JOJO's Journey

Sunday, September 28, 2008

1993 class reunion

man, 1993 seems forever ago - 15 years in fact! we had a little get together this past weekend, it was homecoming. Andrea arranged a get together at the Crystal and it was super fun. Pretty much just hung out and chatted up a storm. I was totally pumped to see Bill Chose, and his wife. I was in there wedding like 9 years ago and have only seen them at past class reunions, so it was good to hug him and catch up with him and his wife. Of course, it is always a joy to see Andrea and Kate- 2 of my closest friends from high school...but i see them regally. Luke Visnor joined in with the live band and sang a song, he is super talented- i never knew that before. And Tim Vedder called via Jason Thompsons phone from Hawaii to say HI. Andy V and his wife (she is from Sweden) totally gets my 'coolest' vote. Andy is a riot and his wife was super nice. Class reunions are funny- sometimes i feel like life stands still and you just pick up with your friends right where you left off...but as time goes by, life changes so much. Most everyone is married with kids, living amidst the state of MN and enjoying life in 2008...which is way different than it was in 1993. Man- seems like forever ago!

andrea, kate and I


bill, me, corey, andrea


ty...oh ty!


jen, andrea, jess, chris, and kate


andy v., me and bill (again)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

going to the chapel...

another one got married...i've been to alot of those as of late and they are so fun. the bride always looks fantastic and so happy and this one was no different. Nicki Doyle - one of my old basketball players expressed her love for Matt Friday night. Sara and I went and enjoyed catching up and watching Doyle be super happy. The wedding was a NWC and the chapel there always looks good. After the wedding vows and the introduction of the couple we headed off to Rudy's in White Bear for the reception. Here we waited for a solid hour for the bride and groom to arrive. At this point in the evening i was out of control hungry. i ate lunch at 10:30 that afternoon and had an apple after school right before my workout- than waited to eat at the reception....food was served close to 9. yikes...i think all the food off my plate was gone in 5 minutes. since dinner was so late - the dance started even later. by that time bed time was long gone and this old lady and i was totally out of it. so, i got one picture of the bride and a couple of the bridesmaids (who i also coached), watched them dance their first dance, wished my 'good luck' to Nicki and her honeymoon and than ditched the party. it was fun...and always makes me smile to see how happy people are when they get married. i enjoy seeing that.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

LAST WEEKEND.

sorry- i've been a slacker at blogging.
last weekend i attending Lisa Thompson's wedding. Lisa, and Sara (her twin),were some students of mine way back when...my first teaching job, at Alliance Christian Academy. They were sophomores my first year there and they sort of became a part of my life. They both spent multiple evenings at my house- they were sort of live in roommates that never paid rent and always ate my food. nice huh. well- their senior year (which was my last year teaching at Alliance) they decided i needed to take them on a trip. so - we did. i convinced my mom to come so we could use the truck, we packed up our bags, got permission form the parents ( i guess they trusted me enough) and headed to Florida over our spring break. We also took Becky with us -who at the time had never been out of the state. nice. this is us- back in 2000, or maybe it was 1999.
from left to right. lisa, me, sara, becky. ( do twins always dress the same????)
well- Sara ended up marring my cousin James- it's a long story, so i see her often. it's sort of still funny to me that she has the same last name as me. and i think i taught her sex ed...weird, weird, weird. anyways- Lisa looked great and it was fun to see all of my students from way back when. Lisa's mom, who lives in Seattle and i think i met 3-4 times total, remembered who i was. that made me feel great- i guess i made a lasting impression, which i think is good. anyways- this is us last weekend... have we changed any?
from left to right. melinda, me, sara, lisa, karla (she also was a teacher) becky and stephanie
well this isn't the best pic i've taken...but it included my cousins...sara and james.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

2nd day....

my first 2 days of school have been memorable...here is why?
*getting up at 5:30 is way different than getting up at 6:00. i will have to get use to it, but i think i like it so far
*ending my school day at 2:00 is way different than ending it at 2:40. i like it!
*one of my lovely 12 year old students told me they thought i looked like a student and were confused when they walked into health class and realized i was their teacher- wow....
*i eat lunch at 10:25, so am pretty much starving by dinner time.
*my legs are not in teaching/standing shape, and my feet hurt
*some of my returning students noticed that i no longer have brown hair and am a (semi-)blond again...they all seem to like it. (not that i am here to get the attention of junior high kids)
*this is my 7th year of teaching in the same building and things are constantly changing
*a student i have 7th hour told me today that i am by far the coolest teacher ever cuz i allow gum chewing in my classroom...the simply things in life, right???
*we assigned lockers in the girl locker room today and one 8th grade girl put her lock on her locker and forgot to take her combo out of her pants pocket first...thus, we had to cut her lock off- on the first day of school. seriously.
*i have a sore throat from talking so much. rules-rules-rules, and more rules.
*a 9th grader came up to me today and said 'hey, i think you got shorter.' my response was 'ummm-'
*i smiled pretty for my school picture. (stay tuned...it will be posted in a couple weeks.)
*i have a class with 43 7th graders....yikes!
*i had a student fall asleep in class...the 2nd day; i must be super boring! and she didn't like it when i dropped my clipboard on her desk to wake her up (that got lots of laughs...)
*i used you tube today to introduce my lesson...what has education come to?
*i realized (after a much needed relaxing summer) that i love my job and i love that God has given me passion, excitement and joy to influence youngsters. sweet.
*my bed time is 9:00....can you say old timer!!!!!!!

that pretty much sums it up. good times at NVJH.