A-musings

Well I believe I had my first real experience with "teaching" this past Thursday. I was a guest speaker at the school where my friend Amanda teaches fifth grade. I spoke to four classes of fifth graders at one time!

I really had no clue what to expect or what was expected of me for this "guest speaking" experience, so I completely winged it! I'm not sure what the 5th grade teachers thought of me, but the kids seemed to like it! Truly, I'm really only concerned about pleasing the young'uns because adults can be too serious about everything and kids are the most honest critics anyway!

I talked to the 5th graders about creativity and how to brainstorm ideas for a story or poem; I taught them words like "speculate" and what "Choose Your Own Adventure" books are. I asked them lots of questions so that they could participate and "have a say" in this weird author-writer-girl coming to talk to their classes!

I got so excited to see them get excited and to see them want to participate. I knew that if anything, this was the way to get kids to want to learn and participate...by involving them and interacting with them. The kids had fun, telling me about stories they could make up and (with my guidance) making up a mini story about a Leprechaun who rides a magical unicorn and who comes to the kids' house to find some gold before the kids get to it and whose clover gets taken away by the kids' parents and then the Leprechaun gets angry and turns into a giant and eats the entire family! And the whole story came from the fact that sometimes the kids heard scratching sounds in their home!

Still not sure I could handle teaching, but it was fun! Maybe God is leading me in that direction, maybe He's not...we'll see!

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Yesterday I was pondering the phrases "Bless his/her heart" and "God rest his/her soul." I recall attending a storytelling festival one year and one storyteller interrupted one of her stories to remark on the irony that I was pondering last night: it seems like people feel comfortable or justified saying anything they darn well please about another human being, as long as they precede it with "Bless his/her heart" or (if the person is deceased) "God rest his/her soul." As if saying those phrases makes it okay to say whatever you want about the person. Mind you, sometimes these phrases are used in earnest, but many times they are "abused."

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Tonight Travis and I were driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I pointed out a cow pasture to him and said "This is the place where I once saved a cow."
"You saved a cow?" Travis asked.
"Yup...kinda," I said.
"Praise the Lord! You have brought a cow to know the Lord! You brought him to his knees to repent and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior!"
"Not like that," I laughed.
"Well do tell me...I want to hear the story of how you led a cow to the Lord!" Travis said eagerly.
"Why, I preached the gospel to him, of course! How else would you do it?"

*** If you don't find that funny, maybe it was one of those "you had to be there" kind-of situations

little girl and monsters

Kids are so funny :)

Nikki Giovanni:

My beloved Professor, Nikki, gives an amazing reading of her tribute to those lost in the Virginia Tech tragedy. My love and prayers go out to my second family: the English Department and the rest of the Virginia Tech community!

Abbott and Costello - Who's On First

Classic humor...and no cursing! Imagine that!

Older Pictures of Friends

I'm posting these pictures so that you all can see some of the friends who make such a wonderful difference in my life...



Here is my beloved former roommate, Tiffany (left)! She is an amazing woman of God and one of my dearest friends! Behind us is a VT vs Miami football game...I conveniently forgot who won that game. We'll have to see what the future holds...Tiffany and I might even go into business together!! :)

Here is my dearest Hannah (pronounced Hah-nah, not Ha as in "hand"). She is beautiful in so many ways and I always cherish Hannah-hugs! :)

Here is my lovely friend Trusty...actually, her name is Patricia, but because that sounds so similar to Letisha and we didn't want to confuse ourselves, she calls me Letty and I call her Trusty. Don't ask me where I got that from...just decided it fit. :) Anyway, she's a lovely and dear friend.

Here is one of my sisters, Tiffany-Ahren, who is two years my senior. She's an amazing person and a wonderful sister, even though we used to fight like cats and dogs. She has a passion for wildlife, especially for birds, so I can almost always count on gaining the "nature" perspective on most things! :)












Here is one of my sweet childhood friends, Hollie. We played together as youngsters and reunited our friendship after college. I admire her for being such a strong woman despite circumstances. Joking and laughing with Hollie is the best because we both have loud, boistrous laughs!







And of course, I can't neglect one of my best friends, Maggie. This is a profile shot. She's so beautiful and snuggly and is always happy to see me, which makes me happy too! Yay for dogs!

Recent Pictures

Here is the cutest baby in my life right now! My nephew Quinlan, who will be celebrating his 1st birthday on July 15!! He's cute as a button, his giggle is contagious, and...(Drum roll) he's starting to walk!! :)


Here's another picture of my handsome little man! Okay, okay...so he's not mine...he's my brother's. Looks like a mischievous little smile to me!


Here is a recent picture of my niece Brittany, who is now in high school. Oh my goodness they grow up so fast! Ain't she beautiful?? :)




I've calculated your chance for survival, but you won't like it. This will all end in tears, I just know it. (I LOVE MARVIN!!!)

First Blog

Well, at least this blogger site has one of my favorite fonts: Georgia.

Hey everyone! Welcome to Pensive Rendering...my first blog site ever. I hope to produce some pretty cool stuff on here, so let me know if you have any ideas on topics you wish me to blog about. I'll let you know if I accept or not! :)

So, the name. Well, "pensive" is one of my top 10 favorite words in the English language. I know, you're probably thinking: how can you possibly have a top 10 list of favorite words?? WEIRD! Haha, well you might be surprised at what you can get words to do for you. Or for others. It's amazing. Anyway, I'm so often filled with creative ideas that usually don't get written or drawn or painted, but I can always describe myself to someone as pensive. Even when I'm not in the middle of one of my creative "spurts," I can still describe myself as because I am ALWAYS thinking about numerous things at once. Quite a busy mind, I assure you. No, you can't have it. It's mine. Besides, you wouldn't want it...most people would be driven crazy by 100 different thoughts entering their mind at the same time and all demanding equal attention until something is done about it! Needless to say, my mind keeps me from getting bored very often. Wow, that was quite a tangent. See? That's what happens with this pensive mind of mine.

Render is another of my favorite words, though I'll have to consider carefully whether or not I'd put it in my top 10. Render is important because a rendering is that which results from my pensive mind. In other words, anything I write, draw, paint, create, etc. is a rendering of my pensivity. (yes, I made up the word pensivity. copyright Letisha Beachy 2007. All rights reserved.)

That's the most basic definition I can give you, though it goes deeper than that for me personally. Feel FREE to leave me comments on my blogs, good or bad. I know and I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my writing really isn't that great. But sometimes, I hope, it is fabulous. remarkable. admirable. things like that. (by the way, if you're wondering why I put the word "free" in all caps...stay tuned! :) )