Sorry.

I know I said I'd do this last week. But I got busy getting ready to come home, so I thought I'd wait for the weekend. But then the weekend got here and I had to fill out some crazy amount of paperwork for one of my students. And then I cleaned the house, and by time all of that was done I was too tired. So I figured I'd do it Sunday. But my internet got knocked out for about half the day so now I'm just getting around to it, and guess what? I have too much to do to get ready to come home this week. I've gotta get lesson plans ready for my sub, get things prepared for the field trip tomorrow and for the Christmas party at school on Thursday. Apparently it's gonna be a busy week. So please forgive the lack of a lengthy post this time (though I hear Rhino likes the ones that take less than a minute to read), and I'll make sure to get you a nice juicy Christmas Blog next week.

Should take 0:45 to read that. Merry Christmas Rhino. :)

Please stand by.

New post tomorrow. Sarah is leaving tomorrow morning so I'm waiting to do the new post tomorrow night. Please, stay tuned.

13 and 3

It's amazing how a change in environment and routine can bring something you are oblivious to normally, into sharp focus. On my way to, and from work daily I cross 13 bridges. Now normally that isn't a big deal. I've never even bothered to pay attention to any of them before. The one time I have thought about it was after that bridge collapse recently, but even then I only ever thought about the two long ones that I cross. Today however, ever bridge was very important to me. I saw them coming and started driving accordingly. Oh, did I mention? There was an inch and a half of snow and ice covering the bridges. Yeah. That'll get your attention. Not only that, but my change in routine was forgetting my cell at home today. So if I wrecked I'd have had no way to let anyone know. What's the number 3 up there for, you might ask. That's how many brides I skid on and thought, uh oh, I might just buy the farm here. Yeah. It was a stressful drive today, to say the least.

It started snowing this morning at around 5:30 from what I could tell. I decided I'd leave early and try to save myself some trouble. I left the house thirty minutes earlier than normal... I arrived at school thirty-five minutes AFTER I normally arrive. That means my normal drive is around one hour, today it was two. Who were the geniuses that decided to not delay school an hour? Then, we stayed at school all day. Even though the roads were being covered and the sky was dark with clouds, clouds that were pouring snow, and the temps were dropping with every hour. Who were the wizards that decided we shouldn't leave an hour or two early? With this track record we will probably have school again tomorrow... *sigh* I love school.

I have more that I'd like to talk about, but I may wait and write that tomorrow on the off chance that we're outta school. I'll upload the pictures from today after dinner. Other than that, enjoy your day, while I enjoy the snow.

One of those days...

Edit: You won't know this because you probably haven't had a chance to read this yet, but I've edited this, cause it didn't make much sense. :D

It's Monday. I haven't been here for a while. Sorry. We moved to a new apartment, a week went by with no update. The second week came and we hadn't gotten internet yet, so another week went by. My normal day for posting got filled with church stuff, another week went by. My camera battery was lost so I used that as an excuse, another week went by... It seems those weeks can really add up. So what's been going on here? Not much really. We just got back from Thanksgiving. That was fantastic. Got to see all the family that I hadn't seen in forever, and friends too (sorry Scott, we gotta get together for Christmas). Got to see all of Sarah's family at the cabin, so that was great. Another rousing year of "Will it Burn!?" That's like a pyromaniac's game show. You ask the question, decide on yes or no, then toss whatever it is in the fire... Turns out, lots of stuff is flammable.

Now I'm home, it's raining, and I've got a chipped tooth. You ever have something like that happen and it just puts a terrible damper on your mood? Well this chipped tooth certainly has. That's what I've been feeling for the last hour. The thing that really gets me angry is apparently it's been that way for a while, I just didn't notice it. It's never bothered me, and I've never felt any pain from it. Now how is that possible. I hope I didn't chip it on my Wii... Hmm, careful Katie Nanna.

Also I'm really, really tired of driving to work everyday. That's becoming old very quickly. I can't wait for the day when I don't have an hour to drive to and from work. If you're considering a long commute, let me be the first to tell you, don't. And I'm a little ticked off because school is being nit-picky about the days I'm asking off at the end of our normal Christmas break. I want to have a couple of extra days, but they say that's not "policy". But I haven't seen that anywhere, so I'm not sure what that means. Turns out now I have a better excuse, I have to get a crown on this chipped tooth, so I'll just tell them that. So see there is a silver lining to that tooth. :D

As for good and happy things, we love the apartment. It's a huge upgrade for us, and it's not that much more ca$h. And it's got a laundry room with washer and dryer (even though the washer is on the fritz right now, but back to positive things). We have our Christmas tree up now too, which is awesome (don't tell anyone but it's been up fro two weeks now). It's on of those pre-lit jobs, which I didn't think I'd like, but am really enjoying now.

One last bit before I go, does ANYONE know what "Fox one, fox three." Means in the movies, or in reality? They say it all the time when they shoot off rockets and stuff from jet fighters. I have seen it several places in the last three weeks and it's driving me nuts to know what the purpose of that is. Thanks.

Oh, and by the way, don't go watch Beowulf. It sucked, 13th Warrior is a FAR superior movie about Beowulf.

Cool rainy day.

Hi everybody! It's your friendly neighborhood spider-man, er, Jonathan. Back with this weeks Blog-tacular goodness! (Do you ever notice how people put -tacular with other words to make the normal thing they are talking about seem super great? I wonder if -tacular means "super great", the world may never know.)

This week has been rather uneventful as far as our time here in Virginia goes. My fifth grade class is going well, our sixth student will actually be here on Monday, so that's exciting (yes, I've had five kids in my class so far, I'm so spoiled). Sarah has gotten into her classes full swing now, and even has her first big test on Monday. So that's study central all weekend for her.

One big change that has come about this week (and is happening all over apparently. I think they are calling it Hemispherical Cooling) is the WONDERFUL drop in temperature. I'm fairly sure you've read about it over in BigNate's Blog, and we've had it about the same here. Yesterday and the day before the weather was in the mid-fifties when I woke up. Of course that was before the sun came up, but even the day stayed in the mid to low seventies. It was so nice. Today is beautiful too. Even though it's a little warmer, it still feels great because it's lightly raining. Sarah doesn't like it so much right now because she's outside playing volleyball in the in it for intramural.

I'm sitting in the car right now watching her play, leeching the Internet off the school which is nice. But I'll never understand why people like sports that much. Don't get me wrong, I love that she loves it cause she's so enthusiastic about it. I just wouldn't be. I'm reflecting on my life right now, and the only two things I can ever think of that I was happy doing in the rain was camping, and paintball. But I guess those sporty people love their sports, and more power to them.

Well, this weeks EINTKILFTM is a special shout-out to Scott Carmichael, you can catch his blog by clicking his name. He commented that he had no idea on the movie last week, so this weeks should be easier for him. Incidentally all but one person guessed correctly (you know who you are, I hope, cause I have no way of checking that). The correct answer was My Blue Heaven. I don't even remember much about that movie, but that part stuck in my head. Go ahead and have a guess at this weeks. It won't shock you if you guess wrong. Have fun! Till next week, I remain faithfully yours, Jonathan.

P.s. I'm just now re-learning how to get my photos up. When my computer went down I lost a lot of that info. Bear with me as I get a new photos section started.

P.p.s. Check out the first link if you'd like to get an email every time I post. Props to Big Nate for cluing me in on that.

Labor Day Weekend SPECIAL REPORT!

Hello faithful readers and newcomers! There is a lot to discuss this beautiful labor day weekend, so let's get started.

Well the honeymoon was great. Even though we didn't get to go where we'd planned due to the hurricane we had a fantastic time in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and North Carolina. I'll get some pictures up as soon as possible, although I gotta tell you we didn't take that many. Sorry to disappoint. We would like to give major thanks to Nathan Johnson who went above and beyond the call of duty and got us rooms in both Knoxville and Chattanooga. The Chattanoogan was A-MAZING! Thank you so much for all you did for us. We would have been staying in the basement of one of our parents' houses if not for you. So thank you again and again.

School started this week, and it's going to be an interesting year to say the least. I have six kids in my class, and they range from accelerated to non-English readers, to well, to everything else. I'm excited to see how this year is going to pan out. I was so used to having more than 20 kids in my class before I got to Virginia, then I got used to having thirteen last year, and now six. I think we'll have SO much time on our hands that it will be scary. That means I have to work harder at keeping them occupied. We'll see what happens.

This past weekend Sarah and I decided to take a walk in old town and decided we'd head into the "Shop around the Corner", or as it's known here, Winchester Book Gallery. It's just a little book shop on the corner of old town. Some of you may have even been in there. Sarah was looking around, saw some photos and paintings from locals and said, "I wonder what you'd have to do to get your own photos in here? I'm too shy to ask though." Good thing she married me, cause I'm not shy and I asked them directly, what's up? How do we get her stuff in here. Well turns out they do "First Fridays" where they bring in local artists, and show all their stuff on the first Friday of each month. They even bring drinks and food. We're excited to check it out this Friday and maybe even try to get some of our own stuff in there next Month. Something else interesting also happened there, but I'm gonna save it for the end, because it also has something to do with the blog.

Today Sarah and I had a jam-packed Labor day. We had a picnic with our friends from church. We went to Sherando Park near Winchester, we had hot dogs, beans, watermelon, and peach tea! It was an extravaganza of food! Then we went for a walk through one of the nature trails. Finally we ended up on the tennis court. There were six players and only four rackets so Sarah and I just shot some hoops for a little bit. Then the others came and played basketball while we went to play tennis. We had so much fun playing tennis that we thought we'd go buy some rackets next week and make it a weekly thing. We were having so much fun playing singles and doubles that we played for about an hour and a half. I didn't even know I could play that well, but I felt pretty confident after a while.

Finally I have one more little piece of information and a fun little weekly game for my visitors to play. You may have noticed the poll at the top of the blog. I got the idea from several things this week. When we went to the book store the owner and I started talking about how we lived right down the road. He started a mini-movie rental in his shop called The Underground, and he started it especially for people who lived in the area. He had quite the large selection, their were all bought according to his taste, and he and I have very similar taste. He's a little more into foreign films than I am, but action, comedy, drama, and indie, we're spot on. We talked for a while and struck up a quick friendship. We'll probably be spending a lot more time in there now. That got me thinking a lot about al the movies I've seen. Anyway, Sunday I wore my new suit to church. We ended up having a church picnic and we were outside. Needless to say I left my coat in the car hanging up nicely. It reminded me of a movie I hadn't seen in forever! It took me a day to figure out what the name of the movie was, but I finally pulled it out of the black morass of my mind. Because of all this it's time to introduce a new addition to the blog, it's the Everything I Need to Know I Learned from the Movies quiz! Just check it out in the top right hand of the blog. Each week you'll get a hint, and then several choices one of which is correct. I'll put a new one up and let everyone know what the guesses were from the last week. Make sure to come back each week to find out the answer and see if you got it right.

Back in town.

Hello everyone. I'm back in Winchester, Virginia, married and loving life. I'm about to go to school now to get my room set up, so I can't go into anything too expositionary. So, instead I'm gonna give you a sneak peek at the wedding pics.

Click here to see them.

Hello?

Should there be a countdown to my wedding day on here? Yeah, there should be. I don't know why I haven't put one up. I guess it's because I figure everyone who cares that I'm getting married knows when it is. If you don't know, well, then I guess you just don't care. It's August 18th, exactly 10 days from now... That's crazy. Just crazy. But real exciting. Also, be sure to check out the trailer for the next big Bourne movie, no, not Bourne Ultimatum... The Bourne Complacency!

The system is down.

My computer is fried. I'm actually doing this from my Nintendo. Which is kinda cool, but very hard. Check back for updates.

Hey all. Sorry it's two days late but last week was killer. I'm learning all about being a teacher and what that means I have to do and deal with. Friday could be quantified as the worst day of my teaching experience, short though it may be. One of my students was spit on by an older student during the older student's birthday party. Several of my students followed as he did this and knew it was going to happen. They tend to get into trouble when around this boy, and I've tried to tell them to stay away from him, but boys will be boys. So anyway, the worst part of it wasn't that they were involved, it's that they didn't see how it was wrong. They said the kid "deserved it". Let me assure you that this child in no way deserved what happened to him, even if he was a mean child... which he isn't. The kid is an angel, and smart too. Unfortunately he's new, and recently arrived from home school. So that ended my Friday on a pretty sour note.

Then it was Saturday...I had to get up at 0500 to get to school so I could take my kids to their track and field event. Did I forget to mention on here that I'm the Assistant Track Coach at school? Well I am. This past weekend I became, THE coach. Coach Beall's son graduated from Bob Jones University on Saturday and couldn't make the meet, so I was in charge. It was great. I never thought of my self as a "Coach". I really got into it this year though. I loved every minute of it. I made good decisions on who to pick for what events and we came away with tons of individual ribbons including several first places. Overall we took 3rd out of seven, but considering we were only off first by 20 points, and that school had three times as many entrants as we did, not a bad showing. Even if I do say so myself.

The big scary of Saturday though was Margarita Melendez's spectacular fall during the 100 meter race. She'd slipped on some loose gravel and face planted. Her knees, hands, and wrists had so much black asphalt in them I cringed when I saw it. She stood up and I ran over and helped her. My intention was to help her to the finish line, but she said she just couldn't do it. So I picked her up and carried her to the first aid station. I left her there and went to the next few events thinking she was just scraped up. Some of my kids came to me and said she was hurting and they were going to call an ambulance if she didn't get better soon. I was astounded, I hadn't imagined it was that bad. Then I saw someone else who said she was fine so I thought they'd exaggerated. Nope. Ten minutes later an ambulance rolled up and got her. She was complaining of back pain and couldn't breathe. Wow. I was scared. I had picked her up. I've been a doctor's kid my whole life. I should know better than to pick up someone who was hurting. I called Sarah and had her call family members and pray, but the next hour and a half I was scatter-brained. I couldn't think straight. Sarah helped alleviate some of my fear by commenting that if Margarita got up by herself then it probably wasn't a back injury. Soon Margarita was back and laughing and speaking French... Which is odd because she's Hispanic... She was hopped up on pain medicine apparently. We got home that night at 9:45. I should have crashed. But I needed to watch a movie, so Sarah and I popped one in, and I promptly left at it's conclusion, crashing until the next morning.

That morning at church Pastor Jon spoke on Slaying your Giants. I wish some of you could have heard it. I don't think it was really the sermon that so moved me. I'm not sure what it was to tell the truth. The sermon was all about David and Goliath, and how more giants came after that, and how God had made David to be a Giantslayer. Now there are other giants, and we are the Giantslayers. I know all of this. I've heard it before, but Sunday somehow it was new. There are some giants in my life that I've been working on getting rid of (cynicism, bitterness) and I've not been doing a good job on slaying them. So I went down to pray. Then pastor came over and prayed for us and laid hands on us...I gotta tell you, it was...Hm, I don't know how to put it. I felt tingles all over my body. I felt this weight lift off me. I started crying. It was great. Crying, then smiling. I just felt so good. Not only that but I had been aching majorly all over when I woke up that morning. My back was so stiff I could barely move. When we left after the prayer I didn't have a sore muscle in my body. All I can say is, thank you Jesus.

On a side note, this is a drawing my student Seong did for me. She's quite the artist and I have tons of her work. Thanks Seong, I love every picture you've drawn for me! Keep up the great work.

First Field Trip...Ever

Hey guys. This is gonna be a quick post because I have to go do laundry. :D I may come back later and add some more to it so be sure to check back. Anyway, after a long week of Standardized testing with my fifth graders we were all ready for some relaxation. We headed out to the Shenandoah Caverns on Friday morning. It was beautiful. They have some of the most fantastic cave formations of any cave I've ever been in, and I've been in a fair few. The cascade room had some of the most amazing flow stone formations I've ever seen. Of course, having to plan this trip, get it all coordinated, and making sure my kids (who are unbelievable unorganized... Karma? I think yes) were ready to go, helped me do the unimaginable. I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!! Egads, it was even sitting with the directions and all the student information that I needed to bring. So it seems even when I am organized there must be a little bit of disorganization in my life... I think I can live with that.

Ok, well that's all for now. Housework calls. I'll see you all later.

Jonny

Track and field, warm weather, and... Cats?

Good afternoon my fellow bloggers, family members and friends. This week has been fun and exciting overall. All last week we trained and trained the track kids (at least the ones who showed) for the track meet that happened on Friday. Apparently there is a bit of a rivalry between my school and Fairfax Baptist Temple. We are usually trailing in 2nd place by 50 points or so. Well this year we got it down to 10.5. Our kids were extremely proud of themselves. We had several students that place 1st and second and we placed at least 5th in every race! They did a fantastic job all of them.

The week itself was cold and miserable though. We had that wicked Nor'easter blow through, and though it was only supposed to last two days it seemed to last all week. Except for friday. It was a B-E-A-Utiful day on Friday. About 60 degrees and perfect for our track day. The weather has been that way since. Today it has gotten into the high 60s and there is a wonderful breeze blowing through. As soon as I get done here Sarah is gonna go study outside while I play or read out there with her.

Last night we went to a benefit concert for a medical mission trip that SU is doing this summer. It was the praise and worship bands from the Methodist church and our church. It was great... except for the cats. They had kittens to give away for free. If you've spent anytime with me whatsoever you probably know two things about me... I'm colorblind, and I hate cats. I spent all week with my brother wondering where Mr. Tom was going to attack me from next (no offense to Nate or Tom, I had a blast anyway). Needless to say Sarah immediately wanted to get one and who am I to say no... :( Now all we have to decide is which one. What do you think?

That's no boat... Oh wait, yeah it is.

First of all I'm okay. Several of you have called in to ask about the shootings that happened here in Virginia today, well not to worry, those where almost 3 hours away from me. I'm sorry that I've neglected posting for the last three weeks. I have had some extenuating circumstances. Sarah and I went to Baltimore last weekend. She had to do some stuff for school and I went along for the ride. Before that I was all over the US. Seeing Bignate over at Whiteman AFB. And the week before that... Well I honestly don't remember. College is over this week though so you should be seeing more of me! Yay! For now here's a shot to whet your appetite for more pictures. Enjoy.

Edit: I just found something thanks to my good buddy Ninja Ray. You can see his Myspace page by clicking there. Anyway he introduced me to a Johari/Nohari windows. What is this you might ask? That's what I wanted to know. To take a look at my Johari Window click here. And to see my Nohari Window click here. Just follow the directions given on each page. It will explain everything. Make sure you put down a name at the bottom so I know who did it. The more people that do it the more interesting the results will be. Check it out won't you. You can even get one yourself and see what folks think about you.

Edit, Again: Here are Sarah's, in case Andrea, Robbin, Craig, Chris, Esther, or whoever want to check her's out. Johari / Nohari

Teaching.

I've come to a conclusion that many of you in the teaching field may or may not be aware of. You can have great lesson plans. You can have great rewards and consequences. You can have great ideas, and fun things to do. One day your kids are still going to get on your nerves. They are going to break every rule you've laid down for them. They are going to take every consequence and smile sarcastically or roll their eyes about it. Their parents are going to take their side, and blame it on you... That's what I've learned this week.

Disclaimer: The picture above and pictures that you can check out on my site do not have anything to do with the post today. Random coincidence I promise. Sarah and I went out on Sunday (which was beautiful) and took pictures of a very pretty graveyard near her.

I've only got a minute before class...

But I just wanted post something before I go. It's the first full day of Spring... And tomorrow, it's supposed to be seventy-five degrees tomorrow. Oh my word. I haven't seen Sarah for what seems like 2 weeks. She was gone all last week, and she's studying a lot this week, and I've had tons of stuff to do with school and work this weeks so it's like we've not gotten to do anything together. So if this weather holds out I've got one word... Well, actually I've got one picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words... So maybe it's a thousand words.

Patience young padawan

Ok, I'm sorry. I promise I'll get to it by Tuesday. Promise. Been a busy Sunday and Monday.

Edit: Yeah, we got snow last Friday. Craziness. I was griping about global warming all day. So ridiculous. That Al Gore had it right on... I guess. This picture is really cool, too bad I couldn't hold my hand stead enough to make it un-blury (is that a word?). Oh well. I'm working on a new photo page, but I haven't quite got it done yet. I'll be sure to let you know when I do. Alright, end transmission.

Late post

(Ahhh, it's finally getting warm around here. I love it!)

Well, sorry for the late post today, but Daylight Savings time is a killer. I went to bed last night around 12:30 and boy was it hard to get up this morning. Anyway, this past week has been more of the same, nothing too crazy to report. Work is still going well and I feel I'm getting more and more acclimated to it everyday. I still have a couple of trouble makers, but they try their best and that's all I ask for. I did become the "assistant track coach", so take that for what you will. All I do is stretch the runners, and reiterate what the coach says. Is that why assistants do? Grant? Anyone? Who knows, but it is fun to see my kids in a different setting apart from the classroom.

Sarah is gone this week. Which is much harder than I'd imagined it being. Since she's gone I don't really know what to do with myself. I've watched a lot of tv, went to see a movie, watched some more tv, played on the computer... I'm looking forward to work tomorrow because it'll take up most of my day. :D

Beyond that this week has been boring by comparison to the last few weeks. And I'm sure the coming week will be even more boring since Sarah's not here. Maybe when she gets back this weekend I can take her out to do something fun! Anyway, much love to my family and friends. I miss you all.

See ya.

SnOw!?!?!?

Ok, so I got up for church this morning and there's 2 inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming down. So church was cancelled and it seems there is something to that whole Nathan Johnson curse thing. ;D I've seen more snow in the past 2 months than in the past five years with Big Nate around... Of course I'd take Nate over the snow any day.

P.s. This is just an addendum post, check below for this week's main post.

Episode III: That's no moon, it's a basketball

Well it's been an interesting week for me. The snow and ice has finally melted (well most of it, the big 10ft snow dunes are still around, but that's about all). After the snow days I thought the kids would be riled up and crazy. Turns out not so much, they've been very calm this week. Which, turned out, was good for me. ;D This week we held the first annual Leesburg Christian School: Faculty vs. Student basketball game. Nothing like a little bit of strenous basketball against a semi-professional team to make you feel outta shape. I had plenty of smack talk the day before the game. Lots of "you're going home in bandages," kind of stuff.

Of course there is something to be said for being taller and heavier. Turns out I sent one of them to the hospital... Yikes. Not purposefully of course. We were tearing down the court, all I could do to keep up with the kid, and I jumped to block his shot, he jumped to make the shot, I brought my arms down as he was going up, and well... Wham! Elbow to head, lots of blood, and a drive to the emergency room. I didn't find out about him going to the emergency room until about half time and I feel really awful about it. I've been waiting for word from him or his family, but haven't recieved any yet... I'm hoping that no news is good news... Let's hope together.

Sarah and I also just got back from a school activities outting (that's free for students, nice) to the movies. We saw Music and Lyrics, and I must say, two thumbs way up in the romantic comedy section. I laughed out loud several times and I don't do that a lot in romantic comedies. So if you have a significant other that likes that sort of movie then I recommend watching it.

And last but certainly most important. Baby Brady was born this week. On Thursday if I'm not mistaken (if I am I'm sure someone will correct me). I'd put the couple of photos I have of him up, but I'll wait for someone in his immediate family to do that.

Oh yeah, and finally really for real last. Here's the link to my pictures. I'll try to get some old ones that have been sitting around on my camera forever up soon too. Have a great week. I love and miss you all.

A little update real quick before I go to bed.

I've got some more pictures but I'm adding them to Flickr.com. I'll be sure to post a link for you to click later on. See ya soon.

Post II: Attack of the Snow

So it's been snowing here. Alot. Over the course of two days last week it snowed six inches. I haven't been to school since late Tuesday afternoon. It snowed pretty much all day from Monday night until late Tuesday, then sleet and ice until early Wednesday. Now I've seen ice. We had some while I was still in high school if I remember correctly, covered everything in a beautiful sheet of ice. But this was such a new experience for me. The snow, being six inches deep, looked as if you'd sink right into it. but the ice had frozen all of it and it caused it to be like a solid piece of ground. You could jump up and down on it trying to break it and it wouldn't budge. it was tons of fun. Sliding and skating thorugh pristine parking lots. I had a blast. The roads were covered for days. I must say I like the snow, but I don't like the fact that apparently all this "southerners don't know how to drive on snow" goes for northerners too. That is the worst part about the snow, bad drivers. But it looks like it's finally letting up... Or so we thought.

Sarah and I also had a very fun Valentine's day. Since it was snowing like mad we decided to go on the day before. Our thought was there would be less people out, and we were right. We ate at the Olive Garden and we enjoyed our time there talking about wedding stuff and things like that. I had flowers sent to her school the next day, but she didn't have school so she didn't get them till later. Oh well, what's that they say about the best laid plans? I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's pertinent to this situation.

Tonight we had a fund raiser party put on by the Shenandoah University PA program, of which Sarah is a part. There was lots of Cajun food (not as good as Megan's), music, and prizes (of which we won none). We had a great time, were so tired by the end of it that we slowly made our way to the car, where lo and behold...

More snow. Craziness. I guess I'm going to have to get used to this stuff if I'm up here for any period of time. It's beautiful to be sure, but I'd enjoy a bit of a respite from time to time. All else is well up here, school will be back in session on Tuesday, and it'll be nose to the grindstone again. Until something exciting happens, or Saturday I'll say goodnight.

By the way, if any of you want to leave a comment make sure you choose "other" in the "choose an identity" box, that way you can put your name in instead of being "anonymous". Alright, that's all, see ya later.

A New Hope: Post 1

Wow it's cold up here. So as some of you may or may not know I'm not in Kansas anymore. Actually I've never been to Kansas, but my point is I'm not in Tennessee anymore. I'm in Virginia. That's right, new Job at a school here, new school with Shenandoah University. It's a whole new experience.

Now I just want everyone to understand that I wasn't trying to flee your prescence or sneak away. I'd been planning to do this for several months. I just didn't think things would work out. So instead of telling everyone I was moving away, and then having to explain why when I didn't, I'd just wait to see if everything was going to work out. And then, well things worked out all at the last minute. I got calls from schools that needed teacher "today" and all my paperwork came through with SU and I had a place to stay and well... Things just seemed to work out. I didn't even have time to say good-bye to many of you. Sorry about that. But fear not, I'll be back and I'll come say "Hi" then.

Now for something else that you may or may not know (although I'm sure most everyone knows this) Sarah and I got engaged. It happened in January pretty quick after Christmas (the ninth if I remember correctly). It was a cold but clear day in Chattanooga, Andrea (Sarah's sister) helped me the day before to set the whole thing up. We ran to several places that Sarah and I went to on our first date and placed clues for her to find. Imagine my fear as I left these notes all around downtown, I just knew someone was going to take them without her ever seeing it. But luckily for us they were all still there. Unfortunately I did screw up one note, but it didn't keep her from finding all the rest so it was fine. She had no clue what was happening (or so she claims) and when we got to the last clue I was on my knee (because we were dancing and the move called for her to sit on my knee) and when she put the card down I had the ring in front of her. She was ecstatic to say the least.

Now some more intereststing news, John Kay also proposed to Andrea. We've all decided that since he and I are practically brothers anyway and Sarah and Andrea are sisters we should have a double wedding. It's sure to be a blast and like nothing you've ever seen. Clear your calendars people, it's August 18th.

On a side note for all my TTU friends, this weeks random fact of botswana: The total area of the country measures 231,803 sq. mi. Save Botswana.

Well, there's a little bit from what's going on in my life right now. I'll try and get an update up for you by Saturday night everyweek. We'll see what happens. :D

"Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission or this is gonna be a real short trip."