Sunday, June 25, 2006

It's been a loooong time....

Wow, I haven't written in forever!

Let's see...
I've been an SPU almunus for a little over two weeks now! Commencement and all the events leading up to it were wonderful. And it didn't rain - yay!! My family arrived the Friday before graduation and left on Tuesday, the 12th. We had lots of fun hanging out in Seattle and surrounding areas. We went to the Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls for dinner after graduation, so it was nice for them to get to see some countryside outside of the city. We also went down to the Tacoma Glass Museum, where we got to see lots of works by Chihuly and other artists. And of course, we went to the Space Needle, original Starbucks, Tillicum Village on Blake Island, and the Market. The weather really cooperated, but they did get one good rainy Seattle day.

I'm all moved into my new house. I'm still working on getting wireless internet, though. My housemates are great, though none of use are around much. It's much quieter in the neighborhood, which makes sleeping a little more easier, even though four years at SPU got me used to busy traffic and city sounds at night.

Wednesday the 21st was the last day of school for Seattle Public Schools, so I spent the day with my 2nd graders. It was interesting to see the last day of school! I wrote each one of my students a card, telling them what I will always remember about them and that they are going to do very well in third grade. I know that I will see many of them around, as I now live very close to their school. I also plan on keeping tabs on a few of them. Still, it was hard to say farewell to my very first class!

I'm babysitting tonight. The kids are sleeping the basement because it's been so hot out lately. Only businesses in Seattle actually invest in air conditioning, since the hottest it has ever gotten here was 100 degrees, and that was a long time ago. We also don't have hardly any humidity, so buying AC doesn't make any sense. To tell you the truth, I kind of like the hot, sticky nights. It reminds me of when I was little and we didn't have AC. It also reminds me of camp :)

Speaking of camp, I've been missing Cran-Hill a lot lately. I mostly miss my dear best friend, to be honest. But last night I did look up at the few stars I could see through the light pollution, and I got really homesick for camp and stargazing every night. The most amazing stargazing ever!! I need to start looking for plane tickets to MI for August. I need to visit before Christmas!

I plan on reading tons again this summer. Pastor Dan emailed me his reading list. I printed it out last night, and it is TEN pages long! It dates back to 1996!! I first checked off all the books I have already read. Next I crossed off the books that I don't really plan on reading, such as books about pastoral care, men's devotionals, books about writing sermons, and the many commentaries he used while writing his sermons. It is a comfort,though, to know that my pastor is well-read and commits to much study and research while writing sermons. It's good to know that Pastor Dan isn't some guy they just got off the street!

Um, not much else going on right now, I don't think. I'm waiting to hear back about a job with Pottery Barn Kids. I should hear from them tomorrow. I need to finish apps for teaching jobs for this fall, as well as fill out all the paperwork for signing up to sub at various districts, if I don't get a job. Lots of paperwork these days...

My dear friend Karin is turning 30 on Canada Day (July 1)and she is kind of freaking out. It's cute :) Tonight I made her a coupon for a Day Out With Val for the next time she's in Seattle or I'm in Nor Cal. I wrote on the bottom of the coupon that the offer expires when she actually LOOKS 30 :)She's such a dear friend and it's really hard to believe that we've been friends for six years already! Time sure does fly!!

Off to work on the graduation thank you cards....
I'll try to better at posting, although it may be sporatic until I get wireless at home.

Shalom, friends.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Less than a week!

This time next week, I will be an alumni of Seattle Pacific University - hallelujah!!!

It's really hard to believe that I have only three more days with my students - Monday and Tuesday I am teaching and Wednesday we have an all-day field trip to Tillicum Village. I'm going to miss those little guys!

I have a place to live! Next Sunday, I will be officially moving out of SPU housing and into a house in Ballard (a district of Seattle). Ballard is known for its Scandanavian roots, so there are lots of yummy bakeries and blond hair blue-eyed people - much like Holland, Michigan :) My new house is only about ten minutes from where I am now, which means it is only 15 minutes from church, Gracie and Oliver, and Queen Anne. The house itself is awesome: two-story bungalow with hard-wood floors, fire place, dining room, amazing kitchen, little backyard, baby grand piano... I love it! I will be living with Jackie, who's in her 50s (?) and is an RN in Seattle. She rents four rooms out of her home to college-aged/post college Christians. There are three bedrooms upstairs, including mine. Carrie and Catherine are two of my other housemates. I've met Catherine, and she's really nice. She's working on her Master's in Education :) There are also two dogs I'll be living with - Beasley, the little dog who looks like Toto, and Socrates, the Great Dane who comes up to my waist. And then there's Duchess, the little black kitty who sits on Jackie's car and a Mystery Cat who I have yet to meet. Oh, and did I mention that the place is entirely furnished?!

I have lots of work to do this weekend, like the majority of my electronic portfolio...*sigh*. That's what tomorrow afternoon and Monday evening are for, I guess!

Oh, I started a new book! One of my students gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card for Teacher Appreciation Week and I finally got a chance to use it. I'm now reading The Brothers K, by David James Duncan. I've been meaning to read it for awhile, as it is a book that Pastor Dan often refers to in his sermons. It's long, too (600+ pages), which is even better! While at B&N last weekend, I browsed their two tables titled "Summer Reading." Upon circling the tables, I noticed that I had read the majority of the books on the tables. I honestly don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing! I mean, I love being well-read and I just plain love to read, but a part of me is starting to think that because I have read most of the books on BOTH the "Summer Reading" tables, there aren't any more books for me to read this summer! Now I know that this sounds incredibly silly, but it's honestly what went through my head last weekend. Let's be honest: I LOVE the thought of school coming to and end and me writing up my summer reading list. I LOVE seeing the piles of books stacked on my dresser and floor, waiting for me to finish my current read and pick up the next book that is on the top of the stack. And I LOVE going to Barnes and Noble in early June and slowy taking my time, purusing the "Summer Reading" tables, making a list of the books I want to read. And somehow, for some reason, that last love of mine evaporated last weekend. I've read all the books on the "Summer Reading" tables - now what will I read?

Oh, and here's a list of the books I have read that were on the tables:
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky
Middlesex, by Jeffery Eugenides
Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson
Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult
Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult
My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, Travels With Charlie, and Of Mice and Men, all by John Steinbeck
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg

Yeah, so those are some of the books on the tables. I've been thinking about coming up with a system to read books, such as reading all of the Pulitzer Prize Winning books that interest me. I could always read more children's literature, too.
So, if you know of any good books, please send their titles my way. I need to compose a summer reading list!