Archive for » 2008 «

Sunday Night Brain Dump

  • I just spent an hour at the grocery store, saved $58.00 and came home with so much meat we almost couldn’t put it all in the freezer.
  • Been fighting a scratchy throat all week, singing “Say So” like 100 times this morning didn’t help.
  • Worship was awesome this morning if you subtract out the tons of times I struggled to find my part without the keyboard and all the times my voice cracked cause my throat was scratchy.  Thankfully God didn’t need me to sing perfect to show up or we would have all been in trouble!
  • My house is still a mess.  I keep picking up stuff and it keeps reappearing.  Either we are real slobs or there is a secret mess maker living in our house that I haven’t caught yet.
  • I still have one full week of vacation left and I am so excited!
  • My husband wrote thislast night…not sure how I feel about it.  Well, actually it’s probably very accurate, but don’t tell him.
  • I have been wanting a wii fit.  So for Christmas my husband gave me some money to go toward it, and as I was discussing it with my youngest daughter today she decided she wanted to give me some of her birthday money so we could buy it cause we could both use it.  She cracks me up! 
  • Calling the doctor tomorrow.  My stupid foot will not get better.  I’ve tried everything I know since September and even being on vacation and not standing all day hasn’t helped so I guess it’s time to actually call the doctor instead of playing doctor!

Well, that’s all for now.

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Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  2 Comments

Reflection on this past year

The past couple of weeks I have started looking back over this year, thinking about everything that has happened – good and bad.  Here are some of my conclusions as I’ve reflected.

  • I’ve stopped journaling since I started blogging.  I know more about my walk with the Lord 2 years ago than this past year because blogging has taken the place of journaling and well, let’s be honest, you aren’t gonna write the same things on a blog for the world to see that you would write in a journal that will probably never be seen my more than a handful of people and probably only then after you die.
  • Someone forgot to mention when we talked about 2008 being a year of acceleration that it didn’t just include destiny but attacks.  If you are gonna accelerate into God’s divine destiny, your gonna encounter an acceleration of the enemy’s attack…not something I had thought about then
  • What I believed God had called me to last December is very different than what I understand that calling to be now and for the 1st time in my adult life it all seems to make sense to me now.  I’m so excited about what 2009 holds for us.
  • My oldest child became a teenager.
  • I had my 1st student intern.
  • We took a wonderful family vacation that will probably be best remembered by the roach motel we stayed in the first night.

So those are my thoughts on 2008.  I haven’t accomplished everything I’d hoped to, but have accomplished many things I never thought of, what about you?

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This little girl made me so proud tonight.  Every year we go to my cousins house to eat dinner, then we return to my mother’s house to open presents.  This is a child’s wonderland because we have a huge family which means lots of presents.

As we got started opening presents, my daughter piped up and ask if we could pray because it really wasn’t all about getting presents it was about Jesus what he did for us.  So in front of 19 other family members she prayed that we would remember that Christmas isn’t about just gifts and toys but about Jesus and spending time with family.

Of course once the prayer was over, it was back to opening gifts and I don’t think she complained about getting anything!

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Decorating…still

Well since I posted pictures of my Christmas decorations I thought I would post some of what I have done.  I still have a long way to go before Saturday…but eventually I’ll get it done.

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What a day AGAIN!

It has been a week already and it’s only Tuesday.  I went to school yesterday to find out my TA is really sick and would be out for at least 2 days.  I still was not feeling well from the strep and whatever other ungodly virus I contracted last week from school, but didn’t want to have 2 subs in the room.  By the end of the day I mustered up enough energy to go get the Christmas Tree and we were waiting for Johnny, my phone died, and he couldn’t remember where I told him to meet me…thank goodness he took a chance and he was right.

Today I woke up early, got ready and headed to school so that I could get everything ready.  That is when it began, the battery light came on, so I headed down 117 instead of I-40 so as not to have a repeat of what happened with Johnny.  About the time I got to the intersection of 117 and Blue Clay road it died, so quickly I turned thinking I would pull in at the college and not sit on the dark road side only to find out the college was darker than the roadside – they had NO lights on.  I called Johnny , he called the sub system for me,  he got the kids up and they hurried down to get me.  As I sat in the cold, dark car, I wrote up lesson plans for 2 subs that would be in my room by the light from my cell phone.  Once Johnny got there we attempted to get my car to the shop.  Since it was now light I was able to drive it, but as we started down the road the rain started.  Now I had no lights, no windshield wipers, no heat, and RAIN. 

We finally got the car to the shop after jumping it 4 times in the middle of town, crammed 5 people into Johnny’s little truck, got the hand written lesson plans to school, got the kids breakfast and lunch, got Johnny back to work and I came home….all of this as Johnny’s car started messing up and the heat went out.

The verdict on my car – the alternator went out and had to be replaced. 

The verdict on Johnny’s car – I don’t know.  He is now sitting at his job waiting on my father to come get him cause when he went out to leave the car wouldn’t start.  Then shortly there after he locked his keys in the truck too!

I don’t know why all this is happening, but I do know I am still more blessed than a lot of people.  At least we had 2 cars and they didn’t break down at the exact same time (close but not exact).  At least when we were traveling cramped in that same truck we all were laughing and enjoying the fact we were together and God was still in control.  At least we both still have good jobs and a way to make money. 

That’s all for now.  I need to go figure out what to do while I wait for my father and husband to get home with the truck.

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Category: Money  Tags: ,  One Comment

Being Thankful

As we approach tomorrow, Thanksgiving, I decided it was a good time to reflect on what I am thankful for and decided that I could go on and on about things I am thankful for in just the last 2 days so here I go

  • I’m thankful that I found out I had strep yesterday instead of today so I had time to get the antibotics in my system before Thanksgiving
  • I’m thankful that I have some amazing people I work with and friends that my husband works with that help me do even greater things for my students than I could ever do by myself.
  • I am thankful for kids that are willing to help me out when I’m not feeling well and overlook my grumpiness when I am sick.
  • I’m thankful that my husband asked me about 5 times last night how I was feeling…my not seem like a big deal to anyone else but to me that was like gold!
  • I’m thankful for a husband that remembers important things (like replacing air filters) so I don’t have to remember it.
  • I’m thankful for chap-stick – chapped lips suck!
  • I’m thankful DVR – I got to watch one of my favorite shows on HGTV that I’d never get to see without it and the I have all my Christmas HGTV shows scheduled to record while I’m gone.
  • I’m thankful Courtney got her cast off.
  • I’m thankful it’s almost Christmas so I get to decorate.
  • I’m thankful I filled up my tank for $34 dollars this morning when it was taking over $75.
  • I’m thankful that I got to laugh, sing and cut up with my kids on the way home in the car today.

Ok there you go.  That is what I am thankful for right now.

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Christmas Holding Area

100_2957I love Christmas, but typically I wait til Thanksgiving before I pull out the Christmas decorations.  Well…not this year!  Since we will be busy the entire upcoming weekend I decided to get started a little ahead of time.  This is the holding area we will work from while we figure out where everything will go.  This doesn’t include any of the actual ornaments for the tree or any of the outside decorations.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!

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Good Enough – I don't think so!

My thought for the day…given to me by my new Pre-K director, Dr. Emerson – Good isn’t Enough if Better is an Option (I think that was her wording, but if not it works)!

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A First in Forever

Today was a first in what seems like forever for Johnny and I.  Today we attended church without being on stage singing.  It was strange.  Even a little hard, but it was also pretty cool to be able to sleep til 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Having said that, here were my first 2 thoughts from my experience…

  • I don’t know how people go to church week after week, year after year and simply warm a seat.  People, you need to do something.  Seriously, if that’s all I did every week, I’d be bored out of my mind or I’d pick apart everything that I didn’t like without being able to understand why things were the way they were.
  • If you are in any kind of ministry you need to take a step back, observe every once in awhile so that you can see what others see.  You might learn something.

Here’s what I learned.

  • All those times Carolyn kept telling us we didn’t look happy and we needed to move around and have fun…well, today I got it….its just like dancing at a performance, when you are on stage, your expressions, movements and energy have to be over exaggerated for them to even be realized by the congregation.
  • Working on parts is important and knowing the songs and flowing with your team is crucial, but more than hitting every right note, YOU have to worship if you are going to lead others into worship.  If you aren’t comfortable with what you are singing and are unable to worship, that is going to affect the people you are trying to lead into worship.
  • What does better look like?  If we aren’t moving and engaging the congregation enough, where are there videos of worship teams that do?  How can we get better?  What does better look like somewhere else and how can we make their idea of better our own?
  • Comfortable doesn’t cut it, this is how we always do it won’t get us there, and our best has to get better to be what God has called us to be.

The concepts God showed me today are things I practice on a daily basis with my job.  In order to be a better teacher, I reflect on what is working and what isn’t.  I record and observe my interactions, I have others observe and critic me, I visit other great teachers, learn from what they are doing and take away inspiriation and ideas that I am then able to make my own…so the question is why have I religated that philosophy to just my job?  Why isn’t that how I live every aspect of my life?  What about you, when’s the last time you took a step back, examined what you are doing, and asked yourself how can I get better?

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Category: God  Tags: , , ,  3 Comments

Sunday Afternoon Braindump

It’s been a while…but here are my thoughts this Sunday afternoon.

  • I wish someone could make a menu for an entire month that my family would eat and that I could cook, make my grocery list and make sure it that it fits within my budget…I could handle the rest…well, maybe.
  • I waste way to much of my valuable time running around putting out fires and doing things that seem important at the time
  • I make list, but then avoid the list to do the things that are more interesting at the time
  • My kids are way more like me than I want to admit
  • We started our new worship teams today – David has created two worship teams, less singers and musicians on stage each week which gives us all a break and the ability to be more focused on weeks that we are singing…good news – it’s easy to hear what you are singing, bad news – it’s easy to hear what you are singing!
  • Tomorrow is Monday – don’t really like Monday’s
  • The day after tomorrow is Tuesday – We have no school on Tuesday this week!  I like Tuesday’s this week.
  • I’m going to the Charles Dickens Christmas Show Thursday…much to Johnny’s dismay I’ve already started my Christmas Decor planning.
  •  Just watched the last 15 minutes of Armageddon with Bruce Willis for like the 900th time and still cried like an absolute baby…why am I so emotional sometimes?
  • My lovely dog Thunder…chewed another (yes I said another) hole in the water hose…do you think if I quit giving him water he’d make the connection….hmmmm
  • My braindumps are never as funny as my husband’s.
  • Come to think of it, I’m not as funny as my husband but that’s OK.

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