Surprise!

Hello one and all. How's the world treating you?

As for me and my house, all is well. Celeste and I just completed our 1st month of school. Only 8 more to go! Woo hoo! But seriously, this first month has just flown by, and it's hard to believe we're already entering the fall.

For those of you who noticed, I didn't post an entry last week. I apologize for that, but my good excuse is that I was visiting many of you face to face during my surprise visit to Utah for my best friend's wedding. Here are some photo highlights of the trip:


The wedding was beautiful and it was great to see so many family and friends again. However, I will say that I missed my wife, I missed North Carolina, and, strangely enough, I missed my 8th graders. Terrible as they may sometimes be, I love those kids like a tall glass of milk after a syrup-soaked waffle. I hated entrusting them to other teachers for even one day. That's why it felt so good to come home, be with my loving wife, and get back into the classroom where I reminded the kids who's boss.

Teaching is going well. Celeste and I both have our victories and defeats, depending on the day. We have our victors and our casualties, but all in all, things are going well. My students just took their first test on Wednesday. The unit covered basic geography skills, map skills, early European exploration, the Columbian Exchange, Native Americans, slavery, etc. To my delight, my students averaged a 79% on the test. That's out of 70 students, which ain't bad. I rewarded them by letting them watch part of "Amistad", a moving film that accurately shows how African slaves were brought across the Atlantic to America, and how they were brutally and inhumanely treated. It opened the eyes of my students to a world they didn't know existed...until now.

I'm getting excited because tomorrow we start talking about the Revolutionary War, and the events that led to the Declaration of Independence. Boring, I know, but for me, it's a real treat to be paid to teach history.

Celeste has been feeling a little under the weather today. Nothing serious, though. Just keep her in your prayers if you're the praying sort. We love you all.

Another week bites the dust.

Hey family and friends,

It's late on a Sunday evening, and Celeste and I are anxious to start a movie together (see, we get to celebrate tonight because we don't have school tomorrow thanks to Labor Day). But we can't start the movie until I finish this entry, so it's going to be short.

The bottom line is that all is well here in North Carolina. We just finished our second week of teaching, and have emerged relatively unscathed. We have manageable classes (for the most part), and the handful of kids that cause REAL problems get kicked out of our classes pretty quickly. The trick to being a good teacher (aside from knowing your stuff) is to just be tough, act like you own the world, and make darn sure the students know it. Raising your voice, kicking out troublemakers, making threats - all these are valuable arrows in the quiver of a successful teacher. But then you have to follow that ferocity up with some TLC - but not too much. See, cause students "don't care how much you know until they know how much you care". It's a delicate and fragile balance between passion and compassion, and that's what we're trying to find each day. So far, though, I'd say we're doing pretty well.

We are, of course, thrilled at the fact that we're in the middle of a long weekend. I remember as a student always loving the long weekends, but I never thought that my teachers loved them as much as I did - if not more. I now know that teachers LOVE long weekends, and we're taking advantage of every minute.

That about covers the week - oh, except for the fact that Celeste and I went on a date last night and found a surprisingly good Sushi restaurant in Henderson, which is the last place you'd expect to find good sushi. In any event, we're pretty stoked about our discovery.

Until next week, farewell!

Looking Back at Week 1

This picture has two purposes: first, it demonstrates our utter exhaustion after our first week of teaching, as displayed by the napping (We went to bed at 9pm on Friday night). Secondly, it shows off our fancy new bedroom furniture. Woo hoo!

Well, folks, we did it. We survived the first week of school, which wasn't as easy as it may sound. While we didn't have to go "Michelle Pfeifer" on any of our students (you know, Dangerous Minds and all that), we did have a few incidents and face-offs that assuredly reminded us of the challenging year we have ahead of us. While we'll spare you from the explicit details of those face-offs (mostly for the sake of our loving and concerned parents), suffice it to say that we were sent to our respective schools for a reason. These schools have been and are struggling in every aspect of education, and will continue to do so unless dramatic changes are made.

Enter: us.

Okay, I'm joking about the "enter: us" part, but everything else I'm being dead serious about. Now, I meant to take some pictures of our schools and classrooms this week so y'all could see what they look like, but we just got so busy that I didn't even think about it until yesterday. Those pics will have to wait, but enjoy these in the meantime:



Well, that about does it for now. There's actually loads of other stuff I could mention, but our time is as short as it is valuable, so until next week, farewell!

And so it begins...

Hey y'all.

I'm kind of frustrated right now because I spent the last hour or more trying to upload a video onto this here blog that gave you a grand tour of our apartment and such. It was a beautiful video, and I was making witty comments left and right. How depressing.

Well, that aside, the big news of the day is that school starts in less than 48 hours. Crazy, eh? Tuesday morning, bright and early, our students will file into our respective classrooms, and then it's game time. We've spent so much time preparing for that moment, it's hard to believe it has actually arrived. Scary and exciting.

For those of you who don't already know, Celeste is teaching science and Spanish at Northern Vance High School, which is only about 5 minutes from my school, Henderson Middle School. I'm teaching 8th grade social studies, which mostly consists of US History. I know, you're jealous. In addition to teaching, I'm also the new assistant coach of the HMS football team. Last year we were undefeated region champions, so with me on board we'll probably win the Super Bowl or something. Time will tell.

Other exciting news: Celeste and I both received our callings today (our FIRST callings, I should say. The Branch President has reminded us that we'll probably have several). Celeste was called to be a Primary teacher, and I was called to be the Primary pianist. I know, mom, you always told me this would happen. Anyway, we're enjoying our Branch, and are meeting some wonderful, very Southern people.

That's about it. We don't even have any pictures to share this week. I'll try this video thing again. Until next time, take care and God bless!

2 Years and Counting

This weekend, Celeste and I decided to throw caution to the wind, and with only a week and a half before school starts, we escaped to Charleston, SC to enjoy our anniversary weekend. Yes, we've been married for 2 years now, and we both agree that it's the best decision we've ever made. We're happier now than we've ever been, and we plan on saying that at the end of every year.

Way too much happened in Charleston to recap the entire trip, so I'll just say that we had a very enjoyable time, complete with beautiful sandy beaches, breathtaking architecture, fascinating history, and many happy reunions with converts and members from my mission (Sunday was the "mission" day, seeing as we weren't about to go shopping or swimming. So instead we just visited a handful of old friends). I've included some photos for y'all to enjoy:

So cute, right?

Orangeburg, SC, at the public garden of roses (Orangeburg was my last area).

Sarah Buggs, my most devoted convert. Sarah regularly attended the temple until her cancer returned. She is still as stalwart as ever, and has an unshakable testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Charleston's skyline from our balcony. They call it "The Holy City".

A horse-drawn carriage in downtown.

The Angel Oak, estimated to be over 1,500 years old. I won a photo contest in 2007 thanks to this baby.

Another shot of the Angel Oak.

Celeste as her usual camera-hungry self, found here at Folly Beach. The water was so warm we dang near jumped in with our clothes on.

Still at Folly Beach.

The Morris Island Lighthouse, located at the mouth of the Charleston Harbor.

Us at Battery Park. We are literally the cutest couple ever...literally.

P.S. Celeste and I both start our New Teacher Orientation training tomorrow morning. The school year is nearly upon us! Crazy! We'll tell you all about it next week.

Check back Tuesday

Celeste and I are in the middle of a mini-vacation in Charleston, SC to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We'll give you an update, complete with beautiful photos of us and Charleston, on Tuesday.

Y'all come back now!

Welcome to Oxford, NC

Memorial to Confederate Dead

Oxford, NC

We've done it. Not only have we survived this whole summer living out of a suitcase, but we now have a place to call home. Excited, perplexed, relieved... these are all emotions that we've been experiencing over the past few days as we've come to the realization that we are no longer vagrants.

A sneak peak at our humble abode

No, I'm not saying "wow," Jackson caught me yawning.

It's hard to believe that just over a week ago we were living in Chicago, and now we are residents of Oxford, a small town just outside of Henderson. We found a cute two bedroom apartment right across the road from the Revlon factory (that's right). After visiting several other homes and apartments for rent, we are very satisfied with our new place. It's not huge, but we've got an extra room for guests and a pool in the complex. We even have a bed for visitors. In fact, our spare bed is the only piece of furniture that is currently in our apt. All of our earthly possesions (aside from our suitcases) are en route to NC, so for the next few weeks we'll be sleeping, sitting, and generally hanging out on the bed. We eat standing up over the kitchen counter. But even with the obvious lack of furniture we feel very blessed to have found this place and moved in after only a few short days in North Carolina.

Aside from house hunting we've been spending the week preparing for teaching in the fall. Jackson is very satisfied with his teaching position. This week he met with his principal and learned that he will be taking on 8th grade social studies, and his curriculum covers US history from a NC perspective. He also hopes to take on some assistant coaching responsibilites and will be meeting with the athletic director of his school this week to see where he will be put to work. I have been going over what I'll be teaching in Earth Science this week, I'm excited to be teaching something that can be so hands on for the kids. I also look forward to teaching Spanish, but have yet to dig too deep into what I'll be required to do there.

Northern Vance High School, where I'll be teaching Earth Science and Spanish I.

Henderson Middle School, where Jackson will be teaching history.

We also went to our new branch this week. More news to come on that. Let's just say it's been an eye opening experience to see how things are done out here.

Quick example: On the ward bulletin, there was a small little paragraph talking about the one and only missionary from the branch who is currently in the MTC. The bulletin encouraged members to write to "the Mission Base in Provo, Utah" if they wanted to contact the Elder. Just cute, that's all. (I realize you have to be a Mormon to really get that joke, and so I apologize. I'll explain it to you sometime.)