Jen is pregnant!

Last week we went to see a midwife at a maternal care clinic and heard our baby's heartbeat! It is difficult to describe my feelings about it. There are just so many feelings all at the same time! I am very excited to become a father and am ready for the responsibilities that come with it. I am a bit nervous because I do not have a teaching job yet. Jen wants to stay at home with our baby once it is born, and I need to have a job so that she has that as an option. I am also very fascinated with the biological aspect of it. Hearing the rapid heartbeat of our little fetus was mind-boggling! How can a little life form inside of my wife's body!? Quite strange, indeed.

Honestly, I don't have much else to say. It seems as though I'm just along for the ride with this whole pregnancy thing. Of course I will check out some soon-to-be-father preparation books from the library and learn what I need to about changing diapers and such. However, I feel like the majority of my preparation to be a father has been over the bachelor days of my life. When I was single, I worked hard to become the man I want to be and the type of man that can be a good father.

It's going to get busy from now on. I will not have a whole lot of time to be working on improving my own behaviors--that's what I was doing when I was single. Now, I'll be working on improving the behaviors of my own children. Even though I still have much to learn in this new phase of life, I can honestly say that I am happy with the direction I am traveling. Thankfully, Jesus will continue to lead me down the right road and I don't have anything to worry about.

Both Are Winners: Steelers vs Yankees

It is an interesting experience living in Portland. Because we do not have a professional football or baseball team, we get a wide variety of sports fans of cities from all over the country.

For example, I have lived in Portland for the large majority of my life. However, I am a die-hard Cleveland Indians fan because my mom's family lives in northeastern Ohio. At the same time, I am a Seattle Seahawks fan because I began to appreciate football when my college friends introduced it to me when I lived up there.

I have recently encountered a large number of Pittsburgh Steelers fans. This has baffled me because of the size of Pittsburgh. Its population is around 313,000 people. That's it. And as for Pittsburgh's greater metropolitan area, it's roughly the same size as Portland's (about 2 million). How can it be that I look around and find so many Steelers fans when the city is relatively small.

I also see a lot of New York Yankees fans. Now this actually makes sense! New York City's metropolitan area is approximately 19 million. It is very understandable that the country's largest city would have the greatest number of fans for their team. So I would certainly expect to see a lot of Yankee fans here in Portland.

So...why do I see so many Steelers fans?

I discovered the answer when I looked at the number of championships won by each team. The Yankees have won the most number of World Series (27) and the Steelers have won the most number of Superbowls (6). It seems as though people are fans of sports teams that win often.

This makes sense to me. I can understand why people would want to be fans of a team that wins more often than it loses. Winning feels good. Losing is hard. I know that losing is hard because I am a Cleveland Indians fan. We have lost a lot more than we have won over the past few decades. Many heartwrenching losses.

Still, it makes me think about how people so desperately want to be winners. They don't want to fail. I think this is a normal, natural desire built into our design as humans. God wants us to strive for our very best and He wants us to follow a winner. It makes sense why so many of us are fair-weather fans. Why so many little boys pretend to be superheroes when they are growing up. If our desire is to follow the best, then that seems like a perfect design to follow Jesus. His perfection will always something that people will try to follow--just like a sports team that wins championships.

Marriage Tip: PB&J

Any husbands out there having a hard time thinking of random acts of love to surprise your wife with? Well look no more!

Check the pic: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the shape of a heart. And don't forget the string cheese! Gets her every time.

5th Grader's Chuck Norris Joke

I started a new weekly morning activity with our journal entries, called "Wednesday Joke Day." One of my students was sharing his favorite Chuck Norris jokes and they seemed to really catch on. Now, just about every boy in my class is talking about Chuck Norris this and Chuck Norris that.

We are starting a new unit this week, a simulation mimicking the pilgrims' voyage from Europe to the New World. The boys started joking that Chuck Norris was one of the passengers on the Mayflower. Eventually, one of them came up with this hilarious joke:

Most people from the Mayflower didn't survive the first winter in the New World. What they didn't know is that the first winter didn't survive Chuck Norris.

In order to prevent the kids from believing that Chuck Norris actually landed on Plymouth Rock, I think I might have to teach them about how quickly jokes get old.

Spring Poem

New Growth by Aaron Riedl

Hello, little tulip leaf!

You grow from a bulb beneath.

I almost trampled you with my boot.

Be free, grow strong, you are so cute!

Mr. Dorito

The two best memories I have from teaching full-time over the last month:

• The 7th graders calling me "Mr. Dorito"
• One of the 8th graders said "Get inside! Mr. Riedl's coming!" because he knows I am not afraid to give detention for being late to class.

It's nice to be respected. :-)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday (today) and Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday) are two big days for the school that I am currently teaching at. After all, it is named after him: King School. Today, we had a great speaker named Dion Jordan come talk to the students. He was very fun to listen to and took a bit of a different direction for a message than the stereotypical "dream big" speech that kids hear all too often.

He talked a little bit about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in order to connect the message with overcoming obstacles and standing up for what is right. The main part of Dion's speech was about how he grew up as a cripple. Up until the age of 11, he went through having to use crutches and leg braces because his legs were crooked and his feet pointing inward. He also had trouble speaking and stuttered when he tried to talk in public. He talked about his life and how he overcame the disabilities.

One of the highlights was Dion asking the students to participate in an activity. He instructed them, "Raise your hand if you think you have confidence." Just about all of them raised their hands. He then told them to stand up if a question he asks pertains to them. He asked them, "Who here can sing?" and only six out of about 120 fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders stood up. "Who here can dance?" he asked them, with about 20 students standing up. "Who here can draw?" he inquired, and close to 40 students stood. The large majority of the students were still sitting. He told us that when he asked the kindergarteners the same questions, they all stood up waving their hands, saying "Ohh!! I love to sing! I'm the best dancer! I think drawing is so fun!"

Why have the majority of the older students lost their confidence? Dion explained that we (including adults) lose our confidence when we listen to people that say "You're no good at singing" or "Your drawing needs some work" and we really do believe them. And then we start telling ourselves the same things. When in reality, we can all sing, dance, and draw. Dion didn't ask them if they were professional dancers or artists. Anyone can draw a stick figure. The lack of confidence comes from when we don't believe in ourselves. That is the biggest obstacle in the way of us achieving our dreams.

Overall, Dion Jordan was a great speaker. He made me laugh many times. I felt like I was laughing the loudest out of all the teachers there. The kids loved him. I would definitely recommend checking out his books and read more about his life story. He seems like a great guy and he's from Portland too!