A bit late...

Hello to my friends, especially to Kevin Sas... :)

As my good friend Sas reminded me, a few people actually do enjoy reading my blog, and when I miss an entry, I suppose it is somehow missed by others as well. Anyway, here I am, to share some of my random happenings....

The major events of the prior week do not really involve Pine Ridge (especially since 5 days were spent in and/or traveling to Boston)... but I shall remark on them nonetheless, considering my life transpires in more than one place...

Thanksgiving break was spent in Boston, with two dear friends Katie and Nealy. We really had a super time, and on Thanksgiving day we ate dinner with a random family of sorts. They attend the church in which Katie works, thus inviting Katie and her two poor friends to dinner! We had a great time hearing all the eccentric stories of their animals and life enjoyments, which created an entertaining and a bit strange atmosphere. The food was good and conversation was most definitely not lacking! :) Later I met some of Katie's new friends who attend seminary with her, and we enjoyed yet another entertaining evening full of stories from a former Emu farmer. :)

Friday we went to the Northern Massachusetts coast, visiting the coastal towns of Rockport and Newburyport. We took several photos, visited various shops, and ate a crab cake lunch overlooking the harbor. It was cold, yet invigorating, and we had a wonderful time together, driving all around the area and seeing the colors of fall, which have largely left Pine Ridge by this time (see, here is my Pine Ridge excerpt). :)

Saturday we went into Boston to walk the Freedom Trail (which I had vague recollections of doing with the family when I was 11 years old). Again, our cameras were our best friends, as we strolled down the extremely cold streets of Boston, occasionally pretending to be interested in the historical monuments. :) (okay, Katie actually was, and Nealy and I were as well- only slightly less often). The biggest climb of the day was the Bunker Hill monument, which is a mere 300 steps, ah- 300 steps which make my calves sore yet today, several days later! It was fun to experience all the sights of Boston, especially with my dear traveling partners, Katie and Nealy.

I ventured home early Sunday morning, and we arrived in Sioux Falls in time to have lunch with my sister and brother-in-law, and I also was able to visit my brother...which made for a somewhat family-time experience over Thanksgiving break, even though it doesn't compare to being home for Thanksgiving dinner and a new (hopefully) tradition of bingo, which I hear was a pretty great time.

After being back to Pine Ridge for three days, my jet lag is slowly wearing off, and I have had three extremely full and somewhat crazy days at school. We had an episode in the weight room involving a tube of shoe polish, several pencils, and a large (machine) weight stack. The story goes like this: Unbeknownst to Emily, one of her students evidently found the idea of smashing things in between weighted plates (on the machine) to be intriguing, thus creating a royal mess of white shoe polish and severly sliced pencil shreds. Emily, however, was not situated to see this event occur, so when complaints came to her the following day from the dean of students and the athletic director, she had nothing to say, for she didn't know what was going on)... but after a 2 day investigation, admin. has been figuring out who the culprit was, the guilty party has managed to somewhat clean it up, and I have been reminded a few times of how important my classroom management is, particularly in the weight room...which leads me to my next story, regarding how I've dealt with my students....

Today I had the brilliant idea of creating a 'Weight Training 101' sheet for the guys, and in addition to explaining and reviewing our 'respect' policy, I asked the guys to all write 150 words on why respect is an important value to learn and impliment in both the weight room and everyday life.... which was received with an unimaginable resistance, yet I became, perhaps for the first time ever, a real teacher- and made them all complete it, and in the process of showing I was 'for real'....I also managed to write a student up for disobedience.... I think he was under the impression that I wasn't really serious... oh but I was. It only takes so many 'talks' with the principal before I realize I have to take control.... and so I have, and my weights class will be performing a bit differently from here on out: example... when the students are finished with their routine for the day, I will assign each person to a particular cleaning job... which I'm confident will also go over well. :)

So, despite a few stressful setbacks, I still love life and am realizing that simply because something is difficult does not mean that it is not good- for actually I believe I will learn a great deal through this experience regarding the necessity of managing the behavioral tendencies of adolescent boys...regardless of how counter-intuitive this is with my personality.

I also have an infiltration of fruit flies currently, perhaps as a result of the massive amount of bananas which pass through my office daily, so if anyone has any great techniques (short of continually waving my arms to and fro)....do let me know! :)

One positive note (I'm sure there are many more that are currently clouded by my stress-oh, sure enough- I have thought of two positive notes)..... We have heat in our bedrooms for the first time this year- what a glorious blessing!

My second positive note is actually a bit more significant, and that is I was able to participate in a sweat/prayer service again on Monday, and it has been quite some time since I have gone to a sweat. It was a rather last minute decision, which is often the best way of going about things here- and I thorougly enjoyed the time spent praying with fellow Red Cloud faculty....and their relatives. Cleansing, for sure.

Okay, that is all for my ramblings today. If you choose to respond, I will certainly welcome it, and if you wish to offer a prayer on my behalf, I will most definitely welcome that as well.

Peace to you all, as we make our way into December- and begin gearing up for another holiday season!

Yours, Em