In this time of introspection,

On the eve of my election,

I say to my reflection,

"God please spare me more rejection."

- Ben Folds, Army

For the last 10 years or so, I've chosen the end of October as a time to reevaluate the direction in which my life is heading. I know that most people do this on New Years, but I feel like that's the easy way out because everyone knows that New Years' Resolutions are just a token effort to feel better about ones' self after eating ones' own weight in holiday food. =)

So the biggest change in my life is that I find myself newly single, after ending a 10 month, largely long-distance, relationship with a very special person. Sure, it's easy to wallow in a puddle of "what if's." At this point, however, I think the healthiest thing would be to just suck it up, consider what I learned, and focus on the future. This is the strategy that I usually rely on after a devastating disappointment, and so far it's proven well.

To my friends with school-age children, fellow teachers, and people who enjoy a custom word search,

This is the most amazing site in the whole world. Really. I will never have to give (or grade) another spelling test as long as I live! Not only does it have a dozen custom spelling games, but it gives an individualized test for each kid, reads each word AND uses it in a sentence! And it reads it in a HUMAN voice, not a creepy computer voice. Kids can take the test at their own pace with less testing anxiety. When the kids are done with the test, they print out a certificate with their score and which words they missed! This is truly amazing, people.

... and it's free!!!

Maybe life isn't so bad after all. Over a year ago, Briana and I toyed with the idea of starting a "good things" blog, where we would each share one thing that made us happy. We planned on doing this every week so we would get in the habit of focusing on positive things. Well, like many good ideas, this never came to fruition.

So I'm going to start it now by listing some lovely things from this week:

To usher in fall, I made pumpkin pie... from scratch. Baking pumpkin pie always reminds me of my dad's Thanksgiving tradition of baking 900 kinds of pies, all from scratch. The aroma of pumpkin pie baking in the oven makes me feel like my dad is still here.

At the neighborhood grocery store tonight, I was greeted by a little girl who was in my class last year. She ran up to me with open arms, gave me a huge hug, and shouted, "Maestra!" ("maestra" = "teacher" in Spanish).

I realize this is kind of lame, but I'm going to share it anyway. I very rarely watch Futurama. But tonight, the one time I turned it on in months, it just happened to be my favorite episode (In case you were wondering, it was the one where Lela met her long-lost parents. Hey- I said it was lame).

On facebook, I had an instant message discussion with one of my classmates from BYU. I was really happy to hear that he is gainfully and happily employed in broadcasting. It always makes me smile when I hear that my broadcasting/film school classmates are actually employed in our field! However, there was always something special about this particular classmate. He is a very talented journalist, but in college, he proved to also be humble, kind, and genuinely good. There's just something awesome about knowing that good things really do happen to good people. 

I can't believe six weeks of school are already over! If this were college, it'd be midterm time. I am so happy with my (gigantic) class. The kids have really learned our routines and procedures and they are learning so much. I love third grade. The kids are still sweet and somewhat innocent, but they are mature enough to handle joking around. 

Please click here for a lovely blog entry from my dear friend, Blair. This made my day and could quite possibly make your day, too.

Love, H