Wow, it has been a long, LONG time, my friends.  I apologize.  Well, what is new, you say?   Well by this time, many things have been new that are now old.  I'll do my best to give you the brightest of the highlights.  I did teach 4th grade last school year, as the last little "article" told ya.  That was wonderful.  Those children were definitely hurting and God used me to speak truth into their lives.  This is definitely a fatherless generation.  This summer I got to visit one of my closest of pals, Rebecca, and she and I actually met up in South Carolina to see Jonathan and Lisa, two of the friends we taught with in South Korea.  It had been a year since we all left Korea.  We gathered in South Carolina because some of the kids we taught in Korea and their parents there for a week!  We spent time together for a few days and caught up and shared memories and took pictures.  I spent the rest of the summer in Rochester, NY with Beck, (Rebecca) where she is in grad school.  Her and her roomies were a blast.  When I came back home to MO, I had much prepping and orientation before the new school year.  I recieved a job at the same school to teach 2nd graders.  (That's us in the top picture.)  God worked it all out for me because there was just one opening and this was my favorite grade to teach.  I took it!  So as of 3 months, I have been teaching my fun-tastic, overly exuberant little 2nd graders.  I really enjoy this grade because they are just so darn blunt, oblivious of people's opinion, hilarious unintentionally, cute as heck, sponges awaiting to absorb knowledge, a great balance of independence/dependence and my favorite--randomly and genuinely hug-y.  I can honestly say that I am never bored.  I am either laughing my head off or a little peeved about something naughty they've done.  I am completely devoid of dull moments in that classroom.  There are no slate gray, down tempo cubicles involved--(basically, I do not work on the set of Office Space).  I have a very lively bunch that keep me on my toes (almost literally) all day long.  One thing they have taught me is that consistency equals exhaustion.  I feel at times that I am parenting twenty-one little 7 and 8 year olds.  About half of them are independent, too smart, and too grown for their age while the rest of them are kind of needy and in need for me to read/explain to them anything with words because of the lack of parent involvement at home.  Some kids come to school with old, holey clothes and hungry and it hurts to see them missing out on a good childhood.  On the light side, I have about 4 students that are exceptionally hyper ones who also conveniently believe in their little hearts that they are super heroes.  No.  Seriously.  I have one who thinks he is Spiderman and shoots spider webs around the classroom when the rest of us are at the carpet working on decoding new words.  Geez.  There is one who thinks he is Hulk, and who dismisses himself ever so conveniently from our world and goes off about the room with a "hulk trot"-imaginary muscles and all.  Yes, but it's not funny when you are his teacher.  You try telling Hulk to trot back to earth and to phonics, at that.  Hulk has no interest in learning double o's or frequently misspelled words, for that matter.  Well, besides all that drama, I am really enjoying my little "cottage" with my fabulous roommates.  I call it so, because well, it just looks like a cottage from the outside.  Really, it's a 5 bedroom town home with a neat living room and basement and such.  It's cozy and comfortable and just suits me nicely, I think.  I still have my guitar and keys and music stuff going on up in my room, and am also taking vocal coaching from a classically trained missy.  I am still writing and just loving the Lord and interceding for whatever/whoever He puts on me to pray about.  Um.  Let's see.  Oh yeah!  I got to go home to Texas to see my wonderful family and pals for Thanksgiving.  That was tremendously wonderful for my heart.  I do miss it, but I gotta say, fellow cowboys/gals, there is no lasso in Texas strong enough to pull me away from the beauty I experience here everyday.  I kinda live for Kansas City's towering trees rooted on their hilly land homes, and for being surrounded by her gorgeously bright painted dead leaves buried in pure white snow.  When the snow melts, the leaves' pretty colored faces are seen again.  I can't trade it in for Texas right now.  Maybe later.  AND maybe later, I will continue to bore you with Kansas City sentiment.  Just kidding.   However the pictures here show the place and true reason why I am still here in KC, MO...teaching my little friends.  In this perverse world, these are the mouthpieces that need to be raised up to make war for righteousness in the name of Jesus Christ.  Well, God bless you, keep you and shine all up on ya- 'til next time.