Miss Ridiculous, Part Two

I now have a hamster in my room. Her name is cupcake. I need to get a picture of her. She bit me on Monday. I am not sure if we are friends or not :). The kids love her though. I have not let them hold her for fear of their fingers and Cupcake's life. They love it when I put her in her ball and let her go around the room.

Taking second graders to a restaurant is....interesting. Especially when it starts POURING rain as you need to leave! But they did pretty well considering. The boys pulled out the chairs for the girls. It was pretty cute :). Second grade conversations are pretty funny. One of the parents with us asked "Who built the Great Wall of China?" A girl answered "Jesus!" Ha!

Living nativity set with second graders...also interesting. I think it will be good if I can keep my Joseph from dancing in the stable! He is quite the character.

As for the Christmas tree, it is safely in my house. I think that would have been one too many ridiculous things!

I am so glad God is a God of order and design, even when I decide to do a bunch of random and ridiculous things. God is good!

Just Call Me Miss Ridiculous

That's about how I am feeling right now. Ridiculous. Not in a bad way, but in a "Did I really decide to do that?" way. Let me explain. It all started a couple weeks ago. Well, actually last year. Last year one of the families leaving said they would give me their Christmas tree for my classroom. It is beautiful, but it happens to be seven feet tall! Pretty big for a classroom, but my classroom is pretty big. So this was not a big deal. Well, a couple weeks ago we read a story about Chinatown. I remember going to a Chinatown as a kid and loving it. We don't have one here, but we do have a Chinese restaurant. So I thought it would be fun to take my kids there. So next Wednesday we are going to go to a restaurant. Yes, I am taking 19 second graders to a sit down restaurant. Beginning of ridiculous. Then I decided that I should start teaching them formal manners. Some have learned these at home, but others have not. Yesterday I taught the boys how to open doors for the girls, pull out their chairs, etc. Well, now the boys all fight to open the door and go last. More ridiculous. Haha! A week and a half ago my friend was talking to someone and all the sudden I heard "Well, let me check with the science teachers. Oh wait, maybe Miss Seeman would want it!" And she proceeded to ask if I wanted a hamster for my classroom. Yes, you guessed it, I said yes. Classroom pets are cool, right? Well, cupcake the hamster arrived today. Just in time for the Thanksgiving break. So on Monday morning, Cupcake will (hopefully) be ready to face 19 eager, very distractible, second graders. Oh, did I mention that she will bite if you squeeze her too hard? Yep, more ridiculous. So, Christmas tree, hamster, field trip, all in the same week. Can it get more ridiculous? Yes, yes it can. I was looking through our new Bible curriculum and saw that there is an optional Christmas Walk you can do, with a live nativity scene and more. There are lines, different scenes, murals to do, and more. Guess who decided to do it? And guess who is starting practicing next week? Yes, that would be me, Miss Ridiculous. Ha!

So if you hear screaming coming from Kenya, you will know why :). Hopefully I will live through next week. But I am so grateful to the Lord for all these opportunities. And hopefully my kids will not just remember how ridiculous I am, but how much Jesus loves them. Then I have done my job.

September 12th?!?!

Woah. Sorry to the two of you who actually still check this. It has been WAY too long! The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity and overall craziness. But they also have taught me so much more about the amazing God we serve. I was able to see many more parts of His creation and what He has empowered man to build. It was also great seeing many friends and family members in the states. Here is an overview of the last few months.

After leaving Kenya, my roommate and I spent a week exploring parts of Europe. You have to stop there for a layover anyways, so we decided to stay and explore. We were also able to get together with one of my friends who was living in Germany at the time. Here is a smattering of pictures from The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Austria. It was crazy busy but SO fun!

 This was the hardest but also one of the most interesting parts of our trip: going to Dachau concentration camp. I will never forget it. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I don't need captions on a lot of them!

After Europe I flew into Chicago and left the next day on a four day cross-country train trip with my parents. It was long but fun. While on the west coast, I also got to go on a special trip with my dad, so that was fun. Here are some pictures from that journey. 

I was  home for two days and then went to the Dominican Republic. I was able to see some of my friends and former students. I also got to spend some time at an awesome ministry called New Hope Girls Academy. The girls are SO cute!

 How come when the boys join the group picture it's not as good? :). The next two pictures are of camping with some of my friends from the DR.

Then I was home for about a week and then we drove to a friend's wedding about 8 hours away. It was good. Then I came back to Kenya.

It has been a busy first month and a half here, but I am excited about a familiar curriculum and city and such. My group of kids this year are quite interesting. They love to talk and dance and sing. They are a lot of fun but also tiring. I have also been enjoying going to The Nest and holding babies. I took one home this past weekend. He is quite a cutie! I didn't realize how much I missed doing that. 

 This is Irene, the last one I fostered. Her hair is braided in a mohawk style :). She has been adopted!

 And this cutie is the one I am fostering now! I love him SO much!

Thanks to those of you who have been thinking about me and praying for me. I really appreciate it. I am thankful that God is good even when things are hard and that He makes me stronger through it.

Hopefully that gave you a little snapshot into my life!

End of Year Four

I can't believe I am almost done with my fourth year of teaching! It seems like not that long ago yet forever ago that I was a student at Emmaus. Wow. I love that God has walked every step of the way with me. Some have not been easy, but He is so good! I love that He never gives up on us. What a good God I serve!

I will miss my little guys. They have been such a blessing to me. I love the hugs, smiles, and laughs they provide me during the day. Our current joke is still about my future husband. Any time that word is mentioned, they go crazy. It's pretty cute :). One of the boys today prayed that I wouldn't talk about my future husband any more! Don't worry, I don't talk about it all the time. But between the kids and I, it gets brought up just enough to be super funny EVERY time.

I love that God knows just what we need just when we need it. Last week I was able to babysit 4 great kids and we were all laughing so hard. That was just what I needed. I was able to go out to lunch with the same family a few days later. I love that God provides family for me as well.

In THREE days my roommate and I leave for Europe. I hope I can eventually post a bunch of pictures. We are meeting up with another friend which should be fun too. I am excited!

Tomorrow I am moving my classroom with 18 second grade "helpers." We will see how that goes :). I am excited about my new classroom though! Pictures to come next fall :)

Silly Second Graders

So a few weeks ago during a spelling pretest, I started talking about my future husband in all the sentences. (No, I do NOT have a boyfriend, no I do NOT have an interest, no there are NO single guys on staff here :)). The kids freaked out and loved it at the same time. It's become our little joke :). So last week when they had to write sentences, a lot of them wrote about my future husband. Here are some of the sentences, with the spelling words underlined. And I will keep their original spelling :).

-Miss Seeman's husbent was hiding from her.
-I am hoping Miss Seeman will gets a husbent.
-I surprised Miss Seeman with a husbent.
-I saw Miss Seeman hiding from her husben.
-I saw that Miss Seeman was surprised when she herd that her husben was a movie star.
-Miss Seeman baked her husbin in a fire.
-Miss Seeman was teasing her husbin cos he was 50,679,107 paonds (pounds).
-Miss Seeman was riding on her husbin he was being a cow!
-I was not pleased when Miss Seeman got married.
-Miss Seeman was finding her husband because her husband was to scared.
-I voted that Miss Seeman would not get a husband.
-Miss Seeman was surprised her husband liked her.


I LOVE these kids! SO SO funny!

New Old Things

Today in class we were talking about how the Holy Spirit helps you have self-control. He is a little talked about part of life so often, and it was great to talk with my kids about how much He guides us. We looked up many verses, and one of the ones we looked at was Romans 8:26: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." We talked about how the Holy Spirit prays for us. How amazing is that? I was getting chills talking about it and told the kids how amazing I thought that verse was. One of them asked me if I had ever heard it before. I told them I had but it's good to be reminded because I often forget. That is so true in my spiritual walk. I know something about God, but then I forget it. I need to be in His word, studying more about Him, to remember how great He is. I am SO thankful that the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. There are so many times when I just cry out to God, not knowing what to say or do, but the Holy Spirit does. Thank you God for knowing exactly what I would need and sending it in the form of your Holy Spirit!

Middle of May?!?!

That means school is almost over. That means my first year teaching in Africa is almost done. Craziness! 13 more school days, and two of those are half days. It's crazy! I will miss my now 20 crazy little monkeys. They have taught me a lot about life, love, and having fun. Some lessons I have learned from them this year:
-It's ok to laugh at yourself. Some mistakes are just funny!
-Seeing your teacher get handcuffed is pretty awesome. (Don't worry, it was just for fun, and I got out about two minutes later!)
-Jesus loves everyone, and we need to love everyone too.
-Spend time getting to know someone else's culture. You will learn some cool things along the way.
-Try new things. Enjoy them!
-Patience is hard. But I need to have it anyways, and it is worth it when I do!

I am so thankful for my little monkeys. It might not always be easy, but they are worth it.

This summer I get to go to Amsterdam, Germany, Seattle, the Dominican Republic, and Iowa. I am excited to catch up with people! If you live in one of those places, I would love to see you! I am excited to see what God does this summer too. He is pretty amazing. I love that even when we struggle, He cares about us. He wants to make me more like Him, which blows my mind. When I am ready to give up on myself, He is still there and still working in me. What a mighty God I serve!

I love how God uses what I teach my kids in my own life. So often the stuff I teach them about Him I don't always believe in my own heart. He is using these precious little ones who believe His promises without doubting to show me that He cares. He loves me, just as He loves everyone in this world. How different would I be if I believed that with my whole heart?

Chickens and Children

I haven't posted much lately. Part of that is business. Part of that is laziness. Part of that is feeling like I don't have much to write. Life has been the same in many ways. School, life in Africa, taking care of babies on the weekend when I can. I forget that that's not what everyone else does, so maybe they want to hear about life here. Right  now I am listening to the rain pour down. It's 7:25 pm and pitch black outside. Rainy season is here. I love the rain, unless it is during school hours. Then it's not so fun. I told my kids today to not get wet on purpose because they will get plenty wet on accident. That basically characterizes rainy season. 

We only have about 20 school days left. A month from now I will be exploring Europe with my roommate! I can't believe my first year living in Africa is almost over. It has had it's challenges, but God is good and I love life here. I will miss my crazy kids, that's for sure. 

I am now on my third foster baby here in Kenya. Moses and Leo were both adopted. This semester has been crazy, so I haven't been able to take a baby as much as I would like. I have had a little girl, Irene, for two weekends so far. She is almost 3 months or so and is as cute as can be! I hope I can take her a little bit more before I go home for the summer. It's so fun to put her in cute little clothes!

I am excited to go pick her up hopefully tomorrow. I haven't been able to take her for the last two weekends. I was babysitting for one and the other one I went to Makutano, a village about 7 hours from here where my roommate Jennifer's aunt has a ministry. I had been wanting to go up there for a long time but hadn't made it yet.

It was so interesting and heartbreaking to be out in rural Kenya. Most of these people have rarely seen a light skinned person, never seen a paved road, let alone a city, and live in poverty. It was amazing to see what the ministry, Village Project Africa, is doing. God is working through them! We went to church, did home visits, hung out with some of the kids at the school, drove around, and painted a little. They have a school, dorms, clinic, greenhouse, and many other things. The thing that amazes me is that this ministry just started up about 5 years ago. It's incredible! I loved driving around and meeting the people. As we drove, people were excited to see a car, and even more excited to see light skinned people in it! One little boy started clapping and spinning in circles and cheering when he saw a car go by. I want to be that amazed by the little things!

 Greenhouse tomatoes. They are huge! They will provide food for the kids and also a profit when they sell the extra ones.

 Two cuties peeking in at the guests during one of the home visits.

 Kids at the school walking home with their balloon animals and hats. I am so thankful I learned how to make these on my first mission trip to Mexico 11 years ago. Where has the time gone?

 Balloons!

 Out in the surrounding villages. If you look carefully you will notice a "sweetie" candy in her hand. I am glad I brought those along!

 These kids LOVED having their picture taken. They would look at it and start cracking up. Even the adults wanted them taken too!

 By the end, we were encircled with people who wanted a "sweetie" and to get their picture taken. And of course to see the light skinned visitors!


In case you are wondering why the title had the word chicken...

At one of the houses we visited, they wanted to say thank you to Emily, so they gave her a LIVE CHICKEN! And to make matters even more funny, it was in the middle of a HUGE rainstorm. So we were driving through the rain on flooded roads with a chicken! My voice sounds funny in the video, but it's too funny not to post. 

Well, that's my life lately. And hopefully there will be more to come soon!