Today is the day! Today is the last day! Today is the day!! Today is the LAST DAY! (I hope you were singing that as you read, because that is the mantra that will be on repeat in my head all day long! As a teacher, this is that day that I have been looking forward to for, well, a while! And as a human being, well, maybe even a little bit before that! I can remember April 25th as the day that I was pretty much checked out, and my students were done days before that. In EighthGradeLand, we have done A LOT! And as this week has crawled by, I have been losing it a little more each day!I literally feel as crazy as Lartine from Robin Hood: Men in Tights. For those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about, allow me to provide a visual! Seriously, that is me during each passing period, standing outside my classroom door. I can literally feel her oozing out of me, or maybe I am just becoming her! I already have gray hair... Yes, at 24, I have gray hair, and I could match each hair with a student or a stress from the past two years of teaching. I can feel the snaggle-teeth coming, and my mentality... Let me give you a little insight into my girl Latrine, here! She does, says, and believes what she wants, even when it is absolute nonsense! She is blunt and really doesn't know or follow the expected rules of society. Now picture all of that walking around a middle school! Yeah, that's how it's been.
Along with the Latrine look, let me tell you what the life of a middle school teacher (Starting at about April 25th) feels like! For this, I'll need a little help from the street urchins of the ever-wonderful musical, Les Miserables: "At the end of the day you're another day older, And that's all you can say for the life of the poor. It's a struggle, it's a war, And there's nothing that anyone's giving. One more day, standing about, what is it for? One day less to be living. At the end of the day you're another day colder, And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill. And the righteous hurry past, They don't hear the little ones crying... And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill. One day nearer to dying!" YES! That! *Hands clapping, raised up to the sky!* Yes! That is it. Now, don't get me wrong! As crazy as I am and have been for the past few weeks, I have been just as sappy and sentimental. I looked at my students as they gave their final presentations and thought, "I have raised you from an animal into a respectable almost freshman." "I remember when you hated presenting, and you still do... But now you've learned that complaining about it will get you no where!" "Wow, you really understood everything that I wanted you to, and you were able to connect it with your life." And as I have interactions with my kids... "I remember when you hated me because I switched you into this class. You had nothing to do with me, and now you come see me at my desk before the bells to start and end class." You were once WAY too cool for everything, and now you're dancing in front of me to try to make ME feel awkward!" I won't get to see one of my favorite groups of kids today, but you can be that when my partner teacher sees them, I will be in there telling them how much I love and care about them. I will thank them for letting me be their teacher. I will thank them for letting me have "Real Talk" sessions and "Come to Jesus" meetings with them (where we talk about issues within the class and try to set them straight.) I will tell them how proud of them I am, and that I am always here for them. And I will probably cry... Because I cry at everything, and because these kids can do ANYTHING they could possibly ever want and can accomplish anything they set their minds to, and they NEED to know that. If they hear it from no one else, they will have heard it from me, believing in them 100%! And that, my friends, is what being a teacher (I'm going to be honest...) almost always feels like. A lot of "Latrine" and even more love! It's official! I can finally share the news that I've been hinting at for months! Okay, maybe the hints haven't really come your way via the blog because of my sporadic posting tendencies, (sporadic, what a cute, nice way to tell you that I'm a lazy blogger!) but regardless, I am excited to share Todd and I's news with you! We bought a house! Back in January, we officially put our first home (Todd's bachelor pad) up for sale! We cleaned, de-cluttered, and waited! We waited for, to me, what seemed like the most stressful period of eternity. When in reality, it was like three months. And then finally, we got a bite! After many looks, I could stop annoying my husband by asking, "Have you heard any news from Lanae today?" because we had gotten a bite!
For a few weeks now, we have been packing, and thanks to the contractor who was building the home, and connections with him that we had through friends, we were able to start moving things into our new home as soon as he was done working on it, and now, we are finally done! Being completely moved into the house makes my joy springs overflow! If you're thinking, "What the heck are joy springs?" let me explain! You know when you're so happy that your innards are all warm and happy and smiling and gooey and your face is all warped and big and smiling (if you're me there are usually happy, ugly tears that accompany). Those are your joy springs! I love our new house and can't wait to decorate and make memories there! But in this season of happiness, I have come to realize something that I am extremely annoyed by (Those of you who know me are surprised right now, thinking, "I thought she was already annoyed by everything?!") , and something that on most occasions, I feel extremely disrespected by. That annoyance is the question I receive from others as to "WHY?"... Let me explain. This annoyance started a small spark in me when Todd and I were getting married! I would receive a congratulations, and then many questions; most of which were met with happy smiles and kind remarks. But when someone would ask me, "Where are you guys getting married?" And I would reply happily, "Lyons, KS!" The asker's face would gnarl up and I would get the response, "Why?" My wedding, my precious wedding (which happened to be the best day of my life, in little Lyons, KS) was being questioned, and I felt it necessary to defend her. "Well, he lives in Sterling. We go to church together at the Baptist church there, we like our pastor, it's pretty close to both of our families, there is an awesome reception area there that we are using, etc." Why on earth was I having to defend choices that Todd and I made together? Choices that, for once, were easy to make and made the most sense, made us happy, and made it easy on our guests? Why couldn't these people just be happy for Todd and I? So that brings me to the LARGE annoyance that came, as we were preparing to move into our new home. Let me preface, our new home is in another town. We moved from Sterling, which means that now, my commute has gone from 30 minutes to 38 minutes, and Todd is now commuting about 45 minutes, when before, he could have walked to school. So the questions started to poor in, "When will your house be done?" "When will you move?" "Do you have pictures?" "Have you gotten to make decisions?" (And then things take a turn...) "Where is it exactly? Oh... (And that's when it hits me in the gut...) "Why are you moving THERE?" I hope on the word "there" you made a stink face, because that is the exact face I got to see over, and over again. My home, my beautiful, brand-spanking new home, with the dark wood cabinets that I wanted, and the basement, and three bathrooms, and beautiful fairy dust sparkling on the walls, (Well, not so much the dust, but you get the picture.) was being attacked! Shiver me freakin' timbers! All hands on deck! This wise-guy's going to take a visit to Davy Jones' Locker! In my mind, I was in full fighting mode, and I swear that, just like on Pirates of the Caribbean, if you'd seen me step into the moonlight, I would have been a skeletal, pirate ghost. Again, why couldn't these people be happy? So instead of become my favorite pirate (the one whose wooden eye won't stay in his head), I began to defend my new ship...err, I mean house! "We are closer to family here!" "We have friends that we love living right down the street!" "We do a lot of traveling on the weekends, and when we were in Sterling, it took 45 minutes just to get us to a highway to start our journey." "Yes, my husband budgets like a mad-man, we CAN afford this." And so on! So that is my news and my annoyance! I hope that as we start really putting our touch on things, that we will be able to share some pictures with you! And I hope that you're a positive question asker, and not a negative, gnarl-faced annoyance! Until next time, matey! I was going to end with a joke about pirate booty, but it's more fun to leave it at that and wonder what the heck I was going to say! This just in, Todd and I have been married for seven months. I repeat, Todd and I have been married for seven months! In that time, I feel like Todd and I have gotten a pretty good handle on marriage. There are fun times, frustrating times, funny times, boring times, lovey times, and annoying times... (That last one was for him... For some reason, I find joy in being a little annoying!)
Earlier today though, I was looking back at some of my old school emails. The oldest ones I found (of any sort of interest) were from February of last year. If you have at all been following these little blog posts, you know that Todd and I got engaged last February! The emails I found were to and from my dad. We were talking about the date Todd and I chose, and whether or not a lot of his family would travel to Lyons, were we were planning on having the wedding. These emails, sparked a past want that I had. I really wanted to share some tips and thoughts with you that could possibly help you out on your big day, or at least get you thinking of things that you might not have thought of.... Thinking, things, thought... Anyone else catch that? So here it is, a list of ten things to think about prior to the big day! Disclaimer, this list will probably grow in the future! 1. Save the notes, cards, letters, and emails you get in those early days of your engagement. As you prepare for your wedding, you will get sweet things like this! Save them. They are fun to look back on, and they make you remember how awesome your wedding day turned out to be! 2. Your veil... I know some of you won't wear one, and that's SOOOO okay! I did choose to wear one, after thinking I wouldn't, and then being told by my oldest sister that "I would feel more bridal" if I did. Anyway, should you choose to wear one, and should it be shoulder length of longer, (birdcage girls, you're safe!) Please take if off after the ceremony. I wore mine to the church , during the ceremony, and to the reception, and by the end of the night, I was so tired of it. It looked great, and stayed in, but my issue came when someone would hug me. (You get hugged like 5,000 times on your wedding day, BTW!) Every time someone would hug me, my head would get pulled back, or I would be frozen because my veil would be stuck to my head, pressed against my back, and weighted down by their loving arms. 3. Cry when you want. I cried so much on me wedding day. I cried on the way to the church (You'll hear about that shortly.) I cried when I saw Todd for the first time. I cried before I walked down the isle. (As my ring "bears" help up their teddy bears and roared.) And I cried as I walked down the isle. (Those beautiful pictures can be seen in the wedding photos section!) Cry. Do what you want! It's you're day! 4. Have a drink from Starbucks! Come on, we've all pinned those cutesie pictures of brides holding their Starbucks cups with "Bride" scrolled across the cup in cursive that looks like someone from Disney wrote it! It's fun, just do it! 5. If you are getting yourself to the ceremony, and you are as bat-poop crazy as I am, (Can you say CONTROL FREAK) have someone with you who understands your crazy. Not *you're crazy* because heck, if they know you, they already know that. I am taking about your crazy. (My crazy... My specific brand.) I had my cousin writing notes upon notes of things that people needed to do or check on, in order for my to feel like things would go well.. (Which they did! Go me... I mean, go her!) 6. GO WITH THE FLOW. I know after the confession I made in number 5, you're probably laughing at me right now, but bite your tongue! That was BEFORE everything go started. Once the first bridesmaid walks down that isle, buckle up. You're on a wedding roller coaster! And beautiful bride, your coaster will be perfect! 7. Eat the food at your reception. Our dinner was amazing. The cake that I licked off my face, after Todd smashed it there was delicious. The bite of one of my four different cupcake flavors was delectable. But that's all I got. Todd didn't even get any of our cake! If you're busy, which you will be, have someone pack you a to-go box of a little bit of EVERYTHING. You can't taste all of the compliments that you will get on how great your cake was. If I could have, this tip wouldn't be necessary. 8. Be willing to use decorations and things like that from the people who have them! We took hundreds of empty wine bottles from friends and family. We borrowed Christmas lights, my father in-law cut our centerpieces from trees on his property, we borrowed trellis from family. We used candles, tealights, and beading from my sisters' weddings. This day is expensive enough. Borrow stuff!! 9. I had three... oh what's the word?... Wedding helper-outer-girls! One who helped out at our church, and then two of my best friends. They were wonderful! They handled everything. My list of crazies. Done. My last minute concerns, they had them done before I could even ask. NOTHING went wrong on my wedding day!... Okay, a lot probably did, but did I know about it? NO. So, like I said. NOTHING went wrong! It was the best day! So, you have as many wedding helper-outer-girls as you want! And the word just came to me. Personal attendant. But you can call them what you wish. 10. Finally, number ten... and something that I've kind of done, but still not yet really. Go to Hobby Lobby and buy (or have your handy hubs make you) a memory box. Todd's cousin had one that I was able to see a couple weeks before our wedding. It was beautiful. There was a wedding program, her garter, her jewelry, her hair clip, a little item from their head table, and a couple sweet memories from their honeymoon! Mine are in a shoe box! I'll make it to Hobby Lobby one of these days! (Was that a read on my not-so-handy hubs?! Why yes, yes it was! If he could build me one out of teaching, writing, or journalism skills, mine would be so much better than anything at Hobby Lobby!) February is a month of love. Valentine’s Day is smack in the middle of this month. Some argue this particular holiday is nothing but a marketing ploy by chocolate producers, rose growers and card manufacturers.
These people have little use for the day, and I would generally agree. However, it isn’t because I am at odds with the impetus behind the holiday. Rather, I feel a person shouldn’t use a single day each year as a crutch to actually show his love for those near and dear to him. One should show his love for others every day in ways that don’t inherently involved flowers or chocolates. That being said, I am actually looking forward to Valentine’s Day this year. It marks a milestone for me. It will be the first Valentine’s Day I have experienced as a married man having married my wife Kendall Vogts this past July. But even that isn’t the true reason I am looking forward to this time of the year. It was the day before Valentine’s Day last year when I got engaged. I did so on purpose. I thought it would be too cliche to do it on Valentine’s Day, and I did it when she and I were alone. To me, that made it more special. In my mind, it showed I wasn’t asking to prove anything to anyone other than her, and I was proving my love for her by making a commitment to be with her for the rest of our lives. The fun part for me was that particular day, Feb. 13, 2015, was a Friday. Yes. I got engaged on Friday the 13th. That’s hilarious to me due to the juxtaposition of the bad connotations of Friday the 13th and the expression of love behind a marriage proposal. Besides, it was the perfect day to do it. It truly fit our relationship. We both are quirky. Besides both of us being a little different, we also mesh perfectly in numerous other areas of life — a love for reading, suspense and crime dramas (seriously, you need to watch “How To Get Away With Murder” on ABC . . . we love it; it’s on Netflix if you are interested in checking it out), golf, writing, music and so much more. It is the love for music which comes to mind today. Neither of us play an instrument, though I could still play taps on my trumpet if called upon to do so. Rather, we both love listening to music, and the genre is inconsequential. We just love music. This has been particularly important in our married life as on the weekends I am a mobile disc jockey. This is a business I have ran since I graduated high school, and Kendall embraced it. My brother helps me, and Kendall is now an official part of the business. She travels to nearly all the gigs with us, and when my brother can’t be there, she steps up and helps me do it all, including carrying the equipment. Then, once the show begins, she is out on the floor dancing and helping me ensure everyone at the event is having a good time, even if that means making a fool of ourselves in order to make a shy person feel OK about getting up to move and groove to the music. Everytime she takes part in our djing business, I see it as an act of love. I so appreciate her willingness to join in. It speaks volumes to me. I feel that is part of any relationship. The small acts of love and understanding are so important. It isn’t about constantly showering a person with gifts. It’s about doing little things to show you care. Every time we dj, read, watch our favorite television show or simply listen to music together while driving around, I feel closer to her. I don’t need gifts from her. I just need her time and understanding. So this Valentine’s Day, don’t stress about ordering a dozen roses, buying the biggest box of chocolates or picking out the perfect card. Give the gift of your time and understanding. Make your significant other supper, read your favorite book together or cuddle on the couch while watching a great show on Netflix. Or maybe just go for a drive together and listen to your favorite music. ...And just like that, it's January 16th! The classic question, "Where has the time gone?" seems to be the soundtrack of my life these days! Todd and I are busily entering the final half of the school year, and have so many exciting things going on!
We started off our New Year by hosting a surprise birthday party/New Year's Eve party for Todd's mom. Her birthday is New Year's Eve, and this was definitely a milestone birthday - 60 years! What an awesome, strong, loving, and deserving lady. We had as many of our family, friends, and her classmates there as we could! We had enough food for an army, and Todd DJed the party! I really think she was surprised and we brought in the New Year right! That Saturday, we had another DJing gig in Ransom, Kansas! We were busy driving, dancing, and enjoying our last days of Christmas break! We got back into the swing of school, and already I have been attending ball games, hosting parent/teacher conferences, and celebrating my birthday! Celebrating a birthday during the school week isn't ideal, but let me tell you, my kids were awesome! I got sang to many times, and received tons of "Happy Birthday"s! The morning of my birthday, before I left the house, Todd told me good bye and warned me not to forget my purse. Well, I take my purse to school everyday, never forgetting it, so I was a little puzzled. Shrugging it off, I went to grab it and found a birthday card next to it. It was my first "Married Woman" birthday card, and it was the sweetest thing. My husband is NOT very romantic. I know it. He knows it. It is no secret. But this card said just the right message! It described our relationship perfectly and made me feel so loved. Another new happening in this new year is that Todd and I are selling our house! We have decided that now is the perfect time to get a long-term home that will fit our future needs. This process has included jumping on the opportunity to own a new build, in a different town, putting our house on the market and preparing our home for that, and a lot of stress and anxiousness on my part. If you know me... or have even gotten that "vibe" from me, you will know that I am NOT the most patient person. I have trouble waiting, I have a difficulty understanding why certain things take time, or a lot of time, and when I have something new and exciting in my grasp, boy howdy, I want it! Our house has been on the market for maybe a week, and we have had three showings. I know that I am blessed that our home is being seen by potential buyers, but that definitely raises my anxiety level a bit. I know that it is definitely a process that I am needing to put totally and completely in God's hands. He knows the desires of my hear. He knows my prayers, and will answer them completely (better than I imagined, and in His time.) He hears my very specific prayers, and loves and wants the best for me. But for some reason, it is hard for me to totally give up control. I pray about this so often, so If you could help me out too, that'd be awesome! Pray that I will let go, give up control, trust in my awesome, Heavenly Father, and that he will bring the plans of Todd and I's future into fruition. Even just prayers for peace in this situation would be wonderful! Thanks in advance, I know I have many prayer warriors out there! (What can I pray about for you?!) One final detail, mostly about my life, even though I know it affects Todd - I wrote a few months ago about being unhappy or needing some kind of a change. I'll be honest, I was finding no joy in my job. I was waking up so cranky in the mornings, finding it hard to make the commute, and once I got to work, I was unmotivated. Maybe it was the "second-year teacher blues". However, since that time, I have been completely changed. (Some time, I will have to tell you how special music is to me and how it has had a place in my life since I was a very small child.) On my commutes, I felt the pull to start listening to the Christian Contemporary channels on the radio. At first, it was something that I had to do very deliberately because I knew I needed that in my life. However, now it has become a habit. My car radio station is always tuned into one of those stations, and my drives to and from school are a time for Jesus and I to be with one another. Sometimes I am so overtaken by the Holy Spirit that I am crying, singing, and praising my Father, all before I have even started my work day. And you would not believe how it has changed my life. I have joy in my heart. I love my job and my students. I love being wake and alive. I am turning to my Heavenly Father for everything. I am seeing his blessings, and speaking to him multiple times a day. It has even helped my relationship with Todd. We laugh, play, talk, and are just us... and it is good, so much better than those times when I was hating what I was doing with my profession and seeking something "better". Truth is, I have what is better. I have joy that only Jesus can give, and I have a new perspective on the things that I already had... the things that I thought I needed to fix or be away from! WOW the power of music, and WOW the Power of my GOD!!! Thanks for making it through this post! I know that the longer I wait to write, the more you guys have to read! I'll try to be back sooner than the last time! |
WHAT IS THIS?Todd & Kendall both share their thoughts on this blog. Archives
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