School's Out! (well...almost)

15 and one-half days remain in the 2007-2008 school year! The kids are quite restless, as you can imagine, and their teachers are as anxious as they are for summer to begin! It's going to be a crazy three weeks, so please be praying for Lisa and me.

We're still waiting on word from our Homeowners' Association on whether or not we can build our privacy fence where we want to. I wasn't aware of some of the restrictions the first time I put in our application for approval. This time, I got a little better educated and designed the fence to meet all the specifications, so it shouldn't be a problem now.

My principal asked me to teach language arts next year. I emphatically told her yes! I taught math and social studies this year, and though I liked it very much, I've always loved language arts (my degree is in language and literature). I am really looking forward to the change next year!

A new recreation center opened in Spring Hill about three weeks ago. It's unbelievably cool, and I frequent it often. For the last two weeks, I've been getting up early to go work out before school, and it's been very energizing. I haven't lost as much weight as I'd like to yet, but I'm getting there, and feeling a lot better. I hadn't played racquetball in ten years, but that was one of my favorite forms of exercise in college, so I'm really happy I've gotten back into that! Lisa and I are also walking every night with Grace, so that's more exercise for us all. Go fitness!

I encouraged my friend Kim to buy the Nike Sport Kit, so we've created a challenge against each other to see who can walk the most miles in 30 days. Nike keeps track of the challenge online automatically, so that's super-cool. Stupid me, though, I started the challenge a day before she walked 13 miles in the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, so I have some catching up to do.

It looks like we've got great weather ahead of us in both Tennessee and Michigan, so enjoy the sunshine, warmth, and Tigers baseball! We love you all!

TCAP Time in Tennessee!

Woo-hoo! It's TCAP time in Tennessee, and Lisa are I and all of our teaching colleagues are unbelievably excited! Please note the sarcasm. TCAP is like the MEAP in Michigan, and most teachers generally agree that this time of the year is one of the worst, and a time we don't look forward to. It's usually a very draining week, and I always feel bad for making kids take so many meaningless tests (yes, meaningless, unless you're a politician or a realtor) in the span of a week. Anyway, please be praying for me, Lisa, our teaching friends, and especially for the kids who will be testing every day next week.

Things are slowing down and getting relaxing here. We've got all of our furniture, and are now just arguing with the HOA over our privacy fence, a battle I'm pretty certain we'll win. Other than that, it's smooth sailing down here in the South. Grace loves the backyard, and we try to get her out and play soccer every chance we can. She's into eating the grass right now, and she usually doesn't feel too great after doing that, so time in the backyard isn't for too long. I mowed the lawn over the weekend, not paying attention to the 70-degree weather, and got sunburned. It wasn't that bad, just enough to remind me to wear sunscreen when I mow again tomorrow.

I'm catching all sorts of grief from my friends for the Tigers' 0-7 start. Come on, boys, do something, please! Lisa and I are going to veg in front of the TV and watch the Tigers and Red Sox in HD tonight, so hopefully Bonderman will have a good game for us, and we finally start hitting!

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but I'm tired, so I'm going to cut this one short. Stay tuned for more, and thank you all for your continued prayers. We love you all.