BATMAN!

So a good friend made me watch the new Batman movie with him last night. It was pretty good! For being someone who likes Pride and Prejudice (but who also has seen her share of action/adventure movies) I enjoyed it. Maybe I enjoyed who I was with more.... but anyways. :) We watched The Dark Knight Rises.

There is a part of the movie where Batman is stuck in this deep prison/hole/thing. The only way to get out is to climb a solid rock wall. A bunch of people have tried it, while being tied to a rope to be safe, and can't make it. Because of how the wall is, they have to jump from one ledge to the other while climbing, and most everyone who has tried it has failed. Batman tries it (so he can get out and save Gotham City - and all that heroic stuff), while being tied onto the rope (the rope, being there, in case you don't make it, you don't fall and die... whatever). And he misses. It was pretty downing. But then there's this older blind dude in the prison and he tells Batman to stop fearing death, and just climb the wall. Without the rope.

It was a pretty powerful moment, as Batman slowly climbs up the wall, with the rest of the prisoners watching, cheering him on. With one last fateful breath, Batman attempts the jump, without the rope.... and makes it! It was really cool. It made me think.... are there things in life that are weighing me down from doing something, because I think it's safer that way? What could I be doing that is more out of my comfort zone, maybe doing something God wants me to do.... but I don't because I'm scared it might be harmful? I know the whole "trusting in God" thing wasn't a part of the movie, but I'm applying it here anyways. Trust. It's hard. Like really hard. But God knows what He's doing, always. Sometimes we have to just jump, unhindered, and trust that He's going to help us land. 

life lessons from... show choir?

All through high school I had the impression that show choir was a big joke. I had never really seen a show, but I had seen my friends who were in it practicing and whatnot. All they did (or so I thought) was stand there, sing, and maybe do a grapevine (one of the easiest dance steps - for all you non-dancers out there). Super lame, right? To make a long story short one of my coworkers/good friends is a show choir choreographer and he asked me to help him teach a workshop today. Sure - yeah - it's easy - show choir is lame anyways - I'll be able to pick it up fast - I can help - no problem. Ha ha ha. It's kind of a killer little sport, there! To do all the choreography, and sing, and move around on stage (and there are these riser things - crazy)...... but not for one song. For anywhere from 5-12 songs. Like 3-5 minute songs. Let's just say, that after today, I have a much greater respect for show choir!

All in all though, it was a fabulous day. I love to dance, I love to dance with my friend, and even though the kids didn't pick up the choreography super fast, they tried their hardest and were doing a fairly good job! I'm super excited to keep working with them.

I was talking to another friend about this and they said something like "it's good to do things you aren't used to doing - expanding your horizons and whatnot". Which is so true! How many of us just stay in our perfect little circle, our little bubble of life. It's safe there, we know what's going on, and life is peachy. That's all well and fine but is that really living life to the fullest? Go! Try something new! Even if you suck at it (believe me, I messed up more times than I want to admit with this show choir business today) - you should try it.

This post slowly morphed itself from a random life story to a random life lesson. Not how I planned for this post to go but sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own and I just roll with it. Perks of being an English major. So yeah - go try something new. Step outside of the comfort box you're in, and experience life. I highly doubt you'll regret it in the end. 

halfway :)

Friday marked the halfway point of my math teaching career. Well, hopefully not career, but of my long-term sub job. After 4 weeks, a lot has happened! Had a lot of ups and downs, good days and bad days, but as of right now I'm loving it. I've gotten a lot more comfy with the students and I think they have gotten a lot more comfy with me. I definitely have a different teaching style than the regular teacher, which took them a bit to get used to, but it's all going good. :)

All my classes are so different... I have my group of hard workers that wants to do 2-3 lessons a day and wiz through it. I have my class of lazy bums that doesn't want to do anything but play games. I have my class of kids that aren't the sharpest pencils in the box - and no matter how many times I explain something it just takes awhile to sink in. I have a class of kids that compliments me on everything all the time to try and gain extra credit. Every day they tell me "Miss India! I love your shoes!" or "your dress is so pretty" " .....do I have to do today's assignment?" with a huge grin on their face. Makes me laugh. Then I have those students who tell me they want me to be the teacher for the rest of the year.... and that gives me warm fuzzies times twenty.

You know how you never know where you'll be a year from now? Well, a year ago, if you had told me I was going to be the high school math teacher at a school of 200 kids, I would have said you were crazy! It's cool where God can take you. :)

random thoughts. I put these <> things around it but it didn't like that :( so now it's boring

-Every now and again, my family sits around our living room and just talks and laughs. It doesn't happen all that often because we're all so busy, but when it does, it's awesome. Last night we were talking about the worst and best times in life - oh how we laughed. When a story starts out "remember when" you know it's going to be good.

-I'm going to be busy this fall. Teaching math, which starts whenever the math teacher goes into labor... I'm being her long-term sub while she spends time with her baby. Teaching dance, of course. I'm teaching 19 classes this year - soooooo.crazy.excited.!! Subbing at the other high school - which of course I can only do when I'm not subbing for the math teacher. I'm a tad worried that I'm going to be too busy - but we shall see how things go.

-Violin. Who knew how much I missed it? Certainly not me! I was thinking 'oh, I have a good violin, and I want to be able to play worship songs when everyone gathers around a piano and starts singing' - but until I started taking lessons again I had no idea how much I loved it or how much I missed it. I'm still in the stage where I'm figuring everything out so apologies to my family when I practice.... but thanks for putting up with me. :)

-I've gotten to spend good quality time with good friends this summer - it's been pretty amazing. I get to spend some more good quality time with them later this week, and I'm really excited! As long as my car works so I can drive there, all will be well.

-Overall, I'm just beyond blessed. Problems come up in life that I stress over and worry about, it happens to all of us I think, but when I step back and see all the things God does in my life - it's kinda crazy. I really don't have cause to complain, just because the good overly outweighs the bad. 

LVN4FRI

That was a license plate that I saw in my hometown last week. I imagine it's the shortened version of 'living for Friday' - this blog post is based on the fact that that's what it stands for. I could be wrong - but that doesn't negate what I'm about to say. Oh well haha.

When I saw that on someone's car, and it made me really sad. Obviously this person wasn't happy Monday - Thursday... which makes me think that he/she doesn't like their job. How sad. The economy in my town is actually pretty good - there are hundreds of open jobs all the time - so why not find one you like? It doesn't really make sense. I realize that there comes a point to where providing for a family and making money to live is important, and how you get the money is less important, but if you hate your job so much that your license plate reflects that.... I'd find something else to do.

Me personally, I love my jobs. Sure I complain about the management, or the hours, or the bratty kids at times, but at the end of the day, I really do love what I do. I know my dad loves what he does despite the workload, stress, and stupid people he deals with. You can tell when people are happy with what they are doing (Proverbs 15:13) - and it makes all the difference in the world. Why wouldn't you choose to be happy?

in which India remembers she has a blog

Wow, I think I had forgotten that I had a blog. It's been so long since I've clicked "New Post" and stared at an empty page thinking about what to write! Sad! It means life has been full and overflowing though. I will spare you most of the details of the past month - and just give today updates, and summer goal updates. For anyone that cares. If not, skip to the very last paragraph :) (and you won't offend me if you do, promise)

Today: last day of summer dance camp! Whoo-hoo! That means I have now approximately one month to start planning for my fall dance classes. Exciting! I think I get to teach more than I did last year, and that will be cool.
Also today: had my (4th? 5th?) violin lesson. I can't remember if I have told you, my bloggy friends, if I was taking violin lessons. Well, I am! And they are going quite well. My teacher is pretty amazing - she reminds me of my old teacher and that is a good thing. I've learned a lot and have been having fun doing so.

As far as my summer goals have been going, I've knocked 11 of 19 things off my list. Over half - yes! One of the things that was on my list was "get a slight tan" - I've never tanned before, and I wanted to see if I could do the right things (not including fake baking) to get tan. First I burned, badly, then I got white again, then I spent a few hours at a time in the sun..... and I now have a slight tan! Mind you, it's very slight, but it's the tannest I've ever been. It made me super happy when one of my co-workers said to me "India! I can tell you've been in the sun.... but you're not burnt! It's kinda tan!" <-- day made. I know this is lame, but for a red-head, I think it's a big deal. :D

This up-and-coming weekend is the summer state swim meet for my brothers. I don't particularily like swim meets - but I do like watching my bros swim crazy awesomely and I do love helping to time. Since it's outdoors, I can work on my 'tan' ;) :D

That's probably long enough. Happy August-in-like-6-days - OH! and Happy Olympics! So excited to watch it. GO USA!

nostalgic moment

My brother bought a car this afternoon. My.Brother. He's 17! And growing up. So I was thinking about growing up.... how all my siblings are growing up.... how I'm growing up.... and it was kind of a sad moment. I remember how my brothers and I would build forts in the living room, how I used to put all kinds of hair ties in my brother's hair. How we'd go in the woods and play 'spy' and how we'd pretend to buy all the things in the store when we went shopping with mom and dad. And those don't even skim the surface of the memories I have with my brothers.

I'm not sure why the act of Noah buying a car made all these memories come flooding back.... but it did. And it made me realize that we're not little kids anymore. We're - like - getting old. Getting to be adults (well, I'm already an adult technically). I'm glad we're growing up - cause it means awesome times to come in the future, but at the same point I kinda miss the past. Those were pretty good times too.

Noah and I - 7 years ago :)

ahem! funny post - ready set go.

So I'm in Alaska at my good friend Esther's house, (you may have remembered when she guest posted for me awhile back?!) and it's super late, and we were thinking.....

....if Mark Zuckerberg has Google +........

then was Adolf Hitler a Jew?
did Steve Jobs use an HP?
was Louis Pasteur dairy-free? (Esther had to explain to me who that was! oops)
was Milton Hershey a health-nut?
did John Calvin believe in Armenianism?
did Lady Gaga compose concertos?
could Molly Brown sink?
was Amelia Earhart afraid of heights?
did Fidel Castro start the Peace Corps?
did Henry Ford drive a horse and buggy?
did Martin Luther King Jr ever struggle with insomnia? or nightmares?
does Tom Brokaw actually watch the news?
did Mozart listen to the radio?
was Benedict Arnold loyal?


....yeah. that's what 2 hyper girls come up with at like 1am. :D 

diploma vs experience

YAY! I'm freeeeeeee!!!!!

Not really. I was free before. Anyways.

It's just that dance recital is now over, and I have free time on my hands. I kinda forgot what that was like! It's amazing! We are working on doing laundry and stuff from all the dance costumes right now.... you think it's a big job making 900+ costumes, try having to get all of them sorted, washed, organized, and put away. Whew! At least we don't have a crazy fast deadline on that. And it's kinda fun. Loud music, cool people, yeah :)

On to my post. (And yes, I'll probably post dance recital photos sometime - unless y'all don't care, or saw them on Facebook already :) )

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately on the importance of a college degree. For me personally, I have had mine for a year, and haven't used it yet.... but I'm up to my eyeballs in jobs and job offers. I didn't even need a college degree to be a substitute teacher - go figure! My resume has quite a bit of stuff on it - a lot more than the one line that says "Thomas Edison State College - B.A. in English 2011" (or whatever it says about my college education).

I'm not saying that I wish I hadn't gotten my degree - I loved earning it! I love school! I love learning! A huge part of me wants to go back to college and get a Masters or another degree or just take classes - something! What I'm saying is, I think our culture puts too much emphasis on college - saying you need a degree to go anywhere or do anything in life.

The more I'm around people I work for, work with, or other people who have "been around the block more" per say, the more I'm finding that good references are worth their weight in gold. If an employer hears from another employer that you were a hard worker, on time, worked well with others, and did a great job, I'm pretty sure that would be worth more than you having a college degree (some exceptions, of course).

Besides, for certain jobs, college is kinda worthless. I could have gone to college to be a dance teacher, sure - a couple of my coworkers did. But what I learned by first being a student, then being an assistant teacher, then by being a substitute teacher (and putting lots of time and effort into learning from other teachers), really, really prepared me for being a teacher... which is why I got hired. My experience spoke volumes, and I was hired before I had even started college so that didn't matter one bit.

A friend of mine was talking about this, about how he felt he had wasted time and money getting a degree, when the job he was applying for wasn't even remotely close to what his degree was in. How sad is that? I know he learned amazing things in college, and probably doesn't regret the learning part of it, but since it wasn't all that necessary.... why did he do it?

I'm not saying that college should be thrown out the window. Obviously you need it for lots of professions out there (and yes, I am thankful I have my degree). I'm just saying that you should think long and hard about investing that much time, money and energy into a degree - and see if the job you want to do for the rest of your life can't be gained by experience instead of college classes.

Thoughts? :) 

...fireflies...

Blah. I tried, and can't really write a coherent blog post right now. So this is just a little post to say "hi" to all my bloggy friends, to say that yes, I am still alive, just busy, and not able to tell you lots of things at the moment. Which I regret! Cause I love blogging! My Mom even told me the other day that she wished I could have more time to blog. This summer (like, after June 3rd)....!!! I shall blog more. I shall...!!! I hope.

Anyways - have a lovely week everyone (it's dance recital week for me - fun fun!!) - and I shall talk with thee soon!

Oh, and the title, just a random song I was thinking about while I typed this up. Go listen! "Fireflies" by Owl City..... it's a great song. :)

large families

I was reading in Psalms a few minutes ago, in the 120's. It's late, I'm tired, I've been working since 6:30AM and I really want to sleep! Just doing a bit of reading to get my mind on things above before I fall asleep - you know. Then I read Psalm 127, and boom - India, you should blog about this. But I'm tired! But you should really blog about this. But I'm really super tired and if I closed my eyes right now.... India.blog.about.this. .....Okay.

So here I am, at midnight, blogging away. Shall I tell you what on? Large families.

My family used to hang around a large group of homeschool people - maybe 10-12 families - and we all did 'home churching' together. It was pretty neat - I had my girl friends that I'd be around, we'd all read/sing/pray in a huge group, eat together, play games together - it was mostly pretty cool! Except every family there seemed huge to me. Granted I was, say, 10 or 11, but coming from a family of 6 even a family of 10 seemed large! And in the homeschool arena, large families aren't uncommon.

Back to Psalms. I'm reading Psalm 127, and it says "Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won't be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. 

I can remember a time (or two or five), when one of those larger homeschool families would stand up and recite those verses with pride. They seemed to say "Yes! We are living out that Psalm - just look at how many children are in our family!" 

Please don't misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with having large families. I think they are awesome! I hope to have one of my own someday! But the thought process of "I have lots of children, therefore I'm obeying God and I'm so much better than all of y'all with only x (say, less than, like, 5) children" -- that's just wrong.

God telling us that a man will be happy when his quiver (house) is full of arrows (children) doesn't mean that 'full' = 20. I believe that God made every quiver a different size... aka every family a different size. And if you come from a family like mine, where there are only 4 children and that's what God has blessed us with, awesome! If you come from a family like some of my homeschool group friends, where there are more like 12 children in a family, that's awesome too! Because God plans the family, right? Which means He decides how many children are in a family, right? I think so. Which means, I would think, that thinking you're closer to God because you have more children than so and so..... isn't okay.

Just because I do have friends reading this with larger families, I'm going to say this. Please don't think I'm judging you! I'm judging no one by this post. I just want to make the statement that small and large families are from God, and both are wonderful. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone either.... I don't have anyone in mind writing this post. Just felt like it was something I needed to write down and share after reading that in the Bible tonight. :)

plans!

I could do a whole post on how we can make plans but God actually decides what happens.... but I won't.... so instead I'll just make a quick comment about it.

You know how we can make plans but God controls what goes down? Well He does! But that doesn't stop me from making plans. I just have to know that things could change based on what God thinks is best. Back to my plans. I made some summer plans! They include:

• spending a week in Alaska
• teaching 5 weeks of dance camp to 1st-3rd graders
• taking violin lessons again
• taking an online physics class
• possibly getting another job to pay for all my adventures (my mom (and half my hometown) thinks I should open a sewing business :O we'll see what comes of that....) 
• being in my cousin's wedding

HOPEFULLY I can do some running and biking, and keep up on my sewing. And spend more time with my family. :) And hopefully I'll be cool if God decides things need to change.

Do you have any epic summer plans? Are you okay with God changing them if that's His plan?

justifications

A friend told me a story a few months ago, about something that happened to him. What choice did I have but to believe him? He'd never lied to me before - from what I knew anyways. He told me the other day that the whole story was fabricated and something totally different happened. "Oh, I didn't tell you the real version of the story? Ha - oops!" he joked. My emotions for the moments following consisted of anger, sadness, disgust, and the realization that my friend wasn't very trustworthy anymore.

It would have been different had he come back and apologized for lying, for not telling the real story, and being sorry. But he wasn't - that was the hard thing. He listed reasons why he lied - and not to me either, to lots and lots of people - trying to justify his actions. It was pretty disheartening, to say the least.

The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I do the same thing. Not with lying, necessarily, but there are definitely things I do that I try to justify in my own mind to make them 'okay.' Are my justifications any worse than my friend's? Absolutely not. We all have a conscience, and it's our decision whether we listen to it, or go against it. If we go against it, of course we have to make it 'right' somehow. According to God, that's not right. So this is me telling myself, to stop justifying wrong things and just do the right thing. Easier said than done, but do hard things, right?

a lovely wedding

My family and I drove to Kentucky this weekend for a good friend's wedding. We have been friends with the groom and his family since 2000! So 12 years. That's a long time, and our friendship has remained really strong throughout all those years. We were pretty ecstatic to hear that the oldest son, Barrett, was getting married. He and his lovely bride Devin were betrothed in Israel last fall, and were married this weekend. Here are some photos I took :)

the bride and the groom hadn't seen each other since January, so she was eagerly waiting his arrival with her bridesmaids

the groom pulled up in this carriage, and together they rode to this gorgeous amphitheater type thing on the river, while all the guests followed them on foot

the canopy where the got married - by the river - at sunset - it was gorgeous

the bridge on the river.... the bridge was out (as you can see) but it was still pretty

got to put my 70-200mm lens to good use and see that the bench had their names carved in it! :D

the bridesmaids waiting for the bride and groom to come

the groomsmen waiting

there they are!!!

the ceremony begins

the grooms dad talked and blessed them

the best man (the groom's younger brother) holding their Ketubah - they read it out loud together (it's a Jewish marriage contract - they got it in Israel when they got betrothed!)

they drank wine together

this was cool - they did the salt covenant - where they each had a bag of salt and poured them together, symbolizing how their lives were coming together. the only way their marriage covenant could be not-in-effect would be if Barrett got his salt back and Devin got her salt back.... which after being mixed is kinda impossible. it was cool :)

and I hate that this photo is fuzzy, but this is Barrett's dad announcing "Barrett and Devin Warren!!!" so exciting. then Barrett smashed the shot glass in a bag - Jewish tradition

then the men carried them around in their bench, to partying Israeli music. after that, there were photos, food, dancing, toasts.... but it was too dark and I'm a bad photographer in the dark. :( but it was an exciting day to be sure!

rockin' the pink and green

Came to dance yesterday, and two of my students about did a flip cause we matched!! It was pretty cool. And I think they were almost on cloud 9 to be matching with Miss India! Hehe, kind of awesome :D

the good, the bad, the ugly

The Good: I watched the movie "The Last Samurai" yesterday with my brother. It.Was.Epic. We were both trying to think of a part we didn't like, or a part that was negative.... we couldn't think of anything. The acting was great (Tom Cruise is always amazing, and this movie was no exception :D ), the soundtrack was fantastic, the cinematography was astounding.... I could go on and on! I wasn't terribly fond of the blood splattering and whatnot - but it was war - so I let it slide. One of my favorite lines from it: "You think a man can change his destiny?" "I think a man does what he can til his destiny is revealed."

The Bad: I took my grade 4 Cecchetti Ballet exam on Friday, and while I passed, I got about the equivalent of a "D" on it :( It's hard when I've worked for months on something, and I know I did my very best - only to have two judges tell me I only did well enough for a D. Good that I passed - but bad/sad on my grade. Oh well.

The Ugly: The Hunger Games. I read the books about a month ago - they are amazing books! I, like every other person on this planet (or so it seemed) was excited for the movie to come out. It was depressing, sad, and pretty horrible all around. You know how they always say that the movie will never be better than the book? Well in this case it was so much the opposite. There were no emotions in this movie, whereas the book was full of them. My family got home and ranted for like 20 minutes on how horrible the movie was. Mini-rant: the book says "may the odds be ever in your favor" maybe, like, twice. In the movie - it seemed like they said it every.other.minute. Why?! Oh Hollywood, how you astound me (not in a good way) sometimes.

And, just so I'm not ending this post on a bad note, I'm eating chocolate chips. Yay! Chocolate just makes everything better.

occupy time

Before I talk about the occupy part of this post, I want to talk about time. Just briefly. Why does everyone get so mad at daylight savings time? Like, mad enough to want to start a petition to stop it, and go punch Ben Franklin in the face. What's the big deal? Time is relative, and I don't really understand why losing or gaining an hour, relatively speaking, is a huge deal. (shrugs)

Occupy. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Portland, Occupy Earth. I'm all for people feeling there is wrong in the world and wanting to change it.... but I'm not sure the occupy people are going about it the right way. I'm not even sure if they should be doing what they are doing. I was reading Matthew 20 the other day, the parable of the workers in the vineyard. At the end of the day, the workers that had worked all day were super upset - because the owner paid them the same amount as he paid the dudes who worked for an hour. Hold the phone. Mr A (we'll just say that's the name of the guy that owned the vineyard) owns.the.vineyard. It's his. He can do whatever he wants with it - including paying his workers whatever he wants.

Not to mention, the workers that were mad (the ones that worked all day), agreed to work for what they got paid. It's not like Mr A said "I'm going to pay you $20 for working all day" and then he goes and gives them $10. No, he gave them $20. It's just that he also gave $20 to the people that only worked an hour.

This is what the occupy movement people miss. The huge CEOs, presidents, and guys in charge of the corporations had to work to get where they are. It's their company, they worked their way up to the top, and it's their money to do what they want with it. If they want to give to charity, that's cool. If they want to buy a jet, that's also cool. It's their prerogative because it's their business and their money. It's what makes capitalism so beautiful.

So that's my sound off for the day. :) Enjoy your missed hour (relatively speaking), everyone!

oh happy day!!

Guess what came in the mail today......!!!!!



YES!!! I got the "Life in Technicolor" Coldplay tshirt! (and yeah, sorry, it's not the best photo in the world. iPhones can only get you so far....!)
I figured I should put a photo on here.... with the name of my blog and all.... heheh. :D