picking up the pieces, showing you some pics

as of 6 days ago... my job description for the rest of the school year has been simplified to teacher... i'm not directing drama, or setting up art shows or any of that silliness, i am simply a teacher who goes home at the end of the school day and has time for things like grocery shopping or reading. it's for me, the most wonderful time of the school year.

to celebrate my freedom i took a short weekend trip to MN this last weekend to see Ben and Kate and the brilliant kiddos. Here are some picks to prove their adorable existence...






NEWLHS ART CLUB
- well part of it anyway... after painting windows at Culvers.

YOUNGLIFE FUN-NESS
Chester & Esther (Zach & Claire)
the Moth Ball Testers - trying to get "hip" for camp


deuces

The Stanky Leg
(if you're asking yourself, "what is the stanky leg?"; you may be too old to care)

some of younglife's fearless leaders


zach & lisa 2009


and, in case you weren't able to be here, here is just a taste of this years drama production, "The Curious Savage"

The Griffin Star Wars Action Figures Draft of 2008

I wish I could focus on the work that I need to get done... but I just know that I wouldn't be doing the world justice if I didn't take the procrastinatory time to sit down and blog about our Star Wars Draft...

There are several steps to this process, I suggest that if you are going to at any time entertain the idea of having a draft of your own that you take these steps to heart...

Step 1:
Carefully take all 'action figures' out of the box
and place them on the floor,
so they can easily be seen.

Step 2:
Outfit all the figures with the proper accessories

Step 3:
Take a look at all of the Star Wars Figurines &
get to know them individually...

some good questions to ask might be,
"Was this Chewbacca ever run over by a car?"
-or-
"Do I have to get the pig man if I want Jabba the Hut?"
Note: Take into account both sentimental and monetary value...
perhaps conduct some online research.

Side Note: Ignore anyone that thinks that you are silly to be spending so much time on such a 'trivial' thing... they will write about it in their dream journal later and then move on ;-)

... Instead, get excited about all the possibilities!

Step 4:
Carefully examine the possible selections individually.
Make sure that you do not choose anything created after 1983,
that's not from Hong Kong,
or that may have come out of a cereal box (sorry admiral akbar)

Step 5:
Make the selection already!!!!
Side Note: Be sure to grumble and groan about any selection that someone else has made that you were going to take in your next round, or should have taken in your last one...

Step 6:
Trade until you get what you actually wanted, and enjoy!







* All action figures seen here could be for sale... given the right price and the overcoming of some pre-existing sentimental ties.

my life be like oooo ahhhhh

12 week grades... done.
report cards printed.
schedules inputted.
pizza ordered.
pizza partially eaten.
couch cozy.
long weekend ahead.
much merriness to come.

i'm ready.

word on the street is...

A friend of a friend found a dress that fit her perfectly and then she took a look at the tag... the dress was $2.50, simply amazing!

She admittedly prayed before going.

so it is now evident to everyone that God works at Younkers.

Because who, without God's help, can find something on sale for $2.50 at Younkers?

I have a student that works there... I'll have to ask her if she can set up a meeting.

ribbons on my shoe

so, busyness has become a way of life for me, and for those of you looking for an update, just know that i no longer have a day to sleep in.

this last saturday i was up an hour and a half earlier than i am on a normal school day... ahhhh volleyball, it's fun, but sleep depriving on occasion.

my freshman have been doing pretty well... improving as they go, and struggling too, which always leaves room for more learning.

i took on new responsibilities this year at school, since we are without an administrator, and so it has been quite the busy start for that as well, and with only one prep first hour of the day... my brain is usually exhausted by the time the end of 8th hour rolls around.

you may be wondering what the ribbons are all about... it probably looks like i'm trying to remember things in all of this busyness. but alas it is not. it is simply that our varsity team get a little team spirit with each game they play by all wearing the same ribbons. And as part of the coaching staff, i also get ribbons, boop boop. This picture is after only two games... hopefully by the end of the season my flip flop will be overflowing with them. thus keeping my tootsies warm in the approaching cold.

the rest of the story - somewhat abridged

talk about a lapse in time... my apologies.

In Virginia we spent some time with Erin's family, and after a flat tire told us to try for D.C. another day, we went to Colonial Williamsburg instead...


Here's one of our gracious tour guides... He was very good. We also spent an hour in the evening listening to some 'ghost' stories, as told by 3 different women. It was great, if you ever go to Williamsburg I highly recommend it!


On to D.C., here is Captain Mike of the D.C. Duck Tours, He was great! Every great tour starts with a great tour guide.


2 Happy Ducks! Quack Quack


Our final day of travel we had two roadside attractions to hit in two different hick towns of Indiana. The first, the pink martini drinking elephant in front of a liquor store.




And our final roadside attraction took us to 2 nudist colonies (don't worry we didn't peep any nudists). Classic, this final stop topped my list, it's the lady leg sundial.



One final reminder...

roadtrip part 2 - from mike's to the belly dancing recital

after hell... we headed to Mike's in Marysville, MI... which just so happens to be right across the river from Canada and the city just on the other side from Mike's apartment is Sarnia. Sarnia is actually where the 'Griffin' family homestead is... anyways, time with mike consisted of sitting, sleeping, movie watching, eating, phase 10, true colors, and drinking... it was fun.



from Mike's we moved on to the longest leg of our journey... the 12 hour drive to long island went relatively smoothly... no major mishaps, and plenty of good music.

In Long Island we stayed with Erin's friend Lindsey and Lindsey's fiance's parents. Their house was awesome, and Vinny, the father-in-law to be made us breakfast each morning.

Our first full day in NY we took a train trip into downtown NYC. Our first stop was ground zero, which much more than a whole in the ground is a bustling and busy construction site as they work on the freedom tower. So instead of showing you a picture of the cranes... here is a beautiful one of one of the trees in the cemetery of the church just across the street from the World Trade Center. It is a beautiful church that was a big part of the relief efforts after the 9/11 attacks.



After ground zero we walked until we found a spot where we could get onto the double decker bus tours. Now the double decker bus tour is a tricky thing, and is only ever as good as your tour guide. I'm not sure that we really perfected that of this journey, but the great thing about NY's bus tours, is that you can always get off and wait for the next bus. Here's a pic of Lindsey and Erin pointing out something very specific...



and of course, some of the sites...





After our long day in the city, we made it back to Long Island before midnight. The next day we have a lazy morning, and then in the early afternoon erin and i left long island, and headed to the bronx to visit with our friend Joy.

Joy just happened to be participating in a recital that day, which was awesome. It was the best part of NY for me, by far. The recital consisted of a variety of different performances by all the different classes at that particular Bronx Community Center. The atmosphere in the room was awesome, like out of a movie. There were over 50 kids in the room in different colored tutus, many also wearing tap shoes. it was great, and joy's class did a phenomenal job. Joy was awesome... and all the people around us were commenting on how they wish they had been in the class. I've only included one picture of the whole group, i'm saving the rest for blackmailing joy at a later date (i'm going to be rich someday).



after the recital joy took us to this awesome local pizzeria, john & joe's. joe was behind the counter, and once again i felt like what joy was living in was community and it was a very beautiful and tasty thing!

road trip part 1 - going to hell

day 1 of the trip i drove to chicago to pick up erin from the Huster household, and made some good time to Greg's in Warsaw, IN. Our first roadside attraction attempt was to see the world's largest fake nose and glasses, which was recently moved to somewhere in the furthest south eastern town of michigan. that attempt as pictured below, was unsuccessful:



we were forced to turn around after following a road closure, and an alternate route that led us to a no trespassing sign - if we had continued we may have been shot (thanks gps).

It was nice to see Greg for a couple of hours. We stayed the night, but were only really able to hang out with Greg during dinner at applebee's, and breakfast at BK. Thanks Greg for forcing yourself to eat some breakfast so I could spend some more time with you.


Following the breakfast at BK Erin and I set out on our next great adventure... We were going to Hell... Michigan. But we couldn't go alone, so of course we did what ever american does, and we stopped at Walmart to pick up some hand baskets and coordinating decorations. We took the time in the car to carefully decorate our hand baskets before heading to Hell... Michigan.


Hell was surprisingly lame (well maybe it shouldn't have been surprising). Hell consisted of about 3 buildings that included a general store and some restaurants that were selling things that didn't smell very good at all. The buildings were decorated with some tacky and ridiculous devils so of course we had to have our picture taken in their little photo ops...




While we were there, Erin had to go pee, so we stopped in the general store and asked where the bathrooms were... and wouldn't you know that the only place to go pee in Hell is in a port-a-potty...



all in all, it was pretty ridiculous, Hell didn't even have good postcards.