2014: A Year in Review-Part B

*What began as a sort of longish post that made an attempt to recap our year, has turned into a very long double post. I apologize and will throw you guys a few short posts in the nearest future. All I'll really do for now is thank you for taking your valuable time to read the previous post and now this one. And the saddest part is that I really did leave out so many things. And don't worry, I have learned my lesson for now. 2015 will most likely get a highlights reel instead of the play by play.

The newest member of the Dark Family: Pecos Bull

      Sometime midsummer, through a series of events, we acquired the little guy above: Pecos Bull. My father in law let a friend of his keep about 30 cows on his land during the summer thanks to a bumper crop of millet. The fellow who was borrowing the use of the land is a great guy, but is one of those guys who has more money than time and in a series of unfortunate events, mistakenly sold off the mother of Pecos at a livestock auction and didn't realize that he had done so until about a week after the fact, which is a very sad fact considering Pecos was only a few weeks old. And during this week, no other cow took him on, so the fellow had an orphan cow on his hand. He was going to sell it, but somehow gave it to my father in law after attempting to bottle feed him for about a month. And my father in law knew we were wanting to get into the cow business, but greatly lacked the necessary funds and knew that we're suckers for a needy cause and so after a full day of home renovation, we met beloved Pecos in our cow barn, took a lot pictures, and then later that evening began our life as cattlemen and cattlewomen when we mixed up a bottle of cow formula, took it to Pecos, and fed him his first of what seemed like 1000 bottles. Raising a bottle calf is no joke and really does take a lot out of you financially and physically. You have to feed them on a schedule and have to be about 98% consistent with the set schedule and no matter how close the calf is to you, it still takes about an hour or more each day to feed the calf and that is if everything goes ok. I'm sure there are more efficient ways to do it, but efficiency has never been one of our talents. But having and raising Pecos has been very good for us and hopefully, in the long run, it will be good for us financially. If fact, we are contemplating saving up to buy another bottle calf because if you lack money, getting a bottle calf is about the cheapest way to get into the cattle business. Beef prices are very, very high right now and it doesn't look like they'll drop anytime soon. A heifer is around $1600 for a cheap cow and a cheap bull will put you back $2000. A bred heifer will put you back $2400 or so. A bottle calf will put you back a little over $100. However, for me, for FH, and for Mel, the best part about having Pecos has been the idea of investing in our future and the fact that he slowed us down and this may seem super odd, but there is something very calming about bottle feeding a calf and hearing him or her breathe. It forces you stop. It gives you a few moments to think. And I'm becoming more and more thankful for things like that.
 

Pecos' getting his evening feeding. And for the record, he's the only mammal I've seen accomplish what is dubbed, "The Milk Challenge".

A little clowning around during a renovation break sometime at the beginning of August.

The infamous Periodic Table in my new classroom.

 

 

        When we left Macon, I had every thought, and to be honest, intention, of leaving the vocation of teaching. I had every plan to try to get on at a nearby factory where I'd be paid by the hour and receive a full benefits package. It was in no way easy to come to this, but I did and as I already stated, it felt like a piece of me was dying. I did not choose to become a teacher based on the days off or the fact that I just love young people or want to "invest" in the future. I felt called to be a teacher. I know this sounds pious and I wish it didn't, but I really felt God pushing me into the profession. And as I always say to people who ask if I like teaching, I do love the job, but it is harder than anything I've ever done for money and I've had some pretty hard jobs; digging footers and pouring concrete in the Florida summers for around 70+ hours a week is no joke. What makes teaching so hard, you say? I'd easily say everything about it. You aren't always respected by parents, kids, peers, etc. Your pay stinks and if you teach in a private school, it really stinks. Yes, I know you get so much time off, but because of the pay, you spend that "time off" at a second or third job trying to make up for what you don't get paid. And the benefits....how do I really say that there aren't any real benefits; especially when you teach at a private school. Yes, there are those wonderful benefits of relationships and seeing students learn and mature and succeed, but those have never paid a single bill. And I know I talk to so many people who "guffaw" when they hear I teach and they tell me that they wish they got paid all year to work nine months. And all I'll really say to that, is that I wish I did too. I've heard of teacher who make a lot, but they don't work in the South and I've heard about great benefits packages given out to teachers at mostly public schools, but I've never been at a place like that. Generally, I work about a 50-60+ hour week. I get paid for 40. I work a lot of Saturday's and there are many nights when I work at night after working a 10+ hour day. I'm expected to attend school activities and be a chaperone. I usually, if I'm truly lucky, get around a 20 min lunch that I spend supervising students. I know I've read articles that said teachers have the real good life of getting to work at 8 or 9 and getting to leave at 3. I'd love that too, but I'd have to get a job at my bank, not the school I work at. I'm sure this sounds like a rant against all the things I hate about teaching, but it really isn't. All I'm really trying to say is that teaching is hard. Very hard. But I really don't mind it. And after 10 years of it, I don't know what I'd do with a different schedule. I know I work a different job in the summer that has an hour lunch built into the day and I eat so quickly that I really don't know how to spend the other time. And I didn't go into details about the lack of benefits, but of the four schools I've been at, not one of them offered health insurance at no cost to you and only one offered anything that resembled a retirement plan. And for the last three years, we've gone without both, but couldn't qualify for anything because I "made too much money". It sure didn't feel that way. 

It is always so weird to see my name like this.

 

        Anyway, enough of that. Teaching is so very, very hard, but I do love it. It is a part of me. And when we left Macon, I did everything I could do to acquire a job somewhere else. I applied for something like 20+ jobs in a time frame of a few weeks. And nothing came of any of my applications, my emails, the tests I took to apply, my face to face meetings, or anything of the like. It felt like everyone had job openings, but no one was hiring. And being the almost sole breadwinner for my little family and looking down the road and seeing no real job to speak of and knowing the last time I'd get paid was at the end of the summer was nothing short of a constant and daily heart attack. I knew God had a plan and I knew he'd be faithful, but I also worried like it was my job. You can quote Scripture at me if you'd like or remind me that "worry hasn't solved a single problem yet", but I'd like to set you where I was several months ago and tell you not to worry and to sleep easily next to the pile of bills you won't be able to pay next month and I'm sure you'll be the perfect picture of the trusting follower.

 

      I knew there was a private school nearby, but when we arrived in Fitzgerald and I began my job search, I kind of didn't give them a look and when I did, they didn't have any openings. Midway through the summer, they had a part time opening and I applied and interviewed, but told them I couldn't really take it because I needed a full time position. They told me they understood and that it was only a part time position. I put no hope in getting the job because I knew I couldn't accept it and it's not usually a good thing to tell an employer that they need to meet your needs. And I was getting out of the teaching profession and attempting to follow Dave Ramsey's advice when he says there is nothing wrong with just making money and supporting your family as God has called us to do. I was ready to work in some factory or job where I got paid by the hour and had to work a year to earn my one week of vacation because I'd actually get paid for my time and I'd actually be given health insurance along with my pay instead as included in my pay and I'd actually get to put money into a retirement account where the employer matched what you set aside. I was ready for this life. I was ready to be a "cog in the wheel". I know this sounds like giving up on a calling, but there is a lot to be said about resting in the fact that there is enough money, and going to bed each night knowing you are supplying for your family, and knowing that you aren't going to break the bank by taking your wife out to dinner at Olive Garden. I was ready for this life. BUT...God had a different plan. Several days after my interview, I got a call from the headmaster and she told me they'd made a full time position for me and that she wanted me to come back to school to talk about it. I drove over there with a list of the reasons the job wasn't for me and I drove home several hours later knowing God had provided me with a job.

 

    Being a Christian is not easy and I don't think it is suppose to be. I'll never claim to be a "good" Christian and I'm not attempting to be humble. I'll be quick to admit I'm not even a mediocre Christian. However, God is so very good to me. I don't know why. If the shoe were on the other foot, I'd drop me pretty quickly. But I will also be glad to quickly tell you that God always is faithful to me and gives me not only what I need, but most of the time, He gives me something I want. No, it doesn't come exactly like I want it to and it never looks like I think it should, but it comes and it is pretty amazing. I left Macon thinking my teaching days were over and that I'd have to turn my back on what I thought was a calling and the silence I felt from God felt like a thousand pounds on my back. Now, I sit at a desk in a classroom where I'm the new Physical Science, Advanced Chemistry, and Physics teacher at Tiftarea Academy in Chula, Georgia. I'm also the head Cross Country coach and assistant track & field coach. God once again gave me what I thought life had taken from me. I'll never think it was me who won the administration of this place over. God gave me this job. That's the only way I can look at it. When it looked like I couldn't even get a job working as a janitor at Lowe's, God gave me a job doing what I've loved doing for the past nine years. And so on August 14th, I began my tenth year as a teacher. I am still surprised by what led to my job. No, the school isn't perfect and the position is far from ideal, but it is a job, with a paycheck and a pretty good salary, and health insurance that I don't pay 100% for, and the comfort of getting to do a familiar job. Yes, it is hard and the classes I teach make me work a lot and the 100+ students I have keep me on my toes every minute of every day, but God gave me this job. When I thought every door was closed, He opened this door to me.

 

      God is always the Great Deliverer even when deliverance doesn't seem possible. And although deliverance is assured to us, often times we wonder why it hasn't come to us yet and when it does come we often wonder why it cost us so much. The deliverance receive is never promised to be painless or to cost us nothing. This is something that is so hard to understand and to receive. God has delivered me so many times and each time it takes me by surprise, both by it's drastic necessity and for what it does cost me and how I'm always unworthy of it's arrival. This time was no different in every area.

 

      I like my new gig. Tiftarea Academy is a good school. I'm glad to be here. It's really, really different from the schools I've had the opportunity to teach at in the past. It is almost the polar opposite of the school I just left. It is an odd thing to be the "new guy". I have often heard that your first year of teaching is the hardest, but I'd be willing to say that your first year at a new place is just as hard as that first year when all of your ideals run into the realities of the classroom at about 500 mph. I have now had four of these "first" years and I'll say it is so very hard to learn all the nuances of a new place. Every school I've taught at has a handbook, but most of the machine of the school day is run on 90% of what is made up of word of mouth items and unspoken rules or expectations that you don't know about until you've been somewhere for a couple years and made about 100 mistakes a week. And as with all places, the exceptions to the "rules" are always too many to count. I'm still learning most of them. They are sometimes hard to catch onto and most of them don't make sense. One that is taking me awhile to learn here is that 7:30 means 7:20 and so if a meeting starts at 7:30 or a game and you show up five minutes early, then you'll most likely be about 5 minutes late. I know, I know, this makes a ton of sense. I'm learning this new place and am so glad and thankful God gave me this job.



 

My varsity and junior varsity XC teams at a XC meet in Warner Robins

 

 

          Part of my job here at Tiftarea Academy is that I'm the new Head Varsity and JV XC coach. It is a step up for me in the coaching world and I was a little nervous about the step up at first. At my first school, I was the head coach, but then followed that by six years of being an assistant varsity and head jv coach. Here I'm both. And it really is a lot. You plan the practices. You manage the practices. You plan the season. You register for the meets. You arrange the travel and send home the travel plans and directions. And sometimes, actually, most of the time, you are the travel (i.e. the bus driver). You basically do it all and all for around ten cents an hour. I love it though. In my opinion, there is no better sport and I love begin a XC coach. I look forward to the XC season all year. And I'm so glad that part of my job included a chance to get to coach XC because I thought when we left Macon that, that was one of the many things I was having to leave behind, but I was surprised by God once again and given something I didn't deserve. 

 

The start of the Varsity boy's race in Hawkinsville.

 

 

        I inherited a great group of kids, but in reality, it was a team and a program in semi-shambles. It had gone through its glory days as most programs do, but even the fumes of those days were gone. The boys team won the state title in 2006, but that had been one of the last years they had excelled and the girls team had qualified a few years here and there for the state meet, but had never been real contenders. Please know that I'm in no way downplaying the accomplishments of the former coach and the former runners.The program at my current school was begun and carried on by a very charismatic and gifted coach and they had a lot of great success. They had several region and state titles under their belts as a program, but those years had passed and that is where I came in. Morale was low and the desire or hope for success was really low or seemingly, from an outsider's point of view, non-existent. Making the kids I had actually want to come to practice because they actually believed we could do something better than mediocrity and then talking kids who had either quit the team altogether or who had given up the sport were two of my biggest battles this season.

 

       XC is an odd sport and generating interest in the sport is almost 70% of the battle for a coach. Add that to the fact that south of Atlanta, there is only one sport and its name is football. Students would rather sit the bench for a losing football team or cheer for that losing team than wear a state championship ring from another sport. I don't understand that and probably never will, but that has been my experience for the past nine years. You have some exceptions, but those exceptions come from years and years of a coach or a succession of coaches really spending a lot of effort building what I always call a "culture" at a school. My first school in Macon was like this. In a big football city, the XC team at the school was very popular because two coaches had begun the program with a lot of spirit and had carried that excitement into the kids and then into some winning seasons. That doesn't always work, but it does in some cases. My first school was the exact opposite. The XC team had region and state titles and when the Fall sports program came around, the XC team was usually left completely off.

 

      I took over the team in mid-August and began training them the same way I had helped train my previous two teams with a set weekly regime of workouts. I will easily say that there is much about running I don't know about and that there are a multitude of theories and an even greater multitude of workouts that people have designed to to make every runner better, but in my small bit of experience, there are four main workouts that you cannot skip if you hope to get better and those are: the long run, the speed work, the tempo, and the heavy, heavy enforcement of having easy days. No matter what you've heard, you can't give 100% every day. No, I'm not condoning slacking, but if think about a motor or some other machine, if you attempted to put them at max capacity every day, they'd be quick to burn out no matter the manufacturer. The human body is no different and XC is a sport that is hard on the body. Daily running, high mileage, mostly super high temperatures, pedal to the metal races (sometimes 2x a week), and lack of good, easy days or rest days can really take a toll. Yes, other sports are really hard, but take football for example. Yes, it is very hard and requires a lot of physical skill and prowness and also takes a lot of mental skill and prowness, but the next time you are near a football practice or game pay attention to how much they are actually working or actually playing. Yes, a college football game may last 3-4 hours on tv, but the players are only playing an hour and not every player is actually playing that much time. In soccer, they'd still have another half hour to just be on the field. But during a XC practice, you are moving towards running or actually running the majority of the practice and you are usually covering somewhere between 30-50 miles a week on a high school team; jump to college and the mileage alone jumps to somewhere between 70-110 miles a week. Some people don't even drive their cars that far in a single week. And to add to that there are no time outs in XC.

 

    In an attempt to make a super long reliving of the past a tad bit shorter, I will attempt to summarize. I got a team that had almost given up on winning even the small meets and had arrived at a school where XC had become a "has been" sport. I took over, added some folks from here and there, pushed them really hard, did every workout right along side them (the #1 way to really motivate a team. It never fails. They may complain at times, but they'll soon cease and never accuse you of being unfair. Crazy, yes, but never unfair.) added some "funtivities", threw in some ultimate Frisbee, and pushed them through a pretty difficult seven race schedule that including two public school races, a first for the private school I'm at, and we began a slight reemergence of the sport at the school. We took home four trophies from four races. We came very close to winning a few of them. The morale is up. The love for ultimate Frisbee has caught like wild fire. We took home two third place finishes in our region and qualified, both varsity teams, for the first time in three years. And my JV squads were contenders at our state meet. We accomplished a lot. I'm very, very proud of the runners and I am really looking forward to a great year next year. I think and know there is much left for us to accomplish and my desire is to have a plaque sitting behind my desk that says, "Coach of the Year", in about 2-3 years from now and a state title trophy sitting in the case from my years here. We have much, much work to do, but we've begun that work. I'm just glad I get to be apart of it.



The best little cowboy around...

 

 

      After school began, the rest of 2014 went by in what seemed like a supersonic blur. Teaching and XC had me busy from early in the morning till late at night. In addition to all the new items, I had begun having to drive 66 miles a day as opposed to the 8 miles I used to drive. Mel and her father  had to pick up my slack when I went back to work so that we could move out of my in laws home and into our house. Mel also jumpstarted her business, Greener Grass, again and she has begun trying to figure out what having a business looks like when it is far away from your intended audience and trying to figure out how to generate a new audience while holding onto the old. And FH is trying to figure out just what his new life on a farm and in the country looks like. I know this sounds like hyperbole or more me than him, but he does know that things are different and things have changed. I don't know exactly how much he knows or feels this, but when we moved to Fitzgerald, it took him several months to begin acting "normal" again and get into some sort of normal schedule for him. We are still trying to get him to see that our new house is his new house and that it is where we live now. He is coming along, but he did notice that everything was different. We are just blessed that we got to make such big changes when he was young as opposed to older and more in tune with what really occurred. 

     What was left of August went by in a flash followed by a very busy September. By September, we had moved into the house, but were still living in, and out of, and around boxes as we attempted to set up house in a place that was 300+ sq. feet smaller than our house in Macon and completely lacked an attic. We sorted, and resorted, and moved more and more items into piles to give away or attempt to sell. Late August and early September, FH got accepted into a program for children with developmental delays, struggles, or lapses and we were and are so very thankful. Ford has always struggled with a swallowing and eating lapse and a delay when it came to a swallowing and sensitivity delay. He had a hard time nursing, didn't start eating even baby cereal until he was over 9 months old, and still at 2 and half struggles with eating. It is a huge concern and worry for us, but due to his acceptance in this program gets to work with a speech therapist to help him move past his delay. He has progressed, but is still lacking. But he is getting better.

    September finished and blended into a very hectic October with Mel cranking up her sewing jobs and classes, trying to and eventually making her business to become and LLC, and XC hit into overdrive with me having an out of town meet about twice a week every week of October. October also saw Mel celebrate a birthday and me too. I also got chosen to be a lead chaperone for the 8th Grade class trip to Savannah which landed right on my birthday. It seems like every year that I teach, I spend my birthday somewhere odd, like in a bus headed to a XC meet, or at a Zaxby's, surrounded by people much younger than me, singing me birthday songs, just so they can get a piece of cake that someone's mother was kind enough to bring. At the end of October, we celebrated Halloween, with the little cowboy from the above picture. I'm not a real fan of Halloween for a lot of reasons, but right now, it is very fun to sort of let FH choose something he wants to dress up like and let him go get some candy. And this year was especially fun since it was the first year that FH really started to understand a little or in some cases a lot of what was going on. He was slow in wanting to approach folks he didn't know in one of our arms or holding onto our hands, but after a little while he caught on to the fact that if he said, "trick or treat", to the right folks, they'd give him M&M's. He realized its a pretty good scheme and though it is now January, he'll still occasionally say it in hopes of getting a "lil' treat".

    October bled into November and we saw a few things change. We fed Pecos his last bottle; a fact he's still not too keen on, and we finally got some cooler weather and the gnats left us. I've been a lot of places, but South Georgia has to be one of the hottest places I've ever lived. Florida gets hot, but there seems to always be a breeze. Alabama gets hot, but the gnats aren't that bad. Fitzgerald is hot and there's no breeze and the gnats hover in swarms looking for people to get. It is sometimes to the point of driving me absolutely crazy. But...November brought cooler weather and when the temperature is in the upper 90's, the day it drops to 85 is a very good day. We celebrated a good Thanksgiving in Fitzgerald and FH really got into telling folks, "Happy Turkey Day", and talking about pumpkins and making the sounds of a turkey. November also spelled the end of XC season and I started to get to come home before 6 pm and that is always a blessing. I love XC very much, but I love coming home earlier and spending more time with Mel and FH about a 1000x more.

In December, FH joined my Physics class in our Mexican Bowling night. He loved the kids and they were very kind to him. He also really loved the bowling alley and with the help of this super neat apparatus got to bowl with us. He even bowled three strikes and really got into the celebrations of a good bowl. I'm seeing a Dark Bowling team in our future and I could not be more excited.

 

 

        November sprinted into December and we were left sitting and thinking about how much "life had taken place in 2014. I had gotten a second job. We had completely moved and begun a new life. I had applied for and acquired a new job. FH had turned two. We had sold a car. We had gutted a house and completely renovated the insides all in the span of three months. Mel had restarted her business. We had moved twice and that is only a few of the largest items of the year. But we survived and at each turn, even when things we very dark and seemed like life would never get better, there were small joys and sometimes large ones too. I think that is one of the great surprises about life too. There is always joy to be found. It may be almost invisible, but it is there. Trust me. 

FH and me at the Tifton Christmas Parade. Easily one of the best nights for me in the whole year. We followed the marching band (one of FH's favorite things in all of life) through the whole parade route and then ate from street vendors and rode a few of the free rides and had a lot of great laughs. I will remember it my whole life.

 

 

 

   We had a pretty good December. Life was starting to feel a little more normal. Our house was feeling a little more like a home. We had found a small PCA church and had gone to it several times. And FH fell in love with Christmas and it made it's coming so very wonderful. He loved everything about it. He loved the carols. He loved the characters. He loved the decorations. He loved the treats. He loved the parades. He loved it all. We had so much fun watching him enjoy the Christmas season. Everything was good and he was so funny about it all. To be honest, it is January 22nd today and we re-watched that old Frosty movie staring Andy Griffin just two nights a go. FH does wonderful impressions of the characters on those old holiday shows. It is really too funny. At every bend in the season, FH would do something even more funny or sweet than he had previously done. On the night before we celebrated Christmas with my in laws, my mother in law tried to get Ford to lay out cookies and milk for Santa under the tree, but a few minutes later, we couldn't find FH anywhere and he had crawled under the tree and begun quietly eating the cookies and drinking the milk. I'm still laughing at that.  

 

 

 

Mel and FH enjoying the light in Mt. Dora, Florida.

 

 

 

     We finished our December and our year with me finishing up my first semester at Tiftarea and then a trip to Florida to visit my parents and celebrate Christmas with them. It was so good to see my family and spend the holiday with them. My family is so spread out that it is really hard to get everyone together. It is a very sad fact of life right now and a very rare thing to see my family all at one place even once a year with us being spread out from Florida to Chicago to Texas and all having lives so very full of obligations that are not so easily left for later. But we got to visit with my youngest sister and her husband who live in Chicago for now. Ford had only seen them a total of three times in his whole life and we got to spend time with my other sister, her husband, and their sweet son, Jackson, who quickly became fast friends with FH and who now Face Time's FH or FH Face Time's almost every day. We got to do a lot of very fun things in Florida, everything from bike rides to a riding a real train, and the weather was beautiful and warm and it was a good way to end the year. We made it back to the Fitz. to finish the year out. 

 

       If someone were to ask me, what I thought the hardest thing about life was, I'm not exactly sure what I'd tell them, but I feel one of the things I'd try to tell them would be about trying to find one's truthful and right place in the world. Two years ago, I would say that Mel and I sort of knew our place or at least what our world looked like. I was a science teacher who coached XC and track. Mel was a worker of many odd and part-time jobs and a woman of a multitude of varied talents. We had a church. We had a new child and were learning how to be "new" parents. We had a circle of friends and places we called our people and places. We knew where our home was and had a great affection for our lives and all that made it up. I'd say we are not there anymore and are busy trying to relearn our place. I'm learning everything I can about a new school, new subjects,  a new schedule, new bosses, new kids, and new attitudes. We don't have a home church yet and we don't really have any friends. We have a house and it is only now beginning to feel like we actually live there. Mel is trying to find her place in a town she no longer feels apart of because she has changed and the town has changed. We are still learning how to be parents. We, maybe mostly I, still don't really know how it is all suppose to feel and look and I definitely don't know how it is all suppose to work and fit together. We have much to do and much to think about and an even greater amount to pray about. 2014 was a good year, but it was also jammed packed with hardship and we had some pretty dark and hard days and even harder choices to make and go through. I'm sure 2015 will be full of those items too, but I feel so hopeful about the year. We've made the necessary changes to allow for things to improve. We've done the hard stuff. I know more will follow, but we are in a great place to grow in every facet of our life. We're in a place to begin living by choice again. We're in a place where we can move beyond were we had slid. I have such great hope for the new year, but my greatest hope is that, "He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it", and, "all things will work together for the good of those who love God...". I now am beginning to get those verses a little better and there is a great and triumphant hope in that. We haven't exactly found our new place, but I'm beginning to see the outlines of it for now.

Thanks again for taking your precious time to read my posts. Shorter posts are on the way. I promise.

DAVID