national pizza and clashing clothes days

every friday afternoon, me and miss patton's (beth) class get together and have a little fun friday celebration, that each kid gets to attend as a behavior reward. i have a book called, "everyday is a holiday" (im not sure how they come up with national pizza days--or many of the holidays in the book--...but hey, they are a fun reason to celebrate!)that gives us some great ideas to last us for 40 weeks of incredible fun fridays :) pizza day is one we recently celebrated. the student designed thier own chef aprons and created their own pizzas which were large sugar cookies (pizza base), icing (sauce), coconut (cheese) and of course m&ms for the pepperonis.


This past Thursday was National Clash Day, so I naturally thought our whole school should celebrate with a small competition who can come to school looking the most mismatched. As I was getting ready in the morning, I never realized how hard it is to really dress mismatching! I kept thinking...ok, you can do better than that...:) and so below is what i came up with... i truly was mismatched from my head, to my fingernails, to my toes. it was really fun...especially walking down the streets and having ecuadorians thinking i am crazy...but i just kept saying...its for school! :)
i was glad that my students really got into it...on the far left, youll see one of my students wore his underwear outside of his shorts! (he won for best overall :)) im very proud of my students! i always encourage them to be themselves...and here, they are showing their true colors!

love

i recently watched the NOOMA video called Bullhorn...and you will have to watch it to find out exactly why it is called bullhorn...but there were some good truths and verses in this one that i would like to share because they reminded me of some things that i had forgotten about/have never learned this way...so there are some quotes with some pictures that really have no connection.

"i mean, thats why so many of us are so fascinated with Jesus, because he never stops insisting that God, really, really loves us exactly as we are. I mean, isnt that what draws you to him?

"what draws you to the message of Jesus?"


"Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?" Jesus answered:"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, sould, and mind.' This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, 'Love others as much as you love yourself.' All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40


"When Jesus is asked, "What is the most important thing? Jesus' response is to love, love God with everything you have and then love those around you in the same kind of way. Jesus doesent separate loving God and loving others. For Jesus, everything hangs on these two. And so the defining mark of a Christian is love."

"What is the most important thing in your life?"

"How does that line up with what Jesus said?"



"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

"So a Christian is somebody who understands this, who understands that people with different perspectives and different religious beliefs and convictions, they're to be loved and respected, because they're made by God, and they're sacred and they're valuable and they matter. God loves the world..."

"So may you see that how you love others is how you love God.
That's it.
That's the way of love.
That's the way of Jesus."

all quotes are from Rob Bell.

back to ecuador

well, i have been back to Ecuador for about 4 days now. the past 3 weeks were spent at my parent's house (not mine :)-thanks for clarifying dad) relaxing and seeing family and friends--with a few dentist and eye appointments between things. In a short amount of time, I was able to see ALL of my family members...which is a miracle to see all of them in 3 weeks because they are spread out from Indy, to St. Louis, to Seattle, WA. Some family even came over to Chicago for a change, which was really fun to take them around downtown and do the touristy things.
Here is a list of my favorite events that took place while I was home (in no particular order):
- buying my own christmas tree (4ft. tall) and walking it home
- decorating my house alone for christmas
- seeing my relatives from Eureka, MO
- eating a dessert shaped like a baseball
- having my grandparents and grandma nana at our house during break
- travelling to sellersburg, IN to watch my cousin play bball
- going to indy to hang out with NEWD
- spending new years eve in ft. wayne
- seeing the burtons
- driving in a vanilla pt cruiser :)
- going to seattle to visit a cool grad school on bainbridge island called ISLANDWOOD
- spending time with my seattle family
-watching my dog, "zilly" heal after a brutal 9 teeth extraction surgery (i was glad to see him breathing normally again)
- sleeping with my dogs
- eating a Kobe beef hamburger at Nine with my mom
- good wine
- good food
- the bakery
-seeing will and my parents (most of the time :))
-seeing friends and catching up!
- hearing some new music!

well, that is a longer list that i had originally thought, but oh well!

as many of you know, my break was also somewhat stressful because i needed to decide about what i was going to do this upcoming school year. with much prayer and thought and opened doors, i am not going to be returning to ecuador (for now anyways :)). i am pursuing and applying to the Islandwood grad school. the program is a 10 month residency in outdoor education...which i am very passionate about. i could finish the 2nd year of a masters program at the university of washington, or another school depending on what is going on with my life at that time. i have learned that i cant really plan for more than a year at a time right now. so i am praying for acceptance at islandwood for now. if it doesent work out, ill move on from there!

its good to be back in ecuador...even though its not glamourous.