Crazy

Last year, I had a kindergarten student who would come to my classroom after school to learn his ABC's better. He went through a phase where he wouldn't write his name on any of his papers because he insisted that his real name was actually “Crazy.” So I found myself helping him write “Crazy” at the top of each of his papers..............that's how I felt this week. My name is not Mai-Rhea or Miss Odiyar. My name is “Crazy”!

It was a really, really, really busy week! It started on Sunday with a 30-minute jog along the beach. We rushed home to eat before heading over to the school where we worked for the next 6 hours. Then it was a trip to the gym to work out, a relaxing stop at the beach, and a laundry-run before dropping in to bed, crazy tired!

Monday morning started earlier then ideal, but it was totally necessary. I woke up early enough to do my devotions, eat, and then walk to the school - by 6 a.m. I still had things that needed to be done before school started. Monday's are always crazy, because the kids are usually tired from the weekend and they gotta get back into the routine of things. We also had a staff meeting that lasted almost 2 hours before Sean, Veronyka, and I rushed down to the church to watch students audition for Real Christian Theater. We were happy to welcome all 5 new students to our team.

Since I got home and went straight to bed, I decided I'd better get up early again so I could cook some food, or I'd be eating PB&J for another day. So I was up before the crack of dawn on Tuesday, but cooking up a storm this time. I made a huge pot of pasta that lasted all week! That solved the PB&J problem! Tuesday was also one of my student's birthday, so after school he came running into my classroom and flung himself around my waist in a big hug. He had come back to invite me to dinner with his family, but his sister beat him there, so he just decided to hug me. It was really sweet. So I headed off to dinner with them at a nearby hotel. I enjoyed hanging out with him outside of the classroom.

My student and me at his birthday dinner. My student and his sister comparing the size of their burgers.

Wednesday had it's own kinda of craziness. After school we rushed to the store and then back home. I secretly slipped over to the Maycock's house to ice some cupcakes for Veronyka's birthday. We had planned to take the cupcakes to Prayer Meeting and surprise her afterwards so that everyone would be there to celebrate with her. But she was being kinda difficult saying that she didn't think she was gonna go to Prayer Meeting since it was her birthday. Instead, she wanted to go to Garapan for ice cream. We eventually convinced her that she should come to Prayer Meeting first so we could all go out to ice cream with her afterwards......and that worked. So we had extra birthday goodies – cup cakes and ice cream!

The group of us outside the ice cream shop.

Thursday meant the week was winding down – which was crazy since it felt like it has just started! After school I was able to accomplish a good number of things before heading to the gym with Sean. (He ran into one of his friends the other day who has seen us together a few times, and he asked Sean if I was his wife. I asked him how he responded. He said, “She's one of them!” But he was just kidding, he didn't really say that. But it's kinda funny, because we do seem to be doing quite a bit together this year.) After the gym, we rushed home for showers and then headed off to yet another birthday. This time it was for the little sister of one of my previous students. She was turning 1 and that's a big deal here. There were cars parked all the way down the street, lots of food, drinks and music. They are a very nice family and have been with the school for a long time, so it was nice that they invited us to share this big milestone with them.

Here's the birthday girl with her mom....."It's my birthday, I can cry if I want to!"

Her 2 older brothers - I can sympathize with her! The older one was in my 4th grade class last year.

I was hoping Friday would slow down a little, but it just seemed to speed up. After school we headed out to the beach to do the tank swim. This time we pushed forward despite pelting rain and dark, threatening clouds, and we made it to both tanks. On the way back, I found myself swimming by myself because Jessica and Sean had started ahead of me and the other 2 girls were still playing around at the second tank. As I was swimming, I kept seeing large sections of yellow brain coral. There were usually little black and white fish that would swim around the coral and use it as their home. But then I came up to a large one and found it kinda odd that there were no little fish swimming around this one. Then I saw it. The long, brown and white, slender body of some sort of sea creature slithered under the coral. I froze. The water wasn't very deep – I was floating a mere 3 feet above the creature. I didn't want him to know I was there, so I cautiously moved my arms and legs in swimming motions until I wasn't directly over top of him anymore. Then I bolted and started swimming furiously towards shore. No more sight seeing for me, I was out of there. I made it back to shore about the same time that Sean and Jessica did! (Later I found out the it was not a sea snake, as I originally had thought, but rather, it probably was a moray eel.) The rest of the afternoon was a blur of activity including guitar lessons and bible study.

I obviously didn't take this picture, but this is a similar design and pattern to the one that I saw.

Sabbath finally did begin to slow down, but there was still a lot going on. My roommate, Jessica, and I decided to share our ethnic pride as we both wore our respective cultural dresses to church.

After church, we brought 2 of our students home to hang out. We cooked for them, ate lots of cookies and had a good time. After we dropped them off we had time for a quick dip in the ocean before running off to another birthday party – Crystal Pierson – one of the dentists at the clinic. She turns 29 on Monday. We had a great time hanging out with all their cool diving, paddling, and church friends. There was cheesecake with blueberries (and strawberries) to end off the evening. It was amazing.

Ken and Crystal with the yummy cheese cake!

Me with the Birthday Girl!

That brings us back to Sunday..........What a crazy week, and today was just as crazy, so it looks like it'll be a repeat of last week, just with a different set of crazy events!