Will and Amy

This is as good as it's gonna get for a while, and you know what? I'll take it.
We are so blessed to have this technology at our fingertips, and it truly makes the distance seem not so, well, distant. Email me if you Skype and would want to talk to Will (or me!), and I'll get you his info.

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM PDT SUNDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A HEAT ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM PDT SUNDAY.

HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS MUCH OF WESTERN WASHINGTON WILL CLIMB INTO THE 80S AND LOWER 90S THIS WEEKEND. A FEW SPOTS IN THE SOUTHWEST INTERIOR WILL PROBABLY REACH THE MID 90S.

MOST WESTERN WASHINGTON LOCATIONS WILL HAVE TEMPERATURES CLOSE TO...BUT NOT QUITE REACHING...RECORD HIGHS. SOME RECORDS COULD BE BROKEN THOUGH ESPECIALLY AT OLYMPIA AND OTHER CITIES IN THE SOUTHWEST INTERIOR.

SATURDAY WILL BE THE WARMEST DAY ALONG THE COAST WITH HIGHS IN THE 80S. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY WILL BE SIMILARLY HOT ACROSS THE WESTERN WASHINGTON INTERIOR...BUT MOST PLACES WILL BE SLIGHTLY WARMER ON SUNDAY.

I'm thinking back porch, ice water (cold beer this afternoon), dogs in the shade, a good book, and the hose within an arm's reach. I know you Texans are more than tired of the heat, but this is a rare treat for those of us up here who like the sun. Off to get my dose of vitamin D...

Blessings...

This can be a tough time, but so far, so good, and so God. Here's a run-down of some recent events:

-A visit to a new eye doctor proved to be incredibly uplifting! From the Christian music playing in the office, to the sweet office staff . The doctor's daughter was working there for the summer, but will soon be headed off to help with a church plant. When I asked him where she was headed, he just said, "Dallas." So I decided to ask her the specifics, and she's headed to none other than Lewisville, Texas, mere miles from where I grew up. Small world, huh?

-I have been fretting over how the lawn is going to get done with my various travels (so that the HOA doesn't send me nasty-grams) and lo and behold, what shows up on my door? A flier for a local lawn service, run by two brothers! To top it off, they charge FIVE DOLLARS! No joke. Add three to that to scoop the dog poop, which is worth way more than that to me, and voila! They are here right this minute, and they are doing a fantastic job - the older brother even asked me to come out after he had finished mowing the front to see if the job was "up to my standards." Um, yeah. And for $8, those standards weren't too high, but they are doing a wonderful job.

-The loneliest time is usually the first few days of a deployment. This generally happens because you've spent the last few days doing everything together - it's crunch time. Then it's over in an instant. You come home to an empty house (well, empty of other humans), and it's quiet, so you have lots of time to think about just how lonely you're going to be. Well, in typical God fashion, I have NOT been lonely these last few days. In fact, I have been blessed with a visit with an old friend, and it was totally unexpected. I got an email from my friend Paige saying that she was here in WA, one town over - a mere 15 min. from me! I was able to meet them for dinner, and we're getting together again this evening for a bbq at her sister-in-law's house. What fun! It was so good to get to catch up, and share stories...Our lives are very similar - teachers, military wives, pilot's wives, and living far from home. However, she and her hubby are back in the great state of Texas, at least for a bit. Lucky.

So, praise God! I am so thankful, and feel comforted and not at all lonely. It doesn't hurt that I'm just now getting to relax and enjoy summer without the dread of deployment day looming!

Weekend...

Done.

Hello summer.

There have been some big changes at work this week, but nothing is set in stone yet - However, things are looking up for me. Certain parts of this job have made it my toughest year yet, but the kids are pretty easy going and I have actually enjoyed teaching math (which at first I wasn't even sure I could do, much less have fun doing). My kids wrote essays/poems/top 10 lists reflecting on the school year, and one even wrote that I made learning math "a fun experience" for her (she struggles in math but is determined to meet the standards, even if it means just squeaking by). My heart? Warmed. (If only she wouldn't have used the word "fun," which we buried back in October. She did spell experience correctly, though...and that's something.)

We have Field Day today, and I'm hoping that the sun will make an appearance and that the temperature will be at least in the 60's. I'm ready for a little summer weather. I do appreciate the cool temps most of the time (especially since we don't have a/c at school or at our house) but the rain and gloom has got to go. Enough already.

Next week we will be practicing for our 6th grade promotion ceremony, watching movies at lunch, and signing yearbooks. We have a few "fun" math activities, and some writing left to do, and then we'll wrap up the curriculum for the year. Our ceremony is Thursday, it's only a half day, and then I'll do some final classroom clean-up. At 4 on Thursday I am out for the summer. I. Can't. Wait. (And I know that if I ever get to missing my kiddos, I just have to got to Costco or Wal-Mart, where it is inevitable that I will run into one or two each time.)

Life in the form of a List (for the purpose of catching up, but with minimal effort):

-Our school had a talent show a few weeks back. I was sorely disappointed at the lack of turnout of teachers, but I had a great time! The talent truly blew me away...well, not so much the talent (in all cases - there were some amazing performances) but the courage. I would have never, ever, not-in-a-million-years have performed in a talent show when I was 12 (that is, if I had some kind of talent with which to perform). These kids were fantastic. Check out this video of a sixth grader playing the piano...it's kind of long, and the part that highlights his talent is towards the end, but this is the first time I've uploaded video and I'm not going to mess with it right now. (Remember, I'm listing to make things easier...I'm sure not gonna edit video...)


-The BEST part of the talent show to me was the signing (yes, you read that right - signing, not singing). A group signed two songs, one of them being "Made to Love" by Toby Mac. I was truly blown away at their emotion while signing - they knew the meaning of the words and it was so evident in their performance. Whoa. Here are a few pictures of them, although it was hard to catch the action...

-I finally uploaded the video of our Washington's-Version-of-a-Country-and-Western-Bar excursion...pure entertainment...

• This first video shows what they call a "Repetitive Pattern Dance" to that song they always play at sporting events - I don't know the name, but it's the one that goes, "Y'all ready for this?" You'll be able to hear it.

• Unfortunately, the audio on this second video is horrible. You can kind of hear Will try to get my attention at the beginning - he's trying to get me to focus on the guy who apparently had a fight with the sleeve monster in the parking lot, before he made it into the bar. My view was blocked by the couple who was "freestyling," which I'd like to point out they told us NOT to do during repetitive pattern dancing (and we were just going to two-step to a normal song...). Anyway, this dance is done to Will Smith's "Men in Black," and no I am not kidding...try to hear the beat and hopefully it'll all make sense to you. I take that back - It should by no means make sense to any of you who are from the south, but you might at least be able to see the pattern to their dance, and that it does, in fact, repeat.

However, I'm not all smiles after I came home and found this...
...and this...
Dixie decided that today would be the day that she'd eat my brown Old Navy flops - I guess they weren't appealing the last five days that they sat by the door.


-I think that's it for now. I'm just trying to make it to the last day of school. I might actually blog more than once a week during the summer...might. We'll see. Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Hopefully, I'll be making the rounds this summer and I'll get to catch up with a lot of you in person...strange concept, huh?

Ooooooooh, I'm so jealous of all of you teachers who are done with the year! We have two and a half weeks left, including an all day field trip, field day, and 6th grade promotion ceremony...oh, yeah, and a bunch of stuff left to teach! This end to the year has been much, much tougher than in mid school - these kids are SO ready to be grown-up 7th graders because it means going to a different school (unlike before where they just had new teachers, etc.). Plus, it feels strange because it is not warm outside...We did get a heat wave a few weeks ago, but it lasted only a few days, and ever since it's been in the 50's when I get to school and tops out around 60 most days. Brrr. The upside is that we don't have A/C in school, so at least I'm not having to deal with hot & sweaty 6th graders who just want to be out of school!

In other news, Will had to go to bed at 6 last night for a middle-of-the-night alert for a flight, so I spent the evening baking cookies and watching a movie (I would have had to spend it folding laundry that has literally been piling up, but Will took care of that while I was washing our cars on Saturday, which was a wonderful, much appreciated surprise). I watched Lars and The Real Girl. I'm left with mixed emotions. I loved the heart of the movie, but it made me really sad while I was watching. Obviously, treating mental illness like they do in the movie works in that small town - they can embrace Lars' delusion - but what about the rest of the world or people who don't have family like that? Hmmm. It just left me under a blanket of melancholy.

And now I'm off to start my week...I wish I could say it was my last week of school, but no! Just another week at work. I sure hope all of you who are finally done with the school year are sleeping in and lounging around. I can't wait!