There goes that plan

Sitting next to my house is an empty house. Lately, I have been comtemplating packing up my stuff and moving in. It's not that I don't like the person living in the basement, it's more that I don't like someon living in the basement. I want to wash dishes and take a bath without someone knowing. I want to break out into song and rock out on my guitar without hurting the ears of someone else. It seems extravagent to move over. I really don't need the extra spce, extra bathroom or extra kitchen. I don't want it. I just want more privacy.

Well this week, I was actin principal. The MD phoned me. "The water plant can not keep up. We keep on emptying. Is there water running at the school?" You see the school is one of the only places that draws directly from the water treatment plant. The rest of the community trucks it to their resevoirs. I checked around the school but had a sneaking suspicion that it might be the empty house. So I hunted down a key and treked over to the house.

As soon as I put my ear to the door, I could hear the rush of water. I opened the door to see water lapping at the basement stairs. I threw my keys on the stairs towards the upstairs (that house keys and my house keys - do you see where this is going?). I went downstairs, waded through 6 inches of water, saw th hole that the water pressure had bore through the wall. Went through the waterfall into the laundry room looking for a shut off valve. Saw nothing. At this point I started to panic. I went upstairs to go to the school and phone the maintenance people. I shut the door behind me. I locked the door behind me. (Do you see where this is going yet?)

As I was walking to the school, I came to the awful realization that I only had the school keys on me. I did not have my house keys or the keys to our new basement swimming pool. So I started looking for help from the few teachers that were in town that week. I went to the office, gathered up all the keys I could to try to find another set to get me in the house. No luck. So I went to phone our principal to see if she had a set of keys at her house. No answer. A litany of how stupid I was was now running through my head. My and keys, it is a saga of problems and stupidity.

That is when we used the crowbar - the biggest monster crowbar I have ever seen. This is the second time in my Trout existence that I have had to take a crowbar to a door. By the time we got into the basement again, the water was about 8 inches deep. Finally we turned off the water and electricity.

So I want be moving into that house for awhile. The basement wall has a hole in it. The pipes have possible multiple holes in them. There will probably be mildew problems and then there is the compromised door frame.

So this morning, I was alone and took some time to squack on my flute and rock out on my acoustic guitar. It felt good to sing and raise my voice. I need to find the time to do it more often.

What did I want to write about again?

I spent almost all of last week in Edmonton for teachers convention. It was nice to get away and to experience life. I forgot that in the city, people go out after dark, even if it is snowing and don't just hole up in thier houses like I do. I had a life in Edmonton and it felt great.

The first night I went out for dinner with fellow teachers and then went to see a very late showing of Juno. Loved the movie and loved the fact that we had the whole stinking theater to ourselves so we could talk and comment through out. Apparently not everyone has a life in Edmonton (not after ten anyways).

The next evening I went out for dinner with friends of mine and then went to hang out at their brand new house. It was so nice to see their pictures of Hawaii and to see them happy with their house etc. I normally stay with these friends, but since they were in the middle of moving I stayed out of their way instead.

The next evening, I had a Valentine's date - with my dad. Don't get too excited there. He was in town for a Christian schools conference so we had dinner and then hung out at the mall. You know, the only mall in Edmonton. Yes it is rather funny - my dad and I at the mall together. My dad who hardly ever graces the mall's presence.

Then on Friday, I had a coffee date with Jer and Christine and my sweet nephew. They were on their way through Edmonton so we were able to meet up. It was so nice to see them - them, not just my sweet nephew Zachary. He is cute and all but can not hold a conversation yet.

Then I was off to Wetaskwin to visit another friend for the weekend where I helped her paint her new house. We also watched Ratatoiulle, which is an OK movie but maybe not as good as everyone says it is.

I am so thankful for all of my friends and relatives that keep me grounded and allow me to breeze in and out of their lives as the winds of time blow me here and there. If I didn't have that support around me and far away from, I could not do what I do. So for all of you that read this - you are part of my grounding and so I thank you.

The deep freeze

Last weekend I spent a great weekend at Breakforth. It was spiritually refreshing to once again visit with my mother, brother and other people from church, as well as sit under the teaching of some Christian leaders. Once again, I enjoyed the ministry of Kay Arthur. I can't really comment on much else because I spent a lot of my option time in Kay's sessions, madly flipping through my tattered Bible learning about discipleship "deny yourslef, take up your cross and follow me", keeping the mind pure "as a man thinks in his heart, so he is" and taking care of the sheep. I also took in a session on self-injury. It was encouraging to see that some Christians were starting to recognize this epidemic but discouraging to once again see how little help was offered in my corner of the world. The weekend culminated for me in a great emergent worship service where I was able to struggle with the demands of discipleship. I am continuing to struggle with it by ignoring the struggle and pretending that all is fine. Am I really willing to die for the call? Am I ready to die literally? figuratively? If I ignore the questions then I don't have to search for the difficult answers.

The end of the conference was rather symbolic as we all stepped out from the warmth of worship into the bitter, bitter windy cold storm front that had been brewing outside the Shaw Conference center. I swear that I got frostbit finger tips loading my car with canteen items and I was grateful that I already had plans to spend the evening in Edmonton instead of having to brave the storm and head into the dark north.

The rest of the week, we have been in a bit of a deep freeze. I hardly had any students all week and did paper work. I never realized how much I depended on my students to keep me sane and even keeled. By the end of the week, I felt drained because I felt like I hadn't even made a dent in all the paperwork that we needed to do and because the computer is not great company. With the deep freeze (-48 one morning) had come the doldrums that I always experiences after a spiritual convention. So now, I have to try to find away to dig myself out. Thankfully the sun is rising before school starts in the morning and is shining through out the day, bringing promise that spring will come, both spiritually and physically.

Lent starts this week. Maybe by giving up a comfort, it will force me to see and feel the son. I have decided to give up my snooze button. We shall see how that works.

A recipe for a Trout Graduation

Take a random date when no one would expect a grad - say January19th. Take 5 students, two of which actually recieved their high school diploma and three which tried so hard but were blocked by the nastiness of the Social Studies diploma. Take families and a community that who view this as a grand event to celebrate. Take some teachers who are very jaded and reluctant and sick and overworked. What you get is about 20 hours of decorating, a half an hour ceremony, a full fledged 12- dish community dinner with no one to really organize it and then clean up.

The Grad was a lot of fun, the graduates looked great and I am glad that it is over. It is time to focus on other things such as final exams, report cards and next semesters courses. I really hope that this week I do not have to stay at school until 10:00 each night to get everything I need to get done completed before taking off this weekend. Maybe a good suggestion would be to get off of facebook, my blog and other asundry internet activities and get to work. First on the agenda, trying to decide what we are going to do tomorrow. I know what I want to do - take a holiday but unfortunately that is not an option.

Happy New Year

OK it is already the 13th and the New Year is slowly turning old. The stresses of last year have already caught up to us all but nontheless, this is my New Year blog and the first entry in 2008.

So at my New Year's "party" - 4 girls playing the slowest game of Skipbo EVER and then looking on the Internet together at profiles for my fictional boyfriend - I stated that my New Year's resolution was to continue to be the wonderful person that I already am. Well, I am slowly being shown that maybe I am not so wonderful and that there are a few things that need to change.

A few days later, I recieved conviction number one. I went out for coffee with one of my mentors and former Bible study leader extrodinaire. As always, she asked how my devotional life is going. I admitted that perhaps it needed a little tweaking. I do my devotions as a duty not as a desire. I would like to change it back to a desire, a time filled with meaning.

So as always, meaningful devotions lead to conviction number two. I decided to reread Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Chapter Two is called "Problem" and the conclusion is that "I am the problem." No it doesn't state in the text, "Jen you are the problem," but it comes to the conclusion that all of us are broken and in that brokenness are the problem. You know, the whole sin nature thing. So I did some major reflection on that today in my journal. I am feeling rather brave because I am going to put some excerpts in this entry. Here goes . . . Ok I started typing it but I guess that I don't want to be that transparent. Just know that God is working on my selfishness and self sufficiency once again. He is reminding me that I am not the centre of the world.

So I thought that maybe my New Year's resolution would be to cook great meals in my new pots on my new stove but I guess that God had more in mind. I should also mention that I resolved not to lie to my students re: the whole boyfriend thing. Lies tend to snowball and cause avalanches of untruths. I could see that that particular lie would cause more and more lies to more and more people. All in all, not a good idea but kind of fun to think about.

So any other New Year's resolutions out there? Have you broken them already?

Is lying always bad?

My students are very concerned about my love life - or lack of one. Sometimes I think that they are amazed at my single status and the fact that I do not have a guy in my life (or kids for that matter). I have had one student hand me a phone nimber for some guy that she knows even further north. At least she actually tried to find out what I was interested in. You know the basics such as loves God and likes working with kids. The rest of the students just tease me about any guy who enters the school building. It is rather embarassing.

For example, the students are convinced that I am in love with the computer technician. Every time he comes into my class, they yell out, "Miss Liiight it's Billlly" (not his real name) Inevitably I go red and blush not because I have a crush on him (he is engaged to someone else) but because I feel for the poor guy. I know my students. I can take their teasing and dish it right back to them. But he does not know my students. I am sure that he dreads coming to our school.

Then there is the former student who may or may not have had a crush on me at one time. So on Friday, one of the female teachers and I were judging a cowboy costume contest up at the hall. This young man was one of the contestants - the only contestant in his category. So the organizers had us sitting by ourselves at a table in the front and then had this guy, dressed as a cowboy, parade in front of us. I didn't know where to look. I couldn't looka t my co judge (another single girl), I couldn't look at him because he looked SOOO uncomfortable and I couldn't look at the walls because all of my students were sitting there watching the pink creep up my face. I glanced over and then heard " Miss Liiiight." Even the organizer noticed the very pink cheeks. I was mortified for this poor, shy student. Even now, just thinking about it, I feel the uncomfortableness of the situation.

So I am going to have to find a solution to this problem. If there was a guy, who met criteria, and was interested in me, my students would scare him off. Plus I need to save myself and these guys from extreme mortification.

So my plan? Well over Christmas I am going to have to find myself a boyfriend. If that doesn't work, I am going to have to fabricate one. It won't be the first time that I have fabricated a boyfriend. Either way, as far as my students know I will be dating someone in 2008. So then when they pull out the "Miss Light, you like Billy.", I can counter with "You know I am dating someone." Then I can talk about the guy that I am dating and all of his great qualities such as loves God, employed, reads etc and my students will realize that maybe the poor locale boy is not really my type.

I fear that this could backfire on me but it is the best that I can come up with. Any other suggestions of how I can stop this madness? Any suggestions of what my fictional boyfriend should be like?

The Spice of Life

Christmas season always gives me a much needed energy boost in the middle of the winter. Maybe it is the joy spreading through the air. Maybe it s the prospect of seeing my family again. I don't know what the reasons are but their are moments of newness and spiciness. So what have I been up to?

1. I have started a choir with some of my students for the Christmas concert. We aren't very good - they are insecure singers and I am not that great of a director. We practice at lunch time. It is pretty fun.

2. My fellow teachers and I have started a trio for the Christmas concert as well. Again we are not that talented but it is fun to get together and sing and laugh at ourselves. I am the pianist which is really funny because I can't really play piano.

3. The male teacher has started a volleyball team with the girls so every once in a while I will go "help" out and learn with them. Again this is really funny because I am not a very good volleyball player and my students think that it is funny that I still serve underhand. But if I remember correctly it took me a real looong time to learn how to serve underhand and I am grateful that I finally picked it up. Last Saturday I went to Cadotte with the team for a game. The girls played really well and made me laugh. They are a lot of fun.

4. I am enjoying a new CD - Brandi Carlile. My friend Laura introduced me to her and I listen to her almost everyday and am not tired of it yet. In fact if CKUA was not on right now that is what I would be listening to. However, Mulligan's Stew is on and Bubba is just aroung the corner so Brandi can wait until tomorrow when the classical music plays.

I can't wait for Christmas. I can't wait to see my family. I am trying hard to keep myself occupied until then. Less than two weeks. HEEEEEE (That is very giddy, high pitched laughing)