in mind that when i picked it it looked good on the paint card... let me help you imagine what it looked like: take mint chocolate chip ice cream color, then add pee. im surprised i waited this long to repaint!
the color i got now is a lot darker green and actually looks good. now i have to find all the other bathroom stuff to match it. or maybe ill just pace myself. it took two years to paint, why rush the process now?

march madness- no wait, march craziness!

my life lesson for this week has been this: you dont have to know a dang thing about sports to guess who will win. a few weeks ago one of the teachers offered the students and the rest of us a chance to fill in an ncaa bracket. she would keep track of who was doing well and give the winner a prize. on a whim i decided to fill one in. now, keep in mind that i know nothing about college basketball. in fact, the only reason i know much about basketball at all is because when i lived in utah they would pay us to do the score board at games (and on that salary, i needed all the help i could get...)
anyway, i filled in a bracket and figured i would really embarass myself. not knowing any of the teams, i just picked based on whatever i wanted to. for example, i thought the name villinova was stupid, so i had them loose quickly (ranked number one or not, thats a stupid name for a school!) miraculously i did really good- i had ucla going all the way. i even managed to beat every other person who filled in a bracket!
the moral of the story is this: dumb guesses are sometimes better than informed opinions. i guess...