I'm in love with the printed page. Always have been. My dear husband tells me that I could do a blog on our .Mac site, and I'll probably move this there one day. But for now, I'm in the mood for conquering virtual mountains on my own while he's off hunting in the, uh, really virtual mountains.
I should be cleaning my kitchen, which is crying for some attention, but I always do my best writing when I should be working, so here I am.
Rather than give you a backlog of info, let me tell you where my life is today. I'm currently enrolled in a TESOL course. That's
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, for those of you who are Acronymically deprived. The course I'm doing is online, which is a new experience for me. Actually, being a
student (instead of a teacher) is a new experience for me, at least as an adult. I graduated from Christian Heritage College many moons ago, did the Mommy Track for years (although I worked a part-time succession of jobs), and finally, in 2000, began using my English and Education degrees when I started teaching conversational English to the spouses of international students and scholars associated with the U of U.
We've all seen movies or read stories of creative individuals who have managed to mask their illiteracy from the public eye. Maybe even from the private eye, too! Well, I think I've learned a bit of what that feels like. No. I'm not illiterate! But, no thanks to the California educational system in the 60's and 70's, to my own mental blocks, or to my college which graduated me with a degree in English, I can't communicate grammar. I can
use it. (Almost) perfectly. I just can't tell you what's what.
Fortunately all of the English classes I've taught, up to this point, have been conversational English classes. Phooey on studying
about the language: let's just use it. Really, it's a good concept. BUT, now I'm teaching real English to people who actually ask, "What is the gerund form of the word
compose?" and I'm supposed to know it. Can you believe it?
The best way to learn English is to teach English, so I've heard. It doesn't hurt to take classes on how to be a teacher, either: they make you learn it, too. I wanted to do this back when Bethany was in 11th grade. Skeeter, then in 7th, told me, "I think you should wait until Bethany graduates." Hmm. Out of the mouths of babes? There's a message here, I told myself, so I heeded it.
Three years later, I broached the subject again. By then, Skeeter himself was in 10th grade. His response this time? He looked me in the eye, and with an impish grin said, "You want to be there for the best years of my life, don't you?" Now, there are two times in a mother's life when she needs to be there for her kids: 1) when they say, "Mom, get out of here," and 2) when they say, "Mom, I want you here." Of all the jobs I've had, Mom is definitely the tops, so I set my aspirations aside, subbed at Skeeter's school (and was known to all, with his blessing, as "Skeeter's mom"), wrote and got paid for three personal histories, worked for Kelly Temps, continued teaching conversational English, counted heads during the Census, etc. All this was pretty much done during the hours that he was in school. Not a bad way to go! I tell you, his high school years were some of the best years of
my life, too, because I was involved!
So here I am in 2007. Mark and I have no time to bemoan our empty nest. We're busier than ever. We're both involved in Bible studies. He's in a community chorale. We have a blast co-teaching one of the Cross Culture Club conversational English classes one night a week. The students seem to find us fairly amusing, and "the Mark & Julie Show" (as I think of it) may be their best opportunity to get to know an American couple very well. We relish the opportunity!
Skeeter's "empty" bedroom has hosted a number of missionaries and friends who have stopped through here. (He's not officially gone--just off at school. More about that another time.) We moved a year after Bethany got married, so we no longer have a shrine to her teenage years. Sigh. Someone else is enjoying the bright yellow walls dotted with white daisies. It
was a really cool room!
God is good to us! We have pretty good health, lots of energy, terrific friends, a wonderful church, plenty of opportunity, and fairly good brains. Correction: Mark has an
amazing brain--he's ALWAYS learning new computer programs and putting them to use. (He manages three or four websites, designs Power Point [or the Mac equivalent, which is Keynote] presentations for neuro nursing classes he teaches, etc.) He's doing his best to ward off Alzheimers! Honestly, that's part of why I agreed to do the student track myself. My next step will be a Master's degree in Linguistics, which scares the socks off of me, but I'll deal with that when I get there.
So, in the meantime, I'll plug away with my online TESOL course, stay busy using my writing skills as I design curriculum, make up tests, quizzes, dialogs, and even grammar songs for class, and only heed the kitchen clutter when I can't get to my computer!
Just in case you were wondering about the gerund thing, the answer is "composing." It is an -ing form of a verb and used as a noun (as opposed to the present participle which is the -ing form as a verb structure). Wow!
JOY!
Julie
Skeeter was here for Christmas, but Bethany and Jeffrey came for just a few days in January. It was WONDERFUL to have everybody here! After they had come and gone, I realized this was the only family picture we had taken, but it says it all! We are so excited about the June 3rd arrival of our grandchild!
Mark and Skeeter "bonded" by going cross-country skiing--a first for Skeeter, and an activity Mark has enjoyed for years. The beard thing on Skeeter was borne out of laziness, or so says the grower of the hair. However, a month later, and he still has it. And why not?!
When at home, Bethany and Jeffrey usually make pizza on Friday nights. Well, we hated to make them break tradition, so we asked them to fix dinner for us. Nothing like hot pizza from the oven. And speaking of something "in the oven," by the evening each day, that baby really makes himself/herself known! Bethany is about 20 weeks along in this pic. No, they don't know what they're having, and a sonogram is not in sight...but several people are THINKING 'it's a girl.' Time will tell!
No longer a teenager: Skeeter celebrated his 20th birthday while home. What did he want for a birthday dinner? Indian food! Shrimp Coconut Kourma, to be exact.
On Christmas day, Mark, Skeeter and I enjoyed a leisurely morning. We ate a late breakfast, read the Christmas story, and opened gifts. In the afternoon we were blessed with the company of two Egyptian families, and together we enjoyed a very non-traditional Christmas meal. I made, let's say I attempted to make, lamb mensef (which is actually a Jordanian meal, but it's Middle Eastern, so it was close) and I also made dolma (I forget the Egyptian name), which are stuffed grape leaves. The recipe said to just put a tablespoon of rice and meat mixture, but the leaves were so big, I added more filling. I forgot that the raw rice would expand. My dolma were squatty, fat little things (instead of long, finger-shaped ones) but they tasted ok. Our friends appreciated my efforts. They also listened to the three of us sing a number of Christmas carols (accompanied, in part, by Mark on the accordion.) Mark has an Arabic hymnal, so beforehand he copied a few of the songs so they could read along. What a great opportunity.
After dinner we played Pit. What fun! This is such a noisy game, and Egyptians are not shy about hollering like you're supposed to. If you don't own this game, we highly recommend you buy it--and PLAY it!
And a final shot. This is pretty much a nightly appearance: deer in our backyard. We've counted as many as nine (sometimes including three bucks). A neighbor said she saw 14 deer in our yard one day. In the winter, they're beautiful. In the summer, when they're decimating gardens, they are not so cute.
