* tiny but powerful *

(Disclaimer: I'm sure our school is quirky about some of this...)

1. It feels like there are twice as many meetings as there used to be.

2. You have seen a grown woman perform an ACG cheer in front of the entire staff, complete with brightly colored pom-poms.

3. You know what ACG stands for.

4. You realize how many things you haven't been doing that you should have been doing...because it's all written down in this crazy huge report describing every detail about the school.

5. From reading said report (a.k.a. "the document"), you learn things about your school that you never knew before.

6. You know what "stakeholders" are.

7. Everyone seems on edge about the litter problem on campus.

8. When students run up to confess that they accidentally discussed a quiz in front of another student who hadn't taken it yet, your first thought is "Ooh, ESLR tag!"

9. When someone emails the All Staff list to report something cool they witnessed students doing, the title of the email is "ESLR TAG."

10. When someone shares a Bible verse about "the big Day approaching" during morning devotions... everyone bursts out laughing!

"So let's do it -­ full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching." - Hebrews 10:22-25 (The Message)

And that day is TODAY! The joint team from WASC (Western Association of Schools & Colleges) and ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) is meeting with our School Board and Student Council members today, and they'll be observing/interviewing/evaluating our school for the next three days. A lot of work has gone into getting us prepared for this, and now we can only rely on God to carry us through. We would love your prayers for our school this week!

Testimony's Winter Show is this Saturday! MY BROTHER will be in it!!! :-D

At last: the finish line!

I'm not sure if I can really call this a "win" since there were definitely a few posts during the month that were totally copout posts. But I guess the fact that I squeezed out at least a sentence and clicked "Publish Post" every day before I went to bed is saying something.

Of course, there were times when I wanted to give up, and I'm not sure if I would ever dare try this again, but it is nice to be able to say I completed it once. At the very least I hope it's gotten me out of the rut of only posting a few times a year.

I was sad to lose my blogging buddy partway through the month, but I'm mostly just amazed she had the gusto to attempt it at all! K. has blown me away with how well she has been handling her first year at our school (especially in comparison to me, but also just on her own merits). I was already very nearly in pieces by October of my first year. In contrast, K. has been teaching dance to our drama kids, attending every home football game, fulfilling extra duties for our accreditation task group, and bonding fabulously with all of her students both inside and outside of class. This is not to say that it has been a walk in the park for her (first year NEVER is), but I know I'm not alone in being extremely impressed by everything she's done so far. She is truly an inspiration to me, and I am so thankful that God brought her to our school!

With that, I'm signing off for the month of November. December is going to be crazy, so there's little to no hope of keeping up the same posting frequency. I won't completely disappear from the blogosphere, though, I promise.

K., on the other hand, is soon to begin her annual posting series known as LaBloShoeMo (Lara's Blogging Shoe Month). Head on over there for your daily dose of delightful shoes!

Tonight was the worst mahjong run in Tina history. Everyone else won big hands early on (including one by Brian that was HUGE -- 9 points plus a self-draw win -- 64 chips from everybody!), and I also gave out a lot of the winning tiles throughout the night (including when someone had nine tiles of one suit showing and I had let down my guard so I stupidly discarded the winning tile in that suit and therefore had to pay for everyone else's loss in addition to mine). At one point I had exactly zero chips, and very quickly after that I was in the NEGATIVES! It was definitely an EPIC fail in the truest sense of the word.

Brian had to "finance" me so I could keep playing and attempt to get back out of debt. From then on the wins were mostly small, but sadly none were won by me -- until the VERY LAST game, when I finally won one that was luckily big enough to pay off Brian and still leave me with a positive balance.

MAN. I have never even come close to losing that much in mahjong before. It was seriously not my night. Brian was the big winner, with Justin a clear second place.

Next time, Team Girl will do better! (It is, after all, nearly impossible to do worse.) REMATCH, we say!

...AND have guests over for a complete sit-down meal!

Tonight's dinner menu:
- tomato & basil bisque soup (which I didn't make; it's my newly discovered favorite soup from Safeway...SO YUMMY) served with fresh French bread
- spinach salad with sliced strawberries, toasted sugared almonds, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette
- chicken pasta casserole with cream of mushroom sauce (also known as "bop casserole" in a previous life)

And for dessert:
- sweet potato cheesecake (homemade and brought over by our guests) served with vanilla ice cream

Success!

Next: Time to venture on to a new entree...

Today I have been reflecting on the big picture, and how I am truly thankful for...
- my wonderful husband
- our loving families
- amazing friends
- a meaningful job
- a beautiful home to live in
- good health
- God's provision of everything we need and more
- God's daily grace
- Jesus and everything He made possible for us

I hope you too have had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Our new couches finally arrived last Saturday! We had our first guests over to try them out last night after Tim's birthday dinner. It was nice to have comfy sitting space for everyone, after so many months of relying on various chairs and stools to supplement the dinky foam couch I originally inherited from home to use in my dorm room. (It's a GREAT couch that is so lightweight I can easily carry it around on my own, but for that same reason it's also not meant for heavy use. We're going to keep it in one of our spare rooms upstairs.)

The new couches are, as you can probably guess, BLUE. :-D So I am definitely enjoying the increase in the blue factor of the room. I'm glad we didn't settle for the ambiguous "seafoam" set we were considering over the summer, which was neither decidedly blue nor green. Who knew blue couches would be so hard to find?!

We look forward to having more people over in the coming holiday season!

Hooray for the awesomest brother ever!

-----
*UPDATE: I found the absolute PERFECT card for my brother a few months ago and had been just dying to give it to him on his birthday. Now that he's seen it, I can show you, too:

On the front...


And on the inside...


To make it even MORE AWESOME, this was one of those "sound" cards (you know, the ones that play some kind of song when you open it) -- except this one makes a FARTING SOUND when you open it!!! HAHAHA. Seriously. SO PERFECT.

Anyone you know who fits this description?

nomorechatter (11:12:49 PM): i haVe yOur Palantir sweatshiRt. If YoU wanT It bAck, bring $100 In unmarKed biLls tO times square. Come AlonE.

I'm starting to feel the big push towards the end of the semester as winter break approaches. Isn't it still November, you say? Yes, but what with only two school days this week and December beginning right after that, finals are closer than they appear. We basically have to finish teaching all the new material before winter break because after break will be their last regular test and then review for finals. Which means that all the review packets have to be prepared, copied, and passed out before they leave for break. And it doesn't help that I'll be losing an instructional day when the juniors go on their annual SF field trip.

I think I'm just alarmed by all the things I've been adding to my calendar for December, both school-related and non-school-related. There is something significant scheduled for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of both the first two weeks of December, in addition to various smaller things here and there. Yipes! Much of it is fun stuff, at least, so there is a lot to look forward to. :) (Sorry, K. - I decided to go with the colloquial phrasing there...)