Catch-Up Time!

Huhm... so in my last blog, from August, I said that I would update you only a few weeks after about the start of the year... huhm. Well, I guess weeks technically make up months, right?! Needless to say, it's been a crazy year so far. Despite the busy nights and demands of adult life (which NOBODY told me about, by the way... or if they did, I ignored it), this has been the most meaningful and blessed year of my life by far. With 2014 fast approaching, it's easy to fantasize about where I was a year ago this time... of even five years ago this time! I never thought I would be where I am, career and home and husband in hand, and all within a short period of time! God is too good to me, beyond my deserving, and I hope to live each day to put a smile on His face and give that love back to Him and His world. But enough of that, let's catch up!

Since my last blog, the school year has started in full force. Each year has a new set of demands, this year being that the current sophomore class may not be as wild and have as many discipline problems as last year's group but that they are extremely apathetic about just about everything, especially their educations. Also, I'm getting much more involved, which means a lot more responsibility. My friend Joanna and I will be starting a science club very soon (with over 50 kids already expressing interest... wowza, apparently it was meant to happen!), I'll be helping out with a new joint-venture school play come January, I'm leading and creating, along with my biology team, an after-school intervention for students who didn't pass the Biology EOC last year, and am slated to start ProTeach in January as well. Put that on top of the normal lesson-planning and the fact that I'm still on a Comprehensive PGES (which used to be the TPEP I piloted last year) for my FINAL provisional year, it's been quite the to-do! But I feel as though I'm teaching better than ever before, that my kids are learning more meaningful and useful things despite the continual constriction of my curriculum, that I'm building better relationships with coworkers than ever before, and that I'm doing MUCH better of leaving work at work and intentionally relaxing when I do have time at home (Richard confirms :) ).



This is my staff badge this year... I'm strangely proud of it, and my kids were ecstatic when I showed it off afterwards. Usually they don't let staff do this, but I apparently caught the photographer when the head lady (mean) was in the restroom and he was itching for some mischief too.

Speaking of relationships with coworkers, I have become extremely close with Joanna, another science teacher (she actually gave me my last haircut! Now that's friendship) and have also been building a great friendship with Leigh-Ann, our resident pottery/art teacher. We've gotten together once a week after school to spend time together in fellowship and crazy fun, including but not limited to learning the pottery wheel and school sports games and such. I've actually missed them over this break, but we're getting together for a girl day on New Years Day which I am extremely excited about :)

I'm also still a part of Sonoro, the women's choir. We've had quite the influx of new members, which has been lovely, and I'm loving it as much as ever! The women are phenomenal and probably one of the closest communities of caring, uplifting individuals I've ever been a part of; when one of us is struggling, the ENTIRE group meets the need. I've never seen anything quite like it. They are a shining part of my week and I love the therapy of good women and music. Oh, and we sing prettily too.

This was from our October retreat this year... I love my Sonoro girls :)

 

But on top of that, I'm retrying my musical chops on one of my church's three worship teams. I'm up every three weeks with some of the most talented musicians I've ever worked with and am absolutely loving it. The best part is that, despite all the church music groups I've been a part of, I've never been with a group so worshipful and grounded in what our job truly is; I think that is the part I appreciate the most.

Oh, and speaking of church (man, I'm on a roll!), Richard and I have joined a Life Group twice a month! It's a lot like my parents' Cove Group was. We get together with five other couples and eat, potluck style, and share about life and it's struggles. It's been a fantastic learning experience for a young idealistic couple like Richard and I, with learning and conversations born from simply listening to other peoples' life stories. We've apparently become the pet project of the group; most of the group members have joined due to struggling and even failing marriages to try and work things out after years of difficulty and they don't quite know what to do with us. They're proud that we're making the step to have an honest, great marriage so soon but openly say they don't know what a marriage looks like that hasn't undergone years of issues. So we're their project to see what a marriage might be without it, I guess! Flattering, yet kind of intimidating. Thankfully, we've learned it's okay to get things wrong in our marriage as long as we make it right :)

The last few months have been absolutely wonderful for Richard and I; we feel as though we've grown more than we could have ever imagined and are working really hard at our marriage. I don't think I've ever found something so worthwhile as working to make our marriage great; we've got a long way to go, of course, but are both committed to doing our best :) I'm one lucky, blessed girl!

As for the mister, he's still working for XPert PC Plus and his bosses are slowly but surely realizing how valuable he is... but along with that, they are also realizing his kind heart and work ethic, meaning that they know he will do his absolute best without complaint even without paying him competitively. He's determined to stay there for a bit to get some certifications under his belt free of charge (they usually are over $300 a piece to take and his work pays for them... it's the equivalent of computer nerd college) but is excited to explore other opportunities! We're also getting him set up with a business license pretty soon, which has been his dream for years! Just struggling with a name... there have been many a funny ones with the word Falk in them, as you can imagine, in an inappropriate way. Either way, a dream is being realized :)

Richard is also part of a men's group each Thursday night that has been a wonderful growing experience for him. It's organized through our church and led by the man who officiated our wedding, Pastor Roger. They've become close and enjoy man time each week to the tune of a campfire, scotch, cigars and I can imagine some grunting. Either way, it's one of Rich's favorite parts of the week that he will rarely miss!

Phew, what an update! I think I've let you in on the ins and outs of things that will hopefully tide everyone over for another month or two (I'll try! I can't promise that it'll happen, but I can promise that I'll try!). There have been many, many stories over the past few months of fun times (see fort picture below) and visitors (almost each weekend! Good thing we have four bedrooms...), which I've obviously missed in telling, but I'll try to be better to post the little stuff. Instead, I'll leave you with some pictures of our Christmas season! We had our very first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. in our forever house (hopefully) but absolutely loved seeing y'all around as well, between the Falk Christmas weekend where we celebrated his Great Grandma Juanita's 99th birthday, Christmas Eve at the Books (sadly just me, Rich was sick and didn't want to pass it around), and Christmas Day at Aunt Tawnya and Uncle David's house. We felt extremely loved and hope that you felt it right back, thanks for including us in the festivities everyone! Next stop: Sunriver with my folks and the Halls before heading back to school!

 Fort time, as promised!

 

This is maybe 1/3 of Richard's mom's side of the family... his dad's side is bigger. Quite the difference in family dynamic between us, huh.

 

 Christmas with the Falks!

 Little present opening nap... and yes, that's Lily's tail in the box. Merry Christmas, cat.

 I made a nice big Christmas breakfast for the two of us using leftover place settings from Aunt Tanya's Christmas Eve table... she's too creative for her own good! Thanks for setting us up!



I love you all so much, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, hope you have a Happy New Year, and am praying for a 2014 filled with life and love and other mysteries :)

XOXO Mrs. Falk