Author: rubyred110

rubyred110https://memoirsofaredhead.wordpress.com
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Grow. It’s What We Do.

That’s the title of my class’ new blog!!!

So, being the teacher of communication through literacy that I am, I decided that this would be the year I would start a blog for my class.  Of course I’m really excited to see if I actually keep up with it, but I think that about 2/3 of my class has the Internet at home, so I could really utilize it as a great communication tool between parents and me.  My hope is that I will be able to even post an article about once a week (or so) from a student about what we’re learning in class.  (Wouldn’t that be awesome?) 

You’re welcome to check it out here, but please don’t make any reference to this blog…I’d rather the kids not read this one:)

My Friend Wheel

It’s a common joke amongst some of my friends here in Michigan that I can always find a connection between me and someone else you know.  Hey, wanna play a game of Six Degrees of Kim Burton?  Anyway, it really is just a joke…but if I meet you, I really will try to find someone that we both know separately…and I probably will eventually find someone;)

I just saw this application on Facebook, called Friend Wheel, and was fascinated by it…check out mine!

Friend wheel

Denanenanenanena…BATMAN!!!

Here’s to my super cool friends, some of which are new friends of mine…who wore capes while waiting in line to get into The Dark Knight this afternoon at the Imax.  I do have very cool friends;)
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In the front we have Batman Hannah, Leah Samantha, Emily, Sarah, Jen (back around) me, Phil, Jackson, Jonathan. 

One of the Coolest Seniors I know

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This is Rachel.  She was in the 5th grade classroom that I student taught in, in Minneapolis.  And now she’ll be graduating from high school next year.  She’s absolutely one of the coolest teenagers that I know.  That isn’t an exaggeration of the truth and although most of the world will never know her, the world is SO MUCH BETTER because she lives in it.  Rachel’s a living, breathing example of maturing young woman who knows Jesus, loves people, and lives in real community with her neighborhood.  I’ve seriously never met anyone like her!  It was an awesome privilege it was to hang out with her one day when I was there, and I could probably write several posts about her. 

I decided that she’s one of my young heroes.  I want to be like her when I grow up. 🙂

I-94 Continued

Sadly, it’s been a month since I went on my trip to visit some great friends in Minnesota…here are a few highlights. 🙂
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This is Toby Evans.  (Doesn’t he sound like a country singer?)  He belongs to one of my best friends, Jessica, that I met in college.  Jessica and I lived on the same floor my 3rd year at North Central and we connected a few months into the year…and we’ve been great friends ever since.

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 This is Ben and Jen.  Jen is with child, and we’ve been friends since we were 7.  You can read more about her here.

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Here we have Ginger and Callie.  Ginger lived on my floor my freshman year of college, she’ s the one

that first called me Kimmy so much that it stuck ALL THE WAY through college…and then some:)  She’s also the one that brought me out of my shell during my college years.

These are some shots of one of my favorite spots in the whole world…the campus where I spent five wonderful years of my life.
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This is the hall where I lived for 3 1/2 years.

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This was my window my freshman year. 🙂  okay…so I went a little crazy reminiscing…but, I could’ve gone to every place I lived there and taken pictures of my windows…I did control myself a little.

My vacation128 A cross street that I’ll never forget…Elliot Ave was my address.

On my way back from Minnesota, I stopped to see an old friend and his family as well.  John and I met in 9th grade, went to the same high school, went to the same church, and then to the same college.  This is him and his wife, Liana, and their two kids, Mikaeyla and Isaac.  It was so great to see them!

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My trip was fantastic, and as I said, reminiscent.  I honestly felt like I could stay for another month…or five years…lol…but I truly am grateful to be back home where I’m supposed to be.

Final Chicago Trip

For the last 3 1/2 years, I’ve visited traveled the five hours to Chicago several times a year to visit my brother, Dave, and his family (that grew by one while they were there!)  It was so great to be with them so often, since I haven’t lived by family since I graduated from high school.  I loved having them so close!

A couple of weeks ago, Dave, Stephanie, Robert, Ross, Ryder and Lady (the dog) trucked back to the Philadelphia area, where my brother took another job.  I’m really happy for them, and for the rest of our families that will get to see them more often, so I’m so sad that I won’t see them as often (I mean, have you seen gas and airline prices?) 

But, on my way home, I did get to stop and see them one last time in Chi-town.  We went into the city for a couple days, over the 4th of July.  It’s always fun getting to know other people, and on this particular trip we went with some of their best friends from Chicago.  Here are some fun pix from that…
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We rode on those 6-people bike things…HULARIOUS!

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Of course Ryder was adorable!!

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This is Kayla…and her new friend:)

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I’m still not completely sure what Ross was doing here…but he decided his feet hurt and he sat in Ryder’s stroller for some fireworks.

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Me on the boat on the 4th of July…anticipating an exciting fireworks show!

More pictures of Ryder…:)My vacation071 
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Memory Lane…I-94West

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Since yesterday around 11.30am, I've traveled approximately 700 miles down memory lane…a little road I like to call Interstate 94 West.  

I'm currently at my BFF's house in Minnesota, typing my post, not only on a mac for the first time ever, but looking at a screen that's wider than my living room tv and more than half the height of it. 🙂 Hilarious.  Plus, I'm sitting next to their basement recording studio-thing.  Wow…it's a cool setup!  

But that's neither here, nor there.  I'm staying at my friend's house (whom I've missed dearly) and we just got to hang out for a couple hours…which was so, so great.  She's got a cute little prego belly on her, which is also so, so great!  

To get here, I did have to travel on 94 West for 700 miles though, and when I entered the Twins Cities, my heart started to beat quite quickly.  I certainly don't wish that I was back in college-life right now is amazing!  Oh, but stepping back into my past this evening was sort of unreal to me. 

I drove over to North Central to see my good friend, Ginger (picture to come), her husband, Juice, and to meet their daughter Kallie.  Wow…just driving down Elliot Avenue almost made my cry.  Memories just started flooding my heart and I felt overwhelmed.  Then seeing Ginger, and reminiscing, made me laugh hard and recall how God blessed my college years in countless ways.  I remember thinking that life just couldn't get any better.  

Somehow it did and I get to live life with amazing people, minister with amazing people, and serve amazing people in Metro Detroit.  My college years were the best…for then…and my life right now is the best…for now.  And someday (someday) when I'm married and have a kid or two of my own, life will be the best…for then all over again.

My trip down memory lane has only begun, and I'm ecstatic to continue tomorrow…but how fun that God has been creating new memories for my lane to continue, and He'll continue that journey throughout the rest of my life.  

Life certainly didn't end after high school.  It certainly didn't end after college, It's not going to end when I turn thirty…it's not even going to end when I get married!  =)  But neither did it begin at any of those ventures.  Life is happening NOW.  I need to remember to live the life that God has me in NOW.  

I Heart Google

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I often say that Google really should pay me for how much I love it.  Once I entered the land of Gmail, I was lost in techno love and have since tried to convince everyone to get their very own, free, way organized, stinkin' cool email account with it!  Successfully I've actually gotten people to convert.  I almost lose respect for people that still use hotmail (lol…just kidding, well, kinda:) 

Anyway, last night at my Lifegroup, I learned of yet another thing that makes Google cool in my eyes.  Well, perhaps it just makes me laugh, but it's kind of a cool thought.  Blackgle isn't an actual website (unbeknownst to the person who told me about it)…it's a blogspot blog that supposedly saves energy by having a black screen instead of a white screen.  It's got a Google search engine and…well…you can check it out here.  And you can read more about it on my friend Sarah's blog…cause she wrote about it first. 🙂

School’s Out. Summer. Dirt.

Do you know the tension between being "ready for summer" and "wishing it wasn't so dang hot outside"?  That's me right now.  I'm PUMPED that school has let out for a couple months…but this heat-whew!  I think I just heard that it was like 90 degrees outside…

My classroom is in the basement and, well, it's filthy down there.  Dirt just seems to seep up through the tiles and down through the ceiling tiles.  And the windows don't open.  Well, one does, but I can't reach it:)  I've got an air conditioner, but the power breaker connected to this room overheats pretty easily, so every 20 minutes that it's on, everything in my room goes out. LOL.  It can be frustrating, but it is actually humorous at times.  Plus, my keyboard buttons are all sticky:)  Oh dear…

My room looks like a pig sty (what's new?) and I thankfully just found out that I can leave some stuff here over the next month or so since I'll be doing the academic portion of our b-ball camp.  For this, I'm blessed on so many levels.

So I decided to just sit here…dirty, sweaty and listening to the radio…typing away…my laptop, after all, is officially in rebellion and is being whipped into submission by Geeksquad until Thursday. 🙂

Geeksquad Anyone?

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The first time I saw someone with a Geeksquad shirt on, it was one of my best guy friends-Josh.  He wasn't
really a geek, but I liked to call him a nerd, so I thought the shirt fit so well!  It took me a couple years to actually catch on that Geeksquad was a real thing.  And it's this week that I'm coming to full terms with this squad…my computer has been (for lack of a better way of saying it) acting funky.  It's been sad and it's kept me on the edge of my seat…praying over this portable know-it-all machine that offers convenience any time I want.  (Hmmm…I could actually add this to my last post's list right now.)

My sad little computer needs to go into the Geeksquad computer hospital, so I bought a portable hard drive to backup my major files and although it took awhile, I think I'm almost done.  Needless to say…this has taken quite awhile:)

So, Geeksquad, here I come!