bethany and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night

okay, it wasn't that bad. it just didn't start out great.

here's the story: all week long, i had worked very hard on my lesson plans. i specifically planned it so that i would have most of the lesson plans done by thursday night so i wouldn't be at the computer all day. my bedtime goal was (don't laugh at me): 9:00 p.m. i was so excited. i left school yesterday thrilled because i only had 3 lesson plans to do and i knew it wasn't going to take long. i, for once in my life, had not procrastinated and the payoff was gonna be great. here's the breakdown of my so-called relaxation night:

4:30-completed 1 lesson plan

4:45-fell asleep

5:20-ran errands

5:45-started dinner

5:48-power goes out but i finish cooking in the dark. we have no candles or flashlights...surprise, surprise
6:15-kelli and i eat dinner in the dark

6:45-we go to my parents house to see my mom and brother who had been out of town all week

8:00-mom takes me home because kelli took her car to study and alas, i was carless

8:01-power comes back on

8:02-turn on computer, pull up the internet to finish my lesson plans (i'm going to bed early, tonight!!!!!!!)

8:03-internet doesn't work

8:04-try to diagnose the problem, but i have no idea what the heck i'm doing

8:05-try again

8:06-try again

8:07-try again, yell at the computer, call it stupid, all those good things

8:18-finally break down and call my dad-he can fix this!

8:30-he can't fix it. i call suddenlink. i'm on hold. (great...)

8:35-still on hold (i don't think i'm gonna make my 9:00 bedtime)

8:40-still on hold (it's getting closer)

8:45-still on hold (closer....)

8:50-someone answers!!!!!!!

9:00-lady can't figure it out (I SHOULD BE IN BED RIGHT NOW!!!!)

9:30-lady tells me that she can't fix the problem. i have to call someone else. (WHAT?????)

9:45-call my dad; he tells me to go over there to finish my lesson plans

10:00-i gather up my things and drive over there

10:40-i have finally finished. it normally doesn't take me this long to do 2 lesson plans, but i was tiiiired.

11:00-drive home, wash my face, brush my teeth and set the coffee maker for the next morning. priorities....

11:15-go to bed

oh no, it doesn't stop there. when my alarm clock went off this morning, i turned it off and slept another 45 minutes. when i finally got out of bed, i walked into the bathroom and washed my face. then i brushed my teeth. but i couldn't figure out why i didn't have the minty freshness in my mouth. usually, it starts working right away. when i spit it out, i found out why.

i brushed my teeth with my face wash.

i had thoughts of that children's book, alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. if you've never read the book, you need to. it's funny.

fortunately, my day went much better than alexander's day. the kids were hyper, but not horrible.

at least my teeth were exfoliated today.

thank you, Jesus, for a good day!

those amazing spanish speaking skills again

okay, this story is a year old, but it's still really funny-

one of the other kindergarten teachers was telling me that she uses some spanish words when she's talking to her students. while she was trying to get some boys to finish up in the bathroom, she told them "vamenos" which means "let's go."

(right, daddy?)

anyway, as two boys were walking away, one whispered to the other,

"why is she calling us envelopes?"

i almost spit out my lunch because i was laughing so hard.

great afternoon

after about a month and a half, the radio in my car is finally fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm excited, can you tell?

procrastination in progress

i'm working on lesson plans, promise.

but i have my blogger window open and minimized for quick viewing.

i just don't learn, do i?

terrific tuesday

i had a great day today. marvelous. wonderful. a perfect 10.

well, not exactly perfect, but close enough.

i did have someone ask me why i left my curly that one day (like 2 weeks ago, gosh! they can't remember what i told them 5 minutes ago, but they remember that. sheesh). when i told her that i just wanted to leave it curly, she said, "well, i don't really like it curly. i like it better the way you have it now."

does this ever end?

but back to my great day. i'm celebrating with-yeah, you guessed it-chick-fil-a!!!!!

but i'll still go with you on saturday, pauline. i'll sacrifice if i need to =)

a couple of things

i have no funny stories today. i'm sorry. maybe tomorrow.
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i forgot to mention that ryan's team won the cross country meet. silly me. a post complete with a slideshow, and i didn't even mention how they did. just blame it on the exhaustion.
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i cleaned my house for an hour today after school, and it looks the same as it did before. i quit.
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i'm tired of eating sandwiches for lunch. yes, i said sandwiches. since i've started student teaching, i've finished 2 packages of lunch meat. somebody be proud of me. i'm insanely proud of myself. this calls for chick-fil-a, don't you think?
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i actually did lesson plans yesterday. and guess what i'm doing after i post this? you guessed it, more lesson plans. yippee.
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i guess that was more than a couple of things, huh? yeah, i like to talk...

one of these days

one of these days, i'll look in the mirror and not see these huge, dark circles under my eyes.





right?

bow to me!

as most of you know, my dad is a pastor AND a choir teacher. i read his school blog this morning and laughed because the latest post is so true.

if you've have no prior experience in an organized choir, consider this your introductory lesson. and stay tuned for the next three posts.

by the way, i'm a soprano.

=)

my true gift

procrastination. i am so good at this.

this morning at the cross country meet, i saw a boy wearing a shirt that said "procrastinators unite tomorrow." it cracked me up.

you need evidence? i was supposed to work on lesson plans at some point today, but i didn't. i took a nap. i took a shower. i went to dinner with some friends. i went back to my friend's house and chatted a bit. i left and got a refill on my dr. pepper at chick-fil-a (new person working-grrrrr), went to pick up roddick from my parents, came home and decided to change my blog template.

now i'm ready for bed.

i'll do lesson plans tomorrow.

cross country

this morning, i went to see my little brother ryan run cross country in mertzon. this is his 2nd year running, and only my 2nd time to see him (hey, he runs really early on saturday mornings!). but he really is good.

last week, he came in 4th out of 124 runners. this week, they divided the boys between the 7th and 8th graders. last year, ryan ran with the 7th graders even though he was in the 6th grade, and he won 1st place. this year, the coach asked him if he would consider running with the 8th graders even though he was in 7th grade. he wanted him to do that so that the 8th grade boys would have a chance to win 1st place as a team. so instead of choosing to defend his title, he chose to help out his team. i'm so proud.

one of his teammates came in first, and ryan came in 3rd. by the way, he would have won the 7th grade race, hands down. but i'm not biased at all...

inspired

instead of having to be in the classroom today, all of the student teachers had to attend a class at ASU all day. at first, i wasn't thrilled about it, but i was excited about the possibility of getting to sleep an extra hour!

but instead of having to sit in a boring lecture (which is what i thought it would be), we got to attend a women's conference that one of the education professors put together. the name of the conference was discovering your greatness. it wasn't just for teachers, but for working women in general. and it was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L.

*on a side note, the male student teachers just loved it. i could totally see the excitement in their expressions. hahahahahaha*

my favorite speaker was the texas education agency's secondary teacher of the year, nika maples. words can't even begin to describe what an amazing person she is. i sat in awe through two of her speeches (she also spoke exclusively to the student teachers after the conference was over). needless to say, she got a standing ovation twice.

she made us cry (if you know me at all, it doesn't take much for me to cry), and she made us laugh (even less). but most of all she inspired us. she spoke of being the kind of teacher that students come back to visit. she had one former student, a marine, who came to visit her after he found out that he was going to iraq. he went to see her because he wanted one last hug from her. in case you're wondering, that's where i started crying.

she admonished us to live the life that we have now, even if the life we have is not exactly how we want it. after all, she never wanted to be diagnosed with systemic lupus. but do you see that holding her back?

i left today wanting to maximize the rest of the weeks i have left in student teaching.

oh God, help me.

it happened

i knew this would happen. kylah warned me.

today i leaned over a table to help a girl with her paper. my id badge was hanging over her head, so she grabbed it and said, "you look really pretty. i like this picture."

the boy next to her looked up from his paper and said,

"yeah, you don't look like that today."

why thank you, sweetheart. you're such a dear.

kj

i miss you. i miss you dearly.

today, the reading practicum students start in the schools. and i woke up this morning thinking about last fall when i was at your school. remember that? that was fun. some people were hard to take (and i'm not talking about the kids), but at least the rest was a good experience.

i hope you're doing well in san antonio. have i mentioned that i miss you yet? cause i do. a whole lot.

i love the school where i am. the principal is amazing. the teachers, besides being friendly and encouraging, are awesome. the students, well....they're only 5 and it's only the 4th week of school! they're still learning :)

for instance, they're still learning that's it's not appropriate to flip your teacher off, even if you're just "showing" her the bad finger. running and yelling in the hallway is not allowed, not even a little bit. there is no playing in the bathroom. and that includes peeing on your friend's chest (still haven't gotten all the details on that one, but i'm working on it. i wasn't there at the time. maybe i should have been). no one likes to be pushed, and when you push someone five minutes after you've been told not to, you're going to get in trouble. you cannot ask to go to the bathroom five times in a ten minute period. you just HAD a bathroom break, for pete's sake. telling the teacher no is a BIG no-no. you can't have attitude with me. just because i'm not your "real" teacher doesn't mean that i'm a pushover. have you met my sister? ATTITUDE. she was apparently my training for being a teacher.

but i love it. my heart melts when a student finally gets a concept. a little boy actually understood the point of one story (the point was implied, not directly stated!) and i just wanted to dance around the room. every time they use their manners, especially when they don't know i'm listening, i'm so proud. and i know this is sad, but i get really happy when they compliment my picture on my badge. sad, sad, sad...

but still, i miss you. i want to hear your stories. i wish i could just take lunch over there and we could chat. sheesh.

but i gotta go. have you seen the time of this post? yeah...

love you,
beth

p.s. could you text me your e-mail address? i'm guessing your saisd one doesn't work anymore :)

tgif

i'm so excited that it's friday. i'm celebrating with a super long nap here in a little while :)

i keep thinking that maybe one of these days i won't be surprised at what kids say, but today is definitely not that day.

when i take the girls to the restroom, they know that they have to sit in the hallway when they are finished. today i was the hallway with some of the girls, and they were counting with their fingers. out of the blue, one of the girls lifted her middle finger and said,

"hey ms. hernandez, this is the bad finger!"

holy cow.

thank goodness it's friday.

chelsey-

i left my hair curly today so i could sleep an extra 30 minutes. and i got the exact same question you did:

"what's wrong with your hair?"

right now

i'm eating chick-fil-a.

roddick is outside.

and he is very mad at me.

whoa

when teachers tell you to think twice about going into teaching, they're not kidding.

God, use me

i've come to realize that i'm very picky about what i put on this blog. i mean, there are some things that just shouldn't be there, but because i tend to be a private person, i won't put anything on here that i don't want people asking me about later.

there have been quite a few things that i have started to post and then haven't. i'm afraid that whatever i post, someone will call and ask me about it. i guess that's where a physical journal comes in. but then again, i'm scared someone will read that and find out how insecure i really am about some things. that's what it boils down to, really.

insecurity.

i'm scared i won't turn out to be a good teacher. i find my efforts toward being a good friend often miss the mark. i'm not the best daughter, sister, granddaughter. i don't have the best voice, the prettiest handwriting, the nicest car (still, as cars go, scooter's pretty nice-i love him). i'm not the best christian. sometimes, i don't even want to go to church.

but i have a lot. a whole lot. why is that not enough? why have i felt blue the past few days? why can i only dwell on my failures, the ones that i can no longer do anything about?

i don't have that answer. but a couple of days ago, i found a postcard that i had written a few weeks ago in our girls' small group. we had been studying the life and legacy of esther. and i'll be honest with you: i want to model my life-my spiritual life-after esther. the legacy that she left behind is beyond incredible. when we finished, we all wrote down ways that we wanted God to use us.

here's mine.

God, use me!

-use me-my personality, my passions-to draw others into a relationship with You.

-use me to heal hurts that plague many women today.

-use me as a positive role model for every age group.

-use me to bring my family closer to You.

-use my life as an encouragment to everyone that i have the privilege of knowing.

as i go over this, i'm tempted to be overwhelmed again with feelings of inadequacy. but i imagine this is what esther felt like. and as i've learned, it's in the hard situations that we see what God can really do.

finding and reading this postcard has put my insecurity in God's hands. there may be days that are tougher than others, but my priority is no longer myself. it's helping others. and allowing God to shine through my life, no matter how insufficient, will be a testimony for many.

what teachers are doing these days

today at lunchtime, the teacher gave one of the students lunch money that his mom had given her earlier that morning.

now this little boy knew that the money was from his mom. that's what makes this story so funny.

when the teacher gave the money to this little boy, another boy in front of him in line turned around and said, "hey, did she just give you that money?"

the first boy shrugged his shoulders and said, "yeah, i guess that's what they're doing now."

i had to turn around so they wouldn't see me laughing, but when i composed myself, i looked at him and said, "no, your mom gave you that money. she just gave it to your teacher to hold for you, remember?"

he looked at me like i had just ruined his little secret and said, "oh yeah."

sheesh. like teachers have money to give away...

*yawn*

when i met the principal of the school where i'm doing my student teaching, the first question she asked me was, "so do you go home every night and crash?" when i laughed and said yes, she told me that she remembers she could never get enough rest when she was student teaching. nice to know.

i can already tell that i'm gonna live for the weekends...so i can sleep. the first thing i did today was eat lunch. and the whole time i was yawning. afterwards i ran errands with kelli, joey and my parents. when i got home i fell asleep watching t.v.

and i was ready for bed at 9.

i seriously hope i don't fall asleep tomorrow in church.

kelli made dinner tonight...

...and i'm still alive!

perfection

today i fell in love all over again.

i went to spend time with my precious adyson. she's so beautiful. when i got there she was sleeping, but soon after she woke up. i got to see her beautiful blue eyes and stare at her perfect little face.

when i changed her diaper, she just looked around the room like a good little girl. edward says that she cries every time she gets her diaper changed, but she didn't cry with me! hmmm....what could that possibly mean, eddy?!

while i was holding her, i was reminded of a funny story. you see, i love babies. i love to hold them, rock them, feed them, whatever. when my mom had ryan (when i was 10), i loved to take care of him. the rule was that i could hold him when he was awake. so when my parents weren't paying attention (which was apparently a lot because i did this often), i would pick him up from his bassinet, take him to the restroom, and flick water on his face until he woke up. then i would take him to my parents and say,

"he woke up! i'll just hold him for a while."

don't worry, theresa. i won't do that with adyson. i'll just hold her all the time :)

she loves to eat

pretty mommy and pretty (hungry) baby

see what i mean? perfection...

oh man, i just realized that i don't think i actually told my parents that story about ryan. if you don't hear from me again, you know why.

this is so frustrating

i seriously had three funny stories from today. too bad i can't remember any of them. at all.

sheesh, my memory is already going.

lovely.

i'm supposed to be doing lesson plans

but i'm obviously not. go figure...

amanda's wedding

on saturday my best friend, amanda, got married. it was a beautiful wedding, fit for an incredibly beautiful woman. we've known each other since the third grade, and so of course are close. when i need to talk to someone, she's the first person to pop into my head to call. when we got to college, we didn't see each other as much as we thought we would, but when we did see each other, we picked up right where we left off. she's also been the type of friend to support me in the good and call me out when i'm making bad decisions. i love her, and i'm incredibly happy for her. she's deserves the best, and that's what she got! not only that, but she got some amazing in-laws. how lucky could she be?!

and for the record, i only cried once-when she was walking down the aisle. i think that's pretty good, don't you?

apparently i had a bad day

today at school i was helping a little boy write his name. every time that he's asked to write something, he says, "but i can't do it!" and bless his little heart, he really can't. so i told him that i would help him.

i showed him how to hold his pencil and then put my hand over his to write his name. it wasn't perfect, but at least it was readable. the little boy was not happy. he told me, "you're messing it up." before i could answer him, the girl on his left looked at him and said:

"it's okay. she's having a bad day."

i love that these children can totally read my emotions better than i can. really.

there is something seriously wrong here...

i feel really sorry for kelli's future kids. really sorry.