Falling and Updates

I fall a lot.  I mean, not as much as I used to.  Experience has made me better at miraculously catching myself at the last minute.  I wear a Bioness brace on my left leg, and when I describe it as “a bionic, electric brace,” all the little kiddos at school are impressed. It lifts up my foot higher than I can on my own.  Also, I trust God to metaphorically fall, which is improvement from my younger years.  See?  I am so much better at getting back up.  And getting hurt less—or maybe noticing it less?  Better at gracefully falling, too.  I don’t think I actually bruised when I fell onto a counter a little over a week ago.  That one was funny—it was like slow motion and I had time to realize that I was falling and greet the counter before I hit it.  I fell on Thursday night, and it happened fast, so when I realized I was falling, I thought, “uh-oh.”  Then I was just like, “huh.”  I remember after I went on summer project in 2011, I fell head over heels for Jesus.  I don’t know if I’ve gotten back up from that, but I don’t want to.  Speaking of head over heels….

On Monday and Tuesday, I had appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  Just so happens that Rochester is almost a halfway point for Dr. Wile E. Coyote and I.  He came!  I liked him tons before, but I think I tripped over my own feet during our days together.  It was the first time we’d seen each other since December 2011, and though we’ve been Skyping regularly, holding hands was even more fun than looking at a blurry screen because one or both of our internet connections isn’t all that great.  Just like giving someone a look instead of snapchatting it to them is more effective, so is physically being with someone.  We know of couples that have made it through Skype or email or letters alone, so I understand that we’re kind of fortunate (especially that Skype and email are free and so easily accessible…), but it’s still hard.  PATIENCE is what we’re learning.  And I guess it’s good for our communication skills or something like that.  (Find a positive when there’s negativity looking down at you!)

Update on student teaching: I am loving it, and I get more tired all the time.  I am taking on more and more (slower than that, but faster than I think), and it won’t be long before I have full reigns.  Scary, I say.  The good thing is that there is an actual teacher in the room, so that when I have an “oh sh*t” moment as he refers to them, he is right there to snap the class back into shape.  I am slowly learning names.  My cooperating teacher doesn’t think it’s super good that I know any names at all yet, because they are the names he keeps calling out for talking in class.  But we play name games with the bigger kids.  It’s scary when they decide to call on me too, and I’m scrambling for names I don’t know.  Was there a Hannah somewhere in this class?  Or maybe a Jack.  There are tons of Bradens.  I have not miscalled a name yet.  During that game.  When I’m teaching a song and I call on a student, I ask that student their name.  Knowing names is huge for discipline.  How I wish I knew the names of some of the boys in the last first grade class of the day.  And, do all little boys find it more fun to sit with their knees inside their t-shirt, or is it just the ones that are “cold” when they come to the music room, even though we’re roasting in there while it’s 95 degrees outside.  The things I wonder.  I am learning tons, though, and it is so fun!  Ask me, and I will sing you a song that will get stuck in your head and you might not like much.

Friday (tomorrow, today, yesterday…depending on when you read this) starts Lifelight in South Dakota, and I am so excited to discover the things that God is going to do there!  It’s a free Christian music festival with Christian bands that’ll be there.  Like Building 429, Newsboys, and others that I don’t remember right now because it’s not a good time to think.  I’m not at school right now, silly.  The ground at Lifelight is a little uneven, and it’s HOT outside.  Will I fall?  Probably.  But I’m used to it by now.  Besides, the ground is softer than cement.  (Gravity and I have a love-hate relationship.  This is why I call myself an earth bender when asked.)

Anna