The 12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4

I'm not having any trouble coming up with things to be thankful for, but I am noticing that it's a struggle to find the time to blog about them. I almost decided that today I was most thankful for sleep and I was just going to type "goodnight." But that would have been a waste of a day!

Instead of being thankful for sleep, today I am thankful for my friends. I think one of God's greatest ideas was to allow people to do life together. God has really blessed me with some great friends throughout my life, but I feel like He's multiplied that blessing in the last couple years and given me more than I could have asked for or even imagined. Over the next couple days I will try to put into words what some of my closest friends mean to me (in no particular order)...

Day 4: I'm thankful for Deneise
First of all, Deneise makes me laugh. She is always doing something or saying something that is just funny. Take the last couple days for example. You are probably well aware that there was a big football game this weekend between Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College and Baylor. Well, last Thursday I thought it would be fun to hide some Baylor stuff in her classroom in random places, so I would send kids down to her room when I knew she wouldn't be there to "decorate." Friday morning I come to school, walk to my classroom, open the door and notice this:


I laughed out-loud and then began creating my plan for retaliation. I've had a lot of fun this week with that. The funniest thing though was when Deneise "decorated" my room/hallway with a bunch of Aggie stuff Monday morning with me sitting right there watching her. She had planned to beat me to school, but I had already attacked!

Besides the fact that Deneise is an Aggie, she's a great friend. She's very kind, very thoughtful, and a great listener. One of the biggest reasons I'm so thankful for Deneise is because she's so encouraging to me. I walked away from a conversation one day after school with a fresh perspective of God's amazing design for each and every person. Teaching can be hard, especially when you have kids that make it really hard, but this is Deneise's take on those kids:

"I just have to keep remembering that God knew I was going to be their second grade teacher and He has me here for a reason."

That may not be an exact quote but it gives you a picture of her servant heart. Deneise, thanks for being such a great friend and continually pointing me in the right direction. I'm so thankful that God allowed our paths to cross and that I get the privilege of working with you everyday!