Memorial Day Weekend...

Wow...what a weekend! It was jam packed, with lots and lots of good times! Rachel got in on Saturday, and we went straight downtown for dinner and Pirates 3 with some people from church! I thought the movie was good, but I liked the first 2 better. And then, of course, there was ice cream after!

On Sunday, we went to church, and then Rachel hung out with Allen while I went to some Kenya meetings. She got to see parts of Santa Cruz I haven't even seen! After, we did some shopping and then met my roomie and Allen for dinner. Lots of speed uno and speed scrabble followed. It was tons of fun.

Monday, Mike and Brian came down from Sunnyvale to visit. It has been awesome having Mike so close. All of us headed over to the church picnic. It turned out to be an awesome time! We won some tug o war and an egg toss. Good food and good friends definitely equaled good times that day. After the picnic, we tried to visit the Mystery Spot, but it was a 3 hour wait...so we left and went to the boardwalk. Note to self: Dont ever do that on Memorial Day ever again. ha. It was crowded but a ton of fun. We went mini golfing and walked on the beach.

On Tuesday, Rachel came to school and felt my pain. haha. Like nailing jello to a wall. :) Speaking of school...It looks like I may get to stay in 2nd grade. We are losing a bilingual teacher, so they won't have anyone to move into my position. Soooo...the principal said if they don't have someone for the position, they can't take it. Wooooo. This is good. Trying not to get too excited, just in case they change it, again. Looks like my roomie is moving up to 3rd, she'll have my students.muahaha...that can't be good.

I am so looking forward to next Thursday. 6 more school days...I NEED a vaction. Can't wait. Hope everyone is doing well!

Randomness...

I really need to keep this thing up. I am a complete slacker. :) Life has been incredibly busy this past month. I can't believe there is only 8 days left of school. Where did the year go?! Can I teach 5th grade next year? Ha...it's a good thing I have Jesus...that's all I can say!

I have had a lot of out of town friends visiting lately. Missy and her friend came to visit and Rachel is here now. Seeing them and enjoying my time with them has put me in a semi-weird mood again. There is this unexplainable feeling like something in my life is off. I think I'm just at the point where I'd like to know what to do next and where I'm supposed to be. I don't know if it's because I'm not fitting in like Id like to or just because I'm ready for something new. Too much thinking.

When Missy was here, I took the day off, and we headed up to San Francisco, for a very crazy and very short trip. It was nice to be in the city again. We went to alcatraz, where I enjoyed the audio tour in spanish...good times!

Today, Rachel, my best friend from home, came into town. She's going to stay until Tuesday. She was able to come meet my class in September, so now she gets to see how they've changed! Tonight we went to see Pirates 3 and went to Marini's for yummy ice cream. Pirates was pretty good, I was impressed. It always amazes me that Keira Knightly's hair is always like it is, even after she is fighting dead people. haha. The rest of our weekend is full! We have some fun plans for Sunday, a picnic on monday with some other out of towners and then school on tuesday! I'm so excited to have her here!

I am enjoying the last few weeks of school and I am starting to get excited for the summer! Next weekend Im going to see the USA mens soccer team play China..in San Jose. And the week after, Im going to a giants/As game. I will of course boo both teams. :) I am simply going for the lack of baseball in my life. At the end of June, the padres play the giants. I hope to be there for those, too. June is full of tons of fun! I am going home for graduation festivities, going to see Kenny Chesney, going to SLO, going to weddings and just relaxing. Yay for summer!!

PS...Fyi This week is teacher appreciation week. ;o)

Persistence in prayer

Tonights bible study was awesome, yet so convicting. How often am I persistent in what I'm praying for? No often enough. I tend to pray for something, and then just move on to the next thing. There is only one thing I can say that I have consistently prayed for since I was about 10 years old. That prayer is for my dad and for my hope that he will choose to walk with the Lord, again.

And then once a prayer is answered, no matter how it is answered, I tend to only be thankful for the answer, and not for the process. I think the Lord makes us wait sometime, so that we may grow from the experience we have waiting for his answer and timing. We got to read about Hannah and her experiences with prayer. She was so consistent in asking for what her heart really desired, a baby. And when she was blessed with that, she immediately overlooked the gift and praised the giver. I think too often we focus on the gift and forget where the gift came from. "Every stream should lead us to the fountain; and the favours we receive from God should raise our admiration of the infinite perfections there are in God." I loved that quote that we read in the book. I want to be more purposeful about praising God for every gift and experience He has given me.

Ahh so many thoughts, so few words to express them with.

Mcboys, open house and pain...

Rachel came over for a 2 hour episode of greys anatomy. They are trying to do a spin off of Grey's with Addison. Interesting...although we did get a nickname for the new love interest. I wonder if it will work...Good times with my "sister" watching all the mcboys.

Had open house last night, too. About 11 families out of 17 came. Not too bad. My chango bar bribe may have helped. It was really fun, the kids had a checklist, and they gave their parents a tour of the room. I find it hilarious, that by the end of the tour, each parent knew who Mr.Wan was. They showed them his art work and the letter he wrote them. Totally awesome. One boy even showed his dad how he holds the door open for the girls. haha.

I had an awesome time hanging out with all the moms. They are so fun to talk to. Once my Spanish gets going, it's hard to stop it! They are always asking questions about what I do, why I'm not married and why I can't have the same class again next year. When I mentioned that there is a possibility I may be moving grades and it would be an English class....a few parents said they would take their kids out of bilingual. ha! I didnt even tell them if it would be third grade. Its always good to know that people think youre doing a good job. :)

The day before open house, I started to get really bad pains in my lower back. I kind of shook it off, since it had been a stressful week and I usually have back pain when Im stressed. Well I was at school for 12 hours yesterday, and by the end, I could barely sit up enough to drive home. I got a few hours of sleep, and wasn't feeling much better today. I took a half day off of work because I needed to go get a few shots for Kenya. As soon as I walked out of school, I felt the pain get worse. (its easy to ignore when youre working.) I begged Alyssa to take me to a chiropractor after we got our vaccines. I went to her awesome doctor who wasn't technically even open today. He was amazing. He knew something was wrong when one leg was longer and I couldnt even hold my left one up. He took xrays and found out that I have a twisted vertebrae in my lower spine. He readjusted and sent me home. Since then I laid on Alyssa's couch, Julie and Kirsten's couch and now mine. It is really no fun at all! I'm just glad that I know what's wrong and that he can do something about it.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!!!

Wow...

It's been awhile since I've posted! Lo siento, Megan. I should really keep up with this thing. What has happened since April 6th? Lots! The week of April 6th, was my spring break. I went to SLO(got to see the Nugents!) for a short visit, went to San Diego(met my brand new cousin!) for a few days and then ended my trip in LA visiting Matt and Missy. I had an awesome time...but it was hard being away from Santa Cruz for so long! I have enjoyed being back, especially since I only have 27 days of school left. I can't believe it. Where did this year go?!

It looks like I will be teaching another grade next year. What grade? I have no idea. I can't imagine starting over again, it seems so unreal. Maybe I should become a beach bum. Now that would be awesome.

Kenya is getting closer and closer! This Friday I am taking a half day at work so that I can go get all of my shots. No fun. I've had a lot of support money coming in, so I'm really excited about that. I got to talk to my principal about the trip and she really wants to contribute, as do a few of my other coworkers. So awesome. God is providing, as if I should have ever doubted. I can only look forward to the ways he will use me there. Claudia and I are going to be preparing the dramas and puppet shows that we will use in the schools. I am also going to help set up some of the Pastor training seminars. I may even be leading/teaching a women's breakout group. ahh! I'm still in shock that I'm going on this trip. Beyond excited!

Here's some recent, random pictures. :) Hope everyone is doing well.