don't mess with me. or Texas.

For Spring Break, I flew out to Temple, Texas to visit my cousin Katharine. Her husband is in his residency- and they have two children. These are all my Instagram pics from the week-- if you don't follow me on Instagram, you should! My username is camismith

Because I somehow missed it in highschool, I finally caught up with the rest of the free world and read The Catcher in the Rye. I really liked it!

 This is Nate and I sharing tortilla chips at Chipotle. He's hilarious-- he's 18 months old. such a sweet boy!

 At lunch at Rudy's one day. They had GREAT bar-b-q. I had the brisket. My favorite fact was that they didn't serve the meat on a plate, but a piece of paper. It was EXCELLENT.

 Went to the Bell County museum in Belton. It was really cute. Will liked the water pump :)

  One day we went to Austin to visit the Capitol. Had so much fun- love this kind of nerdy, history stuff!

The only complaint about my entire trip was that my flight out of Killeen was delayed for two and a half hours. Ugh. 

But other than that, I had a BLAST!
God Blessed Texas.

passion2012

On Sunday night at church,  my friend Caroline and I were talking about going to Passion this week. Because I am normally back in school this week, I hadn't even thought about going, but Caroline told me that our friend Rachael wasn't using her ticket for the first two sessions, So the plan was for me to check her in and use Rachael's wristband. While I was in line to get the wristband, my BFF Adam called and told me that he got an extra ticket when he checked in. 

Long story short, I got to go to Passion all week. It was INCREDIBLE. I had pretty good seats the whole time because I sat with people who cared. There were 45,000+ people in the Georgia Dome. All of them desiring to bring glory to God.

   

There were a ton of things I loved about the week. Most of all, I loved being immersed in Jesus. It's been a long time since I've been spent that kind of time immersed in God's word or focused on Him. It was SO needed.

 

Another favorite part was my family group. Because God orchestrated so much for me to be there, I kept trusting that He had ordained all of it, so I begrudgingly went to small group. I was anxious about being too old, too out of touch, too ugh.  But. God planned that too. My group was great. I loved meeting with them and praying with them. I love that I genuinely want to pray for these people and keep in touch with them.

 

On the last night, each person was given a candle and instructed to wait outside until midnight to light them. Then, while we illuminated our candles, the statue in the middle of the plaza was illuminated as well.  The statue and our candles were to be a symbolic gesture to stand up against human trafficking in our city, the country and the world. There are 27 MILLION people currently enslaved in the world- and Passion raised money all week to help stop it. The goal was to raise a million dollars- but in God's way, He blasted through that number. They raised THREE MILLION DOLLARS in 4 days. Mind blowing.

In our small group, we answered the question, "What is the one thing you want God to do in your life?"-- I had to think about it for a while, but my final answer is that I want to become to enthralled with the greatness of God that my sin looks foolish. 

So, I'm praying that for myself. If you're interested, I'd be happy for you to pray that for me, too!

puppy fun

Parker's haircut

Playing outside.

Playing with Millie!

My sister and her puppy, Punky.

Smith Family Christmas

Our Christmas card this year:

I got a new camera from Santa, so I've been a picture taking fool. I don't really know what I'm doing. I've read a lot on Kevin and Amanda's blog, Improve Photography, and other various places on the internet. I have taken about 150 pictures, but here are a few! I'm still learning, so be nice!

Parker! He got a haircut the next day!

My Aunt Cam has this awesome handmade beaded fruit- love them.

My sister's boyfriend surprised her with autographed Alabama pictures. She was PUMPED.

weird coloring. but I kinda like it. Have no idea what I did to make this happen :)

me and Parker

I love taking pictures of flowers. These are in my parent's yard. In January. Good grief.

Mom's turn for an iPad Christmas!!!

My sister being SO EXCITED about the book I gave her. Love Peter Pan!

Dad's new coffee container!

Honestly? Kinda impressed with myself for this one. Only post-production was cropping.

My parents' neighbors' house. Love their lights. (I was playing with my tripod at this point.)

This pic kinda blows my mind bc it was pitch black dark outside. Once again, only post-production was a small crop

My sister in her new red jacket.

Tyler

One of my pastors said something remarkable this past Sunday:

Many of walk us walk around living life as practical atheists: believing that our money, position, and influence are all the work of our own hands.

The sermon was focused on the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who was humbled by God so that he could see that God had given him all of his money position, and influence. By the end of Daniel 4, Nebby, as his friends called him, had come to the realization that everything in his power was actually given to him by God. Everything that he owned was given to him by God. Everyone that he influenced was given to him by God.

In my head, I know that God has given me everything I have, but I don't often think of that in terms of influence. At the end of the sermon, Stuart asked the question, "How could I leverage my position to make a difference?". As always, I immediately think of my students. There have been so many students that have come and gone through my classroom that I have not impacted in any spectacular way. However, I know there are students that have been changed because they had me as a teacher. That is an incredible joy for me, but also an incredible pressure- because I know that I can make a difference in someone's life.

My number one person this year is named Tyler.

Tyler isn't on my team. I don't have him for homeroom. I don't teach him language arts. We met by accident. My best friend teaches him, and I happened to be in her classroom one day, so he started talking to me.

I have become his refuge. If he gets in trouble in a class, he gets sent to my room.
I have become his reward. If he has a great day, his prize is to come hang out with me.
I have become his encourager. I seek him out all day long to ask him how things are going in each of his classes. And he comes to tell me about his days- good and bad.

Hearing Stuart on Sunday made me realize that God has given me influence on Tyler. Not my age or the fact that I don't teach him. But God alone has given me that influence. It makes me realize that I have 5 more months to be Tyler's influence, but the impact of that influence could go long beyond that.

The realization has made me so much more aware of the way I speak to my students, especially Tyler. To speak truth to them. To make sure that they know that you love them- whether you can directly say it or not. To make sure that their behavior doesn't change the fact that I have chosen to love them. To give grace every single day. To discipline when out of my desire for them to be better people, not so I can have control.

God uses me to influence people. I just have to be sure to influence them in the way that brings glory to God.

Do you have a "Tyler"?

Iron Bowl!

Through an INCREDIBLE turn of events, I got to to go to the Iron Bowl with some family friends! They're HUGE Auburn fans, but they were so kind to let me come along! We had wonderful seats, right near the Alabama student section and band. Of course, my friends hated it, but I was DYING of happiness!

At the halftime show, the two bands joined together to play in memory of those who died in the April tornado that cut through north Alabama. They played Amazing Grace- and it was precious.

SO MUCH FUN!!!!! 42-14!!

Is there anything cuter than my puppy in his #3 jersey!? Roll Tide!

JoePa & mandated reporters

Unless you're just not paying attention, you've heard about the scandal with former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. He is charged with numerous counts of sexual assault of children. If you haven't had a chance to read the grand jury indictment, you should. BUT. Please heed this warning: it is graphic. It will make you sick to your stomach. I had to skim over some parts, but it explains everything that he is charged. And the extensive lengths that the university went to in order to cover-up the scandal.

One of countless bits of collateral damage is Penn State head coach, Joe Paterno. He was informed of one of the criminal acts in 2002. A graduate student walked in on Sandusky raping a young boy. The graduate student reported the incident to Coach Paterno, and JoePa reported it the next day to his superiors. While JoePa fulfilled his legal responsibilty to report the incident, people are absolutely furious with his lack of reporting. Joe Paterno was not directly involved in the cover-up of the crimes, but he didn't do as much as should have.

As a teacher, I am a mandated reporter. This means that I am required by law to report any instances of suspected child abuse or neglect. The proper chain of command for me is to inform the guidance counselors or principal of my school. After that, I am not involved anymore. I'm not even allowed to inquire about the investigation. If I feel that my principal and guidance counselor are not following up thoroughly enough, I am able to go directly to the police.

My assumption is that Coach Paterno is under the same requirements as I am. I'm sure that he thought his superiors were going to do their job, but when they didn't, he should have done more. In his resignation statement today, he said "with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more". I wish he had too. For his own heart and mind. But mostly so more children would have been saved from such pain. I think I have learned something from Paterno- that it's always my job to do more than what the law requires. That is a low hurdle that is set to give guidelines. Doing more is always best.

My friend Amy and I were talking about it, and she said something incredibly important- at the end of the day, it is STILL Jerry Sandusky that is the monster here. He is the one that hurt those boys. He is the one that used charity to disguise his evil. He is the one that manipulated his peers to believe the best of him when he was committing a heinous act against innocent children. I know that God promises that "in no way shall the guily go free" and when it comes to Sandusky, this gives me great peace.

Paterno did announce his resignation today. He'll finish the season, and then he'll be done. He is a good man who has made an incredible impact on the game of college football and numerous student athletes. His legacy is great. It is sad that it will be tainted with the scandal of Jerry Sandusky.

obsession with instagram

I've had the Instagram app on my phone for a while, but I've just started using is more and more- this is some of my week!

 With the Alabama/LSU game coming up this weekend, I've been dressed in "GameDay attire" all week. This is from Monday and Thursday. 

 
My nephew and I made this "Hand print Christmas tree" for my sister-in-law's birthday. We had fun making it- and Jessica loved it!!

This is a picture of my sister, AnneTaylor, and her boyfriend, Taylor. I helped come up with his costume- he's MAYHEM! Love it. Also. My sister looks adorable as a pirate hooker :)

I tweeted this picture the other night because I'm rocking a shirt from my 10th grade year of highschool. When we played Harrison, we were playing at HHS so we wore white. These were our "white out" shirts for the crowd. It has holes in it and is paper-thin. But. I love this shirt. It's SO comfortable. I could NEVER wear it out in public, but I love it.

If you're not following me on twitter and instagram, then change your life and make it happen. User name is always camismith. Do work.

courage

I know some of you read my friend Annie's blog. If you didn't happen to read this past month's series on courage, you are missing out. It was amazing. Loved every minute.

awkward twins

some twins are awkward. some twins are weird.
lots of twins are normal.

this one is not:

Awkward twin: "I'm not straight"

Other student: "You're not straight?"

Awkward twin: "Yeah, I can't write straight"

Other student: "I don't think you know what that means"

Oh. 7th grade.