lessons learned {from being a substitute}

I can't remember if I've shared on here that I'm a substitute teacher.

Yes. A substitute teacher.

It. Is. Fabulous.

I have learned some valuable lessons. Some, you can't really put a price on.

{1} Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher - Let's be honest, we've all had bad teachers.  People that obviously don't care for their students. If you are a teacher, you should probably like kids. You should also probably have a reasonably large pool of patience. I think if you have patience and like kids, maybe you should be a teacher. Teaching is most definitely a calling. And one of the most noble I believe. I subbed kindergarten last week and they were sweet kids, but, when asked again if I would sub? I had to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." because...they killed me. Literally. I died last Thursday. Maybe only for an evening, but...death still the same. 

If you went to kindergarten, move heaven and earth to find your teacher and say thank you.

I'm not kidding.

{2} Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher for 30 years - I've met lots of teachers that I bet were most excellent teachers. 10 or 15 years ago.  And had that pool of patience and love for children and desire for them to succeed. But now, it's long gone. And they're hanging around even though they can't stand the kids.

That makes me so terribly sad.

[Author's note: Everything from here on out isn't so serious...or sad.]

{3} Kids talk about the most random things - Today at lunch some 4th graders were talking about cancer. Cancer! And how some haven't met their grandparents because of it. And if there was a heart cancer. They then talked about Heaven. And gates.

Not every 4th grader is that...serious?

I've had conversations about monster trucks with 3rd graders. And Charlotte's Web {we read the last two chapters one day and I ALMOST CRIED. For real.} I've talked about Barney, the purple dinosaur, with Jr. High-ers. And llamas with kindergartners. Llamas. They couldn't believe I've petted a llama. Minds were definitely blown.

{4} If they love you, they draw you things -

Example 1 - Yellow Highlighter Heart - 6th grader

When I scanned it, the yellow highlighter didn't show up. Fail.

On my part.

Not their's. :)

Example 2 - Calvary - 4th grader

I'm not sure if this kids thinks I need Jesus?

Or he loves me like Jesus?

Could be a number of things.

Was a nice reminder during the day though.

Example 3 - I Love You Inside a Heart - 4th grader

I love this. The block letters.

The heart inside the heart.

Nice thing on a Friday.

Except she thinks I'm married.

Obviously, hearts are really popular. And I'm wondering if you're a girl, if that's what you HAVE to draw?



{5} Students like to find out every piece of personal information about you - Every class has asked if I'm married, if I have kids, and how old I am. Some have asked where I live. Which...ummm...awkward.

The very first kid that asked how old I was then asked, "Isn't that rude to ask?" to which I replied, "Yes...it is."

BUT, their math problem of the day said something along the lines of Mrs. Smith is between 30 and 45 years old. The sum of the digits of her age is equal to 11. How old is Mrs. Smith?

So, what does Ms. Hebert do?

You wanna know my age?! You gotta figure it out! ;) Which, they did. But they learned math at the same time. That kinda made me happy.

{6} Math skills magically come back to you - I subbed 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math for a few days. It was amazing how I remembered how to add fractions, and flip the sign in >/

It's also amazing how you don't remember some things.

Like factor trees.

Ummm...anybody? :-/

{7] There's this thing called a Promethean board. - It. Is. Amazing.

I'm sure there are other things but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

Y'all have a good weekend. While I go rest my feet. And my voice.

:)

beautiful things

I am so beyond excited that I can finally share with you my creative genius project that I've been working on for the past few weeks and had in my head for a month!

At our church we have a program called GMAs, which stands for Girls Missionary Auxiliary. They study missions/the Bible/lots of other things I don't know over the course of a year and complete a "step". At the end of each year they are part of a coronation where their hard work is recognized. Well, almost two months ago, one of the leaders asked if I would help out with organizing the coronation and said the girls were thinking of going one direction because they wanted to sing this song.

The song was great. I loved the song. But, I just wasn't sure it was they way to go. So I prayed about it, and prayed about it, and one Monday morning about 3 a.m. I woke up and KNEW we were supposed to have the theme "Beautiful Things" {based on this song P.S. They have an album coming out Tuesday and WOOT,  I am so excited.} and I was supposed to create this video.

It consists of 345 pictures shot over the course of about 4 hours over 2 afternoons. It was my first time to use a MacBook Pro and I TOTALLY COVETED OUR YOUTH PASTOR'S COMPUTER. Forgive me. I created it in iMovie kinda using these instructions to understand what to do {WARNING: I wouldn't recommend watching any of the videos in that link, because...you'll see some things you probably don't want to see. Except the sock movie. You can watch the sock movie.  I say this from experience. :-/} and this video about using iMovie 2011 {that of course I can't find right now} to help me actually get it done.

I really want to stress that it is ONLY by the grace of God that this got done. It never ceases to amaze me how He equips His children with the tools to get done what He wants to get done. I read some dialogue while the video was playing, that of course was timed to turn this thing into a cinematic masterpiece. You can read it below the video.

Hope you enjoy!

God plants a seed in all of our hearts. 

A seed that yearns to know the One that planted it. 

He waters that seed with Truth and Mercy. Grace and Love. 

His Word says that eternal life is knowing Him, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ who He sent.  (John 17:3)

He makes everything beautiful in its time.

The more we begin to know Him. The more His life begins to bleeds into ours.  His desires become our desires. The seed has grown into a life that loves Him and His ways.  Our actions start to reflect the capital S-O-N.  We seek the things that are true. Noble. Right. Pure. Lovely. Admirable. Excellent. Praiseworthy. The things that are above.  Those things that are eternal. 

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. His image. Making all of us into beautiful things. 

P.P.S.  I absolutely love these girls. 

P.P.P.S. That's my nephew watering the plants in the video. He helped me unfurl the flowers and move the stems and plant the seeds and was a good sport for all of it. He was also the only other family member that understood where I was trying to go with this. That's only one reason of the bajillion why I love him. 

P.P.P.P.S. The idea for "watering" the plants and that effect comes from Toya. She showed me a flower her daughter had made months ago and when I woke up that Monday morning with the idea...I knew I had to use it. 

The end. For real.

this will make your life better.

Here at TMROR, we are all about bringing you the latest and greatest music and other cultural selections.  And by we, I mean me. And by latest and greatest, I mean, your grandma has probably already heard of this band. Or TV show. Or...whatever. But, just pretend with me.

I love music. I was once asked if I had to be deaf or blind, which would I prefer. I said blind because while I can go without seeing just about anything, I don't think I could make it without hearing music. It just speaks to my soul. It's the same in every language. Except not, because it's different, but its abilities to move a person, that's what I mean.

Bad analogies aside, this past week I was watching some television and saw a preview for the 3rd season of NBC's The Sing-Off. To say I was a LITTLE MORE THAN EXCITED is an understatement. I was at Matt and Mo's and since they have a DVR, I rewound it and watched the preview TWICE. Two. Times. I just realized that previews go with movies. Commercials go with TVs. But I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.

If you haven't heard of it, it's basically like American Idol. But instead of one person, it's 12 or so different groups. And instead of instruments, there's no instruments. And instead of semi-bad singers. They're all really really good.  So, in all actuality, it's not like American Idol at all.

Still not convinced? Here are the 5 best things about The Sing-Off.

{1} There's not a single bad group in the bunch. These are the best of the best. You know those CDs that you really love, except two songs, so you skip them? Yeah. Not the case with TSO. It's all good, all the time.

{2} You get to see clever group names. Two words. Pitch Slapped. Highly inappropriate? Yes. But..really. I mean...the first time I saw that, I'm QUITE sure that I laughed so hard. And while I know these guys didn't come up with it, The Whiffenpoofs were on last season.  As in Gilmore Girls? As in Richard Gilmore was a WP and sings with them in that episode where they're at the Harvard/Yale game and Emily is having the maid make a Bloody Mary, and...I've seen Gilmore Girls too much.

{3} Judges that don't make you want to slit your throat. Ben Folds and that really tall guy from Boyz II Men. Shawn I think is his name. They actually know good music. And give constructive criticism. And I'm happy to announce that Nicole SureIsAnnoying Scherzinger  is not coming back this year. There's a new girl. Nicole kind of did make you want to slit your throat, but two out of three ain't bad.

{4} Groups in coordinating outfits. This is every singing nerd's dream. Or maybe just mine. Surely not just me?

{5} Did I mention every single thing you hear is somebody's VOICE?  That some people have that much talent to create an entire song not using anything man-made, blows. my. mind.

Still not convinced? Watch the opener from last season's show.



If you're not toe-tapping and wanting to dance after that??? I'll pray for you.

The new season starts September 19th! YEAH YUH!

P.S. Does anyone else think the first chick that sings from Eleventh Hour (the very first group in the video looks EERILY similar to Whitney Port?

P.P.S. I really don't want to think about how this show and DWTS is on the same night. Can I just live in a dreamland where all my TV viewing selections magically work out? Yes? Awesome.

some random stuff.

Y'all. I just about had a heart attack.

I wanted a new blog background and so, I did what I had always done and when I hit 'save'. Well, let's just say the ole' blog looked like a 3 year old that doesn't have good spatial reasoning skills had designed it. (I'm not entirely sure that's the word I'm looking for...can't quite figure it out). Moving on.

I went to Texas last weekend. If you follow me on Twitter, you would know this.

You would also know way too much about my musical tastes.

{Grin}

:)


Christy and me at California Pizza Kitchen. Home of the world's best salad. I love that girl!


Levi had this cool and awesome puzzle that I was just amazed by. He's grown so much!

Anyway, I fully plan on blogging about my weekend of Texas fun and seeing all my Texas peeps but soon after this post goes up my Bestie McBestfriend from college will be posting on my behalf to link up to Kelly's Korner's post about single friends. I think it's so ridiculously neat that couples have met and are engaged (y'all...they're engaged) through the post she did last year. So neat. We were talking about it a while ago and well...the pictures say it best.


SO...there ya go. I don't know what else to say. Except that it could get mighty interesting around these parts!

:)

Hope y'all have had a great week!

(and look at this...I've blogged 5 times in January! It's amazing!)

;)

i laugh {REALLY LOUD}.

For those of you who aren't from around here, (here, being Northeast Mississippi), we had ourselves a little blizzard Sunday evening/night. Blizzard being a relative term. Because, you see, there were 5 inches of snow, and to us Southerners--that's a blizzard.

I've never seen this much snow in my entire 27 years. Does that mean I've missed out? Methinks, perhaps.

I got out at 6:45 IN THE MORNING and took a bajillion pictures that are beautiful and awe-inspiring, but those will have to wait til later, because I really just want to share this video with y'all.

As an introduction, I live about 100 yards (maybe) from my church and there is a 'monstrous' hill in the back. Well, the 5 inches of snow and icy/slushy country backroads didn't stop some of us from getting together and having a GRAND OLE TIME.

I have watched this video at least 50 times (and I know I lean towards exaggeration, this, is not one of those times. For real...50 times.) And each time it still makes me smile. So...enjoy.

And, for those of you who know my dad, I OBVIOUSLY get my laugh from him.

Obviously.

I may need to tone it down a bit.

How do you feel about snow? Like it? Love it? Want some more of it?

{see what I did there? ;) }

Let me know in the comments!

sweet sixteen.

It was a super busy weeekend!

Friday night was the football game.

Then Saturday a bunch of girls from church who I'm privileged to call my friends from a completely different generation, got together to celebrate Chelsea's Sweet 16.

She had actually turned 16 the Tuesday before that but a proper Sweet 16 celebration could not be had on a weeknight! ;) So, we celebrated by having breakfast at IHOP, going to see Despicable Me, spent some time shopping, grabbed a snack, then rode the carousel. Followed by a much-deserved Saturday afternoon nap (at least that last part was me.) :) Here are some pictures from our day.

This man was just sitting out on his swing waving at every single car that passed by. Made me wonder if he does that all the time. Am I'm not talking about one of those little 'Hey, how ya doin' waves' that we're partial to in the south. This was a full-out 'Hey, I hope you're having a great day and I want you to see me and wave back' waves.

Birthday girl!
She reminds me a lot of myself at 16.
She talks.
A. LOT.
She never meets a stranger.

But on the flip-side, she has a passion for bringing people to Christ that I did not have at that age. A while ago, I was talking to her about Ricky, a homeless guy who I helped out last winter. I hadn't seem him in months and he just popped in my head one night. I was sad because I had never outright asked him if he was saved or knew about God, church, anything. Chelsea said, "Well Bekah, that's why you should ask people about God the first time you meet them. You may not get a second chance."

That really stuck with me. I'm all for building relationships and actually getting to know a person and witnessing to them by showing them love, but sometimes, you just have to come right out and ask. She reminded me of that.

Mostly everybody got chocolate chip pancakes. YUM!

We went and saw Despicable Me and it was ADORABLE!
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
SO. CUTE.
It has so many cute one-liners that I can't even remember them all, but a little girl, Agnes, really steals the show. :)

We took a mirror picture in the bathroom.
Mainly because I had never done it before and this was a day all about having fun and feeling free and...so...we did. :)
The quality isn't that great. But...oh well. :)

This is our silly faces mirror bathroom pic.

I just love this pic because of the stripes.

They are such teenagers. Love it.

Since we were already at the mall, we did some afternoon shopping.
Cori is such a model and was trying to decide on this hat.
She didn't buy it that day, but eventually winded up going back the next day and getting it.
Ha!

I love this pic. Minus the price tag.
Charlotte Russe had some beautiful jewelry.
I got a bracelet that I love.
And I'm not entirely sure this is legal.
Taking pictures in a store, that is. :-/

$2.99? For some cute clothes?
Yes.
Please.
And thank you. :)

Our breakfast had kind of worn off so we snacked on some pretzel from the pretzel shop.
I got a cinnamon sugar one.
Oh my goodness, it was sooooooooooo good.

The carousel at the mall.
This may be one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken.
And I've taken a LOT of pictures.
The girls rode while Molly, Kristin and I stood and watched.
But all the pictures of them actually riding are really blurry.

Second favorite picture I've ever taken. I think. I don't know. I just love it.

All in all, it was one of the best Saturdays I've had in a really long time.
Who knew that hanging out with 6 girls that are 10 years younger than you could be so much fun? We're going to have to do it again really soon.
Birthday celebrations or not.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

this is how i spent my friday night.

Many moons ago {in reality...it was as little as 5 years ago} I spent every Saturday in a band uniform. See Exhibit A below.

Yowsa, that's a bad picture. That's me, second from the left.

Before that, I spent 5 years of Friday nights in a band uniform. {I was in the high school band in 8th grade...I was quite good.} There are no pictures of me back then. Well...at least not handy. There are and I'd rather not go back and relive those days!

Before THAT I spent my Friday nights being a band groupie when my oldest sister, Leah, was in high school. I'd hold music for band members in the stands. I worked in the concession stand. I was quite good at making popcorn. I was all-around awesome. And I had multiple crushes (I was 9 or 10) on Leah's friends. Nothing like a teenager with bad acne that played an instrument to make a girl swoon. HA! :)

With all that being said, I love football. There's nothing like the feeling of sitting under the Friday night lights and watching boys take their teen angst out on the opposing team. However, I have not been to a high school football game in 3 years! Until Friday night.

Our youth pastor's son is the star quarterback at a local high school, one of his daughters is a cheerleader. Another younger girl from youth group was a cheerleader for the opposing team. We go to church with one of the coaches from the opposing team. So, I figured I'd go to this one. Here are some pictures of my night and boy how it made me feel young again. I absolutely love the smell of hamburgers being grilled, the sounds of the band and cheerleaders, not so much the smell of the boys (we were standing on the fences because there were NO seats available in the stands...it was a rival game and we got there 45 minutes early and still there were no seats. crazy). It is all fabulous.

a dog most definitely got on the field.

mooreville's team coming out. they were swaying and it was scary.
very intimidating.

look at this sunset!!!! is that not ridiculously gorgeous??

ridiculously gorgeous sunset, again.

mantachie was about to score a touchdown.

helmets held high when they were about to kick-off after scoring the aforementioned touchdown.

my good friend, holli. this is a great picture of us if i do say so myself.

there's not much better than being surrounded by great friends.

this random little kid was sitting next to us.
i looked down and this is the face he was making.

chelsea! she's the cheerleader for mooreville.
we were pulling for mantachie.
such a cutie.

is this not one of the most adorable children ever?!?
her name is emma, and we go to church together.
she refuses to speak to me.
one day she will.
one day.

love these girls!
kelsy and madi, who i also go to church with.
madi is the only of the youth pastor's children that wasn't on the field.
they are best friends.
such sweeties.

that's dalton.
i really like this picture.
by this point, they were getting beat pretty badly :(
but, this boy is a winner regardless of what the scoreboard says.
he's one of the few boys i've seen that has a winning attitude despite losing.
he's a leader of that team and i'm so proud of him.

my good friend, lilly.
we took like 6 or 7 pictures and this was the best one. :S

this is lilly and her fiance, les.
they both went to mantachie and are getting married in less than 2 months!
they're such a funny couple.

holli and her husband, brandon.
he went to mantachie.
holli went to fulton with me and we played softball together.
we weren't that great of friends back then but now we're tight.
like...something that's tight. :)

molly and matt.
they're my neighbors.
and molly and lilly are sisters.
i've known matt since junior high and molly for the past 5 or 6 years probably.
they're the sweetest couple i have ever known.
you think i'm exaggerating, but i'm not.
i don't remember if i've mentioned their housewarming last weekend, but molly has an interior design degree and she did a fabulous job designing the interiors. ha.
it looks like a pottery barn catalog except better.
awesomeness.

i have no idea who #15 is, but #21 is trent.
that boy has an awesome testimony about what God has delivered him from.
and he's only 15!
i don't remember if this is right before or right after he scored one of the last touchdowns for mantachie.
it was a special touchdown because they had just buried his grandmother that afternoon.
he wanted to score a touchdown for her and he did.
so so so sad.
that family has been such a light for Christ during this tough time.
they're one of the best families i know.
no joke.

game over.
mooreville won.
chelsea was picking up trash.

overall, it was one of the best friday nights i've had in the past 8 years.
i'm definitely looking forward to making it to some more games this season.

the one where we pick up the niece

Goodness gracious night alive I am one worn out chick! My oldest niece, Anna Woods, started spending the week of VBS with my parents (Gendaddy and Nana to her) and so my mom and I drove down to meet the family today and pick her up.


Here's the cute family eating lunch at McAlister's. From left to right are Anna Woods, 4 1/2 (she had just hit her head on the corner of the table and was crying). Ed, my brother sporting an LSU shirt. Groan. Melanie, my sweet and beautiful sister-in-law. As soon as I took the picture she knew she had her eyes closed but the girls wouldn't sit still for another one. Then my youngest niece, Mary Neal who is almost 28 months old. Aren't they just a beautiful family? Seriously...beautiful :)

Ed and Melanie got married my freshman year in college on what was actually Ole Miss' Homecoming that year. I missed my first college homecoming for a wedding. Melanie's bridesmaid dresses were some of the prettiest I've ever seen...if only I had a picture! And looking back, I wore the ugliest thing to the wedding. It was just...ugly, goodness. Anyway.


Anna Woods posing with her Nana (my mom). Anna has a busted lip. Mary Neal gave it to her with a book. You have got to love sisters! :)


Now THAT is one of the cutest pictures ever! I absolutely love that girl. She has 'grown up' so much since January that she's not the same little girl. I can actually understand every word that comes out of her mouth and boy, does she have some stories! We also discovered she can't do certain things in a car - take a nap, say her ABCs, and count to 25 just to name a few.


Mary Neal and Melanie again. She was chomping down some Mac and Cheese and poor Melanie can't keep her eyes open! Mary Neal (MN) used to have red hair and it's slowly going blonde. :( I wanted to have at least ONE red headed niece or nephew. They need to have another kid. HA! :) Funny moment - I asked Mary Neal why she was so cute and Anna Woods who was sitting beside me at the table, without missing a beat, responded, "Because she don't look like her mama." Now...I probably shouldn't have laughed because I don't think she realized what she was saying and it wasn't nice but it was just one of those times where you laugh before you think. Melanie's a good sport about it :)


Ed, Melanie and Mary Neal went back to Greenville while we brought Anna Woods home with us. After we had some chicken pasketti (Why can't kids say spaghetti?) at AW's request, Aunt Leah, Anna and myself went to enjoy some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I think that's quite obvious by Anna's mouth!
Aunt Leah and AW at Baskin Robbins.

They turned the camera around on me and boy do I look scary! I had been up since 6:15, on a Saturday...that's rough!

I'm so looking forward to what this week is going to bring. Making memories with my niece is so beyond fun and I'm so blessed to be her aunt.

Lastly, I absolutely love this song that was on an episode of Bones from Season 2 (The Aliens in the Spaceship) and I felt like sharing. That episode is SO GOOD. One of my favorite episodes of all 5 seasons. So. Good. Enjoy!

I pray everyone has a blessed Sunday! I know I will :)