Birthday Reflection

So today was my birthday. I think this may be the best birthday yet. I think it's the case for many reasons. For one, I was able to spend it with my incredible husband. Last year my birthday was on a Wednesday so being the wife of a youth minister means celebrating on a different day if you're b-day is on a Wednesday. But even if I had, last year on my birthday my first class of the day erupted and yelled at me for the last 4 minutes of class because I wouldn't let them use their review sheet on their upcoming test. They yelled things like, "you need to go back to Africa!" And "This is Bryan Station, not Dunbar" and who knows what else. It was so sad for me to see a class think so little of themselves. However, though it was a rough start, that class later turned out to be one of my best classes. One of the strong voices in the riot ended up getting one of the highest grades in his class. But at the time, it was not a "happy" way to start any day, let alone my birthday. Nick sent me flowers to school last year. I had never needed flowers more on any day of my life! But still, every moment I got, I caught myself replaying the yelling of my class. It was still great to have a husband to celebrate with and I had a good day, when I take out the first class of the day.

But this year my birthday was super! The day starts with my sweet sleepy husband telling me Happy Birthday. Today my first class of the day was really good. I had someone come in to observe them and I felt like they all were participating for the most part, so that was nice. Then one of the students I had last year (who graduated) came in to see me and I told him my plan was next hour. He said he'd come back. So he did and he told me he wanted to come see me before he left for his training for the Army. He starts training on Monday. I felt so special that he wanted to come talk to me before he left! Then another student I had last year came to see if I could help her with her current math class. Again, I was honored that she'd come to me for help. Then I saw a third student from last year that hugged me when she saw me. It's so rewarding to me to experience days like today. It makes all those rotten moments of "being the bad guy" trying to teach my kids to be respectful, to teach them math, to show them what they are really capable of doing. The kids I teach are so capable. Many of them just are not blessed with enough people to tell them that. I'm so glad I have people praying for me as I try to work with them. Anyway, bottom line: Today was a good day at school.

Then I came home and Nick had gifts for me. He had flowers for me. Then he had our car cleaned inside and out. Boy did it need to be cleaned! Then he had three gift bags for me. He got me a tickler file to help us get organized, "Shopping for Time" a book that I think will be very beneficial to me, a bag of Reese pieces and then... are you ready?! He got us a Wii!! He also got me another game/remote combo. So now we can play and exercise at home. We also went to iHop for dinner. I ate my entire omelet and 2 pancakes! Now we're home playing with our Wii. What a great day! Thank you Lord for such a great husband to celebrate another year of my life with.