help!

my fellow solid rock church-ians-

i am putting together a slideshow of pictures from 2007. if you have any that are church-related (fourth of july, christmas banquet, christmas eve service, that recreation thingie we did this summer, mega sports camp, or anything else), please e-mail them to me. i would greatly appreciate it!

oh yeah, you might need this:
bethgrace@juno.com

the siblings

i really do intend to post pictures from graduation, but i love this one so much that i just had to put it up before the others.

oh yeah

did i ever mention that i LOVE the spurs? you may have figured that out...

so sad

less than 20 measely posts in the months of december...so sad. maybe my new year's resolution should be to blog more. oh! go vote here!

change is coming

be forewarned: i'm on the hunt for a new blog template. and yes, i know i need to update. i'm on it. right after my nap...

crazy

• isn't it crazy how quickly your life can change in just a few weeks? or maybe the change comes so slowly and over time that you don't realize it when it's happening. instead, you wake up one day and realize that something's different, but you can't quite put your finger on it.
• i have to make a decision pretty soon. well, i've basically made the decision-i just don't like it. i keep stalling because i'm holding out hope that a third option presents itself. i don't think it will. growing up stinks.
• i miss asu. my dad mentioned something about the asu basketball teams yesterday, and i got a little sad thinking about how i'm not a student there anymore. is that silly?
• today someone at school gave me a book on teacher prayers. it made me cry. it's just great being this emotional...
• that overwhelming feeling is starting to kick in. i don't think i know what i'm doing. oh Jesus help me.
• i've got to go to bed. hysteria is about to set in. good night.

big news

i graduated on saturday. it was a good, full day. i promise to post pictures here at some point in time. but i didn't really have a chance to savor that "just graduated" feeling. why?

BECAUSE I'M A THIRD GRADE TEACHER! yes, ladies and gentlemen (all 3 of you), i got a job teaching third grade. i've been since there since yesterday, and i just know i'm going to looooove it. there are certain perks here at this school that i wouldn't get anywhere else...know what i mean? if not, just act like you do and nod. thank you.

i have to go now. i have papers to grade and my new bedtime is 9:00.

oh yeah, and teachers...I NEED HELP!

happy birthday, baby brother

today was ryan's 13th birthday. whoa...i still remember the day he was born. kelli and i were pulled from school early because my mom was in labor. kelli was really mad because she had to leave her class christmas party early. ha! some things never change. we waited for two hours, and then the nurse brought him out. he had so much hair. and when we finally got to hold him later in my mom's room, he had this high-pitched cry. we joked that he sounded like a puppy.

little did i know how much i would love him and take care of him. other than splashing water on his face to wake him up, i think i did a pretty good job. he even made me a mother's day card one year because i was his 2nd mother. and now he's 13. that just doesn't seem right. he should still be 2 years old and extremely fat. he should still be waddling over to my bed and asking to sleep in my bed. now he's a handsome 13 years old young man, playing sports, involved in choir, orchestra, and of course church. where does the time go?

happy birthday, ryan! i love you, even though you say mean, sarcastic things to me. i have no idea where the sarcasm comes from. no idea at all...

this picture's a year old. i don't have my camera with me or else i would put a more current picture on here. sorry.

joey, give me my camera back! pretty please...

bethany g. hernandez, college graduate

i graduated! i am so.....tired. it was a full day, but an absolutely great day. there are so many things i want to blog about, but that will have to wait for tomorrow...maybe. the important thing is that I DIDN'T TRIP! thanks to all who made this a special day for me, especially mom and dad. i love you!

more to come...

this never ends

by now many of you have a pretty good idea of what it's like to live with kelli. half the time i want to pull my hair out, and the other half i'm laughing my head off because of something she's said. wednesday night was one of those nights.

we went to help our friend sarah put up her christmas lights. before i got there, it was just kelli and sarah working on them. sarah went to get the ladder and was carrying it to the front of her house when she heard kelli gasp.

"sarah, do you need help?"

"no, i got it."

"well, you're really strong. that thing weighs 250 pounds!"

after sarah stopped laughing hysterically (i'm assuming-at least that's what i did when i heard this story), she explained that the ladder could hold up to 250 pounds, but really only weighed only 25 pounds.

and to answer your question, yes, this happens quite often.

december 13, 2007

the christmas tree in the hernandez girls' household is officially up.

we are so on top of things...

sorry about the lack of posts

it's just that i've been so busy. sleeping late and taking naps all day really wears you out. ok, i'll quit now.

i DO have something exciting to blog about. the reason i haven't yet is because i'm not sure that it's supposed to be public information yet. i mean, it hasn't kept me from blabbing to all my friends, but that's because i saw them last night and couldn't help myself. putting it in writing, no matter how informal, seems to be a whole different ordeal for me. maybe soon i'll know if i can share it with the rest of the blogging world, k?

i know you're dying of curiosity. i just know it. please try to contain yourself.

oh yeah, i got something. i bought my cap and gown yesterday! what was really neat was that two people saw me walking around with it in the bookstore and said congratulations. isn't that sweet? look for pictures of me trying it on-that is if i can ever get my lazy self out of bed. now it seems real. now i can't wipe the grin off my face. now i'm worried about tripping when i cross the stage.

oh goodness...

tomorrow's a school day

oh wait...

not for me it isn't!

=)

finally finished

it came. the day that i've been waiting for since august 27th finally arrived. and now it's over.

i'm no longer a student teacher. now i'm a college senior waiting for graduation and the real world. all of my hard work, all of my lesson planning, waking up at insane and ungodly hours (you know it's true), and spending 10 1/2 hours at the school for 15 weeks has culminated in this: i'm finally finished with college.

well, i've got a couple of things to turn in-nothing major. but as far as student teaching is concerned, i'm done. over. finished. kaput. you get it. i really thought i'd feel different than i do now. i thought i'd be incredibly excited. you know, the kind where you can't wipe the smile off my face. but again, my emotions surprised even me.

i woke up to a really weird feeling. it followed me all morning and into my certification test this afternoon. it occurred to me what it was when i was in the middle of answering a question on how to administer the TAKS test (i don't know-don't they have instructions for that kind of stuff...like when you're a real teacher?! geez, people...)

i miss my kids. i'm not going to see them every day. i'm not going to help them with their novels. i'm not going to hear their stories of what happened last night, last week, five years ago. i won't see them on a daily basis anymore. and that really stinks.

now i'm sitting at home wishing i could have just one more week. or just one more day to spend with them and hear them talk about how i assign book reports that are too hard. or just one more afternoon to watch them look at a math lesson like they've never seen multiplication before. or just five minutes for me to see them smile when i tell them that i think they're awesome.

and they are awesome. i hit the jackpot yesterday with the gifts that they gave me. but my favorite was a book that they made for me called a tribute to ms. hernandez. they made an acronym of my name, and i got teary-eyed reading it. and i laughed because those poor kids had a hard time coming up with a word for z. i got some doozies on that one. =)

teaching has affected me deeply and in ways that i never imagined. i love my kids. they taught me so much-lessons that i can't do justice to on a seemingly insignificant blog. the past 15 weeks have been a blessing-a touch from God that i can't get anywhere else.

because of this, i am excited to graduate. i'm ready to see what God has planned for me, because i sure don't know what that is yet. but i'm here. and i'm willing.

Lord, use me. and please keep me sane.

blonde moments

i, completely unlike my good friend chelsea, have blonde moments quite frequently. i get teased about it constantly. the latest episode happened about five minutes ago.

i've noticed that we have big black dust balls around our house. there's quite a few of them. as i was sweeping them up, i kept wondering where they were coming from. brown dust makes so much more sense than black dust. i mean, my house isn't that dirty....is it?

then it hit me - i have a black dog.

oh.....i get it now.

can blondeness rub off on others? should anyone else be worried that i'm currently molding young minds?

it's december!

one more week to go...

one more week to go...

one more week to go...