A beautiful song.

All I have to share today are the lyrics to a beautiful song that I can't stop singing. It's powerful.

I made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from Heaven
But I talked the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all No
If You touched my face would I know You?
Looked into my eyes could I behold You?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame?
And a God who gave life "its" name?
What do I know of Holy?
Of the One who the angels praise?
All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of Holy?

It's called "What do I know of Holy?" by Addison Road. I hope it says as much to you as it does to me.

Mistaken Identity

Today was the first of many days of being mistaken for a high school student.

I went to 12th grade orientation at Atlee High School, where I will be student teaching in a couple of weeks. I was volunteering - assigning locker numbers to the students as they filed through the stations. I took a break to go check out the merchandise at one of the stations and on my way out, the robotics team kindly asked me if I'd like to join their club. I replied "well, I'm a teacher..." to which everyone (all boys) laughed at the boy who had extended the invitation. From then on, every time I passed their booth, I was invited again (in jest) to join the team.

I was also asked to buy a "Seniors 2010" t-shirt, to which I also replied, "I'm a teacher." Then they started showing me the teacher merchandise - polo shirts.

While sitting at the locker station, I asked a girl if she had an older brother, because I recognized her last name. She replied, "Well, I have a brother, but you wouldn't know him because he already graduated from college." My cooperating teacher Mrs. Keister told her that I had also already graduated from college, to which the 12th grader looked a bit embarrassed. As it turns out, I did not know her brother, but once again, I was assumed to be younger than I am.

I don't take offense to situations like these. In fact, it's comforting to know that one day when I am 50, people might assume I am still in my 40's. Let's just hope that in the days to come, my height and age don't give me trouble as I try to convince a couple hundred high schoolers that I am in charge.

brothers

I decided to go ahead and write a whole blog post dedicated to my three little brothers: Corey (almost 16), Michael (11), and JD (6). I don't really see them all that often, so we aren't as close as we could be.

Corey and I spent every other weekend together until he was about 7 or 8 when they all moved to Connecticut. About two years ago that whole part of my family moved back to Virginia and now live an hour away. Corey has become quite the sports star, especially in track. it amazes me that the little kid who I used to be able to beat in our backyard races can now run faster than a lot of college athletes while I am still struggling for the sub-10 minute mile. He's grown up to have a witty sense of humor too. I was told on my last visit that during the anesthesia process of his last surgery, the nurse asked him if he'd had any other surgeries before. His reply: "no, but I've been shanked in a prison yard." Clever. Then right before he finally conked out, he murmured, "Oooh... Kool Aid..." The kid is pretty funny. The other astonishing thing - he's at least a foot taller than me. I guess that's not that astonishing since I am only 5'3" but it still makes me feel tiny.

Ok now onto Michael. He may be one of the best artists I have seen in a while, and I don't just mean like "for his age." He loves drawing stadiums and houses and other forms of architecture. I saw a house he drew recently and it was complete with stone work on the front, siding, hanging plants on the porch, a bay window, and a garage. He is really talented. He got a camera phone this summer since they don't have a house phone and all weekend he was busy making little videos and taking abstract artsy pictures of peoples' eyes and corners of tables and interesting patterns. If he pursues that, he will be really impressive one day. On the sports note - he pulled a muscle in his neck putting on his football helmet, so maybe sports should be left to Corey.

Lastly JD. The baby brother. He is something else. He really is adorable and pretty sweet most of the time, but he can get bossy. His sixth birthday party was this weekend, complete with a cousin camp out and relay games. It was fun for me to watch, but being the oldest by almost 6 years, I was not forced to participate. Out of all 8 children, the 6 year old, the second youngest next to 5-year-old Izzy, was in charge. I don't know how he does it, but it's proof he has Rodriguez blood in him. As for sports or arts talent, we have yet to see where JD will go.

So those are my brothers. Visiting with them is like visiting with people that are strangely familiar, but that you don't really know all that well. I hope as we grow older we don't forget about each other and move on with our lives. I look forward to seeing each of them grow up into the men God wants them to be, which will be sooner than I think, I'm sure!

A beginning and an end.

A friend of mine just recently left for Iraq. It sounds normal enough, I mean most people know someone who has been deployed before. This person is especially close to me though, so this is a whole new experience for me. He'll be gone for a year, which to me is unfathomable. To think he will be in a desert thousands of miles away, across the whole ocean from me for twelve months or longer is just strange. I heard from him two days after he left and all is well where he is so I am not worried. I know he's in God's hands anyway and no worrying on my part will change the course of his life. So this is just the beginning of a long year for him, and probably for me as well.

But where there is a beginning there is always an end, or maybe not always, but sometimes, like right now. I finished my Senior Honors Thesis last week and all of my committee members agreed to sign it, which means it's approved and I'm finished! I will be taking a trip up to Liberty on Wednesday to have my committee sign it and have it printed and bound. After all this, three months of research and writing, 32 pages later, I still have to pay eleven dollars for each copy I want bound. It was worth it though, I am proud of my work and glad to be done. A lot of people never thought it would happen, but my family and a few of my friends encouraged me along the way and it's really finished this time. So, that's a weight off of my shoulders. I never looked forward to the end of something as much as I did with this thesis.

Another beginning - student teaching. That starts September first with a planning week and then students start September 8th, my mother's birthday. I still can't believe that someone thought I was old enough and smart enough to be in charge of other people's children. I feel somewhat qualified, but I am also scared to death. It's going to be a challenging, intimidating, maybe even life-threatening experience, but I know I will love it more than anything I have ever done. Writing lesson plans and syllabi is even fun to me. So this beginning is more exciting than the first one mentioned, but it's still a bit scary, as I assume all beginnings are.

So all things considered, beginnings and endings, life is changing for me. I look forward to the changes and know that God has prepared me for them all, no matter how frightening they seem now.

I'll forever be one step behind...

I have never really considered myself much of a blogger...not even much of a writer really. I am not really good with words and even the simplest story can take an eternity for me to tell as I search for just the right descriptions with the perfect amount of detail and even then I still fall short.

Blogging, I suppose, isn't really about that though. I read a few of my friends blogs every now and then and each is so different that I feel like I'll end up taking a little from each to create my very own blog. I am not sure how it will evolve or why I even created it really, but I am sure that it will be entertaining for me at the very least.

It really started when my cousin and very best friend, Kaity, created a blog so that we could all keep track of her goings on while she is away in France for a year. I couldn't be more excited for her, but I still feel like a little piece of me will be missing knowing she's so far away starting her real grown-up life. I guess I am starting mine too though, student teaching in the fall, working with the youth and the young adults at church, and trying to find time to make some money somewhere in between. I just never really thought we'd grow up I guess. We still play dress up and make movies like we always have, except now our weekends are cut short by the return to the work week. I asked her this last time when she thought we'd outgrow all our games and she said hopefully never. I agree.

Anyway, back to why I created this blog. After being inspired by Kaity, I decided that there may be people who would be interested in knowing how my life is going as well, so here's my blog! I am not sure that anyone will really keep up with it, but it's also more like a journal for me, to empty my head at night so that it can be refilled in the morning. We will see how it goes, I suppose.

So here we are, at the end of my first blog post and I'm really not sure how to end it. As a child I ended everything with "the end" so I feel that that may be the most appropriate thing for this, the first of many blogs. So with that, goodnight and the end.