Day by Day with Gina

Monday, March 27, 2006

New Posters for My Classroom

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Actors in True Form

Each Wednesday night, I sit down to watch videos for my Master's Degree. These are often boring experiences that ilicit mumbling explicatives from the husband and me. You might ask why I watch them. Well, I have to watch them so I can take this five-question quiz each week and write a short paper.
This evening, after my weekly grocery trip, I sat down to watch my video for the week so I could take my quiz before bed. Ben was "enjoying" the video with me, and we began to actually enjoy ourselves when we saw these fine teachers who were in the audience. I swear, they must be professional actors. They are so authentic-looking.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Drugs...good...

So, in classic Gina style, I messed myself up yet again doing something quite stupid. Remember the s'mores incident? This runs in the same vein.
Monday morning, I drowsily got out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. While I was in the shower, some water got into my ear, kind of like when you go swimming and get water in your ear. Whenever I get water in my ear, I just tilt my head to the side and hop up and down until the water comes out. I have probably done this a hundred times in my life.

I guess this quarter-century-old woman couldn't take the one hundred and first time. Apparently, I don't know my own hopping strength. I majorly pulled the muscles in my neck. I immediately knew it, too. I went downstairs to take some medicine and get my ice pack. Ben had to help me finish getting ready by drying my hair and pulling my sweater over my head for me. I pulled my muscles so badly that it hurt constantly, not just when I moved. And when I say hurt, I mean throbbing, shooting pain. All from a little water in the ear.

I bravely went to work and pumped myself with ibuprofen. Teaching is tough to do when you can't move your neck. If my kids had a question, they had to hold the paper up in front of my face because I couldn't look down. When trying to scan the room and "monitor," I had to turn my whole body 180 degrees instead of just my head. I was surviving, but it was pretty pitiful. And everyone was having a really good laugh on my account.

After the ibuprofen wore off around lunchtime, though, I took some Tylenol because the school nurse didn't want me "ruining my stomach" with ibuprofen. The three Tylenol I took didn't even put a dent in the pain. I started getting nauseated, it hurt so badly. I finally caved, got a sub for the afternoon, and carefully went to not one, but two doctors before I made it home.

Dr. #1 gave me a shot in the rump, a pain-killer prescription, and a muscle relaxer prescription. Dr. #2 (my chiropractor) gave me some muscle work and therapy and strict orders to stay home today. "I'll even write you an excuse note," he said. This was the first time all day that I smiled.
"Well, as much as I hate to be out of school, I guess I have to if you tell me to stay home." :)

Muscle relaxers roxxor, as my friend Eric would say. Combine that with not going to work, and I woke up feeling pretty darn good this morning.

And the funniest part of the day? When I went to the chiropractor's office, the nurse asked me how I hurt my neck. I said, "Well, it's a bit embarassing."
She whispered, "Were you having sex?"
I wish! At least then it would have been worth it!

Sunday, March 05, 2006

If the card fits...

My birthday was on the 24th of February. The celebrating began on the 23rd with a cake and a few presents during our hanging out with friends. It has continued with various cards, contacts, and celebrations. It will continue into next weekend, at least, with a couple of shopping trips with my mom and mother-in-law and a dinner promised me by my very kind husband. I think this will be my most lengthy birthday celebration evar- possibly as long as three weeks! Whoa. I really like dragging out birthdays, don't I?

So, I wanted to share some of my very cool cards I have received...so far. More may be coming. With all of this celebration of my day of birth, I just don't know what to expect!

I just have to say, this is one of the coolest cards I've gotten in awhile. It was given to me by Mr. Jason during the fambly birthday celebration yesterday. It described my birthday celebration perfectly.

As if this wasn't enough to honor my birthday awesome-ness, Miss Pamela gave me a homemade card with an original poem in it, to my ultimate delight. This construction-paper backed poem is so massive, I have to scan it in two separate parts. Even more exciting, Pam wrote this card in one draft. That is impressive. I must be pretty darn inspiring to elicit words like these!

Wow. I'm speechless! Well, not quite...
Now, for those of you out there who didn't write me a birthday poem (everyone else but Pam), feel free to include it in the comments since you've now been inspired by Pam's originality and artistry.
After all, I am birthday incarnate!!! Worship me for my birthdayness with pomp and poetery!!!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Through Space and Time

We went to West Virginia this past weekend. We drove for ten hours (12 total travel time with stops), spent two days in WV, and drove back Monday with a similar timetable.

I sat in the car for at least twenty hours, slept more than I have in a long time, and didn't really do a whole lot. The most active part of my weekend was the Electric Slide during the wedding reception. Now, while that was impressive while wearing my heels and doing the extra little turn-steps, the net of the weekend was basically a lotta nuttin'.

And I am exhausted!

Why does sitting in a car for a long time and relaxing a lot otherwise leave me so tired? I can think of some contributing factors, but no truly viable scientific explanation. So, you, my faithful readership, have the assignment of giving me an answer to this lifelong bothersome question. Feel free to discuss or assign percentages of impact from the following list:

age
circulation
movement (or lack thereof)
boredom
stress
change in schedule
change in environment (weather, allergens, etc.)
the possibility that man was never intended to travel through so much space and time at once

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Which Side are YOU On???

Time to take a commercial break and just do something fun!

A friend of mine sent me this really fun test that I took a couple of days ago. If you have ever wondered whether you are a Southerner or not, this is the test for you!
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html

My favorite question:
What's that bug that rolls into a ball when you touch it?

Doodlebug
Pillbug
Roly-Poly
Potato bug
Sow bug

This test is very educational. You'll find out four different titles for the night before Halloween, two different ways to pronounce the word "route", and what people in Massachusetts call their soda.

I am 57% Dixie. What are you??? And what is your favorite question???

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Evolving Thoughts

Now, I have been convinced for a large portion of my life that evolution is a load of unproved, misinformed, atheistic crap. It seems the view of the modern church that Creationism is the only option that includes God. I have been wondering over the last several years, though- why must evolution be missing God? What if God was the one who initiated and sustained this process of evolution? Would that make Him any less God?

As I was finishing the previously mentioned book, The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian MacLaren, the character Neil Oliver is a Christian in the book who finds some parts of the theory of evolution not only interesting, but even exciting.

He starts by saying that the theory of evolution is not perfect and has many holes, but that, to him, it makes more sense than any theory because of God's creative nature. Basically, that God created the universe to continue creating, not just to be stagnant.

from page 98:
"Bottom line: Go back before creation. If God is the only thing that exists, the only being that is, then God has to create time, so that the universe can be itself, become itself, with some kind of freedom and authenticity. Otherwise, it's just a puppet universe, just a simulation. Do you see it? So if God wants to make a universe that's real, I think we would expect it to happen just as evolution says: the universe would develop, over time, writing its own story, so to speak. It's a story of becoming, of unfolding, of novelties emerging and possibilities being explored and diversity flowing. And best of all, it's not finished yet. We're still in process, still young, still moving ahead toward what we're going to be when we're all 'grown up.' And each of us, through our lives, through our choices, by cooperating with God or by withholding our cooperation, plays a part in the continuing evolution of God's creation. That's not so bad, is it?"

I don't think that's so bad. And while I don't know that evolution is the best theory we can come up with, there are some parts that do make sense and some parts of it that are intriguing, and I don't think that God has to be absent from it.

I have this feeling like all of the things we argue about and consider to be "Christian" and "atheistic" will not even matter to God when we finally get to heaven and ask Him. If He does tell us what He did, it will be something completely different from anything we could have imagined, I have a feeling. It reminds me of Joshua chapter 5, when Joshua meets an angel and says, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" The angel says, "Neither, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." In other words, He doesn't come to take sides. His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours.

We haven't figured it all out. Maybe we need to view all of our theories as huge stabs in the dark, and everyone hits a different part of the bigger picture that no one will see until we meet Him face-to-face.

Evolution is something we don't discuss much in Christian circles, except to bash it and disregard it completely. Are we willing to consider it and discuss it?

Time for the passionate comments!!! Let's hear 'em...