A couple weeks ago when home in Pennsylvania for several days, Dusty and I were able to squeeze in a photo to continue our annual fall photo tradition. I think this was Dusty's best photo yet...such a photogenic pup he is!
Speaking of the best animal ever, fellow pup lovers may be interested in reading this article (see below) regarding why puppies cock their heads. Enjoy!
This semester, God is certainly wanting me to work on increasing in the virtue of patience. You see, over one month ago, a gentleman plowed into my car while my parents and I were out and about in my new town. Fortunately no one was seriously injured. It took several days for the police report (other driver was 100% at fault) to be sent to me but once I had that information in my hands, I went ahead and procured the estimate from the garage recommended to me by my new insurance agency.
Well, here we
are one day before my second road trip since the accident and my car is still
not fixed nor have I heard anything from the other insurance company.
The adjustor did come out last week on Tuesday. He said he would submit
his information to the insurance company and that a representative would be
calling with the next steps.
I
find it hard to believe that my car is still damaged and in the
condition it is in when the accident happened over a month ago. Each
time it rains, water leaks into my car and the sound quality is horrible
from the lack of a sealed shut door not to mention the fact that I
can't use the back passenger door at all and the windows in the driver's
side and the rear passenger doors don't go down all the way. UGH!!!! I know it could be MUCH MUCH MUCH worse and am thankful it isn't but boy is it frustrating!!
Some positive news that happened tonight relates to another time someone rammed into my poor car (RIP Saturn)....due to having to buy a car and all of a sudden have a car payment during my second year in the PhD program, I panicked and took out some financial aid to pay for that one semester of schooling. I had no idea one itty bitty little semester could cost so much!! Well, I'm proud to say that after my first two paychecks and a lot of penny pinching, the $1746 debt I had acquired is paid off...I officially own ALL of my education now. Woohoo!!!
Words...they can build you up or can tear you down depending on how they are used. After a particularly trying day of teaching earlier this week during which I had to reprimand two students for passing notes during a lecture...as I stood right in front of them...in plain sight....I was tired and irritated over the lack of respect the sharing of words between each other conveyed to me. So I was pleasantly surprised to receive this email message from one of the students the next day:
Dr. Kemmery, I wanted to apologize for being rude in class yesterday.
It was extremely disrespectful for XXX and I to pass notes and I
want to apologize. As future educators we of all people know better than
this and I want you to know this will not happen again.
Thank you for all the work you do for us.
God bless!
Yes, the students I am currently teaching are very different from those I've taught elsewhere. Perhaps it's due to the small family-like atmosphere at the university where I work. Or maybe it's because for the most part, we share the same faith? Whatever the reason, I am thoroughly enjoying learning from my students and interacting with them. They come from all over the country and it's been interesting learning of their prior experiences as they share examples of what we are discussing in our various content and methods courses.
Having said that, I have been reading and scoring personal reflection papers all day and have just about reached my limit with half a class to go in terms of grading these papers. Just as I was about to quit for the night I read these words from a student when discussing the positive contributions made to a family by a child with a disability:
As a person, and a person before a "flaw", the contributions are as uncountable and as beautiful as the stars.
How poignant and what wise words to share!! I think I shall stay up a bit longer to read some more of my students' words. :)
I came home in the middle of the night last night due to having hit the road as soon as my last class finished the midterm exam. At the other end of the long dining room table is the stack of four classes worth of midterms I need to grade but I don't wanna. ;)
I haven't been home since late July. My bedroom has been dubbed wedding central with all the decorations and flowers I put together this summer. My dresses are hanging on the back of my bedroom door and I am reminded of the hours of planning I put into the wedding this past summer. Naturally, I decided to procrastinate and scope out some images online. Did you know that some weddings do this???
I am loving the pops of color!!!! Especially on a chilly gray rainy day such as this one we're currently experiencing in Schuylkill County. How have I not already seen this or thought of this idea already?! However, a line has to be drawn somewhere so I'm resisting the temptation to add this funky decoration...for now. God help me....and Adam for possibly having to deal with even more color than we already have! Ha!
Last October started off on a very sad note. As a result, I took a bit of a reprieve from social media, emailing, and use of Internet outside schoolwork. By the time mid October rolled around, I was desperately ready for an escape from reality. In the wee hours of Tuesday, October 15, 2013, I boarded a plane and flew to Nashville for the first time. After a couple hours of waiting in the terminal, my little brother walked off another plane and joined me in time for lunch. Off we went to explore our new favorite city and to check into a hostel for the first time! I think of that special trip often but have been reveling in memories from that excursion a lot lately....I guess since it's almost one year since Patrick and I met up in Tennessee! You can read more about the music we heard, the fun people we met, and the cool places we explored here.
It was also during this same traveling week that my packet was mailed (by my sister-in-law) to Ohio to apply for the job I currently hold!! God is so so so good! I suppose you could say that last October was the month of many beginnings in spite of the endings/changes that also occurred during that timeframe. When Saturday came, marking the end of our glorious time in Nashville, we flew to Baltimore together that morning. As we departed from our plane, Patrick hugged me goodbye and I said, "See you at Thanksgiving!" before catching the plane that would take me south back to Raleigh, NC. I remember planning out my 3MT (three minute speech) as I drove the 90 minutes back to High Point to try to stay awake during the drive. I returned to an empty house since my parents (who were in town from PA for the weekend) were in Charlotte with my NC family watching my brother compete in one of his races. I took advantage of the quiet and went to sleep early since all the late nights of music listening and days of walking endlessly in TN had caught up to me. Sunday was spent playing catch up with schoolwork and planning for the week ahead while I wished I was still in Tennessee having fun with my little brother. The next day was a difficult one with readjusting and getting back into the swing of things at work. Little did I know that come lunch time when I took a break from work to check my email, and to log into Catholic Match for the first time in three weeks, I would stumble across a certain profile. Yes, Monday, 10/21/13, last year was a special day indeed for it brought me to meeting Adam! I can so clearly remember how I felt that morning...I was not looking forward to the mountain of schoolwork/dissertation/planning that awaited me from my extended fall break but I do remember smiling and being thankful for the fun trip I had just returned from and was well rested due to having slept a lot on Saturday night into Sunday. I often wonder if I had known the day was going to end the way it did in talking with a pretty cool guy out in California, would I have done anything differently? Probably not. I am glad things unfolded the way they did...in all aspects of life. This is proving true today as I received some disappointing news last night but then received incredible and astounding news today....only God could write a story this good! Going back to the beginning with Adam, a large part of our conversation in the earlier messages/days were about the 3MT and it was because I needed to practice giving the speech aloud to someone not familiar with my work/research that I was able to skype with Adam for the first time...and why the pressure to meet him was off I think. I went into this new friendship thinking he would be a fun person to talk to and that he was genuinely interested in helping me with my task at hand rather than viewing him as a prospective spouse let alone anyone I would meet offline. Little did I know that he would wound up being a helpmate for life. Again, only God could orchestrate something so clever in His timing.
So, here we are just under a year from that fateful Monday afternoon. When October 15th rolls around again, you'll find me in an airport. This time, instead of being in Nashville, I will be at the airport in Harrisburg, PA to greet Adam as he steps on Pennsylvania soil for the first time. What an exciting trip we have planned....we'll cover LOTS of ground from Harrisburg to Lancaster to Schuylkill County to York to Gettysburg to Carlisle then Mechanicsburg and everywhere else in between....this will also be our shortest trip yet but we are grateful for the time we will have and are looking forward to it! I can't wait to introduce him to PA friends, show him where I grew up and where I used to live (several places), as well as take him to the church and reception venue where the wedding will take place and probably most importantly, to complete our Engaged Encounter weekend for the Harrisburg Diocese next weekend.
Yeah, had you told me last fall when I returned from an exciting Nashville trip that one year later I would be on a different trip preparing for marriage in my former diocese in PA, I would have laughed and laughed. I'm SO glad God is writing this story rather than I...it is turning out so much better than I could even fathom or create in my own mind. Hmm, I wonder where we will be or what we will be doing on October 15, 2015!?
I referenced this song when teaching this week. Sadly my students didn't know it (nor did they know the singers...not even the best singer in the whole wide world). Seeing the year the song came out (1994) helps me to realize that most of the students in that class weren't even born yet.....oh, way to make me feel old now! Still one of the best songs ever 20 years later if you ask me! In case you don't know this song by heart like I do (thanks to my incessant listening of all things BA starting at the age of 12), the lyrics are posted at the bottom of this posting.
The context of the song reference came about in class when we were reflecting on St. Therese of Lisieux on Wednesday and when talking about acting as channels of peace as St. Francis did today in anticipation of his feast day tomorrow. We prayed over the saying from St. Therese I posted below and applied it to our vocations as (future) teachers. We shared how we should always extend a kind hand, smiling face, and hopeful and open heart even to those we really dislike spending time with and how as teachers, we will need to act as conduits of peace and project calm rather than anxiety or turmoil. However in meditating over this quote tonight I realize that this pertains to everyone, not just those of us in academia. Let's all strive to engage in more random acts of kindness and love and to treat others with love at all times even those who may be real crosses in our lives. That is what it all boils down to....it's all for love!!
Elsewhere I have shared stories relating to the proposal day and St. Therese so it's only fitting that CatholicMatch wound up publishing an update article on us on her feast day. If you would like to read it, you can click here.
Speaking of love, only 12 more days until I see Adam again!!! I can't wait to show him my hometown, spend time with family, introduce him to my PA friends, show him some of where I used to teach, and of course undergo further marriage preparation through our Engaged Encounter Weekend in Harrisburg and appointments with my former pastor in York. How sweet it will be to walk into St. Joseph hand in hand with Adam as he lays eyes on the church where we will be pronounced man and wife. I hope he likes it!!
Our neighbor gave us this beautiful orange red rose in honor of the feast day of St. Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower! Such a sweet gesture!
“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a
smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right
and doing it all for love."
All for Love
When it's love you give
I'll be a man of good faith.
then in love you live.
I'll make a stand. I won't break.
I'll be the rock you can build on,
be there when you're old,
to have and to hold.
When there's love inside
I swear I'll always be strong.
then there's a reason why.
I'll prove to you we belong.
I'll be the wal that protects you
from the wind and the rain,
from the hurt and pain.
Let's make it all for one and all for love.
Let the one you hold be the one you want,
the one you need,
'cause when it's all for onee it's one for all.
When there's someone that should know
then just let your feelings show
and make it all for one and all for love.
When it's love you make
I'll be the fire in your night.
then it's love you take.
I will defend, I will fight.
I'll be there when you need me.
When honor's at stake,
this vow I will make:
that it's all for one and all for love.
Let the one be the one you want,
the one you need,
'cause when it's all for one it's one for all.
When there's someone that should know
then just let your feelings show
and make it all for one and all for love.
Don't lay our love to rest
'cause we could stand up to you test.
We got everything and more than we had planned,
more than the rivers that run the land.
We've got it all in our hands.
Now it's all for one and all for love.
It's all for love.
Let the one you hold be the one you want,
the one you need,
'cause when it's all for one it's one for all.
It's one for all.
When there's someone that should know
then just let your feelings show.
When there's someone that you want,
when there's someone that you need
let's make it all, all for one and all for love.
