Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Dead time.

On nights when I'm home by myself, I really need to find something productive to do. Last night, I watched I Love You Man, drank pomegranate juice, carved about 3 inches off my Tillamook Baby Loaf, and went to bed around midnight. I need a hobby or something. My xbox is sort of on the fritz too so scratch that.

I'm open to suggestion.

This morning, a student of mine brought me a rice-crispy treat, only it was made out of Fruity Pebbles. Dee-lish. Education has come a long ways since the days of bringing your teacher an apple.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Today's devotional

I read Pastor Steve Parrish's Life Devotions frequently and this was a sentence that popped out to me today:
"Every great miracle has a history as to why it was so desperately needed."
Miracles are miracles because they come in times of desperation or hopelessness. For me, I think that when I am desperate, I am the most willing for change and direction. Anything to get me out of my state of desperation - and coincidentally, it's usually when Christ speaks to me the most clearly. Actually, it's probably more that I am probably hearing Him more intently. God wants a willing heart right? Why is it that I have to experience difficulty and hardship to really focus on Him? Why am I most willing when faced with desperation? Maybe the miracles in my life wouldn't be so miraculous if I was little more focused when things are good. Thankfully, Christ never tires coming to my rescue - and I'm grateful for His perfect-ness.

HIS love for me and how I need to give that to others is something I'm learning and re-learning every day.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ode to Fred.

I have a friend whom I've known for the past 4-5 years now that really wants to get into my blog, which I suppose is better than him getting in my wallet! Hey-oh! (Badum-ching!) I've coached with him, played bball with him, and even hung out socially with him. His name is Fred Sunday. "Hot Fudge" was very quick to point out in a previous blog that I failed to mention his presence when we shot up some stuff with guns. His comment to me was, "why didn't you say I was there? You're dead to me." I'm not an unreasonable man. I neither asked for, nor did I desire to anger my friend to the point of death of relationship. So Fred this is for you:
Fred is the man. When he was a linebacker for the Simon Frasier Klansmen, he was the man. When he coaches, he's the man. When he's hooping it up or lifting weights, he's the man. His baby boy Alexander Norman Charles Sunday (the correct order escapes me), or Xander, is the man. Even his wife Jackie is the man. He's so far above us, we're like ropes hanging off the Goodyear Blimp (movie quote anyone?). And I'm sorry for failing to mention the man when we went shooting.

Some wakeboarding pictures will be up soon.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Bustin Caps & Subbing For Dummies

Yesterday, my buddy Brad came up to my house with an insert from his bullet-proof vest. Guess what we did with it? Shot it. A few times. And guess what else? The tightly woven, nylon looking material stood up to both the practice rounds and the defense rounds. Awesome. Then I told Brad, "Ok, I'm going to duct-tape this thing to my chest and you shoot me from 10 yards away - just lemme finish my 7th beer here first - and KAED! GET THE VIDEO CAMERA!" Just kidding.

We also shot: an avacado (sweet), a cantelope (small entry, but blew out the back), and a cow femur (thanks Gish!). We were comparing what the differences in 9mm practice rounds vs defense rounds (hollow-point) would do to various things. Kaed and Dash watched safely from their bedroom window. They thought it was awesome, I thought it was science. But isn't science always awesome? I want on Mythbusters!

Here's an old story out of the "dumb things Andy has done" file. Let me preface it with this: a couple days ago one of our asst. principals sent an email out reminding teachers of a fire drill we'd be having the next day. One of our teachers replied to him that the drill was during her prep period and she'd be pumping at that time (she's a new mom). But, on accident she hit the "reply all" icon and let everyone in the building know that she'd be breastpumping during the fire drill. Yes, she was mortified. Anyway, that reminded me of a time a few years ago when I called a buddy of mine to substitute for me at school. The deal was that teachers could call in a sub on the district sub-line, could request specific subs, and leave messages for them. Well, I called Ryan to sub for me and left a message that was only supposed to be heard by him... My message consisted of a lot of heavy breathing and me saying something like, "I want you to work for me," in a disguised voice. Nothing terribly innappropriate, but unfortunately for me, Ryan couldn't take the job - so the message circulated through the entire sub system! I had no idea until I got called to the main office during class. When I walked into the office our head secretary was nearly in tears from laughing, the principal too, and the other secretary, and the ASB secretary and 2 other teachers - because our head secretary had played and replayed it over and over (she will remain nameless but her name rhymes with Mellen Skreet)... I felt pretty dumb, but was glad everyone was laughing about it instead of firing me.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

1st day of school, again.

Today is my 27th first day of school. You'd think I'd be a little less nervous at this point.
Wow. 27. . .
Today is Kaed's 3rd. We had his orientation on Monday and found that he sits next to one of his best buddies - Josh Webb. We'll see how that goes. . .
I'm not coaching football this year for the first time. I miss it because I love to do it, but with the things going on in my life I didn't feel like it was very wise. Better to be around whenever I can right now. No FCA either - and that sort of bums me out too, but absolutely no regrets. Dad, teacher, and part time recreational 30-something bball player. Plenty on my plate. We'll see about track later.

I remember, vividly, my first day of school at Coweeman (jr. high). I was rockin' a white t-shirt that said in bold (black and pink) letters "Just say YO", tapered gray pants, and a brand new pair of black and white British Knights shoes. I still think they might have been the coolest, most comfortable shoes I've ever owned... Oh, and I had a crew-cut flat top.
Sweet.