The Christianville Spirit: The Untold Story of Mrs. Bachman and Mrs. James

Me and VP Jennifer (aka Jennifer-Samantha)

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

August 31, 2016-TCS # 509

Gather ‘round, My Readers! Gather ‘Round! It is Time for yet another one of The Untold Stories of Christian’s Life! This Untold Story is different than The Last One I did, Refer to “The Untold Story of Lynee” Newsletter if You have either not heard that Story yet or Just Want to Read It Again and Don’t Worry I would not Blame You if You wanted to. I’ll be here Waiting if You want to Pause to read the First One. 

Okay then, Welcome Back! Hope You enjoyed your Pause. So, This Untold Story is in the Same Time Period as Lynee only This one involves another Great Person in My Life, actually Two Great (No, Actually; Brilliant People in My Life). So, In School and in Life, You have Teachers both inside School and Outside School. You have Brilliant (I love that Word, used in The UK) Teachers, You have Good or Okay Teachers, and Bad Teachers in there too. I know This is going to sound like a Teachers‘ Appreciation Week kind of Thing, but for The Most Part I had some mainly Good Teachers. Of Course, We can all admit that We had Favorite Teachers in Our Time in School. My Favorite Teachers in Elementary School influenced a lot of Things that I do now. Mrs. Bachman and Mrs. James were My Favorite. Mrs. James, She was the one who taught me about Writing and The Way that I wrote and got My Thoughts out. When I started writing, not My Newsletter, but Handwriting, My Thoughts of what I wanted to say was running faster than My little hands could write, so Mrs. James introduced The Idea of Me dictating to Her, The Thoughts I had about a Topic. It helped me a Ton because I might have had a lot of Thoughts to get on Paper about a Topic. It was because of Mrs. James that I got into The Passion of Wanting to Write. Truth be Told, I give her a lot of Credit to Where I am Today in My Writings. Actually, I wrote a Partial Book in Her Class called “Lost in Dallas Hills” (refer to The Newsletter with The Same Title).

My All-Time Favorite Teacher though was Mrs. Bachman. She helped me a lot as well. She helped more with My Geography Passion and Understanding My Special Needs, not to mention, The Crush on Lynee that was occurring at that Same Time! Now, The Most Awesome part of Mrs. Bachman’s Teachings was dealing with a Subject that really has not been My Favorite, but at The Time, She made it Fun! Math has never been a Favorite of Mine only because I am Very Literal and Math is not necessarily Literal! Considering that This was a time before Calculators or really Any Electronics, You have to do it by Hand via Something called Touch Math. Touch Math, I have to say was the Thing that got me through The Rest of School. Basically, You look at a Number and Whatever Number it is, You tap it with Your Pencil that many times. Each Number had Points in which to Count. The Number 8 for Example (Oddly My Favorite Number to Tap Out) was 2 Taps per Each Side. As in 1-2 on Upper Left Side, 3-4 on Upper Right Side, 5-6 on Lower Left Side, 7-8 on The Lower Right Side. See! You just Touch Mathed the Number Eight! 7 is a bit more Complicated where You tap once on The End of The 7, 1 and then You tap twice on The Top, The Middle and The End. 2-3, 4-5, 6-7. Oh, I am Very Sure that Mrs. Bachman would be Extremely Proud of Me!  Touch Math really is pretty easy, I would totally recommend that When Teaching Kids Math, It is better to teach them Touch Math. The Next and Most Complicated Math that She taught me was Multiplication. I was pretty nervous about that because Multiplication is not always that simple, but She made it a bit more Simple and Fun with Multiplication Rhymes. My Favorite One was “8 Times 8 (8 x 8) landed on the Floor, Laid there til’ 1964; “6 Times 4 (6 x 4) walked through The Door, It’s Number was 24”; “6 Times 8 (6 x 8) came to a Gate (or The Gate, if You want), It was 48”; and, Finally, “9 Times 3 (9 x 3) floated up to Heaven, Landed on Cloud 27” So, As You can see, It can make it a Little Easier to Figure out. I honestly kept thinking, reading through The Printed Rhymes that Mrs. Bachman gave me, thought that The Heaven rhyme started with something like” 6 Times 7 went up to Heaven and It became 37” (something like that!) Maybe that is My Literal Rhyming Mind coming up with that, but Hey! After Elementary School was Over, My Mom asked Mrs. Bachman if We could have Ice Cream with Her and We did one Time and We shared all the Memories of Her being a Great/Brilliant Teacher. Funny how When You get older, You remember Very well about Your Teachers and Yes, A Part of You misses them but, Most Importantly, You thank them for all that They have done for You. All in all, Mrs. Bachman was a Brilliant Teacher. One Last Note here, I met the Vice President of The College that My Mom works at and told her about My Mom (Who is a Brilliant Teacher as well!) about How Awesome The College is too. I hope that Someone soon They will have Work Programs for People like Me at The College. I know The VP is working on it. So, A Shoutout to VP Jennifer, who I will admit looks more like Her Name should be Samantha, therefore referring to her as Jennifer-Samantha. Shout Out!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. You have Great (or Brilliant) Teachers and Not-So-Great Ones but, It is the Great-Brilliant Ones that You remember the Most.

The Christianville Spirit: Following The Lead

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

August 24, 2016-TCS # 508

Ahoj, My Readers! Well, that is a New Greeting! Believe it or not, It is in Czech. It is Czech for Hello and Yes, It sounds like A Boat Captain. You learn something new Every Day! So, This Week’s Newsletter, is going to present a Thought that usually only occurs in My Head when I am in an Unfamiliar Place or With People that I am hanging out with, If My Mom or Brother is not in The Area. I believe that It shows The Real (as I call it) Me. So, This Thought occurs even when I am with My own Family, but I am not at Home. I call it, Following Someone’s Lead. Call it what You will but, If I don’t have a Routine, Lead, Rules, or Predictability to follow then My Brain goes Haywire. It does not mean that I completely Freeze when I have None of Those Things, but I tend to Follow and Mimic what I see and that in some Odd Way helps a little bit with What I am supposed to do. For Example, At Home I tend to want to Sleep until The Afternoon unless There is a Reason to get up. Meanwhile, like a Vacation, There are Rules, but not a Routine or Predictability. It used to be that Every Year, We would go to The Beach. Like We had a Beach House that we went to Every Year as mentioned in Newsletters about Gulf Shores. Anyway, My Mom would tell me “You can’t sleep in until 2PM” so, I ask Myself, When do I wake up? Well, Here is where The Lead Thought comes in. I basically, wait until The Last Person gets up and then, I get up and that tells me that It is Time to get up. After that, I just choose My Lead and I follow what They do. In Year’s Past, It is usually My Brother or My Cousins. After I know what We are doing, then I am a little more comfortable. Truth be told, This is how I done it in Any Unknown Situation or Place, even Since I was Younger. If The Lead did something that I did not want to do, I would fight it because I didn’t want to do what Everyone Else was doing and, If there was No Choice, I just followed because I did not want to get lost or Separated from The Group. If I am somewhere like The PTLS Conference or with Kids and Adults, I tend to follow The Adults because They are doing the calmer things. However, If I am at Place where There are lots of Kids, A Bouncy House, and Boring Adults, then You bet I’ll be jumping in the Bouncy House. I know it sounds like I am Dependent on Other People, but that is only when I don’t know What I am doing or need to do. Basically, What is Expected of Me? In General though, When I know The Direction of Where I am going, like Talking about Geography, Politics, History, and Traveling then, I am an Expert Leader. I guess One can be both a Leader or a Follower, right? I am trying to explain this, The Best I can. To Me, It sounds like I am rambling on and on about Explaining How My PTLS Mind works. That is what happens when I be “Real”. Sometimes, When choosing a Lead to follow, I can’t tell Who the Best Leader is, I just use Who is in Front of Me. Sometimes, well Many Times, in My Life, I have been in Places that are Unfamiliar to Me  (or Places I have not been in a While) and Chose The Wrong Leader. Honestly, Sometimes, That can get me into Trouble. Then, Me and The Leader themselves get into Trouble. This is Hard for Me to Write about This Subject because I never seen it as a Problem because I trust Everyone. Writing about This, is like writing about Figures of Speech which does not make sense in My Mind. My Mind is Very Literal and Everything is a Matter of Fact. Now, Don’t get me wrong, Everywhere You go for The First Time is “Unfamiliar” but, I have a Really Good Mind for Maps and Geography. When I am some place that I have studied, I am the Leader. Just ask My Mom when We went to Stockholm and London, It was all Familiar to Me, as if I have been there before. So, I was The Leader for My Mom. But, in General, People with PTLS observe and follow. So, Be Careful who They Follow! All in all, Writing This has made me Very Emotional but, I am Good now. But, I hope You understand. Good Talk! 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Some People lead and Some People follow. Some People do both.

The Christianville Spirit: My 29th Birthday and Surprises

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

August 17, 2016-TCS # 507

Welcome Back, My Readers! I am Back! So, since I last wrote to You, I have changed ages now. I was 28 when I wrote the previous Newsletter and Now, I am 29. Happy Birthday to Me! This Birthday was Birthday Year of Surprise and Disbelief. I was in Disbelief about Two Things. First off, I had Trouble that My Birthday on The 11th of August was even coming up, It just seemed like It came around in The Blink of An Eye. The Second was that I was in fact turning 29 Years Old. Thinking, 29 Years Old?! that is only One More Age until being 30! I have a feeling that 29 is going to a Big Year for Me, 30 will be too but, 29, I believe, is a Big Year for Me. 29 in Numerology (Which I tend to listen to) says that 29 Equals 11. 2 Plus 9 Equals 11, and 1 and 1 Equal 2. 11 and 2 are Really Good Numbers AND They are My Confirmation Numbers as well. Being 29 is a little scary but in a Good Way because of how Big I feel This Year will be. So, The Celebration of My 29th Year was by Far The Most Surprising. So, It started about Two Weeks Ago, We went to Our Neighbors Paul and Alyson’s House for Their Son, Miller’s Graduation from Kindergarten. Anyway, My Mom and A Few of Our Neighbors started talking and decided to throw me a Sort-of Surprise Dinner. So, a Few Nights later, I knew that My Mom and I were going to Dinner with Two of Our Neighbors that are expatting next year to Merida, Mexico and I thought that It give me an Opportunity to talk to them more about it. So, We showed up at One of My Favorite Places, La Hacienda and I looked over when We signed in and I saw Paul and Alyson (The Neighbor We saw Last Weekend) and I thought, “Is It just Coincidence that They are here at The Same Time?!”. I came to Find out that It was sort of like The Neighbor Surprise Party back in 2012 when I turned 25 (Refer to Newsletter 313). Most of My Neighbors came to My Birthday Dinner Party, It was lots of Fun and Totally Unexpected. Thank You Very Much, Neighbors for Coming and Helping Me Celebrate My Birthday! So, The Next Part of The Birthday Fun was a Trip. Now, Knowing Last Year’s Trip, that was Mostly PTLS Business, Part Adventure, and Some of It was a Good Present for My Birthday to Sweden and The UK, How do You top that?! Well, We drove up to Colorado to see My Brother! We drove from Plano, through Wichita Falls, and Amarillo before My Birthday. and, then We woke up in Raton, New Mexico on the Morning of My Birthday. I got to See Everything from Raton Pass all the way up to Denver, Lots of Mountains! It got really pretty as We drove through Colorado Springs and Seeing all the Mountains including what I thought was Pikes Peak. Once We got to Denver, We got to finally see My Brother, Michael! We had not seen him in Person since Christmas! We got to see where He lives and Met all of His Neighbors. One Neighbor, Kyle, I thought was Really Cool. I felt like He spoke My Language. He and I talked about Sweden, Life in and Things to see in Denver, and Of Course, Which City has The Best Light Rail Network (I probably should answer that in Another Newsletter, but I would think either London, Paris, or Singapore). Michael drove us around The City Center of Denver, showing us The State Capitol, The Stadium, and A Cool Outdoor Restaurant next to where He works. Speaking of that, We went to Dinner that Night at The Place that He works. By The Way, I forgot to mention that We brought a Puppy up with us to see Michael. We decided that Michael needed a Dog and My Mom’s Friend, Barb rescued one, so Why Not? I will tell you, This Dog, We referred to Him as “Baby Boy” was by far, The Calmest Dog that I have Travelled with! He laid in His Crate (with the Door open) the whole time we drove up to Colorado. My Brother has come up with Many Names for This Dog including Grandma Banjo (My Brother has an Odd Sense of Humor!), Banjo, and another Name that I can’t remember right now (It was Packo). I’ll go with Banjo for Now. For Reference, up to This Point, on My Mom’s Side of My Immediate Family, has never had a Boy Dog. The First Night, we got to meet My Brother’s Girlfriend, Nicole. The First Night, She was a bit Shy at first but, The Pressure of Meeting your Boyfriend’s (or Girlfriend’s for that matter) Parents is rather Stressful on top of Anything else going on in Their World. Michael’s Roommate’s Friend, “Mandy”, I liked her. She was fun to talk to also. After Dinner, We visited where My Brother’s Friend, Zack works at. Zack works at a Craft Beer Brewery. He took us on a Tour of The Brewery, It was amazing to see the Extensive Process involved in Making Beer. So Many Machines! By The Way, in case, You were wondering, I did not drink any Beer there or anywhere on This Trip! It was quite an Exciting Birthday for Me! The Nest Day, We drove up into The Mountains. I got to see the Beginning of The Rocky Mountains that locals call “The Front Range”. All the Weather that comes into Denver is often influenced by The Front Range of The Rockies. After passing The Front Range, We drove well into The Mountains to what is called The Continental Divide. Michael’s Roommate, a Friend from High School told us to drive to a Pass called Loveland Pass which was on the Divide. By The Way, The Continental Divide is where if You put water on in, If it goes East, it head toward The Atlantic Ocean or The Gulf of Mexico and If It flows Westward, It flows toward The Pacific Ocean. There are Two Colorado Rivers, One that flows from Colorado and ends in The Gulf of California, and The East Colorado that run toward The Gulf of Mexico. There is creek, I believe that sits on The Divide and flows both ways! When We got to The Divide, My Brother and I decided to Hike along part of it to get a Higher View. Loveland Pass was at 11,990 Feet and We hiked to least 12,000 Feet. The Thin Air and Going upward did not help My Breathing a lot, It pushed me to Near My Limits but, I made it to The Top of One of The Mountains! To say the least, It wore me out but, Luckily My Brother was there to push me to get me up there. We did only hike part of The Way with The Dog, Banjo and then, My Mom had him while My Brother and I hiked. I will say that It was rather chilly up there, but luckily My Mom brought a sweater. After seeing The Divide, We had Lunch in a Really Nice Mountain Town, Idaho Springs. Luckily, Most Places with Patios are Dog Friendly. My Brother says that pretty much Everyone in Colorado has a Dog. I would totally recommend going to Idaho Springs because It is a Town surrounded by Mountains off of I-70 and Very Pretty. After visiting Idaho Springs, We drove to The Red Rocks Amphitheater which by far had The Most Stunning Place with a Stunning View! We got there kind of Late and There was a Concert getting ready but, at least, We got to see some of it. The Coolest Part I think was that We got to drive through a Red Rock Tunnel in The Park. The View was unbelievable, You could pretty much see over The Mountains and across Denver! I am sure it looks even cooler at Night Time! After We saw The Red Rocks, We drove back to Michael’s House. That Evening, Zack and Michael’s Girlfriend, Nicole came over to hang out. We went to get Ice Cream together, Banjo (Baby Boy) included. Everyone who walked by, while we were having Ice Cream, loved Banjo. Everyone wanted either say Hello or Pet either Zack’s Dog or Banjo, or both. The Next Day, My Mom and I got to have extra time to get to know Nicole before We had to head on and leave The Dog with Michael. I will say, Michael chose quite an Awesome Girlfriend. She is much better than Two of The Girlfriends that he has had. She is understanding of both Myself and My Brother, and She is helping My Brother in many different ways. She has Big Dreams and Likely will have My Brother realize His Big Dreams too! and, Bonus! My Mom likes her too! Everyone knows that when Mom likes The Girlfriend, that is a Good Thing! and, then, The Final Surprise! So, We drove to Kansas to see PTLS Family Member, Natalie Hinkin and Part of Her Family. We went over to Her House to have Bunch with Her, Kids, and Parents. The Surprise though, was that the Rest of Natalie’s Family showed up to meet us. We had an Awesome Bunch sitting on Her Porch. She had quite an Awesome Family, I felt like I was part of it. All in all, It was Brilliant Birthday of Mine. Thank You to All for Your Videos, Phone Calls, Messages, and Love. 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Why make Your Birthday, A Day Celebration. Make It a Month Long!  

The Christianville Spirit: Mind Spacers in Your Device

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

August 3, 2016-TCS # 506

Praise Love, My Readers! Hey! That is New Greeting! Considering the subject of My Newsletter, I find it easier to  say “Praise Love” for Everyone than “Praise The Lord”. Okay, while We are at it here; Praise The Lord, My God! So, on to This Week’s Newsletter. Now, I am self-admitted Christian, I pray Twice a Day at Dinner and Bedtime, but, I don’t Necessarily “Go” to Church. I do “Have” Church if that counts. I do My Worshipping of God at Home and in My Life, spreading Love. We can all agree that God is Love, right? Anyway, If There is a Church that I listen to, It is either Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer, both of them are My Favorites. You have to know in regards to this, If The Person speaking fits You or not, or If You feel like The Person is speaking to You (or rather, God is speaking to You via The Person). When it comes to Joel Osteen, often times, I feel like He is speaking to Me. This recent Sunday, He spoke of Things in Your Mind or Heart that take up Space. The Way He explains, I picture a Computer or IPad, some kind of Device. A Device, No Matter what it is, Only has So Much Space in it, even if It is like a 50 GB (Gigabyte) Device. So, for The Sake of Visuals, Let’s Imagine a 100 GB Device with all The Room in The World! But, We will call them MS, meaning Mind Spacers. God comes in with a Standard 30 MS of Your Destiny (that is a Large Program), 30 MS of The “How To’s” to get there, and The Rest is just Life in General. However, that Darn Devil (Joel calls it “The Enemy”) wants to put his share of Mind Spacers like Worry, Doubt, Anger, This Issue, That Issue, You get the Idea. Pretty Soon, Your Device (Your Head) is overloaded with Running Programs (We used to call it that in The 90’s) or Today We call them Apps. So, for Me, Imagine an “App” for Worry taking up alot of Space in My Device. and, Truth be told, I can be A “Worry-wart” when it comes to things. I worry about The World’s Condition, I worry about Our Election (for Many Reasons), I worry about My Mom, My Brother, and Myself. I think a lot of that though is Wanting to Make Sure that Everyone is Happy and Taken Care of. As Far as Anger, that is something that is not Many MS’s in My Device. Doubt, Who doesn’t have a little of that in Their Device. Now, with all the mentioned things both God-created (I like God-Given better) Apps with Their Data and MS’s that goes with it and “The Enemy”’s Apps that probably have Bigger MS’s in it (which equals Slowness and Not-as-Passionate). The More MS’s You have on Your Device, The Less attention can go to The MS’s that helps you in Your Destiny. And, Everyone knows that You gotta get more Apps, right? God has heaps of Good Apps (or Programs) that is better to take up Your MS’s (Mind Spacers) and can benefit You AND Your Destiny. In other words, The more God-Given Apps and MS’s You have, The Faster You get to Your Destiny where as “The Enemy’s” Apps and MS’s will slow you down. Joel Osteen says, that in order to “Delete” the worthless Apps, You have to Let it go, Know that God is in Control, and Of Course, Forgiveness. With that Said, without naming anyone, If You have Wronged Me or I have Wronged You, I am Very Sorry and I forgive You, and Yes, You can forgive me too! as for, The Worry part of it, that will take some time and Part of It is just part of The Anxiety Back-Segment (A Setting or Data that is Impossible to Find!) in My PTLS-running Program. Things in the PTLS-running Program is part of The Program. So, All in all, “Delete” The Enemy’s Apps, Files, and Data and Make Room for God Given Apps, Files, and Data.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t put in Junk Data, Put in Positive Data!