Giving thanks

Thanksgiving break has come and gone, yet I still like I haven't even begun to express my gratitude to God and those around me. Isn't it funny that the United States is essentially the only country that NEEDS a holiday in order to stop and be thankful?

I'm back in Philly after a 54-hour hiatus in Michigan. It was wonderful to be home and spend time with family and friends. My excitement on the trip home was missing a flight in Detroit due to Philadelphia delays and catching a better flight to Grand Rapids instead of South Bend! I returned home with parents and Maria by 12:30 instead of the expected 1:00--even though I had 90 minute delays! It's cool how God works some things out.

While home, my family celebrated Thanksgiving with the De Boer tradition of flank steak. The day after Thanksgiving, however, we went out to Wild Chef, which is a Japanese steak house in Holland. They put on a nice show while cooking all the food in front of you. Delicious and entertaining! Perhaps my favorite part was when they made small bundles of rice and tossed them through the air to their customers, hoping for them to catch the rice in their mouths. Good fun!

Scott Parrott, Chris Marlink, and Peter Van Wylen came over Friday night. Peter had friends in town, but Chris and Scott spent the night. There's nothing like a good old fashioned sleep over! Since my bed is in Philly, I had to "make my couch" each day. My room just doesn't quite seem as much like my room when my bed is missing. Amazing how much sentiment can be associated with an inanimate object.

Seth dropped me off at the airport early Thursday morning, and two other friends from church picked me up on Saturday night. I had called them to get the best directions home using public transportation, and they insisted on picking me up instead! Another blessing.

Perhaps it's the return to work feelings after Thanksgiving, but I felt frazzled when school started today. Some of it was due to last minute things to do, and other teachers made it worse by having issues that required my immediate attention. The computer that I have all the others connected to in order to print was refusing to turn on, and the Internet itself was down everywhere. I had a slight panic attack, took a deep breath, and tried the first thing all good techies do when attacking a problem: restart. I restarted the modem and router which worked for the Internet. Then I tried several buttons on the computer to no avail. However, when I came back 2 hours later, the computer started up just fine! Those computers...I tell ya.

Tonight was a 2-hour training on safe touch/safe environment for all first year teachers. There was a good deal of grumbling about not getting paid or any academic credit for this extra time, but I think that Monday after Thanksgiving is the best scheduling possible for such things. Report cards are next week, however, and teachers are beginning to stress about them. I'm excited about getting next Friday off (Immaculate Conception, you know!)

Bedtime is quickly approaching here. Seth is in New York until Wednesday, so I have fulltime dog duty. Anyone's welcome to join us for a morning/evening walk! It's quite relaxing, actually. Pets are great.