iLike (stuff i don't have to have)

our new blue wall (and the green ones and the brown one...i just don't have a pic yet). someday soon i'd like to have a design painted on the brown one...a dandelion or something, possibly.


these new penguin books. i love pretty books.

peonies in a blue-green jar. what's not to like?

this jeep looks pretty sweet. it might have something to do with the fact that the mountains look pretty fun, but i've seen one of these around town, and i've grown to like it quite a bit. i'm in a green-loving phase.

this house is out near my parents', and the moment i saw it "i fell in love with it" (such a woman thing to say, isn't it?). if i were to live in it one day, i would change a few things. to start off with, it would not be so close to other houses. secondly, the porch would be even more "open" and the windows would get some shutters or something to soften them up. my tastes have changed quite a bit since college. i used to want to live in a really modern house with sleek lines. those are still cool to me, but they seem a bit unpractical.



note: please forgive me for not giving credit to the sources from where i pulled some of these pics. i forgot to save the pages, then got too lazy to try finding them again.

carry on.

oh boy

i will try to keep this quick, but i have a lot of things to record so i make no promises.

first of all, i made it through the first four days of school. i wrote 7 referrals in one class (over the course of two class periods) and was accused (by some students in that class) of being racist because most of the students who got in trouble were not the same color as i. i will say this to address the situation, then move on with my life:
1 - approximately 75% of the kids in that class are not the same color as i, which increases the odds that kids of that color will get into trouble, all things being equal. make sense??
2 - the kids who got in trouble FULLY deserved to get in trouble, as did several other kids in the class; i just ran out of time and energy to write them up. i have a long year ahead of me unless i can figure this class out.
3 - the rest of my classes are little darlings(!), and they are made of the same racial ratios.

that is all about that. here's what's going on this semester:
1 - teaching english 3 and reading classes (different from last year)
2 - head coaching volleyball (track in spring)
3 - helping with the college ministry at church. big things are happening there, and i don't want to miss out!
4 - fca at school.
5 - writing my master's thesis paper, which will take a LOT of time and energy. i found out on tuesday that my research proposal and applications for doing the research should have basically been done in july because of the school district in which i teach and their ridiculous procedures for research (they tend to reject most proposals, just for kicks.). i might not finish my master's program this semester, but that will be okay, because i would like to be a pleasant, non-anxious, non-tense person to spend time with, particularly for my husband. that is worth the 1,500-something raise i would get if i finished by december.

very soon i plan to cut down on the amount of "stuff" i do, but for now it is what it is.

now for some more fun things:
1 - applebutter-making day is coming up.
2 - our church is planning a trip to africa in december, which means i might need to look into tattoo designs.
3 - it's almost fall, and the weather is already crisp and cool, perfect for riding in coacher's jeep or a black mustang convertible.
4 - lr's football team should be pretty good, and i plan to watch them get some wins.
5 - babies are popping up and growing up everywhere, and the best part is we get to play with them, then send them home when they get cranky (or tired of us).
6 - in the past two weeks, i have gotten recertified in belaying for rock climbing and learned to golf. am i really good at those two things? not so much. but they are pretty fun.
7 - i have successfully made meatballs, and they were not too bad.

my blog name will change soon, but i'm still looking for ideas. all for now...

adios days

there's no getting around it: summer is basically over for the lotz family. volleyball and cross country practices start tomorrow, followed closely by the first days of school, first competitions, a large number of college kids coming back to 'the vine' at church (and several events to take place because of that), and my completion of a lengthy research thesis paper for a bump up on the pay scale.

i'll also be attempting to teach freshman reading and english 3 this year, as opposed to the at-risk classes i taught last year. this was a change i was not expecting and a change i was not too happy about, but i'm sure God has a purpose for it so i'll give it my best (without stressing too much, as i am apt to do).

now for the good news: fall also includes fresh temperatures, jeep-top-down rides, fiery leaves, back-to-school purchases, applebutter-making day "down home," and of course new episodes of the office and other favs.

two t-shirt slogan ideas for the vb team: "fresh and fiery" (we are really young, but i'm hoping that translates into something good) and "live like ladies, compete like dawgs" (i just think it's funny, and it should be true).

i'm done.

odds and ends

in the process of researching deer and rabbit droppings (don't ask...one day you might understand), i came across this picture of a 22 lb. rabbit from germany. wonder if its droppings are bigger than average, too?? anyway...


here's the scoop: this week has been busy. we started by staining and polyunsaturate our new table and bench (still looking for more tall stools...). then i went to lowe's four times in as many days, and i spent my mornings running central volleyball camp. bradlee dug a hole under our sidewalk to connect an underground pipe to our gutter and the sidewalk by the road; two pipes are in the works. he and his buddy began landscaping (building decorative walls in) our yard thursday morning at 7 am, and it's just a few blocks from being complete tonight. our garage has lawn tools, a kayak, a bike, etc. hanging on the wall and looks halfway organized, and we finally got around to putting stuff up in the attic. one wall in our house is brown, another is robin's egg blue, and two are a crazy green color. i love it, and probably would have been too scared to try if it was my own house, but brad's helping me be a better decision-maker and reminding me that i can always paint over it if it looks bad. so far, i think i'm keeping it, even if it is just because i think it makes us a cooler/funkier couple.

we are looking for some somewhat funky-yet-comfy chairs, so if you see any let us know. i kinda like this one and a million others.

i guess this means we are finally settling into our new house. now for those pesky weeds in the yard. it's so out of control i think we are just going to get more dirt from my parent's land out north and start over.

tomorrow i'm getting up around 4 am to go play volleyball in columbia, mo. that seems very silly, even to me.

and monday morning we are headed to puerto vallarta for a long mission trip. what are we doing? oh, just hanging out with people in malls, coffee shops, and university campuses, and probably playing volleyball with strangers on the beach, talking to people and inviting them to parties in which we'll play rock star, etc. i am not exactly sure how to share the gospel in Spanish ("donde est el bano" is all i can remember from nicaragua), but we shall see.

lastly, i have been married for over a year now, and i am a very happy girl. he is really too good to me.

feelin' the heat

okay, i admit it. i am a little bit intimidated by all these new blogging competitors. but i feel the need to write something besides lesson plans and literature reviews (not to mention the fact that my husband has apparently resigned from blog writing), so here goes.

first of all, as i write, we are in the midst of watching nacho libre and making homemade ice cream. we just had very intelligent conversations with our friends, jared and katie, about high-quality sprinkles, the benefits of being teachers, and fainting goats. life is very good.

my dad, by the way, has a little bit of land north of town. he visits the land about every day to work on something, whether it's to build a dock for his new pond, pour concrete for a bridge, or pick up rocks for days and days...he's there working hard. he can do this now because he worked very hard for many many years and has now retired. the man just can't quit working hard, though. anyway, i digress. he says he's going to get some fainting goats for the land. i think that will be oh-so fun. these things just go stiff-legged when they get excited or scared. this, i think, is further evidence that God had a sense of humor when he was thinking of whacky animals to give us for entertainment. (just think what the world would be like if the same thing happened to humans! i would look a fool 90% of the time, and how would i get anything done?)

here's the deal with the rest of the summer: i will finish up with my class soon (shewww!) and only have 2 hours left until i get my master's degree. early july will be filled with visitors, our first anniversary, and two big assignments for my class. then we'll have a few days of nothing, then it's back to the grind with volleyball camp on my part, a mission trip to puerto vallarto, a week off, then it's back to volleyball and cross country practices and school, where i'll be teaching english 3 and reading for strugglers, as well as finishing up the research component of my degree. where did the summer go?

in the midst of the above, we'll try to sell a stinkin' house, do some landscaping, have some adventurous fun, attempt a little p90x, play some sand volleyball, continue helping with the college ministry (coacher was born for this, i tell you...and for coaching, of course), and i will continue to try to come up with good reasons to visit foreign countries. (i think G.W.'s mission trip job is looking pretty good.)

ice cream is ready...and it tastes lovely.

2 days

first of all, "stuff Christians like" is just about the best blog ever. every time i read a post, i point at the computer screen and say, "that is soooo true." it's face-hurting funny, and sooo true!

if you have ever been a teacher--particularly in a public school--and if you are a female, i am going to bet that you cried at least once while at school. don't worry, i won't make you admit it, but whether it was out of frustration, joy, anger, sadness, grief over someone whose ambition or integrity has been lost, or for some reason that you just can't put your finger on, it probably happened. and it is just about the worst feeling in the world. doesn't it just make you feel stupid? oh my...

anyway, looks like i'll be teaching english 3 next year. kinda makes you wonder if that's why i mentioned crying at school, doesn't it?

2 days left.

idols, treats and horses

i feel the need to write an update, but i can't really say that i have much excitement to write about. here are some thoughts in random order.

the right guy won american idol, and coacher and i are thrilled. we feel that this proves that the real america isn't into perversion and crazy-weird high drama. we might be reading too much into it...on a related note, the show was pretty good, minus queen latifa's outfit and that crazy-long tongue hangin' out of the KISS guy's mouth the entire performance. (bonus: paula didn't speak!)

track and baseball seasons are over. i was actually a little giddy on the bus after our last meet (i love coaching track, but a few kids with attitudes or poor work ethic can ruin it for me...don't tell anyone was giddy about the end). baseball's end wasn't as good for coacher, whose team lost by 1 in the district playoffs. i will leave the details to him if he wants to share, but i will tell you this: there is this one baseball mom who is a real treat to be around (<---dripping with sarcasm).

speaking of treats, apparently there is a knock-off brand of spam called treat. (is that even possible to have a knock-off brand off unidentifiable meat?) coacher claims that it's yummy and, sadly, we now have some in our kitchen.

and finally, i got to send some high school graduates off into the "real world" tuesday night. around 12 kids from my alternative program graduated, and it was a sight to see. i could have done without the obligatory graduation speeches, but watching them graduate was a must. i got a couple pretty heart-wrenching thank you letters from a few students who absolutely would not have made it without the program. BUT here is the sad part...one of my absolute FAVORITES (yes, i have favorites) didn't pass her test to graduate. let me tell you, telling her she didn't pass and therefore wouldn't graduate was the most heart-breaking thing i've done all year. she broke down into sobs and had to leave because she couldn't even talk. if you knew the girl, you would understand how much it hurt. (here's a glimpse: she lives by herself and passed up an opportunity to continue living with an awesome family in Texas just to pursue of graduating from our high school because she wanted to graduate from the same school her mother graduated from. she is awesomely sarcastic, and she became a Christian a few years back because of the awesome family with whom she lived. it's evident that God is working in her life. at graduation (she came to support classmates), she said that she had prayed and prayed and prayed that God would let her pass the test, but that if that wasn't the Lord's will she understood and would be okay. wow.)

on the other hand, i had another girl in my class who has basically half-hearted tried to get her work done the entire semester, and the final two days before graduation she spent all day in my room trying to complete all of the assignments she had neglected all semester. she didn't finish. she didn't graduate. she cried hard. big, rolling tears. i felt bad for her and tried to encourage her, but geezzz, i had been warning her all semester not to put things off. what's that saying? "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink..."

i'm thankful for the horses that drank this semester.

and finally...i still have 9 days of school left. ouch.