5. first week as professor mosher

Though this is my fourth year teaching (crazy, I know!), I still felt a little nervousness entering into my first week of school. Going in, I had insecurities about whether I would really fit in a Classical school environment, whether I could teach a senior level Environmental Science class well, and whether I could handle a full-time teaching load. I had also only met my supervisors up to this point, so I had no idea what my fellow faculty would be like. So many unknowns that are no longer unknown...

To begin, I'll talk about inservice. The mornings were boring, spent mostly discussing philosophical matters. I felt the faculty were way out of my league and that my educational philosophy did not align with the school's. I texted Daniel both days of inservice, saying I wanted to quit. Not a good start. Then, I began to interact with the faculty on a more one-on-one basis. It was amazing to me how different these people were when they were separated from the group. If it were not for those faculty conversations, I'm fairly certain I would have quit. One person, in particular, Cheree, struck a chord with me. We were both new and seemed to feel the same way about spending all our time discussing the theoretical. Turns out that her dad pastors the church we are attending, too. And she's a part of a local ministry to the community. And she is getting married in a month. So much to talk about. :) Several other faculty members this week have taken time to get to know both me and Daniel, asking real questions and expressing genuine excitement for us being a part of their family. Both Daniel and I really feel like we are a part of that community now, and we are grateful. The parents further exemplified this to me, as I joined with them in a scheduled prayer time on Tuesday morning and as I interacted with them at Convocation (school-wide welcome event) on Thursday evening. The prayer time was my favorite, because we broke into groups, one parent with a group of faculty, praying through different topics related to the new school year. It was so encouraging to me that this community that cares for me well also seeks the Lord intentionally together. I could go on and on about how much I love the people, but I will stop for now.

No I won't. I'll just shift my focus to the students. Thursday was the first day of school, and it was tiring! I have 1st and 2nd plan, 3rd study hall, 4th Environmental Science, 5th Physical Science, 6th Chemistry Lab (TR only), and 7th Chemistry. My planning time was spent running around like a crazy person, trying to make copies and get the supplies ready for my demonstrations. By Environmental Science, I finally had everything ready. These seniors were a little casual at first, but once I told them I expected them to enter class differently the next day, they got their acts together. Cambridge has a tradition where the students stand until the professor tells them to be seated, which I had considered unnecessary and over-the-top. Then, I saw the purpose... it really does change the mindset when you enter the classroom. It establishes focus and an atmosphere of respect. I like it and I am using it. :) I always have preselected seating charts done before the first day of class, where I eventually disperse the guys and girls (they tend to get too chatty when either are all together). My Environmental Science guys turned out to be very talkative, and the girls are quiet. They all seem to be excited about the material and willing to work hard. One of the girls asked if I was willing to help students prepare for the AP test. Let me think, students asking to work harder... yes, please! I did not have a demo that I felt was relevant to this class, so I gave them each a flower, while we discussed its significance to Environmental Science. Daniel was sweet enough to get the flowers during 1st period while I was at school doing other things. When he brought them to me, everyone thought he was being sweet, which he was, but they did not know the reason he brought them. I'm pretty sure it put pressure on the other male faculty, though. :)

After lunch, I had Physical Science, which is my first middle school class ever. Those kids are sweet and cute, but also talkative and energetic. I have to find ways to keep them entertained and engaged or else there will be chaos. They all seem to love science, and I hope to grow that love in them more. I am already noticing, though, the disparity between students' academic abilities. Friday, one student in particular seemed bored at the end of class, when he had finished before the others. I might have to make it a little more challenging for him next week! Not a bad problem to have either! My first day with them, I did various demos with a coke can. I let them participate, and I think they really enjoyed that. I learned that almost every single student had been out of the country in 8th grade, some had already been to 5, and even 7! I also learned that these kids were picking on each other in subtle ways. I put an end to that the first day, and I hope through that, the kids who were picked on know that I have their back.

Chemistry on Thursday was both 6th and 7th period, because of lab. That is a long time to have kids who have already suffered through a whole day of syllabus talk. I decided to do the gummy bears and potassium chlorate experiment with them, to add a wow factor. Look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it. They enjoyed that, and they also seemed to enjoy each other. This is by far my most social class. I called the girls out for being chatty the first day, and they were definitely better by Friday. It also helps that I jumped right into material on the second day rather than using it for another intro day. These kids seem to have a lot of background knowledge and also seem to like science. I am so thankful for both of these things. The first chapter is elementary, but I hope to challenge them this next week as we get into more detailed concepts. It's so strange that in all my classes I am having to up the difficulty level. This year will grow me as a teacher for sure.

Back to the week generally... Friday was much easier than Thursday. Next week will be even smoother, as the kids get used to their routines. I am trying this new system that I am really excited about, using personal student folders. I put everything the students need in their folders before class. They pick up their folders and place their homework in it from the night before, all before class starts. This way, there is no question about whether homework is due at the beginning or end of class. And, I don't have to waste time passing out papers. It does take effort for me to put everything in the folders, but that seems a small price to pay for more class time. :) Now let's talk about dress code. The girls have specific uniform shoes, socks, skirts, and shirts. The boys have specific shirts and pants. The seniors are issued blazers. I love this (and I didn't think I would). There is no pushing the limits with shirts untucked or off-colored undershirts. So nice. The faculty is expected to dress professionally as well, men wearing ties (and coats) and women wearing something comparable. Over the summer, Daniel and I found great sales on suit jackets for me, so I have been wearing suits to school (yes, in 105 degree weather). It actually seems to give me more confidence and helps the students view me as someone who looks older than 18.

My biggest challenge in these next few weeks will be upping my content knowledge of Environmental Science topics and balancing my teaching schedule with my nannying job, which begins next week (Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6:30). I wanted to be able to provide enough for Daniel and I to live on, so that he could focus solely on school. This still may not work, but the nannying money will definitely help. We are still learning that God provides exactly what we need, as we have seen it happen all summer long. This post has been very Jill-focused, so I will add a little bit about Daniel. He has finished up nannying for our other family this week. We had so much fun with these kids, so it is sad to part ways. He did such a great job creatively entertaining them. I have so much I can learn from him. He has also been very supportive of my teaching endeavor. Not only did he bring my supplies to school for me Thursday, but he also came to Convocation with me, and he willingly built relationships with my co-workers. He has also agreed to join me as a chaperone for our school's college trip in October. We will be flying to South Carolina, visiting various schools, and as chaperones, it is free for us! This seems an appropriate time to address traveling back home, as well. Sadly, we have realized we will have less time off together than we thought. We have one week off together for Thanksgiving and one week off together for Christmas. We still plan to come home for at least one of these, but it will be a little rushed. We were really hoping for two weeks, which, as it turns out, we both have... just, they are different weeks. Bummer! The other bummer is that Daniel has been really sick the past few days, coughing and oozing out snot. He seems to be on the recovering end, and I have only had a couple of coughs, so we are trying to rest a lot this weekend to fight it off.

Since I have written a novel, I am going to end there. I am excited about next week, and Daniel, I know, is excited about the week after when he starts class.

4. the events of august

As our last month of summer begins, the pace begins to quicken as well. The last two weeks have been quite full. Here’s a quick summary, after which I will expound upon each event:

1. Jill and I got paid to watch TV at someone else’s house.

2. I employed a homeless man.

3. I interviewed for 2 jobs myself.

4. A dog’s passing enabled Jill and I to attend baby showers in Amarillo.

5. Jill and I endured a day of 109 degrees for 108 free meals.

Now for the longer version:

1. We have only nannied for the other family once (the night after the last blog post), but it was enjoyable. They have a daughter going into kindergarten and a son going into third, so the kids are a bit younger than the others that we keep. That evening, after the parents left on their date, we ate pizza with the kids while watching some of their favorite shows on TV. After about an hour or so, however, it was already their bedtime. Once we’d put them to bed, we still had another two hours before the parents returned, so Jill and I found a movie on TV to watch together, occasionally checking in on the kiddos to make sure they were actually in bed. Oh, the perks of nannying!

2. A few Sundays ago, I went to a nearby gas station to fill up our car and rent a movie from a redbox kiosk. It’d been a little while since our car had been washed, and apparently somebody noticed. It wasn’t long after I started pumping gas that I heard somebody cleaning off my windshield. I turned around to see a homeless man squeegeeing the windows of my car, and since I wasn’t going anywhere, I let him. He talked the whole time, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. The only thing I know I heard was something about sparing whatever change I could. Unfortunately, all the change I had in the car was pennies and nickels, so once we’d both finished our respective tasks I told him that I’d run inside and get some change. I got $20 out of the ATM inside and bought a bottled water to break it. When I walked out, he was standing nearby waiting. After giving him a few dollars and the water, he asked me if he could pray with me, and he did. I couldn’t make out much of what he said in the prayer, either—except for the words “thank you”—but he wasn’t talking to me anyway. After that, he walked off with his cash and water, and I returned to the car with a humble awareness of what one can encounter in the city.

3. Since our last post, I’ve had two interviews for part-time jobs, both of which are in the DTS media department. One is a video editing position (which is my first choice, if I get to choose), and the other is an audiovisual technician position (doing sound/projectors for chapel, etc.). After the interviews, I chuckled to realize that both employers commented on my e-mail address, “bumbleb,” and one even gave me the friendly advice to change it in the future. It’s an address I’ve used since high school, derived from my clowning name, “Bumblebee,” and it probably is a bit outdated (even though the other employer thought it was a Transformers reference). Regardless, I enjoyed meeting the staff and I’m sure I’ll see more of them whether or not I get one of the jobs. I also enjoyed getting to see the behind-the-scenes of the DTS media areas. It reminded me a lot of my work with media in college—and how much I love such work.

4. You might be wondering how a dog’s demise could possibly be related to a trip to Amarillo. Well, the dog belonged to the second family we’re nannying for. The original plan when we met this family was that we were going to house-sit for them while they were gone on a week of vacation, taking care of their elderly dog. For the weekend of August 5^th, Jill was also planning on driving up to Amarillo for her good friend Jessica’s baby shower while I remained at the house, dog-sitting. Unfortunately the dog, which had already endured a brain-illness for sometime, worsened to the point that they had to put her down the Wednesday before we were to dog-sit. Thus with no dog to dog-sit, we were not needed. This meant that I got to accompany Jill to Amarillo for the weekend.

The journey to the panhandle was beautiful. After getting out of the DFW area, I finally got to see the authentic Texas plains I had expected when I came. On either side of the highway, yellow fields stretched in either direction for miles, eventually surrendering to the huge, cloud-dappled sky that was as blue as a cowboy’s worn-out jeans. Train tracks paralleled the road, occasionally inhabited by engines pulling walls of train cars across the wide-expanses. As we drove, we began to see red or grey pillars in the distance. We at first thought they were smoke columns from something burning, but the more we saw, the more we realized that what we were seeing were, in fact, dust devils in the distance [If you look closely at the above picture, you can see one]. We also saw fields speckled with oil-rigs, which look just as spooky and alien in person as they do in pictures.

The weekend was as fun as the trip was scenic. Jill and I got to enjoy the company of Jessica and Aaron Tudyk, whom we hadn’t seen in Canyon, TX (their hometown, just outside Amarillo) since their wedding two years ago. It was the first time here in Texas that I felt the feeling of having a kind of family to visit. We stayed the weekend with the Tudyks, visiting craft stores (in preparations for the baby showers), eating local cuisine, and walking together in the park at sunset. On Saturday, we saw a different kind of shower than the baby-kind we had come for: it rained! Around lunch water fell from the sky, and lightning in the evening distance foretold a night of scattered storms that left puddles by morning.

After the showers took place on Sunday (the actual baby showers—one at church, and another at someone’s house), Jill and I made the 6-hour journey back to Dallas with the yellow sun setting behind us. By the time we got back, it was dark. As the road took us by the illuminated skyscrapers of Dallas, Jill and I felt the feeling of being “home” for the first time—that relief that comes over you when you near your driveway after a long trip, and know that in a few minutes you’ll get to sleep in your own cozy bed. The relief was real. The driveway was welcoming. The bed was cozy. It’s good to be home.

Check back soon for the details of Event #5—our sweltering Chick-Fil-A-dventure II.

3. the female perspective

My classroom. Daniel lovingly helped me rearrange my desks.

As I was reading my husbands updates, I was realizing that it lacked all the ooey, gooey, emotional stuff. So, it is hereby my goal to be the contributor at a heart level. Daniel and I started nannying this week for a local family with an 11-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl. We only looked after the 9-year-old, Clara, this week, taking her to the Dallas Museum of Art, the mall to window shop, and the local pool, among other places. We also played a lot of games. Mostly Yahtzee and Sleeping Queens. We have never watched younger kids together before, so it has been fun to see the roles we take on. I am more of the "why don't you go ahead and put your dishes away..." or "15 minutes until we are leaving..." kind of person. Daniel is more the hands-on type and the protector. He is always making sure Clara is safe and that she is having a good time. He will make a good dad someday.

Nannying has definitely forced us into a routine this week, which is nice because we have been getting the days of the week confused all summer. Last night, we realized we were tired, though. We also realized that we were bored in the confines of our own apartment. There was plenty of cleaning that needed to be done, but decided that cleaning was a Saturday morning activity not a Friday night thing. So, Daniel suggested watching a movie. I suggested dressing up and going out to window shop or do a photo scavenger hunt. As you can see, we are people with two very different personalities. And here, that turned out to be a great thing... and a lesson in compromise. I knew that I would feel regret if I sat in front of a movie and came back to my senses two or three hours later, because I would have felt like I was wasting my time. Had Daniel gone on a photo scavenger hunt after an exhausting week, he would be drained even more. So, we agreed to leave the apartment and see what strikes us when we are out. We ended up stopping at Knox Street, where we had taken Clara earlier that day to see what it was like at night. We went inside the three-story Crate and Barrel, where I was mistaken for an employee (this actually happens all the time). After that, we walked a couple of blocks down to Starbucks, to watch the people and cars go by and enjoy the cooler (85 degree) Dallas air. As it turns out, we both really enjoyed a simple night out, and even though spending $10 at Starbucks seemed unreasonable when we are fairly tight on cash, we decided that these types of expenditures are worth it to throw a little fun and romanticism in our world.

This morning, we cleaned. Partly because it was driving me crazy to have our clean clothes still in baskets and not hung up. And partly because Jama keeps asking for pictures. :) Our car is clean, house is clean, and laundry is done... all at the same time. I don't believe this has ever happened to me before, and it feels so nice. And there is a cheesecake baking in the oven. Hard work needs its rewards, and Daniel still needs his birthday cake!

Bedroom/hallway (We LOVE built-in bookcases)

Bathroom

Walk-in Closet!

Me writing this blog in bed :)

The kitchen - view 1

The kitchen - view 2

Study/ guest bedroom

Eating area/ living room

More living room

Now onto other ponderings. We really like it here. I thought that we might before we moved, but I had no idea to what extent. The church we have found is really neat. The youth led worship on Sunday, and I was reminded of how much I love young people. Another great thing is how much people value art and culture. I feel actually very humbled by this, because I know very little of either, but it is neat to be around. To the extent that instead of annoying kiosks at our mall, there is art -- sculptures, flower arrangements, fountains, etc.

That's all for now. Nannying tonight for family #2 :)

2. birthday(s) and sun-rays

It’s been a little over a week since the last post, and not much has changed. The heat’s as persistent as ever, the clouds are as puffy as ever, and the rains are as scarce as ever. It’s been clear skies the whole time we’ve been here, aside from some accidental raindrops that the heavens dropped on our windshield as we were driving home one night. There weren’t more than 15 of them, though. Yesterday, however, was the first time we had overcast skies pretty much all day. It cooled it off enough that we could leave the sunshade down in our car and the steering wheel wasn’t burning hot when we got in to go somewhere.

It got quite cool one day last week. We were out running errands, and in the midst, stopped off of Lovers Lane for our Chick-Fil-A fix (no joke, that’s where it is). When we got out of the car, it was around noon, and we braced ourselves for the heat. Instead, we were shocked to find it noticeably cooler than we had expected. I think I even remember a soothing breeze in there somewhere. When we checked the temperature, we were even more shocked to find that it was 92 degrees. Never would I have thought of 92 as “cool”. But that was then.

Jill and I continue to enjoy settling in to the

land and culture here. As of yesterday, we have been here a month exactly. In that time, we’ve discovered a few more things that make living here quite neat.

First of all, there are the U-turns. Along the main highway that we use, as you get off onto the access highway that parallels it, there are lanes set aside for those people who haven’t yet learned the area and need to go back the way they came. The nice thing about these U-turns is that you don’t even have to wait for the light to change. They’re completely separated from the other lanes. Just follow it around, and your course is corrected.

Secondly, we discovered with some friends that there is an X-box Kinect in the Swiss Tower common room for Tower-dwellers to use—an excellent tool for exercise as well as fun.

Another valuable aspect of life here is the Swiss Tower community e-mail list. Through this list, anyone can post an e-mail with a need or a question, and within a few minutes, someone answers. All sorts of free stuff shows up on this list, too, but you have to be fairly quick to nab it. With smartphones and (therefore) mobile e-mail, people are fast to reply. We’ve completed our apartment with two lamps and a futon, all by replying to the list—and all for free. And the best thing we’ve come across so far just happened to coincide with my birthday:

We actually celebrated the day before my actual birthday, and it worked out nicely. For the majority of the day, we enjoyed the water and the sun at Hurricane Harbor in Arlington (with the help of plenty sunscreen to keep from being baked alive and flip-flops for when the ground was way too hot to walk on). After our fill of slides and pools, we headed out to catch a delightful dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. Once we’d gotten our food, Jill went over and told the waiter something I couldn’t hear and came back with a grin. It didn’t take long to figure out what she’d told him. Servers began to gather around, and I braced for the song. But first, they got me up in front of the restaurant, tied a paper towel around my head so that the two ends stuck out like giant ears, and gave me a paper towel tail, a bucket and a spoon. They then announced that, while they sang happy birthday, I was to hop around the restaurant like the energizer bunny and bang on the bucket with the spoon. So I did. And while I didn’t end up getting a free dessert afterwards, they did give me a complimentary birthday “Eat at Joe’s” mason jar, which I appreciated…considering.

Our plan following Joe’s was to go catch a drive-in showing of the 3^rd Transformers south of Dallas. But, having enabled mobile e-mail on our smartphones, we saw that someone in Swiss Tower was giving away free tickets to a musical for that night. Thus we came upon a better evening activity than a drive-in worth much more for much less.

We replied to the e-mail and claimed the tickets, headed back to Swiss to change into nicer attire (which is when I realized I was still wearing the paper-towel bunny tail), and picked up the tickets. Then we made our way in the evening warmth to the Fair Park Music Hall, where we enjoyed excellent seating for Guys and Dolls. And it wasn’t even my actual birthday until the next day!

On my actual birthday, we continued the festivities by visiting the GIANT Half-Price bookstore here in Dallas, going to see Transformers 3 (at an indoor movie theater), and eating at Jack in the Box, where I did end up

getting a free birthday dessert (via coupon) without the singing or hopping.

So while the heat remains, I’m happy to say it has done nothing to get in the way of some dandy birthday celebrations. More of what happened post-birthday soon!

1. from the mountains to the metroplex

How do you tell a story? What makes a story meaningful? What makes it interesting? What about a story captivates those who read it, watch it, or witness it? What about those who are in it? How do you tell a story while it’s happening—particularly while it’s happening to you?

Who knows? But such a telling is exactly what I’m attempting here—the story of Daniel and Jill in Dallas, Texas.

This particular story’s beginning is etched in my memory as final images of family, standing in their driveways, waving farewell. It was in the last days of June when Jill and I left our home for the wide-open spaces of Texas. We drove all day on June 28^th from Knoxville to Memphis to Little Rock, Arkansas and on. A front of severe storms lined our journey that day. I think it was around Jackson, TN that we drove under some clouds that were so low, it seemed a tornado was trying to form. With the sky an unsettling green, we put Jackson behind us as quickly as we could. We stopped at a Chick-Fil-A for supper on the other side of Texarkana, and it was easy to tell we were in Texas: they had packages of hot sauce and salsa as condiments.

There are two things I remember about that night as we drove into Dallas. First was the distant skyline of Dallas as we approached in the evening sun, with the eastern lake on either side of us.

Second was the feeling as we drove onto the campus of Dallas Theological Seminary: it didn’t feel strange, it felt right, and it felt exciting.

The next few days unfolded nicely. After subleasing an apartment for the night in Swiss Tower (where we now live), we spent the afternoon of the 29^th at the DFW media “unconference,” where I was happy to find a room full of people devoted to the ministry realm I have come here to learn.

For the next two nights, we slept on an air mattress in our empty apartment until we were able to move our stuff in on July 1^st. Having packed all our belongings in two U-pack cubes (totaling 672 cubic feet), we met our moving truck at the ABF facility where the cubes had been delivered. The movers unloaded the cubes and reloaded the stuff onto their truck, and then followed us through downtown Dallas traffic to our apartment building, where they unloaded all of our stuff into our apartment. We had been worried that our furniture wouldn’t all fit well, but it ended up fitting perfectly.

We spent the next several days unpacking. We ended up catching fireworks twice: once in Addison (just North of Dallas) on the evening of the 3^rd (it was a large event, but we ended up not having to pay for parking, somehow), and again on the 4^th in Waco, after having a cook-out with a good Baylor-friend of Jill’s. We ended up missing the Fair Park fireworks, but I was told later that they weren’t that great.

Since then, we’ve spent the majority of our time either exploring the area or lounging in our apartment. Exploring Dallas has been fun and a whole lot easier than expected. Anything we could want is usually no more than 10 minutes away in any given direction—including NorthPark Mall (a mall 10 minutes away!), a Chick-Fil-A, plenty of Jack-in-the-Box (they’re everywhere), and tons of burger joints (they’re even more everywhere!).

We have begun to make some friends in the apartment building, as well (we even dressed up like cows with one couple for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A). The most helpful discovery we’ve made is that the apartment swimming pool is the fastest way to make acquaintances, since over 2/3rds of the families here have kids.

Our church-search has been quite successful. While only two Sundays have passed since we arrived, we have found a church to attend. The first church we went to didn’t quite represent the diverse demographics we’ve discovered in Dallas (though the thing about a city is that there’s demographic “pockets” from one sector of the city to the next, so it makes it hard to tell the overall diversity factor in places). The church we went to last Sunday, however, has a little more diversity and seems more suited to our predispositions. We could continue this search indefinitely if we so desired, since there are tons of mega-churches in the area as well as small churches. Since arriving, I have heard Dallas referred to as the “buckle” of the Bible belt, which I find intriguing.

Throughout our transition here, we have been impressed at how faithful God is in His provision for us. We believe fully that this is where He has called us to be, and He has made the way for us. Now it is a matter of following Him here, step by step, as we embark on this journey. Aside from trying to come up with a cute and creative way to include Dallas in the title of this blog (since that is where this story is unfolding), I wanted to acknowledge as well that, while this is the story of us in Dallas, the story is His, and there wouldn’t be a story if it weren’t for Him. So what is this story about? As far as I can tell, it’s about us discovering the Almighty’s love in learning authentic service. Welcome to dAllas!