H & M Thoelke

Currently Reading

2010-09-27T22:49:00.001-07:00

-Recently Read Books-

2010-09-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hope Unseen by Scotty Smiley

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

5 Happenings - Volume 2

2009-09-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Let's try this again. :)

1. Tomorrow I will be running... jogging... no, participating in my first 1/2 marathon. Hailey and I made up our minds to do this about a month and a half ago. But since the start of the school year, I haven't really kept up my training. I'm determined to finish it though. Hopefully you won't be reading my obituary next week.

2. This week I wrote a song on my guitar! Well, actually I borrowed the words from Psalm 121, but I still put it to some chords. I'm usually not that good at making anything original. I can play almost anything if you give me the tabs/chords for it, but writing lyrics and putting them to a particular chord progression is not common for me. As for why I chose Psalm 121, I just opened my Bible to the first Psalm I could find. It just happened to work for the music I had made up. If you are lucky, maybe someday you can hear it! :)

3. Last weekend was the quick start for a fundraiser my school is doing. Students received pledges for the Fall Frolic Race that is happening on October 10th. I was blown away at how much the kids raised last weekend alone. They took in over $7,000 in just over two days! This was the most raised on the opening weekend than any other year!

4. I am amazed all the time at how good Hailey is at her job. She would probably tell you differently, but she really does a great job. Families are constantly thanking her and praising her for what she does for their child. A lot of services and money have been cut from the state, but Hailey goes above and beyond to make sure that the families get what they need. I know there are days that kill her because she can't help anymore than she already has. But I am very proud of what she does each and every day.

5. Did anybody watch the season premier of the Office last night? Parkour!

5 Happenings - Volume 1

2009-09-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm borrowing this from someone, but trying to make it my own. (Thanks Katelynn!)

1. My aunt and uncle from New Mexico flew up to the Tri-Cities for the Labor Day weekend. Good times were had... including Texas hold 'em, Ice Harbor, several BBQs, and wine tasting! Hope you had fun Dan and Mary Beth!

2. Back to the wine tasting... I've never really been until this summer. It's really a good time! For $5 (and sometimes for free) you can taste several of the offered wines. At one place (Barnard Griffins) we tasted about 18 different kinds! We also bought a bottle called Orange Muscat.. pretty tasty! Eventually I would like to take the chartered bus that drives you around to all the various Valley wineries.

3. The day after labor day was a bit of a rough one at school. It's like the kids forgot that we had school last week. Anything I taught them, especially routines and rules, were gone. Starting from scratch... again. :(

4. Hailey and I were supposed to be training for a 1/2 Marathon. If you know us at all, we've been "training for a 1/2 Marathon" since we first met. As you could probably guess we've wavered from this plan a bit. The race is supposed to happen on September 19th, but I haven't run since before I had to report to my classroom. Nevertheless, we are determined to complete one this time... even if we have to walk parts of it! :)

5. Yesterday I was in my classroom working for about 4 hours. Shouldn't that be against the law on Labor Day?

The teacher-biz...

2009-09-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

What a difference a couple years makes. With one week in the books, I look back over the last couple years and ponder the extent of my anxiety-filled, completely stressed out self. What they say is true, "The first few years of teaching are the hardest." There wasn't a day (or second for that matter) that went by when my mind wasn't planning for the upcoming day, week, month--you name it. I feel so much more relaxed and at ease about this school year. Hailey says that she can tell. I feel like I've built up my little "bag of tricks" that will help get me through. Here's to another solid year at BL!

2009-06-15T10:03:00.001-07:00

Oooops. I already forgot. Dang it.

My goal...

2009-06-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to set a lofty, but attainable goal. I will attempt to write in this blog everyday for one week. It is generally not in my nature to sit down and type about things that I am thinking about. But I will rise to this self-made challenge!

CDA, Idaho with friends - March 21

2009-04-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

2009-03-01T16:24:00.000-08:00

Words of Wisdom from C.S. Lewis- Part 1

2009-03-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

Charity and Fairness

When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, 'But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.' Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn't mean you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every trace of resentment in your own heart -- every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really as good as I think: as regards other men's sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending carefully to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christain charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

2009-02-13T20:56:00.001-08:00

I enjoy drinking wine. And I don't care if it is $2.99 from Albertson's.

2009-02-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

2009-02-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

2009-02-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Cle Elum, WA - February 8, 2009

This is a test.

2009-02-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

This is a test of the American Broadcast System. I have never used a blog before, but I'm kind of intrigued to start one.