Sorry to leave you hanging... we didn't go on strike. Thank God! We settled just hours before the teachers were set to hit the picket lines. We didn't have to worry about any of that. So now, it's just a matter of my getting used to teaching for the first time. I'm already ready for this year to be over... not for any reason other than to just get my first year under my belt. I won't have to stay at the school for hours and plan lessons and figure out what the heck I'm doing with my life =) The kids are trying to test me, but I seem to win every time. So that's a good sign. They're not getting anything past this new guy. That's just a very small percent of my students. Most of them are actually quite wonderful, and I'm enjoying getting to know them slowly as I get used to this whole thing. The kids are slowly getting a hang of Spanish, which is very encouraging to see. I have seen a significant improvement with Spanish 2 after I've been pretty hard on them. It's also exciting to see Spanish 1--who knew NOTHING of the language 3 months ago--write sentences and paragraphs about certain topics. Spanish 3 is full of brilliant students anyway, so it's pretty easy to be proud of them. I've been very involved with the First Christian Church in Barnesville--especially with the youth group. I have a couple of the kids in school, so it's kinda neat to have them in both parts of my life. It has been a very warm and welcoming church. They make me feel like I've been there all my life. It's good to have a sense of belonging in church. It has also been somewhat of a challenge with the youth group since several of the kids don't come from a church background. Sometimes it's hard to keep some order, but they seem to respect me a lot, so that has quite an impact on their behavior. I love seeing the way Christ changes people's lives. For the first couple months of living in Barnesville, I lived in a trailer that my granddad owns. In the middle of October, the house that he owns became available. At first, I was content with my trailer and didn't want to seem greedy by taking the house. But after going into the house, I realized right away that it was something God was pushing me toward. I love having company, and a trailer is not very conducive to that type of service. The house seems to be perfect for it, and even though I haven't had anyone over yet, I look forward to the possibilities. God just keeps giving me more with which to be responsible, and I hope I'm doing a good job of it. I'm making a trip to North Carolina this week. We only have 2 days of school this week (Praise God!). So Wednesday, I will head south to visit Dan & Rachel & the rest of the Richardson/Ross family in a cabin in the mountains. I'm pretty excited, mainly because I haven't seen my sister for 11 months, which--in case you didn't know--is entirely too long for us. That seems to be all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Until Next Time! | 
