The most horrible day ever...

I am subbing this week for a teacher who is teaching summer school. I seriously thought about teaching it as well, but decided against it because of our move. I thought it would be better to have more time to pack, plus I wanted my vacation. Anyway, when Jodi sent an email out asking for a sub for this week, I thought why not?

I wish I hadn't.

Oh man. I seriously feel bad for the teachers who have been doing this for five weeks. The classes are small, but they are filled with the kids who don't care, have attitude problems, and are struggling (obviously!) It is a REALLY hard group. One example is today two Hispanic girls got in a verbal fight. I told them that I am 24 and one girl exclaimed, "That's how old my mom is!" (Just so you know, this girl is 10-11 years old...) So another girl called her mother a name in Spanish, which I assume means something like whore. They started yelling and swearing at each other in Spanish. It was not like anything I had experienced before.

Anyway, my first two days have not gone well, but they aren't the most horrible day ever...which leads me to my title. One of the better students came into class today and explained, "This is my most horrible day ever!" and sat down exasperated on her chair. I asked her what had happened and she explained to me that her mother had accidentally put her socks in a load with bleach and turned them a brownish color.

That was it.

The most horrible day ever! I wish my horrible days were something so small and meaningless. Don't you just want to be a kid again sometimes?

Come, Come Ye Saints

At church today, the opening song was Come, Come Ye Saints. Great song. I enjoy singing it....At the correct speed. Our chorister/pianist were SOOOO SLOW!! Brett made me laugh so hard when he said that this song's lyrics relate to singing it at this speed. I couldn't stop laughing because I just kept seeing evidence of it. He was so right! Just look at the lyrics and imagine a congregation dragging this song out....

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy, wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so, all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward,
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take;
Our God will never us forsake,
And soon we'll have this tale to tell,
All is well! All is well!

We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell,
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the saints their rest obtain,
O how we'll make this chorus swell,
All is well! All is well!


I don't know if I will ever be able to sing this song again without laughing. That is one of my favorite qualities in my husband. He makes me laugh and doesn't take life too seriously! =)

Garden of the Gods

Colorado Springs has the most beautiful city park called Garden of the Gods. It was given to the city on the condition that it would always be free to the public. Rod and Kathy really love this place and were very excited to take us there. We decided to go on Saturday because the temperature was in the 70s rather than the 90s.

We weren’t the only ones who had that idea…the park was VERY crowded. Rod is not one to admit defeat and try another parking lot. He must circle around and around until a spot opens up. We were lucky this day though. A few minutes into driving around the small parking lot , we found someone just pulling out.

The park is basically these big pieces of red rock that just appear in the middle of the prairie. There are many trails that you can take to explore the area. We first walked around the main park area and took pictures. There were people rock climbing and others scrambling around. There was this one young man who you could tell had never been rock climbing before. He couldn’t figure out how to rappel. I felt bad for him because it really isn’t difficult. In fact it is the easiest and my favorite part of rock climbing. Anyway, we walked around some of the big rocks and found some fun photo ops.

Our next stop was balancing rock. I was really excited to go here because I love scrambling over rocks! Most of the stuff we had seen earlier had signs that said no scrambling. Brett would keep pointing to them to make sure I saw them and didn’t break any rules. =) It made me sad. So balancing rock was for me. You can see in the pictures that it is this huge tall rock balancing on other rock. The signs told some of the history of the rock. I have included the pictures I took of the signs if you want to read about it. It used to be privately owned and the owner charged for pictures. A huge crowd cheered when Colorado Springs purchased the land and took the fence down. It was fun scrambling all over the rocks and taking pictures.

At one point, Brett, Rod, and I climbed up a huge rock and lost track of Kathy who stayed on the ground. I wondered aloud where Kathy was. Brett said, “That is easy. Right there!” I didn’t believe him and he pointed her out to me. He was able to instantly pick her out of a crowd. I tried calling out to her to have her take our picture, but she didn’t hear me. Then Rod tried and she started looking around. We waved our arms around so that she could find us. I included the picture she took of us and the one I took of her so you can see how hard it would be to pick her out. My husband just amazes me sometimes.

If you ever visit Colorado, you must visit Garden of the Gods.

Pike's Peak

It has been an interesting month. I finally have time to tell you all about it! (in several installments)

Earlier this month, Brett and I took a trip to Colorado Springs to visit his parents. I had never been to Colorado, so I was pretty excited.

When we got to Denver, we got our bags really quickly and then promptly got lost. I don’t know who has had the pleasure of flying into that airport, but they have different levels for pickups. One level is for taxis, buses, and other vehicles. There is a separate level for family/friends pickup. We spent about 10 minutes in the 90-degree sun before we realized we were in the wrong spot. Kathy, Brett’s mom, directed us by phone to the right place. I was glad to sit down by the time we made it to the car. It was pretty late when we made it to their house so we called it a night.

Friday morning we got up early and drove to Pike’s Peak. I had heard Brett talk about this mountain quite a bit. He has this shirt from there that says, “Real men don’t need guardrails.” Pike’s Peak is 14,110 ft high and you can drive all the way to the top. Most of the way has no guardrails making it a pretty intense drive. Apparently, they have a race to the top every year. Crazy people!

The drive up to the top was cool. Literally. It was 90 degrees in Colorado Springs, so it was a great day to move up in elevation. The drive up was beautiful as well. I love mountain scenery.

What is the last thing you think you will run into at 14,000 feet? If you guessed construction, you are right! We were stopped for about five minutes near the top. I took some pictures because I didn’t think anyone would believe me…=)

The day ended with Brett and I very glad to drive back down the mountain. We definitely were affected by the altitude. I had a massive headache for the rest of the day. Oh well. Enjoy the pictures!