I've renewed my passion

Oh, it felt so good. Today I started coaching the senior girl's basketball team. I love this age group - their enthusiasm, joking, conversations and mix it with my favourite sport. It truly couldn't get better (except that we win the tournament).

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I have a tournament on Saturday, February 24th at Redeemer - come out and cheer my team on!!

Happy Getting-Older Day

January seems to be a popular month for birthdays - and a bunch of us girls from Jarvis area went out to celebrate last night. And boy did our age show!!

We went out for appetizers/drinks. Turns out we hit the only place that was also hosting a Teen Dance. And I seriously mean teens. There were teenagers everywhere!! We decided that we would embrace the teenager inside of us, and dance a little.

Oh, and we had fun dancing until there was a birthday announcing someone's Sweet 16. We kind of all looked at each other, in our tight little circle of "much-older" girls amongst piles of teenagers, and realised that we had hit the next stage. We definently laughed a little bit and headed out earlier than most of the kids.

Birthday highlights this year:

• my sister losing her appendix (kidding - but it did make me come home and enjoy family)
• dad praying over me
• being surrounded by my family
• getting the Jason Mraz "Mr. A to Z" CD finally!!
• surprise party in Hamilton a week later (therefore completely unexpected) and getting to see some of my girls again
• meeting some new girls in the area for the "Jarvis-January" celebration - and getting to show some teenagers how to dance
• one of my students bringing in a birthday cake for me
• three performing students singing me Happy Birthday
• great birthday cake brought in by my secret teacher (although I think I know who they are)
• being honest in a friendship-relationship that had a huge hurdle to overcome and finally feeling at peace about everything
• acquired the game "Jungle Speed" give me a call if you ever want to play
• snow day the next day which was God's gift wrapped in white

Yesterday

Want to know what one of my students did yesterday?

Here's the story:

"One more slide, I'll show you, " he said as he ran and slid along the ice in the playground. His body turned on him and down he went face-first onto the ice.

The boys in the class ran with him back to the school. His bestfriend was holding the missing tooth in his hand.

"Miss Slotegraaf, _____'s missing a tooth." Why do they always start emergency situations with confusing sentences that need follow-up?

I took one look at him, with a bloody mouth and swelling nose and sent him to the office (with his bestfriend still carrying his front tooth).

Later in the evening, I called his house to see how he was. Turns out he has a concussion, a tooth with exposed nerve endings, and trauma to his other teeth. His baby teeth may now be fused to his bones and possibly won't come out. More dentist work to come.

All because of one more slide.

The joys of being a teacher.

In-Laws

The dreaded name!!

Here's something I am thankful for. My in-laws are great people, if I could pray for what I wanted in an in-law I got even better.

And then, there's the in-laws in-laws (aka. the in-law's family). When my brother and sister got (or are) getting married I feel like my family has expanded and I am blessed. I have so many sisters and brothers now. And some of them (...Vancouver...) I am really excited to meet!

Yet, one small complaint still exists. It's small, but it's real to me :). No matter how big my family gets, I'm still without an older brother or sister. (who do I get to tease about getting older....everyone needs to be a pesky younger sibling sometimes).

I Feel so Alive

Somedays, during the routine of the job I start to feel like I'm not alive anymore. In the evenings I try to journal a thanks to God for specific moments during the day (and for those that know me, writting is a stretch for me, hence the fact that it's in pointform always). And there are days when I just don't know what to write because it was the same the day before, the day before, the day before... Life has become so routine and you start to wonder if you're alive anymore.

But then there's the moments when you feel alive!!! (it's pointform thanks in my journal).

• parents praying over you
• real conversations
• using your spiritual gifts in meaningful ways
• creating volunteer opportunities for the school
• discussions with other teachers
• playing dodge ball with my students

Let life begin!

Yahweh - I am who I am

I was teaching my students about Yahweh the other day and how it means "I am who I am." Which is a fun way of telling us that God is "I am" meaning that He is unchanging.

Thank goodness for that.

This week was a whirl of wind changes (really bad analogy). My sister called me on Monday and asked if I wanted to go wedding dress shopping with her on Wednesday. As a dedicated older sister :) I said sure. Tuesday night I get a phone call from my mom. This is how it goes (disclaimer: probably not word for word:

"Hi, mom."
"Yah, Sarah is going in for emergency surgery tonight." -mom
"What?"-Emily a little shocked
"Yah, she went into emerg last night and is having surgery on her appendix sometime soon."-mom
"Ah, really?"
"Anyhow, we have to get going, we're going to the hospital. Just stay put for a bit and we'll keep you posted."-mom

So my sister's life flipflopped from wedding dress shopping to losing a body part all within a span of a couple hours.

Morale: Isn't it great that God is "I am?" Even though we and everyone around us changes almost consistently, it's great that we can depend upon God's consistency.

God is in Control

Once again He proved it...

I was feeling a little bit down (slight underexaggeration) about coming back to work. I really didn't want to live in Jarvis anymore or teach. I wanted something different and I wanted people around me who know me.

And then it happened. On Friday I had a great day with my kids. We had fun together and learned a lot. We had some discussion going and I received some smiles at the end of the day. I felt rejuvenated as a teacher!

Thanks Lord for knowing what it was that I needed.

Training Coming In

So, I'm starting to feel the need for something different. A change, a new environment, new anything (new me??). Then I start to wonder, is this my University training coming into play? I'm used to a major switch every four months for the last five years. Ummm....thank-you semesters.