i think she really means it…

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 | Random Thoughts

Here it is…2008! I was just reading a friend’s blog post about her family “highlights” and “lowlights” of 2007. Her list was a neat summary of all of the significant events of the past year. I thought it was a great idea and would love to reflect on some of my “high” and “low” lights as well (I hope I’m not violating any copyright laws…).

January, 2007

• Ringing in the New Year with my parents and Nate in Port Hueneme…Highlight
• Starting a new “journaling” process with my students and teaching them how to set a goal for themselves…Highlight
• Getting a parking ticket at Exposition Park for parking in a perfectly unmarked (and legal) parking spot on the street…Lowlight

February, 2007

• Serving at our church on the Teach Team (putting up the lyrics for the music twice a month)…Highlight

March, 2007

• Supporting Nate as our new HOA Vice President…Lowlight (not that supporting him is the “low” part of this situation, it’s watching the way some of our residents treat the leadership team and how they always have something to complain about!)
• Having my niece, Sydney stay with us for a few days…Highlight
• Putting Sydney in “time-out” when she needed it…Lowlight

April, 2007

• Attending (and serving) at our church’s “Resurrection” services…big Highlight!
• Spending the weekend with Grandma in Hesperia, thrift store shopping…Highlight
• Loosing my Grandpa Wallace quite suddenly…Lowlight
• Having 2 weeks off of school for Spring Break…Highlight
• Attending 2 Galaxy home games with Nate…Highlight
• Finding out that despite proof and pictures of our “perfectly legal” parking job in January, we would still have to pay the ticket…Lowlight

May, 2007

• Spending Memorial Day weekend in San Jose with Nate’s family (and learning to play Bocce Ball)…Highlight

June, 2007

• Running the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon in 4 Hours, 52 Minutes, 16 Seconds…BIG Highlight
• Watching my 8th graders participate in the 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony…Highlight
• Taking a road trip through California, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana with Nate and the family…Highlight
• Meeting more members of Nate’s big family…Highlight

July, 2007

• Taking the whole summer off to spend time with family and friends…Highlight
• Meeting and developing a new friendship with one of Nate’s co-workers and his wife…Highlight
• Starting to blog!…Highlight
• Reading about different friends and their families on their blogs…Highlight (especially our friends in Kenya)
• Finding out the DMV could not clear the January parking ticket despite evidence we paid it with a canceled check from the bank, and three hours of phone tag with various “official people”…LOWLIGHT (see the DMV story from July)

August, 2007

• Learning to ride the Metro buses and rails…Highlight
• Learning that Metro buses do not keep a consistent schedule…Lowlight
• Spending the day with Sydney in Burbank at a bus stop for two hours…Highlight (despite her skinned knee received as we ran across the street to catch a bus)
• Having Nate’s younger brother, Jeremy, visit for a few days…Highlight

September, 2007

• Beginning my 3rd year as the 8th Grade Algebra Readiness Teacher at Culver City Middle School…Highlight
• Discovering that I still have so much to learn as a teacher…Lowlight
• Developing a closer friendship and weekly prayer time with my co-worker and friend, Arlis…Highlight
• Finding out a close couple friend would be getting divorced…Lowlight
• Training for the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon with Nate…Highlight
• Living close enough to run at the beach every evening…HIGHLIGHT!

October, 2007

• Discovering a new Bed and Breakfast in Nipomo, CA and visiting Hearst Castle during a get-away-weekend with Nate…Highlight
• Running the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon with Nate and having our family there to cheer us on…Highlight

November, 2007

• Celebrating 5 years of marriage…HIGHLIGHT
• Getting offered a job by UCLA for the 2008-2009 school year as a Teacher Trainer for their Intro to Algebra Curriculum…Highlight
• Having my name (and some content contributions) published in UCLA’s Intro to Algebra Program..Highlight (check out the website, too…those are my students, in my classroom!)
• Celebrating our 1st full year as home owners…Highlight/Lowlight (we now have a lot more financial responsibility, but feel blessed for the investment)
• Really trusting God to take care of our needs and reflecting on the many, many ways He does…Highlight

December, 2007

• Finding out that conflicts with students’ parents sometimes can’t be solved…Lowlight
• Moving a student out of my class because of a “personality-conflict,” and not being able to fix the situation myself…Lowlight
• Getting my first root canal…Lowlight
• Having the insurance to cover the procedure and living in a country that provides us the luxury of dental procedures, rather than simply extracting teeth…Highlight
• Feeling appreciated and valued by Nate’s company…Highlight
• Hosting Christmas Dinner in our home…Highlight

There are so many more highlights I could reflect on from the past year. God is so good to us! We are blessed by His faithfulness. Blessings to you in 2008!

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