In the car, on the way to a play date on Thursday, Leiana sneezed three times in a row. When she was finished she said, "Mommy, I don't have a cold or a runny nose. I just have the blesses."

Yes, I laughed so hard I almost couldn't drive anymore. :) She cracks me up!

I have so many teachers who affected me and changed my life for the better. I was leaving a comment on a friend’s blog about it (she asked us to leave her comments about our favorite teacher(s)), when I realized I just needed to create a whole blog post of my own about it.

So here goes:

First off, my parents. My mom homeschooled myself and my three younger siblings up through eighth grade. As my first teacher of every subject, she taught me so many important things and gave me a fantastic foundation to build upon. She and my dad imparted to me a love of reading, and are the main reason I love English so much. They taught me about God, lead me to Christ, and helped me memorize hundreds of AWANA verses. My mom always had fun experiments to go with our science lessons, took us on field trips, and allowed us to learn at our own pace. She also taught me how to teach myself, to read a textbook and figure out the lesson on my own - probably the most invaluable lesson I learned with regards to making it through high school and college. She also taught me self-reliance, and a good work ethic, and gave me confidence in my ability to learn. My dad taught me to have a good work ethic, and the importance of always doing my best and never settling for "mediocre."

When I got to high school I had so many fabulous teachers, I could never pick a favorite. But I’d like to take a minute, here at the end of Teacher’s Appreciation Week, to thank them:

Mr. Euler - Systematic Theology was the most important class I ever took. It gave me a solid foundation of doctrine and taught me how to study the Bible actively instead of passively. You taught us to think for ourselves, how to ask hard questions, and to understand that while we may never know the answers to some of our questions this side of Heaven, that isn’t a good reason not to ask them and wrestle with them. Also, his crazy antics in the classroom (superman! hollywood! and all the jokes) were invaluable experiences for me as a teacher to draw on in my own classroom.

Miss Havens - for making math suddenly make sense. She is the reason I love math AND english. Algebra would have stopped me in my tracks if it hadn’t been for her.

Mrs. Smith - physics is phun! She had all the best toys in the classroom, from the electro-static ball, to using air and a garbage can with a hole in the bottom to knock over pop cans at the back of the room to chewing on mints in the dark and seeing them spark, she demanded excellence and told us that if we all got A's she wasn't doing her job well. She is the person who made me realize I wanted to be a teacher, because she’s the one who taught me that I really love learning, and that I wanted to pass on that love. She also taught me that the best teachers are not the ones who try to be your friend... but that they inevitably end up being your friend anyway. Thanks also for teaching me how to play ultimate frisbee! I miss those games.

Mr. Morley - because he never stopped looking for assignments that would challenge me to think and make me work as hard as I could. He refused to let me get away with just doing the minimum requirement to get an A. He helped me get my first teaching position, while simultaneously helping me fulfill my dream of returning to my alma mater and teaching there.

Mr. Hayes - who made Geometry seem so easy that we all went back to him and asked him to explain Algebra II as well :) and who along with Mrs. Smith gave me the chance to be in a play that was one of the most memorable and fun experiences of my time in high school.

Miss Daniels - who helped me hone my creative writing skills

Mrs. Fischer - whose enthusiasm over the very first poem I ever wrote gave me confidence to write more, and helped me fall in love with poetry. Also, her mentoring during my first semester of teaching in my own classroom helped me keep from drowning.

Miss Havens - who I still credit with introducing me to my love of British Literature. Also the one who told me about the winterim trip to France and England and recommended I go... an experience I will never forget. (And who could forget racing down all those stairs we traversed while in France and England?!?)

Miss Koning - who taught me everything I know about French, introduced me to crepes, and made it possible for me to wander around Paris, lost, in the snow, but still able to make myself understood by the residents (who gave very bad directions... but that’s not her fault... LOL)

Mr. Ellis - for introducing me to my love of astronomy. For the 14-day trip assignment that I still have in a folder, because it’s a road-trip I would still love to go on some day. For allowing us to have partners in biology so that I never had to actually dissect anything... and for making biology fun, when it could have been so depressing (science is where I struggle).

Mrs. Mike - for teaching me how to sing in harmony, and helping me get over my fear of singing out loud in a group.

Mrs. Riebock - for teaching me to think outside the box, for always being excited about seeing me when I came back to visit after graduation, for being my friend, and for helping me get through my first real speech without passing out. I miss you.

Mrs. Ritter - for instilling in me a love of Shakespeare. Best. Class. Ever! (and made taking Shakespeare in college a breeze!) Also for being our Speech Team director, I had so much fun with our dramatic duet acting, being Annie Sullivan :) I know I wasn’t super good at it, but I had a blast.

Mr. Mouw - despite the fact that you made me think I liked economics enough to sign up for a class of it in college (which was a big mistake), you made me think I liked and understood economics, because you made it so interesting and fun.

Mrs. Roos - for teaching me everything I know about public speaking. You got me through my phobia of standing in front of a classroom and saying stuff, and you even made it fun. I highly enjoyed our short persuasive speeches and have used that assignment myself in my own classroom (along with just about everything else we did in jr. english).

Mr. Bickhart and Mrs. Rooks - I loved gym class, even if I’m not super good at sports. Thanks for teaching me the basics of things other than baseball :) (and Mrs. Rooks, I’m sorry I passed out in your health class and scared you...)

Miss Silvey - thanks for all the hours you spent after school helping me try to understand trig! Honors was hard, but you got me through it.

Mr. Hass - for teaching me how to play soccer, and actually letting me play in the games a lot - I’m sure I would have been better for the team on the bench.

Mr. Ferguson - I loved world history so much. I was bummed my siblings didn’t get to have you as a teacher, but thanks for making the black plague so fascinating.  

Mr. Scheidt - even though I only had one winterim class with you in apologetics, that was one of the most memorable and meaningful classes I ever took. I still use what I learned in that class when I’m witnessing to someone. I also learned the importance of making other people feel important, especially as a teacher. You always make everyone feel as though they are the most important person in the world to you, even if you’re in a hurry to get somewhere else. Thank you. And thank you for helping to teach my brothers how to be godly men, I know you’re their favorite teacher ever, and that’s important to me too.


Sorry for the length of this post! But like I said, I had a lot of great teachers in high school... I really hope I’m not forgetting anyone...! Love you all. Thanks for devoting so much of your time and energy to a bunch of high school kids.



How about you, dear reader? I'd love to hear about the teacher(s) who changed your life!

As Nathalie has gotten more interactive, Leiana has also gotten far more interested in her. She loves to play with her, hold her, talk to her, smile at her, etc. Here are some sweet sister pictures I've gotten lately:

"Leiana, could you play with Nathalie for a minute while I take a quick shower?"
"Sure!"
This is what I returned to:


"I gave her all her toys, Mommy!!! And I got myself a smoothie."
When did she get so big?????


"Can I hold the baby?"


"I love seeing her eyes!"



Leiana loves to talk to Nathalie and look at her when she's awake, she is obsessed with being able to "see her eyes"
Meanwhile, Nathalie thinks Leiana is pretty special stuff. She stares at, watches, and smiles at Leiana more and more.





"I want her to sit on the couch with me!"



I just love them to bits.

I forget to share these since they don't go into iPhoto... but Nathalie, Leiana, and I have been having fun every couple of days with the photobooth feature on my computer. :)



See? I told you she's a smiley baby...



Love my girls! (and Leiana's sense of humor... as she decided that Nathalie "needed" to wear the hat that Great Grandma Porter made for Leiana (she LOVES her hat, Grandma! Thank you!!!))

I finished the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books in what has to be record time (I read them in 6 days, while having a newborn and a three year old, and only getting to read in the 15-30 minutes before bed each night). (I've divided this post up so you can read my initial reactions without any plot spoilers... I'll give you a head's up later in the post where you should stop reading if you haven't yet finished the series)

Disclaimer: I am not a debater. I would love to hear your reactions to these books and to my post, but please understand that I am not in any way trying to "sway" you over to "my side" of thinking. I honestly do not care whether or not you love/hate this story, and I think we can be friends even if we disagree. I love discussing and talking about books, but discussion is where it ends for me. If we walk away from that discussion still disagreeing, I am okay with that.

First reactions: I definitely liked books 2 and 3 better than book 1. "Catching Fire" is my favorite of the trilogy. I liked the way book 3 ended (apparently I'm in the minority there... but I did). After finishing the trilogy, I realized that really, I liked the story. I think the movie sort of ruined book 1 for me, and I still have issues with certain things that are being done in the marketing department for this story... for example... I have problems with THIS... and apparently I'm not the only one, as you can find some pretty funny comments about it if you simply google "Katniss Barbie." There were many comments that made me chuckle, such as, "...a Katniss doll is sooo Capitol. District 12 kids play with twigs." or "Totally kid-friendly, until she murders Skipper." and so on, and so forth.

I was talking to a friend and she pointed out that marketing these books to a younger audience is as inappropriate as this marketing tool that was used with the movie "Avatar." Now, my own issues with "Avatar" aside... I don't think we needed to market that particular movie to kids in their Happy Meals. It was a PG-13 movie, with a pretty blatant sex scene in the middle of the movie. Really? Did we have to market that movie through Happy Meal toys? Couldn't they just have printed the title of the movie on their cups or something?

Sigh.

Rant over.

All that to say: I still have issues with the way this story is being heavily marketed to kids under the age of 12. I still have issues with the author attempting to make me value one life over another in the first book (and to a lesser extent in the later books). But I did like the story in and of itself. I do appreciate the sheer number of discussable things in the books, and would love to have the opportunity to sit down in a classroom setting and discuss those things. I like that the story made me think and wasn't just brain candy.

Ok, PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD. READ FURTHER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Good:

1. Peeta: really he is my favorite character. Partially because he is always good and always makes the selfless decision, and partially because he is so smart.

2. Finnick: Besides Peeta and Haymitch, Finnick is my favorite. He brought some much needed depth and comic relief to the story. I think he may be one of the reasons I enjoyed the second book the most.

3. The way that Katniss and Peeta work together in the second book. The way that the tributes all come together for a moment at the end of the interviews and act united against Capitol.

4. That Peeta survives and comes back from being brainwashed. I was not going to be happy if he died or never managed to return to being himself.

5. That there is a sort of "happily ever after" ness to this story. Yes, the characters are scarred, yes, there are some tough things they are going to have to explain to their children, but they are in some ways able to move on.

6. Again, mostly I like that this story has so much in it to think about, so much in it to discuss. I even like that there is more not to like than there is to like, because it makes it far more entertaining to discuss it with people that way.

The not-so-good:

1. Katniss: Am I the only one who finds Katniss annoying? I was really bummed when I opened the second book and discovered that I was going to have to be stuck in her head for yet another book. I was sort of hoping that the 2nd and 3rd books would be from someone else's perspective. Katniss is such a narrow-minded character, I feel like she is "stuck" in survival mode and unable to grow or learn from her mistakes or anything that happens to her, and so, as a reader, I am stuck there with her. I would love to see the author write a parallel series from, say... Haymitch's perspective (or even from a third-person perspective, following someone else).

2. The narrow scope of this story: There is so much potential story in this world that the author has created, but we only get to see glimpses of it. This is frustrating to me as a reader, and one of the reasons I rarely enjoy a story that is told from a first-person perspective. There are places for first-person, I've used it myself, but I felt like it sort of crippled this story after the first book.

3. Snow: (it's not what you think... obviously you're not supposed to like him) but am I the only one who finds President Snow to be as ridiculously idiotic as he is evil? I mean, seriously, putting Katniss BACK in the public eye? Did he WANT a rebellion? Because putting her back in the games, and therefore back on television was the dumbest thing he could have done. Dumber even than just having her killed. Sorry, but that felt just a tad too contrived. Here is this guy, who is supposedly fiendishly clever enough to have gotten himself to the top of this dictatorship, and then he throws it all away by making one of the most stupid decisions available. (No, I don't buy that the Quarter Quell card was the one written 75 years ago, I think he did it on purpose... but for what reason, I still haven't figured it out... except that the author wanted Katniss back in the Hunger Games, so back she went)

4. Finnick dying: (or does he? Because later on in the story he and Annie have a child... I think the author forgot she killed him off) Ok, I know he probably isn't around when his child is born, because he did get killed off... but that seemed really odd to me. I felt like his death was unnecessary, it was like the author felt the need to randomly kill off some of her main characters, but wasn't sure just why.


And that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there are other things I'm missing or forgetting or not thinking of now, but I'll chalk it up to "Mommy Brain." I'm happy to discuss the books with you if you feel differently or if you think of something I've left out.