I can't believe I can still log into this thing. Its been a year since my last update... So the short version: I'm a preschool teacher. I teach with two other teachers. The kids in my class are 3, 4 and 5.  I go to First Baptist in Troy now where I do a lot of work with kids...imagine that. I am STILL going to school. Right now I'm finishing up my Early childhood Education Associates degree at Sinclair. I don't know where I'm going after that but I am going to eventually get my Bachelor's. That's the short version.

I was talking to the other teachers in my class and somehow the converstaion got to "which kid in the class do you love the most?" Okay. Let's be honest. Children are just little people. There are some people you really like and some people that you could really live without. Its the same way in the classroom. Ask any teacher. Anyways my head teacher said "Love? I don't Love any of them. I like some of them". 

What? Our job title is to "provide a secure, caring environment to enrich and educate young children".  Is it possible to do those things without loving the child? I love the children for the sheer fact that they are Children. Although, I must admit...sometimes I have to make a very active decision to love them.

Love is a choice. It can be made in every relationship we encounter. Spouses, sons and daughters, (those come easy)...Neighbors, siblings, the checkout clerk at Walmart. I think Christ was pretty basic when he demonstrated love. You first, me last. So its not always easy to love the children in my class but God wouldn't command me to do anything I couldn't do. So I can love them and I do. Everyday. Because its a choice.

Who do you choose to love?

I don't think I've said that since at least 2001. T.I. stands for Teens Involved. Its an event through Word of Life Clubs. Its a competition, really. Teens prepare their performing art "talents" to show to a panel of judges, a handful of leaders and their  peers to be rated on how well they performed.

No. Seriously.

Categories include:
Solo Vocalist
Group Vocalist
Keyboarding
Keyboarding duet
Instrumental Solo
Group Instrumental
Creative Writing
    -Prose
    -Poetry
    -Autobiography
Group Presentation (Skit)
Individual Presentation
   -Puppet
   -Monologue
Storytelling (which is much like Individual Presentation)
Group Puppets
Individual Puppets

Yes. Its true. So to prepare for this, the teens work their butts off for about 3-6 months getting these presentations perfect. Mostly because they will be very strictly judged. Not at the first competition though, the judging isn't as strict. The first T.I. Is called Area T.I. This is where they weed out those who actually worked on their presentations and those who just slapped it together. If they place in the top 15 or 10 presentations of their catagory, then they get to take that presentation to Regional T.I. Where the judging and the competition get stiffer. If they make it past Regional, they get to go to International T.I in New York. Yes.

Its all real and I was part of it.

You may wonder: Why would a 12 year old girl want her flute playing abilities judged by a nerve wracking panel of judges, just to be told how she's either the best, worst or somewhere  in the middle of those who are present?

I can't answer it. I don't know the answer to that question. For 6 years, while I participated in T.I. My mother racked her brains trying to figure that exact thing out. You would work and work and work and get stressed, and the leaders would get uptight helping you prepare and you'd work and the tension and stress is just a part of it. We complained about it every step of the way, yet we did it every year and we even enjoyed it every year. Maybe its the excitement of being judged, or the feeling of placing and moving on...? Who just knows. But I do know this...as ridiculous as the whole thing sounds. I'm so excited to be going back today to watch the youth from my church perform their "talents for the Lord". (And while this does sound a little screwed up, the feedback given from the judges really does help when they take their "talents" and perform them as a ministry at like a nursing home, or a children's hospital). When c'mon we all know its ALL about getting your name called at the ending ceremonies and getting that stupid little reward pin that was coveted. HAHA. Love it.

This is to all my fellow high school word of lifers...You know you felt the same way! HAHA

Of course I would donate my remains to science! they can have it all...Brain, Heart, Kidney, Liver...whatever they want!! I'd MUCH rather have my left overs used to benefit others than let it all rot in the ground for maggots to feast on. No thanks. I don't plan on staying in the ground for too long anyways, if even at all.

Scientists everywhere...Hack me up and keep the remains!! (when I'm dead of course..that's not an invitation to any crazies out there) 

   

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