Loving the N.C.

Upon reading many of my friends blogs and realizing how far away some of my friends and family are, I have decided to begin my own blog. I first want to express how thankful I am to have such loving, supportive and patient friends. Moving from the midwest to the south? (I am still unclear if N.C. is considered south, east, or southeast) has been a challenging and yet a rewarding experience thus far. Bruce and I miss our families like crazy, and it is especially difficult for me to be here while my baby cousins are growing up in IL without their "neigh neigh". However, we have been blessed to find an amazing group of friends here in N.C.

Here is a quick update on what we are doing here in N.C. for our friends we may not have spoken to in a while. Bruce is attending Duke University as a masters student at the Divinity School. He is in his third year (in a three year program) and has maintained his all "A" streak he has been working on since 4th grade (yuck). Being a student at Duke has many perks, but the best perk by far is having Duke basketball season tickets. We have embraced the basketball phenomenon out here and cannot express how much fun it is being a Cameron Crazy! LETS GO DUKE!

I am in my third year of teaching at an elementary school close by, teaching kindergarten. It really isn't as scary as it sounds. I love my job and enjoy getting to know my students and their families and building relationships with the surrounding community. I have a very diverse group of students, which may be the coolest part of my job. The academic part of my job is teaching kids how to read and write, but the social part of my job is to introduce common life and social skills. We work on waiting in line, listening while others are speaking, sharing, speaking kindly to others, public speaking (show and tell :-)), tying shoes, cleaning up our own messes, helping others clean their messes, working together as a team, taking turns, and learning to be a member of a community. It's fun, it's hard, it's rewarding and sometimes it's enough to drive me crazy. On a different note, I am also in graduate school. I am working on my masters in Reading Education, which will allow me to be a reading specialist in a elementary or middle school. I am half way done and am scheduled to finish May of  2010. 

I wanted to end by reiterating how much we appreciate our friends and family and the kindness we have felt by many. We love you all!

P.S. The pic is from the top of Duke chapel. It is one of the most beautiful and meaningful buildings we have come across here.  I had to walk up a million stairs in order to take it, so please enjoy!