real life conversations, pt. 17

Overheard as I was about to walk out of school for the day: "Oh, there's Rachel - she'll know."
I halted my steps and backed up a bit, as one of our secretaries and one of my co-workers popped out of the office.
"What's LMFAO?" they asked.
I blinked, considered my options and said, "Well, they're a band..."
"Okay, I thought I heard that," replied one of them.
"And, does it also mean something... crude?" asked the other.
"Um, yes. Yes, it does."

Glad to be of use... a little concerned that I was the one they thought to ask.
It's because I'm young, right?

pre-prom photo shoot?

Naturally I wanted to capture my prom outfit, so I asked Doug to snap a photo.

Or... several.

Awkward leg pose:

 Duck lips/peace sign:

Work it/censored?!

 Okay, enough of this nonsense, I'm gonna be late:

And no, if you were wondering, there was no spray-tan incident this year (despite a few of students making jokes about it - HALEY. CHRIS. I'm looking at you!).

real life conversations, pt. 16

The sad news is that Doug & I ended up not going to NY this weekend. We would have gotten in at 3am and we would have had to leave early on Sunday morning, so we decided to come out another weekend.

The good news is that prom was a ton of fun, and the kids looked amazing. The theme was "Dinner at Tiffany's" - and it was beautiful! (All pictures stolen from Marisa!)

Our officers:

 Best. Co-sponsor. Ever.

And then Doug & I went out for dessert afterward, during which the following conversation occurred.

Me: "We are living simultaneously young, wild AND free."
...about 5 minutes later...
Me: "Okay, let's get the bill. I'm tired."
Doug: "So young and wild and free, huh?"

opening night.

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

After...

...12 weeks of feeling like this:

... a few days where i send doug text messages like this:

... several practices where students steal my phone and take pics like this:

... a whole lot of this:

... a few of these:

... too many hours spent pouring over this:

 ... many hours of this:

 ... and this:

... creating things like this

(though let's be honest, the detail work was done by people FAR more artistic than me!):

 ... and most nights crashed like this:

...

It's opening night.

PCA presents Disney's Beauty & the Beast.

In the words of Chris Brown, "Leggo."

Pura Vida: Day 6-8

Day 6: Zip-Line!
We started the day with some of the best pancakes I've ever had and amazing fresh orange juice. Then we drove a couple minutes to zip-lining! Through the jungle on the side of the volcano. I have never done this before, and it was pretty awesome! Well, to be totally honest, I was kind of scared the whole time, but I was so glad I did it. Again, I don't have any pictures of this because we had to purchase pictures, and we haven't been given the copies yet. However, I did steal some of my students' pictures from Facebook. I also did the Tarzan swing, which was incredible. It's like the rope swing I grew up with... on crack. My hands are getting clammy just thinking about the first few seconds of free fall, at which point I think I was yelling, "SWEET MOTHER" because I thought I was going to die. But once the rope caught, it was awesome.

After the zip-line, we had lunch and began our trek back to San Jose. This was the most beautiful drive we took. The sun was on the way down, so the lighting was beautiful, and farmers were irrigating their coffee... fields? It was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, I was so overtaken by the combination of the dulcet tones of Mumford & Sons combined with the glorious scenery that I neglected to take any pictures. We stopped on the way home for barbeque dinner at an odd little western joint playing Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, House of Pain... it was weird-slash-awesome. We got back to our hotel, did devos & crashed.

before

 before, pt 2

during!

after: i can't believe we just did that!

Day 7: BEACH.
This was the most relaxing day. We drove about an hour and a half to a boat that took us out to Tortuga Island, where we lounged on the beach, went snorkeling, and rode a banana boat, and then lounged on the beach some more. My irrational fear of sharks surprisingly did not surface, and I was able to enjoy snorkeling... despite one student who kept swimming under me, pretending to be a large fish. Banana boating was a fun experience - it's easier and less painful than tubing. When we got back to the hotel that night, we did a class bonding activity, where each student says something nice about another student. My co-worker facilitating turned it over to my co-sponsor and me at the end, and we basically told our kiddos how blessed we've been by the past 4 years, and I told them this was my last year at PCA and started crying in front of them (awesome), and then there were more tears and we all prayed together and that was that!

our place of departure

what would i have done without this friend the past 4 years?!

yes, of course that's the island boar running right under my seat at lunch.

incredible.

Day 8: Departure
We enjoyed a slow morning, then sadly bade farewell to our now beloved Costa Rica. We spent our time at the airport running from gift shop to gift shop, trying to get as many of the free samples of chocolate-covered coffee beans as possible.

I absolutely loved Costa Rica, I love my seniors, I love my co-sponsor... what a trip!!

Pura Vida: Day 5

Day 5: Tuesday ::
We took a 3-hour bus ride (yet again, gorgeous scenery along the way) to La Fortuna. On the way, we stopped in a little town whose name escapes me, but they had a gorgeous church with the coolest shrubbery ever. When we arrived in La Fortuna, we checked into our hotel, Volcano Lodge, right next to Mt. Arenal, an active volcano. Then went to a local orphanage, where we spent a couple hours playing with the kiddos there. Later that afternoon, we hiked down to a waterfall, swam around in the river and then went out to dinner. That night we did devotions around the pool, while I tried not to freak out as bats were swooping down over the pool, eating bugs above the water, presumably.

view from our bathroom stop along the way

view of the church from the street

view from the church

oh you know, clouds on the horizon.

first views of the volcano

our hotel room, and the volcano. picture me, mouth agape, asking marisa yet again who we are.

first view of the waterfall.

blurry picture, but this gives you a good idea of some of the 500 stairs.

i wish i had taken the time to get some better photos of the stairs, but i was too excited!

more stairs

the waterfall!

me & marisa... a little sweaty at this point in time.

another blurry picture, but look at the color of the water!

farther down the river

Stay tuned for days 6-8!

pura vida : day 1-4

One fabulous benefit of my role as a class sponsor is the free senior trip. 

March 23-30 was our trip to Costa Rica, and it was as close to a perfect week as I can imagine.

Day 1: Friday :: 

Arrived in Costa Rica around 1:30pm. We went to a local food court where I enjoyed the cultural experience of trying to order Pad Thai in Spanish. Then we went to a market in San Jose where the majority of our girls bought headbands and the majority of our boys bought daggers (great). I can't remember the name of the restaurant where we went to dinner, but we had gallo pinto & plantanos, so I was in heaven. Then we checked into our hotel (we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in San Jose, and I neglected to take a single picture of our digs!), had devos, and promptly fell sound asleep.  

first glimpse

touchdown

san jose

Day 2: Saturday :: 

We left bright & early for a day of white water rafting on the Pacuare River (I guess they filmed part of Jurassic Park there?)! We stopped along our 2-hour commute for breakfast at a restaurant with an amazing overlook. We did a lot of driving, but I didn't mind at all because the scenery was so breathtaking. White water rafting was maybe my favorite activity that we did. All of the chaperones went in the same raft, and our guide, Cristian, was so cute & sweet! Every time he made a request, he would follow it with, "my team!" - for example, "Forward, please, my team!" And then when he told us to relax, he would always say, "Thank you, my friends!" I don't have access to these pictures yet, but I'll try to do a post with them later. Our rafting trip was 5 hours long, and halfway through, the guides stopped the rafts and made us lunch on the shore. The entire time, I just kept telling myself, "I can't believe this is real life." In fact, several times throughout the week, I would turn to my friend & co-sponsor Marisa and say, "Who are we? What is our life right now?!" It was so beautiful & there were parts of the river that were so peaceful... I could definitely do that every day. 

view from the restaurant

our beloved class

en route to white water rafting

Day 3 : Sunday :: 

In the morning, our class taught Sunday School at a church in La Carpio, a community of Nicaraguan refugees. I've been informed that I'm not allowed to post pictures of these kiddos online, unfortunately. After Sunday School, the church provided lunch for us. After lunch, we went back to the hotel for some swimming. That evening, we went back to the church for their service, which ended up being a lot more... charismatic than we bargained for. We went out to dinner, back to the hotel, devos & bed!

Day 4 : Monday ::

We had an all-day fun-day for the kids of La Carpio. Again, I can't post pics. We had a bunch of different stations for the kiddos: balloon animals, clothespin butterflies, fingernail painting, face painting, relay races, etc. I loved watching our teenagers interact with all the children, despite the language barrier.

 view along the side of the church wall

La Carpio dump on the other side of the church wall

Day 5-8 coming soon!

an announcement.

things i probably shouldn't eat for breakfast:

Anyway, that's not the announcement.



This decision has been in the making for quite some time. I told my senior class while we were in Costa Rica (future post[s] coming, I promise...), amidst many tears.

This is my last year teaching at PCA.

Doug & I have been praying about this for awhile now, and we decided that once our adoption is finalized, it is our desire that I be able to stay home with our child, or at least work part time. So this summer I'll be transitioning into a part time job until we have our referral.

Overall, I'm very excited about this next phase of life. I do have little pangs of sadness when I think about the kids I'm leaving, especially sharing this news with them. At the end of each of my classes yesterday, I told the kids, and one of my freshman girls muttered dejectedly, "This is the worst day ever."

Despite the bittersweet delivery of the news, I'm looking forward greatly to whatever God has next for our lives. At the same time, my tendency has always been to anticipate what's coming next instead of living in the moment, so my prayer is that I will enjoy these last 2 months with my kiddos and take advantage of the time left.

friday lunch

On Friday, one of my senior boys asked me if "some students" could do 

praise & worship in my room during lunch.

There were probably at least 30 students crammed into my room,

singing & reading Scripture together.

(This video is a little awkward because I didn't want to record any of the students' faces,

and my phone was sitting on my desk, so I just recorded the ceiling...)

I love my job.

work & play

My freshmen are in the middle of a poetry unit, and we recently read a few poems centered around the idea of "work". I told them to compose a poem about work, and wrote one of my own to model. It's not very good, but was fun to write.

Work & Play

The difference between work and play
Can vary for me day by day.
Grading essays with no style,
Disciplining when kids are wild --
These components constitute "work",
And frankly, make me feel like a jerk.
But chatting with students who share what's real --
Their dreams, hopes and fears and what they feel --
Those are the moments of "play" that I treasure.
Investing in my students is a true pleasure.

-RCP 2.6.2012




---
And, psst! Look over here! We are getting closer...

3 awesome things

1. Passed a first-grade class in the hallway this morning, and little boy looked up at me and said, "Hi, pretty lady!" What up, playa?

2. Yesterday were the lip syncs for our spirit week, and my seniors came in 3rd place. We were all really disappointed, but the kids managed to maintain decent attitudes... and then last night, while we were eating dinner with our friends Patrick & Kennerly, the doorbell rang. Doug went to answer it, and all that was at the door was this:

 I seriously love my kids.

3. Birthday gift from my friend & fellow English teacher, Patti. We've been drooling over this copy of TKAM at Barnes & Noble for a couple years now...

Happy Friday!!!

senior poster

Yeah, I pretty much have to brag about my kids.