Life is good. Over the past few months, life has been full of ups and downs, good times and bad times. People always say you have go through the bad to get to the good. And now, I have arrived at the good. I am finally feel settled into my new house, work is going extremely well, friendships continue to remain strong, my family continues to be supportive, and most importantly my health is improving. Since moving into my new place, I have made a conscious effort to make better health choices. I have joined a gym and have made better eating choices in my daily life. More important than losing weight (which is of course good in itself), is that I truly feel healthy.

As for the roommate situation, my “sexy Brit” did not work out (long story). However, my friend Heidi has moved in with Ginger and I; and I couldn’t be happier about it. After living alone for the past month, its nice to have someone to come home too…besides a four legged lazy, snoring dog. Heidi and I have become quite close, and our friendship continues to grow each day. Tonight we went on a nice long run (well long for me anyways) and it was great to have someone to run with to keep me going and talk with along the way. Nothing like a good friend to make life a little sweeter!

So this past weekend was a long weekend (and a well deserved one at that). Wednesday evening Ginger and I headed to Portland. We left at 8pm and made it to Portland without any traffic problems. Driving the day before Thanksgiving on I-5 is a horrible ordeal, so I was happy to escape it.

Thursday (aka Thanksgiving) was spent helping my parents cooking and preparing for my 20+ family who would join us later in the evening. It is tradition for the family to help with the cooking and cleaning, but I did have a chance to squeeze in my traditional Thanksgiving nap! Thanksgiving itself was wonderful, full of family, stories and laughter. Most of my night was spent being a ‘jungle gym’ for my two young cousins. Needless to say, at the end of the night, my arms were killing me.

Friday I help my dad put up the Christmas lights during the day, and spent time with some of my high school friends on Friday night. It always amazes me that no matter how long the time passes, we still come together like no time has passed. I love that!

The last part of the weekend, I headed back down to Eugene, and suffered through the Duck game and prepared my house for the annual Llamasgiving meal. I did escape to see American Gangster, which I really enjoyed. Llamasgiving was filled with good friends and delicious food. The boys played with the Wii, and the women knitted and gabbed while we ate and drank. It was great to get all the llamas together, since we have all been busy with our crazy schedules. Thanksgiving in truly the time to spend time with the people who are important to you, and my weekend was no exception.

I received the following an email today from my administrator. It really moved me so I thought I would share it. Reading this makes me so thankful for all the blessings I have in my life. And since you are taking time to read my blog, that means you too! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

If we could shrink the earth’s population

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
(ONE)1 would be near death;
(ONE)1 would be near birth;
(ONE)1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education;
(ONE)1 (yes, only 1) would own a computer.

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

And, therefore . . .
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are lucky because the majority can, but most do not.
If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
As you read this and are reminded how life is in the rest of the world, remember just how fortunate you really are!

Will this rain ever stop today? Sheesh!

Well it has been two week since I moved into my house. Truthfully, I am still in awe that this is my house, but I love knowing that this is where I will call home for many years! I am still learning the quirks of my new house as I begin to settle into the house. This weekend, with the help of my mom and my sister, I went furniture shopping.

Furniture shopping is not what I call fun, so I was thankful to have my two ‘consultants’ there to help me through the process…although I think my sister was a bit frustrated with my lack of decorating vernacular. We drove around to multiple furniture places and spent about five hours looking at furniture. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, but I found pieces I wanted…but of course I had to sleep the decision to make a large purchase.

So the next day, I bought two double chairs (which are a bit bigger than love seats) and an entertainment center for my living room. In addition, I bought something I have always wanted…a sleigh bed. I found a beautiful dark wood sleigh bed that I immediately fell in love with at first glance. Although the couches and entertainment center will take a few weeks, my bed comes this coming week, so I am super excited for that.

Truth be told, there are still some things that I have been unpacked yet and my garage is looking less than perfect, but I am still starting to feel settled. I am waiting for one of my organizational moods to kick in so I can completely organize the house. Until then, Ginger and I are enjoying the house…and for once, I am actually doing some relaxing!

After a few rough months at work, things have started to settle down. So far this year, I have been kicked, pinched, punched, bit, spat on and bruised by my students. Sure these are no fun, but they come with the territory. Recently one of my students moved to a more theraputic placement and one student started Ritalin (instead of Red Bull…see earlier posting). Now that these things have happened, my classroom actually feels like a classroom.

For the first time this year, I feel very competent in my teaching and how I am supporting my students. During my first year of teaching, I was confident in my teaching, but I was always making a few mistakes here and there…which is normal for any teacher. This year, I seem to feel more competent in my teaching and I am gaining respect of other teachers and specialists in my school and the district. At the start of this year, I became part of two school wide teams that design interventions for students who need more support. Through these teams, I am finding that people are becoming more impressed with my skills and expertise…which is great for me. I know that I don’t know the answers for everything, and I need to remember that I am still new to the district and I need to make sure I am not stepping on too many toes. However, it feels so good to have people look to me as a competent individual!

So I have officially entered the world of dating, which is completely strange for me. In past relationships, I was always friends with a guy before we were together. The dating scene is new to me, and I feel quite inexperienced. I have gone on some good dates and some bad dates, but overall the experience is weird to me. Not sure if it is because I’m older or that I don’t have much experience dating, but I feel a bit lost. I am trying to figure out how much share on a first date and what is acceptable on the first date. Normally, I am one to follow rules, but for dating, I am just being me, and not following any of those set ‘dating rules’. Lately, I have come to realize that there are no rules out there, and people go at their own pace.

I feel that in the past few years, I have really developed who I am as a person and I feel more confident in myself, and I think it shows. At one point in time I was shy (shocking…I know), but I have seemed to grow out of my shyness and I am becoming more comfortable and confident with who I am. I think that now I am comfortable with who I am, I am ready to date and find the other “fish in the sea.”

Woot for self confidence…something I have been wanting/needing for so long! It’s so strange to me that dating is helping me be more confident in myself.

If you want to see a horrible picture of me, because I know you do, get a Register Guard today and look at page C-5. A 6:45am I got a texted from Rachel saying I was in the paper. On my way to work, I picked up a paper and saw my picture. Not the best one…but oh well. Read the article, its much more enjoyable than my picture!

Check out the article. No picture, but at least article is good.

More to come later, but here is my night….

Planned to have people over, made dinner…and only Brad and Sara showed up.

Locked myself out of the house and spent an hour next door with ferret lady.

Spent an hour cleaning up after Ginger’s house destruction while I was locked out of the house.

It’s midnight, time for bed. More when I am more awake….night!