Is it Christmas yet??

I've decided that schools that have a fall break suck!! It's insane for the University to make us go from the beginning of September to Thanksgiving without some kind of break!! Granted, I've taken my own "breaks" from school, but that always just gets me in trouble and then I regret not keeping up with my work. This semester has been extremely busy with school and...well just school. We're in the midst of writing our focal classroom paper, a ginormous (yep, that's not a typo...ginormous :P) paper that is due at the end of the semester. The second 1/3 of it is due on the 21st (although a rough draft is due this Monday) and of course I haven't started yet. I'm guessing by the end of it all, my paper will be a total of like 50 pages...at least. I might as well write a short novel! I'm trying to start the second part of it tonight, but I want to do just about ANYTHING else right about now. And of course this paper isn't the only thing we have due. We have about 4 other significant assignments due in the next month on top of all kinds of reading (including a 200 page novel due by Tuesday)! They must think education students are superheros or something...

Alright, I'm sorry for that complaining. We only have a couple more weeks in our practicum classrooms and I'm going to be really sad when it's over!! I love the kids in my 3rd grade classroom so much! They are all so smart and creative, not to mention so much fun!! I'm really liking teaching...which is a good thing considering I'm doing all this work and going through all this school for it!! Gosh, I can't imagine if I realized I hated it! Anyway, I love being in front of the classroom teaching lessons and watching the kids learn. My partner Jessi and I are wrapping up a unit on Cinderella stories from around the world, and it's been so cool to see the kids make connections between all the different stories we've read and see their excitement every time we read a new story. It's kind of funny to think that I used to pretend I was a teacher when I was younger, and now I'm actually doing it! :)

The other thing that's been going on is that I applied to live in the FLOCK (Females Living Out Christ's Kingdom), a girls house through Crusade. I figured it would be a good back-up plan because I didn't know what my living situation was going to be like next year. Last night, I talked to Shannon and Laura about what they're thinking about for their living situations next year, and both pretty much told me they don't know and don't want to think about it. I found out a couple days ago that I've been offerred a room at the FLOCK and have a month to get back to them with my decision. I told Laura and Shannon that I have a month to decide, but they both still said they aren't going to think about it, probably at least until the end of this semester. I know I shouldn't make my decision dependent on their decisions, but I feel bad, for some reason, making a decision knowing both of them still don't know what they're doing. But, it's pretty much been decided, unsaid, that the 3 of us aren't going to be living together next year. I'm sure it'll feel really weird to not live with any of my roommates from this year again. I also was worried about moving into the FLOCK not knowing anyone else, because the people I do know are seniors. But, I found out one girl will be here next year and it's a good possibilty more girls will be too. Plus, I have to keep reminding myself with this whole FLOCK thing, that it's exactly what I did this summer! I lived with 12 other girls (in the case of the FLOCK, it'll be more like 14), 10 of which I didn't know! And it turned out to be an amazing experience and I would give anything to have that back. So that thought just made me feel better about the whole idea. I haven't completely made my decision yet because I'm going to pray about it for a little bit longer, but considering I have no other options, it looks like this will be a good option for me next year.

I also am going to be starting to disciple a girl from my high school, who's a year younger than me, and who was in the Bible study I led last year! She asked me the other day and I was so excited to say I would! I've never discipled anyone before, but I have some resources from last year that I can use. I just figure I'll go with the flow and see where God leads me. I'm excited to see how God is going to use this experience in both our lives! :)

Well, I've procrastinated long enough on my stupid paper so I should really get started on it.

13 days until Thanksgiving!!
44 days until Christmas!!