Getting started- and rambling

I am going by the name Lady Jane because a friend baptized me with that at a party. I like it; therefore, I adopted it. And, actually, the Jane part is my name. The Lady part is reminiscent of Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot." It works for me.

I was raised by the best parents in the world. I had a better than average childhood. Fondest memories: ice skating on the frozen lake in winter and Nags Head summers.

I have three brothers and one sister. I love my brothers, but I prayed for my sister. God does answers prayers. I was fifteen when she was born. I guess He decided I didn't need her until then. Maybe my parents needed her more than I did. Funny. I never thought about that until now. I always thought of her as mine.

I went to college where I earned my BA and also received my MRS. I married Tom in 1979. We have 3 wonderful children. Twins, now 27, and our 16 year old son. Our oldest, by a minute, is married. They too were expecting twins, but lost them at 20 weeks. Some time later, God blessed them with an adopted daughter. She is 8 months now.

I am an English teacher. I really do not remember making the final decree, "I will teach English!" It just happened. I began teaching in 1982, the same year our daughters were born. I was teaching the principal's daughter and my ob-gyn's daughter that same year. Pressure much?

I remember missing a week of school because of morning, afternoon, and night sickness. What would my new principal think? He was great about it. My sister-in-law was also an ob-gyn. It was she who found the twins. Imagine my going back to my doc and telling him that I was having twins. Odd, to say the least. Funny that I remember that so vividly these many years later.

Here it is 2009 and I am still teaching. When I began teaching, I taught only ninth grade. Now I teach seniors. I began teaching in North Carolina, now I teach in Virginia. I have decided, after all these years, that no matter what, kids are kids. Sure, the dates have changed, fashions have changed, but all in all, children have not changed. They still worry about how they look. They still worry about who likes whom. They still worry about who talks about whom. Names change. Pressures change. But the very essence of adolescence does not change.

Another thing that I have noticed over the years is that literature teaches so very much. Sure, it teaches tone, mood, alliteration, and other literary terms, but it teaches so much about life. I teach this relevance to my students, but I often wonder if they take it with them through their lives. These authors have already experienced what we are going through. They are telling us what is coming. They are trying to prepare us for the angst, but do we listen? No. History does often repeat itself. But not just in wars and other events; it repeats itself in human events too.

Ahhhh. I like this release. From now on, I will have more of uniformed format. But for today, I think I wanted to give a taste of me, my thoughts, my philosopy, if you will. Until later. . .