Intentions

So, I really thought I would have more posts in August...and now August is gone...oooops...
Ummmm, what have I been up to...

1. I worked five days last week. :)  I'm a CELDT proctor again.  This means I administer tests to junior high and high school kids in the local district.  It's not very exciting even at first, and after a week or two it's downright boring.  HOWEVER, I am getting paid and I am very thankful for that. :)
Last week I was at one of my favorite schools.  I had to test nine kids over the course of two days.  I basically read for three hours each day, tested kids for the other three hours, and got paid for all of it.  Not too bad. :)

2. I finally finished The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday by Neil MacFarquhar.  The narrative picked up after I went back to it, so it didn't take too long to read.  Now I'm reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.  It is supposed to be really funny...we shall see.

3. Amos and I have friends in China, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, and New Zealand, and soon to be Turkey, Czech Republic, and England.  This is getting crazy.  I want to go.

4. We finally got around to picking out wedding pictures to put on our walls.  I will take pictures of our little house one of these days and will put them up on-line.  I think it looks very nice. :)

5. Yesterday I made Korean barbecue.  It was really good. :)  I also made little personal pizzas using some very flat and dry pita bread ($0.65 for six pieces!) from a local grocery store.  They came out very well and don't take too long to make.  Another creation was a white cake with coconut frosting.  A few weeks ago I made coconut rice, butter chicken, and saag aloo (potatoes in a spinach sauce).  It's been fun. :)

Sometime I will have to write about the spiders and the tiny red ants...but not today!  Happy Labor Day! :)

BLA

I think Amos and I need to join a BLA, or Book Lovers Anonymous because...
we love books.
Oh dear.
I decided we should write down all the books we have, just so that we know and so we can avoid buying duplicates.  So far I have about 180 books on the list, and I've only listed the books on six shelves and the coffee table, plus a few more I have in my parents' storage unit.  That means I still need to record the books on . . . twelve more shelves.
Oh dear.

I've read a few books recently.  The first was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.  I'm not sure if it benefited me in any way, but it was definitely interesting.  It is set in the future in a super-controlled country, and, as you can imagine, crazy things are the norm.  I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone, but it was very intriguing.

I'm still reading The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday by Neil MacFarquhar.  It is interesting, but I get a little lost on who is who in the story and/or Middle East, and since I've taken so long to read it (it's stretched over at least five months), I'm a little confused when he references people he mentioned earlier in the book.  I will plow through it, though.  It is interesting to read because, 1) it's about the Middle East, 2) it's his personal experiences + research, and 3) he went to many different countries that are currently in upheaval.  I actually took this book on our honeymoon because I knew Amos sleeps a lot more than I do, and I didn't want to be bored in case he took a really long nap.  One day I read it for a little bit then fell asleep myself.  I awoke a while later from a crazy dream involving terrorists and a plane exploding right above the San Diego airport, which we passed just about every day we were down there.  Wow.  That was a bit scary.  I'll bet MacFarquhar never anticipated his book giving people nightmares!

Now I'm reading Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler.  It sounds good, but it is more interesting than inspiring. The author took time to travel all around the Middle East, following the narrative of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy.  Along the way he meets all sorts of interesting people and tells fascinating and sometimes funny stories (like the story about the grand opening of the Suez Canal; something about a ship getting stuck right before the ceremony and the procession of boats couldn't continue until the lodged ship was blown up!). Another favorite section of this book describes Feiler's walk from the Haas Promenade down into the Hinnom and Kidron Valleys and then up into Jerusalem.  I can still picture the whole area so clearly.  Also, Feiler meets the Israeli archaeologist Gabi Barkay, the same famous archaeologist who gave a lecture in my Jerusalem Archaeology class. :D  However, as far as the content goes, the author is exploring his Jewish faith for the first time and therefore his observations and conclusions are not always rarely accurate.  It definitely makes you think about what you, as a Christian, know to be true and why you know it is true.

*I noticed I use the word "interesting" quite a bit.  I shall have to remedy this . . . in future posts. ;)

Apparently...

is a word I use quite often.
people still look at my blog (at least that's what I've heard).
there is a job opening in my local school district, and yes, I applied today. :)
school starts tomorrow.  Poor lil high schoolers and junior highers.
I was bitten by two bugs.  Not a fan.
the termites like to hang out in the kitchen.  I suppose it could be worse; they could like food instead of wood.
Amos is the best dude around. :D
people had a good time picking out towels for us.  I think we got towels in four or five different presents.
I need to go to bed.

Since...

being married...

1. Started and finished Gentleman's Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson
2. Gone without hot water for a few days while the water heater pilot light was fixed
3. Wandered down to the library to "look at the books" when our toilet had problems
4. Went to the store with Amos to get a plunger to fix above-mentioned toilet, only to find him wielding the item like a sword in Target (oh dear. ;) )
5. Unpacked presents and possessions
6. Gone to Goodwill at least four times to drop stuff off and/or find stuff
7. Made really bad peanut chicken
8. Cleaned up the backyard
9. Set up the hammock
10. Gone to the laundromat twice
11. Listened to lots of Amos stories :)
12. Told lots of stories
13. Sent out résumés
14. Made good stuff, like sloppy Joes, strawberry sauce, tri-tip burritos, strawberry milkshakes, pita chips, etc.
15. Slept in almost every day
16. Talked to friends in Korea and India
17. Heard about friends going all over the world
18. Kissed Amos many, many times :D

Browsing

Two painted green kitchen chairs - $12.99 each
One short white bookshelf - $7.50
Five "Calvin and Hobbes" comic books - $3.99 each
$1.50-5.99 each
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Gentleman's Agreement
Knowing God
Cheaper by the Dozen (first printing)
Humility
Guns, Germs, and Steel
American Girl set: Felicity (still shrink-wrapped)

Hooray for Goodwill!  Like we really need more stuff for our already-packed out little house, but who can pass up such good and useful deals!

I sound like an advertisement.

Happy Saturday! :)

Arrivals

Tuesday: Mom and Lester
Wednesday: Grace and Herschel (after 64ish hours on a train)
Thursday: Seth and Katie; Dad, Brenda, Luke, Alexis, Gio; Lester, Barb, Julia, Sara, Theodore, Nathaniel, Reuben, Alisha, Ellie, Chloe; Aunt Brenda and Grandmother; Irene
Friday: Ross and Audra; Scott and Ashley
Saturday: Garret and Kaydee

It's coming together, and AMOS AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! :D

TWO DAYS! :D

TEN

Yes, I am TEN days away from getting married.  Crazy...and so exciting! :D

Countdown

17 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes, 30 seconds


I'm so excited to marry my best friend and sweetheart, Amos! :D


You can ask him, I keep shaking him because I'm so excited.  Poor guy's going to end up with whiplash or shaken adult syndrome or something...

Two-point-five days left!!!!!!!!

I can't wait for the end of school!!!!!!!

Spiders

Quite a few years ago (i.e., the other day ;) ), I was up late at night.  I saw a spider high up on the wall in our hallway but didn't want to kill it.  However, I thought I probably should because my little sister was sleeping in the room nearby, and I didn't want her to get bitten.  My brothers were asleep and I thought, "I kill my own spiders.  I don't need them to do it for me."

Thus, I came up with a bumper sticker idea.

I kill my own spiders.

That bumper stick has been affixed to all the cars I have driven/owned.  When I run out of stickers, I simply go on-line and make a new one.  I've gotten all sorts of responses.

One man in a business suit talked to me a gas station.  He was very confused.  He thought I raised spiders just to kill them. (Ummm, no, that's creepy; I don't do that.)

Another time two high school boys drove by in a truck.  One leaned out the window with both thumbs in the air and yelled, "Yeah!!  I kill my own spiders, too!"

On another occasion I walked out of the bank and towards my car.  A lady in another car was very excitedly taking a picture with her cell phone.  She said she thought it was great, and she was going to send the picture to her friend.

When I went to India last summer, we went on a church retreat in the jungle for a few days.  I decided that I didn't want to sleep with my bed right up against the wall in our room, just in case some bug came along.  There were some pretty gross spiders that stayed in the jungle, too. They weren't colorful or evil-looking, but they had fat, squishy bodies and could get pretty big.  I pulled the curtains over the window and found a spider running along the fabric.  I knocked him to the ground and killed him.  I moved another curtain, but this time a spider ran down my arm, which I flailed violently.  That spider died, too.  I also found another spider living in a crack near the sink.  I think managed to get him to come out, and he too gave up the ghost.  I'm really glad none of the other girls found the spiders; they didn't have as much "spirit of adventure," as I like to call it.

Over the last few months, my students found out which car was mine and now periodically make comments to me in class.

"Oh, Ms. Byers, I kill my own spiders, too."
"That's great, David, thank you, be quiet now."

Today someone decided to tease another student.

"Oh, you have a huge spider on you!!"
"Just get Ms. Byers to get it off!!" :)

Ahh, spiders.

*Edit: Dave Tuck, my speech professor in college and one of Amos' friends, reminded me that I used my bumper sticker in a speech in class, too.  I almost forgot about that.  (I think that's the thing that sticks out to him most about me... ;) )

Things I see and hear

Things I see on the way to school:
-Lots of cars
-Lots of trucks
-Lots of motorcycles ridden by bikers weaving in and out of traffic
-Construction (mostly just in two areas)
-Huge metal culverts as tall as semis (part of the construction)
-A dark blue Hummer with the license plate "O BAE B" (it makes me laugh every time :) )
-Semis carrying all sorts of things: milk, oil, caskets, livestock, rental equipment, mail, etc.  My favorite was the one I saw today: huge rolls of brown paper about 8-10 feet wide and 8-10 feet tall!  They were anchored to the flat bed with chains that passed through the middle of the rolls
-Billboard advertising the end of the world (it was replaced with a Ralph's ad around May 15th or so)
-A lot of young men and women all wearing blue scrubs, walking to a nearby dental school
-Cracks in the pavement
-Tail lights
-Graffiti, partially hidden by honeysuckle clinging to a chainlink fence
-Overpasses
-Rushing water in the California aqueduct
-Traffic update signs: minutes to downtown via 170 (it can range from 25-45 minutes)
-Clouds
-Dirt

Things I see at school:
-Papers (clean, distributed, distributed again, crumpled, collected)
-Pencils (broken, bent, crazy-colored, plain, eraserless, borrowed, missing)
-People (kids, TAs, administrators, therapists, coaches, librarians, maintenance)
-Desks (small, big, dirty, broken, marked, scarred, clean)
-Books (long, short, torn, ripped, loved, dirty, crisp)
-Reports (behavior, participation, homework)
-E-mails (parents, daily news, reports, free dress Fridays lists, confidential)

Things I hear at school:
-"I'm a potato." (Quite frequently, actually)
-"You little hypotenuse."
-"He didn't take his meds today."
--Insert random yelling-
-"Ms. Byers?"
-"Ms. Byers!"
-"Ms. Byers?"
--Insert nervous giggling-
-"Where is your missing work?"
-"Can you call him Mr. Mongoose?"
-"I forgot my question."

Happy birthday to Amos!!! :D Only 35 more days till he's my husband!!!!!!!

11.5

11.5 days until the END of SCHOOL!!!!

I think I'm more excited than the kids are. :D