There is an old saying. You may know it. It goes something like this: "those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.". I wonder if those people who believe this quote is true have ever spent one week in a classroom with 26 7-year olds, trying to teach them how to read while having the administration breathing down their back to "teach the test" & "get the scores", all the while having parents either scrutinize their every move or not caring in the slightest that their child is failing- what do they need school for anyway--- Not to mention the parents who just know that little Susie is the smartest child to have ever walked the earth...

Those who believe this statement must have forgotten the 12 years of school, plus the 4-6 years of college, where people taught them things and know how to do it better.
So I think the statement should be changed- "those who can, teach. Those who can't, do"-- for knowing something well enough to teach it gives you the ability to DO and TEACH....

This video has been going around on Facebook and it brought tears to my eyes.

If a teacher isn't in it for the right reason, they are not going to last long. Teachers may not get paid much, but to have a child come back in 10 years and say, "thank you for believing in me" or seeing a child's eyes light up because they can read a sentence will forever outweigh all the critics and negative comments about teachers.

Here is the video 

 As I was looking on twitter I came across a tweet from Susan O' Donnel, a morning DJ on my local christian radion station, KSBJ.  She talked about something called Operation Beautiful.  It caught my eye and so I looked it up.

I took a family of three to feed the fish and turtles in their neighborhood.



There were huge catfish and turtles just waiting for food. It was so hot that we only stayed around for 15 min, enough time to get rid of our bread then back in we went!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7


I have had alot of time to think the past few days.  Whether swimming with 4 little boys or laying in my bed in the middle of the night, I have had a zillion thoughts swirling in my head. In everything I have read and all that I have thought about, this verse sticks in my head.   I have to say that until now, I have never looked at this verse and thought about what it really means in my life.  
 Love is patient:
 It starts off hitting me right between the eyes.  Patience in my personal life is not my strong suit.  I have a fear of the unknown.  i want to know what is going on and what will happen.  Ironically, I can sit with a child for 30 minutes and work on one skill that they need to succeed.  Patience is sitting in a room with a sick child, constantly wetting their head with towel to break the fever.  Patience is taking the time to explain to my grandfather for the 1,000 time how to work the remote.  Patience is praying and waiting for the right child to be chosen for my brother and sister to love as their own. 

Love is kind:
Being kind is something I have always done...to those that I like.  As humans, it is easier to be kind to those that are kind back.  I have to take a moment to think about what this means when I roll my window up at the homeless guy on the street, or to that one child that gets on my nerves the instant he opens his mouth.  Am I showing kindness to them?  Someone once told me: "Love those who hurt you, for they need it the most"  These deserve the same kindness that I give to my friends and family.


Love does not envy, does not boast, and is not proud:
Envy, the big green eyed monster!  Being boastful or proud goes along the same lines.  I have to admit, I have been envious of others.  I dealt with this huge monster when my best friend got engaged.  Although I was ecstatic for her, I couldn't help but be slightly envious of her, getting to go through the excitement of a wedding.  I had a slight case of the "Why not me, God?" and "When is it my turn?".  When we take on these characteristics, I think that it takes the "me" out of our personality and lets us easily slip down the slope to ungratefulness.  I am trying to look at the good things in my life, and take the time to be grateful for the MANY blessings that God has given me. 


It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Oh my!  The words keep cutting deeper and deeper.  Rude, self-seeking, anger, holding grudges... I can relate with all of these.  If I am not careful, I can fall prey to the grudge monster.  A little boy that is dear to my heart has a true black and white sense of justice.  This means that when I accidentally hurt his feelings or he feels that he has been wronged, he will retaliate.  As a person that has been wronged before (like all of us) I tend to look at the way to "get back" or retaliate myself.  This weekend, I, admittedly, heavily insinuated that I wanted a certain gift back that I had bought for a birthday after I felt I had been wronged.  I thought that the gift would give me some gratification or retaliation for my hurt feelings.  In truth though, all I felt was sadness.  The gift was to be shared with a certain person.  It was not the gift that held  the meaning, but the time the gift would have allowed us to share.  


Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
No matter what the outcome will be, the truth will always win out.  This part of  the verse reminds me of the way a child will tell a little lie to get out of being in trouble for writing on the walls or dumping all their toys out of the shelf.  This little white lie turns into something huge and the child is now in more trouble due to lying then if they had told the truth.  It is hard sometimes to tell the truth when you know that the other person will be so disappointed.  But the truth will always prevail and is the straighter path to take.  Gossiping is something that I still, to this day, need to work on.  Hearing tidbits of information and then telling someone else this "half-truth" can be detrimental to many lives.  


It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres:
Love is your mother and father, lifting you up through your child, telling you that you can accomplish anything.  Love is the man that can hug you and make you feel safe.  Love is the best friend that sticks around when everyone else has left. Love is the community that rallies around you when you are heartbroken.  Love is the hope for better, but the understanding of what is. Love is your heart forgiving when you have been wronged. 

Bulletin boards are my favorite part of decorating a classroom. For the past 4-5 years, I have done the bulletin board for my mother's classroom. I have done an ocean theme, bees, and other various "scenes". This year, I did a space themed board for her! It was so much fun to make a rocket and add the perfect touches to make it look like space!


The picture below is the final board!


Mir

This weekend has been a very hard one for me.   The guy I had been talking to and dating for the last 8 months broke up with me.  I do not tell you this for sympathy but it is simply a part of a story that I found awesome.

Last night around 11:30, I finally took time to be by myself and laid in bed, letting emotions wash over me until I fell asleep.  It was something that I needed to get out.  Then today, I was on Facebook and started to talk with my friend Tabitha.  She asked how I was and we talked for about 10 minutes.  In the course of the conversation she told me that she prayed for me last night.  She said that she envisioned me around 11:30, laying in my bed crying my little heart out. It made her sad and so she started to pray for me.  I couldn't believe it!  God had placed me in her heart, knowing that I was hurting.  She stood in the gap for me.  I love moments like these!  I love my faith and I love my supportive friends and families.  Oh, and I LOVE GOD!

How do you write about something when you don't understand it yourself?  

Today was the 4th day of VBS.  I have had so much fun while teaching second grade boys.  I cant explain the feelings that I go through.  From anxiety at the beginning of the day to anticipation, frustration, pride, exhaustion, back to pride, joy, and mostly love.  Well, maybe I can explain it!  VBS at Second Baptist is not your old school  VBS.  There is a play for the biblical lesson and a full fledged 30 minute musical-type dealing with superheroes and posers.  There are lights, music, dancing, and lots of corny jokes!  It is a great time and engages the students in the lessons of the day.  This year, we studied to look at what we think, what we say, what we choose, what we do, and where we are going.

I was very nervous to do VBS at Second just because I had not really taught a class like this, I usually do the music.  I took it on, and looked at it as an opportunity to not only teach kids about GOD, but to get just one more week of "practice" in for teaching.  After a rough start with not knowing who my help would be, I got my mom to come up and be my "co-teacher".  It was nice to work with her again.

The week went smoothly with nothing too big happening.  All in all it was a great week!

some costumes that Andrea  made

A Traditional Danish Tree

So, this summer has been super busy for me.   First, it is the last summer that I have to be in school (woohoo!) I had to take a summer class on how to teach social studies to elementary children.  It turned out to be a pretty interesting class and I had fun.  It has been a while since I have had fun with the content of a class.  My friend Andrea and I had to make a museum exhibit.  We did it on Denmark and used many of my family photos and articles to help fill the exhibit out.  It was fun to go through my grandma's hope chest and find "lost treasures" from my grandma's childhood.

POWER UP! Second Baptist VBS '10

I have also had the privilege to help out with 2 vacation bible schools this summer.I helped do music for VBS at FUMC Pearland.  The theme was Galactic Blast and I had a lot of fun teaching the kids the songs and dances!  I definitely got a good workout!  This week I have been at Second Baptist teaching a class of 20-24 2nd graders.  I have about 20 boys and 2 girls.  It is so much fun to see the kids come in and learn their bible verse and have smiles on their faces!
 Lets see, what else has been going on..... We split the singles class that I was director of into two classes, 18-34 and 35+.  It was a good time to do it, but was hard because I loved seeing the other half of the class.  Things have been going great with both classes.  The younger class is called Kaleo, which means to be called out in Greek.  We meet in the youth building, which can be hard because we are not in the main building, but it is working out!



My brother got married last weekend!  My mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law, granny and I took a train to Chicago on July 18.  We left Texarkana around 9pm and spent the night on the train.  We got to St. Louis on Monday morning and were able to see the arch and pass over the Mississippi.

Keith was our "guide"

We ended up getting into Chicago in the afternoon.  It was very neat to ride in the train.  I felt like I was transported back to the 1950's.  It gave a slower pace to the beginning of the vacation. Keith met us at the train station and the vacation really got started.  It was fun to ride the "L" and have 2 iPhones and maps to plan our route for the day.  After we got settled into our beautiful hotel, we went and got something to eat.  We found a place called Al's Italian Beef.  It was delicious! Then, we dropped my mom and granny off at the hotel and dad and us kids went to  see Sear's Tower.
The tower now has glass outlets where you can stand and be "in the city".  It was scary to go out at first, as your brain is screaming, " You are going to fall" but then you get used to it and it gives you an amazing view of the city.

On Tuesday we got up and ate at this adorable little market/bus depot a few blocks from our hotel.  They had vendors that sold various items and each of us was able to get what we wanted for breakfast.  We actually liked it so much that we ended up eating there every morning while in Chicago.
Tuesday was Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier day.  After an hour detour due to a mis calculation in google maps, we found our way to the Museum and Aquarium.  I was not all that impressed with the museum.  It had Sue, the most complete T-rex skeleton in the nation ( I believe) and a very neat Egypt exhibit.  We stopped for lunch at the park before the family split.

Lunch at the Park

 My mom and granny went to Navy Pier to see the stained glass museum while the rest of us headed to the aquarium.  The Aquarium was awesome!  I have not been to an aquarium that was not attached to a zoo in a while so it was neat.
There was a crazy amount of sea life and we saw penguins, beluga whales, dolphins, fish from around the world, were able to touch sea anemones and starfish.  We saw a huge Caribbean Reef  tank that took up the middle of the whole building.  It was awesome!   We then took a water taxi onto Lake Michigan for a 15 minute ride to the Navy Pier.  It gave us a wonderful view of the city.  While at Navy Pier, we walked around, ate and Keith, Russell, Mom and I rode the ferris wheel!  It allowed us to see how big Lake Michigan is!

Mom and I on the Ferris Wheel

The famous red sign!

On Wednesday we went to see the Astros play the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  This was probably my favorite day of the vacation!  We met Sarah (Keith's wife) and her family at the game and had a healthy dose of competition going throughout the whole game! They are Cubs fans... yuck! It was awesome to be in the same place where baseball had been played since the '20s.  There was such a sense of history and pride at Wrigley.  The fans were so dedicated and supported their team!  Wrigley is located in a neighborhood, so the atmosphere is like a block party.  It was a great game and we had good seats!  I loved rooting for the "other team".  Everytime the 'stros would score you could hear the faint claps and yells of about 10-15 people and hear the home teams fans turn their heads to see who was an outsider.  All in all, the cubs fans were great, much nicer than the ones I have experienced at a Astros/Cubs game played in Houston.
After the game, which lasted 12 innings, the whole group went to a pizza place to grab some Chicago style pizza.  I am not sure if it was good because I was hungry, or if it was just that good, but the pizza was amazing!  I need to find a place that sells pizza like this in Houston!  After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we went our separate ways.  Sarah's family was going back home (abt 3 hours outside of Chicago) to get ready for the wedding.  The Martin clan went back to the hotel.

Russell found out that Transformers 3 was filming about 8 blocks from our hotel.  After some begging and pleading, I got the siblings to walk down to the area to see what we could see.  They had already stopped filming by the time we got there but we were able to see huge piles of foam concrete and 3 cars that were being taken away by forklifts.



On Thursday, we loaded a train and then drove a van to the wedding location.  Sarah's family had asked two families to host us so that we would not have to pay for a hotel.  We were grateful as Russ, Meagan and I stayed with a very sweet couple.

The next few days flew by including a corn dog, Jones soda and ice cream dinner on Thursday, helping with last minute preparations Friday,  rehearsal dinner at a cute Italian place, and then the backyard wedding on Saturday.  In between helping, Russell, Paul (Sarah's brother) and I found time to practice our song that Keith and Sarah wanted us to sing.  Everything turned out beautiful.  It rained on Saturday up until the wedding started and stopped long enough for the ceremony.  Sarah's parents had rented a tent for the reception so rain or shine, things were going to happen!  The reception included a buffet dinner with pork, rice, beans and salads, along with rolls and 2 beautiful cakes.  There was sangria flowing and people dancing.  The whole night was fantastic!

Keith and Sarah left for the honeymoon to Peru on Sunday morning as we drove back to the train station.  We got back on the train in the afternoon and arrived in Texarkana Monday morning at 6.  I had a great time with my family and would love to visit Chicago again!





Once I got back to town, I havent stopped since.  My last lecture semester starts in 2 weeks and I am happy and scared!  It means that this time next year, I will be getting a classroom ready for little ones!

This summer has been a whirlwind of events but has probably been one of the best summers I have had!

*Sorry this is so long but thanks for reading all the way to the end!  I have more photos of my trip on my facebook page.  To look at Wrigley field photos click here