Unwelcome Visitors

So this week in english my class has been learning more about how to put sentences together. On Monday I had all my kids write sentences, and then on Tuesday I wrote some of the sentences up on the board and we would as a class correct them. Well one of the sentences we happened to correct was "The blue cochroach jumped everywhere." Just as I we finished correcting it I felt something on my foot. I looked down to see a HUGE cochroach on my foot. Of couse it went running all through the classroom causing all my kids to jump on their desks and a few boys to go chasing after it. After I finally got the class under control they said, "Miss Rhonda, don't ever write a sentence about cochroaches on the board again!"
On Wed. I got three boxes from my parents. I ended up opening them up at the school. No I couldn't wait till I was home. Like I have said, patience is a virtue I am still working on :). Anyways, after I opened them and saw what was inside I put them in the car because I walk home and didn't really want to carry them for a mile. Well around 7:30pm that night I remembered my boxes. I went out to the car and grabbed my boxes. I brought them into the house and started to go through them when a really big cochroach came scurrying out. I jumped back startled and grabbed my shoe and killed it. I decided to take a break from unpacking the boxes and began to walk towards the bathroom when I looked down and saw a cochroach craw from my shoulder down my shirt! We I definitely screamed a little and did a bit of a dance. Once I had finally managed to make it fall to the floor it died a very quick death. Then tramatized I lay on the ground and tried to figure out if I wanted to cry, scream, or laugh. This whole time my roommate was trying to stiffle laughs! Well after a minute or so I decided to finish unpacking my boxes and in the process I found two more cochroaches in my boxes that also both died very quick deaths. The last one ended up splattering all over our floor. I didnt know cochroaches splattered! I'm sorry that was probably too much information :)
Well one thing I can say is for sure is that I am a northwest girl through and through and I am not a cochroach fan!

My Strength is in You

Well it been a while! This last bit I must admit has been pretty hard. These "winter" months seem to drag on a little and just wear you out. During the last two weeks I have watched as my energy drain down, down ,down. I got to the point that I finally realized, even though I have been teaching for the last 6 and a half months I am still not even close to being able to teach. The only thing that makes it possible for me to teach is God working through me. I am having to make a conscious effort each day to give everything to God and ask him to give me the energy for one more day! I am realizing that this last half of the year is not going to be without its struggles and the only way to survive and truly grow is God. To all you that are reading this, I just want to thank you for all your prayers. They make a world of difference.

Exhausted!

Well it is funny. The first couple days that I was back in Saipan I was saying how it was go good to be back and how much energy I had, but that I was sure that would fade a bit very quickly... Well now I am there. I am really really tired! I feel that at the point I am at I should be a lot more ahead and put together. I must admit it is a bit discouraging. The one good thing that about this state is that I am continually falling at God's feet asking Him for insight and strenght!
Right now my class has jumped up to an attendance of 15! However, by the end of Januaury it is going to drop to 13, and by the end of Febuary to 10! I know, quite a difference.
Life to me is like climbing a mountain. Sometimes there are easy paths. but there are also incredibly hard cliffs to scale. I feel like right now I am in the process of climbing one of those cliffs, and I perched on a ledge, exhausted from the climb and trying to find another good hand hold to pull myself up.
I know everyone has times like this, and that in time things will get better and energy will come back. Patience is a virtue I am still acquiring :). The one thing I know is that no matter how tricky and foreboding this cliff looks I am always safe in the knowledge that My Heavenly Father will never let me fall.

Back for the last half!

Well its back to the grind :) I was able to go home for Christmas Break which was a gift from God! I really think I would have had a hard time regrouping my energy and battling homesickness if I had stayed here in Saipan for Christmas. It is amazing how God gives you just what you need!
I must admit. When I was returning back to Saipan it was all I could do to keep getting on planes that were taking me further and further away from my family. I sat in the airport in Hawaii trying to keep the tears that were welling up in my eyes to not come streaming down my cheeks. At that point I began to call on God for His strength. I knew that was to only way that I was going to survive.
Soon after I began to feel better and when I was picked up at the airport I felt like I had just returned to a second home! God surely can work miracles with our thought patterns.
So far the jet lag has not been too bad. I have not been sleeping through the night yet, but at least when I wake up I can fall back to sleep. The work thing that has happened is I have had a headache which lasted all morning from my body trying to adjust back.
I know this last half of the year is going to go incredibly fast. It is my goal to treasure every moment I have with my kids. This opportunity is a gift from God and I intend to make the most of it!

The Last Minute Rush

Well this is crunch time! We only have 4 days till the Christmas Program and everyone is feeling it. There are still still costumes to make, props to get, and a backdrop to make that refuses to cooperate! On top of this there is always the obligations of a usual week tacked on with report cards. The great thing is that everyone is looking forward to friday at noon. At that magical moment time switches from work to vaction :). My mom always says that this time is actually her favorite because it is so fun to look forward to things. Once they finally arrive they go so fast! I know this will be the case when I go home, but I still want it to go fast :). Well staff worship is right now so I better run :)

Come Already!

Have you ever noticed that the more you look forward to something, the slower time goes? Oh my goodness!
Well I am incredibly excited to go home and even though I only have 10 days left it seems like that day will never come lol. I have an incredible amount of things to do and I am not exactly sure where to start. Isn't that always the case :)?
Life seems to get busier every moment. Right now I have an obligation each night until Sunday and believe me I am sure I will beable to find something else for Sunday!
The funny thing is that it depends what part of the day it is if the day is going slow or fast. If you ask me at 7:30 am the day is crawling, but by 2:00 the day is almost done!
My wish is that when I return home, time crawls and it actually feels like a have a really long break! I know, but isn't that a nice thought?
The main thing is to enjoy each moment... at least that is what I have told myself, but I really want to see my family and friends!!!! :) I can't wait!

Sick But Still Thankful

Well all my kids are reading to each other right now for reading class so I thought I would take this opportunity to write a short blog :).
Last week I was able to go to Japan for Thanksgiving Break. Tokyo is one of the most beautiful cities! It is incredibly clean and there are hundreds of small parks with incredible temples and shrines. It was especially pretty cause it was fall! For the 3 days that we were their we walked it seemed like hundreds of miles lol and took the city metro everywhere.
My favorite part of the trip was when we finally connected with our SDA family. Saturday night we were able to get together with the young adults and we all went out for supper. It was an incredible feeling to be sitting around a table with people you had just met a few hours ago and already feel such a strong bond! It is a memory I am not soon to forget!
The first day of the trip it rained all day and our feet got soaked and stayed like for about 12 hours which lead to me eventually losing my voice the day we left. Monday, Dec. 1 we started school again. It was great to see my kids again, the only thing that was different was that instead of having my usual powerful voice, I had to whisper cause I had absolutely no voice! My kids were incredible however, and the classroom stayed really quite for most of the day to compensate for me.
Being away for my kids, even though it was only for a few days I realized how much these kids mean to me! I didn't think I was going to have trouble at the end of the year going home, but now I am realizing that it is going to be a bit harder than I thought to leave these kids. Each one of them is so special and means so much to me! I love my class.