Twin Day...Teacher Life :)

Daylan and I both teach MS students and Jen and Amy teach Elementary so we all told our students to see if they could find our twins. They were all really excited when they figured it out. They were quite impressed by our ability to dress the same! Oh the life of being a teacher!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Less than four weeks...but who is counting :)

Just a glimpse at part of my ministry...

The girls from the basketball team came over to our house on Friday night for their end of season PARTY!!! It was pretty crazy. I have seriously never seen 5 pizzas disappear so fast. It was like there were 10 boys and not 10 girls. But then as the night went on and we watched Pride and Prejudice, and talked about boys...it was definitely girls! GOOD TIMES!!!

Soccer started today and we had 18 girls. A few forgot so we should have even more tomorrow. I am really excited and see a lot of potential with the girls. They are excited about the season and ready to work hard. Just pray that I will be patient with them! :)

This is Steven's way of throwing a party!!!
I think he was a bit overwhelmed by the house full of girls.

These two girls are sisters...such a great family!!!

Daylan with the crazy 7th grade girls!

TOO CUTE...LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!!

SO PROUD....

I am so proud of our teams!!! On Thursday I received and email from the International School League . Not only does the league give awards and trophies for the most winning teams but also for sportsmanship and character. Our teams (ALL OF THEM) were awarded the sportsmanship and character awards. Now it is important to mention that these awards are chosen by the other teams (15). I have been so proud of our teams all years to work really hard. They did not win very many games and yet they really kept their heads up and worked well together. It was so great to see that not only did I notice this but the teams we played against also did. I was talking to another AD and he was saying how it was interesting that all of the sportsmanship and character awards are almost always given to Christian schools. All I could think is, it should be that way! It is about so much more than winning!
Can anyone help?!?
Our bus broke down and we need to go and pick up our trophies at the award ceremony!!!

You can see the broken down bus in the background...HELP!!! Thankfully we only had to walk about 15 minutes and then another bus picked us up.

Here I am standing with the captains for the teams,
representing boys' soccer, girls' basketball and co-ed tennis.
I am holding the trophy for Over-all!!!
YEA YEA YEA

I could barely hold them all :)

All set up waiting to be put into our trophy case!!!!

WNS BAZAAR

This weekend was the WNS bazaar. The best way to describe it is a big yard sale for lots of missionary families. There are some small business that also rent a booth to promote their stuff..but really it is just a big junk swap! I am sure you know what I mean. We were having a hard time getting people to come, especially families, so Amy (the other PE teacher) and I organized a family kickball game.

This is the area that was mostly dedicated to selling food. As part of my responsibilities at the school I am also the 8th grade class adviser. For the bazaar the 8th grade class was in charge of selling all drinks. It was crazy trying to keep track of everything but the kids were a big help. I was glad that they were excited to do it, because it was a big job. Our booth is on the other side of the big tree, you can't see it very well. But you can see how beautiful our school is right now!

Here are some of the kids at the beginning of the game. We ended up having about twice this many on each team...MADNESS!!! But oh so fun!!

Once the game got going Amy and I decided that we deserved to sit and supervise.

Some of the teachers...waiting for their turn to kick. The kids were pretty eager to go first!
That's me standing off to the side (first base coach yea that's right Dad)
Rough place to go to work everyday huh?!?

Season 1 winds down...

The boys had their last home game yesterday. They ended up losing but it was a really close game and fun to watch!

After a week of antibiotics I think my body is finally starting to respond. I am still tired but I feel like I am getting stronger. My appetite seems to be coming back slowly, which should bring more energy with it. I continue to rest when I can and go to bed early. :) Thanks again for all the prayers!!!

Health Update...

I just wanted to say thank you so much for the kind words and prayers. I had a lot of time to rest this weekend which was really good and I also stayed home from school today. I really didn't want to stay home all day and tried to go in at lunch time but my Principal called and told me that he had all my classes covered so that I was not allowed to come in. It was good to just rest but I definitely got bored. I do not like sitting at home alone doing nothing. I feel much better tonight. I feel like maybe I am getting stronger. I know I know Mom don't push it too much now that I am feeling better! :) Thanks again!

Sankofa...Amani Ya Juu Fashion Show

Remember my friends I talked about in my last update letter. Well, as part of their job they have been organizing a fashion show to introduce a new line of clothing that the women are designing...it was a huge project that they have been working on for about a year. It was so great to see it all come together. I definitely had to rest all day to have enough energy to make the evening but I was so glad that I was able to go! Thanks again for all your prayers!

All dressed up and ready for the fashion show!!!

This was my favorite model. She was just so excited for this opportunity!

Some of the models-this is a mix of professional Kenyan models and women from Amani Ya Juu

Me and the roomies all dressed up. My mom made my dress! :)

This is the group of friends that I spent most of my time with outside of teaching. Most of them work for various NGOs within Nairobi, Sudan, and Rwanda.

Typhoid

I must say that I never expected to write a post labeled TYPHOID. I feel like it is one of those things that you only hear about when you have to go and get your vaccinations before you go to some foreign country. Well, at least that was the last time I heard about it.
I went to the Dr. on Tuesday because I had been feeling poorly for about 1 1/2 weeks and decided it was not going to just go away. I figured I probably had some little critter living inside of me and that i would just have to take some three day dosage of something and get rid of it. So, I did some tests and they all came back negative. The Dr. said that she wanted to do further tests to check for ulcers and typhoid. TYPHOID I thought...no way! I almost didn't even do the blood test to check because I didn't think it was an option. So, I went back to school and told all the teachers I figured I had an ulcer caused by a bacteria-I even emailed my family and told them. Then I went back to the Dr. yesterday and she told me that I had definitely tested positive for Typhoid. I was definitely a bit stunned. I had to have her explain everything to me twice because I was like WAIT....WHAT?!? She probably thought I was so clueless or something. She wrote me a prescription and dazed I walked out. I walked down stairs to my friend Amy who had gone with me and told her and her mouth just dropped...she was as confused as I was. We went to the chemist who of course tried to rip us off-initially charging me about $70 and I got the medicine for $8-what a punk! So now I am taking the medicine and hoping that it will kick in soon. I definitely still feel poorly but still able to function. Please just pray that this weekend will be restful and the medicine will do its job SOON! Thanks so much!

Kitengela Glass Factory

On Sunday after church I went with some of my friends to visit a glass blowing factory. It was so crazy to watch them work. Such a complicated process, but totally worth it at the end. Their stuff was so amazing! It was so cool to watch it star as this small ball of glass and then....

turn into this awesome glass tray!

So many cool vases, I wanted them all!

More cool stuff that they can make

These are the girls that I went with. We just crossed the little narrow bridge behind us. I was scared to death. Not that, that surprises anways!

AFRICA

Random car that we took a funny picture in.

Seriously some amazing glass stuff! It was such a random but cool place to visit. The whole time I kept thinking how it should be on the travel channel or something like that.

Paradise Lost

Crazy times in Kenya...

One of the most random weekends ever in Nairobi...but I got to ride on a camel. It was such a great and relaxing long weekend, as we had Friday off of school. I will add more pictures soon!

Just for you Trish...pictures of "life"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAYLAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAYLAN....BIG 25!!!

I LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOU HAVE AN AWESOME DAY!!!!

The Car...

Day and I being ADD in the car as we were stuck in traffic on the way to the internet place.

Still waiting...

So, I was trying to think of something I could add to update my blog and I realized I haven't put on a picture of my car. Last year I shared a car with three other teachers and this year I share this one with Daylan. It is nice just sharing it between the two of us. It is small but that just means it is easier to dodge pot holes, busses, bikes, and whatever else comes our way!

My Pre Algebra Class...

Welcome to my crazy math class. I have 17 7th graders for my Pre-Algebra class.

Home work board...just because...

Passing back homework at the beginning of class.

Hard at work (they knew I was taking pictures...they are good at pretending!)

Teaching about patterns in math

Partner working...good job girls!

And there you have it. The other side of my job. Where I actually get to be in the classroom and use all that valuable information I learned in college about classroom management and things like that! I do love teaching this math class so much. It is a lot easier for me the second year around and they are a great bunch of kids!