New Additions!

New additions to my life, that is. And no, I'm not referring to babies, so get your mind out of la-la land :)

This past week has had a lot of new additions for us! Last weekend Brian and I trekked over to Starkville because Clay PROPOSED! And is now ENGAGED! Lindsay said yes-whew ;) AC and I hosted the after-party at her house and we had such a great time catching up and doing what we do best: entertaining, "cooking", and laughing a lot! We got to see a lot of people including Emily, who drove in from Clemson, Erin, the brothers, Paige, and a lot of old friends! We even had time to visit my the Sherrards and their precious boys, which meant playing various games of baseball/tennis/soccer/football/trains. So addition #1: New sister-in-law! I have to admit it is sort of strange to think my little brother is getting married; I think most older siblings (or at least big sisters...) can agree that while it is totally fine for me to grow up, my little brother and sister must remain as I remember them...always living at home, cute as a button (they still are :), and not becoming adults! It is so weird to watch/experience...it still surprises me every time either Clay or Emily moves into adulthood a little more; it's like I don't expect it to happen, even though I was doing the same things at their age!
Pictures of the entire engagement night are on Facebook!

Onto new addition #2: Brian started Stryker Leader Course this week! A Stryker is a troop vehicle that is sort of like a tank on tires instead of tracks. Brian could potentially be in a unit one day that uses these, so we're glad he's getting the training! He's out on the range today learning how to manuever and direct them as well as use their firepower...something he loves doing.

Addition #3 to my life: I started my stint as a substitute teacher this past Friday. There is no high school on post, so my only options are either the one middle school or six or seven elementary schools. Take a guess at which one called me first...the elementary school. Now, I love darling, precious, small children. But I cannot, I repeat cannot, teach/manage/spend 8 hours with them continously. If they were my own children, I think I'd be ok. But I'm never going to have 23 children all of the same age at the same time...Let me just recap the day for you and show you exactly why I am not cut out to be an elementary school teacher--they have just become my heroes.
I got there around 8 (school starts at 8:45!) and got into my cute 1st grade classroom and read the super-detailed notes the teacher left me. (Which I totally appreciated). I quickly texted Lydia, one of my best friends from high school who teaches 4th grade, and frantically asked her what a number sentence was...yes, I had a brain failure...I remembered a few minutes later it was things such as 2 +3 =5... The teacher's outline was broken down to the minute, such as this example: 11:23, line up for lunch. Have "teacher's assistant" (a student) pass out lunch boxes. Have the "hand sanitizer" (a student) give everyone some Germ-x. 11:28-walk students to cafeteria.

One awesome thing: they have lunchroom supervisory staff, so I got to eat in my classroom! No teacher's table for me!

The kids started off behaving pretty well, but let's be honest--I'm a sub, there are 23 of them, and 4 of them I can already tell I have no patience for...At the end of the day, I think I had 5 different students cry (all for pretty random, unseen reasons, such as "my leg hurts right here...") and one of those students was a repeat offender. I had a boy get stuck in the bathroom (the door doesn't lock, but it does stick a little), twice...I also had a few "injuries" that I just told the kids to put a wet paper towel on, one girl told me she felt like throwing up (?!?!), and the class was overall pretty rowdy...I learned this lesson for about the ump-teenth time: I must be firmer from the start. I struggle with asserting firmness in the beginning of the class because I want the students to know that I care about them and that I'm a generally nice person (unless you have an inability to stay in your seat, as one of the students did...). But, this is a very, very, very fine line to walk. Because if you're too sugary sweet, you lose them--I teetered on this edge on Friday. I also have a very hard time making those kids pull keys...partly because I'm afraid they'll burst into tears and I'll never get them to regain composure. Again, I am not cut out for 1st graders.

I had some serious trouble with a few of them, and it was a little difficult to discipline them because their names were so crazy, I couldn't remember them/pronounce them without some trouble! I of all people should be able to pronounce names...it's not like I have a degree in language with a personal interest in phonetics...Thankfully some of the kids clued me into some of the ways that the teacher gets and keeps their attention...praise the Lord for sweet kids who have mercy on a floundering substitute!

I spent a lot of my day sorting through their folders, making sure I got their homework and lunch money out and putting announcements in them for them to take home. Thankfully my neighboring teacher came to check in on me and I quickly asked her the best classroom management techniques for 1st graders...she simply said to be firm and make them pull a key...it only sort of helped me!

I basically survived the day thanks to encouraging texts from Lydia and Paige, Eric's girlfriend, who has been subbing constantly this semester! While I am going to enjoy this small little sub-paycheck when it hits the bank account, I am constantly being reminded that I am not cut out to be an elementary school teacher! Give me high schoolers with their drama, drugs, pregnancies and love triangles...this is the world that I understand--not the highly-routinized world of 1st graders! They often reminded me that I was not doing it the way the teacher did...sorry, kiddos...the notes weren't that detailed. If they were, it probably would've been 10 pages long!Onto this week...this Friday I have 2nd graders...

Probably the funniest thing of the day happened in the beginning. Only some of you will get this, simply because it's Army-related...so we did the Pledge of Allegiance and the kids informed me that I needed to turn the TV on. So I did. We missed one song, but we made it in time for the last song...it was definitely the Army song, and the kids had motions. They marched in place for the entire song, and during the line "and the Army/goes rolling...along", the kids rolled their arms and they saluted! It was hilarious--it took all self-control to not burst out laughing!

Well, that's the end of my additions for the week! Unrelated to additions, me and 3 of my friends here went to FDR's state park yesterday and went hiking! The park is about 40 minutes away and we had a great time! We took 2 of the girls' dogs and hiked for about 6 miles. The weather was chilly but once you got on the trails it was perfect. The leaves have finally begun to change so it was beautiful to walk through the woods. Pictures to come!

Change of Plans!

Well, disregard the last half of the most recent post...the Army has had great mercy on us and is letting us stay at Ft. Benning until December! This means I can finish my class in Auburn hassle-free! Praise the Lord!

Living Up to the Name

...The name of the blog, that is, but I'll get to that in a bit. I get the "blog-slacker" award for not updating in a month...but a big thank-you to all of you who consistently write in yours, because I love reading about/seeing your life unfold, even with all the miles between us!

So the month of October has been a busy one! Brian had his cumulative field exercise where they had to assault and take over a village. The allowed the wives to come watch and it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Lots of loud noises, simulation explosions of bombs, artillery shells, and mortars...pretty cool. Their company XO (executive officer) stayed with us on top of a building and explained everything to us; their movements, why they were doing what they were doing, and the final objective: to take the building we were standing on! And they succeeded :) Way to go Charlie Rock! Pictures are on Facebook if you want to see. We don't look so cute because we had to be at the buses at 5 AM, which means ponytail + no makeup = not cute. After spending about a week cleaning weapons, Brian and his classmates graduated last Thursday and finally got to put on their blue Infantry cord. Those pictures are also on Facebook...

On Oct. 14, I flew to Baltimore, Maryland to visit some of my best friends! These are girls I went through life/high school with and we've stayed close ever since. Katie lives and goes to school in Baltimore and they convienently had a half-marathon in the fall--perfection. I've always wanted to run a half-marathon in the fall! So Lydia, Sarah, and I flew up to Baltimore and we spent the weekend eating amazing food, running, and catching up, all while climbing 4 flights of stairs to get to Katie's apartment. After a half-marathon that's all on asphalt/concrete, 4 flights of stairs kills your quads/knees. It was such a fun trip and I want to do it again...now. We spent Saturday after the race at Inner Harbor, sitting on a pier and enjoying the beautiful day! Sarah and I ran the half-marathon together and it was perfect weather; about 70-75 degrees and a nice breeze! We even got a suntan from our running tops! We did deem that Baltimore had a terrible finish line...it was extremely chaotic and the race officials/policemen were not very helpful in terms of pointing you in the right direction! They should basically put us in charge. Duh. But it was an incredible, much-needed trip and it only made me miss them more!

October also (finally) brought around my substitute teacher confirmation. It only took 7 weeks and no updates, but hey, I'm finally allowed to be a sub for the schools on post-whoo hoo!

Auburn class is going well-still enjoying the content, classmates, and my teacher! My ESL classes are also going well; I usually have between 5-12 students each time and we've finally moved off of the verb "to be" and are into new and exciting things like the present progressive tense! (For non-grammarians, that's verbs ending in -ing...) They are truly great students and I really enjoy teaching them.

This past weekend we had a really great time hanging out with friends! Saturday morning Dana, Hannah, and I ran a "Cross Country 10K", and let me tell you, it was truly cross country style! The first 5K was not--easy, on grass/pavement, and we came across the clock at a pretty respectable time, considering I haven't run a 5K since high school! And then...the "cross-country" part started. The last 5K was basically all sand. Yes, loose, beach-like sand! And it was washed out, so you really had to watch your step. Needless to say, we had to slow down! Dana placed 4th in our age group and Hannah and I came in 7th and 8th! Pretty exciting! We went out for Mexican food afterwards which was incredible. That night we had them over as well as our friends Kristy and Kevin for football and a fire outside! The boys watched football while the girls ate dinner, made smores, and talked outside all night long! It was a great day!

Now onto our latest news...Brian was supposed to go to Ranger School this Sunday. Ranger School is a 61 day "school" designed in three phases: forest, mountain, and swamp. Each phase is 3 weeks long, and you can fail or be recycled (start the phase over) at basically any time. It's a comprehensive school to test leadership, physicality, tactical knowledge, and various other components while being under a large amount of stress. Ranger School students typically get about 1-2 hours of sleep a night (or none) and run on about 1-2 meals a day (or none). It is supposed to be worse than any combat situation you'll ever come across. Oh, and I don't see him except once, for 8 hours, during the entire 61 days. But we can write letters :)

Now, having said that, we have discovered that Brian is now not going to Ranger School on Sunday, which means that we're on orders to move to El Paso (Ft. Bliss)...next Wednesday. Ha! Talk about completely being caught off-guard! We knew that if he didn't get a Ranger School slot for October, then he would probably get one for January. We were led to believe that he'd most likely stay here, doing details and odd jobs for the holding company. We knew there was an ever-so-slight chance we could go to Bliss, but honestly, we both sort of dismissed it because A) we thought he'd be going to Ranger school, and B) because if he didn't go to Ranger school, we figured they keep us here. WRONG...So, hence how the blog title is coming true: we are PCS'ing (Permanent Change of Station) NEXT WEEK! Yes, I am still a little in shock/denial. I have really come to love Ft. Benning and I feel like we're are finally getting settled into a routine/commitments. We've traveled a lot the past 3 months so we've been out of town most weekends, but I was really excited about these upcoming months because I thought we would get into a more "normal" lifestyle. I've taken on some newer commitments (substitute teaching, and I also just started working with First Pres-Columbus- youth group 2 weeks ago) and I was excited about getting more involved within those areas. Just goes to show that your plan isn't always the plan that's going to happen! I've gotten some really wonderful encouragement from friends and family and that has made this so much easier--so thank you! It's not that I didn't expect this...I just didn't expect this until May! I think the hardest thing will be to leave my friends--it is amazing how quickly we have grown close over the past 4 months. I guess that's what you have to do though! Thankfully I get to take two of them to El Paso with me, since their husbands are also stationed there! So here goes to step 2 in this grand adventure...the Lord has reminded me, especially through the words of my friends, that his plan is sovereign and that it is also perfect; therefore while this may not make sense to us, there is a purpose behind it, even if we don't see it. These past few months have really been a struggle with trust and I feel like this is just another exercise in learning to trust fully and wholly in Him. But praise the Lord, because He is good! While I've struggled with trusting Him I've also seen firsthand the many blessing He's poured so lavishly upon us, and I know His faithfulness will remain, even in red, dry El Paso.

Speaking of El Paso...there is practically no grass. And the trees look kind of strange...But mom reminded me: I can decorate a cactus for Christmas. And that has always been a dream of mine. (Not really, but it's about to become one...)

Our mission this week: Keep our chin up, and pack some boxes!
It may be awhile before you hear from us...I mean, it only takes 23 hours and 24 minutes to get there!