fall remediation

It is finally here, the break that my school deems "Fall Remediation." Now, remediation is the correction of something bad/defectivce, and so I feel that this is somehow fitting for this time in my life. I need to correct my soul once more. I am using this time to clean my apartment, clean my mind, and clean my heart. At the end of the week I will get to travel to Nashville and spend some much needed time with Mom and Kali...and Dan, and Paige, and TOrri! It will be so good for my heart. I'm realizing more and more how much my soul needs family...how much my soul needs something to call "home."

This past week was my first observation at school, and Kali was oh-so-thoughtful as she always is and sent me these beautiful flowers to school. In the card she simply said, "To the best teacher I've ever had." I, of course, immediately began to cry once I saw them and read the card (Why oh why have I been so emotional), but I enjoyed telling my students all day that my sister had sent them when they asked who they were from. Thanks again Kali! (Sidenote: The observation went great, thank you all for your prayers. My next one is a two weeks from today!)
This weekend I read a book that I had been wanting to read since July, and I finally went grocery shopping. In case people didn't believe me when I said that our shelves and fridge were close to empty, here is proof:

Brent actually said we should make it a game and see exactly how long we could push it. We still had rice, a couple potatoes, one chicken breast, some goldfish, and a couple cans of tomatoe paste, chicken noodle soup, and chicken broth. We could have made it a little bit further, but since it is flu season I told him I wanted to eat healthy. And besides that, I was missing cooking. So I made a list and Brent and I were off to the store. We were very proud of ourselves because we ONLY bought items that were on the list, which felt very disciplined of us. So now, not only do I have a week off, but I have stocked cabinets finally!

Another interesting thing that has happened recently is regarding our garbage disposal. Saturday night I decided I would get a few things ready for pot roast, so that in the morning I could just dump everything in the crock pot as we headed off to church. Well, I was peeling pototoes and carrots etc into the sink, and then ran the garbage disposal. Much to my disapproval, the water started to fill up in the sink...a murky, brown, smelled-like-dirt-and-pototoes water. So I turned off the disposal and immediately started reaching down into it to grab any chunks out, thinking this would release the flow of water again.

Not so fortunate. Instead I ended up rubbing the side of my hand, literally, raw in the process, and the water was still sitting. At the time, Brent was in the shower, and once he got out he came to the rescue. He removed some pipes, we found the...umm...clog, or moutain if you will, and then he reattached here and there and everything works great now! And the potroast was well worth it when we came back from church yesterday! Whew!

Last night was also a good night because I was able to teach our friends, Shane and Meagan, how to play Nerts. Although I had an unfair advantage, as I have been playing that game since I was about 5, it was still a lot of fun and they showed promise for competitive games in the future.

I need to wrap this up now. Hopefully I will be a little bit better about blogging this week. Until next time...