New Laptop

I have a new school laptop. I am soooo excited! My laptop case is a backpack. Woo hoo!

First Day Back

Well, I'm back at school. I got my teaching assignment for this year. I'll be teaching four classes of Spanish and one class of Reading. My class sizes are really large which is a little overwhelming. In my Spanish classes I will have about 37 students in each class.

My goals for this next school year:

1. Remember to take my class to the Beginning of the Year assembly. (I forgot last year and my entire class walked in 3 minutes before it ended. As soon as my students sat down, the pricipal dismissed everyone.)

2. Wear mascara everyday. (Last year I forgot to wear it 2 or 3 times. I look scary without it since my eyelashes are blonde.)

3. Get my work done at school and not bring it home.

4. Wear the same shoes. (Last year I showed up with one blue and one black shoe on.)

5. Pack my lunch the night before. (This will help me not to run late in the mornings.)

Four Days of Freedom

So I only have four days left until school starts. I am trying to have as much fun as possible between now and Monday. Today I went Letterboxing and hiking with the Burch girls. We went to Cunningham Falls. The hike was only about a mile, but once we got to the falls, we climbed up to the top of the falls. It was quite fun. Part of the way up you had to be on all fours. Chloe said that she was "doing climbing practice." On the way down we saw two deer. It was a beautiful day to explore.

Tomorrow I hope to go swimming. I have a friend who is house sitting so I am going to try and take advantage of the situation. You know how I love a good pool.

Friday, I am going to PA with a friend from work. She is going to take me to the farm where she grew up and also her neighbor's house who is Amish. It should all be interesting.

Saturday I am going to hang out with Hannah and Rachel and watch "Anne of Green Gables". We are going to order pizza and eat popcorn. :)

Sunday, I am going to hear the greatest preacher on the East Coast, my husband. He is preaching for the first time in the adult service here at our new church. I am so excited and nervous at the same time. His sermon title is "Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee."

North Africa Picture

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip this Summer. One is a picture of our team and our students and also there is a picture of me in a headdress. We didn't have to wear them while we were there, but I asked my students to show me how to tie them.

I love a good pool.

After being at camp and having a swimming pool at my disposal, I rediscovered how much I love to swim. I love the pool and all that comes with it (except maybe rowdy, middle school boys). I love the smell of chlorine and the burning sensation your eyes have after a long swim. I love the smell of sunscreen and suntan oil. I love the way chips taste at the pool. I love playing Marco Polo and Sharks and Minnows. I love playing chicken. I love it all!!!!!!!! I used to spend all day every day at the Nacogdoches City Pool when I was in middle school. I would have a season pass and there were some days I would go twice a day.

I think I should start raising money to build my own pool. Feel free to donate to my cause, however, your donations are not tax deductible.

Eureka!

So after I moved to Maryland, I couldn't figure out why I didn't get many emails that were the "Hi, how are you?" type. (If you did send me a personal email--I'm sorry for making a blanket statement.) What I've realized is that email is just for business. It's used to make dates and take care of day to day affairs. Blogging is so much more personal and I feel like I'm back in the loop. Why did this take me so long to figure out? I always wondered how Jason was keeping up with our old friends--he had a blog. Eureka!

Back to School Blues

I just am realizing that I only have 2 and a half weeks until I have to be back at school. I'm not quite prepared to greet students on the first day. Hopefully, something will click. It hasn't yet. I am still cringing as I walk past the school supply aisle at Wal-Mart.

Second Day Jeans

I realized today that I really like 2nd day jeans. They are always way more comfortable on the 2nd day. You can pretty much guarantee that your day will be great when you put on your jeans on the 2nd day. Everything just doesn't matter when you have them on. The world could be going to you know where in a hand basket and it wouldn't matter because at least you are comfortable in your 2nd day jeans.

What do you guys think? Whose with me on the 2nd day jeans.

Nada mucho

I'm going to be working at the church tomorrow during the day helping Amy set up the new nursery area. I'm so excited. I love setting up rooms and decorating.

Friday and Saturday, I'm going to Women of Faith. I'm going with an anticipation that God will give me a fresh look at Himself. At the same time, I'm guarded, mainly because I've been disappointed by so many women's retreats/bible studies. I hope I don't leave with just a bunch of tips and tecniques on how to be a better wife / mother. I just want to know how to know God and love others more.

I guess I'll go eat worms

After reading posts about who is linking whose blog and who isn't, I decided to look and see who had my blog link on their site. To much dismay I realized that my own husband doesn't have my link on his blog. I am so ashamed.

Thanks to Robert and Todd for putting a link on their site.

I'm back!

Well, I've been back for about a week and it has taken me a while to sit and write. We've had Brittany C. here and have been busy taking her around to see the sites. It has been a blast. We spent a day in D.C. and we also went hiking at Morgan Run. I always feel so free-spirited when I get to go hiking. That feeling was all lost however when I almost stepped on a snake in the water. It was quite scary.

Today after church, we picked berries on our church property. The blackberries and raspberries are ripe now. After our snake incident at Morgan Run, we decided to pick berries from the Jeep so we could get away if a we were to see one. I would drive up to a bush and Brittany would hang out of the window and pick. It was quite funny.

As for our trip, we had a great time in N.Africa. We did some prayer walking and also taught English. On one of the days, I talked about American Celebrations including Christmas and Easter. As I talked about our the religious significance of these holidays, the room was very quiet and you could tell it was the first time they ever had heard these stories. It was amazing. Relationships were formed during the week and email addresses were exchanged. I pray this will result in more correspondence and will lead to spiritual discussions.

There were a few mishaps on the trip.

1. Most of us came home with some kind of stomach bug.

2. I was followed to my hotel by this man who said some not so nice things. I think he must have learned his English by watching porn. Who knew that overweight, 30-year old American women were hot?

3. A full suitcase fell on my big toe. When we got home, I dropped my empty suitcase on it. Then, a little girl stepped on it at church. Jason stepped on it tonight. I'm afraid I'm going to lose my toenail. Now, for you guys that is probably no big deal. However, girls you know how important cute toenails are during the Summer.

Ear Wax

I overheard a little girl today say "Eweh! Ear wax tastes gross!" In my mind I said, "Yes it does." My friend then said, "How is it that everybody knows that it tastes gross?"

I thought this was hilarious. So, what do you guys think? Does ear wax taste gross to you?

I've been busy writing lessons for our trip. We leave on Friday and will probably not be posting from then until July 11th. Pray for us.

I love my church

Tonight, I went out to eat with all the staff ladies. We had such a blast. It is so great doing ministry with people you like and with people that like you. There are so many times I want to pinch myself because it seems like a dream. Can a church staff really operate like this? When is the bombshell going to hit?

When Jason first went into the ministry, I had all these ideals of how closeI was going to be with other staff wives. I thought we would get together and share our troubles and triumphs. I thought we would get together and shop or have girl getaways. I was so disappointed for the first few years of our ministry becuase I was disallusioned. However, being at this church and working with these people has helped heal my cynical heart. None of us are perfect and the church still deals with typical church stuff, but we are all on the same page and are all headed in the same direction. We major on the big things and let the little things roll off our backs.

This is such a gift. I know there are few situations like this and I am very thankful for the opportunity to experience life and ministry like this.

No lions, No tigers, and only 2 bears

I woke up this morning with no electricity. No big deal, I thought. I can still get ready but I won't be able to dry my hair. No big deal, right? Little did I know that when you have a well, you don't have water without electricity. So, I drove to Amy's house to get ready.

The Burch girls and I went to the D.C. zoo today. We had a blast. We saw the pandas and some cool primates. However, a lot of the exhibits were closed or the animals were inside and we couldn't see them. It was a little disappointing. The zoo just isn't as cool as it was when you were younger.

Letter Boxing

So I went letter boxing today, however, most of the day I called it "shadow boxing". I'm really not a wordsmith. Anyway, letter boxing has been around for about 150 years and started in England. If you go to letterboxing.org you can find clues to letter boxes that are hidden all over the U.S.

What is a letter box you might ask? Well it is a waterproof box that contains a ruber stamp and a notepad. You post clues on the internet and other people try to find it. When you go searching for a letter box, you need to bring a small notebook, a rubber stamp of your own, and a writing utensil. Once you follow the clues and find a box, you stamp your stamp in their book and their stamp in your book. You sign and date their notepad and tell where you are from. In your book you put the date and where you found their stamp.

I went today with our children's minister, Amy, and her girls. It was a lot of fun.

Let me know if you've heard of this or not. It is pretty cool.

Amy and I also made a cherry pie today. MMMM. It was good. While we were letter boxing we found a cherry tree. (At least we think they were cherries. If we all get sick and die you'll know that they were some other kind of berry.)

Computer Logged

So I've spent most of the day working on lessons for N. Africa. I've been trying to collect pictures that will help me teach idioms. (i.e. Don't cry over spilt milk.; It's raining cats and dogs., etc.) See if you can figure out which idioms these pictures represent.

What did you say?

Lately I've been realizing that I have a knack for singing the wrong words to songs. For example, I was singing along to Mercy Me's "Who am I?" and I found my self singing:

"You hear me when I'm falling,
"You catch me when I'm calling"

Then best one however was today in chuch we were singing a Crowder song (I think) and I sang:
"Praise Him mother hope and skies" instead of "Praise Him under open skies"

I'm so crazy.

Mr. Darcy the Perfect Man????

I think not. I saw the movie Pride and Prejudice tonight. Great movie. However, I don't think that Mr. Darcy is anything compared to Jason Fullen. Jason, "You have bewitched me body and soul." (great line by the way!)

O.K. so I'm getting a little sappy since he's been gone.

Flying Solo

So Jason is on his way to the other side of the world and I am trying to figure out what I'm going to do with a week all to myself. I plan to write lessons for our trip to North Africa where we'll be teaching English. I also plan on going with the Burch girls to the D.C. Zoo. Other than that I hope to read, relax, and do whatever I want.

Summer is here!

It has been a really long year. The move from Texas was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Adjusting to a new school where I had not a single Christian co-worker took a toll on my spiritual life. There were times when I felt I was in a dark cloud and questioned why I even believed what I believed. Spending time with God became necessary instead of hit and miss. I've always heard about being in spiritually dark places geographically, but I have never experienced it before now. It was more difficult than I had imagined it. On the bright side, God was faithful on those gloomy days to send small evidences of Himself. I am so thankful that He is willing to reveal Himself to me again and again.

Now that I am adjusted to this new life, I am loving it. I love the friends that I've made and I love our church. It is such a safe place to be yourself.

Last night, we just got back from vacation. We went camping at Cape Hattaras, NC ( one of the islands off of the coast of NC). It was so much fun combing the beach--to me that's the best part of it. The shells we found at the beach were the biggest I've ever collected. The beach was beautiful during the day, however it rained both nights we were there and water came into our tent. After the 2nd night of rain we decided to find a new camping spot, out of the way of Tropical Storm Alberto (I think that is his name. I know it started with an A--Alfredo, Alberto, ???). We drove all night for 8 hours to find that it was raining there as well. What fun! The sun came out by noon and all was well for the rest of the trip.


I am so excited that school is finished and I have time to read. Right now I'm reading Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael. I also have a reading list of what I hope to have done by the end of the Summer. We'll see what actually gets read.

True Spirituality by Frances Schaeffer
Bruchko by Bruce Olsen
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (still have to buy this one)