Growing...

I have no pictures to post but many things to say. Life here is so simple and yet always complex. The work is not difficult but straightforward and leaves time for growth. I am learning the Love of God and am learning to trust in Him. I often doubt my reason for being here but am reminded daily that I could not receive the gifts that I do here, anywhere else. I am learning to trust that God is watching over my family and though it's been my job for many years to take care of them (or I at least put that job on myself) I can now hand them over to God to love and watch over, and he does it better than I could ever. I have also been blessed with an amazing boyfriend who God gave to me and is using as a joyous and loving tool in my life. I cannot explain to you all the love that I am experiencing here, I feel as though I might explode from it some days. (And some days I feel like I might explode for other reason :P) The constant  reliance on God is what gets me through each day. Truly God is love and He gives us people in our lives as blessings to share this great gift. I am so ever thankful for the many many blessing God has bestowed upon me. The generosity, caring and love (charity) of people, both near and far, never ceases to amaze me. My cup runneth over!! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. j!

Where does time go?

There is a thing called living in the present, you don't dwell on the past and you don't focus solely on the the future. Being in nowhere North Dakota makes this task a little harder than I thought!! So for the days and weeks leading up to the end of the school year, I will focus on the present. Grading papers, writing to soldiers, keeping up with this blog, going to Mass and prayers and classes and doing my dinner duty, cleaning my room and doing what is asked of me.

 One of the interesting tasks that I was asked to do was give the phonics assessment for the 4th, 5th and 6th grade.  The kids already thought I talked funny so it was interesting having to sound out words for them! A story my mom likes to tell from when I was in 2nd grade came to mind. We were learning how to spell and the word was "get", well in Texas we say "git". So I would spell get, git. NOW I wasn't aware that I still say git, until I was sounding these words out and it took every ounce of energy to say G E T not G I T (sounds words out slowly).

I have had 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade all write to soldiers. I am still writing to my soldiers and marines, but because of no contact through the website my list is getting less. I have however added a marine near and dear to my heart and the hearts of my loved ones.Please continue to pray for these brave men and women and their protection, and pray for their families continued strength and courage.

Another little "project" we are doing here at the school is praying for our spiritually adopted babies. Babies that are in danger of being aborted. We have named our babies and we pray for them daily.


Please keep praying for me, as I am praying for ya'll
God Bless You

North Dakota!

Well things here in the North (haha) are going pretty well. We have Open House tonight for the school, I don't remember going to these when I was in school so it should be interesting.

Me, Nicolette, and my roomie Amanda

Friday night we went to the high school football game. The team is not so great (sorry Braves) but it was fun to watch some football!!! Get off the hill for a little while. It was sooooooo cold though! The coldest I think it's been so far. It's constantly staying the 4o's now though. It is interesting to see the different reactions to the weather change. The heat is running in our house now and I think it's too warm, tempted to turn the fan on!! Ha but I know I will be thankful for the warmth when it is 40 BELOW!! But for now I just wear my shorts and t-shirts :P

Things are pretty quiet here though. Fall is starting and the leaves are starting to change. I have discovered there are BEAUTIFUL sunrises here. It's still baffling me that I am seeing the sunrise, and most of the time I miss the sunset. Ha not what I would of expected!! I wish a camera could catch the real beauty of the sunsets but here is my attempt.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Pray for me
j!

Moving on Up!

Well after much prayer and consideration, my roommate and I moved upstairs. Not getting into the reasoning completely but it was a good choice for us none the less. The room however neither of us had really seen, but man it is BIG!

a closet AND a bookshelf!

Anyway after rearranging the room several times and putting the bed exactly where it started here's the new layout

No more bunk beds!

 bedside table with in and out internet and a very cool gift :)

Time Flies!

Wow it amazes me how quickly and yet how slow times goes here. There are so many things to do but yet there is peace and calm at the end of day. I think I stated this earlier but I have a whole new respect for any teacher that I have ever had. There is so much time and effort put into teaching. And the weekend is only considered "off" because you don't have kids to watch over and guide. I now understand why there are so many holidays during the school year!! And I'm just an aide and part time teacher!!


We had a great family night last week, some bowling and 80's cranked. Not to mention TACOS for dinner and the company of so many wonderful people. And in case my roommate is reading this I at least missed you!

We may have done more dancing then bowling....

Labor Day was a nice day off, we had an indoor picnic because of the cold and the rain but then played some games outside. Lots of balls and what not flying and lots of dogs trying to catch the ones that weren't hitting something!

I had a 4th grader ask me if I had kids last week, I hope that was a compliment of patience?!


Favorite Quote of the Week so far, was from one of my 6th graders though.
Me: "Alright the only thing on your desk should be a pencil, everything else please put under your desk. POP Quiz"
Student: " You didn't tell us we were having a quiz!"
Me: "That's why it's called a POP quiz"
And what makes it funnier is he was the only student to get a 100%, not sure why he was worried. ;)


I hope everyone is doing well :)
Please keep me in your prayers
jordan~

Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and one BUSY dinner table!

Haha ok I couldn't resist the title, it's a Judy Blume book :)

So once again I apologize for being so overdue on posting!!! I'm officially working as the 4th grade teacher's aide, Sister Kateri teaches. I am also teaching 6th grade Social Studies and Kindergarten through 6th grade Library ( or if you want to get technical Library and Technology Literacy). But I spend the majority of my time in the 4th grade classroom, or going up and down the 4 flights of stairs!! 6th graders may be giving me gray hair but we did GREAT yesterday so I hope it keeps up. Do believe they may start calling me "Mean Miss Jordan" before too long! I have written down a lot of names! I also need to remember to dot my "i"s because I don't think that is a great habit to pass on to 9 year olds. I was grading spelling and had to write the word correctly and realize, hmmm that's not good! I only dot SOMETIMES!! Working on that.
We have had to have indoor recess the last couple days, which makes me realize that recess is not only for the kids but also for the teachers :) We've all gotten a little squirrely! Here are a few pics of 4th grade

He was so proud!! Miss Jordan Miss Jordan LOOK!

View from my desk

 And just a little tidbit of what community life is, here is the dinner table from Monday night :)

and there are a few people who didn't fit in the picture :)

Week before School

I'm a teacher now!! My plan book, agenda, class schedule and as my roomy calls it my "teacher bag"

Wow so its’ been a very busy week! Im sorry I haven’t posted earlier! School starts on Wednesday and there has been a lot of orientation. I am officially going to be teacher’s aide for 4^th-6^th grade in Social Studies, Math, Religion and Language Arts. I can see the horror in ya’lls faces!! Haha It will be just fine though J  I will get to be in the library as well. I am hoping by the end of the semester to have the library in order. First, I would like to weed the 20+ year old books and the well just getting the collection in shape. I then would like to get all of the books cataloged and in the system and some kind of consistent spine label and call number on the books. Good thing I’ve had LOTS of practice with this in La Veta!!! But I do have to see how this fits in with the teaching schedule, as well as teaching Library and Technology Literacy. Which I have no clue about!!! Well maybe but not at the moment.  I am heading to the Rolla Public Library (the next town over) to see what they have as far as a collection. It does however cost to have a library card.

I was going to go to Turtle Mountain Community College to use their library (free) but they aren’t open on Saturdays. I have a feeling the college library is going to come in very very handy though. AND they have an interlibrary loan system

I am still writing with my soldiers, I think most of you know I am pretty passionate about doing that. I have adopted 2 new soldiers since I’ve been here though. One was from one of the sites I am registered with; I got an email from the site saying they had 175 soldiers register this past week!! So of course I had to help out. The other is actually a marine and the brother of a very dear friend of mine. He and his fellow men were shipped out this morning. Of course no details for ya’ll but please keep them all of our service men and women in your prayers. As well as their families, what strong people they must be.

Wow so this is what happens when you don’t write for a week!! Hope this isn’t too long!!

PS If you are interesting in helping me with the expense of writing to my many (12) soldiers, please send me an email (painted.ellie@gmail.com ) or find me on facebook. I know it sounds funny to say the expense of writing, but I only mean the stamps. It’s not a lot but when you make nothing, $40+ a month adds up.

God Bless You All

I miss you dearly

J!

Haven't found the glitter yet but I did find FOAM LETTERS! The board outside my library door :)

My roommate using the NEW Circ Desk in the library!

I moved some shelves and spaced out the books so they are easier to browse! I should also be getting my storytime rug soon it will go right there!

There was no book drop, so I made one :)

I took down all the random posters and put up the dewey decimal ones! Plus it added some color, which you all know I love

The very front of the library, I guess you can't really tell but I moved out bookcases from under the chalk board. I also wrote Miss Jordan and on the other side I have What I'm Reading (thanks Karol Sacca!)

Library :)

So I got to play in my library at little more yesterday :)   I did some rearranging (and then I came home and did even more rearranging!!) But I made the desk at the library HOPEFULLY look more like a circulation desk instead of just another desk in the room. I am still looking for a story time rug though. Monday I will get my orientation for being the Teacher's Aide for 4th-6th grade Social Studies. I will have to brush up on my North Dakota history :P

 Here are some pics of what I did..... (oh, and I got to do my first school bulletin board hehe)

Circ Desk

The before

I added the book border

Rollette County North Dakota

We took a tour of Rollette County yesterday, or at least a good chunk of it.We first toured the Turtle Mountain Community College, which is an amazing facility and open to the public. Among other things we stopped at Dale's for lunch, a local grubbery ;) which by the way does NOT have jalapenos. We stopped at the wheel turtle and then headed to the local art gallery. Then took the extra scenic route back to Rolla, where we stopped for DQ! and then headed back to Belcourt.

Library!!!

Well I got to see my new library for the first time last night!!!!!!! Its small but pretty good considering. The school itself is a pretty good little maze but the library is just at the top of a small flight of stairs. I have yet to have a chance to look at the ILS or the cataloging system but hopefully Thursday I will. Tomorrow we take a tour of the surrounding area! Man I wish I would of brought some Dramamine! Well posted below are some pics! Yep that's my desk :)

As I rearrange I will post more pics! Enjoy!

Arrived!!!

I have arrived!!! After 2 and a half days of travel and one very tired girl I AM HERE!! Got my stuff all settled in and getting to know my roommate. Other volunteers are slowly trickling in and we have orientation Monday morning at 9am. I am attaching pictures of the house, and my current room. You never know if things will change though, so we can't get too attached!! I have soldier letters to catch up with before orientation as well. Tomorrow should be nice and relaxing!!!

Thank You!

Thank you everyone for coming into the library and wishing me well! O AND for eating all the goodies that Teresa made!