Glorious gobbling Guinea pigs!

Despite the insane paint job in my classroom, i have redeamed it with some fabric and some posters. Scince that point in getting the classroom ready, i aquirred three guinea pigs.
Some of you might be asking, 3?! how did you get so many!
Well, that is simple. A lady had three guinea pigs, they all needed a home... i volenteered!

Ok, so days with the guinea pigs included feeding all three of them, watching them romp in the paper shreds lining thier cages, watering them, and then teaching my studnets how to pick up and play with guinea pigs.

important side note: All of my studnets are sick exept for one with head/lung colds.

All was going just fine until last week Wednesday when i realized that one of my flock was lethargic. After trying to get her to eat fruit I realized she was not eating much either. By Friday I was doing a close inspection. After letting my studnets play with her, i set her on my lap and realized that her nose was running like crazy! So I put her back in the cage.
On Saturday morning I went to check on the guinea pigs and realized that this particualr rodent had died. (there is no poetic way to say that when you see a hard cold little friend on the bottom of their cage)

Well on Tuesday I told my students of the death and they were very sad, in fact they did not cry at school, but many suffered through more tears at home.

On Wednesday I realized that the male guinea pig is seeming lethargic, but the good news is he is still eating and drinking and does not have a runny nose. i think i will take them home for the weekend so that they can warm up and perhaps gain a little bit of health before coming back to school.

Oh, and the remaining femail guinea pig is doing just fine and eats like crazy! In fact in the last two weeks she has gained a considerable amount of weight. Even though I did not feed her as much this week she has stayed the same weight, which leaves me with one question. is she pregnant?

My studnets feel that she could be pregntant becuse the they accidedntly let the male guinea pig sniff her. I reassure them that could very well be possible. (I am trying to maintain innocence here).

If any one out there knows about guinea pigs, i would very much apperciate some advice on this situation.

My mum's husband beleives the guinea pigs could have the swine flue!:) maybe....

Finally Settling? NAH!!!

All the desks in my room, which are not staying!:)

THe ugly painted wall!
This week I moved into my new apartment in North Liberty, and for anyone who wants to know, i live in a used car lot! Which is an adventure all its own. 

There have been a few crazy things, for starters i have all of my stuff and all of Josh's stuff in my tiny one bedroom apt and it is taking up a lot of space.  Especially the double bed in the kitchen. :)

Well, with all (or well, most) of the stuff un-packed and put away, I started work in my classroom. That proved to be intresting, i am thinking about posting picutres of this classroom.  The walls are soo ugly, they are a burnt orange color with a little bit of coral mixed in and tehy have been sponge painted that way, on purpose! YIKES! 

I started un-packing, but i am just not sure where i should put everything and now i am realzing that i will be having three tables for my 6 kids instead of 6 desks! This will be intresting, I think it could make for a realy cool teaching enviroment, but i am not totally sure how to pull off my vision!

Ok, So that is the school building.  I reallapperciate my administator and I am  living next door to another teacher (in the car lot) and so that has been fun.  The teachers I work with made me feel so welcome right away! What a blessing, we have already been hanging out and enjoying getting to know each other.  It could be a fun year! 

As far as being settled, well don't count on it.  i have been here a week and I am leaving to go to Vancover tommorow, but first stop my mums house then follow that up with a wedding and festivities and then i will be heading back to Norht Libetryt, after Josh moves there on AUg 3.  So i think i will be starting to be settled for the time being on the 7th of AUg.  It seems as though this summer has just flown by and I can hardly even believe how quickly it went by.  But I have definitially enjoyed most moments of it. 

Just call me the traveling... poet?

So i managed to move home with out too many troubles. We did get stuck ust outside of great falls in light of a broken belt. But made it home two days later, unloaded and brought the U-Haul back. Its been a good visit at home so far. It is wierd to see my mums with breast cancer and the chemo treatments. I thought the wierdest thing would be the hair loss, but it turns out that the wierdest thing for me is how tired she is. We love to take walks together and right now we are unable to do that and I know that she hates it too.
Having a trial in my life is effecting every relationship i have and i really never thought that would be the case, but it is. That is wierd too.
I have been home now for a totaly of four days and I am off again to travel the world. First stop Iowa City to look for apts. Second stop is Chicago for a day to get our bearings (sharon and I) third stop is Ireland! YAY! I can hardly wait! Then the Netherlands. I am so exicted about this trip, but with everything else going on it seems so difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that I am acutally going! we leave at 7am! I would apperciate prayers for my mum and for saftey traveling. For another milestone, Josh and I celebrated on year of dating on Friday and we went horse back riding, he also brought me a dozen roses and we ordered a pizza from a short bald man from the bronx. it was an intresting conversation and the best mushroom pizza i have ever eaten!
Cant wait to see you all when we get back!

A few things for news!

Last week several feet of snow fell out of the sky and landed in COnrad MT. For the first time in 7 years we canceled school on account of snow! It was packed up everywhere. I had a 33" dirift beside my car, a 24"drift behind my car and a total of 2' acculumation everywhere! It was crazy. It was the kind of wet and heavy snow that can only come in the late spring. Stores were closed and I stayed at home and made homemade chai bread. It was delightful.

As people talk about spring coming and seeing new life and being reminded of the return from the depths of winter, i feel as though we are still very submursed in that dead of winter. It remains in the upper 50s and windy, but yesterday was a sight to be seen.

Becuase of all the snow that we had a couple weeks ago, we have recived an intense amount of moisture for this particular part of the country. In fact, the fields are too wet to seed! -Funny that i know that, i realize. But everything is green! I do not rememebr so much greenness last year and it makes me sooo excited to have everything green, including my costantly growing grass!:)

In other news, i am moving June 3rd to Iowa, and storing stuff at my mums house, then moving on to Iowa city in July. But i am very very excited to go to this new school, although i am sad to leave behind my students, friends, and most importantly belly dance class!:) In the month of June, along with moving, I will be going to Ireland for a week and the Netherlands for a week as well. I am very very excited about all of this traveling and vacationing. It will be a fun summer, althoug a busy one at that!:)

cheers!

God's faithfulness!

Hello All, I have a great story!
I went to interview with a school in Iowa City this weekend. I had a good time visiting the school and the interview went well. To back up a little bit Josh had an interiview in Iowa City on MOnday (last week)--then this thursday i had an interview.
Josh and I had been praying for God to blow the door wide open or shut it completey for a while now and God does answer prayers very faithfully.
So I had my intervew and after the interview i got a call from Josh, and he had gotten the job in Iowa City and I was like, wow! Josh and I decided to wait a little bit to decided if he should take the job. About an hour after the phone call from Josh I got a phone call from the school I interviewed with and they offered me the job.
I took the job and Josh took his job and we are moving to Iowa city in August.
God is so faithful!

Freedom verses Fear.

Throughout the day today I have begun to wonder about this country and the amount of fear that seems to grip the hearts and lives of people here. Why not, I mean we could be afraid of terrorists, wall streets constant drops, cancer, cancer causing products working their way into our lives and the lives of our families, schools not fulfilling the "duties" we think they should, teachers being human (not perfect) and institutions failing us. And that is only inside of our country. The very thought of world hunger, aids, epidemics, children who are dying because the lack clean drinking water, women being tormented for religious reasons, among countless other things should strike a fear deep down inside of us.
But what about that quote: "the only thing to fear is fear itself" I think that is becoming more and more true every day in our culture and society.
This morning on the news I heard a family talking about how they had planned on suing the school because their son committed suicide after being bullied. I am sorry if that strikes a cord of fear in you, but honestly what do parents think the school should have done? We can only be in control of our own actions and we can not control the actions of others. So then why should we find someone to blame when our child/spouse/sister/brother/family did something we do not approve of or even hurts us?
What is going to happen to our nation if this fear runs rampant and this deep desire to have someone to blame increases?
My current job is in education, and i know that people need to have rules, guidelines, and general accountability, however when does that accountability allow you to have the freedom to not be ruled under the fear of being blamed? For example, in order to get my Iowa teaching licence i have to teach in an accredited school (with the state of Iowa) be it public or private for 3 years. Then i can get my full licence. Well christian schools are afraid of being accredited because they will be overrun by the state rules leaving no room for Christ to be taught. Meanwhile, teachers that wish to maintain their licence must somehow work under these rules. It seems to me that when you are in a profession you enjoy you ought to be able to do it without jumping through thousands of hoops.
So back to fear, every time somebody becomes afraid and blames another person for the outcome of events that person is forced to re-examine the way they live and how they respond to situations. That doesn't seem terribly problematic. But what if every person feels the need to blame a school for something that they don't like and in return the school's policy gets stricter and stricter? The stricter the school is the worse education the students are receiving. Just think of 10 years ago when you might have been able to teach in a school and teach fun and exciting things to your class, but now with all the rules and regulations (that have been set in because of fear--of failure, not measuring up, etc) as a teacher you are stuck. You have very little freedom to teach in a way that students will respond to.
I have to admit i am so tired of the teaching profession i just want to quit. But to quit teaching, which is my life, brings me to tears. Why is it that a pretty good teacher can't even maintain professional status by simply doing what she loves? I love to teach, i love to see what new ways i can make material jump out to my students. But i don't seem to be able to get a job.
In America today that popular song should not say: "let freedom ring" but instead should say: "we let fear rule our lives" as fear seems to continually grip our lives.

Its been a long time coming!

SO it has been months scince i have posted and there is really no good reason for that. A list it is in that case:
1. came back to conard and started up on the teaching band wagon!
2. went home for christmas and enjoyed lots of time with my family
3. Came back to conard and batiked a set of chair covers and created an Ephiphany banner for my church
4. Josh came for a visit, we went snowshoeing and it was a blast and a half!
5. Went skiing twice, and got really really sore, but had a great time! I love the movement of that show underneath the skies.
6. deisgned and deligated two lentan banners for my church
7.made 1940's coustumes to be worn this weekend
8. FOund out my mum has been diagonased with breast cancer
9. made some more plans for the future, but nothing definiate has been made... i am a little nervous about what is to come.
10. had the science fair, it was a blast and started searching for curriculum type stuff for my school
11. had a tax appoinment and discovered i do not owe money! YAY!!!
12. wrote this blog finally.

I hope all is well! Rach:)