Thursday, February 28, 2013

letter to a student.

***The details behind this letter cannot be disclosed. This letter is merely to a student of mine who is no longer in my classroom. I write it for no other reason than to seek closure for myself.

Dear Student,

My main goal for you (and all of my students) was to make a positive impact on your life. And I pray that I did. And you know what? You certainly had a profound impact on mine. You impacted me in many ways. The most important way you impacted me however, was by making me a better teacher.

You taught me patience.
You taught me how to reflect.
You taught me how to think ahead.
You taught me how to improvise.
You taught me how to handle tough situations.
You taught me new problem solving tactics.
You taught me how to think on my feet and make changes in an instant.
You taught me about forgiveness.
You taught me to better stand up for what I believe.
You taught me about not holding grudges.
You taught me to look past the issues and focus on the child.

We had ups and downs.
And unfortunately, now it's over.
But thank you for helping me grow.

I hope you know how much I care about you...truly care about you.
I hope that you don't feel like anyone has given up on you.
And while I'll likely never see you again, I need you to know that I believe in you.
You can do great things in your life.
And I'll miss you.

I'll miss your charm.
I'll miss your big hugs.
I'll miss our "talks."
I'll miss seeing you at the front of my line everywhere we go.
I'll miss your love of reading.
I'll miss your infectious smile.
I'll miss hearing, "Mrs. Miller, you're the bestest teacher I ever had!"
And I genuinely hope that after graduating high school, you'll look back and still feel the same.
Good luck in all you do.

xoxo, teacher.

For my students and myself...

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dear Husband,

Thank you for fixing my chair at work.
It was needed.







































I use this chair every day.
It's comfy.
It matches my classroom.

But then the kids broke it.
Unfortunately, this chair was a $10 Goodwill find, and had been jerry-rigged several different times.
I had told the kids that the chair was "sick" and that they couldn't touch it.
They kept telling me that Mr. Miller needed to come in and fix it.
So you did.
And all 25 of us appreciate it.

There was a heart-felt "Thank you, Mr. Miller!" sent to you from the kiddos.

I just hope you know that you will now be called upon for all future classroom items that become "sick." Thank you in advance.

xoxo, wife.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

my car's run-in with a criminal.

I had been at a workshop during the school day.
I had a sub and told my kids that anyone who didn't get ANY card flips during the day would get a special treat from me the next day.
I was pleased to return at the end of the day to see that 18 of 24 would get a treat.
I wanted to make it something special, so I headed to the local Wal-Mart to get some popsicles.
I parked, went in, and got the goods.
I was in there for 15 minutes at the most.

After I paid, picked up my bags, and headed out the door, I saw this.








































































There were about 7 police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck.
I start to walk toward my car...and notice THIS.




































My car is the tan SUV.
Notice the man laying on the ground right next to my car??
Yeah.
Apparently he had tried to shoplift a hard drive.
When the police came after him, he tried to attack an officer.
So then they tased him.

Obviously, I couldn't go to my car.
So I stood outside, holding my grocery bags...just waiting.
Next thing I know, I see a student from last year with her grandmother.
We chat about what's going on, and they go inside.
About 20 minutes later they come back out, ready to head home.
I'm still waiting.
Then I see the mother of a current student. She gives me a weird little wave (probably wondering what kind of involvement her son's teacher has in this) as she goes in.
{Perhaps this is why I try to AVOID this particular Wal-Mart.}

Eventually they get this guy away from my car and walk him toward the ambulance.
To say he was bloody would be an understatement.
He was basically gushing.
But that's gross, so let's move on.

So then I waited some more.
Did I mention that it was about 9 degree outside?
Well it was.

After about 45-50 total minutes of frigid temps, an offer from the Wal-Mart manager to buy me a cup of coffee, and a new-found friend in a middle-aged woman who waited with me the whole time for no real reason, other than she figured I'd like some company, I was finally allowed to go to my car to leave. Side note: my new friend not only opened my car door for me, but hugged me before I got in. Weird.

I was on the phone with my mom on my way home, telling her about all that had gone on.
As I was pulling on to the by-pass, I noticed that my side mirror was pushed in.
No big deal...it's made to do that.
But as I was looking at it, I noticed that there were little drops of blood on my window!
Somewhere in the scuffle with police, this guy my have been slammed into my car.

When I got home, I walked around to the passenger side, and this is what I saw.





































GROSS!!!!!!
The dang criminal's blood got all over my car!
I drove 20 minutes home with blood on my car.
Other drivers had to have noticed.
Sick!

Later that night, I told Ty, "I need to go out and clean that blood off my car."
To which he replied, "Oh, just park it outside...the snow will take care of it."
Yeah right!
Snow wouldn't have done the job.
I had to scrub pretty hard to get it all off.
My poor car.

To wrap this up, there are a few things I'm thankful for.
1. That I wasn't walking to my car when all this happened. I probably would've been hurt.
2. That there was no permanent damage to my car.
3. That I had an interesting story to tell at work the next day.

And that, my friends, is why you probably shouldn't shoplift.

xoxo, wife.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

the joys of being an aunt.

There aren't even really words to describe it.
Not even much I can say
Except to look at these adorable faces.
And smile.








He's almost 7 now.
She's almost 1.
The time flies, but I love seeing how much they've grown and changed each time we get to see them.

They're pretty cool kids.
Probably because they have a pretty cool aunt and uncle.

xoxo, wife.

Monday, February 18, 2013

V-Day 2013


This year we celebrated Valentine's Day one day early.
Ty and I went to U Can Paint 2, and did a wine and canvas...minus the wine.
More like beer and canvas for him.
Water, popcorn and canvas for me.

He was unsure of what to think on the way there.
There was a lot of, "I'm gonna suck at this," and "This is gonna be so bad."
But he was a good sport about it, because he knew I was excited.

And then the festivities began:










































































































{Mine on the left, Ty's on the right.}

This painting was MUCH harder than the last one I did with my Mom.
But it was so much fun.
Ty was pretty impressed with himself...
but I knew he would do well because he's pretty much good at everything.

I think he enjoyed himself, because he said he'd go again sometime.

It was a great way to do something out of the ordinary for VDay.
I LOVE love.
And I LOVE my husband.

xoxo, wife.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

it's a good thing i like him...

I was getting ready to go out to get some new pants for work.
Ty was out doing something or other in the woods.
It was finally Saturday.
The sun was actually shining for once.
Was wearing my new shiny silver boat shoes (thanks mom.)
I had some good tunes ready to go on Pandora.
Had my shades on and was heading out the door.

Then the phone rang.

"Uh...babe? I'm gonna need you to do me a favor, because I just did something stupid."
"What?"
"I'm gonna need you to bring my spare key out to the swamp property."
"You locked your keys in the truck?"
"Yeah."

Well...that kinda put a damper in my plans.
You see, the stores I was heading to were nowhere NEAR the swamp property.
Because the swamp property was on the stinking state line!



































 
(See what I did there? People who have no clue where I live will have no idea that I only live about 25 minutes from the state line. THOSE people will think that I had to drive hours to take him that dang key. I'm dramatic like that.)
 
But that's beside the point.
The POINT is that it was in the total opposite direction of where I was heading.
And once I delivered the key, it took me 45 minutes to get to the store.
 
He's lucky.
Lucky that I love him.
Lucky that the roads weren't bad.
Lucky that it wasn't a school day.
Lucky that the sun was out, so I was in a good mood.
Lucky that I had enough charge on my phone to play music for that long journey.
Lucky that I'm not even really the slightest bit upset that I had to go out there.
And that it's really not even a big deal at all.
Because he'd do it for me too.
 
xoxo, wife.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

the search for antique-y treasures.

Saturday, Ty and I ventured out in search of some new decorations for the house.
We've adopted a sort of county/rustic/antique-y look for our house.

We went to about 5 local places in search of some treasures.
One of the places was insane.
It had to be the craziest place I've ever been.
It would be a hoarder's nightmare.

Everywhere we walked, we had to walk sideways.
I was scared to death that I was going to knock something off a shelf with my purse and break it.
And then be forced to buy something really weird, just because I broke it.

I'm also very claustrophobic.
Which means I was having a rough time in here.
 
I mean seriously...there were drawers of pens and pencils from hotels and stuff!
Who would buy those?!
There were just TONS of things there.
Salt and pepper shakers. Jewelry. Books. Watches. Old photgraphs. Pamphlets.
Tea cups. Bottle caps. Buttons. EMPTY boxes...



 

And clearly, we all need nasty bed pans...right?
Amazingly, we did find some stuff we liked...and plan on going back someday.
We'd have to have about 5 hours to kill though!
 
Luckily, the rest of the places we went were easier to manuever through. 

 
 






And we ended up with some pretty neat stuff.
Of couse I bought the owls.
Duh.
And they are now currently sitting on top of our new antique scale.
 



It was such a fun day date!
 
xoxo, wife.