Counting Our Blessings

Hi, all!

I'm writing from San Antonio. Kevin is in Gruene this weekend for his best friend's bachelor party. I didn't want to be lonely, and since I have a long weekend (Fair Day is Monday), I decided to fly here to spend some time with my family. We've been having a good, relaxing time. We did some shopping today and then I helped my sister get ready for Homecoming. I did her hair and her makeup. She looked really beautiful! I would have taken pictures, but Kevin insisted that I let him take my camera to Gruene so I don't have it.

Speaking of Kevin, I have a good story. I had a long day at school on
Thursday because it was a PTA night. Kevin called me at about 5 to tell me that he had "a great surprise" for me. When I asked him if it was something that he did or something that he bought, he said it was both. He really talked it up, like I was going to be soooooo happy. So when I pulled up to my house at 9pm, I was excited. Then I opened the garage and noticed the massive TV box by the recycling bin. Great. In a time when the economy is so shaky, we have just purchased a TV that came in a box large enough for me to sleep in, apparantly. I walked in and was introduced to our new 61" Samsung flat screen TV. I must admit, it is beautiful. But how is this a surprise for me, you ask? Here's the kicker: He put the old TV in our bedroom, and now I GET to record all of MY SHOWS in there and watch them on the OLD tv. Sounds like a backwards surprise to me.

I have another funny story, this one about school. I picked up my kids from specials Friday morning and had this conversation with 'Jake.'
Jake: "Mrs. White, I made a mistake in specials."
Me: "Thank you for being honest. What mistake did you make?"
Jake: "Well.....well.....I...accidentally.....punched Norman in the nuts."
Me: (stifling laughter): "That doesn't sound like something that happens by accident, 'Jake.'"
Jake: "BUT IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "Did you apologize?"
Jake: "He wouldn't listen to me!!!!!!!!!!"

So then I had a talk with Norman about forgiving our friends when the make mistakes and say they are sorry. Then Jake walks to the back of the line and asks "Do you forgive me for punching you in your nuts?"

OMG, so funny! There is never a dull day.

Anyway, tomorrow will be filled with church and hanging out with the fam some more. Then my flight leaves at 1:15pm on Monday. I actually enjoy travelling alone; it gives me a chance to study my stinkin' GRE vocabulary word flash cards.

Did I tell you about those? I found this list of 1000 most commonly used words on the GRE. I printed it out and started to highlight the ones I needed to learn. I figured maybe like 300-400 of them or so. I was wrong. I highlighted 800 words! How did this happen? No one will even play Scrabble with me...I thought I knew vocabulary! Apparantly not. I only need a very low score for admittance into my program, because of my high GPA in college. But I defintely do not want to shoot for a low score - that's not how I roll :)

I am so fired up about my job lately! I am just really loving my work more and more every day. I have a challenging class, but the good thing is that it is never boring in there. I also have parents who really appreciate (and express that appreciation for) the work I do for their kids. Most of all, I work in the most supportive, loving, encouraging, and fun faculty that I think has ever existed. I was thinking about it the other day on the way to work. What are the odds that I would have ended up in RISD? I have no family in North Texas. I happened to meet my wonderful husband at A&M and he got a job in Fort Worth. Then I got the internship in RISD in place of student teaching so it worked with Kevin's plans to move to DFW. I stumbled upon Mackie at the Teacher Job Fair that April, and the rest just fell into place! I am convinced that the way things have fallen together for me is no coincidence; God has truly blessed me and I am so thankful!!!

Sorry for the long post. You probably won't hear from me again until Monday or Tuesday!

Love,
Meagan