An Unexpected Letter

I received the following letter today when I checked an old email account. I almost deleted the email as junk, but the address seemed familiar so I opened it. Glad I did - it was from Jane Wakeland, a woman whose two sons, Kyle and Ryan, were in my classroom when they were 5th graders at Yankee Ridge.

I'd have to look through my records to see just how long ago I had the boys, but I know both have graduated from high school, so at least ten years. Kyle and Ryan were good guys who tried hard in school and never caused trouble. It was wonderful to get the update on Kyle (the older brother) that Jane sent. She refers to a letter I wrote Kyle at the end of our year together. In my earliest days of teaching I began a tradition of writing each student a good-bye letter at the end of the school year, encouraging them to work hard in the coming years, and pointing out at least one character trait they had that I admired or respected.

Those letters can sometimes be a bit of a burden, being written as they are during May, which is such a busy month for teachers. Occasionally I have considered discontinuing the practice. Reading Mrs. Wakeland's letter, and discovering that she has kept Kyle's letter all these years, helped me realize that the end-of-year letters are more important than I thought.

Hi Mrs Isenbarger

Hope this finds you well and happy..

We moved in July (still in Urbana) and so I have forced myself to go thru years of papers and files.  In going thru the boys school papers and memories, I came upon a  letter you wrote Kyle at the end of the 5th grade.  It brought tears to my eyes as it was so so so true....   You knew him well.  You will be pleased to know he is still that same " wonderful kid".  We are certainly blessed and so grateful that he also never gave us any trouble...Unfortunately college was not for him, so he is still working with Craig , building more apt on campus.  ( like the community needs more !)

As you maybe aware, I am working at YR as the school Nurse and love it !!!   It is a great group of teachers and staff.

Just wanted you to know what a great teacher you are as well.   I always speak  very highly of you.  Pat yourself on the back, you deserve it ( in more ways than one ).

PS   Kyle still has that amazing smile.....

Hugs

Jane Wakeland

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I am at Hershey, grading today's papers. A student has stunned me with her profundity on this week's Daily Language assignment.

For one of the exercises, the children were asked to write a sentence using the homophone pair "piece" and "peace." AD wrote this sentence:

The difference between a jigsaw puzzle and the world is that the puzzle is missing a piece while the world is missing peace.

Words of wisdom from a ten year old girl.

Wow.

Drifting Snow

This is a photo of a snow drift by the living room window.

Note the snow that drifted through the window screen and is against the window pane.

Believe it or not, in other parts of the yard you could see the grass poking through the snow.

Brrrr! Winter has arrived in Indiana.

Geek Humor

So I am a girl-geek. I freely admit it. (Just try me in Star Wars Trivial Pursuit if you don't believe me.) Recently I found a great geek-humor science fiction cartoon.

This is titled, "I Find My Lack of Dates Disturbing."

Enjoy!

Enjoy It? Or Understand It?

This is my first morning "alone" since December 20. Lisa went home to Utah yesterday, leaving Craig and me as empty nesters again (and feeling more than a bit sad.) Today I am catching up on things: finally writing our Christmas letter, heading out to Hershey to work on report cards, sorting toys and rearranging the toy closet for the next visit from the grandchildren, etc.

I am also catching up on my reading, so as I ate breakfast (blueberry pancakes made by Lisa!) I opened the December 17 issue of The Church News.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's article about his first Christmas away from home has had me thinking ever since I read it. He describes how much he had enjoyed family Christmases when he was growing up, and then experiencing his first Christmas without his family in 1960 while serving as a missionary in England.

He wrote about how different it was from the family Christmases of the past, and how meager some things seemed compared to those experiences - no boisterous family gatherings, none of the familiar activities, but a much simpler Christmas spent serving the Lord.

And then Elder Holland stated (and I paraphrase here), "I learned the difference between enjoying Christmas and understanding it."

Now there's a thought! I couldn't help but reflect back on the Christmas we just had. Probably it was one of the happiest Christmases I have ever experienced. The reason? All my children and their families were here, along with my mother, siblings, mother-in-law, and my niece and nephew. This year Christmas Day fell on the Sabbath, and we experienced a wonderful morning in Church, singing Christmas carols and listening to President Gibb (who just the day prior had invited us out to his barn to ride his horses) speak about the meaning of Christmas.

But did I just enjoy the day, or did I understand it? That's what I am reflecting upon now.

I think perhaps it is a mixture of both. Certainly I enjoyed the day. Family together celebrating the birth of our Savior... doesn't get much better than that. As for the meaning of the day,  I think I have a rudimentary understanding of the birth of Christ. At Christmas I think a lot about Mary, the mother of Christ, and how blessed she was to be His mother. And yet that very blessing brought excruciating pain to her as she watched her son (and I deliberately don't capitalize the word there - I am speaking about her love as a mother for her child, Son of God or not) allow Himself be crucified for the good of all of us, including those who were doing the very deed.

I also remember Joseph, an honorable man who was thrust into what must have been at times a bewildering position to be in - but he trusted in God and then did his best to be the earthly father of Jesus Christ.  Any parent worries about doing the right thing by and for their child; I can only imagine how inadequate Joseph may have felt occasionally!

And then I think of a time when I was in the depths of despair about my own parenting skills, and how I felt like the worst mother ever, wondering how Heavenly Father could ever have entrusted a child (or six!) to me. Suddenly I heard a voice, reassuring me that I was a good mother and saying some other things about me as a mother that buoyed me up and helped me understand my place, my role at that time.

Drawing upon that experience strengthened me and, I think, made me a better mother and person. If the Lord had confidence in me, how could I not? And perhaps the same was true of Joseph and Mary. They had visits from angels of the Lord, explaining their roles and telling them not to worry. They then had the faith to go on and participate in the great work of the Lord's. That didn't mean that there were no tears, no troubles, no difficulties. It meant that, the work of the Lord could and would be accomplished, a work that through faith on His name, would bless all mankind, past, present, and future. Joseph and Mary had their roles to help the gospel go forth, and so do I.

And that is what I understand about Christmas.

Ella-noise!

Soccer is my favorite sport - even more than equestrian sports. I love the action and the skill required to play. And my favorite soccer player, hands down, is Ella Masar. Ella is from Urbana and is a friend of Curt's. She was Homecoming Queen the year he was Homecoming King, but their friendship goes way back to middle school. She's a lovely woman, inside out, and a devout Christian.

Currently Ella is playing on a team in Paris, France. I love this picture of Ella working the ball.

Look closely and you will see a black armband on her left arm. This was the first game Ella played in after her dad's unexpected and very sudden passing. Her whole team wore the armbands in support. Ella is also wearing a white wristband on her arm with "Dad" written on it.

Her first professional team after college (where she was a star player for the University of Illinois) was the Chicago Red Stars. She was such a popular player there (not only is she skilled, but she's kind and takes time for her fans) that she was the team face in an advertising blitz in Chicago. This billboard was by one of the freeways in Chicago.

One of my favorite pictures of Ella. She's scoring a goal on Hope Solo. Hope was the US National Team's goalkeeper in the World Cup and is considered the top female goalkeeper in the world. (She also just finished a season on Dancing with the Stars.) I love it that Ella was able to score on Hope, but truly I am not surprised! (Be sure to notice Ella's Illini orange soccer cleats.)

Scoring a goal for the Chicago Red Stars. Ella is not afraid to be scrappy and fight for the ball!

Ella-noise!!

Ella also played for the US National Team. Here she is, playing for the USA in Germany against Germany. 

As I mentioned before, Ella's father died unexpectedly just before Thanksgiving. He was missing for several days before his body was found. So tough on all his loved ones. Christmas night I was awakened by a text alert on my phone. It was Ella, wishing "Mama Isenbarger" a Merry Christmas. Sensing that she was feeling down and having a rough Christmas, I immediately texted her back. As our texts flew back and forth, I discovered that I was right. Since she reached out to me, I did my best to cheer her up. I heard from her again on New Year's Day, and she seemed less down then (despite having surgery to repair her 4th broken nose. The beautiful game is also a rough game, for sure!)

I don't know if Ella will be returning to the USA to play for the Women's Professional Soccer League this spring or if she will continue to play for her Parisian team. If she doesn't, I'll continue to root for her from afar, and if she does, maybe I'll be able to go see her play in a game or two. Regardless, I think she's a top notch gal and my favorite soccer player in the world.

Ella-noise!!