Oh no!!!!! It's BMM!

I've recently been told, through the grapevine, that my 8th grade students think I'm a hard grader. This is coming from my STUDENT MENTORS who are turning in 5-sentence reflections rife with spelling and grammar errors. I told them that their new goal is to get rid of their bare-minimum mindset, and that has become my new mantra in their classes.

Well, it's late, and I've been grading for a few hours now while my pile doesn't seem to be getting much smaller. That's making me feel like I just might go crazy. So when I graded one students' barely legible 5-sentence reflection, I wrote the following letter to him:

Dear ______,

Oh no! I think you need to see a doctor quick because you seem to be suffering from BMM!! You know, "Bare-Minimum Mindset!" You'd better act fast so you can get rid of those nasty symptoms like not enough detail, or the ultimate side effect of BMG - "Bare-Minimum Grades!" AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

-Mrs. K


I thought telling him to "step it up" in a playful way might take the edge off, but there is also a good chance that he'll just think I'm the weirdest teacher ever. Any guesses on what his reaction will be to this random teacher note? lol

cat maniacs!!!!

Okay, so I truly love my little Clementine and Tang, but seriously??? This is truly insane! Incredibly interesting and worth the watch, but nevertheless totally insane! To all of my true friends out there, if I EVER start to even entertain the idea of creating a catwalk in my house, please put me in the hospital for a CAT scan! (haha, punny, eh?) And I don't mean any offense to the people who did this. I mean, I guess in all honesty it's kind of cool.... but really, it's just totally insane! I guess Clem and Tang will just have to settle for a simple cat post/bed and some toys.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/article/Amazing-House-for-Cats131&origin=ARS_BLOG_PETVIDS_cathouse_CTG

P.S. I just noticed how ironic it is that they have a huge tiger hide hanging on their wall in the hallway with the zigzag catwalk. Seems that they would be against such a thing. I'm sure it's not real, but still...

Maxi Pads... Yes, Maxi Pads is the title of my post!

My 7th grade students are currently working on "Curiosity Speeches." Based on what I learned at the Literacy Institute this past summer, I wanted to reinvigorate students' curiosities in life. So I'm assigning a speech where they have to ask 5 curiosity questions and they get to research it and give an informational speech about it. My plan is to also later work it into a multigenre presentation to teach visual aids. But I digress...

The other day we were in the computer lab so the students could look up the answers to their curiosities and decide which one to pursue. One boy was looking for the answer to "Why are iPads square?" He was sitting at the computer very close to the desk I was sitting at. I knew he was working on this question, when seemingly out of nowhere, he asks, "Mrs. Kreider, what are Maxi Pads?"

I tried to keep my face composed (and for anyone who knows me well will understand what a struggle that is... I've never been good at hiding my emotions from my face). My brain was quickly rushing to find any kind of reply that would cut off the conversation without having to discuss maxi pads with him.

So to give my brain some more time to process, I asked him, "Where do you see that?" He pointed to some sort of advertisement or something on one of the google sites that pulled up during his research. During that quick little pause of time, the best my brain could come up with was, "Well, it has nothing to do with iPads, so you don't need to worry about it."

THANK GOODNESS the kid dropped it at that point and just went on about his work!! He probably knew what it was all along and just wanted to see me squirm! lol. Ugh, what are we supposed to say to questions like that???? Serves me right for trying to encourage their curiosities! lol


(Story addendum: I thought my story was one of my best examples so far about the awkward things kids say to teachers. That was until I spoke with one of our health teachers today, who told me about his 8th grade lessons on sex ed when a young man asked him about condoms breaking. My heart goes out to the aforementioned teacher, and I am now extremely thankful for questions about maxi pads!)

Ruby Honda is dying

I finally hit a new low with my car today (and no, it has nothing to do with my keys this time!). The back window of my 18-year-old, 350K+ miles Honda Accord wouldn't roll back up today, so Derek and Alex had some bonding time together "fixing" my window. As they stood back and looked at the duct tape-laden car window with towels stuck down in the side to hold it up, Alex said, "We have a word for people like this in Spanish." I don't remember what the word was, but when I asked what it meant, he said, "people from the mountains!" I just got called a hillbilly in Spanish. cool.

So to all of my JMS co-workers, if I park beside you, I'm sorry!

To everyone... if anyone knows of a good, used car that's being sold, let me know! We'll be on the look out!

Diaphragmatic Breathing Lesson

This will be a quick post, but I couldn't resist sharing it. Seriously, this kid threw me a total curve ball, and I had no idea how to really respond...

I was teaching about diaphragmatic breathing to my 7th graders. We talked about how babies naturally breathe with their diaphragms, but as we get older, we change our habits, usually due to poor posture and laziness. Therefore, we have to re-learn it, and I told them that we would be doing some exercises on Friday to work on that.

After the whole lesson, one boy (we'll call him Timmy) raised his hand and we had the following dialogue:

Timmy: "Mrs. Kreider, what if you, like, don't agree with this stuff? Would you still have to do the activities?"

Me: "What do you mean, 'you don't agree with it?' Do you mean that you don't agree with it morally, or do you mean that you think all of this information is untrue?"

Timmy: "Well, like, what if you don't think it's right?"

Me: "Again, I'm not sure what you mean by that."

Timmy: "Well, like, you know, if God, or the Creator, or whatever you want to call him, made us this way, wouldn't we be trying to change ourselves if we make ourselves breathe diaphragmatically?"

Me: "Well, Timmy, remember that when we're born, we breathe correctly, and it's because of our own bad habits that we end up breathing the wrong way. So I think we're supposed to breathe with our diaphragm."

Timmy: "Yea, but, if we start breathing without our diaphragm, don't you think that's because God made us that way, to stop using our diaphragms?"

Me: "No, I don't believe that's the case."

Timmy: "So would you still have to do the activities?"

Me: "Yes, Timmy, I still want you to do the activities on Friday."


SERIOUSLY? I applaud the kid for trying to earnestly think things through about God, but REALLY? I still can't figure out if he was being serious or if he was just trying to come up with an excuse for getting out of an activity!

Retrospectivally, I wish I had asked him, "Well, Timmy, do you think we are supposed to lie? Well, obviously we've started lying throughout our lives, so if we start doing things wrong, don't you think that means God meant for us to do those bad things? So wouldn't it be wrong to try to change ourselves to do the good things the way God originally created us?" I don't mean that in a sarcastic way... just seriously think that would've been a good answer to get him thinking about how we warp the way God originally made us to be.

Interesting child and conversation...

Keys are my Enemy!!!

After my last status update, I decided to write a blog chronicling all my key mishaps. Also, while the suggestions on my status were all very nice and welcomed, I have tried them all. So I thought I would tell you of my three most embarrassing key moments.

3rd Worst Key Moment:
This past weekend had to take the bronze medal for my worst key moment. Usually I lock myself out by being on the phone, not paying attention, and leaving the keys in the ignition. So, my mom constantly nags me about keeping a spare key in my purse, because I lock myself out so much! Well just recently, at my mom's urging, I asked my cousin Jessie to sew me a cute little coin pouch for my spare change and for a spare key! I thought it was pretty genius! (By the way, the little owl coin purse, along with my apple kindle cover, is AWESOME! Thanks, Jess! See it on her sewing blog here.) So this past weekend, I thought my mom would be so proud of me because I put my spare key in my purse before going to the game!

Before going to the game, we had the worst time ever trying to actually make it there! I figured out at the last minute that I left the printed tickets at my school on Friday, then our internet took FOREVER to print the stubhub tickets (literally 30 minutes for 5 tickets), then we of course had the slowest sandwich maker EVER at Publix who meticulously placed each slice of cheese and meat on the sandwich perfectly, and then we got stuck in traffic. So since I was supposed to be meeting 2 other friends at the game and had their tickets in my possession, I was quite frantic that I was running so late!

So anyway, we actually somehow managed to get there with like 5 minutes to spare, so I jumped out of the car, and Derek even said, "Don't lock your keys in the car!" So I specifically took them out of the car and put them in my purse, which was on my arm. Then I walked around to the other side of the car to take some stuff out that we were taking into the game. That's when I said, "Derek, don't you have your wallet? So I don't need to lug in my purse, right?" And that's when I put my purse back in the car and shut the locked door! Unfortunately Derek only had his motorcycle key with him instead of his car keys, so he didn't have a spare key, either! Uh oh!

So usually my parents are my go-to saviors, because they have a spare key to my car with them. But unfortunately they happened to be visiting my sister in Virginia this weekend. But luckily my aunt was house/dog-sitting at their house, so she got the spare key and drove all the way out to Atlanta after going to a Bachelorette Party to give us the key at 11:30 p.m. So although we had friends who lived close to there who could take us, she actually provided us a spare key for us to be able to get home with our car that night. It ended up being a fun night, so it wasn't a huge deal. I just felt like a loser.

Bronze Medal: Locking my keys and my spare key in my purse in the car!

2nd Worst Key Moment:
The silver medal goes to the first time I ever locked my keys in my car. I was visiting my friend, Emily, at Furman University in Greenville, SC for the first time our freshman year. It was late Sunday night, and I was just starting the trip back to UGA. Emily was going to some sorority thing, which is why I left when I did.

On my way back before getting on the freeway, I stopped and got some gas. Of course, I was distracted again while talking to my mom on the phone, telling her about the weekend. So after getting out and getting my gas while talking, I tried getting back into my car. And that's when I discovered for the first time in my life that I had locked my keys in my car! Luckily I had my phone in my hand, and, conveniently, I was on the phone with my mom. So I told her what I had just done. I tried calling Emily, but she was in her meeting and didn't answer.

So I went inside the gas station and asked the nice attendant if there was anywhere I could sit for the next 2 1/2 hours while my parents came to bring me a spare key. So I sat in a dingy gas station, on a beaten up stool, in the back of the creepy store, talking on the phone while waiting on my parents for 2 hours. Unfortunately it wasn't a very good area, so there weren't any fast food places or anything near this gas station. So I got a lot of talking time with my sister! The only redeeming factor of the night was that my mom LOVES (I mean, LOVES LOVES LOVES) Jack in the Box, which is in Greenville. So she was quite happy to come pick me up so she could get some Jack in the Box tacos! :-)

Silver Medal: Locking my keys in my car 2.5 hours away from home with no spare key.

1st Worst Key Moment:
And now the best story. The gold medal goes to the time I locked my keys in my car during student teaching. And the reason that this particular time was so special was because I locked my keys in my car... while the car was still running!!! I'm sure there are other people out there who have done this, but I'm sure it's a small, elite club of us real idiots!

Continuing with the pattern, I was once again running late and distracted. I met the other student teachers in the Kroger parking lot, and I was afraid I was making everyone else late. So I sped into the parking lot, slammed on my brakes, jumped out of my car, got my bags from the back, and shut the door. That's when I got embarrassed when I noticed my car was still running. And that's when I got REALLY embarassed when I noticed that my car was still running, with the doors locked! ALL TIME LOW!

So once again I called my dad. This just happened to be the time that he was out of work, which was convenient only on this one occassion. I drove off my the rest of the student teachers because I still had to get to student teaching and I wasn't just going to sit in the parking lot by myself. So while I was driving from Athens to Dacula, my dad drove from Dacula to Athens. We literally passed on hwy-316. He used his spare key to open the car, turn it off, and then drove to Dacula Middle School to give me my keys. I was super embarassed when I had to explain to my 6th grade math students why the lady in the office buzzed my classroom to tell me that my dad was there with my keys. :-(

Gold Medal: Locking my keys in my car while the car was still running!


So I'm sure you're going to have tons of suggestions for me, and I welcome them in case there are any random ones I haven't done. So now I have a spare key in my purse, I have a spare key at my parents' house, I have a spare key in my desk drawer at school, I have a spare key on my husband's car keys, and I'm going to be putting a spare key in one of those magnetized boxes that goes up under your car. In fact, I think I'm going to get about 6 of those magnetized boxes to put all around the car, since I've tried the box thing before. (I end up having to use it, but then put it in my car and forget to put it back by the wheel.) And actually, I think I'll give Alex a key to my car to put with his keys to the house. Are there any teachers at my school who want to keep a spare key to my car? haha.

I know that someone is going to be thinking, "Catty, don't tell everyone that you're keeping spare keys hidden around your car... someone might try to steal it!" And my response is, "Honestly, if you stole my 1994 Honda Accord with 350,000+ miles on it, you'd be doing me a favor with the insurance claim I could file." So if anyone's up for the task, you know where to find my keys... :-)

The Full Story on Foreign Exchange

My poor blog has become a bit of a derelict over the past few months. Blame my Masters degree! The last time I wrote was in January when I introduced to you our newest members of the family: Clementine and Tang. Well, I figured that adding another member might necessitate resuscitating the old blog!

So while many of you are probably very supportive of our decision to host a 16-year old foreign exchange student when we are only 23 and 26 years old, I'm sure that the "Are you completely insane?" thought has crossed more than one person's mind. And the answer to that question is: "yea, probably so!" We won't deny it. But at the same time, we're extremely excited about it and feel a great sense of peace that the Lord has led us to this decision!

If you're uninterested in the nitty-gritty details (a.k.a. Derek's version of the story), here are the reasons we've decided to do this:
1. We want to open our home to someone as a form of ministry.
2. We love students (hints why we're teachers), and there is no better way to totally speak into a child's life than have him live with you for an extended amount of time.
3. We feel this will be a good stepping stone to help us see if foster care may be right for us.
4. Our friends and family are supportive.
5. We think it will give us a unique experience of dealing with issues and working together as parents of a teenager that most young couples don't get. As Derek said in jest, "Well, I guess it's better to mess up someone else's kid so we can get it right for our own one day!" lol.
6. We've prayed and prayed and prayed and talked and talked and talked, and we feel totally cool about it!

Well, there you go, for most of you, you already got what you came for. So that means that we'll go ahead and say goodbye to the majority of males who happened upon this or are listening to their wives read this outloud (now is the time to go ahead and tune out)...

But for those of you who are more like me, here is the rest of the story... the "all the little details" story (a.k.a. Catalina's version)... :-) So, for the women (or the exception-to-the-rule type men, or I guess for those men who have wives who will insist that they listen to the whole thing and then get quizzed at the end to make sure they heard every word), we begin...

When Derek and I decided to move into a 3-bedroom apartment last year, among other reasons, we did so with the goal of using it as a ministry for others. We feel as though God has gifted us with the desire to host people and offer them a place to stay. We were successful in this endeavor a few times this past year, but definitely not enough to make it worth it. So when it came time to sign our new lease, we contemplated downsizing to a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. But then Derek said we should stay where we are and be more focused on offering our home to people. So we had been thinking and praying about ways to offer our home to someone for ministry sake for the past few months. On a side note, we've been talking for a few months about the possibility of doing foster care one day. We have to both be 25 to do this, so we have another 2 years to think, talk, and pray about that option.

So when I saw an advertisement in a Savy Shopper insert for the CIEE program I yelled from the kitchen to the bedroom, "Hey Derek, What do you think about hosting a foreign exchange student?" Derek's parents hosted 3 foreign exchange students from Spain while he was a boy, so he was very open to the idea. In fact, he went online later, looked into it a bit, and started the application process. Later that day, we got a call from the Regional Coordinator wanting to talk to us.

So we spent quite a while talking A LOT about it. We sought wisdom from Derek's parents, my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my dear friend Kelly Britt, and my awesome counselor friend Ashley White! We spoke at length with the Regional Coordinator, interviewed with our Local Coordinator (who lives five minutes away from us - awesome!), got references from our wonderful friends Brian and Ashley Finn and Nancy Ward, and then talked and prayed some more!

Finally, we decided we would want a boy and thought it might be an easier transition if it was a student from a Spanish culture, since we are both familiar with that culture, both from Spain and Mexico. So they sent us profiles of 11 freshmen and sophomores from Spain. We first ruled out three boys who didn't like or are allergic to cats, because obviously our babies aren't going anywhere!! :-) Then we ruled out the 4 boys with the lowest English score, since we're not ready yet to provide English tutoring. Then we looked at the 4 remaining candidates. One kid said he hates hot weather and prefers to go skiing every Saturday, so we nixed him pretty quickly. Finally we were left with Jesus, Aleix, and Alejandro.

Derek and I devised a fool-proof system for comparison: we read through each application and put +'s next to the things we liked or thought were cool and -'s next to the things we thought wouldn't be as good with our family. We tallied each student's score, and there was a clear winner: Alejandro!

Alejandro is a 16-year old boy from Spain who will turn 17 in February. He is a 10th grade equivalent to U.S. scores. He has a fabulous GPA, seems very interested in school and having in-depth life discussions, likes to play tennis and soccer, listens to Dire Strait and Bruce Springsteen, and loves watching HOUSE! He also comes from an intact, small family and seems very independent yet family-oriented. For anyone who knows us very well at all will understand why he seems to fit us so well! So after deciding the he seemed like the right one, we looked at each other, I asked, "Are you ready to parent a teenager?," and then we sent the confirmation email!!!!

So now we're getting his room ready, going through all the paperwork, and trying to get him registered for Mill Creek High School before August 11th. We've been praying for him and ourselves a lot over the past few days, and we definitely appreciate everyone else who will join us in covering us in prayer this next school year as we take on this task!

So are we excited? Absolutely!
Are we a bit scared? We'd be stupid not to be a little nervous.
Are we crazy? Probably, but we didn't need this experience to prove that point.
Are we are at peace? Definitely! Praise God!

Will we have difficult times? DUH!
Will this be an awesome experience? We're totally confident!


So how can YOU be a part of this? (No, don't worry, we're not asking you to babysit or anything... he's a bit old for that!) Well, here are the things we'd really love to have people praying for us over the next 10 months:
1. That Alejandro will feel safe and secure with us, learn a lot, and have an extraordinary time in America.
2. That Alejandro's parents will feel safe and secure and learn to cope without their boy with them all year. I can't imagine how hard this would be for a parent!!!
3. That we can learn a lot from him and our first experience at parenting.
4. That the Lord will present ways for us to show Alejandro the love of Jesus in our daily lives, that he would be open to joining us at church, and that his heart will be open to hearing the Gospel.
5. That Derek and I will become more and more united each and everyday throughout this experience as man and wife, and even as "mom and dad."
6. That the Lord will give Derek strength to become a good dad and to fine-tune his skills as the leader of our new little family.
7. That the Lord will give me strength to become a good mom and help me daily submit to Derek as unto God.
8. That the Lord will give us LOTS OF WISDOM and LOTS OF SUPPORT from "real" parents who can mentor us and speak into our lives in regards to doing what is best for Alejandro in a way that is honoring to God.
9. That the Lord will use this experience to point out ways that our life needs to be refined and sanctified, from the way we interact with one another, to the music we listen to, to the movies we watch, etc. so that all areas of our lives in front of Alejandro and others will glorify and point to the Lord.
10. And, finally, that we will grow closer to the Lord as we serve Him by serving Alejandro.


Thank you SO MUCH to each of you who will pray for us continually and to those of you who will support, encourage, and advise us over the next 10 months. :-)

The craziness begins in T-minus 2 weeks... Wish us luck! Or better yet, JUST PRAY!!!! :-)

The New Kreider Family Members

Sorry if we got anyone's hopes up, but we're not pregnant! Read on...

When Derek and I got married, he had a stipulation, and I had a stipulation. His stipulation was that I had to be willing to spend insanely cold Christmas breaks in Pennsylvania, Minnesotta, and North Dakota. We checked that off our list this past Christmas! My stipulation was that I could one day own a cat when we moved into our own place. And now we've checked that of our list, too!!

I had gone to UGA to take the GRE for graduate school last Saturday and got the wonderful opportunity to have lunch with two of my favorites, Suzanne and Lauren. On my way home, I passed the PetSmart and realized that I had no plans for the rest of the afternoon since Derek was out with a friend. So I decided that I would stop in just to see how PetSmart does adoptions. We've been looking into getting pets ever since we moved into our new apartment in Grayson. I've done my research, looked on Craigs list, included pet expenses in our annual budget, and spent countless hours deciding on the type of cat that would fit us best. We would one day like to own a dog, but considering our current living situation being an apartment, and knowing that we travel semi-often and are gone a lot of the time during the day, we knew that a dog wouldn't work for us at this time in our lives. And I love cats. Always have, always will! So we've been ready to get one for a while now.

So as I went into PetSmart, I immediately saw some cats in cages to my left. The lady that was standing with them was holding a particularly pretty little white and orange short-haired girl. I talked to the lady, Sarah, from We Care Animal Haven, and got to hold all the cats. I kept going back to the little girl she had been holding at the beginning. She is beautiful! She will be 1 in March. She was really snuggly and cuddly when I held her, yet she also started playing with my necklace after awhile. Considering we have really wanted a playful cat who will also let you hold her, I thought this might just be the perfect little girl for us. Not to mention, this particular no-kill shelter was adopting out cats for only $40, which were up to date on all shots and vet check-ups and were already spayed/neutered. Since I had already done my research, I knew that was a more than reasonable price. But Derek wasn't with me, so I got Sarah's information and drove home.

The moment Derek got home, we drove right back to PetSmart to look at them. Now, Derek says he's not a cat person and was just "letting" me get her, but the moment he held her, the little girl snuggled up under his neck, and he softened big time. I'm sure he'll tell you otherwise and make up some manly excuse, but I saw him! He clearly softened! I asked him if he wanted to hold any of the others, and he said, "No, I like her." So we started filling out the paperwork and shopping through PetSmart to get all of her new belongings (cat tower, covered litter box, pink and gold food dishes, purple collar with a bell, food, treats, spray for our furniture to ward off scratching, cat nip, etc.). And then we brought her home! She's all ours!

She's been a little skittish at first and not super friendly yet, which has been surprising considering she was so snuggly at PetSmart. We're hoping she just needs time to adjust to her new home and new parents. We've also decided that we're about 99% sure that next weekend we're going to adopt her brother, too. They were born and have been raised together with Sarah, the owner of the shelter. She's clipped both of their nails since they were kittens, so they're both used to it, which is a good thing for us since our biggest fear is them destroying our new furniture (I know, I know, it's a risk we're taking and can't control). We figured that it would be good for them to have one another since they've grown up together, and we are gone a lot during the day due to our jobs. It would be good companionship for them, and research shows that cats usually do better when they have other cats with them, especially if the owners are gone during the day a lot. Plus, they've already both been spayed/neutered, so we don't have to worry about any of that. We'll be getting the brother this Saturday. We've been told he looks a lot like our little girl -- short-haired, white and orange.

So now we're having to decide on names, and that's where we need everyone's help! I've come from a family who always likes weird pet names, "off the beaten path" you could say. My previous cats have been named Serena, Poonjab (from the movie Annie), Penderschloss (a.k.a. Penny from the movie Adams Family), and Ophelia (from Hamlet). So I'm looking for two names that will be slightly odd and abnormal for our new little boy and girl. Also, I like names that go together with a sort of theme since they look alike and are brother and sister, but it has to be done in a creative way, so "Romeo and Juliet" just won't cut it. It's got to be more creative! Here are our ideas so far...

Option #1 - We could name the boy "Bruce" after Bruce Springsteen (one of Derek's favorite bands). Then we could name the girl "Rosalita" and call her "Lita" (since "Rosa" or "Rosy" are just way too normal for us) after Derek's favorite Bruce Springsteen song.

Option #2 - We could name the little girl "Clementine" because of her pretty coloring. Then we could name the boy "Tangerine" but call him "Tang" (like the drink) for short. Cute, different, thematic, goes with their coloring.

Option #3 - We also thought of keeping "Clementine" for the girl, but then going with one of the following for the boy: "Rusty," "Oliver," or "Roberto." I like all of these options, but it's not quite as creatively thematic as I'd like. But they are definitely all cute names, yet different. I guess Rusty and Oliver aren't super original, but Roberto would be cute! We could call him "Bert."

We're still open to other options. We haven't made any decisions. Also, if you know my family (or at least just me, my mom, and my sister), you'd know that we come up with names for our pets for as long as they live. Our pets always end up having multiple weird names because we just think they're all funny. So we always settle on the official name that we tell other people when they ask, "What's the cats' names?," but we always secretely have a million more names for them. So anything goes!

So obviously Derek and I (well, let's be real, mainly I :-) have final say, but we'd love to hear your votes for which option you like best, or if you have any other ideas! We'll post pictures as soon as we get them together and can get the picture online!!

P.S. If you're looking to adopt a pet (dog OR cat), I'd HIGHLY encourage you to consider We Care Animal Haven, based out of Watkinsville, GA. Sarah is wonderful, and she truly cares about the cats. Most no-kill shelters are extremely expensive to adopt from, but this place is very reasonable. It is so obvious that Sarah's heart is in it for the animals; she's really only interested in finding the pets good homes! If you ever want to look for an animal, you can "friend" them on facebook!

Derek's Secret Revealed

One day back in December we were driving to meet some friends for lunch after church. Derek was being a total hyper-energetic pest on the entire drive to the restaurant. He was singing, being stupid, and intentionally trying to bother me. Just as I'm starting to get irritated, we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, and he just suddenly stopped. And that's when it hit me!

It had finally dawned on me why I feel like I've known Derek my whole life, as if I even knew him before we ever met three years ago. My discovery is this... Derek is actually the Singing WB Frog, Michigan J. Frog. You know, the one who will sing in front of the man but then won't do it in front of anyone else. It drives the man bananas! Remember that character? Well, that's Derek.



I just knew that as soon as we walked into that restaurant, our good friends would wonder why I'm on edge, while never suspecting that Derek is actually the type of guy to be hyperactive. He always gets away with everything because in public he's so quiet that nobody expects that from him. It's like when he's in front of me, he's belting out "Hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my ragtime gal..." and then as soon as we get in front of people, he just says "Riiiiiiibit!" And everyone thinks that I'M the crazy person who is always on edge and can't take a joke or something. Thank goodness my immediate family finally have gotten to see some of his antics!

But in all honesty, I wouldn't really have it any other way. I love my Bear and all of his different personalities... I mean... facets. :-) He is the most wonderful husband, and I'm very glad that he has a little bit of sparkplug in him, too!

In case you have no idea what characeter I'm talking about, watch this video: