updates and engagements!

The past couple weeks have been quite eventful! I'm sorry I haven't been better at keeping this updated...there's so many different thougths I could share if I sat myself down when they were in my head!

At work I finished up two of the classes and began another group of 7th graders. The new class I'm in is in a first-year teachers classroom...so there's much less teacher control - and I have been exercising my disciplining skills and so forth! Fun times! I didn't know I could get such a serious and stern voice! The first week I wasn't prepared for it...but this past week I psyched myself up and was prepared and I found that (although not perfect) I was able to handle the classes much better - which is challanging, but fun to learn new skills.

Also, my parents were here in LA to visit this past week. So on Thursday I got to take my Mom with me to work! It was pretty fun. Part of the day was spent speaking at a career day at the local high school...in one class Mom got to contribute to our discussion...the kids asked what my Mom thought of me teaching sex ed!! It was funny to tell them to ask her themselves, they were quite surprised!

Then on Friday my Dad had arranged a tour of CECO, one of the only two factories in the US that makes steel-forged sinks! He buys lots of sinks from them for work so arranged with the sales-guy to take us around the factory. It was really interesting and quite a treat to get a special inside look. Steel-forged sinks look like normal enamaled sinks/toilets/bathtubs...but they're much thicker then stamped out sheet-metal and so can hold a much thicker layer of enamel(which looks glassier and doesn't chip.) So in the factory they have to melt down the steel, pack the mold with sand, pour the metal into it, brake it out, grind it, primer it, bake it, and powder it with two coats of enamel. It's alot of work and a cool process. Anyhow...

Other fun things I have been doing are some more art/painting...and I finally got to go dancing! Kim took me out for a special night and surprised me with swing dancing...she knew I needed the complete unrestrained joy that goes into a good moment of dancing! So that was really fun...and she introduced me to a friend, Casey, whom she works with and is a kindred soul as far as swing dancing goes :)

It was also quite fun to help plan a surprise engagement for my best friend, Kim! Her boyfriend (fiance'!), Travis, lives in Detroit (they were Mission Year team mates,) and he came into town to propose...but there were some details to work out...it was my job to get her dressed up and out to dinner. From there I (and Anna, another friend who was helping out) disappeared and
Travis walked in and then they were whisked off to a romantic sailboat. So...that's super exciting and fun to watch. I'm excited to see how God grows their lives together.
This does mean that I'm losing a roomate! I've got all sorts of things brewing in my head...and am a little tired of thinking! Which is perfect timing that I'm off to Seattle this coming week! I've been wanting to go up there for some time. I have a few friends and a relative up there. Since it's spring break for the kids I teach, I decided I'd rather go up there then sit around my office for a week! Anyhow...I'm really looking forward to letting my mind have a rest and being able to be with some people dear to my heart!