summertime...

Being a teacher means not working for a few months out of the year. It's nice to have time to relax, but it also makes me realize how much I depend on structured schedules to keep me sane! On days where there's nothing specific for me to do, I go a little crazy. What's funny is you would think all that free time would allow me to get things done easier (like dishes, laundry, reading, etc.) but I actually have a hard time managing my time when it's ALL free time! I'm weird like that. Anyway, that's all my thoughts for now. Just wanted to write a quick bit. Later!

blogs...

Oddly enough, I'm sitting in a class about blogging this morning. Our server won't let us onto the network where we need to be, so I can't access my new blog for work, so I decided to write a post here. That's all! =)

marvelous...

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarine,
and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.

How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous! How wonderful,
is my Savior's love for me!

He took my sin and my sorrow; He made them His very own.
He bore my burden to Calvary to suffer and die alone.

When with the ransomed in Glory, His face I at last shall see,
'twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me!

How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous! How wonderful,
is my Savior's love for me!

funny kid...

So here was my funny moment of the day. You know those Orbits gum commercials, where the British sounding girl talks while holding up the pack of gum? Well, Jake today holds up my Expo eraser (for the white board)... holds it up next to his mouth, and in his British commercial voice says, "For a clean mouth, choose Expo." What made it really funny to me was that he wasn't doing it "for" anyone. No one was paying attention to him, except himself. I saw him from the other side of the room. The only thing that beats that was his Crocodile Hunter reenactments back when Steve Erwin died.

quote...

Never say in 10 words what can be said in 3.

back...

It's been ages! I miss posting, so here I am again. Nothing much today, but hopefully more frequent posting these days.

Conversations with third-graders:

S: Mrs. Stone, what do you call an object that is not real?

Me: Um..... Fake???? (duh?)

S: No, like an object that can't move.

Me: Non-living? (thinking that would be a logical suggestion, as
it has been a recent science topic)

S: No... there's another word...

Me: Inanimate? (thinking: "no, she's in third grade.
she's not thinking 'inanimate'.")

S: Yes!! That's it!

still alive...

Okay, so I haven't written here in ages. And chances are, this is how it's going to be from now on. Life is just to busy to actually sit down and write out my thoughts very often these days. I have 22 third graders now, which is way too many for one small classroom, but we're still doing okay. Married life is still amazing and still busy. Rob and I have several cool possible opportunities coming up in the near future, so we are eagerly waiting to see how those things will turn out. Basically, life is just good right now.

I have nothing interesting to say. Just wanted to write a quick hello, in case there's anyone who actually checks this blog. So hi, and take care.

Peace.

aaaaagggghhhhh!!!

Report cards are coming! Report cards are coming! Run for your lives!!

I finally have an appreciation for how hectic a teacher's life is just before report card time. It's a little overwhelming.

In other news, however, I had been pretty sick and I'm finally feeling better. After two trips to the doctor and two rounds of antibiotics and innumerable Advil, things are starting to look better. My birthday was on September 16, and I've been sick since before then, so it's been quite a while.

Anyway, that's just a quick update on life. If you're in or near St. Augustine, The Edge is this weekend at church, and you should come. Rob and I and friends are leading this month. We're looking forward to it.

Peace.

word...

Okay, so a quick word to my faithful readers whom I have so shamelessly left out to dry. I am sorry for the lack of posts. I really wish I had time to write these days, but life gets in the way. Here's my typical day: I am up at 5:30 (no, the sun is not out); I leave the house at 6:30 to be at work by 7:00; the kids show up between 7:30 and 7:50, aside from the stragglers; I am with the 18 little people until 2:00, at which time they depart; I stay at work until around 5:00 (some days I leave earlier, some days I stay later); I get home around 5:30; if it's Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, I see my husband for a brief time before one or both of us is off to the next activity. Evenings that we are both home are cherished. PS, I don't have internet at home, so any potential posting would have to be done here at the school, and let's face it, after a 10-12 hour day, I don't want to hang around any longer. For those who have been missing my posts, I am thrilled to be missed and love that you actually still check up on this thing. Keep checking... you never know. In the mean time, drop me an email if you're thinking about me. I'm a little better at checking up on that!

Here's a sample of current life in 3rd grade:
4-digit numbers: reading them, using them, adding them, subtracting them.
plants: what their parts are, how they grow, what they need, how long it takes them to germinate
reading: it's a big deal. we do it a lot. big group, small group, individually, long books, short books, picture books, chapter books, text books, fiction, nonfiction, the whole shabang.
FCAT: yeah, we hate that word, but we hear it all the time.
writing (as in stories and paragraphs, etc): they're starting to get it. focus and structure is rare.

Anyway, that's life. My birthday is tomorrow. I'm gettin' old. I've finally hit the age where I'm asking for practical presents, if any. It's kind of sad. Married life is fantastic, my class is fantastic, and all-in-all, God is good to me. That's it. Peace.

new...

I'm married!! YAY! I don't have time for a long post because, once again, I'm sitting in my classroom writing, but I just wanted to let everyone know the new Mrs. Stone is back in town and loving married life. Things are slowly starting to come together for the teaching thing, too. This afternoon's meeting should probably calm my nerves about a few things (hopefully). I've been able to meet two other young, new teachers from my school who are really nice, so I'm looking forward to building some new friendships there. Anyway, that's all I'll write for now. I need to go figure out what I'm going to do with a room full of 3rd graders in one short week! Later. Take care.

-Meg Stone =)

this week...

I'm getting married on Friday! You couldn't possibly understand how excited I am about that! We got our marriage license this morning, and I'm not gonna lie, the thought definitely crossed our minds to go find a notary and get married today, but we decided that if we were gonna elope, we should have decided that months ago, and I'm not all about doing the 'fake' ceremony anyway. As far as wedding plans go, everything is falling into place nicely. The one big thing that was really giving me grief has been taken care of, so now it's really just all about waiting. I've got some little things to do on Wednesday and Thursday that will at least keep me busy, but not much to worry about.

You probably won't be hearing from me for a while again. I'm in my new classroom at the moment, taking some time to set a few things up. I don't currently have internet access at home, so the only posting or emailing I'll be doing will be when I'm here at school, for the most part. Friday's the wedding; we'll be gone for several days for the honeymoon in Savannah; then I'm back here mid-week for teacher training stuff; then we might take off again for the following weekend. Anyway, all that to say that even if you normally see Rob and I on a regular basis, we're going to be pretty much MIA for a while. Anyway, hope everyone is well. Take care, and keep us in your prayers.

grace and peace

randoms...

I've pretty much "cleaned out my desk", so to speak. I took home all the random personal belongings (cups, hot chocolate, etc.) that I had accumulated here at work yesterday, and today I've gone through and deleted any personal files I had saved on my computer.

I'm drinking Dr. Pepper. That's rare for me. I pretty much stick to Diet Coke, but I don't have any for now, and I was needing some caffeen (that's not how you spell that, is it?). This is what was in the fridge here at work.

I will be unemployed for the majority of July. I'm working here Monday, and I will technically work two days at the end of the month at the school, but other than that, I will be unemployed, and consequently a bit poor.

I forgot to fix anything for lunch today (as I am low on funds, I'm trying to be good about bringing my lunch to work) so I threw some tortillas and some turkey sandwich meat in a bag and brought it with me. I'll find some lettuce and dressing in the fridge and make some sort of creation out of it. It should be interesting. I was creative last night for dinner, too, although it was Mexican, and all Mexican food is the same basic ingredients, so you can't really mess it up. It turned out good.

Rob and I have the final session of our pre-marriage counseling tonight. That has gone well. More than anything, it gives you stuff to think/talk about that you may have otherwise not thought of. And the people doing it are really nice, so that's been cool.

This weekend should be relatively relaxed. We are being given another wedding shower, but other than that, there's not any huge plans, which is awesome. I am looking forward to some time to relax. Tuesday is the 4th, which I'm also looking forward to. This will be my first 4th of July in St. Augustine, as I realized the other night.

Okay, I'm out of randomness to talk about, so I'll end here. Have a fantastic day.

old and new...

I am inching my way toward the end of my last full week at my current job. I will also work Monday of next week and hopefully be paid for the holiday on Tuesday, but this is my last full week, and I could not be more excited about not having to answer phones any more. I work for good people, and I have a good office environment, but what I actually do is by no means my dream job. I should be able to get into my classroom some time after Wednesday of next week to begin setting up, hopefully sooner rather than later. Each room is made available on an individual basis, and we are to keep checking the website to find out when ours is available, which is slightly frustrating, but it'll all work out. As I was looking at the website this morning, I came across the list of all the teachers for the upcoming school year, 27 of whom are new hires, and I was excited to see that all grades between 2 and 6 had at least two male teachers. (Probably half of them were newly hired.) That's pretty rare! At RB Hunt where I interned, the only two male teachers in the entire school were the music teacher and the PE teacher.

I started the process of filling out my new employee paperwork this morning. There's a bunch of forms I had to do, and I have to go in for an appointment to do a drug test and fingerprints and more paperwork. [Speaking of fingerprints, my one complaint is that the county hasn't developed a system where they keep fingerprints on file, so if you are hired more than once for the county (eg: as a sub and then as a teacher) you have to have your fingerprints done each time... costing you $61.] I'll also have to attend a Human Resources Orientation to discuss various aspects of my employment (benefits, worker's comp, etc.). Then, of course, there's the actual school orientation meetings that I'll do during our pre-planning week. It's busy, but it's also exciting.

Some advice: Don't plan on getting married between the time you interview/are hired for a job and the actual starting date (if you're a female especially). Do the marriage first if you have the option. It will save you having to fill out your paperwork twice! Getting married and getting the job are both, by all means, worth whatever trouble the double paperwork is, but not doing it twice would be nice, too. Just a thought. Take the advice, if it applies.

Grace and peace.
God is good!

kids in the hall...





These are the photos hanging in the hallway of our new place. I was pleased with how they turned out. I told Rob that if his room-mates wanted to have a photo session so that they could be represented in our home as well, we could work that out.

heck yeah...

I am now officially a 3rd grade teacher!!! I went to an interview yesterday at Mill Creek Elementary and they called me this morning and offered me the job! I'm pretty stinkin' excited. God is so good!

days go by...

(That reminds me of the theme song from "Step by Step" from watching TGIF throughout my childhood.) I know everyone is probably sick of me posting with numeric titiles representing the days left until my wedding (it's 32, if you're wondering) but that's realistically all that's on my mind these days. Besides trying to get a teaching job. In an overall sense, the days of the countdown are really flying by. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of times when we're both like "holy crap, can't we just be married already" because there are. I guess it's been in the past week though that I've really been hit by the idea that I'm getting married in just over a month. No doubt I'm looking forward to it immensely, and I'm not "freaking out" or anything, but this is the first time that I've started to get mildly panicky about all the planning stuff. I guess I'm not panicky yet, but I do have the feeling that I may be soon. Getting final head counts; nailing down details about the cake; arranging for everything (flowers, cake, chairs) to be delivered on the day-of, which mostly means assigning tasks to various friends; praying that flowers are delivered on time; etc. Anyway, I just got a phone call about an interview, so I have to go take care of some things. Pray for God's will!

grace and peace!

furnished...

Aside from a precautionary trip to the emergency room in the morning, yesterday was a pretty fantastic day. Rob and I had both taken the day off for our furniture to be delivered, but to explain the emergency room part, Rob went to the emergency room first thing yesterday morning to make sure he was okay after waking up with chest pains. The pains didn't last, but we stayed and had him checked out, just to be safe. He's pretty much good to go. I told him he had gas. When we were finally able to leave at noon, we went home to find our furniture waiting for us. Rob cooked a great breakfast and we spent the next few hours setting up our new stuff. I left Rob to put together the final piece on his own while I painted a canvas to hang in our kitchen. It was my attempt at mimicking some paintings we both enjoy at one of the local galleries. My version is very elementary, but it works for now. After drying, the painting was hung, the house was cleaned, and we enjoyed some time in the pool. We took a trip to Pier 1, which is a great store, to pick up a few accessories for the living room, and then we had Holly and Kyle over for dinner, as I had cooked my first-ever pot-roast. It turned out pretty well, I think. Rob kept telling me it was aweful in an attempt to get me to stop eating so he could have the rest of mine, but other than that, the response from everyone was a good one. There's lots of things, like pot-roast, that I understand the concept of how to cook, and I am capable of cooking it okay, but I'll have to try it several times before I get everything exactly how I like it. I'd like to mess around with different seasonings and stuff to see what gives it the most flavor because it's easy just to cook most things, but the "art" of it is giving it a great flavor. As I've only ever had to cook for myself up until this point, I haven't done a lot of very "involved" cooking. Dishes have been small and simple, for the most part, because you can't really do most things in small quantities. Anyway, so that's my cooking tangent. I guess I'm just really looking forward to having the opportunity to cook more and to cook a wider variety of stuff. And luckily, I have a cool kitchen to cook in, as well.

So that's really all I have to say for now. I know it was random and rather pointless, but I just felt like writing about the happenings of yesterday. Here's a question for you: what's your favorite meal? If you give me your answer, and if you come to my house at some point, I might just make it for you!

grace and peace

This isn't my best look, but I like this picture anyway.

magnification...

God is glorified in my weakness. I was reading 2 Corinthians 4 today, as I missed it Sunday morning in Bible study, and I understood that concept a little bit more today. The commentary I read said:

The treasure of gospel light and grace is put into earthen vessels. The ministers of the gospel are subject to the same passions and weaknesses as other men. God could have sent angels to make known the glorious doctrine of the gospel, or could have sent the most admired sons of men to teach the nations, but he chose humbler, weaker vessels, that his power might be more glorified in upholding them, and in the blessed change wrought by their ministry.

God's grandure is magnified in my insignificance because by doing great things through an otherwise incapable tool it is made evident that it is some power outside of said tool doing the work. The saw and hammer and even the nails are not what builds a house; rather, it is the builder himself. And with the knowledge that all saws and hammers and nails are relatively equal, the skill of the individual builder is made all the more evident because it is clear that it is not the supurb quality of the tools that makes a given house more impressive than the next, but rather the skill of the builder. I don't know if that analogy makes sense to anyone else, but it works for me. I'm no better a hammer than the next, but the Builder Who uses me is amazingly talented, so the finished product is pretty impressive. For that matter, I (the hammer) have no room to brag on the finished product, as I had no control over it whatsoever. The successful outcome can only be attributed to the Builder.

Random analogy of the day concluded.

38...

That's the number of days till I'm married! 38! Barely over a month! I'm so unbelievably excited. Rob and I start our pre-marriage counseling tonight, which I'm not going to lie, I'm not really all that excited about. I understand that it's a good idea for people to receive some guidance before they get married, and I have no doubt that it will in some way benefit Rob and myself, but I sort of feel like they're going to explain to us a bunch of things that Rob and I have already worked through on our own. I think we have a fairly strong and healthy relationship in pretty much every area, we've learned how to work through problems together and deal with our differences, so for as arrogant as this sounds, I feel like the counseling may be a little pointless for us. But we're going regardless, and like I said, I'm sure we'll learn something in the end. It is a little funny to me though that we're starting our counseling sessions one month before the wedding. You would think that would have been done sooner. The counselors took forever to get back with us though, so here we are, 38 days out and just now starting. In the event that we're horribly incompatible and advised not to marry, I'm curious to know if they plan to foot the bill for the things that have already been paid for the wedding?? Hmmm?? I'm kidding, obviously. One of the cool things about mine and Rob's relationship is the enormous amount of support from those who know us. I think practically every person we know at one time or another has commented on how well we compliment each other or how well we work together as a couple, which is a huge encouragement to me to be even more confideint in the fact that this is the exact will of God for us. I don't think we've ever been told "Gosh, you guys seem like an odd match"! Even people who only know one of us, or who don't really know either of us, have told us that we fit each other well. That's cool to me.

On another note, we should have furniture in our living room tomorrow!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about that! Not having a couch is getting old. Until now, we have only had one relatively comfortable chair and one folding butterfly-chair that sort of swallows you whole when you sit in it, with our tv sitting on top of a milk crate. The tv will remain in the same condition for now, but at least we'll be able to sit comfortably to watch it. We haven't so much as rented a movie since I moved in because of the furniture situation. And of course, the first weekend that that is a possibility, Rob will be out of town. So the girls might be invited over on Saturday for a movie so I don't wind up spending the entire weekend alone. I've learned that I have to make plans to be social, otherwise I just wind up falling off the face of the earth into my hermit-like existance. While I don't usually mind the anti-social life, I know it's not always healthy. And I've quickly realized from living alone how easy it is for me to fall out of touch with everyone. So as much of a chore as it can be for me, I'm trying to remain a part of "the group."

Rob and I had another wedding shower last Saturday, thanks to which we have plates to eat off of and more than two cups in the cabinets! It's really amazing how generous everyone has been to us. We are very thankful.

Anyway, so that's all for now. I didn't get the job at Hartley, so the wait for job interviews continues. I know something will come along, I just hope it's soon.

38 days.......