So, what's up with you?

So, I’ve been thinking about writing a blog for ever so long. I even started one a couple of weeks ago. Needless to say, it never got finished. I can’t think of any earth shaking events or even any clever topics to write about, so I’ll just make a list of the things I’ve been doing to keep me busy since the last blog.

1. Trying to teach. New job is still great, but it is definitely hard work.

2. (drum roll, please…) Moving in to my house! Still making it look presentable, but will take pics asap!
3. Working on my house. It’s livable, but nowhere near done. We are trying to finish up the current projects on the inside, then start on the outside. The lovely cool weather makes the outdoor projects MUCH more bearable!

4. Enjoying the sunrise on my drive to school each morning. When I see things like that, I KNOW there is an AWESOME GOD. Who else could make something so beautiful and perfect?

5. Trying not to fall asleep on my drive home… LOL! It’s not really that bad, but I do get tired sometimes. A friend told me she read something about apples giving you more energy than the caffeine in a cup of coffee. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I deliberately ate apples several days and didn’t get tired out on the way home. Give it a try… It’s worth a shot.

6. Working at Ballyhoo. I was scheduled every other Saturday, but somehow I can’t remember the last Saturday I was off. It’s fun and I get a discount though, so I really don’t mind.

7. Buying new furniture. I bit the bullet and bought a new sofa and chair. It wasn’t my first choice, but it’s the first choice I could afford without having to sell any of my vital organs. I do like it a lot.

8. Attending jury duty (on my fall break…Boo!). I got out of this civic service last time by playing the teacher card, but I felt obligated to go this time since I didn’t have school. After hearing the case, I was SO glad not to get selected. I had to go back another day and the attorney forgot to show up… Maybe he skipped the course on attendance. Anyway… I didn’t have to stay long that day either, so all was well and I did my civic duty.

9. Spending entirely too much time checking my friends status updates on Facebook mobile… It is not fun not having internet. Ughhhh.

10. Trying to think of things to write a blog about. Obviously, this is a stretch since I am pulling at straws to come up with a list of things I’ve done lately.

I promise, once I get “settled in” (if that ever happens), I hope to write more. I really miss it. I hope all my loyal readers are doing well. Maybe I won’t be a letdown too much longer!

=P

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

Just some pics...

I don't have time to write, but I'll be writing soon and hopefully posting pics from the house! Yay! I have been so busy, but made time for the beach this weekend. AWESOME. As I walked the beach at night I really wondered how people can NOT believe there is a God. Stuff like that doesn't just happen. Anyway... Maybe that will be in the next blog.

Here are a couple pics from the weekend and some paintings I did recently.



I'll post some pics with people later!

Just a short one...

Well, sorry guys! I haven't written in a while. It has been crazy busy for me since I left McComb and there is no sign of a slow down in sight! I am soon going to post pics of the house I've been working on. I know you guys think I'm making it all up, but I will have pics for proof shortly. Obviously I have the before pics, but I am still waiting on the afters (you would think I was outside my mind for tackling the project if I posted the before shots... I'm beginning to believe it myself at this point). Thankfully, we only have to put the flooring in two rooms down now and I'll be able to move in, God willing. I could take some pics and show you what is done as of now, but you wouldn't be able to see much because all my things are piled up in the two rooms that are finished. I now wonder how I had so much stuff in a one bedroom apartment... I mean, I've completely furnished a three bedroom, two bath home. I can't wait to get it all fixed up and settled. I love my family, but I also love having my own place... Since the house is just down the road from mom and dad, I've got the best of both worlds.

The new job is going well, but is also challenging. I love the course and I have some really great students. The facilities are awesome and the teachers I know are really nice. Unfortunately I only know a very small percentage of the teachers here. There are nearly 100! I think I know about fifteen. That is quite an adjustment, but I keep reminding myself that I didn't get to know everyone at my other schools very quickly either.

I am so thankful for all the great things that are going on in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have SO many friends who have new, healthy babies and several with healthy pregnancies and hopefully healthy babies to come. I have friends with beautiful healthy families. People who have been laid off are finding employment. Unfortunately, I know several people going through struggles as well, but the beauty is that even through those struggles, they see a positive side. It is simply amazing. I am most certainly thankful for all the great things going on in my life right now--a list too long to detail. I say all that to say this--there are a lot of bad things going on in our world and it is very possible these things affect us in a big way, but when we step back and really look at things, blessings abound. We have to have perspective. It's hard sometimes, but necessary. We are blessed beyond measure even when we are undeserving. And that, above all, is something to be thankful for.

I think I've lost my diplomas... my mind isn't far behind!

So, anyone who knows anything about education knows Harry Wong. Since I was starting a new school and wanted to make a good impression, I thought it might be good to brush up on my beginning of school dog and pony show. So, as any good teacher would do, I dusted off the old Harry book, The First Days of School. I listed all my rules and procedures, made my classroom appealing, fixed a nice bulletin board and even threw up a couple silk plants to make my atmosphere more welcoming (he actually said real ones, but I figured green silk ones were better than brown real ones). Harry also suggested putting up a bulletin board describing yourself. I had the best of intentions, I really did, but that board just didn't get done. Instead I grabbed a couple pictures out of my boxes of stuff that haven't been unpacked, through down a table cloth (that I made) and set up a display... That's much better than a stinking bulletin board (and easier). Harry also suggests displaying your diplomas to establish credibility with the students (and to let them know that even though they may be pretty smart, none of them paid as much as you did for education... You know, remind the little angels to be grateful.) Anyway, in an effort to fulfull Harry's commands so that I can have a perfect year, I thought I could hang my diplomas on the wall. Well, as all of you know, for me, finding things is a task easier said than done right now. My life is in boxes in a house that is not currently livable. I am happy to report, however, that I do have a pot to pee in now though. Dad got one toilet in place and working last night! Yay! So anyway... I was trying to find my diplomas so that I could hang them in my class room. I could not find them anywhere! I looked through all my boxes and saw no sign of them! Who does that? Things have been so crazy lately and this is the icing on the cake. I have lost my diplomas... pittiful!

I am happy to report that I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with my licensure dilemma. Finally I was able to speak with someone Thursday who said it was "very likely" I will get a license for this year. THANK GOODNESS! Sub pay for the year would have been t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e! (I'm sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about. Just trust me when I say it's a long story that has kept me so occupied I haven't had time to blog lately.)

And finally, I am SO thankful for this new job! The kids are so different from what I was accustomed to. The facilities are amazing and, of course, I just love Hattiesburg. I know that a good year is awaiting me and I thank God for giving me the courage to wait for this job. I am still amazed by His work and what He will do if you just ask.

The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10

*sidenote* God never ceases to amaze me. Usually, I just search for a "verse of the day" to put at the end of my blog. Nine times out of ten the first one I find seems to be so fitting to what I'm going through or what I've written about... Gotta love the awesome irony there! God is the best author of all time!

Catching up...

This is going to be a fun (not really) couple of days ahead for me... I will be packing my apartment and moving. Usually moving is okay. I hate packing and unpacking, but the excitement of being in a new home is kinda fun. I don't even have a home this time though. I'm moving back in with mom and dad until the house I'm going to live in is finished. So far we (I) have painted the living room, kitchen and dining area, one bedroom, and I've started the foyer and hall. Madelyn has helped and my cousin Rebecca came down one day and helped too. My dad has done so much work! We ripped up all the carpet, and let me tell you it was NASTY! Under that nasty carpet were several rotten floor boards. He has replaced many of the them. He had to take both toilets out to replace the floor boards there. So now, I don't have a pot to pee in... LITERALLY! I should be getting floor covering Monday--carpet in the two bedrooms and linoleum in the bathrooms. I'll have to post the before pics soon--the house was a MESS! It's getting better little by little, much slower than I had hoped, but hopefully it will be worth all the wait in a month or two.

When I haven't been working on the house, or working at work, I have been doing some more painting... Here are some of the latest.

This pic isn't that great... It looks SO much better in person.


This one really isn't crooked... It's just the angle at which the picture was taken.


I was making a canvas for Mary Morgan (Amy's bundle of love, arriving in 3-4 weeks)... I just didn't like this one, so I might try to sell it on ebay or something.


This pic isn't so great, but the acutual painting turned out better.


So now I am in McComb, packing my apartment (and writing blogs). I never cease to amaze myself with all the "stuff" I have. I am not sure how some made it through the last move. I have found things that were of no significance at all. Why on earth have I kept them for so long? And furthermore, why did I make the effort to move them last year when I moved here? I mean, really, how many bottles of scented lotion and body splash (that I don't even use) does one person need? And why do I still have notebooks from college? I haven't looked at the things in at least four years. What makes me think I'll one day get the urge to revisit Dr. Browning's lecture on Piaget's Developmental Stages? I can be such a pack rat... And don't even let me get started on my closet. I have clothes I haven't worn in years, but every year I think, "I'm gonna wear this sometime this year." I have got to minimize my wardrobe, and by minimize I don't mean wear skimpier or smaller clothes. I don't have room for clutter in my life and that includes my closet. In all of my clutter though, I must admit, I find some good "stuff." I found my notebook of essays from comp I. Rereading some of them is HILARIOUS. And some of them are really good. I might just have to post one (since my four readers have complained of my lack of blogging). I'll get all caught up this weekend. One (that will never get posted, or even described in detail to anyone) was actually about me and the guy I had been dating. WHAT WAS I THINKING? I'm embarassed for me back then. Who writes a paper to turn in for a grade about a relationship that lasted a month? It was really pathetic and I see how much I have changed. But other ones make realize I'm still the me I've always been. Hopefully, the changes have been for the better... Anyway, I said all that to get to this point... I hope I keep this blog up for a while. Ten years from now I'll probably read this archive and laugh... or wonder what that essay was or who I was dating. I never faithfully kept a journal, but I surely have gotten a kick out of the random entries I did write (I think I actully shredded most of them after laughing). We forget so much and take so many little things for granted. I hope this helps me keep up with what was going on and who was doing what. And maybe now that I'm getting back in a routine with school quickly approaching, I'll make more time for keeping up with my blogging!

=P

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:2

pics of my latest paintings...

So, here are my paintings as promised…

This is the first one I did a while back… It was supposed to be a birthday gift for Vallery, but another friend wanted to buy it… So, maybe it was wrong, but I sold it to her. Note to self: get Vallery another present.


We went to another painting class for mom’s birthday and this is what we did. I loved it! You should check out www.easelyamused.blogspot.com... Super cute stuff and fun too!



I really LOVE the Brushfire Crosses and have been working on that technique… Here are my first feeble attempts at that look. The first one is really messy, but I like the second one. It turned out much better.

I'm in the land of no internet... Sorry...

Whoah! I have a LOT of catching up to do… Let me see if I can condense this. (Sorry in advance if it doesn’t make sense.) I’ll back up a few weeks. I quit my job at McComb and had no leads on any other jobs. I moved back in with my parents and began working at the bank… I’m the old faithful fill in there. Since I had no clues about a “real” job, I picked up another part time job at Ballyhoo—a very cute gift shop in between Magee and Mendenhall. Mom and Dad recently bought a house up to road and the original plan was for me to fix it up and buy it. Having no job, however, put a kink in those plans… After much calculating, I figured out that if I got a room mate, I could move out of my parents house and still support myself working a lower paying job.

When school got out I frantically began filling out job applications for anything and everything. I have never taken such a leap of faith… But, I’ve never felt more at peace about a decision than I did when I left McComb. It was looking pretty dismal and I was beginning to think I was going to be really broke for the next year. I proceeded with life as usual. I began working in the house in the evenings and working my other jobs during the day. Let me tell you, IT IS HOT ALREADY! The air wasn’t working in the house. Of course, the side with the most windows is the west side of the house, so when I was there working in the evenings, the setting sun was beaming through. I really think it was 110 degrees in there on several occasions.

One night I was up there working and a friend from McComb called and told me of an opening for Fashion and Interior Design in Lamar County. I was so excited I could hardly stand it! I wanted to go down to the Superintendent’s office and wait for him to get there so that I could beg for the job immediately. Knowing that option probably wouldn’t aid my credibility, I waited patiently to call the principal the next day. I called and he seemed interested. We swapped a few emails and he called me to set up an interview. I went down there for the interview and I thought I would be really nervous, but I wasn’t. I have a whole blog for that story though. Anyway… the interview went well and he told me he would let me know something in a few weeks. I was so surprised when he called me three days later and offered me the job! What a blessing! So now I have a job! YAY!

I’m still working at the bank and Ballyhoo. I work at the bank to get free checks and at Ballyhoo to get the employee discount! You always have to look for those “unseen benefits” when selecting your jobs. The extra money doesn’t hurt either though… Mom and Dad are relieved that I found a job. I think they thought I was going into reverse mode and would move back in and make them support me forever. For now, I’m still planning on living in the house and driving to Hattiesburg each day. I know it a long drive, but I really don’t feel like looking for an apartment or anything else right now. We’ll see how this goes for a while and reassess the situation later if necessary.

Oh… Most exciting thing of the summer… besides the new job. I have been doing some painting. I have pics of my stuff. Unfortunately right now I am using dial up internet and I will be forever uploading pics if I try to do it from here. I shall post some of those later as well as my blog about this new job…

Later! Come see me at Ballyhoo! I work Tuesdays and Saturdays

HOW ON EARTH COULD I FORGET THIS? The benefit for Travis was AWESOME! We sold 1400 steak plates and collected numerous donations. Thanks to everyone who contributed. That should really help them out!

Be still and know that I am God
Psalm 46:10
(in other words, sit down, shut up, and listen!)