In Memory of Tim

I am not sure where to even start...I heard today that Tim Harriman had lost his battle with Cancer. A fight that wasn't even fair in the first place; Diagnosed at 14, Tim has been fighting Cancer for over 8 years, and has now lost a future that was bright and limitless.

I knew, and taught Tim, while he was attending high school. He was always a kindred spirit. A student that refused to give into the disease and a student who remained positive that he would beat Cancer. It didn't matter how sick he was, Tim was always determined to stay caught up in his school work, He was always more concerned with his peers. I didn't know that Tim and his wife had a blog, I have included the link to his blog and his Spokesman Tour when he traveled across the country to raise awareness and money for children diagnosed with Cancer. Take a look and learn a little bit about the Person who gave me hope and hope to thousands of children.

www.timandchrista.blogspot.com
www.spokemantour.com

I am devastated by the loss but, I feel better knowing how many people Tim has touched with his positive attitude, determination and his legacy of hope.

I will miss you Tim and think of you often. I know that you are now at peace and watching over all of us.

My Favorite Season

A Sense of Balance??

I remember in an earlier post that I was going to try and balance work and family and health...well, as you have probably noticed, by lack of blogging, I am not doing too well. The school year starts and the chaos ensues. I am back to getting up around 5:30 am so that I can get to work without traffic jams and the possibility of getting school work done before school actually starts at 9:00am. I have a real problem with doing school work at home in the evenings, for me this is family time. Dinner with the family, bath time for Maks, then story time, then bed time and then...I am exhausted. So, a little yoga and I, myself, make my way to bed. Repeat this Monday to Friday and you have my life in a nutshell. I have found recently that I can not even listen to the radio when driving home because it irritates me. I think my mind is so busy during the school day that any kind of noise is just too much by 4:00pm. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do free Yoga lessons twice a week and I am enjoying the coaching this year but I did have to give up some favorites as well. With our struggle to have another baby, I am trying to reduce stress wherever possible and provide myself with much needed rest as much as possible. This year I had to turn down my dad and family for bowling. Although I enjoy bowling, it is just too late of a day for me and I just didn't want to give up my limited time with Maks. I miss being able to be with him during the day and just feel like I am missing out while he grows up just way too fast. Thankfully, I have an extremely supportive family with a friend network that is beyond anything I could ever ask for.

A Must Read

After having our amazing Librarian find this speech for me, I am going to teach it to my English 30-2 class. It is poignant and needs to read by everyone. When we study the speech I will be teaching rhetorical devices and speech writing but I will also be emphasizing the importance of his words and the importance of our human condition.


Please take some time to read his amazing speech, "The Perils of Indifference"

Building Castles and Driving Cars

Last night, Lisa and McKenzie invited us to the new TommyKPlay. Maks had a blast!! He loved every moment and then he found the race track. And so at the tracks, Maks and I spent over 30 minutes, racing cars. I can't help but think that Maks might eventually race cars or at least fix cars. I hope this passion stays with him. I love to see the joy in his eyes when he is around cars.

A Beautiful New Blog

This past summer, Lawrence sent me a link to a really cool website.

http://www.amusingplanet.com

It has amazing art work, photography and great human interest stories. Tonight I came across this blog from Finland. I just thought the photography was so sweet and creative that I just had to share with everyone.

Check out Milasdaydreams.blogspot.com I love it!

The Bookshelf

This is the novel I started teaching in my English 30-2 class today. I had forgotten how hard this book is to read. It is a memoir of the horrible and incomprehensible experiences of Elie Wiesel. He was just 14 when the novel begins and by the time he became a young teen, Elie was struggling to survive the Nazi Concentration camps. After his release at the end of World War II, Elie took a ten year vow of silence about the Holocaust. Only after being convinced that his story needed to be told and his own belief that we can never forget what happened, did Elie write his story. It is hard to inspire the students to read and I am hoping that our journey through this novel will not only inspire them to read but, more importantly, take a look at how fortunate they are to be alive and healthy.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed....Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." Chapter 3, pg. 32

What Happened?!

What in the world happened to our little baby boy?

I am back at work and Lawrence is really good about sending me cute pictures and little movies of Maks throughout the work day. It was this afternoon when Lawrence sent me this picture.....We both were astonished as it looks like Maks is about ten years old. Look how long his legs are and he just looks so grown up already. Maks is playing "Cars" on the XBox while sitting on the couch.

They just grow up so incredibly fast.