The Other Side of the Classroom

So, 2.5 weeks into law school and I am ready to write a book with the above title. Going from instructor to student, has been, to put it nicely, challenging. Learning to sit still, learning to NOT critique the person speaking in front of me, learning to have a good attitude about plowing through pages and pages of books, whew, it makes me exhausted just listing everything. I now have the utmost empathy for all my former students, especially those at Tech, who had to sit through me lecturing for an hour and 45 minutes! Bless your hearts, I forgot how hard it is to sit still!

Well, besides reading, researching, and briefing cases, my life subsists of little else at the moment. Rumor is this is the "weed-out" year so the work gets piled on. At the moment I am still at home with the parents. Most of you know I pretty much live in organized chaos, but at the moment, all is just chaos. Some things are stored in the boatbarn, some things are hanging out on a flatbed in the parent's garage, and the lucky items are in Mom's Dining room, piled all over my bedroom, and overflowing into the attic. So basically, I know where nothing is in a given day. To cap it all off, Roux has developed a little game she likes to play....it goes like this:
Roux: Mom's shoe Mom's shoe, I see Mom's shoe!
Me: Roux, No, bad girl.
Roux: Got the shoe, Got the shoe, where to hide the shoe??
Me: Roux, HERE! Roux, Give!
Roux: under the bed, no that was yesterday, in the bathroom trashcan, no that was last night, Outside in the flowerbed, YES she'll never find it!
Me: HERE, HEEL, SIT. Roux where is my shoe?
Roux: (tail wagging, whole body wiggling) It's a surprise Mom, don't you just love playing with me!

So, it is always quite the challenge to make it to school with matching shoes!
As always, be blessed,
Carrie Mc

Mid-Life Crisis at 29???

Well, my life is about to change drastically once again and once again, I am going to be loading up my house and traveling down the interstate. I dearly love teaching, but have found my self toying with the idea of another type of career...and after much prayer and many sleepless nights, I am taking the plunge. To where/what you might ask? Well, I am headed to Mississippi College School of Law in August, crazy, right?

I took the LSAT on a whim, and now find myself with a FSBO sign in my front yard and stalking Wal-Mart at strange hours for packing boxes. 5 moves in 6 years....this is getting a bit old. I am both excited and nervous about going back to school, and ready to wager I hear at least one of my former students and new classmates say "hey Miss McCormick, what are you doing here?"

So, y'all say a little prayer that the thing between my ears still works!
Carrie

I Love Vacation!

This summer has been fun so far :) I truly love my time off and spending times with friends and family. A week after I got off work, I traveled to Key West, FL for the week with Mollie and Jessy. We stayed at a B&B in Old Towne, shopped, beached it, and rode bikes everywhere. The bike part, now that was a bit scary for "klutzy Carrie!" especially when wearing a dress and flip flops! One of the the Highlights of the trip was our "Day at Sea" where we went an hour out on a catamaran to snorkel and eat lunch. Oh how I love boats and calm, settled seas!

Which brings me to my next jaunt this summer, down to Venice, with Daddy Eddie, Uncle Paul, and Justin. It was a fun way to spend Father's day weekend. But no calm waters were to be found....lets just say my constant chant was "Horizon, Horizon, Horizon, look at the Horizon!" But we caught a few Reds, ate some good seafood, and saw a couple of beautiful sunrises.

However, the most beautiful sunsets are always found at one place, Lake Yucatan! After a week long clean up of mud and creatures that found refuge from the flood inside our camp, we finally go to sit back and enjoy. Lots of porch sitting, good food eating, waterskiing, and sunburning ensued.

In between all travels I managed to sneak in some "swamp time" at with Liz and McNabb. I loved getting to relax with y'all for a few days! Now it is back to Ruston to get ready to teach my on-line summer school class. I guess vacation had to end somtime.

Burning up I-20

 


Well, spring is coming quickly and for that I am thankful. I have now firmly decided that I detest cold weather. Give me and 80 degrees and humidity any day. With all the beautiful weather we have been having this season, it seems like I have spent a lot of time inside my car. I have seen a lot of I-20 and HWY 27 recently, as I headed home for both Palm Sunday and Easter weekends.

Oh how I love home! The first weekend was spent busily helping Momma Lu and her sisters decorate for J's big Senior Party. She is the last of the cousin's to graduate, oh how time flies! With a western theme, haybales and a campfire, all went well. Aftwards all of us hostesses (aunts, sister, grandmother) sat around the fire for awhile. As I looked around me I realized how thankful I was for the influences on my life. Not only have my parents tremendously impacted me and supported me, but so has my extended family. My mom and I were talking about different convictions and ideals I possess and I realized I attribute them to having the role models of so many dynamic strong and Godly women in my life. Thanks y'all for putting up with me all these years!

Well, on lighter note, the next night found my fam plus my extended fam down the road back around the fire pit for a crawfish boil. Yum! I hadn't had any in awhile and definitely ate my 5 lbs worth if not more. Note to self, never take out contacts after peeling crawfish....Yikes the burning sensation!

So back to school for a short week and then back to CS for Easter. I spent the long weekend hanging out again with the fam (and sister's "friendboy" as my dad says), getting put to work planting a garden (oh the blisters), reading some good books, and attending serveral events at the church. The youth put together a 12 station's of the course which was pretty cool. At each station you had different scripture leading up to the crucifixtion and either something to do (take communion, place a nail in the cross) or something to contemplate (Mary Magdalene/annointment, Judas/materialism, etc). It was very effective and of course, me being the emotional one, I teared up. As I reach the end of one school year hear at LA Tech, I find myself facing many decisions, and they all came to the forefront as I walked through the stations of the cross.

So, as I leave this blog today, I end with a line from one of my favorite hymns: "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives."

The End of the Quarter

Wow, only two more days in this quarter, how the time has flown! I still haven’t completely adjusted to the quarter system they use here at Tech; it is weird to think I get a whole new set of students in a week. So, in honor of the occasion, some funny and not so funny moments of the quarter.

*For their warm-up speeches, one class had us play every variety of elementary game out there…heads up 7-up, I am going to the moon and taking….hangman….you name it!

*The other class simply read trivia and went through a phase of “You might be a redneck jokes”…not quite as entertaining.

*Intercultural class country/cultural presentations: Two guy students and their top 10 list of Russia, #5, Vodka. They then proceed to say, “and we like vodka too,” pull out a bottle and pour themselves shots. One guy takes his, the other takes a sip and sets it on the lectern. (realize the one who took the shot is grimacing, clearing his throat, etc.) I am looking on incredulously and finally laugh hysterically, I couldn’t help it! Then the guy reaches over, picks up his fellow presenter’s shot and downs it as well! Thankfully as they left they say, “Carrie, it was just water! Did you think it was real?” Only in my class…..

*Worst Excuse for skipping my class this quarter: “Miss McCormick, it’s raining and I couldn’t find my umbrella, I think my roommate stole it.” And take note, yes this excuse was from a male student.

*Most unique speech topics this quarter: Persuasive speech, the “Pug-Away” dishwashers, complete with a live demonstration. Informative speech, stage fighting, also with a cool demo. Descriptive speech, the inside of a dragon’s mouth.

*Toughest speech for me to listen to: Persuasive, “Why abstinence should not be taught in schools or anywhere else.” Some of the students laughed, no let me say snorted at even the concept of abstinence. You know, I really don’t want to know what my students are doing outside of the classroom. For me, a firm believer in abstinence, Focus on the Family reader, True Love Waits kinda gal, the whole thing was just sorta hard to stomach. I know everyone has various beliefs and is entitled to his/her own opinion, I am just saying it was very hard for me to grade the speech objectively. It also kind of makes me hurt for my students who have bought into the pop culture’s view of sex.

And that sums up my quarter ladies and gentlemen. Hope you all have a blessed week!
Carrie Mc

Drive 4 days and ski 2, completely rational, right?

Well, skiing has been on my brain for about the past six months. After unsuccessfully trying to plan various trips, with less than two weeks notice my friend Liz and I decided, why not, and decided to head to NM over MLK weekend.

What a journey! Thursday I loaded up the cruiser with gear, cooler (lots of diet coke!), and dog, and headed NW for eight hours to Enid, OK. After a quick night's sleep, Liz and I headed out, driving eight more hours west to Angel Fire, NM.


Ah, arriving in the snow covered mountains! I sometimes wonder upon seeing the majestic landscapes across this earth how people can question if there is a God. I stand in awe of his varied creation.


Oh but I digress, skiing was a blast. I was definitely a bit out of shape, but enjoyed myself none the less, with only one silly fall on those silly catwalks. I was just cruising, watching out for slow kiddos in my path "making pizza's" and BOOM down I went. Apparently that day, the Lord decided he would work on my pride.....a long standing issue of mine that He and I periodically re-visit. Now, as most of you may know, I pride myself on being able to handle things on my own, so imagine how I felt when I could not get my danged ski boots on!! I pushed, I pulled, I walked around, and I finally had to ask this nice man to stretch them open for me. After he grunted a few times, I was able to get my feet in. So the story should end there, but alas, when I then go to put my Muck boots in a locker, guess who has no quarters? So then I have to suck it up and ask in my sweetest voice "Anybody have change for a $10?" Thankfully this nice man took pity on me and just gave me three quarters! The next day, facing the same boot dilemma, Liz discovered dog choke collars work brilliantly as ski-boot "getter-owners"!


All in all, though tired of driving (thank you audio books!) the trip was worthwhile. Gained back my ski legs, got in a great visit with an old friend, and watched my silly dog traipse through the snow and oops, "Don't eat the yellow snow!"


Be Blessed,
CRM

Surviving the Holidays

Well the holidays have come and gone, once again too quickly. The days were filled with family, food, and times of faith. As far as family goes, it was great to spend time with my immediate fam, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had some serious chats, as well as some not so serious ones. In fact, our "Girls' movie night" Christmas night turned into "Oops the FIREPLACE!" as we failed to open the damper and smoked out the house.

For food, I think Momma Lu and I stayed in the Kitchen for two days straight. From divinity and pecan pies to sweet potato casserole and butterbeans, it was non-stop. At one point while the women were gathered in the kitchen, Aunt Jan commented on how presents and commercialization takes over Christmas. For me, this Christmas, cooking took over instead. Instead of focusing on the true meaning of the season, it seemed like we simply worried about making sure we had baked and cooked everything for everyone and then cleaned up perfectly behind ourselves. Perfection shouldn't be required, instead a simplicity and dedication to focusing on Christ's birth and its impact on the world is all that should be required. Why do we place other such burdens on ourselves?

Lastly, that brings me to faith. For me, the best part of Christmas is always the candlelight service at our church. The format never really changes from year to year, but there is comfort in the consistency. As the pastor reads through the various scripture surrounding Christ's birth, and the congregation sings corresponding hymns, a kind of peace settles in the soul. Knowing I am hearing words that have existed for centuries and knowing the majesty of the event has not diminished, never ceases to amaze me. Ending the service with lights dimmed and hushed voices singing "Silent Night" we all walk into the night, taking Christ's light to the world.

So, there you have it, my holiday synopsis. May you all be blessed until "The Season Rolls 'Round Again."