end of summer trips...

I barely have two weeks left before going back to work, but the past two weeks have been very busy. I went to the beach with family for July 4th and it was a lot of fun. I left a few days early so that I could come home and pack for a mission trip to West Virginia.

Alex and I decided to go on the trip with our new church, Milestones. We love the church but since it is somewhat big it is very easy to go and never really get to know people. However, it is also easy to get involved and really make some great friends. We went on the trip only knowing about 5 out of the 60 people. It was an awesome trip. Alex was on the construction crew and worked about 14 hour days working on a lady's home that had been damaged by flood.

I was on the food crew and helped cook dinner four nights for 60 people - just a small challenge!! The rest of the group did two bible schools the way that Milestones does it - by some traditional activities and then lots of wet and fun games outside. The kids absolutely love it. There were 40 kids between the two bible schools that accepted Christ, which was such a blessing. There was also a teenager within our group that became a Christian on the trip.

I made a lot of new friends that I believe will become close friends that I can really count on. Several things have been laid on my heart as a result of this trip. One is that I'm contemplating resigning from the Junior League at the end of this year. I joined it 3 years ago to meet people and get to know other women in Spartanburg. I have definitely done that, but after being on this trip, I realized that things are handled much differently when it is a group of Christian women (and men) doing things for God. If I decide not to do the JL anymore then I would like to devote the time I spent to volunteering with the church or some other organization.

As this was going through my mind on the trip, I learned that one of the ladies is starting a ministry called Wellspring Living that will help women who have suffered childhood trauma such as sexual abuse. They are in the very beginning stages of getting this started and I have not been able to stop thinking about how I might could get involved with this since she first told me about it.

So, anyone reading this I ask that you say a prayer for all of this. I don't think it's a coincidence that I find out about a new volunteer opportunity just as I was looking for something to get more involved in. I am going to pray about it and see what will come of it. I know it will be something good!

birthdays, wedding, and corn picking

Last week was busy but a lot of fun. Whit turned SEVEN! I spent part of one day with him just hanging out and losing a lot of Mario games on the Wii. I also met them at Chuck E Cheese on his actual birthday since I would miss the family birthday meal. He is such an awesome kid and I love being around him. He makes me smile and can be quite an entertainer.

Over this past weekend we had lot of things to do. Things started on Friday night with a surprise 30th birthday party for our friend Wes. Now if you don't know him, he looks a lot like Woody off of Toy Story. He almost always wears a flannel shirt, with sleeves rolled just above the elbows, and jeans. The guys thought it would be great to dress like Wes for the party...and they all happened to wear a red flannel shirt, and so did Wes!!! (and remember he had no idea about the party). Below is a picture of all the guys, Wes, and his girlfriend Jenny.

Saturday my cousin Meredith got married. She looked beautiful and the wedding was gorgeous. I hate that there is always a glare from my glasses, but hopefully that won't be true much longer! It was great getting to spend some time with family and especially with it being outside of a funeral home!!

The weekend ended with George's second birthday party! I can not believe he is TWO! He was so excited about his party, and it was great seeing his face light up when we said his name in the Happy Birthday song.

Today, Alex, his aunt and uncle, and myself picked lots and lots of corn. We picked, shucked, silked, cleaned, cut, cooked, and stored about 450 ears of corn!! We ate some for lunch and it tasted wonderful... but that's a lot of corn. Alex feels the need to supersize his garden, so there is still a lot more corn to go, but plenty to last us for at least a few days! :)

The next few weeks are going to be busy. I leave Sunday for Charleston with my family. I will come home early so that I can go on a mission trip with our new church to West Virginia. We will be there for 8 days. Then I have my eye surgery about a week after that trip... and then back to work. BUT, I am not going to think about work yet... too much fun stuff ahead to look forward to instead of that.

catching up

It has been almost 3 months since my last post, and so much has been going on since then, but I'll start at the beginning...

My last post was right before Spring Break. Alex, my Dad, Whit, Olivia, Georgia, and Mama Thelma and I all went to Tennessee for spring break. My Granny was not feeling well when we left, but we knew if things got bad that we could come home fairly quick. My Dad and I had also spent a lot of time with her the two days before we left and we agreed that we would be ok if something were to happen while we were gone if we could not get back in time. Of course, we did not want this to happen, but so often she has been sick and then has turned right around the next day. So, on we went to the mountains.. This is Alex and I at one of the state parks near Pigeon Forge. Leigh, Erin, and George came on Monday night to join us... we had almost the whole family there!

As things have been going in my family, we got a call first thing Tuesday morning that things had turned very bad for my Granny and she would not live much longer. My Dad, Alex, and I packed up and headed home. We got there about 5 pm and spent all evening with my Granny. She wasn't able to talk to us, but I know that she knew we were there. My Dad spent the night with her and she died early on Wednesday morning. My Granny is probably the most loving person I have ever known. I never heard a harsh word from her and she knew how to make every day one worth living. I miss her more than I ever thought I could but I know that she is with so many of my family members in Heaven. It was not how I planned to spend my Spring Break, but I was thankful for the time off and not having to worry about work at all. Here is a picture of my Granny about six weeks before she died, on her 87th birthday! Sometime soon I hope to post just about her an all the things that I loved about her.

Spring Break ended with Easter, which was very fitting because it was one of my Granny's favorite holidays. She was one of those people that hung plastic eggs outside on her trees and always made little easter baskets for us. Here is George inspecting the eggs before we hid them.

Once I got back to work it took me awhile to get settled into the groove, but about mid-April I had no choice because it was time for annual reviews. This is when we meet on ALL of the special ed students in the district. So, lots of meetings to have and things to do this time of the year on top of what I do on a daily basis.

The weekend after Easter my Dad's cousin invited us to come to Charleston and watch the Blue Angels perform from his boat. We really weren't excited about traveling after everything that had been going on, but decided to go anyway. It turned out to be a really good trip and it was nice to be around family outside of a funeral home. I got some great pictures of the planes and it was an awesome show! I can't believe how close these plans get at such high speeds, sometimes flying upside down.

The end of April brought a little bit of a break with me going to see Bon Jovi!! He is one of my most favorite artists and this was the third concert of his that I had been to. Sarah, a friend of mine that I also work with, went with me. We had a blast and I can't wait for the next tour

May started and with this month came a first birthday for one of my best friend's little boys. Carter turned one and he is such a cute and happy baby!! I am so glad I was able to be a part of his big day!

That brings me to the end of school. I found out from my boss that I would be moving from my middle school to the 9th grade campus next year. I really wasn't given an option so I'm trying to keep a positive outlook on this change. I have enjoyed my middle school and am really going to miss the staff there. However, I think change can be good and I hope to learn a lot and experience some new things at the new school.

It has been really nice being out from work right now. It came at just the right time. I did have to go to a 4 day training this week on nonviolent crisis intervention. I went with two other psychologists and we were trained to be able to come back to our district and train others on how to deal with kids when their behaviors escalate. I learned a lot that I can use at work, but also that I can use in my everyday living.

It is now mid June and I still have a lot to go this summer. I hope to get to go to Charleston with my family. I am definitely looking forward to a mission trip to West Virginia in July with Milestones. Alex and I are both going and I am hoping to get to meet some new people and do some great work for God while I'm at it!

At the end of July I am having eye surgery, which I'm scared about, but really need to have done. I have double vision and contacts are not an option for me right now. I have a prism that is on one side of my glasses that helps me from seeing two of everything, but it will be really nice to get this fixed! It is not a surgery that I HAVE to get done, but it is likely that I will have to keep getting stronger prisms as my eye gets weaker. So, I decided to go ahead with it... I also got a 2nd and 3rd opinion on the surgery and everyone agreed that it would be best for me to do it. It is scheduled for July 23rd and the recovery is not supposed to be bad at all. Say some prayers that it goes well.

That's all for now, hopefully I can post again and it won't be three months from now!

Life Lessons...

Alex and I have been looking for a church together for awhile and we recently joined Milestones in Spartanburg. There are many good things I can say about our first month as new church members, but I want to start with a class we both took in the fall. Milestones doesn't have regular sunday school, but they do different Bible studies and short term things throughout the year - so there is always something offered. They recently started a Bible survey class where eventually the teacher will go through every book in the Bible. I for one jumped at this chance because I often read the Bible and unless it's Psalms or something I've heard a lot, then I often have trouble following it.

This past fall the first few classes were on the first five books of the Bible - also known as the Pentatuch (already learned something new haven't you?). One of the things the awesome teacher of this class does is he gives us an outline and at the end of each one he gives us life lessons that can be learned from that book of the Bible. I decided I would share these with the one or two people that read this. We are currently taking the second set of this class where we are doing the next five books, but I'll just do the first few to start with. I hope you get something out of it like I have!

GENESIS Life Lessons:

1. God is great, people are weak, we need God's help.

2. God is wise, people are foolish, we need God's direction.

3. God is good, people are bad, we need God's grade.

EXODUS Life Lessons:

1. Wherever God is, is Holy Ground.

2. There is no excuse for not serving God.

3. It's never too late to be used by God.

4. God is our God, not our buddy.

LEVITICUS Life Lessons:

1. Sin is horrible, stop it.

2. Grace is amazing, value it.

3. Holiness is possible, live it.

NUMBERS Life Lessons:

1. We must live by faith, not fear, if we are to please God.

2. We must be thankful, not critical, if we want God's blessing.

3. We must listen to God's messengers, not the majority, if we want to be on God's side.

DEUTERONOMY Life Lessons:

1. We must respond properly to God's instruction.

2. It's important to listen, but more important to obey.

3. God's restrictions are motivated by God's love.

4. Our motive for obeying God's restrictions is love.

More to come...

Jewelry making...

I have been continuing to figure out how to make jewelry and decided to take some pictures of a few things I have made the past couple of months or so. Several of these things were made this past weekend, though, since we had lots of snow!!! The pictures aren't the greatest, but you still get the idea... I enjoy making things and this is a fun thing to do because I can make things for myself and it's makes great gifts too.

This one was made with beads that look like rock, I also used some thick wire for the first time to attach the pendant:

This is a necklace, earring, and 3 row bracelet set that I made using all blue beads...

This is a 3 strand necklace, with earrings, using orange and gold beads...
You can't really tell, but the pendant on this one is brown with a really neat design in a light green color...
Several earrings I have made... the round one on the right I took from a magazine. This design uses wire wrapped all the way around the loop to attach the beads.
This was the first necklace I made using pieces of chain to connect beads...
A five strand black bracelet...

oh yeah...

I am pretty sure Alex's goats are going to be having some babies soon. The last ones were born 2 years ago at the very start of February. Now one of those babies is going to have a baby - so glad humans don't work that way!!!

3 weeks into 2010 already...

It's been a bit since my last post, but I have a few good reasons. First off, we had another death in the family. My great aunt passed away, this is the wife of the uncle that died at Thanksgiving. I haven't been as sad about this one, though, because she was ready. She missed her husband so much and felt like she had done what she could here on Earth. I hope and pray that I can live a life that when it is my time to go to Heaven I am ready and willing. Of course I want to go to Heaven, but it's hard to think about leaving behind the people I love on Earth.

I was also very sick last week. I only worked one full day and spent most of the week in the bed or on the couch. Dixie was a very good nurse, she even brought me her blanket one day when I was on the couch. I think she knew I wasn't feeling good.

Not much else has been going on. I was back at work this week and spent most of it trying to catch up on what I missed when I was sick. It hasn't been too bad, just busy. I have been making a little bit more jewelry. I will try to take some pictures soon and put them on here... that will be much more interesting than reading about me being sick!

Last - I can't believe it is almost February! But, I do have some things to look forward to. I am going to see Wicked in two weeks with my sister and a good friend of mine. I can't wait. My sister and I had tried to see it in NY a couple years ago but couldn't get tickets. I know it won't be exactly the same seeing it in Greenville - but it will still be good I think.