Of parties, conferences, and small towns

Hey everyone! Here is my next note. My teaching work really has gotten less stressful, so maybe next year I will actually write more than once a month! For now I have quite enough to tell you guys about. Let’s see, since my last entry, I’ve had a lot of company, and I am right in the middle of a much-needed weekend, after a rather busy three weeks full of said company, the end of third quarter, and parent-teacher conferences.

Some people can’t bear a party of pleasure. ~ John Willoughby

Why don’t my students like to have fun? That’s a rhetorical question, to which there are several answers that might be very depressing if I didn’t know Jesus loves them even more than I do. Anyway, we invited the Men’s Quartet from Bible School to sing at Emmanuel and Bethel, our sister church in Faith. We also planned a Saturday night youth event at the Landmark Hall downtown, and invited Bethel, the youth groups from the Baptist, UCC, and Catholic churches, and lots of random people. I made invite cards and posters, and kept a stack on my desk and in my room, occasionally remembering to actually hand one to somebody. I know free food is a decent motivation for a lot of teenagers, so I figured we might have at least a few E.A.G.L.E. Center kids. I did prepare to be disappointed, and I prayed a lot that God would remind me that He had things under control.


We had six kids, I guess: two from Emmanuel, two from the Baptist church, one from Bethel, and one from Firesteel. The guys got here about 3:00, right as I got out of the shower and was getting ready to start dishes and clean the mess I had made making frybread. They just sat in my living room for about an hour while I finished cleaning and getting ready, and they enjoyed my mirrors I have on my ceiling a lot. Emma LaPlante had come with them to surprise her family, and it was really fun to have her along. That night we played a few ice breakers and group games, and I finally got to play Signs! Most of us took a while to get the hang of it, and it was great to watch some that took longer than others. : ) We ate pizza and had lots of desserts. Lots of desserts. I still have some of them in my cupboard, but I guess it’s been only a week. After that the guys sang a few of their songs (“Silent Night” and “In that Great Gettin’ Up Mornin’”), David shared his testimony, and then we sang some worship songs, which was lovely. I wish I could play guitar! It would be so nice to have worship music at youth group. Hmmm, Amanda can play guitar…


Then I took Michael and Isaac home to my little house, fed them ice cream cake in honor of my brother’s twentieth birthday, and set them up for the night. I love having company in my own house so much! I’d love to have more visitors (hint, hint). I would even make you breakfast, like I did for Michael and Isaac the next morning: scrambled eggs and apple pannekoeken. The boys sang for church, with a very Lentish, Easterish repertoire. Then I got a picture with my little brother, and they sped off to Bethel to sing before they headed home to Bible School.

Hey Miss Osthus, where’s your stunt double? ~ Richard

That very night, my sister arrived to stay with me! It was so wonderful to have her here for the beginning of her spring break. She got there pretty late on Sunday night, and I should have warned her before she drove into my snowbank that has been in front of my house since Christmas. We shared a little bit of ice cream cake before we went to sleep, and then she went with me to school the next day. Everyone thought she was my twin. Dr. Birkeland told the junior high during class meeting at the beginning of the day that there were two Miss Osthuses in the building. Dr. Birkeland took a keen interest in what Julia thought of the school, and sat with us for a bit at the end of lunch to get her impressions. She pretty much told Julia she’d hire her for social studies if she applied after graduation, to which Heather responded that she wasn’t gone yet! We also sat at lunch with Alex, a super cool kid who has been at the EC for like a month and a half. I knew that he plays guitar, like Julia does, so I started them talking guitar, though I know nothing about them. I guess he got a kick out of it, because his mom told me at parent-teacher conferences that he had mentioned it.

Then that night, guess what we did? We had a Bollywood party, complete with curried rice, chickpeas, sambosas (from Somalia, but kind of close), and Bride and Prejudice. Now, what do you know about Bollywood movies? I’m hardly an expert on the topic, but with a Pakistani nanny family and a Nanu who likes to watch Indian soap operas, I have a little bit of experience. Bollywood movies are strange, but they grow on you. They are Indian, and the name comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. As you can probably tell, it is India’s version of Hollywood. A movie is not Bollywood unless it is a musical full of song and dance numbers, and usually it will be in Hindi, with a ton of English words thrown in from when India was colonized by England. The characters typically swear in English, which is pretty interesting to me. Slumdog Millionaire was just a taste of Bollywood, but really didn’t have enough music. Bride and Prejudice is closer, though they almost exclusively speak English, since it was directed by a British Indian woman. It is also based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the best stories ever, so it was enjoyable working out the parallels between the stories. Amanda came over, too, and we had a great time. The reason I should have stopped Julia from driving into my snowbank was that she, like the Men’s Quartet, got her car stuck in the ice on Tuesday morning, but thankfully, one of my neighbors came over to rescue her after I left for school. Then she left to return to Minnesota. As you can see from Richard’s quote, a few of my students became rather fond of her in the short time she was with us!

My creation!

Never mind, we got it off the Pillsbury website, but I made it and it turned out really well! For my weekly movie night with Nicole and Amanda this past week I made Chicken-Bacon-Ranch pizza. I think Nicole and Amanda both liked it a lot, because they both had seconds, though they were very little second helpings. For once, I did not take seconds, but left the last slice in the fridge as leftovers, which worked out OK. We watched Freaky Friday, since our next NetFlix disc hadn’t arrived yet, and that is a movie that I always enjoy, and that neither of my friends had seen.


Oops, I missed the memo instructing me to complain about parent-teacher conferences

And here we are again: I am still a geek, and I still really enjoy parent-teacher conferences. We have only two each school year, and our first one was in the middle of September, back before I really knew anyone here. I really enjoyed that one, to the amusement of my co-workers, but I figured this one would not be as an enjoyable. We are now a few weeks into our fourth quarter of the school year, and some of our seniors are going to have a “mighty close shave” in their efforts to obtain their diplomas. Because of that, I expected that some parents and kids might be a bit irritable or anxious, which would dampen the general enthusiasm for the afternoon.

One family made me especially concerned. Two of their children are at the EAGLE Center right now, and both of them are trying to finish up make-up work. The younger one actually skipped school one day and told her mom that she was afraid Miss Osthus would just give her more work to do! Hardly logical, since staying home would just lead to more make-up work, but since we had a late start that day she wouldn’t have even had English with me. Her mom called the counselor, though, and she talked with me, and I called her mom right away to sort through things. Two days later, I typed up a list of everything she had left to finish up the grade that she was currently in, so that she couldn’t accuse me of giving her extra work, and then she and I met with the principal to settle what she had left. On the other hand, her older brother is trying to finish up to three grades in some subjects so that he can graduate this semester, and he still has a ways left to go. I know he can do it, but he doesn’t really like coming to school every day, and actually has probably never been to school this year more than three days in a row. That won’t cut it, so every time I see him in town I bug him to keep coming to school. They both came to conferences with their mom, and I was able to lay everything out for all three of them so that they knew exactly what to expect. Everything went just fine, and they really are great kids, though I still don’t know if either of them will muster up the motivation to finish everything they want to finish.

Every other family was a delight, and I know I’m cheesy, but they really were. I believe parental involvement is crucial to any kid’s success, so it is wonderful to be busy at PT conferences. Our stream of traffic was decent. I personally missed catching one parent who was there, so I might try to call him this week, especially since his daughter is a senior and has a lot of work left to do. Heather reminded me last week how important it is this time of year that every parent know how much work their students have done, so I am trying to get better at sending out letters and making phone calls. Next year I am sure I will be much more on top of that, but that’s one of those things that no one really taught me how to do, since everyone handles it differently. Unfortunately my default response to tasks that I don’t really understand when I am stressed and busy (this whole year), is to just not do it. It is now time to pick up the pace on those fun chores. But you don’t get cookies for sending letters like you do for parent-teacher conferences. I also went to the parent forum and got fried chicken for supper, which was a treat. Coupled with the Shamrock Shakes we had that morning, it was a very good day! I’m starting to feel more at home here, and I feel it no more than when I walk into the crowded cafeteria and see people smiling and waving at me. I love my students and their families! I just pray I can love them better.



What more can I do here? OK, the short list!

On that note, as it is finally feeling a bit like spring, though we still have plenty of snow, I’ve been thinking lately about summer and beyond, and wondering what God really wants me to do here to make more of a difference that I already am. I ask “What more can I do?” not feeling like I’m doing that much yet, but just honestly wondering what God will call me into next. I drive through some of the shoddier neighborhoods and wonder what people there really need, besides the obvious Sunday School answer (JESUS!) Do they need help fixing their houses? Do they need babysitting? Do they need lawn care? Do they need friends? I’m hardly an expert in many of these topics, but I can give anything that God has given me.

That being thought through, today I decided that I needed to spend time just trying some things out and seeing what God wants. Yesterday when I was grocery shopping I remembered that I had been planning on just buying a little something that I could give to one of the guys on Main Street, so I finally bought granola bars. I’ll keep them in my back seat until I need them. Then today, under inspiration from my mother, I decided to head out and pick up some popcans on my way back from the school. It was so beautiful today, and right about the first day of spring, I’d say it was about time! God’s timing is perfect, though. Once I got home, I decided I still needed a longer walk, so I put on my gardening gloves and took two plastics bags with me, one for recyclables and one for garbage. Since we had so much snow and now it is finally starting to melt, there is plenty of garbage that has recently been exposed by the receding snow. What I didn’t necessarily count on was picking up a few “cling-ons,” little kids that had been walking and decided they wanted to help me.

Memphis, who occasionally had to stop to take dips from his little bucket of chocolate frosting, and Michael, who is a third time second grader and kept threatening to shoot Memphis with his BB gun, were my most constant companions. We filled up about five bags with trash and recyclables, and that was just on my street and the street around the corner. We actually left a lot. One of these days when the weather is nice again (which it is not supposed to be tomorrow), I may have to go walking again. As of this past Sunday we really did have this much snow in the park, by the way—I am totally not making it up! I really do need to just wander around here more—I learned that a few of my students actually live super close to me. Knowing where people live just makes me feel so much more at home! The low point of my cleaning adventure probably came when both Memphis and I feel in the mud, but maybe he liked that part, I don’t know. I fell right on my knee cap and my jeans definitely need to be washed now.

Speaking of which: ta-da! My dryer is now ready to be used, and even turns on. Thank you to Corey, Heather’s boyfriend, who checked on my electrical wiring job to make sure it was OK. Unfortunately, the washer still is not in use, because Corey helped me to determine that there really is something wrong with one of my hoses, and the problem doesn’t just lie in my wet noodle grip. Man, I should have had Corey open my applesauce while he was here… Anyway, I guess I know my first stop next time I’m close to a Menard’s.

Once again, please pray…



Please keep praying for my youth group. Two of the kids from the Baptist church came to our youth group last week, since they haven’t really been able to get a regular youth group started yet. We’ve talked about just combining on Wednesday nights, but we’ll see. This week we are going to a youth rally in Faith, which I am getting excited for. Katie might spend the night with me, depending on what time we get back to town, which I think would be fun, though her mom warned me that she’s not a morning person. I don’t guess I really am, either, but I will make her a mouth-watering breakfast that smells so good she won’t be able to stay in bed. : ) Please pray that Jesus would set our hearts on fire and get us more and more excited to share the good news with those around us.

Four of my students lost dads last week, three of them in the same family. Please the pray for the Antonio family and the Estes family. One was sudden, and the other was somewhat more expected, but I’m sure both were painful. Just pray for comfort and peace, and pray that God might use me in some way to bring hope. Maybe it’s just living in a small town, but I’ve never heard of so many funerals in such a small space of time. It’s so interesting how moving to a different-sized town shrinks and widens your circle at the same time! My great-aunt Adelle also passed away last week, so if you could pray for my family, that would be great.

Also pray for my trip that I plan to take to my alma mater this weekend to hang out with friends. Pray that I would glorify God and bless my friends while I’m there, and that I would be kept safe on the road. I have some pretty special friends that I need to see and talk with about pretty important things, and it might take some extra wisdom. Sorry, don’t mean to be vague, but I just don’t know what the weekend will be like yet! I guess I should see if I can stop in Sisseton on the way back and meet up with my grandma and my uncles, but my uncles are probably pretty much slaves to their calves at the moment, though they hadn’t gotten any last time I talked to them. I guess I’ll call and check one of these days.

That’s all for now! I love you all! Christina